Showing papers in "Theology in 2015"
TL;DR: Truro Cathedral's role as a community utility beyond the Church of England in giving voice to the role of the established Church in this region is explored in this article, where a case study is offered of a modern English cathedral set in a predominantly rural and less prosperous region of Britain.
Abstract: A case-study is offered of a modern English cathedral set in a predominantly rural and less prosperous region of Britain. The author seeks to highlight the distinctiveness of this particular cathedral ministry as well as experiences in common with many other English cathedrals from the perspective of a participant observer. The unique social and religious inheritance in the Duchy of Cornwall leads to a diverse mix of local cultures strongly influenced by Celtic traditions that serve to emphasize its independence from its English neighbours.Truro Cathedral’s role as a community utility beyond the Church of England in giving voice to the role of the established church in this region is explored. This discussion refers to the challenges of responding to implicit and explicit expressions of contemporary religion. Generational differences, in particular, focus the cathedral’s attention on offering a generous hospitality to individual spiritual and religious exploration while maintaining its core values and pur...
7 citations
TL;DR: The doctrine of deification has been embraced significantly in the Eastern tradition as discussed by the authors, though glimpses of it can be found throughout Western Christendom, it has often been cast out an...
Abstract: Traditionally, the doctrine of deification has been embraced significantly in the Eastern tradition. Though glimpses of it can be found throughout Western Christendom, it has often been cast out an...
5 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors highlight the reality of this community within the California prison settings, a community that is locally supernaturally constituted, inter-racial, spatially transcendent and transformational, displaying the power of the gospel among its participants.
Abstract: The State of California has been a trendsetter in radical forms of penal policy and mass-incarceration in Western societies. As such California’s prison state and its governance structures demand careful scrutiny. These governance structures are both formal and informal, manifesting different power structures at play within the system. Any proper theological account of such phenomena needs to reckon not only with these extant structures but also with the incarcerate ecclesia, the prison church. The present article aims to highlight the reality of this community within the California prison settings (with relevance to other penal contexts), a community that is locally supernaturally constituted, inter-racial, spatially transcendent and transformational, displaying the power of the gospel among its participants. In this way, the incarcerated church subversively fulfils the aims of the other formal and informal governance structures, both sanctioned by the State and manifest in prison gangs.
5 citations
TL;DR: In the Church of England, traditionally all Northern bishops have been invited to share in the laying on of hands at the consecration of new bishops for dioceses in the Province of York as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: Whereas traditionally all Northern bishops in the Church of England have been invited to share in the laying on of hands at the consecration of new bishops for dioceses in the Province of York, whe...
4 citations
TL;DR: Biblical studies as taught in formational/seminary contexts is often shaped by standard modern agendas of the academic discipline of ‘biblical studies' as discussed by the authors, and the oddity is that particular topics highly...
Abstract: Biblical studies as taught in formational/seminary contexts is often shaped by standard modern agendas of the academic discipline of ‘biblical studies’. The oddity is that particular topics highly ...
4 citations
4 citations
3 citations
TL;DR: Bonhoeffer's strong statements in support of peace have encouraged Stanley Hauerwas and other interpreters to read him, explicitly or implicitly, as participating in the theological tradit....
Abstract: Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s strong statements in support of peace have encouraged Stanley Hauerwas and other interpreters to read him, explicitly or implicitly, as participating in the theological tradit...
3 citations
TL;DR: The word "pilgrimage" is frequently pressed into service in cathedral circles, and is used to carry a considerable freight of meaning as mentioned in this paper, and the meaning of the word is examined in this context with special emphasis.
Abstract: The word ‘pilgrimage’ is frequently pressed into service in cathedral circles, and is used to carry a considerable freight of meaning. This article examines pilgrimage in this context with special ...
3 citations
TL;DR: On the fiftieth anniversary of the end of the Second Vatican Council, the authors affirms the huge significance of the Council for the whole Christian Church and examines the ways in which the Council's legacy has been contested by conservatives and liberals in the Roman Catholic Church.
Abstract: On the fiftieth anniversary of the end of the Second Vatican Council, this article affirms the huge significance of the Council for the whole Christian Church, examines the ways in which the Council’s legacy has been contested by conservatives and liberals in the Roman Catholic Church, and recommends some resources for the study of the Council’s teaching. It concludes by noting the extraordinary power of the popes and other Church leaders, to set the tone for their churches.
