Studies in Theology and Religion – serie

What is the significance of monotheism in modern western culture, taking into account both its problematic and promising aspects? Biblical texts and the biblical faith traditions bear a continuous, polemical tension between exclusive and inclusive perceptions and interpretations of monotheism. Western monotheism proves itself to be multi-significant and heterogeneous, producing boundary-setting as well as boundary-crossing tendencies, is the common thesis of the authors of this book, who have been collectively debating this theme for two years in an interdisciplinary scholarly setting. Their contributions range from the fields of biblical and religious studies, history and philosophy of religion, systematic theology, to gender studies in theology and religion.The authors also explain the particular contribution of their own theological discipline to these debates.

How does religion cope with changing situations? Are orthodoxy and liberalism really competing strategies? The essays in this volume argue three views. (1)Orthodoxy is not to be seen as the real and original form of a given religion, but as an idealized original form that should be construed as a construction in reaction to changes in time. (2) Over the ages, liberalism – despite its laudable strive for adaptation – has been less successful than generally assumed. This lesson from history can be quite important in view of the adaptation processes for Muslims in Western Europe. (3) Of great importance for the survival of religion seems to be a clear definition of the boundaries of religiously informed practices and ethics. Their recognisability and authenticity shall – when combined with a due lack of obtrusion – be of great influence for the ongoing acceptance of religion(s) in the public domain.

Violence is present in the very heart of religion and its sacred traditions – also of Christianity and the Bible. The problem, however, is not only that violence is ingrained in the mere existence of religions with their sacred traditions. It is equally problematic to realise that the icy grip of violence on the sacred has gone unnoticed and unchallenged for a very long time. The present publication aims to contribute to the recent scholarly debate about the interconnections between violence and monotheistic religions by analysing the role of violence in the New Testament as well as by offering some hermeneutical perspectives on violence as it is articulated in the earliest Christian writings.Contributors include: Andries G. van Aarde, Paul Decock, Pieter G.R. de Villiers, Ernest van Eck, Jan Willem van Henten, Rob van Houwelingen, Kobus Kok, Tobias Nicklas, Jeremy Punt, Jan G. van der Watt, and Wim Weren.

Early Christian Ethics in Interaction with Jewish and Greco-Roman Contexts focuses upon the nexus of early Christian Ethics and its contexts as a dynamic process. The ongoing interaction with Jewish, Greco-Roman or early Christian traditions as well as with the social-historical context at large continuously transformed early Christian ethics. The volume proposes a dynamic model for studying culture and its various expressions in a society composed of several ethnic and religious groups. The contributions focus on specific transformations of ethics in key documents of early Christianity, or take a more comparative perspective pointing to similar developments and overlaps as well as particularities within early Christian writings, Hellenistic-Jewish writings, Dead Sea Scrolls and Jewish inscriptions.

An interdisciplinary gender-sensitive approach toward perspectives on the everyday and the sacred are the hallmark of this volume. Looking beyond the dualistic status-quo, the authors probe the categories, textures, powers, and practices that define how we experience, embody, and understand religion and the sacred, their interconnection, but also disassociation with the secular. Contributions by an international group of feminist theologians and religious studies scholars aim to re-configure the study of both religion and gender: Angela Berlis, Anne-Marie Korte, Kune Biezeveld , Helga Kuhlmann, Maaike de Haardt, Akke van der Kooi, Dorothea Erbele-Kuster, Willien van Wieringen, Magda Misset-van de Weg, Ge Speelman, Mathilde van Dijk, Jacqueline Borsje, Hedwig Meyer-Wilmes, Goedroen Juchtmans, Alma Lanser and Riet Bons-Storm.

Many forms of present-day Western spirituality contribute to people’s well-being, whereas others have raised criticism. The study of these different forms is, however, complicated by their continuously diverging practices and ideas. By bringing to bear a multidisciplinary approach, the ten specialists of this volume are able to analyze diverse new instances of spirituality, e.g. in religious contexts (Buddhism, Christianity), popular use, organizations and enterprises, (alternative) health service, and works of art. Most contributions also discuss methods and theories. In their editorial chapters, Elisabeth Hense, Frans Jespers and Peter Nissen show the remarkable overlaps in the approaches, definitions and evaluations of the contributions in this volume and provide a theoretical framework. Both the fresh analyses and the theoretical reflections in this volume point the way to new approaches in this field of study.Contributors include: Jerry Biberman, Mark Elliott, Miguel Farias, Johan Goud, Paul Heelas, Elisabeth Hense, Frans Jespers, Hubert Knoblauch, Peter Nissen, Paul van der Velde

