scholarly journals ‘Glocal’ and integrated churches within a practical theological imagination of ‘home away from home’: towards a ministry of migrants and refugees in diaspora

2017 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Vhumani Magezi

Migration has become a major global challenge in recent years. Host countries’ responses to migrants are varied – some accommodate and integrate migrants, others are apathetic, and migrants face exclusion and violent rejection. This suggests that host countries have developed mechanisms to cope with the challenges posed by migrants. Migrants have also developed systems to mitigate the impact of the challenges they encounter, such as the establishment of churches in their host countries. These churches may be referred to as ‘glocal churches’. In view of this, this article considers a practical theological imagination of ‘home away from home’ as a migrant-theological and ministry-informing approach and draws on the theological notion that all humans are foreigners (or migrants – homo viator) in whichever life spaces they exist. This study argues that this approach provides a crucial nexus and challenge for church ministry integration in contexts of migration and challenges countries to be hospitable based on Imago Dei (theology) and human dignity (human rights) principles. It is argued that maintained Imago Dei and human dignity provide a critical link between churches and a nation. Furthermore, the notions of ‘inclusiveness’ for host people and ‘home away from final eschatological home’ for migrants provide a practical theological imagination that challenge a host country’s citizens to positively consider migrants and migrants to avoid self-exclusion practices and establish integrated churches and communities.

2014 ◽  
Vol 35 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel J. Louw

The theological discourse mostly focuses on the moral and ethical framework for human rights and human dignity. In order to give theological justification to the value and dignity of human beings, most theologians point to the imago Dei as theological starting point for the design of an anthropology on human dignity. Within the paradigmatic framework of democracy, human dignity and human rights have become interchangeable concepts. This article aimed to focus not on ethics but on aesthetics: man as homo aestheticus, as well as the praxis question regarding the quality of human dignity within the network of human relationships. It was argued that human dignity is more fundamental than human rights. Dignity as an anthropological construct should not reside in the first place in the imago Dei and its relationship to Christology and incarnation theology. Human dignity, human rights and human identity are embedded in the basic human quest for meaning (teleology). As such, human dignity should, in a practical theological approach to anthropology, be dealt with from the aesthetic perspective of charisma, thus the option for inhabitational theology. As an anthropological category, human dignity should be viewed from the perspective of pneumatology within the networking framework of a �spiritual humanism�. In this regard, the theology of the Dutch theologian A.A. van Ruler, and especially his seminal 1968 work Ik geloof, should be revisited by a pneumatic anthropology within the parameters of practical theology.


2020 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 13-36
Author(s):  
Wojciech Szczerba

This article aims to examine how the concept of Imago Dei can serve as a symbol for the broadly understood idea of religious inclusion and human dignity. The article explores the concept of Imago Dei primarily from a protological perspective, analyzing its usage in biblical writings, theological tradition and modern philosophy. The substantial, relational and functional—which three usages of the concept can be found in the inclusive theology of Gregory of Nyssa—are analyzed in this article. Arguably, in the context of religious inclusion, the relational angle of Imago Dei seems to be the most important. Similarly contemporary Protestant theologian, Jürgen Moltmann states in his book, God in the Creation, that the “relational” concept of Imago Dei underscores the fundamental dignity of every person. In his book, God for Secular Society, Moltmann states that properly understood human rights should include democratic relationships between people, cooperation between societies, concern for the environment in which people live, and responsibility for future generations. From these perspectives, the concept of Imago Dei can be utilized as a symbol indicating the dignity of every person and human community, but also a symbol against any types of racism, nationalism or xenophobia.


2021 ◽  
Vol 30 (5) ◽  
pp. 118-137
Author(s):  
Tatiana Vasilieva ◽  

This article explores the evolution of the Supreme Court of Canada’s approach to the application of the concept of human dignity in constitutional equality cases. Traditionally, in human rights cases, this concept serves only to strengthen the argument, to show that the violation affects the person’s intrinsic worth. It is only in Canada and in South Africa that there is experience in applying the concept as a criterion for identifying discrimination. In 1999, in Law v. Canada, the Supreme Court recognized the purpose of Article 15(1) of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms of 1982 to be the protection of human dignity and stated that discrimination must be established based on assessment of the impact of a program or law on human dignity. However, in 2008, in R. v. Kapp, the Court noted that the application of the concept of human dignity creates difficulties and places an additional burden of prove on the plaintiff. It is no coincidence that victims of discrimination have preferred to seek protection before human rights tribunals and commissions, where the dignity-based test is not used. Subsequently, the Supreme Court of Canada rejected the use of the concept of human dignity as a criterion for identifying discrimination. The unsuccessful experience of applying the concept of human dignity as legal test has demonstrated that not every theoretically correct legal construction is effective in adjudication.


2020 ◽  
pp. 000765032092897
Author(s):  
Krishna Chaitanya Vadlamannati ◽  
Nicole Janz ◽  
Indra de Soysa

The consequences of foreign direct investment (FDI) for human rights protection are poorly understood. We propose that the impact of FDI varies across industries. In particular, extractive firms in the oil and mining industries go where the resources are located and are bound to such investment, which creates a status quo bias among them when it comes to supporting repressive rulers (“ location-bound effect”). The same is not true for nonextractive multinational corporations (MNCs) in manufacturing or services, which can, in comparison, exit problematic countries more easily. We also propose that strong democratic institutions can alleviate negative impacts of extractive FDI on human rights (“ democratic safeguard effect”). Using U.S. FDI broken up into extractive and nonextractive industries in 157 host countries (1999–2015), we find support for these propositions.1 Extractive FDI is associated with more human rights abuse, but nonextractive FDI is associated with less abuse, after controlling for other factors, including concerns about endogeneity. We find also that the negative human rights impact of extractive FDI vanishes in countries where democratic institutions are stronger. Our results are robust to a range of alternative estimation techniques.


