Language Of Faith Research Articles

Tweeting God

Elías García Martínez's "Ecco Homo" (Behold the Man), in the Sanctuary of Mercy Church in Borja, Spain, was deteriorating so rapidly that, in 2012, 81-year-old Cecilia Giménez decided to restore it. Her failed attempt led to the fresco being called "Ecco Mono" (Behold the Monkey). Due to the failed restoration attempt the artist initially faced criminal charges. However due to much interest generated from extensive media coverage and internet exposure, the artwork became a tourist attraction. Even a local wine was created to immortalise the event. In 2016, an interpretation centre for this artwork was built in Borja with the artist, Cecilia Giménez, the hero who unintendedly put her town on the proverbial world map. Pictured against the backdrop of social media, and more specifically the social media platform of Twitter, this case study serves as the focus for the research portrayed in the article, sketching the importance and meaning of everyday expressions of theology. Some of the latest developments in practical theology show similar perspectives within the domain of "lived religion" and address spiritual practices inside, but also in particular, outside the church walls as daily expressions of faith. This orientation corresponds with the notion that theological language does not exclusively belong to formal academy and the church. Daily life provides a rich canvas for incorporating various forms of "ordinary", "espoused", "implicit", "operant", "everyday", and "lived" theology and religion. The argumentation in the article is further developed by reflecting on the meaning of social media, specifically Twitter, in order to accommodate the sketching and meaning of alternative expressions of the language of faith. In the sketching of these everyday experiences of faith as portrayed in the Cecilia Giménez case study, the multi-layered beauty and sacredness of folly are illustrated.

‘Silence’ as a Language of Faith and Being: A Comparative Study of Kierkegaard’s and Heidegger’s Uses of ‘Silence’

The Heythrop JournalVolume 62, Issue 1 p. 39-52 Article ‘Silence’ as a Language of Faith and Being: A Comparative Study of Kierkegaard’s and Heidegger’s Uses of ‘Silence’ Rojin Mazouji, Rojin Mazouji Imam Khomeini International University, IranSearch for more papers by this authorMohammad Raayat Jahromi, Mohammad Raayat Jahromi Imam Khomeini International University, IranSearch for more papers by this author Rojin Mazouji, Rojin Mazouji Imam Khomeini International University, IranSearch for more papers by this authorMohammad Raayat Jahromi, Mohammad Raayat Jahromi Imam Khomeini International University, IranSearch for more papers by this author First published: 20 August 2019 https://doi.org/10.1111/heyj.13339Read the full textAboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditWechat Volume62, Issue1January 2021Pages 39-52 RelatedInformation

When Religious Language Blocks Discussion About Health Care Decision Making.

There is a curious asymmetry in cases where the use of religious language involves a breakdown in communication and leads to a seemingly intractable dispute. Why does the use of religious language in such cases almost always arise on the side of patients and their families, rather than on the side of clinicians or others who work in healthcare settings? I suggest that the intractable disputes arise when patients and their families use religious language to frame their problem and the possibilities of solution. Unlike clinicians, they are not bilingual and thus lack the capacity to understand and negotiate differences in terms that are responsive to those who work in healthcare settings. After considering a representative case, I explore whether an ethics consultant or chaplain can function as a translator and suggest that, at best, such efforts at mediation depend on contingent aspects of a case and will only be partially successful. To appreciate limits on the role for bilingual translators, I consider a futility dispute where a parent using religious language demands that everything be done for a permanently unconscious child. I challenge the traditional interpretation that says the parent values "mere duration of biological life irrespective of quality." From a religious perspective, human life is never "merely biological." This effort to slot the dispute into standard philosophical schemas misses what is crucial in the dispute. I suggest that a better interpretation views the dispute at a meta-level as one about whether withholding and withdrawing care is morally distinguishable from killing. Curiously, this interpretation makes the advocate of futile care into an ally of those "quality of life" advocates who also challenge this distinction. The crux of their dispute now rests on the normative ethics of killing. While I think my interpretation comes much closer to the views of many who demand 'futile care,' I suggest that it still falls short because of the way it reconstructs the religious concerns in nonreligious terms. I close by considering an analogy between the language of suffering and the language of faith, suggesting that both require a much richer understanding of the narratives that orient the lives of patients and their families.

