Contextuality in the Theology of Douglas John Hall

The theology of Douglas John Hall has much to offer us in a time of wanton warfare and social injustices. Hall contends that the modern paradigm, supported by an "eternal, universal theology of glory" proves inadequate for addressing the problems of the world in which we live, and offers us a "contextual theology of the cross." This theology, unlike theologies of glory, is not afraid to "walk" into the darkness; in fact, Hall contends that is the only place where the light of God is revealed.     

"Wholly Aflame": Erotic Asceticism in the Work of Sara Maitland

Abstract

The writing of the Christian feminist novelist Sara Maitland has explored the interplay of eroticism, masochism and asceticism in women's spirituality. Maitland's 1984 novel Virgin Territory and 1987 essay "Passionate Prayer: Masochistic Images in Women's Experience" condemns how, in patriarchal Christianity, a model of romantic relationship with God, when compounded by the symbolism of women's sinfulness, results in spiritual masochism for women. In her later work, Maitland's writing takes a more ambivalent attitude, wanting to preserve the "otherness" of historical women mystics and martyrs, also admiring the "purity" of the extremity of their devotion. This reflects Maitland's advocating of an excessive and "unsafe" spirituality, given representation in her fiction and in her pursuit of a solitary lifestyle, as explained in 2008's A Book of Silence.     

Constructive Theology,the Cross of Christ,and the Praxis of Liberation

The article relates Paul Hinlicky's project of critical dogmatics to the constructive work of two Reformed theologians, Jürgen Moltmann's The Crucified God (1972) and Mark Lewis Taylor's The Executed God (2001/2015). After highlighting central tenets of Hinlicky's paradigm I discuss and compare the monographs by Moltmann and Taylor, weighing their similarities and differences. I conclude by pointing out the shared interest of critical dogmatics and constructive theology.     

Does a Real Albert Nolan Need Don Cupitt? A Response to Ronald Nicolson

In this paper, in response to Nicolson's claim that South African liberation theology is non-realist – or at least is non-realist in its language – I suggest that Albert Nolan's important book God in South Africa is not based on such an "exotic" philosophical basis but is a reflection using the populist Marxism of the anti-apartheid struggle of the 1980s. The clue here is Nolan's use of the Colonialism of a Special Type thesis, an integral part of ANC and Communist Party discourse since the 1960s. Nolan himself has described his work as "historical materialist" in its philosophical language. Such a position seems far removed from non-realism, although they certainly sound similar in Nolan's God-language.
I then examine non-realist theologian Don Cupitt's model of "militant religious humanism" (from his Life-Lines ) and conclude that a non-realist liberation or political theology along these lines suffers too much from a sense of relativism or absurdity for it to be of use to those who use liberation theology. From this I try to suggest how a non-realist liberation theology might be developed. In the end, however, I conclude that though such a theology could be constructed, it would probably not be effective: liberation theology requires a real God who really sides with the poor.     

Reviews

Books reviewed:
Explaining Consciousness—The "Hard Problem" by Michael L. Spezio.
Science and Theology: The New Consonance by James E. Huchingson.
Super, Natural Christians: How We Should Love Nature by Vaughan Mcternan.     

Pentecostals: The Power of the Powerless

Many researchers interpret Pentecostalism in terms of external factors such as European and North American history or economics. In this article Pentecostalism is examined from below, through qualitative interviews with women living in poverty in Santiago, Chile. The analysis shows how Pentecostalism led to a new theology where the believer became the subject of her own life. Social ascent was made through ecstatic experiences of the spirit in a caring community which directed the individual towards "a female ethos." This subjective change affected social changes in Chile under dictatorship but not in state politics because parts of the Pentecostal hierarchy collaborated with Pinochet.     

Born from lament: The theology and politics of hope in Africa. Emmanuel Katongole. Grand Rapids,MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing, 2017. 294 pp.

It is acknowledged and well documented that Christianity is rapidly changing from being the religion of Europe and North America to a religion of South America, Africa, and Asia. Of the three regions, Africa is experiencing the fastest Christian growth. This paper examines one of the many Christian denominations and movements that are participating in that growth in Africa, namely Lutheranism. Reasons behind the steady expansion, challenges faced, and the implications of the rise of Lutheranism in Africa will be highlighted.     

