Christian Response Research Articles

Pandemics in Need of a Christian Response

Humanity has survived many waves of attacks mounted by microscopic agents which we cannot see but which have left millions of our species dead, and hundreds of millions more enduring a great deal of pain and suffering, even life-long dysfunction. Pandemics have led to the downfall of whole populations and people groups; they have shaped policies and practices of the societies which survived. These encounters have taught us a great deal about Earth's biology, as well as our own physiology, resourcefulness, and potential. They have shone a spotlight on the essence of humanity: the good, the bad, and the ugly. We have now encountered another pandemic-producing agent--COVID-19--which has disrupted human activities around the globe. All of this raises many important and even existential questions for humanity in general, and Christians in particular.

Christian Responsibility for the Global Environmental Crisis

A recent report mentioned environmental concerns, including climate change, as the most likely threat to Earth in the 2020s. Therefore, there is a widespread perception that the problem of the environment today is not just a problem of any particular region or country, but also a problem of the future and the current problem that we live in today. Various concerns and studies on environmental issues have been conducted based on the Christian world view of creation, fall, and redemption within Christianity. These concerns began with the Catholic camp, but gradually efforts continue to link creation care with the gospel within Christianity, including the World Councils of Churches (WCC). Therefore, the study proposed as the following. First, a transition from environmental protection, or ecological conservation, to Life theology is needed. Second, a shift in the understanding of ecology looking at nature is needed. Third, at the Christian level, there should be a real recovery movement differentiated from secular environmentalism. Fourth, the church must wait for the second coming of Jesus and create a society that can realize a community with the real creation world.

Recovering Sight to the Blind in Luke 14:18. 19

One of the tasks of the Messiah is to recover the blindness of human being. Blindness is an important topic in the New Testament. The act of recovering sight to the blind is the act of Messiah fulfilled by Jesus in his ministry. This important task is prophesied in the Old Testament. This prophecy is found in Isaiah 61: 1, 2. The role of Jesus as Messiah is to recover the sight to the blind, to bring justice, and to give people righteousness. Throughout the New Testament mentions the role of Jesus to recover the blindness. The uniqueness of the word ‘blindness’ is that it is mentions together with the word ‘poor.’ Clear message is given to the people in the New Testament that Jesus given the power of the Holy Spirit to do these wonderful things. There is strong connection of the ministry of Jesus to recover the sight to the blind and Sabbath. Keywords: Blindness; Messiah; Ministry; Sabbath References Barker, Kenneth L. ed., NIV Study Bible (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1984), 1532 Walter Bauer, A Greek English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, ed. Frederick W. Danker, 3rd ed. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000), BibleWorks. V.7. Beaulieu, Stephane. Isaiah’s Messiah: Adventist Identity for the Last Days. Journal of the Adventist Theological Society, 27/1-2 (2016): 3-23), Available from http://archive.atsjats.org/Beaulieu%20BZ.pdf; accessed at 12 August 2019 Betz, Hans Dieter. The Sermon on the Mount: Hermeneia – A Critical and Historical Commentary on the Bible. Augsburg Fortress: Minneapolis, 1995. Braun, Willi. Feasting and Social Rhetoric in Luke 14. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1995. Bruno, Christoper R. “Jesus is Our Jubilee” . . . But How? The OT Background and Lukan Fulfillment of the Ethics of Jubilee. Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society 53/1 81-101, March 2010 Carson. D. A. Ed. the Gospel According to John. Apollos Leicester: England, 1984. Cranfield, C. B. E., the Gospel According to Saint Mark: An Introduction and Commentary. Cambridge University Press: United Kingdom, 2000. Culpepper, R Alan. Anatomy of the Fourth Gospel: A Study in Literary Design. Fortress: Philadelphia, 1983.discipletree.com%2F05Courses%2FChurchGrowth%2F07Week%2FLuke%25204.16-20.doc), accessed at October 7, 2019 Fowler, James A. A Commentary on the Revelation of John. C.I.Y. Publishing Fallbrook: California, 2013. Fowler, James A. Jesus Confronts Religion: A Commentary on the Four Gospel. Christocentric Commentary Series. California: C.I.Y Publishing, 2006. Gaebelein, Frank E., Ed., Expositor’s Bible Commentary. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan Publishing House, 1984. Jordan, Richard. Exegetical Notes on Luke 4:14-21 (Journal Online, available from: http://richardajordan.com/Bible_Study/luke4.pdf), accessed at June 12, 2019 Koech, Joseph. the Spirit Motif in Luke 4:14-30; Acts 1:8. African Journal of Evangelical Theology 27.2 2008. Monshouwer, D. The Reading of the Prophet in the Synagogue at Nazareth. en Bib 72 199. Nichol, Fancis, ed. Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary. Rev. ed. Washington, DC: Review and Herald, 1976-1980. Park, Jim. The Role of the Sabbath/Jubilee in Luke 4:16-18. Journal Online, available from:https://view.officeapps.live.com/op/view.aspx?src=http%3A%2F%2F Sanders, J. A. From Isaiah 61 to Luke 4, in Christianity, Judaism, and Other Greco-Roman Cults, ed. J. Neusner. Leiden: Brill, 1975. Siker, Jeffrey S. First to the Gentiles: A literally Analysis of Luke 4:16-30. Journal of Biblical Literature III/1, Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles, CA 90045, 1992. Stevanovic, Ranko. Revelation of Jesus Christ: Commentary on the book of Revelation Andrews University Press: Berrien Spring, Michigan, 2002. Steyn, J. & A. Yousaf, Jesus and the Marginalized: Attaching Pastoral Meaning to Luke 4: 14-30. Journal of Acta Theologia, February 2012. Turner, Max. The Work of the Holy Spirit in Luke-Acts. Journal Online, available from: https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/c5c8/29f9ca024844d73a43aca40a0444d0765f6f.pdf. accessed at September, 13, 2019 Utley, Bob. Study Guide Commentary Series New Testament, Vol. 3. A. Texas: Bible Lessons International, Marshall, 2004. Win, Adam. The Purpose of Mark’s Gospel: An Early Christian Response to Roman Imperial Propaganda. Mohr Siebeck, Tubingen: Germany, 2008.

