Theological Context Research Articles

The Inertia of All Flesh

This article builds on Eric Santner’s reflections on The Weight of All Flesh and in particular his interpretation of the king’s two bodies (Royal Remains). Within the context of Protestant theology, the theopolitical consequences of the democratization of the political body described by Santner are of particular interest. In this respect, I argue for two theses: first, this process of democratization finds its parallel in the Protestant critique of the representational function of the church – and perhaps even a crucial precondition. Second, in terms of a theological critique of ideology, this observation allows us insights into some accompanying symptoms of this process. From a theological perspective the weight of all flesh can then be precisely analyzed as the inertia of the flesh – and of all flesh at that.

Reading Black Theology of Liberation in the African American Christian Experience of the 1900s–2000s

ABSTRACT Like other forms of theology, Black Theology emerges out of the critical thinking, reflection, and Christian practices of African American people. Theology is generally developed out of Christian people's experiences at different times. Since theology is not mentioned in the Bible, people would continue to formulate theologies using scripture to answer their theological questions. This article discusses African Americans’ questions, thinking, and reflection through their Christian experience and a few responses to Black Theology in the United States. Since the emergence of Black Theology, there have been questions and criticism raised by European theologians. This article reflects on a few of those questions to further examine the context and purpose of Black Theology.

RE-Interpretasi Teologis Mangido Pasu-Pasu Dari Tulang Dalam Ritus Pernikahan Di Desa Huta Manik Kec. Sumbul

The aim of this research focuses on the issue of how to understand and interpret Mangido pasu-pasu's theological RE-interpretation of bones in wedding rites in Huta Manik village. The research method used is Qualitative Descriptive research, and Contextual theology method using a Synthesis approach model where theology is built on the basis of one's own cultural perspective and the culture of others. The data collection technique for this research is using semi-structured interviews and documentation in the form of pictures. Based on the results of research conducted by the author, in the context of this research, the theological Re-Interpretation of Mangido Pasu-pasu includes a re-examination of the meaning and theological values ​​contained in this practice, with a new and in-depth perspective or interpretation. This research focuses on the problem of the meaning of the Mangido Pasu-pasu tradition where Toba Batak people still think that Pasu-pasu Tulang is equivalent to God's Pasu-pasu, and Toba Batak people also think that Tulang is God's representative.

Шейх ал-ислам Закариййа ал-Ансари в книге «Вафиййат ал-аслаф» Ш. Марджани

The article is a study of a fragment from the Arabic manuscript source “Wafiyyat al-aslaf wa tahiy-yat al-akhlaf” from the heritage of a Tatar theologian and 19th-century historian Shihab al-Din al-Marjani (Shigabutdin Marjani). The fragment is dedicated to the biography of a Shafi’i faqih Zakar-iyya al-Ansari (d. 926/1520), the supreme judge of Egypt of the Mamluk era, awarded the honorary title “Shaykh al-Islam”. Based on the manuscript from the collection of the academic library of Ka-zan Federal University, the Arabic text of al-Ansari’s biography was restored in modern orthography and then translated into Russian with comments and a brief analysis in the historical and theological context. Tatar theologian Shihab al-Din al-Marjani provides the basic information about the life and contribution of Sheikh al-Islam Zakariyya al-Ansari to Islamic sciences and emphasizes that he was one of the renovators of the Islamic faith (mujaddid) of his era. The authors of the article, on the one hand, tried to fill a gap in domestic Islamic studies regarding information about the outstanding Shafi’i jurist Zakariyya al-Ansari; on the other hand, they pointed out the importance of studying and translating a unique domestic manuscript source on the history of Islam – the biographical dic-tionary “Wafiyyat al-aslaf wa tahiyyat al-akhlaf” by Shihab al-Din al-Marjani, which has not yet been published or translated in full. For the first time, a fragment from this source with translation is introduced into scholarly discourse.

