Scientia - The International Journal on the Liberal Arts

Reconfiguring the Outcomes of Simbahayan: The Case Study of Basic Ecclesial Communities in the Diocese of Imus

Teofilo Viray — Tue, 29 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000

This article examines Basic Ecclesial Communities (BECs), or Simbahayan, of the Catholic Church as a social organization. The term Simbahayan comes from two joined Tagalog words: simbahan (church) and pamayanan (community). Rooted in these two social institutions, the Simbahayan represents a convergence of ecclesial and communal life, linking the Church with other social units. This study explores how the Simbahayan organize to achieve outcomes within gated communities and how organizational contexts shape these outcomes. This qualitative case study, conducted in the Diocese of Imus, used key informant interviews, focus group discussions, and a review of parish documents to examine the organizational context. All data were analyzed using reflexive thematic analysis following Braun and Clarke (2024) and triangulated (Denzin, 2009). Data collection was conducted with the parish priest's approval and informed consent from all participants. This study highlighted a geographical form of Simbahayan within gated communities, where the heterogeneity of lay leaders and members significantly contributes to fulfilling both the material and spiritual outcomes of the organization. The enabling organizational contexts identified in this study are strong interorganizational relationships, members’ support system, and mutual resource dependence. The constraining organizational contexts identified are the absence of formalized BEC guidelines, challenges in ecclesial interministerial coordination, fragmentation, low participation, and structural problems within the Simbahayan. The study recommends ways forward to achieve recognized Simbahayan outcomes, including leadership succession planning, organizational effectiveness, and establishing a parish discernment team to support the continuity and re-engineering of the Simbahayan structure.

From Fragmentation to Integration: Reinterpreting the Resurrection of Jesus Through Carnley's "Christus Praesens"

Charles Ron Capin — Tue, 29 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The Resurrection of Jesus is central to Christian faith, yet its significance may be understood primarily as a past historical event or in relation to future eschatological hope, leaving its significance for present Christian life insufficiently explored. This study examines how participants from a Catholic university understand and interpret the Resurrection, how they perceive its teaching by religious educators and ministers, and what gaps emerge from these understandings. Employing an intradisciplinary empirical-theological approach and the See–Discern–Act framework, the study conducted three focus group discussions with 27 participants from Saint Mary’s University, consisting of senior high school students, college students, and professional teachers. The findings show that respondents generally possess basic knowledge of the Resurrection and predominantly affirm it as Jesus's rising from the dead, while some emphasize symbolic, spiritual, existential, or transformative meanings. Although most respondents perceive the teaching of the Resurrection as clear and understandable, several indicate a need for greater theological depth and more explicit engagement with its meaning and implications for Christian life. The findings, therefore, reveal a range of understandings that do not always correspond neatly to Carnley’s historical-event, eschatological-event, and non-event categories. Carnley’s concept of Christus praesens provides a constructive theological resource for relating the remembered Jesus to the risen Christ encountered in the present life of the Christian community. In dialogue with Eballo’s Gamay at Hiyang, this perspective suggests a contextual approach to religious education that can help learners move from basic doctrinal knowledge toward deeper theological appropriation and lived Christian faith.

Juxtaposing Contemporary Gen Z Slang with Prospero Covar’s Body-And-Pot Metaphor

Marvin Reyes — Tue, 29 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Language evolves, and language moves across generations. Though time may change, language will remain dynamic. The wording may change, but the significance and meaning remain constant. The current trend of Generation Z, or Gen Z, words may be considered the most used expressions coined in daily conversations and communications, not only on social media but also in daily conversations. Thus, Gen Z language has become part of formal and informal discourses. Interestingly, Gen Z language can be reflected in the conceptualization of Filipino identity and psyche based on the Body-Pot metaphor of Prospero Covar, a notable Filipino anthropologist and scholar. This study will examine the common ground between Gen Z language use and Prospero Covar's philosophy and how this becomes culturally, sociologically, and linguistically interesting and significant. The interconnections or juxtapositions of word usage may be considered a contributing aspect in establishing the philosophy of Covar’s work as still relevant today.

Brother Andrew Gonzalez's Educational Philosophy Through a Reconstructionist Lens: A Philippine Lasallian Interpretation

Benito Villareal — Tue, 29 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000

This paper argues that Brother Andrew Gonzalez articulates a distinctively Philippine and Lasallian philosophy of educational reconstruction. His educational thought can be interpreted as Reconstructionist because it understands education as an instrument of social transformation, assigns schools responsibility for examining social injustice, and connects curriculum and institutional mission with the construction of a more human future. The paper does not claim that Gonzalez formally identified himself as a Reconstructionist philosopher. Rather, it uses seven interrelated criteria derived principally from George C., Theodore Brameld, and Paulo Freire: social transformation, education as an instrument of change, critical consciousness, democratic participation, curriculum reform, future orientation, and social responsibility. Gonzalez reformulates these concerns through a threefold hermeneutics of retrieval, the present, and the potential or future. Retrieval critically appropriates the cultural and historical resources of Philippine society; interpretation of the present confronts structural inequality and institutional responsibility; and future-oriented hermeneutics directs values, curricula, research, and reform toward a preferred social order. Gonzalez further integrates this movement with the Lasallian commitments to faith, zeal for others, communion in mission, human dignity, and integral human development. His contribution therefore lies not in reproducing Western Reconstructionism but in developing a culturally grounded, historically conscious, institutionally embodied, and religiously informed philosophy of Philippine education. Methodologically, the study uses a criterion-guided philosophical interpretation of Gonzalez's educational texts and concludes by proposing comparative case-study, mixed-method, longitudinal, and participatory research capable of examining the framework across educational sectors. This extension clarifies the article's international relevance and its implications for curriculum, professional practice, leadership, and institutional evaluation.