3 citations
TL;DR: Glo Church has identified and used three keys to mission: declaring God's kingdom as part of the missio Dei, incarnating the gospel individually and corporately, and of...
Abstract: Through reflective practice, Glo Church has identified and used three keys to mission: declaring God’s kingdom as part of the missio Dei; incarnating the gospel individually and corporately; and of...
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors show that not every story is a metaphor for God, and that these stories are not allegories for more spiritual truths, but they invite the hearer into a new world where, in the midst of violence and oppression, the kingdom is present in unexpected and life-giving ways.
Abstract: story (a wicked king, for instance), we realize that perhaps not every story is a metaphor for God. And once we know how the plot works, we are free to recognize that these stories are not allegories for more spiritual truths, but that they invite the hearer into a new world where, in the midst of violence and oppression, the kingdom is present in unexpected and life-giving ways. This accessible book deserves to be widely read and pondered, preferably with the Gospel accounts close at hand, in order that Wright’s illuminating reading might invite us, in turn, into the vivid and compelling stories that Jesus told.
TL;DR: The task is to articulate not just an alternative set of policy proposals but an alternative worldview to rival the one at the heart of the ecological crisis as discussed by the authors, embedded in interdependence rather than hyper-individualism, reciprocity rather than dominance, and cooperation rather than hierarchy.
Abstract: Fundamentally, the task is to articulate not just an alternative set of policy proposals but an alternative worldview to rival the one at the heart of the ecological crisis– embedded in interdependence rather than hyper-individualism, reciprocity rather than dominance, and cooperation rather than hierarchy. This is another lesson from the transformative movements of the past (for example the abolition of slavery and of apartheid): all of them understood that the process of shifting cultural values . . . was central to their work. And so they dreamed in public, showed humanity a better version of itself, modeled different values in their own behavior, and in the process liberated the political imagination and rapidly altered the sense of what was possible. They were also unafraid of the language of morality – to give the pragmatic, cost benefit arguments a rest and to speak of right and wrong, of love and indignation. (p. 462)
TL;DR: In this paper, a full-length version of the excursus which brings these things together and shows us what this part of the world may have to offer in responding to the dire predicament we find ourselves in, which will be, not covenantal humanism, but some other kind of humanism of which Pieris is the precursor.
Abstract: model of a religious state. Of course, those who do these things would have no interest in covenantal humanism, but that is all the more reason for those of us who do to go on working at these ideas. Paul Chung’s book, dedicated to Ulrich Duchrow, does not offer us a theological engagement with economics in the way, say, that Douglas Meeks did or Duchrow does, but rather a history of the ideas which got us where we are, and an account of the discussion surrounding them. There are detailed discussions of thinkers from Locke to Habermas, of Marx to Wallerstein and Hardt and Negri. A final chapter sketches alternatives; an excursus considers the relationship of East Asian religions to social justice; and an epilogue sets out a theology of God’s life and emancipation from greed and dominion more or less in the way that Duchrow and Hinkelammert present it. Interesting as the account is I wish that the excursus occupied the main part of the book, because the history is available elsewhere and the theology is more interesting. It is long overdue for Minjung theology to move on and go deeper, and this is something Professor Chung could offer us. South Korea has both been through the capitalist ‘miracle’ and been dumped in the trash can as the wheel moves onwards and further east to China. Apart from the Philippines it has the largest Christian population in Asia. It is locked in another atavism in its relation to its paranoid northern sister, parotting slogans from an ideology which needs carbon dating. All this means that South Korea could and ought to be extraordinarily theologically creative. So far, to my knowledge, only Aloysius Pieris, in Sri Lanka, has really shown the kind of creativity which might flow from the encounter of Christianity with both Asian religion and the call for social justice which was embodied in the Marxist tradition which Professor Chung knows so well. What we really look for is not this book but a full-length version of the excursus which brings these things together and shows us what this part of the world may have to offer in responding to the dire predicament we find ourselves in, which will be, not covenantal humanism, but some other kind of humanism, of which Pieris is the precursor.