Abstaining from Retaliation: A Story of Restoration Ministry-OEIL in Eastern Congo

Reports of violence flow from everywhere. They make humankind look powerless in front of conflicts and seem inclined to a retaliation culture. Many people prefer to justify retaliation by euphemistic concepts like self-defense, counterattack, letting justice prevail, counteroffensive, etc. This is a mere application of the natural human principle of the lex talionis. In tumultuous zones like the African Great Lakes Region in general and Eastern Congo in particular, one might expect escalation of conflicts if retaliation is the only option. However, the advent of Christianity in our societies has strengthened a new culture of reconciliation among opponent groups as a way out of violent conflicts. In a world immersed in retaliation culture, a message about raising a culture of reconciliation by abstaining from retaliation sounds like naïveté or treason. This paper sets out to respond to this question: How does reconciliation become an antidote to retaliation in the Eastern Congo context? Using Case Study method, the objective of this study is to present biblical, ethical, and practical ways of breaking the circle of violence and building a culture of peace. In Eastern Congo, Restoration Ministry-OEIL is one of the Christian organizations that strive to promote reconciliation among ethnic communities. It raises awareness of the root causes of Eastern Congo crisis from their local, national, regional, and international dimensions. Therefore, its story constitutes historical evidence of the possibility of abstaining from retaliation despite the horrors of violence endured. Its peacemaking method is a good example of a contextual theology of reconciliation from indigenous practices.

The concept of freedom in the thought of St. Augustine

The article discusses St. Augustine’s arguments for the existence of free will and its theological contexts in relation to human nature. The bishop of Hippo refers to the philosophical works of Plato and Plotinus as well as texts from the New Testament, and in justifying the existence of free will points to the direct consciousness of man. Augustine was deeply convinced that this intrinsic action is necessary for valuation and therefore for moral judgment resulting from the choice between good and evil. Without free will, man would not be himself, it is the condition of humanity and the foundation of responsibility. In his writings, the author distinguished between the freedom from autonomy and self-determination; independent acts of will that are an ontological feature of human being. He believed that the ultimate source of man’s inner freedom is God. Augustine was also aware that human freedom is imperfect, which manifests itself in ethical dilemmas related to decision-making. The human freedom is never absolute, as a result of man’s fallen nature, which God has bestowed with the grace of goodness in the form of the gift of free will. Among other things, this accounted for Augustine’s rejection of the concept of grace proposed by Pelagius, who denied its supernatural character claiming that it is given according to merit. Many scholars have attempted to interpret the issue of how grace affects the human will. Their statements seem to support the conclusion in light of which freedom of the will is not abrogated due to the action of grace.

“What then art thou?”: Demogorgon, Son of God and Savior of the World in Shelley’s Prometheus Unbound

ABSTRACT At the climactic fall of Jupiter in Prometheus Unbound, the deposed tyrant god asks his destroyer—the mysterious Demogorgon—“What then art thou?” This article seeks an answer to that question by uncovering the linguistic and theological contexts of Demogorgon. Specifically, I position Prometheus Unbound among historical arguments on Christology in the early nineteenth century, in which traditional arguments for the divinity of Christ were bolstered by Christian apologetic readings of classical myth. However, against these apologetic syncretists, novel reconsiderations of classical mythology and biblical hermeneutics in the period coincided with challenges to Christ’s divinity and Trinitarian theology. Amid the resulting Christological instability, Prometheus Unbound synchronizes Christian religious belief with pagan mythical figures, most notably recasting Demogorgon—the destroyer of gods—as Christ Himself. By rewriting the symbol of Christ, Shelley is free to reimagine Christian eschatology in terms that transvaluate the teachings of the English state church. This article sheds light on the religious implications of Prometheus Unbound’s enigmatic figure Demogorgon, and also contributes to critical conversations on Shelley and Christianity, and the development of Christian doctrine in the early nineteenth century.

Discourse on the Substance and Existence of Evangelism According to Literary Descriptions

Evangelism is at the core of the Christian mission, which has been a subject of profound study in religious literature. This article discusses the complexity of evangelism service across time, culture, generations, organizations, and sectors. In an academic context, qualitative research methods with content analysis are employed to explore the substance and existence of evangelism. Through the selection of relevant literature and careful content analysis, this article successfully reveals patterns, themes, and essential understandings related to evangelism. The conclusion of this research emphasizes the importance of the role of the Holy Spirit in evangelism, as well as the involvement of individuals and churches in ministry, and then how relevant it is to the context of theology and church practice. This article is expected to make a significant contribution to the development of relevant and impactful thinking and practices of evangelism, while offering a deeper understanding of the role of evangelism in the mission of the church in the modern era.

