SALT AND PEACE. INTERCULTURAL ECOJUSTICE HERMENEUTICS OF Mk 9:50

Journal of Cultural and Religious Studies

Authentic peace is much more comprehensive and far-reaching than the absence of war. The Jewish concept of shalom and its concrete experience entail harmony with nature, with oneself, with others and with God. This article delves into the Hebrew scriptural foundations of Christianity's teachings about peace, and then proceeds to give an overview of some of the key references to the same theme in the New Testament. A number of key affirmations about peace and its various aspects were made during the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965). These were followed by several official statements made by the Popes in their annual World Day of Peace Messages since 1968. The Christian concept of peace offers a number of practical applications which can be embraced by all men and women of good will, namely the creation of a purified mentality, as well as a sincere pedagogy of dialogue.

Interculturality in Peace-Building and Mutual Edification (Rom 14:19), 2019

This article shows that according to Romans 14:19, peace-building and mutual edification are closely interrelated. This hypothesis is substantiated through an intercultural method, which explores the issues of peace from a triple perspective: a contemporary culture (DR Congo), an original Biblical culture (Rm 14:19) and a past Church culture (Church Fathers). These three frames basically agree that for restoring and maintaining peace, it is important to fight against its main cause, namely, sin. It is equally important to cultivate things that promote peace and mutual edification.

HTS Teologiese Studies / Theological Studies, 2019

This article shows that, according to Romans 14:19, peace-building and mutual edification are closely interrelated. This hypothesis is substantiated through an intercultural method, which explores the issues of peace from a triple perspective: a contemporary culture (DR Congo), an original Biblical culture (Rm 14:19) and a past Church culture (Church Fathers). These three frames basically agree that for restoring and maintaining peace, it is important to fight against its main cause, namely sin. It is equally important to cultivate things that promote peace and mutual edification.

Since 2019, this study group has been active at the EuARe meetings. The panel has engaged with a wide range of topics touching on the relationship between Scripture and theology, including Scripture, theology and science (2021) and the diversity of hermeneutical approaches (2022). This year, we invite contributions in response to the following two calls for papers: Call Area 1 | Just Peace: Hermeneutical Reflections on Current Issues Churches and confessional traditions have often been engaged in conflicts motivated by either religious or political premises. Accordingly, many contemporary theologies can claim only limited success in their efforts to conciliate conflict, avoid violence, stop war, and promote peace worldwide. Living in a turbulent age, where violence and war seem to be proliferating, theology needs to dive deeply into the Bible, as well as the broader, early Christian tradition, to offer better ways of dealing with issues such as just war, "holy" violence, and peacemaking. For this to happen, theology must address its own hermeneutical and historical shortcomings. This is a crucial 'first step' in formulating a theory of 'just peace' that might counter contemporary tendencies towards violence and war. This is no easy task. For deep hermeneutical reconsideration is required, rather than merely representing existing biblical and theological views. This is necessary if a more robust 'hermeneutics of peace' is to be achieved. Such a hermeneutic can be understood, on the one hand, as the art of bringing existing events, texts, and contexts under hermeneutical scrutiny, so as to lead to new understandings which lend themselves to reconciliation. Relatedly, and on the other hand, a 'hermeneutics of peace' recognizes the role that interpretation plays in the emergence and development of confession premises and concepts. Our panel aims to address a wide range of hermeneutical challenges facing contemporary biblical interpretation and theology. For us, the hermeneutical challenge is about how one's way of narrating the Christian tradition opens up new possibilities for fruitful engagement about how one reads Scripture (with an eye to its embedded context) out of a concern for its application in the 21st century. Attention to hermeneutical diversity provides an excellent opportunity for gaining new insight, exploring new ideas, and learning how to allow the past to speak afresh for our moment. Along these lines, S&T maintains a robust commitment to dialogue between various fields and areas of research as a means of spurring constructive and critical engagement for hermeneutical development. In line with our theme of 'just peace', we invite contributions related to one or more of the following guiding questions: 1. How can contextual approaches to scriptural interpretation enrich contemporary biblical exposition on the topic of just peace? Papers might engage with patristic, medieval, and early modern or reformational approaches to reading the Bible, as well as the ways in which scripture interprets scripture, e.g., the use of the Old Testament in the New Testament. 2. Does Scripture provide the sufficient hermeneutical background to reflect on the preconditions of just peace (e.g. human rights language, dignity of human) and in what way do concrete texts in Scripture help us to understand the concept of just peace? For example, how does a (hermeneutically explicit) exegesis of Proverbs 25:22, which is cited in Romans 12:19-21, enrich theological discussions about just peace? 3. What does it mean (or should it mean) for the gospel to speak not merely about peace but about just peace?

