Theological Perspective Research Articles

Hidup Selibat demi Kerajaan Allah dalam Perspektif Teologi Tubuh Yohanes Paulus II

Abstract: This paper proposes a new way of understanding celibacy. The world offers that the most important thing is an active and free life, that is, one cannot be a complete and warm human being in a relationship<br />without a genital sexual experience. The world underestimates celibacy and wants to prove that the choice of celibate life will result in compensation secretly, illegally, and will lead to destructive and manipulative relationships. The thoughts of John Paul II are relevant in an effort to offer a paradigm of sexual liberation, to develop, and to maintain for the creation of sexuality values and the call to life for the sake of the Kingdom of God. John Paul II’s thoughts on celibacy for the sake of the Kingdom of God in the perspective of theology of the body become material for reflection and input for people who live celibate to live in harmony with all the complexities of their bodies. <br /> <br /><strong>Keywords:</strong> Celibacy, John Paul II, Kingdom of God, theology of the body, Rome Catholic.

The Role of Baṣra and the Personality Indexes of Naẓẓām Baṣary ‎in the Formation of the Theory of Ṣarfa

According to Qur'anic scholars Abū Ishāq Ibrāhīm ibn Saiyyār Baṣary, commonly known as Naẓẓām, the great Muʿtazila theologian is the first person to formulate and develop the theory of Ṣarfa about the miraculous aspects of Qur'an. Contemplation and focus on the biography of Naẓẓām Baṣary, as well as the historical, social and geographical conditions of Baṣra, his hometown, opens a new chapter in understanding the active factors in the formation of the theory of Ṣarfa. The results of the paper confirm the Communication of Naẓẓām with Hindu Brahma and the widespread presence of Hindus in Baṣra in the ninth century further reinforces the possibility that Ṣarfa is retrieved from Indian Braham's thought, found in the book al-fida. His encounter with philosophers and the emergence of philosophical thought in his theological perspective, on the one hand, and the dominance of philosophical thought in Baṣra, suggests that the theory of Ṣarfa is influenced by philosophical thought. Moreover, the coincidence of Naẓẓām's life as a proponent of Qur'an's creation with a significant amount of challenges on the idea of the Greatness of Qur'an, reinforced the effectiveness of the theory on Ṣarfa on the idea of the Greatness of Qur'an.

Theological Issues of Pandemic Covid 19 in Malaysia: The Views of The Muslims Theologians

The outbreak of the pandemic COVID-19 in Malaysia started in March 2020. has not only affected Muslims well-being in terms of socio-economic, emotional, and mental health, but it has also challenged their theological understandings, specifically relating to the issue of Qada' and Qadar and Human Freedom of Will. Consequently, some Muslims refused to observe the government order to contain the spread of COVID-19 and accused the observant of the order of committing polytheism. To clarify the issue, this study aims to identify the theological perspectives of the Muslim theologians on COVID-19 and the methods to prevent it. This study employed a qualitative descriptive method. Data was collected through Youtube videos that contain views and responses of the well-known Muslim theologians from the school of Ahl Sunnah wal Jamaah on the theological issues related to the pandemic. The study found that the view of the Muslim theologians on COVID-19 shows that they uphold the Asha'rites understanding and teachings of the concept of Qada' and Qadar and human freedom of will. Therefore, they regarded the observant of the SOP or Islamic guidelines in preventing the spread of pandemic Covid 19 as a form of ikhtiyar and not as a form of polytheism.

A Declaration on the “Russian World” (Russkii Mir) Teaching

Abstract On March 13, 2022 (Sunday of Orthodoxy), Orthodox theologians and scholars from around the world issued an unprecedented theological declaration that draws on both the Barmen Declaration (1934) and the Synodikon of Orthodoxy, and is directed against the ethnophyletist and nationalist “Russian world” ideology that serves as the religious underpinning for Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. This ideology, fundamentalist in character, was developed by Patriarch Kirill (Gundiaev) of Moscow and both Putin and Patriarch Kirill repeatedly reference it in their active support of the Russian invasion. Having briefly outlined the Russian world ideology, the Declaration identifies the ideology’s main propositions, which are declared “heretical” from an Orthodox theological perspective. By contrast, the Orthodox scholars systematically outline affirmations drawn from Scripture and the Holy Tradition of Orthodox Christianity. Finally, the declaration calls all to be mindful of the theological principles outlined in their decisions in church politics.