Living the eighth day online: liturgies,sacramental life,and building human relationships

ABSTRACT

Online human relationships can exacerbate some of the worst of our tendencies toward each other, including deception, selfishness, apathy and disembodiment, and sexual harassment. Yet Christians can also bring their prayer practices online, as ways of bringing God’s new creation (known in Christian tradition as the Eighth Day) to the forefront. Through examination of three distinctive online prayer practices, combined with discussion of liturgical and sacramental theologies, this article shows that prayer online also holds out possibilities of reconciliation and justice as potential responses to negative human relationship tendencies.     

Holocaust Survival Stories: Change Over Time

Those Holocaust survivors who have found it impossible to discuss their experiences often face a bleak old age (Krystal, 1990). Some of those who have reached an audience, however, have been changed by the experience of writing. This paper analyzes the differences between those writers whose stories remain static, like Jerzy Kosinski, and others like Elie Wiesel, Gerda Weissmann Klein, and Aharon Appelfeld, whose accounts have become more complex as they aged.     

Science and Religion: Ten Models of War,Truce, and Partnership

Public discourse today continues to propagate the simplistic idea that science and religion are engaged in a hopelessly unwinnable war. This is misleading. Science and religion interact at so many different junctures and in so many different ways that any simple generalization misguides us. This essay provides an updated inventory of ten popular conceptual models for relating science and theology, when theology is understood as rational reflection on religion. Four influential models assume that a war is taking place: (1) scientism; (2) scientific imperialism; (3) theological authoritarianism; and (4) the evolution controversy. Six additional preferred models assume a truce or even more, a partnership: (5) the Two Books; (6) the Two Languages; (7) ethical alliance; (8) dialogue accompanied by creative mutual interaction; (9) naturalism; and (10) theology of nature. Special attention will be given to creative mutual interaction within a framework of a theology of nature.     

SOCIOBIOLOGY, GOD, AND UNDERSTANDING

Abstract. This article presents the rationale of a new approach to the debate between sociobiology and religion. In it, I outline a sociobiology that may generate alternative and competing hypotheses about the existence of gods as beings (theisms) and the nature of their participation in the universe. I examine the central theoretical issues of this sociobiology and discuss the strengths and weaknesses of a sociobiological approach to theological issues, including problems pertinent to nontheistic theologies. A concluding case is made for an enriched and revitalized agenda in the dialogue between sociobiology and religion. While consistent with current research on gene-culture coevolution, the article's treatment expands on earlier work to begin incorporating theoretical terms that carry a more direct theological impact.     

BARROW AND TIPLER'S ANTHROPIC COSMOLOGICAL PRINCIPLE

Abstract. John D. Barrow and Frank J. Tipler's recently published Anthropic Cosmological Principle is an encyclopedic defense of melioristic evolutionary cosmology. They review the history of the idea from ancient times to the present, and defend both a "weak" version, and two "strong" versions of the anthropic principle. I argue the weak version of the anthropic principle is true and important, but that neither of the two strong versions are well grounded in fact. Their "final" anthropic principle is a revision of Teilhard de Chardin's evolutionary cosmology. They rectify Teilhard's factual errors but commit even more serious psychological and religious errors of their own.     

Volunteering,social ministry and ethical-behavioural attitudes in post-Soviet Russian Orthodox Christianity

This article explores the principles of volunteer mobilisation in social ministry and diaconal practices in contemporary Russian Orthodoxy. I focus on the main types of faith-based volunteer associations, assistance organisations and official Orthodox centres of social ministry that recruit volunteers. While analysing the mechanisms of attracting volunteers and the types of motivations, I identified two main models of organising communities and social groups: an authoritarian-mystical model and a socially open one. Ethical-behavioural preferences and attitudes determine the motivation of volunteers, as do gender, confessional and ideological-political factors. The analysis is based on both empirical data obtained through interviews with parish priests, organisers of church-based assistance organisations and volunteer associations, and homiletic theological and moral-didactic literature produced within Russian Orthodox Church circles and in official Church documents. I also consider the motivation of volunteers and their ethical-behavioural attitudes in the Russian Orthodox theological context. The article also analyses theological approaches in Russian Orthodoxy, inspired by modern developments in psychology, including self-determination theory and psychological autonomy, as well as ‘humanitarian-anthropological theology’.     

