Theology Of Church Research Articles

Johane Masowe Chishanu Church Theology and Spirituality: A Transition from the Written Bible to Holy Spirit Utterances

This article was written at a time when decoloniality was generating a heated debate at most African universities. The point of departure of the debate is that, since Africans were born into a valid and legitimate religious knowledge system that predates the arrival of Western missionaries on the land, can African Initiated Churches (AICs) acknowledge these valid and legitimate indigenous knowledge systems and still retain the tag “African Christian churches?” These legitimate indigenous religious knowledge systems include, but are not limited to, Africans’ way of accessing the divine through oral transmission without reading books and by shunning temples, as they appropriate African traditional shrines for worship. This is so because the dawn and unfolding of Eurocentric modernity, through colonialism and European missionaries, introduced particular ways of accessing the divine through the reading of books (the Bible) and temple gatherings. These, among other factors, gave rise to the emergence of the Johane Masowe Chishanu Church (JMC Church) in Zimbabwe. Since its emergence in the 1930s, the JMC Church has developed a theology that tries to liberate Africans from colonial hegemony by distancing its theology from White missionary inventions such as worshipping in temples and the reading of the Bible in church, as this church prefers open space worship and the utterances of the Holy Spirit (tsanangudzo dzewmeya), among other things. Thus, the JMC Church, like many other AICs, is a reactionary movement that questioned the White man’s innovation, Western epistemologies and European cultural imperialism in a bid to romanticise the past. Accordingly, this article discusses the JMC Church as disregarding the Bible with regard to its spirituality in an attempt to free its theology from Eurocentric hegemony. Thus, the main question raised in this article is: Does the written Scripture matter for theology within AICs in the post-colonial period? Or, does this movement retain the tag “an African Christian church” after disregarding the Bible for theology?

Review Article

Review Article

From in-person to online worship

For too long, the world of theology was separated from the digital world. At present, the church of God is facing a unique moment, in which they have to decide how to act as a community of joyful and engaging followers of Jesus in a world where coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) protocols like wearing masks and maintaining physical distancing are followed and where digital connectivity has become indispensable. Many people refer to this period as the ‘new normal’, while it is actually the interim period between the ‘old normal’ and the ‘new normal’ which is to come. What should the church of God do in this period, first to accommodate her congregants now, and second to prepare herself and them for the time to come? This unique moment should be utilised to its fullest in both instances. This article discusses the three periods indicated above, with the focus on the present time. It only concerns the Christian church and her actions pre-, during, and post-COVID-19. The main source of this article is a book published in 2020 by Heidi Campbell, The distanced church: Reflections on doing church online. The insights gained from this article can be of much help, especially in South Africa, to (re)gain momentum as church of God in a pandemic-struck country during the present time, and afterwards.Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: Semper reformanda: The church is in constant change/reformation. This article intends to assist pastors and lecturers in the transformation process from in-person to online or hybrid worship, requiring a mental paradigm shift. It involves Church History, the Bible, and Practical Theology. Will the church adapt or die? The debate is on.

Understanding and Practice of Public Theology of Seventh-day Adventist Church in Korea

Understanding and Practice of Public Theology of Seventh-day Adventist Church in Korea

MENGKRITISI TRADISI BERBAGI DALAM UPACARA ADAT NGGUA LIO-ENDE FLORES NTT DALAM TERANG TEOLOGI PEMBEBASAN GEREJA KATOLIK

The focus of the discussion in this study lies in the critical dimension of the 'sharing' tradition in the Nggua traditional ceremony of the Lio-Ende Flores tribe. The tradition of 'sharing' in the traditional Nggua ceremony is a form of gratitude as well as an opportunity to help each other. Reality shows that this tradition has created poverty for the Lio-Ende tribal community because the local community is forced to carry out the Nggua ceremony even though they are economically unable. Therefore, this study aims to provide a philosophical understanding to the Lio-Ende community about the meaning of the Nggua ceremony as a harvest thanksgiving ceremony in the light of the liberation theology of the Catholic Church. This effort is expected to have a significant impact on changing the perspective of the local community in understanding Nggua traditional ceremonies. The research methodology was used in the form of qualitative data collection through interviews. Interviews were conducted by telephone or video call. This study finds that the Lio-Ende community is trapped in a wrong perspective on the meaning and message of the Nggua adat. This way of thinking has made their lives trapped in poverty because of the wrong meaning of culture. This happens because of the shallow meaning of the message conveyed in the Nggua traditional ceremony. In this situation, the Church is present as the party proclaiming liberation so that they can interpret the Nggua ceremony as a celebration of thanksgiving for the harvest.

