What Does Theology Do Actually

»What Does Theology Do, Actually? Observing Theology and the Transcultural« is to be the first in a series of 5 books, each presented under the same question – »What Does Theology Do, Actually?«, with vols. 2–5 focusing on one of the theological subdisciplines. This first volume proceeds from the observation of a need for a highly inflected »trans-cultural«, and not simply »inter-cultural«, set of perspectives in theological work and training. The revolution brought about across the humanities disciplines through globalization and the recognition of »multiple modernities« has introduced a diversity of overlapping cultural content and multiple cultural and religious belongings not only into academic work in the humanities and social sciences, but into the Christian churches as well.

»What Does Theology Do, Actually? Observing Theology and the Transcultural« is to be the first in a series of 5 books, each presented under the same question - »What Does Theology Do, Actually?«, with vols. 2-5 focusing on one of the theological subdisciplines. This first volume proceeds from the observation of a need for a highly inflected »trans-cultural«, and not simply »inter-cultural«, set of perspectives in theological work and training.The revolution brought about across the humanities disciplines through globalization and the recognition of »multiple modernities« has introduced a diversity of overlapping cultural content and multiple cultural and religious belongings not only into academic work in the humanities and social sciences, but into the Christian churches as well. [Was treibt Theologie aktuell? Beobachtungen zu der Systematischen Theologie und dem Transkulturellen]"Was treibt Theologie aktuell? Beobachtungen zur Systematischen Theologie und dem Transkulturellen" soll das erste in einer Reihe von fünf Büchern sein, welche alle unter der Titelfrage präsentiert werden, wobei sich die Bände 2 bis 5 auf jeweils andere theologische Disziplinen konzentrieren.Dieser erste Band geht von der Beobachtung aus, dass nicht nur interkulturelle, sondern auch transkulturelle Perspektiven in der theologischen Arbeit und Lehre notwendig sind. Die Revolution, welche den Geisteswissenschaften durch die Globalisierung und die Erkenntnis »multipler Modernitäten« gebracht wurde, hat nicht nur in den akademischen Raum der Geistes- und Sozialwissenschaften eine Vielfalt sich überschneidender, kultureller Inhalte und multipler religiöser und kultureller Identitäten eingeführt, sondern auch in die christlichen Kirchen. Dr. Matthew Ryan Robinson, Ph.D. is Research Associate in the Protestant Theological Faculty at the Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms University of Bonn. His is the author of Redeeming Relationship, Relationships that Redeem: Free Sociability and the Completion of Humanity in the Thought of Friedrich Schleiermacher (Mohr Siebeck 2018) and, with Evan F. Kuehn, Theology Compromised: Schleiermacher, Troeltsch, and the Possibility of a Sociological Theology (Lexington Books / Fortress Academic 2019). Inja Inderst is Research Associate in the Protestant Theological Faculty at the Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms University of Bonn.

Exegesis has long been characterized by a broad disciplinary diversity, but also ambiguity – combining biblical studies, exegesis, early Jewish studies, early Christian studies, Ancient Near Eastern studies, Greco-Roman, and classical studies in various ways. This is to say nothing of the more recent development of contextual and engaged exegesis as reflected in feminist, liberation, postcolonial and queer Biblical exegesis. Furthermore, how and why scholars study the Bible varies, not only across confessional or cultural contexts, but across institutional-academic contexts. The book engages these complex methodological questions about the interrelations of context, institutions, and knowledge production in relation to such issues as religious belonging, ethnicity, political identity, and postcolonial pasts, among other issues of contemporary importance. [Was treibt Theologie eigentlich?] Exegetische Forschung zeichnet sich seit langem durch eine große disziplinäre Vielfalt, aber auch Mehrdeutigkeit aus. Sie verbindet auf unterschiedliche Weise Bibelwissenschaft, Exegese, frühjüdische Studien, frühchristliche Studien, altorientalische Studien, griechisch-römische und klassische Studien. Ganz zu schweigen von der neueren Entwicklung einer kontextbezogenen und engagierten Exegese, wie sie in der feministischen, befreiungstheologischen, postkolonialen und queeren Bibelexegese zum Ausdruck kommt. Darüber hinaus variiert die Art und Weise, wie und warum Forschende die Bibel untersuchen, nicht nur zwischen konfessionellen oder kulturellen Kontexten, sondern auch zwischen institutionellen und akademischen Kontexten. Der Band befasst sich mit diesen komplexen methodischen Fragen über die Wechselbeziehungen zwischen Kontext, Institutionen und Wissensproduktion in Bezug auf Themen wie religiöse Zugehörigkeit, Ethnizität, politische Identität, postkoloniale Vergangenheiten und andere Themen.

