Matthew writes his Gospel to a community of Jewish origin. The evangelist is forced to balance between the continuity with Judaism and the break that Jesus’ message entails. The two keywords are: not abolish but fulfill.
Jesus complies with all Jewish law, with the Torah, but, at the same time, radically transcends it. “I tell you, unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.”
Fulfilling the Law means to exceed the Law, superabound, continuously moving beyond the letter of the Law, therefore transgressing the Law, in order to reach out the core of the Law, the root, the center, and the essence of the Law.
Jesus’ radical interpretation of God’s commandments does not make him a religious fundamentalist, a literalist of the Torah and even more an obsessive moralist!
Sometimes, our mind associates “radicality” with demand, voluntarism, perfectionism, mortification… It is probable that Matthew himself fell into this same trap when he talks about “tearing out an eye” or “cutting off a hand.” Was Matthew’s Jesus a kind of Taliban of 1st century AD?
Radicality refers to the word “root.” With that, the emphasis shifts from “what I do”, what radical action I need to do, to “from where,” “out of what” I do act. Because it is precisely the kind of source, out of which I act out as a religious person, that defines my religious radicality. It is a radicality that hints to a root, a depth of Life: a wellspring of Trust.
The apostle Paul so defines this underlying and encompassing womb out of which we contact life and are born: “We speak of God’s wisdom, mysterious, hidden, predetermined before all ages for our glory.”
This very Divine Wisdom is the foundation of the Law, the bosom out of which we are begotten as sons and daughters of God. “Blessed are you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth; you have revealed to little ones the mysteries of the kingdom.”
Radicality does not consist, therefore, in changing the “content” of the norm—the what— and adding a surplus of many other commandments.” Radicality means to live and abide in that “place,” in that “womb,” in that “bosom,” —the where—in which our true identity is.
Matthew has another name for this place where we are born. Matthew calls it the “secret” where the unseen God “sees.” It is a place where God’s eyes are open wide as the first reading from the book of Sirach is telling us: “Immense is the wisdom of the Lord; he is mighty in power, and all-seeing. The eyes of God are on those who fear him; he understands man’s every deed.”
In his chapter 6, Matthew speaks about prayer-fasting-almsgiving. “But when you pray/fast/give alms, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.” (Mt 6:6) We are seen by the unseen God, and that Divine sight generates us as children of God.
“Jesus replied, ‘Is it not written in your Law: ‘I have said you are gods’?” The Law – says Jesus – calls gods those “to whom the word of God came – and the Scripture cannot be broken.” (Joh 10:34-35)
This is the “radicality” Jesus is talking about. This is the “radicality” the apostle Paul is talking about, by pointing to the Spirit who “scrutinizes everything, even the depths of God.” In this depth of radicality, we are born as sons and daughters of God.
When eye sees “what eye has not seen” and ear hears, “what ear has not heard” and heart experiences that what has not entered the human heart, what God has prepared for those who love him, this God has revealed to us through the Spirit,” then the Law has been fulfilled.
Jesus has been the first fruit of this fulfillment, thus fulfilling what the prophet Jeremiah (31:33) had promised:
“This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel. I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.”
Therefore, says the Gospel of John about Jesus: “You, who are a man, declare Yourself to be God” (Joh 10:33). And Jesus answers: “Why do you accuse me of blasphemy because I said, ‘I am God’s Son’?” (Joh 10:36).
The radicality Jesus is pointing to resonates from the excess of love and joy of his experience with the source and he calls it “Abba – Father.”
It’s the experience of the Spirit that continuously moves us beyond the letter of the Law, in order to reach out the core of the Law, the radicality of that Love in which we are born.
“This is His commandment, that we love one another.” (1Joh 3:23). “Beloved, let’s love one another; for love is from God, and everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.” (1John 4:7)
I was born in 1960, in a small town in Northern Italy, Ravenna, which had been the capital of the Western Roman Empire in the 6th century. Today it is an amazing, artistic Byzantine town, full of history and cultural heritage, and an important center for European and international meetings. During my youth, I used to go around downtown and stop foreign tourists visiting Ravenna so that I could encounter diverse people and new cultures and learn foreign languages. That xenophilia led me at the age of 16 to apply for an exchange program, AFS (American Field Service), and I spent one school year in Severna Park, Maryland, attending the local High School and living with an American family.
This desire for knowing new cultures and new human frontiers led me to join the Jesuits in 1983, and since then I have been a member of this Catholic religious order. My academic formation was mostly spent in Europe: Milan, where I got my Master of Philosophy (laurea in filosofia); Naples, where I acquired a Master in Divinity (baccalaureato in Teologia); Germany, where I received my Doctorate (PhD) in Sacred Theology at the Jesuit School of Philosophy and Theology in Frankfurt.