Martin Luther and the Seven Sacraments: A Contemporary Protestant Reappraisal by Brian C. Brewer

Reviewed by: Martin Luther and the Seven Sacraments: A Contemporary Protestant Reappraisal by Brian C. Brewer Kathryn A. Kleinhans Martin Luther and the Seven Sacraments: A Contemporary Protestant Reappraisal. By Brian C. Brewer. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2017. 253 pp. Brewer offers a fascinating blend of historical and practical theology in order to strengthen Protestant appreciation for and appropriation of the seven ecclesial practices recognized as sacraments by the Catholic Church at the time of the Reformation. He devotes a chapter to each of the seven traditional sacraments, examining the history of each one from the early church, through the Middle Ages, and into the Reformation, noting at what point the rite was first labeled a sacrament. One might expect that such a study by a Protestant theologian would begin with baptism and eucharist, the two sacraments or ordinances most widely accepted. Instead, Brewer chooses to begin with penance, since the indulgence controversy considered to mark the beginning of the Protestant Reformation focused on the appropriate role of penance in the life of Christians. The chapters follow a similar structure: the rite in the early church, the rite in the middle ages, Luther's critique of the rite, Luther's positive understanding of the rite, subsequent Reformation perspectives on the rite, and a proposal for a contemporary Protestant appropriation of the rite. Brewer highlights the value that Luther found even in those rites that he concluded were not sacraments. He considers a wide range of other Reformation perspectives on each rite, including those of Zwingli, Calvin, Bucer, Cranmer, Hubmaier, and others. The result is an ecumenical appreciation of the best insights and pressing concerns of each theological tradition concerning each rite. An excellent example of this approach is Brewer's treatment of confirmation, a practice he uses to demonstrate how the theological emphases of infant baptism and believer's baptism can complement each other. Another example is the chapter on extreme unction, or anointing of the sick, in which he argues for the value of the laying on of hands and anointing with oil as an embodied expression of pastoral care in a religious culture that often devalues the material. One clear error in the book is the statement that in The Babylonian Captivity, "Luther called . . . for the laity to seize both kinds [End Page 336] by force" (205). In fact, Luther insists that even when the sacramental wine is withheld from the laity by force, they should not seize it by force but should endure the tyranny of the church in faith. The statement is such a clear misreading of Luther by an otherwise thorough scholar that one wonders if perhaps it is the result of an editorial error rather than the author himself. Expressing the nuances of Luther's sacramental theology is not always easy even for Lutherans. In the effort to steer clear of a quasi-magical view of the sacraments functioning ex opere operato, Brewer emphasizes the role of faith in Luther's understanding of the sacraments. Unfortunately, he often does this by saying that for Luther faith effects the sacraments. While he by no means minimizes Luther's central understanding of the power of the Word in the sacraments, Brewer's choice of the verb "effects" is unfortunate. Given his assertion that Luther's mature sacramental theology is found in the catechisms, he would have done well to use the catechetical language of faith receiving the benefits of the sacraments. The book reads easily, with minimal use of jargon. It is equally appropriate for parish pastors and as a text in a course on worship or sacramental theology. Kathryn A. Kleinhans Trinity Lutheran Seminary at Capital University Columbus, Ohio Copyright © 2019 Johns Hopkins University Press and Lutheran Quarterly, Inc.

