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Cinema is one of the great media of storytelling that, with its images and sounds, draws viewers into a different world and addresses their bodies, minds, and hearts. In this contribution, I will develop an argument for African cinema as a source of narrative theology that is contextual and liberative in its critical and constructive functions. In conversation with African women's and queer theologies, I will then reconstruct the narrative theologies emerging from films produced in Africa that address women's issues and diverse sexualities. I argue that they develop, through images of the pain of sexism and homophobia, a theology of hope of flourishing life. Thus, they contribute to the life of a church that is able to overcome prejudice, recognizes the gifts of its diverse communities, and is a space for all to flourish in love. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wolfgang Vondey's Pentecostal Theology: Living the Full Gospel is a tour de force in Pentecostal systematic theology. It is also the most articulate statement of the fivefold gospel's power to explain the impulses of past Pentecostal spirituality and its constructive potential for future Pentecostal discourse. Combining both traditional and innovative systematic loci, Vondey's project shows great promise for the enterprise of christologically oriented narrative theology. One looming question is whether the christocentrism of the full gospel can bear adequate witness to some of the details of Spirit christology. That is, can the full gospel, with its emphasis on Jesus actively bestowing the Holy Spirit on creatures, give proper place to Jesus passively receiving the Holy Spirit from the Father, without the full gospel's structure undergoing fundamental transformation? While some ambiguities remain in Vondey's attempts to employ both the full gospel and elements of Spirit christology in the same theological paradigm, he takes long strides towards integrating these two themes that have often competed with each other for space in Pentecostal theology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article addresses a methodological question: How to develop African queer theology? That is, a theology that interrogates and counter-balances popular representations of queer sexuality as being “un-African” and “un-Christian”. Answering this question, the article specifically engages with African feminist theological work on storytelling as politically empowering and theologically significant. Where African feminist theologians have used her-stories to develop her-theologies, this article suggests that similarly, queer autobiographical storytelling can be a basis for developing queer theologies. It applies this methodology to the Kenyan queer anthology Stories of Our Lives (2015), which is a collection of autobiographical stories narrated by people identifying as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex (LGBTI) or otherwise queer in Kenya. The article concludes with an intertextual reading of Stories of Our Lives and Mercy Oduyoye’s autobiographical essay about childlessness, pointing towards an African narrative queer theology of fruitfulness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concept of faith is a dominant motif in both Jewish and Christian Scriptures and yet the authors never chose to give faith a clear, concise definition in propositional formulations. Both Testaments repeatedly refer to its importance but only approach the subject by telling stories where this valued aspect is present or absent. Luke follows suit with the rest of the Gospels and the precedent set in the Jewish Scriptures. It heralds faith's importance and necessity but never defines faith with theological statements. Using aspects of Structural Analysis, an adaptation of Form Criticism, the narratives in Luke will be investigated for how faith was taught and by whom. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This short study offers a celebration of and engagement with James D.G. Dunn's Baptism of the Holy Spirit forty years after its first publication. Specifically, this article focuses upon the sections of Baptism of the Holy Spirit devoted to the Johannine literature, posing questions for further reflection and discussion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, the author suggests that religious leaders and communities should speak freely of faith in God and spirituality in their own particular ways as they advocate for human rights. While recognizing the destruction wrought by religious people, he recommends that religions be received as gifts that can cultivate people who far exceed the minimal expectations of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. He claims we do not expect too much when we ask religions and religious leaders to promote, teach, and uphold human rights, we expect too little. As a Pentecostal Christian ethicist, he argues for the significance of narrative, prophetic protest, and testimony as crucial aspects of receiving all people as gifts and of evoking empathy, action, and hope. Finally, the author warns against the political seizure of theistic and human rights discourse for the justification of military action, and he encourages the implementation of just peacemaking theory and practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By focusing on how the transmission and reception of ecclesiologies are enshrined in narratives and in the conversation between narratives, this article argues that that there can be a retrieval and a re-articulation of classical ecclesiologies which surpass the mens auctoris of these narratives, leading to a higher synthesis and communion, with important ecumenical implications. The structure of this conversation of ecclesiological narratives is triangular, with narratives emerging from the laity, the theologians and the bishops offering correctives to each other. Each of these narratives can surpass its own hidden rootedness in possible structures of oppression by locating itself in a further triangular hermeneutical space defined by the the preferential option for the excluded, a contemplative search for the designs of God and a search for structures of greater inclusiveness. In this way an adequate ecclesiology may emerge whose temporal distance from classical ecclesiologies provides a potential productive ground of even deeper understanding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A number of Pentecostal scholars have proposed that narrative theology represents an appropriate reading strategy for Pentecostals. This article introduces three lines of critique against such a proposal: (1) the understanding of truth that underlies the apostolic kerygma is incompatible with that which underlies narrative theology, (2) the notion that personal identity is narratival has been built upon the ghostless anthropology of Gilbert Ryle, a scheme that conflicts with both NT soteriology and Paul's discussion of how spiritual gifts work through the believer, and (3) early forms of narrative theology translated the Gospels' healing narratives into illustrations of a spiritualized understanding of the gospel. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A new and unprejudiced reading may reveal that two divinities, one called Yahweh, the other called Elohim, seem to act in the story: Yahweh is more involved in bringing the flood, and Elohim in saving Noah. The source of this narrative may have been a polytheistic story in which two gods quarrelled: Yahweh decided to blot out mankind, whereas Elohim wanted to save it. This story was remoulded in monotheistic spirit and the moral motive as the cause of the flood was added by generations of redactors. The ultimate source seems to have been a Canaaniteflood story: Baal the god of rain and benevolent El quarrelled because of the human marriages of Sons of El that were regarded by Baal as threat. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discusses the adulterous misconduct and guilt of David as perceived in the designations of Bathsheba in II Samuel XI to XII. Designations of Bathsheba in the passages; Ordering and placement of the designations; Narrative features and their relationship to the designations.

Identifies and categorizes grammatically justified Marcan references to God according to the semantic relationships attributed to God. Narrative function of the characterization of God in the Gospel of Mark; Role of repetition in relating other characters to God; References to God that initially encourage the reader to identify Jesus with God.