Christian Action Research Articles

The Market, the Multitude and Metaphysics: Ronald Preston's Middle Way and the Theological Critique of Economic Reason

The European post-Marxist work Empire by Hardt and Negri points to the theological/metaphysical underpinnings of modernity and global capitalism in the medieval shift from Trinitarian orthodoxy to nominalism. Though Hardt and Negri reject religious or transcendental approaches to the social, their work shows remarkable resemblances with the ontological critique of modernity and economism mounted by John Milbank and Stephen Long among others. By contrast the considerable oeuvre of Ronald Preston on capitalism lacks a deep ontological critique. The return of ontology to theological economics in recent contributions from Gorringe, Long, Milbank and Northcott marks a significant recovery of a more theological orthodoxy, but also a more thoroughgoing critique of economism whether in capitalist or socialist guise. It is moreover a critique which highlights the significance of the economic actions of churches and Christians.

Christian Action Research and Education

Christian Action Research and Education

Reflective Christian Communication in Moral Controversies

Intractable disagreement over moral issues is a familiar feature of the public policy landscape in Australia. Controversies in biomedicine (abortion, euthanasia and access to assisted reproductive technologies), in social policy (legalizing and normalizing of homosexuality, mandatory sentencing and the control of illicit drug use) and in environmental policy (the exploitation of forests, the disposal of hazardous wastes, and the use of gene technolo gies in food production)?to name a few?show a similar pattern. Such disputes are rarely fully resolved. They may recede from center stage for a time, either because of general public exhaustion or the successful brokering of short term legislative solutions. However, they typically return sooner or later, with the disagreement between parties just as intense as it was before. Not surprisingly, Christian church agencies, Christian activist groups and individual Christians are often prominent participants in such disputes. Most Christian mainstream church agencies1 have been active in debates over abortion, euthanasia and the various issues surrounding reproductive technology and genetic medicine. Christians are not only in disagreement with those outside the faith. As the continuing controversy surrounding the moral meaning of homosexuality indicates, intense moral conflict is a famil iar problem within the Christian community as well.

The Religious World of Antislavery Women: Spirituality in the Lives of Five Abolitionist Lecturers

The Religious World of Antislavery Women: Spirituality in the Lives of Five Abolitionist Lecturers. By Anna M. Speicher. (New York: Syracuse University Press, 2000. Pp xii, 242. Illustrations. Cloth, $39.95; paper, $19.95.) With an ingenuously ambiguous title, Anna M. Speicher introduces the dual focus of this important new work: the serious theology that structured the thought and action of five radical female antislavery lecturers and the mutually supportive Christian-oriented community they created together. Speicher skillfully links the inner structures of belief to the broader social and political world of these key abolitionist women: Sarah and Angelina Grimke, Abby Kelley Foster, Sallie Holley, and Lucretia Mott. As Speicher argues, religion was the fundamental organizing principle for both the mental and material worlds of these women (4). Like the army of women superbly documented in Julie Roy Jeffrey's recent work, The Great Silent Army of Abolitionism: Ordinary Women in the Antislavery Movement (1998), Speicher's leaders drew upon their religious commitment to act against slavery, viewing reform as the mission to which they had been called. Their theology, based in noninstitutional but quite specific religious principles (9), rejected the doctrines of human depravity and eternal damnation. They embraced instead a loving god who empowered inherently good humans to choose lives of belief and Christian action. Skeptical of clerical authority and impatient with rituals or forms that substituted for the authentic practice of faith, these women rejected sectarianism, and particularly church rivalries; ultimately, all but one left organized religion, although the women continued to practice nondenominational Christianity. For these five women, the era had no greater religious mission than freeing those held in bondage contrary to God's will and the Bible's injunctions; moreover, theological arguments coupled with the practical vicissitudes of abolition work propelled them toward an embrace of the radical notions of the racial and gender equality of all humans. Significantly, Speicher's women were not the evangelically inspired abolitionists who formed the core of the movement for Gilbert Barnes and, more recently, for the late Paul Goodman. Rather, these antebellum women fused their gendered experiences in nondenominational Christianity with their antislavery activism. They illustrate the radicalism of women who, like those studied by Nancy A. Hewitt, went beyond the process of evangelical conversion that often attached women to faith-based reform to affiliate themselves with a broader radical egalitarianism encompassing both race and gender. These female abolitionists sought to reunite sacred and secular, fusing theology and action into a determinedly religious ethos of action. Speicher's emphasis on the centrality of religion in the lives of her subjects is a long overdue corrective to historians of women who, in celebrating a radical tradition, often have secularized the narrative to help today's readers connect with the humanitarian quest for social justice. Speicher also challenges historians of religion who have written these women reformers out of the social and intellectual histories of antebellum Christianity because they distanced themselves from denominational controversy and institutional churches. Thus Speicher recaptures Angelina and Sarah Grimke's profound spiritual searches and the theological foundations of both their antislavery and feminist works; she thereby restores the Christian foundations of their calls for abolition and equality. Similarly, the author traces the distance Mott traveled from the orthodox Quakerism of her Nantucket beginnings to her interest in the Free Religious Association and Unitarianism as all part of her life-long religious quest, not a declension of faith. And she finds in Abby Kelley Foster's orthodox Quaker origins the source for her commitment to abolition as a moral cause and her courage to pursue it as her calling. …

