Theological Spectrum Research Articles

Theological Intersections: Newman’s ‘Primacy of God’ in Modern Church Discourse

This article critically examines the Catholic–Anglican theological dialogue, centering on John Henry Newman’s ‘Primacy of God’, Catholic synodality, and Anglican comprehensiveness. It illuminates the interconnectedness of these elements, revealing their potential to enhance ecumenical conversations. Newman’s concept of communal faith and divine primacy resonates across both traditions, advocating a transformative, experiential spiritual journey. This study juxtaposes Newman’s stance on ecclesiastical authority and doctrinal development with contemporary synodal movements in the Catholic Church, paralleled by Anglican practices like the Lambeth Conferences. This comparison underscores a mutual commitment to participatory governance and theological inclusivity. Ultimately, the study envisions a unified Christian theology, fostering dialogue enriched by diverse traditions and promoting a harmonious convergence within the Christian theological spectrum.

Lyric Theology: Art and the Doctrine of Creation. By Thomas Gardner

In the Introduction to Lyric Theology: Art and the Doctrine of Creation, Thomas Gardner notes how the recent upsurge in scholarly interest in the lyric has provided resources for a greater understanding of the theological significations of lyric thinking. This book is timely, not only due to its engagement with current developments in lyric theory. It also resonates with movements in the theological sphere where, building on the major contribution made by reflections on the narrative and dramatic modes to discussions of theological method and theological aesthetics, interest is now turning to lyric modes of God-talk. Gardner writes as a literary critic and lyric essayist with a deep interest in theology, as attested to in his earlier work, John in the Company of Poets: The Gospel in Literary Imagination (Baylor University Press, 2011). His treatment of his subject is theologically literate, rooted in the Reformed tradition of Jürgen Moltmann, Colin Gunton, Belden Lane, and Jeremy Begbie, but also drawing more widely across the theological spectrum, from figures such as David Bentley Hart and Rowan Williams. Gardner presents lyric as a form that understands a truth by inhabiting it. Describing reading as ‘a lyric act’ (p. 9), Gardner presents his book as itself a lyrical exercise that draws the reader into the experiences it describes. He employs this perilous power of the lyric voice adeptly and sensitively, resulting in a work that goes beyond scholarly discourse towards a meditative and spiritual form of writing that is a demonstration of lyric theology in action.

The Experience of Peril in Secular Criticism

Abstract This essay offers a reading of Stathis Gourgouris's The Perils of the One (2019). The peril of the One is primarily, Zartaloudis suggests, its poverty of experience. The impoverishment of experience is the purpose of transcendental foundations of the One, which, in Western traditions, is presupposed through a binary schema of power whereby potency is exhausted in actuality. This binary of power corresponds historically to the Christian Trinitarian oikonomia that predates the transcendental foundationalism of sovereign power/law and secular government. Hence, the age-old discourses that have been produced over many centuries over heteronomy and/or autonomy, across the theological, philosophical, juridical, and political spectrum, revolve around the same false paradox of how to form order in the world from a transcendental vantage point, without being able, by definition, to unfold it in the world. Determined to separate the false paradox (the “world” according to the One) from the true paradox (the cosmological abyss) within which it unfolds, humanity is thought to be destined to an inevitable state of war as if by nature. Secular criticism (in the manner of Edward Said and Gourgouris) as a tradition of thought offers an alternative to the polemic between traditions that are structured according to a false paradox (a world as the world) attempting to erase the unmappable cosmos. Such criticism, it is proposed, could become ever more creative and inviting if it reached out across traditions to compose an impassioned poietic thread that is premised on the negation neither of traditions nor of the irreparable cosmological abyss that marks our species.

K problematice "Green theology": Spirituální obrat ke stvoření skrze mystiku Dorothee Sölle

The issue of ecological theological discourses has been neglected and abandoned for a long time by the end of the theological spectrum, which resulted in the topic of Christian faith as a co­-perpetrator in the context of the current ecological crisis. It is above all an anthropocentric turn in Christian faith and the interpretation of the Biblical myth of creation that has been identified as a reason which has led to the spread of ecological disaster and despotic dominance of man over nature. The theological discourse in the 1980s, however, strongly reinforced the idea of ecology, which is related to an increasingly urgent ecological state. The theological space begins to apply, in particular through the ideas of the Evangelical JĂźrgen Moltmann, a certain turn to creation, where, along with the accenting task of the Kingdom, the relation at the level of man­-nature is brought to the attention of man as a creation. Turning towards creation along with responsibility for the veil was a change in the paradigm of theological thinking that opened up space for the accentuation of Matthew Fox‘s “living cosmology” and, in particular, the “mystique of defiance” of the Protestant theologian Dorothee SĂślle. It is precisely the ideas of “ecotheology” or “green theology” that center on creation in its divine unity, Dorothee SĂślle considers the basis for consistently accentuating relations and reciprocity in the context of creation where the essential aspect is active participation and responsibility for connivance which God has entrusted to humanity.

