scholarly journals The immanence and transcendence of God in Adamic incarnational Christology: An African ethical reflection for the public

2016 ◽  
Vol 37 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Vhumani Magezi ◽  
Christopher Magezi

This article argues that the transcendence and immanence of God amplified in Christ should influence African believers� private and public ethics. It accomplishes this by engaging transcendence and immanence of God in the traditional African worldview. The African traditional worldview in many respects believes the transcendent God whose immanence is mediated by lesser spiritual intermediary powers. In responding to this view of God�s transcendence and immanence, we discuss the amplified transcendence and immanence of God in the Adamic incarnational Christological model. This model argues that in the incarnation, God�s transcendence and immanence is amplified by his assumption of our human mode of existence as the New Adam for our redemption. That is, even though God has always been transcendent and present within his creation before the incarnation, his immanence within humanity is amplified by God becoming man in and through Jesus Christ as the New Adam. The ascension of Jesus Christ does not diminish God�s presence within Christians. God continues to have his personal presence within believers through the dynamic presence of the Holy Spirit among them. The transcendence and immanence of God (amplified in Christ) therefore is brought to bear in the private and public ethics of Christians. In contrast to the limited immanence of human beings, God�s immanence is infinite. That is, there is nothing human beings can do which is outside of God�s reach and knowledge. It is from this perspective that African Christians are encouraged to live lives conscious of the infinite-immanent God, who sees both their private and public lives. The private and public life of believers should resemble God�s character and behaviour demonstrated by Jesus Christ, God incarnate, in his earthly ministry. Thus, the transcendence and immanence of God amplified in Christ influences African believers to live as the true ambassadors of Christ who exhibit exemplary ethical behaviour within the public sphere. The article reflects on the role of theological ethics in informing public ethics. As such it is theologically intradisciplinary but focusing on intertheological disciplines and their relationship to public space regarding ethics. It seeks to engage and influence public ethical behaviour in a context corruption and disregard of other human beings� entitlements.Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: The article challenges the privatisation of Christianity to take a public role in order to influence the public. This approach contributes to shifting African Christians from being passive in the context of unethical behaviours to being active agents who influence the public. As such, it contributes to public, practical theology and public ethics.

Author(s):  
Sarah Stewart-Kroeker

Christ’s healing of humanity consists, crucially, in forming human beings for loving relationship with himself and others. In this respect, Christ also takes the role of the beautiful beloved. Believers become pilgrims by falling in love with the beautiful Christ by the initiative of the Holy Spirit, who cleanses their eyes to see him as beautiful and enkindles desire in their hearts. By desiring and loving the beautiful Christ, the believer is conformed to him and learns to walk his path. Desiring the beautiful Christ forms a believing community shaped aesthetically and morally for a particular way of life: pilgrimage to the heavenly homeland. Formation is both earthly and eschatological, for so too is the journey and the activity of the pilgrim.


BIOEDUKASI ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 75
Author(s):  
Oktofa Setia Pamungkas ◽  
Henny Ayu Nirwala ◽  
Dina Mala Pardede

Nearly 90% of people spend their time in both private and public indoor spaces. Bank is one of the public indoor spaces accessible to the community, as well as a place for some workers spending time every day. This study was conducted in 6 banking sectors in Samarinda, East Kalimantan, focusing on the existence of microorganisms such as bacteria and fungi/mold. The purpose was to investigate the number of microorganisms, both bacteria and fungi, contained in indoor areas of several bank offices in Samarinda. The results showed that the number of bacteria and fungi at several sampling points in 6 offices were above the standard of Permenaker RI No. 5 the year of 2018 and Permenkes RI No. 48 the year of 2016, i.e.,>700 cfu/m3 for bacteria and >1000 cfu/m3 for fungi.


Author(s):  
Miikka Ruokanen

Luther’s method of theology is that of Scriptural interpretation. Erasmus complains that Scripture is obscure, an authoritative tradition is needed to interpret it. Luther confirms both the external and internal clarity of Scripture itself: “External clarity” is guaranteed by the public proclamation of God’s word; the natural meaning of the “text published to the entire world” is found in the very letter of Scripture. “Internal clarity” guarantees that the same Holy Spirit who inspired the canonical authors “internally moves” the hearer of the word granting him/her participation in Christological grace. The Spirit-inspired word is an efficient carrier of Trinitarian grace that changes its hearers. In contrast to the skeptical view of Erasmus, Luther uses the assertive propositions of Scripture as a means of assuring theocentric salvation. Because of its double clarity, “Scripture alone,” sola Scriptura, is a sufficient norm for the truth of the gospel. Another central feature of Luther’s theological method in The Bondage of the Will is his view of the conflict between the opposing transcendental powers which fight over the control of the human beings: the Triune God’s goodness, love, and grace against unfaith, sin, and Satan. Only God’s Spirit can liberate the sinner from captivity by unfaith and evil. Erasmusnever mentions God’s Spirit when discussing grace, and there is no mention of Satan in his treatise. Moreover, the distinction between the “things below oneself” and the “things above oneself” is crucial for Luther’s understanding of law and gospel; Erasmus makes no distinction between the two realms.


