Christian Context Research Articles

Geopolitics and Identity-Making in US Diasporic Chinese Churches

Using ethnographic and interview data, my paper analyzes how geopolitical relationship manifest at the community level in Chinese America Responding to Lien Pei-Te’s call to meaningfully disaggregate among the commonly “lumped together Chinese Americans”, I draw upon the experiences of specific groups of Chinese immigrants to the US, post-1949 migrants to Taiwan, pre-1949 migrants to Taiwan, and the People’s Republic of China (PRC) Chinese, in order to understand how boundary drawing occurs in their various communities but also consider how the act of being “lumped together” itself in the US context complicates identity formation. The year 1949 marks the communist victory in the PRC as well as the inaugural year of the Kuomingdang (KMT)-led Republic of China (ROC) in Taiwan. Carved out of these historical events, the contemporary social relations among these groups persist after their migration to the US, but they manifest differently in various domains of practice, including religious ones. As political relationships among states reorganizes their social relations, the religious site offers what Carolyn Chen calls a “moral vocabulary” to articulate, contemplate, and, in some cases, justify these divides. Even within a Christian context, messages of inclusivity are not universal but redefined according to the political and social contexts. By not assigning a singular definition to Christian thought, my paper makes way for a theorization of an intersectional Christian identity.

Aristotelian Dialectic, Medieval Jadal, and Medieval Scholastic Disputation

Although Greek dialectic has an influence on both Christian and Muslim scholarships in terms of structuring the argumentation, this article argues that each employs the dialectic to serve their own purposes. If the Greek dialectic aims to defeat an opponent by showing logical contradictions, Christian scholarship claims to use the dialectic to search for the truth, and Muslim literature employs it to arrive at a level of certainty in knowledge (either qaṭʿī or ghalabat al-ẓann). As a result, this article further argues, Greek dialectic in both Christian and Muslim contexts undergoes some modifications. In the Christian context, dialectic serves a didactical purpose, which is to find the truth that resides in the mind of the teacher. In Islamic context, Greek dialectic is modified and employed to find epistemological (qaṭʿī) or psychological (ghalabat al-ẓann) certainty in religious knowledge.

Aristotelian Dialectic, Medieval Jadal, and Medieval Scholastic Disputation

Although Greek dialectic has an influence on both Christian and Muslim scholarships in terms of structuring the argumentation, this article argues that each employs the dialectic to serve their own purposes. If the Greek dialectic aims to defeat an opponent by showing logical contradictions, Christian scholarship claims to use the dialectic to search for the truth, and Muslim literature employs it to arrive at a level of certainty in knowledge (either qaṭʿī or ghalabat al-ẓann). As a result, this article further argues, Greek dialectic in both Christian and Muslim contexts undergoes some modifications. In the Christian context, dialectic serves a didactical purpose, which is to find the truth that resides in the mind of the teacher. In Islamic context, Greek dialectic is modified and employed to find epistemological (qaṭʿī) or psychological (ghalabat al-ẓann) certainty in religious knowledge.

Praying “Straight from the Heart”: Evangelical sincerity and the normative frames of culture in action

Based on ethnographies of two Evangelical Christian contexts in the U.S., this article investigates how Evangelicals’ expectation that prayer be sincere – i.e., an honest reflection of the praying subject’s true thoughts, feelings, and desires – enabled prayer to do particular kinds of cultural work for Evangelicals at the same time it created a series of troubling dilemmas surrounding the practice itself. Through this empirical analysis, we develop the more general theoretical concept of normative frames to draw broader sociological attention to how groups’ normative expectations regarding how cultural tools should (and should not) work interact with and influence the pragmatics of culture in action. We discuss how future sociological scholarship on the possibilities and problems of culture in action can benefit from further study of the complex and sometimes paradoxical interplay between cultural tools and their normative frames.

Writing that Isn’t

BY COMMON UNDERSTANDING, writing is a graphic means of recording sound and meaning. It is not language per se, but a selective expression of that basic human attribute, as leavened and mediated by writing itself. Other messages come through as well. Think of emoticons, which encapsulate facial features and emotional states, or, in Christian contexts, a cross that is affixed to the names of the dead. To most scholars, systems of writing do not just operate as mere vehicles for language. They s...