Soundscapes of Uyghur Islam by Rachel Harris

Reviewed by: Soundscapes of Uyghur Islam by Rachel Harris Eric Schluesselschluessel@gwu.edu Rachel Harris. Soundscapes of Uyghur Islam. Framing the Global Series. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2020. 249 pp. $85.00 (cloth), $35.00 (cloth). The field of contemporary Uyghur studies was once preoccupied with nationalism and ethnic conflict as studied through the written word and short-term "guerrilla ethnography" in secular, urban, and male-gendered milieus. Rachel Harris's pathbreaking new book marks the successful inversion of that paradigm through an intimate study of sounded practices of Islam rooted in many years of fieldwork among rural Uyghur women. "Sounded" here refers to those ephemeral and embodied ways of making and experiencing sound, including but certainly not limited to music. The book's theoretical and methodological interventions thus illuminate vital yet neglected aspects of the human experience and have broad consequences for scholarship on Uyghur life. Anyone moving through a city or village in China will notice how all kinds of noise and music seem to contest for space and attention. In Xinjiang, that awareness is heightened by the interplay of varieties of sound, rhythm, music, and speech coded as either "Chinese" or "Uyghur"—or "secular/national" or "Islamic"—and many shades in between. Harris characterizes this politics of sound as "soundscape," the ongoing renegotiation of the boundaries of community through a complex field of sounding and listening that in turn shapes the rules of interaction (20). The soundscape of Uyghur Islam is a "'discursive tradition'…through which local actors attempt to define what constitutes true Islam and a good Muslim within relationships of power" (24), but also a "palimpsest" textured by erasure and reinscription (216). This seemingly abstract concept is intimately related to acts of repetition and to the (Uyghur, female) body as a "prime locus for imposing new regimes of knowledge and being" (213, 215). Attending to "sounded expressive practices" decenters the emphasis on physical appearance and dress that is common in the highly polarized political and media discourse surrounding Xinjiang (15). One of Soundscapes' most compelling features is its historicization of sounded practices as ways of negotiating community and space in response to shifting sociopolitical relationships that are otherwise difficult to perceive. Harris begins at the most intimate level, through a thick description of women's Sufi rituals. She convincingly analyzes these rituals' production of powerful feelings of community through rhythm, movement, and voice. While Soundscapes ranges far and wide across borders, and while the book presents a gradually broader scope, rhythm and the body remain at its core. How, Harris asks, do embodied practices of negotiating community encounter new sociopolitical and textual circumstances? Harris then demonstrates the importance of transregional connections by showing how women's Sufi groups have encountered different versions of a core Sufi text, which itself has circulated between written and spoken forms. She shows how those intimate sounds changed in interaction with transnational Islamic networks, as woman Qur'an reciters adopted recitation styles that index traditions across the theological spectrum. Soundscapes reminds us not to reduce Islam to doctrine: reciters refigure and reinterpret sounds, which gain new meanings in practice. Harris then turns to the stranger paths of circulation and analyzes the affective impact of social media and of audiovisual media of unknown origin. We see how a decontextualized sign such as a recorded recitation or a shocking video travels like a rumor, shaping discourses as it is shaped by them. [End Page E-30] Soundscapes then considers the contestation between the sounded and embodied practices of Uyghur Islam and those of the Chinese Communist Party. These aspects of piety, Harris argues, are also a technology of the state, as Ban Wang has characterized them: practices of embodiment, intended to create and enforce group feeling, that possess a specific lineage in Maoism (208).1 That lineage becomes clear through oral histories from rural Uyghur women that are presented throughout the text, including in a pair of lengthier "interludes." China scholars will recognize parallels with the study conducted by Gail Hershatter and Gao Xiaoxian (高小贤) of women's lives in rural Shaanxi,2 both in the approach to fieldwork and in the book's presentation of autobiographical narratives. Indeed, Harris's...

