Chad Rimmer - Academia.edu (original) (raw)
Books by Chad Rimmer
Rimmer, Chad (2020) "Ecology and Christian education: how sustainability discourse and theological anthropology inform teaching methods," Consensus: Vol. 41 : Iss. 1 , Article 10., 2020
Church After Corona: Consequences for Worship and Theology, 2022
In this article, I propose that among the many issues unveiled by COVID-19, the collective respon... more In this article, I propose that among the many issues unveiled by COVID-19, the collective response to worship restrictions revealed the way that nominalism has colonized our understanding of the real presence of Christ. In order to ease the despair that comes from imagining a spatiotemporal separation of the Trinity from creation, I revisit Luther's insistence on the real presence and demonstrate how this logic extends to the replete or ubiquitous presence of God in all creation. With all due attention to the differences between revelation and reason and the hiddenness of God, I point to the ways that the mystagogical experience of the means of grace can help us discern God's real presence in those things seen and unseen all around us so that we do not have to despair when we are distanced from our worshiping community for reasons of health or other social factors. I end by pointing us to a simple liturgical act and how the invocation can set the stage for our liturgy to draw our attention to the presence of God in whom we live, move, and have our being.
Lutheranism is informed by a field of biblical and confessional norms, and by theological doctrin... more Lutheranism is informed by a field of biblical and confessional norms, and by theological doctrines such as law and gospel, faith and works, nature and grace, justification and sanctification, and freedom and vocation. Lutheranism is formed by our experience of the living Triune God in communities that gather around the Word, sacraments, service, and public witness. Lutheran self-understanding is shaped by ecumenical koinonia and interfaith dialogue and diapraxis. Lutherans boldly open our faith to interdisciplinary engagement including our cultural, social, political, racial, gendered, economic, and ecological contexts. "Lutheran identities" are dynamic-never prescriptive or exclusionary: always growing new fruit of Christian liberty. Lutheranism is a living tradition that is formed and reformed by our experience of God at work in our lives and in the world. The lived experience of faith, broadly defined as spirituality, shapes our Christian identity and engagement with the world. Spirituality is deeply personal in the sense that it relates to one's personal experience of God's Spirit. Yet, Lutherans affirm that this personal relationship is always nurtured in communities that are particularly, and universally, part of the church. Lutheran identity is formed, reformed, and transformed through the local and global reality of the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic church. Some LWF member churches call for renewal by reviving spirituality, and some churches struggle to understand the myriad expressions of spiritual gifts that call into question their experience in the Lutheran Church. What can we say about the work of the Holy Spirit to call, gather and equip the church today? Contemporary discourse about spirituality following headings: "The Holy Spirit as Gift and Promise"; "The Church as Holy Communion"; and "Transformed and Freed." Section One: The Holy Spirit as Gift and Promise This section explores a theology of the Spirit, and spiritual theology. Bible Study: In the first Bible study, Jun Hyun Kim explores Luther's sermons on John 14 in order to set the stage for understanding today as the "time of the Holy Spirit." Keynote: In the day's keynote address, Kenneth Mtata sets the context for our theological reflection by centering the work and witness of the South African bishop, Manas Buthelezi. Mtata explores Buthelezi's liberation theology, by highlighting the Christological pneumatology at work in Luther's theology, in order to remind us of the rich pneumatology that is at the heart of the Lutheran tradition. Mtata examines the promise of a spiritual theology of hermeneutics, ministry, and makes the case for a renewed focus on sanctification in the Lutheran tradition, particularly in this context of the Africa region. Chad Rimmer and Cheryl Peterson • "We Believe in the Holy Spirit" Section Two: The Church as Holy Communion This section probes the nexus of ecclesiology, liturgy, and pneumatology. Bible Study: In the second Bible study, Caroline Christopher explores the calling of the priesthood of the baptized through a case study of diaconal ministry among Dalit people.
Papers by Chad Rimmer
The role of the inter-subjective 'theatre' in the formation of a child's moral identity.
