Christian Theology Research Articles

Trained in Christian theology, religious studies, and literary theory in three British universities, I have taught an iteration of my Bible course in three US faith-based colleges and schools for over thirty years. I am lost without an annotated Bible and an eye for honest doubt. Each semester I have required my undergraduate students to read several biblical texts, stories with which they are probably familiar. But here, we begin to explore them in light of traditional and contemporary scholarship. While we often move through the Hebrew Bible and Christian New Testament chronologically, we also take up and assess three critical approaches to studying these texts.

The understanding of the doctrine of humanity and sin in Christian theology reveals the essence of human nature and the need for divine redemption. This study aims to examine theological perspectives on human nature and sin, focusing on the relationship between the Imago Dei and the fall of humanity. Using a qualitative descriptive approach through literature review, the research analyzes biblical texts and theological interpretations from various Christian scholars. The results show that humans, created in the image and likeness of God, were originally good and endowed with moral and spiritual capacity. However, through sin, humans experienced separation from God and moral corruption. Nevertheless, God’s grace through Jesus Christ enables the restoration of humanity’s divine image and reconciles the broken relationship with the Creator. The study highlights that understanding these doctrines helps believers realize their dependence on God’s grace, leading to repentance, transformation, and ethical living. The implication encourages Christians to maintain a responsible, spiritual, and moral life as a reflection of the renewed image of God within them.

This poem, Through the Glass, Darkly, offers a theological and poetic reflection on the limits of intersectionality as a framework for understanding layered social injustices. Inspired by 1 Corinthians 13:12, which speaks of seeing "through a glass, darkly," the poem acknowledges the profound contributions of Kimberlé Crenshaw’s theory of intersectionality in naming and analyzing the overlapping structures of oppression related to race, gender, and class. However, it also gently critiques the insufficiency of any sociopolitical framework to fully grasp the totality of human suffering, especially the wounds that transcend empirical categories. The poem draws from the example of Christ, “a Carpenter who broke the bread,” referencing Matthew 9:10-13 and Luke 4:18-19, where Jesus aligns himself with the marginalized and afflicted. Through these scriptural echoes, the poem suggests that true justice must be grounded not only in analysis but also in faith, mercy, and divine love. The closing stanzas reflect 1 Corinthians 13:13, emphasizing that knowledge and theory will one day pass away, but love remains. In doing so, the poem invites scholars, theologians, and activists to hold space for both critical inquiry and spiritual humility, affirming that while intersectionality offers vital tools for justice, ultimate wholeness comes through grace. This reflection aims to open interdisciplinary dialogue between critical theory and Christian theology, underscoring the need for a deeper, more holistic view of liberation.

If God is the origin of all being, but is not the origin of evil, it must follow that evil is not a being. That is, evil has no positive existence. As such, evil is always a parasitic absence of the good; its sting lies in the deprivation of some good that ought to be (Anglin & Goetz, 1982). But this account faces serious challenges. Can the description of evil as a lack of good—even of a good that ought to be—adequately account for the human experience of evil? Heidegger seems to critique privatio boni precisely on the grounds that the alleged “lack” of evil can color one’s whole existence—e.g., like a bout with cancer or disease (Capobianco, 1991). How can privatio boni be defended in a world haunted by the Holocaust? In my estimation, privation theory will benefit from a rearticulation. In this article, I will attempt to reformulate privatio boni as inordinatio boni. I will argue that evil is best understood as a disordering of the good—an inorganic whole, as it were—and that this account enables the affirmation that God is not the cause of evil—for evil is always a parasitic fracturing of the order of the good. The paper will proceed as follows. First, I will briefly articulate the notion of privatio boni. Next, I will argue that the phenomena of natural evil and pain do not fit within a privation concept of evil. Third, I will define and defend the notion of inordinatio boni within the resources of Christian theology, showing how it can metaphysically account for evils such as cancer alongside moral evils such as maliciousness. Finally, I will respond to several potential objections.

