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The article explores how Digital and Public Theologies, two separate but overlapping discourses, can combine empirical and normative efforts. The article highlights the role that the sensitivity for context should play in the development of each of these theologies. To better understand the role of the context, the category of the imaginary is outlined with reference to Charles Taylor and Cornelius Castoriadis. This category helps to describe and criticize imaginaries that determine the social, psychological, political, and contextual realities which theology reflects on – this will be called the reflective or critical task of theology. The category also helps to describe and criticize the imaginaries that determine theological thinking itself, the perspective of a given theology as well as the orientations it suggests. This is the self-critical task of theology. Furthermore, I will suggest to see it as a constant and remaining task of theology to make its imaginations explicit and open to critique because these imaginations are the source of orientations that theology articulates. This calls for theologies that understand themselves as dynamic, unfinished, and discursive.

As the first quarter of the twenty-first century comes to an end, the world continues to witness an increasing and almost unprecedented challenge caused by corruption and the injustices it brings to global society. These challenges are clearly presented both to the global community and the church. The question arises: how best can Christians and the church demonstrate their calling as one which includes speaking against corruption and injustice? Scholarship has engaged fruitfully with this question, on both the themes of justice and corruption. Theologians, both lay and ordained, have identified a need to consider corruption and lack of justice as an issue not only for the secular world but also the church. This article is a biblical, theological, and ethical discourse on justice and corruption, and a proposal for a model for the church to respond to corruption and injustice so as to bring about a just social order and make the gospel relevant today. This article draws on public and systematic theology to present theological-ethical perspectives on justice and corruption. Questions about justice and corruption in light of God’s plan for humanity and the rising ethical anomalies in a global society are two issues which every society has struggled with throughout human history. The article begins with an attempt to define and explore the meaning of and interplay between justice and corruption from a biblical, theological, and ethical perspective. Then it locates the role of the church and, building from a Christian traditional framework and modern church practice, proposes ways in which the church can see itself as an alternative community, one that uses prophetic utterance and creative action to respond to the two distinct but related issues of justice and corruption that impinge upon twenty-first century communities. In drawing on the need for church to set an example by actively caring for justice and the common good, the article calls for a renewed ecclesiological attention to justice and corruption by the church, and encourages it in equipping and sending ministers and or lay people so as to create space for addressing the refusal of justice that allows corruption to flourish. Through its discussion, this article also seeks to help the church to work towards crafting a new life characterized by a flourishing, just, and corruption-free global society.

The threat now posed by human beings to the future of life on Earth demands a genuinely global response. It would seem to require a global ethic of some kind that is more than the sum of humanity's existing declarations of rights and freedoms, wars of intercession, and judicial systems of redress – a concrete ethic of global responsibility which normalises altruistic behaviours while at the same time greatly extending their scope. This article makes the case for such an ethic. It is underpinned by the conviction that human beings do not 'begin and end with themselves in their knowing' and takes the view that to see the world as meaningful and whole in its own right; to embrace wholeheartedly the idea that everything is connected; to see oneself as real only in relationship, as free only for others, and as finally responsible – before God – for one's actions, shapes a way of being in the world that gives those who practise it the opportunity to construct a fully inclusive ethic of justice, care, and compassion for the whole creation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Human beings have a perennial need to find meaningful answers to their lives; the answers involve spirituality/religiosity/religion and cultural experiences. This context aims to discuss in the ethical-phenomenological perspective the public performance of people who have theological knowledge in order to collaborate for life in the plural society of the 21st century. The literature chosen to think critically-reflexively the issue has a phenomenological, theological-moral basis, and the public perspective of Theology. It is observed that fear and guilt are linked to the "false images" of God; there are not a few of the losses and difficulties caused by this mistaken experience. It follows that it is appropriate to reconsider, in many cases, the moral life from a prophetic ethos, making the presence of the Divine in the world more credible and welcoming. That is, it requires leaving the Academy and/or the Temples to be with the society that coexists in interculturality and interreligiousness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For most readers, myself included, the views and opinions on the Russian attack and consequent war in Ukraine are dependent on the main media houses, who present the situation in a certain language. In this article, Badiou’s understanding of democratic materialism (languages and bodies) will be explored within the context of the war, and how language is used to order bodies into categories of good and evil. In democratic materialism, there are only bodies and languages, but no truth. The question that will be explored in these few pages is, is there a way beyond democratic materialism via truth towards a materialist dialectic? Contribution: The paper contributes to the current discussion on the war in Ukraine and tries to make sense of the geopolitical context of the war. It then seeks to engage with these discourses from a theological perspective.

