A Paradoxical Theology of Biology

Abstract

This article examines a sermon in which Desmond Tutu advocates for gay rights in light of his activism against apartheid in South Africa. In doing so it uncovers a paradoxical theology of biology that enables him to advocate universal notions of justice simultaneously with love for particular persons and bodies. This advocacy, however, is susceptible to the critiques of queer theorists and theologians who worry that liberationist frameworks unwittingly reinscribe injustices against a variety of queer persons. The article concludes by raising new questions to be asked about Desmond Tutu’s theology, and liberation theologies in general, about the potential of liberationist and prophetic frameworks for achieving social justice. It also raises questions for queer theology about the possibility and political efficacy of queering the act of preaching.     

The Evolution of Early Stuart Conformist Thought: The Liturgical Theology of John Donne

Abstract

An examination of John Donne's ambiguous understanding of prayer book worship and of the ideas he drew from both John Whitgift and Richard Hooker brings into relief a liturgical theology in the process of evolution. If Donne can be recognized as representative of conformists in the early Stuart church, the evolutionary nature of his theology allows for a less sharp and less dramatic portrait of the rise of ritualism in the 1620s and, perhaps, a different way of looking at the origins of Laudianism.     

Chinese exploration of Orthodox theology: a critical review

ABSTRACT

In spite of the small number of Orthodox Christians in China, Chinese publications relating to Orthodox Christianity, in which many Chinese theologians from other Christian denominations or scholars without formal religious affiliation have been involved in exploring Orthodox theology, have mushroomed in recent years. It is noticeable that these explorations have been shaped not only by the renaissance of Orthodox theology in the twentieth century, but also by the Chinese context. In terms of scope, many of them are related to the Chinese context, including the relationship between Christianity and Chinese culture. In terms of depth, due to the religious backgrounds of the researchers, some of these Chinese explorations fail to integrate the theological, liturgical and spiritual dimensions of the Orthodox tradition, and exhibit difficulties in interpreting, for instance, Orthodox mystical theology. These limitations can be overcome through dialogue with contemporary Orthodox theologians.     

Good Catholics: The Battle over Abortion in the Catholic Church

Abstract

Queer readings of the Bible are sometimes understood to be irrelevant for uses of the Bible in theology, theological education, and ministry. This address challenges that understanding by considering ways in which portions of the Bible take positions vis-à-vis religious tradition that parallel moves made in queer theory and queer theology. Using the task of preaching as an example, the address suggests that queer readings can be useful for the practice of Christian ministry even as such readings challenge certain ‘common-sense’ conceptions of ministry, theological education, and religious community.     

The ordo of care

What is the relationship between practices of care towards people living in marginalized life situations and liturgy? This article addresses this question by exploring the liturgical theology of Gordon Lathrop as the theoretical starting point for analysing a practice that would conventionally not be described as “liturgy”, but “ethical practice”. At the heart of the liturgical theology of Lathrop is the idea that the ordo of the Sunday service is organized by juxtapositions and broken symbols. In this article, Lathrop’s theology is brought into a hermeneutical dialogue with empirical material constructed from the Church of Our Lady, Trondheim, Norway, a Lutheran medieval church located in the middle of the city of Trondheim. Since 2008, the church has been run by the Church City Mission as an open church for all who need an open and hospitable sacred space in the city centre, especially people who live in marginalized life situations. The article demonstrates that when working inductively with an empirical material, Lathrop’s concepts are too narrow and hermeneutically closed. In order to be theoretically sensitive to the experiences of people who live in marginalized life situations and the ethical practices of care, liturgical theology has to reimage its understanding of space.     

John Colet,Preaching and Reform at St Paul's Cathedral, 1505-19

Abstract

As a Christian humanist, Colet attempted clerical reform partly by means of preaching. Evidence from Colet's ecclesiastical life as dean of St Paul's suggests that his success was limited by the inappropriate expression of his idealistic ecclesiology, which demanded perfection. Although Colet's passion for preaching was shared and admired by humanist colleagues, his sermons received negative reactions from his cathedral clergy, the Bishop of London and Henry VIII.

The intellectual basis for Colet's ecclesiology was a combination of Pauline theology and Dionysian spirituality, which created a vision of Church perfection by means of purification and illumination. However, Colet sought a spiritual and moral revival, not a fundamental change to the structure of the Catholic Church. Colet's humanist success was achieved mainly outside the ecclesiastical world.     

