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The Analogical Imagination: Christian Theology and The Culture of Pluralism
... Ekumenicky pojaté vzdělávání v teologii pracuje s požadavkem poskytnout studentům kompetence pro interpretaci a komunikaci klíčových otázek reflektovaných v teologii. V tomto ohledu chceme vytvářet jakousi "veřejnou teologii" 62 . Tento pohled kontrastuje s teologií, která je založena na privilegovaných jedinečných duchovních zkušenostech. ...
Autoři článku se zamýšlí nad povahou a významem studia teologie v institucích, v nichž jde vedle studia teologie jako takové také o obecný rozvoj člověka. Jejich téměř dvacetileté působení na Institutu ekumenických studií v Praze a na VOŠ Jabok a měnící se místo víry ve společnosti jim umožňuje postihnout i pragmatické aspekty zkoumaného studia, v nichž se protíná historická linie s teologickou reflexí a pastoračním hlediskem. Východiskem pro toto víceoborové zkoumání jim je filozofie výchovy Komenského a jeho pojetí teologie jako cesty rozvoje člověka skrze vzdělávání. Autoři zohledňují kontext doby, v němž se ve zmiňovaných institucích postupně utvářelo pojetí teologie, které v závěru označují jako ekumenicky zaměřenou cestu dialogu, jejímž cílem je přispět k rozvoji člověka v dnešní pluralitní společnosti.
... De esta manera, resulta claro que lo que Tracy piensa como postsecularización es la oposición tanto a la privatización de lo religioso como a la fusión entre la religión y el poder político. La alusión de Tracy a la exigencia de expresar «esta creencia teísta de manera que pueda hacerse pública y no solo para nosotros mismos o para un grupo religioso particular» no supone en ningún sentido que dicha expresión «pública» signifique «integrarse al poder estatal», debido a que esto entraría en colisión con la defensa del pluralismo que el teólogo norteamericano representa (al respecto, véase, entre otras obras, Tracy, 1975;1981b;1987;1990;Tracy & Cobb, 1983). Así, se abren tres posiciones importantes utilizando la oposición entre secularización y postsecularización: a la actividad político-partidaria, que se encuentra dirigida a buscar imponer los intereses de un sector sobre el resto de la sociedad. ...
Uno de los rasgos predominantes del llamado «proceso de secularización» fue la fractura entre el orden racional y el orden religioso, es decir, la desvalorización epistemológica y ética de la religión y su progresivo desalojo de la esfera pública, no solo de la política sino también de la esfera de las prácticas más comunes de la vida cultural. Existe en la actualidad, sin embargo, un amplio consenso en considerar que dicho proceso encierra muchos malentendidos y que debemos por ello repensar nuevamente sus orígenes, diferenciar mejor sus alcances y reexaminar sus pretensiones de verdad. Hace falta imaginar una forma de concebir las relaciones entre la razón y la religión que no produzca una indebida desautorización de las cosmovisiones religiosas ni, por extensión, de las cosmovisiones culturales en general. Es a esa nueva articulación conceptual hacia donde apunta el concepto de «postsecularización» y en ella se plantean, como es natural, nuevos escenarios del encuentro entre las culturas.
... The other, by acknowledging that acts have consequences, takes up its responsibility and realises the constant necessity to revise practices and interpretations since it is the concreteness of life that provokes theological reflection. Self-critique, as Tracy (1981) explains it, is at the core of some prophetic religions, such as Judaism and Christianism. This critical moment within religions may be considered a classic that may ever again be revisited. ...
Religious incidence in Brazilian public space is a widespread fact that has been gaining
new visibility in pandemic times. Responsibility in liminal situations represents specific theological hermeneutics, as well as what matters for the respective religious agents. Thus, based on a bibliographical review connected to an analysis of websites, this article aims to reflect on the current Brazilian context, the challenges to doing theology in Brazil today and points to some possible responses. “Pandemic religion”, as we call it, is the synthesis of theologies and religious practices that legitimise irresponsible approaches to life, vulnerabilising the other instead of assuming care-based ethics. Firstly, we briefly describe current theological trends, followed by an analysis of the Brazilian scenario by way of three representative scenes of public religious incidence that reflect a lack of
responsibility in view of the pandemic challenges caused by COVID-19. Subsequently, we look back into history for alternative responses to public health crises that required theological positioning. In a Brazilian perspective of a public theology, we finally reflect on a responsible ethics that may help respond to the current challenges, particularly for pandemic religion.
... Tracy therefore suggests that one must "feed" the imagination, especially through engaging with classics that seem to have the power to challenge received views ever anew in changing contexts. This is epitomised by the figure of Jesus the Christ (Tracy 1981). ...
