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New Materialism and Theology reflects on questions of human embodiment, nonhuman agency, technological innovation, and what really matters now and in possible futures. Bringing theological inquiry together with the philosophical movement of new materialism, Sam Mickey points toward a variety of ways for thinking about matter and everything that materializes in human and more-than-human worlds. Mickey provides introductory definitions and historical context for understanding the relationship between various theological and materialist ideas and practices. He examines the self-declared novelty and materiality of new materialism, noting the limitations of those labels while articulating the very new and quite material challenges that new materialism does indeed pose, challenges of urgent existential importance that demand theological responses. New Materialism and Theology faces the theological implications and material possibilities facing humanity while ecological and technological realities seem to be pointing toward posthuman or transhuman futures or perhaps something else entirely.
New Materialism and Theology reflects on questions of human embodiment, nonhuman agency, technological innovation, and what really matters now and in possible futures. Bringing theological inquiry together with the philosophical movement of new materialism, Sam Mickey points toward a variety of ways for thinking about matter and everything that materializes in human and more-than-human worlds. Mickey provides introductory definitions and historical context for understanding the relationship between various theological and materialist ideas and practices. He examines the self-declared novelty and materiality of new materialism, noting the limitations of those labels while articulating the very new and quite material challenges that new materialism does indeed pose, challenges of urgent existential importance that demand theological responses. New Materialism and Theology faces the theological implications and material possibilities facing humanity while ecological and technological realities seem to be pointing toward posthuman or transhuman futures or perhaps something else entirely.
Abstract
This work articulates the main problems and questions that arise at the intersection of new materialism and theology. Rather than proffering a particular framework to resolve those problems and questions, the author points toward a variety of ways for engaging with them. The text is divided into three part. Part 1 provides some introductory definitions and historical context for understanding the relationship between new materialism and theology. Part 2 examines the novelty and materiality in new materialism, questioning both categories, while enumerating very new and quite material challenges that new materialism poses to theology. The concluding part considers the theological implications and material possibilities of technological developments for facilitating posthuman or transhuman futures.
Abstract
Place shapes people (who will in turn shape it); it reveals the contextual nature of religions and their theologies, implying that certain phenomena can have a disruptive impact on the theological domain, rendering it an on-going reflective enterprise. In this article I seek to construct a public theology that responds to the disruption of displacement. To this end, I rehearse some of the theoretical considerations on the precarious nature of the human condition of displacement in order to appraise its disruptive potential. Then I draw on Gregory of Nyssa’s homilies on almsgiving to generate a theological account of public mercy that addresses itself to this condition of displacement. Finally, I will accentuate the desirability of mercy as a public virtue, arguing that its decline in contemporary public life and the diminishing consensus on its meaning in current scholarly discourses is disastrous.
From its inception it has been a practice of the
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The articles in this special issue originate from the consultation of the Global Network for Public Theology at the Dietrich-Bonhoeffer-Research-Centre for Public Theology at Bamberg University in 2019. The selected papers reflect the geographically and theologically diverse discussion of the consultation. Other parts of the consultation will be published separately in the anthology
The Bamberg consultation addressed many dimensions of the topic space and place: space / place to live, sacred space, space and speech, politics of space, God and space. In the
Abstract
This article has been generated from observations to do with public theology being exercised in an ecumenical space: that context was the World Council of Churches Assembly in 2013. Some participants sought to create an inclusive safe space for conversation on LGBTQI+ exclusion; they wished to voice the concerns, hurts, gifts and joys of living in the hyphenated queer-Christian experience. When the topic of human sexuality arose in business sessions, Orthodox Church representatives raised ‘blue cards’ which indicated their dissent. Looking behind the ‘blue cards’ there is a mismatch of Orthodox approaches to understanding liberation theology as the basis of those seeking to engage a public theology response to sexuality in the WCC ecumenical space.
is Assistant Professor at Bamberg University (Germany) and the managing director of the Dietrich Bonhoeffer Research Centre for Public Theology. Her research fields are the embeddedness of religion in culture and society, aesthetics, habits and ethics, critical theory and Karl Barth.
is an ordained presbyter-theologian in the Methodist Church of New Zealand, and has served in parish, regional and national leadership in the church. He has practical and academic involvement in ecumenism; he has a particular interest in queer theology. He has undergraduate and post-graduate honours degrees in commerce and theology (Auckland), and is a post-graduate
Abstract
Post-migrant societies in Europe are characterized by political, cultural, religious, and social changes. Where people meet under the conditions of migration and globalization, new places and spaces of negotiating are arising. They are formed by provocative questions, dynamic reorientation, and social transformation, in particular regarding religious affiliations, contexts and experiences. This article will consider challenges and the resources of religion in terms of coping with ambiguity and building up post-migrant community relations. In this context, the concept of the ‘contact zone’ as a post-migrant place or space provides an insight to social spaces where cultures and religions meet, clash and grapple with each other, often in emotionally charged contexts of highly asymmetrical relations of power, like displacement and their aftermaths. These contact zones offer a place of discussing power, oppression, and religious diversities, but also find innovative perspectives for post-migrant identities. With reference to this, three case studies based on experiences of refugees in Europe with contact zones in refugee centers, schools and educational institutions allow for an understanding of the significance of places, the feeling of rootlessness and the findings of new places of religious identity, of ‘embodied’ habitation and participation. Finally, this article emphasizes the meaning of public speech in post-migrant societies from a Christian perspective.
Bonnie Miriam Jacob, ed,
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