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Towards a New Paradigm of the Case of the "People of God": Universal and Universalizable

Celestino A. Gianan

Discipline: Philosophy, Religion

 

Abstract:

This article attempts primarily to clarify the case of the "People of God" in the world of creation. It addresses the question: What are men and women doing in the world of creation when they claim, "We are a People of God"? This question is raised due to the ever-growing diversity of notions attributed to the phrase "People of God" from which problems of obscure meaning, truth-disclosure, and clear understanding arise. To address these problems, I attempt to reconceptualize and reinterpret the case of the People of God, following the philosophical thoughts of Karl Rahner and Karol Wojtyla (transcendentality), Alfred North Whitehead (process thought) and Hans-Georg Gadamer (effective-historical consciousness). This attempt is needed to know, learn, and understand the reality that goes along with the case of the People of God. The task of reconceptualization and reinterpretation exhibits an ontological hermeneutics of the phrase with the end in view of creating a new paradigm: from universality to universalizability. This clarification of the case of the People of God also suggests a metaecclesiology, which occasions men and women to give a "new expression" to their being a People of God. This "new expression" makes the case of the People of God more relevant to every age.