Bonhoeffer on amusing ourselves to death

In 1985, Neil Postman famously and presciently bemoaned a world “amusing itself to death.” Ironically and significantly, it is amidst the atrocities of Nazism and the struggle against Hitler that from his prison cell Bonhoeffer reflects on a faithful Christian response to sensory immediacy, calling for the church to found Kierkegaard’s notion of aesthetic existence anew. This, he suggests, should neither entail an embrace of aesthetic existence as absolute, nor the rejection of aesthetic existence in favour of ethico-religious existence. Rather, it should be the polyphonous celebration of Christological this-worldly reality, an affirmation of the penultimate in light of the ultimate. While Bonhoeffer’s musical metaphors help to articulate Bonhoeffer’s argument, they are more than illustrative mechanisms. If on the one hand, the metaphors capture the centrality of aesthetic existence in being Christian, on the other, the metaphors themselves implicitly point toward the question of the formative nature of aesthetic existence and whether Bonhoeffer’s own musical experience shaped his theology.

Medieval encyclopedia as a form of of religious worldview universalization (on the example of "Speculum Maius " by Vincent of Beauvais)

The article actualizes the significance of scholastic encyclopedias for the religious and secular culture of medieval Europe. Their role as a compendium of accumulated knowledge and at the same time ideological synthesis of Christian religious doctrine and scientific achievements, ancient and scholastic traditions, university, and church-monastery intellectual culture is shown.
 The main attention is paid to the multi-volume Vincent of Beauvais’ work «Speculum Maius» («The Great Mirror») as the most significant work among medieval encyclopedias and its conceptual completion. The extraordinary role of the encyclopedia as a documentary evidence of knowledge, ideas, worldview, mentality of the Western European Middle Ages is proved. The author outlines the principles of codification of «The Great Mirror»; highlights the influence of the Christian-theological context on the content, structure and methods of organizing its material; the relationship of encyclopedic work with the processes of development and rationalization of the religious worldview. The focus is on the universalizing potential of the Christianity concepts, the extraordinary expression of which was the work by Vincent of Beauvais. The aspiration for universality was manifested both in the desire to understand the world as a Whole, created by God-completed omnipresence, and in attempts to base all the accumulated human experience, all kinds of knowledge and life on the principles of the Christian worldview. The encyclopedia is valued as a real «mirror» of an entire era, the medieval reception of Christianity, the history of European science and knowledge.