"I want you to be a Muslim"

“Jeg kan ikke presse dig. Jeg vil have, at du bliver muslim. Du kunne dø i aften!” I denne artikel undersøges nogle tilbagevendende etiske og metodologiske tvetydigheder i antropologisk feltarbejde blandt danske muslimer, der involverer gentagende konfrontationer med muslimsk rekruttering og da’wā (invitation). Jeg argumenterer for, at etnografens religiøse subjektivitet samt den måde et etnografisk selv konstrueres, forhandles og placeres i felten på, direkte vedrører muligheden for et intimt engagement med den muslimske fortælling, hvilket påvirker analysens pålidelighed og etnografiens succes. Jeg introducerer også begrebet “diskursiv konvertering” for at beskrive det stadium, hvor internaliseringen af troens sprog og frivillig accept af lokale kategorier giver mulighed for direkte invitation til islam.

Teologiczna hermeneutyka języka wiary

The theological hermeneutics of the language of faith proposed by A. Grabner-Haider is a theological method of explaining, understanding and interpreting the entirety of the language of faith. This Austrian methodologist of religion distinguishes in a programmatic way between the scientific and the pre-scientific, pragmatic type of interpretation and argumentation. Grabner-Haider is exactly right in observing that this primary divide leads to another one: between two canonical logical languages (Orthosprache). The former is the canonical language of an interpreter, which is used indirectly to talk about the subject matter of the text, while the latter is the canonical language of the transposed text. Both these languages can interact by reciprocal corrections, critical approaches and modifications. It is possible to move past the canonical language of the text’s author towards the canonical language of its interpreter. In this case, the canonical language of the author can be labelled “Interpretandum.” This means the text that is subject to interpretation, understanding or translation. The canonical language of the interpreter, on the other hand, can be labelled “Interpretans,” that is the one utilized for interpretation, understanding or translation. Consequently, it makes sense to believe that theology allows space for hermeneutics proper. The scientific type of hermeneutics, which as such assumes a need for language analysis, marks a passage from the canonical language of the analysed text to the canonical language of the interpreter. One can also say that scientific hermeneutics is a kind of understanding of a systematically ordered text via a systematically ordered language.

Communication and Culture as Catalysts for Rewriting the African Narrative in the Nigerian Church

The Catholic Church in Nigeria is vibrant. The presence of two emeriti Cardinals and a serving one in Abuja plus its array of human capital in terms of priests, religious and laity, as well as rich cultural dynamics, tells the story more. Despite this seeming flamboyance, the Church in the West African country has not reached its potentials. This qualitative paper, “Communication and Culture as Catalysts for Rewriting the African Narrative in the Nigerian Church” used the Cross-Culture theory as theoretical framework to ascertain the matter. It argued that lack of a unified theology of inculturation and implementing same, reliance on handouts from Europe and America, ethnicity and mediocrity are responsible for the backwardness. The study suggested developing an inculturated language of faith through creating a nexus between African communication and culture as ways of rewriting the African narrative in the Nigerian pastoral context. It concluded that effective communication and culture can create a new template not only in telling the Nigerian version of the narrative but in enabling the Church in Nigeria reach its full potentials.

Christian Faith—A New Translation and Critical Edition by Friedrich Schleiermacher