2016 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Qingxiu Bu

AbstractSovereign wealth funds (SWFs) have been rapidly redefining the traditional paradigms, providing both much-needed capitals as well as posing particular challenges for policy makers. The role of SWFs, which are becoming increasingly involved in the global financial markets, has often been underestimated in the discourse of the protection of human rights. The tâtonnement processes of bargaining between home and host countries of SWFs indicate that the concern regarding human rights has maintained a sensible balance between protecting the rights of individuals and the benefits that large capital investments offer for both host and home countries. The challenge still remains as to whether the presumption that the promotion of SWFs investment is going to retard the promotion of human rights would not be rebutted even in terms of the new global regulatory framework.


2017 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Reginald Alva

The Catholic Church maintains that the Imago Dei is the ground for human dignity. The secular world, too, endorses human dignity as the foundation for human rights without referring to Imago Dei. The Catholic Church and the secular world both agree on the importance of human dignity, even though they differ on their views about the source of human dignity. In this paper, we shall examine if human dignity can be the basis of a fruitful dialogue between the Catholic Church and the secular world in order to make our world a better place to live. The primary resources for our study are the Church documents on human dignity, and the opinions of distinguished thinkers on the need to promote a culture of dialogue between religions and secular world.


2009 ◽  
Vol 43 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
J. M. Vorster

This article examines the possible role of a Christian deonto- logical ethics in the contemporary human rights debate. It concludes that a Christian deontological ethics in the Reformed tradition can be positively engaged in the human rights debate when Biblical theological topics are transposed into moral directives applicable to the current human rights concerns, such as religious extremism, femicide, ideologies of intolerance and ecocide. As an example of the applicability of a Christian deon- tological ethics from a reformed perspective, the following Bibli- cal topics are investigated: human dignity on the basis of the “imago dei”, creation and creational integrity, the kingdom of God and forgiveness. Furthermore, the article proposes that other concepts can be added to this list such as the Biblical idea of life, eschatology, covenant and holiness.


2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 115-141
Author(s):  
Aay Siti Raohatul Hayat

Given the increasingly high percentage of child marriages/early marriages in Indonesia and the impact on humanitarian life which is none other than the younger generation of Indonesia's largest assets, therefore there is a need for regulations that regulate this, so that Law 1616 is enacted and has been ratified since October 14, 2019. This is in accordance with how Islam nourishes the soul (Hifz al-Nafs) and respects human dignity. The main problem in this discussion is how the formula of Soul Care (Hifz al-Nafs) in Law Number 16 Year 2019 as the implementation of Maqāṣid Al-Sharī'ah. With the change in the age limit of minimum marriage, the bride and groom are expected to have matured their body and soul to be able to carry out the marriage, so as to realize the purpose of marriage properly without ending in divorce and get healthy and quality offspring. It also can fulfill the rights of children so as to optimize children's growth and development including parental assistance and provide children access to the highest education possible. From the above explanation it can be concluded that the Care of the Soul (Hifz al-Nafs) of Law Number 16 Year 2019 is appropriate in the perspective of Islamic law (Maqāid Al-Sharī'ah), in which guarantees human rights, maintenance soul, and efforts to realize a sakinah family.


Author(s):  
Sigrid Müller

Abstract This paper investigates the extent to which Christian tradition can be used to support human dignity and human rights in contemporary society. It explores the Christian tradition for ideas that correspond to the four main dimensions of human dignity: anthropological, moral, legal, and practical. It examines how these dimensions relate to the two main Christian perspectives that define human dignity, namely the imago Dei paradigm and dignity of the human soul or person. Concluding observations demonstrate that the corresponding Christian ideas offer a solid foundation for developing a strong Christian narrative and engagement in support of human dignity and human rights. However, an analysis of the two dominating concepts also indicates that a reception that excludes the universal aspect of the imago Dei paradigm can endanger a full acceptance of human dignity and human rights. Therefore, it is necessary to continue existing ecumenical efforts to create a complementary reading of the two traditions.


2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 113-119
Author(s):  
Harisman Harisman

Legal protection is one form of human rights that must be obtained by everyone, especially with regard to the application of criminal law that can have the impact of violations and restrictions on the freedom of others as a form of human rights. It is not uncommon for people's rights to be questioned or even contested when dealing with criminal law. To answer this problem, a study was conducted using the legal research method through a normative jurudical approach which was intended to collect secondary data obtained from the literature in the form of primary legal materials, secondary legal materials and tertiary legal materials. The materials collected were analyzed qualitatively descriptive. Based on the analysis conducted, it is clearly seen that people's rights in criminal law are part of human rights that must get respect and protection in order to maintain human dignity through efforts that include: equality before the law, presumption of innocent, non-retroactive and legal assistance, and not tortured, punishment or cruel, inhumane treatment, degrading human dignity and dignity, and not treated arbitrarily.


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