Limbo Reapplied

The observation that our world is signed by a lasting crisis is as much underwritten as it is questioned. This book offers a new and provocative thesis by taking recourse to the religious discourse of Limbo, and by investigating the temporal and spatial structures of crisis and modernity. Modernity reveals itself to be the state of perennial crisis, and we all live in an immanentized state of Limbo.

How porous is the border between life and death? How do the dead influence the living and in what way? What can Heaven, Hell, Purgatory and the two Limbos tell us of our contemporary world today? In The Mirror of Death, Kristof K.P. Vanhoutte explores the hermeneutical potential of the regions in the hereafter. After an exciting voyage through the emergence of the afterlife and of the constancy of death’s presence in the history of humanity, Vanhoutte shows, through the study of the nature and genealogy of the various realms in the beyond, how an invigoratingly new and critical perspective of a wide variety of contemporary phenomena is unveiled when reading them through the interpretative lens of these regions where the dead dwell. Modern politics, our fellow human beings, the times of our lives, the capitalistic economic system, medicalization, wokism, and living in crisis will never look the same.

This book examines the concept of Purgatory. However, in contradistinction to the many monographs and edited volumes published in the past 50 years devoted to historical, cultural, or theological treatments of Purgatory—especially in proportion to the voluminous output on Heaven and Hell—this collection features papers by philosophers and other scholars engaged specifically in philosophical argument, debate, and dialogue involving conceptions of Purgatory and related ideas. It exists to broaden the discussion beyond the prevailing trends in the academic literature and fills an important intellectual gap.

This book sheds light on how humans deal with adversity, especially in uncertain and turbulent times, as seen during the COVID-19 pandemic. Resilience theory has become popular in scholarly discourse, and the term is difficult to define as so many opinions exist. This book aims to engage critically with resilience theory as a scholarly debate from the unique vantage point of the world of social work as well as theology. This specific aspect of originality contributes to the generation of new knowledge in the broad field of social sciences and humanities. The inception of the book stems from an interdisciplinary conference held at Hugenote Kollege, Wellington, where scholars from social work as well as theology engaged in a discourse on resilience. Professor Adrian van Breda, a specialist in resilience theory and from the social work department of the University of Johannesburg, was one of the keynote speakers, inspiring scholars to understand what is meant by resilience. Professor Yolanda Dreyer from the University of Pretoria and a seasoned theologian and prolific writer on trauma and resilience, was also a keynote speaker, providing insights from a theological perspective. The collaboration between these two fields of thought is unique and rendered new insights into engaging with resilience. Different methodologies and perspectives from researchers are prevalent as contributors are from different scholarly fields. The book ranges from linguistical, liturgical, philosophical, practical, autoethnographical, anthropological, sociological, and online methodological approaches contributing to ways to deal with traumatic, turbulent and trying times. The book is divided into four main themes that stood out from the results obtained at the conference, namely, (1) religious imagination and resilience, (2) communities and resilience, (3) online teaching and resilience, and (4) the resilience of philosophical questions.

In Violence in the Hebrew Bible scholars reflect on texts of violence in the Hebrew Bible, as well as their often problematic reception history. Authoritative texts and traditions can be rewritten and adapted to new circumstances and insights. Texts are subject to a process of change. The study of the ways in which these (authoritative) biblical texts are produced and/or received in various socio-historical circumstances discloses a range of theological and ideological perspectives. In reflecting on these issues, the central question is how to allow for a given text’s plurality of possible and realised meanings while also retaining the ability to form critical judgments regarding biblical exegesis. This volume highlight that violence in particular is a fruitful area to explore this tension.

Knowledge comes from thinking with, from and through things, not just about them. We get to know the world around us from the inside of our being in it. Drawing on the fields of anthropology, art, architecture and education, this book addresses what knowing from the inside means for practices of teaching and learning. If knowledge is not transmitted ready-made, independently of its application in the world, but grows from the crucible of our engagements with people, places and materials, then how can there be such a thing as a curriculum? What forms could it take? And what could it mean to place such disciplines as anthropology, art and architecture at the heart of the curriculum rather than – as at present – on the margins? In addressing these questions, the fifteen distinguished contributors to this volume challenge mainstream thinking about education and the curriculum, and suggest experimental ways to overcome the stultifying effects of current pedagogic practice.