Lateral Synodality: Academics of Asian Catholicism and Organizational Change
As the Synod on Synodality has massively consulted Catholics around the globe for three years (2021–2024), this paper discusses ways in which academics with knowledge related to Asian Catholics have been involved in these processes. Focusing on this specific community of scholars, we highlight the p...
| Authors: | ; ; |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Interlibrary Loan: | Interlibrary Loan for the Fachinformationsdienste (Specialized Information Services in Germany) |
| Published: |
2025
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| In: |
Religions
Year: 2025, Volume: 16, Issue: 3 |
| Further subjects: | B
Asia
B Academia B Catholicism B Synodality |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (kostenfrei) Volltext (kostenfrei) |
| Summary: | As the Synod on Synodality has massively consulted Catholics around the globe for three years (2021–2024), this paper discusses ways in which academics with knowledge related to Asian Catholics have been involved in these processes. Focusing on this specific community of scholars, we highlight the paradoxical ways in which they contributed to these synodal conversations. They simultaneously illustrate the relatively new production of multidisciplinary knowledge on Asian Catholicism and the hesitations standing between ecclesial organizations and academia. While academics of Asian Catholicism produce scholarship not foreign to the principles of synodal listening and discernment, their involvement within synodal processes has often been indirect and filtered by their disciplinary background and ecclesial status (laity vs. clergy). Based on a survey conducted in May 2024, this paper shows that the production of academic knowledge on Asian Catholics is now driven chiefly by laity and shaped across various disciplines and places. Yet, a significantly higher proportion of scholars who directly engaged in synodal conversations were theologians belonging to the clergy. While other disciplines may have contributed indirectly, theologians were overrepresented. This creates a paradox in which synodal conversations have coexisted from a certain distance with a rich academic knowledge of Asian Catholics, and most academics of Asian Catholicism have remained outside of synodal efforts. Departing from existing theories that approach this Synod on Synodality as a vertical process, either as a bottom-up or a top-down reform of the Catholic Church, we highlight its restrained engagement with academia, a lateral community of listening and discernment. |
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| ISSN: | 2077-1444 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Religions
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.3390/rel16030283 |
