Professor Of Theology Research Articles

Theological education in tropical Africa: An essay in honour of Christina Landman and a Kenyan perspective

Christina Landman is a professor of Theology at the Research Institute for Theology and Religion, University of South Africa. As an East African serving under her as a research fellow at the Research Institute of Theology and Religion since 2014, and as somebody whose articles have been published in the two journals where she has been the editor, I can only honour her by contributing to her festschrift and in basing my reflections on my understanding of theological education in tropical Africa, where she plays a critical role – despite my bias towards East Africa, and Kenya in particular. In other words, the goal of this article is to focus on the future of theological education in Africa, with special reference to Eastern Africa, and Kenya in particular. How has Africa journeyed with theological education since its inception in the 19th and 20th century? How is it reflected in the academic institutions of higher learning, in ministerial training, in general academic contexts and in local congregations (churches)? Is it Africanity without ethics? Does it have a future? In addressing these concerns, the article employs historic-analytical design in its endeavour to assess the efficacy of theological education as an agent of social transformation in 21st-century Africa. Considering that Africa cannot be identified as a single geocultural context and/or as a monolithic entity, the article builds its case by mainly referring to the Kenyan context. Its methodology includes an extensive literature review of some materials that are connected to theological education, participant observation and personal reflections as an educationist in an African context. The methodology will also include the Protestant divinity school that was established in Frere Town, Mombasa, and later shifted to Limuru, Central Kenya, in 1929. It is set on the premise that the future of theological education in Africa is guaranteed by the growing interest in theological education among the youth, especially in the 21st century.

Making Sense of Eighty Years of Theological Ethics

This article surveys all the contributions in ethics on these pages over the past eighty years and is divided into four historical parts: the first three years; the years from 1943 to 1964; the years Richard McCormick wrote from 1964 to 1984; and the years beyond McCormick. It surveys a period from neo-Scholastic manualism at the eve of World War II to the contemporary era, where methods for attaining moral objectivity are complex. This survey notes shifts in theological method, the movement of the center from the personal to the social, the transition from an exclusively clerical authorship to a much broader array of authors, and a shift in readership from priest confessors to professional theologians.

Against the Risen Flesh

Against the Risen Flesh Randy John Koch (bio) Whether —Botello Puerto de Plata; 6 July 1520; in a temple on a hill near the road to Tlaxcala; found in a box of papers belonging to Botello aft er his death Click for larger view View full resolution [End Page 152] Bernal Díaz said that Botello Puerto de Plata (?–1520) was considered by the other men "a sorcerer" or "astrologer" (297) who attempted to foretell the future by posing questions to himself in the form of "whether" statements and then offering answers. Similarly, Francisco de Aguilar said that after Cortés's forces defeated Narváez on the coast, Botello told Cortés that "'Alvarado the captain you left in the city of Mexico is in great danger. They have waged war on him and killed a man of his, and are scaling his quarters. You must therefore make haste'" (Fuentes 150). The Spaniards hurried back to Tenochtitlan, and a few days later Botello died with his horse at the bridge on the causeway while trying to escape from the Mexica on La Noche Triste (Díaz 297, 301–2; Prescott 441–42; Thomas 382, 395, 411). [End Page 153] The Catechumen —Juan de Tecto; 1525; in the Caribbean Sea Water breathes, shoulders pitched in endless black.Water dreams of narrow stone channels steep with foam laughter.Water rubs stones smooth as a girl's ankle.Water envies darkness, its travels easy and infinite.Water remembers the dog's curled tongue and fatal breath.Water knows the body's secret hallways.Water says yes for five hundred years and for a thousand more yes again.Water invites mosquitoes to skate on its still skin.Water suffers the oar, the prow, bilge, and wake.Water arches its back to the risen moon.Water concedes underfoot, underway, underhoof, undercinch, undercloud.Water denies old age and the guttural color of wine.Water confides the words it cannot speak.Water forgets.Water lifts funnels above plunging boys.Water lies about its silent quarters roofed with worm and settled bone.Water calls all unbridled by loss.Water schemes with reef and rock.Water endures the wait men suffer in youth.Water begets puddle begets trickle begets river begets island begets flesh begets water.Water embraces plank and sail, quiets the fear clinging to a shattered mast.Water drinks sunlight in smooth, angled shafts.Water seeks new latitudes measured with shadow and grain.Water thinks it's born of cloud and leaf.Water despairs not, for it knows neither beginning nor end.Water profanes the bed with the groan of its coming.Water forgives the desert its long absence.Water beholds all in its wake, no matter the hour, the calling, the leagues of despair.Water mourns nothing, neither distance nor loss, for all are gathered and rise.Water walks on small feet filled with light.Water shall know no other sky.Water is.Water is.Water is.Water. [End Page 154] Juan de Tecto (1468–1525), professor of theology at the University of Paris, arrived in Veracruz on 13 August 1523 to begin converting the Indians to Christianity. Because Tenochtitlan had not yet been rebuilt after the destruction of the conquest, they went instead to Texcoco. He quickly learned the Indians' native language and wrote his Primeros rudimentos de la doctrina cristiana, or the basics of Christian doctrine, in Nahuatl. He traveled with the Cortés expedition to Honduras in 1524 and likely officiated at the marriage of Doña Marina and Juan Jaramillo during the trip. He drowned when the caravel taking him from the Gulf of Honduras to Veracruz capsized during a storm (Bancroft et al. 161; Lanyon 153). A catechumen is an adult instructed in the fundamentals of Christianity before baptism. [End Page 155] The Given —Gerónimo de Aguilar; 1531; Valley of Mexico We talked about words. We sat on the deckagainst a heap of rigging, the main mast floppingoverhead, the bow rising and falling, eclipsingthe distant shore. Her huipil covered her folded legs, and her dark hair poured aroundher shoulders. Her hand touched the plankbeneath her. She was still, watching, as if lyingin wait...

