Books in the Religions and Discourse series

The paradox within the title of this book refers to its principal theme, that of elucidating our innate capacity to transform/convert from an inauthentic everyday mode of being to an authentic one. This study provides an analysis of affect as a means of highlighting a number of key points of contact between the disciplines of philosophy and theology when addressing this topic. The author explores Martin Heidegger's intimate connections with Christianity, firstly, by examining the close ties he and his family had to the Catholic Church and, secondly, from within his fundamental ontology as developed in Being and Time. Finally, he demonstrates through literary and comparative analysis the affinity that exists between a philosophy of facticity and Christian theology in their descriptions of humankind without faith or Dasein's inauthentic existence.

This book represents an extensive examination of human hands and feet and their functions as media of nonverbal communication in the transmission of the mission and message of Jesus by the early church

This book demonstrates a number of approaches made by biblical scholars to find a theology of the Christian Scripture. It then considers attempts to bridge the gap between exegesis and dogmatics by appeal to the discipline of ¿fundamental theology¿ and the doctrine of Revelation. It finds that, for all the interesting questions raised, one is forced back to the Bible from where one must form the themes and concepts which have been developed by theologians through the ages, and which with help from biblical historical critics can be made to refresh theology and serve the Church. This is done by examining the role of ¿faith¿ in the two testaments and by considering how the Bible¿s understanding of that which receives revelation is itself useful for the total enterprise of theology.

This book examines the authority and power of a «sermonic text» through its ¿ctive qualities. The author argues that a sermonic text functions in the manner of a work of ¿ction and creates an event and space that forces a decision upon the reader. The text creates a place where the Kingdom of God is about to happen and is happening. Consequently, the reader is forced to make a decision. Will he or she «go and do likewise», or reject the Kingdom of God? In this way, a sermonic text acts like a work of ¿ction and invites a reader into its space and event. If the reader of the sermonic text chooses temporally to enter the event of the text, the reader has the potential to participate in its dynamics and is forced to make a decision either to believe or not believe. Like a work of ¿ction, it does not require those external guarantees of authority that are found in the community of faith: its doctrines, creeds and ecclesiology. Rather, the authority of the sermonic text is intrinsic as in a work of fiction and stands on its own. The discussion is interdisciplinary, drawing upon literary theory, cultural theory and theology.

Modern developments in both science and history challenge us to a far greater degree of empiricism than has been traditionally considered necessary in the study of theology. Any attempt to move in this direction can be signi¿cantly helped by Bernard Lonergan¿s breakthrough discovery of the notion of functional specialties in 1965. The strategy of this book is to make use of this discovery and provide a theological reflection on mission appropriate to the present age. The author begins with an insight available from biblical research but absent from current theologies of mission. This is the general recognition that the texts concerning a universal mission are in fact an instance of retrojection. Building on this through an interpretation of Lonergan¿s functional specialties of interpretation and history, he unfolds the startling implications for grasping the central creative signi¿cance of the ¿word of God¿. As the argument transfers from one specialty to the next, it moves towards ever-richer empiricism, culminating in the specialty of communications. Here the creativity which will be needed to address faithfully the message of Jesus to our contemporary world in all its complexity becomes apparent.

Transformation is a desired outcome of Christian spirituality. Christians pray, trust, and hope that their responsive embrace of God will transform them. Interdisciplinary study of this process, as journey and as significant movements, hits upon key philosophical, theological, and psychological debates. Are all spiritualities the same core with an overlay of traditional practices and beliefs? How is the Holy Spirit involved in human life as the potential for this transformation process unfolds from birth? Can psychological theories of transformation that do not affirm divine reality have explanatory and descriptive power for Christian understandings of transformation? These areas of focus and related questions encompass broad landscapes. This book places a magnifying glass on one piece of the terrain by engaging the work of philosopher, theologian, and psychologist James Loder, mystical spirituality scholars Andrew Louth, Bernard McGinn, Denys Turner, and Mark McIntosh, and archetypal movement founder James Hillman. Without denying differences, this work is the first analysis to identify connections among these thinkers. The significance of the connections is both substantive and methodological for intra- and inter-faith (broadly understood) spirituality discussion, as well as for the engagement of the Christian church with the culture of the twenty-first century.