Stories have always been important in religion, but systematic explorations of the narrative dimensions of religion are more recent and interdisciplinary explorations of narrative approaches in theology and religious studies are scarce. Religious Stories We Live By paves the ground for these much needed interdisciplinary conversations. It first offers philosophical, psychological, and epistemological reflections on the importance of narrative approaches in the study of religion. The subsequent sections contain case studies and disciplinary overviews of narrative perspectives in biblical, empirical, systematic, and historical approaches in theology and religious studies. Combined, the contributions showcase the potential of narrative perspectives in bridging theology and religious studies, as well as descriptive and normative approaches. Narrative perspectives offer a fruitful common ground for the study of religion. Contributors include Angela Berlis, Marjo Buitelaar, James Day, Maaike de Haardt, Marieke den Braber, Luco van den Brom, Marjet Derks, Toke Elshof, Dorothea Erbele Küster, John Exalto, Ruard Ganzevoort, Joep van Gennip, Annelies van Heijst, Chris Hermans, Liesbeth Hoeven, Anne-Marie Korte, Edwin Koster, Marit Monteiro, Michael Scherer-Rath, Klaas Spronk, Piet Verschuren, Wim Weren, and Willien van Wieringen.

Religious Experience Revisited explores a dilemma which has haunted the study of religion since William James. Is religion rooted in experiences? Is religion rooted in expressions? How are experiences and expressions related? The contributors to this international and interdisciplinary compilation explore the possibilities and the impossibilities of a hermeneutics of religion. Combining theology and philosophy with biblical, cultural, historical and literary studies, they examine how religious experiences and religious expressions have been entangled in the past and in the present. These entanglements call for interdisciplinary conversations in which those who study experiences and those who study expressions can learn from each other in order to carve out important and instructive spaces for the study of religion.

Though the number of Christians in Western societies is declining, many areas of our daily life are still influenced by Christian thoughts, expressions and images, sometimes without people being aware of it. This volume is about Christ's descent into hell as it appears in The Apostles' Creed 'He descended into hell', the Apostles' Creed professes.But what are Christians who recite this Creed supposed to believe in when they profess their faith in the descent into hell? Or, to put the same question more poignantly, what is at stake if people deny the descent? Would it make any difference if we did not believe in the descent? How did the early Church interpret this belief? What influence has this article of faith had on contemporary theology and culture?Starting with a biblical view, the volume covers the history of theology by discussing the ideas of Augustine, the liturgy of the Early Church, the role of Christ's decent in Franciscan spirituality and in the theology of Thomas Aquinas. It also asks whether similar theological ideas are present in Judaism. In addition, it gauges the meaning of Christ's descent for today by reflecting on pastoral activities and on computer games. The volume concludes with a fundamental theological reflection which systematises and summarises all the material presented in this volume.These and other questions are discussed by theologians against the background of various disciplines: Biblical Studies, History of the Liturgy, Jewish Studies, History of Theology, History of Spirituality, Practical Theology, Cultural Theology and Systematic Theology.Contributors are: Frank Bosman, Toke Elshof, Paul van Geest, Harm Goris, Marcel Poorthuis, Gerard Rouwhorst, Marcel Sarot, William Marie Speelman, and Archibald van Wieringen.

Freedom of speech is a fundamental right in many societies, yet also highly contested. As a right, it can only be appreciated if its historical development is taken into account. Parrhesia offers case studies in freedom of speech, its understanding and exercise throughout history. They enable researchers and policymakers alike to gain an awareness of the complexities, challenges and benefits of freedom of speech. The cases that have been selected are from the field of religion and theology, yet exemplary in character and able to shed light on freedom of speech in other parts of society. Contributors are: Leon van den Broeke, Jan Krans, Silvia Castelli, Bert Jan Lietaert Peerbolte, Manfred Lang, Bastian Lemitz, Nils Neumann, Kyriakoula Papademetriou, Dirk Jan Schoon, and Peter-Ben Smit.

Rufus Jones’ promotion of mysticism and his novel formulation of the Inner Light, which saw God as an inherent part of human nature, were sweepingly influential within liberal Quakerism in the early 20th century and have had long-lasting effects on Quaker faith and practice. In spite of the importance of his ideas, however, they have received little critical attention. In Mysticism and the Inner Light, Helen Holt provides a systematic analysis of Jones’ thought in historical context, showing how he attempted to synthesize his own experience with aspects of the psychology of William James, the idealism of Josiah Royce, and liberal Christianity. She finds that because Jones presented his ideas informally, he is sometimes misinterpreted, especially regarding his views on Christ and humanism. The book draws on Jones’ extensive corpus and on unpublished archived letters.

This is a biography of Queen Berenice, the daughter of King Agrippa I, sister of King Agrippa II, wife of two kings and lover of the emperor designate Flavius Titus. A Jew of the 1st century, she witnessed some of the foundational events of her time like the emergence of Christianity and the destruction of the Second Temple in Jerusalem, is. She met and socialized with the most important people of her day - Philo the Philosopher (who was at one time her brother-in-law), Paul the Apostle (whose trial she witnessed) and Josephus the Historian who told part of her story.

