{"title":"Art-Engaged Theology: Confronting Silence","authors":"Lexi Eikelboom, Benjamin R. DeSpain","doi":"10.3138/tjt-2023-0048","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3138/tjt-2023-0048","url":null,"abstract":"As engagement with art is increasingly recognized as an exciting and accepted practice in theology, theologians are faced with questions concerning the purposes of such engagement and how best to undertake it. This article argues that engagement with art is not merely the purview of an esoteric subdiscipline known as “Theology and the Arts” but offers an opportunity for theologians to confront the humanity at the heart of their own work, including guilt, error, and corruption, which will enable progress toward the goal of greater intimacy and belonging. Taking seriously the idea that both our theological concepts and our intellectual habits have been shaped by social and material realities, this article asks how we ought to think about theological engagement with art given that we are prone to colonizing habits of thought that affect such engagement. By putting theologians including Willie Jennings and Emilie Townes in conversation with theories about art from T.J. Clark, Alva Noe, and James A. Noel, we ask how theologians might resist temptations to categorize art as theology's other or absorb it into its own concerns, both of which reflect colonizing habits of mind and inure theology against a genuine confrontation with art. We recommend a posture of silence, responsive to the silence of the painting itself, in which the theologian opens to self-reflexive questions about both the operations of their own imagination, creativity, imagery, silence, and more, as well as the implications for the theological concepts used to designate those realities.","PeriodicalId":41209,"journal":{"name":"Toronto Journal of Theology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2024-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141134156","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Editorial Recognition of Manuscript Reviewers","authors":"","doi":"10.3138/tjt-2021-2022","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3138/tjt-2021-2022","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":41209,"journal":{"name":"Toronto Journal of Theology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2024-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141134198","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Peter J. Leithart. Creator: A Theological Interpretation of Genesis 1","authors":"Nathan Alexander Scott","doi":"10.3138/tjt-2024-0003","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3138/tjt-2024-0003","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":41209,"journal":{"name":"Toronto Journal of Theology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2024-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141139701","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Philip G. Ziegler, ed. The Edinburgh Critical History of Twentieth-Century Christian Theology","authors":"Archie J. Spencer","doi":"10.3138/tjt-2024-0006","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3138/tjt-2024-0006","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":41209,"journal":{"name":"Toronto Journal of Theology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2024-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141138182","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Self-love on Social Media: A Theological Reflection by Means of Paul Tillich","authors":"Alberte Zerman Steffen","doi":"10.3138/tjt-2023-0045","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3138/tjt-2023-0045","url":null,"abstract":"This article considers whether a loving embodied self-relation is of theological relevance and the possibility of a metaphorical conception of self-love as an inherent part of faith by means of Paul Tillich read through a phenomenology with a strong awareness of human embodiment. Additionally, it reflects on whether a theological focus on true self-love sheds light on a predominant and larger problem of normativity in the relationship between self and the world.","PeriodicalId":41209,"journal":{"name":"Toronto Journal of Theology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2024-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141133777","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Theology in the University: What's Next?","authors":"Gilles Routhier","doi":"10.3138/tjt-2024-0009","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3138/tjt-2024-0009","url":null,"abstract":"Drawing on my leadership experiences in the academy, particularly as Dean of a theological faculty in a secular, public university (Université Laval), and my recent participation in the Synod on Synodality, I continue my reflections on the future of academic theology that I began in a Toronto Journal of Theology article on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of the Toronto School of Theology. I argue that drawing on the historical impetus of the creation of two Roman Catholic universities in 1852 (one in Quebec, the other in Ontario), theological institutions must think about social context and pertinence beyond the university. We cannot think abstractly about the development of our theological institutions. It would also be bad advice to consider it only by comparing them to other institutions around the world or by taking as a reference the criteria and strategies common to the development of university institutions. We should not exclude these approaches, but in this article I highlight the obligation to reflect in context; our institutions must never become detached from their social and ecclesial environment. After discussing the reasons that led to the creation of Catholic universities in Canada in the nineteenth century, the article highlights two challenges: the social progress of marginalized communities through access to university education, and the training of workers to the vineyard of the Lord, in particular the formation in synodality.","PeriodicalId":41209,"journal":{"name":"Toronto Journal of Theology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2024-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141140169","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Faith in a Troubled Church and a Fragmented World","authors":"W. Jeanrond","doi":"10.3138/tjt-2023-0047","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3138/tjt-2023-0047","url":null,"abstract":"In this article, I discuss faith in a troubled Church and a fragmented world. I begin by asking how faith works, in general terms, before exploring the potential of a critical faith praxis in the Church and the world of today. Finally, I shall propose to relocate Christian faith praxis in the orbit of a theology of love.","PeriodicalId":41209,"journal":{"name":"Toronto Journal of Theology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2024-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141130467","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Ronald J. Allen, ed. Preaching the Manifold Grace of God, Volume 1: Theologies of Preaching in Historical Theological Families","authors":"Wing Yi Wong","doi":"10.3138/tjt-2024-0005","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3138/tjt-2024-0005","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":41209,"journal":{"name":"Toronto Journal of Theology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2024-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141139687","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Toronto School of Theology: Theses Completed, Academic Year 2023–2024","authors":"","doi":"10.3138/tjt-40-1-thesis","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3138/tjt-40-1-thesis","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":41209,"journal":{"name":"Toronto Journal of Theology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2024-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141136747","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Participation in Artificial Intelligence: Toward a Tillichian Reading of AI-Produced Images","authors":"Eric Trozzo","doi":"10.3138/tjt-2023-0050","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3138/tjt-2023-0050","url":null,"abstract":"This paper argues that Paul Tillich's theology of art is an effective approach to assessing images generated by artificial intelligence (AI). Tillich's theology of art and concept of participation demonstrate its limits and provide a helpful supplement to the dominant approach of focusing on AI creativity and consciousness, particularly through the framework of philosopher Margaret Boden. In Tillich's theology of art, there is an existential experience of being grasped into participation in the ground of being through the artwork that comes through participation in the art. In participating in the art, one also participates in that artist's contextual answer to the question of ultimate meaning. This article finds that AI-generated images, on their own, lack intentionality and desire to express participation in the spiritual presence and so do not provide this \"religious style.\" Rather, the participation of a human artist crafting text prompts and curating the produced images is necessary along with the AI software.","PeriodicalId":41209,"journal":{"name":"Toronto Journal of Theology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2024-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141131064","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}