Religion, Spirituality, Well-Being, and Ill-Being in a Church-Renewal Movement: The Case of Finland

An expanding body of research connects religiosity/spirituality (later R/S) with human well-being and health. While psychological and medical research lacks a common theoretical or theological framework, these dimensions are measured by instruments with a wide variation in quality. As the religious landscapes in Western societies are becoming increasingly plural and complex, the need for developing our understanding and assessment of the role of R/S in human health and well-being is as important as ever. This study, based on quantitative data (N = 529) from members of a church renewal oriented network in the Lutheran majority Church in Finland, measures the role of R/S in the subjective well-being of the participants through a multi-dimensional framework. While exploring Ellison’s Spiritual Well-being Scale (1983), the study expands its scope to a more multi-dimensional approach to religion, spirituality and well-being. The results reveal that religious beliefs and practices do not contribute to the level of subjective well-being in the lives of the participants as much as the way in which these beliefs and practices are lived out and actualized in social contexts. The study identified several sources of both well-being and ill-being in the participants’ lives. The article contributes to the terms of measuring the various ways in which R/S are connected to human well-being.

Renewal and Revivalism in Ghanaian Methodism: The Catalytic Role of Prayer Fellowships

Branded prayer programmes have taken centre stage in contemporary Ghanaian Christianity, and Methodism in Ghana has its fair share. The origins of these spiritual activities are nebulous. This study investigates the historical roots of the contemporary revival and renewal programmes in Methodist Church Ghana. Through historical and phenomenological research approach, the study highlights the catalytic role played by the twentieth-century prayer fellowships, which functioned as fringe groups in the Church. A re-visioning of John Wesley as a Pentecostal fore-bearer of the Christian faith constitutes an innovative attempt at situating the charismatic renewal movement in Ghana within historic Methodism. The study evinces the critical function of the laity as agents of revival and renewal of spirituality in the Church. Essentially, through the prayer fellowships, the ministry of the Methodist Church is democratised, and clericalism neutralised. The transformation of the prayer fellowship movement into the Methodist Prayer and Renewal Programme (M.P.R.P.) facilitated the formalisation, institutionalisation and regulation of the emergent charismatic movement into a "Connexional" (i.e. nationwide) Methodist activity. What makes the M.P.R.P. relevant is its dynamic response to the African worldview and existential realities of the participants. Keywords: Prayer Fellowships, Methodist Church, Renewal, Programmes, Pentecostal

Pendidikan Teologi Multikultur: Sebuah Sumbangan Pete Ward

The task of education is to present Christ in a new way for every generation in its culture. Pete Ward compiled a theological education guide for church renewal using a Liquid Ecclesiology approach as a combination of empirical and theological methods. It is called the empirical method because it is based on a concrete church experience. One such experience is church in the context of a multicultural society. In the multicultural theological education guide, there are five elements, namely contemplation, reflexivity, construction, and expanding fragments and editing expressions. Through a dialogue between the concept of multiculural theological education with the experience in the GPIB church, a new church is presented, namely a friendly, humble, and keep on learning to the world where the church is living.Abstrak. Tugas pendidikan adalah menghadirkan Kristus dengan cara baru bagi setiap generasi di dalam kebudayaannya. Pete Ward menyusun panduan pendidikan teologi untuk pembaruan gereja dengan memakai pendekatan Liquid Ecclesiology sebagai kombinasi antara metode empiris dan teologis. Disebut metode empiris karena berbasiskan pada pengalaman menggereja yang konkret. Salah satu pengalaman itu adalah gereja di konteks masyarakat multikultural. Di dalam panduan pendidikan teologi multikultural itu terdapat lima elemen, yaitu kontemplasi (contemplation), refleksi/perenungan (reflexivity), konstruksi (construction) dan menyusun proposal dan memeriksa tindakan (expanding the fragments and editing expression). Melalui dialog antara konsep pendidikan teologi multikulural dengan pengalaman menggereja GPIB dihadirkan gereja yang baru, yaitu wajah ramah, rendah hati dan terus belajar pada dunia di mana gereja hadir.

“The message to the people of South Africa” in contemporary context

In September 2018 John de Gruchy presented a paper at the Volmoed Colloquium entitled “Revisiting the Message to the people of South Africa,” in which he asks, “what is the significance of the document for our time?” In this expanded version of the author’s response to de Gruchy, two further questions are pursued: First: how can the churches today meet the challenge of today’s global system of economically and politically-driven inequality driven by a constellation of individuals, corporations, and governments? Second: in his review of church history, de Gruchy focused on the issue of church theology described in the 1985 Kairos South Africa document, in which churches use words that purport to support justice but actually serve to shore up the status quo of discrimination, inequality and racism. How does church theology manifest in the contemporary global context, and what is the remedy? The author proposes that ecumenism can serve as a mobilizing and organizing model for church action, and that active engagement in the issue of Palestine is an entry point for church renewal and for a necessary and fruitful exploration of critical issues in theology and ecclesiology.

Eklezjalny wymiar pełnienia charyzmatu proroctwa. Wciąż aktualne przedsoborowe intuicje Yves’a Congara

This study examines the question of the elementary tools of discernment in the Church needed to guide the fulfilment of the prophet’s charism. The study considers the synthesis of Yves Congar’s important reflections in his book of 1950: True and False reform in the Church. The search of the French theologian refers to the analysis and finding the reasons for the division caused in the Church in the West by Martin Luther in the 16th century. We see behind Congar’s intuition that there is a risk of division in the prophetic quest to reform the Church. Only true reform in the Church can avoid it. However, an authentic reform must always be embedded in the right conditions of discernment. The issues raised by the eminent French theologian are important in terms of the dynamic pentecostalisation of Christianity, but also in the proper interpretation of the pastoral renewal directed by the current Pope Francis. The tools for discerning the authenticity of reform in the Church are still unchanged. Despite the 70 years that have passed since the publication of the book by Congar analysed here, his indicated conditions for assessing the authenticity of Church renewal are still valid.