In this challenging work, Gordon Kaufman asserts that the prime task of theology is the imaginative construction of the doctrine of God. Kaufman maintains that both the absoluteness of the divinity and our own necessity demand that we construct the doctrine of God critically and in a manner appropriate to our own time and place. In thorough examinations of God and theology, Christ and christology, and of the ultimate foundations of religious thought, he shows how this construction can be accomplished faithfully and in full realization of our own humanity.

Theological thinkers are placed into contexts which inform their theological tasks but that context is usually limited to a European or North American centre, usually ignoring minorities and lesser mainstream theologies even in that context. This work focuses on the shift of Christian theological thinking from the North Atlantic to the Global South, even within the North Atlantic Church and Academy. It gives a Global perspective on theological work, method and context. Theologians from North America, Great Britain and Europe, Africa, Asia, Central and South America comment on how their specific context and methodology manifests, organizes and is prioritized in their thought so as to make Christian theology relevant to their community. By placing the Global South alongside the newly emerging presence of non-traditional Western forms such as Pentecostal, Aboriginal, and Hispanic theologies and theologians, a clearer picture of how Christian theology is both enculturated and still familial is offered.

The year 2017 marks the five-hundredth anniversary of the Reformation, if that event is dated from the posting of Martin Luther's Ninety-Five Theses. Admittedly, 2017 is an arbitrary and somewhat artificial milestone. Nevertheless, anniversaries can be special occasions that allow for an appreciation and evaluation of memorable persons and events. As a number of Reformation anniversaries approach, the historical significance of the Reformation merits increased attention. Employing a variety of historiographical methods from intellectual history to postcolonial theory, this volume demonstrates how four major traditions observed the Reformation: Lutheran, Anglican, Reformed, and Roman Catholic. The foreword and preface place the essays into the contemporary and broader historical contexts in the history of reform. Commemorations of the Reformation varied in different periods, often influenced by immediate historical contexts. How are those sixteenth-century events, which caused both renewal and conflict in church and society as well as divisions between those expressions, to be viewed in the twenty-first century in a setting broader than Europe?

Hymns and songs have long been the most frequent and characteristic expression of communal beliefs, particularly among faith traditions that lack authoritarian or rigidly codified doctrinal statements. Even among Christian traditions that do include a strong focus on creeds, catechism and liturgy, it is hymnody, more than anything else, that sustains their lay theology. The hymns of Moshe Walsalam Sastriyar (1847-1916) and Sadhu Kochukunju Upadeshi (1883-1945)--both from the Kingdom of Travancore in southwest India--transcend denominational boundaries and have been embraced far beyond their historical communities of origin as a means of articulating faith and spirituality. Against a missionizing backdrop of western-dominated hymnody and theology, these songs and writings from the fringes of colonialism were embraced by local communities and became their chosen expression of faith. As such, they evoked a lay consciousness quite distinct from official theologies of the church. In Walsalam and Kochukunju, along with other Christian writers of their period and culture, we see a unique inter-weaving of local traditions and the global Christian message--one that transformed social and spiritual relationships for individuals and their communities alike.

"The book also features cross-references throughout, a bibliography accompanying each entry, an elaborate appendix listing biographies according to particular categories of interest, and a comprehensive index."--BOOK JACKET.

Churches Engage Asian Traditions is the first comprehensive history of Mennonite and Brethren in Christ churches in Asia. From the first Mennonite church in Asia in 1851, to 265,000 Mennonites and Brethren in Christ church members in 13 countries today. From the Introduction to the volume: This vast and fascinating area, with its many centuries-old cultures and languages, its huge problems mastering the elements of nature, its immense population (problematic but also an asset), and its serious globalization efforts, is home to many competing, clashing or more often harmoniously cooperating religions. In [this book] we will see how and why Christians, and particularly Mennonites, arrived on the scene and how they have accommodated to the specific contexts of the Asian countries where they are at home.

Study on Christianity in Northeastern India in the works of Frederick Sheldon Downs, b. 1932, American Baptist missionary.

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.

Since its founding by Jacques Waardenburg in 1971, Religion and Reason has been a leading forum for contributions on theories, theoretical issues and agendas related to the phenomenon and the study of religion. Topics include (among others) category formation, comparison, ethnophilosophy, hermeneutics, methodology, myth, phenomenology, philosophy of science, scientific atheism, structuralism, and theories of religion. From time to time the series publishes volumes that map the state of the art and the history of the discipline.