‘Even the Stones Will Cry Out’: Native American Cosmology, Theological Anthropology and the Mission of Creation

Based on a unique cosmology Native American theologians propose theological anthropologies which represent humanity as the weakest of all created beings. Accordingly, this paper will advocate reframing humanity’s call to creation care from one of superiority in which humankind cares for creation, to one of humility in which humankind is cared for by creation. This paper will begin by outlining a prominent symbol for a properly ordered cosmos across Native American contexts known as the Sacred Circle. By identifying the origins of Native American contextual theologies in a pan-Native American cosmology popularised by the teachings of Lakota holy man and Catholic catechist Nicholas Black Elk (1863–1950) it will introduce core tenets of Native American cosmology. The most prominent of these is the Sacred Circle’s representation of a cosmological priority for space over time, which is often linked to an egalitarian, interrelated view of the cosmos. By engaging a range of primary source texts from Native American theologians who continue the legacy of Black Elk by contextualising Christian faith in accordance with the Sacred Circle, this paper will recognise land as the locus of a tangible spirituality. Accordingly, non-human beings have spiritual agency and personhood, and human beings must learn to relate to them rightly to participate in cosmological harmony. Human beings may do this by recognising human fragility and dependence on non-human persons for survival. Therefore, humanity’s call to creation care begins and ends with humility, manifested through gratitude and reciprocity towards non-human creatures.

Christian Worldview and Cosmic War: Contexts and Origins of a Religious Combat Concept

AbstractThis paper explores the origins of two different emergences of the Christian worldview concept, and their relationship to understandings of cultural conflict. It will offer an analysis of the historical, cultural, and theological context for each emergence. In both cases, worldview was what Ian Hunter has termed a “combat concept.” Section I of the paper will offer an overview of the origins of Christian worldview thinking in the late nineteenth century through the thought of James Orr (1844–1913) and Abraham Kuyper (1837–1920). Section II will deal with the second major emergence of Christian worldview as a combat concept in the 1970s, focusing on figures like Francis Schaeffer (1912–1984), Chuck Colson (1931–2012), and Nancy Pearcy (1951–). Both contexts exhibited increased cultural and religious pluralism, and conservative Christians displayed a heightened sense of ideological conflict. Worldview became a tool for differentiation from, and contention with, the “other.”

Thomas Aquinas on Non-Theological Faith

Abstract The majority of studies on ‘faith’ (fides) in the thought of Thomas Aquinas consider it in a religious or theological context: fides as the theological virtue by which one assents to the truths of divine revelation. The focus on theological faith is appropriate, given its central importance as a theological virtue, but this is not the only sense of fides that Thomas identifies. The present study investigates two non-theological senses formulated in his commentary on the De Trinitate of Boethius: first, fides as the proximate cause of assenting to principles within a given science (‘epistemic faith’) and, second, fides as an indispensable element of society (‘societal faith’). These senses have been largely overlooked in secondary literature but, I argue, might help to dispel mischaracterizations of faith as fundamentally unreasonable.

“Trapped in a History Which They Do Not Understand:” Reading James Baldwin with Thomas Merton, Toward a Spiritual Theological Interpretation of Mass Incarceration

This paper argues that Thomas Merton’s under-appreciated engagement with James Baldwin reveals Baldwin to be an essential resource for a theological account of mass incarceration and the spiritual sustenance of ati6on to dismantle the “New Jim Crow.” Merton highlights the religious insight of Baldwin’s conviction that white Americans are ravaged by a spiritual imprisonment that is concretized in distinct historical dynamics and which spell an apocalyptic foreboding. White Americans are, in Baldwin’s words, “trapped in a history which they do not understand.” With attention to the methodological and ethical pimalls of reading Baldwin theologically, and situating this exchange in the broader context of black theology and theological/spiritual responses to mass incarcera6on, it is argued that Baldwin produces essential and unique religious insights for interrupting the contemporary criminalization of black bodies. Merton's additions to Baldwin's thought is generative for future possibilities, particularly with Merton's development of a more robust mysticism.

Faith and Works … Or Works and Faith? A Performative Faith in Samoan Churches

Christianity is the main religion in the Pacific Islands, and what is unique about Christianity in the Pacific is that religion cannot be separated from everyday life experiences. This is because the worship and veneration of a divine source is the foundation of Pacific cultures and worldviews. In the Samoan context, faith in the Christian God is not only a rational activity but a concrete, practical experience embracing the physical and emotional manifestation of one’s faith in God. This essay is a contextual theology paper examining the significance of applying authentic expressions of the gospel from a Samoan cultural worldview while acknowledging Christian traditions passed down by Western missionaries of the 19th century. Faith in God, without good works, is impossible in the Samoan context. This is because service to God and one another is imperative to social cohesion and prosperity. The physical manifestation of one’s faith through active, committed service to the church ministry is a sign of good faith, evident through excessive monetary offerings, responsibility for fulfilling specific roles in the ministry and a commitment to all church programs. The Samoan cultural nuance of community and service helps form an authentic expression of Samoan Christian identity.

