Theological Contours Research Articles

Election, Favoritism, and Freedom: Towards a Modern Jewish Theology of Matrilineal Descent

AbstractThis article offers an account of the broad theological contours of the Jewish practice of matrilineal descent. I make the case that matrilineality epitomizes God's contingent preference in favoring and electing Israel. I link Mara Benjamin's recent work to recuperate asymmetrical power relations for feminist theology to the asymmetrical relationship inherent in God's election of Israel. With Benjamin, I emphasize the importance of contingency, vulnerability, and favoritism for divine and parental love. I then read the opening parable in the tractate of Avodah Zarah for one Talmudic strategy for reckoning with the contingency of election. In Avodah Zarah, election's contingency is qualified by the concept of zekhut avot—the merit of the patriarchs. From here, I turn to the work of Jon Levenson for an account of the construction of zekhut avot in the Genesis stories. I show that the merit of the patriarchs is defined by the patriarchal encounter with the trial of favoritism. For the Israelites after Genesis, a decisive consequence of zekhut avot is that all of Jacob's (Israel's) descendants become beloved of God. The contingent transmission of the covenant thus transforms from inscrutable divine choice to the still‐contingent power of ancestry. The article closes with an interpretation of the rabbinic concept of zekhut imahot—the merit of the matriarchs. The preferred or preferring matriarch is decisive for determining the next beloved son in Genesis. The article argues that matriarchal merit is not tied to any essential construction of gender, but to the capacity to exercise freedom under conditions of providential silence. I contend that the practice of matrilineal descent re‐inscribes matriarchal merit for every generation of the Jewish people.

‘The Most Serious Dissention’: Implications of a Theological Reading of the Keithian Controversy

The Keithian Controversy was one of the most explosive disputes in seventeenth-century Quakerism, but has been neglected in the historiography. Where it has attracted attention, it has usually been assumed that Keith himself was the problem, and the theological contours of the controversy have therefore been given little consideration. Nonetheless, the heart of the controversy was a critical spiritual issue for the Religious Society of Friends: what is the relationship between the Light within and the historical Jesus? This research note reflects on some of the implications of this view for our wider understanding of Quakerism. Above all, it suggests that the Keithian controversy points to intrinsic tensions within Quaker thought, and was the first in a series of Quaker schisms that confronted these issues explicitly. The benefits of studying the Controversy for a more contextualised understanding of all periods of Quakerism are therefore significant.

Psalms, Volume 2

Psalms, Volume 2

On the theopolitics of sovereignty: Carl Schmitt and the theopolitics of global orders

AbstractThis article considers how we can develop a reflexive reading of the theological contours of global politics through Carl Schmitt's account of sovereignty. In doing this it seeks to generate a critical architecture to understand the pluralistic registers of sovereignty within world politics. This article examines the theological dimensions of sovereignty, calling for a closer reading of the theopolitical discourses of legality and legitimacy at work within the largely secular discipline of International Relations. Tracing the pluralistic dimensions of sovereignty – juristic, popular, and theopolitical – allows us to see how sovereignty is operationalised through a range of distinct political registers. When the study of sovereignty is confused with questions of preference for modes of governing (whether secular, religious, democratic, and/or juristic) the complex historical sociology of sovereignty is overlooked. Contemporary scholarship in International Relations can benefit from closer engagement with the multiple, overlapping registers of sovereignty in global politics. We may disagree with Schmitt's reading of sovereignty as ‘theopolitics’ but there is real methodological value in engaging secular scholarship in thinking about religion as a constitutive domain for global order – alongside a rich range of critical approaches.

Peregrinação e santuário: reflexões teológicas na Bíblia hebraica

Um dos principais antecedentes históricos e religiosos para a prática contemporânea do turismo religioso é a peregrinação. De fato, a prática milenar da peregrinação se destaca particularmente na tradição judaica. O presente artigo objetiva explorar os contornos teológicos da peregrinação no contexto da Bíblia hebraica, mais especificamente nos livros de Gênesis, Êxodo e Salmos. Para tanto, o estudo se vale de uma metodologia bibliográfica que leva em conta, para a sua reflexão, os conceitos de tempo, espaço e liminaridade. Nesse sentido, o artigo inicia com a identificação de padrões de peregrinação nas narrativas patriarcais de Gênesis. Em seguida, o estudo explora o paradigma da peregrinação na narrativa de Êxodo. Finalmente, o artigo discute as festas de peregrinação e o uso litúrgico de Salmos. As conclusões do presente estudo destacam a qualidade espiritual da peregrinação na tradição judaica, cujo clímax é a experiência religiosa de Deus no templo. De forma mais abrangente, a tradição teológica da peregrinação na Bíblia hebraica serve de base para a experiência espiritual contemporânea, onde a vida como um todo é interpretada em termos de peregrinação.