Right across denominational boundaries lay theology is dominated by negatives: the laity simply defined as the non-ordained, the alleged exclusion of the laity from full participation, the sole focus on what they cannot or should not do, and, above all, the total absence of an ecumenical lay theology. In a unique approach, this volume sets out to find ways of overcoming these negatives so predominant in current lay theology. The author explores positions and perspectives put forward in Roman Catholic theology from Vatican II up to the present. These are compared and contrasted with concepts and suggestions of present-day Anglican Theology as well as with those of liberative theologies in Latin America and Asia. Rethinking the content, language, and metaphors of lay theology, in the final part of this volume the author proposes a new image for discussing the Church, a model focusing on the interdependence and collaboration of all the people in the Church. This is then used to sketch out the framework for a new type of lay theology. Imbedded in ecclesiology, in the concept of all believers together being the Church, the author endeavours to suggest a lay theology that is indeed positive, ecumenical and universal.

Awarded the 2007 National Research Prize SAES/AEFA. This study is a reappraisal of John Bunyan in the light of the dissenting religious culture of the late-seventeenth century. Charges of schism and fanaticism were repeatedly levelled against Bunyan, both from within the dissenting community and without, but far from being chastened by these accusations, Bunyan responded with a religious discourse marked by a rhetoric of excess. The focus of this book is therefore upon Bunyan¿s overwhelming spiritual experiences, especially the representation of torment, in his literary and polemical works. The believers¿ suffering was an obsessive concern of dissenting ministers, even to the point where their writings are often remembered today for little else. Hitherto, most scholars have termed all the mental states that they invoke ¿despair¿, but this simplifies the experiences at issue. A wealth of contemporary material helps to restore the nuances of seventeenth-century physical and spiritual conditions, from enthusiasm to melancholy and madness; from fear to desertion and sloth. These chapters explore fresh ways in which this subtle typology of torment and its extreme manifestations form the core of the literary expression of Restoration dissent, challenging Bunyan to represent spiritual equilibrium as the ultimate quest of the earthly pilgrimage.

This book adds new impetus to ecumenical theology by focusing on embodied faith or the contextual interpretation of Revelation. It does so through an exploration of the insights of Lewis S. Mudge and Joseph Ratzinger. Mudge advocates catholicity as a hermeneutic which embraces the contextuality of faith in local contexts, including Christian communities and the religious practice of those of other Abrahamic faiths. Through his use of semiotics and social theory, Mudge offers novel ways to interpret faith lived as redemptive existence. Since for Joseph Ratzinger Revelation can never be fully confined to rational statements, it is nevertheless expressed in living praxis. This relates to his view of wisdom, Tradition, truth and the sensus fidei. Ratzinger focuses on embodied faith in Christian experience, the lives of the saints, New Ecclesial Movements and the plurality of different expressions of faith in synchronic unity. This study encourages the reader to explore the Church as a sacrament of redemption through contextuality and embodiment. Through the writings of two authors with contrasting and yet complimentary approaches, it highlights the transformative potential of Christianity which can serve as a point of ecumenical learning.

Through application of modern historiographical analysis and scriptural exegesis, the book explores the space between factual history and interpretive history, or histoire. Muhammad al-Tabari's History, written about 300 years after the establishment of Islam, is one of the religion's most important commentaries.

