Believing in God. An empirical-theological study of social representations among adolescents in Portugal

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    Università Pontificia SalesianaFacoltà di Teologia

    Doctoral thesis n. 919

    Approval date: 24th September 2015

    Rui Alberto PEREIRA DE CARVALHO ALMEIDA

    Believing in GodAn empirical-theological study of social representationsamong adolescents in Portugal

    Roma - 2015

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    ABBREVIATIONS

    AFC Analyse Factorielle de Correspondence. See CFA.

    CCC Catechism of the Catholic Church, Vatican, Libreria Editrice Vati-

    cana, 2003.CEP Portuguese Bishop’s Conference.

    CFA Correspondence Factorial Analysis.

    CSR Cognitive Science of Religion.

    CST Classic Secularization Theory.

    DS Denzinger-Schönmetzer. Enchiridion symbolorum, definitionum etdeclarationum de rebus fidei et morum. 34 ed, Barcinonae, 1967.

    DV VATICAN COUNCIL II, Dei Verbum, Dogmatic constitution ondivine revelation, 18th November, 1965.

    EB Eurobarometer.

    EG FRANCIS, Evangelii Gaudium. Apostolic Exhortation of the HolyFather Francis to the bishops, clergy, consecrated people, and the layfaithful on the proclamation of the Gospel in today’s world. Città delVaticano, Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 2013.

    EMRC Educação Moral Religiosa Católica.

    EN PAUL VI, Evangelii Nuntiandi. Apostolic exhortation of his holinesspope Paul VI to the episcopate, to the clergy and to all the faithfulof the entire world. Città del Vaticano, Libreria Editrice Vaticana,1975.

    EP Evolutionary Psychology.

    ESS European Social Survey.

    EVS European Values Survey.

    FR JOHN PAUL II, Fides Et Ratio. Encyclical letter of the supreme pon-tiff John Paul II to the bishops of the catholic church on the relation-ship between faith and reason. Città del Vaticano, Libreria EditriceVaticana, 1998.

    GDC CONGREGATION FOR THE CLERGY, General Directory forCatechesis, 11 th August, 1997.

    GDR German Democratic Republic.

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    vi

    HADD Hypersensitive Agency Detection Device.

    IRP Identidades religiosas dos Portugueses.

    ISSP International Social Survey Programme.

    IWM Internal Working Model.

    LF FRANCIS, Lumen Fidei. Encyclical letter of the supreme pontiffFrancis to the bishops, priests, and deacons, consecrated people andthe lay faithful on faith. Città del Vaticano, Libreria Editrice Vati-cana, 2013.

    LXX Greek translation of the Old Testament.

    MCI Minimal CounterIntuitiveness.

    MMH Massive Modular Hypothesis.

    NT New Testement.

    NSYR National Study of Youth and Religion.

    OT Old Testement.

    PN Positivist Naturalist.

    PQOL Perceived Quality Of Life.

    RCT Rational Choice Theory.

    RI Religious Integration.

    SA Similitude Analysis.

    SCT Social Categorization Theory.

    SIT Social Identity Theory.

    SPCM Socio-Political Conflict Model.

    SR Social Representation.

    SRT Social Representations Theory.

    The abbreviations used to designate the Bible books are taken from theRevised Standard Version Catholic Edition.

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    1

    INTRODUCTION

    This research project aims to investigate how the adolesecents who attend-ed the Portuguese catechetical curriculum live, after the end of catechesis, their

    faith. What relationship do they have with God? What image of God have theybuilt? What are the processes involved in the construction of their faith?

    These teenagers are a relatively small percentage of all the Portuguese pop-ulation. But are, probably, the ones that are nearer to the ecclesial proposal.Investigating theologically their experience of faith has all the scientific justifi-cation. But it is also a sign of respect towards those who dared to believe.

     Motivation and Theme

    The Church in Portugal, since the beginning of the 90’s, offers a catechet-ical project with a ten-year duration (from 6 to 16 years old), culminating inthe sacrament of Confirmation. The original goal of this catechetical projectwas to empower the children and adolescents with the proper tools to build anadult and committed Christian identity.

    But the social and religious changes in Portugal, and the possible internallimitations of the project, led to the presence of signs indicating the possiblefailure of those goals: decline of the ecclesial belonging, disarticulation be-tween faith and life, disappointment in many catechists…

    About this situation, there is a joke circulating in Church environments: apriest laments with his bishop about the presence of bats in the church attic;he has already tried all possible solutions: poison, ultrasounds… there is noway to get rid of them. And the bishop offers a solution: “Confirm them, theywon’t remain in the church for long!”

    Between the playful and the bitter, this joke underlines a serious problem

    in Portuguese Church. There is a serious effort to offer a ten year catecheticalcurriculum, during childhood and the first part of adolescence; catechists for-mation is made with honest commitment; the 60000 catechists do their min-istry with generosity and are one of the largest experiences of voluntary workin Portugal. But this catechetical architecture, culminating in confirmation,leaves very unsatisfactory results. There are many voices complaining that,after confirmation and so many years attending catechesis, identification withthe faith and the Church from these young people is very weak. The situationis annoying, especially as lasts for two decades.

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    Meanwhile, there is a growing consensus among the experts that adoles-cence is becoming longer, and that people tend to delay the identity processes.1 Despite some calls from the Bishops Conference,2 Portuguese churches havenot done any relevant proposal to deal with adolescents and youths after 16

    years old.The catechetical process has no standard evaluation mechanisms to mea-

    sure the success of the proposed objectives. As a result of this absence, we canonly have access to very generic impressions about the success of the catechet-ical programs, a diffuse awareness that the adolescents needed a longer andbetter pastoral support. Above all, we have a deep ignorance about the realfaith experience of the new generations of Christians.

    This ignorance about the real religious experiences makes impossible the

    existence of a serious debate about faith in God, the contents attributed toGod, the quality of the relationship the adolescents have with Him.

    At the center of the Christian experience and of the evangelizing effortsof the church we have the faith in the Trinitarian God, revealed in the per-son, words and deeds, death and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth. Accordingto General Directory for Catechesis (= GDC), it is from such faith that cangrow, with the proper processes of ecclesial insertion and education-initiation,a Christian identity, adult and autonomous. But, in fact, concerning the ado-

    lescents living in Portugal that followed the catechetical curriculum, we knowvery little about their faith contents, their quality or relevance.

    This need for a better understanding of reality is not only nor mainlyacademic: it is an important factor to understand the quality of the actualpastoral processes; it is an important factor to think, project and implementalternatives.

    Despite this alarming scenario, it is surprising the absence of scientificknowledge about the actual faith experience of this group of teenagers that

    attended all the catechetical curriculum. Often, some Church circles use ge-neric data and interpretations imported from youth sociology. They assumethe presupposition that youth is a coherent and unified reality and apply toall its segments the same grids. Sociologically, this is a very weak operation. Itignores the deep fracture lines that run across the youth continent. And ignoresthe specifics of the religious education and pastoral action processes that were

    1 FERREIRA Vítor Sérgio, A condição juvenil portuguesa na viragem do milénio. Umretrato longitudinal através de fontes estatísticas oficiais: 1990-2005, Lisboa, ICS, 2006.

    2 CONFERÊNCIA EPISCOPAL PORTUGUESA, Bases para a pastoral juvenil ,2002.

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    activated with this group. Or, worst, considers, without further analysis, thatthey are irrelevant.

    At the same time, many people, with different levels of knowledge andecclesial responsibility, do not conform to this situation. They feel it is theirduty to to search for an improved praxis of the Church.

    The ignorance about the real faith experience of the adolescents that at-tended catechesis, the refusal to accept simplistic solutions, and the solidar-ity towards all those committed to a renewed pastoral effort, led us to startthis research project. Understanding how these adolescents assume the Churchfaith, what processes and people are involved in such appropriation, would bea worthy contribution to all those who try to establish a bridge between thehappy experience of the Gospel and the world of young people.

    The scientific ignorance about the religious experience of young people isstaggering. It would be acceptable to investigate the Portuguese adolescentshas a unified group. But, instead, we chose to study only those adolescents thatattended catechesis for the all curriculum. They are a minority group (around10% or slightly more) within that cohort. But they are an interesting popula-tion because they, apparently, are the ones more identified with faith and theChurch. A renewed and qualified youth ministry project should pay attentionto them. Knowing who they are, and how they believe is a mandatory task

    for anyone trying to improve the way christians in Portugal minister to youngpeople.

     Method and Articulation

    Affirming and living accordingly to the faith in the God revealed in JesusChrist is essential to Christian existence and ecclesial praxis. This researchproject aims to verify the quality of the reception Portuguese adolescents whofollowed the systematic catechesis curriculum offer to the announcement of

    the mystery of God. After attending catechesis for ten years, what kind of faithdo these 16-20 years old adolescents have?

