Redeeming Creation: Creatio ex nihilo and the Imago Dei in Augustine

Contemporary theology has sometimes been critical of the perceived abstract, speculative intellectualism in Augustine's anthropology, especially in his understanding of the imago Dei. Within the larger context of Augustine's claims on the soul, however, and, in particular, in the way he conceives the soul created from nothing according to the image of God, one finds an intimate binding of soteriological and moral concerns to his claims on the created origin of the soul. In this we see that Augustine's intellectualism does not remove the soul from time, history and the relations with God and the world forged therein, but underscores the soul's sensitivity to, and dependence on, its relations to God and the world.     

Spiritual Machines,Personal Bodies,and God: Theological Education and Theological Anthropology

Programs of theological education in Christian traditions are exploring “distanced learning” as one way to address certain challenges to their educational excellence. A major strand in a twenty‐year old discussion of the nature and purpose of theological education has urged that analysis of theological schooling's failures and assessment of proposed remedies ought to be framed explicitly in theological terms as part of an ongoing inquiry into what makes theological education properly theological. This essay tries to show how following that advice can make a practical difference in assessing the merits of distanced learning. It does so by raising questions about the theological‐anthropological assumptions, respectively, of theological education and of distanced learning.     

Reconsidering Relational Anthropology: A Critical Assessment of John Zizioulas's Theological Anthropology

Abstract:  There has been an increasing emphasis in theological anthropology on the constitution of the person through their relation to God, others, self and the world. In focusing on the relational dimensions of personhood other important facets have not received sufficient attention: the doctrine of sin, the discontinuity between divine and human persons and human embodiment in the world. This article offers a critical assessment of John Zizioulas's anthropology which can be considered a paradigmatic example of a relational anthropology. Although the concerns raised are in relation to Zizioulas's work, many of them are instructive for relational anthropologies more generally.     

Sex, Aggression, and Pain: Sociobiological Implicatios for Theological Anthropology

Theological anthropology can be enriched by paying attention to insights into human behavior taken from sociobiology. The capacity for reflective self-consciousness enables the human animal to respond to basic instincts and drives in unprecedented ways. Humans follow gender-specific sexual strategies, display aggressive behavior, and respond to physical pain as do other animals. Yet human beings have the intellectual ability to express these tendencies uniquely in either destructive or constructive ways. The human being, unlike any other animal, must reckon with sexual ethics, the problem of violence, and the meaning of suffering. In developing the basic concepts of theological anthropology—good creation, natural evil, fall, sin, and image of God—sociobiological research can lead to more adequate understanding of the human.     

Christ‐Centered Concreteness: The Christian Activism of Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Martin Luther King Jr.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Martin Luther King Jr. were both pastors and theologians who wrestled with the meaning of Christ‐centered faithfulness for their time. They were advocates of social justice and human rights who resisted the temptation towards a secularizing two‐realms split that makes Christianity a private life religion; they defied contemporary laws and cultural norms, and they faced opposition to their work from many of their fellow Christians. We may learn from their prophetic witness for Christian faithfulness in our contexts by paying attention to their respective interpretations of the way of Jesus.     

A New Theological Anthropology for Developing Resiliency and Healing from Combat*

Moral injury is a complex wound of the soul affecting many veterans returning from combat. This article will propose that a blended theological anthropology, which incorporates Irenaeus’s understanding of spiritual growth and Augustine’s focus on individual accountability and sin, will better foster healing and growth from morally traumatic experiences. In order to do so, I will introduce elements of the psychological paradigm of posttraumatic growth with a theological anthropology I develop in order to propose a mindset which I believe will increase resiliency to the morally challenging environment of combat.     

Creation,Theological Imagination and Questions about Discipleship

Science yields factual data about the unfolding nature of the universe that challenges us profoundly and with urgency. This data verifies we are living in a dynamic world within a dynamic universe that is still in the process of creation. This process is wrought with risk and is also defined by relationships that emerge from the most basic elements of life. These times require a new cosmology. Haught reminds us that the adventurous narrative of love and liberation at work beneath the surface available to science is the work space of theologians. The patterns of relationships in all life forms evoke the image of the Trinity as a communion of relations. Discovering a new way of seeing requires doing theology in new ways and Delio notes this means a search for the newness of God evident in the New Testament. Ultimately, new ways of seeing require examining discipleship. Contemplation through the ages permits us to grasp that this Trinity of Love is our God who dwells with us. Our insight into God continually unfolds in history through the continuity of the Paschal Mystery of Christ in his incarnation, death and resurrection. Profound suffering, disaster and tragedy mark the age in which we live. Yet God is not absent. The call to discipleship with the One who has realized God's presence among us in the Paschal Mystery is a realization of a humility that is far removed from power, control and domination. We discover a humble God in the place of the poor because this is how God has become incarnate among us.     

