Uppsala 1968 – The Swedish Context

The 4th Assembly of the World Council of Churches (WCC) in Uppsala, Sweden, in 1968 was an event of global significance, drawing participants from around the world under the theme “Behold, I make all things new.” At the same time, it was an event taking place in Sweden – a country that by the 1960s had become a model of “responsible society,” with strong economic growth, an all‐encompassing welfare state, and an ambitious policy for international development that was channelling material aid to Southern Africa. For the Church of Sweden, the assembly marked a continuity with the 1925 World Conference on Life and Work convened in Stockholm by Swedish Archbishop Nathan Söderblom. In turn, the Swedish churches themselves were influenced by the Uppsala assembly, especially in the renewal of liturgy and worship. This article explores the Swedish dimension of the Uppsala assembly through examining the legacy of the Stockholm conference of 1925, the societal and political context in Sweden of the 1960s, the participation of youth, and the impact of the assembly on Swedish church life.     

The Ecumenical Movement and 1968

The year 1968 is remembered as a turning point in ecumenical history: the 4th Assembly of the World Council of Churches (WCC) in Uppsala appeared to mark the end of the era of early ecumenism and the beginning of a new era. This article questions this understanding of “Uppsala” and examines the reasons for such a mythologization of the assembly through analyzing its themes and conflicts in a twofold way. First, the analysis shows the connection between the students' revolts of 1968 and the assembly. Second, the article draws on the assembly's main theme, “Behold, I make all things new,” and the key aspects of ecumenical renewal discussed at the assembly: the new relationship between the WCC and the Roman Catholic Church, the WCC's commitment to development issues, liberation from racism, and the churches' role in political conflicts. While these themes became a symbol for identifying the assembly with a groundbreaking ecumenical change, the article argues that this change had already begun in the early 1960s, and that the assembly at Uppsala was more the medial and visible expression of this continuing ecumenical turbulence than its source.     

The “New Cognitive Science of Religion” and Religious Pluralism

Abstract : The “new cognitive science of religion” (Lawson, McCauley, Boyer, Sperber, Tremlin, Pysiäinen, Hinde) finds that certain of the brian's “inference systems” press us to postulate gods or other supernatural agents where knowledge and control are lacking. In this article we explore the implications of this new “explanatory” appraoch for Christian theology, pluralism, and worship life.     

“THE PEOPLE OF THIS COUNTRY HAVE HAD ENOUGH OF EXPERTS”: IN DEFENSE OF THE “ELITES” OF THE SCIENCE‐AND‐RELIGION DEBATE

This article takes a critical stance on John H. Evans's 2018 book, Morals Not Knowledge: Recasting the Contemporary U.S. Conflict between Religion and Science. Highlighting the significance of the book for the science‐and‐religion debate, particularly the book's emphasis on moral questions over knowledge claims revealed in social‐scientific studies of the American public, I also suggest that the distinction between the “elites” of the academic science‐and‐religion field and the religious “public” is insufficiently drawn. I argue that various nuances should be taken into account concerning the portrayal of “elites,” nuances which potentially change the way that “conflict” between science and religion is envisaged, as well as the function of the field. Similarly, I examine the ways in which the book construes science and religion as distinct knowledge systems, and I suggest that, from a theological perspective—relevant for much academic activity in science and religion—there is value in seeing science and religion in terms of a single knowledge system. This perspective may not address the public's interest in moral questions directly—important as they are—but nevertheless it fulfils the academic function of advancing the frontiers of human knowledge and self‐understanding.     

Learning about Spirituality Together with “Seekers”

The present era, often referred to as post‐secular, has in many places seen a resurgence in spirituality. Nevertheless, the contemporary quest for spirituality is unique in the sense that many people do not expect to have their spiritual needs fulfilled within the structures of organized religion, starting on a journey of their own explorations instead. Sociologists of religion, therefore, tend to employ the “dwellers” and “seekers” paradigm to account for this phenomenon. This paper will explore this phenomenon in the context of the Czech Republic, whose citizens are frequently characterized as distrustful toward institutional religiosity, through the lens of the recent World Council of Churches' affirmation on mission and evangelism, Together towards Life: Mission and Evangelism in Changing Landscapes (TTL). For our purpose, the statement's emphasis on both “transformative spirituality” and “mission from the margins” will be of central importance. Using the notion of transformative spirituality as the energy engendered by the Spirit for the transformation of life and creation, it will be suggested that “seekers” can be agents in God's mission of liberation, reconciliation, and transformation, despite their inability or unwillingness to identify themselves with the church as institution. Keeping in mind ethical considerations, the paper will not seek to make a case for a forced “christening” of the seekers. Rather, it will argue that they can become partners in missio Dei, thus giving the notion of “mission from the margins” a new, contextually relevant dimension.     