Daniela Augustine's The Spirit and the Common Good continues her project of imagining the Christian life as a life given to iconizing the creator and thus sanctifying the creation. Drawing on the deep sources of Orthodox theology and post-modern philosophy, she casts a vision of the common good drawn by the church's participation in the Spirit's 'world-mending artistry'. This review asks what her work means for American Pentecostals in the context of the current social upheaval and political reckoning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article investigates Schleiermacher's ethics in relation to two important questions in public theology: how should a Christian negotiate their religious and civic identities in between church and state and how should this relationship direct Christian life and action? In his Philosophical Ethics , the spheres of the state and church carry distinct roles and responsibilities toward attaining the highest good. In his Christian Ethics , the conception of broadening action in the outer sphere prescribes how Christians ought to expand the reign of God. Integrating insights from both sources shows Schleiermacher's commitment to the church as the central medium of communication for expanding the redemptive work of Christ through a collective embodiment of God-consciousness. This work can come alongside the state's work for national unity but it is never beholden to it because Christians are ultimately called to a greater mission to expand God's reign in all spheres of human community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How can we teach journalism in the age of Trump, and what does public theology have to do with it? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Leadership inadequacy in Nigeria has contributed to the rise in corruption, which has undermined human dignity through insufficient provision of basic human needs. This happens because the leadership venerates self-interest to such an extent that enhancing human wellbeing is not considered important. To save Nigerians from this dilemma, this article calls for a new leadership ethics called 'responsible leadership', whose precepts protect and enhance human dignity and enforce adherence to the rule of law to curb the spread of corruption. This was carried out by surveying the present system of governance with its failures and how it has contributed to human dignity violations. It was found that poor leadership was responsible for the continuous spread of corruption and exposure of human dignity to violations through porous and inadequate provisions of basic human needs. However, this study concluded that new leadership ethics, which are inclusive and integrative, would appreciate and recognise the intrinsic worth of every human being, take its people from their present position to where they should be, and would reduce violation of human dignity purported through corruption. Contribution: The article argued for a new ethos of leadership that is responsible in nature, encompassing, and intentionally people-centred, which takes people from where they are to where they ought to be. It fits into the scope of the journal by way of inter-connecting different topics to produce a unifying idea. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents exemplary insights into the state of digitization and the corresponding efforts of selected Evangelical Churches in Germany (the federal EKD and three of its member churches) to address an array of challenges triggered by the digital transformation. Three short reports on broader studies demonstrate how the church is responding to these challenges as an actor within civil society, as well as an organization and a community of faith. This preliminary assessment suggests that the EKD is capable of both: taking part in the societal debate as well as designing and reinventing itself anew in the digital realm. Nevertheless, it will do well to figure out more context-sensitive solutions while stimulating both ethical and theological discussions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The works of Reinhold Niebuhr contain invaluable examples of how Christian resources can be fruitfully exploited to address urgent economic and political issues. The ideas of sin and continuous redemption, which arguably belong to the core of the Christian faith, are creatively translated by Niebuhr, so that they can be included in public debates and interdisciplinary dialogues. In this article, his conception of sin as the perversion of the will-to-live into the will-to-power is endorsed. Its counterforce, it is argued, is human love infused with divine love. Love is, therefore, not a simple possibility, which can be applied to our economic and political problems. Instead, it is the impossible possibility, the ultimate and critical perspective from which prevailing forms of justice and philanthropy are judged. Through the public theology of Niebuhr, the ideal of love becomes a universally valid alternative to the rationalist and naturalist approaches to human morality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article studies the complexity of understandings of forgiveness among a sample of Black and White South Africans within the context of an empirical intercultural Bible reading process. We will first focus on the foundation upon which the study is predicated—namely that the social imagination of forgiveness is deeply contested among South Africans. Next, we will discuss the approach that the study took to gather the necessary data, and analyse the theological views of forgiveness among the participants in the study. Finally, we shall discuss some of the primary findings of the study. These show that social identity plays a significant role in shaping theological hermeneutics. Black and White participants hold diverse, and even conflicting, expressions and expectations for forgiveness. These are characterised as predominantly social and political for the Black participants, and predominantly individual and spiritual for the White participants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How should the American church tackle domestic poverty, and how should US faith-based aid organizations approach the change process in developing countries? These questions about aspects of the church in mission are best answered in light of a wider historical debate about the relationship between church and state. In this article, I explore the history of this relationship and argue that the radical separation of church and state favored by conservative evangelicals in the United States, harms the disadvantaged both domestically and abroad. Just as governments should not abrogate their responsibility to the poor, Christian institutions should not shrink from their God-given task of holding secular, political authorities to account. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article informs that the nearness of the Kingdom of God makes repent, which is the biblical word for the new beginning. It mentions the nearness of the Lord fills with joy and hope is anticipated joy; and experience and the praxis of hope are intertwined like tomorrow and today.