The Contribution of Non-Canonical Gospels to the Memory of Jesus: The Gospel of Thomas and the Gospel of Peter as Test Cases

This article argues that the social memory approach makes a significant contribution to the interpretation of the early gospel tradition. This approach helps to overcome an anachronistic distinction between ‘canonical’ and ‘non-canonical’ (or ‘apocryphal’) Gospels by highlighting the way Jesus was portrayed in various Gospels of the first and second century. Early Christian Gospels in general presuppose the post-Easter perspective on Jesus as a divine figure, but depict his activity and teaching in different ways. A closer look at the Gospel of Thomas and the Gospel of Peter demonstrates how these Gospels take up and continue perspectives which can be observed already in the earlier Gospels in their own ways. Thereby they provide glimpses of different social and theological contexts of second-century Christianity.

The kaleidoscope of divine images

Abstract Compared to metaphors about God in the Bible, those in other Christian contexts seem to receive little academic attention. To bridge this gap, this study examines metaphors gathered from gospel songs on Billboard and iTunes to analyze the abstract concept of God from a cognitive linguistic viewpoint through extending the framework of Conceptual Metaphor Theory. Our findings indicate that while diverse kinds of metaphors focus on the multi-dimensionality of God such as his characteristics (e.g., GOD IS A MAGICIAN and GOD IS A LOVER), outline (e.g., GOD IS A CONTAINER and GOD IS LIQUID), and supreme status (e.g., GOD IS HIGH), structural metaphors tend to represent the overwhelming majority and thus form the basis for the structural-metaphor-dominant phenomenon. In addition, the flawless figure of God is suggested to result from the PERFECTION image schema which is responsible for hidden aspects in related metaphorical structures. Furthermore, metaphors about divine images, having their mapping details enriched by biblical context, are suggested to possess recessive metaphor inheritance. Finally, the rhythm of ‘chain of metaphors’ is proposed to interpret how the spirit of the songs about the divine being are brought out. This study sheds light on our overall understanding of the concepts of God in Christian culture, and contributes to the development of interdisciplinary studies concerning metaphor, religion, cognition, and culture.

“MELAMPAUI DUNIA LATIN : KEMURIDAN DAN KEWARGAAN DALAM TEOLOGI PUBLIK KEKRISTENAN ASIA”

Abstract:
 This article looks at the issues of discipleship and citizenship in the context of Asian Christianity in terms of “belonging”. The concept of discipleship refers to the concept of belonging within the church, while the concept of citizenship refers to belonging within the nation-state. Thus the issue of belonging within these two spheres is a sub-set of the questions relating to public theology within Asian Christianity. The first issue considered is the question as to what extent the assumptions of public Christian theology actually are the assumptions of post-Enlightenment western Christian theology alone, and therefore have only very indirect links with Asian Christianity. The second issue is the intercultural nature of Christian theology, and its implications for public theology, including discipleship and citizenship. The third issue is the reality of Asian society and Asian Christian theology, particularly public theology. Where Christianity is a minority (albeit, large minority), what is the contribution of a public Christian theology to the debates of civil society? In this section the author looks at the concrete reality of violence in Asia, and seek to analyse how the dynamics of Pauline theology frequently used in Asia engage with the fact of violence. Finally the article seeks to answer the question as to what we can learn from Asian Christian contexts on the interaction of faith and culture in relation to Christian discipleship and engaged citizenship.
 
 
 Keywords: kekristenan, budaya, teologi publik, gereja, lokal, global, Asia, reformasi.

El diablo negro: el adjetivo μέλας en la Septuaginta, Nuevo Testamento, Epístola de Bernabé y el Pastor de Hermas

En la Literatura cristiana primitiva, particularmente en la Epístola de Bernabé (4:10 y 20:1), el Diablo es denominado ὁ Μέλας, apelativo traducido como “el Negro”. Una reflexión permite buscar el origen del vínculo entre negro y diablo en la literatura anterior: primeramente en la literatura griega, donde encontramos un uso ambiguo de μέλας, y en segundo lugar en la Biblia, ya que la Epístola de Bernabé está escrita en un contexto cristiano. Sin embargo, en la connotación negativa de μέλας en la Septuaginta no está clara, y es en el Nuevo Testamento donde el estudio debe extenderse a σκότος (“oscuridad”), para encontrar una relación directa con el diablo.

