scholarly journals Towards a Kenyan political theology: The importance of church history for contemporary public life

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 102-109
Author(s):  
Muriithi Ndereba Kevin
Keyword(s):  
Political Theology ◽  
Public Life ◽  
Church History

scholarly journals The Anglican Cathedral of the Holy Cross in Zambian Church History

2021 ◽  
Vol 47 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nelly Mwale
Keyword(s):  
Social Capital ◽  
Church And State ◽  
Public Life ◽  
Church History ◽  
Social Capital Theory ◽  
Capital Theory ◽  
Heritage Site ◽  
The Media ◽  
State Relations ◽  
The Church

Using the representations of the Anglican Cathedral of the Holy Cross in the media, this article retrieves the Cathedral’s role in public life in Zambian church history in order to tease out its significance in post-independence Zambia. In drawing on a case study and social capital theory, the article shows that the Cathedral of the Holy Cross, as a pre-independence religious building, was represented as a national house of worship, a heritage site and a political shrine. By this, it was a national worship space that played a role in hosting functions of varied nature, and a symbol of religious heritage. As a political shrine, the Cathedral was a space for guiding the nation and fostering reconciliation in the critical political moments of the country. These representations not only revealed the dynamics of the church’s role, but also closely aligned to the Cathedral’s social capital in public life through the intersection of the church and state relations in post-independence Zambia. The article argues that the Cathedral of the Holy Cross, although not a popular aspect of Zambian contemporary church history, was a religious, material cultural site and a space that allowed the church to contribute to post-independence church history in the country.

scholarly journals The Great War in the writings of British clergyman Reginald John Campbell

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 31-52
Author(s):  
N. Yu. Zabelina
Keyword(s):  
Great Britain ◽  
Structural Changes ◽  
Public Life ◽  
Church History ◽  
Great War ◽  
Highly Educated ◽  
The First World War ◽  
Literary Heritage ◽  
The One ◽  
The Great War

The analysis of various aspects of the part of the extensive philosophical and literary heritage of the English Protestant preacher Reginald John Campbell (1867–1956), which is devoted to the events of the First World War and the participation of Great Britain in it, is represented.His works, on the one hand, serve as a living document of an era still incomplete at the time of their writing; on the other hand, they represent philosophical and theological reflections in this context. At the same time, they are quite significant insights into social processes that went far beyond questions of faith, and even an attempt to predict structural changes in public life after the end of the Great War. This multi-dimensionality creates a rather interesting ‘stereoscopic’ picture of events, perceived by an influential, original, highly educated religious figure, who at the time of the creation of the corpus of texts under consideration was already a mature and insightful person.The author of the article attempts to reveal the versatility of R. J. Campbell’s judgments, immersed in the context of the events of the era, which is of interest to researchers of Church history and public life in Great Britain during this period.

Soteriology, Debt, and Faithful Witness: Four Theses for a Political Theology of Economic Democracy

2016 ◽  
Vol 98 (1) ◽  
pp. 71-89
Author(s):  
Luke Bretherton
Keyword(s):  
Political Theology ◽  
Public Life ◽  
Democratic Citizenship ◽  
Social Imaginary ◽  
Economic Democracy ◽  
Common Life ◽  
The Third ◽  
Finance Capitalism ◽  
Contemporary Context ◽  
Do So

The essay seeks to understand what is theologically at stake when challenging the power of money in shaping our common life. To do so it sets out four theses, with commentary, that are suggestive of how we might go about generating a critically constructive and theologically attuned vision of an earthly oikonomia within the contemporary context. The first thesis is that envisioning a contemporary economics of mutual and ecological flourishing necessitates teasing out how Christian doctrines of God and soteriology legitimate oppressive conceptions of debt, and, at the same time, can help dismantle capitalism as an all-encompassing social imaginary to which there is no alternative. The second thesis is that as part of reenvisioning contemporary soteriology we must reengage with scriptural, patristic, scholastic, and medieval rabbinic and Islamic conceptions of property, debt, and usury in order to generate robust theological frameworks through which to analyze finance capitalism and the forms of domination it produces. The third thesis is that a vision for a common life must move beyond notions of recognition and redistribution as the basis for a just public life. And the last thesis is that we need to recover a consociational vision of democratic citizenship and a commitment to economic democracy.