Sterbliche Götter – göttliche Menschen: Psalm 82 und seine frühchristlichen Deutungen by Christian Gers-Uphaus

Reviewed by: Sterbliche Götter – göttliche Menschen: Psalm 82 und seine frühchristlichen Deutungen by Christian Gers-Uphaus Charles R. Schulz christian gers-uphaus, Sterbliche Götter –göttliche Menschen: Psalm 82 und seine frühchristlichen Deutungen (SBS 240; Stuttgart: Katholisches Bibelwerk, 2019). Pp. 401. $42.18. Psalm 82 has played an outsized role in the history of biblical interpretation, even if that role has diminished in contemporary scholarship and church life. Its opening verse depicts “God standing in the assembly of the gods” and requires an identification of the dramatis personae, a need that is only heightened when the divine voice later declares, “I say, ‘You are gods, children of the Most High, all of you; nevertheless, you shall die like mortals, and fall like any prince’” (Ps 82:6–7 NRSV). Christian Gers-Uphaus works through the origin of the psalm and its first significance and then presents early Jewish interpretations as represented by the Septuagint and the Qumran community, and the psalm’s Christian reception in the Gospel of John and patristic readings. The result is a tour de force that serves well anyone seeking to unravel the mystery of these challenging expressions in the Hebrew Bible. Placing his entire study under the theme of “the debate over monotheism,” G.-U. first locates the psalm in its original Hebrew context, with its roots in the Canaanite concept of the divine council. He follows a reconstruction of Israelite religion that posits an early mixed community with polytheistic elements that moved toward monolatry and monotheism only under the Deuteronomistic reforms of Josiah and the priestly message of the exilic and postexilic communities, respectively. Along the path of that shifting context, Psalm 82 could both affirm the existence of other gods besides Yhwh and then dramatize their “de-deification” through their failure to enact justice. G.-U. points especially to Deut 32:8, which depicts how God determined national boundaries “according to the number of the sons of God” and suggests that God gave others gods (or perhaps angels) authoritative charge over the peoples of the world. [End Page 495] Turning to early Jewish readings, G.-U. evaluates the Septuagint’s translation as a faithful rendering of the Hebrew, though with its own emphasis. Particularly the implicit nonexistence of other gods comes to the fore in the declaration of their death sentence. The Qumran community shifts the interpretation by identifying the “gods” with angels and granting the figure of Melchizedek the place of the divine judge. Early rabbinic sources expand these possibilities by envisioning the divinization of Israel with the reception of the law at Sinai and the divine role of judges with their God-given authority. Certainly, G.-U. grants pride of place in his work to the use of the psalm in the Gospel of John (10:34–35) and among the Church Fathers. In John, the theme of the “monotheism debate” reappears in the charge of blasphemy that “the Jews” make against Jesus. G.-U. reads the identification of the “gods” “to whom the word of God came” (John 10:35) as either OT prophets or Israel at Sinai. He explains the logic as an argument from the lesser to the greater, which legitimizes the divine title for Christ. The passages taken from the Church Fathers are representative examples, first those who make significant reference to the psalm (Justin, Tertullian, Cyprian, Novatian) and then those who explicate Psalm 82 in the commentary tradition (Eusebius of Caesarea, Theodoret, Jerome, Augustine). G.-U. is concerned to draw from both the Greek and Latin traditions. The principal conclusions point to an interpretative predilection to read the psalm against the Genesis narrative of the creation and fall. Humanity, made in the image of God, holds the potential of bearing the divine title. Fallen from God into sin, humanity comes under judgment and becomes mortal. Another move, represented particularly by Theodoret and Jerome, identifies the fallen gods as unjust human judges. In all, the question of the existence of other gods has given way to the general identification of human beings as “gods,” whether in the past, the present, or as deified in the future. Particularly satisfying is the fundamental work...

