{"title":"Dreaming A New Earth: Raimon Panikkar and Indigenous Spiritualities Gerald Hall and Joan Hendriks","authors":"Robyn Reynolds","doi":"10.1177/1030570X14544929c","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/1030570X14544929c","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":82256,"journal":{"name":"Pacifica : journal of the Melbourne College of Divinity","volume":"1 1","pages":"234 - 235"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2014-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"82113799","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":"John Wesley, the Uniting Church, and the authority of Scripture","authors":"Glen O'Brien","doi":"10.1177/1030570X14544926","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/1030570X14544926","url":null,"abstract":"This article aims at contributing to the Uniting Church’s theological discourse by appealing to its Wesleyan heritage in order to establish a workable approach to the authority of Scripture. It takes note of attempts by both liberals and conservatives to hijack John Wesley’s opinions to defend idiosyncratic views of biblical authority for political and ecclesial purposes of their own. Rather than relying on Wesley’s ‘rhetorical flourishes’ on scriptural authority, this article considers his overall approach to argue that Wesley affirmed rigorous biblical criticism within the bounds of a generous orthodoxy. Recognizing that in the light of reader-response criticism, the Protestant principle of sola scriptura has limited value, it is argued here that some kind of traditioned reading of Scripture (such as ‘canonical theism’) is necessary and desirable. It is suggested that the old battle lines drawn between liberals and conservatives over the authority of the Bible are rapidly becoming the stuff of historical enquiry rather than being situated at the coalface of conflict in the Uniting Church (this is also the case in other mainline Protestant denominations). Instead, the area of dispute will lie in determining whether or not the church’s discourse clearly sets forth the Christian gospel. In such a ‘radical middle’, biblical authority will be recognized within a framework that embraces scholarly criticism of the text while allowing difference of interpretive opinion within a deeply traditioned commitment to ‘God’s universal, prevenient, transforming love’.","PeriodicalId":82256,"journal":{"name":"Pacifica : journal of the Melbourne College of Divinity","volume":"18 1","pages":"170 - 183"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2014-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"80474697","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":"Gospel Writing: A Canonical Perspective Francis Watson","authors":"Christopher J. Monaghan","doi":"10.1177/1030570X14544929","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/1030570X14544929","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":82256,"journal":{"name":"Pacifica : journal of the Melbourne College of Divinity","volume":"38 1","pages":"229 - 231"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2014-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"85334849","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":"On comparing the resurrection appearances with apparitions","authors":"G. Siniscalchi","doi":"10.1177/1030570X14544927","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/1030570X14544927","url":null,"abstract":"After building a historical case for the post-mortem appearances of Jesus, I discuss the current landscape of apparitions research within the field of parapsychology. A balanced comparison of these two visual phenomena indicates that there are many more differences than similarities that might obtain between them. Because the resurrection appearances were seen as unique irruptions of the divine in human history, apparitions cannot be used as the primary basis for understanding the nature of the appearances. By interacting with Dale Allison's references to apparitions and, by extension, the historical credibility of the resurrection of Jesus, the argument of this article seeks to reinstate the uniqueness of the resurrection appearances.","PeriodicalId":82256,"journal":{"name":"Pacifica : journal of the Melbourne College of Divinity","volume":"6 1","pages":"184 - 205"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2014-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"74879062","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":"The congregation in a pluralist society: Rereading Newbigin for missional churches today","authors":"Darren Cronshaw, Steve Taylor","doi":"10.1177/1030570X14549272","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/1030570X14549272","url":null,"abstract":"Lesslie Newbigin sought to engage the gospel with western culture. A re-reading of Newbigin’s work offers insights for mission and communicating the gospel in the 21st-century western world, including the need to grapple with religious pluralism. For Newbigin, ‘the only hermeneutic of the gospel, is a congregation of men and women who believe it and live by it’. How plausible is the Newbigin thesis? Can congregations today believe and live the gospel, especially in a pluralistic context? This article is an appeal for attentiveness to the place and priority of the congregation, for the sake of mission in our pluralist society. It is grounded in the experience of two congregational case studies, which opens up conversation with Newbigin’s The Gospel in a Pluralist Society. Methodologically, it applies Neil Ormerod’s understanding of ecclesiology as grounded in ‘historical ecclesial communities’ to test both the groundedness and plausibility of Newbigin’s congregational hermeneutic.","PeriodicalId":82256,"journal":{"name":"Pacifica : journal of the Melbourne College of Divinity","volume":"44 1","pages":"206 - 228"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2014-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"78152397","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":"Christian Worship: A Theological and Historical Introduction Glen