JOURNAL OF ECUMENICAL STUDIES最新文献

{"title":"Jesus Christ: The Heart of Paul's Gospel","authors":"Christian J. Einertson","doi":"10.1353/ecu.2022.a914309","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/ecu.2022.a914309","url":null,"abstract":"precis: Pauline theology has recently experienced a significant surge in interest within both Protestant and Roman Catholic theology, with scholars proposing different theological concepts that they find to be the heart of Paul’s gospel. Yet, none of these proposals regarding the heart of Paul’s gospel have proved as ecumenically useful as one might hope. This essay proposes a more ecumenically fruitful perspective on Paul’s gospel that sees not a “what” but a “who” at the center, namely, the person of Jesus. This proposal is not new, as one can see in the writings of major theologians of three great Christian traditions— Cyril of Alexandria, Martin Chemnitz, and Benedict XVI—which this essay presents before considering the ecumenical utility of such a christocentric approach.","PeriodicalId":43047,"journal":{"name":"JOURNAL OF ECUMENICAL STUDIES","volume":"9 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2023-12-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138690773","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"African Peacemaking Database: Beginning the World's First Grassroots Peace Index","authors":"Seth Kinzie, Geoffrey Manasseh","doi":"10.1353/ecu.2023.a907025","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/ecu.2023.a907025","url":null,"abstract":"precis: The African Peacemaking Database is a collection of knowledge intended to catalogue and nourish, for the very first time, traditional and daily practices of positive peace throughout the African continent. Existing peace and conflict databases focus on peace within the context of the government and its institutions, use data sources and definitions rooted in Western ways of knowing, and concentrate on measurement and analysis. Through research and partnerships over the past two years in Eastern and Southern Africa, we fill these gaps by partnering with the United Religions Initiative so that local, intercultural Pan-African leaders can lead Peace Mapping workshops in existing interfaith circles on a country-by-country basis. This essay discusses the implementation of an Indigenous Methodology rooted in local knowledge on a continental scale to harvest peace practices and traditions from women, youth, and elders so that community strengths of reconciliation, daily peacemaking, and rituals of music, dance, and storytelling are shared with the wider world.","PeriodicalId":43047,"journal":{"name":"JOURNAL OF ECUMENICAL STUDIES","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135144004","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Democratic Ideals for Political, Economic, and Social Development in a Pluralistic African Society: The Case of Kaduna State","authors":"Isaac Peter Maichiki, Samuel Victor Akwe","doi":"10.1353/ecu.2023.a907024","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/ecu.2023.a907024","url":null,"abstract":"precis: This essay discusses how democratic ideals will foster political, economic, and social development in a pluralistic African society, by demonstrating how Kaduna State can achieve such development. Democracy is essential for uniting people of diverse cultures, ethnicities, and religions identities to achieve common goals and objectives, resulting in developing the society politically, economically, and socially. In an ideal democracy, when an inclusive government is practiced, people are free to participate in politics whatever their class or social status, and citizens have control of the agenda. Debate is valuable and should be employed when there is an issue, as well as in reaching a decision at the end of a process. Everybody must have the right to bring forward arguments about style, method, and implementation in the debate process. An exploratory research design was used in this study. Since achieving political, economic, and social development is central in this essay, \"deliberative democracy\" theory was utilized. The essay considers democratic ideals, civic dialogue, and how to achieve political, economic, and social development through democratic ideals. Finally, recommendations are offered on how these ideals will be sustained in achieving such development.","PeriodicalId":43047,"journal":{"name":"JOURNAL OF ECUMENICAL STUDIES","volume":"129 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135143713","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"A Reimagination of Dialogue and Democracy in Africa via an Afrocentric Reading of the Parable of the Sower (Lk. 8:4–8)","authors":"Effiong Joseph Udo","doi":"10.1353/ecu.2023.a907019","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/ecu.2023.a907019","url":null,"abstract":"precis: One of the key principles of dialogue argues that participants in dialogue are to describe themselves and not to be described by others. Understandably, this is to avoid an incorrect characterization of others. Hence, by applying an Afrocentric lens to the Parable of the Sower, an African Christian self-description in relation to the concept and practice of dialogue and democracy in Africa is attempted in this study. This is needful since Africans have long suffered from the negative imagination and description by many Westerners. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, Africans were seen as a \"people without history\" and, lately, as a \"people without democracy,\" despite the existence of people-centered values and rich social systems in Africa. By adopting a qualitative research design that combines Afrocentric hermeneutics with appreciative inquiry, the study examines the Parable of the Sower and the themes of seed-sowing, fertile ground, and transformative growth through the lens of African cultural values and experiences. It draws on the concepts of African personhood and the social ethics of communalism and ubuntu to demonstrate how an Afrocentric reading of the parable can inform a reimagination of dialogue and democracy in Africa.","PeriodicalId":43047,"journal":{"name":"JOURNAL OF ECUMENICAL STUDIES","volume":"9 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135144008","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Introduction to the Conference Papers","authors":"Effiong J. Udo, David M. Krueger","doi":"10.1353/ecu.2023.a907018","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/ecu.2023.a907018","url":null,"abstract":"Introduction to the Conference Papers Effiong J. Udo and David M. Krueger The nexus between religion and democracy has hardly been adequately explored. Religious traditions for the most part do not speak for or against any political system. However, elements such as justice, equity, equality, freedom, and inclusiveness, which are some of the ideals of democracy, are broadly promoted in many religious traditions. Yet, many analysts have noted the complex and tensile relationship that has historically shaped religious and political domains, evidence pointing to the observation that democracy retreats wherever there is an uncritical relationship between politics and religion. In Africa, democracy was embraced in the late twentieth century due to its promises of freedom that Africans lost to \"forces of conquest and colonialism.\" In twenty-first-century Africa, what progress has been made, and what is the present state of democracy in the various African states? What roles are civil society organizations, particularly religious organizations, playing to deepen or weaken democracy in Africa? What do we know about religious institutions that are fighting or embodying authoritarianism, corruption, and abuse of human rights on the continent? The essays in this issue of J.E.S. are a product of the African Pluralism and Dialogue Virtual Conference held on December 8, 2022. This conference was one of the high points of Dr. Effiong Udo's sabbatical research initiative with the Dialogue Institute (D.I.), which he served between December, 2021, and December, 2022. Udo, a dialogue associate and consultant of the Dialogue Institute for Africa, served as a senior research fellow with the D.I., but much of his work was done in Africa and virtually as the nature of the project he initiated demanded, as well as dealing with immigration setbacks. Since 2016, Udo's association and work with the D.I. through its President, Prof. Leonard Swidler, has been productive. Along with William Cullinan, Olabisi [End Page 299] Animashaun, and their colleagues in Nigeria, Udo was instrumental to the D.I.'s collaboration with the University of Uyo in Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria. This collaboration led to the establishment of the Centre for Deep Dialogue and Critical Thinking at that university. The Pluralism, Dialogue, and Democracy in Africa Project was administratively directed by the Executive Director of the D.I., Dr. David Krueger. The project was supported by Dr. Mutombo Nkulu N'Sengha of California State University, Northridge, while D.I. board member William Cullinan and friend of the program Olabisi Animashaun provided initial funding for the project. With this support, Udo embarked on a research visit to several cities to expand African support. The project, which focused on the African Union 2063 Agenda track on Peace and Democracy, warranted the research tour—seeking to understand the presence, nature, and effects of religious bodies and dialogue and of peacebuilding organ","PeriodicalId":43047,"journal":{"name":"JOURNAL OF ECUMENICAL STUDIES","volume":"20 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135143714","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Religion, State, and Constitution in Ghana: Disputed Realms of Neutrality","authors":"Cosmas Ebo Sarbah","doi":"10.1353/ecu.2023.a907022","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/ecu.2023.a907022","url":null,"abstract":"precis: This essay discusses the neutrality of the role of the state and its apparatus or agencies in Ghana as it takes various steps to ensure that rights to religious practices are protected. It also examines the extent to which the noninterference by state institutions in internal affairs and activities of religious organizations is carried out in the role of the state in the building of the national cathedral and the organization of the annual pilgrimage to Mecca—as it ensures that no undue advantage is given to any of the country's religious bodies. Finally, it assesses abuse, or even perceived abuse, of religious rights in the public space (schools and hospitals) led by the religious minority and examines the measures put in place by the state to deal with the problem.","PeriodicalId":43047,"journal":{"name":"JOURNAL OF ECUMENICAL STUDIES","volume":"67 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135144007","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Light of Life Christian Group as a New Branch on Zimbabwe's Ecumenical Tree: Toward a New Theology of the Inner Church in Southern Africa","authors":"Misheck Mudyiwa","doi":"10.1353/ecu.2023.a907026","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/ecu.2023.a907026","url":null,"abstract":"precis: This essay explores the ecumenical character of a new branch on Zimbabwe's ecumenical tree. The Light of Life Christian Group is an eclectic parachurch organization, composed largely of members from such mainline churches as Roman Catholic, Anglican, Salvation Army, Methodist, Baptist, and Lutheran churches, among others. It examines the movement's new theology of the Inner Church/Inner Circle in light of Zimbabwe's heavily polarized ecumenical landscape. Fundamentally, the movement clings resolutely to the belief that being a member of the Inner Church/Inner Circle implies Christ Consciousness. It roundly downplays and rejects the outward forms of religion and emphasizes being true disciples and representatives of Christ on earth. The main argument is that, even though this is a new branch on Zimbabwe's ecumenical tree, it is under constant scrutiny and perpetual stigmatization, particularly from some drivers of key ecumenical bodies in Zimbabwe, which suggests and advances a theology that seeks to minimize denominational parochialism and prevent churches from monopolizing