Holocaust Memory and Restorative Justice: Competition, Friction, and Convergences

Holocaust Memory and Restorative JusticeCompetition, Friction, and Convergences Björn Krondorfer (bio) Keywords Holocaust, transitional justice, memory, restorative justice, Jewish and Christian responses, trauma, uniqueness, reconciliation, politics of difference, national entrenchment, dialogical engagement In Multidirectional Memory: Remembering the Holocaust in the Age of Decolonization, Michael Rothberg argues for the value of overlapping and intersecting Holocaust memory with other collective memories. He traces how the history and memory of the Holocaust have been evoked, adopted, and employed as a way of making sense of political struggles and group identity in various colonial and postcolonial contexts. For Rothberg, the concept of multidirectional memory recognizes that remembrances of cataclysmic events do not cancel each other out but are venues through which meaningful moral and political decisions can be formed in the present. In a time when momentous collective (and often traumatic) memories flow freely and rapidly across national borders, they are often pitted against each other competitively. But, Rothberg argues, the idea of "competitive memory" must be abandoned since it assumes a public sphere that cannot hold "different collective memories"—as if it were "a zero-sum struggle over scarce resources."1 While Rothberg's study largely focuses on how the Holocaust has figured as a political, cultural, and moral trope in negotiating the meaning of the Algerian War (in which Algeria eventually won independence from France), it transcends any specific cultural location. His frame is global in perspective and rests on an ethical foundation that pursues the "notion of transnational, comparative justice."2 Consequently, Rothberg disagrees with claims that view the Holocaust (or any other calamity, for that matter) as a unique and incomparable event. [End Page 373] In this essay, I use Rothberg's critical intervention—multidirectional memory—and its application as a "shared moral and political project"3 to probe the dichotomizing language of uniqueness/universality when applied to memorable events of great harm. By eschewing competition among collective memories, I seek new pathways of justice-oriented, dialogical engagement. I do so by tracing, on the one hand, the rhetorical weight of Holocaust uniqueness claims (particularly in American and occasionally German contexts) and, on the other, the universalist claims of transitional justice as they evolved after 1945. I will read uniqueness claims through and against a transitional justice genealogy, eventually arriving at the concept of restorative justice. I will argue that neither uniqueness nor universality is a helpful mechanism for thwarting the entrenchment of partisan political memory. I propose, instead, to speak of "singularity" with respect to the gravity of each injurious history and collective memory. Creating a framework that averts competition among narratives of suffering will be "inevitably dialogical," as Rothberg suggests.4 It supplants the competitive deployment of political memory with an ethical vision of engaged relationality. UNIVERSAL, UNIQUE, SINGULAR: PRELIMINARY CLARIFICATIONS "The question of the uniqueness and universality of the Holocaust," writes Michael Berenbaum, "is being considered with increasing frequency not only in scholarly quarters with a focus on historiography but also in communities throughout the United States where Holocaust memorials and commemorative services raise a consciousness of the Holocaust."5 Berenbaum wrote those lines before the 1993 opening of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC, at a time when Jewish American and Israeli scholars were debating the place of the Holocaust along the oppositional poles of uniqueness and universality. In his 1981 essay, Berenbaum briefly reviewed the positions of some of the major participants in the debate, including Yehuda Bauer, Lucy Dawidowicz, Emil Fackenheim, Elie Wiesel, Richard Rubenstein, Ismar Schorsch, Eliezer Berkovits, Robert Alter, and Henry Feingold. Berenbaum, who had been a member of the United States Holocaust Memorial Council, sided with a restrained embrace of the uniqueness claim, arguing that neither the perceived threat of a so-called Americanization of the [End Page 374] Holocaust nor the attempt to compare Jewish victims to other victim groups or other genocides would diminish the historical uniqueness for the Jewish community. To Americanize the Holocaust, he suggested, is just a way of telling "the story . . . in such a way that it resonates" with an American audience; to compare the Holocaust to other events, he continued, is no cause for fear since they are "analogous...

The Pauline Teachings of Peter in the Apocryphal Acts

Peter and Paul were foundational figures in the early church in their roles as authoritative teachers. However, authors recognised a disparity between the apostles in terms of their theological gravitas based upon their epistolary contributions. The authors of the apocryphal acts of the apostles, particularly the texts focused on Peter, were also cognisant of this problematic dynamic. This article focuses on their attempts to remedy the situation through the practice of transposition, that is, placing teaching from Paul's letters in Peter's mouth. The article analyses examples of this practice beginning with the Martyrdom of Peter (Acts of Peter) through the later antique accounts of Pseudo-Linus, Pseudo-Abdias, and Pseudo-Marcellus. The Petrine borrowing from Paul's epistles is all the more striking given that seemingly relevant passages from 1 and 2 Peter could have been used by the apocryphal authors but were not. Only one citation from a Petrine epistle appears in any apocryphal text, but it is placed in the mouths of misguided Jewish Christians and prompts apostolic rebuke. The article closes by suggesting implications of transposition for early Christian reception of scriptural texts, namely the possibility that concepts we consider Pauline may have been widely considered Petrine on account of the apocryphal acts.

