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Spirituals As Symbolic Expression
Get PDFThroughout the history of civilization people have exhibited immense ability in symbol-making. Regardless of culture or time, symbols have emerged as a result of people’s strivings for ultimate truth or meaning. That is to say, symbols exist as reflections of people’s attempts to make sense out of their existence and to discover who they are individually and collectively. Thus, the behavior and life experiences of people may be traced by the symbols they used. Because symbol-making emerges out of the shared experiences, values and needs within a particular culture or social group, and because these experiences, values and needs differ from one culture or social group to another, it is possible to corroborate the existence of cultural differences. Conversely, it is possible to discover recurring or universal themes which transcend culture and time by virtue of the common will of all people to meaning
White Christianity and Black Commitment: A Comment on the Power of Faith and Socialization
Get PDFThis essay is a part of a continuing effort to analyze and understand, and to theorize about organized religion in the life and culture ofBlackamerica. My presuppositions are 1) that there does exist a viable, identifiable black subculture in America; 2) that while this subculture shares with other ethnic groups and with the overculture in general a broad spectrum of experiences, values and institutionalized behavior patterns, there is a unique element in its history commonly defined as “the black experience;” and that 3) what is understood by the ingroup as “the black experience” is a principal motivational force in the development of a cultural black nationalism—which may be the prevailing mood characterizing the contemporary black community
A Response
Get PDFRonald Massanari has voiced many of my own thoughts after reading Anne Wimberly’s provocative article on “Spirituals As SymbolicExpression” especially in regard to the living, numinous, and finally irrepresentable quality of symbols and to the potential dangers of a tooliteral application of Jungian ideas. However, I would like to share a few further reflections
A Response to the Responders
Get PDFI read both responses to my article with great appreciation and gratefulness, especially for the time and care spent and for the depth ofscholarship revealed. Of course, I read Rev. Diana T. Beach’s response with tremendous satisfaction because of her emphatic treatment of my view point. Ronald Massonari’s response, on the other hand, gave me some pause; however, after a short duration I realized that he had raised one of the most salient and central issues confronting humanity today. This issue concerns the way in which values are transmitted in a society where tradition has been challenged by technology and industrialization
The Little Traditions: Selected Christian Religions Native To The New World: Baptismal Rites: Religious Symbiosis Of Vodun And Roman Catholicism In Haiti
Get PDFAnyone who has either read about Haiti or has visited it has heard the popular maxim that most Haitians are 100% Roman Catholic and 99% Vodunist. These words capture one of the central paradoxes of Haitian culture. For Roman Catholicism is a religion which allows the Haitian peasant to find a place in the official structure of his country; Vodun, on the other hand, provides a means through which he can cope with the problems of his personal life, and those of his daily existence
Theological Education in an Interdisciplinary Context
Get PDFIn the Christian world the Church is the mother of academe; and the formal pursuit of knowledge began as an instrument for understanding what already stood revealed. The first doctors were the doctors of the church, and their high calling knew nothing of the diseases of the body, but only the glory of the Eternal. The great universities of antiquity were all established with one initial concern: to interpret the faith as the faith had been revealed. To make it clear; to make it relevant; and to make it accessible
Where Do We Go From Here?
Get PDFAs we look to the future, let us ponder this question. The emphasis is upon the we. I am addressing the various constituencies of ITC—staff, students, faculty, administrators, alumni, trustees. Where do we go from here? I am also concerned about denominational leadership, those who make decisions (including budgets) for denominations that have denominational units. Where do we go from here? The president has answered a macadonian call and is ready to march. But no general can lead a demoralized army to victory. I am neither a messiah or a scapegoat. ITC will move into a new period of growth and development only if those who have vital relationships with her will rally to her support. Where do we go from here? This is the challenge! This is the charge to all of us
Journal of the Interdenominational Theological Center, Back Matter, 1983
No full textInterdenominational Theological Center An Ecumenical Professional Graduate School of Theolog
The Reapproachment Between Theology and Science
Get PDFIt was at Gottingen, Germany, that the modern conversations between theology and natural science began. The Gottinger Physiker-Theologen Gesprache were the brainchild of two University of Gottingen professors, Professor of Mathematics, Gunter Howe (1908-1968) and Professor of Physics, C.F. Von Weizsacker (1912- ). Christians both, they were concerned that the kind of intensity that the church had shown during the war in the struggle with Nazi-ism should, in the post-war era, be turned to integrating the insights of theology and natural science to rebuild the post-war world. This was particularly true, according to Howe, who called the first conversation for the summer of 1949, because, “the second era of the industrial age” in which we had been living since 1945 had untold, and as yet unfathomed implications for the way we would eventually think about and understand the reality of the world
Breaking the Circle of Humanity: On Political and Prophetic Authority
Get PDFLet me begin this brief article by noting what I take to be an obvious fact—namely, that whenever human beings gather together to form communities, however large or small, a system for exercising authority inevitably emerges to secure the community’s well-being. For ideals must be articulated, laws emplaced, problems appraised, decisions made. The subject which will concern us is precisely this authority exercised in human communities. And my remarks will be premised on the idea that there is a distinction between what I will call “political” authority and, drawing from my work as a theologian, “prophetic” authority. Let mebegin as follows, then, with a few descriptive comments regarding this distinction