Foreign Investments in Southern Africa

“If one believes in the Prince of Peace one must stop committing crimes in the name of the Prince of Peace. The Christian Church still rules this world, it still has the power to change the structure of South Africa.” James Baldwin in his address to the Fourth Assembly of the World Council of Churches, Uppsala, 1968.     

“Overlapping Memberships”: Interactive Multicultural Theory Meets Chalcedonian Christology

Chalcedonian Christology defines the relationship between the two natures of Christ as “truly God and truly human” but does not explain how the radically different natures interact with one another. Multicultural theory's model of interactive pluralism proposes that differences engage through “overlapping memberships.” Applying this model to the incarnation pushes beyond the limits of Chalcedon to suggest a Christology in which both immanence and transcendence mutually and equally constitute the one person of Christ.     

ECONOMY OF “INVISIBLE DEBT” AND ETHICS OF “RADICAL HOSPITALITY”: Toward a Paradigm Change of Hospitality from “Gift” to “Forgiveness”

The purpose of this paper is to reconstruct a Christian theology of “hospitality” through a critical reading of Jacques Derrida and Friedrich Nietzsche as well as through an in‐depth biblical and theological reflection on the ethics of hospitality. Out of this reconstructive investigation, I propose a new Christian ethics of hospitality as a radical kind. As a new paradigm, this radical hospitality is distinguished from other types in that it is no longer conceived on the model of “gift”. The new Christian ethics of hospitality is rather reconstructed on the model of “forgiveness” by critically appropriating the concept of “invisible debt” that lies between the hosting citizens and the migrants in the senses of “you owe us your presence” and “I owe you my security and success.” While the hospitality of the gift defines the relationship between the hosting citizens and the migrants as givers and givees, the new paradigm of hospitality identifies this relationship as between creditors and debtors. In this regard, a new Christian hospitality called for unto citizens of the hosting society is a radical kind that challenges them to transcend the creditor‐debtor consciousness.     

REVISITING DESTRUCTION IN “THE USE OF AN OBJECT”

“The Use of an Object” (1969a) has been widely recognized as among Winnicott's great papers and has deservedly received a good deal of attention. Much of that attention has focused on the importance that the paper gives to the role of destruction in bringing about the experience of externality. Yet the nature of that destruction has too often been assumed based on Winnicott's earlier writings. In the view that follows from that, destruction is equated with the aggression that fails to destroy the object, and the experience of externality is regarded just as the result of that failure. In offering a rereading of “The Use of an Object,” the author suggests that, while this aspect of aggression/destruction indeed plays an important role in the establishment of externality, it is only part of the story, and that the central contribution of “The Use of an Object” is Winnicott's attempt to offer a new theory of primitive destruction, one that provides an impulsive basis for separation/externality itself. This theory and Winnicott's ongoing attempts to develop it after “The Use of an Object” led him to rethink the very nature of the drives.     

“PURE” VERSUS “PRACTICAL” EPISTEMIC JUSTIFICATION

Abstract: In this article I distinguish a type of justification that is “epistemic” in pertaining to the grounds of one's belief, and “practical” in its connection to what act(s) one may undertake, based on that belief. Such justification, on the proposed account, depends mainly on the proportioning of “inner epistemic virtue” to the “outer risks” implied by one's act. The resulting conception strikes a balance between the unduly moralistic conception of William Clifford and contemporary naturalist virtue theories.     

The “Strange Acts of God:”The Hermeneutics of Concealment and Revelation in Luther and Shakespeare

Abstract: Martin Luther called himself “God's court‐jester”. He saw history as one of the “masks of God,” and he understood God as hiding Godself often behind the mask of the Devil. Luther developed a paradoxical theology, a theology of the cross, that is surprisingly compatible in certain respects with the paradoxical artistic vision of Shakespeare, especially in Hamlet, King Lear and Measure for Measure. Crucial motifs of Luther's theology—the hidden God, indirect revelation, revelation by concealment, revelation under the opposite, the “strange acts of God,” God's “rearward parts”(posteriora), and suffering (Anfechtungen and melancholy)—resonate with certain latent, even if at times blasphemeous, theological motifs and themes in Shakespeare. They also resonate with the experience of the Lutheran church in Hungary both in its past under communism and today in post‐communist Hungary.     

On Martin Luther's Statement, “Fides Creatrix Divinitatis”

Martin Luther's statement “faith creates divinity” depends upon the antecedent promise of the crucified and triune God. When considered as a theology of gift, this statement illustrates that faith makes divinity by giving God glory.     