Jewish Religious Music in Nineteenth-Century America: Restoring the Synagogue Soundtrack by Judah M. Cohen (review)

Reviewed by: Jewish Religious Music in Nineteenth-Century America: Restoring the Synagogue Soundtrack by Judah M. Cohen Abigail Wood Judah M. Cohen. Jewish Religious Music in Nineteenth-Century America: Restoring the Synagogue Soundtrack. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2019. 318 pp. doi:10.1017/S0364009420000355 Jewish Religious Music in Nineteenth-Century America: Restoring the Synagogue Soundtrack opens with a bold mission: to restore both scholarly and musical attention to an eclectic but little-known repertory of mid- to late nineteenth-century synagogue music produced, published, and sung in the United States. Today, Cohen observes, cantors and scholars alike often casually dismiss this music as lacking musical quality, a poor imitation of better-known European counterparts. Recent scholarship on American Jewish musical practices has focused far more attention on the sound worlds of east European Jewish immigrants on the East Coast. Nevertheless, Cohen illustrates how, during the roughly six decades covered in this book, 1840–1900, German-speaking Jews in Cincinnati and the Midwest, together with their colleagues on the East Coast, undertook a vast array of musical activity, composing and performing within the synagogue and further afield and debating the appropriate styles and functions of Jewish music. Based on meticulous archival research, Cohen follows the careers of a number of cantors as they forge musical careers in Jewish America, negotiating [End Page 464] between their own desires for musical fulfilment, community needs, and the often-limited financial resources of their congregations. Via these case studies, the reader watches the emergence of the role of the professional cantor, whose function gradually shifts from a general-purpose prayer leader, teacher, and slaughterer, to become an elite (male) musical artist. Meanwhile, Cohen's account is structured around a series of substantial published collections of synagogue music, which attest to a huge volume of musical production catering to ever-changing tastes and practices. Even the monumental four-volume Zimrath Yah, published by cantors, including Samuel Welsch and Alois Kaiser, between 1871 and 1886 and comprising a full soundtrack for a liberal American Jewish liturgy, was quickly superseded by the 1897 Union Hymnal. Through these musical collections and the life stories of their creators, Cohen sheds light on little-known American Jewish practices and debates and, importantly, breaks down assumptions that have been taken for granted in previous research. He observes that while musical change and theological change have often been assumed to go hand in hand, during the nineteenth century, choral music was wielded by both Orthodox and Reform congregations to reinforce their theological positions. Across the theological spectrum, congregations debated the role of music in shaping decorum in services and grappled with whether choral singing by professionals or by children was superior to congregational singing, while finding ways to teach the congregation new melodies and encourage the participation of the younger generation. Rather than pitting new compositions against so-called "traditional" Jewish musical practice, Cohen notes that the latter was an option rather than a default. An "ethnic turn" in synagogue music was itself an innovation in the 1880s, linked to ideas of "ancientness" and self-exoticization prevalent in musical discourse at the time. Cohen also interrogates assumptions about the interrelation of Christian and Jewish musical practices. While he observes that hymn singing in Jewish communities mirrored neighboring Christian practices—and some cantors even urged the wholesale adoption of works of Christian choral music with minor changes to reflect theological difference—he urges caution about interpreting new musical practices only in terms of church influences. Though controversies continued throughout the century regarding the use of church repertory and musical styles and the employment of non-Jewish professional singers in the synagogue, Cohen notes that part singing was also a widely shared coterritorial musical practice that allowed American Jews to share in the sound worlds of their American compatriots, while also preserving links with the wider Germanophone community. While most of the book focuses on published musical repertory, perhaps equally important are the insights it offers into the then-nascent field of Jewish musical historiography. Particularly fascinating is the chapter focusing on the life and work of Gustav S. Ensel, a cantor, teacher, and musician born in Bavaria in 1827. While Ensel undertook much of...

Introduction: Studying Islam from below and interrogating divisions in contemporary Russia

The four contributions to this special section aim to study Islam in Russia from below, by examining how Muslims in Russia live and experience their vision of the Islamic religion in conformity and/or dissonance with official categories of Islam, or by simply moving beyond them. The contributions in this collection start from the idea that the study of Islam in Russia is inevitably confronted with normative discourses about acceptable and undesirable forms of Islam. These normative discourses are represented in the categories of “traditional” and “non-traditional Islam” that contributors to the section examine and interrogate through the perceptions and experiences of their Muslim informants. A number of questions arise when we examine the relationship between lived, grassroots Muslim experiences – Islam perceived from below – and top-down normative discourses. First, we can ask whether official categories reflect emic self-definitions, ways in which Muslims in Russia define themselves, taking into account that these emic terms are in flux. We can also ask about the nature of grassroots Muslim experiences: do they inevitably emerge outside of official Muslim institutions, or do we find a variety of grassroots Muslims, not all clearly identifiable on a religious level? Second, we can consider what increased religiosity, taking different forms, might mean for the perception of official dichotomies, along with the role of the Muftiates at the intersection between state discourses and grassroots Muslims. Does increased religiosity dissolve, alter or consolidate divisions drawn on an official level? The ethnographies in this section reveal that the exploration of Islam tends to produce unique trajectories among Muslims in Russia that cannot always be clearly located on a theological spectrum. The religious trajectories carved out by Muslims in Russia are constantly evolving and responding to a changing socio-political environment.