Consensus, 2020
Activities that devastate the environment and societies continue unabated. Today we are faced wit... more Activities that devastate the environment and societies continue unabated. Today we are faced with a challenge that calls for a shift in our thinking, so that humanity stops threatening its life-support system. We are called to assist the Earth to heal her wounds and in the process heal our own-indeed, to embrace the whole creation in all its diversity, beauty and wonder. This will happen if we see the need to revive our sense of belonging to a larger family of life, with which we have shared our evolutionary process. In the course of history, there comes a time when humanity is called to shift to a new level of consciousness, to reach a higher moral ground. A time when we have to shed our fear and give hope to each other. That time is now.
Fortress Press eBooks, Aug 10, 2021
This paper was delivered at the Lutheran Education Australia national conference, Australian Conf... more This paper was delivered at the Lutheran Education Australia national conference, Australian Conference on Lutheran Education. In this paper, I take an ecotheological approach to the theme, One Voice, Many Paths to present a contructive theological look at the capacity for education to encourage an ecological, relational cosmology that accounts for diversity as a positive result of Trinitarian creativity, and the aim of a faith based approach to education.
International Journal of Children's Spirituality
In the mid seventeenth century, Thomas Traherne claimed human beings must retire into creation in... more In the mid seventeenth century, Thomas Traherne claimed human beings must retire into creation in order to fully know the virtues, including goodness, peaceableness and care. In this thesis I review Traherne's moral theory in light of recently discovered manuscripts of his work. For Traherne, because God's Divine goodness is the efficient cause of creation, creatures are naturally good. He uses Paracelsian optic and atomic theories to indicate how creatures communicate their goodness to one another. By retiring among creatures in their natural place, he argues that persons create a relational theatre in which they develop their capacity to sense creaturely communication. In this 'communion' persons perceive their mutual 'interest' with creatures in the relational nexus of creation. This knowledge provides motivation for 'blessed operations' of care for persons and creation. Because the human relationship to other creatures is morally significant, retiring among creation is a critical part of Christian moral formation. For Traherne this sensual engagement with a relational creation is necessary in the moral formation of children, who apprehend nature with their senses. Their innate wonder equips them to form their moral identity in relationship to a peaceable, caring creation. Traherne's account of the role of nature in moral development raises significant pedagogical questions in an age when scientific knowledge and the senses were increasingly disassociated from moral reasoning. For Traherne an education that denies the role of the senses in moral formation 'murders' the child by distracting her attention from the virtues of peace and mutuality that are present in creation. In conversation with phenomenologist Maurice Merleau-Ponty, child psychologists Colwyn Trevarthen and Darcia Narvaez, and educational philosophers David Carr and Carol Gilligan, this thesis demonstrates the contemporary significance of Traherne's claims. Through the wonder of play, contact with the natural environment helps children develop an 'ecological' identity based on their relationship to other creatures. The perception of care in these early relationships is the basis for forming an inter-subjective moral identity and the virtues of care. Many 'care' ethicists and psychologists emphasize the early experiences of care taking. Environmental educators emphasize the caring relationship to creation. Hence they give substance to Traherne's claim that play, wonder and a sensory relationship with other creatures at an early age contribute to the formation of moral identity. Traherne's ideas also have pedagogical implications for theories of Christian moral formation. Theologians and ethicists, such as Rowan Williams, Michael Northcott and John Inge, have suggested place-based programmes of moral formation are needed in the parish context. This thesis demonstrates that Traherne's moral theory provides a rationale for understanding the theological significance of a child's natural wonder and the need for its cultivation in programmes of Christian education. A relationship to the local ecology of the parish can help a child perceive the care of creation, and play a pro-formative role in developing a moral identity in relationship to a caring Creator.
Word & World, 2021
This pandemic is a global occurrence, something we tend to forget amid our local co... more This pandemic is a global occurrence, something we tend to forget amid our local concerns and preoccupations. This article focuses on the member churches of the Lutheran World Federation, and on our Christian sisters and brothers.