Inter-Religious Relations and Methodologi Issues

Every religion teaches its followers to live peacefully and harmoniously with others, both the same and different religion followers. However, the fact shows that relations among religious people are often to be problematical. This is not only because of differences between religions in doctrines and practices but also because of different interpretations (sects) and organizations. This religious conflict obviously will harm the religious people themselves. As humanity, religious people want to live together harmoniously with others, both fellow religion, and different religions, because they live on the same earth. This article will discuss how are the inter-religious relationships related to methodological problems in the field of religious studies. Methodologically, Comparative Religion that developed in the early time it studied religions from a theological perspective that is looking at the other religions from their own. So, what happened was the pokrol bambu attitude, raising his religion and demeaning on another. This method is not good for students who study religions, particularly for Indonesians who are multi-religious, because it will only look at his/her religion as superior whereas another as inferior. Wilfred Cantwell Smith, on the other hand, offers a method that is personalizing religion as a way of studying religions. Religion should not be seen only as a set of fixed doctrines and ready-made. The problem of religion is essentially a human problem in which the adherents of each religion always understand, experience and realize their religious beliefs and practices in daily life. Therefore, religion is always new every day. This method or approach requires students to study other religions through the perspective of the people who embraced it, so that, biased interpretation can be avoided. This method requires students to come and have a dialogue with the religious followers concerned.

Faith in African Lived Christianity: Bridging Anthropological and Theological Perspectives, written by Lauterbach, Karen, and Mika Vähäkangas

Faith in African Lived Christianity: Bridging Anthropological and Theological Perspectives, written by Lauterbach, Karen, and Mika Vähäkangas

Expanding the Bounds of Christianity and Feminism

Abstract As headmistress of the London Missionary Society’s Girls’ Boarding School from 1915–1940 in Mbereshi, Zambia, Mabel Shaw (1889–1973) created an innovative educational programme that embraced local culture and empowered women. Shaw drew from theological, anthropological, and feminist perspectives to guide her understanding of Bemba culture. Shaw built upon fulfilment theology with its premise that all religions had an element of God’s truth in them. In doing so, Shaw differentiated Western culture from Christian culture, creating space to accommodate practices such as ancestor veneration and polygamy. While scholars have been reluctant to label Shaw as a feminist, this author argues she must be recognized as one. Shaw actively collaborated with Bemba women and raised them as Christian saints. Moreover, Shaw was unique in that she urged her British audiences to listen to African voices and to consider the value of adopting aspects of African worship.

Wat is van wie?

What is whose? Ecological questions regarding the human use of space, air, precious metals and other natural resources make it necessary to reconsider the claim on property from a theological perspective. Whereas the modern mind takes a firm stand on property from an anthropocentric view, a biblically oriented approach relativizes any absolute claim on property and relates our use of resources to God as Giver and Sustainer of life.

Identifying the Collective Wisdom of the Teaching Office of General Conference

ABSTRACT Does United Methodism have a teaching office? Yes, and General Conference is a primary part of this office, according to several noted Methodist theologians and historians: Frank Baker, Thomas Langford, Mary Elizabeth Moore, and Russell Richey. However, the fruit of United Methodist theological discourse at General Conference is dispersed and not readily available as a coherent tradition of thought. This article explores the teaching office of General Conference, identifying a few of the most significant teaching documents emerging from this legislative body, addressing topics of theological method, missiology, social witness, ecclesiology, and sacraments. The article also identifies gaps in this church’s store of collective wisdom and suggests further avenues of exploration in the history of teachings of General Conference. As The United Methodist Church struggles to define itself amidst divided caucuses, regions, and theological perspectives, the task of retrieving what General Conferences teaches, and deliberates about teaching, takes on renewed urgency.