Secularizing Philanthropy in the Twentieth Century: The Pew Family as Trustees of Divine Endowment

Planning for the Pew family trusts (founders of Sun Oil) dates to at least 1932 when estate work began for the four Pew children. Fear of inheritance “super-taxes” proposed by Franklin Delano Roosevelt to finance his New Deal was in the air in the 1930s and drove a number of wealthy families to find novel ways to shield their assets from Roosevelt’s various revenue acts. These trusts were meant only to come into effect after the death of each family member, and it was not until 1948 when the four Pews sat down to invest into existence the Pew Memorial Foundation (their father’s posthumous memorial) that they made headlines in terms of secular philanthropy. The Pews saw Roosevelt’s taxes as not only the first blow in a new type of class warfare, but also as a pointed attack against the free market ideologies that allowed individual choice in the ultimate investment of one’s money. This article follows the Pews’ attempts to navigate their responsibilities to family wealth. By examining the logic and theological contours of the Pews’ insistence upon a separation between public and private, profit and loss, and secular market, political lobbying, and religious interest, we learn not only about conservative Protestant influence on American law, but also about the context for the creation of an independent philanthropic “third sector” tied to the evolving role of organized religion in twentieth-century American society.

Reinventing Mosaic Torah in Ezra-Nehemiah in the Light of the Law (dāta) of Ahura Mazda and Zarathustra

In this study I examine linguistic and theological contours of term ( torâ in Ezra-Nehemiah—particularly identification of with law () of God promulgated by Ezra (Ezra 7:14)—through lens of Old Persian and Avestan notions of the law set down ( dāta ) by Ahura Mazda and revealed through Zarathustra. While basic notion of divine revelation of laws through mediation of Moses emerges already in preexilic biblical texts, I posit that innovative link drawn by authors of Ezra-Nehemiah between Old Persian and Avestan term dāta (via Aramaic and Hebrew reflects a broader and more comprehensive impact of Avestan traditions, mediated by Achaemenid ideology, on construction and conceptualization of Mosaic in Ezra-Nehemiah. Weighing in on ongoing debate over range of imperial authorization of local legislation and cult in Judea, Egypt, and Asia Minor, I argue that Achaemenids, who were probably involved in certain aspects of codification and canonization of textual, legal, and theological manifestations of Zoroastrianism, functioned as agents (whether actively or passively) in facilitating and reinforcing adaptation by Babylonian-Judean scribes of Avestan notions of divine revelation of law and scriptural unity linked to personal authority.

St. Thomas Aquinas “Rightly Dividing the Word of Truth”: The Historical and Theological Contours of Thomas’s Principia

St. Thomas Aquinas “Rightly Dividing the Word of Truth”: The Historical and Theological Contours of Thomas’s Principia

The Contours of Conversion to Catholicism in the Nineteenth Century

The chronological and theological contours of conversion to Catholicism in the nineteenth-century United States evidence three waves. Beginning with John Thayer’s 1783 conversion from Congregationalism and continuing through the 1830s, conversions were scattered, and often from Reformed Protestantism. The 1840s through 1860s, the critical period for Catholic conversion, included converts from American Episcopalianism, riven by the Oxford movement, and from Transcendentalist and liberal Christian reformers dissatisfied with reform’s theological underpinnings. These converts became the agents of a new movement to convert Protestants. From 1870 through the early twentieth century, missionary priests, especially members of the Missionary Society of St. Paul the Apostle (Paulists), won thousands of converts, making conversion to Catholicism a viable choice for many more Americans.

Teologie as werklikheidsverstaan – anders dink, anders doen: Aantekeninge oor die teologie van Johan Buitendag

Theology as understanding reality – thinking differently, acting differently: Notes about the theology of Johan Buitendag. The article investigates the theological contours delineated from the publications of the systematic theologian Johan Buitendag. His theology represents a relational integrity of ontology, epistemology and ethics. It can be characterised as an existential ecotheology. In the introduction this rhizome (epistemological metaphor borrowed from Giles Deleuze and Félix Guattari) existence in Buitendag’s theology is discussed. The article consists of nine sections: the hermeneutical circle as introduction; the polemic attitude of Karl Barth with regard to a theologia naturalis; understanding the notion paradigm; being church as a relational event; engaged epistemology; existential theo-anthropology and ecotheology; existential ecclesiology; existential engagement; and an autobiographical reflection.