    This research seeks to reach three objectives. The first is to identify theimages of God elaborated by the adolescents and what relationship they es-tablish with Him. The second is to understand the processes by which thoseimages and relationships are generated and adopted. And, in the third place,we will be able to reflect and evaluate, dogmatically and practically, the actualexperience of believing in God.

    This research opts for a practical-theological approach. Differently fromhuman sciences who claim to be value-free towards the object under scruti-

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    amounts of data about the Portuguese religious reality, but the number ofstudies is scares. This will lead us to build some analysis of the available data,in order to find some meaning in it. In the interpersonal and intrapersonal lev-els we do not have data generated in Portugal but the amount of international

    literature is enormous. This second chapter will not stop in the presentation ofthe available investigation but will discuss the merits of its epistemological andanthropological presuppositions.

    The third chapter will present the social representations theory (SRT), itsrationale, epistemological legitimation, and methodologies of choice. It willalso highlight its merits and heuristic relevance in today’s socio-cultural com-plexity. A preliminary comparison between the Christian understanding offaith in God and social representations might show the existence of a high

    degree of isomorphism between the two. And this can make social representa-tions theory a good candidate to frame our empirical research.

    The second part will report the empirical procedures used to collect thedata and will present them and analyse them. After the three chapters of part I,more concerned with the theoretical dimension, it will be time to be challengedby empirical reality and by the data.

    The fourth chapter will describe and justify the research design. Triangu-lation is a quality-enhancer option and it will be one of our key-options. Our

    research design will use mainly data and analysis triangulation. To get a betterunderstanding of the ecosystem where the adolescents live their faith, we willcollect data from three different levels: the adolescents’ level, the catecheticallevel and the public sphere level.

    Fifth chapter will describe the analytical procedures used and the resultsof the analysis. Our main tool of analysis will be the Alceste method. Alcestehas a solid theoretical support and allows for a rapid quantitative analysis ofunstructured data. Similitude analysis is a complementary method that can

    help making sense of the raw data. Both methods have a solid tradition in thefield of social representation research.

    In the third part, the results of the empirical study will be related back tothe initial questions and aims. Here, we will read, interpret and evaluate theempirical data presented in the second part.

    The sixth chapter will determine what social representations were pro-duced by the respondents about each of the three divine persons, what Trini-tarian representation can be derived and what configurations were activated to

    the objectivation and anchorage processes.

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    The seventh chapter will do a theological interpretation of the social rep-resentations previously identified. We will follow a separate approach to thedogmatic interpretation and evaluation and to the practical-theological. In thefirst moment, the dogmatic interpretation, we will revisit and discuss theologi-

    cally the social representations identified to each of the divine persons. We willalso evaluate the explicit and implicit faith theologies present in the sample. Inthe second moment we will interpret the faith praxis of the respondents. Wewill comment on the most relevant experiences contributing to faith, on thepartners that adolescents have found in their faith path and will end comment-ing on the faith outputs, the personal and ecclesial consequences of the faithexperience.

    Thesis extract

    This volume fulfils the academic requirements demanding the publicationof a thesis extract. The committee suggested the publication of chapter 7. Inthe previous chapters, left behind of this extract, the procedures that led to theidentification of the social representations of God, Jesus, and the Spirit, werepresented. Now each of the representations is theologically evaluated. Dog-matically and practically.

    This volume includes also the introductions, the conclusions (formally,

    chapter 8) and bibliography. In the Conclusions it is possible to find a summa-ry of the contents proposed in chapters 1 through 6. This can be useful for abetter framing of the contents found in chapter 7.

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    Chapter 7

    THEOLOGICAL INTERPRETATION OF THE RESULTS

    This seventh, and final, chapter will attempt to make a theological inter-pretation of the social representations that we have identified. Having col-lected the data emerging from reality, and envisaging it within a clear humansciences theory, it is now time to try and understand what the data is telling us.It is time to answer the initial question of this research: theologically, what isthe experience of faith of the adolescents who attend the catechesis?

    It will be a theological interpretation with two distinct approaches: one,more dogmatic, the other practical. In the first section, we will analyse the

    way the respondents see and position themselves in front of each Person of theTrinity, and how they perceive the Trinity. In the second part, we will see whatpractical consequences faith has to the respondents lives and what ecclesialand communicative processes are involved.

    1. A Dogmatic-Theological appraisal

    When attempting a theological comprehension or evaluating an authoror document, it is tempting to assess them by comparison to other authors

    or documents presenting what is, supposedly, a more normative synthesis offaith. A true theological appraisal, without dismissing this confrontation withthe normative dimension of faith, must also (and, perhaps, above all) under-stand the document on its own, through both the document’s own internallogic and theological (but also philosophical and anthropological) assump-tions, and also by putting the document in perspective within its own historicaland cultural context. If that does not happen, we fall, easily, in the injustice ofreading and interpreting the document with the uncritical look of the analystthat identifies, perhaps unconsciously, his own context with the normativeversion of faith.

    These epistemological precautions must be underlined, especially whenwe are studying documents produced outside the theological academia, docu-ments made by a population with serious difficulties in producing texts with amodicum of articulation.4  It is tempting to identify a set (however minimal) of

    4 It is worth mentioning the experience reported by Smith: “In our in-depth inter-view with U.S. teenagers, we also found the vast majority of them to be incredibly

    inarticulate about their faith, their religious beliefs and practices, and its meaning ontheir place in their lives”. SMITH Christian and DENTON Melinda Lundquist, Soulsearching. The religious and spiritual lives of american teenagers, p. 131. In a German

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    normative contents and attitudes of faith in order to map out or systematicallydetect the gaps in the populations understanding and conclude, hastily, thatthe pastoral situation is problematic. More demanding, more honest and moreuseful is to try an interpretation that ensures a true dialogue between the ado-

    lescents synthesis of faith (with all its inarticulacy and fragmentation) and theecclesial synthesis of faith. Only that will give us an understanding of both themerits and limits of adolescents faith, coupled with the context and the causesof the situation, and enable the identification of valid alternatives to currentecclesiastical praxis.5

    1.1. Believing in God 

    One of the most surprising information supplied by the sociology of reli-

    gion is the large percentage of the Portuguese population claiming to believe inGod. However, in chapter 2 we have already seen how ambiguous that claimis. It is clear that behind such apparent consensus, many different images of,and stances towards God, exist. In the case of the adolescents that attendedcatechesis (which we have designated “cluster 1”), what is the theological val-ue of their social representations of God? Below, we will theologically inter-pret each of the social representations identified in cluster 1.

    1.1.1. Belief & Doubt Respondents typically use a set of very “classical” adjectives to refer God:

    omnipresent, divinity, good... These words have a more ontological connota-tion than a relational one. When talking about God, the respondents are notdescribing a character from a fairy-tale, nor a psychological projection, nora vague and diffuse entity (in a “new age” style). The combination of termsused only makes sense when applied to some-One with the characteristics thatthe Church attributes to God. There is no functional replacement of the term“god” whether it is used to designate another immanent entity or somethingelse generated in the subjects consciousness.

    context Faix reports: “In regard to the semantic level, we recorded that a quarter of theyouth surveyed claim to have difficulties with religious and church semantics”. FAIXT., Semantics of faith. Methodology and results regarding young people’s ability tospeak about their beliefs, in Journal of empirical theology, 27 (2014) 1, 35-56, p. 37.

    5 Sometimes the relation between empirical research and theological normativitybecomes problematic. A good understanding of the characteristics of both elementsavoids such problems. Cf. Van Der VEN Johannes A., An empirical or a normative ap-

     proach to practical-theological research? A false dilemma, in Van Der VEN JohannesA. and SCHERER-RATH Michael (Edited by), Normativity and empirical research intheology, Leiden - Boston, Brill, 2004, 101-136.

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    At the same time, other terms occur referring to the quality of the respon-dent’s relationship with God. These terms suggest the existence of a good, rel-evant and positive relationship with God: secure, happy, personal and joyful.

    These two lexical descriptions show the existence, in this SR, of a certaincontinuity and balance between the fides qua and the fides quae, between theallocation of characteristics suitable to the divinity and the explicit nature of aquality relationship with Him.

    However, the most typical characteristic of this SR is the simultaneouspresence of both faith and doubt. Faith and doubt about the existence of God,but also faith and doubt as a relational stance towards God. SRT describes thiscoexistence of contradictory positions as cognitive polyphasia. However, thisis a non-surprising result from respondents that were exposed to an intense

    Christian education which, at the same time, was overlapped by pressure fromthe dominant culture that tries to silence God, and particularly, the specificcharacteristics of the Christian God.