2019 ◽  
Vol 29 (4) ◽  
pp. 549-573
Author(s):  
Honor Brabazon

While the privatisation of public space has been the subject of considerable research, literature exploring the shifting boundaries between public and private law, and the role of those shifts in the expansion of neo-liberal social relations, has been slower to develop. This article explores the use of fire safety regulations to evict political occupations in the context of these shifts. Two examples from the UK student occupation movement and two from the US Occupy movement demonstrate how discourses and logics of both private and public law are mobilised through fire hazard claims to create the potent image of a neutral containment of dissent on technical grounds in the public interest – an image that proves difficult to contest. However, the recourse to the public interest and to expert opinion that underpins fire hazard claims is inconsistent with principles governing the limited neo-liberal political sphere, which underscores the pragmatic and continually negotiated implementation of neo-liberal ideas. The article sheds light on the complexity of the extending reach of private law, on the resilience of the public sphere and on the significance of occupations as a battleground on which struggles over neo-liberal social relations and subjectivities play out.


Author(s):  
Mike Higton

Rowan Williams’s ecclesiology is shaped by his account of the spiritual life. He examines the transformation of human beings’ relationships to one another, driven by their encounter with God’s utterly gracious love in Jesus Christ. The church is the community of forgiven people generated by Christ’s resurrection. It is animated by its constant exposure to God’s love in Christ in word and sacrament. It is held to that exposure by its doctrinal discipline. It is a community in which members go on learning from one another how to go more deeply into that exposure. For Williams, the church’s commitment to unity and its commitment to truth go together: truth cannot be discovered without holding together in unity to learn from one another; and proper ecclesial unity is unity in this search for truth.


2014 ◽  
Vol 48 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Friedrich W. De Wet

After almost two decades of democratic rule in South Africa, patterns of withdrawal and uncertainty about the complexities involved in defining the contents, rationality and impact of the public role of the church in society seem to be prevalent. As unabated levels of corruption and its sustained threat to sustainable development point out, a long-awaited reckoning should take place – at least in the circles of South African churches from reformed origin – regarding its rich tradition of critical and transformational prophetic involvement in the public space. In this article, the author places different models for the public role of the church in the field of tension that is generated when the private and public spheres meet each other. The author anticipates different configurations that will probably form in this field of tension in the cases of respectively the Two Kingdoms Model, the Neo-Calvinist Approach and the Communicative Rationality Approach.Die rol van profetiese prediking in publieke teologie: Die implikasies vir die hantering van korrupsie in ‘n konteks van volhoubare ontwikkeling. Na bykans twee dekades van demokratiese regering in Suid-Afrika blyk dit dat patrone van onttrekking en onsekerheid oor wat die inhoud, rasionaliteit en impak van die publieke rol van die kerk in die samelewing presies behels, steeds voortduur. In ‘n situasie waaruit dit blyk dat daar geen werklike teenvoeter is vir die hoë vlakke van korrupsie asook vir die bedreiging wat dit vir volhoubare ontwikkeling inhou nie, is dit hoog tyd dat die kerk, ten minste in die geval van die Suid-Afrikaanse kerke van reformatoriese oorsprong, diep oor sy profetiese rol in die samelewing moet besin. Hierdie kerke kom uit ‘n ryke tradisie van kritiese en transformerende betrokkenheid in die publieke sfeer. In hierdie artikel plaas die outeur verskillende modelle vir die publieke rol van die kerk in die spanningsveld wat gegenereer word wanneer die private en publieke sfere mekaar ontmoet. Die outeur antisipeer verskillende konfigurasies wat waarskynlik na vore sal tree in hierdie spanningsveld in die gevalle van onderskeidelik die Twee Koninkryke Model, die Neo-Calvinistiese Benadering en die Kommunikatiewe Rasionaliteit Benadering.


