Papers by Michael Nausner
Ecumenical Review, Jul 1, 2018
This article offers a close reading of the six reports from the 4th Assembly of the WCC in Uppsal... more This article offers a close reading of the six reports from the 4th Assembly of the WCC in Uppsala 1968. The assembly was keenly in tune with the worldwide upheavals of the year. It indeed sought to discern the signs of the time and produced a number of creative suggestions, for example by emphasizing the aspect of inclusiveness in catholicity, by stressing the multilateral dimension of mission, and not least by highlighting the churches' inherent responsibility to be agents of justice and peace in a fractured world. Uppsala 1968 named in a prophetic way crucial issues that remain on the agenda for worldwide Christianity: class, economy, isolationism, racism, the arms race. But today the churches are also confronted with new and renewed challenges such as post-colonialism, migration, ecology, gender, and a theological grounding of the church's existence in the world. The article concludes by proposing table fellowship as a possibility for such theological grounding.
Ambivalenzen der Partizipation, 2018
Religions
This article wants to shed light on some of the cultural complexities of the ecumenical movement ... more This article wants to shed light on some of the cultural complexities of the ecumenical movement by putting it in conversation with postcolonial theory. It argues that the academic discourse of postcolonial theory and the ecclesial movement of ecumenism are siblings of sorts in as much as they both deal with the lingering consequences of past violence and with the tensions between particularity and universality. A growing awareness of the problem of postcolonial conditions in the ecumenical movement is briefly documented with reference to the journal VOICES/VOCES and Simón Pedro Arnold’s suggestion of an ‘inter theology’ sensitive to the power dynamics and cultural intermingling in global Christianity. In a similar vein, Claudia Jahnel is arguing for an intercultural theology that takes processes of hybridization seriously and therefore needs to develop forms of ‘vernacular ecumenism’. It is an ecumenism that materializes in countless Christian migrant communities around the globe. ...
Svensk Teologisk Kvartalskrift
Theologie für die Praxis, 2018
Theologie für die Praxis, 2013
Postkoloniale Theorie ist im englischsprachigen Raum – ausgelost von Edward W. Saids bahnbrechend... more Postkoloniale Theorie ist im englischsprachigen Raum – ausgelost von Edward W. Saids bahnbrechendem Werk Orientalismus (1978) – in den 1980er-Jahren entstanden und gegen Ende des vergangenen Jahrhunderts auch im deutschsprachigen Raum angekommen. In der Theologie begann eine allgemein wahrnehmbare Rezeption erst vor gut zehn Jahren. Dabei war es zunachst vor allem die Missionswissenschaft/Interkulturelle Theologie, die die Bedeutung dieser Theoriebildung fur die Theologie wurdigte. In ihrer Thematisierung von bis heute wirksamen kolonialen Denk- und Handlungsweisen sowie kulturellen Veranderungsprozessen und den darin zum Ausdruck kommenden Machtverhaltnissen ist Postkoloniale Theorie jedoch vor allem auch von sozialethischer Bedeutung. Ihre sozialethische Relevanz zeigt sich allgemein in der Analyse hegemonialer Denkstrukturen im interkulturellen und interreligiosen Kontext, in der postkoloniale Einsichten zu tieferem Verstandnis beitragen, konkret jedoch in der theologisch-ethisch...
Journal of Catholic Social Thought, 2017
This article offers a close reading of the six reports from the 4th Assembly of the WCC in Uppsal... more This article offers a close reading of the six reports from the 4th Assembly of the WCC in Uppsala 1968. The assembly was keenly in tune with the worldwide upheavals of the year. It indeed sought to discern the signs of the time and produced a number of creative suggestions, for example by emphasizing the aspect of inclusiveness in catholicity, by stressing the multilateral dimension of mission, and not least by highlighting the churches' inherent responsibility to be agents of justice and peace in a fractured world. Uppsala 1968 named in a prophetic way crucial issues that remain on the agenda for worldwide Christianity: class, economy, isolationism, racism, the arms race. But today the churches are also confronted with new and renewed challenges such as post-colonialism, migration, ecology, gender, and a theological grounding of the church's existence in the world. The article concludes by proposing table fellowship as a possibility for such theological grounding.