    Usually, the answer from theology to those who challenge the existenceof God is more philosophical and cultural than strictly theological. More so,since the critical climate created by the enlightenment, after which the greatesteffort has been devoted to defending the epistemological legitimacy of the veryquestion of God. “O pensamento moderno de matriz iluminista e positivista

    estruturou-se sobre a separação e ensinou a oposição entre saber e crer, razãoe fé, inteligência e  sensibilidade, fazendo pender o prato da balança para oprimeiro terno dos binómios”.6

    And even the developments propitiated by Dei Verbum’s revelation theol-ogy tend towards a somewhat static model. Philosophical-theological extrin-secism has been overcome in favour of a dialogic vision of a God that revealsHimself to mankind, which in turn must answer Him. But it is not common oreasy to leave the normative biblical horizon and build a bridge to real people,

    in the context of their personal and social pathways.In this SR, faith appears as individual adhesion to a truth of supernatural

    origin. There is an objective content, hidden from normal cognitive processes,which only through faith can be accessed and doubt is evidence of the hesita-tion, insecurity and difficulty in dealing with this form of alternative knowl-edge. Somehow, the doubt referred by these adolescents can be described withthe words of CCC when it talks of involuntary doubt : “Involuntary doubtrefers to hesitation in believing, difficulty in overcoming objections connected

    6 TERRA Domingos, A fé como dom e resposta da liberdade, in LOURENÇO João(org), A fé da Igreja, Lisboa, Paulus, 2014, 129-180, p. 30.

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    with the faith, or also anxiety aroused by its obscurity. If deliberately cultivat-ed doubt can lead to spiritual blindness” (CCC 2088). Doubt is not only anontological or epistemological question. It is also a practical question: whatshould I do? “Questions of being, truth and of action should always be seen

    in relation to each other”.7 This link between ontology and praxis (betweencontent and relation in the experience of faith) is obvious because the truth ofwhat is believed influences the action the subject takes. But also as a deterrentagainst apathy; when doubt is present, when the contours of what is real be-come blurred, the very possibility of action seems blocked.

    An “objectivistic” vision of revelation and faith persists that finds credi-bility in the miracles of Jesus and the Saints, the prophecies, the propagationand the holiness of the Church.8 God and his revelation is, according to these

    respondents, omnipresent. Faith merely consists in recognizing the constantpresence of God, and doubt is incidental to this recognition.

    When we think and communicate faith from within our own experienceof faith, in line with the normative documents produced by Scripture, Mag-isterium and theological reflection, this ideal model, especially when enrichedby the dialogical perspective, seems quite appropriate. However, it tends to beless effective for those who are just beginning to believe.

    As Root underlined, discourse tends to insist on the power and evidence of

    God’s revelation, in an obsession with God’s nearness, and in the “obligation”(moral, spiritual and logical) of believing in the self-revealing God.9 The ob-jectivistic notion of God as omnipresent is blatantly contradicted by the expe-rience of His absence. This objectivist stance can induce an easy identificationbetween uncritical religious socialization and true faith.

    7 PELKMANS Mathijs, Outline for an ethnography of doubt,  in PELKMANS

    Mathijs (Edited by), Ethnographies of doubt. Faith and uncertainty in contemporarysocieties, London - New York, I. B. Tauris, 2013, 1-42, p. 2

    8 Cf., following the line of Dei Filius, from Vatican I, CCC 156. Cf. also, CONESAFrancisco, El acto de fe en el Catecismo de la Iglesia Catolica, in Facies Domini, 5(2013), 13-39, pp. 26-28, about the differences and continuities between CCC and DeiVerbum. The author defends that in the CCC a truly personal and Christological vi-sion is present. “La doctrina del Catecismo en esta sección sobre la fe ha de ser comple-tada, en primer lugar, con lo que se ha dicho en la sección primera sobre el ser humanocomo capax Dei. (…) En segundo lugar, esta exposición ha de ser completada con laperspectiva sobre Cristo y sobre la Iglesia como signos personales de credibilidad.”

    9 Cf. ROOT Andrew and BERTRAND Blair D., Postscript: Reflecting on method.Youth ministry as practical theology.

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    In this representation, there is a clear lack of explicit reference to the Godthat reveals Himself in Jesus of Nazareth. The dogmatic and pastoral aware-ness of such a demand unites authors from very different sensibilities: “(…)sostenere l’originalità e il carattere definitivo dell’immagine di Dio proposta

    da Gesù Cristo. (…) ma li ricava, invece, da ciò che disse e fece l’uomo Gesù diNazaret durante la sua vicenda storica, e soprattutto da ciò che avvenne nellasua morte e nella sua risurrezione”;10  “O tema da fé cristã assinala-se legitima-mente como revelação de Deus em Jesus. Portanto, a fé cristã priva-se, objecti-va e subjectivamente, do seu tema, e portanto da sua determinação específica,quando perde o nexo intrínseco com a manifestação de Jesus”.11

    As an alternative to declaring the diffuse omnipresence of God (God thatis everywhere anonymously, ends up being nowhere), He must be identified

    in more defined “places”. But where are these places? A place where God isbelieved (however tentatively and fraught with doubts) must be where the per-sonality, the praxis, the word, and the death and resurrection of Jesus intersectthe experiences of life and death for the adolescents. The place where Godfully manifests Himself in Jesus is the place where the adolescent’s quality oflife (his salvation) is at stake. As Tonelli says, “ciò che è avvenuto in Gesù nellaPasqua può succedere per tutti e per ognuno; il trionfo della Vita sulla Morteè la grande promessa che riempie di senso e di gioia la vita”.12

    This perspective allows for the overcoming of the objectivism of faith thatreduces faith to inaccessible truths, without falling into the self-referential sub-jectivism of contemporary mainstream culture. It also allows a theological ap-preciation of doubt. Doubt ceases to be an epistemological limitation and canbe seen as part of the personal effort of the believer in finding the place wherehis lack of salvation intersects the offer of abundant life made by Jesus of Naz-areth, the revealer of the Father.

    1.1.2. Trust & Relational Quality

    The second representation of God we want to interpret theologically, pres-ents Him using the biblical category of trust. God is seen as someone whom wecan trust, as a solid support, as a source of a quality relationship.

    10 GALLO Luis A., Il Dio di Gesù. Un Dio per l’uomo e in cerca dell’uomo, Leu-mann, LDC, 1998, p. 80.

    11 SEQUERI Pierangelo, A ideia da fé. Tratado de teologia fundamental , p. 126.

    12 TONELLI Riccardo, GALLO Luis A. and POLLO Mario, Narrare per aiutare avivere. Narrazione e pastorale giovanile, Leumann, ElleDiCi, 1992, p. 61.

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    This association between faith and trust has a solid biblical background.13 In an unsafe and dangerous world, God reveals Himself as the only stable al-ternative upon which life can be structured. This experience remains equallyvalid in the Old and New Testament as in the existence of an adolescent in the

    early 21st century.There is a consistent theological trend defending a strong continuity be-

    tween existential trust, religious faith and the faith in Jesus Christ. However,it is a continuity differentiated from identification. Such continuity is defendedbecause the faith in the God of Jesus finds an anthropological category able tosustain it. “Iniciamo-nos à fé cristã, iniciando-nos à confiança existencial (…)a fé declina a densidade humana do reconhecimento grato e da entrega confia-da ao dom incondicional que o Pai faz de Si na história do Seu Filho entre nós

    e que continuamente renova no Espírito”.14

     Without falling into the excesses of Lutheran fideism,15 where faith runs

    out in a relationship with a faceless God (or, at the least, a blurred face), theanthropological category of trust seems to offer a good support structure forfaith in God. Sequeri defends an urgent recovery of the anthropological dignityof trust. If our capacity to trust each other is not recognized as a defining partof our identity, any kind of human knowledge (not only religious knowledge)is ruined.16 This theological project roots the phenomenology of faith in ananthropology that recognizes the centrality of affective trust in all interactionsand forms of human knowledge.

    In this representation, the experience of trust in God is associated with astrong relational quality. To believe, to trust in God, brings a better quality tothe personal existence, which, traditionally, theology describes as salvation.The adolescents thematize such salvation using the category of relational qual-ity and anchor it in the vulgata of positive psychology.17

    13 Cf. TERRA Domingos, A fé como dom e resposta da liberdade.

    14 CORREIA José Frazão, A fé como forma vital e forma expressiva da existênciahumana, in LOURENÇO João (org), A fé da Igreja, Lisboa, Paulus, 2014, 11-57, p.13.