God, whose intricate and multifaceted nature is present in all religions, cultures, and denominations.","PeriodicalId":43047,"journal":{"name":"JOURNAL OF ECUMENICAL STUDIES","volume":"213 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135144005","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Dialogue of Social Encounter: Toward Transforming Interreligious Conflict in Nigeria","authors":"Mary Lilian Akhere Ehidiamhen","doi":"10.1353/ecu.2023.a907023","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/ecu.2023.a907023","url":null,"abstract":"precis: This essay investigates the causes of interreligious conflicts in Nigeria and the contribution of nonviolent communication to dialogue of social encounter toward achieving authentic religious freedom in Nigeria. The see, judge, and act methodology has been employed to examine the relevant literature drawn from Nigeria and beyond. Through seeing and judging, the essay engages in a critical evaluation of some literature that explains the causes of interreligious conflict and the situation of religious freedom in Nigeria. To move from theory to practice (act), it further examines nonviolent communication and explains how it can contribute to interreligious dialogue that promotes social encounter toward authentic religious freedom. It argues that greed, the struggle for economic resources, and violent communication—such as moralistic judgments, labeling, criticisms, and inadequate awareness of shared human needs—all contribute to interreligious conflicts. Additionally, nonviolent communication that is focused on identifying and satisfying human needs—the core of our common humanity—provides a skill set that promotes interreligious dialogue of social encounter and authentic religious freedom.","PeriodicalId":43047,"journal":{"name":"JOURNAL OF ECUMENICAL STUDIES","volume":"37 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135144006","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Democracy and Interreligious Dialogue in Africa: Prolegomenon for an African Political Theology","authors":"Mutombo Nkulu-N'Sengha","doi":"10.1353/ecu.2023.a907020","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/ecu.2023.a907020","url":null,"abstract":"precis: This essay reflects on the future of democracy in Africa and the role of interreligious dialogue in the process. Based on research in political forms of democracy and extensive ethnographic work in Africa, especially the Democratic Republic of Congo, the author contextualizes the need for this reflection on the impact of colonization on indigenous African Traditional Religions (ATR's) and consequent chaos, economic misfortune, and the collapse of ancestral values. The Western rights paradigm is contrasted with the virtues paradigm of non-Western views of governance. The Luba religious view of Bumuntu summarizes this virtues paradigm; a ruler seeks to provide for authentic personhood embodied in concepts of good heart, dignity, and self-respect with a goal of cooperation between fair governance and moral values based on religious views. Is democracy possible in Africa? Is it needed or wanted? There is no panacea, yet the essay claims that governance according to ethical rules and religion as a foundation for moral virtues and values requires interreligious dialogue. Religious liberty and tolerance as both a right in the Western sense and a practice over many years in African life provide a bridge between ATR's and democratic aspiration. Details are provided of how the Golden Rule appears in a variety of ATR's and in Asian cultures. When democracy and human rights are rooted in local and regional understandings of the intrinsic nature of human being and the reign of humanity as a whole, then \"Bulopwe I bantu\" (power is to take care of the people) becomes a pathway to establish genuine democracy in African societies.","PeriodicalId":43047,"journal":{"name":"JOURNAL OF ECUMENICAL STUDIES","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135143712","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Dialogue to Uphold the Ethos of Human Rights in a Democratic Society","authors":"Wendy Chinonyerem Benaiah","doi":"10.1353/ecu.2023.a907021","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/ecu.2023.a907021","url":null,"abstract":"precis: Nigeria is a religiously pluralistic state that has experienced bouts of religious conflicts. Recurrent incidences of interreligious conflict in Nigeria have impeded national development, as no sector of society is spared in the quagmire. Loss of lives and properties, relocation of businesses and families to safer places, and voting along religious lines are commonplace in Nigeria. In a country where religion permeates all facets of life and controls human actions in social, political, and economic spaces, the role of interreligious dialogue cannot be overemphasized. Indisputably, a comprehensive knowledge of other religions, with a balanced understanding of one's own religion, would pave the way for religious harmony amid existing religious traditions. Interreligious dialogue aims at fostering understanding to diminish existing widespread prejudice and discrimination that encourage phobia, distrust, and conflict among adherents of the various religions practiced in the country. To manage these conflicts, this essay amplifies the role interreligious dialogue can play in ensuring the protection of human rights, which is paramount in a democratic society. It employs empirical theories of interreligious dialogue to advocate for a change in the method of interreligious dialogue practiced in Nigeria, a change that differentiates missiology from interreligious dialogue. Rather than resuscitating past grievances, religious adherents actively involved in interreligious dialogue can enable peaceful coexistence and collaboration in advocating for good governance. In turn, good governance can expedite sustainable and dependable social institutions that guarantee the dividends of democracy.","PeriodicalId":43047,"journal":{"name":"JOURNAL OF ECUMENICAL STUDIES","volume":"9 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135144003","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}