Way Of Theology Research Articles

Artificial Intelligence and Theology

This bibliographic essay provides a starting point for theological librarians to engage the history, anthropology, ethics, theology of artificial intelligence. What it shows is that despite seeming to appear ex nihilio, artificial intelligence for writing has a long history, profound ethical consequences beyond academic integrity, and latent theology. While theological librarians may or may not have the computer science background necessary to engage the technicalities of AI, they certainly have the disciplinary knowledge and skill to engage the topic in a meaningful and theological way.

The Fight for Eternity in Paul Tillich's First World War Sermons

This article analyses a selection of archival material written by Paul Tillich, particularly his early parish sermons and sermons from World War I. Although the themes of ‘eternity’ and ‘the soul’ are rare in the early parish sermons and only appear in the context of death or suffering, they play a predominant role in the World War I sermons. This article suggests that this is because, for Tillich, suffering became the interpretative key. Through his sermons amidst the suffering and devastation of war Tillich employed what he called the immanent way of theology.

Breaking the silence: Is the church failing to address South Africa’s sociopolitical problems?

This article investigates why the Ecumenical Church in South Africa has not responded effectively to social issues such as bad governance, corruption, inequality, crime, and ethical decline. It uses contextual and comparative analysis to examine the historical, political, and theological factors that influence the church’s role and identity. It draws on missiology, practical theology, and ecclesiology to argue that the church is neglecting its moral and prophetic duty to uphold human dignity and value, and to offer hope and healing to all. The investigation identified six reasons for the church’s social failure and proposes some practical and theological ways to improve its social responsibility and witness.Contribution: This article challenges the church to be a prophetic voice and witness for social transformation in South Africa. It calls for a national convention of Christian leaders to craft a unified vision for the country’s future and foster dialogue, cooperation, and social responsibility among diverse and complex churches.

Luke 9:57–62: Ὁδός to Marcion’s God?

Abstract The first few centuries of the Common Era saw great theological fluidity in emerging Christian doctrine. A figure looming large in many early controversies is Marcion of Pontus. Not considered truly gnostic by modern scholars, Marcion fueled the ire of early Church Fathers—Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, Tertullian, and others—by spreading his apparently biblically-based, ditheistic theology of a superior Unknown Good God and an inferior Just Creator God. Additionally, Marcion’s gospel, generally considered a version of canonical Luke, witnesses the three Jesus sayings in Luke 9:57–62 (cf. Tertullian, Adversus Marcionem 4,23,9–11; Clement of Alexandria, Stromata 3,4,25). This article examines these sayings—in light of both ancient and modern commentary—as representing a collective theological way or ὁδός to ideate Marcion’s Unknown Good God. Today Marcion’s voice is faint, but in ancient Christianity it was exceedingly strong. This article attempts to find a hint of its former strength.

GENEALOGY OF WASAṬIYYA WITHIN INDONESIAN SOCIETY: The Influence of Sufism in Indonesian Archipelago

This article examines the genealogy of wasaṭiyya Islam in Indonesia. Historical processes of Islamization in the pre-Indonesia context have influenced how the Muslim majority of Indonesia demonstrates its moderate expression from historical periods to contemporary situations. The establishment of the Indonesian state has the heredity derivation from the past Islamization. The role of Sufism in the processes of Islamization is addressed here. Ash’arism or Aswaja paved the theological way for wasaṭiyya by choosing a position of moderation between rationalist and conservative extremist schools of thought. On a deeper level, this article concludes that the Sufi foundations of the early Islamization period are essential for establishing wasaṭiyya in Indonesia. When Pancasila, as the nation-state philosophy, incorporates cultural elements acknowledged by Muslim Ulama, it is evident that any attempt to undermine or pervert wasaṭiyya Islam in Indonesia will finally fail. This research applied qualitative methodology with an exploratory research design. The data were collected using literature studies from books, journals, and related articles.

Gender-based violence as a destructive form of warfare against families: A practical theological response

War is an appalling crisis and destructive force on human dignity and life. War was permitted in biblical times at the hand of God, with disastrous consequences for the nations of the Ancient World. The current war between Ukraine and Russia is fast becoming a global catastrophe, with the threat of World War III looming. Warfare destroys families, and families are vital units God instituted in society. The critical issue addressed in this article is the ruining effects of gender-based violence (GBV) on family life. Therefore, this article responds to GBV as a social ill and destructive form of warfare against women and aims to propose feasible, viable, and practical theological ways to curb this ruinous issue. Gender-based violence, as a form of warfare against women and children, is one of the most destructive forces regarding family life and the key reason for unstable, disrupted, and fractured families. Because this article is grounded on a practical theological response, its pastoral role is explored. Practical theology builds a theological framework for critical evaluation. It also takes a more direct role on the moral debates of society on issues such as GBV, father absence, and family violence that occurs in Church, family, and society.Contribution: This article employed a descriptive modus operandi on GBV against women and endorses the journal’s focus on family and society who is experiencing a violation of human rights and a life-threatening issue in the field of Practical Theology.

