Strands Of Theology Research Articles

Decolonising intercultural theology and research: What role for cultural outsiders?

This article addresses some reasons and requirements for intercultural theologising as boundary-crossing interaction to be decolonised and hold decolonising potential itself. Decolonialism being concerned with both those in ‘marginalised’ and in ‘privileged’ positions, this article focusses on some of the latter’s challenges, responsibilities and opportunities. Grounding the argument in writings of scholars from disciplines like linguistics, cultural anthropology, decolonial studies and various strands of theology both from the Global South and the Global West, epistemological motivators for a decolonising theology will be sketched in the first step. The second step involves a consideration of an appropriate methodology called ‘chosen vulnerability’. Central to it would be the learning and using of vernacular languages in order to move towards cross-cultural understanding from emic perspectives. In step three, an attempt at implementing such will be portrayed that was a core component of a recently completed interdisciplinary PhD project. Based on contextual learning of isiXhosa, several church-related concepts in English and isiXhosa were investigated and compared in a subsidiary study. The findings are used to illustrate how chosen vulnerability can enable humble contributions to decolonising theologies. This is achieved through emic approaches and perspectivism.Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: This article raises awareness for sometimes hidden epistemic inequalities and suggests ways in which those in relative cultural-linguistic power can reduce the imbalance. This is of relevance primarily to intercultural theology. In turn, such insights from intercultural theology can benefit academic research in cross-cultural contexts in general.

O FUNDAMENTALISMO RELIGIOSO E SUA APROXIMAÇÃO DO MONOTEÍSMO

This research seeks tounderstand the approximation of fundamentalism to monotheism. Fundamentalism emerged as a rescue of the Christian tradition in themidst of sociocultural transformations. The modernity arising from the Enlightenment cause das plitw it hin fundamentalists that convergedin the formation of two theologicals trands. A liberal aspect that was associated with the humanists and the social sciences, becoming a liberal theology.Theo thers trandremained linked to conservatism and traditions of the early church. Fundamentalism lost its way when itcame across a cyclical society that was moving forward by leaps and bounds. This provoked severe and critical reactions to modern society. The advances led to the emergence of a media Pentecostalism that led fundamentalism to bankruptcy. In the Arab spring, the expansion of Islamism brought fundamentalism to the fore, but in an extremistway.This extremism revealed to the world all the violence and persecution of people and nations that to ok place as apreservation of Moral sand the defense of the name of God.

The Phenomenological Model of Dogmatic Theology? Insights from Jean-Luc Marion

The subject of this article is the applicability of Jean-Luc Marion's phenomenology to dogmatic theology. The article first presents Marion's views on phenomenology. It then analyses three theological strands relevant to it: the author's conception of Revelation as a saturated phenomenon, Christology and Trinitarian theology. Marion proposes to theology a broader coalition with phenomenology, claiming that because of the phenomenological nature of Revelation, it is phenomenology that constitutes the most appropriate methodological instrumentarium for it. This paper examines the consequences and problems of adopting such a position in dogmatic theology, particularly the ambivalence of Marion's gesture of abrogation of metaphysics.

Conflict and Authority: William of Saint-Thierry and Peter Abelard as Readers of Origen

AbstractThis study compares how two prominent twelfth-century Latin authors and theological opponents, namely the monastic author William of Saint-Thierry (c. 1080–1148) and the school master Peter Abelard (1079–1142), variously understood the authority of the controversial yet influential Greek author Origen (c. 184–253) in their works. Modern scholars who study the reception of Origen in the twelfth-century Latin West have, to this point, spoken of an Origenian revival in this period, concluding that Origen was especially popular in the cloister, among Cistercian monks, such as Bernard of Clairvaux and his followers, like William of Saint-Thierry, based on the assumption that as monks they found his writings more relevant. This study seeks to challenge this scholarly narrative by focusing on two authors who are perceived as typifying two different strands of theology, one of a contemplative character developed in the cloister (William) and one making use of dialectics and developed in the emerging schools (Abelard). By demonstrating that the schoolmaster Abelard drew on Origen to a greater degree and in a more transparent manner than his monastic opponent, this study will show that Origen’s popularity in the cloisters was not, as such, a clear point of distinction between them and schools in the way that has usually been claimed by modern scholarship.

