Public Theology and Political Ethics

2012 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 273-291 ◽  
Author(s):  
Heinrich Bedford-Strohm
Keyword(s):  
Liberation Theology ◽  
Political Theology ◽  
Public Theology ◽  
Political Ethics ◽  
Similar Profile ◽  
Political Processes ◽  
Two Kingdoms ◽  
Public Church ◽  
Political Realities ◽  
Two Kingdoms Doctrine

Abstract The article explains the fundamental features of the Lutheran two kingdoms doctrine and the Reformed doctrine of the Lordship of Christ and finds strong convergences of both in addressing political realities without leaving the Gospel perspective aside. Since Catholic concepts show a similar profile, an ecumenical public theology emerges. Six guidelines for a public church are presented to describe the consequences of a public theological approach to politics for the churches. Authentic faith witness is as much part of these guidelines as ‘bilinguality’, that is, the capability to talk the language of secular discourse and prophetic speech, which is put in relationship to the necessity of concrete daily political processes. Thus, in the end the article explains the profile of public theology in relation to liberation theology and political theology.

scholarly journals Reading Karl Barth in Myanmar: The Significance of His Political Theology for a Public Theology in Myanmar

2018 ◽  
Vol 12 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 416-439
Author(s):  
David Thang Moe
Keyword(s):  
Liberation Theology ◽  
Political Theology ◽  
Church And State ◽  
Karl Barth ◽  
Public Theology ◽  
Ethical Role ◽  
Two Kingdoms ◽  
The Church ◽  
Traditional Doctrine

Abstract This article pays particular attention to the three themes in Barth’s macro-political theology and their contextual significance for a micro-political theology for Myanmar. First, I explore Barth’s renewed doctrine of political Lordship in response to the traditional doctrine of two kingdoms. Second, I examine his hermeneutics of the dialectical relation between church and state and the ethical role of the church in the sociopolitical situation in the light of his theological document of the Barmen Declaration against the evil of Nazism and the errors of the church. Finally, I seek to show how Barth’s political theology and liberation theology are convergent and divergent in their synthetic goals of transforming unjust rulers and liberating the oppressed, reforming and renewing the ethnic church, and establishing an embracive and reconciled community in Myanmar.

The Points and Tasks of Public Theology

2017 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 64-87
Author(s):  
Chul Ho Youn
Keyword(s):  
Liberation Theology ◽  
Political Theology ◽  
Civil Religion ◽  
Kingdom Of God ◽  
Public Theology ◽  
Political Pluralism ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Points Of View ◽  
The One ◽  
Contemporary Context

The subject of this study is the points and tasks of public theology. First, this study makes an introduction about the definitions of public theology. Second, it clarifies that the theological ground of public theology is offered by the Kingdom of God proclaimed and practiced by Jesus Christ and the universality of divine reality. Third, it explains how public theology is distinguished from civil religion, political theology, and liberation theology. Fourth, it discusses the methodology of public theology. Fifth, it argues that the publicness of public theology is to be found between privatization and politicization. Sixth, it introduces Volf’s concepts of ‘internal difference’ and ‘religious political pluralism’ which he proposes as an alternative strategy against both secularist exclusion and totalitarian intervention. Seventh, it envisions the way toward which public theology is to be directed in the contemporary context of globalization. And finally, as a conclusion, it suggests the points and tasks of public theology in terms of four points of view, especially including the one reflecting Korean context.

scholarly journals Indexing the Theologico-Political

2019 ◽  
pp. 162-172
Author(s):  
Evan Francis Kuehn ◽  
Shawn Goodwin
Keyword(s):  
Critical Theory ◽  
Liberation Theology ◽  
Full Text ◽  
Political Theology ◽  
Research Literature ◽  
Public Theology ◽  
Journal Articles ◽  
Research Communities ◽  
Subject Headings ◽  
Political Inquiry

Political theology is an important and growing field of theological research, which has also attracted the attention of political scientists, philosophers, and social theorists. This interest has led to different and often ambiguous definitions of what political theology actually is. In addition, related subfields like liberation theology, public theology, and critical theory are often associated with political theology, making categorization challenging. It is important that theological librarians understand the changing terrain of theological-political inquiry in order to better provide access for their research communities. In this paper, we present findings about the range of current description practices for books and journal articles related to political theology. We share preliminary explorations in mining cataloged resources for subject headings related to political theology, as well as full text of titles in HathiTrust for clusters of words that can be modeled as topics. These tools can help librarians to better understand the research literature they are describing, and engage with it more actively.