A pentecostal critique of the postmodern S/spirit: Amos Yong and David Tracy on theological method

ABSTRACTThe word ‘postmodernism’ has tended to induce a skeptical or even virulent reaction on the part of the Pentecostal/Evangelical side of the theological spectrum. But with the help of such scholars as James K.A. Smith, the tide might have changed. It is now possible to consider and benefit from the real insights of the postmodern critique without fright. In this paper, the works of the revisionist Catholic theologian and great thinker of postmodern theology David Tracy will be discussed alongside the works of the prolific Pentecostal theologian Amos Yong in order to assess the potential of a Pentecostal retrieval of the postmodern critique. It will be argued that both thinkers tackle real contemporary challenges with surprisingly similar interest and that Yong's proposal is a compelling argument - even if not comfortable - for a move forward without abandoning the core convictions of Pentecostal Christianity. Yong's pneumatological starting point allows him to develop a hermeneutical, ontological and epistemological model that allows for a theoretical rendition of the dynamic Pentecostal experience of the Spirit.

Biblical Theology

Biblical Theology Christopher T. Begg and Thomas Hieke 1373. Michael Allen, "Into the Family of God: Covenant and the Genesis of Life with God," TJ 39 (NS, 2018) 181-98. A.'s essay addresses the modern shaking of our theological foundations. Drawing on dogmatic specifics and biblical theological reflection, he directs our attention back to the vital connection between creation and covenant, in which covenant is less a textual lexeme and more a comprehensive category of life before God. More than a redemptive and soteriological category, covenant points toward the givenness of life, the fittingness and order of the world that precedes us, as well as the centrality of fellowship—above all with God. [Adapted from published abstract—C.T.B.] 1374. James S. Anderson, "El, Yahweh, and Elohim: The Evolution of God in Israel and Its Theological Implications," Expository Times 128 (2017) 261-67. It is often taken for granted today that the differing terms for God in the Hebrew Bible function synonymously, although, originally, not all the terminology used for God referred to the same deity. This article provides an overview of the terms El, Yhwh, and [End Page 438] Elohim, which are all equated today, and proposes a hypothetical reconstruction of when these terms came to prominence in ancient Israel. After tracing the trajectory of each term and considering its contribution to the development of monotheism in Israel, in a process that ultimately laid the foundation for Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, A. concludes by considering the implications of his analysis for faith communities today in their efforts to relate to each other. [Adapted from published abstract—C.T.B.] 1375. Bogdan G. Bucer, "A Blind Spot in the Study of Fourth-Century Christian Theology: The Christological Exegesis of Theophanies," JTS 69 (NS, 2018) 588-601. The notion that Christian christophanic exegesis of OT theophanies is, essentially, a pre-Nicene tradition with little or no relevance for the study of later Christian literature is woefully inadequate. That notion minimizes the continued appeal to such a reading of the OT theophanies across much of the fourth-century theological spectrum, and likewise fails to account for the pervasive and insistent references to those theophanies in Byzantine hymnography. Against this background, B.'s article seeks to demonstrate that the christological exegesis of OT theophanies was widely recognized as an element of shared tradition and continued to function as a polemical "adjuvant" in fourth-century anti-Jewish, anti-Arian, anti-modalistic, and anti-Apollinarian argumentation. See also #1350. [Adapted from published abstract—C.T.B.] 1376. Stephen B. Chapman, "The Old Testament and the Church after Christendom," Journal of Theological Interpretation 9 (2015) 159-83. The situation of today's "post-Constantinian" church invites new approaches to biblical theology, particularly with regard to the OT and its political witness. John Howard Yoder's "Jeremianic turn" provides a compelling model for a contemporary "exilic" hermeneutic, even as it requires reframing as a canonical, rather than a history-of-religions, proposal. Also needed is a more appreciative engagement with the OT's Mosaic and Davidic traditions, which remain foundational for any biblically based political theology. The church "after Christendom" will not only be "landless," but also "placed," not only tradition-observant, but also eschatologically oriented, and not only a NT community, but also (part) heir to the OT's vision of a people of God. [Adapted from published abstract—C.T.B.] 1377. Steven J. Duby, "'For I Am God, Not a Man': Divine Repentance and the Creator-Creature Distinction," Journal of Theological Interpretation 12 (2018) 140-69. The OT reveals a God of passionate involvement in the life of his people, a God prepared to repent of threatened judgment when sinful human beings turn back to him in faith. It also reveals the constancy and transcendence of God and emphasizes that God does not repent. Recent efforts to integrate these components of OT teaching are sometimes critical of older metaphorical or anthropathic readings of the OT's repentance passages and sometimes argue that God changes his mind with regard to some elements of his salvific plan but not with regard to others. Often...

