Dekolonisasi di Asia dan Pembacaan Alkitab yang Membebaskan dalam Pandangan Kwok Pui-Lan

The history of colonialization in Asia left traditions and perspectives that were often oppressive. Minority or weak groups, often become victims. When this oppression and injustice occurs, and the oppressed group feels it is normal, it will be passed on to the next generation. Oppressive traditions and worldviews also occur in Christianity and in Bible reading. This article explores how Feminist Theologian Kwok Pui Lan tries to decolonialize Bible reading through dialogue and imagination. Kwok Pui Lan, in particular, pays attention tothe injustice that is caused by problems of race and gender. With dialogue and imagination between Bible readers and listeners in their specific contexts the gospel message will reach everyone in their existence, and make them free human beings. In the end, the Bible and the good news it carries are not only read according to strong and powerful interests, but have a variety of voices that can greet anyone. AbstrakSejarah kolonialisasi di Asia meninggalkan tradisi dan cara pandang yang tidak jarang menindas. Kelompok minoritas atau yang lemah, seringkali menjadi korbannya. Ketika penindasan dan ketidakadilan ini terjadi, dan kelompok yang tertindas merasa hal itu sebagai sebuah kewajaran maka akan bertahan dan diwariskan kepada generasi berikutnya. Tradisi dan cara pandang yang menindas juga terjadi dalam kekristenan dan pembacaan Alkitab. Artikel ini menelusuri bagaimana Kwok Pui Lan, seorang Teolog Feminis, mencoba melakukan dekolonialisasi terhadap pembacaan Alkitab diantaranya melalui dialog dan imajinasi. KwokPui Lan secara khusus memberikan perhatiannya kepada ketidakadilan yang dilatarbelakangi oleh persoalan ras dan gender. Dengan dialog dan imajinasi antara pembaca Alkitab dan pendengar dengan konteks mereka yang khas maka kabar baik dalam Alkitab akan sampai kepada setiap orang dalam keberadaan mereka, dan menjadikan mereka manusia yang merdeka. Pada akhirnya Alkitab dan kabar baik yang dibawanya tidak saja dibaca menurut kepentingan yang kuat dan berkuasa, melainkan memiliki keragaman suara yang dapatmenyapa siapa saja.

Contextual Bible reading and intercultural Bible reading: Four Colombian experiences

Contextual Bible Reading (CBR) and Intercultural Bible Reading (IBR) have enabled the cooperation between socially engaged scholars and marginalised groups to find new resources in biblical texts to interpret their contexts and fight against the surrounding violence. As the use of these two methods has not been the object of a comparative study based on concrete experiences, this article presents them through four cases of Christian communities in Colombia. This comparative study not only illustrates the differences between these two methods of Bible reading, but also shows how they open new hermeneutic and liberation perspectives in the struggle for social justice and the search for reconciliation. The article depicts the CBR of the story of the Levite’s concubine (Jdg 19:1–30) by a group of women living in vulnerable conditions as well as the CBR of the parable of the father and his two sons (Lk 15:11–32) by a group of violence victims’ relatives. It also depicts the IBR of the story of the widow and the judge (Lk 18:1–8) by four groups of Caribbean readers as well as the IBR of the garden story (Gn 2:4b–25) by two Andean indigenous groups. Ordinary readers’ central role as interpreters of biblical texts let them recognise their own capabilities to transform their contexts in an emancipatory way and challenge biblical scholars and theologians. Even though CBR and IBR pursue different hermeneutical goals, they converge in giving a central role to the community as the subject of counter-hegemonic interpretations that open new horizons starting from reality and triggering liberation processes.Contribution: Beyond their differences and tensions, CBR and IBR are inclusive and dialogical methods intended for liberation that should be used to transcend the limits of dominant interpretations of biblical texts as well as the isolation of marginalised ordinary readers.

Peran Fundamental Gembala Bagi Guru Saat Pandemik Dalam Pembelajaran Online Berbasis Karakter: Tantangan dan Sistem Pendukung

The purpose of this paper is to describe the fundamental role of a pastor in a church that has a school, especially to teachers who are facing challenges and problems implementing spiritual matters in online learning. This study used a qualitative method with a descriptive approach. Data collection techniques using literature studies, using references from various library sources and journals. Interviews were conducted to corroborate the analysis and statements. As a result, the fundamental role of the pastor during the covid-19 pandemic is very crucial for teachers in the spiritual field, by providing pastoral care for teachers who are experiencing stress, praying for them specifically one by one, helping to teach students about Christian Religious Education as a whole that equipped with short worship, group prayer, and Bible reading as literacy.

Religious Liberty Sacralized: The Persistence of Christian Dissenting Tradition and the Cincinnati Bible War

In 1869, the Cincinnati school board ended a forty-year tradition of Bible reading in the schools in an attempt to encourage Catholics to use them, thus provoking national controversy and a lawsuit brought by pro-Bible advocates. Scholars regularly cite the Ohio Supreme Court decision in favor of the school board as a landmark in the legal separation of church and state. This article interrogates the meaning of the secularization of law by examining expressions of juristic, pedagogic, and popular consciousness in the multiple levels and spaces where individuals raised and resolved constitutional questions on education. Dissenting Christian tradition shaped the legal brief of Stanley Matthews, the school board's lead attorney. Matthews' sacralized the religious liberty guarantee found in the Ohio Constitution within a post-millennialist framework. Ohio Chief Justice John Welch hybridized Christian dissenting tradition with deistic rationalism in <u>Board of Education v. Minor, et al</u>, thus appealing to as broad a constituency as had the right to elect justices to the Ohio Supreme Court. The limited, technical ruling allowed for a metropole/periphery divide in educational practice, so that Bible reading and prayer in Ohio public schools continued well into the 20th century. Far from a landmark in secularization of the law, the Bible War case demonstrates the persistent power of religion to frame law, including the law of religious liberty.

