The World as Sacrament: Insights into an Orthodox Worldview
John Chryssavgis, pp.1-24
If there exists today a vision able to transcend or transform national conflicts and confessional tensions, it may well be the appreciation of the world seen as sacrament. The earth that we all share reveals to us glimpses of wholeness and holiness. This paper examines, from the perspective of Orthodox theology and spirituality, the notions of sacrament and symbol, the concept of creation “out of nothing”, the doctrine of the Incarnation, and the relationship of the transcendent God to the world around us.
Finding the Framework to Prepare for Dialogue with Aborigines
Frank Fletcher, pp.25-38
It is simplistic to tell Euro-Australians that the condition of Aboriginal people is due solely to our (Euro-Australian) acts of injustice and ignorance. Christians cannot adequately prepare for dialogue with the Aborigines within such a framework. What is needed is a framework that reflects the truth within ourselves as well as about ourselves. The first framework proposed in this essay understands the Euro-Australian “soul” to be caught in a conflict between the modern historical and the primal: a conflict that lies behind much of our treatment of the Aborigines. However, this conflict carries within it a deeper conflict and suppression: facing that conflict brings us to the true transforming framework to dispose for dialogue.
Aboriginal Disadvantage and Collective Moral Responsibility
Christopher Prowse, pp.39-52
Australia’s relationship with its Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples has changed in recent years. A most positive movement towards reconciliation is growing but not without being continually challenged by entrenched racist attitudes and sinful social structures within the community. This article attempts to offer some ethical-theological parameters around which this fragile desire for reconciliation might mature. It discusses the results of recent data in the light of the concept of collective responsibility with its corresponding ethical implications. An application of these concepts to the Australian Christian churches is initiated and an overall challenge to all Australians will be suggested.
The Parable of the Lord and the Servant: A Soteriology for Our Times
Kerrie Hide, pp.53-69
This article presents the soteriology of Julian of Norwich expressed in her Parable of the Lord and the Servant. In focusing on Julian’s understanding of salvation four dimensions of the soteriology highlighted in the parable are considered: the experience of the fall, the relationship of the lord to the servant during the fall, the central role of the servant in bestowing grace on creation, and hope for eternal union with God. Each of these soteriological dimensions is then appraised in light of contem-porary questions about the meaning of salvation.
From Eschatology to Trinity: Pannenberg’s Doctrine of God
Christiaan Mostert, pp.70-83
This article comprises three parts. The first part establishes some important landmarks in Pannenberg’s theology as it has developed over a number of decades. In the second part Pannenberg’s identification of God with the future is noted, with particular reference to an early essay. The final part shows how this theme is taken up into the explicitly trinitarian theology which is the hallmark of Pannenberg’s theological magnum opus.
Gandhi and “Lead, Kindly Light”
William W. Emilsen, pp.84-92
John Henry Newman and Mohandas Gandhi represent an odd coupling. Newman’s popular hymn, “Lead, kindly Light”, exerted a powerful influence upon Mahatma Gandhi’s spirituality and India’s struggle for independence. The hymn was transmitted to Gandhi in Noncomformist circles in England and South Africa. “Lead, kindly Light” came to represent the spirit of his satyagraha campaigns against the British and Indian Governments. It also assumed an important place in Gandhi’s developing understanding of religious pluralism.
Historians of the Christian tradition: their methodologies and impact on western though
Michael Bauman and Martin Klauber (eds.)
Ken Manley pp.100-`101
Salvations: truth and difference in religion
S. Mark Heim
John Thornhill pp.101-103
The Kingdom of God: the message of Jesus today
John Fuellenbach
William Loader pp.105-107
A primer on postmodernism
Stanley J. Grenz
Gerald Gleeson pp.109-111
Special divine action: key issues in the contemporary debate
Paul Gwynne
Andrew Hamilton pp.114-116
The Word in the desert: Anglican and Roman Catholic reactions to liturgical reform
Barry Spurr
Margaret Smith pp.116-118
REV’D DR JOHN CHRYSSAVGIS is Professor of Theology at Holy Cross School of Theology (Boston) where he teaches Orthodox Spirituality. Formerly Sub-Dean and Lecturer in Patristics at St Andrew’s Theological College (Sydney), he is the author of Ascent to heaven (1989), Repentance and confession (1990), The desert is alive (1991), and Love, sexuality, and marriage (1996). He is married to Sophie, and has two boys, Alexander and Julian.
FRANK FLETCHER M.S.C., a priest of the Sacred Heart missionaries congregation, works in the Aboriginal Catholic Ministry Sydney and lectures in theology and spirituality at St Paul’s National Seminary, Kensington, NSW. His interests are in the areas of Aboriginal-Christian dialogue, Australian spirituality, and christology in the era of inter-religious and inter-cultural dialogue.
CHRISTOPHER PROWSE recently completed his doctoral studies at the Alphonsianum, affiliated with the Lateran Pontifical University. A Roman Catholic priest, he lectures in moral theology at the Catholic Theological College in Melbourne as well as having care for the parish of East Thornbury and working in the Archdiocese’s Catholic Aboriginal Apostolate.
KERRIE HIDE is a lecturer in the School of Theology at the Australian Catholic University, Signadou Campus, in Canberra. She is currently engaged in doctoral studies at ACU on the soteriology of Julian of Norwich.
CHRISTIAAN MOSTERT is Professor of Systematic Theology in the Theological Hall of the Victorian Synod of the Uniting Church in Australia, and teaches in the United Faculty of Theology, Melbourne. His doctoral work was done on the theology of Wolfhart Pannenberg.
WILLIAM W. EMILSEN lectures in Church History and World Religions at United Theological College, North Parramatta, New South Wales. He is co-editor of Uniting Church Studies and the author of Violence and atonement: the missionary experience of Mohandas Gandhi, Samuel Stokes and Verrier Elwin in India before 1935 (Peter Lang) and The India of my dreams (SPCK).