... It is especially thanks to Hans Urs von Balthasar and his recent inheritors that recuperations and extensions of the medieval understanding of art as a resource for theology and prayerful contemplation are under way, opening up a series of important conversations within Roman Catholic theology and across other Christian denominations as well. It is also thanks to Balthasar's work, especially his magnum opus, The Glory of the Lord: Theological Aesthetics (1961)(1962)(1963)(1964)(1965)(1966)(1967), that the concept of 'the Catholic imagination' has increasingly surfaced in recent decades and features in theological aesthetics, philosophical theology and literary criticism in particular (Tracy 1981;Greeley 2000;Pfordresher 2008;Carpenter 2015). ...
This essay introduces and examines aspects of the theological aesthetics of contemporary Canadian artist, Michael D. O’Brien (1948–). It also considers how his philosophy of the arts informs understandings of the Catholic imagination. In so doing, it focuses on his view that prayer is the primary source of imaginative expression, allowing the artist to operate from a position of humble receptivity to the transcendent. O’Brien studies is a nascent field, owing much of its development in recent years to the pioneering work of Clemens Cavallin. Apart from Cavallin, few scholars have focused on O’Brien’s extensive collection of paintings (principally because the first catalogue of his art was only published in 2019). Instead, they have worked on his prodigious output of novels and essays. In prioritising O’Brien’s paintings, this study will assess the relationship between his theological reflections on the Catholic imagination and art practice. By focusing on the interface between theory and practice in O’Brien’s art, this article shows that conversations about the philosophy of the Catholic imagination benefit from attending to the inner standing points of contemporary artists who see in the arts a place where faith and praxis meet. In certain instances, I will include images of O’Brien’s devotional art to further illustrate his contemplative, Christ-centred approach to aesthetics. Overall, this study offers new directions in O’Brien studies and scholarship on the philosophy of the Catholic imagination.
... Tracy therefore suggests that one must "feed" the imagination, especially through engaging with classics that seem to have the power to challenge received views ever anew in changing contexts. This is epitomised by the figure of Jesus the Christ (Tracy 1981). ...
This contribution offers a review of David Tracy’s recent collection of essays entitled Fragments: The Existential Situation of Our Time (2020). This volume is quite an event since Tracy’s last monograph was published in 1994. This review gives an account of the continuity and discontinuity in Tracy’s oeuvre with reference to themes such as conversation, fragments, the Infinite, and an analogical imagination. It also mentions some other jewels found in Fragments by picking up on a conversation with Tracy that started with the author’s doctoral thesis on Tracy, completed in 1992.
... To move beyond the inclusion-exclusion dichotomy, this moment may be characterized as a theocentric (because it is not controllable by man) surplus (biblically known as the "rest"4) that decisively shapes the understanding of boundaries in the Bible. This motif plays an important role as early as the 2 The theologian who was one of the first to formulate decisive impulses on this debate is David Tracy; see his path-breaking book: The Analogical Imagination: Christian Theology and the Culture of Pluralism (Tracy 1981 account of Creation in the Bible:5 the seventh day is a divine surplus to the six-day week, one that does not add any genuine new substance, but instead radically opens up chronological time or Creation (expressed through and in the first six days) to God's future advent. In this way, the seventh day -lying neither within nor beyond the six days6 -becomes the messianic day, expressed in the Gospels by how Jesus heals on the Sabbath. ...
This article examines the significance of public space for the European project and reflects on the contribution of Christianity to the shaping of today’s public space. It is characterized by a common and shared symbolic, social, cultural, economic, political and geographical sphere that is potentially accessible and open to all people and welcomes creative participation. Today the specific task of Christianity consists not at least in the concretization of the idea of universal friendship in view of an ethos of empathy and inclusion which is perceptive of migrants and their narratives. The development of a amicable and non-hegemonic coexistence of Christianity, Islam and the secular world in Europe poses a particular challenge. In addition, it is necessary to make one’s own traditions and potentials fruitful in such a way that also the dead, who in the secular world are largely excluded, obtain a corresponding presence in the world of the living beyond nihilistic resignation. In this context it becomes apparent that the vocation of Christianity consists in providing an exit strategy to closed social and symbolic worlds. This exit includes the subversion of boundaries. It does not create an abstract boundlessness, but sets in motion a continuous process of creative openings and shifts in which public space becomes concrete as a place of ever new approaches, exits and inclusions.
... Analogical reasoning also allows ancient Confucian proverbs (C. C. Huang, 2007) or parables from the Old and New Testaments (Tracy, 1981) to retain their relevance and poignancy today (Lieber, 1984). ...