    15 This reference to Lutheran fideism should be understood as a reference to popu-lar piety. Cf. CARROLL Thomas D., The traditions of fideism, in Religious Studies,44 (2008), 1-22.

    16 Cf. GALLAGHER Michael Paul, Truth and Trust: Pierangelo Sequeri’s Theolo- gy of Faith, in Irish Theological Quarterly, 73 (2008), 3-31. Cf. also PAWAR Sheila,Trusting others, trusting God. Concepts of belief, faith and rationality, Farnham - Burl-

    ington, Ashgate, 2009, for a less enthusiast view on the relation between faith and trust.17 Castellazzi would prefer a more psychoanalytic interpretation. The adolescence

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    In popular perception, the topic of salvation continues to suffer from anindividualist and temporal reduction. To be saved is to be rewarded, individ-ually, in the afterlife for faithfulness demonstrated through the years, and thefact that the respondents are trying to find a way around this distorted notion

    of salvation is positive.Without endorsing an instrumental and utilitarian notion of faith, there

    is a consensus that faith brings salvation as an improvement in the believers’quality of life. In the texts of the Old Testament such experience could beexpressed with the word shalom and thought of in very materialistic terms.However, biblical theology always insisted that the focus should be on God’sbenevolence and mercy and not merely on the material nature of His gifts.This certainty that faith is profoundly liberating is a constant of the Christian

    existence, both in the personal and social fields.The contact with God in Jesus Christ is an intensely rewarding experience

    for the existence: the Christian faith is the path to salvation. And the salvationshould not be thought of as just the end point of the believer’s life’s journey,but as something that happens in the day to day. There is certainly some de-gree of tension between the actual quality of Christian existence and its escha-tological resolution, but this tension should not be seen as a dichotomy. It istempting and poor to deny a salvific quality to our actual existence in orderto underline the superlative character of God’s eschatological gift. It is entirelypossible to think that, in everyday life, Christian existence is being marked byGod-given salvation, in a complex process, where historical circumstances,personal freedom, and God’s mercy interact. And, at the same time, knowingthat a life lived in the fullness of God is immeasurably superior.

    Another important feature of Christian salvation is the fact that it is of-fered. The possibility of a happy and free life happens because of God’s action.The Promethean or narcissistic notion that we can save ourselves, so pervasivein the dominant culture of today, clashes with the reality of the facts.

    Besides all this, salvation is always double-sided: positive and negative. Onthe negative side, we have salvation as something that hinders our humanity; itis salvation from “death”. On the positive side, salvation is growth, in a newand unexpected way of life. Salvation occurs as a healing of evil and forgive-ness of sin, but also as an entry into the life of grace, as a communion with

    maternalization hypothesis finds, with the data from our research, ample confirma-tory clues. Cf. CASTELLAZZI Vittorio Luigi, La maternalizzazione del mondo adole-

    scenziale e giovanile: sue ripercussioni sul vissuto religioso. Una lettura psicoanalitica, in NANNI Carlo and BISSOLI Cesare (A cura di), Educazione religiosa dei giovaniall’alba del terzo millennio, Roma, LAS, 2001, 51-84.

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    God. These two aspects are not mutually exclusive, however; they are just twosides of the same coin.18 According to the circumstances or the psychologicalphysiognomy of the subject, communicative priority can be given to one or theother. But it is essential to retain the notion that salvation offers the believer a

    profound transformation.Assuming a stance of faith, engaging lovingly in the dialogue started by

    God, the believer is “saved”, that is transformed. And whether or not we priv-ilege the positive or the negative perspective of salvation, it offers a process ofdeep transformation for the believer. This salvation must not be understoodas a mere acquisition of goods (material or spiritual), external to the subject,as salvation transforms the believer internally. And from this comes the linkbetween faith, salvation and conversion. Conversion, in this context, is more

    than a moral choice. Conversion is more than the abandonment of a more orless immoral life; it is an internal change of the subject, made possible by God,that opens the door to a new life and new options.19 The moral, behaviouraldimension of salvation, is a corollary of the transforming interaction with theGod that offers abundant life. As Terra puts it: “A fé cristã constitui umaexperiência de salvação, porque quem a pratica conta com a graça divina queé dotada de força transformadora. É auxiliado pelo próprio Deus, que se fazpresente como dom”.20 

    It is obvious that this process is dialogic and happens in a freedom context.The connection between salvation and faith is not automated. When a positiveanswer to the Gift of God is given, the transformation process still happenswithin the specificities and constraints of our humanity. This salvation, capa-ble of transforming the believer, is profound and radical but is also “slow”,mediated by the circumstances surrounding our surrender to God.

    This salvation includes a social dimension. The salvific will of God does trans-form not only the individual but also societies and their underlying structures.

    This description of the articulation between faith and salvation was basedon the biblical information, in a western context, and to be read in an aca-demic environment. So how can such salvation, brought about by faith, be ex-pressed in different existential and cultural horizons? How is the adolescents’vision connected with what we have seen previously about salvation?

    18 Cf. TONELLI Riccardo, Per la vita e la speranza, Roma, LAS, 1996, pp. 18-23.

    19 Cf. EG 164.20 TERRA Domingos, A fé como dom e resposta da liberdade, p. 170.

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    This question is reminiscent of a previous one: is it legitimate to talk plu-rally about the one God-given salvation? A careful analysis of Scripture itselfshows how salvation is expressed in different categories, crossing the foundingexperience of God’s revelation with the different circumstances of each specific

    community. Commenting on the panorama of the New Testament, van derWatt says: “Thus a truly diverse soteriological landscape is birthed as individ-ual situations play a decisive role in how the message of the Christ-event is ex-pressed. The documents address different issues, employing different linguisticstyles, thereby creating different foci.”21

    There is, in the NT, a plurality of images taken from various contexts: law,economic, social, political and apocalyptical. However, this plurality of imag-es is functional to the expression of a common soteriological reality. Differ-

    ent and divergent “imaginaries” are used to describe a shared structure. Thiselemental narrative that would be behind the plurality of imaginary departsfrom a blocked anthropology. Blocked towards humanity and God. People aredivided among themselves and separated from God. But God allows real possi-bilities to restore such relationships. How this happens is described in variousways. But all of them happen through Christ. And His Cross and Resurrec-tion have a decisive role. Mankind must welcome this restored relationshipthrough the attitudes of faith, obedience and renewed praxis.

    The embracing of this narrative in such disparate texts demonstrates howthe message, and not the image, is the priority. To the NT authors, this meansthat the expression of the idea (the image they choose to use) must be distin-guished from the content (the message). This relativizing of the images andcategories used, suggests that, even today, it is legitimate to recount God’ssalvation in Jesus using plural forms, selecting the more relevant soteriolog-ical images for each particular situation. This process, which we, today, callinculturation, has always happened throughout Church history, and it is not aspecificity of mission territories. It is born from the very nature of culture and

    the nature of the Gospel.22

    If inculturation and plurality of languages are a possibility, the attemptto express salvation by faith anchored in positive psychology should not beimmediately rejected. Rather, it should be evaluated according to the “double

    21 van der WATT Jan G., Conclusion - Soteriology of the New Testament: sometentative remarks, in van der WATT Jan G. (Edited by), Salvation in the New Testa-ment. Perspectives on Soteriology, Leiden - Boston, Brill, 2005, 505-522, p. 505.

    22 Cf. GALLAGHER Michael Paul, Fede e cultura. Un rapporto cruciale e conflit-tuale, Cinisello Balsamo, San Paolo, 1999, pp. 141-154.

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    fidelity” criterium: both to contemporary man, and to the revealed message(EN 4).23 

    The amount of published reflection about the underlying ideology behindpositive psychology and its theological merit is small.24 Most commonly, au-thors debate the articulation between theology and psychology25 or the use ofpsychology in pastoral contexts.26

    Whether, generally, among advocates of integration and of the advantagesof the use of psychology to present salvation, or rather, specifically amongthe proponents of positive psychology, there is a strong current supportingthe positive psychology paradigm and its operational instruments as adequatetools to express the theological concept of salvation.27

    Gaudium et Spes 62 is often cited to support the use of the positive psy-chology paradigm.28 And following Gaudium et Spes, the defenders make lists,some longer, some shorter, of the similarities between positive psychology andChristian doctrine and spirituality.

    Positive psychology outweighs the common idea that happiness is associ-ated with the possession of material goods. Despite the dominant materialisticdiscourse, empirical research demonstrates that there is no causality between

    23 For the different understandings of “inculturation”, cf. ANTHONY Francis-Vin-

    cent, Ecclesial praxis of inculturation. Toward an empirical-theological theory of in-culturizing faith, Roma, LAS, 1997, pp. 31-56.

