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Trading Hell for Hope: An Interview with Nicholas Ansell
No full textFor Jürgen Moltmann, Hell is the nemesis of Hope. The “Annihilation of Hell” thus refers both to Hell’s annihilative power in history and to the overcoming of that power as envisioned by Moltmann’s distinctive theology of the cross in which God becomes “all in all” through Christ’s descent into Godforsakenness. The negation of Hell and the fulfillment of history are inseparable. Attentive to the overall contours and dynamics of Moltmann’s thinking — especially his zimzum doctrine of creation, his eschatologically oriented philosophy of time, and his expanded understanding of the nature-grace relationship — this study asks whether the universal salvation that he proposes can honor human freedom, promise vindication for those who suffer, and do justice to biblical revelation. As well as providing an in-depth exposition of Moltmann’s ideas, The Annihilation of Hell also explores how a “covenantal universalism” might revitalize our web of beliefs in a way that is attuned to the authorizing of Scripture and the spirituality of existence. If divine and human freedom are to be reconciled, as Moltmann believes, the confrontation between Hell and Hope will entail rethinking issues that are not only at the center of theology but at the heart of life itself.Nicholas Ansell’s teaching and research focus on several areas of systematic and biblical theology, notably Christology, eschatology, Old Testament wisdom thinking, and the theology of gender. He has an ongoing interest in the phenomenology of revelation and the spirituality of existence. His new book, The Annihilation of Hell: Universal Salvation and the Redemption of Time in the Eschatology of Jürgen Moltmann, was released in North America in October 2013 and exposits the work of Moltmann on the topic of hell and universalism for anyone who is interested in theology, scholar or otherwise. He has also written several articles on the topic including this one [http://theotherjournal.com/2009/04/20/hell-the-nemesis-of-hope/]in The Other Journal
Justice and Faith Project: Survey Findings, September 2014
No full textThis report summarizes the findings of a national survey of Christian Reformed Church members in Canada. This survey was one data collection method in a larger 2-year research project, Justice and Faith: Individual Spirituality and Social Responsibility in the Christian Reformed Church in Canada.Justice and Faith ProjectThe Justice and Faith project is funded by a Partnership Development Grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC), and by cash and in-kind contributions from the research partners.SSHRC Partnership Development Gran
Educating the Will
No full textDoug Blomberg presented this paper to the Biennial Conference of the International Christian Community for Teacher Education (ICCTE) held at Redeemer University College, Ancaster, Ontario, Canada from May 28 to May 31, 2014. His presentation began with an exploration of a concept central to a Christian view of the person, that of the will. This was introduced into Western thought through Augustine’s appropriation of the biblical tradition, particularly Paul’s reflections in Romans 7. Whereas cognition and more recently affect have featured most prominently in approaches to education, the will has been largely overlooked. Blomberg seeks to redress this omission, and goes on to illustrate the implications for a pedagogy in which the role of the will is accorded significance. He describes strategies such as “Project-Based Learning” in the context of the curricular rhythm of “Play, Problem-posing, Purposeful Response”, first proposed in A Vision with a Task (Stronks and Blomberg, 1993)
Songs of Solidarity: A New Approach to Liturgical Music and Community Cohesion
No full textThis paper won 2nd place in the Concordia University Religion Department's Annual Graduate Conference, In/Tangibility: The Mystical, The Material and the Messy In-Between.In this paper, I will focus on a single type of music used in a religious setting, namely congregational song, which I will broadly refer to as “liturgical music.” Though liturgical music in the context of Christian community serves a variety of functions for community participants, this paper will focus on two major functions liturgical music plays in the way it facilitates community coherence: (1) it connects participants via embodied empathetic imagination to a particular defining narrative or mythology, and (2) it connects participants via co-performance directly to one another. I will suggest that liturgical art in religious community is actually a constitutive force in that community, having the capability of illuminating and affirming the communal identity shared by the participants. Participation in liturgical music is a way of actively shaping the community as a community, re-telling together a deeply held defining mythology in the context of the present world and creating a shared moment of co-performance in which participants enter into true face-to-face relationships with one another. Finally, I will illustrate how these functions may play out in a religious community through an analysis of Psalm 136’s content and use in ancient Israelite liturgy
A Particular Collision: Arendt, CERN, and Reformational Philosophy
No full textIn this paper, I will explore how recent discoveries in particle physics that are part of the pursuit of a so-called “unified theory of everything” play into a worldview that has the potential to poison ethical life. I will explicate Hannah Arendt’s critique of modern science’s pursuit of knowledge by means of (what she calls) “acting into nature,” and I will place the groundbreaking experimental research at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Switzerland, as well as the theoretical search for a unified “theory of everything,” within the scope of Arendt’s critique. In order to maintain Arendt’s concept of unprecedented newness inherent in human action (or what she calls “natality”) as a response to a scientific reductionism that tends to accompany these claims and pursuits of theoretical physics and to expose what is at stake in Arendt’s critique, I will turn to the anti-reductionistic Reformational philosophy of Herman Dooyeweerd and D. H. Th. Vollenhoven, which offers a model that resonates with Arendt’s critique of modern science, while also allowing for a potentially viable way forward for considerations of the scope of scientific knowledge. Finally, I will conclude with the implications of this Reformational anti-reductionism on Arendt’s concern that human action, with its power to create new and unprecedented historical situations and natural processes, must be held accountable by reflection. What is learned from Arendt and the Reformational philosophers is that giving ground to the possibility of a unified theory of everything carries with it a determinism that disallows the recognition of both newness and irreducible complexity, both of which are essential to the ethical life
Justice and Faith Project: Key Informant Interview Report, September 2014
No full textThis report summarizes the findings of 12 key informant interviews with members of the Christian Reformed Church in Canada. These interviews were conducted as part of a 2-year research project exploring the relationship of justice and faith in the spiritual lives of Canadian members of the Christian Reformed Church of North America (CRCNA).Justice and Faith ProjectThe Justice and Faith project is a partnership between the Institute for Christian Studies' Centre for Philosophy, Religion, and Social Ethics, the Canadian Ministries of the Christian Reformed Church in North America, and the Centre for Community Based Research. It is funded by a Partnership Development Grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC), and by cash and in-kind contributions from the research partners.SSHRC Partnership Development Gran
The Ordeal of Solitude: Solitary Confinement in Prisons and Monasteries
No full textThis paper won the Graduate Student Paper Award at the 2014 Eastern International Regional Meeting of the American Academy of Religion, Syracuse University, May 3-4, 2014
"Two Things at the Same Time": Fordoblelse in Kierkegaard's Writings
Full text linkThe term fordoblelse—usually translated as “redoubling” in English—is found relatively infrequently in Kierkegaard’s corpus and has posed something of a puzzle for scholars. In this thesis, I trace Kierkegaard’s use of the term throughout his writings, seeking to determine the common ground between the rather disparate ways in which fordoblelse appears. I explore the relationship between redoubling and such major Kierkegaardian themes as indirect communication, paradox, and the constitution of the self, and I attempt to tease out the similarities and divergences between redoubling and two other Kierkegaardian terms, “repetition” and “reduplication.” Ultimately, I conclude that redoubling functions for Kierkegaard as a structural term that provides him with a vocabulary to describe the many paradoxes at work in Christian faith.Introduction -- Redoubling in Works of Love -- Redoubling in Practice in Christianity -- Redoubling and Selfhood -- Redoubling and Reduplication -- Redoubling and Repetition -- Conclusio