When Healthcare Isn't Enough: A Christian Response to Social Determinants of Health.

When Healthcare Isn't Enough: A Christian Response to Social Determinants of Health.

A Christian Response to Laws That Require Immoral Acts

A Christian Response to Laws That Require Immoral Acts John Makdisi Introduction In the parable of the rich young man (Matt 19:16–23),1 the young man asks Jesus what good he must do to gain eternal life, and Christ tells him to keep the commandments.2 The young man is not satisfied and tells Jesus that he has observed them, but still wants to know what he lacks. Jesus answers, “If you wish to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to [the] poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me” (Matt 19:20–21). When this passage is read in light Christ’s Sermon on the Mount (Matt 5–7),3 it becomes clear that Christ calls each one of us to God [End Page 1147] by a conversion of heart through the grace of the Holy Spirit.4 Those who listen attentively to Christ’s word open themselves to becoming the blessed of the beatitudes, beginning with those blessed as the poor in spirit and proceeding with those who mourn, who are meek, who hunger and thirst for righteousness, who are merciful, who are clean of heart, who are peacemakers, and finishing with those who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness and for Christ.5 It is not easy to open our hearts to God when we enjoy worldly wealth, power and pleasures. The rich young man who observed the commandments went away sad after hearing Christ’s words, “for he had many possessions” (Matt 19:22). Yet, Christ calls each of us to “be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matt 5:48). The challenge is particularly acute when laws in our nation require us to act immorally. Not only must we refuse to do the law’s bidding, but, as Christians, we are called to go beyond the “shalt not” of the commandments and strive for the “shall do” of the beatitudes. We face a twofold sacrifice—the pain inflicted on us by a law that we cannot obey in good conscience6 and the pain suffered by us [End Page 1148] in our efforts to bring love where there is hate.7 Christ calls us to this task when he says that if someone strikes us on the cheek we should turn the other one to him as well (Matt 5:39).8 We should be willing to suffer not only the blow of an immoral law but also the sacrifice of self to make the situation right. This article examines five cases which involve laws in our nation that presently require immoral action and then concludes with a sixth case in which the U.S. Supreme Court recently invalidated the application of such a law to a particular contract but left open a way still to use the law to impose immoral action. In each of the six cases, the article explains the evil of the law as a transgression of one of the commandments, which, if one is to remain moral, requires civil disobedience. It then explains how the person who follows the commandment and suffers the negative fallout from the consequences of civil disobedience nevertheless is called by Christ to go beyond and be perfect by following the beatitudes. Although more than one beatitude may be relevant in each case, this article examines only one, and a different one at that, for each case. The purpose of the article is to illustrate by these six examples how the beatitudes operate on a practical basis in the concrete circumstances of everyday life to satisfy Christ’s call to perfection.9 [End Page 1149] Before starting in, it is important to set the context of humility within which Christ calls us to live a Christian life. The first beatitude lays a foundation for all the others in this respect, as we can see when Christ calls the rich young man to give up his possessions and come follow him. Blessed are the poor in spirit. Before we can hope to follow Christ we must shed our undue attachment to possessions, power, and pleasures, which give rise to the pride of Adam.10...

The Ethics of Radical Life Extension: Catholic, Protestant, Orthodox Christian, and Global Ethic Perspectives

Biomedical technologies capable of sharply reducing or ending human aging, “radical life extension” (RLE), call for a Christian response. The authors featured in this article offer some preliminary thoughts. Common themes include: What kind of life counts as a “good life;” the limits, if any, of human freedom; the consequences of extended life on the human species and on the Earth; the meaning and value of finite and vulnerable embodied life; the experience of time; anthropological self-understanding; and human dignity. Notably, all four authors share serious concerns about RLE’s potential effects.

When Healthcare Isn't Enough: A Christian Response to Social Determinants of Health.

Education, employment, housing, neighborhood safety, and traumatic life experiences influence people's health, and poor health as a result of inequities in these areas cannot be remedied by medical care alone. Although social determinants of health threaten the attainment of a healthy life for people across North America, nurses are positioned to be leaders in a movement toward health equity. Nurses can follow the example of Jesus in loving their neighbors as themselves by addressing the social needs of patients, championing health system change, educating their communities, and advocating for Health in All Policies.