The Publishers and Their Books

This chapter discusses the three publishers of the textbooks this book treats: Bob Jones University, Abeka Books, and Accelerated Christian Education. It addresses when and why they began to publish and the controversies and legal challenges they subsequently generated. It explores the history of their sponsoring educational institutions and their stated missions. It places them in the context of Christian opposition to public education as it developed in response to the teaching of evolution, the Supreme Court decisions of the 1960s prohibiting prayer and Bible reading in public schools, and, most importantly, desegregation. These three publishers have offered an alternative “Christian” education since the early 1970s.

4. Translation, production, and distribution of the Bible

‘Translation, production, and distribution of the Bible’ examines the translation, production, and distribution of the Bible. For centuries, the religious texts were preserved in Hebrew on scrolls. By the 4th century ce, the whole of the Bible would be found in codex form. Later, the 15th century saw the growth of lay movements based on private prayer and bible reading. It also saw the development of printing using movable type, which made possible the production of cheaper bibles. This prepared the way for the Protestant Reformation with its powerful desire to make the Bible available to all. New methods of producing cheap bibles were developed in the 19th century and led to a remarkably dynamic process of distributing bibles across the world. In this the Bible societies played a vital role.

Smelling Things: Essential Oils and Essentialism in Contemporary American Spirituality

ABSTRACT Contemporary yogis, evangelical Christians, and witches have incorporated essential oils and their aromas into practices as diverse as yoga, meditation, prayer, Bible reading, anointing, and spellcasting in the United States over the past forty years. These groups often view each other with alarm, yet they tread common ground in utilizing essential oils to intensify varied spiritual practices. This article answers two related questions. How do spiritually diverse practitioners justify using the same consumer products to amplify their practices, and why are essential oils considered sacred by these same consumers? Drawing from a diverse archive of essential oil use guides, marketing materials, and social media posts, I argue that spiritual “oilers” are (1) perennialists who mythologize ancient uses of scent to authenticate their postmodern embodied practices, and (2) essentialists who believe that essential oils contain universal, transcendent properties. Consequently, oilers’ beliefs and practices blur classifications between traditions and sharpen our attention to the importance of the sense of smell in contemporary spirituality. This project contributes to studies of spirituality and consumerism by offering a comparative analysis of how three groups use smell, via essential oils, to intensify their individual spiritual practices as well as their collective identities as oilers.

Personal Bible Reading and the Faith Formation of Teenagers in a Digital Age

History shows that the use of the Bible by Christians has changed over the centuries. With the digitization and the ubiquitous accessibility of the Internet, the handling of texts and reading itself has changed. Research has also shown that young people’s faith adapts to the characteristics of the ‘age of authenticity’, which changes the role of normative institutions and texts in general. With regard to these developments this article deals with the question: How relevant is personal Bible reading for the faith formation of highly religious Protestant German teenagers? Answers to this question are provided from previous empirical surveys and from two qualitative studies among highly religious teenagers in Germany. The findings indicate, that other spiritual practices for young people today are more important as a source of faith than reading the Bible. The teenagers interviewed tend to seek an individual affective experience when reading the Bible, so that the importance of cognitive grasp of the content takes a back seat to personal experience.

‘Ek is Kain’: ’n Hermeneutiek van weerloosheid as ’n antwoord op die dekoloniale diskoers

‘I am Cain’: A hermeneutics of vulnerability in response to decolonial discourse. Given the theological justification of apartheid by past influential theologians such as Totius, a hermeneutics of vulnerability is presented in response to the experiences of those who suffered heavily under apartheid in an attempt to render accountable those who benefited from apartheid. The effect of acknowledging the negative influence apartheid had on the black Other, places the white Bible reader in the position of an implicated evildoer or a sinful human being. The author wants to put this awkward position on the table by looking at Cain’s position and whether there is any empowerment in his story. In the first part of the article, after the introduction, a brief account is given of certain aspects of Reformed hermeneutics with which the author, as reader, wants to map himself. In the second part, Cain’s role is linked to whiteness under apartheid and colonialism, and to the German adaptation of the Holocaust in World War II under the rule of the National Socialist Party in Nazi Germany. Finally, the reader pays attention to the figure of Cain in Genesis 4 under the heading ‘I am Cain!’ As part of a final word, I seek to connect his interpretation to Reformed hermeneutics.Contribution: With this, the author hope to draw attention to the role of whiteness (and masculinity) of the reader in the Bible reading process in a period where people within the Reformed religious tradition must reposition themselves in a post-apartheid and decolonial society. It makes the white male reader uncomfortable, but within a hermeneutics of vulnerability, it contributes positively to change.

God Emperor Trump: Defending Western Civilization Against Neo-Marxism and Militant Islam

As we await the Second Coming of President Donald Trump, it is important to understand that his conservative Evangelical supporters view him not as a new Christ but as a new Constantine, a guardian of Western Civilization in a crucial period when we face threatened conquest by foreign enemies and infiltrators, Postmodern Neo-Marxism, and Militant Islam Thus he should be seen also as a new Charles Martel. He need not be a Bible-reading pietist to fulfill these roles, so Christians need not be ashamed of him if he isn’t.