Public Theology: Its Pastoral, Apologetic, Scientific, Political, and Prophetic Tasks

2018 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 153-177
Author(s):  
Ted Peters
Keyword(s):  
Public Discourse ◽  
Political Theology ◽  
Christian Theology ◽  
Public Theology ◽  
Constructive Work ◽  
The Church

Abstract This blueprint for a constructive public theology assumes that Christian theology already includes public discourse. Following David Tracy’s delineation of three publics—church, academy, culture—further constructive work leads to a public theology conceived in the church, reflected on critically in the academy, and meshed with the wider culture. Public reflection on classic Christian doctrines in a post-secular pluralistic context takes the form of pastoral illumination, apologetic reason, a theology of nature, political theology, and prophetic critique.

scholarly journals Theodicy, Undeserved Suffering, and Compassionate Solidarity: An Interdisciplinary Reading of Hwang Sok-Yong’s The Guest

Religions ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (9) ◽  
pp. 463
Author(s):  
Young Hoon Kim
Keyword(s):  
Liberation Theology ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Political Theology ◽  
The Political ◽  
Human Suffering ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Minjung Theology ◽  
Johann Baptist Metz

The author explores theological questions regarding the Korean novelist Hwang Sok-yong’s The Guest from interdisciplinary perspectives. This paper analyzes the novel in relation to the emotional complex of han as understood in Korean minjung theology, the political theology of Johann Baptist Metz, and Ignacio Ellacuría’s liberation theology. Drawing upon the perspectives of Korean, German, and Latin American scholars, this approach invites us to construct a discourse of theodicy in a fresh light, to reach a deeper level of theodical engagement with the universal problem of suffering, and to nurture the courage of hope for human beings in today’s stressed world. Contemplating the concrete depiction of human suffering in The Guest, the paper invites readers to deepen their understanding of God in terms of minjung theology’s thrust of resolving the painful feelings of han of the oppressed, Metz’s insight of suffering unto God as a sacramental encounter with God, and Ellacuría’s idea of giving witness to God’s power of the resurrection in eschatological hope. The paper concludes that the immensity of today’s human suffering asks for that compassionate solidarity with the crucified today which can generate hope in the contemporary milieu.

Martin Luther, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and Political Theologies

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael P. DeJonge
Keyword(s):  
Political Theology ◽  
Martin Luther ◽  
Social Ethics ◽  
State Power ◽  
Political Engagement ◽  
Dietrich Bonhoeffer ◽  
Lutheran Theology ◽  
Two Kingdoms

Contemporary political theology often defines itself against Lutheran social ethics, which is portrayed as politically disengaged and overly deferential to state power. At the same time, contemporary political theology often embraces the Lutheran theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer as an exemplary political theologian. This incongruity is generally resolved by distancing Bonhoeffer from his tradition, at least on matters of political theology. But Bonhoeffer’s political theology was thoroughly Lutheran. Throughout the years of his political-theological engagement, from the Nazi rise to power in 1932–1933 to the drafting of Ethics and related writing in 1940–1943, he participated in ongoing conversations within Lutheran social ethics on the issues of, among others, the two kingdoms and the orders. In the process, he critically appropriated these elements of Lutheran thinking into an especially dynamic and christocentric framework that in turn informed his positions on various issues such as the church’s proclamation against the Nazi state and the ecumenical church’s witness for peace. Bonhoeffer is an example of Lutheran political theology, one that suggests the need to revise at least the more sweeping judgments about Lutheran theology as inherently incompatible with political engagement.

‘Making Public Theology Operational’: Public Theology and the Church

2019 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 203-226
Author(s):  
Frederike van Oorschot
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
The United States ◽  
Public Theology ◽  
Ethical Behaviour ◽  
Implicit Function ◽  
Explicit Function ◽  
Public Church ◽  
The Church

AbstractThis article examines how public theologians aim to bring their theology into the practice of the church. In the first part it analyses the references to the church in the work of contemporary public theologians from the United States and Germany and suggests four different categories for the relations explored (explicit function, implicit function, public church, church as public). In the second part, it discusses three systematic aspects of these relations. First, following Kuyper, it defines the term ‘church’ more accurately. Second, it offers insights into liturgical research in order to help to sharpen the places where and means by which the implicit shaping of individual ethical behaviour in the church takes place, as exemplified in the work of Dirk Smit. Third, it discusses the task of pastors as mediators between church and theology.

scholarly journals A Politics of Tending and Transformation

2018 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 113-118 ◽  
Author(s):  
Molly Farneth
Keyword(s):  
Political Theology ◽  
Public Theology ◽  
The Church

In Awaiting the King: Reforming Public Theology, James K. A. Smith gives us a liturgical political theology. The question posed here is whether that political theology attends to how the work of tending to the goods held in common by diverse democratic publics can also surprise and transform Christians and the liturgies of the Church.

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