In this article, I am interested in forming an account of how an atheist (which I define as someone who believes that God does not exist) might have faith in God. Assuming an involuntarism position regarding the nature of belief, I examine whether an atheist could have non-doxastic propositional faith in God, but conclude that this is not possible since it would force an individual to believe that p might exist and that p does not exist at (what I call) a first-order level, which is impossible. I then examine accounts of objectual faith (faith in S) and suggest that they may offer hope for the faithful atheist. Specifically, it appears that, in certain limited cases that I refer to as objectual roles, the object of one’s faith may shift (a phenomenon that I call a “transfer”) depending on who or what brings a given state of affairs about (so long as the enactor of this state of affairs meets the requirement of the role). This strange feature of objectual faith allows for one to have faith in someone or something even if one does not believe in its existence. I conclude by examining how the possible implications of this project may impact Christian theology in particular.

The resurrection of Jesus Christ is the decisive climax of John’s testimony that Jesus is the “Son of God.” There would not have been a resurrection if there had been no death, but death does not guarantee a resurrection. Jesus’ resurrection plays the ultimate role in John’s overall argument in the fourth gospel. In peculiar ways, John presented the resurrection theme to be seen at several points in the fourth gospel. The resurrection is the most significant part of the deliberate sequence of signs in the gospel according to John. Great individuals have come to the world scene and died as heroes, but without resurrection. Jesus died as the lamb of God who took away the sin of the world (John 1:29), but the resurrection event is the authentication that indeed Jesus is the Christ and that John’s testimony is true (John 21:24). Previous studies have not identified the resurrection stratum conveyed in images, symbols, and characterization in John’s Gospel. The objective of this study is to examine the role of resurrection in the Fourth Gospel through a literary analytical approach, exploring how it functions within the writer’s literary and theological agenda. As deciphered from the Fourth Gospel, the resurrection is the proof of Jesus’ divinity, a fulfilment of prophecy, a victory over death, and a spring of joy and hope (John 20:20) which has far-reaching implications on and foundational to Christian theology. Hence, the resurrection theme in John’s Gospel began softly, gradually building to a significant crescendo in the end.

Hylomorphism provides an explanation of material composition: the material parts, the Xs, will compose a whole, a Y, belonging to a given natural kind, when those parts are characterized by a substantial form. While there are a number of those who hold that each human person is identical with a human animal – ‘animalists’ – most of these are not hylomorphists. One could worry that hylomorphism contributes little unique to debates about personal identity, collapsing into either a form of property dualism or substance dualism. What I aim to do is apply a robust and classical hylomorphic account of persons (derived from Thomas Aquinas) to two contemporary problems, illustrating the way in which hylomorphic metaphysics can offer elegant solutions to tricky situations posed against animalists. Specifically, I will propose that hylomorphic animalism can help provide principled resolutions to worries that seem to undermine animalist intuitions which are raised by ‘brain transplant’ or ‘remnant person’ scenarios. Hylomorphism can capture the advantages of ‘hybrid’ animalist responses without the cost of denying a singular, biological criterion of personal identity. Further, hylomorphism provides a distinctive upshot for Christian theologians and the moral positions that they want to affirm by rendering morally anodyne apparent epistemic difficulties in identifying personal identity over time.

ABSTRACT The article argues that most Western Christian theology lacks a sense of deep, spiritual connection with the living earth. The article theorizes a concept, ‘ecopneumastalgia,’ to describe our longing for these lost relationships with spiritually alive earth others. To make constructive theological contributions toward addressing our collective ecological crisis, Christian faith praxis must attempt to restore this inspirited connection to earth others, moving beyond simple care for the earth to a shared love – biophilia – of life that unites God, humans, and the ecological world. It calls pastoral theologians to experiment with an animistic biophilia that fosters a form of spiritual-relational healing through relational intimacy with the entire cosmic web.

Following Nietzsche’s declaration that ‘God is dead’, Lev Shestov (1866–1938) and Jacques Derrida (1930–2004) attempted to rethink Judeo-Christian theological and philosophical traditions by trying to free the relation to God from pretences of finite concepts and limitations of knowledge. In the second half of the twentieth century, the problematic discourse of the so-called ‘paradox of the gift’ became the key question of apophatic theology. The philosophers of postmodern culture related the Christian theology of the gift to the apophatic theme of the hidden and the post-Heideggerian view of God as a Being. United in their pursuit of the ‘mystical experience’ of unknowing and ‘the possibility of the impossible’, Shestov’s and Derrida’s thoughts were concerned with the state of human relations to God in contemporary Western culture. However, Shestov’s legend about the divine gift of the Angel of Death and Derrida’s analysis of the gift in relation to the phenomenon of revelation and death had different ends in mind. Situating Shestov’s ideas within the context of postmodern encounters with the gift and the apophatic theme of God, the article is the first known attempt at a comparative reading of the two thinkers’ ideas.