Queering “Straight” Preaching

Abstract

Well-meaning straight preachers may approach the issue of LGBTQ equality in the church from a standpoint of compassion, but queer theorists such as Lee Edelman have critiqued “compassion-compulsion” as a subconscious selfprojection, requiring that others become just like us. This article presses straight preachers to go further than simply preaching to include “others,” instead challenging such preachers to open themselves and their congregations to the risk of transformation. Drawing from the philosophical hermeneutics of Paul Ricoeur, this article suggests that preachers move towards others in a gesture of “recognition” that resembles gratitude, and by such a gesture to receive the risky gifts others have to offer. This gratitude for the gifts of others becomes a motive for engaging in queer theory and queer theology, but this motive also puts us at risk. The risk of preaching that seriously engages the gifts of others includes queering ourselves, allowing ourselves to be scandalized by the risk of transformation asked of us by the gospel we preach.     

A study of Islamic preaching in France

Since the beginning of the 1980s France has witnessed intensive preaching activity in Muslim quarters. It is impossible to understand the significance of this phenomenon of the reislamization and mobilization of the community without first paying attention to the function of liturgical preaching in Islam, i.e. the khutba. In France the selection of the preachers is determined not only by the rules of supply and demand but also by the dynamics of external spheres of influence. This focus on the spoken word is manifested in many different ways within the very heart of the Muslim community. All the same, the western context in which it evolves modifies it palpably. A process of inculturation can already be noticed.     

God-language in Public and Private Prayer: A Place for Integrating Gender,Sexuality and Faith

Abstract

Drawing on feminist liturgical critiques of prayer, Audre Lorde's notion of the erotic and Carter Heyward's relational theology, amongst other feminist, Womanist, Black and queer sources, this article proposes that prayer via gendered and erotic images of God and Christ may be a site for the integration of gender, sexuality and faith — not only in the life of the individual but in the wider body politic. The notion of integration is problematized alongside heteropatriarchal practices of prayer, and an eschatological understanding of prayer and identity offered. The article argues for prayer which engages with a multiplicity of embodied, erotic and queer images of God (and particularly Christ), as necessary to the complex work of personal and political integration with which prayer is charged as well as gesturing towards the fullness and mystery of God who both inhabits and transcends the limitations of metaphorical discourse about the divine.     

Theologia Prima—Liturgical Theology as an Ecumenical Challenge to Lutheran Worship Practice

Abstract : The doctrine of justification is of highest importance for Lutheran theology. But regarding their worship practice Lutheran churches seem to be less aware of this priority than Orthodox, Roman‐Catholic and Anglican churches. David Fagerberg, building on Alexander Schmemann, claims the worship service experience is theologia prima, God's action upon God's people. At the same time Andrea Grillo calls the human being an animal ceremoniale stating that liturgy always reminds us that God's action comes first. Can Lutherans building upon this ecumenical liturgical theology find in the worship service the ‘place of justification’?     

Becoming Human in the Face of God: Gregory of Nyssa's Unending Search for the Beatific Vision

This article seeks to effect a ressourcement of the theology of the beatific vision through reflection on Gregory of Nyssa's engagement with biblical passages that he believes speak of this vision. Through attention to Nyssen's sixth homily on the Beatitudes, commentary on The Life of Moses and Homilies on the Song of Songs, I argue that, for him, human persons find their telos when in union with Christ they become ever purer, in an ever‐increasing growth in the beatific vision. Gregory maintains that the perfection of human personhood consists of the soul always remaining in search of greater fulfilment of its desire to see God in Christ.     

Preaching Christ Crucified: Luther and the Revelation of God

Abstract :  The doctrine of revelation has to do with how we know God, but Luther warned against the human presumption that God can be known fully. God remains hidden and is revealed in Jesus and his death on the cross. The cross is at odds with all human notions of an omnipotent God. Preachers ought to be suspicious of human presumptions about God that inflate and puff up. The cross is the antidote for a theology and a preaching of glory as well as the criterion for theology and preaching that authentically proclaims God and the gospel of Jesus Christ.     

Rehabilitating Johann Adam Möhler's Sacramental Insights

The sacramental and liturgical propositions of the German theologian Johann Adam Möhler (1796–1838) have been neglected in theological inquiries thus far. This article attempts to rehabilitate them. Having established a particular perspective on the reading of Möhler's liturgical and sacramental insights, we present each dimension of them separately in order to arrive at a ‘dialectical’ sacramental model. This rereading is an intrinsic possibility stemming from Möhler's theological works themselves. In addition, it is also possible to rehabilitate these insights in interplay with some contemporary developments in liturgical and sacramental theology. In his symbolical understanding, Möhler anticipates the Realsymbol of Karl Rahner, and his understanding of the actual presence of the person and sacrifice of Christ in the Eucharist anticipates Odo Casel's Kultmysterium. Therefore, the rehabilitation of Möhler's sacramental insights exhibits its full meaning as the anticipation of a more accurate notion of Symbol.     

