Toward a Pastoral Theology of Holy Saturday

Toward a Pastoral Theology of Holy Saturday
Author: Adam D. Tietje
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
Total Pages: 103
Release: 2018-11-01
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 153265779X

Veterans who experience the overwhelming trauma of war are often still stuck in the far country. In the aftermath, many feel abandoned by God. Adam D. Tietje suggests that Holy Saturday, Christ's descent into hell, is the place where God fully identifies with our God-abandonment. In light of the resurrection, it can be seen that the complete hiddenness of God on Holy Saturday is in fact the fullness of revelation. God has chosen to be revealed precisely through the cross and the grave. The author takes a Chalcedonian approach to the problem of relating a theology of Holy Saturday to the psychology of trauma. Through the use of this method, he suggests that pastoral caregivers might understand trauma and moral injury as soul wounds. Sanctuary, lament and confession, and forgiveness and reconciliation are found to provide a direction for the care of such wounds.

Toward a Pastoral Theology of Holy Saturday

Toward a Pastoral Theology of Holy Saturday
Author: Adam D. Tietje
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
Total Pages: 133
Release: 2018-11-01
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1532657773

Veterans who experience the overwhelming trauma of war are often still stuck in the far country. In the aftermath, many feel abandoned by God. Adam D. Tietje suggests that Holy Saturday, Christ’s descent into hell, is the place where God fully identifies with our God-abandonment. In light of the resurrection, it can be seen that the complete hiddenness of God on Holy Saturday is in fact the fullness of revelation. God has chosen to be revealed precisely through the cross and the grave. The author takes a Chalcedonian approach to the problem of relating a theology of Holy Saturday to the psychology of trauma. Through the use of this method, he suggests that pastoral caregivers might understand trauma and moral injury as soul wounds. Sanctuary, lament and confession, and forgiveness and reconciliation are found to provide a direction for the care of such wounds.

Lament-Driven Preaching

Lament-Driven Preaching
Author: Eliana Ah-Rum Ku
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
Total Pages: 233
Release: 2024-03-04
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1666774332

This book challenges Christian communities to engage in lament--a mode of existence characterized by impassioned expression, witnessing, and personal or social protest in the face of evil and injustice, reflecting a profound yearning for God's saving presence. Divine lament responds to, and expresses solidarity with, human suffering, unveiling multiple facets of God's image and demonstrating a profound sense of divine compassion. Drawing on the Book of Lamentations, Korean concepts related to suffering (han and hanpuri), the Paschal Triduum narratives, and recent homiletic discourses on suffering, the author investigates how complex issues related to grief and hope can be addressed in preaching without diminishing the harsh reality of affliction. Designed to assist preachers, this book encourages a more intentional approach to addressing suffering, specifically by advocating for lament as a transitional space between affliction and hope. Furthermore, readers are invited to contemplate the significance of the church, which, within a world in decline, embodies the body of Christ, manifesting both the demise and resurrection of God.

Answering Speech

Answering Speech
Author: Daniel J. Brendsel
Publisher: Crossway
Total Pages: 265
Release: 2023-06-27
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1433588978

Pursuing an Expansive Life of Prayer In wondrous contrast to silent idols, the one true God speaks. He addresses his people in love, and it's their great privilege to answer him in prayer. At its root, prayer isn't mere self-expression or a prod to get a silent God to speak, but it is a learned skill to answer God's initiating word in Christ. Through this thoughtful book, author and pastor Daniel J. Brendsel explains how responding to God can nurture prayerful engagement with Scripture, shape healthy rhythms among God's praying people, and spur excitement for communion with God. For those disappointed by their current life of prayer, Answering Speech invites readers to enter into an expansive and exuberant life of response to the Father through the Son in the power of the Holy Spirit. Offers a Unique Perspective: Explores how Christians are not initiators of prayer but responders to what God has already done Appeals to Pastors and Thoughtful Laypersons: Focuses on important issues that should be taught within the local church Theological yet Accessible: Deeply rooted in theology, this book offers encouragement and practical rhythms for prayer

Practical Theology and Majority World Epistemologies

Practical Theology and Majority World Epistemologies
Author: Alfred Brunsdon
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Total Pages: 196
Release: 2024-11-08
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1040182887

This book offers insights into the thinking of majority world practical theologians and introduces the reader to faith realities previously unknown in a quest to create a more inclusive and welcoming practical theological network. Practical theologians are situated in all corners of the globe attempting to make sense of their lived experiences and of those around them from a faith perspective. Historically, practical theology tended to be constructed from academics situated in the West and indirectly marginalized those in and from the majority world. Against this backdrop, this book is a deliberate attempt to empower practical theological voices from the further corners of the global village, based upon the conviction that sharing epistemologies creates an opportunity not only to learn about others and the contexts in which they live, but from them, enhancing the meaning making of practical theology in the present. Cognisant that epistemology as a formal discipline does not always centre lived experience, practical theology has historically prioritised the importance of wisdom, worldview, and a way of life for individual and collective knowing. The diverse issues addressed in this work offers insights into the thinking of mainly Asian and African practical theologians and introduces readers to the faith realities previously unknown to create a more inclusive and welcoming practical theological network. This book was originally published as a special issue of the journal Practical Theology.