First face hatred

The book of Joshua is the most violent book in the Bible. And it is different from all of the other books in that it has no poetry in it. And that is the lesson do not make poetry out of violence, out of bloodshed Elie Wiesel, The Anatomy of Hatred     

Mourning,Melancholy, and Humor: Psychotheology in Freud and Söderblom1

This article aims at exploring the means for and hope of overcoming trauma, that is, violent emotional shock, through the use of humor and theology in conjunction. Both humor and the experience of the hope of some kind of redemption are ways of transcending the given. But is such overcoming possible without illusion or escapism? These issues are explored through the psychotheological perspectives on humor in the psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud and the Swedish archbishop and theologian Nathan Söderblom.     

Fewell,Dana Nolan,and Gunn,David M., Gender,Power, and Promise: The Subject of the Bible's First Story

Abstract

This brief review article traces the intertwined themes of seduction and theology in philosopher Karmen MacKendrick’s work.     

Religion/Technology, Not Theology/Science, as the Defining Dichotomy

Science and religion are incommensurable: one cannot use centimeters to measure volume. Science's proper cognate is theology. Science and theology are human activities that are basically conceptual (partly fallible) frameworks for explaining experience. Religion and technology, by contrast, involve and control or limit human practice and experience : they involve "sensate" reality—people and things. The study of the interaction of these four terms (or any two) must use the terms more precisely.
Science as practiced today has become scientism , another theology. Technology is, without any doubt, the world's most powerful and fastest growing religion.
Minor squabbles among theologies, including science, must continue, but it is the tensions between technology and the established religions that will define this century. Battles on three fronts are already clear: the environment, globalization, and economic gaps. But whole–person healing, the replacement for high–tech reductionist modern medicine, is the most significant, because it will undermine science, which has hitched its wagon to this falling star.
The end of fundamental science is upon us, because it has been so successful. Science will be increasingly applications–driven, and it will be judged by results. Here, it has met its nemesis in wholeperson healing that incorporates integrative medicine. Scientists must now reconsider their role in society. It will not be easy to accept a humbler position. Moreover, the vague allusions to spirituality by scientists need a more authentic commitment to praxis in lifestyle.     

The Holy Spirit,Eco‐Justice,and an African Lutheran Response to Ecological Peril

In response to the environmental degradation that is taking place right now in much of Africa—and in light of a traditional African emphasis on interdependence—this article seeks to provide an African Lutheran “eco‐pneumatological” contribution to the ongoing conversation about eco‐justice. To do so, it draws on classic Lutheran understandings of creation and grace, even as it calls for a more expanded—and more deeply biblical—understanding of the Holy Spirit's presence and activity throughout all of creation.     

“Higher Powers and Infernal Regions”: Models of Mind in Freud's Interpretation of Dreams and Contemporary Psychoanalysis,and Their Implications for Pastoral Theology

Freud's topographical model of conscious and unconscious had a powerful early influence on pastoral psychology. The hegemony of this so-called depth-oriented repression model is being challenged on a number of fronts. The increasing recognition of the mutability of memory, and the politicization of repressed memory has called the idea of the repression barrier under scrutiny. Psychoanalytic thinkers and neurobiologists are separately rejecting the concept of repression in favor of dissociative processes and multiple mental states. Postmodernists question the notion of unitary self. This article explores the importance of these critiques for theological anthropology, and suggests their implications toward a new, more multiple and mutable imago Dei. The article concludes with implications of the new models of mind, emphasizing dissociation and multiplicity, toward a constructivist, intersubjective view of meaning-making in pastoral praxis.     

When the Common Good Takes the Grand(est) Stage The Cosmic Common Good: Religious Grounds for Ecological Ethics,Daniel P. Scheid,Oxford University Press, 2016 (ISBN 978‐0‐19‐935943‐1), xvi + 248 pp., hb £19.99

Rooting itself in Catholic social teaching rather than theology of creation, this book develops a novel approach to Catholic ecological ethics. It argues that the traditional conception of the social common good should be fully broadened to encompass all creation, including abiota. Furthermore, the book suggests a comparative‐theological approach to ecological ethics through careful conversations with Buddhist, Hindu, and American Lakota conceptions and practices. While its vision of the cosmic common good at times appears too inclusive and perhaps ‘too good to be true’, this book is a valuable contribution to Christian ecological ethics and includes a fresh comparative‐theological take on ecological questions.