Elasticized Ecclesiology

Elasticized Ecclesiology PDF Author: Ulrich Schmiedel
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3319408321
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 319

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Book Description
This study confronts the current crisis of churches. In critical and creative conversation with the German theologian Ernst Troeltsch (1865-1923), Ulrich Schmiedel argues that churches need to be “elasticized” in order to engage the “other.” Examining contested concepts of religiosity, community, and identity, Schmiedel explores how the closure of church against the sociological “other” corresponds to the closure of church against the theological “other.” Taking trust as a central category, he advocates for a turn in the interpretation of Christianity—from “propositional possession” to “performative project,” so that the identity of Christianity is “done” rather than “described.” Through explorations of classical and contemporary scholarship in philosophy, sociology, and theology, Schmiedel retrieves Troeltsch’s interdisciplinary thinking for use in relation to the controversies that encircle the construction of community today. The study opens up innovative and instructive approaches to the investigation of the practices of Christianity, past and present. Eventually, church emerges as a “work in movement,” continually constituted through encounters with the sociological and the theological “other.”

Elasticized Ecclesiology

Elasticized Ecclesiology PDF Author: Ulrich Schmiedel
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3319408321
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 319

Get Book

Book Description
This study confronts the current crisis of churches. In critical and creative conversation with the German theologian Ernst Troeltsch (1865-1923), Ulrich Schmiedel argues that churches need to be “elasticized” in order to engage the “other.” Examining contested concepts of religiosity, community, and identity, Schmiedel explores how the closure of church against the sociological “other” corresponds to the closure of church against the theological “other.” Taking trust as a central category, he advocates for a turn in the interpretation of Christianity—from “propositional possession” to “performative project,” so that the identity of Christianity is “done” rather than “described.” Through explorations of classical and contemporary scholarship in philosophy, sociology, and theology, Schmiedel retrieves Troeltsch’s interdisciplinary thinking for use in relation to the controversies that encircle the construction of community today. The study opens up innovative and instructive approaches to the investigation of the practices of Christianity, past and present. Eventually, church emerges as a “work in movement,” continually constituted through encounters with the sociological and the theological “other.”

A Political Theology of Vulnerability

A Political Theology of Vulnerability PDF Author: Sturla J. Stålsett
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004543279
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 231

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Book Description
Vulnerability is at the core of the political drama of our time. Countering conventional approaches, this book presents human vulnerability as a source of political community and a potential for political agency in precarity. Analyzing Christian celebrations of Christmas and Easter in contexts of struggle, it shows how religious resources inspire precarious politics. Combining critical political theory, liberation theology, and lived religion, Sturla J. Stålsett sees in such celebrations a ‘political sacralization’ of vulnerability and a ‘dispossession of divinity.’

Christian Theology in the Age of Migration

Christian Theology in the Age of Migration PDF Author: Peter C. Phan
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1793600740
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 361

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Book Description
We are living in the "Age of Migration" and migration has a profound impact on all aspects of society and on religious institutions. While there is significant research on migration in the social sciences, little study has been done to understand the impact of migration on Christianity. This book investigates this important topic and the ramifications for Christian theology and ethics. It begins with anthropological and sociological perspectives on the mutual impact between migration and Christianity, followed by a re-reading of certain events in the Hebrew Scripture, the New Testament, and Church history to highlight the central role of migration in the formation of Israel and Christianity. Then follow attempts to reinterpret in the light of migration the basic Christian beliefs regarding God, Christ, and church. The next part studies how migration raises new issues for Christian ethics such as human dignity and human rights, state rights, social justice and solidarity, and ecological justice. The last part explores what is known as "Practical Theology" by examining the implications of migration for issues such as liturgy and worship, spirituality, architecture, and education.

T&T Clark Handbook of Public Theology

T&T Clark Handbook of Public Theology PDF Author:
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 0567692167
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 600

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Book Description
T&T Clark Handbook of Public Theology introduces the various philosophical and theological positions and approaches in the emerging discourse of public theology. Distinguishing public theology from political theology, as well as from liberation theology, this book clarifies central terms like 'public sphere', 'the secular', and 'post-secularity' in order to highlight the specific characteristics of public theology. Its particular focus lies on the ways in which much of public theology has established itself as a contextual theology in politically secular societies, aiming to continue the apologetical tradition in this specific context. Depending on what is regarded as the most pressing challenge for the reasonable defence of the Christian hope in liberal democracies, public theologians have focused on (social) ethics, ecclesiology, or Soteriology, with the aim to strengthen the virtues needed for democratic citizenship. Here, attention is being paid to Protestant, Catholic and Orthodox perspectives. The volume further illustrates the characteristics of the discourse by introducing the ways in which public theologians have responded to concrete challenges arising in the spheres of politics, economics, ecology, sports, culture, and religion. To highlight the international scope of the public theological discourse, the volume concludes with a summarizing overview of public theological debates in Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, North America and Latin America.

