Frankie Ward | Durham University (original) (raw)
Papers by Frankie Ward
The authors' intention in this volume is to reclaim theological reflection as a "perennial and in... more The authors' intention in this volume is to reclaim theological reflection as a "perennial and indispensable part of Christian doctrine" and discipline. Graham and Walton bring substantial academic credentials to this work, and Ward adds her perspective as an Anglican parish priest to the conversation. In this volume, the authors shape their arguments in response to those who view theological reflection either as an insufficiently serious undertaking or as a novel practice lacking substantial roots in Christian tradition. The authors also aim to address what they consider a lack of sufficient resources and guidance for those who hope to undertake theological reflection. In each of the seven main chapters of the book, the authors explore a particular mode of theological reflection they have identified. For each mode of reflection, the authors provide an outline of the starting point of that perspective, historical examples, and an evaluation of that perspective. For example, in their chapter titled "Writing the Body of Christ," the authors discuss historical models for corporate theological reflection, ranging from the Rule of St. Benedict to Christian base communities, in which scripture passages are discussed and engaged in light of a community's daily events and realities. In the questions for discussion at the end of the chapter, the authors encourage readers to reflect on the different meanings of "body of Christ" in various texts discussed previously.
Theology, 2019
Prayer made a castle When I entered, young, upon this life Christ bore his bride across the narro... more Prayer made a castle When I entered, young, upon this life Christ bore his bride across the narrow step. I left behind the stars, the fields of home To find restricted space behind the door. Chapel, refectory, the cloister, cell Bound fast my thoughts, enclosed my grief in love.
Contact, 2005
Summary This article is a shortened version of the introduction of a book to be published in 2005... more Summary This article is a shortened version of the introduction of a book to be published in 2005 entitled Theological Reflection: Methods. In it the authors present seven different methods of TR, and each chapter provides illustrations of how the particular method in question can be identified in Biblical text and through the Christian tradition. A catalytic moment is described when the method becomes recognized for what it is, and then the way each method is used in contemporary times is explored. This preview article sketches out the ground covered in the book.
Theology & Sexuality, 2005
![Research paper thumbnail of S. G. Platten, ed., (2017) Holy ground: Cathedrals in the twenty-first century. Durham: Sacristy Press. Modern Believing, 59(2), 155-156.[Book review]](https://attachments.academia-assets.com/85450846/thumbnails/1.jpg)
](Research at York St John (RaY) is an institutional repository. It supports the principles of open... more Research at York St John (RaY) is an institutional repository. It supports the principles of open access by making the research outputs of the University available in digital form.
Christianity & Literature, 2018
Theology, 2017
Poetry is the native language of the person of faith, claims Oakley. Poetry enables the expressio... more Poetry is the native language of the person of faith, claims Oakley. Poetry enables the expression of doubt, an opening space for the imagination. There are numerous ways to read and use this book and it will invite return. Oakley has selected 29 poems and written a short essay on each poet; there’s Auden, Shapcott, Hafiz, Fanthorpe, O’Driscoll, Duffy, others, all offering the comfort of familiarity and the joy of new insight. He speaks personally, inviting the reader to respond in like manner to each poem and its poet, to discover the fresh depth of emotion, suffering, joy – the range of human experience. He offers a gentle dissection of how the poem works – nothing too forensic, but helpful, especially to any reader who is coming to poetry for the first time. Skilfully woven are reflections on belief and doubt, on the way poetry reveals the surprise that takes the reader beyond the page. The title is from a poem by Louis MacNeice. The words splash, as if thrown in a pond, disturbing the surface of life, with ripples of meaning towards the shore. Each of the selections and accompanying essay is a gift to relish and digest. To return to. It’s a book to give away; or to use with those new to faith. For anyone determined to question the clichés of life. Oakley’s own experience is an undercurrent, surfacing now and then. As we ponder Herbert’s ‘Love bade me welcome’, we hear how love caught Oakley by surprise in Dresden, visiting to preach. His grandfather had bombed the city on 14 February 1945, as he explained to the taxi driver. The man was silent. Then said ‘Ah, that was the night my mother was killed.’ Oakley describes how the driver pulled over, put his arm towards him and said ‘And now we shake hands.’ The forgiveness of Herbert’s poem, illuminated afresh by Oakley’s experience. It matters to Oakley that language has quality to enable ‘fresher, deeper waters, avoiding the tyranny of cliché and deaf answers’. Dickinson’s words tell us that there ‘. . . ought to be dashes everywhere interrupting our casual fluency, a lack of prosaic grammar charging through anything that speaks of the holiness of God’. If I have one small criticism, it’s that occasionally Oakley’s own prose lets him down. His greatest achievement, though, is the skilful way he draws on his own rebellions and reverence, as a priest offering the counterpoint in a world that forgets God. The reader sees how poetry opens up space, just as the words of the liturgy should, but so often fail. It’s no surprise that R. S. Thomas has the longest essay in the collection. Oakley describes how Thomas keeps the rumour of God alive in a world of bad religion, when mystery is dismissed, where false gods abound. Thomas resisted what we have become, the low expectation, the degradation of humanity, and Oakley’s book joins that resistance. Commending Christianity requires imagination. The poems selected here tell it slant. They tell of a delicious story, another story, that there is more than meets the eye.
