KENARCHY JOURNAL VOLUME 6
Editorial
Roger Haydon Mitchell
Roger Haydon Mitchell, PhD, is a theologian and activist, an honorary researcher in the Lancaster University Centre for Alternatives to Social and Economic Inequalities, and political theologian with the Westminster Theological Centre.
Volume 6.1
Beyond Hope: Evaluating Ecotheological Models with Respect to the Anthropocene and Eschatology
Melissa Stewart
Melissa R. Stewart, a Doctor of Theology and Ministry (DThM) candidate with Northwind Theological Seminary, holds an MSc from the University of Edinburgh in Philosophy, Science, and Religion. She lives in the United States and focuses her research on applying Open and Relational Theology to public policy.
Abstract
Christianity’s traditional eschatology and its belief in a new heaven and earth stand in sharp contrast with escalating concern over the devastating effects of the Anthropocene and our knowledge of the cosmos’ origins and future direction. While traditional eschatology maintains unassailable hope in a new creation, environmentally focused organisations provide grim scientific predictions regarding the extent, duration, and ferocity of climate change. The theological reflections of numerous scholars on these matters are yielding alternative ecotheologies that seek to better align the church’s response to the needs of the climate crisis. In this paper, I categorise four models of ecotheology from these alternatives and assess their fitness to respond to both the witness of scripture and to the climate crisis. This evaluation reveals stark distinctions in the approaches each model engenders, with meaningful consequences for the church’s impact on ecological crisis. I suggest the adoption of a revised eschatological hope that calls for the church’s active engagement to build the Kingdom of God in our midst and to yield a more positive future for creation.
Volume 6.2
Made in the Image of God: Seeing Humanity as God Sees Us
Latasha Hazlett
Latasha Hazlett holds a BA in Sociology as well as a BEd from The King’s University. She and her husband Ryan are raising their two young daughters in Pitt Meadows, just outside Vancouver, BC. Latasha is currently pursuing a Master of Arts in Theology and Culture on the Peace Studies Track through St. Stephen’s University.
Abstract
While many within the Christian tradition believe that humanity has been made in the image of God, there are differing views of what happened to that divine image once sin and brokenness entered the world. If we believe that our divine nature has been lost or is something to be attained, it follows that we might easily recognize the image of God in some (such as those we consider “saved”) while having a harder time recognizing God’s image within others, especially those who are different from us. A colleague of mine shared a statement that summarizes the danger of this phenomenon well: “when we fail to recognize someone’s divinity, we fail to recognize their humanity.” Great thinkers and social activists such as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Archbishop Desmond Tutu have also stressed the importance of recognizing the divine image that is inherent in all people in order to prevent dehumanization, which leads to injustice and oppression. This paper will explore some of these thoughts in relation to the evolution of St. Augustine’s understanding of what it means to be made in the image of God. By applying Augustine’s three different perspectives on what sin does to our divine image, we will see the consequences of failing to recognize the divinity of others. This reality can show up today in everyday situations such as fearing or distrusting our neighbors, hurting others through attempts to show God’s “love”, and even in atrocities such as treating civilians and children as “collateral damage” in war. When we are truly able to see the image of God in ourselves and each other, we are compelled to genuinely love those who are different from us, including those we believe to be our enemies.
Volume 6.3
Menstrual Blood: an icon of the kenotic atonement of Christ— A Better Way with Better Blood
Lisa Meier
Lisa Meier is a spiritual director living and working in Ottawa, Canada. She has post graduate qualifications in spiritual formation and theology. In her work and writing, she explores the intersections of embodied practices, soul care, healing, and play.
Abstract
For centuries, theologians have sought to understand the meaning and significance of Christ’s death. However, the current motifs and interpretations of the atonement have constrained Christology by situating Christ within a paradigm of domination and subordination. I propose that the “inferior” porous and excessively moist female body—as presumed by Greco-Roman classicists and early Christian writers—expresses the unboundaried, mutual, self-giving relationality within the Godhead. Christ’s blood, represented by menstrual blood, reveals divine love as “for” the empowerment and flourishing of others, bringing reconciliation to divine-human relationality, invoking the remembering of menstruating bodies, and supporting the healing of human-other relationships. Menstruation is an embodied icon of the kenotic atonement of Christ.
Volume 6.4
Lamentations & (Anti)Theodicy
Mark Preston Stone
Mark Preston Stone is a PhD Candidate in Hebrew Bible at Emory University and an adjunct professor at Seattle Pacific University. His research interests include theodicy and ancient sexuality,and his doctoral dissertation will explore how food rituals can inform a theory of Israelite sacrifice.
Abstract
This article argues that a careful reading of Lamentations 3 reveals a broader tension in the Hebrew Bible: How can belief in a good and just deity square with the realities of human suffering? Most interpreters have placed the remainder of the poems in Lamentations in opposition to the voice of the man in Lamentations 3, specifically 3:21-42. The poet seems to offer a classic theodicy, counseling penitent acceptance of God’s righteous judgment. In contrast to this, it is argued that Lam. 3:33-39 subtly manipulates the expected theodic solution until Yahweh’s culpability as oppressor is denied rather than justified, ultimately providing an antitheodicy.
