The word
"magisterium" refers to the teaching authority or power of the Catholic Church, particularly when it comes to matters of faith, morals, and doctrine. It represents the Church's ability to interpret and guide its followers in understanding what is believed to be true and right according to its teachings.
Full definition
The heart principle of the Reformation is the denial
of Magisterium in the Church, the power to define doctrine of faith and morals with infallibility in the name of Christ.
Fr James Tolhurst roots Cardinal Newman's understanding of ecclesial
magisterium in Newman's experiences as a Church of England priest.
We expect the voices of rage and anti-Catholic fury to rise to a new crescendo as the Papal visit approaches, but we should not be afraid to use the occasion to explain to our own people and to a sceptical world the need for Divine Revelation and the meaning of
Magisterium as it flows from the mystery of the Incarnation.
Instead in our day we have seen a great affirmation of the value of Scotus» teaching by the
ordinary magisterium of the Church.
The idea of the
non-overlapping magisteria of science and religion, proposed (separately) by Stephen Jay Gould and Langdon Gilkey, is peaceable, attractive, and well - intentioned, but when dealing with different aspects of causality, science and religion also need to interact.
The Catholic
magisterium does not, and never has, advocated unqualified abolition of the death penalty.
Just as the Virgin Birth, and the physical Resurrection of Christ are and were requirements of his literal Divinity and uniqueness upon the human scene, so also this type of development to which we appeal can not take place, except in a Church which claims the
infallible magisterium on earth of the same Jesus in the name of his Divinity, and can manifest a line of consistent and coherent, definition because she has done so.
Vicki Thorn uses some of the latest scientific discoveries to vindicate further the prophetic nature of Humanae Vitae and of the
papal magisterium as affirmed by Newman (see fourth entry in TF).
In his magisterial account of the history of Christianity, Diarmaid MacCulloch balks at the concept of
magisterium which he says «had since the nineteenth century stealthily acquired a technical theological meaning as «authoritative teaching», peculiarly thanks to Pius Xll's propensity to deploy it.»
Another point that we would want to bring out is the need
for Magisterium in the Church as flowing directly from the Incarnation of the Word.
written or handed down in tradition and proposed by the church — whether in solemn judgment or in the ordinary and
universal magisterium as divinely revealed and calling for faith tamquam divinitus revelata credenda).
Before Vatican II, the Church councils and the
Roman magisterium spoke of revelation generally in the context of the condemnation of unorthodoxy.
And in order to distinguish the Catholic position from that of the Protestants, they placed enormous weight on tradition and the
Church magisterium as vehicles of God's speech.
No longer present is the old temptation to separate tradition or
ecclesiastical magisterium from Scripture as autonomous sources of revelation.
The
Catholic magisterium in recent years has become increasingly vocal in opposing the practice of capital punishment.
He did it through his
own magisterium, through the world Synod of Bishops, and through the Great Jubilee of 2000.
At the same time, we recognize that, during the past five hundred years, the Holy Spirit, the
Supreme Magisterium of God, has been faithfully at work among theologians and exegetes in both Catholic and Evangelical communities, bringing to light and enriching our understanding of important biblical truths in such matters as individual spiritual growth and development, the mission of Christ's Church, Christian worldview thinking, and moral and social issues in today's world.
One knew that certain members of the theologians» guild thought themselves a
parallel magisterium, but a parallel government, too?
My dearly missed old friend Stephen Jay Gould framed this possibility beautifully with his proposal for «
nonoverlapping magisteria.»
What is more, I adhere (adhaereo) with religious submission of will and intellect (religioso voluntatis et intellectus obsequio) to the teachings which either the Roman pontiff or the college of bishops enunciate when they exercise the
authentic magisterium even if they proclaim those teachings in an act that is not definitive.
Legitimate debate about the issue has in fact been conducted and permitted in the official organs of the Church's
Magisterium over the last forty years.
The quantitative measures enable us to calculate how, for example, satisfaction or dissatisfaction with the
sexual magisterium ties in with satisfaction or dissatisfaction with the institutional Church.
It is interesting to note that Gould was inspired to consider non-overlapping
magisteria after reading Pius Xll's 1950 encyclical Human!
Ten years ago, Bernard Cardinal Law called it a «wasteland», and Avery Cardinal Dulles, a former president of CTSA, said it «constitutes a kind of
alternative magisterium for dissatisfied Catholics».
Between Magisterium and Magistrate: Notre Dame's Choice on Marriage's Meaning Michael Bradley, The Public Discourse
• Publishers Weekly gave the first book a starred review: «The strange,
subterranean Magisterium is vividly rendered, and a string of ominous revelations will leave readers eager for future installments.»
[2] Suggestions that Church
magisterium no longer teaches that serious reasons are required for practising NFP have no foundation.
My hunch would be that you would not see much difference in dividing the national academy of sciences scientists according to religious belief because those believers basically subscribe to the non-overlapping
magisteria idea.
The Church's
Magisterium condemned usury, not just as a disciplinary teaching which could be changed at any time, but as something contrary to justice and natural law.
Whilst the «three - legged stool» of Scripture, Tradition and
Magisterium interprets and communicates truths about creation and original sin, the scientific community sifts through the fossil and genetic evidence available to piece together the evolution of the homo genus.
Outlined in vitro in Leo's
extensive magisterium, this reform process was accelerated, not without difficulty, by the great movements of liturgical, biblical, philosophical, theological, and pastoral renewal in mid-twentieth-century Catholicism, and reached a moment of high ecclesiastical drama in the Second Vatican Council (1962 — 1965).
It takes a
wise magisterium to apply the principle of equal dignity over time, and while there are many examples of individual hierarchs making significant missteps, the Church's record on slavery is actually pretty sound (as Mark Brumley, for one, points out).
Curiously, however, many of those groups who do not bow to the authority of an
actual magisterium, nevertheless behave as if they themselves are such an entity and attempt to define for all their adherents exactly what the Bible says on all things and therefore what all good Christians should, even must, believe.
The Second Vatican Council teaches, and the
continuing Magisterium of successive popes bears witness to, the indissoluble link between God's revelation, our final end and the way we live our lives here and now as us Christians.