Author(s):  
Andrea Fumagalli ◽  
Sara Gandini ◽  
Cristina Morini

Abstract This paper is a translation of three early critiques of the responses of the Covid-19 pandemic in Italy, each addressing a unique facet and different perspective of Europe’s first lockdown. Through bringing together these memorial traces, the article captures the heterogeneity of discussions taking place on the left at the very beginning of the pandemic, destabilizing a totalizing framing of Covid responses through simple binaries such as health vs economics or individual rights vs the collective good. Crisitina Morini addresses the ambivalences around the term ‘care’ (in Italian meaning both ‘attention’ and ‘cure’). Grounded in feminist economics, she argues for the establishment of a self-determination income envisioned as an unconditional and universal income, not linked to working positions. Sara Gandini ponders the possibility of turning anger into a political force and questions what forms this could take. Highlighting the problems related to turning a public health issue into one of national security, Gandini probes the politics of acceptability around Covid-related deaths against non-Covid related deaths, particularly deaths precisely exacerbated by confinement strategies. She speaks also of the silencing and policing of dissent when one tries to raise such issues in the public space. Lastly, Andrea Fumagalli uses the idea of crisis as an opportunity to rethink social and economic issues. These include readjusting the balance between private and public healthcare, (especially as Covid treatments are not very profitable), the implementation of a major European investment plan relating to social infrastructure and the environment, which will relaunch the European economy. Though these critiques were formulated at the start of the pandemic. many of the arguments and questions the authors asked themselves at the time remain highly topical: the role of welfare and income, the regulatory devices (including gender) that risk passing using the fight against the pandemic; all of which are central to maintaining a lucidity of analysis and to be resistant witnesses, politicizing anger to turn it into an agency that takes advantage of this difficult experience to build a slightly better world.


2015 ◽  
Vol 20 (3) ◽  
pp. 278-289 ◽  
Author(s):  
Agostino Di Scipio

The ever-increasing focus on sound in recent creative practices has ideological implications and seems to reframe and problematise ontological perspectives on music. Today it is possible to contrast notions of music as identical with sound (as in the discursive framework of ‘audio culture’) with artistic practices where sound and music arenot at allidentical, and the usually implicit hierarchy between them is probably twisted. This article discusses such matters from a methodological position that weaves together issues usually discussed in different areas of concern: it understands ecologically informed notions of sound and auditory experience as strictly intertwined with critical and inventive attitudes on technology, particularly as their intertwining is elaborated through performative practices. It suggests that, in music as well as in sound art, what we hearassound andinsound is the dynamics of anecology of situated and mediated actions, as a process that binds together (1) human beings (practitioners and listeners, their auditory inclinations), (2) technical agencies (the domain where means and ends are dialectically negotiated as practitioners strive to achieve a certain freedom in action across the public space of technological mediations and delegations) and (3) the environment (the physicalandcultural context where sound-making and listening practices take place). The general idea is that the manners by which we shape up our relationship to sound and appropriate the technical mediations involved in working with it, are ofbiopoliticalrelevance for social endeavours that might (still) be ‘music’


2008 ◽  
Vol 26 (4) ◽  
pp. 324-343 ◽  
Author(s):  
Krishan Kumar ◽  
Ekaterina Makarova

Much commentary indicates that, starting from the 19th century, the home has become the privileged site of private life. In doing so it has established an increasingly rigid separation between the private and public spheres. This article does not disagree with this basic conviction. But we argue that, in more recent times, there has been a further development, in that the private life of the home has been carried into the public sphere—what we call “the domestication of public space.” This has led to a further attenuation of public life, especially as regards sociability. It has also increased the perception that what is required is a better “balance” between public and private. We argue that this misconstrues the nature of the relation of public to private in those periods that attained the greatest degree of sociability, and that not “balance” but “reciprocity” is the desired condition.


IDEA JOURNAL ◽  
2017 ◽  
pp. 88-101
Author(s):  
Menna Agha ◽  
Els DeVos

In 1964, indigenous Nubians were displaced from their original land – the land between what is now Egypt and that of Sudan – to modernised settlements built by the Egyptian state. The Nubians dissatisfaction with the novel built environment translated into transgressive public spaces. One of the most common transgressions was the addition of an external bench called Mastaba. Since power relations between men and women have changed, the built environment now acts as a catalyst in the exclusion of women from formal public spaces such as conventional coffee shops and squares. Mastabas function as liminal spaces, spaces which blur the boundaries between public and private spheres. As these spaces do not suit the formal understanding of public spaces, we investigate these liminal spaces in order to reveal the spatial tactics of the marginal. We argue that the existence of these spaces raises issues of spatial justice and spatial resistance.    The behaviour of liminal public spaces varies; they have the ability to transform adjacent spaces. This research investigates the role of the Mastaba in opening up the public space for women, thereby giving them the ability to contribute to the writing of their social contract. We base our analysis on extensive fieldwork, consisting of auto-ethnographic observations and participation, informed by a feminist epistemology. We use tools of spatial analysis to explore an alternative public space offered by liminality. To question the binary notions of private and public space, we ask ourselves: where does that space start? As spatial professionals, we also wonder: can we contest the hegemonic definition of public space and contribute to spatial resistance? Drawing lessons from the case of the Mastaba, we propose contingencies for designing the liminal that serve the marginal.


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