scholarly journals Standing in the Breach: Conflict Transformation and the Practice of Preaching

Homiletic ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 45 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Aimee C. Moiso

In an era of social and political polarization, the question of how to preach amid divided communities looms large. The field of conflict transformation, which emerged as a corrective to earlier conflict resolution and management models, offers new insight into how conflict might serve as a constructive catalyst for change. Conflict transformation provides perspectives and orientations to conflict that are useful to homiletics—but which also challenge assumptions about conflict that are present in the church and in the larger society. This essay introduces secular and Christian approaches to conflict transformation and analyzes some of their implications for preaching, including the claims that conflict is not sinful and could be a way in which God is acting in the world, that conflict transformation requires broad participation and not top-down solutions, and that restoration of right relationships can be more important to conflict transformation than coming to agreement.

2021 ◽  
Vol 38 (1) ◽  
pp. 119-141
Author(s):  
Helene Fisher ◽  
Elizabeth Lane Miller ◽  
Christof Sauer

Abstract Emerging understanding of gender-specific religious persecution in some of the world’s most difficult countries for Christians offers timely insight into complex dynamics in which the church and missions have too often been unwittingly complicit due to limited visibility of the components contributing to these wounds. Fresh research into these deeply wounding global phenomena stands as both a warning and a pointer towards an avenue for effective ministrations by churches and Christian ministries that are working in the most severely affected areas of the world. Drawing on the latest trends identified by World Watch Research, outcomes of the Consultation for Christian Women under Pressure for their Faith, a contemporary case study from Central African Republic, and a biblical narrative, we will explore practical opportunities for a holistic approach to bring preparedness, healing, and restoration for communities under severe pressure for their Christian faith.


2018 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 310-336
Author(s):  
Shirin Sheikh-Farshi ◽  
Mahmoud Reza Ghorban-Sabbagh ◽  
Shahla Sharifi

Abstract Apart from the stylistic and cognitive studies which have already been done separately on Miller’s The Crucible, this paper provides a new insight into the play and its system of characterization by integrating these approaches. To this end, the paper draws on Jonathan Culpeper’s cognitive stylistic theory of top-down and bottom-up processes in literary text comprehension and characterization. Based on this holistic framework, the paper takes advantage of such stylistic tools as speech acts, the Cooperative Principle and politeness theory to examine features of the language used by the characters Proctor and Danforth. In this regard, the article assimilates those linguistic elements with the embedded schemata within the play. Consequently, the study reveals that Proctor’s complex characterization does not coincide with the readers’ schema and thus they form their impression of his character based on piecemeal integration. On the other hand, Danforth’s character reinforces the readers’ schema about a representative of the church discourse and thus they comprehend his character on the basis of confirmatory categorization. The paper concludes that while Proctor and Danforth have a passive existence in the text or in people’s minds, it is only in the interaction between their language and the readers’ minds that they come into existence.


Author(s):  
Jeremy Lim ◽  
Ke Hui Chuah

Christianity is counted as one of the biggest religious groups in the world, numbering at over 2 billion individuals who identify themselves with this religion. As of the 2010 census, the Department of Statistics Malaysia Official Portal reported that an estimated 9.2% of the population in Malaysia identified themselves as Christians. In numerical terms, this equates to approximately 3 million individuals spread out all over the Malaysian peninsular as well as Sabah and Sarawak who consider themselves part of the Christian church. This chapter intends to do four things: 1) provide a brief history of the church and Christianity, 2) acquaint the reader with basic Christian beliefs, 3) provide insight into the methods and challenges of working with the population in Malaysia drawing from both local as well as international literature, and 4) provide the implications of the methods and challenges of working with the Christian population.


Author(s):  
Jeremy Lim ◽  
Ke Hui Chuah

Christianity is counted as one of the biggest religious groups in the world, numbering at over 2 billion individuals who identify themselves with this religion. As of the 2010 census, the Department of Statistics Malaysia Official Portal reported that an estimated 9.2% of the population in Malaysia identified themselves as Christians. In numerical terms, this equates to approximately 3 million individuals spread out all over the Malaysian peninsular as well as Sabah and Sarawak who consider themselves part of the Christian church. This chapter intends to do four things: 1) provide a brief history of the church and Christianity, 2) acquaint the reader with basic Christian beliefs, 3) provide insight into the methods and challenges of working with the population in Malaysia drawing from both local as well as international literature, and 4) provide the implications of the methods and challenges of working with the Christian population.


1949 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 225-231
Author(s):  
J. L. M. Haire

Many Of Us Rejoice That Almost All The Churches Of The world have been able to unite and form a World Council of Churches. Many others—and also many of those who rejoice—are a little puzzled. To-day Baptists and Quakers and Salvation Army leaders unite in worship and discussion with old Catholics and Eastern Orthodox. A century ago they tended to look at one another as dangerous heretics or even as allies of anti-Christ. We find ourselves asking: Are we to rejoice because the ancient animosities have been laid aside or are we to hesitate in the fear that all this has happened through lack of insight into the great differences which divide us? Has the Holy Spirit so changed men's hearts that they can unite or has the spirit of the world so invaded the Church that she can no longer distinguish between light and darkness?


