This current issue of Theologica Xaveriana for the second semester 2010 presents seven core articles: three of them were written by professors who belong to our Faculty staff, and the other four were submitted by external researchers, from Peru, Colombia, Spain, and Portugal. In the Documents section, we present Gustavo Baena S.J.'s article on exile and forced displacement, and, as it is our tradition for the second and last issue every year, it is presented the index of authors and topics, where all the articles published during the year are classified.

The characteristic feature of these writings is, undoubtedly, its tight relationship with finished or on-going research processes that evidence the dynamics of the theological work being carried out in our School of Theology and beyond its institutional borders, in the country and abroad, portrayed by the increasingly complex questions posted by culture and society to the faith and the theological reflection.

Eduardo Arens K., PhD., member of the Studiorum Novi Testamenti Societas and the Catholic Biblical Association, and lecturer in the Instituto Superior de Estudios Teológicos, ISET, in Lima, in his article "Job, or theology from human dignitiy", offers a re-interpretation of Job's rebelliousness, not as mere result of him losing his material possessions and experiencing a painful disease, but from being stripped of his honor, based on a false idea of God suggested by his friends, who claim Job has been punished for being a sinner. The author wants to highlight the importance of the presence of the anthropological and sociocultural matrices in all exegetical studies, which can easily point to us transgressions to the human rights made in the name of God.

Alberto Echeverri, PhD., professor from the Universidad de San Buenaventura in Bogotá, in his article "To support or to question religious freedom from education? Contributions to the debate regarding a pluralist religious education", proposes the necessity for examining the objective of education in general and particularly of religious education in the context of an increasingly more pluralist society and the Colombian law, in order to propose an education with a Christian identity, but from, in, and for religious freedom.

Daniel Garavito Villareal, one of our Faculty professors, in his article "Faith-Reason in the post-secular society. Echoes from the Habermas, Ratzinger, and Metz debate", talks about the necessity that believer and nonbeliever citizens have for translating their all-inclusive worldviews into the scope of the public sphere, allowing laypeople to understand the meaning reserves of religious traditions, and thus be apprehended by all kinds of people: believers, agnostic, and atheist. In order to achieve that, it is necessary to appreciate the contribution made by anamnestic reason to the reciprocal learning of reason and faith, relating communicative reason and memoria passionis.

Miren Junkal Guevara Llaguno, PhD., from the Universidad de Granada, in his article "The use of the Pentateuch in Irenaeus of Lyon's Epideixis", based on this brief and almost unknown work from Irenaeus (Epideixis: Demostration of the Apostolic Preaching) and following the procedures of the apostles when announcing the mystery of Christ, identifies the kind of use Irenaeus made of the Pentateuch in this work and the contribution he made to the teaching of the holy fathers.

Jesús León Castañeda, PhD., professor in our Faculty, in his article "Interaction between Theology and Communicative Action", comments how Theology must incorporate some basic principles from the social theory of the communicative action, in order to interpret and understand the transition from the philosophy of conscience to the pragmatic theory of language, the later allowing the theologian to reflect upon such reciprocity and, in particular, about the influence of theology in the communicative action theory, and to deduce the forms of interaction and inter-subjectivity.

Rosana E. Navarro, also professor in our School, in her article "Approaches to the theological work from the mystical experience", discusses the renewed interest of theology in recovering its original source and proposes theology as the result of a contemplative experience, overshadowed by the strength of a theological elaboration more inspired by Western reason. Based on three authors and their understanding of the mystical experience, she proposes some reflections and questions regarding the possibilities of this kind of experience as approaches to the theological knowledge.

For last, José Henrique Silveira de Brito and Ramiro Delio Borges de Meneses, PhD., professors from the Universidad Católica Portuguesa, UCP, in their article "For the Good Samaritan parable: A global ethics", from the consensus of a global ethics, intend to find the reasons for such an ethics following the Good Samaritan parable. Acknowledging the contributions made by philosophers as Levinas and Cortina, it is possible to recognize new conceptualizations by means of a phenomenological reading of the parable, represented by the characters portrayed there, whether real of fictitious, because neotestamentary axiology normally proposes eschatological life features based on features and experiences from everyday life.

In the Documents section, Gustavo Baena B., PhD., professor of our School, offers a reflection called "Exile and forced displacement. A challenge to hope". Based on the biblical experience of the exodus and the re-interpretation, understanding, and updating made possible by the Babylonian exile, an all-new theology will sprout, assumed and reinterpreted by the New Testament as hope of salvation.

With these research and theological reflection works, we want to contribute to the understanding and in-depth study of our readers, regarding prime concern subjects to Theology and its influence in teaching, research, formation, and pastoral praxis.

José Alfredo Noratto Gutiérrez, PhD.
Editor