Native American Contributions to a Christian Theology of Space

2016 ◽  
Vol 22 (3) ◽  
pp. 234-246
Author(s):  
Josiah Baker
Keyword(s):  
Native American ◽  
Liberation Theology ◽  
Kingdom Of God ◽  
Christian Theology ◽  
Christian Faith ◽  
Surrounding Environment ◽  
Theology Of Space

Native Christian theologians frequently contribute to a theology of space through their writings on other theological subjects. Native American traditionalism is structured spatially; mythology, rituals and ethics are entirely focused on the tribe's surroundings and the individual's responsibility in living within his or her own place. Thus, Native Christians continue this thought by expressing and exploring the Christian faith through spatial constructs. In discussing the Kingdom of God, they speak of the implications of where the Kingdom resides rather than focusing on when it will be consummated. Additionally, they write on the Christian's responsibility in preserving harmony throughout creation and debate about how this spatial harmony is achieved. In liberation theology, they claim societies can only be liberated by re-establishing their relationship to their surrounding environment; in this way, creation is the basis for liberation. They also discuss the locational implications of eschatology, analysing what it means for every place within the cosmos to be renewed and how Christians should then live within these same places presently. Finally, a brief survey of other issues within theologies of space is presented, and consideration is given to the potential contributions Native Christian theologians could make to these issues as well.

Reframing the Orphan Mandate

2020 ◽  
Vol 47 (3) ◽  
pp. 33-49
Author(s):  
Bonni Goodwin ◽  
Angela Pharris ◽  
Dallas Pettigrew
Keyword(s):  
Child Welfare ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Indigenous People ◽  
Liberation Theology ◽  
Colonial America ◽  
Christian Faith ◽  
Indian Child Welfare Act ◽  
Faith Tradition ◽  
Time Period ◽  
Indigenous Children

Caring for the orphan is a biblical mandate for those who follow the Christian faith tradition. Yet, far too often, this charge has led to coercion and exploitation of marginalized populations. This manuscript will examine this phenomenon through the adoption of Indigenous people starting in colonial America, when Christian missionaries from Europe believed it was their spiritual obligation to “save” young Indigenous children from their “heathen” culture. This belief still shapes many adoption practices today. The Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) is presented as a step towards legal reparations for the harm done to Indigenous people during this time period. The idea of reparations is discussed as a vital step towards another Christian biblical mandate calling for active repair of broken relationships. Ultimately, this manuscript concludes with an application of the model of praxis from liberation theology to reframe how Christian social workers may approach caring for the orphan.

Including Multiculturalism, Social Justice, and Peace within the Integration of Psychology and Theology: Barriers and a Call to Action

2020 ◽  
pp. 009164712097498
Author(s):  
John M. McConnell ◽  
Vincent Bacote ◽  
Edward B. Davis ◽  
Eric M. Brown ◽  
Christin J. Fort ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
Present Article ◽  
Clinical Work ◽  
Christian Theology ◽  
Christian Faith ◽  
Trinitarian Theology ◽  
Call To Action ◽  
Research Education ◽  
Education Training

Multiculturalism, social justice, and peace are important aspects of the Christian faith. However, scholars in the literature seeking to integrate psychology and Christian theology have underrepresented them. In this present article, we review barriers to including them in our psychology–theology integration literature. Thereafter, we provide a trinitarian theology of multiculturalism, social justice, and peace with a hope that theological knowledge will help Christian psychologists begin to overcome barriers and to move this body of literature forward. We also offer implications for scholarship/research, education/training, and clinical work.

scholarly journals Paradoks Salib: Keindahan Wajah Kemuliaan Allah

MELINTAS ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
pp. 77-94
Author(s):  
Joko Umbara
Keyword(s):  
Jesus Christ ◽  
Tree Of Life ◽  
Christian Theology ◽  
Christian Faith ◽  
Human Being ◽  
Divine Love ◽  
God's Love ◽  
Cross Of Christ ◽  
The Cross ◽  
Tragic Drama

An experience of the cross of Jesus Christ in Christian theology brings the sense of paradox. Christ’s death on the cross reflects the fate of humanity within the context of Christian faith. The cross is also seen as a mystery that tells the tragic story of humans who accept their punishment. However, the cross of Jesus Christ also reveals meanings that challenge Christians to find answers in their contemplation of the cross. The cross becomes a stage for human tragic drama, which might also reveal the beauty of death and life. It is the phatos of humanity, for every human being will die, but it is also seen as the tree of life hoped for by every faithful. On the cross is visible God’s self-giving through the love shown by the crucified Christ. God speaks God’s love not only through words, that is, in the teachings of Jesus Christ, but also through Christ’s loving gesture on the cross. The cross of Christ is the culmination of God’s glory and through it, God’s glory is shown in the beauty of divine love.

