Andreas Kristianto, Emanuel Gerrit Singgih, Stefanus Christian Haryono
{"title":"Intersex and Medical Health: a Construction of a Public Health Theology Paradigm for Sexual Polymorphism in Indonesia","authors":"Andreas Kristianto, Emanuel Gerrit Singgih, Stefanus Christian Haryono","doi":"10.1163/15697320-20241579","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/15697320-20241579","url":null,"abstract":"This article looks at intersex from a medical health perspective, with descriptions of gender and various forms of sex ambiguity. The discussion of the history of medical care for intersex individuals, particularly the model of ‘gender parenting’ created by John Money in the 1950s based on sexual dimorphism is still the dominant paradigm today. Through the paradigm of sexual polymorphism, medical theology centred on the experience of intersex bodily ambiguity has an holistic medicinal power that embraces the physical, mental and spiritual. This article establishes the theological case for models that see humans as a continuum from the creation of <jats:italic>ha’adam</jats:italic> (Gen. 1:27) through to an anthropology based on an understanding of sexual polymorphism.","PeriodicalId":43324,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Public Theology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2024-08-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142193140","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":"Beyond the Shadows: a Public Theology of Disability Inclusion","authors":"James Gould","doi":"10.1163/15697320-20241584","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/15697320-20241584","url":null,"abstract":"This paper presents a public theology affirming the normalization of adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Religious convictions about human equality and social justice contribute constructively to matters of public concern. While official principles of disability services do, operating practices often do not, accord with a theological vision of God’s desire for human flourishing. The analysis summarizes what is going on (many adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities experience restricted lives), employs socio-ecological theory to explain why (shortcomings at multiple levels of civil society disadvantage them), uses theology and sociology to specify what should be going on (they should be able to live ‘normal’ lives like non-disabled people) and proposes action steps (change in numerous social systems can promote normalization).","PeriodicalId":43324,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Public Theology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2024-08-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142193193","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":"Triangulated Challenges to Democracy: a Critical Voice of Public Theology to Counter Fear and Escalating Polarization in Indonesia","authors":"Danang Kurniawan","doi":"10.1163/15697320-20241506","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/15697320-20241506","url":null,"abstract":"This article seeks to unveil the triangulated forces which challenge contemporary democracy in Indonesia. Those forces are irrational fear, the problem of likeness (like and unlike), and the grip of Leviathanic force. Indonesia’s secular yet religious democracy struggles to deal with a real polarization amongst the citizens as a consequence. The present intention is to explore a critical view of a public theology that asserts hope and ‘knowing the other’ as a viable virtue for the Christian response. Drawing on Martha Nussbaum’s view of the monarchy of irrational fear and Jürgen Moltmann’s notion of hope and faith for the sake of a practice of ‘knowing others’, the article sketches the roots of this polarization and considers how Indonesians can recover their democracy from below through daily religious engagement.","PeriodicalId":43324,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Public Theology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2024-08-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142193313","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":"Binding Citizenship as a Bridge between Communities and Institutions: Dialogues between Christian Social Ethics, Political Philosophy and Social Sciences","authors":"Marianne Daher, Cristián Hodge, Antonia Rosati, Rodrigo López","doi":"10.1163/15697320-20241578","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/15697320-20241578","url":null,"abstract":"People are intrinsically relational beings and this need to interact is channelled into the establishment of communities, whose organization is often formalized into institutions. An opposition between both types of groups has been raised in the literature. This article seeks to critically analyze the relationship between communities and institutions, based on Christian social ethics, political philosophy, and social sciences through a bibliographic exploration and a transdisciplinary discussion. The concepts of community and institution are analyzed and citizenship connections with both concepts are discussed, considering two different traditions of citizenship, and its relationship with democratic culture and community building. To conclude, the concept of binding citizenship as a bridge between communities and institutions is proposed, and solidarity and liberty are considered as two principles that become integrated and can coexist in communities and institutions.","PeriodicalId":43324,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Public Theology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2024-08-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142193314","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":"On Critiquing Christian Nationalism: Two Recent Books on the Perils of Christian Nationalism","authors":"Michael F. Bird","doi":"10.1163/15697320-20241587","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/15697320-20241587","url":null,"abstract":"This article engages in a concerted review and interaction with two recent books about Christian nationalism by David Gushee and Nilay Saiya. It offers affirmation and critique with respect to their warnings about the dangers of such for Christian political witness. Each book is evaluated pro and con for the validity and accuracy of its critique of Christian nationalism: alternative options are also canvassed. The essay closes with six theses, inspired by Gushee and Saiya, for a Christian political theology today.","PeriodicalId":43324,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Public Theology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2024-08-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142193112","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":"The Crucified People: the Divinized African State and the De-divinized African People","authors":"Fidelis