Reviewed by: Christian Faith—A New Translation and Critical Edition by Friedrich Schleiermacher R. David Nelson Christian Faith—A New Translation and Critical Edition. 2 Vols. By Friedrich Schleiermacher. Translated by Terrence N. Tice, Catherine L. Kelsey, and Edwina Lawler. Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2016. xxxiii + 1140 pp. This publication of an up-to-date, critical English translation of Schleiermacher's Glaubenslehre is a major event in contemporary scholarship in the fields of theology, church history, and religious studies. Prior to the appearance of this two-volume set, the only complete translation available in English was the edition prepared in the late 1920s by a team of British scholars and edited by Hugh Ross Mackintosh and James Stuart Stewart. The Tice-Kelsey-Lawler edition is a significant improvement over its predecessor, rendering Schleiermacher's opus into a clear and elegant English text that is faithful to the German original. Explanatory footnotes illuminate the reasons behind certain translation decisions and provide commentary on the backgrounds and meanings of Schleiermacher's proposals and concepts in Romanticism and German Idealism. The editors supply numerous cross-references to other contemporaneous and antecedent sources. Of particular note are the echoes in Christian Faith of ideas Schleiermacher developed in Brief Outline for the Study of Theology (1830) and On Religion (31831). Readers will encounter here the new standard text of Christian Faith in English, packaged in a critical study edition that reflects leading scholarship in Schleiermacher's theology and in nineteenth-century Protestant thought. This release should inspire fresh scrutiny of Schleiermacher's contribution to modern Protestantism. As Christine Helmer points out ("Schleiermacher for Lutherans," Lutheran Quarterly 29 [2015], 162–183), Lutherans are inclined to object to Schleiermacher's contention that religious experience originates in a pre-linguistic awareness of creaturely finitude that manifests itself in the form of, in the words of a locution he made famous, a "feeling of absolute dependence" upon the infinite God. This awareness-cum-feeling occurs before and independently of language. What goes missing in Schleiermacher's theology—and this is the root of the Lutheran concern—is the precedence and antecedence for faith of the external word of justifying grace through which God communicates his victorious righteousness and awakens sinners for the life of faith. Rather [End Page 458] than starting from the priority of the external word, Schleiermacher focuses on "seeing the (religious) experience as it is experienced, not on its subsequent articulation or even expression. It is an experience that precedes the rational act of expression . . . Language is inevitable . . . Yet the experience of love's unity precedes description and explanation" (Helmer, 170). It is fascinating to observe how Schleiermacher develops these themes in Christian Faith. After an extensive introduction addressing a nest of prolegomenal concerns (notably, theology's borrowing of concepts from ethics, philosophy, and apologetics), he unfurls a complete first-to-second-to-third article dogmatic cycle. "Religious self-consciousness," which he identifies in the introduction as the pious acknowledgment of and dependence upon the infinite God, becomes something of a first principle, extending laterally through the three units on "The Doctrines of Faith" in order to show how this fundamental religious posture unlocks Christian understandings of the attributes of God and the doctrine of creation, the plight of sin and the redemptive agency of God in the person and work of Jesus Christ, and the essence and historical development of the "uneven and fluid" and yet "distinctively circumscribed" community of the church. The experience of God as the infinite other precedes and thus grounds the church's language of faith and its theological reflection. Preaching is ensconced within this discursive nexus. While Schleiermacher does concede that preaching can incite religious feeling, his focus is on various forms of Christian discourse as recitations, repetitions, and celebrations of the redemption enacted in Jesus. To be sure, it is possible to follow Schleiermacher's lead by doing theology from the ground up—commencing from the general experience of religious self-consciousness and proceeding toward the particularities of Christian doctrine and practice—and still articulate an account of divinity in a distinctively Lutheran theological voice. One thinks of the recent programs of Pannenberg (who defines the imago dei...

The Virtue of Democratic Faith: A Recovery for Difficult Times

Democratic faith may seem like an ill-advised concept when the ills of democratic life are so glaring. This article claims that it is possible, even necessary, to recover and reinvigorate a notion of democratic faith that grapples with the flaws and intractabilities of the democratic condition. Conceived of as a virtue that inhabits uncertainty, I argue that democratic faith is well-tailored for democratic exchanges — particularly those involved in the risky business of building trust among citizens. Democratic faith's temporal orientation in the present girds the activist for the spade-work of democratic life, where future success often seems unlikely. On these terms, democratic faith can be distinguished from democratic hope. Jeffrey Stout's recent work exemplifies both hope and faith as democratic virtues, however Stout neglects the language of faith in favor of hope. I argue that Stout and other activists should consider the ways that democratic faith speaks to the dogged persistence required to face the dispiriting conditions of democratic life.

