Volume 4, Issue 3, October 1991
Articles
Hellenism and the Abandonment of Particularism in Jesus and Paul
William Loader, pp.245-256
Recent research has been reminding us of the extent of the Hellenisation of Galilee. This calls for a reassessment of the possible impact upon Jesus of life in a crosscultural context. The traditions about his sitting lightly towards certain aspects of the Torah should be seen against this background. We should also consider the possible influence of popular critiques of religion. The latter may well have had an impact on Paul’s thought as he grappled with the role of Torah. The origins of Christianity need to be seen in the context of such major cultural shifts and discussions of the particular and the universal in religion.
Without Parts or Passions? The Suffering God in Anglican Thought
Duncan Reid, pp.257-272
Over the past hundred years Anglican thought has questioned the traditional doctrine of God’s impassibility. The cross of Christ reveals an eternal suffering in God. But how can a suffering God be a source of hope? It can be argued that God, in the very act of creation, renounced any impassibility God may have enjoyed. It is only a suffering God who can stand in relation to a created other and who can therefore hold out hope to creation.
A Metaphorical Walk through Scripture in an Ecological Age
Elaine Wainwright, pp.273-294
Current ecological questions and crises have given rise to a profound critique of the biblical story and its function within contemporary society. This article takes account of that critique as a key element in our creation of the “new story” essential for our age. It also explores ways in which the biblical story makes a significant contribution to that “new story”.
Renewing the Earth - Renewing Theology
Neil Ormerod, pp.295-306
This article examines three metaphors for world process – the organic, the mechanistic, and the artistic – drawn from the work of Gibson Winter in his book, Liberating Grace. The significance of these three metaphors for ecology and theological method are examined in turn. In so doing a correlation is also offered between cultural types (Voegelin), theological styles, stages of meaning (Lonergan), and stages of faith (Fowler).
Theology and Myth in James McAuley's Captain Quiros
Noel Rowe, pp.307-326
This article considers the reciprocal relationship between the theological concerns and the imaginative intentions which characterise James McAuley’s long narrative poem Captain Quiros. Giving particular attention to the tensions established between hope and despair, between eschatology and history, the article argues that the poem’s religious imagination is most profoundly informed, not by its theology of Providence, but by its sympathy for the myth of the Fall.
Land of the Spirit? A Review
Veronica Brady, pp.327-326
MURIEL PORTER, Land of the Spirit? The Australian Religious Experience, (Geneva: WCC Publications/ Melbourne: The Joint Board of Christian Education, 1990). Pp. xi + 102. Rrp. $AUD10.95.
A Report on the International Theological Symposium, New Zealand, May 1991
John Hilary Martin, pp.337-340
Reflections on the New Zealand symposium.
Book Reviews
Earthing the Gospel: An Inculturation Handbook for Pastoral Workers
Gerald A. Arbuckle
Michael Manson pp.341-344
The 'Messianic Secret' in Mark's Gospel
Heikki Räisänen
Dorothy A. Lee-Pollard pp.343-346
Matthew 1-7
Ulrich Luz
Christopher J. Monaghan pp.346-350
The Parables of Jesus in the Light of the Old Testament
Claus Westermann
Godfrey Nicholson pp.350-352
The Ecole Biblique and the New Testament: A Century of Scholarship (1890-1990)
Jerome Murphy-O'Connor
B. Rod Doyle pp.352-353
Moral Theology - Dead Ends and Alternatives
Antonio Moser and Bernardino Leers
Christopher Prowse pp.354-356
Moral Theology: Challenges for the Future
Charles E. Curran (ed.)
David Willis pp.356-358
Ascent to Heaven: The Theology of the Human Person according to Saint John of the Ladder
John Chryssavgis
Lawrence Cross pp.358-361
Contributors
William (Bill) Loader, Dr. theol. (Mainz), has been New Testament Lecturer for the Perth Theological Hall of the Uniting Church in Australia since 1978 and teaches at Murdoch University within the Joint Faculty of Theology as a member of the Perth College of Divinity. His publications include Sohn und Hoherpriester (1981), The Christology of the Fourth Gospel (1989), and a commentary, The Johannine Epistles, shortly to be published by Epworth Press.
Duncan Reid is an Anglican priest now lecturing in theology at St Barnabas College, Adelaide. He studied theology in Melbourne and Tübingen and has served as secretary to the Faith and Order Commission of the Victorian Council of Churches.
Elaine Wainwright, R.S.M., B.A. (Hons), M.A., Ph.D., lectures in scripture in the Brisbane College of Theology and at Pius XII Seminary, Banyo, Queensland. Her interests are in biblical hermeneutics and a feminist reading of scripture and theology, manifest in her Towards a Feminist Critical Reading of the Gospel according to Matthew, to be published by de Gruyter in the series BZNW later this year.
Neil Ormerod is married with four children and lectures full-time at St Paul’s Seminary, Kensington, N.S.W. He is the author of Introducing Contemporary Theology (Sydney: E. J. Dwyer, 1990) and is working on a book on grace and original sin. He has a master’s degree in theology from the Melbourne College of Divinity and a doctorate in pure mathematics.
Noel Rowe, S.M., teaches Australian Literature at the University of Sydney. He has also, with Dr Erin White, been teaching “Australian Religious Imagination” at the Aquinas Academy and the Catholic Theological Union, Sydney.