Amos: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary

Amos: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary

Scripture as Real Presence: Sacramental Exegesis in the Early Church by Hans Boersma

Reviewed by: Scripture as Real Presence: Sacramental Exegesis in the Early Church by Hans Boersma Daniel A. Keating Scripture as Real Presence: Sacramental Exegesis in the Early Church. By Hans Boersma. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker Academic, 2017. Pp. xix + 316. $39.99 (cloth). ISBN: 978-0-8010-1703-2. For some time now, scholars across the theological spectrum have raised their voices in defense of a theological reading of Scripture. Often included in this defense is a renewed appreciation for ancient, and specifically patristic, modes of biblical exegesis. In Scripture as Real Presence, however, Hans Boersma offers much more than simply another account of how Scripture can be read theologically. With the Church Fathers as his primary exemplars, Boersma illustrates and argues for what he calls a "sacramental" reading of Scripture that relies upon a metaphysical understanding of God's action in history. Acknowledging the major shift that has occurred in his own thinking on biblical exegesis, he takes aim not just at nontheological readings of Scripture governed by the historical-critical method, but also at a historically grounded theological reading of Scripture as practiced, for example, by N. T. Wright. While admitting that Wright and other scholars of the new perspective on Paul have given us many valuable insights, Boersma judges that their historical exegesis, which eschews metaphysics, ultimately leaves the Old Testament behind: "For Wright—and for an increasingly large number of evangelical biblical scholars—exegesis is primarily a historical discipline, one that escapes the 'abstract' and 'timeless' theology of Western, Platonized Christianity" (xiv). The result, according to Boersma, is a distancing of the reader from the Old Testament text itself: "Strictly historical readings of Scripture separate the reader from the original event described in the biblical text" (xv). In contrast, Boersma recommends reappropriating a sacramental reading of the Old Testament whereby the text already contains Christ and does not simply point to him externally. On this model, if Christ is already present in the Old [End Page 299] Testament, then believers who are in Christ are also "present" in the text and can find themselves in the text, precisely because this sacramental hermeneutic already places them there. In defense of these claims, Boersma opens with a general study of how the Church Fathers practiced a sacramental reading of Scripture and follows with nine chapters that illustrate this sacramental reading. Following the canonical order, he walks the reader through various themes, beginning with Genesis, moving through Exodus, the historical books, the Psalms, Proverbs, and Song of Songs, and ending with a study of the beatitudes. In these nine sketches, Boersma shows an admirable mastery of the patristic writings—with Origen occupying center stage—and indicates the diversity and complexity of readings found in the Fathers within a common sacramental hermeneutic. He takes pains throughout to assure his readers that he is not simply recommending that we adopt the particular readings of the Church Fathers, which, in any case, are often contrary to one another. Rather, through the variety of patristic readings, he hopes to illustrate the kind of sacramental, participatory hermeneutic that he believes can and should be reappropriated today. Much of Boersma's argument for a sacramental reading of Scripture appears in the opening chapter. A comparison between Origen, Hobbes, and Spinoza sets the stage for his broad claims. From Origen, we learn that attention to metaphysics pays dividends in terms of scriptural interpretation: "good metaphysics leads to good hermeneutics" (5). The point is that the way we understand the relationship between God and the world (and history) is closely linked to the way we read and interpret Scripture. Origen—and the Fathers more generally—saw the world in participatory terms: visible things participate in and are revelations of invisible things. The world itself is sacramental. Boersma locates the crucial shift in biblical interpretation in the Enlightenment's rejection of metaphysics, and specifically with its rejection of a broadly Platonist view of the world. Hobbes and Spinoza both follow Ockham by rejecting the idea that visible things have a real and participatory relationship to invisible things (7). Through fear of an overly dualist view of the world, these Enlightenment thinkers—and with them many thinkers...