Rainbow Body and Resurrection: Spiritual Attainment, The Dissolution Of the Material Body, and the Case of Khenpo a Chö by Francis V. Tiso

Reviewed by: Rainbow Body and Resurrection: Spiritual Attainment, The Dissolution Of the Material Body, and the Case of Khenpo a Chö by Francis V. Tiso Thomas Cattoi RAINBOW BODY AND RESURRECTION: SPIRITUAL ATTAINMENT, THE DISSOLUTION OF THE MATERIAL BODY, AND THE CASE OF KHENPO A CHÖ. By Francis V. Tiso.. Berkeley: North Atlantic Books, 2016. 393 pp. In recent years, the growing popularity of comparative theology as an academic discipline has led to the proliferation of academic studies exploring the points of contact between different religious traditions, bringing into conversation authors and texts that address analogous themes or question, without however postulating any historical or conceptual link between the strands of the tradition in question. For instance, Francis Clooney's Hindu God Christian God (2001), Divine Mother Blessed Mother (2003), or Beyond Compare: St. Francis de Sales and Sri Vedanta Desika on Loving Surrender to God (2008) set out an ambitious road map for an intellectual exchange between two vastly different religious traditions. These monographs, however, focus on speculative and conceptual echoes between Hindu and Christian authors from different eras and never claim any instance of reciprocal influence. In a similar way, a work like John Keenan's I Am/No Self: a Christian Commentary on the Heart Sutra (2011) may highlight unexpected echoes between the well-known Mahāyāna text and the Gospel of John, but it certainly does not venture any hypothesis about historical exchanges of ideas. At this stage in the history of interreligious dialogue, to embrace an alternative approach would seem a throwback to the Campbellian world of The Hero with a Thousand Faces (1949), where a sort of perennialism for the masses presents all religions as culturally determined expressions of the same tradition. Francis Tiso's Rainbow Body and Resurrection is not a neo-perennialist work in the vogue of Campbell or Guenon: Tiso is certainly not interested in erasing the peculiarities of different religious traditions or in turning Tibetan Buddhism and Christianity into masks of the divine. At the same time, Tiso makes a number of daring claims, namely he affirms that there are peak mystical experiences in Buddhism and Christianity that share intriguing similarities, even if no one can actually affirm their identical character. In addition, he affirms that the interpretation of such experiences in the Tibetan tradition of Buddhism was actually influenced by certain theological strands of Syriac Christianity that were largely erased from the historical consciousness of Western, and to a great extent Byzantine Christianity, but were able to spread to the East via the Silk Road, until they encountered the [End Page 467] Buddhist world on the Tibetan plateau and in Western China. Tiso is well aware of the fact that most scholars will question his reconstruction of the history of Tibetan thought and that many readers will be startled at his acceptance of the truth of seemingly "paranormal" phenomena. Even this reviewer, while sympathetic to Tiso's enterprise, is ultimately reluctant to accept the full import of his claims. At the same time, whether or not one chooses to follow the author in his search for the ever-elusive historical contact between Buddhism and Christianity, this monograph has the distinctive merit of trying to challenge established academic conventions and reset the terms of the comparative conversation. Perhaps, Tiso appears to suggest, there is more to comparative theology than the mere juxtaposition of texts; it may be high time to go back to fieldwork, let go of our enlightened prejudices, and seek out the extraordinary phenomena that religious traditions—at least in the past!—routinely acknowledged as possible. In the introduction, Tiso observes that the resurrection of the dead in Christianity is associated with the notion of a transcendent God returning his creation to fullness of being, while such an eschatological perspective is not universally present in Buddhism. At the same time—he claims—this teleological thrust can be found in later strands of the Tibetan tradition of Dzogchen, where the emphasis on the interrelatedness of all phenomena coexists with the conviction that human experience can have a direction or purpose. What would this be? According to many Dzogchen authors, then, the purpose of human experience is to break...

