Download or read book Sites of Violence Sites of Grace written by Cynthia Hess and published by Lexington Books. This book was released on 2008-12-16 with total page 179 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Cynthia Hess offers a thoughtful reconstruction of Christian nonviolence through an examination of both theological and theoretical works. She shows how contemporary understandings of violence and the human person challenge traditional views of nonviolence as pacifism and the refusal of military violence. Hess begins with an analysis of the extensive writings on nonviolence by John Howard Yoder, one of the foremost twentieth-century thinkers on this subject. She then seeks to deepen his view by probing the insights of trauma scholars who explore the powerful and lasting effects of traumatic violence on individuals and communities. These scholars often maintain that many survivors continue to hold the reality of traumatic violence within their bodies and minds, so that it becomes part of them as they move through time. In light of this claim, Hess argues that Christian nonviolence must move beyond pacifism to directly address the problem of internalized violence. In conversation with resources in Yoder's work as well as feminist theory and trauma studies, she analyzes an often-overlooked dimension of religious nonviolence: the creation of communities in which traumatized persons can survive and flourish. With its highly interdisciplinary character, this book presents a fresh perspective on Christian nonviolence that not only challenges traditional views but also reclaims the centrality of nonviolence for contemporary Christian theology and practice.
Download or read book Sites of Violence and of Grace written by Cynthia Sue Hess and published by . This book was released on 2005 with total page 626 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This dissertation reexamines Christian nonviolence in conversation with trauma studies and feminist theory. Traditional Christian accounts of nonviolence focus on pacifism and the refusal to participate in physical aggression. As an example, I explore the work of twentieth-century theologian John Howard Yoder, who has written extensively on Christian nonviolence. While Yoder presents a powerful vision of nonviolence, it is my contention that he does not attend to the multifaceted ways in which violence marks our existence. Yoder explores how faith communities can respond to violence in the broader culture, but he does not consider what it means for communities to embody nonviolence when violence becomes part of their identity and the identities of the people who constitute them. Drawing on works by feminist theorists and trauma theorists, who examine the social character of violence and its role in the formation of the communal self, I consider the reality of traumatic violence as one particularly destructive kind of violence that can become internal to socially-constructed selves and communities as they are formed in history over time. Shifting the terms of traditional accounts of nonviolence in this way makes it possible to identify an often-overlooked dimension of religious nonviolence. Rather than discussing nonviolence in terms of pacifism, I explore how communities may enact nonviolence by providing a context in which traumatized persons can survive and flourish. I develop this reevaluation of nonviolence by first laying out three stages of healing from trauma identified by scholars and clinicians who study the reality of traumatic violence: creating supportive communities, narrating the trauma, and reconnecting with the present. I then offer a theological analysis of these stages that engages not only texts by trauma theorists and feminist theorists but also resources in Yoder's theology. Yoder's work thus both provides a vision of nonviolence that I contest and offers a useful theological framework for rethinking the meaning and practice of religious nonviolence in the context of trauma.--Author's abstract.
Download or read book Bearing Witness written by Karen O'Donnell and published by SCM Press. This book was released on 2022-08-31 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Much like theology itself, the experience of trauma has the potential to reach into almost any aspect of life, refusing to fit within the tramlines. A follow up to the 2020 volume "Feminist Trauma Theologies", "Bearing Witness" explores further into global, intersectional, and as yet relatively unexplored perspectives. With a particular focus on poverty, gender and sexualities, race and ethnicity, and health in dialogue with trauma theology the book seeks to demonstrate both the far reaching and intersectional nature of trauma, encouraging creative and ground-breaking theological reflections on trauma and constructions of theology in the light of the trauma experience. A unique set of insights into the real-life experience of trauma, the book includes chapters authored by a diverse group of academic theologians, practitioners and activists. The result is a theology which extend far into the public square
Download or read book The Dark Womb written by Karen O'Donnell and published by SCM Press. This book was released on 2022-02-28 with total page 131 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The experience of reproductive loss raises a series of profoundly theological questions: how can God have a plan for my life? Why didn’t God answer my prayers? How can I have hope after such an experience? Who am I after such a loss? Sadly, these are questions that, along with reproductive loss, have largely been ignored in theology. Karen O’Donnell tackles these questions head on, drawing on her own experiences of repeated reproductive loss as she re-conceives theology from the perspective of the miscarrying person. Offering a fresh, original, and creative approach to theology, O’Donnell explores the complexity of the miscarrying body and its potential for theological revelation. She offers a re-conception of theologies of providence, prayer, hope, and the body as she reimagines theology out of these messy origins. This book is for those who have experiences such losses and those who minister to them. But it is also for all those who want to encounter a creative and imaginative approach to theology and the life of faith in our messy, complex world.
