{"title":"Rousseau’s Contribution to Public Theology","authors":"Jae Yang","doi":"10.1163/15697320-20240115","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/15697320-20240115","url":null,"abstract":"<p>This article argues that Jean-Jacques Rousseau can be seen as a public theologian by analyzing two well-known treatises. It draws on the Latin root of the concept of the ‘public’, in order to underscore the anthropology and sociology of public life. The article argues that Rousseau is a public theologian as his public policy of social organization, presupposes anthropological and sociological views of humanity that parallel views found in Christian theology.</p>","PeriodicalId":43324,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Public Theology","volume":"43 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2024-03-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140116836","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":"Alone and Naked: Reading the Torture of Jesus alongside the Torture of Miriam Leitão","authors":"David Tombs","doi":"10.1163/15697320-20230102","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/15697320-20230102","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Recent biblical scholarship has called for more careful and detailed attention to the experiences of torture victims to better understand the crucifixion of Jesus (Menéndez- Antuña 2022). To this end, this article examines the torture of Miriam Leitão, one of Brazil’s most prominent journalists. Leitão’s torture in 1972 is attested in the report <em>Brasil: Nunca Mais</em> (1985), compiled by the Archdiocese of Sao Paulo, which records that she was left in a dark room with a boa constrictor. In 2014 Leitão disclosed in an interview that during her time with the snake she was naked. I argue Leitão’s account of being ‘alone and naked’ offers insights into the repeated stripping of Jesus in the <em>praetorium</em> in Matthew 27:26–31, and his forced nudity on the cross. Recognising crucifixion as torture helps towards understanding and naming the mocking of Jesus as sexual abuse.</p>","PeriodicalId":43324,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Public Theology","volume":"17 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2023-12-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139052794","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":"Liveability at Risk: Rehearsing a Public Theology in the Anthropocene","authors":"Clive Pearson","doi":"10.1163/15697320-20230110","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/15697320-20230110","url":null,"abstract":"<p>It is now recognized that the majority of people who will be adversely affected by climate change will live in cities. It is time for a public theology to explore how its resources might be put to use in the service of extreme cities in the era of the Anthropocene. The city of Sydney provides a rather surprising case study for such. Through 2019/2020 it was subject to succession of extreme heat, fire in its surrounds, followed by the pandemic and then five floods. It had just been deemed to be the world’s third most liveable city. In these matters theology is not the lead discipline. It is seldom invoked and invited to be placed along many other fields of knowledge in this knot of transdisciplinary challenges. It has been claimed that the future in the Anthropocene is likely to be ugly and cities will be marked by precarity. It is time for a public theology to consider the potential plight of cities and develop ahead of time – in ordinary time – a pattern of understanding and moral practice. For that to be possible it is critical for such a theology to heed the theoretical work being done in the fields that comprise an Earth System science.</p>","PeriodicalId":43324,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Public Theology","volume":"44 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2023-12-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139052890","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":"From Consumption to Communion: The Ecclesial Role of Public Theologians in Cultivating a Livable City","authors":"Dylan Parker","doi":"10.1163/15697320-20230103","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/15697320-20230103","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Urbanism has become the dominant form of human dwelling, giving rise to the concept of livability, accompanied by livability indexes and city rankings. These reports provide brief bragging rights and marketing opportunities for high-ranking cities while glossing over the complex realities and inherent dangers of urban life. The issues surrounding livability rankings reveal corrupted anthropologies that prioritize the ways that one can consume a place rather than the cultivation of communities that are mutually reinforcing in their flourishing. Public theologians must work at the level of theological imagination to reclaim a vocational anthropology that places participation with God in the cultivation of community at the center of what it means to be made in the Image of God. In order to accomplish this fundamental shift, a significant and sometimes overlooked role for public theologians in the world today is serving ecclesial communities in facilitating this imagination through liturgical formation.</p>","PeriodicalId":43324,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Public Theology","volume":"31 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2023-12-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139052841","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":"Cemeteries as Spaces of Interreligious Encounter? The Use of Different Types of Neutrality in the Context of Graveyards in Scandinavia","authors":"Ryszard Bobrowicz, Jakob Wirén","doi":"10.1163/15697320-20230106","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/15697320-20230106","url":null,"abstract":"<p>In Scandinavia, the loss of members in established (or formerly established) churches, the rise of unaffiliated, and diverse migration led to a need for new approaches to historically Christian spaces. To create all-inclusive spaces, the idea of neutrality has been adopted. Among others, burials, and cemeteries, which are still mostly run by the national churches, have been affected by this effort. The use of neutrality in this context, however, begs the question: neutral with regard to what or to whom? This article explores the concept of neutrality in Scandinavia and studies three cases to see how it works in practice. These cases include new burial and graveyard laws in Norway, the idea of a neutral ceremony room in Denmark, and the introduction of a neutral cemetery section in Sweden.