Trust and Doubt: The Late Medieval Bishop and Local Knowledge

In governing their dioceses late medieval bishops faced significant epistemological challenges: how was it possible to determine the truth in disputes over local customs, patronage, the conduct of divine service and the provision of pastoral care? All such problems demanded an adjudication between competing stories about rights, history and usage, and while canon law provided a framework of principles, it did not provide the answers bishops needed. Increasingly from the thirteenth century the answers came from panels of local ‘trustworthy men’. Bishops had to trust – to have ‘faith’ or belief in – informants who were often peasants. In the church courts and before visitation tribunals lay litigants, witnesses and parish representatives also used the language of faith and belief to characterize their knowledge of events and people: they had faith in their own perceptions. The role of faith in the knowledge that bishops and lay people claimed to have of the material and social world had much in common with the faith that brought Christians closer to having knowledge of God, but there were also important differences in the operation of faith in these three contexts. This essay describes and compares the epistemologies of late medieval bishops, lay people and theologians, paying particular attention to the relationship between trust and doubt in each instance.

’n (Outo)biografiese Twitter-teologie

An (auto)biographical Twitter-theology. Due to the increasing challenges created by an evolving digital world, traditional expressions of the Christian faith could become irrelevant for a fast-paced world. Through an autobiographical orientation, a search for meaningful personal expressions of the Christian faith on Twitter is traced and mapped down. Facilitated through a practical-theological inquiry and employing a qualitative empirical research methodology, personal aphorisms of the Christian faith on Twitter are traced down and presented as possible examples of a relevant digital autobiographical theology. Through the contribution of these empirical realities, new hermeneutical outcomes and a strategic involvement are facilitated. The creation, development and meaning of new theological formulations and articulations are explored and described through these expressions. In the tracing of and in the mapping down of these new expressions of faith, demarcations of a possible lived spirituality in the digital sphere are sounded out and verbalised. Through the documentation of these new and relevant articulations of the language of faith, a contribution is made to a meaningful digital autobiographical theology.

‘Christ-Faith’ as an Eschatological Event (Galatians 3.23-26): A ‘Third View’ on Πίστις Χριστοῦ

The meaning of πίστις Χριστοῦ in Paul (Gal. 2.16, 20; 3.22; Rom. 3.22, 26; Phil. 3.9) continues to be the subject of controversial debate in Pauline scholarship. Should the genitive construction be understood objectively as ‘faith in Christ’ or subjectively as ‘the faith(fulness) of Christ’? The prevalent either/or character of the discussion is increasingly proving to be an impediment to finding a solution to this issue. A minority view, the so-called ‘third view’, seeks to move beyond the subjective-objective dichotomy by accounting for the intrinsic complexity of the Greek genitive and pointing to the event-character of πίστις in Paul. The primary reference text for this ‘third view’ is Gal. 3.23-26, which exhibits an altogether remarkable language of faith and envisages πίστις as ‘coming’ (ἔρχεσθαι) and as ‘being revealed’ (ἀποκαλύπτεσθαι). This article reviews the exegetical status quaestionis and argues that Paul does not regard πίστις Χριστοῦ as an individual disposition or character (either Christ’s or that of the believer), but rather as an eschatological event. The aim is not to offer a comprehensive analysis of the verses in question, but to advance exegetical and theological support for the ‘third view’ and to point to its considerable explanatory power in our effort for a more nuanced appreciation of Paul’s language of faith.

