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Plant Worship to Planned Performances: Changing Human- Nature Relationship and Ritual Practices
Nature, a term freely used in multiple contexts and holds several meanings. The word nature is often defined or understood as the inherent quality of any particular thing. The Latin word natura is used to denote the essential constitution of the world. Since sustainable development poses a global challenge, interaction between human society and nature becomes an object of concern. The idea of a personified nature has given us several pictures; of a nature that speaks, interacts, and even takes revenge. Understanding the abstraction of nature in human minds is a complicated process. However, looking at the multiple manifestations of nature, without reducing it into a mere physical entity, gives…
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Wang Yi’s Prophetic Practice
In 2004 a human rights lawyer named Wang Yi made the list of 50 Most Influential Public Intellectuals of China. In 2005 he became a Christian and joined the persecuted church in China as an outspoken advocate not only for human rights, but for the cause of Christ. In 2006 he was invited to Washington D.C. to speak with President George W. Bush about the issue of religious freedom. And in 2008 this young, distinguished, legal scholar resigned his university position to pastor a church in Chengdu, China.[1] As a pastor, Wang Yi drew attention from government officials for allegedly distributing Christian content, leading a school and seminary that were…
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“Dear God, I want a unicorn”: A young person’s experience of Faith and Theology
One of my earliest memories is of walking down the driveway with my Dad on the way to church, when I was around three. Since then, I was raised by a religious parent (a Professor of Theology) who encouraged my journey of faith, and a parent who was indifferent to my experience, based on their own agnosticism. As the youngest of three children, I also had the participation of my siblings to observe in church services; watching them take Communion when I wasn’t yet old enough, or being asked to deliver readings to the congregation weekly. These are things that I desired to be a part of, regardless of the…
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A Brief History of Black Theology
I want to make a critical reassessment of the journals Black Theology in Britain: A Journal of Contextual Praxis[1] and its successor Black Theology: An International Journal.[2] At the time of writing, Black Theology: An International Journal remains the only academic publication dedicated to the articulation of Black theology in the world. With the demise of the Journal for Black Theology in Southern Africa, Black Theology: An International Journal (hereafter detailed as BTIJ) has assumed added importance for the furtherance of the critical conversation regarding the development of Black theology across the many contours of continental Africa and the African Diaspora. Black Theology in Britain Journal: Making Black Theology Visible…
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Health Crises, Medicine, and Religion
In 1862, a measles epidemic swept across Japan infecting more than 60% of people with a case fatality rate of almost 20% in some areas.[1] In response, people turned not only to the science of the day, but also to religion in their search for answers and remedies. Prints about measles known as hashika-e offered the general public advice on diet and lifestyle encouraging the afflicted to refrain from sexual intercourse and oily foods, for example. These documents simultaneously depicted deities such as Mugidono Daimyōjin (the god of wheat), whom people would attempt to ‘transfer the disease to…or…invoke…to lessen the severity of a case.’[2] In other words, religion and contemporary…
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The God we don’t believe in: Rowan Williams and Richard Dawkins on faith and atheism
Rowan Williams writes “…the examination of where the points of stress [between faith and atheism] are…allows us to test the resources of what we say as believers – and, ideally, to emerge with a more robust sense of those resources.”[1] Prominent among these points of stress is the perceived conflict between “science” (often used as a proxy for atheism) and “religion.” Here, taking as an example the dialogue between Williams and militant scientific atheist Richard Dawkins, I will outline ways of clarifying areas of belief and disbelief, consider whether belief is actually essential to faith and look at ways of separating the territories of science and religion. I will show…