Checkbook democracy: how money corrupts political campaigns

Counts are being taken before the political conventions convene: not delegates, but dollars. Public officials court donors more than voters, while the party faithful rally around the war chest rather than the platform. Virtually anything goes in campaign finance today, and, as a result, the electoral process is being hijacked by large contributions, secret influence, and increasingly unaccountable government leaders. In this lively and provocative book, Darrell M. West looks at how politics became such a money chase, why money has become such a pernicious influence on public debate, and what can be done to redeem the corrupted system. Drawing on interviews, memoirs, press coverage, legal depositions, and government documents, West's timely book investigates recent examples of campaign abuses to illustrate how political parties and organizations circumvent post-Watergate reform legislation -- and how money has become the key to winning elections and influencing the public. Included in his probe are such cases as the infamous Willie Horton ad in the 1988 presidential campaign, the Christian Action Network, Asian contributions to the Democrats, tobacco company donations to the Republicans, and President Clinton's 1996 campaign infractions. The numerous case studies expose the manifold loopholes and problems in current campaign finance laws, including soft money contributions, independent expenditures, issue advocacy, foreign contributions, and political activism by non-profit organizations. West's sober evaluation of the exploding costs of campaigns -- and escalating cynicism among voters -- offers a hard-hitting look at the forces working against reform and makes constructiveproposals for reversing this disconcerting trend in contemporary American politics.

'A Great Cause': The Origins of the Anti-Apartheid Movement, June 1959-March 1960

The Boycott Movement was initiated in June 1959 by exiled South African supporters of the Congress Movement with the aim of internationalizing the boycott campaign which the African and Indian Congresses had launched in South Africa. In South Africa the 1959 boycott campaign came at the end of a decade of intensifying repression which had closed off almost all peaceful means of protest against apartheid. In Britain, the late 1950s was a period of disillusion with mainstream politics. A network of organizations and individuals campaigned on three interlinked issues- peace and nuclear disarmament, racism and freedom for Britain's colonies, particularly in Africa. Working with organizations like the Movement for Colonial Freedom, Committee of African Organizations, Christian Action, the Africa Bureau and the Communist Party, a group of committed Congress Movement supporters joined by Patrick van Rensburg of the South African Liberal Party, worked within this network to launch a campaign for the boycott of South African goods. This culminated in a month of action in March 1960. It was taken up by the Labour Party, which had lost the October 1959 General Election and was split over nationalization and nuclear disarmament and by the Trades Union Council. To keep its broad base of support, the campaign stressed that it was a moral crusade of individual protest. The aim was to influence rather than overthrow the South African government. The situation was transformed by the shootings at Sharpeville, which led to the banning of the African National Congress and Pan-Africanist Congress. The Boycott Movement became the Anti-Apartheid Movement which in April 1960 called for international economic sanctions against South Africa.