Multireligious Reflections on Friendship

Multireligious Reflections on Friendship
Author: Anne-Marie Ellithorpe
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 251
Release: 2023-05-22
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1666917362

Multireligious Reflections on Friendship: Becoming Ourselves in Community presents a multi-religious discussion of spiritual and ethical formation through friendship. Contributors discuss the positive effects of friendship and some of the culturally diverse ways that friendships develop. Friends help us co-exist in diverse societies, live sustainably in our ecosystems, heal from trauma, develop inner virtues, engage wisely in social action, and connect with the divine. While friendship is a core human value, cultural traditions have used different tools to build friendships. For example, Indigenous communities emphasize reciprocity on the land; Jewish traditions encourage respect for study partners; Buddhist teachers suggest discernment in befriending; Christian texts speak of bringing God’s love into community. The fifteen scholars contributing to this book draw on the teachings of six different global traditions: Indigenous, Hindu, Jewish, Buddhist, Islamic, and Christian. Each scholar applies the tools of their tradition—reciprocity, respect, discernment, love, and more—to discuss how we might become our best selves in community.

Dawn of Sunday

Dawn of Sunday
Author: Joshua Cockayne
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
Total Pages: 234
Release: 2022-06-08
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1725291045

Whether we realize it or not, our churches are full of those who have experienced and are living with the aftereffects of horror and trauma, whether as survivors, carers, or perpetrators. The central question of this book is simple: How can our churches become open to the Trinity such that they are trauma-safe environments for everyone? How can we join the triune God to become trauma-safe churches? While the reality is bleak, the church can dare to hope for healing because of the reality of God and the body of Christ. Using the metaphor of the dawn of Sunday, the authors propose a double witness to trauma that straddles the boundary between the deadly silence of Holy Saturday and the joy of Easter Sunday. While witnessing loss and lament we can also be open to the possibility of new life through God’s trinitarian works of safety and recovery in the church. This involves adopting some basic principles and practices of trauma safety that every pastor, congregation, and layperson can begin using today. Creating trauma-safe churches is possible through God the Trinity.

Reconstructing Pastoral Theology

Reconstructing Pastoral Theology
Author: Andrew Purves
Publisher: Westminster John Knox Press
Total Pages: 280
Release: 2004-01-01
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9780664227333

In Pastoral Care in the Classical Tradition, Andrew Purves argued that pastoral care and theology has long ignored Scripture and Christian doctrine, and pastoral practice has become secularized in both method and goal, the fiefdom of psychology and the social sciences. He builds further on this idea here, presenting a christological basis for ministry and pastoral theology.

Unspeakable

Unspeakable
Author: Sarah Travis
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
Total Pages: 140
Release: 2021-06-09
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1725267977

Unspeakable probes the relationship between trauma theory and Christian theology in order to support preachers in the task of crafting sermons that adequately respond to trauma in the pews and the world at large. How might sermons contribute to resiliency and the repairing of wounds caused by traumatic experiences? This book seeks to provide a theological lens for preachers who wonder how their ‘beautiful words’ can address suffering amid traumatic wounding. Preaching is a healing discourse that proclaims gospel, or good news. Gospel is a complicated reality, especially in the face of trauma. Drawing on various theologies and insights from trauma theory, Unspeakable challenges the notion of a triumphant gospel, seeking an in-between perspective that honors both resurrection and the trauma that remains despite our desire to get to the good news. It builds on images of the preacher as witness and midwife in order to develop homiletical practices that acknowledge the limitations of language and imagination experienced by traumatized individuals.

T&T Clark Handbook of Suffering and the Problem of Evil

T&T Clark Handbook of Suffering and the Problem of Evil
Author: Matthias Grebe
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 753
Release: 2023-07-13
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0567682447

The T&T Clark Handbook of Suffering and the Problem of Evil provides an extensive exploration of the theology of theodicy, asking questions such as should all instances of suffering necessarily be understood as evil? Why would an omnipotent and benevolent God allow or perpetrate evil? Is God unable or unwilling to reduce human and non-human suffering on Earth? Does humanity have the capacity to exercise a moral evaluation of God's motives and intentions? Conventional disciplinary boundaries have tended to separate theological approaches to these questions from philosophical ones. This volume aims to overcome these boundaries by including biblical (Part I), historical (Part II), doctrinal (Part III), philosophical (Part IV), and pastoral, interreligious perspectives and alternative intersections (Part V) on theodicy. Authors include thinkers from analytic and continental traditions, multiple Christian denominations and other religions, and both established and younger scholars, providing a full variety of approaches. What unites the essays is an attempt to answer these questions from the perspective of biblical testimony, historical scholarship, modern theological and philosophical thinking about the concept of God, non-Christian religions, science and the arts. The result is a combination of in-depth analysis and breadth of scope, making this a benchmark work for further studies in the theology of suffering and evil.