This book takes a historical-theological approach to understanding the complex relationships among gender, religion, economics and politics in a global context, with particular reference to Islam and Catholicism as two worldwide, culturally diverse and patriarchal religious traditions. It looks at ways in which Catholic and Muslim women, both within and between their respective traditions, are critiquing fundamentalist theological and cultural positions and reclaiming their rightful place within the life of their religious traditions. In so doing, it argues that they offer to their respective religious communities, and beyond, a holistic way of negotiating the impact of modernity in a globalized world. The final chapter of the book gives voice to some Australian Muslim and Catholic women who, at a local level, reflect many of the overall concerns of women who find themselves at the cutting edge of their respective religious tradition's negotiation of modernity.

The challenge of methodic quality has haunted scholars in the human and social sciences since the end of the nineteenth century with the explosive and public success of the natural sciences and their precision and aim of controlling nature. The discussion has been dominated by the quest for proper scientific concepts and methods comparable to those employed in the natural sciences. This book discloses the limits of scientific concepts and methods, and the failure of approaches in the human sciences emulating the scientific procedures in the natural sciences, notably the cognitive science of religion, to articulate religious life in its actuality. The author demonstrates on the basis of his own field research conducted among Buddhist monks in Sri Lanka and Orthodox monks and pilgrims on the Holy Mountain of Athos in Greece how preconceptions and historical belongingness determine interpretation. He argues that in the human sciences words matter more than concepts and propositions, and elucidates how words are revelatory of the authenticity of being, when the attitude adopted is that the view of the encountered other might be right. In the conclusion the author identifies the methodic characteristics of hermeneutic reflection and proposes an analytic model for the human sciences that enables scholars to articulate the authenticity of actual life in words that reach the other.

Literature and theology have long been conversation partners. The great themes of human existence form the subject matter of their shared discussion. However, comedic literature has often been overlooked as a serious means to fostering such theological engagement. This book seeks to rectify this imbalance.

This book analyses religious identity transformations through inter-religious relations. It aims to highlight the link between religious discourse and social cohesion, or the lack of such a link, and ultimately seeks to contribute to the dominant discourse on Muslim-Christian relations. The book is based on fieldwork in Indonesia and Tanzania, and is timely because of the growing tensions between Muslims and Christians in both countries. Its relevance lies in its fresh look at theories of religion and science. From its establishment as an academic discipline, the phenomenology of religion has dominated religious studies. Its theory of religion is 'realist' (religion is a reality 'in itself') and its view of science is objectivist (scientific knowledge is true if its representation of reality corresponds with reality itself). Based on Discourse Theory, the author argues that religion does not exist 'in itself'. Human practices and artifacts become religious because they are placed in a narrative context by the believers. By using discourse analysis as a research method, the author shows how religious identities in Tanzania and Indonesia are constructed, negotiated and manipulated in order to gain material or symbolic profit.

Engaging Ludwig Wittgenstein as 'philosophical hand-maid' (as opposed to 'metaphysical gate-keeper'), this book subjects to critique both traditional realist and post-modern constructivist perspectives as it examines how the nature and role of metaphor-making at the creative edge of language casts light on the God-language-world relationship.

This book critically examines David Tracy¿s well-known methodology of fundamental theology, namely his revisionist model as developed in his Blessed Rage for Order (1975), together with his methodological shifts through the 1980s, 1990s and early 2000s. It explores how successful he has been in constructing a methodology for the public theological discourse that he deems so necessary. More particularly, this book asks how serviceable this methodology is for articulating Christian discourse in an intelligible and public way in the contemporary context of religious plurality.

Introduces the concept ordinary African readers' hermeneutics in a study of the reception of the Bible in postcolonial Africa. This book looks beyond the scholarly and official church-based material to the way in which the Bible, and discourses on or from the Bible, are utilized within a range of diverse contexts.

Dancing to the Post-Modern Tune

John Donne's family were committed Catholics. His two uncles were Jesuits. One of them, Jasper Heywood, was leader of Jesuit mission in England, while Donne's mother was a recusant who was forced to leave country. This book describes influence of Spiritual Exercises on late sixteenth- and early seventeenth-century Catholicism and Protestantism.

Challenging the Stereotype