Theology as Construction of Piety

Theology as Construction of Piety PDF Author: David T. Ngong
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
ISBN: 1620321319
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 192

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Book Description
This book argues that a primary purpose of theological discourses is to construct piety or spirituality. If this is the case, theologians need to constantly inquire into the kind of piety or spirituality which their work may construct. Drawing from some important moments in the development of Christian theology, such as the development of the Christian doctrine of God in the early church, the role of material things in the Christianity of medieval Europe, some elements of contemporary postliberal theology, and the theology of inculturation in Africa, the book argues that theological discourses that appear to be orthodox and innocuous may actually construct forms of piety that may diminish human flourishing. The book therefore calls for an ethics of theology intended to ensure that the theologies we construct help in developing a piety that is conducive to human flourishing in the modern world, especially for Africans, who have suffered and continue to suffer unspeakable dehumanization. The book proposes that a theology that may contribute to the flourishing of Africans in the modern world is one that constructs an interdisciplinary spirituality that takes both the spiritual and the scientific seriously.

Theology as Construction of Piety

Theology as Construction of Piety PDF Author: David T. Ngong
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
ISBN: 1620321319
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 192

Get Book

Book Description
This book argues that a primary purpose of theological discourses is to construct piety or spirituality. If this is the case, theologians need to constantly inquire into the kind of piety or spirituality which their work may construct. Drawing from some important moments in the development of Christian theology, such as the development of the Christian doctrine of God in the early church, the role of material things in the Christianity of medieval Europe, some elements of contemporary postliberal theology, and the theology of inculturation in Africa, the book argues that theological discourses that appear to be orthodox and innocuous may actually construct forms of piety that may diminish human flourishing. The book therefore calls for an ethics of theology intended to ensure that the theologies we construct help in developing a piety that is conducive to human flourishing in the modern world, especially for Africans, who have suffered and continue to suffer unspeakable dehumanization. The book proposes that a theology that may contribute to the flourishing of Africans in the modern world is one that constructs an interdisciplinary spirituality that takes both the spiritual and the scientific seriously.

The Divided Mind of the Black Church

The Divided Mind of the Black Church PDF Author: Raphael G. Warnock
Publisher: NYU Press
ISBN: 0814794467
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 278

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Book Description
For decades the black church and black theology have held each other at arm's length. Black theology has emphasized the role of Christian faith in addressing racism and other forms of oppression, arguing that Jesus urged his disciples to seek the freedom of all peoples. Meanwhile, the black church, even when focused on social concerns, has often emphasized personal piety rather than social protest. With the rising influence of conservative evangelicalism, biblical fundamentalism, and the prosperity gospel, the divide has become even more pronounced. In The Divided Mind of the Black Church, Raphael G. Warnock, senior pastor of the historic Ebenezer Baptist Church, the spiritual home of the Reverend Dr, Martin Luther King, Jr., traces the historical significance of the rise and development of black theology as an important conversation partner for the black church. (dust jacket).

Piety, Power, and Politics

Piety, Power, and Politics PDF Author: Douglass Sullivan-Gonzalez
Publisher: University of Pittsburgh Pre
ISBN: 0822970503
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 200

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Book Description
Douglass Sullivan Gonzalez examines the influence of religion on the development of nationalism in Guatemala during the period 1821-1871, focusing on the relationship between Rafael Carrera amd the Guatemalan Catholic Church. He illustrates the peculiar and fascinating blend of religious fervor, popular power, and caudillo politics that inspired a multiethnic and multiclass alliance to defend the Guatemalan nation in the mid-nineteenth century. Led by the military strongman Rafael Carrera, an unlikely coalition of mestizos, Indians, and creoles (whites born in the Americas) overcame a devastating civil war in the late 1840s and withstood two threats (1851 and 1863) from neighboring Honduras and El Salvador that aimed at reintegrating conservative Guatemala into a liberal federation of Central American nations. Sullivan-Gonzalez shows that religious discourse and ritual were crucial to the successful construction and defense of independent Guatemala. Sermons commemorating independence from Spain developed a covenantal theology that affirmed divine protection if the Guatemalan people embraced Catholicism. Sullivan-Gonzalez examines the extent to which this religious and nationalist discourse was popularly appropriated. Recently opened archives of the Guatemalan Catholic Church revealed that the largely mestizo population of the central and eastern highlands responded favorably to the church’s message. Records indicate that Carrera depended upon the clerics’ ability to pacify the rebellious inhabitants during Guatemala’s civil war (1847-1851) and to rally them to Guatemala’s defense against foreign invaders. Though hostile to whites and mestizos, the majority indigenous population of the western highlands identified with Carrera as their liberator. Their admiration for and loyalty to Carrera allowed them a territory that far exceeded their own social space. Though populist and antidemocratic, the historic legacy of the Carrera years is the Guatemalan nation. Sullivan-Gonzalez details how theological discourse, popular claims emerging from mestizo and Indian communities, and the caudillo’s ability to finesse his enemies enabled Carrera to bring together divergent and contradictory interests to bind many nations into one.

Religion and Place

Religion and Place PDF Author: Peter Hopkins
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 9400746849
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 232

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Book Description
This unique collection highlights the importance of landscape, politics and piety to our understandings of religion and place. The geographies of religion have developed rapidly in the last couple of decades and this book provides both a conceptual framing of the key issues and debates involved, and rich illustrations through empirical case studies. The chapters span the discipline of human geography and cover contexts as diverse as veiling in Turkey, religious landscapes in rural Peru, and refugees and faith in South Africa. A number of prominent scholars and emerging researchers examine topical themes in each engaging chapter with significant foci being: religious transnationalism and religious landscapes; gendering of religious identities and contexts; fashion, faith and the body; identity, resistance and belief; immigrant identities, citizenship and spaces of belief; alternative spiritualities and places of retreat and enchantment. Together they make a series of important contributions that illuminate the central role of geography to the meaning and implications of lived religion, public piety and religious embodiment. As such, this collection will be of much interest to researchers and students working on topics relating to religion and place, including human geographers, sociologists, religious studies and religious education scholars.