Annotated anthology of sources representing the stances of the Christian traditions (Catholic, Protestant, and Orthodox) on peace and war, violence and non-violence. What distinguishes this volume from those like it is its emphasis on the contributions of the World Council of Churches, which commissioned me to compile this anthology in 2012. The book is limited in its availability. I offer the full manuscript here and only ask that you cite it if you draw from it.

International Journal of Arts and Social Science, 2023

Hermeneutics of religious ideas, as well as the understanding promoted in a community, often determine a community's proneness to conflict or inclination towards harmony. As a result, some religious concepts and values have been useful in guiding Christians and Muslims to retain peace or return to the dialogue table to avoid violence in some African communities in Southwest Nigeria. Specific examples are Islamic teachings based on Muamalat, Ibadat, and Darar that support Muslims in their quest for peaceful relationships with their neighbours, and Christians utilising Jesus' teaching about love from the Shema in the Tanakh well illustrated in the Gospels. This principle of interpretation given religious concepts has stimulated the Yorùbá to interact and practise their religions in a way to remain relatively cordial over the past two centuries. This paper argues that leadership and the effective handling of religious hermeneutics can enhance the community's pursuit of peace.

Gema Teologi, 2012

Tulisan ini berpangkal pada kenyataan sekarang yang ditandai dengan banyak kekerasan. Apakah yang harus dilakukan oleh Gereja-gereja? Bagaimana Gereja hidup lebih setia kepada apa yang dimaklumkan, bahwa yang menentukan hidup komunitas-komunitas dan pribadipribadi dalam Gereja adalah Yesus dari Nasaret, Anak Allah yang hidup, Pangeran perdamaian? Jalan yang ditempuh Yesus adalalah jalan cinta kasih tanpa kekerasan untuk mematahkan spiral kekerasan dan pembalasan. Jalan ini dipilih Yesus, meski jalan ini menuju penderitaan dan kematian. Yesus juga mengajak para murid-Nya untuk menempuh jalan yang sama. Langkah pertama yang harus kita lakukan adalah menegaskan komitmen untuk tidak lagi membenarkan dan ikut serta dalam membunuh saudara-i Kristen lain dan saudara-saudari yang beriman lain. Kata-kata kunci: perdamaian, kesaksian Gereja, Yesus dari Nasaret, Injil, kasih tanpa kekerasan. For he is our peace; in his flesh he has made both groups into one and has broken down the dividing wall, that is, the hostility between us. ….that he might create in himself one new humanity in place of the two, thus making peace, and might reconcile both groups to God in one body through the cross, thus putting to death that hostility through it. So he came and proclaimed peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near; …..

Journal of Ecumenical Studies, 2018

This paper surveys theological debates over war and violence within the Christian tradition in a way that assumes others – particularly Muslims – are listening in. It will presents Christian pacifism as the sort of internal critique that representatives of any faith tradition must honestly do in order to dialogue well with others in the service of peace. Practitioners of interfaith dialogue might thus recognize in this case study one of the first principles of their very discipline, namely, that nonviolence toward the truth is a commitment so basic to ecumenical and interfaith conversation that it may not be a goal at all but, rather, the beginning we must already have made in order to dialogue at all. Presented at the Nobel Peace Prize Forum, Faith and Peace Day. Minneapolis, MN, 1 March 2014. Also presented at annual Muslim-Christian dialogue with theologians of the Dokuz Eylul University, Turkey and the University of St. Thomas Muslim-Christian Dialogue Center, 1 November 2014.

STJ | Stellenbosch Theological Journal

An unexpected outcome of the work of the Ujamaa Centre for Community Development and Research with marginalised sectors is their sense that Contextual Bible Study resources provide them with an interpretive resilience that enables them to return to the churches that have marginalised them because they are unemployed, HIV-positive, or queer. This article explores the notion of ‘interpretive resilience’ and reflects on its capacity to reintegrate those who have been marginalised by dominant theologies. “Interpretive resilience” may have the capacity to construct forms of communal peace, but the article asks, what if what is required is ‘interpretive resistance’, which puts the sword to dominant interpretations in the quest for a more just peace? A particular case study, to do with issues of homosexuality, gives shape and substance to the theoretical reflections.1