Dogmatics I

This course studies the significance of arising new ministries in the Church of Asia and in particular in the Philippine context. An interdisciplinary approach is used to clarify their importance for the Local Church and the relationship of the Local Church to the Church Universal. Pope Francis in Evangelii Gaudium, his 2013 apostolic exhortation, presents a profound vision of a renewed and dynamic Church, a Church that has taken a “missionary option,” which is “capable of transforming everything” (27); he seeks to shape the Church into a “Community of ‘Missionary Disciples’” (120). This course examines the central elements of Francis’ vision of a transformed Church; it also explores links between Francis’ vision of the Church and our Asian context. Various specific topics to be explored are: the Church “with doors always wide open” (47); Church leaders and evangelizers that take on “the smell of the sheep” (24); a Church that reaches the “peripheries” (20) and “the fringes of humanity” (46); “a Church which is poor and for the poor” (198); a Church which values “the evangelizing power of popular piety” (122); a Church which reads “the signs of the times” (51, 108), engages in the “new evangelization” (239), and practices profound “mercy” (114) and the “revolution of tenderness” (88). In a word, Pope Francis’ vision of the Church enunciated in The Joy of the Gospel provides the core subject matter for this course. The methodology employs an occasional film or documentary, class discussion, and theological/missiological input by the professor. Students will be required to make a brief group presentation and submit short reflection papers.