For many centuries and up to the present, the concept of freedom has been and remains relevant. St. Basil the Great and his theology represent one of the key foundations in Christian theology. Subsequent generations of theologians rely on or refer to his writings and dogmatic formulations. Based on the analysis of his life and written heritage, it is possible to make a certain conceptualization of his understanding of freedom. On the one hand, everything corresponds to the Holy Scriptures, on the other hand, he analyzes the essence of man, as well as his socio-political existence, in more depth. The result of the research allows us to determine his understanding of freedom as independent choice and actions of the individual, but within the framework of faith in God, fulfillment of the commandments, state and social obligations. Also, variations in the restrictions of freedom allow us to distinguish several of its varieties not only in the generally accepted sociopolitical terms, but also in the ontological and amartological meanings.

This study analysed the relationship between creation theology and environmental responsibility, with a focus on Imago Dei as the basis for Christian ethics in the context of the ecological crisis in Indonesia. The introduction outlines the ecological crisis, which includes worsening issues such as deforestation, pollution and climate change. The aim of this study was to investigate how the concept of Imago Dei can be utilised as a foundation for Christian ethics in environmental management. The methods employed include a theological approach and document analysis to assess the impact of creation theology on Christian environmental practices. The findings indicate that applying Imago Dei reinforces human responsibility as stewards of God’s creation and encourages more sustainable conservation efforts. The discussion highlights the importance of integrating creation theology into Christian environmental ethics to effectively support environmental preservation efforts. Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: This study has intradisciplinary implications within the fields of systematic theology, moral theology and ecotheology by enriching the understanding of the Imago Dei as an ethical basis for Christian involvement in environmental stewardship. Interdisciplinarily, this research opens dialogue between Christian theology and environmental science, social ecology and public policy. Emphasising ecological responsibility grounded in the Imago Dei can support ecotheological education in churches and encourage church engagement in environmental policy advocacy, thus offering practical contributions to addressing the ecological crisis through a cross-disciplinary approach.

The paradox of Christ's 2 natures-fully human and fully divine-has long shaped Christian theology, but it also provides a fruitful lens for understanding modern experiences of embodiment, vulnerability, and transformation. This paper explores the dialogue between Christology, psychiatry, and plastic surgery. Drawing on apocryphal infancy gospels, canonical narratives, and developmental psychology, it highlights how stories of Jesus' childhood reveal impulses, growth, and identity formation, aligning with Piaget, Erikson, and Kohlberg's models. His adult life underscores both weakness-hunger, fatigue, anguish-and divine power in miracles, transfiguration, and resurrection. From a psychiatric perspective, these oscillations parallel dissociation, resilience, and the coexistence of fragility and strength within the human psyche. Plastic surgery emerges as a modern parable of this duality. Surgeons navigate the tension between the mortal, aging body and the aspiration for renewal, healing scars while contending with cultural gerontophobia and the idolization of youth. While aesthetic restoration can restore dignity, it cannot fully erase mortality; the scars of the body, like those of the risen Christ, may signify endurance and meaning beyond appearance. Theology of beauty thus reframes surgery as participation in, rather than rival to, eschatological hope. By integrating theological reflection with psychiatric and surgical practice, this work suggests that beauty lies not only in symmetry and youth but in scars, compassion, and transformation. For both clinicians and theologians, Christ's dual nature provides a framework for humility: to heal where possible, console where necessary, and point beyond the body toward transcendent beauty.