Pietism, Revivalism and Modernity, 1650-1850

Pietism, Revivalism and Modernity, 1650-1850 PDF Author: Fred van Lieburg
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
ISBN: 1527563235
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 300

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Book Description
Pietism can be understood either as a specific German theological tradition emanating from late seventeenth-century reformers as Spener and Francke or as a wider range of practical piety characterising early modern movements as Protestant Puritanism and Methodism as well as Catholic Jansenism. Trying an inclusive definition, an international network programme was set up, resulting in a first conference in the Netherlands in 2004, which addressed the question whether Pietism was to be seen as a consequence of or a reaction to confessionalisation in the Reformation era. A similar approach was chosen for a second conference, held in the Swedish university town of Umeå on November 17-18, 2005. Should Pietism be perceived as a promoter of or a reaction against modernity? Are revivals and awakenings to be seen as inherent components of Pietism? Or should they rather be viewed as new sociological phenomena integrated into Pietism on a later stage? Which components of pious theology and practice were applied and what function did they serve in clerical and civil discourse? Either way, how do revivals relate to Pietism, and how do they relate to Enlightenment? This volume presents the proceedings of an inspiring conference, taking a further step in the ‘globalisation’ of Pietism studies, as is demonstrated here in particular by the power of research in the Nordic area. Above all, this collection of papers helps to understand Pietism and revivalism as attempts to resist the breakthrough of secularizing tendencies in the modern world. While doing so, they themselves at the same time were modern in building up a counteroffensive of rechristianization, using all contemporary means of communication and organization in the public sphere, adapting their own traditions to new political and cultural contexts, and creating constructions of the religious past.

Drama of the Divine Economy

Drama of the Divine Economy PDF Author: Paul M. Blowers
Publisher: OUP Oxford
ISBN: 0199660417
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 441

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Book Description
An introduction to the multiplex relation between Creator and creation as an object both of theological construction and religious devotion in the early church. The book argues that patristic commentators were motivated less by cosmological concerns than the desire to depict creation as the enduring creative and redemptive strategy of the Trinity.

The Culture of Theology

The Culture of Theology PDF Author: John Webster
Publisher: Baker Academic
ISBN: 1493419900
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 176

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Book Description
John Webster, one of the world's leading systematic theologians, published extensively on the nature and practice of Christian theology. This work marked a turning point in Webster's theological development and is his most substantial statement on the task of theology. It shows why theology matters and why its pursuit is a demanding but exhilarating venture. Previously unavailable in book form, this magisterial statement, now edited and critically introduced for the first time, presents Webster's legendary lectures to a wider readership. It contains an extensive introductory essay by Ivor Davidson.

A Semiotic Approach to the Theology of Inculturation

A Semiotic Approach to the Theology of Inculturation PDF Author: Cyril Orji
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
ISBN: 1498200753
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 260

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Book Description
This book argues that though it is a difficult and delicate task, inculturation is still a requisite demand of a World Church and that without it the church is unrecognizable and unsustainable. The book also suggests that the past failures of inculturation experiments in Africa can be overcome only by critically applying the science of semiotics, which can serve as an antidote to the nature of human knowing and reductionism that characterized earlier attempts to make Christianity African to the African. Drawing from the semiotic works of C. S. Peirce, Clifford Geertz, and Bernard Lonergan, the book shows why semiotics is best suited to an African theology of inculturation and offers ten pinpointed precepts, identified as "Habits," which underline the attentiveness, reasonableness, and responsibility required in a semiotic approach to a theology of inculturation. The "Habits" are also akin to the imperatives inherent in the notion of catholicity--that catholicity is not identified with uniformity but with reconciled diversity, and also that catholicity demands different forms in different places, times, and cultural settings.

The Matter of Piety

The Matter of Piety PDF Author: Ruben Suykerbuyk
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004433104
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 452

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Book Description
The Matter of Piety provides the first in-depth study of Zoutleeuw’s exceptionally well-preserved pilgrimage church in a comparative perspective, and revaluates religious art and material culture in Netherlandish piety from the late Middle Ages through the crisis of iconoclasm and the Reformation to Catholic restoration. Analyzing the changing functions, outlooks, and meanings of devotional objects – monumental sacrament houses, cult statues and altarpieces, and small votive offerings or relics – Ruben Suykerbuyk revises dominant narratives about Catholic culture and patronage in the Low Countries. Rather than being a paralyzing force, the Reformation incited engaged counterinitiatives, and the vitality of late medieval devotion served as the fertile ground from which the Counter-Reformation organically grew under Protestant impulses.

Piety and Responsibility

Piety and Responsibility PDF Author: John N. Sheveland
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317080912
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 235

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Book Description
This book analyzes the writings of Karl Rahner, Karl Barth, and Vedanta Desika to disclose how each construes "piety" and "responsibility" as integral to each other. Each theologian expresses a fundamental unity of love of God and love of neighbour. Sheveland explores this unity in ecumenical and interreligious frameworks, showing how these authors privilege theology as practice, enactment, or simply as ethical. He uses the Renaissance genre of musical polyphony as a methodological tool by which to explore the aesthetic quality and the similarity-in-difference of the theological voices being compared. Polyphony's application to comparative theology includes the avoidance of caricature, domestication, and antagonism. In place of these is offered a fundamentally aesthetic paradigm by which to hear theological voices in terms of their unity-in-distinction.