Dieser Band versammelt die Beiträge der 10. und 11. Konferenz des Comeniusrats protestantisch-theologischer Fakultäten in Mittel- und Osteuropa und den Niederlanden: "Wege zur Versöhnung zwischen Konfliktparteien" fand 2015 in Komárno, Slowakei, statt, "Theologie in einer Welt der Ideologien: Autorisierung oder Kritik?" 2018 in Kampen, Niederlande. Die Autoren erörtern eine Vielfalt von (inter)disziplinären Fragen, konkreten Aspekten und Implikationen des christlichen Glaubens für die Gegenwart. Zu diesen gehören die Suche nach Wegen zu individueller und gesellschaftlicher Versöhnung auf christlicher Grundlage, die Vermischung von Theologie und Ideologie, wie Kernelemente christlicher Existenz – (biblische) Geschichten, Traditionen, Formen der Erinnerung – die Grenzen zwischen Theologie und Ideologie klären oder verwischen und wie diese Elemente die religiöse Mobilisierung fördern. This volume collects papers from the 10th and 11th conferences of the Comenius Committee of Protestant Theological Faculties in Central and Eastern Europe and the Netherlands: "Roads to Reconciliation Between Groups in Conflict" took place in Komárno, Slovakia, in 2015, "Theology in a World of Ideologies: Authorization or Critique?" was hold in Kampen, Netherlands, in 2018. The authors address a range of (inter)disciplinary issues, concrete questions and implications of the Christian faith for the contemporary world. These include exploring roads to Christian inspired individual and societal reconciliation, conflation(s) of theology and ideology, the ways in which core elements of Christian existence – (biblical) narratives, traditions, memory practices – contribute to erasing or maintaining the boundaries between theology and ideology, and how these elements contribute to religious mobilization.

The hard work required to make God real, how it changes the people who do it, and why it helps explain the enduring power of faith How do gods and spirits come to feel vividly real to people—as if they were standing right next to them? Humans tend to see supernatural agents everywhere, as the cognitive science of religion has shown. But it isn’t easy to maintain a sense that there are invisible spirits who care about you. In How God Becomes Real, acclaimed anthropologist and scholar of religion T. M. Luhrmann argues that people must work incredibly hard to make gods real and that this effort—by changing the people who do it and giving them the benefits they seek from invisible others—helps to explain the enduring power of faith. Drawing on ethnographic studies of evangelical Christians, pagans, magicians, Zoroastrians, Black Catholics, Santeria initiates, and newly orthodox Jews, Luhrmann notes that none of these people behave as if gods and spirits are simply there. Rather, these worshippers make strenuous efforts to create a world in which invisible others matter and can become intensely present and real. The faithful accomplish this through detailed stories, absorption, the cultivation of inner senses, belief in a porous mind, strong sensory experiences, prayer, and other practices. Along the way, Luhrmann shows why faith is harder than belief, why prayer is a metacognitive activity like therapy, why becoming religious is like getting engrossed in a book, and much more. A fascinating account of why religious practices are more powerful than religious beliefs, How God Becomes Real suggests that faith is resilient not because it provides intuitions about gods and spirits—but because it changes the faithful in profound ways.

Decades of use and refinement have solidified the place of How to Think Theologically as the indispensable guide to helping students of theology realize their call to be theologians. By focusing not on thinkers or thoughts, but on thinking, Stone and Duke induct readers into those habits of mind that lead to understanding all things--social, cultural, and personal--in relation to God. The new edition includes: Expansions of existing chapters An annotated bibliography of recommended reading An appendix of theological labels An expanded glossary Key points highlighted in call-outs throughout Updated case studies Discussion questions Both experienced teachers and beginning students will benefit from Stone and Duke's latest revision of their classic text.

With acknowledgment that Christian theology contributed to the persecution and genocide of Jews comes a dilemma: how to excise the cancer without killing the patient? Kendall Soulen shows how important Christian assertions-the uniqueness of Jesus, the Christian covenant, the finality of salvation in Christ-have been formulated in destructive, supersessionist ways not only in the classical period (Justin Martyr, Irenaeus) and early modernity (Kant and Schleiermacher) but even contemporary theology (Barth and Rahner). Along with this first full-scale critique of Christian supersessionism, Soulen's own constructive proposal regraps the narrative unity of Christian identity and the canon through an original and important insight into the divine-human covenant, the election of Israel, and the meaning of history.