Volume 15, Issue 3, October 2002
Articles
The footprint in the sand: Providence, Invention, and Alterity in Robinson Crusoe
Stephen Curkpatrick, pp.247-265
Robinson Crusoe reflects a theological world in transition – from Protestant piety to a world of “Enlightenment Man” colonising all under a benevolent (deist) Providence. Hence, the story depicts two forms of providence, pietist and deist, vying for dominance, yet never separable in Crusoe’s experience. Further bifurcating tensions surface after a significant turning point in the narrative – the discovery of an enigmatic footprint in the sand. This discovery is antithetical to Crusoe’s residue of Puritan sensibilities – with its utter trust in God’s sovereignty, and it is incommensurate with the sensibilities of Enlightenment Man – with his circumscribed world of reason. Discovery of the footprint exposes an antipathy to the other, which becomes a hallmark of modern individuality, propriety, and counter-inventiveness under the rubric of Providence. The story implicitly calls for a further theological dimension, that neither pietist nor rational sensibilities are able to deliver, which can open possibilities of inventive providence in the face of alterity.
Beating Around in the Bush: Methodological Directions for Australian Theology
Frank Rees, pp.266-293
Abstract: The quest for an Australian theology has given rise to significant debate about methodology and the significance of the cultural context for any theological work. There are at least three different ways in which theology can attend to its context. Each of these gives rise to specific difficulties. A recent debate between Tony Kelly and Geoffrey Lilburne suggests a stalemate about methodology. Central to each approach is a conviction about the nature and sources of our knowledge of God. A third approach is proposed, drawing upon Paul Tillich’s “method of correlation” but developing a more conversational stance. In light of this method, a number of issues are proposed as the basis for future conversational reflections. Finally, a series of criteria are proposed for the critical appraisal of contextual conversational theologies.
The Library of the Fathers
Austin Cooper, pp.294-306
The Oxford Movement in the nineteenth century sought to emphasise the nature of the Church of England as “Catholic”, continuing the work of the Incarnation throughout all times and places. Part of this theological and historical polemic involved being in harmony with the writers of the early Christian centuries, the Fathers of the Church. John Henry Newman, John Keble, Richard Hurrell Froude, and (later) Edward Bouverie Pusey, appealed to the Fathers of the Church from the beginning of the Movement. This eventually blossomed into an ambitious programme for translating the works of the Fathers into English, many of them for the first time. “The Library of the Fathers”, as it was called, was a major contribution to historical and theological studies. It had an influence well beyond the narrow confines of a church “party" or movement.
Private Property, the Environment and Christianity
Paul Babie, pp.307-323
This article argues that private property is a main cause of the current ecological crisis. The article offers a means of re-conceiving the ‘orthodox’ view of private property so that it is seen to embrace a moral element as part of its normative content. David Lametti, a Canadian property theorist, calls this moral element the deon-telos of private property. This article suggests that the content of the deon-telos ought to include a Christian ecological theology and morality. It draws upon the collection of essays found in Elizabeth Breuilly and Martin Palmer’s Christianity and Ecology in order to identify the main elements of Christian ecological theology and morality necessary to fill the content of the deon-telos. By re-conceiving private property as embracing the deon-telos with Christian ecological theology and morality as a part of its content, private property may offer but one solution to the ecological crisis.
Juan Luis Segundo and Australian Theology
John Wilcken, pp.324-336
This essay falls into two parts. In the first there is a brief discussion of the emergence of Liberation Theology in Latin America in 1960s and 1970s, and its challenge to the European and North American academic theology which has dominated the Christian world. The liberation theologians adopted a different methodology, which they saw to be required by the situations of massive injustice and poverty which they found around them. Juan Luis Segundo presented his understanding of the hermeneutical circle, and showed how commitment to the humanisation of the continent leads to new interpretations of Scripture. In the second part of the essay the application of this method to Australian theology is considered. The situation of Aboriginal people is taken as an example. The effect on Aboriginal people of the coming of white settlers raises challenging questions for Christian theology and biblical interpretation.