</p>","PeriodicalId":43324,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Public Theology","volume":"109 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2023-12-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139052895","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":"Theology from the Suburbs: The Challenge of Life for the City as a Whole","authors":"Cobus G.J. van Wyngaard, Marius Louw","doi":"10.1163/15697320-20230109","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/15697320-20230109","url":null,"abstract":"<p>This article seeks to interrogate critically and problematize the silence on the suburb in urban theology: in the process the article seeks to illustrate the importance of the suburb through examining it considering the soteriology underpinning apartheid spatial planning and its persistent quasi-soteriological envisioning of the good life in the ongoing spatial imagination of the South African city. While this proposal does not present a fully developed contextual or public theology in response to the complex place of the suburb in the city, it highlights the persistence of this silence and illustrates key theological questions that could underpin such a focus in the future.</p>","PeriodicalId":43324,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Public Theology","volume":"32 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2023-12-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139054261","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":"Living beyond Fear: The Ecology of Relationships as the Foundation of the Common Good","authors":"Susana Vilas Boas","doi":"10.1163/15697320-20230104","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/15697320-20230104","url":null,"abstract":"<p>In this article I will highlight some of the most harmful consequences of Covid-19 with respect to interpersonal relationships. I will argue that, as in a pandemic period, it is fear that continues to guide these relationships, and it is urgent to enter into a dynamic of reconciliation for the real healing of humanity. Furthermore, I will defend the need for an ecology of relationships so that the common good can be a reality. Interpersonal relationships and, inherently, the authenticity of human nature are crucial for an integral ecology, since it takes into account both human nature and natural nature. Thus, it will not be possible to think about safeguarding ecosystems, or even safeguarding the planet, if this reflection is not based on the truth of the human essence and on how human action – inside and outside the pandemic context – determines and shapes the reality in which we are inserted and of which we are part.</p>","PeriodicalId":43324,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Public Theology","volume":"76 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2023-12-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139052898","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":"Secularism under Dispute: Towards Agonistic, Pluralistic, and Democratic Politics. A Latin American Perspective","authors":"Nicolás Panotto","doi":"10.1163/15697320-20230105","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/15697320-20230105","url":null,"abstract":"<p>This article introduces some discussion on the limitations of the distinction between <em>laicidad</em> and secularization in Latin America (and to a lesser extent, the notion of religious freedom), mainly highlighting the problem of the colonial origin of these conceptions and their relationship with the liberal hegemonic political framework of the field. The paper’s thesis is that the boundaries for achieving a secular context in the region are not only connected to the lack of secular policies but to the application of limited concepts on the separation between church and state, and the impact of this emphasis on a reductionist vision of the religious diversity phenomenon and its link with the socio-political processes of the region. Our propose, finally, is to review these ideas in the light of the concept of radical democracy, and the contribution of this category in the broadening of the processes of institutionalization of religious identity configurations. We will take as an example of application the debates raised by the Pavez vs. Chile case in the Inter-American Court, resolved in the year 2021.</p>","PeriodicalId":43324,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Public Theology","volume":"10 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2023-12-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139053009","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 Practice of Pluralism: How Ritual Strengthens Democratic Politics","authors":"Joel Gillin","doi":"10.1163/15697320-20230094","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/15697320-20230094","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract This article argues that ritual can play a positive role in democratic politics in conditions of pluralism. It situates discussions of ritual and pluralism in the context of anthropological and social theory. It examines two insights scholars have made with regards to ritual that make it both compatible with and enabling of pluralism: ritual creates cohesion without agreement and a ‘subjunctive’ space for managing ambiguity. Finally, it develops an account of how these important social benefits of ritual are connected to a democratic pluralist politics, especially its formal, institutional dimensions. Drawing on the work of Luke Bretherton and Chantal Mouffe, it argues that ritual can strengthen the informal dimensions of citizenship and thus affective bonds toward the political community. The claim is also made that ritual constructs shared discourse by creating forms of life from which agreement can emerge in discursive political contexts.","PeriodicalId":43324,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Public Theology","volume":"78 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-10-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135919595","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 Works of Alan Richardson as a Prototype Public Theology","authors":"Terence George Root","doi":"10.1163/15697320-20230095","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/15697320-20230095","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Public theology today is a discipline engaging with an ever-growing array of publics, seeking to view their various social, political and cultural issues through a theological lens. In this article I will argue that the discipline has often failed to pay attention to earlier work which can claim to be antecedent of the genre. To evidence this claim I will describe and contextualise the work of Alan Richardson in mid twentieth-century Britain as a pragmatic endeavour responding to a developing public antipathy towards Christian beliefs and adherence which can be viewed as a prototype public theology. I will suggest that engaging with Richardson’s work perceived as an antecedent of public theology will add praxis to contemporary debates focused on theory, definitions and purposes.","PeriodicalId":43324,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Public Theology","volume":"39 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-10-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135923310","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}