|
|
| AUSTRALASIAN THEOLOGICAL STUDIES |
 |
|
|
| AUSTRALASIAN THEOLOGICAL STUDIES |
|
|
|
Volume 14, Number 2, June 2001 Contents, Abstracts, Notes on Contributors
Articles FRANS JOZEF VAN BEECK, "Born of the Virgin Mary": Toward a Sprachregelung on a Delicate Point of Doctrine 121 Abstract: This essay offers an interpretation of the traditional catholic teaching that "Jesus Christ, conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit, was born of the Virgin Mary". The author reviews recent exegesis and theology, then revisits the tradition of the church, then discusses the contrast between the physiological "facts" involved in human conception as they were understood in the classical periods – and thus at the place and time of the composition of the infancy narratives – and the accepted modern, scientific account of the same "facts". He argues that neither the New Testament nor the Church teaches that Jesus’ virginal conception is a cosmological miracle: rather this is a conclusion of the data of the faith, not an article of faith in and of itself. This should guide our speech in ministry.
MARTIN SUTHERLAND, "Bringing Their Gods in Their Hands": Job and Absolute Orthodoxy 144 Abstract: Orthodoxies of all sorts can assume an unhealthy power. This essay proposes a reading of Job that discovers a challenge to the role of dogma. The story demonstrates the failure of the friends’ rigid adherence to the sapiential orthodoxy of retribution and reward. It is suggested also that a similar censure of religious practice is implied. Job’s integrity is not confirmed through wisdom or cultic ritual but in meeting YHWH. An essential twist is that, if placed within a framework of encounter, orthodoxy can, after all, play a valid role.
JUDITH E. MCKINLAY, What do I do with Contexts? A Brief Reflection on Reading Biblical Texts with Israel and Aotearoa New Zealand in Mind 159 Abstract: How does one "do" biblical studies contextually? If I begin by asking who am I, where am I situated, and what are the communities that have formed and continue to form who I am, what difference will this make to the way in which I "do" my biblical studies? This paper seeks to explore the issues that an engagement with texts which have their own contexts and interests brings for a Pakeha reader from Aotearoa New Zealander, recognising that this is not an easy or comfortable task, but an enterprise that continually raises questions and stretches boundaries.
JOHN MANSFORD PRIOR, Portraying the Face of the Nazarene in Contemporary Indonesia: Literature as Frontier-Expanding Mission 172 Abstract: Religious conflict is a key element in the ongoing turmoil in Indonesia. Reconciliation calls for authentic yet open religious identities. This essay introduces examples of Christian literature by socially engaged activists and politically aware mystics. These authors are creating a new language in which to re-picture the Jesus of the Gospels as authentically Asian at the heartbeat of popular Indonesian culture.
THOMAS G. GRENHAM, Interculturation: Exploring changing Religious, Cultural, and Faith Identities in an African Context 191 Abstract: Inculturation, as a theological concept, needs more understanding. An improved understanding suggests invoking the term interculturation to describe the dialogical process between Christian religion and other cultures with diverse religious worldviews. This article suggests that evangelisation and educating in faith encompasses a mutual reciprocal partnership between religious and non-religious cultures in order that the gospel can transform them to reveal God’s vision for humankind. This vision is manifested for Christians in the Reign of God. The Turkana nomads of Kenya are a case study in which an exploration of religious interculturation takes place to effect significant changes in Christian and Turkana religious identity. The gospel is proclaimed through dialogue and witness that expresses itself through appropriate cultural materials that have the capacity for transcending the particularity of cultures. The article concludes with some reflections on the implications of interculturation for worldwide religious education.
JOSEPH A. FITZMYER, The Dead Sea Scrolls and Christian Origins: Studies in the Dead Sea Scrolls and Related Literature Mark Harding 207
PHILLIP J. CUNNINGHAM, A Believer’s Search for the Jesus of History Merrill Kitchen 210
FRANK THIELMAN, The Law and the New Testament: the Question of Continuity Vic Pfitzner 212
ANDREAS PANGRITZ, Karl Barth in the Theology of Dietrich Bonhoeffer Bruce Barber 215
GREGORY BAUM (ED.), The Twentieth Century: A Theological Overview Bruce Duncan 217
BERNARD LONERGAN, Grace and Freedom: Operative Grace in the Thought of St Thomas Aquinas Neil Ormerod 220
DONALD B. COZZENS, The Changing Face of the Priesthood Gerard Kelly 222
DARRELL L. GUDER, The Continuing Conversion of the Church Peter Janssen 225
RODGER CHARLES, Christian Social Witness and Teaching: The Catholic Tradition from Genesis to Centesimus Annus. Volume 2: The Modern Social Teaching Contexts Bruce Duncan 228
JOHN L. ALLEN JR., Cardinal Ratzinger: the Vatican’s Enforcer of the Faith Bruce Duncan 232
KEVIN F. BURKE, The Ground Beneath the Cross: The Theology of Ignacio Ellacurìa David Pascoe 236
WALTER WINK (ED.), Homosexuality and Christian Faith: Questions of Conscience for the Churches John Henley 238
THEOLOGICAL-HISTORICAL COMMISSION FOR THE GREAT JUBILEE OF THE YEAR 2000, God, the Father of Mercy Michael A. Kelly 240
JAMES HOGAN, Crossways: Forming Ourselves in the Mind of Christ Michael A. Kelly 241
RUTH C. DUCK AND PATRICIA WILSON KASTNER, Praising God: The Trinity in Christian Worship Patrick Negri 243 FRANZ JOSEF VAN BEECK S.J., a native of the Netherlands, has lived, learned and taught since 1968 in the United States, first at Boston College and most recently at Loyola University, Chicago, where he is now a senior professor. He is the author of God Encountered: A Contemporary Systematic Theology (Collegeville MN: The Liturgical Press), of which five instalments have seen the light, with three more in the darkness of conception and incubation.
MARTIN SUTHERLAND is Academic Dean at Carey Baptist College in Auckland, New Zealand. He lectures in Systematic Theology at the University of Auckland and is editor of the New Zealand Journal of Baptist Research.
JUDITH MCKINLAY teaches biblical studies in the Department of Theology and Religious Studies at Otago University, New Zealand. Her current interests focus on the intersections of feminist and postcolonial readings of the Bible.
JOHN PRIOR, a member of the Society of the Divine Word (SVD) and missiologist, has worked in Indonesia since 1973. Based at St Paul’s Major Seminary Ledalero in Flores, he is Vice Chairman of the Justice and Peace Commission of the Indonesian Bishops’ Conference and a member of the Theological Commission of the same Conference. He is a Consultor on the Pontifical Council for Culture and is currently Secretary of Candraditya Research Centre for the Study of Religion and Culture, Maumere, Flores-NTT, Indonesia.
THOMAS G. GRENHAM S.P.S. is an Irish missionary priest who has lived and ministered in Kenya for ten years, particularly among the Turkana people of the Northwest. He is currently pursuing doctoral research at the Institute of Religious Education and Pastoral Ministry at Boston College, Massachusetts. |