The sacredness of the Maengket Dance in Contextual Theological Perspective

This article aims to interpret the reality of the sacredness of the Maengket dance in Minahasa culture from a contextual theological perspective. Maengket dance is an original Minahasa dance that contains some sacred values ??in the form of traditional rituals (foso) and performing arts. This study uses a qualitative approach through interviews, observations, and literature study. The research finding in this article is the encounter between the Bible and culture in Minahasa seen in dance. However, due to globalization, the meaning of sacredness and ethnic identity in the dance has experienced a shift in values. Therefore, it is concluded that the Maengket dance is part of the identity of the Minahasa tribe in offering prayers of supplication and thanksgiving to Opo Empung Wailan Wangko (God the Almighty), which is inclusive in people's daily lives. On the other hand, it is necessary to get attention from various parties to preserve this artwork as a legacy of local wisdom for the next Minahasa generation.

Coping with chronic stress during COVID-19 and beyond – A faith perspective

Spiritual coping has been defined as an individual’s ability to utilise faith in God combined with certain Christian beliefs and religious practices to appraise, understand, and effectively cope with stress. We aimed to show the Christian how specific spiritual coping strategies and religious practices could be used to effectively assess and handle chronic stress from a faith perspective amid the ongoing coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic and beyond. A literature study was conducted to identify positive and negative coping strategies during the COVID-19 era and highlighted the adverse effects of chronic stress and defensiveness. Recent findings on religion, the validated bio-engineered chronic stress phenotype, the Coping Strategy Indicator (CSI), Africultural Coping Systems Inventory (ACSI) and the effect of spiritual coping skills were assessed. In addition, certain Bible passages and theological perspectives regarding spiritual coping were explored to identify traces of the fight-or-flight response in the Garden of Gethsemane. The novel chronic stress phenotype reflecting stroke risk, could determine the prevalence of chronic stress. Positive coping strategies were identified, to show how positive spiritual coping skills could be utilised from a faith perspective, in coping with chronic stress amid COVID-19 and beyond. The Believe-Belong-Behave pastoral model, consisting of individual skills, corporate practices, and practical action steps, showed the Christian how certain spiritual coping skills and practices could be implemented during stress coping. The scriptural insights gained from this study, combined with the pastoral model reviewed, could offer a harmonious contribution toward the Christian’s ability to utilise spiritual coping strategies amid COVID-19 chronic stress-induced symptoms and complexities.Contribution: This article used an inter-disciplinary approach to compare recent findings within Theology, Neurophysiology, Bio-engineering, and Psychology regarding religion, stress-phenotyping, positive stress-coping and mental health. The scriptural foundation encouraged a faith-in-action response to chronic stress during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and beyond.

MEMAKNAI HIDUP DI DEPAN KEMATIAN DALAM REFLEKSI KOMPARATIF HEIDEGGER DAN RAHNER

Death is usually seen as the end of everything. So many people try and build an effort to run from death in so many ways, both conventional and modern, from the traditional one to the high technology usage. However, whatever we do, we finally face death. The fear of death sometimes makes humans run from it, make a tranquilization, an inauthentic attitude, or according to Heidegger “inauthenticity of being-toward-death”. Consequently, so many opportunities for a meaningful life are left behind. By using the qualitative method through literature research, this inquiry comes to a reflection of the meaning of life in the face of death in the frame of comparative study. This paper is based on Heidegger’s argument in his book Sein und Zeit (SZ). A new terminology he built, Sein-zum-Tode, stimulates various questions vis-a-vis the reality of life encountered by the entire society in today’s world. Are there any relevances of his argument on death to build a meaningful life here and now? To make a balance of reflection, this paper presents the theological perspective of Karl Rahner, Heidegger’s former student. By comparing these two thinkers, between a philosopher and a theologian, the author comes to a reflection that the mystery of death must be understood in relation to the creative and meaningful life in this world