“Unheil,” curse, disaster: according to German scholar Gerhard Kittel, this is the Jewish destiny attested to in scripture. Such interpretations of biblical texts provided Adolf Hitler with the theological legitimatization necessary to realizing his “final solution.” But theological antisemitism did not begin with the Third Reich. Ferdinand Baur’s nineteenth-century Judaism-Hellenism dichotomy empowered National Socialist scholars to construct an Aryan Jesus cleansed of his Jewish identity, building on Baur’s Enlightenment prejudices. Anders Gerdmar takes a fresh look at the dangers of the politicization of biblical scholarship and the ways our unrecognized interpretive filters may generate someone else’s apocalypse.

Jacob Boehme (1574-1624) was a wildly creative mystical writer whose extraordinary revelations have often been consigned to obscurity. In this original book, professor and therapist Glenn McCullough shows that Boehme is the source of one of modernity’s most influential movements: psychotherapy.Bringing clarity to Boehme’s revelations, and providing insights for scholars, therapists, and spiritual seekers, McCullough shows that Boehme furnishes the wider spiritual context for the pioneering therapeutic concepts of both Sigmund Freud and C.G. Jung, including their respective understandings of the unconscious mind and its remarkable potentials. For Boehme, the unconscious is defined by the figure of Sophia—divine Wisdom—and Sophia’s seven drives illuminate the nocturnal world of dreams, guiding the soul on a journey of expanded awareness and spiritual rebirth.While Boehme has often been dismissed as an esoteric outsider, this book locates him within the mainstream Western theological tradition of Augustine, while highlighting Boehme’s unique approach to the ecstatic dream world of Wisdom, and his importance for therapists today.

Through a geographic spread that surveys theological education in Central and East Europe, this volume provides a local glimpse into the state of theological education but also global reflection on the state and scope of theological education as a type of Christian mission and witness in light of secularization and globalization under the conditions of late modernity.

What does it mean when Christians confess that Jesus was ‘born of the Virgin Mary’? This volume of essays, written by an international group of scholars, approaches this question from various perspectives. From examining the Old Testament backgrounds to exploring the Virgin Birth in various traditions and cultures, each chapter offers fresh perspectives. The contributors explore topics ranging from the Pre-Nicene tradition to modern cinematic interpretations, and from the perspectives of renowned theologians to interfaith dialogue with Islam and Hinduism. Engaging and thought-provoking, this volume promises to illuminate the significance of the Virgin Birth across diverse religious and cultural contexts.

The authors explore theological anthropology through the different phases of human life. Beginning with birth and continuing through childhood to adulthood, to growing old and facing the closeness of death, the book looks into the roles of family, education, friendships, the religious community and its rituals. It considers challenges in living with a disability or illness, disruptions presented by social exclusion, experiencing violence, sexual abuse or having done wrong. It explores the possibilities and the difficulty of forgiveness and rehabilitation. It ends by inverting the perspective, looking at human becoming from the perspective of faith in the resurrection. Contributors are: Pavol Bargár, John Behr, Viorel Coman, Pavel Hošek, Petr Jandejsek, Václav Ježek, Michael Kirwan, Kateřina Kočandrle Bauer, Olga Lossky-Laham, Petre Maican, Ivana Noble, Tim Noble, Aristotle Papanikolaou, Athanasios N. Papathanasiou, Ian Randall, Zdenko Širka, Aleš Weiss, Pieter De Witte, Mujadad Zaman.

Is being human a given, or is it something one grows into throughout one’s life? Is possible to be and to become human without freedom, other people, nature, God? Offering interdisciplinary insights into such questions, this volume draws on the Bible and the classics of Christian traditions, as well as contemporary debates on individualism, social responsibility, gender, and ecology. It explores narratives about human identity, how being and becoming human features in rituals and symbols, and theological models used by Christian anthropology over the centuries It looks at the human in the landscape, culture, and society, at the church, and considers the nature of discernment, formulating and reformulating moral values, and wrestling with new challenges.Contributors are: Pavol Bargár, Kateřina Kočandrle Bauer, Viorel Coman, Denisa Červenková, Ondřej Fischer, Pavel Hošek, Petr Jandejsek, Ondřej Kolář, Tabita Landová, Ivana Noble, Tim Noble, Libor Ovečka, Aristotle Papanikolaou, Mireia Ryšková, Zdenko Širka, František Štěch, Martin Vaňáč, and Michaela Vlčková.First published in Czech as Kdo je člověk? Teologická antropologie ekumenicky by Karolinum, Prague, 2021.

In The World as Sacrament, Daniel Heide offers a bold new interpretation of Maximus Confessor’s ontology and cosmology. Approaching Maximus through the hermeneutic lens of Neoplatonism, the author argues for a doctrine of creation ex deo joined with the cosmic incarnation of the One Logos as the many logoi, or principles of creation. The result is a striking vision of sacramentality. The world is gift, the self-impartation of God in and through the Logos – a eucharistic cosmology which finds its completion in the anaphoric return of the cosmos back into God, mediated by the human as hierarch. This is the cosmic liturgy of St Maximus Confessor, the onto-dialectic of procession and return whereby God offers the gift of His own supra-essential Being for the life of the world – a gift freely offered back by the creature in gratitude (eucharistia) culminating in deification.