    24 Once again, it is important to distinguish the different meanings that positive psy-chology can assume. In a minimalistic way, PP is just “normal” psychology research-ing “positive” approaches: “The future task of positive psychology is to understandthe factors that build strengths, outline the contexts of resilience, ascertain the roleof positive relationships with others”. GABLE Shelly L. and HAIDT Jonathan, What(and why) is positive psychology?, in Review of general psychology, 9 (2005) 2, 103-110, p. 108. But a more enriched understanding of PP is possible, where it becomes

    prescriptive with all the scientific findings it has produced. And when this enrichedvision of PP falls in the public domain and is popularized by the mainstream media,becomes an ideological narrative.

    25 Cf. Chapter 2, 3.2.2, The religious integration paradigm.

    26 Cf. WIARDA Timothy, Psychology and pastoral ministry, in Church and Societyin Asia Today, 7 (2004) 3, 114-128.

    27 Cf. HACKNEY Charles H., Possibilities for a christian positive psychology, in Journal of Psychology & Theology, 35 (2007) 3, 211-221.

    28

    “In pastoral care, sufficient use must be made not only of theological principles,but also of the findings of the secular sciences, especially of psychology and sociology, sothat the faithful may be brought to a more adequate and mature life of faith.” (GS 62)

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    money and happiness. And this is in tune with the Gospel vision relativizingmaterial goods. A second point of convergence is the importance of thanks-giving either as a therapeutic exercise or as prayerful practice. The importancegiven to forgiveness is another point of convergence. The concept of a “good

    life” or a virtuous life also has similarities to the biblical vision; Christianityand Positive Psychology share the critique of hedonism and defend the meritsof a philanthropic attitude.29 Finally, the supporters of continuity tend to as-similate the benefits of optimism with the theological virtue of hope.30 

    But Gillespie suggests that there is a risk of conflation: “a danger of dis-tinct items from science and religion being used in such a way that their defi-nitions collapse so that their differences are confused and lost”.31 Philanthropyand charity can seem, to an external and superficial observer, similar concepts.

    However, their motivational system is quite different. And, with time, also arethe forms of action generated by each one. The use of an innovative mentalframework to express Christian salvation has its risks. However, like the au-thors of the NT, it should be attempted, without prejudices about the imagesthat are used to express the mystery. However, the normative narrative ofChristian identity must be respected.

    There are four main theological objections to the use of Positive Psychol-ogy. First is the uncritical reproduction of the success models and notions ofquality of life dominant in contemporary western consumer culture. Althoughit is true that it is possible to trace the genealogy of many contemporary valuesto the Gospel, many others have nothing to do with Christianity. And thislack of critical sense becomes an epistemological problem within the PositivePsychology field. Many proponents of Positive Psychology limit themselvesto declare some attitudes as more positive than others without conducting ananthropological and philosophical foundation for those choices. However, wecan acknowledge that such a foundation would always be difficult in the frag-mented context of any postmodern axiology.

    A second critique has connections to the first and comes from individu-alism. We have seen in chapter six (4.1.1) how, even when recognizing theessential role of interpersonal relationships, the individual subject remains thefunctional measure of all things. In a European context of Christian education,

    29 Philanthropy is, in a Christian perspective, a very ambiguous concept.

    30 Cf. ZAGANO Phyllis and GILLESPIE C. Kevin, Ignatian spirituality and positive psychology, in The way, 45 (2006) 4, 41-58, for another possible comparison.

    31

    GILLESPIE C. Kevin, Patterns of conversations between catholicism and psy-chology in the United States, in The Catholic Social Science Review, 12 (2007), 173-183, p. 180.

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    to the respondents’ lack of maturity, we observe that the structure of “Trust& Relational quality”, its contents, its foundation and its processes of objecti-fication, brings us closer to the image of God proposed by Jesus, in more waysthan we would think. Despite the potential limitations of the well-being and

    Positive Psychology narratives, the respondents’ will to inculturate their faithwithin the categories offered by Positive Psychology is very noticeable.

    After the last pages discussing specific details of this representation, it istime to take stock of what has been said. The way respondents categorise faithand salvation contains some positive elements and some ambiguous ones.

    In the positive list, we have the asymmetry in the relationship betweenGod and the believer. Using a vocabulary inspired by interpersonal relationsthe respondents are able to drop the ideas of reciprocity and symmetry and as-

    sume that, in the relation between God and the believers, God has the priority.The tension between personal and social salvation is less well resolved.

    The words chosen suggests a more individualistic perspective. It is possible tothink in a way in which interpersonal attitudes are used to express the wayGod relates to us, and from this we have the inspiration to imagine how ourrelations with others should be. In chapter 5, 1.8 we have seen how the secondbiggest group of attitudes towards faith has such characteristics. This individ-ualistic bias derives from the anchorages used and is one of the theological

    limitations of this representation.Another problem is the loss of tension between salvation offered today

    and in the eschatological horizon. God is presented as establishing a high qual-ity relationship with believers, and this relation happens in the now. The possi-bility that this relation could become greater in eschatology is absent.

    The creative tension between gift and task is also absent. That becomesclear in the selective schematization (chapter 6, 3.2.1, Figure 76) where thesubject appears as a grateful receiver of God’s gifts. Where the responsibility

    to answer with commitment and generosity is missing.

    The tension between positive and negative is also absent and the rejectionof a hamartiocentric theology is very present. The God that appears relevantin suffering and evil is not referred to.34 The theme of evil is excluded from thisrepresentation.

    made with adults) presents a similar representation (combining classes 1 and 5) seemsto deny this interpretation.

    34

    Some respondents make these references. But it can be demonstrated that suchreferences come from personal representations and not from the identified social rep-resentations.

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    1.1.3. Relations & Ritual 

    This third social representation of God shares with the former the per-spective of relational quality but enriches it with attention to personal prayerrituals and community liturgy. However, this is not only additional content.

    Probably, the awareness of the importance of the liturgy and prayer, acts as aqualifier of the contents associated with relationship quality.

    “Ritual” is an expression that the respondents do not use and a term that,in itself, has no significant theological consistency. We have used that expres-sion as a common term for all prayer and celebratory practices the respondentsreport associated with their faith in God.

    It is an anthropological category with a scope larger than just the reli-gious. But it frames quite adequately what Christians catalogue as prayer andliturgy. Recent decades have produced a dense and fruitful scientific reflectionon the role of ritual in contemporary human societies. “Ritual is approachedas a means to create and renew community, transform human identity, andremake our most existential sense of being in the cosmos.”35 Ritual should notbe understood as mere external expression, functional to the social needs of agroup. A deep understanding of ritual allows us to overcome the split betweenbelief and action and allows for the Trinitarian understanding of the liturgy36 to emerge enabling the believers to have access, in our times, to the dialogue

    with the God that reveals Himself and that asks acceptance.Formally, distinctions between liturgy and prayer persist. But, in the order

    of faith, both practices are deeply intertwined.

    Prayer and liturgy activate, in the believer’s space and time, God’s re-vealing dialogue: God takes the lead, communicates Himself to man and manwelcomes Him in faith. This revelation from God is no mere transmission ofideas; it happens through words and deeds, through symbols and matters.“A oração é a comunicação que Deus exerce ao dar-Se a todo o nosso ser em

    todos os seus níveis de consciência: biológico/corporal, inteligível ou racional,ético ou moral, afectivo ou sensitivo, espiritual, brotando do centro da identi-dade pessoal”.37

    35 BELL Catherine, Ritual. Perspectives and dimensions, Oxford - New York, Ox-ford University Press, 1997, p. 264.

    36 Cf. CCC 1082-1083.

    37 MESSIAS Teresa, A fé como experiência existencial, in LOURENÇO João (org),A fé da Igreja, Lisboa, Paulus, 2014, 285-381, p. 334.

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    Christian ritual, liturgy and personal prayer, are distorted when seen as amerely sociological process, as cultural inertia where subjects have little say-ing.38 More or less explicitly, Christian ritual gives body, in the concrete exis-tence of the subjects, to the process of faith. Torevell says

    “it is the task of the liturgical Church to offer the embodied pres-ence of the resurrected Christ to the world, a body once disfigured butrestored to glory, a body of beauty. Such a task demands an imagina-tive performance of ritual which encourages worshippers to see the selfand the world in a new Christological way, entailing the enactment ofa drama of beauty which enthrals and attracts.”39

    The old theological axiom lex orandi, lex credendi again finds all its mean-ing. It is much more than harmony between dogma and cult; it is a circularprocess that leads the believer to delve more deeply into the mystery of theGod who reveals Himself. Referring to the sacraments, the Catechism says:“They not only presuppose faith, but by words and objects they also nourish,strengthen, and express it.” (CCC 1123). Faith believed is expressed throughrites and is reinforced. Liturgy and prayer have a strong effect on reinforcingfaith because it is here the community expresses and sets its ultimate identitybefore God.