... It might be argued that this paradox is not a particularly Christian phenomenon and that similar tensions might be found within other religious traditions as well, but where "the problem" takes on its particular Christian shape is with the passing of the Christ-event (2007, 13). Drawing on the work of Paul Ricoeur (1998) andtheologians John Milbank (1997) and David Tracy (1981), Engelke argues that Christianity is marked by two notions of "absolute difference" which in theological tradition are discussed in terms of the "creation" and the "fall". While both events can be seen in terms of a fundamental separation between God and creation, the second difference has been understood in much Christian theology as being "closed" by the Christ event. ...
This Element is an overview of the Catholic conception of God and of philosophical problems regarding God that arose during its historical development. After summarizing key Catholic doctrines, the first section considers problems regarding God that arose because Catholicism originally drew on both Jewish and Greek conceptions of God. The second section turns to controversies regarding God as Trinitarian and incarnate, which arose in early church councils, with reference to how that conception developed during the Middle Ages. In the third section, the author considers problems regarding God's actions towards creatures, including creation, providence, predestination, and the nature of divine action in itself. Finally, the last section considers problems regarding how we relate to God. The Element focuses on tensions among different Catholic spiritualities, and on problems having to do with analogical language about God and human desire for God.
This essay explores the roots of the word sustainability with reference to a WCC conference held in Bucharest in 1974. It traces various subsequent shifts in the meaning of sustainability, both in secular and in ecumenical discourse. It raises the question whether it is indeed sustainability that is needed in a time like this – or perhaps resilience, or even conversion? More specifically (as per the title) it asks what it is that is worth sustaining, not only whether or how or for how long it can be sustained. This requires circumspection given budgetary constraints and ideological distortions. On this basis it offers some suggestions on what Christian theology can contribute to multi-disciplinary discourse on global sustainability.
Many studies of the prophetic books assume that a text's addressee and audience are one and the same. Sometimes this is the case, but some prophetic texts feature multiple addressees who cannot be collapsed into a single setting. In this book Andrew R. Davis examines examples of multiple addressees within the book of Amos and argues that they force us to expand our understanding of prophetic audiences. Drawing insight from studies of poetic address in other disciplines, Davis distinguishes between the addressee within the text and the actual audience outside the text. He combines in-depth poetic analysis with historical inquiry and shows the ways that the prophetic discourse of the book of Amos is triangulated among multiple audiences.
In this chapter, I address the theological discourse on migration and spirituality and mediate a correlation between narratives of African migrants to the U.S. (gathered in first-hand interviews) and the narrative of “The Dark Night” in the spirituality of John of the Cross. Based on the research of Constance FitzGerald, O.C.D, who claims that John’s writings continue to speak to contemporary experiences of impasse and liminality, I consider the experiences of African migrants to the U.S. as contemporary experiences of liminality and the spirituality of John of the Cross, and the poem and commentary of “The Dark Night” in particular, as a source from the theological-mystical tradition, which addresses experiences of liminality “as experiences of God” and of spiritual development. Furthermore, John of the Cross is an interesting interlocutor regarding migration experiences due to his historical context impacted by intercultural and interreligious encounters between Jews, Christians, and Muslims.
In this book Petr Jandejsek analyses the Christology of three contemporary
Jesuit theologians: Jacques Dupuis, Roger Haight and Jon Sobrino, describing
their approaches in terms of method as “Christology from below”. The epistemology
used in their Christologies proceeds from particular, human, historically-
grounded experience towards its revealing source. Given that each of
the three Christologies was subjected to a critique from the Congregation for
the Doctrine of the Faith, the book raises questions regarding the innovative
features of their Christologies as well as their limits. It argues that they can
complement the so-called “Christologies from above”, which proceed “from
God”, from the divine revelation that has been given to human beings, and
which require obedience. In this book “theology from above” is exemplified
by the thought of Joseph Ratzinger, the then Cardinal Prefect of the Congregation
for the Doctrine of the Faith.
The study builds on two presuppositions which illuminate the debate on
the three theologians. First, the debate is understood as part of a broader
discussion among theologians after the Second Vatican Council. The book
argues that the notifications may be viewed as an expression of one voice in
that discussion. Taking them as stop signs does no good to the flourishing of
theology. Second, the Christologies of Dupuis, Haight and Sobrine represent
specific types of mission theologies. They can be called “Christologies at the
frontiers”, the frontiers between Christianity and other religions (Dupuis),
traditional theology and modern historically aware thought (Haight) and the
poor and the rich (Sobrino).
The book identifies common sources of the Christologies in question.