Resisting the Eclipse of Dignitatis Humanae

Horizons ◽  
2006 ◽  
Vol 33 (01) ◽  
pp. 33-53 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mary Doak
Keyword(s):  
Religious Freedom ◽  
Political Theology ◽  
Public Life ◽  
The Political ◽  
Careful Attention ◽  
Dignitatis Humanae ◽  
Solid Foundation ◽  
Role Of Religion ◽  
Religion In Public Life

ABSTRACTVatican II's announcement of the Catholic Church's acceptance of religious freedom in its Declaration on Religious Freedom (Dignitatis Humanae) ought to have ushered in a period of ecumenical agreement on the topic of religious disestablishment. Instead, forty years after this most controversial document was promulgated, we find that public, academic, and even ecclesial discussions of the role of religion in public life are confused and in fact deeply contentious. The problem, however, is not that Dignitatis Humanae was incoherent or naïve in its understanding of religious freedom, but that we have failed to grasp its nuanced and coherent manner of reconciling a robust religious freedom with a profound view of the political significance of religious beliefs. Careful attention to this Declaration provides a solid foundation for continuing political theology and a public presence of religion without infringing the important value of religious “disestablishment.”

Socio-political and confessional preconditions of the birth of the Ukrainian Evangelical-Reformed Church in Western Ukraine (20-30 years of the twentieth century)

2000 ◽  
pp. 67-75
Author(s):  
R. Soloviy
Keyword(s):  
Public Life ◽  
First World War ◽  
World War ◽  
Reformed Church ◽  
Religious Influences ◽  
The First World War ◽  
Western Ukraine ◽  
History Of ◽  
Religious Factor ◽  
First World

In the history of religious organizations of Western Ukraine in the 20-30th years of the XX century. The activity of such an early protestant denominational formation as the Ukrainian Evangelical-Reformed Church occupies a prominent position. Among UCRC researchers there are several approaches to the preconditions for the birth of the Ukrainian Calvinistic movement in Western Ukraine. In particular, O. Dombrovsky, studying the historical preconditions for the formation of the UREC in Western Ukraine, expressed the view that the formation of the Calvinist cell should be considered in the broad context of the Ukrainian national revival of the 19th and 20th centuries, a new assessment of the religious factor in public life proposed by the Ukrainian radical activists ( M. Drahomanov, I. Franko, M. Pavlik), and significant socio-political, national-cultural and spiritual shifts caused by the events of the First World War. Other researchers of Ukrainian Calvinism, who based their analysis on the confessional-polemical approach (I.Vlasovsky, M.Stepanovich), interpreted Protestantism in Ukraine as a product of Western cultural and religious influences, alien to Ukrainian spirituality and culture.

The Politics of Prophecy: The US Culture Wars and the Battle Over Public Education in the Left Behind Series for Kids

2009 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-27
Author(s):  
Ann Abate Michelle
Keyword(s):  
Public Education ◽  
The United States ◽  
Culture Wars ◽  
Church History ◽  
Good News ◽  
Cultural Issues ◽  
School Prayer ◽  
Left Behind ◽  
Religious Books ◽  
The Us

This essay argues that in spite of their obvious Biblically-based subject matter, clear Christian content, and undeniable evangelical perspective, the Left Behind novels for kids are not simply religious books; they are also political ones. Co-authors Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins may claim that their narratives are interested in sharing the good news about Jesus for the sake of the future, but they are equally concerned with offering commentary on contentious US cultural issues in the present. Given the books’ adolescent readership, they are especially preoccupied with the ongoing conservative crusade concerning school prayer. As advocates for this issue, LaHaye and Jenkins make use of a potent blend of current socio-political arguments and of past events in evangelical church history: namely, the American Sunday School Movement (ASSM). These free, open-access Sabbath schools became the model for the public education system in the United States. In drawing on this history, the Left Behind series suggests that the ASSM provides an important precedent for the presence not simply of Christianity in the nation's public school system, but of evangelical faith in particular.

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