The Cry of the Forgotten Stones

Based on extensive archival work, this essay assesses the contribution of a Palestinian liberation theology (PLT) to a comprehensive view of peacebuilding that involves not only liberation from oppressive occupation but also a holistic vision and strategy for attaining just societal structures. Emerging out of the victim's viewpoint, a PLT is consistent with a multiperspectival approach to justice. It articulates a call for a holistic transformation of the interrelations between Jews and Palestinians, envisioning a just peace that must entail a re‐framing of geopolitical structures as well as ideological discourses that vindicate systemic and symbolic violence against the Palestinians. However, the author shows that a PLT is asymmetrical: while it challenges the theopolitical affinities between Christian and Jewish Zionists and the structural injustices and social mechanisms they endorse, it refrains from contesting the symbolic boundaries of a Palestinian national identity. This bears important implications for the broader debate concerning the role of religion in peacebuilding. The author argues that the limits of a PLT as a peacebuilding framework relate to its conceptual reliance on an unreconstructed secularist interpretation of a future Palestinian state and on its elective affinity with a supersessionist and theological orientation that, by definition, hermeneutically de‐Zionizes the Bible and its interpretations.     

The God Beyond

This article is an attempt to describe the structure of imaging God at the adult level At the adult level of religious development, this structure has three interrelated pieces: first, there is an adult self;second, there is unfettered imaging; and third, there is the God the adult self is able to relate to in unfettered imaging, and this is the God Beyond. The article concludes with a brief look at how the adult self hears and speaks about the God Beyond.The author acknowledges with gratitude the invaluable help in writing this article of Neil J. McGettigan, Religious Studies Department, Villanova University, Villanova, PA.     

The Superego God

This article is an attempt to describe the structure of imaging God at the superego level At the superego level of religious development, this structure has three interrelated pieces: first, there is an adolescing self; second, there is fettered imaging; and third, there is the God the adolescing self is able to relate to in fettered imaging, and this is the Superego God. The article concludes with a brief look at how the adolescing self hears and speaks about the Superego God.The author acknowledges with gratitude the invaluable help in writing this article of Neil J. McGettigan, Religious Studies Department, Villanova University, Villanova, PA.     

The Authority of Scripture and the Triune God

Consideration of what is meant by authority is a vital task for theology, and especially for those involved in theologically engaging with Scripture. After some general reflections on the nature of authority this article turns specifically to examine biblical authority. The challenges facing those who would offer an account of biblical authority are presented. The generating question for the positive proposals advanced in this essay is: what difference does the doctrine of the Trinity make to the account we render of biblical authority? The action of the triune God is the appropriate context for locating Scripture's salvific ministry. Moreover, Scripture is space that God gives us without violating our creatureliness. Scripture is both part of the created order and a participant within God's saving history. The doctrine of the Trinity invites us to articulate an account of biblical authority that is historical and timeful.     

The Hidden and Triune God

Luther rightly perceived that God is hidden in his presence. The challenge systematically is to integrate discourse about God's hiddenness with a serious trinitarianism. The attempts by Gregory Palamas and Karl Barth to do just this are judged inadequate. A constructive proposal begins by recognizing that God's hiddenness is an impenetrability of his moral agency in his history with us as Father, Son and Holy Spirit, rather than a correlate of God's ontological uniqueness or our creaturely epistemic limitations. God's hiddenness must be thought of in terms of the sheer factuality of God the Father, which limits theodicy; the suffering of the Son, and thus the rejection of idolatry; and the freedom of the Spirit.