Creation and Construction: On the Theological Appropriation of Postmodern Theory

Postmodern theory can be appreciated by theological anthropology along the following lines: it interprets the cultural conditions that shape personal identity, including the elements of construction and contingency in identity-formation. It emphasizes the necessity for a multifaceted approach to the question about what it means to be human, and for avoiding closure. This is expressed in the doctrine of the human as created, as sinner and as restored—as none of these perspectives captures the whole picture. Postmodern theory also focuses on the importance of otherness for establishing identity, thereby offering a new way of interpreting human beings as created in the image of God.     

Toward Theological Anthropology: Tracing the Anthropological Principles of John Webster

John Webster rooted his doctrine of the human creature in a thick portrait of the living God in and of himself as well as in his works wherein he creates, sustains, redeems and perfects them unto life in him. This essay will seek to unfold, introduce and assess his methodological principles for pursuing a distinctly theological anthropology by attending to his engagement of external threats in postmodern anthropology and internal challenges from christocentric anthropologies. We will suggest ways in which his anthropological project suggests a way forward for those doing systematic work today in as much as it not only offers a confident approach on distinctly Christian terms but slowly ponders the fundamental facets of such a schema, tending to theology and creation prior to a focus upon incarnational Christology as a necessary means of engaging in ‘biblical reasoning’.     

Coram Mundo: A Lutheran Feminist Theological Anthropology of Hope1

Abstract : Human life coram mundo, in relationship to the world, is complex and challenging. Third wave feminist resources provide a lens for reading Martin Luther's ontology of the human person because the two share a commitment to seeing human life at the intersections. A Lutheran feminist theological anthropology of hope responds to unique anxieties produced by a more subversive patriarchy, bound to racism, classism, homophobia and multinational corporate structures in the twenty‐first century.     

Beyond the Biblical Impasse: Homosexuality Through the Lens of Theological Anthropology

Abstract: What does the Bible say about homosexuality? The argument developed in this article demonstrates that the five biblical texts often cited as “proof” that the Bible condemns homosexuality reflect a theological anthropology that is challenged within Scripture itself and that has been determined by the church to be contextual rather than binding in relation to other debated issues. By bringing the theological anthropology reflected in the five texts into conversation with contrasting biblical anthropologies, it becomes possible to re‐frame the contemporary conversation on homosexuality in terms of discerning which biblical theological anthropology will be considered authoritative for the church in the 21^st century.     

The Destiny of Creation: Theological Ethical Reflections on Laudato Si'

In this essay, I ask what the precise relation is between Laudato si's theology and its claims about our individual and corporate responsibility for the environment and the plight of the poor. To do so, I first clarify the relationship between the theological claims and its account of moral norms, situating the text within the history of western ethical theory. I then turn to reconstruct the submerged theology of the encyclical, focusing on Pope Francis's accounts of the techno‐economic paradigm and the possibility of an “integral ecology” paradigm. I end by assessing the text in terms of the coherence and plausibility of its argument as an ethical and theological statement.     

Theological Education: A Theological Framework for Renewed Mission and Models

Abstract : This essay explores renewed ways to reimagine theological education. Incarnation is used as a theological lens that engages anew “the transmission of Christian memory, the education for God's peace and justice, and the formation of church and community leadership.” Attention is given to apprenticeship, project‐based learning, distributed learning, and global learning, and concludes with implications for governance and faculty.     

Natures,Human Nature,Genes and Souls: Reclaiming Theological Anthropology Through Biological Structuralism

Abstract : Within the field of Theology and Science, discussions regarding the relationship between biology and theological anthropology have tended to focus on the themes of ‘human uniqueness’ and ‘human nature’. These ideas have continued among theologians and anthropologists despite the widespread agreement among neo‐Darwinian evolutionary biologists that such general or universal accounts of ‘natures’ in general, or ‘human nature’ in particular, have no proper place within the neo‐Darwinian evolutionary framework. In view of this neo‐Darwinian rejection of universal human nature and the subsequent undermining of theological anthropologies based on such, Biological Structuralism is proposed as an alternative theoretical framework through which to construct a theological anthropology in light of evolution. Within the Structuralist framework scientific resources are provided which facilitate fresh perspectives on ancient theological discussions regarding the nature of the soul and the place of nonhuman animals within theological anthropology.     

Incarnation and Semiotics: A Theological and Anthropological Hypothesis Part 2: Semiotics,Anthropology, and Religious Transformation

This is the second in a pair of articles in which we draw on C.S. Peirce's semiotics (theory of signs) to develop a new approach to the Christian concept of Incarnation. In Part 1 we used Peirce's taxonomy of signs to explore what it means to understand the life of Jesus as the embodiment of the quality of God within the fabric of the created order. In this article (Part 2), we explore some ways in which this semiotic approach to the Incarnation offers constructive opportunities in theological anthropology, and suggests some empirically testable hypotheses about human evolution.