The insignificant impact of the historical Jesus

There is a natural tendency in the church to idealise the historical Jesus. This may lead to believers turning Jesus into an ideal moral or religious exemplar or lead to a prosperity gospel by predominantly focusing on the miraculous power and accomplishments of the earthly Jesus. This depiction of Jesus is in sharp contrast to the rejected and crucified Lord. This article follows a systematic theological methodology by challenging the theological framework which leads to the idealised perception of Jesus as a super-hero. The article does so, by reconsidering the interpretive framework employed to understand the inter-relationship between the person and actions of the historical Jesus, and the kingdom of God breaking through. I argue that the eschatological hermeneutical approach to salvation history best accommodate the tension between ‘consistent’ and ‘realised eschatology’, and help the church overcome the temptation to turn Jesus into a universal spiritual symbol or moral exemplar. The eschatological hermeneutical approadch to salvation history often focuses on the death and resurrection of Jesus, but I contend, should be expanded to include the life and ministry of Jesus. In this article it is argued that Jesus came to share in our human weakness and fallibility. Jesus fully experienced the ‘not yet’ of the Kingdom, by identifying and sharing in our lack of success. The unique character of Jesus as ‘God who became human’, sets him radically apart from all other humans and nullifies any attempt to idealise him. The resurrected and glorified Jesus whom the church worships, is and remains the crucified and rejected Messiah.Contribution: The implications of the research will radicalise the believers’ understanding of the significance of the incarnation. It challenges some of the assumptions regarding Jesus’ power to help believers be successful in life. The article also holds pastoral implications for all those who experience the pain of failure, rejection and insignificance.

The Openseminary Methodology: Practical Theology as Personal, Local and Transformative

Theological education continues to be subject to rapid social and technological change, which is further exacerbated by the recent global pandemic. Practical theology as a discipline continues to grow, being well placed methodologically to engage with diverse contexts and these global realities. The task for theological education is whether it can meet these challenges and be part of the transformation required. Openseminary as a methodology and program was developed in the early 2000s by Wynand De Kock to enable students to both learn practical theology as a methodology, as well as reflect theologically in their own context. Over the last two decades, it has run in South Africa, at Tabor College in Australia, as well as Palmer Seminary in the United States. In what follows, the methodology and program are explored in terms of their genesis, history, and current articulation. It is argued that it is a practical theological methodology well suited to the personal, local, and transformative goals of theological education today.

Ubuntu Apologetics in Faith Formation: An Ethnography of Youth Ministry in Nairobi

Faith formation is a crucial area in youth ministry. Although the area of apologetics may be a helpful bridge, the theory and praxis of apologetics in the African context is scanty. The work of apologists such as William Lane Craig, John Frame, Ravi Zacharias, and John Lennox has responded to the post-Christian context of Europe and North America. Much needs to be done in light of the African contextual realities. Using a practical theological methodology, this paper considers how ubuntu apologetics – which honors both the cognitive and affective development of adolescents – can lead to holistic faith formation of African youth. This research paper will 1) consider youth ministry contextual realities in Kenya and Africa; 2) analyze foundational methods of apologetics; 3) utilize an ethnographic methodology in analyzing the data and 4) offer recommendations for youth ministry education and practice in Nairobi and Africa at large.

Artificial intelligence: a philosophical and theological discourse

The author examines the peculiarities of the current stage of development artificial intelligence, expressed by attempts to create so-called strong artificial intelligence and great artificial intelligence. Transhumanist tendencies are analyzed on the basis of philosophical and theological methodology, using the tools of synergetic anthropology.

Brief Introductions to Anglican Theology: Theological Method: Theological Methodology and the Jesus Movement through the Work of F. D. Maurice and Vida Scudder

The twenty-seventh Presiding Bishop of The Episcopal Church, Michael Curry, has called the church over which he presides to become a part of the Jesus Movement. This call raised eyebrows for some, who feared a turn toward a Protestant evangelical tradition reflected in the legacy of people like the eighteenth-century Anglican evangelist George Whitefield. Because the evangelical tradition emphasizes individual salvation, it easily lends itself to a lack of engagement in social justice issues. But this was not the intention of the Presiding Bishop, who urges the church toward the “beloved community.” This essay will examine The Episcopal Church's history of engagement with social justice in light of the theological methodology of F. D. Maurice and Vida Scudder, in an attempt to discern the theological failure that the historical lack of social justice leadership within The Episcopal Church reflects, and which necessitated the Presiding Bishop's call.

Human Nature, Justice, and Society: Reinhold Niebuhr in the Chinese Context

This issue will bring Niebuhr’s theological methodology into a contextual experiment with the “the reality of human experience” in the Chinese context (which here includes mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan) and see how Niebuhr’s Christian ideas are relevant, receptive, and revisited in that context. The public issues he raised from Christian perspective on human nature, love and justice, and democracy are not only located in his culture and society but also apply to other global contexts, including the Chinese context. This issue consists of four contributions from Chinese scholars and one from an American expert on Niebuhr.

Anticipation in the Normative Task of Practical Theology

This essay seeks to make a contribution to Catholic practical theological methodology through a discussion of “anticipation” as developed in the theology of Wolfhart Pannenberg. Its main thesis is that an understanding of the proleptic and anticipatory character of revelation and tradition can help articulate the role of tradition in the normative task of a Catholic practical theology. The first section of the paper looks at the normative task of practical theology and how this is reflected in the Whiteheads’ Method of Ministry. Then it seeks to explain the notion of “anticipation” and its implications for a theology of tradition. Finally it draws out the implications of incorporating this concept into practical theological method.

PHILOSOPHICAL AND THEOLOGICAL METHODOLOGY OF D. B. HART

Philosophy for Hart, is a continuation of theology in another way, it is a self-denial of theology, which is carried out by the European tradition to find itself. All philosophy and all its problems are a search for solutions to theological problems. For Hart, as for Balthazar, theology is thinking about being and its properties. The task of the thinker is to create a theological language, an alternative to the rhetoric of postmodernism. Theology is a language that is both a theory and a discourse. Hart’s theological reflections combine the hermeneutics of texts with metaphysical reflections on meanings that make sense of a religious narrative. Hart tries to overcome metaphysics in theology, wants to think after metaphysics, to create theology after "after the death of God".

Wolfhart Pannenberg’s Postfoundational Ecclesiology

This article interprets Wolfhart Pannenberg’s ecclesiology through a postfoundational framework. Pannenberg’s postfoundational theological methodology, based around the centrality of sub ratione Dei, is a dialectical relationship between the ‘from below’ movement of context (‘true infinite’) and the ‘from above’ movement of universal truth (Trinity) which reflects the differentiation-in-unity found in the immanent and economic Trinity. Accordingly, this article argues, Pannenberg’s ecclesiology, including his understanding of church essence (its role in creation and its constitutive members) and its activities (baptism, Eucharist, ministry) displays postfoundational relations between the particular and the universal bridging the divide between the secular and the sacred, the past, present, and future, and individual and community. In the discussion, concepts such as Christ’s ‘person,’ ‘transignification,’ Christocentric election, and social trinitarianism are used to move the discussion past modern dualism and postmodern relativism and toward postfoundational relationality.