¿Qué fue del hombre, entre el sentido y el desbordamiento del lenguaje de la fe? Aproximaciones desde Paul Ricoeur

El presente escrito aborda dos cuestiones centrales: la primera presenta, escuetamente, dos etapas del despliegue antropológico de Paul Ricoeur, como un esfuerzo por pensar al hombre con una lógica renovada. La segunda enuncia que en tal recorrido filosófico se inserta un plus de sentido en el lenguaje mismo de la fe, que acompaña el propio desarrollo antropológico, y que a su vez desborda y contiene la tarea filosófica específica, aclarando que tal cometido excede los propósitos explícitos del autor francés. En otros términos, pretende tan solo esbozar un “gesto de apertura” de la filosofía contemporánea que, aceptando su heredad, también asume renovados matices, honduras y alcances, permitiéndole a la labor filosófica y al propio ser humano, ir más allá de sí mismos.

Die Dordtse Leerreëls: ’n Grammatika van geloofstaal gebore uit die nasie-staat-ideologie

The grammar of faith language in the Canons of Dordt as a result of the nation-state ideology. This article aims to decipher the spirit of the notion ‘predestination’ codified in the Canons of Dordt. It reconsiders the relevance of these dogmatic propositions about predestination as a grammar of the faith language which originated in a very specific context, namely the political concerns and the religious convictions held in the uniting Dutch provinces as a nation-state. In this context Calvin’s views about predestination became instrumental to the establishment of an upcoming nationalistic ideology, based on different interpretations and perceptions of Calvin’s theology. Within the context of the Protestant Dutch resistance against the RomanCatholic Spanish-Habsburg hegemony, the Canons were formulated during the Synod of Dordrecht in 1618–1619 as a Calvinistic movement against the Remonstrants who were stigmatised as collaborators of the Spanish-Habsburg reign over the Netherlands. This article demonstrates that different receptions of Dordt heighten the dogmatic gap between the socalled liberal modernism of the Remonstrants and a strict confessionalism of neo-Calvinism which has influenced the present-day understanding of the Canons of Dordt. It is argued that the grammar of the Canons of Dordt needs to be understood against this background and the meaning of the faith language it reflects, interpreted accordingly.

"Big Momma Had Sugar, Imma Have It Too" Medical Fatalism and the Language of Faith Among African-American Women in Memphis.

This essay offers a theological exploration of the relationship between medical fatalism and religious belonging among African-American women in Memphis. Drawing on the work of black and womanist theologians and on conversations with participants in a diabetes intervention program administered by a faith-based community health provider, I argue that how we narrate the meanings of our bodies is irreducibly religious. The language we use to interpret and communicate the meaning of our bodily existence emerges from a set of assumptions, often unarticulated, about what is of ultimate value to us. The essay focuses on three interlocking features that link faith with fatalism or hope: (1) The idea that if "I don't claim that" disease cannot enter my body; (2) the role of faith-based clinics in re-establishing trust with marginalized communities; and (3) how nuanced attention to the social location of health seekers can re-frame our understanding of patient compliance. Disrupting fatalism can only be done from within a health seeker's own narrative, and therefore, healthcare providers who learn these narratives and respect their holiness will develop more effective interventions.

