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This research examines narrative theology, which began to develop in the 1970s in the United States, and is now widely practiced in theological discourses, including in Indonesia. This theology, sometimes called postliberal theology, uses the postmodern interpretation paradigm, which seeks the meaning “in front of” the text (readers-oriented). The intended readers are the community, who have the same language, culture, and traditions. It turns out that narrative theology, which initially served as a theological reflection on Christianity’s claims to the biblical texts, has shifted into a hermeneutical lens in reading the biblical texts. Using analytical studies of library research and systematic review, the author discusses the contours of narrative theology starting from the thoughts of its pioneers (such as Hans W. Frei, George A. Lindbeck, Stanley Hauerwas, and Sally McFague), describing its characteristics, and evaluating them. The analysis results are presented in two points. The first is an appreciation of the contributions of narrative theology, i.e., simple-practical, confessional-dogmatic, relational, and inductive. The second is an evaluation of some reductive aspects of narrative theology, i.e., postmodern hermeneutics; a disregard of historicity and genre diversity; traditional-dogmatic fideism; sectarianism; and pragmatism.

The problematic assumption that biblical purity thematically represents life and death is commonly held within modern biblical studies. Building upon this assumption, many scholars have attempted to explain the treatment of the ṣāraʿat patient in Leviticus 13:1‐46 as a symbolic banishment of death. However, the current paper attempts to move beyond this reading towards a method of reconstructing the evolution of biblical rituals and practices. Through the utilisation of René Girard's four scapegoat stereotypes, the current paper identifies the scapegoat mechanism in Leviticus 13:1‐46, and reconstructs a proposed evolution of this ritual. This paper suggests that the ritual presented in Leviticus 13:1‐46 may have evolved from an earlier tradition, in which ṣāraʿat patients were executed to halt a mimetic crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay considers the work of G.K. Chesterton, and in particular The Everlasting Man, in relation to narrative theology. It discusses the apparent contradiction between Aidan Nichols' judgement that this book develops a 'Christocentric theology of history' and Chesterton's own assertion that its approach is 'historical rather than theological'. It argues that Chesterton employs both natural and narrative theology in The Everlasting Man, and these two forms of theology frame a reading of the book which resolves the seeming contradiction between Nichols' and Chesterton's views, while also challenging the conventional chronology used in discussions of narrative theology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article proposes that the Gospel of Mark should be read as both a historical and a theological document. Mark is a theologian who writes theology as a story. He doesn't simply write history, but he presents theological ideas in narrative form. Considering this fact, one must take into account the narrative-rhetorical method in the hermeneutic of Mark's Gospel. The historical and theological character of the Gospel requires one to observe two complementary perspectives over the meaning of the book: the perspective of narration's hero and the perspective of the reader of the Gospel. The author of this present study employs the narrative-rhetorical interpretation as method of research on Mark's Christology, exemplifying the usage of the method in interpreting the Messianic secret motif in Jesus' transfiguration pericope (Mark 9,2-10). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Christian theology has employed almost all communication media and techiques to aid its reflection on belief. Its twentieth century fascination with film illustrates how media ecology can inform both theology's practices and theology's key concepts, such as sacramentality. Looking at filmic theology through a media ecology lens reveals that film can have religious significance in a number of ways: relationally, ritually, narratively, symbolically, performatively and imaginatively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A previous article illustrated that the root of the tension between unity and plurality in the church can be found in an epistemology charcaterised by binary opposisions. This article describes this epistemology and, from the perspective of narrative theological epistemology, discusses the struggles and pitfalls reflected in the narrative of the Netherdutch Reformed Church of Africa which identifies itself as an 'ethnic church' (volkskerk). The article argues that such a self-identification functions as a metanarrative that is in conflict with the church's grand narrative, that of the Triune God. The re-telling of the grand narrative of the Trinity as the metaphor for unity through plurality will sustain the re-telling of the church's narrative in the changing context of a secular society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From a narrative theological perspective, the article tells the story of the church which has always been characterised by a tension between unity and plurality. The article illustrates that the root of the tension can be found in a binary mentality which traps the church in an endless labyrinth and keeps the it from being 'A Broad Place', a 'wide open space'. The article suggests that re-telling the church's grand narrative of the Trinity sustains the re-telling of the church's narrative in the changing environment of a secular society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Beginning with the premise that theory should illuminate stories rather than stories illustrating theory, this article offers an extensive clinical story as the centerpiece of an exploration of the Christological nature of psychoanalytic psychotherapy. Relying on the listening stances provided by Klein, Fairbairn, Bion, Grotstein, and early Christian theologians among others, this article explores original sin, fallen creation, demonic possession, lost innocence, and trauma as sources of mental anguish. Portraying God as the 'Background Presence' and defining therapy as a Christological defense of God, the author argues that the lens of Christology deepens the psychotherapy endeavor and that transference (re)presents the 'hypostatic union' of Christ as well as mirrors the relationship between the Background Presence and those seeking psychotherapeutic forgiveness and exorcism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction This paper will explore the fundamental views of Russian Orthodox Christianity on the contemporary world and its own place in it, and will then inscribe these views within a broad narrative of western thought of recent centuries. I proceed from an assumption that the main objective in western religious thought over the last three centuries was the construction of subtle bridges and continuities linking 'this world' with the transcendental, identifying as its central concern man's relationship to 'this world', and further associating 'this world' with new epistemological fields of 'culture' and 'society'. Russian religious thought was definitely a part of this process. Thus my purpose here is to approach the issue of where Russian Orthodoxy stands today in its vision of the whole complex of world/culture/society. The main source for this study is a document produced by the Russian Orthodox Church, the Foundations for a Social Concept (FSC), officially adopted by the Bishops' Council of 2000. The word 'social' in this document covers a variety of socio-cultural phenomena, encompassing a whole range of issues from state and law to culture to bioethics to secularism. The very fact of formulating these objects of theological quest as an official authoritative endeavour is unprecedented in Eastern Christianity; the document can be seen as the first official, though indirect, response to independent theological modernism in the Christian East, to mainstream trends in western culture, and to (post)modernity as a whole. While drawing a comparative background for the ideas vocalised by the FSC, I chose as a main point of reference another official and authoritative document - the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) (Catechism, 1997). This text is far larger than the Russian text and by definition cannot be seen as a direct counterpart to it. The Russian document under study can be compared to it only in what both of them say about social/cultural topics, which is just a small part of the Catholic Catechism. Nevertheless, I chose to compare these two documents of different genre and scale because no other authoritative Orthodox Christian catechism addresses most of the topics that interest me in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]