Volume 6.5
A Liturgy of Lament
Rev Dr Munther Isaac
Rev Dr Munther Isaac is a Palestinian Christian pastor and theologian. He pastors the Evangelical Lutheran Christmas Church in Bethlehem and the Lutheran Church in Beit Sahour. He is academic dean of Bethlehem Bible College, and director of the highly acclaimed and influential Christ at the Checkpoint conferences. Munther is passionate about issues related to Palestinian theology.
Abstract
Evangelical Lutheran Christmas Church Bethlehem
Saturday, December 23rd, 2023
We are angry…
We are broken…
This should have been a time of joy; instead, we are mourning. We are fearful.
20,000 killed. Thousands under the rubble still. Close to 9,000 children killed in the most brutal ways. Day after day after day. 1.9 million displaced! Hundreds of thousands of homes were destroyed. Gaza as we know it no longer exists. This is an annihilation. A genocide. The world is watching; Churches are watching. Gazans are sending live images of their own execution. Maybe the world cares? But it goes on…
Volume 6.6
In Gaza, Israel Is Revealing the True Face of Zionism
Rabbi Brant Rosen and the board of Tzedek Chicago
Rabbi Brant Rosen is the rabbi of the congregation and synagogue Tzedek Chicago, a former president of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical Association and co-founder and co-chairperson of the Jewish Voice for Peace Rabbinical Council.
Abstract
Rabbi Brant Rosen and the board of the congregation and synagogue of Tzedek Chicago recently released this statement in response to Israel’s ongoing military assault in Gaza. Although it is addressed to all people of conscience, it contains a specific challenge to the Jewish community at large. Rabbi Brant states “I’m immensely proud of the statement, which I hope will be considered seriously even (especially) by those members of the community aren’t ready to heed its words. Our statement is not so much an academic argument as it is a call to moral action. As we say in our statement, ‘We are witnessing the continuation of the Nakba in real time…Now more than ever, it is time for Jews of conscience to call out the essential injustice at the heart of Zionism in no uncertain terms.’”
Volume 6.7
The Inconvenient Narrative Behind the Catastrophe in Gaza
Andrew Phillip Klager, PhD
Andrew Klager PhD is Provost and Vice-Chancellor, Professor of Religion and Peace Studies, Director of the Jim Forest Institute for Religion, Peace and Justice, St. Stephen’s University, Canada.
Abstract
This article is an updated version of the article, “The Convergence of the Past, Present and Future in the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict,” that appeared in The Huffington Post on July 24, 2014 in the midst of the 2014 Gaza War. It is offered as a companion piece to Munther Isaac’s prophetic sermon, “Christ in the Rubble,” and Rabbi Ben Rosen and the board of Tzedek Chicago’s statement “In Gaza Israel Is Revealing the True face of Zionism.” While the severity of the two contexts is different, the effort was made to update statistics and relevant information throughout.
Volume 6.8
A Path From Me to You: From Objectification to Relation
Jon Paul Robles
Jon Paul Robles is an ordained priest, artist, and grassroots activist whose work orbits issues of justice, poverty, and theology embedded within intricate social and religious frameworks. He is a graduate student at St. Stephen’s University, New Brunswick, Canada.
Abstract
At the root of oppression and violence is the reduction of fellow human beings into mere objects. Broken modalities of human engagement continue to rupture our world. Through the lens of the Anthony Ray Hinton story, this paper imagines a path from dehumanization to a humanizing encounter, even with the most unlikely “other.” Drawing from the philosophies of Martin Buber and Simone Weil, I examine what lies at the center of broken modalities of relation and survey the lifegiving possibilities that open up to us when we see the other as truly sacred, free from control or ownership. Challenging presumptions of advancement, this paper argues that we cannot transcend human objectification by means of societal progress. Rather, genuine human relationship asks us to be still, content with having nothing but a reverent distance that neither dominates nor abandons but instead stands in loving proximity. With the growing gaps in spectrum identities and the divisions we see in our world, is there a way from the “I” to the “Thou”? This essay surveys a story and dances with voices that illuminate a path from me to you.
Volume 6.9
Yahweh Saves: Why I believe in a non-violent God
Spencer Paul Thompson
Spencer Thompson PhD is an economist in the Scottish Government. His academic research has explored the potential of cooperatives as an alternative model of business.
Abstract
This paper introduces, in plain terms, the case for a non-violent God. Written during a catastrophic war in Palestine/Israel, the paper argues that Jesus reveals the nature of God to humanity in his character, in his teachings, and in his actions, all of which were non-violent. The revelation of Jesus thus completes the trajectory of the Old Testament, affirming its theological advances while exploding the residual assumption of divine violence.
Volume 6.10
Book Review: The Day of the Labyrinth
Connie Dryfhout
Connie Dryfout is a community elder in Meadowvale, Mississauga, Canada
Volume 6.11
Book Review: Indigenous Theology and the Western Worldview
Mike D Winter
Mike Winter PhD, formerly a Post-Doctoral researcher in Agricultural Biosciences, Mike’s more recent work explores how re-imagining our understanding of God can help us reconnect with land and nature.
The Kenarchy Journal