The wholly social or the holy social?: recognising theological tensions in sociology

ABSTRACTWhile Latour criticises the tautologies of the ‘sociologists of the social’ as an intellectual shortcut, here sociology in the broadest sense is reconsidered as informed by unrecognised theological ideas, inter alia. Durkheim’s classic account of religion, wherein ‘society is God’ is taken as a starting point to explore the intersection of sociology and theology. Thereafter the article examines three social theorists, Elias, Giddens and Boltanski, each of whom attempt a re-casting of sociology, yet rearticulate theological models. In particular, this includes an ontological conception of society, structure or system in terms of over-arching and invisible forces which is derived – inter alia – from religious models of divine will and providential order, which incorporates human choice – or agency in contemporary parlance. Accompanying this ontology is an epistemology of deciphering ‘deeper’ or ‘structural’ or ‘transcendent’ aspects of society by observing trends, cases or culture, akin to divining the providential will by observing its manifestations, which can be conducted in a more critical or forgiving manner. By examining these theological strands which persist in sociology, this aim is not to critically repudiate them, but to recognise the productive contribution of these models of thinking to imagining the ‘social’.

Transnational Theological Encounters

Recent attempts at limiting the entry of Muslims into the United States, including the promulgation of the executive order “Protecting the Nation from Foreign Terrorist Entry Into the United States” and calls for a “Muslim registry” are based in ideas of Islam as a monolithic ahistorical and acultural entity which “hates us” and endorses barbaric action against non-Muslims. Fueling these images is the belief that authority to speak on behalf of Islam is vested in specific individuals, and that actions “Islam” calls for are self-evident from examinations of the Qur’an and Hadith, and from the proclamations of religious leaders.
 American media figures and politicians have supported their self-representation as top-down movements, in which a few leaders transmit their interpretations of sacred texts to unquestioningly obedient followers. This assumption shapes policy approaches to Islam and Muslims globally.
 I draw on two years of multi-sited ethnographic research on transnational Islamic movements operating in Pakistan and the United States in order to demonstrate that, despite these movements seemingly leader-driven creation of knowledge, male and female members contribute significantly to the discourses around which they form themselves as subjects. These interjections are shaped by local ideas of good and bad as well as members’ own beliefs and practices. My work examines the ways in which Islamic practice in America absorbs multiple strands of theology developed in movement-bases, and combines them with local sources of authority to form a uniquely American Islam.

Aslan Reza Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth (review)

Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth Peter Heinegg Back in 1906, Albert Schweitzer's Quest of the Historical Jesus argued that you can't carve a true biography of Jesus out of the Gospels, because none of the New Testament authors ever meant to write history in the modern sense. About all you could say with any certainty was that Jesus was a prophet and preacher who looked forward to a proximate, apocalyptic end of the world—which of course never happened. Any hope of validating or rejecting the many contradictory narrative and theological strands in Christian Scripture through reliable outside sources (Josephus, Tacitus, etc.) was doomed because there were so few of them (and none with any decisive data). Of course, that hasn't stopped thousands of would‐be Jesus‐historians, whether simple‐mindedly pious or degreed experts, from trying; and their work is everywhere. But it hasn't been successful, and we can see why early on in Aslan's book. A PhD in the Sociology from U.C. Santa Barbara, now somewhat incongruously teaching creative writing at U.C. Riverside, Aslan, who is Iranian‐American, found Jesus at age 15 in an Evangelical summer camp, but became a disbeliever in college, and then spent “two decades of rigorous academic research into the origins of Christianity.” Explaining his method he writes: “The only access one can have to the real Jesus comes not from the stories that were told about him after his death [i.e., every word of the Gospels, plus part of Acts 1‐2], but rather from the smatterings of facts that we can gather from his life as part of a large Jewish family of woodworkers/builders struggling to survive in the small Galilean village of Nazareth.” Actually, Aslan will go on to mine and exploit all sorts of texts from those “stories,” trusting them when they suit his purpose. But his thesis runs like this: As a poor, oppressed worker in a particularly rebellious corner of 1st‐century Palestine, Jesus MUST have shared the widespread bitter resentment at Imperial Rome's autocratic treatment of Jews, its crushing taxes, and its brutal disregard for Judaic religion and culture. Bloody revolution was in the air; Jesus breathed it in, and therefore he had to be a Zealot. Yes, Azlan has read the Bible, but he constantly plays fast and loose with it. To stress the perennially bloodthirsty mood in Judea, he points out that, “when the Jews [er, make that Israelites] first came into this land a thousand years earlier [more like 1200], God had decreed that they massacre every man, woman, and child they encountered, that they slaughter every ox, goat, and sheep they came across, that they burn every farm, every field, every crop, every living thing without exception so as to ensure that the land would belong solely to those who worshipped this one God and no other.” But, apart from the sparing of the Gibeonites (Hurrians) in Jos. 9. 3ff., it's clear from both archeological digs and texts like the opening of the Book of Judges (“the people of Israel inquired of the Lord, who shall go up first for us against the Canaanites, to fight against them”) that the genocidal wipe‐out described in Joshua was an epic myth and that for all its history Israel remained a mixed population. Every time Jesus declares himself to the Messiah (Jn 4.26 and so on), Aslan is electrified, because he translates this as, “I am the warrior‐liberator sent to rescue Israel.” Even when Jesus deliberately dodges or hides his Zealot‐identity (as in the “messianic‐secret” passages), this too proves the depth of his messianic self‐consciousness, because he knew just how explosive the claim was. But how can we sure Jesus ever said anything attributed to him in the Gospels, since we've been warned away from all “stories” written down after his death? Where to find those “smatterings of facts” we can rely on? Luke says that Jesus (atypically, no?) bade his disciples, “let him who has no sword sell his mantle and buy one” (22.36). But then, what about all the pacifistic...

Bridge to Wonder: Art as a Gospel of Beauty by Cecilia González-Andrieu

Reviewed by: Bridge to Wonder: Art as a Gospel of Beauty by Cecilia González-Andrieu Rebecca Berrú Davis (bio) Bridge to Wonder: Art as a Gospel of Beauty By Cecilia González-Andrieu. Waco, Texas: Baylor University Press, 2012. 250pp. ISBN 978-1602583511 As the book’s title, Bridge to Wonder: Art as a Gospel of Beauty intimates, Loyola Marymount assistant professor Cecilia González-Andrieu’s premise is that art as a gospel of beauty is “an announcement of the good news of our beloved status as children of God.” She asserts that, “In the beauty that delights us or breaks our heart, something is offered and understood, briefly, as wholeness and healing, and that “something” changes everything.” (37) This experience of beauty, or its absence, expedited by art, not only links us to God, but enables insight into our own or the world’s brokenness, engenders our community’s capacity for love and compassion, and has the potential to inspire, deepen and activate faith. With that said, theology does well when it pays attention to art’s transforming power. But how do theologians persuasively demonstrate that art is a viable source of theology? González-Andrieu shows us a way by naming art, in its broadest sense, the creative activity that unites spirit and matter. Whether it is drama, music, poetry or visual art, symbolic or narrative, these works are significant because of their power to mediate revelatory experience. This is what the arts do well. Thus, the arts (and the aesthetic experiences they evoke) are not only relevant to the theological discussion, they are necessary because “they are markers, pointers and reflections of the shimmering glow left in our world by the presence of God.” (23) They not only express and mediate God’s self-communication, but challenge us to see, respond, imagine and act. Making full use of a theological method, she proposes engaging art and religion in meaningful conversation with one another. González-Andrieu eloquently interlaces strands of theology, philosophy, art history and criticism. She draws from familiar sources in theological aesthetics: Aristotle, Pseudo-Dionysius, Abbot Suger, Jonathan Edwards, John Dewey, Hans von Balthasar, Paul Tillich, Frank Burch Brown and Roberto Goizueta. However, she also introduces the reader to new partners in the discussion, such as Von Ogden Vogt, Art and Religion (1948), Avery Dulles, Models of Revelation (1967), and particularly the insights of Pope John Paul II’s Letter to Artists (1999). Nonetheless, the work of her mentor, colleague and dear friend, Alejandro Garcia-Rivera, is a recognizable undercurrent throughout her book. She pushes further Garcia-Rivera’s appeal for those engaged in the work of theological aesthetics to attend to the experiences of diverse communities, as well as his challenge to artists to be responsive to the communities that call them forth. González-Andrieu does her best work in the chapters that describe, examine and address particular encounters with art. In Chapter Three, “In Search of Wonder,” she recounts her experience attending La Pastorela, a medieval shepherd’s play reenacted during the Christmas season at the California Mission of San Juan Baptista by Teatro Campesino’s cast of seasoned actors and local farmworkers. The classic narrative “of the triumph of the human capacity for goodness in the face of temptation” (118) is described in its local particularity as an experience that, for her and those in attendance, evokes wonder. Her point is that it is the experience of the beautiful that awakens love in us. This power of being awakened, asombrado in Spanish, then becomes a place where God is experienced. Wonder becomes revelatory. As wonder-filled beings, we are moved first to silence, to insight, and then to speech—a necessary process for imagining and then creating a better world. In Chapters Four and Five, González-Andrieu introduces us to Seeing Salvation: The Image of Christ an exhibit where art and religion was brought together at the United Kingdom’s National Gallery, February 26–May 7, 2000. She argues that its unexpected popular reception in light of culture’s “aggressive secularism,” demonstrates that “it is still possible to pick up signals of the transcendent to gain a...

