Project MUSE®: Review for Religious: New Series - Latest Articles
https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/805
Project MUSE®: Latest articles in Review for Religious: New Series.daily12026-05-16T00:00:00-05:00text/htmlen-USVol. 1 (2021) through current issueLatest Articles: Review for Religious: New SeriesTWOProject MUSE®Review for Religious: New Series2767-85470034-639XLatest articles in Review for Religious: New Series. Feed provided by Project MUSE®Pilgrims of Hope
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/958132
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This issue of Review for Religious providentially coalesced around the theme of the Jubilee year. From a variety of perspectives, our authors touch on the theme of hope as it relates to consecrated life as well as the pilgrim journey that consecrated life lives in its unique way, whether from the perspective of canon law on exclaustration, the end of life and ars moriendi, community life, or even the theme of the Jubilee year itself.Donald Goergen, OP, in Are We Divided or Simply Diverse? asks about the lived reality of community life. Utilizing psychological theory to focus on the tension between identity and inclusivity, he argues that both values are needed and some synthesis is essential not only for community
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-16T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/805/image/coversmallPilgrims of Hope2025-04-28text/htmlen-USPilgrims of Hope2025-04-282025TWOProject MUSE®44672026-05-16T00:00:00-05:002025-04-28Are We Divided or Simply Diverse?
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/958133
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No century in the history of the Church has lacked its tensions and divisions, including the first century as witnessed in the New Testament itself.1 We need only mention the disagreements and confrontations among Peter, Paul, and James. After Vatican I, there was the Old Catholic Church that did not accept all the Council's decisions, and after Vatican II, the Society of St. Pius X. As we in religious life and the Church face the challenges which come from increased polarization in the world, my thesis is that we need not let differences which are real necessarily be divisive. We often say, "Diversity, yes; divisiveness, no." St. Paul sees divisiveness as a work of an evil spirit (2 Cor 12:20; Gal 5:19–21). Yet it
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-16T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/805/image/coversmallAre We Divided or Simply Diverse?2025-04-28text/htmlen-USAre We Divided or Simply Diverse?2025-04-282025TWOProject MUSE®461302026-05-16T00:00:00-05:002025-04-28The Joy and Challenge of Brotherhood: Drawing on Franciscan Wisdom to Explore Fraternitas in the Marianist Charism
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/958134
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Empowered by the Holy Spirit and inspired by the dynamism of Blessed Chaminade's charism, we—brothers and priests—vowed religious in the Marianist Family, live in community as equals."2 It is with this opening line, taken from your Province's mission statement, that I would like to begin today. The fundamental equality of your brotherhood ought to be the starting place and end point, the beginning and end of your life as professed religious. If, as the Second Vatican Council reminds us, the Eucharist is the source and summit of our faith,3 then I would argue that your charismatic call to "live in community as equals" is the source and summit of your fraternitas.4 The importance of your fraternal calling finds an
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-16T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/805/image/coversmallThe Joy and Challenge of Brotherhood: Drawing on Franciscan Wisdom to Explore Fraternitas in the Marianist Charism2025-04-28text/htmlen-USThe Joy and Challenge of Brotherhood: Drawing on Franciscan Wisdom to Explore Fraternitas in the Marianist Charism2025-04-282025TWOProject MUSE®736022026-05-16T00:00:00-05:002025-04-28Religious Life: A School of Hope
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/958135
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In preparation for the Jubilee Year 2025—"Pilgrims of Hope"—Pope Francis has asked for "a great "symphony" of prayer … in which hearts are opened to receive the outpouring of God's grace and to make the "Our Father," the prayer Jesus taught us, the life programme of each of his disciples."1 This deeper identification with the "Our Father," which is a prayer of hope, leads to a theological reflection on the role of hope in religious life.2Drawing on St. Thomas Aquinas's rich theology of hope and of the religious state, this article aims to demonstrate that the religious life is a school of hope. I will first consider the fittingness of such an approach. After establishing that the religious life may be called a
