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Ecclesiology in the Trenches
The field of ecclesiology is rapidly expanding as new material, theories, methods, and approaches are being explored. This raises important and challenging questions concerning ecclesiology as an academic discipline. This book takes the reader into the trenches of ecclesiological research where the actual work of reading, writing, interpreting, and analyzing is being done. The authors reflect on fundamental questions concerning theory and method in ecclesiology in relation to concrete and actual research projects. Ecclesiology is dealt with as a systematic, empirical, historical, and liturgical discipline. Essays explore theology in South Africa as shaped by apartheid, liturgical theology, t...
What Really Matters
This volume is about ecclesiology and ethnography and what really matters in such academic work. How does material from field studies matter in a theological conversation? How does theology, in various forms, matter in analysis and interpretation of field work material? How does method matter? The authors draw on their research experiences and engage in conversations concerning reflexivity, normativity, and representation in qualitative theological work. The role and responsibility of the researcher is addressed from various perspectives in the first part of the book. In the next section the authors discuss ways in which empirical studies are able to disrupt the implicit and explicit normati...
Conundrums in Practical Theology
In this landmark volume, internationally recognized scholars address key intellectual and practical conundrums that not only trouble practical theology but also reflect biases and breakdowns in the construction of theological knowledge in academy and religious communities at large. With critical facility and unheralded honesty that includes reflexivity about their own lives in the academy, the authors tackle complex issues that refuse easy solutions— racism, hierarchy of theory over practice, devaluation of small case studies, risks of interdisciplinarity to scholarly identity, inequities between Christian traditions, unreflective Christian-centrism, and tensions between the production of scholarship and public service. Outcomes of these issues will have serious implications for the discipline and the study of theology for years to come. Contributors include Tom Beaudoin, Eileen R. Campbell-Reed, Faustino M. Cruz, Jaco Dreyer, Courtney T. Goto, Tone Stangeland Kaufman, Joyce Ann Mercer, Bonnie J. Miller-McLemore, Phillis Isabella Sheppard, Katherine Turpin, Claire E. Wolfteich.
A New Old Spirituality?
How do pastors live their spiritual lives, both as private persons and as professionals? How can their spirituality be characterized and understood? Drawing on in-depth interviews with Norwegian clergy as well as literature from the fields of Christian spirituality, practical theology, congregational studies, and the sociology of religion, this book offers a nuanced understanding of clergy spirituality. Tone Stangeland Kaufman identifies three locations and sources of spiritual nurture for pastors: the ministry itself (vocational spirituality), daily life (everyday spirituality), and spiritual practices located at the margins of daily life (intentional spirituality). The participants in this...
Reconciliation as Politics
Is "political reconciliation" a new tool for peace-building and justice--in peace processes and other complex social reconstruction efforts-after dictatorship or civil wars? Or is it just another term for established practices like negotiation, conflict resolution, and cooperation? Reconciliation processes after conflict and war can be very different in form and content. Kjell-Ake Nordquist analyzes the concept of reconciliation from a political perspective and outlines an understanding of its characteristics in a comparison with its closest "conceptual relatives": forgiveness and conflict resolution. In addition, Nordquist specifically addresses the structural dimensions of reconciliation, and formulates an understanding of reconciliation that identifies a specific contribution to the settlement of political conflicts. In this way, political reconciliation has the potential to be an approach that, along with other activities, contributes to more complete and genuine peace processes.
Mending the World?
Religion has played a major role in history, affecting the course of events and influencing individuals. Today one frequently hears the expression "the return of religion" but opinions differ as to how this "return" is to be understood. It is clear that modernity and postmodernity have not meant that religion is dead or relegated to society's backyards. Religion is still of vital importance for many people. It has, to some extent, changed shape but has not lost its legitimacy and attractiveness to broad groups. Religion is public, visible, and has a sought-for voice; but it is also wrestling with extremism, ignorance, and preconceptions. Just like ideologies, religions are capable of activating diametrically opposite traits in humans. It is this dual tension that is implicit in the question mark in this book's title: Mending the World? This book's aim is to help explore whether, how, and in what ways religion, church, and theology can contribute constructively to the future of a global society. In thirty-one chapters, researchers from around the world address the relation between religion and society.
Thérèse and Martin
The Carmelite nun Therese of the Child Jesus (1873-1897) lived a contemplative monastic life. Through her writings, she continues to help people who live in completely different contexts to discover that God is always present in the middle of everyday life. Like Martin Luther (1483-1546), Therese clearly distances herself from the idea that we can earn our salvation from God. This book begins by highlighting the extensive similarities between Therese's teaching and Martin Luther's theology. With the help of the three Carmelite Doctors of the Church - Therese of the Child Jesus, Teresa of Avila (1515-1582) and John of the Cross (1542-1591) - the discussion develops further, and a receptive ecumenical study is carried out. The overall question is how the Carmelite tradition can enrich the Evangelical-Lutheran tradition in a way that contributes to the renewal of the church. It is argued that such a renewal is of vital importance if people today are to receive the spiritual guidance that they are longing for.
Theology and Sexuality, Reproductive Health, and Rights
This volume presents a project of empirical research on issues of theology, sexuality, and reproductive health and rights. It was carried out by researchers from two theological institutions in Brazil and Colombia in close contact with the grassroots in various civil-society organizations. Numerous studies at twenty-six Latin American institutions on the relation between theology and HIV/AIDS prepared the way for this project. It promotes and applies methodologies for Latin American popular education and participatory action research (PAR). While the project was finalized long before the COVID-19 pandemic hit Latin America and the world, the pandemic gave fresh evidence of the relevance of the project. The present volume is the English translation of the initial Portuguese and Spanish reports about the project, enriched with a new preface. The editors are delighted that this translation will help spread the vital insights from this research to a wider and global readership.
Co-preaching
The purposes of this article-based thesis are to explore and understand preaching as a practice in general, and the practice of preaching in digital culture and spaces in particular. Informed by the practice theory of Theodore Schatzki, it presents the results of a cross-case analysis of four different case studies of the practice of preaching in digital culture and spaces in Swedish protestant churches. Based on the analysis, Frida Mannerfelt argues that the deep relationality of the practice of preaching involves not just humans and texts but also material arrangements and that this feature often is amplified in digital culture and spaces. While there were examples of a decrease, overall, there was an increase in interaction, negotiation, and interdependency. In light of this, Manner-felt contends that the practice of preaching in digital culture and spaces is characterized by co-preaching. Moreover, Mannerfelt argues that some of the implications of co-preaching are the enabling and encouragement of dialogue, imagination, and the priestly function of the priesthood of all believers, but also an increased vulnerability for the co-preachers involved.
The Study of Science and Religion
The main aim of this book is to contribute to the relationship between science and religion. This book aims to do constructive theological work out of a particular cultural context. The point of departure is contemporary Swedish religion and worldviews. One focus is the process of biologization (i.e., how the worldviews of the general public in Sweden are shaped by biological science). Is there a gap between Swedes in general and the perceptions of Swedish clergy? The answer is based on sociological studies on science and religion in Sweden and the United States. Furthermore, the book contains a study of Swedish theologians, from Nathan Soderblom to the present Archbishop Antje Jackelen, and their shifting understanding of the relation between science and religion. The philosophical aspects of this relation are given special consideration. What models of the relation inform the contemporary scholarly discussion? Are science and religion in conflict, separate, or in mutual creative interaction?
