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THE MASS ON THE WORLD
Author(s) -
PENDERGAST, S.J. RICHARD J.
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
the heythrop journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.127
H-Index - 10
eISSN - 1468-2265
pISSN - 0018-1196
DOI - 10.1111/j.1468-2265.2007.00364.x
Subject(s) - flesh , philosophy , meaning (existential) , epistemology , section (typography) , theology , chemistry , food science , advertising , business
The present article has three sections. The first one discusses the relationship of the theological theory of transubstantiation to that of transignification (change of meaning) and transfinalization (change of finality), ideas that were introduced just before the time of Vatican II by northern European theologians. The second section develops a holistic view of the nature of matter. Our present scientific knowledge seems to require that we abandon the Aristotelian theory of hylomorphism in favor of a theory in which real beings of a certain level ‘sublate’ real but subordinate beings of lower levels. For example, a human being is a substance that includes within itself many smaller substances. When he was in the flesh, the physical body of Christ included within itself a vast number of interconnected atoms and molecules. The third section discusses ideas of Teilhard de Chardin about the relationship of Christ to matter.