About This Issue

About This Issue David J. Endres Historians have paid significant attention to early to mid-nineteenth century Catholic immigration to the United States, yet, the number of Catholic immigrants in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century far surpassed the earlier waves. Catholic immigrants from Germany and Ireland were increasingly joined by Italian, Polish, Hungarian and Mexican arrivals by the late 1800s. More recently, Catholic immigration has shifted again with rising numbers of Latino and Asian immigrants. This issue provides several studies of the "new immigrants," focusing on specific immigrant groups, their relationship to the Church, and their experiences in the U.S. from the late nineteenth century to today. Timothy Matovina is a professor of theology at the University of Notre Dame. He has also served for many years as one of the consulting editors of U.S. Catholic Historian. Felicia Moralez, a recent graduate from the doctoral program in United States history at the University of Notre Dame, wrote her dissertation on the Mexican diaspora in the industrial Midwest. Her contribution to this issue is drawn from her doctoral research. Anita Casavantes Bradford is associate professor of history and Chicano/Latino studies at the University of California Irvine. Simon C. Kim, a priest of the Diocese of Orange, California, is the director of intercultural initiatives at the Jesuit School of Theology at Santa Clara University–Berkeley Campus in Berkeley, California. Tuan Hoang is assistant professor of Great Books and history at Pepperdine University, Malibu, California. Todd Scribner is an independent researcher living in Washington, D.C. Gerald A. Arbuckle, S.M., is co-director of Refounding and Pastoral Development in Sydney, Australia. [End Page i] Copyright © 2019 The Catholic University of America Press