The Shifting Faces of Epic Heroes: Unity and Diversity in Seventeenth-Century English Literary Criticism

Seventeenth-century England, renowned for its epic poems, stands as one of the most fruitful periods in the history of English literary criticism in terms of epic theory. One of the most significant topics of literary criticism during this era is the evolution of epic heroes. The critics at the time had comprehensive knowledge of the existing pagan and Christian traditions of epic heroes which were varied and interwoven. Moreover, the critics of the period were well acquainted with the literary criticisms of late Renaissance Italy and seventeenth-century France. However, they did not simply absorb influences from Greek, Roman, French, and Italian sources. Instead, English critics engaged in an active dialogue with these traditions, interpreting and adapting their ideas in light of their own cultural, historical, and theological context. This enabled critics to create individual approaches towards epic heroes, thereby making English literary criticism diverse but also too fragmented to form a cohesive group. This aspect of the period makes drawing the contours of the epic heroes immensely challenging. However, despite the overriding eclecticism inherent in the literary criticism of the period, this article indicates that there is a surprising degree of consensus on certain characteristics of epic heroes. Accordingly, this article examines the concept of epic heroes in seventeenth-century English literary criticism, focusing on four key aspects: the didactic role of epic heroes, their depiction as paragons of virtue, the significance of their lineage, and the intricate process of Christianising them.

Christian Education in the Chinese Mainland as Education for God’s Love

Abstract This article investigates how “God’s love” has been working in the Chinese Mainland through different disciplines connected with Christian education. Tao Xingzhi’s “education of love” and his proposals of “life education,” “new education,” “education to love, serve, and sacrifice,” and “teaching and learning are one” contextualized modern education in China. Additionally, Bishop K.H. Ting advocates a “theology of love” as a contextual theology for Christianity in China. Ting regards God’s love as God’s primary attribute and claims that “God is love,” and God’s love is cosmic, leading us to love each other and build up the Body in God’s love. This article further examines the ideologies of Tao and Ting, who identify as both Christian and Chinese and are eager to dialogue with the context of China. Both of them advocate practicing love in education and society. Integrating Christianity and education, Christian education in China could be regarded as education for God’s love.

The Theology of the Ethnocultural Empathic Turn: Towards the Balkan Theology of Political Liberation

The theology of the ethnocultural empathic turn, on the general level, encompasses ethnocultural empathy, which, as a branch of social psychology, strives for a thorough understanding of the life context of those ethnically and culturally different from ourselves. In the context of Christian theology, this turn also embraces the turn reflected in Mt 15:21–28 (Mk 7:24–30), in which Jesus expands his missionary work from the locally based “House of Israel” into the global realm to include the entire “inhabited world”. In this essay, the theological discourse of ethnocultural empathic turn is embedded within a specific sociopolitical context, which brings us to the Balkans, i.e., the post-Yugoslav framework, where we discuss the legacy of Bishop Srećko Badurina and layperson Franjo Starčević. During the disintegration of the Yugoslav Federation, they vigorously resisted the dominant ethnonationalist-religious persuasions of the Croatian Catholic and Serbian Orthodox communities. They stood up for those who faced elimination due to the policy of ethnic cleansing. Today, both can serve as the foundation for the establishment of the theology in question, aiming at the development of the first post-Yugoslav contextual theology based on the political theology and the theology of liberation, capable of tackling the phenomenon of ethnoreligiosity as one of the most pressing problems plaguing this region.

Prayer and AI: Exploring the Impact on Orthodox Romanian Youth in a Confessional High School Context

The study’s main objective is to identify and analyze the attitude toward prayer of teenagers in a denominational school in Romania and the need to use AI-assisted tools. To find a satisfactory answer, we considered it necessary to identify how they pray, i.e., freely or by calling on the prayer book, and whether they questioned whether artificial intelligence could be an agreeable support. The research also takes into account the documents of the Romanian Orthodox Church from which the attitude of the Hierarchy towards new technologies in general and artificial intelligence in particular emerges. How attentive is the Church to these realities, and how open is it to incorporate them? Does it have any good reason to consider tools like e-rosary in the Catholic world or Alexa Pray in the Anglican world in the near future? The introduction addresses Romania’s socio-political, educational, and theological context, and the discussion focuses on how the literature on digital religion and its subchapters is received in the Romanian theological landscape. The research method includes qualitative, questionnaire, and textual analysis; it is an interdisciplinary approach, namely practical theology and the study of digital religions. The questionnaire was administered to 216 respondents, respecting all research ethics requirements. The results reveal that young people prefer to pray freely, use the prayer book moderately, and have not gathered information regarding artificial intelligence that could help them. However, they are open to a future offers from the Romanian Orthodox Church, including AI-assisted tools.