The Social Problem of Suicide: A Theological Perspective

The Social Problem of Suicide: A Theological Perspective

Young People’s Embodied Hope in Pandemic Threats

Abstract Young people today are both likely to bear the brunt of the long-term problems caused by the covid-19 pandemic and face other kinds of outbreaks or pandemics in the future. In that kind of unprecedented situation, the world offers us hope to recover from today’s pandemic and to prevent other outbreaks or pandemics in the future. This study will focus on a theological reflection on hope concerning pandemic threats offered in popular culture. Specifically, using the revised correlational method, this study will explore how the theological reflection on the concept of hope in Netflix’s Pandemic docuseries could help young people to live with an embodied hope in a pandemic threat. This theological reflection will offer embodied hope as a theological perspective for young people to embody their limitations as embodied beings while enacting their eschatological hope in pandemic threats.

Exploring theological perspectives on adult social care

A number of theological perspectives on adult social care are considered to illustrate how theology can be brought into creative dialogue with the practical and ethical issues in a way that may inform the ongoing public debate.

The Oxford Handbook of Ritual and Worship in the Hebrew Bible. Edited by Samuel E. Balentine

The last thirty years have seen an increasing number of studies on ritual in the Hebrew Bible inspired by the path-breaking work of scholars like Rendtorff, Douglas, Milgrom, and Levine as well as the development of ritual theory within anthropology. The field is well placed for a handbook that builds on past scholarship in order to develop pathways for new research, and a particular strength of this volume is its attentiveness to the reception of biblical texts in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. As is typical for the Oxford Handbooks, this is a substantial volume with 34 essays covering a wide range of topics. The first section has essays on the wider cultural context: Mesopotamia (Abusch), Egypt (Teeter), Hatti (Beckman), Syria-Palestine (Curtis), Greece (Kowalzig). Greece might easily have been overlooked and its inclusion is welcome. The second section examines interpretative approaches: history of religion (Grabbe), ritual theory (Gruenwald), and social and cultural anthropology (Gilders). Readers expecting an analysis of recent ritual theory will find what they seek in the incisive essay by Gilders. Gruenwald’s essay presents his distinctive views on ritual and (rather oddly for a handbook on the Hebrew Bible) a case study on baptism. The third section is the largest and considers the different components of ritual: the gods (Hartenstein), sacred space (Hundley), ritual experts and participants (Hieke), sacred time (Davis), ritual objects (Bonfiglio), practices (Gane), and the ritualizing of iconic texts in Judaism (Watts), Christianity (Parmenter), and Islam (Svensson). The fourth section has reflections on the cultural and theological perspectives: sin and expiation (Janzen), clean/unclean and holy/profane (Lawrence), sickness and healing (Rooke), death and afterlife (Schmidt), and divine presence and absence (Berlejung). The fifth section examines the history of interpretation: Qumran (Schuller), early Christianity (Bradshaw), early Judaism (Newman), and rabbinic Judaism (Reif). Since Newman’s essay deals extensively with Qumran, there is a degree of overlap with the object of Schuller’s examination. The sixth section studies the sociocultural effects of rituals in the Hebrew Bible in the realms of politics (Morrow), ethics (Davies), Israelite society (Cook), and economics (Schaper). The seventh and final section examines the theological heritage of biblical rituals in biblical theology (Klingbeil), secular Judaism (Marx), Christian rituals (Werline), and Islamic rituals (Gauvain). In the essays, notes have been kept to a minimum, but each essay has a bibliography. Balentine provides a two-page introduction to the entire volume and there is a subject index, including selected authors, but no index of scriptural or ancient texts.