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-16T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/805/image/coversmallReligious Life: A School of Hope2025-04-28text/htmlen-USReligious Life: A School of Hope2025-04-282025TWOProject MUSE®1090682026-05-16T00:00:00-05:002025-04-28"The Gift of Fidelity, the Joy of Perseverance": Separation from Religious Institutes According to the Latest Roman Documents
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/958136
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It is more difficult to live as a consecrated person in today's world," begins The Gift of Fidelity, the Joy of Perseverance from the (former) Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, published on February 2nd, the Day for Consecrated Life, 2020.1 The Dicastery of the Holy See, now called Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, felt the flux of religious life of our time, due to the many requests for separation from the institute. This was reason enough for the Dicastery to issue the Guidelines in which it addresses the problem. The Guidelines are divided into three parts. The first part, entitled "Gazing and listening" (Guidelines 5–22)
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-16T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/805/image/coversmall"The Gift of Fidelity, the Joy of Perseverance": Separation from Religious Institutes According to the Latest Roman Documents2025-04-28text/htmlen-US"The Gift of Fidelity, the Joy of Perseverance": Separation from Religious Institutes According to the Latest Roman Documents2025-04-282025TWOProject MUSE®538592026-05-16T00:00:00-05:002025-04-28"Our Beautiful Ending:" Towards an Ethics of Acceptance in the Face of Uncertain Futures in Women's Religious Life
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/958137
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Like many of her peers in the Franciscan convent where I1 have been conducting ethnographic fieldwork over the past 15 years, Sister Miriam2 joined the convent as a teenage girl after having been taught by sisters in the midwestern community where she was raised. When she joined, in 1958, she entered a bustling community with over 800 sisters. She lived in the novitiate with a cohort of a few dozen girls, watched over by a stern but loving novice mistress. In her first decade in the convent, robust classes of novices continued to join the community and the brick novitiate building bustled. By the time Sister Miriam was 25 years old, in 1965, the number of Catholic women religious in the United States had reached an
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-16T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/805/image/coversmall"Our Beautiful Ending:" Towards an Ethics of Acceptance in the Face of Uncertain Futures in Women's Religious Life2025-04-28text/htmlen-US"Our Beautiful Ending:" Towards an Ethics of Acceptance in the Face of Uncertain Futures in Women's Religious Life2025-04-282025TWOProject MUSE®704492026-05-16T00:00:00-05:002025-04-28Siblings All, Signs of the Times: The Social Teaching of Pope Francis by Cardinal Michael Czerny, SJ and Christian Barone (review)
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/958138
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It would be impossible to read this volume without recognizing repeatedly in its pages an invocation of the spirit of the Second Vatican Council. For one thing, this text, composed by a Jesuit cardinal and another priest who likewise works in Rome, chronicles the many ways that the social agenda of Pope Francis provides ample and felicitous updating (aggiornamento, indeed!) of the distinctively Vatican II themes of promoting constructive dialogue and social reconciliation. Of course, the social teachings of any pope will logically build upon the doctrines of the most recent ecumenical council. But the resonances between a half-century-old church council and this commentary on Pope Francis's 2020 social encyclical
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-16T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/805/image/coversmallSiblings All, Signs of the Times: The Social Teaching of Pope Francis by Cardinal Michael Czerny, SJ and Christian Barone (review)2025-04-28text/htmlen-USSiblings All, Signs of the Times: The Social Teaching of Pope Francis by Cardinal Michael Czerny, SJ and Christian Barone (review)2025-04-282025TWOProject MUSE®69282026-05-16T00:00:00-05:002025-04-28Grief on the Road to Emmaus: A Monastic Approach to Journeying with the Bereaved by Beth L. Hewett (review)
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/958139