Habitat, emosie en ’n eko-teologiese verstaan van menswees: In gesprek met Johan Buitendag

Habitat, emotion and an eco-theological understanding of humanity: In conversation with Johan Buitendag. The question on what his viewpoint of an eco-theological understanding of life entails is firstly posed in conversation with the South African systematic theologian Johan Buitendag. His standpoint, in which he argues for the constitutive significance of habitat against the background of the philosophical, biological and theological contours of descriptions of what life is, is set forth. He suggests that human life should be described with regard to habitat in its constitutive significance and subsequently in regard to a value system, and concludes that human life as homo religiosus must be understood from an eco-theological viewpoint as ontologically extended (‘ontologies uitgebreid’). His eco-theological viewpoint is secondly taken up in an explication of the sense making of human life by humans, determined and shaped by their biological roots in their habitat. Lastly the affective-cognitive dimension of being human with specific emphasis on affectivity is expounded as representing the embodiment of the logic of survival of personhood in their habitat.

Embedded memory and the churches in Ireland

The Heythrop JournalVolume 55, Issue 3 p. 409-421 ARTICLE Embedded memory and the churches in Ireland† Oliver P. Rafferty SJ, Oliver P. Rafferty SJ Loyola University ChicagoSearch for more papers by this author Oliver P. Rafferty SJ, Oliver P. Rafferty SJ Loyola University ChicagoSearch for more papers by this author First published: 05 August 2013 https://doi.org/10.1111/heyj.12066 †This article began as a paper read at the ‘Embedded Memory and the Theological Contours of Division’ seminar held at Trinity College, Dublin in December 2011. I should like to thank Professor Linda Hogan of the Irish School of Ecumenics at Trinity for the opportunity of rehearsing these ideas in that forum. Read 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 Volume55, Issue3May 2014Pages 409-421 RelatedInformation

“Our Most Serious Deficiency-Disease”– Reason, Faith and the Rediscovery of Sensibility

AbstractThe essay addresses the complex cultural historical claim that with modernity the earlier unity of reason and sensibility underwent a dissociation that has important consequences for our current predicament and for our present understanding of the relationship between reason, faith and sensibility. Three case studies (Géza Ottlik, T. S. Eliot and Blaise Pascal) are examined in order to establish the nature of the divide and provide an archaeology (with the help of Pascal) of one of its first conceptualisations as well as of an early attempt to heal the growing fissure between what is termed by Pascal as reason and the heart. The second part examines current thought concerning the need to enlarge the narrow Enlightenment conception of reason and the recent call to re-envision its theological contours. The argument is then made that the same procedure should be applied to the theologically long-neglected domain of human sensibility. Theology is registered as also being accountable for internalising and perpetuating the cultural dissociation due to its failure to preserve the traditional theological contours of affectivity and its naivety in leaving the exploration of this domain entirely to the competence of secular philosophy.

Introduction: Intersections of culture and religion in African-American communities

As a child of the blues, hip hop culture and rap music bring together the ‘best of both worlds’ of culture and religion respectively. The interrogation of cultural production by African-American scholars across fields is not a new phenomenon, however, a rigorous examination of the religious and theological contours of hip hop culture, such as rap music, are slowly beginning to take shape. In this Introduction, we contextualize one such attempt as expressed in this journal you hold, to think religion and hip hop together in new and exciting ways. Here, we give thought to the multifaceted ways in which the changing syncretic cultural cartography of hip hop in general and rap music specifically push and force a re-thinking of religious sensibilities and the quest for life meaning. More than that, we take the position that not only does the genius of hip hop culture and rap music call and yearn for a more complicated terrain of the religious, but likewise, offers a rich opportunity to rethink the rugged terrain of the cultural. Here, we not only interrogate rap music from the corners of religion, more than that, we open ourselves up to be confronted and gripped by the rugged terrain of African American cultural production.

Being-in-Love: an Enquiry Into the Ontological Foundation of Ethics

This paper takes issue with those commentators of Heidegger's philosophy whose point of entry into his thinking is the inherited prejudices of others. It demonstrates that if prior judgments are suspended, so that Heidegger's texts are permitted to speak for themselves, the truth of his `position', more a wege than a static motionless point, gradually and inexorably begins to emerge. I take Pope Benedict's first encyclical, Deus Caritas Est , to draw the theological contours of a truly post-modern ethic. I then hold up Heidegger's philosophy, as this is characterized principally though not exclusively in his lecture Der Satz Der Identität, to consider possible symmetries. Finally I offer an answer to the question: does Heidegger's thought have ethical consequences?

“It is Our Bounden Duty”: Theological Contours of New Zealand's Missionary Movement, 1890–1930

“It is Our Bounden Duty”: Theological Contours of New Zealand's Missionary Movement, 1890–1930