    The symbolic strength of the ritual, the communitarian framework,40 actsas a blocking force against the Promethean and narcissistic temptations of

    making God in the image and likeness of the believing subject. One of thechallenges of contemporary sensitivity is the reduction of experience to con-sumption: “o apelo à experiência individual, como modo de afirmação livrede si, é lançado no registo crescente da quantidade, do culto da emoção e davertigem, da novidade e da originalidade”.41 The openness of this third SR of

    38 Cf. SCHILDERMAN Hans, Liturgical studies from a ritual studies perspective, in SCHILDERMAN Hans (Edited by), Discourses in ritual studies, Leiden - Boston,Brill, 2007, 3-34, pp. 28-31 on the need to use a plurality of levels in the empirical re-search on liturgy and rituals. The coexistence of micro, meso and macro levels respectsthe experience and appropriation made by the subjects.

    39 TOREVELL David, Liturgy and the beauty of the unknown. Another place, Al-dershot - Burlington, Ashgate, 2007, p. 1

    40 Even in individual prayer, there is always a social horizon in which the subjectappropriates contents and prayer models.

    41 CORREIA José Frazão, A fé como forma vital e forma expressiva da existênciahumana, p. 39.

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    God to an explicitly sacral and communitarian dimension allows counteract-ing this trend to some extent.42

    The traditional expression “effective signs of grace” applied to the sacra-ments in our subjectivist context, helps us to understand how the ritual dimen-sion of this SR enriches the quality of the faith experience. It opens life to thenormativity of revelation: “Il sacramento diventa pertanto il momento di unafede ritualizzata, che a sua volta ritualizza sia i momenti essenziali della vita(…) sai le rinnovate scelte di una esistenza in Cristo”.43 This liturgical tensionintroduces an itinerant dimension that removes faith from the immediacy ofthe moment (that quickly becomes consumerism). There is a before the ritual,charged with the believer’s memory and the normative memory of revelation;there is a during ritual, in which ritual language manifests itself and where

    the believer opens himself to the power of revelation in act; and there is alsoan after ritual, where believed and celebrated faith is challenged to confronteveryday life.

    The presence of this ritual sensibility in the process of building the imageof God brings the added advantage of reducing the tension between credo andcredimus. Liturgical action cannot be reduced to the particular purposes of in-dividual subjects. Liturgy is always an ecclesial experience. In this perspective,personal prayer is more prone to subjectivism. But it is possible to underlinethe social weight, the learned aspect, of personal prayer practices (contents,materials, procedures, conformation with a social representation of prayer).44 This social dimension of ritual does not convert the individuals into passive

    42 Obviously, the concrete experience of prayer and liturgy can also be “infected”by the double Prometaic or narcisistic alienation. It would be necessary to investigatethe real configurations that these adolescents’ rituals assume. But stands on its own thenotion that lex orandi carries with it a strong centrifugal component, that promotesthe openness to the real God, freeing Him from subjectivism.

    43 SODI Manlio, La dimensione liturgica della pastorale nella vita della comunità

    cristiana,  in ANTHONY Francis-Vincent et al. (Coordinatori dell’opera), PastoraleGiovanile. Sfide, prospettive ed esperienze, Leumann, ElleDiCi, 2003, 123-142, p.135.

    44 It is always possible to interpret this attention to ritual as a vestige of Trent’spastoral model, supported by a decaying social configuration. But is also possible todo the opposite interpretation: the option to connect cult and faith as an experience ofinnovation. Grace Davies talked about “believing without belonging”. Hervieu-Légertalks about “découplage de la croyance et de la pratique” and “désemboîtement de lacroyance, de l’appartenance et de la référence identitaire”. This phenomenon of ritualcrisis has been detected many years ago. What can be new it the adolescents option

    (and it is always an option and not some kind of social automatism) to recover thebridges between belonging, ritual practice and faith. And this option should be hailedand recognized as relevant.

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    recipients of the celebration. The ecclesial dimension of ritual is larger thanthe individual-collective distinction. DeJong invites to understand actuosa par-ticipatio as an action performed by all, which could not be performed by anyof the participants individually. “To perform a collective activity they must

    cooperate and coordinate their activities with a view to a common goal thatthey can only achieve as a group and from which their individual contributionsderive”.45

    Another merit of this representation is the reduction of the distance be-tween fides qua and fides quae. Prayer and liturgy are always bearers of con-tents. And by the nature of ritual, those contents cannot be reduced to cogni-tion; the believing subject forms a relation with the ritualized God.

    1.1.4. The otherness of God We can only think about God using human languages, experiences and

    images. All of the salvation economy is based on God’s effort in revealingHimself in such a way that we can know Him faithfully, without voiding ourhumanity. However, the task of thinking and saying God with radically inad-equate communicative instruments faces the risk of being radically distorted.There is always the possibility that our efforts to build/appropriate the imageof God are too conditioned by our prejudices.46 The distinction between faith

    inculturation and idolatry is not always easy.This fourth representation, underlining God’s otherness, counteracts this

    risk. God is different from us. This statement can seem banal, obvious, andtautological. However, in our cultural context, hostage to expressive individ-ualism, to state the otherness of God, that there is a substantial differencebetween God and man, is a fact worth noting. Be it a remnant of a decadentsocial system or being the result of an option alternative to the mainstream,this SR must be carefully studied.

    The primacy of authenticity, the growing support of expressive individu-alism, had a deep impact upon the way people and groups, in western culture,frame the question of God. “The direct effect of this expressive individual-ism in the spiritual and religious sphere is to call into question, in the eyes of

    45 JONG Aad de, Liturgical action from a language perspective: about performanceand performatives in liturgy,  in SCHILDERMAN Hans (Edited by), Discourses inritual studies, Leiden - Boston, Brill, 2007, 111-146, pp. 115-116.

    46

    Sesboüe identifies the risk of silence and of denial about the possibility of a dis-course about God. But seems to forget the risk of “idolatry”. Cf. SESBOÜÉ Bernard,Creer. Invitación a la fe católica para las mujeres y los hombres del siglo XXI , pp. 71-83.

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    the believers themselves, the institutions’ claim to bear witness to «the truefaith.»”47 This logic of expressive individualism encourages everyone to “dotheir own thing”. Applied to the image of God, this leads to inversions of theGenesis narrative: “And man made god in his image, after his likeness”.48

    This ideological framework worked towards the explosion of “Spiritu-ality”.49 This concept is highly fluid and difficult to define. “Spirituality (…)can easily be understood to refer to whatever inspires someone – the vision ofreality from which they derive their zest for life, their sense of meaning andpurpose, their basic worldview and fundamental values”.50 The ethic of au-thenticity, combined with the principle of originality, leads to openness to thespiritual, to the soul, to the core identity of the person. But this attention ofthe subject about himself and his own quality of life, tends to reject all tradi-

    tions and structures capable, even remotely, of controlling the autonomy.51

     Inthis spiritual sensitivity, there is no space for a normative revelation, externalto the subject and his momentary needs.

    This relativism of individualistic matrix is added to all the other prob-lems, or difficulties, the 20th century had with formulating a discourse aboutGod. The critiques of the multiple atheisms forced a retraction of the discourseabout God. Even inside the theology and not only in the pastoral action ofthe Church, it was no longer possible to talk as “strongly” about God as be-fore. The usual masters of suspicion and the semantic atheism of the Vienna

    47 HERVIEU-LÉGER Danièle, In search of certainties: the paradoxes of religiosityin societies of high modernity, in The Hegdehog Review. Critical reflections on con-temporary culture, 8 (2006) 1-2, 59-68, p. 60.

    48 It became a classic the reference to “sheilanism”. Bellah reported the case of Shei-la Larson, that overcoming the weight of an oppressive family, affirms her individual-ity, defining her religion as “sheilanism”, the experience that she makes of the divine,where she (Sheila) is the source of all normativity.

    49

    Cf. the debate between Voas & Bruce and Heelas about the real numbers onspirituality. VOAS David and BRUCE Steve, The spiritual revolution: another falsedawn for the sacred, in FLANAGAN Kieran and JUPP Peter C. (Edited by), A sociol-ogy of spirituality, Surrey, Ashgate, 2007, 43-62. HEELAS Paul, Challenging secular-ization theory: the growth of “new age” spiritualities of life.