The indispensable mark of Christian leadership: implications from Christ’s methods of leadership development in Mark’s gospel

Abstract What is successful Christian leadership? How should leadership be developed within a Christian context? This article encourages Christian leaders to seek to identify with Jesus’ mission and paradigm in developing leaders by examining the Scriptural passage in Mark 3:13-19. Jesus’ example in leadership development was based on succession of leadership primarily accomplished through personally shaping his disciples in close, mentoring relationships. This article, in particularly examines Jesus’ practice of having his disciples near him in order that they might best accomplish the task he had purposed for them. Currently, this pattern of leadership development has been given diverse definitions from servant-based leadership to transformational leadership, but to Jesus, developing leaders was best accomplished through simple mentoring. Jesus’ desired goals for his disciples were realized through an intentional nearness to the lives of the twelve. For Christian leadership to be healthy, its success depends on close relationships being developed between the mentor and the mentee. The indispensable mark of Christian leadership is the combined effort of action and agenda while purposing to influence others

Theses from OCMS: Funerary Rites in Nepal: Cremation, Burial and Christian Identity

This study explores and analyses funerary rite struggles in a nation where Christianity is a comparatively recent phenomenon, and many families have Christian and Hindu, Buddhist and Traditionalist ( kiranti) members, who go through traumatic experiences at the death of their family members. The context of mixed affiliation raises questions of social, psychological and religious identity for Christian converts, which are particularly acute after a death in their family. Using empirical research, this thesis focuses on the question of adaptation and identity in relation to church life, within the familial and social sphere of individual Christians and within the wider society in which they live, particularly with reference to death and disposal. This research has used an applied theology approach to explore and analyse the findings in order to address the issue of funerary rites with which the Nepalese church is struggling. For the need of adaptation, this study seeks to understand the funerary rites of the host culture alongside Jewish-Christian characteristics of adaptation, especially in terms of the Nepalese Evangelical Christian context. It also poses the challenge of finding an identity in a wider cultural and societal milieu. The case studies and interviews have portrayed tripartite relationships and tensions between an individual, family and church or community at the death in a ‘split’ family where a Christian convert’s loyalty to the deceased and the family is tested. Participation and non-participation in the last rites create problems for both the church and the family, and some solution needs to be found. The study has discovered that adaptation of the technique of the funerary rites, rather than of their content, could ease this tension in a ‘split’ family, and enhance a family and community’s reconciliation and solidarity. The mode of disposal, whether burial or cremation, could be used and a theology of cremation be developed in order to provide a theological framework.

Pseudo-Arabic and the Material Culture of the First Crusade in Norman Italy: The Sanctuary Mosaic at San Nicola in Bari

Pseudo-Arabic is a form of ornament, derived from Arabic script, which appears in both Islamic and Christian contexts from the 10th century onwards. The city of Bari in south-east Italy, and its hinterland, boasts a number of examples of this motif. This article explores how pseudo-Arabic was employed in Bari and how the circulation of luxury objects in the medieval Mediterranean contributed to the dissemination of the motif. Bari’s most prominent church, the Basilica of San Nicola, contains a particularly inventive example of pseudo-Arabic in its apse mosaic, which can be dated to the decades following the First Crusade. This article explores the idea that booty from the crusade may have provided the inspiration for the pseudo-Arabic pavement.

Moral Conscience through the Ages

Moral Conscience through the Ages

Pastoral juxtaposition in spiritual care: Towards a caregiving faith theology in an evangelical Christian context

The problem for many troubled youths seeking help within a Christian context is that their need for meaningful connections and spiritual growth is attached to relationships with their significant others. When needs of attachment are not adequately met due to the effect of an insecure attachment working model in a relationship with God, the teen may end up leaving the faith community seeking a new caregiver or regress into spiritual struggles, depression, anxiety, self-doubt and other negative emotions. This paper responds to the issues associated with youth attachment behaviour towards God using a caregiving theology (i.e. pastoral juxtaposition) that draws on the ‘power of two’ through incarnational creativity and pneumatological ecclesiology. This proposed theology first supplements the work of the pastoral counsellor to create a transformative container through which young people, already within a redemptive Christian community, can grow spiritually and deepen their relationship with God. Secondly, pastoral juxtaposition targeting the spiritual needs of hurting youths serves to create a magnet space within the church community that models incarnational love, pastoral care and support for young people by entering their world order to reframe their personal stories of grief, abandonment and insecurity through creative means. Finally, we theologise that pastoral juxtaposition also integrates the power of the Holy Spirit, as the ultimate caregiver in times of conflict, into each youth’s unique journey of faith and healing. Implications of this pastoral theology are discussed and applied to everyday life.