Analisis Stilistika Pada Puisi “Maqomat Cinta” Karya Heri Isnaini

The study is intended to identify the use of figures of speech (majas), describing the words of heri isnaini's "love maqomat" poem. The source of data on this study is one of the poems of the heri isnaini poem called "light meditation," published in July 2017. This type of research involves qualitative methods. The theory used is that of sticism with the approach of sticism. The poem "maqomat of love" is analysed and discussed in a theological way to learn the implied meaning of the language heri isnaini through the application of style (majas), thus revealing the meaning of the poem "maqomat of love" clearly by the writer. This study of heri isnaini's maqomat love poem mentions that the language (majas) used is a form of retraction. The "reiteration" is a "pararism"; it is the "prescriptive" that describes something by repeating a word or a few words over and over again. A type of pararism applied to the poem "maqomat love" is anafora magician.

Cardinal Stanislaw Nagy’s Ecumenical Ecclesiology

The systematic theology of the 20th and 21st centuries has experienced revolutionary changes. The tremendous effort of theologians – which was already evident on the eve of Vatican II to experience order and confirmation during its deliberations – is still bearing fruit today. It seems that interpretations of the Council’s teaching have now become more problematic than the doctrine of Vatican II itself.
 One of the great figures of the theological world is Prof. Stanislaw Nagy, whose create efforts were honoured with a cardinalate, and to whom we are all indebted. Indeed, it is worth discovering his difficult path from the pre-council rigorous spiritual and intellectual formation to formal apologetics, thus paving the way for fundamental theology in Poland during the Communist period, to the ecumenical commitment of the times of freedom. In this respect, it is not without reason to speak of his ecumenical vision of the Church.

To Dream in North and South America: Reflections on the Sixtieth Anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” Speech

This article reflects on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech delivered sixty years ago in Washington, DC. It begins by pointing to the concept of “dream” as it is understood in current language and how Dr. King used it in a theological way. Next, the essay compares this with what Pope Francis has frequently said about dreams, including his own. Reflecting on King’s words and the sense that the dream he spoke about is still not a reality but a horizon of hope that stimulates struggle, the article presents a comparative study of racism in the United States, according to King, and Brazil, where structural racism permeates the whole society, delaying indefinitely the dream of equality and justice. I also show how liberation theology has been a helpful element in the struggle to keep the dream of equality alive. I conclude that in both countries, frustration remains because the dream has not been fulfilled. But in both situations, to continue dreaming is the only option. And that means not being satisfied with the little steps made but embracing the desire for more. Only by always desiring more and more fulness of life will salvation be experienced concretely for our generation and the next.

Retrieving Aquinas: Traditions in Dialogue

In the broadest sense of the term, “Thomism” refers to a set of ideas and principles, both in philosophy and theology that can be considered as derivations or representations of the thought of Thomas Aquinas. However, Thomism should not be considered as a mere conceptual body. It also represents a certain view and way of doing philosophy and theology. Alasdair MacIntyre, in his book Three Rival Versions of Moral Enquiry, argues that the Thomistic approach provides a coherent and skillful point of view for dealing creatively and critically with opposing views, contrasting this approach with the encyclopedic and the genealogical approaches. The former imposes a single worldview, enclosing knowledge and “truth” in a monolithic structure of “progress,” while the latter, following Nietzsche, devalues and relativizes knowledge, reducing it to a multiplicity of perspectives, each with its own claims to truth, leading to incommensurability and the consequent subjugation of “truth” to the law of the strongest. On the other hand, Thomists have adopted, from the end of the thirteenth century to the present day, different styles and ways of thinking while maintaining dialogue with their “predecessors” and at the same time with their contemporaries, that is, Thomists are capable of what MacIntyre called the “rationality of tradition”.