A few words of Pope Paul VI inspired my religious vocation: “Wherever in the Church, even in the most difficult and exposed fields, in the crossroads of ideologies, in the social trenches, there has been or is confrontation between the burning exigencies of humanity and the perennial message of the Gospel, there have been and are the Jesuits.” Since my Master Degree work in philosophy at the Sacred Heart University in Milan, I have been interested in confronting my religious background with other faiths and human experiences. My need to be inquisitive about and critical of human and religious experiences led me to engage several of the ultimate existential questions. In dialogue with modernity, that is with philosophy and science, I am interested in the question of how to understand God’s action in the World and the problem of evil. Since the time of my doctoral thesis I have been in dialogue with other Christians and with other religious traditions. Because of these experiential and intellectual concerns, I feel deeply involved and interested in pursuing a reassessment of what it means to be Christian and Catholic in a pluralistic and globalized world.
Areas of Inquiry and Publications
Catholic theology is usually divided into several fields: biblical studies, church history, canon law, ethics, pastoral theology, comparative theology and systematics. Systematics draws its method both from philosophy and hermeneutics, and from biblical studies and religious studies, and it is usually the largest branch of theology. Systematic theology is also very much interested in asking and answering the so-called “big” or “great” questions, such as: Does the universe have an ultimate origin and goal? What does it mean to be human? What is good and evil? How do we do good? Why do we often fail? Systematic theology also applies its method to specific subjects: Who is Jesus? Who or What is God? Who and What is Spirit? What is Human? How is God related to the world and humanity? What is the Church? My specialty is systematics, particularly as influenced by philosophy and comparative theology of religions. Within systematics, I have done research and teaching in Christology, Trinitarian Theology, Ecumenical Theology (study of other Christian churches) and Comparative Theology of Religions.
It has been a constant in my intellectual formation to integrate reflection with experience. I have been working since 1985 in the Ecumenical movement, especially with Anglicans and Lutherans. As a journalist for the Catholic Journal La Civiltà Cattolica, I attended the Lambeth Conference of Anglican Bishops in Canterbury, England in 1988, 1998 and 2008. I also spent periods of time visiting countries with Hindu (India, 1999) and Muslim (Egypt, 2001 and 2004) majorities in order to have a direct experience with these religious traditions and reflect upon them in my research. My pastoral activity as a priest and director of Spiritual Exercises has helped me to listen to the longing of many men and women, within the church and in the broader society, for a deeper spirituality and a renewed sense of the Mystery.
Because of this integration between reflection and experience, I have undertaken new paths of research in systematic theology. In 2005 I published a book on Christology (in Italian), This Jesus. Thinking the singularity of Jesus Christ, which received a wide appreciation and attention in many book reviews (Biblical Theology, New Testament Abstracts, La Civiltà Cattolica, Recherches de Sciences Religieuses, Nouvelle Revue Théologique, Rassegna di Teologia), and in a daily newspaper (“La Repubblica”). The Lateran University in Rome hosted a public presentation of my book (02/27/2007), held by the former Archbishop of Milan and biblical scholar, Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini, who praised “the comprehensiveness,” “the incisiveness,” and “the theological insightfulness” of my work. Many teachers of Christology in Italian theological faculties use this book as their required textbook: at the Pontifical Theological Faculty of Naples, the Theological Faculty of Apulia, and the Theological Institute of Ancona.
In this book, as in other articles and essays on Christology, published in peer reviewed journals of high academic level (Irish Theological Quarterly, ET-Studies, Transversalités, La Scuola Cattolica, Rassegna di Teologia), I explore new approaches to Christology. I have been developing a post-conciliar and relational paradigm to understand the mystery of God. I am interested in the quest for the historical Jesus, especially on retrieving the Jewishness of Jesus. I like to engage in challenging discussions with scholars, both believers and not, on issues related to the resurrection of Jesus and his divinity. One recent example of such publications is: “Dogmatics under Construction. The Challenges from the Jesus Quest for Dogmatic Theology.” (2015). Detailed reference to this and other publications cited in this narrative can be found in my CV.
In 2007 I published in Italian a book on the Doctrine of the Trinity (A Relational God) which approaches the Mystery of God, by inquiring about the Humanity of God in a relational paradigm. This book has received a wide appreciation and attention in many book reviews (Gregorianum, Archivio Teologico Torinese, Euntes Docete). Many who teach the Doctrine of the Trinity in Italian theological faculties use this book as their required textbook: the Pontifical Theological Faculty of Naples, the Theological Faculty of Apulia and the Theological Institute of Ancona.
