Practical & Political Theologies
- Paul Oslington, Anthony Kelly CSsR & Neil Ormerod
- Editor’s Note: Tony Kelly and Neil Ormerod respond to Paul Oslington’s Deus Economicus proposal. Finally, Paul Oslington responds to his respondents.
- Image Source:D Casey (Bode Museum Berlin)
- Angelo Nicolaides
- The work of Our Saviour was to redeem us from corruption, sin and death. He redeemed us all through His assumption of our human nature on the day of His incarnation. He also deified human nature by His divine teachings, unattainable example and by His death and Resurrection. We are all therefore liberated by His appearance, as well as His actions. Deification is passed on to all who comprise the mystical body of Christ. Consecrated bread and wine are the sacramental signs of Christ’s sacrifice. If we partake in them we enter into a communion of life with Jesus Christ.
- Image Source: D Casey (S. Pantaleon Cologne)
- Matthew Del Nevo
- Buber the wisdom-figure and Barth the theologian. Buber carrying Jewish tradition, Jesus’ tradition, crosses swords with the Christian, Barth, carrying the Church’s tradition, derived from Jesus. We find two different views of God and two different views of man (the human person). But these are less differences that divide the two religions, than differences that cut through them, marking the difference between a belief-based Christianity and a spirit-filled Christianity that leads one to dance.
- Image Source: Wikimedia Commons
- Sophie McGrath RSM
- This paper is part of a series bringing feminists and popes into conversation. It is about ideas, values and attitudes in the immediate post Humanae Vitae period. It brings into conversation the feminist Germaine Greer and Pope Paul VI critiquing contemporary philosophy and religion, relationships between men and women, marriage, motherhood, the family, sex, sexuality and contraception. Though the literary devise of the dinner party is used to facilitate the conversation, this essay is an academic exercise designed to challenge readers to reconsider popular perceptions of feminism and the papacy in general and Germaine Greer and Pope Paul VI in particular.
- Image Source: Wikimedia Commons
- Anton Karl Kozlovic
- Cinematic Christ-figures are a legitimate sub-genre of the emerging interdisciplinary field of religion-and-film, and so learning what constitutes their structural characteristics for narrative storytelling is an exciting area of applied theology that resonates with the proverbial children-of-the-media who already consider movies their natural cultural turf. Utilising humanist film criticism as the guiding analytical lens, the Hollywood cinema and critical literature are briefly scanned and twenty-five structural elements of the Christ-figure are identified and illustrated herein using copious inter-genre exemplars to demonstrate their richness and diversity. It is concluded that religion-and-film studies is warranted and will became an increasingly valuable tool in the theologian’s toolbox.
- Image Source: Wikimedia Commons
- Felicita Carr
- The process of peace building is complex and multidimensional. This is particularly so in contexts of conflict, for which three interconnected phases of peace building have been identified: conflict prevention and de-escalation, crisis management and cessation of hostilities, and consolidation leading to a stable peaceful order. These phases are connected with a number of factors which are required for, or significantly contribute to, peace on both the individual, internal level (for example, trust and forgiveness) and on the broader, social level (for example, disarmament and justice).
- Image Source: Calvary Advisor
- Matthew John-Paul Tan
- This article addresses post-Cold War theological discourses in relation to socio-political action. It seeks to demonstrate the limitations of modern Behaviouralism which either excludes theology or pigeonholes it within a purely materialist schema. It also proposes a theological framework for investigating socio-political activity in context of a transcendent order. This involves the advocacy of the position known as Radical Orthodoxy in which postmodern thought is freed from the constraints of modernity.
- Image Source: D Casey (Icon Museum Frankfurt)
- Paul Tyson
- Australian universities appear to be moving out of a broadly progressive liberal humanist value frame and into a more conservative, neoliberal value frame. In this transition, incompatible visions of what institutional morality and rationality are arise. Here, finding out who is being visionary, virtuous and rational is not easy. Uncovering a deeper cultural substratum than morality and rationality is needed for a meaningful understanding of what is driving this transition. This paper contends that if we use religious categories, the underlying topography of this institutional transition becomes clearer.
- Image Source: Wikimedia Commons
- Michael Carden
- The essay explores the spiritual dynamics of the traditional rosary from an emic but marginalised (gay) perspective drawing on gender and queer/sexuality theory. It argues that the Mariological focus of the rosary is grounded in ancient Christian mystical theologies of kenosis and divinization which give the Rosary a queer gender dynamic that may, surprisingly, provide internal resources for a gender inclusive and queer affirming transformation of Catholicism.
- Image Source: D.Casey (Cologne Cathedral)
- Michael Elphick
- The Conquest of Latin America in the 16th Century was a colonial project which dispossessed millions. Its primary motive was to establish European economic and political dominance of the New World. This project proceeded with the blessing and support of the Church which was itself a major beneficiary of the aggression. This article examines the theological underwriting of colonialism and the extent to which some thinkers and churchmen raised objections and articulated a theology of resistance to colonial dispossession.
- Image Source: Wikimedia Commons
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