Psalms 1–50: Sighs and Songs of Israel by Ellen T. Charry

Reviewed by: Psalms 1–50: Sighs and Songs of Israel by Ellen T. Charry Andrew W. Dyck ellen t. charry, Psalms 1–50: Sighs and Songs of Israel (Brazos Theological Commentary on the Bible 16; Grand Rapids: Brazos, 2015). Pp. xxvi + 271. $35. Ellen T. Charry, professor of theology at Princeton Theological Seminary, authors the first of Brazos's commentaries on the Psalms. In his foreword to the volume, William P. Brown observes that C. moves away from the standards of form criticism for understanding the Sitz im Leben of the Psalms to what he designates as "life criticism" (p. xv), an emphasis on the theological and pastoral instructions of the Psalms for readers of all generations. C.'s volume features interests in ethics and historical theology as she draws on an assortment of patristic, rabbinic, and medieval interpretations. In an important comment concerning the nature of her theological commentary, she states that "[t]he interpretation undertaken herein does not make a sustained argument about psalmic theology, but it does work from a conviction about the theological foundation of the first fifty psalms" (p. xxi). C.'s founding theological convictions are that the Psalms express that there is only one true God, the God of Israel, and that the authors also depict an urgency that arises from the duplex of identity and way of life as the psalmists triangulate God, Israel, and the gentiles. [End Page 703] Concerning the actual content, I find C.'s commentary to be unique when compared to what is already available on the Psalms. She does not offer a typical verse-by-verse analysis of a psalm. Instead, she discusses a psalm according to its "Structure and Dynamics," though this may more plainly be understood as its thematic or theological dynamics. In her commentary, she draws heavily on sources of historical interpretation while also facilitating an in-depth intertextual analysis that goes far outside the Psalter to show a greater canonical unity between the Psalms and the entirety of Scripture. In addition to her discussion of a psalm's dynamics, she explores its "theological pedagogy." For example, discussing the canonical context of Psalm 1, she argues that its place at the beginning of Psalter, and especially the beginning of Book 1 (Psalms 1–41), drives the greater message of a division in theodicy, "the goodness and power of God in light of human suffering and Israel's public defeats" (p. 1). This theme is present throughout her commentary, taking into account the Psalms of lament, penitence, and so on, within Psalms 1–50. This volume will be especially helpful for pastors and Bible teachers working through Psalmls 1–50. Further, as C.'s commentary features an engagement with a variety of historical interpreters, I consider this also to be a valuable source for introducing an individual to some significant traditions. As such, the present volume is a worthy addition to a library on biblical and theological interpretation of the Psalms. Andrew W. Dyck Wycliffe College, Toronto, ON M5S 1H7 Canada Copyright © 2018 The Catholic Biblical Association of America

The Vocation of the Theologian

The Vocation of the Theologian James L. Heft SM (bio) It is an honor to have been invited to speak at the convocation for the faculty of theology and the continuing education division of the University of St. Michael's College. This gathering also marks the fiftieth anniversary of the founding of the doctoral program of theology, which degree I was privileged to receive here in 1977. I have almost nothing but fond memories of my years here in Toronto, of the excellent faculty and fellow students. There was, however, one not so pleasant memory. In 1969, when I began my graduate studies, the Vietnam War continued to profoundly divide the United States. At that time, I was driving a car that had an Ohio license plate, and was twice pelted with eggs. For the record, I opposed that war. In those days, as one of my Canadian professors told me, "Americans are as benignly ignorant of Canadians as Canadians are maliciously informed about Americans." Over the next seven years, I overcame my ignorance of Canada and have developed and retain a great affection for its peoples. I am not here this afternoon to tell old war stories, to comment [End Page 127] on the legalization of pot in Canada or on last Tuesday's mid-term elections in the United States. I am here to speak about something much more important: the sacred calling of being theologians. Walter Burghardt (To Christ I Look, 98–99) reminded theologians that they deal with mystery, before which the most appropriate posture is silence and contemplation. Before we sit at a desk and write, or stand before others and teach, we should be on our knees in prayer. We distort the mystery of God whenever we try to possess it or imagine that we can capture it conceptually. Although the reality of God and God's revelation is objective, it should never be objectified. Good theologians are not spectators. One of my favorite atheists, Frederick Nietzsche, wrote: "For this is the truth: I have left the house of scholars and slammed the door behind me. Too long did my soul sit hungry at their table; I have not been schooled, as they have, to crack knowledge as one cracks nuts … they sit cool in the cool shade: they want to be mere spectators in everything; they take care not to sit where the sun burns upon the steps" (Thus Spake Zarathustra, 147). Some years ago a student sent me an e-mail complaining about her theology professor who, in Nietzsche's words, left her hungry at his table. She wrote, "Every theology course I have endured seemed like logicians parsing a love letter." I do not remember how I responded, but it should be obvious that theologians need to be on the field, in the contest, and, as St. Paul tells us, gratefully running the race. If we remain spectators in the stands, we will never really understand the game. In other words, when theologians are personally involved with and committed to what they study and teach, students are nourished, not bored. Forty-five years ago, in the chapel across the street at 95 St. Joseph Street, I heard a homily that I have never forgotten. Basilian priest Bill Irwin based it on a question from the Summa theologiae (III, q. 42) in which St. Thomas asks whether Jesus should have written down what he taught. Thomas, as you know, structures his questions in a predictable way. First, he gives several reasons to answer positively the question he posed; then he states his own position; and [End Page 128] finally, he answers, in the light of his own position, the questions he posed at the beginning. Let me summarize how Thomas handles this fascinating question. He begins by presenting three reasons why Christ should have written down his teachings. First, he writes that since Christ said that his doctrine is supposed to last till the end of time, it would have been fitting for him to put it in writing so that it might more easily and more accurately be handed down to posterity. Second, he cites the biblical precedent of the...

