Skip to content
The Catholic Leader
  • Home
  • News
    • QLD
    • Australia
    • Regional
    • Education
    • World
    • Vatican
  • Features
  • Opinion
  • Life
    • Family
    • Relationships
    • Faith
  • Culture
  • People
  • Subscribe
  • Jobs
  • Contribute
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
    • QLD
    • Australia
    • Regional
    • Education
    • World
    • Vatican
  • Features
  • Opinion
  • Life
    • Family
    • Relationships
    • Faith
  • Culture
  • People
  • Subscribe
  • Jobs
  • Contribute
No Result
View All Result
The Catholic Leader
No Result
View All Result
Home News

Fr Anthony Mellor’s first book asks why the Good News isn’t received as good news today

byJoe Higgins
16 September 2019 - Updated on 1 April 2021
Reading Time: 3 mins read
AA

Fr Anthony Mellor: “How do we bridge the gap between people’s lived experience and what we talk about as Church in terms of the content of our faith.”

Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
Fr Anthony Mellor: “How do we bridge the gap between people’s lived experience and what we talk about as Church in terms of the content of our faith.”

GOD is in the fabric of everyday life whether we were aware of it or not – this was the lesson Fr Anthony Mellor hoped readers might take away from his new book.

“And if we reflect on that, or find ways of expressing that, then that’s helpful to the Church and our present situation,” Fr Mellor said.

Brisbane Archbishop Mark Coleridge launched Fr Mellor’s book entitled Karl Rahner, Culture and Evangelisation: New Approaches in an Australian Setting, at the Francis Rush Centre on September 6.

Archbishop Coleridg jokingly said he was astounded to find a theological work that began with a pastoral question.

“If the Good News is truly Good News, why is it not received as Good News in our western societies in this modern age?” Archbishop Coleridge said, reading the first sentence from the preface.

The book addressed the challenge of bridging people’s real-life experience and how they connected to religious mystery, Fr Mellor said.

He said people were interested in spirituality, but not necessarily Christian spirituality.

“So the question is: how do we bridge the gap between people’s lived experience and what we talk about as Church in terms of the content of our faith,” he said.

“How do we make believing more real for people?”

It was a question that went back to the early days of his priestly ministry, Fr Mellor said.

Related Stories

Nuncio take in the sights of Queensland’s far north

Cardinal Joseph Zen appears in court in Hong Kong on day of prayer for China

15 killed in Texas school shooting

He wrote his doctoral thesis on the subject and that was adapted into the newly published book.

At the core of the book was Fr Rahner’s contention that the pastoral and the theological needed each other.

Fr Mellor said theology without a pastoral application was simply an abstraction and the pastoral without a theological basis was just sociology.

Fr Rahner himself attracted controversy – some Catholics called him a great theologian and others a heretic.

Fr Mellor did not downplay this controversy, but instead pointed to the honesty of Fr Rahner’s inquiry.

Guiding hand: Fr Thomas Ismoyo and Redemptorist Father Tony Kelly.

“I think Karl Rahner was asking the right questions,” he said.

“There’s always disputes about how he came up with answers; regardless if it was Karl Rahner or somebody else, the questions remain.”

Evangelisation was guided by these questions particularly.

Fr Mellor said too readily people get into “questions of content” when we tried to evangelise.

Instead, he said, a more helpful matter was how do we help people name their awareness of God in their lives and how do we help them respond to that awareness.

Being his first book, Fr Mellor said he learned a lot about writing.

He said the focus of putting something down on paper concentrated his ideas and helped him communicate those ideas and was a worthwhile skill on its own.

“In terms of the book, I’m grateful for all those who have helped me along the way,” Fr Mellor said.

He made particular note of Redemptorist Father Tony Kelly, Archbishop Coleridge and Marist Father Tom Ryan who helped make the book happen.

And he said, if there was a chance, he would like to do more writing in the future.

ShareTweet
Previous Post

Springfield shares about its Divine Renovation experience and invites all to open house

Next Post

‘My life is but a weaving between my Lord and me’, Cecile Falvey knows joy is looming for all who try

Joe Higgins

Related Posts

Nuncio take in the sights of Queensland’s far north
News

Nuncio take in the sights of Queensland’s far north

25 May 2022
Hong Kong
World

Cardinal Joseph Zen appears in court in Hong Kong on day of prayer for China

25 May 2022
15 killed in Texas school shooting
News

15 killed in Texas school shooting

25 May 2022
Next Post

'My life is but a weaving between my Lord and me', Cecile Falvey knows joy is looming for all who try

Sisters of Mary Morning Star in Brisbane

Sisters of Mary Morning Star choose Brisbane as first home in Oceania

Disability royal commission shock

Brisbane barrister reveals shocking levels of abuse at disability royal commission

Popular News

  • Archbishop calls for prayers in “troubled times”

    Archbishop calls for prayers in “troubled times”

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • US bishops applaud San Francisco prelates pastoral response to Pelosi’s decades of abortion advocacy

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • From a humble start Albanese is sworn in as new prime minister

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • 15 killed in Texas school shooting

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • How this country girl and St Jude are changing the lives of Tanzania’s poorest children

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
Search our job finder
No Result
View All Result

Latest News

Nuncio take in the sights of Queensland’s far north
News

Nuncio take in the sights of Queensland’s far north

by Staff writers
25 May 2022
0

Pope Francis’ delegate to Australia has found time for sightseeing during a busy trip to Far North...

Hong Kong

Cardinal Joseph Zen appears in court in Hong Kong on day of prayer for China

25 May 2022
15 killed in Texas school shooting

15 killed in Texas school shooting

25 May 2022
Archbishop calls for prayers in “troubled times”

Archbishop calls for prayers in “troubled times”

24 May 2022
Myanmar military burns houses, destroys a village

US bishops applaud San Francisco prelates pastoral response to Pelosi’s decades of abortion advocacy

24 May 2022

Never miss a story. Sign up to the Weekly Round-Up
eNewsletter now to receive headlines directly in your email.

Sign up to eNews
  • About
  • Advertise
  • Contact
  • Contribute
  • Jobs
  • Subscribe

The Catholic Leader is an Australian award-winning Catholic newspaper that has been published by the Archdiocese of Brisbane since 1929. Our journalism seeks to provide a full, accurate and balanced Catholic perspective of local, national and international news while upholding the dignity of the human person.

Copyright © All Rights Reserved The Catholic Leader
Accessibility Information | Privacy Policy | Archdiocese of Brisbane

The Catholic Leader acknowledges Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people as the First Peoples of this country and especially acknowledge the traditional owners on whose lands we live and work throughout the Catholic Archdiocese of Brisbane.

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
    • QLD
    • Australia
    • Regional
    • Education
    • World
    • Vatican
  • Features
  • Opinion
  • Life
    • Family
    • Relationships
    • Faith
  • Culture
  • People
  • Subscribe
  • Jobs
  • Contribute

Copyright © All Rights Reserved The Catholic Leader

0
    0
    Your Cart
    Your cart is emptyChoose another Subscription
    Continue Shopping