These are found in Ignatian spirituality, the theology of Karl Rahner and experiences
gained in missionary work. The main emphasis is, however, placed
on a comprehensive introduction to the Christologies of the three Jesuits
themselves. Jacques Dupuis reflects on God´s mysterious plan to save all people, in which non-Christian religions play their role. Christ is the universal
mediator of that salvation, which is ultimately oriented to God. Christ-centeredness
is thus not in contradiction to God-centeredness. For Roger Haight
it is imperative that Christian theology remains in touch with contemporary
thought. Our understanding of divine revelation unfolds from a reflection on
the human situation which is, nowadays, characterized by a strong awareness
of historicity and plurality. To make sense of Jesus as a revealer of God Haight
turns to the category of symbol. Finally, Jon Sobrino underlines for Christian
thought and practice the urgency of taking seriously the reality of the world
of the poor and victims. If the will of God for the suffering world is its liberation,
e.g. humanization, as the mission of Jesus Christ clearly demonstrates,
then to follow Jesus in this sense paves way to the very mystery of God.
In conclusion, the book suggests that the “modest” Christologies of Dupuis,
Haight and Sobrino are legitimate interpretations, however limited, of the
pastoral theology of the Second Vatican Council. Since their Christologies “at
the frontiers” link well basic evangelical motifs with intellectual and pastoral
challenges of the time, they are ultimately considered to underpin broadly the
pastoral interests of Pope Francis.
My thesis is that the Canadian Renaissance specialist and media ecology theorist and Catholic convert Marshall McLuhan (1911-1980; Ph.D. in English, Cambridge University, 1943) is an analogist. McLuhan himself developed the thesis that the Victorian Jesuit poet and Catholic convert Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844-1889) is an analogist in his 1944 article “The Analogical Mirrors,” using Hopkins’ poem “The Windover” to discuss the analogical mirrors. Because I claim that McLuhan is an analogist, I explore that broader context of analogical thought in Western cultural history. In addition, I suggest that McLuhan himself might also be characterized as a practical mystic which is how he himself characterizes G. K. Chesterton (1874-1936) in his 1934 article “G. K. Chesterton: A Practical Mystic.”
Desde fines del siglo XX existe un innegable interés por el pragmatismo como tradición filosófica y por el desarrollo de filosofías que se describen a sí mismas como pragmatistas. Ejemplos de lo primero son las obras de Jürgen Habermas, Karl Otto Apel y Hans Joas, quienes utilizan fecundas concepciones de Charles Sanders Peirce, William James, George H. Mead y John Dewey para fundamentar o desarrollar sus teorías centrales. Ejemplo de lo segundo es la obra de Richard Rorty, quien se describe como neopragmatista. Pablo Quintanilla y Claudio Viale, editores, recogen además el pragmatismo que ha influido significativamente en muchos autores que no necesariamente se consideran pragmatistas, pero que reconocen una fundamental presencia de esta corriente en su obra, como Sidney Hook, W. V. O. Quine, Th omas S. Kuhn, Donald Davidson, Nicholas Rescher, Hilary Putnam, Joseph Margolis, Larry Laudan, Paul Kurtz, Mark Johnson, Susan Haak y Cornel West, entre otros. El pragmatismo repercute en todas las ramas de la filosofía contemporánea, así como en las ciencias sociales y naturales.
THE PLACE OF THEOLOGY IN CONTEMPORARY DISCOURSE
AND THE PUBLIC SQUARE: AN AFRICAN PERSPECTIVE
What is Christian Doctrine? This Companion guides students and scholars through the key issues in the contemporary practice of Christian theology. Including twenty-one essays, specially commissioned from an international team of leading theologians, the volume outlines the central features of Christian doctrinal claims and examines leading methods and theological movements. The first part of the book explores the ten most important topics in Christian doctrine, offering a nuanced historical analysis, as well as charting pathways for further development. In the second part, essays address the most significant movements that are reshaping approaches to multiple topics across disciplinary, as well as denominational and ecclesiastical, borders. Incorporating cutting-edge biblical and historical scholarship in theological argument, this Companion serves as an accessible and engaging introduction to the main themes of Christian doctrine. It will also guide theologians through a growing literature that is increasingly diverse and pluriform.