As a scholarly reflection on my Ecumenical engagement, I have published many articles (both in Italian and English in peer-reviewed journals (Irish Theological Quarterly, One in Christ, Rassegna di Teologia) on several ecclesiological and ecumenical issues. One of the most controversial issues in today’s ecumenical debate is the question of “subsistit,” of how the Catholic church relates to the other Christian denominations.
I apply Comparative theology to the study of Christology, in dealing with the question of the preexistence of Jesus Christ from a Jewish and a Muslim perspective. I am rethinking the major categories of Christology and the Doctrine of the Trinity, like that of “essence” and “person” in dialogue with Asian religions.
The cultural exchange between West and East has influenced not only my research on Christology and the Doctrine of God, but it also triggered in me a new interest in looking at the connection between spirituality, theology and anthropology. First, I revisited the concept of human freedom and the question of evil. On this topic, I published an article in a peer-reviewed journal (Filosofia e Teologia) and four essays in other academic theological publications. Next, I addressed the concept of human body vis-à-vis the mystery of incarnation and sexuality. I have two publications on this topic, one as an article appeared in a peer-reviewed journal (Filosofia e teologia, 2005), “Caro cardo salutis. L’incarnazione come dono di trascendenza,” and an essay published by the title: “Caro Cara. La grazia del corpo. Per una grammatica cristiana della carne” (2007). In a series of articles and essays, published in Italian and German, I rethink new ways to envision Catholic identity in a multi-faith and globalized world, while facing the threats of both fundamentalism and indifference.
Most of these articles and essays have been revised and expanded versions of papers I gave at several International Congresses, from 2005 to 2017: at Centre Sévres (Paris, France); at the American Academy of Religion (Atlanta and Santa Clara University); at the European Academy of Religion (Bologna, Italy); at German Universities (Erfurt and Berlin); at Boston College, Loyola Marymount University, and Holy Cross College; At the Leuven Encounter in Systematic Theology in Leuven, Belgium; at the Italian Theological Association (Turin, Rome, Padova).
Research Vision
According to two contemporary theologians, Ewart Cousins and Leonard Swidler, a transformation of human consciousness has taken place on a global level. We may speak of “a second axial period.” Like the first axial period, mentioned by the philosopher Karl Jasper in the last century, this second period is happening simultaneously in various parts of the planet and is shaping the transcendental paradigm of human consciousness due to the greater interchange between cultures and religions, chiefly through the media and mass migration. As a consequence of this “Age shift,” religions are tempted either to deny each other (fundamentalism) or to impose one above the other (exclusivism-inclusivism). A new way of thinking about the religious experience is necessary; retrieving their nature (“re-ligio” is a Latin word which means to “connect”), religions are learning to relate to each other through a process of mutual understanding, changing their own way of considering the others’ religions, if necessary, and appreciating the values of the others.
I am realizing that former paradigms of theological thinking are outdated and a shift is needed towards a “relational” and “non-dual” approach to reality. By “relational” I mean an idea of being (ontology), in which the whole reality is comprehended as a bundle of “relations” and not of “substances” (self-closed monads). As quantum physics and the evolutionary concept of “emergence” state, the core of reality is intrinsically “relatedness.” By “non-dual” I mean an understanding of thinking (epistemology) that goes beyond the “subject-object” duality. Such a major shift in ontology and epistemology requires a different understanding of systematic theology.
I have already tackled this paradigm shift in a few of my essays and articles, including a 2005 essay “Relational Ontology and Mystical experience” whose ideas were further developed in a 2015 article, “Outlines for a non-theistic foundation of Christian faith".
In the immediate future, I intend to work on a publication which elaborates a theory of theology, shaped by the logic of the Trinitarian idea of God, as “three-in-one,” i.e. as a non-dual paradigm which avoids blurring differences together into an undifferentiated and nebulous monism. For my future research in Christology, it is my goal to publish an English edition of my Italian book on Jesus, by expanding its horizon towards Trinitarian theology and comparative theology, taking advantage of the in-depth study I did on the preexistence of the Word in Judaism and Islam, and on the idea of incarnation in Mahayana Buddhism (Doctrine of the Trikaya Buddha).
The framework I intend to develop for my future research is what can be called a Post-theistic approach to Christian faith. It is an attempt to move beyond the traditional categories of classical theism. Such paradigm shift does not engage only theology but also spirituality, and finally how traditional Christian churches exercise their pastoral ministry and elaborate their liturgies. This transformative vision of the Christian faith has brought me, in these past fifteen years, to offer Contemplative Retreats where elements from Eastern and Western Spirituality are connected together; at the same time, theological workshops for adults to help them articulate their faith-vision with the new scientific world-view which is not more the Biblical one.
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