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| AUSTRALASIAN THEOLOGICAL STUDIES |
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| AUSTRALASIAN THEOLOGICAL STUDIES |
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Volume 15, Number 3, October 2002 Contents, Abstracts, Notes on Contributors Articles
Abstract: Robinson Crusoe reflects a theological world in transition – from Protestant piety to a world of “Enlightenment Man” colonising all under a benevolent (deist) Providence. Hence, the story depicts two forms of providence, pietist and deist, vying for dominance, yet never separable in Crusoe’s experience. Further bifurcating tensions surface after a significant turning point in the narrative – the discovery of an enigmatic footprint in the sand. This discovery is antithetical to Crusoe’s residue of Puritan sensibilities – with its utter trust in God’s sovereignty, and it is incommensurate with the sensibilities of Enlightenment Man – with his circum-scribed world of reason. Discovery of the footprint exposes an antipathy to the other, which becomes a hallmark of modern individuality, propriety, and counter-inventiveness under the rubric of Providence. The story implicitly calls for a further theological dimension, that neither pietist nor rational sensibilities are able to deliver, which can open possibilities of inventive providence in the face of alterity.
Abstract: The quest for an Australian theology has given rise to significant debate about methodology and the significance of the cultural context for any theological work. There are at least three different ways in which theology can attend to its context. Each of these gives rise to specific difficulties. A recent debate between Tony Kelly and Geoffrey Lilburne suggests a stalemate about methodology. Central to each approach is a conviction about the nature and sources of our knowledge of God. A third approach is proposed, drawing upon Paul Tillich's "method of correlation" but developing a more conversational stance. In light of this method, a number of issues are proposed as the basis for future conversational reflections. Finally, a series of criteria are proposed for the critical appraisal of contextual conversational theologies.
BABIE, PAUL Abstract: This
article argues that private property is a main cause of the current ecological
crisis. The article offers a means
of re-conceiving the ‘orthodox’ view of private property so that it is
seen to embrace a moral element as part of its normative content.
David Lametti, a Canadian property theorist, calls this moral element
the deon-telos of private property.
This article suggests that the content of the deon-telos
ought to include a Christian ecological theology and morality.
It draws upon the collection of essays found in Elizabeth Breuilly and
Martin Palmer’s Christianity and
Ecology in order to identify the main elements of Christian ecological
theology and morality necessary to fill the content of the deon-telos. By
re-conceiving private property as embracing the deon-telos
with Christian ecological theology and morality as a part of its content,
private property may offer but one solution to the ecological crisis. Abstract: The Oxford Movement in the nineteenth century sought to emphasise the nature of the Church of England as “Catholic”, continuing the work of the Incarnation throughout all times and places. Part of this theological and historical polemic involved being in harmony with the writers of the early Christian centuries, the Fathers of the Church. John Henry Newman, John Keble, Richard Hurrell Froude, and (later) Edward Bouverie Pusey, appealed to the Fathers of the Church from the beginning of the Movement. This eventually blossomed into an ambitious programme for translating the works of the Fathers into English, many of them for the first time. “The Library of the Fathers”, as it was called, was a major contribution to historical and theological studies. It had an influence well beyond the narrow confines of a church “party'“ or movement.
Abstract: This essay falls into two parts. In the first there is a brief discussion of the emergence of Liberation Theology in Latin America in 1960s and 1970s, and its challenge to the European and North American academic theology which has dominated the Christian world. The liberation theologians adopted a different methodology, which they saw to be required by the situations of massive injustice and poverty which they found around them. Juan Luis Segundo presented his understanding of the hermeneutical circle, and showed how commitment to the humanisation of the continent leads to new interpretations of Scripture. In the second part of the essy the application of this method to Australian theology is considered. The situation of Aboriginal people is taken as an example. The effect on Aboriginal people of the coming of white settlers raises challenging questions for Christian theology and biblical interpretation.
STEPHEN CURKPATRICK lectures in Systematic Theology and selected areas
of New Testament studies at the Churches of Christ Theological College, a teaching campus
of the Melbourne College of Divinity. He is also a tutor in postgraduate Hermeneutics
in the Arts Faculty and an Honorary Research Associate, School of Historical Studies
(Centre for Studies in Religion and Theology) at Monash University. His current research
interests focus upon hermeneutics, and the interface between theology and postmodern
thought. |