Gender-based and sexual violence is a public concern. In Indonesian society, three prominent entities (the state, the academy, and the religion) must provide their perspectives to overcome and prevent all forms of gender-based and sexual violence. On the one hand, the state exists via policies in the form of laws related to the prevention and solution to the problems of gender-based violence and sexual violence. As organizations and organisms, on the other hand, academia and religions contribute to the beliefs, concepts, and practices of gender and human sexuality. As a religious institution, the church’s action to prevent gender-based and sexual violence is also a form of self-criticism. The church may sanctify violence through gender-biased Bible reading or even commit gender-based violence and or sexual violence against its congregation members through its pastors. The church’s understanding of gender and sexual-based violence will allow the church to collaborate with the state to provide a sense of justice, security, and peace for all people, transcending the limitations of gender differences and sexuality. The church can offer theological concepts and practices that address and prevent gender-sexual-based violence both in church and in society in two ways: By reflecting on the experiences of victims of gender-based and sexual violence and by re-examining the root factors of violence in the history of the church and the church’s teaching on gender and sexuality, I propose that the church emphasize the diversity of God’s creation and the equal relations among humans beyond sexual and gender particularity by redefining the human body in Christian Theology that will serve as the foundation for resisting sexual violence and discrimination.
This article places the conceptual artist Gordon Matta-Clark in conversation with hermeneutical debates within the field of theological aesthetics. By exploring the transformative effect Matta-Clark’s Splitting evokes on spatially related categories, I argue that place is a locus of meaning, and that absence is a constitutive feature of that meaning. The hermeneutics at play in Matta-Clark have a set of formal features which is in accord with certain positions within theological aesthetics, namely: the particularities of place over the generalities of space, the constitutive role of both absence and presence for perception, and the formative power of these on human identity. A final section argues that while meaning is embedded in place, the imagination retains a vital place in the hermeneutical process through its “imaging” function in events of perception.
This Article Presents Abraham Kuyper’s Principles Of Sphere Sovereignty, Structural Pluralism, And Confessional Pluralism As Eective Means For Resisting The Pressure To Compromise—always A Danger For Public Theology. Public Theology, As Distinct From Political Theology, Concerns Civil Society. In This Sense, Kuyper’s Structural Pluralism Is An Important Element For The Connection Between Public Theology, Civil Society, And The Public Sphere. Kuyper’s Political Thought Is Therefore Viewed From The Perspective Of Public Theology. KEYWORDS: Public Sphere, Public Theology, Abraham Kuyper, Sphere Sovereignty, Civil Society, Structural Pluralism, Confessional Pluralism
The purpose of this chapter is to highlight the main arguments in the development of Islamic social work practice. In this respect, Islamic practical theology provides certain theories and methods as a solid foundation for Islamic social work practice. Taking into account a revival of new approaches to teaching Islamic practical theology, this paper provides reflection on the methods for teaching it, based on a new and broader understanding of theology in Islam. The primary question of this chapter is: What are the best practices in teaching Islamic practical theology which prepare Muslim social work students to connect theological understanding to the everyday experience of Muslims in the community, society and the world? The second question is: How do Muslim social workers use daily life practices as an “epistemic weight” in the production of new knowledge in Islamic social work? Finally, the chapter discusses the question of whether Islamic practical theology, including Islamic doctrine, tradition, and the “living human document”, holds a central position in Islamic social work.
For Jehovah’s Witnesses, evangelism is of prime importance. It forms the core of their identity and is shaped by an ethics of communication. Witness evangelism is a fundamentally pedagogical process through which one “learns the truth” by studying the Bible with a Witness. In this thesis I describe Witnesses’ evangelism in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan by exploring the way they conceptualize “preaching and teaching” as a process that “makes disciples,” from the moment of first contact with a person to their baptism. The process of making disciples and becoming a disciple is, ultimately, a process of becoming accountable to Jehovah God. I detail the responsibilities Witnesses understand themselves as having in evangelism, and the way they imagine preaching and teaching to be about getting others to take those responsibilities as well. The arc of this thesis explores these responsibilities by: laying out how Witnesses organize their preaching according to the “local needs” of a specific place; the problematics of understanding truth in the “initial call”; the roles of “Bible literature” in cultivating “interest” in “things as they really are” through “return visits”; and, the “theopolitics” of “theocratic education” as Witnesses’ students take on preaching themselves during Bible studies. This leads a person to become accountable through dedication and baptism, which I explore as the embodiment of accountability. I conclude by examining what happens to evangelism after Armageddon and what eschatology means for Witness evangelism in the here-and-now. To draw out how Witnesses conceptualize and methodologize the process of becoming accountable to Jehovah in the chapters of this thesis, I ethnographically disaggregate “accountability” and “responsibility” in Witness ethical life to show how they differ in their temporality, their institutionalization, and the way they relate to the human subject. This allows for an analysis that can make sense of how Witnesses’ take universal moral thinking and apply it to particular social contexts.
