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We live in a world in which the church inhabits a deep existential anxiety about its future, feels pushed to the edges of society and doesn’t deal well with its marginalisation. Kosuke Koyama’s writing most notably in his famous Three mile an Hour God acts as an antidote for the preoccupation with speed, size and the spectacular - “God walks slowly because He is love.” In The God Who Walks Slowly, missiologist Ben Aldous explores how Koyama’s theology encourages an approach to mission which truly reflects the rhythm, pace, vision and surrender of Christ.
We express the mystery of God with diverse metaphors, but mostly in Adult terms. In this experimental theological adventure, Graham Adams imagines what might flow from a more thorough ‘be-child-ing’ of God. Aware that the Child can be idealized, he selects particular characteristics of childness in order to disrupt God’s omnipresence, omnipotence and omniscience. The smallness of the Child re-envisages divine location in sites of smallness, like an open palm receiving the experiences of the overlooked. The weakness of the Child reimagines divine agency as chaos-event, subverting prevailing patterns of power and evoking relationships of mutuality. And the curiosity of the Child reconceives divine encounter as horizon-seeker, imaginatively and empathetically pursuing the unknown. These possibilities are brought into dialogue both with other theologies (Black, disabled and queer) and with pastoral loss, economic/ecological injustice, and theological education. Through these conversations, God the Child emerges not only as a new model for God, but intrinsic to God’s new social reality which is close at hand.
In many societies all over the world, an increasing polarization between contrasting groups can be observed. Polarization arises when a fear born of difference turns into ‘us-versus-them’ thinking and rules out any form of compromise. This volume addresses polarizations within societies as well as within churches, and asks the question: given these dynamics, what may be the calling of the church? The authors offer new approaches to polarizing debates on topics such as racism, social justice, sexuality and gender, euthanasia, and ecology and agriculture in various contexts. They engage in profound theological and ecclesiological reflection, in particular from the Reformed tradition. Contributors to this volume are: Najib George Awad, Henk van den Belt, Nadine Bowers Du Toit, Jaeseung Cha, David Daniels, David Fergusson, Jan Jorrit Hasselaar, Jozef Hehanussa, Allan Janssen, Klaas-Willem de Jong, Viktória Kóczián, Philipp Pattberg, Louise Prideaux, Emanuel Gerrit Singgih, Peter-Ben Smit, Thandi Soko-de Jong, Wim van Vlastuin, Jan Dirk Wassenaar, Elizabeth Welch, Annemarieke van der Woude, and Heleen Zorgdrager.
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The novels of the South African writer J. M. Coetzee won him global recognition and the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2003. His work offers substantial pedagogical richness and challenges. Coetzee treats such themes as race, aging, gender, animal rights, power, violence, colonial history and accountability, the silent or silenced other, sympathy, and forgiveness in an allusive and detached prose that avoids obvious answers or easy ethical reassurance. Part 1 of this volume, "Materials," identifies secondary materials, including multimedia and Internet resources, that will help instructors guide their students through the contextual and formal complexities of Coetzee's fiction. In part 2, "Approaches," essays discuss how to teach works that are sometimes suspicious of teachers and teaching. The essays aim to help instructors negotiate Coetzee's ironies and allegories in his treatment of human relationships in a changing South Africa and of the shifting connections between human beings and the biosphere.
This book explores and formulates a response to the question: How best can those held in modern systems of mass incarceration be cared for pastorally when many prisons diminish both hope and humanity? Employing the multi-disciplinary approach of practical theology, this ethnographic enquiry will be a guide for chaplains and all who strive to embody compassion wherever human flourishing is undermined. The book’s structure follows the pastoral cycle method from practical theology, remaining context-based and practice-focused throughout. Pastoral insights are illustrated with personal, poetic and movingly reflective material drawn from the lived experience of indeterminately sentenced men who did not know if or when they would be ever released. The author, a former prison chaplain, remains reflexively and humanely present in the text, modelling the profound humane regard and pastoral presence that is central to this work. This book will take the reader deeply into penal spaces on a journey of both compassion and hope.
This book defines and analyzes the content, structure, and values of three predominant types of public discourse, which are labeled Doublespeak, Salespeak, and Sensationspeak. These media messages are examined to determine how they are constructed and how they influence individuals, ideology, and culture. Discussions are illustrated with a diverse range of examples from popular culture, magazines, Internet sites, politics, television, and film. Fox argues that the Information Age has replaced actual reality with representations of reality. He states that electronic media dominates our lives. Together, these three voices saturate media and technology, profoundly influencing American culture. Fox suggests specific strategies for recognizing and understanding these coded messages. This lively and informative discussion will appeal to anyone who is interested in learning how print and electronic media manipulate both individuals and society as a whole. The extensive research will appeal to media, communications, journalism, and cultural studies scholars alike.
New Churches: A Theology considers the theological issues and questions that surface from the starting of new churches in the UK context. Offering both a theology for starting new churches (to support, guide, encourage and challenge practitioners to plant fully Christian churches) and a theology from new churches (using new churches as an opportunity to explore vital theological, ecclesiological, and missiological questions we might otherwise miss), the book brings together some of those most significant voices in the conversation today, speaking from a wide spread of perspectives including theologians and practitioners, pioneers and planters, evangelical and Anglo-Catholic. Contributors include Mark Powley, John Valentine, Tina Hodgett, Christian Selvaratnam, Cathy Ross and John Wallace
Ecclesial Futures publishes original research and theological reflection on the development and transformation of local Christian communities and the systems that support them as they join in the mission of God in the world. We understand local Christian communities broadly to include traditional “parish” churches and independent local churches, religious communities and congregations, new church plants, so-called “fresh expressions” of church, “emergent” churches, and “new monastic” communities. We are an international and ecumenical journal with an interdisciplinary understanding of our approach to theological research and reflection; the core disciplines being theology, mi...