Towards a Theology of Place in the South African Context: Some Reflections from the Perspective of Ecotheology

AbstractA theology of place has deep roots within the Jewish-Christian tradition. However, a theology of place has become obscured as a result of various trends in modernity. It has re-emerged through a number of theological strands over the past few decades, including various branches of ecotheology. Indeed, it would not be inappropriate to identify a widespread “spatial turn” in current intellectual discourse, including Christian theology. Such developments are specifically important within the South African context where, in the theme of the 2008 annual meeting of the Theological Society of South Africa, “grace, race and space” have become deeply entangled with each other.

INTERPRETING VATICAN II FORTY YEARS ON: A CASE OF CAVEAT LECTOR

Some forty years on from the great events of the Second Vatican Council, there is still much debate about the interpretation of the Council and its documents. In recent years there has been what might be termed a hermeneutical project: to develop an understanding of the complex processes involved in the genesis of the texts and to explore the interactions of the various individuals and groups that helped to shape the Council. What has emerged is a view of the Council as something organic and dynamic. This article seeks to outline the questions that this hermeneutical project has raised; such as the various sources that can be used to interpret the Council, the impact of various theological strands of tradition present at the Council, the authorship of the texts and the methodologies adopted by the Council. It also provides a review of the work that has taken place with this project, especially in the last ten years or so.

Bevinding en geestelike verlating op die limiete: Die historiese en teologiese kontekstualisering van die pioniersvrou Hester Venter (c1750-c1830) se <i>Ondervindelijke Bekeeringsweg</i>

Experiential theology and spiritual desertion on the borders: The historical and theological contextualisation of the pioneer woman Hester Venter’s (c1750-c1830) Experiential Way to ConversionTheological experience is a multi-facetted reality. In experiential theology the emphasis is on the resurrection of and communion with Christ. It is the acceptance of Christ to salvation and has both internal and external dimensions. As such it has a unique position in Reformational theology. Hester Venter’s Experiential Way to Conversion has significant value by illuminating the “Dopper”-trekboers’ puritan theology. Furthermore, it casts light on the national implications of this Reformed strand of theology at a key-phase of the “Dopper”-trekboer movement into the interior of Africa. The article argues that a contemporary value of Reformed theology is that it provides an alternative to the current growth of Eastern mysticism. Reformed pietism can serve as a legitimate theological experiment for adherents to the Reformed faith who strive to live from the faith.