The Spirit of Populism

The Spirit of Populism PDF Author:
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 900449832X
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 339

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Book Description
This compilation explores the significance of religion for the controversies stirred up by populist politics in European and American contexts, engaging Jewish, Christian, and Islamic political thought. Moving beyond essentialist definitions of religion, the contributions offer critical interpretations and constructive interventions for political theology today.

Contemporary Christian-Cultural Values

Contemporary Christian-Cultural Values PDF Author: Cecilia Nahnfeldt
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 100039249X
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 216

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Book Description
This book reconstructs the connection between religion and migration, drawing on post-colonial perspectives to shed light on what religion can contribute to migrant encounters. Examining the resources and motives for hospitality as lived in Christian contexts in the Nordic region, it addresses the content of talk about religion in public discourse, the concept having become something of an empty signifier in debates surrounding migration. Multidisciplinary in approach, this volume demonstrates that religion is not, in fact, an empty signifier, but gains substance through practice and interpretation. Considering the undeveloped potentiality of religion and the manner in which the unseen religious perspective in secularity becomes manifest in practice, this volume will appeal to social scientists and scholars of religion with interests in migration, refugee studies, theology, and Christian practice.

Liquid Ecclesiology

Liquid Ecclesiology PDF Author: Pete Ward
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004347356
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 227

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Book Description
In Liquid Ecclesiology Pete Ward explores the theological contours of the turn to ethnography in the study of the Christian Church. There is an extended qualitative empirical case study examining the communicative practices of the contemporary evangelical Church.

Studying Congregational Music

Studying Congregational Music PDF Author: Andrew Mall
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 0429959656
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 373

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Book Description
Studying the role of music within religious congregations has become an increasingly complex exercise. The significant variations in musical style and content between different congregations require an interdisciplinary methodology that enables an accurate analysis, while also allowing for nuance in interpretation. This book is the first to help scholars think through the complexities of interdisciplinary research on congregational music-making by critically examining the theories and methods used by leading scholars in the field. An international and interdisciplinary panel of contributors introduces readers to a variety of research methodologies within the emerging field of congregational music studies. Utilizing insights from fields such as communications studies, ethnomusicology, history, liturgical studies, popular music studies, religious studies, and theology, it examines and models methodologies and theoretical perspectives that are grounded in each of these disciplines. In addition, this volume presents several “key issues” to ground these interpretive frameworks in the context of congregational music studies. These include topics like diaspora, ethics, gender, and migration. This book is a new milestone in the study of music amongst congregations, detailing the very latest in best academic practice. As such, it will be of great use to scholars of religious studies, music, and theology, as well as anyone engaging in ethnomusicological studies more generally.

Ecclesiology

Ecclesiology PDF Author: Mark W. Fenison
Publisher: Xlibris Corporation
ISBN: 1984521659
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 1166

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Book Description
The issue of the church is one of the most divisive issues in Christendom. In this volume, Professor Fenison restricts his studies to Pre–New Testament and New Testament uses of the Greek term ekklesia. He then evaluates the more modern universal invisible church theory in its relationship to the historical usage of ekklesia and in its relationship to the very fundamental basics of biblical soteriology. In particular, Fenison demonstrates that this post-biblical theory is not inconsistent with regard to the primary consequence of the fall (spiritual death/separation) and its only possible fundamental solution (restoration to spiritual union with God). Fenison argues that ecclesiology was never part of that solution prior to the cross and is no part of that solution after the cross. Fenison totally repudiates church salvation in every form but insists that salvation consists in its most fundamental essence as restoration to spiritual union with God, which is affected by the internalized empowered gospel as the Spirit’s creative Word (2 Cor. 4:6; Jam. 1:18; Pet. 1:23,25) without any relationship to the church or its ordinances in any way, shape, or form.

Religion in the European Refugee Crisis

Religion in the European Refugee Crisis PDF Author: Ulrich Schmiedel
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3319679619
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 318

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Book Description
This book explores the roles of religion in the current refugee crisis of Europe. Combining sociological, philosophical, and theological accounts of this crisis, renowned scholars from across Europe examine how religion has been employed to call either for eliminating or for enforcing the walls around “Fortress Europe.” Religion, they argue, is radically ambiguous, simultaneously causing social conflict and social cohesion in times of turmoil. Charting the constellations, the conflicts, and the consequences of the current refugee crisis, this book thus answers the need for succinct but sustained accounts of the intersections of religion and migration.