Contextual Christology in the phrase ‘apo isa elmaseh’ and the word ‘opo’

This study examines the Christological meaning of the phrase ‘Apo Isa Elmaseh’ and the word ‘Opo’ referring to as the ‘Lord Jesus Christ’ in catechesis books and Bibles in the Minahasa language with Tontemboan and Tombulu dialects. A translation model approach in contextual theology was used to show that the translation process is a way of determining the contextual theology that occurs dialogically between zendeling missionary, translators and indigenous teachers living in Minahasa culture. The result shows that these phrases and words are used in the Minahasa religion to express the Divinity of Christ, who is believed to be Apo Kasuruan Wangko (God of Origin of Life), Apo/Opo and the Great Ancestor, who is always close to the community and the universe. This finding has broad implications to other contexts in Indonesia where with a serious contextual approach, genuine theological knowledge could be explored.Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: This article supplies a new contribution to the cultural, anthropological and theological discussion of Apo Isa Elmaseh to Minahasan-Christian. ‘apo’ or ‘opo’ and ‘Apo’ or ‘Opo’ expresses the spiritual appreciation of human existence in the continuity of history and community life in this region. Furthermore, the finding encourages other disciplines to investigate any issue that relates to culture, religion and theology.

Contextualisation of Anglican liturgical worship in Sri Lanka with the use of cultural symbols

ABSTRACT This study was conducted as research on the intertwining of faith and culture. The main question for the study was to find how cultural symbolism depicted in liturgies was understood and approached within the context of worship and culture. The Sri Lankan Anglican Church has promoted the contextualisation of liturgies and worship from its political independence and has also become progressive in developing indigenous liturgies. Through liturgies, much of the religious-cultural context is reflected and contextual theologies are introduced. In that regard, this will be beneficial to practical theology. This research had a documentary study and an empirical element. The sample population for the study was the Diocese of Kurunagala, which is one-half of the Anglican Church in Sri Lanka. For the empirical study data collection tools of Google Forms, interviews and focus group discussions took place across cross-cultural congregations with a focus on participatory action research. The results received indicated a close relationship between worship and culture, the need for further education on theological connections, community awareness, and action as well as visible ventures such as an open museum. There is a need for further research and dissemination of contextualised liturgies and also studying factors that are leading towards local expressions of worship.

Hedonist and Theologist Narratives in French Baroque Poetry and Spiritual Verses by the English Metaphysicals: Poetising Author’s Experience vs Sacralising Privy Feelings

In the poetic diversity of Western European Baroque, the worldview was dominated by the search for unity in the contradictions of existence, which almost always immersed the man in a theological context. This is especially evident in the works by the seventeenth-century English Metaphysicals, whose unique style is considered from the perspective of the European continental poetic tradition. At the same time, appealing to French Baroque poetry as a specific literary phenomenon compared to Donne’s school in England is determined by the historical and creative process that produces individual strategies of poetising an author`s experience vs sacralising privy feelings. The article discusses the originality of the means of poetic expression of worldview principles in French Baroque poetry and English metaphysical school, which are expressed in close connection with the author’s paradigms of hedonistic-religious vs spiritual vision of reality. These means are actualised at the image-plot and structural levels that determine the methodology based on conceptual approaches to comparative analysis with elements of hermeneutic, imagological, stylistic, and cultural-historical methods. The article emphasises that the profound considerations about the origins of the universe in love poems with hedonistic motives bring the works of the French authors (Théophile de Viau) closer to the verses of the English ones, who discuss serious issues of human existence, religion, world order, etc. (A. Marvell) even in love poems. The religious works of the French poets (d’Aubigné, de Sponde, La Ceppède) contrast with metaphysical ideas about the transcendent world (J. Donne, G. Herbert, F. Quarles, Н. Vaughan) precisely by interpreting the Baroque themes of the transience of earthly existence, imperfection of human being, that are represented defectively from the perspective of style. Metaphysical tension and emotional release of the most secret movements of the soul raise the spiritual verses to the level of contemplative poetry.