What kinds of reports does the Church of England produce? Some are technical (e.g., annual reports, financial statements, etc.); others are more practical (e.g., safeguarding, ministry); whilst others are doctrinal or ecclesiological (e.g., ARCIC, a report from the Doctrine Commission, such as The Mystery of Salvation, 1995, etc.). Others are hybrid in character, taking issues and concerns (e.g., leadership, vocations, etc.) as pragmatic problems to be resolved and to which a theological gloss is added. This paper focuses on the nature of these hybrid-type reports as exemplars of consecrated pragmatism. In so doing, the ethos of the reports traces the trajectory of the Church of England as it continues to shed its theological capacities and dissolve in a culture of ecclesial managerialism, ontologised bureaucracy and frantic ecclesionomics. The paper offers ‘a report on knowledge’ and questions the nature and purpose of the writings that the Church of England publishes on a range of doctrinal and practical theological arenas.

This article shows how the integral ecology of Laudato Si’ expands the concept of the common good to include the natural world through recognition of and solidarity with human good. It makes this argument in dialogue with the Catholic social thought of M. Shawn Copeland on the problem of the common good in the human community and the manner in which the praxis of solidarity works to resist bias and promote authentic encounter. First, Copeland’s approach, as developing Bernard Lonergan and in dialogue with Charles Taylor, introduces the question of authentic expansion of common good to the others of history. Second, integral ecology expands the problem of the common good to both human and nonhuman others, affirming the interrelated good of human and ecological systems, and recognizing the interrelated agency that contributes to the emergence of value for common good.

Regarding proofs for the existence of God, two things are well known of St John Henry Newman. First, he was chary about aspects of the Christian Evidences, a great accumulation of Christian apologetics in which Paley’s writings occupied a central place. Second, that he favoured an argument from conscience as ‘a proof common to all, to high and low’. This paper examines what might have been behind Newman’s convictions. It argues that metaphysical and epistemological emphases of early modern philosophy had semantic repercussions for ‘standard’ apologetics such as St Thomas’ Five Ways. In a new social imaginary, they suffer distortion and lose vitality as they begin to be reprogrammed to operate according to modern epistemological canons. Similarly, Paleyan arguments from design as they appear in the Christian Evidences were built on an evidential standard perhaps notionally compelling but in reality false to how a person really comes to conviction about belief in God. In the end, this paper argues that there is an odd kinship between Newman’s argument from conscience and St Thomas’ Five Ways, if these latter are read in their intended medieval light rather than in a modern light.

Recent debates in moral philosophy have placed significant emphasis on personal conscience, often elevating individual autonomy above all other considerations. This overemphasis has paradoxically led to the suppression of another’s conscience in situations where two moral agents must act together toward a shared goal, as in the physician–patient relationship. Critics of conscientious objection argue that recognizing its legitimacy fosters moral relativism or subjectivism. How, then, can conscience be properly formed and understood in a way that safeguards against relativism while upholding its rightful role in conscientious objection? This article argues that Aquinas’s integration of natural moral law, conscience, prudence, and virtue offers the most coherent and original framework for addressing these challenges. By grounding conscience in truth and sustaining it through virtue, Aquinas provides a robust basis for defending conscientious objection while safeguarding human dignity and moral integrity. While primarily theoretical, this study also draws practical implications for healthcare and institutional ethics, showing how a Thomistic understanding of virtue and conscience can inform dialogue and policy in pluralistic contexts.

Since its publication, Luis Laso de la Vega’s foundational text, Huei tlamahuiçoltica (1649), continues to influence Guadalupan devotion but has only recently been examined as a theological and pastoral work. Still missing from these treatments is a discussion of the significance of the text’s genre, hagiography. This paper continues to draw out the theological and pastoral depth of Huei tlamahuiçoltica, specifically as the first Guadalupan hagiography. Moreover, it argues for the text to be considered a communal hagiography of sixteenth-century Nahuas that seeks to shape Nahua-Christian identity through Guadalupan devotion.

Because it is manifest that ‘the world’, traditionally said to be God’s good creation, is shot through with profound ‘wrongs’, the question arises about the sense in which the physical creation is good in and of itself, for its own sake. This essay first briefly argues that theological strategies attempting to ground creation’s goodness in either God’s relating to reconcile sinful humankind or in God’s relating in eschatological blessing are inadequate, and then urges that it can be adequately grounded in a doctrine of creation that shifts focus from offering a causal explanation of the existence of ‘the world’ to description of what it is to be ‘creature’, backed by an exegetical shift in how the text that traditionally warrants doctrines of creation, Genesis 1:1-2:25, is read. That shift entails acknowledgement of two theological aporias, one of which it is important to stress is theologically insoluble, while the other is soluble.

This article examines Paul’s view of the law with attention to the figure of the pedagogue. It suggests that the law stands in a redemptive-historical role to the coming of Christ. It accomplishes this through a comparison between Seneca’s Moral Epistles and Paul. Seneca’s discussion is a helpful heuristic to elucidate Paul’s teaching on Jewish law. Paul highly values the Jewish law and explains that it leads humans to Christ as a pedagogue, although the law itself does not have the power to make righteous. Scholars offer arguments in support of positive or negative attitudes toward the pedagogue, but the pedagogue’s basic role was to bring a child to the age of maturity and rationality. Paul’s thesis is to argue that the Jewish law functions, historically and ethically, to lead one to Christ. This interpretation suggests that the law plays a positive redemptive-historical role in Galatians 3:19–4:11.

Theodicies attempt to explain why evil and suffering might exist in a world governed by an omnipotent, omniscient, and wholly good God. Some theodicies focus on pointing out benefits that suffering seems necessary for, though in many cases the benefits are primarily for someone other than the sufferer. Some philosophers find it morally objectionable for God to let one person suffer in order to benefit someone else, and this is thought to be a weakness of some otherwise promising theodicies. I discuss two moral concerns in this context: a mere-means-to-an-end concern and a concern about horrendous evils remaining undefeated. I argue that incorporating a doctrine of reincarnation may help some theodicies resolve both of these moral concerns, giving theodicists reason to turn towards such doctrines.