Pandemic Religion in Brazil—Temptation and Responsibility

Religious incidence in Brazilian public space is a widespread fact that has been gaining new visibility in pandemic times. Responsibility in liminal situations represents specific theological hermeneutics, as well as what matters for the respective religious agents. Thus, based on a bibliographical review connected to an analysis of websites, this article aims to reflect on the current Brazilian context, the challenges to doing theology in Brazil today and points to some possible responses. “Pandemic religion”, as we call it, is the synthesis of theologies and religious practices that legitimise irresponsible approaches to life, vulnerabilising the other instead of assuming care-based ethics. Firstly, we briefly describe current theological trends, followed by an analysis of the Brazilian scenario by way of three representative scenes of public religious incidence that reflect a lack of responsibility in view of the pandemic challenges caused by COVID-19. Subsequently, we look back into history for alternative responses to public health crises that required theological positioning. In a Brazilian perspective of a public theology, we finally reflect on a responsible ethics that may help respond to the current challenges, particularly for pandemic religion.

Bahnhofsmission als Forschungsgegenstand. Diakoniewissenschaftliche Perspektiven

In this contribution, the railway mission (Bahnhofsmission) is conceived of as an object of research in interdisciplinary diaconic science. To that end, several perspectives are employed: the analysis of the multiple logics/ rationalities of a social organisation; theological hermeneutics of diaconic practice and its religious rationality; and, finally, the question of the location of religion within modern society, for which the railway mission shows to have a paradigmatic meaning.

METHODOLOGICAL INNOVATIONS IN THE RESEARCH OF PENTECOSTAL THEOLOGIANS IN THE NATIONAL PEDAGOGICAL DRAGOMANOV UNIVERSITY

Within the framework of cooperation of the National Pedagogical Dragomanov University with Protestant seminaries and their associations, more than ten defenses of dissertations on Pentecostalism took place. These defenses prove that Pentecostal theologians were able to overcome the closed nature of their own tradition to the development of theology. The ideological leadership of Protestant theology in Ukraine, especially Pentecostal theology, became possible due to the assimilation and development of the best methodological achievements of Western theology of the beginning of the 21st century. Ukrainian Pentecostal theologians actively use the methodology of theological hermeneutics, taking into account the achievements of post-liberal and post-conservative Western theology, modern biblical studies, mission theology and eschatology. The central point for the entire methodology was the recognition of the narrative character of the religious ideology. The analysis of narratives is complemented by the research of key narrative concepts, the research of the interaction of narrative theology and other post-metaphysical methodologies. The vision of the history of Christianity and the history of theology as processes characterized by periodic paradigm shifts allows us to conceptualize narratives and then create new narratives about these stories and about the prospects of both Christianity and theology. A particularly great achievement is the systematic presentation of the history of the Pentecostal movement as the history of communities that have special narratives, cultivate special virtues, and use special narrative concepts.

Isaiah

LXX Isaiah is one of the most debated texts in the entire corpus of the Septuagint. Modern research on the version has outlined its main characteristics, such as a certain freedom in the handling of its Vorlage and the competent but inconsistent use of the Greek language. Many contemporary debates focus on the issue of the theological hermeneutics of the translator. Some scholars detect a pervasive use of ‘actualizing’ interpretation, while others see a predominantly literal translation and tend to minimize the influence of theological factors on deviating renderings. This chapter proposes that the two approaches can be seen as complementary, in the sense that each one touches important, albeit contradictory, aspects of the version. The tendency of scholarship on LXX Isaiah is to continue to refine this discussion.

Creation, Fall, and Providence

In this chapter, I explore the (implicit) presence of hermeneutical perspectives in the thought of Thomas Aquinas with respect to issues of faith, outside the reach of ‘scientific’ reason, concerning the Christian meaning of creation, history and the temporal condition of human existence. First, the chapter discusses Aquinas’ view on creation as including a temporal beginning of the world. In this discussion on the ‘eternity of the world’, hermeneutical reason obliquely plays a role in suggesting the positive meaning of the temporality of the world in the light of faith and God’s guidance through history to an end beyond time and history. Aquinas’ treatment of the Christian doctrine of original sin is another example of a hermeneutical turn of reason with respect to tenets of faith. In dealing with the reality of original sin, as confessed by faith, moral theory must be supplied with what one may call a theological hermeneutics of the Christian experience of actual human life in its dimension of sinfulness with respect to God.

Theological Hermeneutics and Translation. Ernst Fuchs’s "Translation and Proclamation"

The objective of this essay is to provide a commentary on an essay written by one of the chief representatives of the new-hermeneutical approach to Protestant theology, namely Ernst Fuchs. The essay, “Translation and Proclamation” (“Übersetzung und Verkündigung”), is, I hope to show, an extremely interesting engagement with translation in the context of theological hermeneutics. At issue is a certain ‘translation’ of the Scriptures which must occur so that the Word of God becomes available to the preacher – she who is tasked, among other things, to proclaim that Word. Insofar as preaching can be described as a performance, then translation is also asked to operate a certain ‘text performance’ as well. In examining what that operation is, we can gain useful purchase not only on the role of translation for theological hermeneutics but also for hermeneutics of the sort theorised by Hans-Georg Gadamer.

Cross and Glory in Post-Metaphysical Perspective

The paper is devoted to the recent book of John D. Caputo “Cross and the Cosmos: A Theology of Difficult Glory”. Caputo’s project is examined as one of the most representative explications of postmetaphysical discourse in contemporary theology. We consider the key concepts of Caputo’s theological hermeneutics – the impossible, the event, and the kingdom of God as a context for a radical theology of the cross. The paper emphases on the coming nature of the event that signals its openness to surprising possibilities that constitute even the possibility of the impossible. The author highlights the main features of the theology of the cross in Caputo’s early works, where the cross is conceptualized as a paradigmatic expression of the event of the kingdom. The analysis of the work “Cross and the Cosmos” outlines the ways of radicalization of theology of the cross and the strategy of reinterpretation of the concept of divine glory. The article highlights the problem of Caputo’s theopoetic method and considers its critique in analytical theology. We argue that a radical theology of the cross is hermeneutics of open-ended transformations in this world, a theology of the divine call embedded in temporality and mortality.