1908 ◽  
Vol 1 (4) ◽  
pp. 455-476
Author(s):  
Daniel Evans

Theology was once the great intellectual interest of thoughtful men. It explained their religious experience, justified their faith, and gave them intellectual satisfaction. It earned and deserved the title of “the queen of the sciences.” It has now fallen upon evil days. It is depreciated and neglected. Its foes are many; and its friends, even in the Church, are not numerous. The explanation for this situation of theology may be found in the immediate practical interests of life, the new thought-world in which men now live, and also in the inadequacy of the theology once current to meet the intellectual and moral demands of modern men.Explanation, however, is not justification. There is the same reason for theology today as yesterday. The facts of religious experience remain essentially the same, and they still demand interpretation. The faith of the soul must be maintained in a world which challenges its right to be, and against hostile systems of thought. The interpretation and vindication of religion are more needed today than ever before. The incompetence of old theologies is no reason for doing without theology. If we are true to the demands of religion, we shall be constrained to provide some theology. The new attempts at securing an adequate theology must, however, be thorough and courageous. The great need now is the discovery of some principle by which we can interpret the facts of religious experience and arrive at a reasoned insight into the meaning of man, the world, and God. It is the conviction of the writer that the religious thinker has given him in Christ this interpretative principle, and that his great tasks can be achieved by the use of this principle.


Author(s):  
W. L. Steffens ◽  
Nancy B. Roberts ◽  
J. M. Bowen

The canine heartworm is a common and serious nematode parasite of domestic dogs in many parts of the world. Although nematode neuroanatomy is fairly well documented, the emphasis has been on sensory anatomy and primarily in free-living soil species and ascarids. Lee and Miller reported on the muscular anatomy in the heartworm, but provided little insight into the peripheral nervous system or myoneural relationships. The classical fine-structural description of nematode muscle innervation is Rosenbluth's earlier work in Ascaris. Since the pharmacological effects of some nematacides currently being developed are neuromuscular in nature, a better understanding of heartworm myoneural anatomy, particularly in reference to the synaptic region is warranted.


2019 ◽  
Vol 58 (2) ◽  
pp. 249-259
Author(s):  
Joseph Acquisto

This essay examines a polemic between two Baudelaire critics of the 1930s, Jean Cassou and Benjamin Fondane, which centered on the relationship of poetry to progressive politics and metaphysics. I argue that a return to Baudelaire's poetry can yield insight into what seems like an impasse in Cassou and Fondane. Baudelaire provides the possibility of realigning metaphysics and politics so that poetry has the potential to become the space in which we can begin to think the two of them together, as opposed to seeing them in unresolvable tension. Or rather, the tension that Baudelaire animates between the two allows us a new way of thinking about the role of esthetics in moments of political crisis. We can in some ways see Baudelaire as responding, avant la lettre, to two of his early twentieth-century readers who correctly perceived his work as the space that breathes a new urgency into the questions of how modern poetry relates to the world from which it springs and in which it intervenes.


2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (03) ◽  
pp. 20628-20638
Author(s):  
Anik Yuesti ◽  
I Made Dwi Adnyana

One of the things that are often highlighted in the world of spirituality is a matter of sexual scandal. But lately, the focus of the spiritual world is financial transparency and accountability. Financial scandals began to arise in the Church, as was the case in the Protestant Christian Church of Bukti Doa Nusa Dua Congregation in Bali. The scandal involved clergy and even some church leaders. This study aims to describe how the conflict occurred because of financial scandals in the Church. The method used in this study is the Ontic dialectic. Based on this research, the conflict in the Bukit Doa Church is a conflict caused by an internal financial scandal. The scandal resulted in fairly widespread conflict in the various lines of the organization. It led to the issuance of the Dismissal Decrees of the church pastor and also one of the members of Financial Supervisory Council. This conflict has also resulted in the leadership of the church had violated human rights. Source of conflict is not resolved in a fair, but more concerned with political interests and groups. Thus, the source of the problem is still attached to its original place.


2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 149-163
Author(s):  
Jeffrey S. Kirch

Both Pope Francis and Robert Schreiter recognize that the world has been profoundly affected by conflict, globalization, and the breakdown of relationships on multiple levels. They also assert that the Church must address these situations. The ecclesiologies of both Schreiter and Francis offer effective tools for this work. This article will examine several key, shared concepts within their ecclesiologies. Specifically, their understandings of the missionary nature of the Church and their robust understanding of catholicity prove to be key concepts in the Church's response to a world marred by sin.


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