A Kairos Moment for Caribbean Theology

A Kairos Moment for Caribbean Theology
Author: Garnett Roper
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
Total Pages: 213
Release: 2013-08-12
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1621898318

The project of developing a contextual theology for the Caribbean was first articulated in the early 1970s in Trinidad and Jamaica. In the years since, many evangelical churches and theologians in the Caribbean have been ambivalent about the validity of this project, assuming that an emphasis on context was somehow antithetical to the pure gospel. But the crisis of the times, along with a more mature hermeneutic, has led to a re-evaluation of this assumption. Here a group of evangelical Caribbean theologians enter the discussion, with substantive proposals for how the gospel addresses the Caribbean context. They are joined by other theologians from mainline Protestant and Catholic traditions in the Caribbean. The result is an ecumenical dialogue on the diverse ways in which orthodox Christian faith may provide both challenge and hope for the Caribbean context. Half the essays in this volume were originally presented at the Forum on Caribbean Theology held in 2010 at the Jamaica Theological Seminary; the rest were invited especially for this volume.

Introducing Christian Ethics

Introducing Christian Ethics
Author: Samuel Wells
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages: 454
Release: 2017-05-08
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 111915572X

Introducing Christian Ethics 2e, now thoroughly revised and updated, offers an unparalleled introduction to the study of Christian Ethics, mapping and exploring all the major ethical approaches, and offering thoughtful insights into the complex moral challenges facing people today. This highly successful text has been thoughtfully updated, based on considerable feedback, to include increased material on Catholic perspectives, further case studies and the augmented use of introductions and summaries Uniquely redefines the field of Christian ethics along three strands: universal (ethics for anyone), subversive (ethics for the excluded), and ecclesial (ethics for the church) Encompasses Christian ethics in its entirety, offering students a substantial overview by re-mapping the field and exploring the differences in various ethical approaches Provides a successful balance between description, analysis, and critique Structured so that it can be used alongside a companion volume, Christian Ethics: An Introductory Reader, which further illustrates and amplifies the diversity of material and arguments explored here

Manifesto for New Social Movements

Manifesto for New Social Movements
Author: César Augusto Rossatto
Publisher: IAP
Total Pages: 234
Release: 2019-10-01
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1641137932

The world is currently witnessing the emergence of a new context for education, labor, and transformative social movements. Global flows of people, capital, and energy increasingly define the world we live in. The multinational corporation, with its pursuit of ever-cheaper sources of labor and materials and its disregard for human life, is the dominant form of economic organization, where capital can cross borders, but people can’t. Affirmative action, democracy, and human rights are moving in from the margins to challenge capitalist priorities of “efficiency”, i.e. exploitation. In some places, the representatives of popular movements are actually taking the reins of state power. Across the globe new progressive movements are emerging to bridge national identities and boundaries, in solidarity with transnational class, gender, and ethnic struggles. At this juncture, educators have a key role to play. The ideology of market competition has become more entrenched in schools, even as opportunities for skilled employment diminish. We must rethink the relationship between schooling and labor, developing transnational pedagogies that draw upon the myriad social struggles shaping students’ lives and communities. Critical educators need to connect with other social movements to put a radically democratic agenda, based on the principles of equity, access, and emancipation, at the center of educational praxis. Many countries in Latin America like in other continents are developing new alternatives for the reconstruction of social projects; these emerging sources of hope are the central focus of this book. Major historical change always starts with people’s social movement. Democracy can be one of the best political and social systems in the world but for it to work entails the sustainable participation of citizens. Above all, it requires that people be informed and critically educated since the quality of democracy depends on quality of education. There are 2 kinds of power: money and people. If people exercise their agency, they can be more powerful than money. There are some organizing principles of social movements, as: “don’t do for others what they should do for themselves.” Saul Alinsky wrote: Rules for Radicals: A pragmatic primer for realistic radicals; Mary Rogers: Cold Anger: A story of faith and power politics; Michael Gecan: Going Public: An organizer’s guide to citizen action; and Ernesto Cortez’s, Industrial Area Foundation, are all great sources for organized activism that do work. I put some of these principles to the test and they produced positive results, I was a founder and president of a union at my university and I lived my whole life as an activist and learned that, we can do more together than alone. Now we also have a new digital war with the Cambridge Analitica and Breitbart’s fake news manipulation; however, we also have social-justice hacktivism to counter act it, as well as other democratic social media venues that critical thinkers and activist use. The chapters in this book demonstrate the importance of widening and diversifying social movements, at the same time, emphasizes the need to build cohesive alliances among all the different fronts. What some people think is “impossible” can become a transformed reality, for those who dare attempt changing the world as global citizens.

