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Ad lectores

This is a “heavy-duty” issue of Antonianum, one that is not a little demanding and yet proportionately rewarding. It is not only rich, but varied fare that Antonianum is offering here. This issue includes both a fascinating article about the most esoteric elements of ancient dualistic religion - by  Ezio Albrile - and a challenging, uplifting scholarly exploration of the “feelings” of Jesus Christ - by Vincenzo Battaglia (Dean of our University’s Theology Faculty). An examination - and “re-grounding” - of the central Kantian concept of “transcendental freedom” is offered by Isidoro Guzmán Manzano, while Wilhelm Rees offers a masterly survey of the development and, especially, the present condition (and future prospects) of Church-State relations in Germany and Austria, seen with reference to both the Second Vatican Council and evolving law and public policy in both of those nations and in the European Union. Priamo Etzi (Dean of our University’s Canon Law Faculty) examines the oft-misunderstood, occasionally abused and sometimes maligned “exemption” of Institutes of Consecrated Life, evoking its history and laying out the reasoning behind its retention in the 1917 Code of Canon Law and reaffirmation in the current Code. Ultimately, of course, “exemption” does not mean “acephaly,” but rather total availability to the Vicar of Christ on earth – for the sake of the Church’s mission.

A relatio bibliographica takes up here the space otherwise reserved to Recensiones, as may now occasionally be the case. This “rubric” is dedicated to the sort of “review article” that surveys together several recent publications broadly in the same field. It is Lluis Oviedo,  the revered former Editor of Antonianum, who - illuminatingly - reads for us here several books in the general area of “secularisation” – and of the theological response to it.