KAIROS FOR CREATION Confessing Hope for the Earth, 2020
The Expository Times, 2010
The Ecumenical Review, 2008
Rimmer, Chad (2020) "Ecology and Christian education: how sustainability discourse and theological anthropology inform teaching methods," Consensus: Vol. 41 : Iss. 1 , Article 10., 2020
Church After Corona: Consequences for Worship and Theology, 2022
In this article, I propose that among the many issues unveiled by COVID-19, the collective respon... more In this article, I propose that among the many issues unveiled by COVID-19, the collective response to worship restrictions revealed the way that nominalism has colonized our understanding of the real presence of Christ. In order to ease the despair that comes from imagining a spatiotemporal separation of the Trinity from creation, I revisit Luther's insistence on the real presence and demonstrate how this logic extends to the replete or ubiquitous presence of God in all creation. With all due attention to the differences between revelation and reason and the hiddenness of God, I point to the ways that the mystagogical experience of the means of grace can help us discern God's real presence in those things seen and unseen all around us so that we do not have to despair when we are distanced from our worshiping community for reasons of health or other social factors. I end by pointing us to a simple liturgical act and how the invocation can set the stage for our liturgy to draw our attention to the presence of God in whom we live, move, and have our being.
Lutheranism is informed by a field of biblical and confessional norms, and by theological doctrin... more Lutheranism is informed by a field of biblical and confessional norms, and by theological doctrines such as law and gospel, faith and works, nature and grace, justification and sanctification, and freedom and vocation. Lutheranism is formed by our experience of the living Triune God in communities that gather around the Word, sacraments, service, and public witness. Lutheran self-understanding is shaped by ecumenical koinonia and interfaith dialogue and diapraxis. Lutherans boldly open our faith to interdisciplinary engagement including our cultural, social, political, racial, gendered, economic, and ecological contexts. "Lutheran identities" are dynamic-never prescriptive or exclusionary: always growing new fruit of Christian liberty. Lutheranism is a living tradition that is formed and reformed by our experience of God at work in our lives and in the world. The lived experience of faith, broadly defined as spirituality, shapes our Christian identity and engagement with the world. Spirituality is deeply personal in the sense that it relates to one's personal experience of God's Spirit. Yet, Lutherans affirm that this personal relationship is always nurtured in communities that are particularly, and universally, part of the church. Lutheran identity is formed, reformed, and transformed through the local and global reality of the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic church. Some LWF member churches call for renewal by reviving spirituality, and some churches struggle to understand the myriad expressions of spiritual gifts that call into question their experience in the Lutheran Church. What can we say about the work of the Holy Spirit to call, gather and equip the church today? Contemporary discourse about spirituality following headings: "The Holy Spirit as Gift and Promise"; "The Church as Holy Communion"; and "Transformed and Freed." Section One: The Holy Spirit as Gift and Promise This section explores a theology of the Spirit, and spiritual theology. Bible Study: In the first Bible study, Jun Hyun Kim explores Luther's sermons on John 14 in order to set the stage for understanding today as the "time of the Holy Spirit." Keynote: In the day's keynote address, Kenneth Mtata sets the context for our theological reflection by centering the work and witness of the South African bishop, Manas Buthelezi. Mtata explores Buthelezi's liberation theology, by highlighting the Christological pneumatology at work in Luther's theology, in order to remind us of the rich pneumatology that is at the heart of the Lutheran tradition. Mtata examines the promise of a spiritual theology of hermeneutics, ministry, and makes the case for a renewed focus on sanctification in the Lutheran tradition, particularly in this context of the Africa region. Chad Rimmer and Cheryl Peterson • "We Believe in the Holy Spirit" Section Two: The Church as Holy Communion This section probes the nexus of ecclesiology, liturgy, and pneumatology. Bible Study: In the second Bible study, Caroline Christopher explores the calling of the priesthood of the baptized through a case study of diaconal ministry among Dalit people.
The role of the inter-subjective 'theatre' in the formation of a child's moral identity.
