Fortress Academic – serie

The subject of race and identity is a burning issue which continues to occupy the attention not only of South Africans but also the wider residents of the continent of Africa and those who are Africans in the Diaspora. The outburst of xenophobic attacks against foreigners mostly of Black African origins in some communities of Kwa-Zulu Natal and areas of Johannesburg during 2008 and 2015 has raised questions about the social cohesion of South African society linked to unresolved structural identity issues bequeathed by the nation’s past colonial and apartheid legacy. This publication argues that there is an embedded schizophrenic identity crisis within the society that requires scholarly interrogation. The chapters assemble scholarly voices from different ethnic groups that examine the central research question of this study: Who is an African? Within the wider Southern African context, identity and ethnicity politics are framing nationalist economic policies and are impacting on social cohesion within many countries. Writing from different social and racial locations the authors have critically engaged with the central question and offer some important insights that can serve as a resource for all nations grappling with issues of race, ethnicity, identity constructed politics, and social cohesion.

This book examines the apostle Paul's messages concerning p?e?µa’s (spirit) primary function in the acquisition of virtues and avoidance of vices. To Live in the Spirit: Paul and the Spirit of God brings to light a fresh understanding of the Greek concept p?e?µa (spirit) in Paul’s ethical teaching. Placing Paul and his mixed audience within the Hellenistic Jewish and Greek (philosophical) traditions of the ancient world, this book examines his new message concerning p?e?µa’s primary function in the acquisition of virtues and avoidance of vices. Looking in detail at the various ways in which Paul views p?e?µa in his seven undisputed letters, Naveros Córdova explores p?e?µa’s development from Paul’s initial ethical reflections in his early letters to a more mature view in his later letters. Naveros Córdova argues that it is within these traditions, represented by major Hellenistic Jewish and Greco-Roman writers, that Paul construes the framework of his ethical teaching. Paul finds in the power of God’s p?e?µa a new ethical alternative for his mixed audience to living lives pleasing to God outside the observance of the Mosaic Law. Naveros Córdova demonstrates how Paul draws upon Platonic (immaterial p?e?µa) and Stoic (material p?e?µa) language that would have been familiar to his hearers in the early Christian communities to create a persuasive understanding of ethical performance and to show that the moral life of the believers springs from that p?e?µa received from God. In his efforts to highlight p?e?µa’s central role in his ethics, Paul moves beyond both traditions by describing the “Christification” of p?e?µa not only in Stoic terms, but also in Middle Platonic categories of the first century CE.

This book illustrates the way Philo of Alexandria moves beyond Hellenistic Jewish and Greek philosophical traditions by developing reframing piety from a subordinate to a foundational virtue.Philo of Alexandria’s Ethical Discourse: Living in the Power of Piety proposes a fresh approach to better understand Philo’s ethics exploring the virtue of piety. In this exceptionally well-researched book, Nélida Naveros Córdova analyzes five major uses of piety in Philo’s treatises— piety and the Decalogue; piety as a foundational virtue; piety as the opposite of impiety; the practice of piety, and the relationship between piety and love of humanity. Naveros carefully examines each of these five uses within both the Hellenistic Jewish and Greek philosophical traditions, focusing particularly on piety’s primary role in Philo’s teaching about the acquisition of virtues and the avoidance of vices. Naveros argues that in his ethical discourse, Philo incorporates language familiar in ancient Greek philosophical ethical systems to attribute qualities and powers to the virtue of piety. This book illustrates the way Philo moves beyond both Hellenistic Jewish and Greek philosophical traditions by comprehensively showing how he develops the place of piety, from being a subordinate virtue in Greek catalogue of virtues to becoming a foundational virtue. Naveros brings evidence from ancient Greco-Roman and major Hellenistic Jewish texts as well as modern secondary literature in order to argue and support a plausible case for the understanding of Philo’s unique configuration of his own ethical discourse, his view of virtue ethics, and his philosophical stance. To date, this is an original study on Philo’s ethics, and the first to offer the fullest evaluation of piety within the categories of ancient ethical systems.

This book is a disciplined introduction to ecclesiology. With respect to the community which “the Lord purchased with his own blood (Acts 20:28), parts one and two focus on a critical-exegetical presentation of the New Testament’s descriptions and themes, locating their treatment within two millennia of reflection, and appreciating the impact of those contexts on our understanding. From over ninety New Testament images, chapters four to ten identify and argue for three foundational concepts: ekklesia (assembly); soma Christou (the body of Christ); and koinonia hagion (the communion of the saints). Continuing the conversation with Scripture and its history of interpretation, Robert Doyle then applies the determinative biblical themes to present practice, centering it on the churches of the Evangelical and Reformed traditions. Part four illuminates ecclesiology from other foundational Christian doctrines: the triune God of holy love; Christology, our ascended human high priest and king; and the doctrine of revelation, the church as “the pillar and bulwark of the truth.” The final part focuses on three possible points of transformation in ecclesial life and witness, both internally and outward to the world.