Book Review: The Mediation of the Spirit: Interventions in Practical Theology

Mediation of the Spirit: Interventions in Practical Theology. By Mark J. Cartledge. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans Publishing, 2015. xvi + 174 pp. $29.00 (paper).Mark Cartledge has produced a lucidly written, closely argued, and highly engaging volume considerably exceeds its stated purpose. Writing primarily for students and scholars of (p. 164), and seeking (in the spirit of the Pentecostal Manifestos series of which it is a part) make a distinctive contribution to the discipline of theology from a P/C [Pentecostal/Charismatic] perspective (p. xii), Cartledge does all of this and considerably more. Cartledge writes from within the P/C tradition, but also as a member of the larger theology community (he amply demonstrates a broad knowledge of and respect for the literature across the theological spectrum), and as an Anglican priest. His book will be a welcome addition to the library of students and practitioners of pastoral care and counseling, congregational leaders (lay and clergy), and a general audience of readers of theology, along with his intended audience.What makes the book so helpful and important is in bringing a P/C perspective, with its particular emphasis on pneumatology, to bear on the field of theology, Cartledge brings the other emphases of classical theology into the conversation, too. This is because, as Cartledge states, The restoration of pneumatology does more than bring the Spirit back into the conversation; it inevitably restores a discussion of the doctrines of the Trinity and Christology as well (p. 117). In addition, a very thorough survey of the theology literature finds practical theology seems either reluctant to use Scripture or under the spell of social science (p. 44). Cartledge brings a close exegesis of biblical texts, particularly from Acts, along with a proposal that theology engage more consciously and rigorously with systematic theological loci (p. 141), in a way expands the vocabulary and resources of the field without in any way diminishing the importance of the emphases he thinks have characterized it. He finds much of value in the contributions of liberation theology, feminist theology, and old-line liberal theology as they have informed the field. His concern, though, is without closer attention to close biblical exegesis and systematic theology, theology runs the risk of engaging in anthropological discourse under the guise of (p. …

Ecclesia Reformata semper Reformanda: A convergent approach to science and theology may reinforce Scriptural authority

The purpose of this article is to debate the relationship between a convergent approach to the sciences and Scriptural authority. The thesis is that a multi-disciplinary convergent methodology may be beneficial in the current apologetical debate about the relevance of Scripture. This line of thought is also in compliance with the ideals of the protestant reformation. We will assess this view by investigating the possible consonance between scientific perspectives and theological confessions of what it means to be human. Subsequently the focus will shift to the impact consonance might have on the different interpretations of the creation narratives in Genesis. In conclusion, we will state the case for a convergent approach to the sciences, and the benefits with regard to Scriptural authority.Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: This study would not have been possible without extensive intradisciplinary and interdisciplinary research. The subject matter imposes on the researcher the necessity to make use of knowledge from across the theological spectrum. It compels the various subjects within the theological encyclopedia to take note of any new research and incorporate it. In addition, it dispels the myth that natural science and theology have little in common. From a holistic perspective on creation the need for continuous interaction between the sciences is imperative.

Attendance Matters: Religion and Ethical Affirmation of Gay and Lesbian Sexuality

This paper uses data from the 1974–2010 General Social Surveys to analyze the relationship between religion and ethical affirmation of gay and lesbian sexuality. Religion has become increasingly important in understanding the greater variation in ethical affirmation of same-sex sexuality over this time period. Yet in contrast to previous studies which have emphasized denominational affiliation, orthodoxy of religious belief, or alignment along a left–right political or theological spectrum as the key predictors, this study emphasizes the role of social isolation. With the sole exception of recent Mainline Protestants, religious service attendance is found to be a strong predictor of levels of affirmation regardless of denominational affiliation or level of conservatism, with liberal Christians who attend weekly religious services looking very similar to conservative Evangelicals who attend fewer services. A potential argument explaining this finding is put forth: Weekly attenders of religious services are more likely to be isolated into a narrower institutional field while more occasional attenders may hold identical theological and political beliefs but are more likely to have a breadth of perspective that comes from multiple institutional connections. As such, the barriers to greater affirmation of gay and lesbian sexuality may be less about religion than about social isolation.

Coming to Terms with Barth's "Third Thing": Hans Frei, Paul Ricoeur, and the Possibility of Postliberal Homiletics

In the wake of modernity and all across the theological spectrum, preaching has proven adept at evading or enlisting the Bible, but resistant to taking it seriously on its own terms. Karl Barth’s theology is an important resource for moving beyond this impasse, but does not offer a compelling account of how biblical language and sermonic language properly conformed to it participate in God’s free act of self-communication. The narrative hermeneutics of Hans Frei and Paul Ricoeur point the way toward such a critically informed postliberal homiletic. In particular, Ricoeur’s notion of threefold mimesis is appropriated to propose criteria for evaluating sermons in terms of their ability to pay against three debts: a debt to the actual (mimesis 1), a debt to the real (mimesis 2), and a debt to the possible (mimesis 3).

