Review: Sebastian C. H. Kim and Jonathan Draper (eds) Liberating Text? Sacred Scriptures in Public Life. London: SPCK, 2008. 150 pages. ISBN: 9780281058563 (original) (raw)
2010, Transformation: An International Journal of Holistic Mission Studies
AI-generated Abstract
This review critically examines "Liberating Text? Sacred Scriptures in Public Life," edited by Sebastian C. H. Kim and Jonathan Draper, which collects essays addressing the role of sacred texts from Judaism, Christianity, and Islam in contemporary society. The contributions discuss how these scriptures can serve as liberating influences, particularly within a pluralistic context, urging a more compassionate engagement with public life while addressing issues of religious interpretation and coexistence. Key themes include the dangers of fundamentalist interpretations, the importance of wisdom from sacred texts, and the interplay between human rights and obligations.
Sign up for access to the world's latest research.
checkGet notified about relevant papers
checkSave papers to use in your research
checkJoin the discussion with peers
checkTrack your impact
Related papers
Reviews in Religion & Theology, 2012
The content of Christian theology is nothing if not complex and nuanced. Faith, in essence, may be something relatively simple; an orientation of the heart, an intention of the will, a determination of religious identity. But as soon as the person of faith takes up the Anselmian challenge to seek understanding of that faith, problems of where to start and how to proceed quickly become acute. Many easy solutions are offered, of course, and most of those are of dubious intellectual quality, short-changing both the integrity of the faith and the veracity of its supposed cognition. They result most often in misinformed fundamentalism or other variants of stifling naïveté. But for many Christian believers seeking to deepen their knowledge and understanding by becoming students of theology there are many worthy guides. This second edition of Anderson's Journey is one of particularly good value. It purports, in its preface, to offer a 'trusty companionship for the journey' as well as to present 'a hearty invitation' to undertake the journey in the first place (p. ix). And in an attempt to make the journey as relaxed and enjoyable as possible the intellectual demands along the way are lightened by the insertion of cartoon comment that can, at times, provide critical insight and reinforcement of a main idea by way of providing a shaft of humorous light. For some, however, they may be more of a sideline distraction, and there are times when it seems that without a deeper knowledge the point of a cartoon may in fact be lost. Still, the overall impression is of a book that deals with complex and heavy topics in a most appealing manner, and succeeding in that on the whole. One very interesting feature is that, although the book has been written and structured in a historically developmental fashion, the preface presents an alternate format whereby the book could be read thematically. By a judicious selection of provided readings, nine discrete theological topics-Faith and Reason, the doctrines of God,
This book is an attempt to make sense of, on the one hand, the intersection between Christianity, place, and identity, and on the other, the relationship between church, civil society, the market and the state. This opening sentence lays out the considerable challenge Luke Bretherton sets himself in his latest book. To a large extent, the book does indeed do what it says on the tin. Bretherton starts with some big questions such as, "What are the limits of the state? What are the limits of money? And what are the limits of communities?" 3 In assessing previous attempts to answer these questions, Bretherton warns of the dangers facing the church, chief among which are the threefold risks of co-option (in which the church is construed by the state as a constituency in civil society seeking resources or being used to deliver public policy goals); competition (becoming part of an identity politics); and commodification (whereby the market construes Christianity as a product or commodity in the religious marketplace). 4
Editorial: The Intersections of a Public Theology
International Journal of Public Theology
The rapid changes in the nature of the global presence of the Christian faith is reshaping the practice of a public theology. There is a wave of new voices, sites, and fresh issues breaking. Some of the former established patterns of a western-derived public theology do not always address these situations directly: sometimes they are found wanting while the implications of the decline of the church in liberal democracies are liable to recast the agenda of a public theology. It is also the case that the energy and vitality of the public presence of religion and its theology in the Global South invites more than solidarity. There are new intersections for a public theology in differently conceived public spheres and through the agency of gender, generation and ethnicity. The case for a distinctive feminist rendering of a public theology leads Ruth Wivell to consider such through the lens of trauma and the 'living on' experience of post-trauma. She does so via a reading of the haemorrhaging woman in Mark's gospel. The organizing question is not the conventional one for a Christology-'who do you say that I am?' It becomes instead 'who touched me?'. Wivell presents a decentred Christology. Rather than a reliance on words touch and body become the effective conduit for self-knowledge. The Jesus of this text lacks cognition and is devoid of the power commonly associated with 'the ultimate saviour figure'. For a public theology in this incident he becomes the exemplar of a 'therapeutic witness'. What is required of a public theology is the capacity for a deep 'listening to the personal and social lives of the disenfranchised' and 'the disempowered other'. Wivell concludes her argument with a warning: 'For many public theologians who are used to speaking and being heard, the shift to witness-with its lack of power and cognitive understanding-will indeed be a challenge'. One of the striking features of some contemporary public theologies is the extraordinary pressure being brought to bear on what were thought to be stable democracies. Samoa is a case point. For most of its history it has been deemed to be a beacon of stability as it wove together indigenous cultural practices, the Christian faith and democratic ideals. That reputation was brought into question with the constitutional crisis that ensued following the general election of 2021: on the night of the initial count the two leading parties were tied. This result was unprecedented: how to proceed was far from clear and made more difficult by the Prime Minister's refusal to step down. Sam Amosa describes the
Loading Preview
Sorry, preview is currently unavailable. You can download the paper by clicking the button above.