This work thinks possible ways of theological development on the horizon of the 500 years of the Reformation which brings within it new ecumenical elements concerning the history of the churches. In this way, ecumenism arises as a possible theme to engage Protestantism inheritances in relation to nowadays society. Public Theology emerges as possible approach to the theme from the perspective of the so called Theology of Citizenship. From the analysis of the document From Conflict to Communion grace arises as founding element on its elaboration. Aspect that is also present in the Barthian comprehension of grace. As a result of this dialogical relation, gratitude and service emerge as propulsive elements to a theological thought coherent to its diverse publics (Church, Academy, Society). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Johannine ethics is a problematic area for scholarship but recently there has been a breakthrough. In this new era of Johannine ethics, the present article examines the concept of moral transformation. The argument is that the Johannine writings present a moral narrative world where a moral God saves immoral people by bringing them into his moral world. When people live in God's moral world their character and conduct are shaped in accordance with the moral beliefs, values and norms of the divine reality. In order to model and promote the envisaged morality amongst his readers, John presents various characters, whose characteristics and behaviour might be either emulated or avoided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article engages with the Missional Framework Document of the Dutch Reformed Church (DRC) from the perspectives of solidarity with the poor and justice for South African society. The democratic South Africa continues to face significant socio-economic problems and an increasingly dissatisfied population. In the light of this, the article presents an introductory conversation with the Missional Framework Document in order to ask whether it offers an adequate response to South Africa�s current contextual challenges. The lens through which this article will engage the Framework Document is the theological paradigm of justice, specifically the theory of justice presented by Nicholas Wolterstorff as well as some important contributions from contemporary South African scholars who advocate for a theology from the margins of society. It is contended that the DRC remains a predominantly white middle-class church. This social, economic and political location has an impact on the missional theology of the church as expressed in the Framework Document. Hence, we engage with the Missional Theology of the DRC by means of a paradigm that operates from the �underside� or the economic, political and social �margins� of South African society. We argue that any missional theology aimed at furthering God�s Kingdom in South Africa at present must develop in community with the marginalised majority of the nation. The critical engagement with the Framework Document will be done by sketching a theological landscape where current contextual realities are brought into relief against a kairos moment on which the efficacy of this church�s mission, indeed its public work and witness, is being called into question.Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: This interdisciplinary study in Systematic Theology and Ethics engages the missional theology found in the Missional Framework Document of the Dutch Reformed Church. Methodologically, the research advocates for a contextual engagement with the missional theology proposed by this important document. The outcome of this contextual theological consideration is an invitation for the Church to consider the ethics of justice as an important aspect of their approach to faithful Christian mission in the South African social, economic and political context.

This article takes the form of an appreciative contextual response to the notion of ‘just health’ that is formulated in Jean-Pierre Wils’ article, ‘Is there a future for medical ethics?’ It approaches the notion of just health in the South African context from a public theological vantage point. The article addresses the issues of justice, care and the future of ‘medical ethics’ by adopting a position that seeks to constructively engage empire, economics and apathy in relation to just health in South Africa.