scholarly journals A FÉ CRISTÃ NA CONTEMPORANEIDADE: RUMOS E DESAFIOS

2010 ◽  
Vol 41 (115) ◽  
pp. 345
Author(s):  
Maria Clara Lucchetti Bingemer
Keyword(s):  
Christian Theology ◽  
Christian Faith ◽  
Human Being ◽  
Belief In God ◽  
Religious System ◽  
The World ◽  
Important Trend ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Constituent Elements

Diante do panorama extremamente complexo do campo religioso hoje o documento de Aparecida declara estar o ser humano do século XXI em meio a uma “mudança de época”. Ao lado do processo de secularização, que leva o ser humano a não temer declarar sua ausência de crença em Deus e sua não pertença a qualquer sistema religioso, está igualmente o revival” religioso anárquico e selvagem que fez eclodir seitas e novas propostas “espirituais” dos mais variados perfis, questionando em profundidade a decantada supremacia do monoteísmo cristão no Ocidente. A proposta neste artigo é, depois de uma breve análise da situação da religião no mundo e especialmente no Brasil hoje, refletir sobre a diferença entre fé e religião e como esta reflexão, tomada em sua radicalidade, leva a uma compreensão renovada do que seja a fé cristã e sua identidade no mundo atual. Para chegar a isto, são analisados três elementos constitutivos da fé cristã: a historicidade, a experiência e o testemunho, no desejo de traçar um perfil aproximado de uma tendência importante na teologia cristã hoje, que prefere definir o Cristianismo mais como uma revelação do que como uma religião.ABSTRACT: Before the extremely complex panorama of the religious field today the document of Aparecida declares the human being of the XXI century to be in the mist of an “epoch change”. On the side of the secularização process, that leads the human being not to fear in declaring his lack of belief in God and his not belonging to any religious system, there is also the religious anarchical and wild “revival” that brought out sects and new “spiritual” proposals of the most varied profiles, questioning in depth the decanted supremacy of Christian monotheism in the Occident. The proposal of this article is, after a brief analysis of the situation of religion in the world and especially in Brazil today, to reflect on the difference between faith and religion and how this reflection, taken in its radicality, leads to a renewed understanding of what Christian faith is and its identity in the current world. To arrive at this, three constituent elements of the Christian faith are analyzed: the historicity, the experience and the witness, in the desire to trace a profile that approaches an important trend in the Christian theology, which prefers to define Christianity more as a revelation than as a religion.

scholarly journals Political Theology as Theodicy: The Holy Spirit’s Performance in the Economy of Redemption

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 201-219
Author(s):  
Martin Grassi
Keyword(s):  
Holy Spirit ◽  
Political Theology ◽  
Kingdom Of God ◽  
Christian Theology ◽  
The Political ◽  
Inner Life ◽  
Political Dimension ◽  
Political Performance ◽  
The Holy Spirit ◽  
The Relationship

Although Political Theology examined mainly the political dimension of the relationship between God-Father and God-Son, it is paramount to consider the political performance of the Holy Spirit in the Economy of Redemption. The Holy Spirit has been characterized as the binding cause and the principle of relationality both referring to God’s inner life and to God’s relationship with His creatures. As the personalization of relationality, the Holy Spirit performs a unique task: to bring together what is apart by means of organisation. This power of the Spirit to turn a plurality into a unity is manifested in the Latin translation of oikonomía as disposition, that is, giving a special order to the multiple elements within a certain totality. Within this activity of the Spirit, Theodicy can be regarded as the way to depict God’s arrangement of the world and of history, bringing everything together towards the eschatological Kingdom of God. The paper aims at showing this fundamental activity of the Holy Spirit in Christian Theology, and intends to pose the question on how to think on a theology beyond theodicy, that is, how to think on a Trinitarian God beyond the categories of sovereignty and totalization.

