Human Dignity from the Perspective of the Pasifica Household of God

Rev. James S. Bhagwan is an ordained minister of the Methodist Church and general secretary of the Pacific Conference of Churches. This post is based on his remarks presented during the panel “Human Dignity and Faith Traditions in Oceania” at the Oceanian Perspectives on Human Dignity Conference held at BYU–Hawaii in Laie, Oahu, Hawaii, 23–25 April 2024.

I begin by acknowledging that deep spirituality permeates the communities of Oceania and is at the heart of the Pacific peoples’ relationship with each other and with the world. Spirituality is integral to the way we interpret, understand, and interact with one another and with the natural world. And this spirituality is enhanced by the many faith traditions of this world, which have grown roots in our diverse Pacific communities. These faith traditions are shared with 85% of those who share this planet. The language of spirituality—the expression in metaphor, in image, in silence, in hymns of praise and cries for justice, in reflection and meditation, in ethical action, in confession and repentance, and in justice and compassion—is part of our way of life. That spirituality is not only experienced through faith communities but also through indigenous culture—that deep sense of vanua or fenua, of rootedness not only to land but also rootedness in respect and celebration of just relationships with all creation.

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Francis I: Public Theologian

Greg Marcar is a senior researcher at the Nathaniel Bioethics Centre for Bioethics, Te Kupenga, and a research affiliate at the Centre for Theology and Public Issues (CTPI), University of Otago (New Zealand). His research interests include religious freedom, theological anthropology, and animal rights. He is a coeditor of Søren Kierkegaard: Theologian of the Gospel (Wipf & Stock 2021) and Security, Religion, and the Rule of Law: International Perspectives (Routledge 2023). A version of this post is scheduled to appear as a contribution to The Nathaniel Report 75 (2025).

Editors’ Note: This post was written and published prior to Pope Francis’s death.

The papacy of Francis I has frequently been framed as a departure from his predecessors. Francis is notable for being not only the first Jesuit pope but also the first South American pontiff and the first to take office in the context of a pope emeritus, the late Benedict XVI. As many have noted, no previous pontiff has shone such a strong theological spotlight onto socioeconomic or environmental issues that disproportionately affect those living within the developing world or displaced from it.

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A Symbol of Faith or Culture? Brazil’s Constitutional Dilemma

Bruno Santos Cunha is a professor of constitutional and administrative law in Brazil and a PhD candidate in constitutional law at the Federal University of Pernambuco, Brazil.

Renato Costa is a lecturer in law and a fellow of the Centre for Public, International, and Comparative Law at the University of Queensland, Australia.

This blog post examines religious expression in Brazilian public institutions, a topic that has been debated since at least 1892, following the 1891 Constitution’s formal disestablishment of an official state religion in Brazil. While this matter has been discussed across various public fora over the years, it is ultimately the judiciary that adjudicates controversies pertaining to the inclusion of pluriform religious expressions in public institutions.

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