The current work performs a critical approach to Clodovis Boff's theoretical elaboration regarding to the meaning of life relating it to the so called Public Theology. Thus, through the background relation of being and doing - in a context of crisis, highlighting the existential, ethical and values crisis - the work concentrates on the possibility of a relevant ethics to the Brazilian context so as it analyses the public incidence of Christina praxis and spirituality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Though apologetics is a contested concept in current theological debates, leading representatives of public theology still see apologetics as the core of their theological endeavours. This article develops a concept of apologetic communication that emerges from a particular understanding of theology. Theology, as will be argued, serves the Christian faith praxis as well as the validity claims underlying this praxis. A closer analysis of these validity claims will reveal that their public verification requires two discriminable but interrelated types of communication, namely discourse and witnessing. Consequently, a discursive and testimonial type of apologetic communication will be distinguished. In the last section some suggestions will be made on how public theology should operate if it takes its apologetic task seriously. The central thesis will be that apologetic communication in both its modes appears as a form of ethics: as ethical reflection and ethical behaviour. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The church partnered colonial powers in the establishment and maintenance of empire in the Caribbean: this article reminds readers of these realities before exploring some implications for the mission of the church today. The article argues that the church has a role to play in giving spiritual and moral leadership in the complex process of depart-ing empire; it also offers observations on the challenge to the church to stand firm in its emancipatory commitment to move beyond empire, not least by developing new modes of self-expression and counter-discourse. In the article, particular reference is made to responsibilities facing the Caribbean Council of Churches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article develops an ethical approach to a concept of publicity, that enables to practice the liberation from guilt and injustice. The usual narrowing of repentance to the ritual of private confession is not adequate to Christian tradition. It also objects to the task of a theological ethics to call humans to the "liberating reversion into being a creature" (H.G. Ulrich). The concept of publicity against the usual contrast "public - private" is developed from the juxtaposition "public - hidden". On this way it shows theological criteria for public relations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article is a reflective answer to the growing interest in the 'spirituality' of a leader found both among active leaders and in the field of Leadership Studies. The term 'spir-ituality1 is so complex, however, it requires a more thorough theological reflection than (secular) Leadership Studies can offer, especially considering the more specific matter of how a Christian leader embodies his/her spirituality in his/her leadership. This arti-cle discusses four components of leadership: the leader's sense of reality, the sense of a higher calling, the sense of belonging and the sense of morality. Further, the thought of Dietrich Bonhoeffer provides each of these components with not only a Christian but an explicitly Christocentric content [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article engages with the ecclesiology of Stanley Hauerwas in considering the rela-tionship of church to world within the broader context of God's creation, which includes nonhuman as well as human animals. In conversation with Hauerwas, an evaluation of understandings of'world as creation' and 'world as fallen' gives rise to a new understanding of world, as a public of responsible beings. This understanding pro-duces three questions: what does it mean for nonhuman animals to be perceived by the church as part of the world, how are we justified in advancing such a perception and what are the implications of this? In answering these questions, two distinct classes of responsibility are recognized: animal responsibility, shared by human and nonhuman animals; and responsibility to God, unique to humans. In having responsibility, ani-mals are part of the world to which the church is called to respond; and in responding, to learn as well as to witness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract In this article the authors outline and critique two models of public theology in order to advance a new, more helpful, approach. The context is British but the intention is to draw lessons for public theology in the global west. The state of British public theology is briefly surveyed and found to be in some disarray. The most common models-characterized as 'disciple theology' and 'liberal activist theology'-are critically analysed and found in significant ways to be inadequate for purpose. The model of 'citizen theology' as an approach to doing public theology is advanced, developed and discussed as an alternate. The central features of citizen theology are put forward for analysis. These include the importance of developing the virtues, creating poetic and parabolic discourse, and creating imaginative theological categories and theories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In The Nature of True Virtue, Jonathan Edwards does not deny that common morality is important; benevolence, beauty, conscience, justice, love for family and country are all threads in the fabric of a common morality. Without love for God as their chief end, however, the 'virtues' of common morality do not rise to the level of true virtue. This incommensurability can be problematic for Christian ethics in the public square. Edwards understood his project within the horizon of a commonwealth founded on Christian faith, but modern liberal democracies envision a different relationship between religious discourse and public life. In these contexts, so different from Edwards' setting, pluralism and tolerance are among the keys to a peaceful pursuit of the common good. With these differences in view, then, I explore what contribution Edwards' work on virtue might make to the practice of public theology in the areas of environmental ethics, bioethics and immigration policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