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Beth L. Hewett has ministered extensively as a "bereavement facilitator" and trainer, and she has written about bereavement work in other venues. Here, she provides a detailed manual for our accompaniment of bereaved parishioners and friends. Her helpful pointers should provide encouragement for ministers and religious who have previously felt intimidated about working in such a sensitive area. She frames the work in scriptural and monastic spirituality, motivating the reader to take seriously this universal call to compassion.Our Lord's behavior on the road to Emmaus models compassion towards two grieving strangers. He accompanies them, notes their mood, listens patiently and humbly, and eventually can offer words
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-16T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/805/image/coversmallGrief on the Road to Emmaus: A Monastic Approach to Journeying with the Bereaved by Beth L. Hewett (review)2025-04-28text/htmlen-USGrief on the Road to Emmaus: A Monastic Approach to Journeying with the Bereaved by Beth L. Hewett (review)2025-04-282025TWOProject MUSE®89322026-05-16T00:00:00-05:002025-04-28Man of Dialogue: Thomas Merton's Catholic Vision by Gregory K. Hillis (review)
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/958140
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I first encountered Thomas Merton in freshman public-speaking—a classmate from Douglaston introduced us to her famous neighbor who years before had joined a Trappist Monastery. His autobiography was a best seller and readily accessible. In the years since, I have read much of what he wrote, but was unaware, until recently, how controversial he was in the eyes of some Catholics, clergy and laity alike. Gregory Hillis acquaints us with these negative critiques in his "Introduction: Merton the Catholic?" Nine chapters follow and argue that these assessments of Merton's Catholic orthodoxy and his commitment to his monastic vocation are unfounded, once you become familiar with the fullness of his thought. Using material
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-16T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/805/image/coversmallMan of Dialogue: Thomas Merton's Catholic Vision by Gregory K. Hillis (review)2025-04-28text/htmlen-USMan of Dialogue: Thomas Merton's Catholic Vision by Gregory K. Hillis (review)2025-04-282025TWOProject MUSE®61742026-05-16T00:00:00-05:002025-04-28Teaching in Black and White: The Sisters of St. Joseph in the American South by Barbara E. Mattick, and: Veiled Leadership: Katharine Drexel, the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament, and Race Relations by Amanda Bresie (review)
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/958141
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Catholic teaching sisters play a special role in the epic, inspiring, and sometimes tragic story of education in the United States. For centuries, intrepid sisters built schools to serve students that American society overlooked and neglected, dedicating their lives to the service of immigrants, the poor, and other marginalized groups. Too often, the story of these devoted women is told from the perspective of the European immigrants who populated Catholic schools in the Northeast and Midwest. Far less attention has been paid to the sisters who served Black and Indigenous students in the South and West, even though their contributions to Catholic education were equally important—and often came at much greater
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-16T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/805/image/coversmallTeaching in Black and White: The Sisters of St. Joseph in the American South by Barbara E. Mattick, and: Veiled Leadership: Katharine Drexel, the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament, and Race Relations by Amanda Bresie (review)2025-04-28text/htmlen-USTeaching in Black and White: The Sisters of St. Joseph in the American South by Barbara E. Mattick, and: Veiled Leadership: Katharine Drexel, the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament, and Race Relations by Amanda Bresie (review)2025-04-282025TWOProject MUSE®111172026-05-16T00:00:00-05:002025-04-28Sensing the Spirit: Toward the Future of Religious Life by Judith A. Merkle (review)
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/958142
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At a period when consecrated life is resorting to socio-cultural approaches and human analyses to find new ways to promote new vocations, address intergenerational problems, and sustain community life, apostolic ministries, etc., this book by Judith A. Merkle comes as an appropriate gift of the Spirit, challenging us to reorient our focus and approach in planning for the future of consecrated life by sensing the Spirit. The book is a well-constructed saga of consecrated life in the present context while expressing hope for its future.Beginning with the relevant observations of von Balthasar and Patricia Wittberg regarding the lack of mystical elements and coherent spirituality in the renewal of religious life (10)