Human Interaction with the Divine, the Sacred, and the deceased: psychological, scientific, and theological perspectives

Human Interaction with the Divine, the Sacred, and the deceased: psychological, scientific, and theological perspectives

A Theological Perspective of Domestic Violence in Kenya

This paper acknowledges the fact that there is escalation of domestic violence in Kenya despite efforts of the church. Theologically in both Christianity and African religion violence is not accepted and taking away life is not condoned. It recognises how in the traditional African society domestic violence was limited unlike during this era of Christianity. This paper seeks to unveil how the Nandi Addressed domestic violence in the past and how the church can borrow from this in order to incorporate some of the traditional methods of resolving this form of violence. The study adopted a qualitative research design where the perceptions of the respondents were used to gather in-depth information about the field of study. The findings were analysed and presented descriptively. The main sources of domestic violence include drug abuse, poor foundation of children, unclear marital roles and economic problems among others. The major findings of the study are that domestic violence leads to character defamation and even death of persons. Lack of economic resources underpins women’s vulnerability to violence and their inability to disentangle themselves from abusive relationships. This paper recommends that there is need to revisit teachings from traditional institutions of marriage and initiations and incorporate positive forms of teaching with teachings in Christianity for harmony in the society. This paper concludes that the society is no longer knit together due to the brake up of the traditional family and the society in general. Domestic violence in Kenya indicates the laxity and failure of the religious institutions in checking family relationships. It further recommends that there is need to go back to our traditional family settings to reflect on what is expected of the family and to derive the worth of an individual and meaning of life

The story of the Samaritan woman and Jesus (John 4:1-42) focusing on water within an ecofeminist theological perspective

ABSTRACT This article explores water as portrayed in the story of the Samaritan woman and Jesus in John 4:1-42 on the basis of an ecofeminist theological perspective: a method of valuing the liberation of women and nature. The story depicts an event in the context of water shortages, which are characteristic of the region. However, when interpreting the story, a number of scholars have focused on the spiritual living water of Jesus rather than on the value of ordinary, physical, potable water. Based on an ecofeminist theological analysis, this article not only critiques anthropocentric, dualistic, and patriarchal paradigms, but also highlights interdependencies, interrelationships, and mutualities between all creatures and water. This contributes to the pursuit of an alternative Christian worldview which is concerned with all living beings on earth without any disparity. In addition, it is important not to distinguish between the two interpretations of water, as a physical resource and as a spiritual metaphor, especially if this leads us to put a greater emphasis on the former to the detriment of the latter. This article applies an ecofeminist biblical hermeneutic, which articulates and explores the oppression of both nature and women. This looks at the story through the lenses of four different hermeneutics: experience, suspicion, reconfiguration, and transformative action for Church, and proposes a range of ways in which a new interpretation can be justified and applied.

Faster, Higher, More Moral: Human Enhancement and Christianity

The three authors of this article explore the intersection of moral enhancement, ethics, and Christianity. Trothen reviews the meaning and potential of moral enhancements, considering some of the risks and limitations. Trothen identifies three broad ethical questions, which all three authors agree upon, that arise from a Christian theological perspective: what it means to be human, choice, and social justice. Trothen concludes that respect for human dignity and social justice requires rejecting a reductive view of moral improvement as purely biochemical. Buttrey then argues that biomedical moral enhancement (BME) is simply one in a series of attempts to morally improve human beings and can be compared to other efforts such as neo-Aristotelian virtue ethics. He argues that BME cannot be simultaneously more reliable than moral education in virtue and no more restrictive of human freedom. He concludes by suggesting that tensions between BME and Thomistic virtue are even stronger due to Christian conceptions of martyrdom and radical self-denial. Finally, McQueen argues that Christianity emphasizes the common good and social justice as essential for human flourishing. Building on the foundation established by Trothen and Buttrey, McQueen insists that accurate cognitive knowledge is needed to make good conscience decisions, but emphasizes that right human action also requires the exercise of the will, which can be undermined by AI, automation, and perhaps also BME. She concludes by encouraging further attention to the true nature of human agency, human freedom, and wisdom in debates over AI and biomedical enhancement. The authors conclude that BMEs, if they become medically safe, may be theologically justifiable and helpful as a supplement to moral improvement.