That public theology is relevant to public policy debates and formulation should be self-evident. After all, public theologians aspire to develop ethical frameworks and discourses about how we should live together in plural civil societies. They offer public theology as a form of discourse. Unfortunately, they have largely failed to explicitly develop a procedural method of ethical analysis relevant to public policy decision-making. This paper proposes an ethical methodology as a form of public discourse, a meta-ethical model showing how themes, concerns, and insights of public theology can be systematically organized into practical policy arguments. It provides a robust "mechanics" to aid public theologians prepare ethical analyses for public policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Globalization has many dimensions and there are diverse perspectives on it. The contributors to the first three volumes of God and Globalization are a testament to the range of scholarly engagement with key dimensions of globalization. The aim of these essays and the structure of their presentation is to lay the foundations for comprehensive theological interaction with globalization. While the review of volume 1 highlights the issue of glocal and local interaction with the global; volume two's reviewer draws attention to the often neglected religious (Christian) influences at work in a variety of professional and scholarly spheres of action shaping global developments. Volume 3 raises questions of the universal and the particular in religious studies and the ways that the world religions are shaping or responding to globalization, opening the way for inter-religious dialogue. This leads to the forth volume which asks what Christian theology and ethics specifically have to offer to the interpretation and guidance of these global developments. All four reviews are responded to here and the challenge to tease out a public theology and its mission appropriate for our globalizing era is re-asserted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers how theology confronts sustainability as a global problem, and what that confrontation can contribute to the challenge of global ethics. After reviewing major models of religious engagement with global ethics, I argue for an analogical conception in which Christian social practices generate moral patterns with the capacity to meet the integrative challenge of global ethics. Theological reflection on those practices then helps sustain the discourse of sustainability as an effective working concept. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article describes four models of connecting the biblical option for the poor with theological ethics. The charity model denies any political significance of this option. The fundamental critical model connects this theological option exclusively with a confessional critique of western capitalism and its market approach. The political advice model does not give an explicit account of its theological groundings but tries to present practicable political solutions. Finally the public theology model which is advocated in this article connects a clear theological profile with the involvement in the public debate on economic strategies which reflect the option for the poor. For this, public theology has to be bilingual, speaking a theological and a secular language; moreover, because of its involvement in the public debate public theology can be understood as a liberation theology for a democratic society. The article presents Martin Luther and Dietrich Bonhoeffer as public theologians who, in their time, have been advocates for the poor. The memorandum of the German Protestant churches of 2006 on poverty is presented as an example of public theological involvement of the church in our time. The article ends with a reflection on eschatological justice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay engages the "politics of vision" as a potential template for choosing future presidents. The rhetoric of "vision" is drawn from theological precepts that are grounded in prophetic and transformational discourses. The current politics of popularity, and the reality show atmosphere that surrounds presidential elections, have not held the nation in good stead. We labor under the myth of our own goodness and believe that it doesn't matter who runs the nation, since the balance of power between the branches of government, and a free activist press will protect us from our own bad choices. Recent history proves that we must pay more attention to the criteria by which individuals are selected, because twenty-first-century high stakes political strategies can neutralize even the best laid plans of the nation's founders. To analyze the criteria for selecting future presidents, I turn to the work of writer/activist James Baldwin, theologian/activist William Stringfellow, and ethicist/politician Barbara Jordan. They conclude that vision does not require a crystal ball, just prophetic discourse and moral responsibility. The next President of the United States should be a spiritually mature truth-teller, whose vision for America is congruent with the hopes and dreams of a weary electorate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction to the journal is presented in which the author discusses several articles published within the issue including public ethics, public theology and co-operative discussion in ethical matters.