Luther in Context: With Illustrations

The author explores his work on the first volume of The Annotated Luther detailing Luther's commitment to humanism's “good letters” and his developing theology of preaching law and gospel, especially indicated by the Ninety‐five Theses and Freedom of a Christian.     

Tradition and Reason: Two Uses of Reason, Critical and Contemplative

Abstract: Reason, as it is proper to the task of theology, has two uses: critical and contemplative. This twofold appropriation of reason sets the stage for this article, a stage occupied in turn by Newman and by Aquinas. The critical function of theological work is expressed via the 1877 preface which Newman wrote for his Lectures on the Prophetic Office of the Church. The critical office of theology is vital not only to the practice of theology itself but to the liturgical and spiritual life of the church, and to the exercise of church leadership if that leadership is not to descend into tyranny. For the theologian, reason is not antithetical to contemplation; rather, contemplation includes a form of reasoning. Theology is ‘a schooling in the discipline of contemplating the self‐revealing God’, a discipline of ‘metaphysical ascesis’ which compels both intellectual conversion and moral practice. Such an ascesis was practised well by Aquinas, and Kerr reflects on the Summa Theologiae as ‘a training in a form of metaphysical reasoning’, being schooled in the knowledge of God which strips away our ‘idolatorous inclinations’.     

Renaissance Liturgical Reforms: Reflections on Intentions and Methods

Abstract

One of the hallmarks of the Renaissance was the concern with authenticity, and a concern with ad fontes texts. This is illustrated in the liturgical revisions which where planned for the Breviary, culminating in the edition prepared by Cardinal Quignon, and in the methods employed by Thomas Cranmer in his compilation of the Book of Common Prayer. This paper looks more closely at these attempts at Renaissance liturgical reform.     

Making Disciples: Pope Francis’ Paradigm for Mission

This article examines Chapter Three of Pope Francis’ apostolic exhortation, Evangelii Gaudium, specifically his explanation of the meaning of the mission of God to proclaim the gospel throughout the world of which the church is custodian. Chapter Three addresses the issue of evangelizing in the context of the contemporary world. In a subtle but clear way, it paints a contrast between previous approaches to evangelization with their shortcomings and the call for fresh ones, or a “new evangelization.” In the physical centre of the document, Chapter Three of Evangelii Gaudium ties together the discussion on the contemporary challenges facing mission in the first two chapters, and the practical needs of the undertaking in the last two. It emphasizes the necessity of comprehensive “inculturation” with reference to everything pertaining to evangelization. Finally, it offers guidelines about preaching an effective homily, an important dimension of ongoing catechesis and church transformation.     

What and How of North American Lutheran Preaching

Abstract : This article suggests that an emphasis on how to preach, evidenced in the New Homiletic, can assist preachers in struggling with questions of what to preach. The narrative model of “problem”→“solution”→“what now?” has potential homiletical ties to Law (2^nd use)→ Gospel→ Law (3^rd use) theology. Since preaching 3^rd use of the Law can lead to a kind of works righteousness for hearers of such sermons, strategies are offered for dealing with preaching challenge. Preachers can put challenge before their hearers as a noun rather than as a verb; they can preach challenge as identification or questioning rather than as something hearers must do of their own accord.     

The significance of English antinomianism for Anna Trapnel

Abstract

This article intends to show the significance of English antinomianism for the initial transition of Anna Trapnel (d.1660) to radical religion. Tormented by her lack of assurance of salvation and her fearfulness about rightly keeping the moral law, Trapnel was drawn to antinomianism through the preaching of John Simpson. His stress on ‘free grace’ was the only thing able to lift her from suicidal depression. Most studies on Trapnel tend to downplay or ignore entirely the significance of antinomian theology in her formative years. The study intends to fill the gap in research by analysing the theological underpinnings of antinomianism, outlining Trapnel's own religious struggle, and her eventual ‘freedom from bondage’ through Simpson's influence. Highlighting the significance of antinomian thought for Trapnel's early years, as well as its status as the catalyst for her initiation into radical religion, the article provides fresh background material from which to understand her later role as a famous visionary.     

Badiou,Keyser, and the Theo-mathematics of the Infinite

Abstract

This paper discusses Alain Badiou's dissolution of theology in light of his equation of ontology and mathematics and his separation of the infinite from the one. I argue, however, that Badiou leaves open a place for theology, and I exploit this for theology by drawing on the work of the American mathematician Cassius Jackson Keyser. Keyser suggests a more positive relationship between mathematics, ontology, and theology, and his claim that theology is the science of idealization allows us to begin to think about how one might go about doing philosophical theology after Badiou.