O’Brien","authors":"G. Moore","doi":"10.1177/1030570X14544929a","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/1030570X14544929a","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":82256,"journal":{"name":"Pacifica : journal of the Melbourne College of Divinity","volume":"13 1","pages":"231 - 232"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2014-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"87121766","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":"For You Alone: Emmanuel Levinas and the Answerable Life","authors":"Terry A. Veling","doi":"10.1177/1030570X16682527","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/1030570X16682527","url":null,"abstract":"The works of Emmanuel Levinas, a survivor of the Nazi horror, are striking in the constancy of their thought and the strength of their appeal. We are not condemned to evil and hatred; rather, we are called to be-for-each-other. For You Alone explores the relational and religious quality of Levinas' work. Our lives are always twofold rather than \"one and the same\" A relational life is dependent on encounters that are revelatory. Revelation means that life is no mere sameness but is tied to the revelation of the other, to you. Here is transcendence par excellence. Here is what the name of God signifies, the relational and ethical bond that takes us outside ourselves toward the other in our midst. What could be more natural, more human, or more divine than to speak of the relational quality of life? An answerable life means that we are asked after, called, required. \"Here I am under your gaze\" Levinas writes, \"obliged to you, your servant. In the name of God\".","PeriodicalId":82256,"journal":{"name":"Pacifica : journal of the Melbourne College of Divinity","volume":"39 1","pages":"112 - 113"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2014-04-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"79537545","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":"Mission as the integrating principle of biblical and theological studies","authors":"Jacob Kavunkal","doi":"10.1177/1030570X14524368","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/1030570X14524368","url":null,"abstract":"This article argues that God’s mission to the world is the integrating principle of all biblical and theological studies. The Bible is the narration of God’s reaching out to the world, and theological education must synchronize the Christian to God’s agenda for the world, which requires a ‘postal-code’ interpretation of the Bible. Theological disciplines are not academic shareholders contributing to the academic industry. Rather, they must empower one to mediate the vision of Jesus for our history.","PeriodicalId":82256,"journal":{"name":"Pacifica : journal of the Melbourne College of Divinity","volume":"31 1","pages":"68 - 77"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2014-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"77600412","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":"The continuing conversion of the Australian Church: A missional conversation with Darrell Guder","authors":"Darren Cronshaw, S. Devenish","doi":"10.1177/1030570X14524366","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/1030570X14524366","url":null,"abstract":"The Christian church in Australia faces a challenging mission context. In our secular yet post-secular, post-Christian yet multi-religious society, Christianity is becoming increasingly marginalized. Christianity’s challenge is to rediscover its missional imperative through a process of innovative recalibration that is true to its founding apostolic gospel, and also reflects the ‘new’ cultural context in which it finds itself in 21st-century Australia. This article engages in a missional conversation with Darrell Guder, a seminal thinker in the Gospel and our Culture Network, seeking insights into how the global conversation on mission might apply the Australian context. Guder visited Melbourne, Australia in May–June 2012, during which time he challenged church leaders to rediscover the missional nature of Christianity. His was a summons to the continuing conversion of the Australian church, especially focusing on the need to re-imagine church around mission, reclaim the centrality of evangelism, confront the reductionism of the gospel and foster interdependence among congregations and with the global church.","PeriodicalId":82256,"journal":{"name":"Pacifica : journal of the Melbourne College of Divinity","volume":"17 1","pages":"78 - 96"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2014-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"82755299","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":"Metaphor or ‘better-for’? An appraisal of Sallie McFague’s ‘metaphorical theology’","authors":"Katherine J. Abetz","doi":"10.1177/1030570X14522001","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/1030570X14522001","url":null,"abstract":"Sallie McFague claims to base her ‘metaphorical theology’ on an amalgam of theories about metaphor. For this purpose she links C. S. Lewis’s understanding of the metaphorical origin of cognitive language with Colin Turbayne’s claim about the illusory propensity of metaphor. She also enlists Max Black’s illustration of metaphor as ‘screen’ and Paul Ricoeur’s position on the ‘is’ and ‘is not’ character of ‘metaphorical truth’. McFague’s discussion, however, omits Ricoeur’s critique of Turbayne. This article contends that McFague tends to misrepresent key theory about metaphor. It questions whether her position on metaphor is, as she asserts, similar to Ricoeur’s in terms of ontological reference and suggests a possible parallel between the position of Ricoeur and Lewis. McFague’s ‘hermeneutic of suspicion’ towards the metaphor ‘God as Father’ is argued to have a demythologizing effect on her notion of metaphor. Regarding her contention that some metaphors are better for our day, the article draws attention to a possible deconstructionist epistemology for the notion of ‘better’.","PeriodicalId":82256,"journal":{"name":"Pacifica : journal of the Melbourne College of Divinity","volume":"344 1","pages":"28 - 49"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2014-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"77147867","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}