The Cross

ABSTRACTMy aim is a philosophical understanding of sacrifice, and especially of the Christian conception of sacrifice. Initially distancing myself a little from the strictly ritual notion of sacrifice, I work with a concept of sacrifice as 1) a voluntary choice (2) to forgo or lose or give away (3) something costly, perhaps supremely costly, (4) as an expressive action, where (5) what is so expressed typically is or includes devotion or loyalty to something exalted. I consider three historical examples of political sacrifices, sacrifices made for a cause, and three literary examples of personal sacrifices, sacrifices made by one person for another. I note that in the Christian context it is very common for sacrifices either political or personal to be taken to be imitations of Jesus’ sacrifice as presented in the New Testament, and ask therefore how we are to understand that. My conclusion is that Jesus’ sacrifice can be seen as involving both a political and a personal aspect—but that in fact, it can only be made as intelligible as may be by understanding it, as the Letter to the Hebrews does, in ritual terms.

Jesus, Mary, and Akiva ben Joseph

Early parallels to and commentaries on Massekhet Kallah (a rabbinic text from the Talmudic Period) read the story in it about a woman and her ill-conceived son as being about Jesus and Mary. While some modern scholars have shied away from this reading, I argue in this paper that Massekhet Kallah should be read as engaging its cultural context, particularly its Syriac Christian milieu. In the passage under discussion, Rabbi Akiva tricks the woman into revealing the circumstances under which her son was conceived by falsely promising her life in the world-to-come. False oaths, however, are strictly forbidden in rabbinic literature, which leaves scholars scrambling to justify Rabbi Akiva’s behavior. Read as an anti-Christian polemic, this and other anomalies begin to make sense and seem to be crafted to counter Christian ideology. If the narrative is read through this lens, it appears that the author is attempting to establish that Jesus is not the son of God, but the product of adulterous and impure sex; that the “true” revelation is of Jesus’ lowly birth rather than his divine conception; and that rabbis, rather than Jesus, have the power to grant a person eternal life. Typical of polemical literature, certain passages, like the one about the child and his mother, attack central Christian tenets, and the broader themes of Massekhet Kallah do appear to be wrestling with its Christian counterparts over the definitions of holiness and sexual asceticism; however, other passages present stories that can be read as consistent with those proliferating in the Christian monastic literature of the Egyptian desert fathers popular in Syriac Christianity. Taken together, the evidence suggests that Massekhet Kallah is a text that is engaging with its Christian milieu – at times striving with it and at times consonant with it. This article, then, is an experiment in reading Massekhet Kallah in that Christian context.

“Your Miracle is on the Way”: Oral Roberts and Mediated Pentecostalism in Africa

Oral Roberts is perhaps the first North American Pentecostal preacher to have a truly global ministry. Th is article discusses his influence on Pentecostalism in Africa through the holding of evangelical healing crusades around the world and also hosting a worldwide media ministry through the use of radio, television, and the distribution of books and magazines. Th rough these visits and media ministry, Oral Roberts inspired and influenced many leading Pentecostal leaders in Africa, including the late Archbishop Benson Idahosa of Nigeria and Archbishop Nicholas Duncan-Williams of Ghana. An important and enduring influence of the ministry of Oral Roberts in Africa, this article suggests, is in the theology of “Seed Faith,” founded on the principle of sowing and reaping, which was an important feature of what later became known as the prosperity gospel. In studying the ministry of Oral Roberts and its influence on the African Christian context, we have an important case study on the globalization of Christianity as a world phenomenon and its appropriation as a local stream of Christianity.