    50 MASON Michael, The spirituality of young australians,  in COLLINS-MAYOSylvia and DANDELION Pink (Edited by), Religion and Youth,  Surrey, Ashgate,2010, 55-62, p. 56.

    51 Cf. SOINTU Eeva and WOODHEAD Linda, Spirituality, gender and expressive

    selfhood , in Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 47 (2008) 2, 259-276. Theauthors start with Taylor’s concept of expressive individualism but try to go further inorder to determine how this cultural trend is differentiated by gender.

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    Circle forced the resizing of the act of speaking about God both in terms ofcontent and in terms of communicative placement. It was no longer possibleto propose an image of God subject to the criticism of being socially alienating(Marx), of being an authoritarian and paternalistic projection (Freud), or of

    being a God that restrains the better part of our human condition (Nietzsche).These critiques were accepted by the Church and theology, not as merely tac-tical management but as an appeal to the purification of faith and to a returnto revelation sources.

    The sharp conflicts between theism and atheism, so typical of the cultur-al climate of modernity, have led, in this postmodern context, to the desireto talk about negative theology. This interest in apophatic theology helps usovercome a double parasitism. Some forms of atheism are obsessed in deny-

    ing certain caricatures of God, and a theodicy has developed to counter thoseforms of atheism. However, both attitudes bring little of use to the debate andquest for truth.

    Beyond the classical references to Pseudo-Dionysius or Eckhart, we findthat even Thomas Aquinas has a more humble and modest discourse thanwe could imagine possible.52 Aquinas is quite aware of our limitations whentalking about God. We cannot say what God is, but merely what He is not. Theproofs of God’s existence do not bring understanding about God; the proof isjust the proof of the existence of a mystery. However, this does not condemnus to aphasia. Thomas defends that we can talk about God in a non-contra-dictory way, even when we do not grasp the full extent of the words we areusing about Him and assume all language used to describe Him as provisional.

    Being aware of the limitations of language, of the constant demand tofight idolatry that leads us to identify our image of God with the truth of God,theology and recent magisterium state the radical compatibility between man,capax Dei, and God’s will to self-communicate throughout history. And thusis recovered the centrality of revelation’s documents. It is the Word of Godthat makes it rightfully possible, to know and say something meaningful aboutGod. Recognizing that revelation happens through human words, categoriesand contexts, theological reflection states its truth. Revelation “as is” is capa-ble of telling us something meaningful about God’s reality.

    The fourth SR of God assumes this, recognizing that the Word of Godis capable of offering access to the truth of God. Inspired by a biblical back-ground or by the catechetical language, respondents sharing this representa-

    52

    Cf. McCABE Herbert, Aquinas on the Trinity, in DAVIES Oliver and TURNERDenys (Edited by), Silence and the word. Negative theology and incarnation, Cam-bridge - New York, Cambridge University Press, 2004, 76-93.

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    tion, state that God can be known through revelation’s sources and that thereare normative contents of faith. The God that reveals Himself is more relevantthan the task of building an image of God by the recipient.

    God is described with some attributes specific to the divinity. He is omnip-otent, powerful, infinite, glorious, mysterious, and invisible. He is the creator.These notions have a biblical origin but are quite widely known as possible attri-butes of an abstract idea of divine (not necessarily associated with Judaeo-Chris-tian theology). But God is also the saviour, kind, patient, compassionate, faith-ful… And these characteristics are much more connected to a biblical idea ofGod. These two groups of attributes point to a convergence of fides qua andfides quae: the image of God has clear attributes and, at the same time, there isawareness that this God wants to get in relation with us. God is seen as “other”;

    but, at the same time, He is also a near God. This apparent contradiction findsin Jesus of Nazareth a solution. Even if respondents do not make explicit refer-ence to Jesus in this representation, a legit hypothesis can be put forward: Thelife of Jesus of Nazareth emerges as the normative source from which respon-dents inspired themselves in order to build their own image of God.

    1.2. Believing in Jesus

    The sixties and the seventies popularized the phrase “Christ, yes; Church,

    no; God, maybe”. The phrase became popular in the climate of crisis and wassupported by the ideas of counter-culture.53 It expressed a certain attitude anda certain theology. Independently of its theological merits (few), it eventual-ly became a sociological failure. Moreover, the resurgence of strong ecclesi-al religious expressions seems to be a “yes” to Church. High percentages ofthe population still believe in God. However, Christ, who had such approval,seems to be in a serious crisis. The idea that someone (even Jesus) can becomea normative instance of faith and humanity is not capable of oppose radicalindividualism. But, beyond these ironies, how and in what Jesus Christ do the

    respondents believe?

    1.2.1 The Christological titles

    The first representation of Jesus characterizes Jesus from His identity, us-ing titles. In this representation, Jesus is described by who He is and by whatHe does. These descriptions base themselves on ideas commonly found in the

    53 Pop culture (“JesusChrist superstar, Godspell…) seemed to endorse the figure of Jesus Christ. Or, at least, of certain aspects of Jesus biography.

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    Bible and theological discourse, but sometimes also use more contemporarycategories.

    This approach is the most common in the Church’s Christological dis-course. Remembering who Jesus was and what He did is the strategy used bymost of the NT writers.

     Jesus “is” the Son of God, the Saviour, the Messiah, the King, the Holyone and the Lord. All these titles have an OT origin. That does not mean thatthey are, somehow, “out of date”, or that they are destitute of Christologicalrelevance as the OT theological themes themselves have very fluid meanings,according to the different times and contexts. When the first Christian com-munities applied them to Jesus, they went through a radical reinterpretation.Moreover, Jesus Himself was the one to begin using OT categories.

    How should we interpret the titles of Jesus in the NT? There is an evolu-tionary interpretation that presents Christological developments as a logicallybackward process. And according to this line of thought, the most primitiveChristology was centred in the parousia and, as needs arose, Christology shift-ed its centre. Initially towards resurrection, and later to Jesus’ baptism and Hisconception (with genealogies starting with Abraham or Adam); the processreaches its peak with John’s prologue, where Jesus is presented as pre-existingcreation.54 An alternative to this linear model is multi-local. It defends that dif-

    ferent communities (different because of geography and cultural background)developed, independently, different Christological perspectives.

    Recently, another perspective has gained some notoriety. It connectsChristological development to the prayer and salvation experiences of the firstcommunities. Starting with the Pascal event of Jesus, the first Christians hadan intense salvific experience. It is in function of the communicative use (adintra and ad extra) of the reflection made in that context that the first com-munities elaborate, with the available theological and cultural categories, their

    Christological synthesis. Larry Hurtado is one of the main proponents of thisline of thought: “I have argued that the devotional practice of early Christiansis the crucial context for assessing the meaning of their verbal expressions ofbeliefs about Christ.”55

    54 Cf. BROWN Raymond E., The birth of the Messiah. A commentary on the in-fancy narratives in the gospels of Matthew and Luke, New York, Doubleday, 1993,pp. 29-32.

    55 HURTADO Larry W., At the origins of christian worship. The context and char-

    acter of earliest christian devotion, Grand Rapids - Cambridge, William B. Eerdmans,1999, p. 2. Cf. also HURTADO Larry W., How on Earth did Jesus become a God?Historical questions about earliest devotion to Jesus, Grand Rapids - Cambridge,

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    In this perspective, the understanding of the titles that the NT applies to Jesus is not achieved by determining their original veterotestamentary mean-ing and transferring it to Jesus. Neither is a question of accepting or rejectingthe use of Hellenist cultural categories. Soteriology precedes Christology. First

    Christian communities had an intense experience of Jesus, which they felt asdeeply transformative. From there, they used the available categories, chang-ing their original meanings and recombining different narrative, in order tocreate a discourse coherent with the soteriological core that defined their iden-tity.56 A discourse with two audiences: the in-group (to reinforce the identity)and the out-group (evangelization efforts).

    This debate of ideas helps to understand the history of Christological ideasthat only in the fourth and fifth centuries councils found some stability. How-

    ever, this does not mean that when respondents use the same terms that Chris-tian tradition has used and consolidated, they are assuming the same Christol-ogy. What is the meaning attributed by the respondents to those expressionsof biblical origin? The answer is not easy because often the respondents do notexplicitly explain the meaning given to the words. They just use the words.To assume, without added caution, that they are using the biblical vocabularywith the same meaning as biblical theology, would be naive.

    All those titles have a strong theological connotation and in the context inwhich we are working, they are not applicable to anybody else but Jesus. Andif they are applied to Jesus, it means that Jesus belongs to the divine sphere.It is possible to do an “orthodox” reading of the use of these titles. The useof this kind of technical vocabulary, so attached to official Church discourse,would correspond to a vision where Jesus is in fact the only-begotten Son ofGod, the redeemer of mankind, pre-existing since before creation. However, amore vague interpretation is also possible, where the use of these words is justa device useful to give Jesus a religious connotation, to place Him in relationwith God. But in a relation very undetermined in its contours.