Bottom-Up and Top-Down Approaches to Y&C Ministry, Part 2: Finding a Theological Way Forward

Abstract In part 1 the concepts of top-down and bottom-up approaches were introduced as a helpful way of analysing the landscape of youth and children’s mission and ministry. This second part begins to suggest a constructive solution to the question of bringing the top-down and bottom-up together which understands both divine and human action in and of the individual. James Loder’s appropriation of Chalcedonic descriptions of divine-human connection come together with his analogia Spiritus and understanding of transformation to provide a way of bringing together top-down and bottom-up approaches which can be understood as a form of ‘spiritual structuration.’

The Сoncept of Power in Medieval Western Theology

The article is devoted to the study of the political and religious foundations of the origin of the phenomenon of power and belongs to the field of research of political theology. The study of the theological foundations of the phenomenon of power was carried out within the framework of a neo-institutional methodological paradigm, taking into account the data of hermeneutic analysis, which is an applied aspect of the work. The phenomenon of power is considered within the framework of a broader aspect - the ontology of the social, as part of the fundamental layer of being. The authors examined the basic ontological concepts of the phenomenon of power within the framework of the theological paradigm. In the political and philosophical theory of the Middle Ages, the concept of «power» was conveyed by four main Latin words: auctoritas, potestas, dominium and imperium, each of which illuminated one of the facets of the phenomenon of power. «Auctoritas» – authority, potestas» – power, «dominium» – possession, «imperium» – command. At the same time, the first two words – auctoritas and potestas – were, of course, key to understanding the essence of the medieval concept of power. This work reveals the specific features and mechanisms by which medieval Western European monarchies interacted with the Catholic Church, preventing open conflicts, mitigating mutual claims and even organizing cooperation between spiritual and secular authorities at the highest political level Various positions are considered on understanding the essence of political power, as well as on the origin of this phenomenon in a historical and theological way; the works of both domestic and foreign experts are studied.

After rupture: Visions of history, African spirituality and theological repair in Nigerian Pentecostalism

AbstractHow do Pentecostal Christians seek repair and renewal in their lives, after their efforts to rupture with the past and become born again? In this article, I wish to consider the ways that a group of Nigerian Pentecostals who belong to a deliverance church re‐narrativise their lives by constructing and entering into new timelines of history after their attempts to break with the past. This discursive project works to insert a notion of ‘Black Africa’ into an authentically Christian historical chronology that stretches far back into the biblical past and forward to the eschaton. In this way, Africa's unique spiritual character is seen as reflected not only in its reasserted claim to Christian history, but also in its eschatologically driven destiny to re‐evangelise the world. This tells us something about the theological way these Christians reframe their role in history, including how their understanding of a collective past shapes their vision of who they are in the present and will be in the future. In this article, I argue that more attention needs to be given to processes of repair, repositioning and realignment in discussions about how conversion to Pentecostalism can generate efforts to break away from what becomes conceptualised as ‘the past’.

The Second Century Debate about the Therapy of Passions – Various Christian Remedies

The disturbing power of the passions or affections, collectively known as πάθος, was the subject of a remarkable debate in Graeco-Roman philosophical schools, as well as in Philo of Alexandria and soon among various early Christian authors. This paper contributes to the recent approach to this subject but also explores new contexts. It examines cosmological (myth), anthropological (the mind – emotions relation) and theological (salvation) ways of addressing that problematic supremacy of emotions. Although it summarises earlier philosophical views, it focuses on Christian documents from the second century and their witness to that ancient debate. By comparison with the diversity of Christian views on the passions, the paper highlights the diverse ‘therapies’ proposed by Christian authors. In conclusion, it points out common motifs among Christian responses to the passions, as well as the differences in their remedies.

