072 :
16 Aug 2008

Paul's Road before Damascus… Ian Elmer today takes us back before St Paul's conversion on he road to Damascus to explore the nature of his conversion not just from the point of view of scholarly or historical interest. The trasnformation in the outlook of St Paul has sharp lessons for the Church of today. [more]

071 :
09 Aug 2008

Conversion of heart… Is being a Catholic, a Christian, or any sort of religious or spiritual person, something radically different to being an Australian, a European, an American, or Chinese? Is it the same as being born into a particular family? Our religion, like our country of origin or family of origin, helps define us but doesn't it involve something more at some point — a conversion? Dr Ian Elmer's commentary today looks at the conversion of one of the most famous "converts", St Paul, and what his "conversion" might mean for us two millennia later. [more]

070 :
02 Aug 2008

Constructing the "churchly Paul"… By way of introduction to today's commentary Dr Ian Elmer writes: "In last week's reflection on the Year of Paul, we spoke of how Paul was "put in his place" by friends and foes alike. The impetus for that commentary came from Victor Furnish's 1993 presidential address to the annual meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature in Washington D.C. where he spoke of the difficulties of delineating the 'historical Paul' from the 'churchly Paul' (Furnish, 1993). This week, I would like to reflect on the second of these constructs, the 'churchly Paul'." [more]

069 :
26 Jul 2008

Putting Paul in his place… Pauline scholar, Dr Ian Elmer, is at his cheekest best with this commentary. It's a commentary about ancient historical things but, at the same time, it is also a commentary about very contempotary things. Paul was passionate about his mission. Like all passionate leaders he developed both strong critics and loyal supporters. The challenge we face with all such leaders is navigating between "the spin" and the "put downs". How do we put Paul in his place? [more]

068 :
19 Jul 2008

A flawed, fallible father of the Church… It is a great pleasure to welcome Dr Ian Elmer back to the lead commentary pages of Catholica. Ian's specialist area of study is St Paul and in his commentary today he would like to draw our attention both the Year of St Paul that is being celebrated for the next twelve months and to the enigmatic even contradictory example that St Paul presents to us as an example of a follower of Jesus Christ. [more]

067 :
08 Dec 2007

St Stephen… This is Dr Ian Elmer's last commentary for Catholica for a while. He has been called to higher things and the long voluntary commitment he has made to Catholica since we started has come to an end. Catholica is not an academic journal and in the new year Ian will be moving on to write for academic journals where his work is subject to the "peer review" which is essential to further consolidate his credentials now that he has been awarded his doctorate. I trust the readers of Catholica will join me in extending our deep appreciation to you, Ian, for the enormous contribution you have made to Catholica Australia in our first 18 months of publishing. We will certainly look forward to seeing your work in more august journals around the world and, from time to time, borrowing from them to publish here. Ian, we are already aware of the wonderful reputation you have established amongst the young people you have been teaching. It has been wonderful having here in Catholica two gifted teachers like yourself and Dr Andrew Kania who both have exceedingly high rapport with young people as teachers. We need many more like you who can open up "the Good News of Jesus Christ" in a world that has been closing its ears to his "Good News". We wish you well in now going on to enthuse much larger audiences. Ian's final commentary for us today is a joy-filled Advent commentary looking at the guy who helped start all this Christmas caper, St Stephen. [more]

066 :
01 Dec 2007

Who then were the founders of the Church in Rome? Over the last two weeks Dr Elmer has explored two possible candidates for the honour of founder of the Church in Rome, Paul and Peter. His exploration of the material from Paul's letter to Rome suggests that neither of these apostles can claim that title — although the later Roman apologists would make that claim for them. This week he looks at further scholarly speculation about who the true founders of the Roman church may have been and when Christianity first came to Rome. [more]

065 :
24 Nov 2007

Was Rome really the See of Peter? Continuing on from his commentary last week examining the origins of the Church in Rome, Dr Ian Elmer explores the connections between Rome as the See of Peter, and the notion that the Bishop of Rome can claim to be Peter's successor. Both of these notions are the sort of issues that John Paul II indicated as stumbling blocks in the path towards greater ecumenical co-operation, if not reunification. [more]

064 :
17 Nov 2007

Looking at a new question in a very old light… Today's commentary from Dr Ian Elmer builds on his series from recent weeks looking at the Mythology in the Gospel of Mark. He now turns his attention to looking at the origins of the earliest Church in Rome. His examination casts a useful light on a contemporary challenge: the present division in the Church between those who want a "strong" version of their faith and those not attracted to "strong". Poor yourself a strong coffee and sit back and enjoy this scholarly analysis that will leave you seriously asking yourself whether Benedict made the right choice or otherwise in re-introducing the Latin Mass in the way he has done. [more]

063 :
10 Nov 2007

Reading St Mark's Gospel III… This is Dr Ian Elmer at his very best — providing a completely refreshing analysis of words we've heard or read hundreds or thousands of times before. He borrows from an insight Fr Richard Rohr made in an interview on ABC radio last year to provide a new way of understanding this shortest and seemingly simplest of the Gospel narratives. [more]

062 :
03 Nov 2007

Reading St Mark's Gospel II… Continuing the fascinating commentary he opened last week, Dr Ian Elmer takes us deeper into the meaning we can draw from what is the shortest and perhaps deceptively simplist of the Gospel narratives. [more]

061 :
27 Oct 2007

Reading St Mark's Gospel I… Scholars believe the Gospel of St Mark was the first to be written. It is the shortest of the Gospel accounts and, apart from the empty tomb, has nothing to say about the post-resurrection events recounted in the other Gospels. Today Dr Elmer introduces us to a relatively new* way of understanding this "short and pithy" gospel narrative. (*It's about two decades since scholars came up with this way of interpreting St Mark.) [more]