The Problem of Wealth

The Problem of Wealth Elizabeth Hinson‐Hasty People of faith are facing the most pressing theological and moral problem of our time as we confront the problem of wealth. I am not referring to the problem of discerning how best to distribute wealth once we make it. Rather, I am referring to our current dominant forms of wealth creation which are accelerating the wealth gap in the U.S. and between nations around the globe. In the U.S. alone, there are 46.5 million people living in poverty; the highest number since poverty estimates have been published. One billion of the world's people live in extreme poverty. Half of the people in the world are living on less than $2.50 a day. 80 percent of the world's people live on less than $10 a day. The vast majority of people in the world, 80 percent, live in countries where the income gaps are widening. When we examine practices in our own country, U.S. consumption of energy, goods, and natural resources is seriously out of balance with the needs of other people around the world and threatens the survival of our planet. Many people of faith express the sense of cognitive dissonance and moral incoherence that they experience as they try to maintain commitments to values of equality, justice, love, reciprocity, shared partnership, and community in a society where money and the creation of wealth have become such dominant goods that they are determining that which we value most. Some people of faith, including religious leaders, respond to the “problem of wealth” by accommodating their beliefs to the culture in which we are living. The language of capitalism begins to sound a lot like the language of faith as markets are trusted to determine social realities and promise “to save us.” Christian ministry begins to sound a lot like business as “work plans” are established to bring ministries into conformity with targeted goals for mission; denominations and congregations create their own unique brands and logos to attract more consumers; and new faith communities are defined as “entrepreneurial ministries.” With the decline in denominational membership and other issues that churches are facing, religious leaders often look to economic and business models to address their problems. What about the distinctiveness of witness of faith? What distinctive witness do faith traditions offer in response to the increasing wealth divide and chronic instability created for people living in poverty? Howard Thurman, the first African American dean of a white theological school and co‐founder of the Church for the Fellowship of All Peoples, described living in U.S. society as living “under siege.” He sought a way in which he could be “sustained despite the ravages inflicted upon him by society.” He wanted to locate resources that were uniquely his from the colorful variety and depth of wisdom offered by traditions of faith. Thurman formed, founded, and fashioned communities and institutions with “a living, pulsing core which guarantee[d] not only flexibility but also a continuous unfolding in an increasing dimension of creativity.” In other words, they enabled people to envision alternative realities for themselves and the communities of which they were a part. In this essay, I will lift up our culture's market idolatry and examine its reflection in a mirror created by the depth of wisdom offered by theology. I will call attention to the fact that the way in which we create wealth matters not only for peoples' well‐being, but for the well‐being of God and the planet earth, our home. I will go beyond naming the problems to emphasize the importance of progressive theology for reframing the public debate over wealth inequalities, poverty, and the misuse of our natural environment for the sake of human wealth creation. Reframing the public debate over the wealth divide from a progressive theological perspective invites an alternative social logic informed by a much richer picture of human beings and our limits as we live in symbiotic relationship with larger delicate web of life. Religious leaders and progressive faith communities have a distinctive opportunity for mission today to create a space that will invoke the theological imagination of...

Theoretical signposts for tracing spirituality within the fluid decision-making of a mobile virtual reality

In the context of the interconnected world of the information age, and demarcated by a virtual existence through the use of the Internet, decision-making has become even more dynamic. In an evolving era of virtuality, with special emphasis on the increasing role of mobile communication technology, it is indicated that decision-making has become fluid. As part of the phenomenon of fluid decision-making, not only is the evolutionary character of virtual connectivity acknowledged, but the ever-increasing and important role of mobile platforms is also emphasised. In a hermeneutical practical theology of lived spirituality, focusing on the praxis of everyday living, the possible role of spirituality in informing the fluid decision-making processes in a mobile virtual world was traced. A qualitatively inspired analysis, using data collected from various virtual forums, was proposed. In the description of these contours, special emphasis was placed on narrative-inspired biographical accents. The research made a contribution in terms of possible new articulations of the language of faith as embodied in fluid decision-making in a mobile virtual reality.

Locus theologicus as volgende generasie argitektuur – kantaantekeninge tot die ontwerp van ʼn biografiese theologia habitus in die toekomstige werkplek.

Locus theologicus as a next generation architecture – notes on the design of abiographical theologia habitus in the future workplaceArising from the need for a spirituality for the future workplace – this design makes a contribution in terms of the development of a relevant and pragmatic theologia habitus, with the articulation of specific practical theological accents. Through the use of concepts associated with the metaphor of architecture, clear interdisciplinary accents from the dialogue between practical theology and futures studies are given utterance, with particular reference to the new – and future – workplace. In the development of a memory for the future, a so-called theologia habitus is facilitated, with a view to the facilitation of a spiritual recapitalisation in the future workplace. By means of the qualitative Delphi research method, an existing model of research is informed, in an evolutionary manner with a meaningful narrative biographical accent. The possible reformulation, as well as new articulations, of the language of faith, constitutes a search for relevant accents in the future workplace.