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-16T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/805/image/coversmallSensing the Spirit: Toward the Future of Religious Life by Judith A. Merkle (review)2025-04-28text/htmlen-USSensing the Spirit: Toward the Future of Religious Life by Judith A. Merkle (review)2025-04-282025TWOProject MUSE®64332026-05-16T00:00:00-05:002025-04-28Conversations at the Well—Emerging Religious Life in the 21st Century Global World: Collaboration, Networking, and Intercultural Living by Jung Eun Sophia Park, SNJM, and Tere Maya (review)
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/958143
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Park presents readers with a renewed vision of the religious life, particularly for women religious, in response to the contemporary situation facing religious in the church. Unpacking the meaning of the crossroads at which religious currently stand, she provides helpful insights for better understanding and interpreting the liminality constitutive of the religious life. She argues for a vision of the religious life augmented by an appreciation of the liminal, as well as shaped by the pan-global nature of the church, trans-national institutes, provincial organizations, and even local communities. P.'s continual consideration of diverse contributions to religious life supports her assertions for a broadening of the
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-16T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/805/image/coversmallConversations at the Well—Emerging Religious Life in the 21st Century Global World: Collaboration, Networking, and Intercultural Living by Jung Eun Sophia Park, SNJM, and Tere Maya (review)2025-04-28text/htmlen-USConversations at the Well—Emerging Religious Life in the 21st Century Global World: Collaboration, Networking, and Intercultural Living by Jung Eun Sophia Park, SNJM, and Tere Maya (review)2025-04-282025TWOProject MUSE®66912026-05-16T00:00:00-05:002025-04-28Bl. Hrabanus Maurus. On the Formation of Clergy by Owen M. Phelan (review)
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/958144
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Owen M. Phelan has performed a great service in translating De institutione clericorum, from the Carolingian theologian Hrabanus Maurus, into English for the first time. P.'s eighteen page introduction orients the reader to Hrabanus's life, his works, his position in Church reform, the work On the Formation of Clergy, key points to keep in mind when reading On the Formation of Clergy, and the history of the work's texts and translations since it was first printed in 1504. P. translated from Detlev Zimpel's critical edition (1996 from Peter Lang, republished with Zimpel's German translation in 2006 from Brepols' Fontes Christiani). In my checking the critical edition in several places, I see that the translation has
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-16T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/805/image/coversmallBl. Hrabanus Maurus. On the Formation of Clergy by Owen M. Phelan (review)2025-04-28text/htmlen-USBl. Hrabanus Maurus. On the Formation of Clergy by Owen M. Phelan (review)2025-04-282025TWOProject MUSE®76072026-05-16T00:00:00-05:002025-04-28The Impact of Catholic Religious Sisters on Country-level Life Expectancy
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/958145
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The relatively long life expectancies of Catholic religious sisters have been examined by several researchers (Flannelly et. al. 2002, Luy 2003, Poulain 2012). This research note asks a different question about religious life and life expectancy. Do religious sisters impact the life expectancies of others in the countries where they are in ministry?The research presented here examines life expectancy globally in ten-year increments from 1970 to 2020.1 Specifically, it seeks to test the hypothesis that the presence or lack of Catholic religious sisters alters life expectancies. Historically and to this day one of the primary ministries of religious sisters is health care along with education and parish ministries.
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-16T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/805/image/coversmallThe Impact of Catholic Religious Sisters on Country-level Life Expectancy2025-04-28text/htmlen-USThe Impact of Catholic Religious Sisters on Country-level Life Expectancy2025-04-282025TWOProject MUSE®244992026-05-16T00:00:00-05:002025-04-28Books For Review
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/958146
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If you are interested in reviewing one of these titles, reach out to
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-16T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/805/image/coversmallBooks For Review2025-04-28text/htmlen-USBooks For Review2025-04-282025TWOProject MUSE®213672026-05-16T00:00:00-05:002025-04-28