Teaching & Learning Guide for: Can a Darwinian Be a Christian?

Teaching & Learning Guide for: Can a Darwinian Be a Christian?

Open Panentheism and "Creatio ex nihilo"

Abstract Open theism represents an important mediating position between more traditional or evangelical theology and process thought. But open theists have in general failed to engage panentheism. The increasingly significant role of panentheism not only in process thought but now across the theological spectrum—including among evangelical thinkers—suggests a new mediating position, open panentheism. Its panentheistic themes allow this new constructive theology to draw more deeply from process sources than most open theists do. At the same time, along with more traditional theologies, it affirms a free creation by God ex nihilo, and hence the free self-limitation (kenosis) of God in the creative act.

Between Philosemitism and Antisemitism: Defenses of Jews and Judaism in Germany 1871-1932 (review)

Reviewed by: Between Philosemitism and Antisemitism: Defenses of Jews and Judaism in Germany 1871-1932 Guy Stern Between Philosemitism and Antisemitism: Defenses of Jews and Judaism in Germany 1871-1932, by Alan T. Levenson. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2004. 194 pp. $55.00. Virtually every aspect of the relationship between the Jews living in German-speaking countries and their non-Jewish contemporaries during the sixty-odd years prior to the Nazi accession to power has been analyzed and interpreted. Frequently and understandably a dismal, well-documented diagnosis of open or latent antisemitism emerged. Yet was there no countervailing trend in Germany and Austria, a validation of Jews, Judaism, and Jewish contributions, even as antisemitism and indifference became ever more dominant? That is precisely the question that Alan L. Levenson asked himself and, in the search for an answer, wrote the first cohesive study of philosemitism in Germany during the period of the Wilhelmine Empire and the Weimar Republic. Arising initially during the Wilhelmine Empire, as a counterforce to a politically inspired conservative and chauvinistic crop of philosophizing antisemites, philosemitic proponents never gained the coherence of the hate-groups. [End Page 189] As a result many individual champions became ultimately ineffective while fighting a defensive battle against the antisemites. To these non-Jewish apologists for their stigmatized Jewish contemporaries Levenson affixes the useful appellation of anti-antisemites. Yet even in taking this cautious position these defenders of the Jews would repeat such old bromides as "some of their best friends were Jewish" (p. 6) and they would take the additional defensive stance of credentialing themselves as non-Jews. To do otherwise would have made their advocacy suspect. At times the effort to shield oneself against the appearance of a pro-Jewish bias became tortuous. Members of the Abwehrverein, the Society for the Defense against antisemitism, would try to demonstrate their objectivity by simply appealing to Christian tolerance and equality under German law or even by "admitting" to certain flaws in the Jewish character as a show of objectivity. Levenson meticulously traces the various attitudes of these defenders of German Jewry during the duration of the Empire, highlighting the pioneering writings of Count Heinrich von Coudenhove-Kalergi (father of the founder of the Pan-Europe Movement), also on the benign stance of the Empress Augusta and, in a particularly enlightening excursus, on the ambivalent writings of Friedrich Nietzsche. Equally enlightening is his finding that there was a frequent concinnity between the German Peace movement and philosemitism. In fact Bertha von Suttner, the pioneer of the peace movement and the recipient of the first Nobel Peace Price, became one of the earliest advocates of Theodor Herzl's Zionism. Levenson seeks further evidence for the existence of a philosemitic tendency by examining German-Christian literature. Unearthing examples that contrasted with the plethora of literary (and sub-literary) antisemitic texts does great credit to Levenson's research skills. But the results are meager: five novels and one drama, plus a few honorable mentions in the book's footnotes. Most are by authors little remembered, perhaps because "scholars in German studies appear to have neglected literary philosemitism entirely" (p. 44). The one text that for a while reached near-canonical standing, Wilhelm von Scholz's Der Jude von Konstanz stands, as Levenson points out, at a borderline between philo- and antisemitism. To be sure we encounter greatly sympathetic protagonists in these texts, but however well intentioned, the authors assign them usually to tragic, often brutal endings. With great surefootedness and elegance Levenson leads us next through the abnormality of missionary Protestants, especially Franz Delitsch and Hermann Strack, taking up the cause of anti-antisemitism. For example, they laid to rest the blood libel, and, even more laudable, they became exponents of philosemitism. Their goal of converting Jews did not hinder, perhaps even intensified, their [End Page 190] appreciation of Judentum. After careful analysis of the theology that induced this stance Levenson concludes, "Delitsch and Strack mounted the most aggressive defense of Judaism in Germany before World War I. . . ." (p. 89) In the second part of his study Levenson fills in the details. How did various groups across the political and theological spectrum react to Herzl...