Consensus, 2020
Activities that devastate the environment and societies continue unabated. Today we are faced wit... more Activities that devastate the environment and societies continue unabated. Today we are faced with a challenge that calls for a shift in our thinking, so that humanity stops threatening its life-support system. We are called to assist the Earth to heal her wounds and in the process heal our own-indeed, to embrace the whole creation in all its diversity, beauty and wonder. This will happen if we see the need to revive our sense of belonging to a larger family of life, with which we have shared our evolutionary process. In the course of history, there comes a time when humanity is called to shift to a new level of consciousness, to reach a higher moral ground. A time when we have to shed our fear and give hope to each other. That time is now.
Fortress Press eBooks, Aug 10, 2021
This paper was delivered at the Lutheran Education Australia national conference, Australian Conf... more This paper was delivered at the Lutheran Education Australia national conference, Australian Conference on Lutheran Education. In this paper, I take an ecotheological approach to the theme, One Voice, Many Paths to present a contructive theological look at the capacity for education to encourage an ecological, relational cosmology that accounts for diversity as a positive result of Trinitarian creativity, and the aim of a faith based approach to education.
International Journal of Children's Spirituality
In the mid seventeenth century, Thomas Traherne claimed human beings must retire into creation in... more In the mid seventeenth century, Thomas Traherne claimed human beings must retire into creation in order to fully know the virtues, including goodness, peaceableness and care. In this thesis I review Traherne's moral theory in light of recently discovered manuscripts of his work. For Traherne, because God's Divine goodness is the efficient cause of creation, creatures are naturally good. He uses Paracelsian optic and atomic theories to indicate how creatures communicate their goodness to one another. By retiring among creatures in their natural place, he argues that persons create a relational theatre in which they develop their capacity to sense creaturely communication. In this 'communion' persons perceive their mutual 'interest' with creatures in the relational nexus of creation. This knowledge provides motivation for 'blessed operations' of care for persons and creation. Because the human relationship to other creatures is morally significant, retiring among creation is a critical part of Christian moral formation. For Traherne this sensual engagement with a relational creation is necessary in the moral formation of children, who apprehend nature with their senses. Their innate wonder equips them to form their moral identity in relationship to a peaceable, caring creation. Traherne's account of the role of nature in moral development raises significant pedagogical questions in an age when scientific knowledge and the senses were increasingly disassociated from moral reasoning. For Traherne an education that denies the role of the senses in moral formation 'murders' the child by distracting her attention from the virtues of peace and mutuality that are present in creation. In conversation with phenomenologist Maurice Merleau-Ponty, child psychologists Colwyn Trevarthen and Darcia Narvaez, and educational philosophers David Carr and Carol Gilligan, this thesis demonstrates the contemporary significance of Traherne's claims. Through the wonder of play, contact with the natural environment helps children develop an 'ecological' identity based on their relationship to other creatures. The perception of care in these early relationships is the basis for forming an inter-subjective moral identity and the virtues of care. Many 'care' ethicists and psychologists emphasize the early experiences of care taking. Environmental educators emphasize the caring relationship to creation. Hence they give substance to Traherne's claim that play, wonder and a sensory relationship with other creatures at an early age contribute to the formation of moral identity. Traherne's ideas also have pedagogical implications for theories of Christian moral formation. Theologians and ethicists, such as Rowan Williams, Michael Northcott and John Inge, have suggested place-based programmes of moral formation are needed in the parish context. This thesis demonstrates that Traherne's moral theory provides a rationale for understanding the theological significance of a child's natural wonder and the need for its cultivation in programmes of Christian education. A relationship to the local ecology of the parish can help a child perceive the care of creation, and play a pro-formative role in developing a moral identity in relationship to a caring Creator.
Word & World, 2021
This pandemic is a global occurrence, something we tend to forget amid our local co... more This pandemic is a global occurrence, something we tend to forget amid our local concerns and preoccupations. This article focuses on the member churches of the Lutheran World Federation, and on our Christian sisters and brothers.
KAIROS FOR CREATION Confessing Hope for the Earth, 2020
The Expository Times, 2010
The Ecumenical Review, 2008