The New Apologia: A Definition and Its Characteristics

REV. PRZEMYSŁAW ARTEMIUK, PhD, Hab (b. 1974) is Assistant Professor of Fundamental Theology at the Faculty of Theology of Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski University of Warsaw, a Lecturer at the Major Theological Seminary in Lomza, and Secretary of the Association of Fundamental Theologians of Poland. He recently published the monograph The Renaissance of Apologia (2016) as well as a collection of journal articles entitled A Concise Catholic Alphabet (2018) and also edited the following volumes: Fundamental Theology to Protect Christian Identity (2017) and History – Faith – Science: The Sources of Knowledge About Jesus Christ (2018).

Cosmological and Ontological Contingency

Research Article| January 01 2019 Cosmological and Ontological Contingency Robert Cummings Neville Robert Cummings Neville Boston University Emeritus Robert Cummings Neville, emeritus professor of philosophy, religion, and theology at Boston University, is a long-time member and former president of (H) IARPT and a frequent contributor to AJTP. He is the author most recently of Defining Religion (SUNY, 2017). Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google American Journal of Theology & Philosophy (2019) 40 (1): 54–56. https://doi.org/10.5406/amerjtheophil.40.1.0054 Cite Icon Cite Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn MailTo Permissions Search Site Citation Robert Cummings Neville; Cosmological and Ontological Contingency. American Journal of Theology & Philosophy 1 January 2019; 40 (1): 54–56. doi: https://doi.org/10.5406/amerjtheophil.40.1.0054 Download citation file: Zotero Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search All Scholarly Publishing CollectiveUniversity of Illinois PressAmerican Journal of Theology & Philosophy Search Advanced Search The text of this article is only available as a PDF. Copyright 2019 by the Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois2019 Article PDF first page preview Close Modal You do not currently have access to this content.

