The credibility of the Catholic Church as public actor
This article assumes that there is a profound crisis of credibility in the Catholic Church today. This is distinct from the issue of the credibility of Christian faith or the credibility of theism, for many who believe, indeed many Catholics, are affected by this sense that the Church, as a public a...
| Main Author: | |
|---|---|
| Format: | Article |
| Published: |
Wiley
2013
|
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/2850/ |
| _version_ | 1848790892373082112 |
|---|---|
| author | O'Loughlin, Thomas |
| author_facet | O'Loughlin, Thomas |
| author_sort | O'Loughlin, Thomas |
| building | Nottingham Research Data Repository |
| collection | Online Access |
| description | This article assumes that there is a profound crisis of credibility in the Catholic Church today. This is distinct from the issue of the credibility of Christian faith or the credibility of theism, for many who believe, indeed many Catholics, are affected by this sense that the Church, as a public actor, lacks credibility. Moreover, while it
would be a mistake to seek the roots of this lack of credibility within general appeals to “modern unbelief,” so it would also be a mistake to imagine that it is purely a matter of “image” or as a direct result of the
revelations about clerical child-abuse and its cover-up. It argues that modern society has evolved, through painful experience, a healthy scepticism about large organisations and with this has developed a set of social values (e.g. mutual responsibility and transparency) that
are at odds with many of the values (e.g. hierarchy) that the Church has inherited from its past. Far from seeing these developments as part of a pathology of modernity, they can be seen as the work of the Spirit and a challenge to the Church to embrace new ways of being a witness to the truth and new ways of embodying the Christ in its living. |
| first_indexed | 2025-11-14T18:19:50Z |
| format | Article |
| id | nottingham-2850 |
| institution | University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus |
| institution_category | Local University |
| last_indexed | 2025-11-14T18:19:50Z |
| publishDate | 2013 |
| publisher | Wiley |
| recordtype | eprints |
| repository_type | Digital Repository |
| spelling | nottingham-28502020-05-04T16:35:48Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/2850/ The credibility of the Catholic Church as public actor O'Loughlin, Thomas This article assumes that there is a profound crisis of credibility in the Catholic Church today. This is distinct from the issue of the credibility of Christian faith or the credibility of theism, for many who believe, indeed many Catholics, are affected by this sense that the Church, as a public actor, lacks credibility. Moreover, while it would be a mistake to seek the roots of this lack of credibility within general appeals to “modern unbelief,” so it would also be a mistake to imagine that it is purely a matter of “image” or as a direct result of the revelations about clerical child-abuse and its cover-up. It argues that modern society has evolved, through painful experience, a healthy scepticism about large organisations and with this has developed a set of social values (e.g. mutual responsibility and transparency) that are at odds with many of the values (e.g. hierarchy) that the Church has inherited from its past. Far from seeing these developments as part of a pathology of modernity, they can be seen as the work of the Spirit and a challenge to the Church to embrace new ways of being a witness to the truth and new ways of embodying the Christ in its living. Wiley 2013-02-11 Article PeerReviewed O'Loughlin, Thomas (2013) The credibility of the Catholic Church as public actor. New Blackfriars, 94 (1050). pp. 129-147. ISSN 0028-4289 Catholic Church Credibility Transparency Authority http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/nbfr.12011/abstract doi:10.1111/nbfr.12011 doi:10.1111/nbfr.12011 |
| spellingShingle | Catholic Church Credibility Transparency Authority O'Loughlin, Thomas The credibility of the Catholic Church as public actor |
| title | The credibility of the Catholic Church as
public actor |
| title_full | The credibility of the Catholic Church as
public actor |
| title_fullStr | The credibility of the Catholic Church as
public actor |
| title_full_unstemmed | The credibility of the Catholic Church as
public actor |
| title_short | The credibility of the Catholic Church as
public actor |
| title_sort | credibility of the catholic church as
public actor |
| topic | Catholic Church Credibility Transparency Authority |
| url | https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/2850/ https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/2850/ https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/2850/ |