Die Religionspädagogik wird in zunehmendem Maße öffentlich. Damit reiht sie sich in den ›public turn‹ der Wissenschaften ein, wie er derzeit in der Soziologie, der Theologie oder den Erziehungswissenschaften zu beobachten ist. Bernhard Grümme zeigt: Was in den verheißungsvollen Aufbrüchen der öffentlichen Religionspädagogik unterbleibt, ist das Bedenken des Öffentlichkeitsbegriffs selbst. Es fehlt vor allem eine Kritik seiner Konstruktionsmechanismen, was dazu führt, dass die Religionspädagogik weder ihr kritisch-konstruktives Potenzial ausloten noch ihre eigenen Verwicklungen in hegemoniale Strukturen von Macht und Exklusion selbstkritisch reflektieren kann.
This article explores the relationships between spirituality, spiritual theology, and practical theology. It proposes a synthesis of these disciplines – practical spiritual theology – as a method and methodology for retrieving the wisdom of historical Christian mystics for the purposes of sustaining and inspiring the spiritual life of contemporary Christians. The 14th century English mystic, Walter Hilton, is used to illustrate this synthesis in practice.
For Christian teachers in secular State schools, who are committed to educating out of their distinctive ethos, there are few more contentious subjects than Science. Set against the unthinking acceptance of a classic secularisation narrative which frames religious dogma as endangering discovery—where objective scientific knowledge is seen to have vanquished subjective superstition—even the suggestion that there may be a transcendent perspective on material reality is met with hostility. What place, then, is there for Sacred Texts and the orienting stories of diverse communities to inform subject matter? If revelation and reason are positioned as polar opposites, is religion irrelevant to the study of science? This chapter considers the telos of the Australian Curriculum, and the purposes animating the content of year 7–10 Science therein. By recognising the predominately socially reconstructionist aims—that scientific knowing should facilitate students making sense of the world and working together for the common good—a path is opened for appropriate multi-disciplinary incorporation which advances received curricular goals and enriches the development of creative and critical thinking, akin to international developments such as the ‘Epistemic Insight Initiative’. Provided the plurality of students and cultures are fairly represented, and revelation is oriented toward immanent ends, Scriptures in Science can illuminate foundational cosmologies that awaken wonder and warrant investigation of the natural world; in so doing they add meaning to sensory data that shapes our ethical use of technology in complex situations. A brief defence against detractors is offered, establishing the legitimacy of referencing non-scientific revelation alongside otherwise materialistic reasoning. This exposes the non-neutrality and historical ignorance of secularist accounts of nature, calling for a more imaginative approach in State schools to science education which engages the many students for whom methodological atheism is exclusionary. Anything less borders on secularist indoctrination.
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Abstract Our Town resonates with the Social Gospel by beckoning the audience to consider the ethical implications of how we decide to use our ever-dwindling time. This undertheorized resonance with the Social Gospel, although subtle, in turn allows for a counter-reading of Tom F. Driver's theological critique that the play fails to offer constructive thoughts regarding social injustice and the problem of evil. This article illuminates more of Wilder's implicit Social Gospel qualities and outlines through key passages the significance of context for Wilder in time and history.
Interest in political theology has surged in recent years, and this accessible volume provides a focused overview of the field. Many are asking serious questions about religious faith in secular societies, the origin and function of democratic polities, worldwide economic challenges, the shift of Christianity's center of gravity to the global south, and anxieties related to bold and even violent assertions of theologically determined political ideas. In fourteen original essays, authors examine Christian political theology in order to clarify the contemporary discourse and some of its most important themes and issues. These include up-to-date, critical engagements with historical figures like Augustine, Thomas Aquinas, and Immanuel Kant; discussions of how the Bible functions theopolitically; and introductions to key movements such as liberation theology, Catholic social teaching, and radical orthodoxy. An invaluable resource for students and scholars in theology, the Companion will also be beneficial to those in history, philosophy, and politics.
Reeves condemns the recruitment of scientific methods by representative theologians to lend credibility to their theological claims. His treatment of Nancey Murphy's use of Lakatosian research programme methodology is focused on here, and his proposal that science and religion scholars might act as “historians of the present” to advance the field is explored. The “credibility strategy” is set in historical context with an exploration of some of the science and religion field's original commitments and goals, particularly in terms of the emphasis on rationalism and corresponding neglect of the imagination, and the value of more creative input in promoting better dialogue between science and religion is highlighted.
Background Marshall McLuhan claimed his work was a footnote to Harold A. Innis. His claims have been used to argue that McLuhan and Innis offer a coherent system of thought, with a systematic methodology and common set of basic assumptions and presuppositions. This article questions that species of argument and looks to deepen our understanding of the McLuhan-Innis relationship.
Analysis McLuhan is read as an analogist, and his footnotes (plural) are interpreted as deliberate violations of normative patterns of academic use in the satiric tradition of Thomas Nashe and the Scriblerus Club.