No Trifling Matter: Taking the Sacraments Seriously Again by Nicola Bux

Reviewed by: No Trifling Matter: Taking the Sacraments Seriously Again by Nicola Bux Thomas M. Kocik Nicola Bux No Trifling Matter: Taking the Sacraments Seriously Again Translated by a Religious Brooklyn, NY: Angelico Press, 2018 210 pages. Clothbound, $28.00. Paperback, $17.95. Pope Francis, in his first encyclical Lumen Fidei, wrote: “The awakening of faith is linked to the dawning of a new sacramental sense in our lives as human beings and as Christians, in which visible and material realities are seen to point beyond themselves to the mystery of the eternal” (no. 40). To help hasten that dawn, Nicola Bux (b. 1947), a priest of the Archdiocese of Bari, Italy, and professor of sacramental theology and liturgy at the Theological Faculty of Puglia, has written an introduction to the theology of [End Page 91] the sacraments in the context of “the crisis of meaning that runs through the whole world” (14), or at least the heavily secularized modern West. Originally published in Italian in 2016, No Trifling Matter combines the exposition of basic catechetical material with “pithy insights, noble exhortations, and keen criticisms,” writes theologian Christopher J. Malloy in the book’s Foreword; as such, it “is not intended as a textbook” (1). The targets of those keen criticisms are identified in the Preface by the noted Italian journalist Vittorio Messori as “the deformations, the equivocations, the additions, and the omissions that today threaten the sacrament under consideration” (8). Many of these “-ions” betray an errant theology that collapses the sacred into the profane, thus obscuring the liturgy’s transcendent aim. For Bux, “the altar turned toward the people” epitomizes “a horizontal and sociological vision of Christianity,” indeed a “revolution in sacred space” (14). Further evidence of desacralization is found in the treatment of the sacraments “either as didascalia or as symbolic rites useful only for evoking what they signify, but not containing it: they have neither efficacy nor salvific power” (23). Chapter 1 presents the Christological foundation of the Church’s sacramental doctrine. Expanding on the famous aphorism of Pope St. Leo the Great, “What was visible in our Redeemer has passed over into the mysteries,” Bux writes: “With the sacraments, we touch Christ, we listen to Christ, we are nourished on Christ, we taste Christ, that is, the one whom we have seen and touched, as the evangelist John tells us” (23). While all the sacraments of the New Law communicate the grace won by the Savior’s Passion, the Eucharist alone contains “the reality of the person of Jesus in body, blood, soul and divinity” (21). The encounter with Christ in the Church’s sacramental life always has Trinitarian and soteriological implications: through the sacraments Christ “binds man to himself . . . in order to give him the life of the Spirit and carry him back to the Father from whom he has distanced himself on account of sin” (25). Touching on the question of liturgical language, Bux makes the usual arguments in favor of preserving Latin. First, the council [End Page 92] fathers at Vatican II expressly prescribed it, even as they indicated places for the introduction of vernacular languages (readings, admonitions, some prayers and songs). Second, in this age of increasing mobility, Latin unites peoples and cultures just as it had for many centuries been the common language of the Church in the West. Finally, Latin is less susceptible to linguistic mutation than the ever-evolving vernacular and therefore provides, as Dom Prosper Guéranger put it, “the arsenal of orthodoxy against all the subtleties of the sectarian spirit” (citation mine); it is for this reason a “sacred” language, “the inheritance of a tradition” of universal and immutable faith, corresponding to “the mission of the Church of Rome” (40). Chapters 2–8 expound the theology and historical development of the individual sacraments and their liturgical context, in the order presented in the Catechism of the Catholic Church: the three sacraments of Christian initiation, the two sacraments of healing, and the two sacraments of vocation. As a master of Catholic tradition, Bux always gives the primacy to grace. Hence, for example, he is critical of priests who, in order to stress the communal nature of baptism...