John Bunyan's soteriology during his pre-prison period (1656–1659): Amyraldian or high-Calvinist?

Several historians and theologians have concluded that John Bunyan was a high-Calvinist. However, this conclusion has been challenged with the assertion that Bunyan held to a more mediate view of the atonement, often called Amyraldianism. This study seeks to evaluate Bunyan's place on the theological spectrum by evaluating his writings during his pre-prison ministry (1656–59). It sets forth the argument that, during this period, Bunyan demonstrated the Amyraldian penchant for combining real particularism with hypothetical universalism.

Rhetoric, Fiction and Theology: James Ussher and the death of Jesus Christ

Preaching in Oxford in 1640, James Ussher, Archbishop of Armagh, drew the attention of his listeners to the dangers of rhetorical language in any discussion of the death of Jesus Christ:Consider the invaluable price that was paid for thee, and how great he was who paid it... It was the second person in the sacred Trinity, he, and no other, that was thus humbled for thee: he was weary for thee, and reviled for thee, sweated and fainted for thee, hungered for thee, and was buffeted for thee. It was he, the second person of the blessed Trinity, in proper speech, without either trope or figure, shed his blood for thee, died for thee1In the hermeneutical morass of the mid-seventeenth century, Ussher's words issued a timely warning. Developing Aristotle's Rhetoric, Renaissance humanists had instructed their readers on the responsible en-coding of persuasive powers in literary texts. After the reformation, handbooks of rhetoric foregrounded the religious possibilities of de-coding the sacred text. The title page of Henry Peacham's The Garden of Eloquence (1577) claimed the usefulness of its contents for 'the better understanding of the holy Scriptures'; the title page of Dudley Fenner's Artes of Logick and Rhetoricke (1584) referred to its contents' Opening of certaine parts of Scripture, according to the same'. But the Opening' of popular Bible reading tended to go further than the early theologians had preferred. Within Ussher's puritan tradition, the annotations of the Geneva Bible established a basic distinction between the sign and the signified in an effort to erect an interpretive apparatus that would limit and control the open-ness of the text. The Geneva annotations referred to such figures of speech as parenthesis, antithesis, synecdoche, 'metonymia', hyperbola, enallage, and hypallage - all explained for the benefit of the imagined 'simple reader'.2But 'simple readers' went beyond the Geneva Bible's caution. Ussher's sermon, two generations later, was challenging the exegesis of those theologians who had come to interpret biblical statements indicating the universality of the death of Christ - for the world, for 'all', 'for thee' - to mean something other than they initially appeared to mean. What did St Paul mean, in apparently transcending the issue of election, when he stated that 'God is the Saviour of all men' (1 Timothy 4:10)? The first page of Fenner's Artes ofLogick and Rhetoricke explained that the text showed 'salvation to be the thing caused by God', without making any claims for the number of the redeemed.' What did St John mean when he wrote that Jesus Christ 'is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world' (1 John 2:2)? Protestant theologians could answer that question in quite different ways. Some 'soul-torturing' puritan scholastics with high Calvinist tendencies explained the text by identifying 'the world' as a sign and referring it to the CIeCt/At the opposite end of the theological spectrum, others, increasingly described as Arminians, refused to identify the expression as a metaphorical sign and argued instead that Christ's death had placated God's wrath against every individual: 'the world' really meant 'the world'. Between these poles, and often still within the puritan camp, 'hypothetical universalists' followed Calvin on election and predestination, but, like the Arminians, insisted that the atonement provided by the death of Christ was universal in its scope. Their retention of the universality of the death of Christ - 'for thee', in general - recognised that the Biblical language of the passion was 'proper speech' indeed. By contrast, Ussher reflected, high Calvinist theologians, pursuing a refined orthodoxy, were systematically misidentifying signifieds as signs, undermining the plain style, and promoting excessive interpretive openness. In warning against the elaboration of 'trope or figure', therefore, his sermon was rooting its discussion of the death of Christ within the wider plain style and apparent closed-text preferences of the older puritan rhetoricians preferences the sermon described as providing for 'proper speech' - and was contrasting those approaches with the inadequate literary methods of the high Calvinists. …