Migration und Integration - wissenschaftliche Perspektiven aus Österreich, 2013
Concilium Revista Internacional De Teologia, 2013
Methodist History, 2000
SWEDISH METHODISTS IN AMERICA AND THEIR QUEST FOR IDENTITY An identity-struggle as mirrored by th... more SWEDISH METHODISTS IN AMERICA AND THEIR QUEST FOR IDENTITY An identity-struggle as mirrored by the magazine Si.indebudet in the 1860s MICHAEL NAUSNER Swedish Methodism emerged in an almost parallel fashion on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean. This article helps us to get some insight into American Methodism and gives us a new perspective on The United Methodist Church in Sweden. For this article primary sources are us~d. The main primary source was Si.indebudet, which is available on microfilm in the United Methodist Archives at Drew University with only very few issues missing. Besides that I used Annual and General Conference journals and the autobiographical writings of Andrew Haagensen 1 and Victor Witting. As one of the main secondary sources I mention Timothy L. Smith's article, "Ethnicity and Religion in America," which helped structure observations regarding the ethnic and religious identity of the early Swedish Methodists. For analysis around twenty issues of Si.indebudet were chosen with a special emphasis on the publication in 1862, which means that we mainly deal with the editorial policies of Victor Witting, the first editor. Many new perspectives would arise if one more sytematically went through the entire publication during the 1860s. And doubtlessly strong personalities like Nels Olof Westergreen and Lars Vilhelm Henschen, who were editors in the 1870s and 1880s gave a very different profile to the magazine. 2 It was a thrilling experience to go through primary sources. The style of language, the wholehearted commitment of the writers, the excitement about new and growing communities of faith, and the strong emotions evoked by the turmoils of the early 1860s (Civil War, confrontations with native Americans, and hardships of a settler's life are some things that would not have been observable by consulting only secondary sources. 1 Haagensen claimed to write a history of Danish-Norwegian Methodism, but since he was one of the key figures in the beginning of this history, his book to a large extent has an autobiographical character.
Migration as a Sign of the Times
Caminhando, 2008
Este artigo explica como experiências com fronteiras culturais podem ser compreendidas como fonte... more Este artigo explica como experiências com fronteiras culturais podem ser compreendidas como fontes primárias para a formação cristã e como a estrutura conexional do metodismo global tem o potencial de proporcionar uma forma eclesiástica adequada para estas experiências essenciais. Palavras-chave Fronteiras-cultura-experiência-estrutura conexional-itinerância.
Verkündigung und Forschung, 2012
Susan Abraham, Identity, Ethics, and Nonviolence in Postcolonial Theory. A Rahnerian Theological ... more Susan Abraham, Identity, Ethics, and Nonviolence in Postcolonial Theory. A Rahnerian Theological Assessment, Palgrave Macmillan New York (New York) 2007, 242 S. – Michael N. Jagessar/Stephen Burns, Christian Worship. Postcolonial Perspectives (Cross Cultural Theologies), Equinox Sheffield 2011, 167 S. – Wonhee Anne Joh, Heart of the Cross. A Postcolonial Christology, Westminster John Knox Press Louisville (Kentucky) 2006, XXVI + 164 S. – Catherine Keller/Michael Nausner/Mayra Rivera (Hg.), Postcolonial Theologies. Divinity and Empire, Chalice Press St. Louis (Missouri) 2004, XII + 270 S. – Kwok Pui-lan, Postcolonial Imagination and Feminist Theology, Westminster John Knox Press Louisville
Theology & Sexuality, 2001
... Nausner argues that such destabilizing of gender was not confined to the sacraments but prese... more ... Nausner argues that such destabilizing of gender was not confined to the sacraments but present throughout the Christian life in Gregory's thought. ... 'The chief route to the acquisition of greater freedom for Christian women in the patristic era was asceticism', as Elizabeth Clark ...
Religious Studies Review, 2007
This volume is a collection of eleven essays by seven authors who approach from different angles ... more This volume is a collection of eleven essays by seven authors who approach from different angles the theme of theosis, first coined by the great fourth-century theologian, Gregory of Nazianzus, and here defined as "the transformation of believers into God." After an introductory chapter that is quite rich in bibliography, the early essays in the book focus on scriptural sources and the earliest Christian writers, as well as on such key figures as Irenaeus, Athanasius, Augustine, and Maximus the Confessor. There is one chapter on the Reformation and one on Soloviev. On the whole, the chapters are well written, well edited, precisely crafted, and thoroughly annotated. This is not for beginners, but neither can it be called obscure or overly technical. It should certainly find a place on the shelves of every major theological library, if for no other reason than for its fresh and comprehensive treatments of a significant theme in the history of patristic and Eastern Church thought. I found the chapters by Kharlamov on deification in the apostolic fathers and early apologists and by Finch on deification in the Christology of Irenaeus and in the soteriology of Athanasius to be especially illuminating. If one were to seek a single volume constituting an up-to-date and learned coverage of the subject, this is the book.
Religious Studies Review, 2006
The Heythrop Journal, 2008
sophical questions of evidence, the individuation of persons, and idolatry. Throughout these anal... more sophical questions of evidence, the individuation of persons, and idolatry. Throughout these analyses there is also a tenor of cultural critique as Steinbock criticises the modern conception of the self and diagnoses the rejection of vertical relations, which he calls idolatry, as the root of much evil in late capitalist societies. So while the book displays academic rigor it is at the same time a plea for a restored cultural sense of the vertical. Phenomenology and Mysticism stands out as an original work in a genre too often reduced to commentaries on classical figures. Steinbock is an acute phenomenologist in his own right, and this work sets a new standard for the interaction between phenomenology and theology/religious studies. While free of obscurantist jargon, the book nonetheless requires some background in philosophy and religious studies. Still, its fresh approach and its original analyses should make it the necessary point of reference for postgraduate students and established scholars alike.
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Papers by Michael Nausner