Liturgy and Secularism: Beyond the Divide by Joris Geldhof

Reviewed by: Liturgy and Secularism: Beyond the Divide by Joris Geldhof Barnaby Hughes Joris Geldhof Liturgy and Secularism: Beyond the Divide Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2018 xviii + 158 pages. Paperback. $29.95. Belgian theologian Joris Geldhof is professor of liturgical studies and sacramental theology at Katholieke Universiteit Leuven and editor-in-chief of the journal Questions Liturgiques/Studies in Liturgy. Although Geldhof has published numerous articles and edited a few books, Liturgy and Secularism appears to be his first monograph in English. This volume is mostly cobbled together from previously published lectures and articles. This leaves the book with an uneven feel, especially since some parts are translated from French and German. Liturgy and Secularism, nevertheless, is an insightful, thought-provoking and challenging read, one that avoids trite interpretations and facile conclusions. Geldhof brings to bear on his subject a strong sense that it is inadequate and unhelpful to blame secularism and modernity for the challenges of the Church and its liturgy today. Moreover, he argues, there is nothing to be gained by trying to turn back the clock or by prolonging the culture wars. Geldhof has thought deeply about liturgy, secularism and modernity, examining them from diverse angles, including anthropology, philosophy, history of ideas, and liturgical theology. He has structured the work like a diptych, each half divided into three chapters of approximately equal length. While the first half is largely devoid of theology, the second is not. Thus, for liturgical theologians, the second half is apt to be easier reading, while the first more challenging because less familiar. Geldhof's dialogue partners range from Giorgio Agamben and Martin Heidegger to Columba Marmion, Lambert Beauduin, and Alexander Schmemann. [End Page 207] Liturgy and Secularism rightly begins by defining and introducing secularism and modernity through the writings of Charles Taylor and Louis Dupré, respectively. Geldhof purposely chooses not to define liturgy, which he thinks has been ill-served by past definitions. Instead, he appeals to liturgy as mystery, something better understood by means of the imagination. And this leads to one of the author's major themes in this short, dense volume: that we need to shift from an epistemological emphasis to a soteriological one. Hopefully this will become clearer in what follows. Geldhof takes seriously this work's subtitle, Beyond the Divide. In the first chapter, he briefly breaks down four antagonisms: Church and world, heaven and earth, cult and culture, and religion and politics. In the third chapter, Geldhof examines the dichotomy sacred and profane, and distinguishes between the sacred and the holy. These are subtle arguments that require close attention. Modernity, he argues, is not a radical desacralization (the sacred disappears), but a profound resacralization (the sacred appears differently). In other words, "modern human beings might recognize the sacred … but they presuppose that it is the human mind which is at the origin of the sacred. For they have practically excluded all the other players in the domain of being" (65–66). The major problem with modernity, Geldhof contends, is not epistemological (proving God's existence), but soteriological ("recognition of the need for grace and salvation," 69). What does any of this have to do with the liturgy? Still in the book's first half, the author contends that modern human beings need to experience a profound conversion. In the words of Dupré, this conversion must be to "an attitude in which there is enough leisure for wonder and enough detachment for transcendence" (68). In the second half of Liturgy and Secularism, Geldhof argues "that the liturgy has an unmistakable desacralizing dimension. Not only does it fail to coincide with natural sacredness, it puts it under critique. It does not do so, however, in a defying, repudiating, or derogatory mode, but with a clear invitation to join in the soteriological dynamic of the Christ event. In other words, it sanctifies" (85). Thus, the liturgy breaks down the distinction between the [End Page 208] sacred and the profane, because it sanctifies all, making everyone and everything holy. In the only chapter comprised of entirely unpublished material, Geldhof highlights the complexity of the liturgy with reference to the Mystical Body of Christ and to mystery theology generally. He does...

Transfigurations of Love: Beauty, Desire, and Union with God

Mark S. Burrows, Professor of Historical Theology and Literature, The Protestant University of Applied Sciences, Bochum Transfigurations of Love Beauty, Desire, and Union with God

Early Christianity in Lycaonia and Adjacent Areas: From Paul to Amphilochius of Iconium by Cilliers Breytenbach and Christiane Zimmermann