Book Review: Learning the Language of Faith

Book Review: Learning the Language of Faith

Feminism, Freethought, and the Sexual Subject in Colonial New Woman Fiction: Olive Schreiner and Kathleen Mannington Caffyn

Feminism, Freethought, and the Sexual Subject in Colonial New Woman Fiction:Olive Schreiner and Kathleen Mannington Caffyn Naomi Hetherington (bio) Toward the end of Olive Schreiner’s The Story of an African Farm (1883), Lyndall writes to the father of her child, from whom she has separated, to refuse his second proposal of marriage. She tries to imagine a different kind of love from his that might call “into activity” the “higher part” of her nature (204). Though it is clear by this point in the novel that Lyndall is dying, she begins the letter confident of finding such love in the future and anticipates its transformative power: “One day—perhaps it may be far off—I shall find what I have wanted all my life; something nobler, stronger than I, before which I can kneel down. You lose nothing by not having me now; I am a weak, selfish, erring woman. One day I shall find something to worship, and then I shall be—” (247). Here, Lyndall breaks off. The letter remains unfinished and unsent upon her death. Its significance lies in Lyndall’s conflation of religious and sexual structures. Her failure to complete the sentence signals her inability to imagine herself, specifically her sexual self, outside of the Christian framework, which she rejected as a young girl. In attempting to reconfigure her desire for the “strong … stranger,” she falls back on the language of worship and finds herself wanting—sexually, spiritually, and morally (206–08). Given Lyndall’s defiance of the Christian strictures regulating women’s sexual behaviour by refusing to marry her child’s father, her difficulty in reconciling her sexual self with her disbelief is crucial to reading the narration of women’s political struggle for sexual autonomy in New Woman fiction. By the time Lyndall was designated the forerunner of the New Woman in the mid-1890s, freethought had become a literary signifier of advanced womanhood, partly because of Schreiner’s “poignant exploration of faith and its loss” in African Farm (deVries 196). As Jacqueline deVries points out, the close relationship between religious orthodoxy and patriarchy in Victorian fiction led New Woman novelists to challenge “both male dominance and received Christian truths” (196, original emphasis). Deliberately confronting religious authority, their fictional counterparts “helped to construct a feminist discourse on religion in which individual choice, rational reflection and doubt were central features in the expression of a feminist worldview” (196). However, Lyndall’s reliance on the language of faith to articulate sexual feeling suggests that this was an area in which feminism’s confrontation with religious [End Page 47] convention was not a straightforward victory. Rather than emancipating the female subject, religious doubt in these novels is used to configure a crisis of femininity in relation to contemporary anxieties about sexual reproduction and marriage. Conversely, the fictional role of the New Woman renders her a popular repository of religious and sexual uncertainty. As Susan Griffin puts it, “A nineteenth-century ideology that understood women as inherently more spiritual than men develops, in a period of growing doubt and secularization, into a focus on the female as a figure of loss” (214). By examining the role of religious doubt in two New Woman novels, African Farm and Kathleen Mannington Caffyn’s A Yellow Aster, this article provides one explanation for the imaginative defeat of its heroines that has preoccupied feminist critics.1 Lyndall is a particularly frustrating example because of the “gap” between her “speaking and acting” (Burdett 31). Brilliantly articulating the relationship between women’s sexual subordination to men and their economic dependency, she nevertheless agrees to run away with her lover when she discovers that she is pregnant. Fearing her dependence on him after the birth of their child, she sends him away before her confinement. The baby dies at three hours old and Lyndall succumbs to a chill caught at the child’s grave. Despite the utopian ending of A Yellow Aster, which recuperates its heroine for marriage and maternity, the force of her political speechmaking is similarly undercut by its context. Just as Lyndall tells her lover that she likes “to experience … to try” (Schreiner, African Farm 206), Gwen Waring accepts a proposal...