More Than a Feeling: A Queer Notion of Survivance

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laurel C. Schneider
Keyword(s):  
Native American ◽  
Christian Theology ◽  
Christian Thought

This essay explores, in part, queer theory's queerness in relation to the religious (Christian) and ethnic (European) frame that largely produced it. Although affect and temporality theories offer important possibilities—finally—for queering Christian theology, I suggest that even these may not escape the ossifying tendencies of conceptual closure so dominant in the trajectories of European and Christian thought. Gerald Vizenor's (Anishinaabe) theory of survivance, developed out of a Native American "postindian" philosophical context, opposes settler colonial closures of "the Indian" and may help illuminate and break through queer theory's (and theology's) entrapping reliance on ethnic European concepts to work through persistent problems of identity, eschatology, and ontology.

The Anarchic Principle of Christian Eschatology in the Eucharistic Tradition of the Eastern Church

2007 ◽  
Vol 100 (1) ◽  
pp. 29-46 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Panteleimon Manoussakis
Keyword(s):  
20Th Century ◽  
Liberation Theology ◽  
Systematic Theology ◽  
Christian Faith ◽  
End Of History ◽  
Theological Discourse ◽  
The End Of History ◽  
To Come ◽  
Theological Understanding ◽  
New Generation

Theology in the 20th century witnessed a shift in emphasis: The talk about the last things did not have to come last any more as the traditional handbooks of systematic theology would have it; eschatology was no longer one branch of theology among others but lay at the center of our understanding of the Christian faith. My purpose in this essay is to go a step further than this rearrangement in theological discourse and examine a reversal within the theological understanding of eschatology itself. In the wake of the work of the Metropolitan of Pergamon John (Zizioulas), a different understanding of eschatology has emerged, one that recognizes in the Parousia not only the event that stands at the end of history (the apocalyptic closure of time with which certain Christian groups have always had a fascination), but also as that event that, grounded in the Eucharist, flows continuously from the and permeates every moment in history. In the following discussion I wish to trace and spell out the implications of such a novel understanding of eschatology for our theologies today. As my guides in this exploration, I take the theology of John Zizioulas and certain insights that recent research in phenomenology has placed at theology's service. This association might seem strange to the reader: What does the theology of things-to-come have in common with the philosophy of things-themselves? I would like to propose that phenomenology, especially as it has been recently formulated by a new generation of phenomenologists, such as Jean-Luc Marion, Jean-Yves Lacoste, and Richard Kearney, can be a very helpful instrument in the hands of eucharistic eschatology in its effort to rescue eschatology from the twin risks of either immanentizing it or relegating it to an end-of-times utopia. Furthermore, the structure of an “inverted intentionality,” as exemplified by certain liturgical forms such as hymnology and iconography, will be suggested as the precise point of phenomenology's convergence with eucharistic eschatology. I write with the conviction that eschatology is in essence a “liberation” theology (freeing us from the moralistic and sociological constellations of this world) and that, as my concluding remarks illustrate, it has real, practical, day-to-day consequences for the ways we conduct our lives and our relationships with others.

scholarly journals Towards the possible integration of Psychology and Christian faith: Faculties of human personality and the Lordship of Christ

2016 ◽  
Vol 50 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Aleksandar S. Santrac
Keyword(s):  
Imago Dei ◽  
Christian Theology ◽  
Christian Faith ◽  
Human Personality

In recent debates every attempt to integrate Psychology and Christian Theology has met with almost complete distrust. This article suggests a possible mode of integration on the basis of the interconnectedness between the faculties of human personality and the idea of the Lordship of Christ. The compartmentalisation of human personality should be resisted, because every human faculty functions holistically. In the biblical revelation each of these faculties is subject to the Lordship of Christ in order to function properly as part of the holistic picture of the imago Dei.

scholarly journals A call for the restoration of orthodoxy in South African Christian theology

1991 ◽  
Vol 47 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
B. Engelbrecht
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
Liberation Theology ◽  
Jesus Christ ◽  
Christian Theology ◽  
The Road ◽  
Bona Fide ◽  
Orthodox Theology ◽  
Polar Opposite ◽  
The Demonic

Liberation theology can only be understood as a pseudo-theology inspired by the spirit of Marx. It is not a bona fide or leg itimate theology, but the polar opposite thereof. Its destructive aims mirror those of Marxism, which can only be understood if the demonic spirit of Marx is seen as its real origin. The Kairos Document and the Road to Damascus replaced the biblical God with the anti-god of Marx, the deified proletariat and the deified revolution. The article calls for a reconversion to God who revealed himself in Jesus Christ of Scriptures. Orthodox theology is truly ‘thisworldly’ theology, since it offers real hope and salvation. The Marxist gospel can only offer a utopia, a ‘no-place’. It is self-alienating, world-aUenating and God-alienating.

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