Conclusion and implications McLuhan is repositioned apropos of Innis, figures conventionally associated with the Toronto School of Communication Theory and historians who address themselves to the theme of orality and literacy. This article also invites a reconsideration of McLuhan in relation to the digital era, his contributions to epistemology and understanding media.
In this essay, I reflect on the hermeneutical predicament of all references to revelation. Any adequate treatment of revelation must attend to the necessary linguistic/symbolic mediation of religious experience in general and of transcendence in particular. Hence, in a first move, I reflect on different hermeneutical options and on the overall significance of hermeneutics for theological thinking. In a second move, I discuss the challenge of a hermeneutics of love capable to treat not only of difference but also of radical difference. In a third and final move, I offer some conclusions for Christian praxis and theology faced with the challenges of both globalisation and religious pluralism.
This chapter argues that gender equality ought to be a primary area of thought and activity for public theology, and, yet, there are very few public theologians engaging with issues of domestic violence, reproductive rights and sexual equality. ‘Public theology’ has been enjoying something of a revival in recent years, with new networks, centres and publications adopting the title; however, there is a substantial imbalance in gender representation amongst them. It seems that public theology still relies upon a notion of the public sphere, drawn from the work of Jürgen Habermas, that employs a concept of reason from which women have frequently been excluded. Consequently, the prevalence of male voices in the public theology canon does little to prioritise women’s voices or issues of concern. Moreover, in so far as public theology fails to acknowledge or critique the patriarchy on which it is based, it falls short of challenging misogyny in church and society. As is all too apparent from the populist presidential campaign of Donald Trump, white evangelical support remained high, despite his overt sexism, racism and lies. His female opponent, Hillary Clinton was clearly held to a higher standard, while Christian forgiveness was poured over each of Trump’s offensive remarks. Thus, partly on the basis of the Republican opposition to abortion, large numbers of white evangelicals, including women, were prepared to cast their vote in favour of a misogynist. While there are some dissenting voices, more churches and public theologians should be speaking out against misogyny in church and society; they should be supporting women, fighting with them for justice and equality. Hence, this chapter concludes that public theologians need to make a greater effort to hear women’s voices, by recognising that theology takes place outside as well as inside the academy; the current #ChurchToo movement is a prime example here and an opportunity for churches and theologians to respond.
Will the followers of other religions who have not heard of the gospel be saved? Since the Second Vatican Council, the Catholic church has been grappling with this question, culminating in a recent document, Dominus Iesus in 2000. In the post-DI climate, the British theologian, Gavin D’Costa, has been described as a “representative post-DI theologian of religions.” And with good reason, since other theologians such as Jacques Dupuis whose work along the lines of “neo-Rahnerianism” have been curtailed by DI.
D'Costa’s work has spanned the past three decades and is aimed at developing a theology that echoes developments within the Catholic church's efforts to grapple with the existence of other religions. In doing so, he has appropriated the doctrine of the Trinity by reasoning it provides the very resources for interacting with “Others” and developed a form of Trinitarian inclusivism. Based on the work of patristic theologians such as Lewis Ayres and Michel Barnes and their conception of a “Pro-Nicene” theological matrix, this book is an attempt to assess whether D’Costa’s utilization of trinitarian resources for contemporary concerns is faithful to the tradition. The book concludes that while there is much to commend in D’Costa’s system, there remain some features not fully consonant with classical Trinitarianism.
The essay explores how the imagination contributes to moral normativity. The purpose is not to argue that the imagination provides a particular mode of reasoning. It does not. Rather, the imagination can present riveting images based on practical experience that facilitate reasons to coalesce around a conclusion. This presents what can be seen as a common sense view of moral normativity. The experience of marriage or belief in God can be illustrative of reaching certitude even when demonstrative proof is not feasible. In this process, the imagination must always be accountable to reasoning. Also, the dynamic nature of experiential images can inspire action, contrasting with abstract modes of moral normativity that may appear detached from accompanying action. The analysis suggests that the abstract process of formal reasoning adopted in the classical principle of double effect can be enhanced by a role for the imagination. The role facilitates personal and practical reasoning to coalesce around insight and moral conclusions that can be explained further using the abstract process of double effect reasoning. This approach can foster doctrinal development in Catholic bioethics. The religious epistemology and theological method of John Henry Newman (1801–1890) are discussed to provide a theoretical explanation of this interaction between the imagination and reasoning as a distinctive contribution to moral normativity.
