Theological Reflections: Eastern European Journal of Theology

“The Main Questions of Christian Ethics”: Following Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s Barcelona Lecture

2024-08-08T23:10:50+03:00

The intellectual legacy of Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906–1945), one of the most influential theologians of the 20th century, has been interpreted in various ways. His ideas were both mooched off of and developed. His judgments regarding certain elements of Christian ethics were no exception. In order to avoid falling into the trap of modern interpreters of Bonhoeffer, who often tailor the views of this theologian to fit their own paradigm, accepting some of his ideas and ignoring others, it is necessary to independently research the entirety of his works, which have survived and reached us thanks to his student and friend, Eberhart Bethge. Therefore, the purpose of this essay is to comprehensively examine those parts of Bonhoeffer’s work that receive the least attention in wider theological circles. In other words, we will see the statements of a different Bonhoeffer, not the one that is known to the general readership. Bonhoeffer’s dissertations, books, articles, sermons, lectures, correspondence, poetry, etc., totaled sixteen volumes. The Lutheran theologian developed his concept of ethics throughout his (unfortunately, very short) life, but this concept is known mostly for Bonhoeffer’s key work of the ‘40s, aptly titled – “Ethics.” Therefore, in order to understand where his original and sometimes radical ethical ideas originate, one should turn to the texts of Dietrich Bonhoeffer and his biography. The relevance of our material lies in the fact that the Ukrainian reader is largely unfamiliar with Bonhoeffer’s early works. Moreover, today’s Ukrainian reader only has a translation of his letters and notes from prison. To investigate the ethical teaching of this German theologian, researchers should start with his Barcelona lecture and move to his life’s work, that is, to the aforementioned “Ethics.” Bonhoeffer’s work is relevant more than ever in the current Ukrainian context, which is essentially a state of war with Russia’s invading horde and in which ordinary Christians (and not only they) face ethical challenges on a daily basis. And although Bonhoeffer’s texts are written, to a greater extent, from the position of a German (it is difficult to justify the wars that Germany waged in the 20th century), he was still right on certain issues that will be discussed in the essay.

The Unbowed Titan: A Theological Biography of Walter Brueggemann

2024-08-09T00:07:21+03:00

Secularisation as the Fragmentation of the Sacred and of Sacred Space

2024-08-06T04:21:19+03:00

Contemporary conflicts about secularity in ‘the West’ tend to focus on public space. Although collective Christian heritage means that public space is rarely exclusively neutral, conflicts continue to arise over the relationship between secularity and religious symbolism, and especially over those symbols which derive from religious minorities. This contribution critically considers the designation of space as either sacred or secular in political imaginaries, approaching processes of secularisation as part of a fragmentation of the sacred and of sacred space. We introduce the concept of trans-liminal space: spaces which can contain multiple and potentially conflicting ascriptions of meaning. Conceptualizing public space as trans-liminal allows for contemporaneous and competing ascriptions of the secular, the sacred, the secular-sacred, and the sacred-secular, without being exclusively grounded in either. Trans-liminality does not preclude public space to be predominantly secular, but it does problematise the phenomenon of normative exclusions of religious symbols from public spaces.

The Appeal and Perils of Religious Nationalism: A Comparative Analysis

2024-03-15T20:22:55+02:00

The question of how Christians should engage politically is a matter of perennial debate. Ever since the time of Emperor Constantine and the “Christianization” of the Roman Empire, a particularly fraught question is the relationship between Christianity and political power. In Europe’s medieval kingdoms, Christians wielded tremendous political power, and even after the rise of secular nation-states, a Christian worldview remained heavily influential. The process of secularization has meant that that influence has waned, and some Christians have adopted the rhetoric of “Christian nationalism” in a defensive effort to hold onto power. This article seeks to describe the appeal of this political ideology in Central and Eastern Europe, in the context of secularization, with reference to parallel trends in the United States. It also provides a theological critique of some of its problems, including its idolatrous tendencies.