“How we learned to kill our brother” ? : memory, morality and reconciliation in Peru

In this article we explore how campesinos in Ayacucho (Peru), understand both the political violence that has contoured daily life since 1980 as well as the mandate to kill that arose within the context of the armed conflict between the Shining Path guerrilla, the Peruvian Armed Forces and the peasant civil defense patrols. Since 1995 we had conducted anthropological research in various rural communities in Ayacucho. We investigated how war shapes moral life, challenging concepts of acceptable human conduct and the very sense of what it means to live in a human community. We utilized a genealogical approach to analyze the origins of moral interpretations that are forged in specific contexts. Indeed, the moral frameworks that villagers recount syncretize elements of militant Christianity, psychocultural themes, and the appropriation of extra-local discourses in the process of both militarizing and demilitarizing daily life.

Christian Violence in America

As the millennium approaches, the wave of antimodernism that has brought violent movements of religious nationalism in its wake around the world has arrived at America's shores. In the United States, attacks on abortion clinics, the killing of abortion clinic staff, and the destructive acts of members of Christian militia movements are chilling examples of assaults on the legitimacy of modern social and political institutions, based on the theological frameworks of reconstruction theology and Christian Identity thinking. These examples of Christian militancy present a religious perception of warfare and struggle in what is perhaps the most modern of twentieth-century societies. The secular political order of America is imagined to be trapped in vast satanic conspiracies involving spiritual and personal control. This perception provides Christian activists with both the justification and the obligation to use violent means to fulfill their understanding of the country's Christian mission—and at the same time offers a formidable critique of Enlightenment society and a reassertion of the primacy of religion in public life.

The Splendor of Doctrine by Aidan Nichols, O.P.

BOOK REVIEWS 331 future lies in the culmination of that plan and whose present is thus characterized by self-possession. This is a sort of eternity. Building on this insight, I would like to offer the suggestion that Jesus' earthly life is an initial "type" or "icon" of eternity for precisely the reasons Placher presents, and this does show us the consistency of the vulnerable God. However, the "perfect possession of limitless life" is not a quality of Jesus "in the days of his flesh" but only of his humanity now that he is completely transformed by the divine action. Even now, this humanity is but a perfect type or "analogate" of the intrinsic eternity of God's nature and this eternity of God is the reason why Jesus is eternal at all. What I am suggesting is that Jesus' once non-fragmented and now perfect possession of limitless life is a revelation of God and can be the starting point for a consideration, yet to be undertaken, of what "eternal" means as applied to God. By considering Jesus' manner of possessing time, Placher's reflections have opened up a way to move beyond the conflict between temporality and eternity in a manner that complements the valuable proposals of Hans Urs von Balthasar in A Theology ofHistory (reprint, San Francisco: Ignatius, 1994). This is an honest book that tries to point to the obfuscation of revelation that is being caused by the Church's attachment to dominative power. It should call us to pay attention and change. My criticism of Professor Placher's failure to articulate a more biblical understanding of God's power is meant to enhance, not weaken, his witness. Dominican House ofStudies Washington, D.C. FRANCIS MARTIN The Splendor ofDoctrine. By AIDAN NICHOLS, 0.P. Edinburgh: T & T Clark, 1995. Pp. x + 159. $18.95 (paper). ISBN 0-567-29271-1. The Splendor ofDoctrine forms the first panel of what its author describes as a diptych of the Catechism ofthe Catholic Church. This metaphor from the world of art seems an especially appropriate point of departure for this author, for throughout the work he consistently appeals to the aesthetic facet of his reader's nature. On the first panel of the diptych, the author sketches the contours of the Catechism on the Creed. The second panel will render the Catechism on Christian practice: the sacramental, ethical, and spiritual dimensions of the faith. In addition, in the sequel the author intends to "investigate and respond to some of the criticisms that have been voiced of the Catechism's project, 332 BOOK REVIEWS and/or the way in which it has been effected." It is clear, then, from the beginning , that The Splendor of Doctrine represents a perspective quite sympathetic to the Catechism. "The Church's concern in the Catechism," the author asserts, is "to hold all the splendors of the faith before us so that we can see the Catholic tradition, and the Christian life, for what they are-a seamless web of beauty, truth and goodness which reflects, ultimately, the very being of God himself." It is precisely because of this perspective that The Splendor of Doctrine is able to exploit so well the implications of several of the Catechisms achievements. The first chapter highlights the main themes in Pope John Paul II's apostolic constitution Depositum fidei. The author points out the "masterstroke in the pope's preamble," the interrelation of the four books. "The key concept used to bring off this coup is that ofthe Christian mystery." The unity of God's saving design reveals Christ at its center. Thus Christian belief, worship , action, and prayer are parts of an integrated whole held together in Christ. This Christocentrism is one of the Catechisms most conspicuous characteristics . "The mystery of the Saviour forms the living, personal unity of the Catechisms four parts: for he is the source of faith, the saving presence in the sacraments, the model of Christian action and the master of Christian prayer." The author is also concerned with what the pope articulates as one of the primary intentions of the Catechism: "the writing of new local catechisms, which take into account the various...