Download or read book Unspeakable written by Sarah Travis and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2021-06-09 with total page 140 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Unspeakable probes the relationship between trauma theory and Christian theology in order to support preachers in the task of crafting sermons that adequately respond to trauma in the pews and the world at large. How might sermons contribute to resiliency and the repairing of wounds caused by traumatic experiences? This book seeks to provide a theological lens for preachers who wonder how their ‘beautiful words’ can address suffering amid traumatic wounding. Preaching is a healing discourse that proclaims gospel, or good news. Gospel is a complicated reality, especially in the face of trauma. Drawing on various theologies and insights from trauma theory, Unspeakable challenges the notion of a triumphant gospel, seeking an in-between perspective that honors both resurrection and the trauma that remains despite our desire to get to the good news. It builds on images of the preacher as witness and midwife in order to develop homiletical practices that acknowledge the limitations of language and imagination experienced by traumatized individuals.
Download or read book Broken Bodies written by Karen O'Donnell and published by SCM Press. This book was released on 2019-01-01 with total page 249 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Body of Christ is a traumatised body because it is constituted of traumatised bodies. This monograph explores the nature of that trauma and examines the implications of identifying the trauma of this body. Constructing new ways of thinking about the narratives at the heart of the Christian faith, 'Broken Bodies' offers a fresh perspective on Christian theology, in particular the Eucharist, and presents a call to love the body in all its guises. It offers new pathways for considering what it means to ‘be Christian’ and explores the impact that the experience of trauma has on Christian doctrine.
Download or read book The New Yoder written by Peter Dula and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2010-01-01 with total page 359 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The work of John Howard Yoder has become increasingly influential in recent years. Moreover, it is gaining influence in some surprising places. No longer restricted to the world of theological ethicists and Mennonites, Yoder has been discovered as a refreshing voice by scholars working in many other fields. For thirty-five years, Yoder was known primarily as an articulate defender of Christian pacifism against a theological ethics guild dominated by the Troeltschian assumptions reflected in the work of Walter Rauschenbusch and Reinhold and Richard Niebuhr. But in the last decade, there has been a clearly identifiable shift in direction. A new generation of scholars has begun reading Yoder alongside figures most often associated with post-structuralism, neo-Nietzscheanism, and post-colonialism, resulting in original and productive new readings of his work. At the same time, scholars from outside of theology and ethics departments, indeed outside of Christianity itself, like Romand Coles and Daniel Boyarin, have discovered in Yoder a significant conversation partner for their own work. This volume collects some of the best of those essays in hope of encouraging more such work from readers of Yoder and in hopes of attracting others to his important work.
Download or read book Christian Ethics at the Boundary written by Karen V. Guth and published by Fortress Press. This book was released on 2015-09-01 with total page 245 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In contemporary reflection on Christianity and politics, the work of realist, witness, and feminist theologians has been done in isolation. Christian Ethics at the Boundary offers the first collaborative approach to public and political theology. Extending the strong contextual work of Robin W. Lovin, Stanley Hauerwas, Kathryn Tanner, Monica A. Coleman, and Mary McClintock Fulkerson, author Karen V. Guth engages the prominent public theologians Reinhold Niebuhr, John Howard Yoder, and Martin Luther King Jr. to identify new trajectories for future work in Christian ethics.
Download or read book Hauerwas the Peacemaker written by Nathan Scot Hosler and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2020-04-14 with total page 267 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "War has been abolished in Christ" is a strong claim by theologian Stanley Hauerwas. Wars, however, continue to rage, and historic numbers of people are displaced globally. Despite critics' assessments that Hauerwas contributes to Christians disengaging, his work provides certain tools for the work of peacebuilding. In this work, Hauerwas's contribution to peacemaking as a part of his ecclesiology and broader theological/ethical work will be assessed. Hauerwas's peacemaking within his work stands within the context of ecclesiology and related themes of witness and Christology. The possibilities of his work on peacemaking to extend to peacebuilding practice and foreign policy formation are explored, and a critique is leveled regarding his engagement with racial justice. Additionally, certain practices of reading in theology and training in this language are extrapolated to engage the task of policy formation and analysis in contexts where religion is an active factor. This study concludes that Hauerwas's theological ethics of peacemaking makes a valuable contribution, but must be extended into specific practices.
Download or read book Spirit and Trauma written by Shelly Rambo and published by Westminster John Knox Press. This book was released on 2010-09-02 with total page 176 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Rambo draws on contemporary studies in trauma to rethink a central claim of the Christian faith: that new life arises from death. Reexamining the narrative of the death and resurrection of Jesus from the middle day-liturgically named as Holy Saturday-she seeks a theology that addresses the experience of living in the aftermath of trauma. Through a reinterpretation of "remaining" in the Johannine Gospel, she proposes a new theology of the Spirit that challenges traditional conceptions of redemption. Offered, in its place, is a vision of the Spirit's witness from within the depths of human suffering to the persistence of divine love.