Religious moderation remains highly relevant in Indonesia today, as intolerance and extremism continue to emerge and affect various sectors, including higher education and students as the younger generation. Interfaith dialogue is one of the approaches widely used to promote moderation; however, such initiatives are often incidental and have limited impact in transforming individuals from intolerance to tolerance, or from social exclusivism to social pluralism. This study aims to address these weaknesses by examining the transformation process of students who actively participate in interreligious student communities. In addition, it seeks to explore and propose the strategic role of Bible/Theological Colleges (B/TC) in Indonesia in supporting religious moderation efforts. Employing a qualitative approach through interviews, direct observation of interfaith student activities, and literature review, the research finds that sustainable interfaith communities are more effective than incidental dialogues in fostering openness, tolerance, and mutual respect among students of different faiths. The findings indicate that B/TC should not limit their role to serving Christian communities but must also contribute to the common good by collaborating with Islamic Religious Higher Education institutions in establishing long-term interfaith student communities. This study contributes by offering an alternative model of interfaith engagement that strengthens the effectiveness of religious moderation initiatives in Indonesia and provides practical insights for religious higher education institutions in promoting social harmony.

The article is based on the premise that a theology of African hospitality emerges from the intersection of biblical themes such as eschatology, humanity, redemption, kenosis, Christology, salvation and future hope, with African indigenous concepts such as communality, migration and humanity (Ubuntu). It seeks to explore the extent to which it utilises African indigenous knowledge systems (AIKS). Does it employ indigenous research methods (IRMs) as its modus operandi without explicitly stating so? The article goes beyond the aphorism that ‘a person is a person due to others’ (homo est homo ex aliis) and holistically embraces cosmological concerns. Utilising a theo-analytical design, it draws analyses from key contributors to the theology of African hospitality, such as Olikenyi, Sakupapa, Mbiti, Nyamiti and other leading scholars in the field. Additionally, it surveys the works of Khupe, Adelaja, Chilisa and Mkabela, among others, to understand the nature of IRMs. As a Christian theology approached from an African perspective, the article will engage some indigenous resources and epistemologies from a theological framework so as to understand its authenticity. Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: As part of commemorating 50 years of Research Institute for Theology and Religion (RITR) (1975–2025), this article enriches the Verbum et Ecclesia journal by engaging a theology of African hospitality with indigenous research methods (IRMs). Its scholarly engagements enriches the interdisciplinary agenda in the modern studies.

Church music commonly used in worship services in Indonesia tends to follow musical traditions originating from outside the local culture, particularly Western traditions. As part of society, churches have generally not made significant contributions towards contextualisation through the use of traditional music. This study employs qualitative data using a cultural and church music approach. The Gereja Kalimantan Evangelis (GKE) [Evangelical Church of Kalimantan] was chosen as the research site because it is one of the dominant Protestant churches in Central Kalimantan and has actively contributed to contextualising church music through the integration of karungut, a traditional form of orally transmitted music that functions as a cultural identity marker for the Dayak Ngaju people. Karungut rohani refers to karungut compositions specifically adapted for use in worship, intended to support and strengthen the faith of congregants. Its transformation into church music requires intentional lyric composition aligned with Christian theology, a serious performance attitude, and motivations focused on glorifying God rather than self. The process of contextualising karungut rohani in worship involves three primary groups: church leaders or pastors as policy-makers, karungut rohani artists as cultural agents and the congregation as listeners and participants. Contribution: The novelty of this study lies in the discovery of the concept, application and form of karungut rohani as church music. The contribution of this research is to serve as a reference for the contextualisation of church music and to encourage church communities to integrate traditional music with church music in worship services, so that the congregation can experience worship more deeply and meaningfully within their own cultural context. The contextualisation of worship through karungut rohani is expected to serve as a new concept or model for the development of church music and liturgy using traditional musical forms.

Same-sex marriage in Indonesia is still considered unacceptable by the wider community because it is considered contrary to national law, norms of decency, values of decency in social life, and religious teachings adopted by the majority of Indonesian people. In the view of Christian theology, the nature of marriage is not only a social institution, but also a picture of the sacred relationship between Christ and His church. God created human beings according to divine design as male and female, with the intention of forming a holy communion of life in the bond of marriage, as stated in Genesis 2:18 and 2:24. However, globalization and cultural change have sparked controversy over LGBT issues, including the legality and ethics of same-sex marriage, both in society and in the church. This study aims to examine the validity of same-sex marriage from the perspective of Indonesian positive law and provide a theological response based on the Christian faith. The research method used is a descriptive study with a literature approach, which examines legal sources and theological literature, including the Bible and recent academic references. The results show that same-sex marriage is declared invalid according to Article 1 of the Marriage Law and Article 1320 of the Civil Code. Theologically, the practice is viewed as a sin and an abomination before God as written in Leviticus 18:22 and 20:13. Therefore, same-sex marriage has no basis of legitimacy legally or from the perspective of Christian ethics.