Reviewed by: Early Christianity in Lycaonia and Adjacent Areas: From Paul to Amphilochius of Iconium by Cilliers Breytenbach and Christiane Zimmermann Sabine R. Huebner Cilliers Breytenbach and Christiane Zimmermann Early Christianity in Lycaonia and Adjacent Areas: From Paul to Amphilochius of Iconium Ancient Judaism and Early Christianity, Vol. 101; Early Christianity in Asia Minor Leiden: Brill, 2017 Pp. xxx + 977. eBook: $314.00; Hardcover: $345.00. This is a book about early Christians, however, not about the usual martyrs, saints, or bishops in the great centers of the ancient world, but ordinary Christians in a backwater province of the Roman Empire. In a history from below, crossing the disciplines between New Testament studies, church history, social history, and Greek epigraphy, Breytenbach and Zimmermann are investigating the spread and expansion of Christianity in Lycaonia. Lycaonia was a rough, infertile, and mountainous region in the interior of Asia Minor on the Anatolian plateau. It was visited by the apostle Paul probably traveling along the great highroad across Anatolia, the Via Sebaste. There he is said to have founded the first congregations of Christians. Over the next century, Lycaonia became one of the first strongholds of Christianity, with the earliest inscriptions referring to Christians dating to the second century c.e. The book carries a hefty price tag with EUR €299.00 or USD $345.00 for the hardcover version, but its nearly 1,000 pages with thirteen maps and sixty-five figures are packed with detailed original scholarship of great interest for both an academic audience and the general reader, as the information is always presented in an accessible manner. The impressive volume offering a regional approach to the early expansion of Christianity is coauthored by two internationally leading experts in the field: Cilliers Breytenbach, who is Professor of literature, history, and religion of Early Christianity at Humboldt-Universität Berlin and Christiane Zimmermann, Professor of history, theology, and literature of the New Testament at Christian-Albrechts-Universität Kiel. For many years, Breytenbach devoted his research to the earliest testimonies of Christianity among the epigraphic evidence from Asia Minor. Zimmermann's research focuses on the expansion of Christianity in the first Christian centuries on the basis of literary, epigraphic, and archaeological sources. Both joined forces several years ago in the Berlin Excellence Cluster 264 TOPOI; their subproject (B-III-2) "The organization of diversity in the ecclesiastic [End Page 325] space of antiquity" also created a database of early Christian inscriptions from Asia Minor and Greece (http://repository.edition-topoi.org/collection/ICG). The result of their collaboration is an impressive achievement, the first detailed survey of the rise and expansion of Christianity in ancient Lycaonia and adjacent areas, from Paul the apostle to the Council of Chalcedon in 451. Following in the footsteps of Ramsay, Harnack, and Calder, Breytenbach and Zimmermann map the expansion of Christianity in the region of Lycaonia. The study is mainly based on the epigraphic evidence, above all, hundreds of funerary inscriptions from Lycaonia and adjacent areas, as the literary and archaeological sources are sparse. It shifts the focus away from the imperial elites to ordinary people, local city councilors, clergy men and women, craftsmen, and peasants who proclaimed their Christian identity (among many other identities) on their tombstones for posterity. The first chapter discusses previous scholarship, followed by a presentation of the sources for the spread of Christianity covering the literary, epigraphic, and archeological evidence. Space is also devoted to discussing the pervasive difficulties that every scholar of early Christianity is acutely aware of: how to identify Christians especially then when these Christians were embedded into a socio-cultural setting from which their customs differed very little. The second chapter is devoted to the political and administrative landscape of the province of Roman Lycaonia, and the history of events from the age of Augustus to the mid-fifth century c.e. Chapter Three treats the apostle Paul's travels through Lycaonia and his potential impact on the rise of Christianity, as well as Christian naming practices in this region. Chapter Four sets out the expansion of Christianity in Lycaonia, grouping the evidence geographically (as far as this is possible, as many stones were not found...

Theological ideas of Nichifor Crainic and their relevance for his political activity

Important and, in the same time, controversial personality of interwar period and the later one, Nichifor Crainic was in the same time poet, theologian, philosopher and politician. He published many articles, book reviews, chronicles, meditation and theological studies in books and journals like Gândirea or Ramuri (the first one founded by him). In the same time, he was the first professor of mystical theology in a Romanian Faculty of Theology, the one of Bucharest. His theological ideas are still relevant today for the theological space and this make them to be analysed, referred to and quoted. In the same time, some of them have influenced his political attitude, making them to become exponential for Romanian Nationalism during the interwar period, to see, as others (for example Nae Ionescu) of being Orthodox as linked with national identity, and also to be closed with far-right movement during the aforementioned period, but also during the Second World War. Using his ideas expressed, both in his books of poetry or theology or in journals like the ones already named, but also information from the books and articles dedicated to him, we will try there to see how his theological ideas and the influence of theology and Orthodox Church upon him, have influenced the Romanian writer in his political actions. We will also see how his ideas are reflected in his work as politician and writer and we will analyse the influence that he had upon other personalities of his time with same concerns and political orientation. The research will therefore bring again into attention the profile and work of the Romanian theologian, offering a new approach of the relationship between his ideas and works and a reevaluation of his ideas and their actuality

Luthers Heidelberger Disputation am 26. April 1518

Abstract Differently from the 95 Theses, Luther’s Heidelberg Disputation explores his central objec­tive as a professor of theology a reformulation of university theology in view of scholastic aberrations. His new concept is inspired and informed by Paul, Augustine, and medieval my­sticism. His success among students and magisters shows that with his criticism of the rather helpless attempts to base the Christian faith in philosophy, he had the finger on the pulse. To the young intellectuals whom Luther inspired about the issue of the reformation in Heidel­berg, the old way of doing theology seemed no longer plausible. Luther by contrast offered a theology inspired by Paul and mysticism with new possibilities of expression that promised to be existentially relevant.