Journal of Latin American Theology, Volume 12, Number 1

Journal of Latin American Theology, Volume 12, Number 1
Author: Lindy Scott
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
Total Pages: 128
Release: 2017-05-02
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1725250365

Special Issue on Being Faithful to God in the Era of Trump What does it look like to live as citizens under God's reign and as seekers of God's justice in today's world? Donald Trump was inaugurated as the US president on January 20, 2017. Whenever there is a new person in that position, it is good for followers of Jesus Christ to pause and reflect under the light of Scripture regarding not only the new president's policies but also our own responsibilities as the people of God. This issue of the Journal of Latin American Theology is our invitation to pursue that hard work of reflection and action. The resounding message is that Christians today need to express a faithful public witness that Jesus Christ is Lord. The articles herein discuss certain facets of such faithfulness: what it means to be the people of God, just stewardship of money in light of international trade agreements, living simply and working hard to care for the planet God has entrusted to us, Christ-centered as opposed to fear-based relations between native-born and foreigners, understanding and acting upon the biblical connection between shalom and justice, and responding carefully to those who face scarcity in the land of plenty. May our readers be equipped to live as more faithful representatives of God's all-encompassing reign.

Evangelical Calvinism

Evangelical Calvinism
Author: Dr. Myk Habets
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
Total Pages: 432
Release: 2017-05-04
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1498209084

Continuing the discussion initiated in volume one, volume two of Evangelical Calvinism further articulates the central motifs of this mood within Reformed theology by examining themes having to do with dogmatics and devotion. After further clarifying the methodological and dogmatic aspects common to an Evangelical Calvinism, the heart of the present volume is an explication of the vicarious ministry of Christ as it is worked out in its diverse theological dimensions. The volume offers constructive accounts of various aspects of liturgy, sacraments, and doxology, showing the vitality and lived spirituality of this Christian vision of faith and practice. Both advocates and critics of Evangelical Calvinism now have an extended and thorough body of work with which to interact. As with volume 1, this volume promises to set the agenda for contemporary and constructive Reformed studies in a way that provides an alternative to neo-Calvinism and Westminster Calvinism alike.

Evolution and the Fall

Evolution and the Fall
Author: William T. Cavanaugh
Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing
Total Pages: 261
Release: 2017-02-19
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1467446866

What does it mean for the Christian doctrine of the Fall if there was no historical Adam? If humanity emerged from nonhuman primates—as genetic, biological, and archaeological evidence seems to suggest—then what are the implications for a Christian understanding of human origins, including the origin of sin? Evolution and the Fall gathers a multidisciplinary, ecumenical team of scholars to address these difficult questions and others like them from the perspectives of biology, theology, history, Scripture, philosophy, and politics CONTRIBUTORS: William T. Cavanaugh Celia Deane-Drummond Darrel R. Falk Joel B. Green Michael Gulker Peter Harrison J. Richard Middleton Aaron Riches James K. A. Smith Brent Waters Norman Wirzba

On Knowing Humanity

On Knowing Humanity
Author: Eloise Meneses
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 374
Release: 2017-07-14
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1315315300

