The Shadow of Tower of Babel on Synodal Authority

Authors

  • Paul Thelakat

Keywords:

Communion, Dialogue, Monologism, Heteroglossia, Synodality, Trinity

Abstract

Synodality is a mode of being the church, interpreted in eight hermeneutical circles. The authority could be compared to writing a novel from dialogic orientation of a word among other words creating new and significant artistic potential in discourse. Every concrete utterance of a speaking subject is, accordingly, the locus in which centrifugal as well as centripetal forces confront each other. The processes of centralisation and decentralisation, of unification and disunification, intersect in the utterance. Every utterance is an active participant in such speech diversity. The freedom of people of God involve “much debate” but also much attention, which is prayer. The leader has to become an exiled author with the power of persuasion in the mystical body becoming a confessing church with the word of God becoming event of communion. The power of a Synod is the power of the holy language, which is dialogue.

Author Biography

Paul Thelakat

Fr Paul Thelakat is a Catholic priest of the Syro-Malabar rite and former spokesman of its synod of bishops. He is editor of Light of Truth, a church-run biweekly in Kochi, India. He has STD and MA in Philosophy from Leuven University in Belgium. He was chief editor of Sathyadeepam, a popular Catholic Weekly from Kerala, India. He writes and teaches on theology, philosophy and literature.

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Published

2020-03-31

How to Cite

Thelakat, P. (2020). The Shadow of Tower of Babel on Synodal Authority. Asian Horizons, 14(1), 59–80. Retrieved from https://dvkjournals.in/index.php/ah/article/view/2864