THE WESLEYAN SYNTHESIS RECONSIDERED

This article purpose finds what is “the Wesleyan synthesis,” and will also briefly revisit the much-discussed Wesleyan Quadrilateral. Wesley effectively combined in thought and practice these five elements, namely: (1) Divine sovereignty and human freedom, (2) Doctrine and experience, (3) Experience and structure, (4) Charismatic and institutional elements, and (5) Present and future salvation. This article argues that this synthesis is powerful, but also that it is biblical. In fact, the reason this synthesis is powerful is that it faithfully embodies the revealed truth of Scripture. The results of the Wesleyan synthesis are drawing three general conclusions. First, Wesley's theology was broader and more profound than has often been realized. Second, Wesley's theology can help us develop a biblical understanding of culture and culture change. Third, Wesley's theology is thus an open invitation to continue to develop a theology of church, mission, and culture that is profoundly biblical and sharply relevant to the present age.

Robert Desgabets’ eucharistic thought and the theological revision of Cartesianism

ABSTRACT The seventeenth-century French Benedictine philosopher Dom Robert Desgabets (1610–1678) has been taken by many historians as an idiosyncratic but ultimately loyal proponent of Cartesianism in the years following Descartes’ death. As a Catholic cleric aware of the importance of squaring the new philosophical conclusions of the seventeenth-century with Church theology, Desgabets wrote extensively on the ways in which this could be achieved with regard to the most contentious and complex theological Church dogma of the time: transubstantiation. Through an examination of Desgabets’ writings on transubstantiation, this article argues that he was emboldened by his particular religious context and preoccupations to undertake an in-depth theological interrogation and revision of Descartes’ eucharistic thought, which motivated him to offer a more epistemologically and theologically ambitious account of transubstantiation than Descartes himself thought possible or wise. This article therefore uses Desgabets as an example of the complex interplay between theology and “new” philosophy in the early reception of Cartesianism. It shows how this interplay allowed early, theologically minded Cartesians like Desgabets to use the intellectual resources of the Catholic Church to fortify and safeguard the legacy of Cartesianism in a way Descartes himself did not do.

Modern Practice, Archaic Ritual: Catholic Exorcism in America

The following ethnographic and folkloric analysis of American exorcism practices post-1998 centers on four Catholic priest-exorcists currently active in the United States. After a brief commentary regarding the place of Satanism within contemporary Catholic imagination, this article posits that the Catholic Church’s recent institutional support of its office of exorcist must not be viewed separately from its discursive fear of Satanic cults and larger narratives of religious declension. The current era of exorcism practice in America is chiefly characterized as a response to the media sensationalism surrounding not only prior cases of demonic possession but also of Satanic ritual abuse. Moreover, beyond these explicit issues of religious competition (e.g., Catholics versus Satanic conspirators), the current era of exorcism practice is also implicitly characterized by the changing belief systems of contemporary Catholics. Thus, this article ultimately concerns issues related to religious modernization, the apotropaic use of established religious tradition, popular entertainment and the mediatization of contemporary exorcism cases, institutionalized training curricula and the spaces allowing ritual improvisation, and the vernacular religious consumption of unregulated paranormal concepts that possess no clear analogues within official Church theology.

COVID-19 Impact on Church Society Ministry

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has caused countless impacts and influences on human life. It disturbs the order of life and macro and micro-economics, drastically and radically changes human cultural and behavioral patterns, and greatly impacts the concepts of church theology, pastoring, and ministry. This study is a descriptive qualitative study on the COVID-19 and normal & abnormal reactions & responses to it. Through this article, the authors observed that the COVID-19 existence has transformed and recorrected the Christian paradigm on 1) ecclesiology, which to date exclusively based on building to the real Church, namely God’s people in the form of house/“tent” churches; 2) digital media utilization in this Society 5.0 era as God’s grace to all humanity. Findings and changes in society through renewable technology are an inseparable part of the pandemic. A dichotomic gap of understanding between science and technology for centuries should be reformulated. New technological inventions and social media created by humans are media in the hands of God that should be utilized by the Church to minister in various categories to improve the quality of ministry and service; and 3) creative and innovative interpretation of threefold responsibilities of the Church: koinonia, diakonia, and martyria.