Public Witness through the Church as the Disciple Community in the Context of Christian Nationalism

2024-08-06T05:00:37+03:00

In Central and Eastern Europe, some branches of the Church have formed alliances with nationalist politics characterized by fundamentalism and fanaticism. To identify this phenomenon, Czech theologian Tomaš Halik coined the term “f-word pseudoreligion.” Pavol Bargár suggests that such an approach to one’s faith and public witness is one of the most serious challenges the church’s mission in CEE must face. First, the other tends to be viewed as a menace rather than a precious gift. Second, its adherents can fall prey to idealized traditionalism rather than drawing from the treasures of Christian tradition, the gospel itself. After defining Christian nationalism, I will focus on the Visegrád nations: Poland, Hungary, and Slovakia. In response to this missional challenge, I argue for public witness through the church as a disciple community. Discipleship as apprenticeship to Jesus does not lie in affiliation to an established church representing a particular national identity. Such idealized traditionalism found in settled religious forms can be called temple spirituality. The apostle Paul did not focus on temple spirituality or church planting; he nurtured disciple communities toward maturity in Christ. While Biblicism, crucicentrism, conversionism, and activism define a certain kind of evangelical piety, the church as a disciple community is both pilgrim and indigenous. When the telos of loving communion with God and neighbor shapes the disciple community’s identity and mission, churches can engage biblical resources and traditions to serve social realities in ways that bring hope, reconciliation, and healing.

‘Why Christianity?’: An Analysis of Radical Orthodoxy’s Preference for Christian Theology over Platonism/Neoplatonism

2024-06-10T18:28:34+03:00

This paper contributes to the scholarly discussion on Radical Orthodoxy by analyzing its retrieval of Christianity. Such analysis will be grounded in two questions, each concerning reasons underlying the Radically Orthodox theologians’ usage of Christian theology despite their dependence on the Platonic notion of participation (μέθεξις) and the validity of the movement’s position if its proponents were to lean instead on Platonism/Neoplatonism. To answer these questions, the author formulates a two-fold explanation constructed through library research. The first part investigates the Radically Orthodox theologians’ argumentation for using Christian theology as shown in the work of John Milbank and Conor Cunningham. The second part evaluates a hypothetical case in which Ralph Cudworth, the Cambridge Platonist with whom the Radically Orthodox theologians claim resonance, were to argue for Radical Orthodoxy’s antisecular agenda.

Summer School of Theology 2024

2024-08-10T05:58:16+03:00

Summer School of Theology 2024

2024-08-10T19:47:10+03:00

Series of Theological Methodological Seminars

2024-08-10T21:57:28+03:00

Series of Theological Methodological Seminars

2024-08-10T22:55:02+03:00

Stefaniia Demchuk, The Age of Fasts and Carnivals. How People Lived, Drank and Made Love in the Middle Ages

2024-08-09T19:35:48+03:00

George Weigel, To Sanctify the World: The Vital Legacy of Vatican II

2023-12-18T17:59:15+02:00

Tim Alberta, the Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory: American Evangelicalism in an Age of Extremism

2024-08-09T22:23:36+03:00

Dan DeWitt, C.S. Lewis: The Writer Who Found Joy

2024-08-09T23:19:29+03:00

Helen Paynter, Blessed Are the Peacemakers: A Biblical Theology of Human Violence (Biblical Theology for Life)

2024-02-23T10:03:16+02:00

Review of Helen Paynter, Blessed Are the Peacemakers: A Biblical Theology of Human Violence (Biblical Theology for Life.

Rik Van Nieuwenhove, An Introduction to Medieval Theology

2024-08-09T23:59:43+03:00

Thomas S. Kidd, Paul D. Miller, and Andrew T. Walker, Baptist Political Theology

2024-08-10T00:56:39+03:00

Charlie Lovett, Lewis Carroll. Formed by Faith

2024-08-10T01:53:19+03:00

Ole Jakob Løland, The Political Theology of Pope Francis

2024-08-10T02:12:44+03:00

Amy Peeler, Women and the Gender of God

2024-08-10T20:42:55+03:00

Robyn Horner, The Experience of God: A Phenomenology of Revelation

2024-08-10T02:56:37+03:00

Robert Menzies, Pentecost. This Story Is Our Story

2024-08-10T05:09:29+03:00

Joshua W. Jipp, Pauline Theology as a Way of Life: A Vision of Human Flourishing in Christ

2024-08-10T18:53:17+03:00

Christoph Heilig, The Apostle and the Empire. Paul’s Implicit and Explicit Criticism of Rome

2024-08-10T05:50:27+03:00

The Book of Psalms in a New Ukrainian Translation, Psalms 107–150

2024-08-09T00:54:31+03:00

Jacobus Arminius, Declaratio sententiae I. Arminii de Praedestinatione, Providentia Dei, Libero arbitrio, Gratia Dei, Divinitate Filii Dei, & de Iustificatione hominis coram Deo (part 4)

2024-08-09T02:06:21+03:00