A. Olokunboro","doi":"10.1163/15697320-20241582","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/15697320-20241582","url":null,"abstract":"How are we to talk about a God who is revealed as love in a situation characterized by poverty and oppression, especially when such poverty is debilitating and vulgarizing? In addressing this question, this article will emphasize the essentiality of economic and anthropological categories in African political theology. It will proceed to explore the reality of the divinization of the African state as the trigger of African poverty. It will discuss the reality of African poverty as the de-subjectivation of African people, and the crucifixion theology of instrumentalized poverty in Africa. Finally, it will propose a theo-anthropological framework as the theo-political public thinking in Africa that will de-divinize the African state, divinize and subjectify the African person.","PeriodicalId":43324,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Public Theology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2024-08-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142193315","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":"The (Im)Possibility of Doing Public Theology in Korea?","authors":"Minseok Kim","doi":"10.1163/15697320-20241588","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/15697320-20241588","url":null,"abstract":"This article aims to examine the possibility and some challenges of doing public theology in Korea. While vibrant public theological discourse can be seen in many different contexts around the globe, the conservative Korean churches and theologians (which are the mainstream of Korean Christianity) remain largely indifferent to public theology. This is unfortunate, especially considering that the <jats:sc>DNA</jats:sc> of public theology can be seen throughout the history of Korean Christianity. As such, this article first examines how the early Korean church played a prophetic role and contributed to the wider society in the praxis of Christian faith that was socially engaged and publicly intelligible. This is then followed by a discussion on how the church was changed during the Cold War, the period of dictatorships, and the Industrialization era. It is especially important here to examine how a particular strand of Reformed theology from the United States, specifically that of J. Gresham Machen and Cornelius Van Til, was adopted. This had a profound influence on the reshaping of the role of the Korean church in public life. In conclusion, the article then urges the Korean church to engage in public theological discourse actively and extensively for the restoration of its prophetic role, its “bilingual” approach to faith praxis (navigating both contexts of the church and society), and to explore the rich diversity of the Reformed tradition, in order to recover its lost role as a public church.","PeriodicalId":43324,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Public Theology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2024-08-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142193316","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":"Speak So I May See You: Doing Public Theology in an Arab-Muslim Context","authors":"Eshak Estafanos","doi":"10.1163/15697320-20241570","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/15697320-20241570","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Public theology is a contemporary field that transcends mere trendiness; it stands as a vital imperative for the Arab Church. This imperative arises not only from the need for effective communication with its counterparts but also as a means to bridge the cultural chasm between the East and the West. Rooted in historical legacies and lived realities, Arab Christian theology boasts rich wellsprings of wisdom, yet it also confronts distinct challenges. While it shares commonalities with global public theology, the Arab Church’s presence in this pivotal region renders its public theology distinctive and profoundly significant.</p>","PeriodicalId":43324,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Public Theology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2024-05-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141149914","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 Theological and Contextual Exploration of James Torrance’s Covenant or Contract?","authors":"Hamish Maclean","doi":"10.1163/15697320-20241531","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/15697320-20241531","url":null,"abstract":"<p>The covenant concept is a central theme original to the Bible and is generally defined as a formal commitment between two parties. James Torrance’s theological definition of a covenant is employed in this article to highlight two critical characteristics. It then explores Torrance’s claim of a legacy of confusion between a covenant and a contract in theology and discovers that this ambiguity is true of some historical and current scholarship. Torrance’s insights are applied to a contentious contextual example that has played out in New Zealand around the Treaty of Waitangi: the case is made for identifying how Torrance’s theological understanding of a covenant can lead into positive steps forward and thus contribute to a public theology.</p>","PeriodicalId":43324,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Public Theology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2024-05-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141149945","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":"‘Obligatory Relegation’, ‘Willing Translation’, or ‘Unreserved Declaration’? The Place of Religious Ideas in Public Square Deliberation","authors":"Edmung Fong","doi":"10.1163/15697320-20241576","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/15697320-20241576","url":null,"abstract":"<p>This paper describes three basic positions that have been held in relation to the place of religious ideas and reasons in public square deliberation by outlining the arguments of major representatives of each position. The three positions are: ‘obligatory relegation’ (Robert Audi); ‘willing translation’ (John Rawls and Jürgen Habermas), and ‘unreserved declaration’ (Nicholas Wolterstorff and Charles Taylor). I conclude by offering an observation from the survey. Even as the question of the place of religious ideas in public square deliberation can be approached from either broader domains of the secularisation/post-secularisation of societies or the essence of liberal democracy, it is not the domain itself but rather specific conceptions of key ideas or notions within each domain that push the representatives to take the position that they do.</p>","PeriodicalId":43324,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Public Theology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2024-05-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141149948","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}