Space For God Research Articles

Káromkodásból katedrálist: lelkigondozás és spiritualitás összefüggései Jób könyvében

Abstract. A Cathedral Built on Swearing? Interrelations between Counselling and Spirituality in the Book of Job. Given its enormous exegetical potential, pastoral care could clearly lay hold more of the Book of Job’s kerygmatic rather than its psychological certainties. In addition to the Book of Job being often read as a case study about the suffering person’s sense of justice and quest for meaning, Job’s experience has a spiritual overtone as well: he is faced with the question of the true nature of God and the need to find an adequate human response to it. Also, the Book is indicative of how people respond to the suffering and what witness and support they offer. In this paper, I evaluate the counselling strategies in the Book of Job identified by Manfred Oeming. I pay special attention to Job’s wife, and I argue that she should not be considered a proper counsellor, as she herself is stricken by the same tragic events as is Job. Instead, she is a fellow sufferer, although acknowledged as such only by extracanonical literature. What is more, she may be identified as the partner or the first and foremost caregiver of the sufferer whose challenges and difficulties remain unidentified, unspoken of, and unaddressed most of the time. As for the spiritual issues aroused by suffering, I suggest that both counsellor and counsellee must reach spiritual maturity to be able to understand and accept their experience of suffering as a genuine experience of God, and so, given time, this may make space for God’s theophany and healing presence. Keywords: Book of Job, suffering, spirituality, pastoral care, counselling, fellow sufferer, caregiver

“But will God indeed dwell on the earth?” God and Space

AbstractThe so‐called “spatial turn” has led to renewed interest in the question of space among theologians. Concerning the concept of divine omnipresence, classical positions (Aquinas, Luther) underlined that God is present in the created world through God's essence and creating power. Contemporary authors sometimes oppose a classic and pre‐Kantian “container model” and adopt preferentially a more modern “relational model” of space. This article argues that these two models are not mutually exclusive, and that an analogical approach, linking the “space of God” and “created space”, might help us understand the encompassing presence of God in God's creation.

The Category of Testimony as an Axis of Fundamental Ecclesiology: The Credibility of the Church in the Work of Salvador Pié-Ninot

The article presents the fundamental ecclesiology of the contemporary Catholic theologian Salvador Pie-Ninot (*1941). The text shows the way in which he solves the question of the credibility of the Church and the attitudes of private Christianity with its negative attitude towards the Church (believing without belonging). Pie-Ninot underlines that the credibility of the Church is dependent on revelation and that the character of faith is ecclesial. He interconnects the last two councils: the concept of the Church, whose divine character is approachable by man (via empirica, the way of experience) as it is taught by the First Vatican Council, with the ecclesial stances of the Second Vatican Council, which reduces the emphasis on the attributes of the Church in favour of revelation, the person of Jesus Christ and a personal relationship to him. Pie-Ninot then offers the way of testimony, which includes the outer (for example, apostolic tradition) and inner form of churchly reality (personal life according to the demands of the Gospel) and perceives the Church as a privileged space of God’s revelation and salvation.

Klinkende ruimte. Reformasie deur die kerklied

In the year 2017, the 500th anniversary of the Reformation is commemorated in countries all over the world. The Reformation was an ecclesiastical and theological renewal movement, but through congregational singing, the ideas of the Reformation spread rapidly through many countries. It was thus also a singing movement. The commemoration year offers an opportunity to explore the ecumenical possibilities of singing and to search for new perspectives. In this article, the exegesis of a hymn text provides the opportunity for a theological discussion on various dimensions of space opened up by worship. They are, among others, the space to meet God, to meet other people and to meet oneself; the space for God’s work; the space to live the faith; the space for memory (anamneses) and a space to get new perspectives – thus presenting the opportunity to ‘change space’. The space created by music is space for praising God, for proclaiming, hearing and believing God’s Word, together with other possibilities. In the hymn that is analysed, the six main spaces or areas of the church’s work within which music and singing could function, come into play. The Gattung, Liedpredigt, opens the possibility for sermons based on hymns – an important ‘use’ of hymns since the time of the Reformation. It is a possibility that should be emphasised anew in the commemoration year. The performative function of the hymn (the effect or functioning of a hymn) as it is experienced concretely in the performance (the singing of the hymn), is discussed briefly. A need for new sacred spaces and sacrality in spaces provides new space for traditional hymns and for the organ as an instrument traditionally associated with worship – provided they share the space with other instruments, fill the space with new colours of sound and allow for new forms of singing. The tradition should be re-interpreted constantly, to sound the faith anew in each space where it is voiced and heard.