Dying and the Virtues by Matthew Levering

Reviewed by: Dying and the Virtues by Matthew Levering Craig Steven Titus Dying and the Virtues. By Matthew Levering. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 2018. Pp. xi + 260. $45.00 (cloth). ISBN: 978-0-80287548-8. In Dying and the Virtues, Matthew Levering affirms that dying leaves indifferent neither nihilists, who see death as a disaster, nor optimists, who expect the afterlife to be familiar. Levering's approach is a thoroughly Christian response to the tragedy of death and its meaning. He draws from Hans Urs von Balthasar (2-4), who offers three essential ways to find sense in dying. First, there is the incomprehensibility and absurdity of death. It insults meaning, undermines the whole of life, and unsettles the very permanence of love. Second, there is the New Testament affirmation that believers need not worry about death. They have already died with Christ in baptism and will also be resurrected and live forever with Christ (John 6:58). Third, union with Christ and his redemptive suffering is the source of new life. For Levering, these three angles—death as absurd, death as conquered, and union with Christ's death as the source of becoming a new creation—combine to illuminate the Christian call to a virtue-informed preparation for dying. Levering provides a compelling approach that pairs the virtues with themes and exemplars: (1) love and Job's challenge to God, (2) hope and meditation on the nature of dying, (3) faith in Jesus and the fulfillment of desire, (4) penitence and the witness of the protomartyr St. Stephen, (5) gratitude and St. Macrina, (6) solidarity through divine mercy and redemptive suffering, (7) humility as evidenced in Jesus' dying and in our own, (8) surrender and the sacrament of the sick, and (9) courage to say goodbye to the world as we know it. His matching of the virtues with such themes and models, practices and goals becomes enriched as throughout the book he draws out insights through careful study of its sources. [End Page 339] In the first five chapters, Levering addresses the three theological virtues and their effects in a unique way. Chapter 1 employs the Book of Job to reveal the urgency of the question about whether God loves Job, which is especially pertinent in the face of Job's loss of family and his anguish about the annihilation of his personal existence. Levering's interpretation of the narrative of Job identifies the pattern of the encounter between God and Job: God's definitive response to the painful course of events opens up a silence through which God responds with divine love to queries about life after death (27). Chapter 2 offers narratives that demonstrate how to bolster hope by meditating on dying (meditatio mortis) as a preparation for death. Christian examples include Josef Pieper, Robert Bellarmine, Francis de Sales, and Jean-Pierre de Caussade, who contribute to a philosophy and theology of death, the spiritual soul, and the existence of God. There is a vivid contrast to the Christian approach in the way philosophical materialists, such as Susan Sonntag and Oliver Sacks, suffer despair due to their denial of meaning in life and in death (31). They suffer from an expectation that their desire for eternal interpersonal communion will be met with everlasting nothingness. However, the believer's imagination is marked by the ultimate end of life (37). Christ offers a way to die well, to be patient in suffering (Rom 12:12), and to hope on one's deathbed. Chapter 3 addresses the questions of what the greatest and most persistent desire of people is when they are dying, and whether Jesus responds to this desire. Levering compares a Christian perspective with interreligious and New-Age perspectives on the experience of dying. In particular, Kathleen Dowling Singh (The Grace in Dying) and David Kuhl (What Dying Persons Want) identify the main human desires in the face of death: eternal "existence, communion, and unity" (59). Beyond these three desires, however, Levering rightly recognizes the need for reconciliation with God. Although expressed through self-giving love, reconciliation is not usually included in such non-Christian approaches. Nonetheless in basic human experience, we do find that...