Biblical ABCs is a theological resistance primer. Its author, Kornelis Heiko Miskotte, was a Dutch pastor, theologian, and antifascist who lived and worked under the Nazi occupation of his country. Miskotte’s family hid Jews inside their home, and Miskotte facilitated underground Christian discussion groups. In 1941, he published an illegal pamphlet as a study guide for these groups. In an atmosphere saturated with propaganda and lies, Miskotte felt that Christians needed a refresher course in the basics of biblical language—an anti-Nazi catechism, as it were. Miskotte presents this instruction in twelve brief, poetic meditations on important terms drawn from the Bible. Like his teacher Karl Barth, Miskotte insists on the primacy of the Word, and like his imprisoned colleague Dietrich Bonhoeffer, he emphasizes the this-worldliness of the Old Testament. Miskotte also shows his deep debt to the Jewish theologian, Franz Rosenzweig. He begins his primer with the A of the biblical ABCs: the Name of God, the Tetragrammaton, which Miskotte sees as the cornerstone of all resistance to authoritarianism and truth decay.

Politics in the Book of Haggai: A Jamesonian Reading applies the textual theory of American Marxist Fredric Jameson for a critical reading of the book of the prophet Haggai. It attempts to show that the text not only represents the tensions of the past but has a greater function where it endeavors to resolve the issues on an imaginary level—this is a unique feature of Jameson’s theory. Furthermore, the book argues that the contradictions and conflicts in the text—at the historical level—occur amongst the golah community, specifically amongst its leaders. The book commences with a discussion of Jameson’s textual theory, highlighting its importance within the realm of Marxist discussion. The main content of the book is the appropriation of the three-tier method to critically read the book of the prophet Haggai. The book closes by discussing its conclusions within the realms of Marxism, the prophet Haggai, and island hermeneutics.

The Christian church in America stands at a crossroads. It can continue to follow the path of incarceration, or it can choose the path of abolition and liberation. For too long, the church has been a site of violence and exclusion, despite its language of love and redemption. David Dault offers a timely and provocative analysis of an unspoken crisis affecting all forms of Christianity, particularly in the American context. In the wake of rampant sex abuse and a leadership increasingly wedded to the interests of right-wing and reactionary politics, the rise of covert mechanisms of authority and decision making threaten to undermine what little trust remains in the leadership. The Covert Magisterium offers a fresh analysis of theological identities, hinging on the choice between a Christianity that defines itself through forms of incarceration, and a Christianity that sets itself on the path of abolition, inviting believers to become (in the words of the late Pope Francis) “the dignified agents of their own destiny.” The book concludes with a vision of the synodal magisterium, a process of decision-making in which everyone, especially the “least of these,” has a voice.

This book presents an analytical investigation of the Christian concept of reconciliation and the Daoist concept of harmony. It poses the question whether Christian reconciliation and Daoist harmony could be operationalized in ways to ease human suffering caused by interpersonal, intergroup, national, and international conflicts. Christianity and Daoism both describe the loss of harmonious connections with fellow humans, nature, and the sacred, but they also point to ways of reconciliation, to returning to harmony through re-connection. As an interreligious dialogue between Daoism and Christianity has hardly ever been described before, this study focuses on the question—within a hermeneutical context of singularity, difference, and concordance—whether early Daoist views on harmony and early Christian views on reconciliation could be operationalized relevantly in order to contribute to endeavors towards a resolution of interpersonal and intergroup conflicts.

This book explores the profound ways in which key thinkers from the Greek Christian East engaged with the realities of human frailty, impairment, and divine purpose. Edited by Petre Maican, the collection features essays on figures such as Irenaeus of Lyon, Origen, the Cappadocians, John Chrysostom, Maximus the Confessor, and John Damascene. Each contribution brings these voices to life for a modern audience, offering fresh perspectives that illuminate their relevance to contemporary conversations within disability theology. This volume bridges the ancient and the modern, fostering dialogue and creativity.

The work of uniting churches is slow, challenging, and multifaceted; and it changes in each generation and location. In this book, Josiah Baker studies the efforts of believers towards reconciliation as something significant for how we understand the church. He offers a theology for laborers, people for whom unity is not only an idea but a calling and sure hope.A Visible Unity is a study in systematic theology on the relation of ecumenical methodology to ecclesiological convergence, how acting together results in the churches being together. Ecumenical work informs ecclesiology because it involves the actions of Christians together in accordance with their shared views of the church. Whenever this work changes, the partnering churches change their relations and further resolve their divisions. Baker studies ecclesiology by telling stories about a person—the Pentecostal ecumenist Cecil Robeck—for Robeck’s decades of leadership in American and global ecumenical settings. By narrating his activities and analyzing his thought, the book offers a window into the interrelation of different portions of the ecumenical movement and how the movement has changed over the years. Baker compiles archival materials and personal interviews to tell stories about ecumenism never before published.