From Partnership to Liberation

Although there were more women present at the 4th Assembly of the World Council of Churches (WCC) at Uppsala in 1968 than at previous assemblies, they still formed less than 10 percent of the voting delegates. There was thus a large discrepancy between the WCC's theological statements on the cooperation of women and men and the various power structures found in the WCC and its member churches. Nevertheless, Uppsala marked a significant turning point for women in the WCC. The expansion of the WCC, the commitment to restructuring, and the emergence of new leadership all contributed to the beginning at Uppsala of a new era in the ecumenical movement, leading to a shift in discourse from cooperation to liberation, and a new awareness of women's universal struggle for liberation from all forms of discrimination and oppression.     

Reclaiming Communication

This article focuses on the history of the ecumenical discussion on communication, as reflected in the assemblies of the World Council of Churches (WCC). It examines, in particular, the communication statements that emerged from the WCC assemblies in Uppsala in 1968 and in Vancouver in 1983, as well as the more tentative moves at the Harare assembly of 1998 to develop an understanding of communication as an integral part of an “ecumenical space.” The article goes on to argue that the changing perspectives manifested at these assemblies, each 15 years apart, were linked to changing paradigms of social and theological reflection that were themselves the product of economic and political transformation. Finally, the article considers how the insights gained can be brought to bear on the challenges presented by digital transformation.     

V. M. BEKHTEREV IN RUSSIAN CHILD SCIENCE, 1900S–1920S: “OBJECTIVE PSYCHOLOGY”/“REFLEXOLOGY” AS A SCIENTIFIC MOVEMENT

In the early 20^th century the child population became a major focus of scientific, professional and public interest. This led to the crystallization of a dynamic field of child science, encompassing developmental and educational psychology, child psychiatry and special education, school hygiene and mental testing, juvenile criminology and the anthropology of childhood. This article discusses the role played in child science by the eminent Russian neurologist and psychiatrist Vladimir Mikhailovich Bekhterev. The latter's name is associated with a distinctive program for transforming the human sciences in general and psychology in particular that he in the 1900s labelled “objective psychology” and from the 1910s renamed “reflexology.” The article examines the equivocal place that Bekhterev's “objective psychology” and “reflexology” occupied in Russian/Soviet child science in the first three decades of the 20^th century. While Bekhterev's prominence in this field is beyond doubt, analysis shows that “objective psychology” and “reflexology” had much less success in mobilizing support within it than certain other movements in this arena (for example, “experimental pedagogy” in the pre‐revolutionary era); it also found it difficult to compete with the variety of rival programs that arose within Soviet “pedology” during the 1920s. However, this article also demonstrates that the study of child development played a pivotal role in Bekhterev's program for the transformation of the human sciences: it was especially important to his efforts to ground in empirical phenomena and in concrete research practices a new ontology of the psychological, which, the article argues, underpinned “objective psychology”/“reflexology” as a transformative scientific movement.     

“The Only Safe Guide is Love”: Models of Engaging Luther's Ethical Hermeneutic for Theological Responses to the Affirmation of Same‐Sex Sexuality

Lutheran theological discussions over the morality of same‐sex sexuality not only raise “ethical” questions, but point to deeper interpretive tensions that arise when resources of the tradition are interpreted in new contexts. Responding to these debates, in this article I propose that Luther's application of the law to challenging ethical situations provides a historically situated hermeneutic that can redirect theological discussions on same‐sex sexuality. Drawing upon feminist Lutheran and queer theological work, I consider how we may reengage with Luther in a way that is both faithful to his commitments, and also takes queer people seriously as moral subjects.     

Revisiting the Message to the People of South Africa: 1968–2018

The year 2018 marks the 50th anniversary of the publication of the Message to the People of South Africa in 1968, the same year in which the 4th Assembly of the World Council of Churches was held in Uppsala. The Message was the first major South African ecumenical statement that rejected apartheid as unbiblical and unchristian, a “false gospel.” At the time it was likened to the Barmen Declaration of the Confessing Church in Germany (1934). It also set in motion a process of ecumenical opposition to apartheid that prepared the way for declaring its theological justification a heresy and its practice a sin that had to be rejected and resisted. This article sets out the background to the Message, describes the process which led to its publication, outlines its content, and considers its significance looking back after 50 years.     

Behold … All Things New: Uppsala 1968 and Its Mediatization as Film

The 4th Assembly of the World Council of Churches (WCC) in 1968 occurred during a period of increasing influence of the media in shaping society and culture. The documentary film Behold … All Things New, produced by Radio Sweden for the WCC's 1968 assembly in Uppsala, reflected this development. It was, however, both a promotional tool for the church and a sort of documentary. This article analyzes the film from the context of church media relations, examining the strengthened mediatization of the religious arena in the 20th century and giving close attention to the circumstances of the film's production, its narrative techniques, and visual realization. In this way, the film is made accessible as a historical source for the WCC and thus also for the history of the globalization of churches. The film places into perspective the connection between mediatization and secularization, as it represents the churches' integration into modern media society with all of its visual symbols of globality, ecumenism, and willingness to enter into dialogue.