Women and the Ministerial Priesthood: The Challenge of Synodality

Jefrey Cercado — Tue, 29 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000

This paper touches upon the salient points of the Magisterial teaching on the prohibition of women to the Holy Orders and the theological objections raised against it. The primary objective of the paper is to provide a balanced groundwork for the issue regarding the prohibition of women's ordination. It attempts to synthesize the arguments for and against the non-ordination of women to the ministerial priesthood. The Magisterium and those who reject women's ordination to the ministerial priesthood employ descending theology (deductive argumentation), arguing from Scripture, the living Tradition, doctrines and sacramental theology, and authority. The documents Inter Insigniores, Ordinatio Sacerdotalis, and the CDF Responsum ad Propositum Dubium, among others, are official church documents that ground reasons regarding the non-admission of women to the ministerial priesthood. The dissenters, on the other hand, object and question the theological foundation and the method of interpretation. Employing ascending theology (inductive argumentation), they demonstrate their arguments from Scripture, history, relevant church documents, and contemporary human experience. Thus, the paper tries to lay down these various objections ranging from biblical to hermeneutical critique, questions of methodology, and moral and pastoral implications. Thus, the paper does not propose any moral or theological position but rather offers a synthesis in the spirit of synodality for the sake of young Catholics who may be asking for some clarity about the topic.

Dismantling the Colonial-Capitalist Gaze: Theological Education for Earth-Commons and Planetary Liberation

Hadje Sadje, Lope Balantucas Robin — Tue, 29 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000

This paper argues that contemporary ecological and social crises stem from a colonial-capitalist gaze, an epistemic orientation that reduces creation to resources and souls to consumers. This gaze, woven into Western theology, now structures theological education, rendering it incapable of addressing planetary collapse. We trace how theological formation became a disembedded academic discipline and dissect the gaze’s four logics within theology: a subject-object dichotomy that desacralizes nature; an extractive logic that commodifies knowledge; a logic of separation that fragments the commons; and a teleology of conquest that sacralizes domination. These logics produce a curriculum of disconnection: a Eurocentric canon, anthropocentric paradigms, and an extractive pedagogy within corporatized institutions. In response, we propose refounding theological education on the vision of the Earth-Commons, the sacred, interdependent web of life, and the project of planetary liberation. This demands four pillars: an ethos of radical interdependence, a praxis of reciprocity, a commitment to de-enclosure, and a teleology of collective flourishing. The resulting pedagogical praxis involves place-based learning, apprenticeships in communities of struggle, and assessment by co-created life. Finally, dismantling this gaze is a decolonial imperative, transforming theological education from a curator of a dying paradigm into a seedbed for cultivators of the Earth-Commons.

Radical Discipleship in Mark’s Gospel and Its Implications for the Synodal Church

Dalmacito Cordero Jr., Isaac Yiadom Boakye — Tue, 29 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000

This study examines discipleship in the Gospel of Mark and its relevance for the Synodal Church. It highlights how Mark portrays disciples as both committed followers of Jesus Christ and flawed individuals who struggle to understand his identity and mission fully. Through narrative criticism, the Gospel of Mark is analyzed synchronically to examine its stories and language of discipleship, and to explore how the ancient text has evolved, focusing on how modern scholars perceive the Markan narrative as it is experienced by readers today. This literary analysis emphasized that the Gospel reflects the challenges of Jesus' ministry, including rejection, suffering, and misunderstanding. Mark presents discipleship as a journey marked by faith, self-denial, and perseverance despite failure. True disciples are those who remain with Jesus, learn from their mistakes, and ultimately follow him even to the cross. The study concludes that this model of discipleship offers guidance for the Synodal Church today — believers are called to walk together in faith, actively participate in Christ’s mission, and remain steadfast amid difficulties and persecution.

Theocentrism and Human Responsibility: Addressing Environmental Crisis Through Integral Ecology and Theology of Creation

Eddie Vicente Marquiño, Allan Basas — Tue, 29 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000

This study contributes to humanity's search for solutions to mitigate the worsening environmental conditions. We argue that a theocentric paradigm, which integrates ecocentrism and human responsibility in the relationship between humans and non-human creatures, will mitigate the current ecological problems. This article aims to integrate Pope Francis’ integral ecology and Thomas Aquinas’ theology of creation to provide a conceptual framework for reimagining human-nature relations in the context of the current environmental crisis. A theocentric paradigm of the relationship between human and non-human creatures corrects the anthropocentric model, which exploits the environment and other non-human creatures. Thus, we need a new approach to reimagining human-nature relations that balances the extreme view of anthropocentrism and improves environmental conditions. Thomas Aquinas' theology of creation underlines that all creatures manifest the continuing presence of God and that humans are responsible to God for how they treat other creatures. Pope Francis' integral ecology underscores the inherent value of non-human creatures and criticizes humanity's lifestyles that exploit the environment. Therefore, a theocentric paradigm invites human beings to become stewards of non-human creatures based on God's original design and intention.