Christianity and Indigenisation in Africa

In a quest for greater coherence between parochial identities, culture and Christianity, there exists an African consciousness which seeks to indigenise and decolonise Christianity. Africans are profoundly religious people who view their faith as part of their way of life, as strengthening their cultures and providing a moral compass for daily living. In efforts to transform society, the Christian religion has played a significant role in the path to African development. Christianity in Africa dates to the very inception of the church. Africans consequently played a crucial role in establishing the doctrines and theology of the early church. While African Traditional religion (ATR) is paramount, it is the purpose of this article to suggest that the Christian faith has and continuous to play a significant role on the African continent in its development. While there are many indigenous African beliefs, these have been to a large extent supported by Christianity in a quest to systematize novel knowledge and promote peace and tolerance across the continent. Many Africans have sought facets of Christianity that are similar to their religious and personal practices and continue to do so. Thus, while there exist numerous similarities and also differences between Christianity and ATR, it is imperative to preserve old-style regional distinctiveness and Christianity as the unifying rudiments in nation building endeavours and in efforts to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ. Africans can and should come to comprehend the Triune Godhead as being consistent with their own spiritual consciousness and existential veracities. Indigenization of Christianity requires enculturation and essentially an understanding that it is indeed ecumenical and also embraces diversity and fundamentally requires viewing Holy Scriptures and the truths they propound as being applicable to any context and cultural milieu across the ages. Christians after all espouse a faith in the Ekklesia or body of Christ for all its people who are the Laos of God.

Pendidikan Perdamaian Bagi Pemuda Gereja

This study aims to describe peace education for church youth at the Minahasa Evangelical Christian Church (GMIM) Talita Kum Amurang. This study uses descriptive qualitative research to describe the phenomenon based on the point of view of the informant. Data collection techniques were carried out by conducting interviews and observations based on interview guides. The instrument in this study was the researcher himself as the key instrument and used interview questionnaires that had been prepared. The data that has been obtained is then analyzed using the stages of data collection, data reduction, data presentation, and conclusion drawing. The results showed that peace education was emphasized on positive values ​​based on the theological views of the Bible and Church theology in social life in society. Starting to be taught from an early age with appreciation and solving problems in the environment based on a comprehensive analysis and peace education with positive values ​​such as love, compassion, peace and gentleness which are interpreted according to the spiritual activities carried out by the church.

DESCRIPTION AND EVALUATION REGARDING THE HOLY MYSTERY OF PRIESTHOOD IN ROMAN CATHOLICISM

The central difference between the Orthodox teaching and the Catholic one regarding the Church comes from the conception regarding its foundation. In the Catholic conception, the visible Church was founded before the Pentecost, on the testimony of Saint Peter the Apostle, and at Pentecost only the invisible Church would have been added. The entire conception about the hierarchy, in the Roman Catholic Church, is strictly juridical. In reality, as the Orthodox theology testifies, the essence of the ecclesial hierarchy is charismatic, not juridical. This is what the great difference to the Catholic teaching consists in. The Eastern theology makes no abstraction of jurisdiction and canon law, yet, jurisdiction depends on grace, not grace on jurisdiction, contrary to what some Western Church theologians would suggest in certain works such as those belonging to the Western Theology.

Political Activism in Pentecostal Charismatic Evangelical Churches and the 2019 Elections in South Africa

Abstract This article examines the public messages of the leaders of six Pentecostal Charismatic Evangelical Churches (PCE) in South Africa during the six months leading up to the 2019 presidential elections in that country. All six leaders presented themselves as knowledgeable about politics and as having solutions to ‘fix’ the political corruption and the failing economy that plagued South Africa in 2019. In this analysis it becomes apparent that the leaders had different attitudes to and understanding of politics and political activism. Some strongly advocated political activism among their members, others merely encouraged their members to vote on election day, while a third group did not directly mention politics or voting and did not endorse any form of political activism among the members of their churches. Four reasons explain these differences: (a) the theology of the different churches and their respective understandings of the relationship between faith/spirituality and politics, (b) the PCE leader’s personal perceptions of politics in South Africa, (c) the leaders’ own status as a South African citizen or foreign national, and (d) the socioeconomic situation of the different churches and their members.