African contextual hermeneutics

Hermeneutics is the science of textual interpretation and comprises a wide range of disciplines, which helps to control subjective influences in the study of the Old Testament and Hebrew Scriptures. It is imperative to consider the context of any given text, as well as the context of the receiver in the interpretive process. This consideration, from the African point of view, is what may be referred to as African contextual hermeneutics. To see the effect different contexts have on the interpretation of an encountered text, using as an example 1 Chronicles 21, it was discovered that the changes in culture, religion, tradition, text and language affected the presentation of the new text, so much so that the writer made a lot of additions and subtractions from the original story in 2 Samuel 24. The diversity of the Old Testament texts requires that each text be studied within its historical framework. This also reflects the reality of life expressed by people in the African society. However, with hermeneutics in the Old Testament, the reader should be brave enough to throw off cultural ties and focus only on what matters. It requires reading the controversy and polemic in the text and not being influenced by it. What matters in any text is the relationship between God and humans, and this is what the interpreter should translate into the African context, not the culture or the controversy. There is a need for reassessment of the ancient biblical tradition and the African worldviews, cultures and life experiences, to correct the effect of the extraneous cultural and ideological conditioning. African biblical hermeneutics can be understood as the rereading of the Old Testament from a premeditatedly African perspective. African biblical hermeneutics is the principle of interpretation of the Bible that could lead to transformation in Africa. Africa’s religious practice is mostly polytheistic. In the African religion, there are new allegories, images, figures of speech, ways of reasoning, etymologies, analogies and cosmogonies to gratify the intellect.Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: The African contextual ideas of mysticism, tradition and initiation advance new theological inductions, astrophysical tales and ways to hypothesise moral behaviour. Nevertheless, the ideologically motivated text of 1 Chronicles 21 can still be relevant for Africa today if the following options can be taken into consideration. Israel was a confused nation, seeking identity after the exile. An author like the Chronicler wanted to give them direction by telling them that they can find identity in their relationship with God. This can be translated into the African context as a relationship with God. This means that people who are feeling confused about their circumstances and identity today can find certainty in their relationship with God, regardless of how and where they worship.

Fischer, Zachary, Preparing the Way for a Theological Theology. John Webster’s Theological Principles and Their Development

Fischer, Zachary, Preparing the Way for a Theological Theology. John Webster’s Theological Principles and Their Development

The Problem of Divine Hiddenness in the Context of Science

The aim of the paper is to try to find a solution to the problem of divine hiddenness, which in the context of science takes the form of the question of why, if God exists, science can completely ignore Him and yet explain away so much. We formulate the “argument from hiddenness in the context of science” modelled on the “argument from hiddenness” proposed by J. L. Schellenberg and show possible ways to refute this argument. We also propose a refutation in the form of “explanatory absconditheism,” the best expression of which is the thesis of “articulation” of scientific and theological ways of explaining the world. We also argue that the thesis of “explanatory absconditheism” can be extended to the entire discussion of divine hiddenness, providing possible response to the “argument from hiddenness.”

Pentecostal Ecumenism: The Legacy of David Du Plessis

This article retrieves the historical ecumenical endeavours of David Du Plessis – the South African who ended being an American citizen and the Assemblies of God credentialed minister. From the Afrikaans community of the Apostolic Faith Mission to the World Pentecostal Fellowship, Du Plessis laboured extensively for the acceptance of the Pentecostal and Charismatic faith into the world ecumenical formations such as World Council of Churches, mainline Protestantism and the Catholic Church. Rejected by his own denomination for ecumenical engagement, he blazed the way for the current Pentecostal ecumenical participation and ecumenism. He built the legacy that has enhanced Pentecostal and Charismatic experience and made it accommodated and understood in different ecumenical formations. The legacy he left behind includes opening doors for dialogues between Pentecostals and other Christian formations, demystifying Pentecostal fears of Christian brotherhood on a global scale, and creating some synergy between Pentecostals and nonPentecostals as the fulfilment of Christ’s desire that ‘They might be One.’ Although not a theologian, Du Plessis paved the way for theology of dialogue as a way of enforcing Christian fraternity especially in impacting communities with the love of Christ.

The Resurrection and Unborn Beings: The Seeds of a Materialist Emergence Proposal

This article looks at how two apparently unrelated issues—the afterlife and reproductive loss—turn out to be interrelated in complex theological and ethical ways. Eschatology is important to address, because how one thinks about resurrected bodies in the afterlife has implications for how one treats bodies that procreate in this life. Rethinking the notion of personhood lies at the heart of clarifying the nature of the resurrection. This article presents a theological anthropology that draws from the recent philosophical theory known as emergence. This theory allows us to conceptualize the resurrection of the “spiritual body” as a divinely initiated organic process that begins from a “bare seed” at death (1 Cor 15:44, 37). I hope to demonstrate that an emergence model of the resurrection both speaks to those grieving reproductive loss and also avoids eclipsing women’s exercise of moral discernment in reproductive matters.

Recovering Mystery: Ecological Encounters and Practical Theological Ways of Knowing

Abstract Western ways of thinking about our ecological context have too often failed to nurture meaningful relationship with it. This failure is rooted in our assumptions about what it means to know. Approaches to environmental education (including environmental education in religious communities and beyond) that rely on rationalist and objectivist epistemologies fail to adequately address the emotional and relational aspects of forming ecological character and identity. Ecological encounter, as spiritual and pedagogical practice, grounds an integrated and comprehensive way of knowing, loving, and caring for a dynamic and mysterious world, and the place of human life within it.