Book Reviews
The Cambridge Companion to Jesus
Marcus Bockmuehl (ed.)
Brendan Byrne pp.337-339
Body Symbolism in the Bible
Thomas Staubl and Silvia Schroer
Duncan Reid pp.339-340
Where Did Christianity Come From
Justin Taylor
Mary Coloe pp.340-342
Religions of the Hellenistic-Roman Age
Antonia Tripolitis
Timothy Gaden pp.342-344
A Story of Shalom: The Calling of Christians and Jews by a Covenanting God
Philip Cunningham
Patricia Watson pp.344-346
Life Abundant: Rethinking Theology and Economy for a Planet in Peril
Sallie McFague
Nancy M. Victorin-Vangerud pp.346-349
Conscience and Prayer: The Spirit of Catholic Moral Theology
Dennis J. Billy and James F. Keating
Harold Daly Horell pp.349-351
Starting with the Spirit. Task of Theology Today II
Stephen Pickard and Gordon Preece (eds.)
John Salmon pp.351-353
Storytracking: Texts, Stories, and Histories in Central Australia
Sam D. Gill
John Wilcken pp.353-356
The Eucharist:
Andrew Hamilton pp.356-358
The Eucharist: Faith and Worship Eucharist: Experience & Testimony
M. Press (ed.), T. Knowles (ed.),
Andrew Hamilton pp.356-358
A Catholic University: Vision and Opportunities
Terrence J. Murphy
Brian Scarlett pp.358-360
Interdisciplinary Perspectives onCosmology and Biological Evolution
Hilary D. Egan and Mark Worthing (eds.)
Gregory Jacobs pp.360-362
A Different Touch. A Study of Vows in Religious Life
Judith A. Merkle
Peter Subagyo Stoll pp.362-363
The Way to Nicaea: Formation of Christian Theology, volume
John Behr
Eric Osbsorn pp.364
Contributors
STEPHEN CURKPATRICK lectures in Systematic Theology and selected areas of New Testament studies at the Churches of Christ Theological College, a teaching campus of the Melbourne College of Divinity. He is also a tutor in postgraduate Hermeneutics in the Arts Faculty and an Honorary Research Associate, School of Historical Studies (Centre for Studies in Religion and Theology) at Monash University. His current research interests focus upon hermeneutics, and the interface between theology and postmodern thought.
FRANK REES is the Dean of Whitley College (Melbourne), where he teaches systematic theology. His research interests include the quest for an Australian theology, particularly in the areas of Christology and Ecclesiology. His most recent book is Wrestling with Doubt: Theological Reflections on the Journey of Faith (Collegeville: 2001).
AUSTIN COOPER O.M.I. is lecturer in Church History and Spirituality at Catholic Theological College, an Associated Teaching Institute of the Melbourne College of Divinity. He has also served as Master of the College. His doctoral work was on the influence of the Oxford Move-ment in Australia and he has published many articles on matters related to this topic. He is also author of two books on medieval mystics Julian of Norwich (1986) and The Cloud (1989) and the history of the Oblates in Australia, A Little by Ourselves (1994).
PAUL BABIE is Lecturer in Law at the University of Adelaide and a sub-deacon of the Eparchy of Ss Peter and Paul of Melbourne for the Ukrainian Catholics of Australia, New Zealand and Oceania; he will be ordained deacon in March 2003. He holds a BA in Sociology and Political Science from the University of Calgary, a LLB from the University of Alberta, a LLM from the University of Melbourne, a DPhil from Oxford University, and is a Barrister and Solicitor of the Court of Queen’s Bench of Alberta, Canada. His doctoral thesis was entitled “Crown Land in Australia”.
JOHN WILCKEN S.J. has taught Systematic Theology at the United Faculty of Theology for thirty years, and is superior of a community of Jesuits living with homeless alcoholic and emotionally disturbed men on the outskirts of Melbourne. In recent years he has made a special study of the writings of Juan Luis Segundo, and also of the relationship between Christian theology and Australian Aboriginal religions.