This study examines the role of the hula-hula authority within the Batak Toba kinship system, known as Dalihan na tolu, and its relevance to the theological understanding of blessings. In Batak tradition, hula-hula is viewed as "Debata na tarida" (the visible God) and is considered a source of blessings in various social and ritual contexts, especially through the practice of giving ulos. However, Christian doctrinal theology asserts that blessings are solely a gift from God, independent of any specific social structure or tradition. Using a qualitative research method through literature study, this paper explores the intersection and tension between Batak customs and Christian theology. The findings show that while the authority of hula-hula enriches the values of social harmony and kinship ethics, this understanding risks overshadowing the biblical truth that God is the sole source of blessings. Therefore, the church is called to reaffirm God's authority while also respecting cultural values. This study highlights the tension between tradition and theology, which should be addressed with wisdom to allow both to coexist harmoniously.

Abstract Within Christian theology, salvation cannot be fully understood apart from its implications for the environment. While some dismiss this connection due to the otherworldly outlook of soteriology, this paper argues that biblical salvation encompasses ecological restoration, a concept resonant with the Wesleyan emphasis on holistic, transformative grace. Navigating the theological complexities of environmental crises requires wisdom, particularly the practical, earth-affirming wisdom of Proverbs. Using Ghana’s galamsey (illegal mining) crisis as a case study, this paper demonstrates how wisdom theology, specifically Proverbs 2, can reshape Christian responses to ecological degradation, offering a salvation that is both spiritual and environmental.

The subject of this research is the process of semantic transformation of key ancient philosophical concepts ("whole," "eidos," "mimesis," "image") in early Christian culture, as exemplified in the texts of 2nd–3rd century apologists and the visual language of the Roman catacombs. The article focuses on the transitional period of Late Antiquity, characterized by the complex interaction and interpenetration of antique and emerging Christian traditions. It analyzes how categories traditional to ancient thought were profoundly reinterpreted and imbued with new meaning within the context of Christian theology and liturgical practice, ultimately leading to the formation of the unique visual language and artistic canon of early Christian art. The central material object of the study is the frescoes of the Roman catacombs, considered as the embodiment of this philosophical-theological "translation." The study is based on Susan Buck-Morss's methodology of "history as translation," particularly her approach to working with the "name" as a specific concept that "absorbs history through its meanings" and the principle of "reverse translation" of the present into the past. The scientific novelty of the research lies in the application of S. Buck-Morss's methodology to the material of Late Antique culture, which allows overcoming traditional binary oppositions ("pagan/Christian," "text/image") and demonstrating the genesis of early Christian art as an organic process of semantic transformation rather than a break with tradition. As a result, it is proven that the visual language of the catacombs was not a primitive illustration or random borrowing but the result of a conscious "translation" of the antique heritage, theoretically grounded in the works of the apologists. The key conclusion is that the formation of a new visual paradigm occurred through the rethinking of old "names," which, retaining their form, were filled with new theological content, and the catacombs are presented as a space of "convergence of times" (kairos) where this translation found its material embodiment.

The heightened glocalization of the contemporary world that has engendered the radical inter-contextuality of its societies and the irreversible interpenetration of local and global realities demands that Christian theologians, besides building aptitudes in constructing local theologies, should equally develop competence in constructing intercontextual theology. Drawing upon an eclectic methodology that merges narrative analysis, thematic analysis, and creative research, this article posits that engaging theology in a glocalized world requires the glocalization of theology. It proposes sunomilean theology (theology/ theologizing with others) as a model of intercontextual biblical theologizing that fits today’s glocal reality. Sunomilean theology is rooted in Peter’s conversation with Cornelius in Acts 10:27 and finds profound expression in the Council of Jerusalem’s narrative that Luke records in Acts 15. Its methodology leans on a three-step itinerary: (1) theological self-awareness, (2) other-theological awareness, and (3) intercontextual theological negotiation.