TL;DR: In this paper, the persistent links between religion and welfare across Europe are investigated. But they do so by drawing on an extensive body of comparative material brought together by the Uppsala Religion Association.
Abstract: This article considers the persistent links between religion and welfare across Europe. It does so by drawing on an extensive body of comparative material brought together by the Uppsala Religion a...
TL;DR: In this article, the author outlines the missionary nature of the Sheffield Industrial Mission from 1944 to 1966, and examines its missiological base and its problems with respect to its missiology.
Abstract: This paper begins where I started my ministry in 1959, outlining the missionary nature of the Sheffield Industrial Mission from 1944 to 1966, and examines its missiological base and its problems wi...
TL;DR: The use of Matthew 27.25 in promoting Christian anti-Judaism has been discussed in this article, where various approaches have emerged to reading it in such a way that this conne...
Abstract: Any Christian who speaks about Matthew 27.25 needs to be aware of how it has been used to promote Christian anti-Judaism. Various approaches have emerged to reading it in such a way that this conne...
TL;DR: In contrast to some prevailing tendencies in modern Protestant theology, Barth affirmed the resurrection of the flesh as discussed by the authors, a vision of human persons in their irreducible and enduring corporeality.
Abstract: 1. Although he did not live to write the doctrine of redemption with which the Church Dogmatics was to conclude, Barth had a well-developed understanding of the ultimate destiny of human creatures, and a coherent account of Barth’s distinctive vision of the last things can be gleaned from his published work. 2. In marked contrast to some prevailing tendencies in modern Protestant theology, Barth affirmed the resurrection of the flesh – of human persons in their irreducible and enduring corporeality. 3. And yet Barth’s commitment to a noetic and participationist idiom – resurrection as the revelation of our eternal life in Christ – renders him incapable of doing full justice to the scriptural vision of resurrection as the inauguration of the saints into an everlasting fellowship with Christ and with each other.
TL;DR: The authors argue that doubts are always worth doubting, critical questions warrant critical questioning, imagination is more prevalent than sceptics acknowledge, and there are spaces that dichotomies arbitrarily banish.
Abstract: This article is a response to Don Cupitt’s article ‘After the end of the world’, published in Theology (July 2014). It argues that doubts are always worth doubting, critical questions warrant critical questioning, that imagination is more prevalent than sceptics acknowledge, and that there are spaces that dichotomies arbitrarily banish.
TL;DR: In this article, the author explores the meaning of a particular and unexpected event in the author's life and explains why all narrative is open to the possibility of theology, by means of the tropes of mountain and wilderness.
Abstract: This article seeks to explore theological meaning in a particular and unexpected event in the author’s life. It begins by telling the story, and then explains why all narrative is open to the possibility of theology. By means of the tropes of mountain and wilderness, it begins to expand theological horizons, albeit with a level of physical and spiritual discomfort.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors discuss the relevance of the Bible stories to contemporary women's concerns and encourage readers to reflect further on the biblical texts and to consider other possibilities for how they might be used to address contemporary women concerns.
Abstract: scholarship in her work and she writes in a way that alerts readers to other questions and reading strategies that could be applied to the texts to offer additional insights and meanings. The stories are discussed in the context of the patriarchal societal norms of the biblical age and the fact that patriarchy is still a reality today. Williams draws conclusions in each chapter in a way that is always provisional. Thus she encourages readers to reflect further on the biblical texts and to consider other possibilities for how they might speak to contemporary women’s concerns. At the end of each chapter Williams offers three or four ideas for reflection, the final one always relating specifically to implications for Christians or the Church. These could become useful discussion starters if the book was used by a study group; but some of the ideas could evoke much longer debate than others. In the final chapter I was surprised that Williams made no comment about the connection between Hannah’s song and the song of Mary, the Magnificat (Luke 1.46–55), especially as she includes comments about the New Testament elsewhere (e.g. on p. 94, Rahab’s appearance in the genealogy of David in Matt. 1.5). Williams offers a fresh perspective that will appeal to anyone interested in the relevance of biblical stories today as well as those with overtly feminist concerns. Even someone very familiar with critical study of these stories will discover readings that merit further reflection. I found parts I and II the most stimulating; but this is a book I will recommend to my students and will return to again as I work with the texts of these stories in both the Academy and the Church.