     Jesus receives other “titles” inspired by contemporary relational sen-sitivity. Jesus is brother, friend, compassionate, present and available. Thatmakes Him a nice figure, admired, ethically attractive. But assimilates Him toa prophet, as another one of God’s messengers. And a doubt about the proper

    William B. Eerdmans, 2005, pp. 13-29. For a critical view on Hurtado’s work, cf.FLETCHER-LOUIS Crispin, A new explanation of christological origins. A review ofthe work of Larry W. Hurtado, in Tyndale Bulletin, 60 (2009), 161-205.

    56

    Cf. TALBERT Charles H., The development of christology during the first hun-dred years. And other essays on early christian christology, Leiden - Boston, Brill,2011, p. 3-42.

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    interpretation of these statements persists. If we opt for a “higher” Christolo-gy, these titles show Jesus’ proximity towards our humanity. But in a “lower”Christology, they just create a friendly prophet.57 

    This representation also includes some references to Jesus’ actions. Mainlyrelated to the Easter mysteries and, in a lesser degree, His birth. These narra-tives give substance to the idea of Jesus as saviour. This attention to “history”prevents the creation of a Jesus outside time, a Jesus reduced to just a conceptor metaphor.

    It is tempting to apply this data to the radical questions of every Chris-tology: what position does it take on the adoptionism-docetism axis? Howdoes Christ activate His salvation in favour of mankind? It is not easy to givea precise answer. Not only because of the difficulties in interpreting the data,

    but possibly, because of an ambiguity sought by the respondents. Carefullyreading the answers they gave, we get the feeling that they are familiar withclassic Christological formulations, and that there is a certain acceptance ofthe central role of Christ in salvation history. But, at the same time, there is alot of hesitations and indecisions about the role of Christ.

    1.2.2. I like Jesus

    This second representation is made of positive feelings and attitudes to-

    wards Jesus. It is structurally similar to the representation “Trust & RelationalQuality” (applied to God), as both present a believer in a strong relationshipwith God/Jesus. We can apply here all that we have seen previously in the useof the relational quality narrative. But, in this case, the object of the relationis Jesus.

    Faith in Jesus is expressed with a very rich set of affectionate expressions.We have here a real relationship and not only a state of mind. Some of theseexpressions are feelings (residents in the subject) but another part is made of

    manifestations of interpersonal relationships.This representation of Jesus is more oriented towards faith as a relation-

    ship, and the idea of faith as content is almost absent. This disbalance canbe interpreted in two different ways. The first interpretation is more criticaland underlines the risk of individualism: “El acto de fe definido exclusiva-mente como fides qua, como mero acto de un sujeto solo tiene relación con la

    57 The use of the categories of “high” and “low” Christologies is just functional in

    order to summarize very complex models. It is important to not identify high and lowChristologies with Christologies from above and from below. Cf. O’COLLINS Ger-ald, Christology. A biblical, historical and systematic study of Jesus, p. 17.

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    conciencia individual, y no con un testimonio exterior o una revelación queacontezca fuera de la própria interioridade”.58 Faith is no longer the humanresponse to the dialogue started by God and becomes a mere manifestation ofthe sovereign autonomy of the subject. The absence (or, at least, the lack of

    explicit presence) of contents can give rise to a kind of faith held hostage bypersonal emotions. A faith that becomes a psychological projection and not atheologal experience.

    A second interpretation, more benign, underlines the necessary link be-tween fides qua  and fides quae. Even if the manifestations of fides qua aremore visible, this interpretation anticipates that the contents of faith are in-trinsically associated. An example of this more optimistic interpretation canbe found in EG 124: “Nor is it devoid of content; rather it discovers and ex-

    presses that content more by way of symbols than by discursive reasoning, andin the act of faith greater accent is placed on credere in Deum than on credereDeum.”59 The absence of explicit references to the contents of faith should notbe understood as “emptiness” of contents; it would be important to detect the“latent” contents in the symbolic and ritual forms.

    To make the theological interpretation of this representation even moredifficult, some theologians note that the deeply individualistic context in whichwe live shifts the debate about the articulation between fides qua and fidesquae towards the debate credo-credimus. The accentuation placed in fides qua becomes equivalent to a rejection of credimus, of the ecclesial dimension offaith experience. Contemporary theological synthesis has insisted, on the con-trary, in the inseparability of the personal and ecclesial aspects of faith. Thebelieved faith (fides quae) is the ecclesial faith; but also the relation betweenthe believing subject and God (fides qua) is personal and ecclesial.60

    Faith has an irreducibly objective dimension: it must be faith in Jesus. But Jesus can only be found in the subjective experience of the believer. The believ-er’s subjectivity becomes the necessary place where Jesus’ truth happens andcan be found. This is especially true when Jesus’ truth is a saving truth; if thebeliever is not personally involved in the salvation offered by Jesus, there is notrue faith. As Terra says

    58 IZQUIERDO César, Fides qua - Fides quae, la permanente circumincesión, inTeologia y Catequesis, 125 (2013), 57-77, p. 64.

    59 Meaningly, this description is applied, originally, to popular religiosity, tonon-literary appropriation of faith. A context similar to the one we are investigating.

    60 Cf. SARTORI Luigi, Fides qua - Fides quae, in Studia patavina, 49 (2002) 1,109-112.

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    “Se o crer é a experiência de Deus que se comunica, não se podeseparar nele acto e conteúdo. A expressão ‘fazer a experiência de’ sug-ere precisamente a ligação íntima entre estas duas dimensões. Significaque há ‘actividade’ a respeito de ‘qualquer coisa’. Costumamos dis-tinguir entre fé-conteúdo (fides quae) e fé-acto (fides qua) por como-didade didáctica. Mas a vida crente não existe sob a forma de uma sódestas dimensões.”61

    A healthy theology insists on the necessary nexus between content and theact of faith. How, then, can we interpret this lack of equilibrium between fidesqua and fides quae, the (explicit) absence of content in this representation?

    It is highly unlikely that the respondents are professing a radically subjec-tive faith, devoid of content. A radically subjective configuration of the faithalways leads, one way or another, to the subject’s centrality, and there is no

    openness to the divine Other. In this representation, we have a strong affectiveand relational tension towards Jesus. The produced texts are not explicit aboutthe Jesus they are talking about, but that Jesus must have a face; otherwise hewould not be so attractive.

    The wisest option would be to consider that the respondents use a narra-tive that strongly values the well-being and relational quality as the foundationof their faith, and they express their relation towards Jesus according to thosecategories. To describe their relation with Jesus, they use “profane” words

    that can also be used in other areas and situations. But Jesus emerges withoutcompetition as the recipient of those words.

    This makes Jesus unique. And this would be another situation whereChristology is sequential to soteriology. Jesus offers a salvation experiencethat makes Him important in the subject’s life. We can interpret that the con-tents assigned to Jesus are reflecting His unique and distinctive character, evenif that is not explicitly stated in the respondents’ texts.

    1.2.3. Jesus attitudesA third representation of Jesus is focused on His actions and attitudes. In

    the “Christological titles”, we have already found some references to Jesus’actions, concentrated mainly in the Easter cycle. More than with isolated actsor a collection of mysteries, respondents represent Jesus with His attitudes. Allof the attitudes have in common being in favour of the others. There are someterms with a strong theological connotation (sacrifice, salvation, passion…),but the majority uses more contemporary language.

    61 TERRA Domingos, Discernir o crer cristão, in Didaskalia, XXXVII (2007) 2,47-68, p. 62.

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    In 20th century Christology there is a strain between ontological (or es-sential) Christologies and functional ones.62  An ontological Christology isconcerned with Jesus’ ultimate identity; a functional Christology pays moreattention to His redeeming action. CCC proposes an integrative synthesis. As

    Caviglia says “risultano così saldate assieme cristologia (aspetto ontologicoo essenziale) e soteriologia (aspetto funzionale), per cui non si può dare unacristologia senza una soteriologia, né esserci una soteriologia senza una cristo-logia”.63 So, somehow, the list of attitudes attributed to Jesus in this represen-tation expresses well the balance between identity and salvific action in Jesus:behind the identified attitudes is a Jesus with a well-defined face, expressingHimself in gestures and attitudes that will benefit others.

    This representation resumes the image of the historical Jesus. These atti-

    tudes are a summary of the canonical narratives, even if they are interpretedand filtered according to the contemporary sensibility. The relation bet