Theology, 1997
What makes the body of Christ so compelling and enduring an image? As I write in Holy Week, it is... more What makes the body of Christ so compelling and enduring an image? As I write in Holy Week, it is the happenings upon the body of Jesus Christ long ago which are remembered in ritual and story from Palm Sunday to Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, Holy Saturday and Easter Sunday. A story is retold year after year which inhabits the body of Christ, the Church, offering it a means of interpreting experience, a way of writing life. I want to reconsider the power of this story by focusing upon a description by Mikhail Bakhtin of a medieval Corpus Christi procession in his book on Rabelais.' The procession can be seen as a microcosm of utopian society. It is a collective body which holds together elementslaughter and violence, the sacred and profane, beauty and the grotesque, and different categories of people-split apart since the Enlightenment era. Bakhtin offers us an interpretation of 'body' which is thought-provoking, particularly in the light of the mockery that Christ endures during his violent passion, and the new life which follows. Bakhtin draws on Rabelais' description of a Corpus Christi procession to expand his interest in carnival, in the elements of parody, of laughter, of the grotesque. Carnival existed in a symbiotic relationship with the hierarchical liturgies of established religious ritual. He writes:
Journal of the European Society of Women in Theological Research, 1998
The authors' intention in this volume is to reclaim theological reflection as a "perennial and in... more The authors' intention in this volume is to reclaim theological reflection as a "perennial and indispensable part of Christian doctrine" and discipline. Graham and Walton bring substantial academic credentials to this work, and Ward adds her perspective as an Anglican parish priest to the conversation. In this volume, the authors shape their arguments in response to those who view theological reflection either as an insufficiently serious undertaking or as a novel practice lacking substantial roots in Christian tradition. The authors also aim to address what they consider a lack of sufficient resources and guidance for those who hope to undertake theological reflection. In each of the seven main chapters of the book, the authors explore a particular mode of theological reflection they have identified. For each mode of reflection, the authors provide an outline of the starting point of that perspective, historical examples, and an evaluation of that perspective. For example, in their chapter titled "Writing the Body of Christ," the authors discuss historical models for corporate theological reflection, ranging from the Rule of St. Benedict to Christian base communities, in which scripture passages are discussed and engaged in light of a community's daily events and realities. In the questions for discussion at the end of the chapter, the authors encourage readers to reflect on the different meanings of "body of Christ" in various texts discussed previously.
Theology, 2019
Prayer made a castle When I entered, young, upon this life Christ bore his bride across the narro... more Prayer made a castle When I entered, young, upon this life Christ bore his bride across the narrow step. I left behind the stars, the fields of home To find restricted space behind the door. Chapel, refectory, the cloister, cell Bound fast my thoughts, enclosed my grief in love.
Contact, 2005
Summary This article is a shortened version of the introduction of a book to be published in 2005... more Summary This article is a shortened version of the introduction of a book to be published in 2005 entitled Theological Reflection: Methods. In it the authors present seven different methods of TR, and each chapter provides illustrations of how the particular method in question can be identified in Biblical text and through the Christian tradition. A catalytic moment is described when the method becomes recognized for what it is, and then the way each method is used in contemporary times is explored. This preview article sketches out the ground covered in the book.