Feminisms and Challenges to Institutionalized Philosophy of Religion

For my invited contribution to this special issue of Religions on “Feminisms and the Study of ‘Religions,’” I focus on philosophy of religion and contestations over its relevance to the academic field of Religious Studies. I amplify some feminist philosophers’ voices—especially Pamela Sue Anderson—in corroboration with recent calls from Religious Studies scholars to diversify philosophy of religions in the direction of locating it properly within the current state of Religious Studies. I want to do this by thinking through two proposals in productive tension: first, any philosophy of religions worthy of the name is intrinsically feminist; second, any philosophy of religions worthy of the name is intrinsically traditional. I want to use the productive tension between these two to illuminate ways calls for broadening the field can be enhanced when such calls are seen as both feminist and traditional. I proceed as follows. First, I note three instances of explicitly feminist work in philosophy of religions that do not suffer from the same narrowness as so-called “traditional” philosophy of religion. Religious Studies critics of philosophy of religion overstate the case in claiming feminist philosophy of religion is too narrow. Second, I develop a useful distinction between the concepts of “tradition” and “institution” to locate forces of oppression more precisely in dynamics of institutionalization so that we might rehabilitate tradition as a resource for combating institutionalized oppressiveness. I do this in response to the hegemony of current philosophers of religion who claim to speak about “the traditional god.” And third, I briefly coordinate four topics in religions from diverse feminist perspectives to help refine paths of inquiry for future philosophy of religions that is both feminist and traditional. My hope is that these clarify a philosophy of religions renewed through feminisms—moving from fringe to normative topics in institutionalized philosophy of religion, maintaining focus on actually existing human beings rather than hypothetically existing transcendent entities. I turn our attention to technical issues surrounding the status of mae chis, Buddhist laity who seek monastic recognition in Theravada. I turn our attention to struggles over fitting criteria for leadership between Mary Magdalene and Peter in early Christian contexts. I have us listen to Muslim women who seek to speak for themselves, many of whom describe Muhammad as a feminist. I have us listen to Anderson’s criticism of arguments about the (non)existence of a god and her promotion of human yearning as guided by regulative ideals as a pointed challenge to institutionalized philosophy of religion. In all these ways and more, feminist challenges to institutionalized philosophy of religion further contribute to diversifying field.

Critical failures

Critique in evangelical Christian contexts has usually been seen as a practice in service of finding the universal. However, I examine a number of contexts in which Christian critique seems to produce serial difference. I suggest that this seriality may itself be seen as a basis on which possibility and alternatives can be found, rather than just as serial failures to reach the universal. I briefly compare different events of serial transformations, in the United States as well as in Papua New Guinea, the site of my ethnographic research on denominational difference.

La objetividadde la moral cristiana y la filosofía del ser

The rejection of the objectivity of moral norms, considering them to be incompatible with human freedom, is one of the clearest manifestations of the present moral crisis. This question, which is often posed in relation to those norms which relate to the natural law, finds its most profound answer in a christian perspective. In effect the Gospel implies a definite anthropology. In order to express the message revealed by Jesus Christ not every anthropology is valid. Man's conditions as creature is a necessary presupposition on the gospel message. 11 this is ignored it is impossible to understand the universality of the christian message which necessarily presupposes a common basis, that is human nature. The divine initiative of salvation does not present itself as something radically heterogeneous to man but rather in terms of fulfillment, realization and restoration. It presupposes the presence of ethical requirements in the natural and universal reality of man. These ethical requirements belong to the range of natural law, a concept which has been the object of particular attack in relativist circles. It becomes necessary then, as an important task for ethics, to delimit clearly the concept of nature since in it the concept of natural law is in the balance. In a special way it must be stressed that nature is not a univocal concept but rather it is essentially analogical. It is predicated of all creatures and of God, of things and of man. Human nature should be considered as an open reality, since it is spiritual, and the moral requirements which spring from it, while granting that they are in accord with fundamental tendencies of nature, should be regulated by human reason. In this sense the moral norms of the natural law should not be considered to have been given once and for all but rather as a task of human reason. This approach, which is also thomist, does not leed to any form of relativism as long as it is situated within the context of the metaphysics of being which respects the spiritual openness of man. The vacuum created by the abandonment of metaphysics is being filled by use of the positive sciences which thus usurp the role which corresponds to metaphysics in the determination of ethical norms. The consequence is relativism as the sciences study the events and attempt to give them normative value. The sciences do have an important service to render to morality but should not grant themselves a role which is no theirs. Specifically the particular competence which corresponds to reason should be respected and that of reason illuminated by faith in the christian context. It is precisely the relationship between reason and faith that is the key to interpret the impact of the New Law on the natural law as well as the competence of the Magisterium in moral questions.