The way worship works in mission: Proposing an alternative to the standard account

This article examines the relationship of worship to mission in the life of the church. How does worship shape the Christian for mission and the work of God’s justice in the world? The article sketches what the author contends to be “the standard account” of how worship works within North American mainstream evangelical Protestantism, drawing on several authors who write on spiritual formation, liturgy, and cultural engagement. Exemplary of this standard account is the influential theology of church and culture found within neo-Calvinism. By parsing the social architecture of these authors, this article reveals its strengths and weaknesses—an analysis that can be applied more widely to Protestantism as a whole in North America. Then, the article moves on to propose an alternative account for the relationship of worship to mission that overcomes the weaknesses of the standard account. This alternative approach is labeled “faithful presence,” an approach which has affinities with an Anabaptist approach to worship and mission.

Die Urgemeinde und das Judenchristentum

Die Urgemeinde und das Judenchristentum

Traversing a Tightrope between Ecumenism and Exclusivism: The Intertwined History of South Africa’s Dutch Reformed Church and the Church of Central Africa Presbyterian in Nyasaland (Malawi)

During the first few decades of the 20th century, the Nkhoma mission of the Dutch Reformed Church of South Africa became involved in an ecumenical venture that was initiated by the Church of Scotland’s Blantyre mission, and the Free Church of Scotland’s Livingstonia mission in central Africa. Geographically sandwiched between these two Scots missions in Nyasaland (presently Malawi) was Nkhoma in the central region of the country. During a period of history when the DRC in South Africa had begun to regressively disengage from ecumenical entanglements in order to focus on its developing discourse of Afrikaner Christian nationalism, this venture in ecumenism by one of its foreign missions was a remarkable anomaly. Yet, as this article illustrates, the ecumenical project as finalized at a conference in 1924 was characterized by controversy and nearly became derailed as a result of the intransigence of white DRC missionaries on the subject of eating together with black colleagues at a communal table. Negotiations proceeded and somehow ended in church unity despite the DRC’s missionaries’ objection to communal eating. After the merger of the synods of Blantyre, Nkhoma and Livingstonia into the unified CCAP, distinct regional differences remained, long after the colonial missionaries departed. In terms of its theological predisposition, especially on the hierarchy of social relations, the Nkhoma synod remains much more conservative than both of its neighboring synods in the CCAP to the south and north. Race is no longer a matter of division. More recently, it has been gender, and especially the issue of women’s ordination to ministry, which has been affirmed by both Blantyre and Livingstonia, but resisted by the Nkhoma synod. Back in South Africa, these events similarly had an impact on church history and theological debate, but in a completely different direction. As the theology of Afrikaner Christian nationalism and eventually apartheid came into positions of power in the 1940s, the DRC’s Nkhoma mission in Malawi found itself in a position of vulnerability and suspicion. The very fact of its participation in an ecumenical project involving ‘liberal’ Scots in the formation of an indigenous black church was an intolerable digression from the normative separatism that was the hallmark of the DRC under apartheid. Hence, this article focuses on the variegated entanglements of Reformed Church history, mission history, theology and politics in two different 20th-century African contexts, Malawi and South Africa.

The Faith Once for All Delivered: Liturgical Theology, Scripture, and the Evangelical Free Church Tradition

This article proposes to explain how the evangelical Free Church commitment to scripture as its primary authority affects their interaction with liturgical theology. Free Church theology is underpinned by various hermeneutical, theological, and cultural commitments—none more central than its commitment to scripture as revelation of and from God—which complicates Free Church engagement with much recent liturgical scholarship that emphasizes the ecclesiological basis for Christian worship and the corollary authority of Christian tradition. In the first part of the article, I provide an exploration of theological authority within Free Church evangelicalism, arguing that their commitment to scripture’s authority is a commitment to the ecclesial tradition of the apostolic church. In the second part of the article, I explore two additional hermeneutical considerations for evangelical liturgical theology that follow from their commitment to scripture: the priority of biblical exegesis in the theological process and the application of a trusting hermeneutic in their reading of scripture.