Theology & Sexuality, 2005
Research at York St John (RaY) is an institutional repository. It supports the principles of open... more Research at York St John (RaY) is an institutional repository. It supports the principles of open access by making the research outputs of the University available in digital form.
Christianity & Literature, 2018
Theology, 2017
Poetry is the native language of the person of faith, claims Oakley. Poetry enables the expressio... more Poetry is the native language of the person of faith, claims Oakley. Poetry enables the expression of doubt, an opening space for the imagination. There are numerous ways to read and use this book and it will invite return. Oakley has selected 29 poems and written a short essay on each poet; there’s Auden, Shapcott, Hafiz, Fanthorpe, O’Driscoll, Duffy, others, all offering the comfort of familiarity and the joy of new insight. He speaks personally, inviting the reader to respond in like manner to each poem and its poet, to discover the fresh depth of emotion, suffering, joy – the range of human experience. He offers a gentle dissection of how the poem works – nothing too forensic, but helpful, especially to any reader who is coming to poetry for the first time. Skilfully woven are reflections on belief and doubt, on the way poetry reveals the surprise that takes the reader beyond the page. The title is from a poem by Louis MacNeice. The words splash, as if thrown in a pond, disturbing the surface of life, with ripples of meaning towards the shore. Each of the selections and accompanying essay is a gift to relish and digest. To return to. It’s a book to give away; or to use with those new to faith. For anyone determined to question the clichés of life. Oakley’s own experience is an undercurrent, surfacing now and then. As we ponder Herbert’s ‘Love bade me welcome’, we hear how love caught Oakley by surprise in Dresden, visiting to preach. His grandfather had bombed the city on 14 February 1945, as he explained to the taxi driver. The man was silent. Then said ‘Ah, that was the night my mother was killed.’ Oakley describes how the driver pulled over, put his arm towards him and said ‘And now we shake hands.’ The forgiveness of Herbert’s poem, illuminated afresh by Oakley’s experience. It matters to Oakley that language has quality to enable ‘fresher, deeper waters, avoiding the tyranny of cliché and deaf answers’. Dickinson’s words tell us that there ‘. . . ought to be dashes everywhere interrupting our casual fluency, a lack of prosaic grammar charging through anything that speaks of the holiness of God’. If I have one small criticism, it’s that occasionally Oakley’s own prose lets him down. His greatest achievement, though, is the skilful way he draws on his own rebellions and reverence, as a priest offering the counterpoint in a world that forgets God. The reader sees how poetry opens up space, just as the words of the liturgy should, but so often fail. It’s no surprise that R. S. Thomas has the longest essay in the collection. Oakley describes how Thomas keeps the rumour of God alive in a world of bad religion, when mystery is dismissed, where false gods abound. Thomas resisted what we have become, the low expectation, the degradation of humanity, and Oakley’s book joins that resistance. Commending Christianity requires imagination. The poems selected here tell it slant. They tell of a delicious story, another story, that there is more than meets the eye.
Theology, 1997
What makes the body of Christ so compelling and enduring an image? As I write in Holy Week, it is... more What makes the body of Christ so compelling and enduring an image? As I write in Holy Week, it is the happenings upon the body of Jesus Christ long ago which are remembered in ritual and story from Palm Sunday to Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, Holy Saturday and Easter Sunday. A story is retold year after year which inhabits the body of Christ, the Church, offering it a means of interpreting experience, a way of writing life. I want to reconsider the power of this story by focusing upon a description by Mikhail Bakhtin of a medieval Corpus Christi procession in his book on Rabelais.' The procession can be seen as a microcosm of utopian society. It is a collective body which holds together elementslaughter and violence, the sacred and profane, beauty and the grotesque, and different categories of people-split apart since the Enlightenment era. Bakhtin offers us an interpretation of 'body' which is thought-provoking, particularly in the light of the mockery that Christ endures during his violent passion, and the new life which follows. Bakhtin draws on Rabelais' description of a Corpus Christi procession to expand his interest in carnival, in the elements of parody, of laughter, of the grotesque. Carnival existed in a symbiotic relationship with the hierarchical liturgies of established religious ritual. He writes:
Journal of the European Society of Women in Theological Research, 1998