Discerning Ethics: Diverse Christian Responses to Divisive Moral Issues

Discerning Ethics: Diverse Christian Responses to Divisive Moral Issues

Can the Earth be Sacred Once Again? Christianity and Climate Change

The following paper takes Pope Francis’ Encyclical on Climate Change as an opportunity to re-open the debate, begun in 1967 by Lynn White Jr., on the theological origins of the environmental crisis. I note that the Pope’s critique of consumerist modernity is strong, but his lack of a genealogical account of modernity remains a weakness of the text. I argue, with White, that the technological revolution which has caused climate change would not have been possible without Christian assumptions. The original disenchantment of the world was the Abrahamic revelation which disjoined divinity and nature, and contra to appearances, the disjunction was only exacerbated by the doctrine of the incarnation. With climate change, modernity is returning to this revelation in the form of the sobering experience of the precarity of the planet. Nature is now experienced as finite once again, and it includes us. Modernity, however, cannot be disavowed any more than disenchantment can easily be forgotten. A return to the Christian roots of disenchantment might help us to remember what we have forgotten: the virtue of contemplation, which could qualify modern attitudes of control and domination, and engender a Christian experience of reverence for nature. While this is a Christian response to the climate crisis, other religious traditions will need to come to analogous forms of earth-centered ethics if we are to achieved the integrated ecological pluralism needed for the future of civilization.

More than the pandemic

More than the pandemic

Finding Ourselves after Darwin: Conversations on the Image of God, Original Sin, and the Problem of Evil

Finding Ourselves after Darwin: Conversations on the Image of God, Original Sin, and the Problem of Evil

Christian Response to Challenges Faced by Children with Disabilities

Children with disabilities are among the most marginalized and excluded in the society. This study aimed at ascertaining the typologies of disabilities among CWD in Malindi Sub-County; challenges faced by CWD, parents and caregivers, how they mitigate them and the role of St. Francis Xavier Roman Catholic Church in addressing the plight of CWD and its efficacy. A qualitative methodology was used to collect primary data. Structured and semi - structured interviews and focus group discussions were used in collecting data. The result indicated the existence of various types of disabilities among CWD in Malindi Sub County; including physical disability, mental disabilities, visual impairment, and hearing and speech impairments. Challenges faced by CWD included neglect, abuse by the able-bodied, inability to access assistive devices, mobility challenges, lack of awareness of rights, inability to access buildings and facilities and proper housing, inability to access specialized healthcare, inability to acquire employment, inability to socialize, and inability to access specialized education. Challenges faced by parents include joblessness and poverty, inability to access disability-specialized public amenities, marital and family breakups, stress, inability to access information, communication challenges, inability to access government funding, negative attitude by society, insecurity, negative impact of disability on siblings, and lack of formal training in disability issues. The study concluded that though the church had put in place some measures in addressing the plight of CWD, the efforts have not been efficient. To achieve efficacy, the study proposed that the church should set up full-fledged disability ministries; involve parents and the entire society in the planning and mainstreaming disability issues and build synergy and proper working relationships with government and other stakeholders.

The Book of Tobit in early Christianity: Greek and Latin interpretations from the 2nd to the 5th century CE

This article examines the early Christian reception of the apocryphal book Tobit, focusing on Greek and Latin Christian interpretations from the 2nd to the 5th century CE. The study asks: how did early Christians read Tobit and for what purposes? The article provides an overview of how and why Tobit ended up in the Christian Bible, whether canonical or apocryphal. It then examines how the figures of Tobit and his son, Tobias, function as a moral exemplum in early Christianity, especially related to almsgiving and financial management, burials and the care of the dead, marriage and parenthood, prayer, the suffering and endurance of Tobit, and the role of Tobit in the Christian understanding of angels. The article demonstrates that Tobit had a rich and diverse reception in early Christian biblical interpretation, especially in the Latin church of the West. Contribution: This article investigates the historical reception of the apocryphal Book of Tobit in early Christian thought. The focus is especially on the varieties of thought regarding Tobit. The article provides an overview of how and why Tobit ended up in the Christian Bible, whether canonical or apocryphal. It then examines how the figures of Tobit and his son, Tobias, function as moral exempla.

Nuclear Weapons and the Christian: Disarmament or Learning to Live with Nuclear Armed Adversaries?

Abstract A long Christian tradition has argued that the possession and coercive/physical use of nuclear weapons is morally indefensible and advocated nuclear disarmament. This article takes stock of what we now know about nuclear weapons and advocates a Christian responsibility to redirect initiatives from eliminating nuclear weapons to eliminating the hatred, fear and insecurity that creates a demand for them. It notes the small number of nuclear powers despite many states that could develop a nuclear capability and argues that the United States holds the most responsibility for their limited spread. It also notes that the tendency for nuclear weapons to provide otherwise elusive solutions to deeply pressing security challenges facing the nine nuclear powers means that these states will likely never eliminate them. The article advocates for the removal of the insecurity that generates the demand for nuclear weapons, and briefly illustrates how this might look like in contemporary North Korea.