The development of a phenomenological approach to religion and the rise of perspectivism are challenging anthropology’s exclusive rootedness in the ontology of secularism. When considered with the increased interest in the anthropology of religion as an area of study, it is clear that there is a growing need for non-reductionist representations of Christian thought and experience in ethnography. This volume is intended as a critique of anthropology’s epistemological and ontological assumptions and a demonstration of the value added by an expanded set of parameters for the field. The book’s core argument is that while ethnographers have allowed their own perspectives to be positively influenced by the perspectives of their informants, until recently anthropology has done little in the way of adopting these other viewpoints as critical tools for analysis precisely because it has represented those viewpoints from a limited epistemological perspective. With chapters organized around topics in epistemology and ontology written by scholars of anthropology, theology and history, and an afterword by Joel Robbins, the book is essential reading for scholars of the anthropology of religion as well as other philosophically-oriented social scientists, theologians and those who are interested in gaining further insight into the human condition.

Islands, Islanders, and the Bible

Islands, Islanders, and the Bible
Author: Jione Havea
Publisher: SBL Press
Total Pages: 251
Release: 2015-08-30
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 158983948X

Explore theories, readings and interpretations from island perspectives In this collection the authors focus on contextual, cultural, and postcolonial criticisms. This work seeks to move beyond simply reacting to, rejecting, or recasting biblical interpretations that misunderstand or mischaracterize island space. Instead it serves as an entry point to thinking biblically through the island. The contributors are Margaret Aymer, Randall C. Bailey, Roland Boer, Steed Vernyl Davidson, Jione Havea, Hisako Kinukawa, Grant Macaskill, Mosese Ma'ilo, J. Richard Middleton, Althea Spencer Miller, Aliou C. Niang, Andrew Mein, Daniel Smith-Christopher, Nasili Vaka'uta, and Elaine M. Wainwright. Features: Sixteen essays by islanders rooted in Asia, America, the Caribbean, Europe, and Oceania Essays that invite a conversation on how being islanders and islandedness condition the way islanders read biblical texts Three sections of articles, two of which engage the first

Engaging Latino/a/x Theologies

Engaging Latino/a/x Theologies
Author: Sharon E. Heaney
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
Total Pages: 193
Release: 2024-02-26
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1666701106

Sharon E. Heaney describes how the life-giving interruption of Latin American poets, novelists, artists, and theologians changed her life in a conflict-ridden Northern Ireland. An outsider, in this study she provides an engagement with a stream of theology in the United States she takes to be exemplary. Latino/a/x theology is teología en conjunto (collaborative theology). It models ways to examine complicated and contested histories and identities, and it resists dominant assumptions about theological points of departure in favor of also valuing the everyday as locus theologicus. Identifying major themes and foundational thinkers, alongside more recent developments, Heaney offers an overview and invites readers to further reading, study, and formation. Modelling what it esteems, each chapter closes in conversation with a Latino/a/x leader in the church. The conclusion is written by practical theologian, Altagracia Pérez-Bullard. She affirms, this “is not just an intellectual exercise, . . . this engagement . . . is the practice of our lives as we journey with God and as we journey with one another. . . . It is an exciting journey. It changes us.”

A New Heaven and a New Earth

A New Heaven and a New Earth
Author: J. Richard Middleton
Publisher: Baker Academic
Total Pages: 336
Release: 2014-11-25
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1441241388

In recent years, more and more Christians have come to appreciate the Bible's teaching that the ultimate blessed hope for the believer is not an otherworldly heaven; instead, it is full-bodied participation in a new heaven and a new earth brought into fullness through the coming of God's kingdom. Drawing on the full sweep of the biblical narrative, J. Richard Middleton unpacks key Old Testament and New Testament texts to make a case for the new earth as the appropriate Christian hope. He suggests its ethical and ecclesial implications, exploring the difference a holistic eschatology can make for living in a broken world.