Christian Love in the Community

Abstract Framing a discussion of social space and the possibility of theological reflection and action, the article utilizes Moltmann, Nussbaum and Joost to argue that there is a space for God within social spaces. The author develops his argument in five separate theses dealing with social spaces as behavioral premises before turning in his final four theses to more theological reflections on the social space of the heterotopic Golgotha, the space of the Kingdom of God, the interaction of social and Kingdom space, and an interpretation of social space as creational.

An Evaluation of Jürgen Moltmann’s Concept of Time and Space in the New Creation

Abstract This article concentrates on Jürgen Moltmann’s elaboration of time and space, which constitute a hermeneutical key when talking about the new creation. It presents a general survey of Moltmann’s concept of time and space, and critically evaluates the doctrine of zimzum, the dialectic of time and eternity, and the view on limited and omnipresent space which influences Moltmann’s view on the new creation. In my approach I argue extensively that the time and space of creation will not change into the infinite free time and space of God, but they will border on it, and thereby be connected and separated by it.

Barth and Anselm: God, Christ and the Atonement

AbstractThis article considers God, Christ and the atonement in the work of Anselm and Barth. It identifies key points of agreement regarding God's self‐assigned identity and the importance of dyothelitism; it discerns a marked divergence of opinion with respect to the atonement. Anselm construes the atonement in terms of a gift that Christ offers on behalf of sinful humankind. Barth, on the other hand, presents a view of atonement that builds on his revolutionary doctrine of election. He describes the cross as an event in which sin is ‘burned up’, cancelled and overcome within the time and space of God's being.

Ap 12 jako teologia historii

The Biblical writers notice history as the space of God’s rule. He is the director, who comes into contact with human being through signs – events and words, and also He is the history’s perpetuum mobile. Rev 12 specifically reflect nowadays and the previous in the context of the whole world’s vision and mix the reference to facts (lack of the temple, ark, faithful people, horrible experiences, the death danger), places (the temple, a desert), persons (the Child-Ruler, Michael) with the Old Testament figurative exposing, a typical one for such a book (the Woman with Child, the heaven, the dragon), enriched with a lot of symbols (a crown, a horn, the moon under feet). God’s interference into World history is presented through lightning, voices, thunder, an earthquake and great hail, that stress His power and supremacy. The biblical writer refers to events, which make place whole the time in the natural- and supernatural space, like: the war between God and evil, persecutions, hiding, God’s care of men. The specific literary structure of Rev 12, contrary to the other parts of that book, seem to help to put an accent for the fundamental truths for transcendental theology of history of which the most important is the eternal rule of God and only accidental, finished in the time perspective of Satan’s position.

The Grace of Teaching Mistakes

Teaching mistakes are often unwelcome intruders in our courses, and we may think they are best avoided altogether. In contrast to this perspective, this article proposes that teaching mistakes may be occasions of grace both for us and for our students. Teaching mistakes may be gifts of grace in four particular ways. Teaching about our mistakes in pedagogically intentional ways may also create a space for God's gracious activity in our lives and in those of our students. These points are illustrated by the story of the author's most powerful teaching mistake.

Space for God's design

Space for God's design

Hospitality as a Sign and Sacrament

This paper was prepared as a resource that responds to a hypothesis in the DMin Dissertation/Project Design: “People with disabilities not only constitute a community that makes space for God in the world, but by participating in the act of hospitality as sign and sacrament, will challenge the Church to be such a community by identifying with them.” This paper has been available as a resource to participants in education programs on disability awareness within the Uniting Church in Australia.