Nationality continues to be an important part of how people identify themselves and others. 'Who am I?' is inseparable from the question 'Who and what are we?' Historically, many nations have made use of the Bible and Christian notions to understand themselves and to justify their political ambitions. Catholic theology, however, has never elaborated on a systematic treatment of nationality. Dorian Llywelyn forges a new approach, treating the nation as a form of culture. He addresses some key questions: How are the religious and national aspects of human identity connected? What does Catholic doctrine have to say about nationality and nationalism? Is there really such a thing as a Christian nation? Is Catholicism compatible with patriotism? Llywelyn's wide-ranging book introduces the reader to contemporary approaches to nationality, nationality, national identity, nationalism and patriotism. Drawing from the insights of sociology, history, and anthropology, he investigates the many ways in which nations and Christianity have intertwined and explores what scripture and twentieth-century papal teaching have to say on the matter. He provides an original, Catholic theology of national belonging, one which is based on the implications of the Incarnation. Examining popular devotions to the Virgin Mary as national patroness and drawing from the metaphysical acumen of the medieval thinker John Duns Scotus, Llywelyn argues for the theological value of nationality and proposes that global community and cultural and national diversity are mutually necessary values.

The contributors to this volume investigate the ways in which religious experience is shaped by the new ethnic, national, and global contexts. Contents: Ethnicity and Nationality as Contexts for Religious Experience; 'Love the Stranger; Remember when you were Strangers in Egypt'; The Historical Relativity of Jesus' Experience of God; One Woman's Body: Repression and Expression in the Passio Perpetuae; Method in the Cur Deus Scandal: Shaking the Foundations?; Toward an Understanding of Prejudice: Contributions from Paul Ricoeur's Theory of Narrative; Ethnicity and Religious Experience in the Social Ethics of Gibson Winter; Philippine National Sovereignty and the U.S. Bases: An Ethical Analysis Rooted in Catholic Social Teaching; Parallels in Cultural and Individual Development; No Generic Spirituality: Ethnicity and the Spiritual Journey; Woman as Mediator of the Divine: Sor Juana's Celebration of Mary; Popular Religiosity and Sacramentality: Learning from Hispanics a Deeper Sense of Symbol, Ritual, and Sacrament; Ethnicity, Experience and Theology: An Asian Liberation Perspective; The Death of National Symbols: Roman Catholicism in Quebec; Being Church Today: Reflections on the Journey of the Church in Holland. Co-published with the College Theology Society.

In this balanced volume, Gregg Allison—an evangelical theologian and church historian—helps readers understand the nuances of Roman Catholic teaching. Walking through the official Catechism of the Catholic Church, Allison summarizes and assesses Catholic doctrine from the perspective of both Scripture and evangelical theology. Noting prominent similarities without glossing over key differences, this book will equip Christians on both sides of the ecclesiastical divide to fruitfully engage in honest dialogue with one another.

'Inculturation' is a word come only recently into theological language, having its origin and impetus in a revolution in the perception of Christian mission--even of Christian identity. 'Toward a Theology of Inculturation' is the first book to bring together the many strands of current and historical Catholic thought on what might be called a theology of a multicultural church. Inculturation, Shorter argues, is the recognition that faith must in effect become culture to be fully received and lived. In the course of a wide-ranging discussion, the author explores the intimate relationship between inculturation and theology, focusing in particular on scripture, the history of Òmissions (especially in Africa), and contemporary Catholic thought. Shorter concludes with an exploration of the future of the church--a multicultural church. 'Toward a Theology of Inculturation' offers a substantive explication of what inculturation is, what it is not, how and when it occurs, and what its limits are or should be.

Using Soviet archival materials declassified in the 1980s, John-Paul Himka examines a period during which the Greek Catholic church in Galicia was involved in a protracted, and at times bitter, struggle to maintain its distinctive, historically developed rites and customs. He focuses on the way differing concepts of Rutherian nationality affected the perception and course of church affairs while showing the influence of local ecclesiastical matters on the development and acceptance of these divergent concepts of nationality. The implications and complications of the Galician imbroglio are engagingly explained in this latest addition to Himka's work on nationality in late nineteenth-century Galicia. His analysis of the relationship between the church and the national movement is a valuable addition to the study of religion and national movements in East Europe and beyond.