This article suggests that reading John Cameron Mitchell’s musical Hedwig and the Angry Inch as a religious classic undermines the logic of complementarity within Catholic theological anthropology, particularly the Theology of the Body of John Paul II. A religious classic, a term coined by theologian David Tracy, describes a work with an “excess of meaning” that offers hope and resistance against a normative social structure. Hedwig resists the hegemonic structure of sexual dimorphism, as represented by the logic of complementarity operative within the Theology of the Body. This theological anthropology proposes a normative framework for human beings as gendered and sexual agents who “complete” each other through heterosexual and monogamous marital acts, reinforcing heterosexist and transphobic bodily norms. The work of Judith Butler helps illuminate the embodied performance of gender that the musical so brilliantly subverts. Hedwig, while toying with gender norms, also undermines the idea of the logic of complementarity—namely, that each person has another “half” that will cause completion, bringing human flourishing. In the title character not finding a version of “completeness” by the end of the show, the musical, thus, offers hope for those who cannot fit into gendered bodily norms.
Can films and documentaries be used to give students a "feel" for a religion, even in on online course?
In a context of political conflict, the practice of vengeance, the paying back of harm in exchange for harm suffered, is obviously an ethical problem. The practice of forgiveness is equally though differently problematic when applied to political conflict despite the fact that it is a moral ideal. A third approach, the practice of moral accountability, is more ethically justifiable, yet it remains unclear what it is conceptually and what it would involve practically in a particular context. In this essay, the author develops a conceptual framework for moral accountability, grounded in a broader understanding of justice as responsibility to conflictual and unchosen relationships. Drawing on contemporary sources in Christian ethics, as well as insights from anti-racism community organizing, the author argues that practices of moral accountability restructure the pattern of these relationships, such that perpetrators and guilty bystanders are more likely to assume, rather than avoid, responsibility for causing structured racial harm.
In this article, I theorize the interpretation of harmful canonical texts with special reference to John Calvin's Institutes of the Christian Religion. As a result of the actions and rhetoric of some of its North American evangelical readers, the Institutes has come to function as an intellectual foundation for certain expressions of modern homophobia. In conversation with Jacques Derrida on inheritance and Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick on reparativity, I thus consider how queer evangelicals (especially those who wish to continue identifying themselves as such) ought to engage both Calvin’s text, particularly, as well as, more generally, those other canonical texts that are sources of trauma. In so doing, I proffer a capacious view of interpretation as not only what one says but also how one lives.
Exemplars have the power to help people navigate various levels of moral struggle, from the relatively straightforward problem of lacking motivation to the much deeper problem of failing to see the moral realities that surround us. But there are also serious moral risks in the appeal to exemplars: we romanticize them, we make use of them in authoritarian ways, and we tend to forget how our choice of exemplars is conditioned by oppressive cultural formations. I argue that we need to develop a social model of exemplarity, attuned to social contexts of our exemplars themselves as well as the social processes of constructing and appealing to exemplars. More particularly, I argue that we need to develop space for thinking about exemplary groups, not just exemplary individuals, in order to develop the strengths and avoid the weaknesses in exemplarist moral theories.
When discussing commentaries friends have repeatedly suggested to me that the commentary genre is at present not the most creative format within which to work. This may or may not be true, but the enterprise certainly provides for some strange experiences. It has been my experience that things go smoothly as long as one does not ask too many questions. The present paper, however, is the preliminary outcome of asking too many questions about how to arrive at an ‘outline’ of the letter to the Galatians. Nearly all commentaries and Introductions to the New Testament contain such an outline, table of contents, or paraphrase of the argument. However, despite an extensive search, I have not been able to find any consideration given to possible criteria and methods for determining such an outline.
1st paperback ed, Repr
Tevens proefschrift Helsinki. Met lit.opg.
Shaliah and Apostle The Romans Debate
- References Barrett
REFERENCES BARRETT, C. K. 1979 " Shaliah and Apostle. " In E. Bammel, C. K. Barrett, and W. D. Davies (eds.), Donum Gentilicium (Festschrift for David Daube), 82-102. Oxford University Press. DONFRIED, KARL P. (ED.) 1977 The Romans Debate. Augsburg. KENNEDY, GEORGE A.
Rev. ed. with a new Preface by the author
- Rabbinic Judaism
- Perrin
“Paul and Jewish Christianity According to Cardinal Danielou: A Suggestion.”
- Davies W. D.
“The Doctrine of Literary Forms.”
- Hack
Letters from a Modernist
- Mary Jo Weaver
“Horace's First Book of Epistles as Letters.”
- Allen W.
“The Meanings of Modernism.”
- Loome Thomas Michael
Forthcoming “Some Recent Pauline Chronologies.”
- Wedderburn A. J. M.
Plutarch's Ethical Writings and Early Christian Literature
- Hans Betz
- Dieter
- Betz Hans Dieter