Download or read book Sites Unseen written by Dianne Harris and published by University of Pittsburgh Pre. This book was released on 2007-05-27 with total page 335 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sites Unseen challenges conventions for viewing and interpreting the landscape, using visual theory to move beyond traditional practices of describing and classifying objects to explore notions of audience and context. While other fields, such as art history and geography, have engaged poststructuralist theory to consider vision and representation, the application of such inquiry to the natural or built environment has lagged behind. This book, by treating landscape as a spatial, psychological, and sensory encounter, aims to bridge this gap, opening a new dialogue for discussing the landscape outside the boundaries of current art criticism and theory. As the contributors reveal, the landscape is a widely adaptable medium that can be employed literally or metaphorically to convey personal or institutional ideologies. Walls, gates, churchyards, and arches become framing devices for a staged aesthetic experience or to suit a sociopolitical agenda. The optic stimulation of signs, symbols, bodies, and objects combines with physical acts of climbing and walking and sensory acts of touching, smelling, and hearing to evoke an overall "vision" of landscape.Sites Unseen considers a variety of different perspectives, including ancient Roman visions of landscape, the framing techniques of a Moghul palace, and a contemporary case study of Christo's The Gates, as examples of human attempts to shape our sensory, cognitive, and emotional experiences in the landscape.
Download or read book Tackling Trauma written by Paul A. Barker and published by Langham Publishing. This book was released on 2019-03-14 with total page 360 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Trauma is a universal phenomenon that can be caused by international catastrophes or individual, personal tragedy. Trauma is also a severely neglected topic in Christian literature, and while it can challenge someone’s faith in Christ, God and the ministry of his Word is central to dealing with the emotional and psychological impact of trauma. By his Spirit, through his Word, and through his church, God is available to minister to people suffering from trauma and bring transformation to their lives. In this book, a team of experienced and informed Christian professionals from around the world promote a deep biblical response to trauma through clinical and theological wisdom and their first-hand experience of witnessing and experiencing trauma. The contributions provide practical responses to people’s trauma, rather than mere descriptions of the problems, making it an ideal resource for pastors, counsellors, humanitarian workers and students.
Download or read book Trauma and Coping Mechanisms among Assemblies of God World Missionaries written by Valerie A. Rance and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2021-12-21 with total page 211 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Trauma, from the fall of Adam and Eve forward impacts human lives in overpowering ways. A review of the lives of biblical personalities and missionaries reveals shared traumatic experiences. In addition to the stress of cultural adjustment, missionaries often live in contexts of violence, political unrest, economic instability, natural disasters, and relational conflict. The examined biblical personalities faced similar issues, yet a majority coped with trauma in ways that led to well-being. The proposed biblical theory of well-being assists missionaries to move deeper in their trust of God by utilizing the coping skills of the biblical personalities including asking God for help, lifting up their praise and worship to God, standing on a sense of call, working with God, lamenting/venting to God in healthy ways, embracing a theology of suffering, and accepting assistance from friends and family. The adherence to the constructs of this theory protects missionaries from the ravages of psychological trauma by avoiding negative coping and developing positive coping skills that lead to trusting in the only One who gives hope in seemingly hopeless situations.
Download or read book The Empty Church written by Shannon Craigo-Snell and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2016-08 with total page 221 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Why go to church? What happens in church and why does it matter? The Empty Church presents fresh answers to these questions by creating an interdisciplinary conversation among performance studies, theater directors, and Christian theologians. The result is a compelling depiction of church as a performative relationship with Jesus Christ, mediated by Scripture, in hope of the Holy Spirit.
Download or read book When Did we See You Naked written by Jayme R. Reaves and published by SCM Press. This book was released on 2021-03-31 with total page 267 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Was the stripping and exposure of Jesus a form of sexual abuse? If so, why does such a reading of Jesus’ suffering matter? The combined impact of the #MeToo movement and a further wave of global revelations on church sexual abuse have given renewed significance to recent work naming Jesus as a victim of sexual abuse. Timely and provocative "When did we see you naked?" presents the arguments for reading Christ as an abuse victim, as well as exploring how the position might be critiqued, and what implications and applications it might offer to the Church.
Download or read book Site written by Ewen McDonald and published by MCA Store. This book was released on 2012 with total page 226 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Theology as Autobiography written by Colby Dickinson and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2020-03-17 with total page 276 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Autobiographical writings on faith frequently come from the lives of ordinary persons whose struggles with faith are often lived at the margins of the church, academy, and society. Yet these voices have the potential to reshape the ways in which each of these fields function. To find out what it means to stand before God with all of one’s humanity on display is to engage in not only the act of confession, but to demonstrate a bold theological reflection that needs to be more explicitly understood. By turning to spiritual autobiographies as theological source texts, we learn to place our emphasis where it matters most, on the people whose lives of faith move us deeply and cause us to re-examine our own lives in light of their witness. Moving through a range of ancient, early modern, and contemporary spiritual writers in order to demonstrate a profound connection that unites them all, this book portrays how a critical self-examination of one’s most personal, internal fractures (our “poverty” as it were) is the only way to develop a life of faith—the dual meaning of the word “confession,” which expresses both a revealing of one’s sins, or brokenness, and the articulation of what one believes.