Toelating tot die bediening van die Woord met verwysing na die kerkorde van Dordrecht 1618 en 1619

This article evaluates the terms and conditions candidates have to meet before entering into the ministry. This evaluation is then set against the background of reformed presuppositions about the office of a minister of the Word. The focus is especially on the relevant articles 4, 8 and 9 of the Synod of Dordt, 1619. The article explains how the articles set out in the Church Order relate to a unique office ( sui generis ), namely that of the church minister. In the context of the Reformed Churches in South Africa, the practical application of these church order articles are also discussed. The question addressed is whether our understanding of the Church Order of Dordt, 1619, Article 8, represents a correct application of this church order article. Furthermore, this article illuminates the responsibilities of inter alia the curators of the Theological School Potchefstroom of the Reformed Churches in South Africa, as well as the responsibilities of the theological professors in the adjudication of application to become a minister of the Word in terms of the different church order articles.

Deux christologies d’aujourd’hui

Two professors of dogmatic theology who were colleagues at the Faculty of theology of the Institut catholique de Paris, have just published, quite independently of each other, an essay on Christology. If these works resemble each other in that they are concerned with the thought of Christ today and the modern separation between “Jesus” and the “Christ”, they differ on a number of points. (...)

A Debreceni Református Kollégium teológiai oktatásának története 1850–1912. A Teológiai Akadémia a Kollégium oktatási rendszerében

The History of Theological Education at Debrecen Reformed College between 1850 and 1912. The changes in the educational system of Theology at Reformed College of Debrecen were heavily influenced by the political-social events of historic Hungary between 1850 and 1912. The first date signals the introduction of arbitrary rule of the Habsburg monarch who suppressed the Hungarians during the War of Independence in 1848-49. The closing date is the emergence of a new state run university in Debrecen. The study throws light on how the Organisations Entwurf tried to modernize as well as Germanize the education system in the Habsburg Empire. As a result, the traditional education structure at the College was entirely restructured. It brought about the disintegration of humanity and art faculty into a grammar school thereby only the law and theological faculties were left intact for a while. The Reformed Church District strongly protested against the dismantling its more than 300 years old education system. It is the irony of history what the oppressing Austrian could not achieve, it was realized after the Compromise by Jozsef Eotvos, the Hungarian minister of culture, religion and education. Needless to say that education at all levels needed to be modernized and standardized. It is clear that it had a positive impact on the curricula of Reformed theological education in the long run. The paper introduces briefly the life of theological professors, their career with a view to their studies abroad and finally their works at various departments of theology.

On the Value of Action and Participatory Research for Intercultural Theology: Reflections in the Light of a Research Project on “Science and Religion in French-Speaking Africa”

Abstract This article explores the importance of “action research” and “participatory research” (ar and pr) for intercultural theology. After introducing these research strategies, it provides a theological rationale for their use in intercultural theology: (1) they move beyond false dichotomies between theoretical and practical theology; (2) they understand professional theologians as part of communities of believers; and (3) they allow for intercultural encounters which approach “the other” as partners in research rather than merely objects of research. Using the example of a research project which studies attitudes to the interface between science and Christian faith among African university students and academics, the article considers three crucial issues for the value and use of ar and pr in intercultural theology: (1) the intrinsic motivation of the partners for intercultural research projects, (2) the role of shared visions of change and (3) the question of truth implied in visions of human flourishing.1

The Bible in a Disenchanted Age: The Enduring Possibility of Christian Faith

The Bible in a Disenchanted Age: The Enduring Possibility of Christian Faith

What was it like to suffer from obsessional disorder in the United States, 1840-1950?

The time period from 1840 to 1950 was one of rapid, dramatic change in the experience of suffering from and receiving treatment for obsessional disorder in the United States. Several patient case histories are discussed in detail, including those of a theology professor's acquaintance (1844), a wealthy gentleman (1880), a hosiery shop proprietor (1938), and a former college student (1949). Although the focus here is on the patients' experience, many broader aspects of the history of obsessional disorder are also explored.