‘Refresh the Hearts of the Saints’: A Unique Pauline Context?

Some four times in the Pauline corpus the verb ἀναπαύω is used together with the noun πνεῦμα or σπλάγχνα in the sense of ‘refresh the heart’. Through a comparison of Greek literary and non-literary sources it seems that, although each of these words is common enough, their combination in this way is particularly unusual in or before the first century AD. It would appear, therefore, that the Pauline use of the complete phrase may well, at the time, have offered a unique usage. Similarities between the four Pauline contexts shed light on Paul’s usage: ‘refreshing the hearts of the saints’ is to be seen as a positive Christian action which is highly commended by the apostle and could cross traditional social barriers.

The Artist as Activist

One of the advantages of having to travel for a living is the ability to stay in touch with friends from many far flung outposts. On one recent winter evening, Gordon Aeschliman and Tom Willett found themselves sharing a meal in Corpus Christi, Texas. The occasion of this surprise encounter was a dinner held at the home of Anne Atterbury, noted Christian activist and patron of the arts. Ms. Atterbury had arranged to tape the dinner conversation for a book she is writing, and the following is from a transcript of the evening's intercourse.

THE TRADITION OF THE CHURCH IN HEALTH AND HEALING

God, or language about God, is subject of theology. What people of believe it is that is handed over (traditum) to them through generations makes up tradition of church. This tradition includes their persistent towards of life. True fullness, in biblical language, belongs to alone; to as embodiment of (Col. 1:9); in one case -- perhaps -- to church as body of (Eph. 1:22-23); and derivatively to all that earth contains (Ps. 24:1). At same time, believers may themselves move toward being filled with all of God (Eph. 3:9) and measured by the stature of of Christ (Eph. 4:13). What bearing do Christian traditions and theologies have on health? In this brief compass it would be foolish even to attempt to sample their content: World Christian Encyclopedia (Barrett 1982:15) speaks of seven blocs, 156 ecclesiastical traditions, and 22,190 presumably major denominations. Instead I wish first to describe a challenge to Christian action and expressions that is put forward by contemporary preoccupations with health and healing and then to point to some of ways believers can draw upon theology and tradition, especially in North America. The focus on striving of narrows to another still immense subject: how does this relate to health and healing through response to grace of a fulfilling God? The thesaurus reminds us of challenge in classic terms by posing opposites to health: sickness, illness, disease, ailment, weakness, debility, infirmity, and frailty as part of human condition. It also lists antonyms to healing: wounding, hurting, injuring, harming, breaking, making worse, getting worse. These simple words call to mind ageless passion and drama of life, endless tears and blood, ceaseless cries of pain or dereliction, also by people of faith. The theology and tradition of church address these negatives even as they speak positively of presence of health and healing or of search them. If sickness and frailty are classic challenges, contemporary life has its own approach to them. For a generation an increasing number of North Americans, some of them disillusioned with scientific medicine and conventional care, have striven fullness or wholeness through what has come to be called health movement. This movement has made major news on that front where theology and church traditions face their temptations and opportunities. It was born in countercultures but now has found its place in mainstream as well (Alster 1989:5). One critic has offered these definitions: Holist: Minimally, someone who subscribes to thesis that an organic whole is more than sum of its parts, and who rejects mind/body dualism. Holistic health care: A system of health care predicated on above. Advocates of holistic care may agree on these ideas and very little else. Practices range from exotic to conventional; practitioners from suspect to those licensed as professionals (Alster 1989;47-48). An advocate, R.H. Svihus, provided further definition: Holistic health, then, is a state of integration of physical body and of mental and emotional soul-self, in harmony with spiritual self . . . . The concept refers to fact that whole of a person is greater than mere sum of his parts, and that there is an approach to whole person who is ill, instead of merely to his parts or to his illness as if they were separate from whole of him (Svihus 1979:480-81). Abraham Maslow (1970:xi), a champion, elaborated: Holism is obviously true -- after all, cosmos is one and interrelated; any society is one and interrelated; any person is one and interrelated, etc. One popular holist, Rosalyn Bruyere, spoke most in movement when she referred to which forms connection -- a key word -- between all things: for me, terms and energy are interchangeable. …