THE CURRENT STATE OF BIBLICAL SCHOLARSHIP IN ESTONIA

Estonia is one of the most extreme nations in the Western world regarding a modest belonging to the churches and scepticism towards religious institutions. This article presents a short overview of the history of Estonian academic landscapes from the point of view of biblical studies and the University of Tartu as the historical nodal point of all Estonian academic life. The paper sketches six polarities that characterise the work of biblical scholars in Estonia. The first polarity marks national versus international, since biblical scholars struggle with the needs of the narrow national academic sphere and the broad international scholarship. The second polarity is the tension between scientific and popular spheres, of which both are needed to have a sustainable national academic environment, but academic publications are rare. The third problem is the polarity between the historical-critical and the religious, generally designated as a conflict between conservatives and liberals in Estonia. Particularly in the Lutheran church, several theologians and pastors publicly distinguish between “church theology” and “university theology,” and the label of liberalism keeps sticking. The fourth polarity concerns religious versus anticlerical and non-institutional religion. Biblical scholars are confronted with a very ambivalent attitude towards churches, demanding flexibility to understand the exact auditory. The fifth polarity marks the academic study versus new spirituality interpretations: how to approach people speaking the jargon of new spirituality, who might be religiously illiterate, individualistic, and sceptical towards institutionalised churches. Open theological discussion versus political-nationalist ideology is the sixth polarity. After gaining independence and becoming free from communist ideology, the lifetime of one generation has not been enough to cope with all the changes in the world view to emerge a free, tolerant and cohesive society. The situation welcomed the import of fundamentalist Christianity, far-right politics and the phenomenon of cultural war.

Light of Life Christian Group as a New Branch on Zimbabwe’s Ecumenical Tree

This article examines the impact and implications of the Light of Life Christian Group’s new theology of the Inner Church (Inner Circle) in southern Africa. The new religious movement’s theology of the Inner Church shall be examined particularly in the light of Zimbabwe’s heavily polarised Christian landscape. The Light of Life Christian Group (LLCG) is a new religious movement in Zimbabwe that is composed largely of members from mainline churches such as the Roman Catholic, Anglican, Salvation Army, Methodist, Baptist and Lutheran, among others. Fundamentally, the movement clings resolutely to the belief that the Inner Church or Inner Circle is the only true church and there is no other. For them, being a member of the Inner Church/Inner Circle implies Christ consciousness. It implies being perfect, as the heavenly Father is perfect. Thus, the movement roundly downplays and rejects the outward forums of religion and underlines that members of the Inner Church are the true disciples and representatives of Christ on earth, regardless of their ethnic or denominational backgrounds. The main argument developed in this article is that, even though the LLCG as a new branch on Zimbabwe’s ecumenical tree is currently under constant scrutiny and perpetual stigmatisation, particularly from the Catholic and Anglican Churches (among others), the ecumenically composed movement suggests and advances a theology that is tailor made to minimise denominational parochialism and prevents churches from monopolising God, whose intricate and multifaceted nature is present in all religions, cultures and denominations ad infinitum.

Telling a Life Story as Theological Reflection : Donald Owens, the First Korean Missionary in the Church of the Nazarene

As James McClendon stresses out, the study of life stories is central to the study of theology. Thus, telling a life story of a historically meaningful figure in a theological perspective brings about a theological reflection which leads to the construction of a theology and its implication. Donald Owens was a significant person in the beginning history and the construction of the theological identity of the Church of the Nazarene in Korea. Thus it is valuable to investigate the life story of Donald Owens for the purpose of understanding not only of his theology, but also of the characteristics of the early Church of the Nazarene in Korea. This paper will explore Owens's personal, social, cultural and ecclesiastical background through which the characteristics of Owens's theology and Christian ministry will be understood and defined. In turns, the paper will deal with Owens's biographical summary beginning with the birthplace and hometowns, going on to the migration to California in his formative years, to moving back to the hometown in Missouri in his late teenage years. The conversion experience was an important event in which he became a Christian and decided to live according to God's will and guidance. The paper continues to talk about his army experience in Philippines and Japan right after the World War Two and to introduce the significant incidents in Bethany-Peniel College in which Owens was called to be a missionary and met a his lifelong friend and soul-mate, Adeline Lois Preuss. Donald Owens and his wife, Adeline Owens, came to Korea in 1954 with the objective to do educational missionary work for the Church of the Nazarene in Korea and ultimately stayed in Korea until the summer of 1965. Owens was a pioneering missionary, pastor, educator, theologian and church administrator who established the Nazarene Bible School (currently the Korea Nazarene University) as well as influenced the polity of the Church of the Nazarene in Korea. Donald Owens loved, cherished, and was proud of being the first Korean Nazarene missionary. The paper concludes that the life story of Donald Owens will indicate the historical connection between the Church of the Nazarene in America and the beginning era of the Church of the Nazarene in Korea. Moreover this paper will encourage the further study on the significance of the history and theology of the early Church of the Nazarene in Korea.