EVANGELICAL WITNESS IN SOUTH AFRICA — THE STORY OF CONCERNED EVANGELICALS

International Review of MissionVolume 83, Issue 328 p. 139-141 EVANGELICAL WITNESS IN SOUTH AFRICA — THE STORY OF CONCERNED EVANGELICALS Moss Ntlha, Moss Ntlha Moss Ntlha is the general secretary of the Concerned Evangelicals, which is based in Johannesburg.Search for more papers by this author Moss Ntlha, Moss Ntlha Moss Ntlha is the general secretary of the Concerned Evangelicals, which is based in Johannesburg.Search for more papers by this author First published: January 1994 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1758-6631.1994.tb02351.x AboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditWechat Volume83, Issue328January 1994Pages 139-141 RelatedInformation

Georgette de Montenay: A Different Voice in Sixteenth-Century Emblematics*

The feminists of thequerelle[des fewines] were reacting to changes they seemed to have no control over, or to a Puritan revolution that served mainly to confirm their subjection to men. Lacking a vision of social movement to change events, their concern lay with consciousness. By their pens, they could at least counteract the psychological consequences of what they felt was a recent, steady decline in the position of women.Joan Kelley, “Early Feminist Theory and theQuerelle des Fannies,”inWomen, History and TheoryGeorgette de Montenay has been the object of enduring scholarly interest, not only as the first woman author of an emblem book, but also as the creator of a new literary and artistic genre: the religious emblem. Most probably converted to Protestantism under the influence of Jeanne d'Albret, Queen of Navarre (to whose court she was attached after her marriage to Guyon de Gout, c. 1562), de Montenay composed a series of one hundred militant Christian octets in the mid-i56os and closely supervised their illustration by a gifted Lyonnais etcher, Pierre Woeiriot, who was also of the reformed persuasion.

RADICAL CHRISTIANITY AMONG STUDENTS: THE STORY OF SUCA

The brith of the Student Union for Christian Action (SUCA) marks the beginning of an important chapter in the history of the student movement. By the late 1970s South Africa was still suffering the trauma of the after-effects of the 1976 riots. Political groups were regrouping to occupy the space created by the banning of popular organizations in 1977. There was a need to give direction to the massive anger and the quest for action against the brutality of the system. Society was fast becoming polarized. Towards the end of the proceedings of the South African Christian Leadership Assembly (SACLA), held in Pretoria in June 1979, the formation of a national union for Christian action was mooted. After much effort, discussion, tension and prayer, SUCA was born in June 1980 a national union for Christians from seventeen universities. To white students it provided a first encounter with black Christians and a better view of Christians from other races. One of them once said: as privileged whites our problem is that we simply do fully know nor understand what is happening in our country. For black students, SUCA 's birth was a dream-come-true and they saw it a vehicle through which to engage and challenge the apartheid system. The bulk of the SUCA constituency at its debut in 1980 were whites from the liberal and Afrikaner universities. SUCA had members from all Christian student groups in the country, namely the Student Christian Movement (SCM), the Student Christian Association (SCA), the Association of Christian Students (ACS) and the Afrikaanse Christen Studentevereniging (ACSV). Most SUCA leaders held national positions in these Christian structures and in the Student Representative Councils (SRCs) of their universities. Since SUCA was meant to be an organization but a movement, little attention was paid to action against building branches. It had members from all the major Christian traditions in the country, but one remarkable feature is that it adopted an evangelical basis of faith at its launching. The greatest problem SUCA faced at the beginning was the prospect of rejection by evangelicals for being too and by activists for not being enough, or for having a definite political line. Tension also existed from the beginning between black and white students based on their understanding of the South African reality and the action required to change it. Until 1982 provision was made for corporate affiliation by student structures. During 1982 SUCA's stand shifted towards practical action and a programme on relocations and squatters was adopted. …

A Challenge to the Integrity of Creation: An African Woman's Perspective

Is JPIC a compelling process calling churches and Christians to commitment and involvement within the life of the world? Or, as some critics claim, is JPIC a rather a handy but not too practical theoretical construct within which to house the various environment and development commitments of the ecumenical movement? These are ongoing and helpful questions which are not new to the JPIC process. They are important, and necessary to keep in the forefront of debate and discussions in churches, for they point to a central truth — that JPIC is effective only to the extent that it makes a difference in the lives of people. The wealth of theological reflection and socio-political assessment of the JPIC process, as evidenced by the articles of this issue of The Ecumenical Review, are meaningful precisely in relation to their capacity to form and inform the understandings and actions of churches and Christians in the world. For in the last analysis, JPIC can only be measured in terms of human life, and of flesh and blood. Therefore, it seems worthwhile, and perhaps necessary, within a journal of theological reflection which has as its focus the JPIC process, to include a testimony to JPIC as it is lived out at the grassroots level. We know that women bear a disproportionate impact of the effects of poverty and unjust economic systems. Women too experience a disproportionate impact of the effects of racism. As bearers of life into the world, and as the primary nurturers of future generations, women claim a special place in relation to the environment. It is appropriate, therefore, that Cecilia Asogwa inserts into these JPIC reflections a personal account of a community of rural women in Africa who begin to work together in an economic self-help group, and in so doing discover themselves involved as active participants and leaders in their community. For these women, JPIC has meant personal and community empowerment which they have experienced as part of the healing of creation.

Matthew's Message for Insiders

At a time rife with competing views about what it means to be a Christian, Matthew rewrote the story of Jesus to combat militant Christian pneumatics who were fomenting strife in his community and leading God's people astray.

The Religious Obser Vances and Commitments of Catholics in Greater Montreal

Because of the increasing sense of helplessness experienced by pastoral workers, a poll on religious practices was conducted among Montreal Francophone Catholics. A twofold relationship emerges from the data: on the one hand, conformity to the institution stands side by side with a selective distancing from it; on the other, the intransigent mentality is opposed to compromise with the surrounding culture. Overall, selectivity blends with conformity. This attitude exists in a tradition that has not been modified by the pastoral orientation of the Council. Indeed, this orientation may have reinforced it. The conclusion poses the challenge of historical continuity, the fruitfulness of faith and Christian action.

Recovering the Word of God Today with and among the Poor

The author explores the tension between popular biblical reflection in small, informal groups and professional exegetical interpretation as a challenge to openness and collaboration. Some ideological and methodological errors may occur in popular interpretation and also many wonderful experiences as the community responds to authentic biblical challenges to Christian action. Literature on the Exodus, creation, prophetic themes, wisdom, early Christian community, and Jesus of the poor have been especially fruitfully pursued by these communities. The exegete is challenged to put professional expertise at the service of these groups to help support, integrate, and authenticate the interpretive reflection process.

REVITALIZATION MOVEMENTS AND THE HOPE OF PEACE

Abstract. Anthropological analysis of religion, following Bronislaw Mahowski, is founded in empirical observational data gained at least in part by participant observation. Malinowski described religion as a “sociological charter” which is a “retrospective moral pattern of behavior,” constructed as a myth after the fact of behavior. Anthony F. C. Wallace's revitalization model provides the mechanism through which the Malinowskian charter is developed. Jack Wilson's Ghost Dance religion is briefly described as an example of a revitalization movement, and it is suggested that both contemporary peace movements and militant Christian movements are revitalization movements.