RSS 1.0Theology and Religious Studies
The Department of Theology and Religious Studies at the University of Chester is a community of scholars addressing cutting edge questions concerning theology and the nature and place of religions in the world from a wide range of perspectives. We are dedicated to excellence, both in our student-centred teaching and learning and in our research.
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‘Meeting God in an ordinary place’. What can we learn from Coffee Shop Sunday about meeting God using the internet to encourage and develop fellowship?All are welcome at the ‘common table’ to enjoy the ‘table talk’. How does Coffee Shop Sunday (CSS) (Coventry and Nuneaton Methodist Circuit Project) reflect that alongside pointing people to Jesus? CSS began a worship service in a Coventry Costa Coffee Shop in December 2019, this was severely disrupted with covid-19 restrictions and their concept of ‘meeting God in an ordinary place’ moved online. The internet through Facebook and Zoom became the ordinary place they met God. Since March 2020, the online work has grown from initially meeting four days a week to daily activities with participants from five continents. Two of the principles of CSS are encouragement and fellowship. The paper will explore (1) How the internet became the ‘ordinary’ place to meet God for people from different denominations and cultures. (2) How fellowship is experienced, using Russell’s ‘round table ecclesiology’ model where those present participate in a way which reflects their own journey of ‘faith and struggle’. (3) How does CSS point other people to Jesus through its activities. Barth emphasises that churches or a Christian’s activities should not focus on themselves but ‘point to Jesus’. By reviewing CSS activities, I will demonstrate that they point others to Jesus.
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A Practical Theology of Religious Difference: the lived experience of Anglican Christians in a religiously plural UK contextThis project constructs a practical theology of religious difference from qualitative research into the everyday lived experience of Anglican Christians in one of the UK’s most religiously plural contexts in Leicester. All too often, and not only in Christian circles, ‘religious diversity is imagined as a problem, even when there is ample evidence of successes – of people working out difference on the ground, in everyday life’ (Beaman, 2017, 3). This project seeks to attend to precisely that negotiation of religious difference in everyday life. The theology of religions discourse, and in particular the exclusivist-inclusivist-pluralist typology, has dominated Christian approaches to religious difference for several decades. It has been robustly critiqued by feminists and postcolonial thinkers for its oversimplification, its treatment of religions as monolithic entities and its lack of attention to hybridity. While alternatives have been suggested, few foreground the practices and everyday lived experience of those living in a religiously plural context other than anecdotally. I used semi-structured interviews with seventeen participants from two of Leicester’s Church of England congregations to generate narratives and reflections concerning their everyday encounters with those of other faiths. Through close reading and coding of the data, I then drew out the practical wisdom of those living with religious difference, bringing it into conversation with existing literature on interfaith engagement, in particular from a feminist and postcolonial perspective. From this process emerge insights on intersectional and intrareligious difference, the polarization of difference and sameness with their outworking in attitudes to conflict and pluralism, and finally the possibility of living with contradiction and mystery, and the role of epistemic humility. These insights, rooted in lived experience, make a valuable, and previously undervalued, contribution to both the theology of religions debate as well as challenging the wider church’s practice in its handling of religious difference today.
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Does GOD not also speak through us? Developing a new pedagogy for the formation of women who preach in the Church of EnglandThis thesis explores the formation of women preachers in the Church of England. My research was carried out with a particular group of women preachers, lay and ordained, who attended a conference in 2018 called Women’s Voices. The data generated suggests that theological education and ministerial formation fail women in two ways. First, ministerial training excludes, minoritizes and silences those who are perceived as ‘other’ than a White, male norm. Among other minoritized voices, women’s voices are absent from classrooms, reading lists and theological critique. Second, I argue that for women, the absence of these voices results in them entering ministry ill-informed about preaching about Bible women or from their own experiences, and ill-prepared for the sexism and misogyny they will encounter. Based on my exploration of these failures, I make some specific proposals about how preachers might be taught, how women ordinands and trainees might be prepared for the ministry they are to embark on, and how Theological Education Institutions might facilitate the flourishing of marginalised groups. I propose that preaching classes should not only include information about developments in preaching, but also practical sessions in which students explore how to preach from their own experiences and understandings. In line with the women who took part in my research, I propose that spaces be made available where women can support each other. My participants perceived a cycle in which women received support and acceptance from each other, realised that they were being silenced and released each other to resist oppression. I suggest that such spaces be opened up in the classroom so that women are better prepared for ministries that will be marked by sexist reactions to their presence and their preaching. In making proposals that I see as life-giving and disruptive of the status quo, I draw on the Hebrew prophet Miriam who was a leader of Israel alongside her brother Moses. She both led women to freedom and challenged male domination. As a result of her challenge to Moses, “does God not also speak through us?” she is afflicted with leprosy and banished from the camp. I believe that Miriam’s experience echoes that of many women in the church who are silenced when they challenge male domination. My research opens up other areas of inquiry I have not had space to pursue, particularly how women’s intersectional experiences might impact their ministerial experiences. My findings among a particular group of women preachers contribute to curriculum development work and to the ways in which women ministers are formed.
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Postmodernism and evangelical theological methodology with particular reference to Stanley J. GrenzAbstract available in hard copy
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Contours of Biblical reception theory : studies in the rezeptionsgeschichte of Romans 13. 1-7Abstract available in hard copy.
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The theological hermeneutics of homiletical application and Ecclesiastes 7: 23-29Abstract available in hard copy
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Addiction Recovery at the Intersections of Religion, Gender and SexualityThis chapter charts the intersections between addiction recovery, which is increasingly expressed as an identity, , and relgiion, gender and sexuality, categories that are rarely examined together. It demonstrates, first. that recovery spiritulaities are normative in relation to gender and sexuality, and such narratives and language can disempower, obscure and oppress already stigmatized and marginalised actors. It argues that the labour of recovery lies heavy on gendered and sexual miniorities, but also that for many participants, recovery communities and spiritualities are sites of empowerment and autonomy.
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The wisdom of Torah: epistemology in Deuteronomy and the wisdom literatureAbstract available in hard copy
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The Sea of Faith 40 Years OnOn the fortieth anniversary of its first broadcast in 1984, this article will consider the main themes of the BBC TV series The Sea of Faith , written and presented by the Cambridge philosopher and theologian Don Cupitt. It will attempt to evaluate its significance, then and now. We argue that Cupitt’s ‘radical’ reputation for his advancement of a broadly ‘non-realist’ understanding of God may have overshadowed other equally significant features, not least his central argument that unless Christianity responded constructively to modern thought it would be doomed to irrelevance. The article will close with some reflections on what Cupitt’s manifesto for religion might mean for those who continue to identify with his critiques of traditional theology today.
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Book Review: The Artifice of Intelligence: Divine and Human Relationship in a Robotic age Noreen HerzfeldA book review outlining Herzfeld's book which addressing issues of ‘What is Artificial Intelligence (AI)’ and ‘What do we want AI to do’ are the two questions Herzfeld addresses in this book using the lens of Barth's four conditions for an authentic human relationship.
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On The Path of Pir Sultan? Engagement with Authority in the Modern Alevi MovementIn this paper, I explore some approaches in the contemporary Alevi Movement to semi-official discourses on religion, citizenship and belonging in Turkey. I study the revival activities of an Alevi group from Erzincan called the Derviş Cemal Ocak, which I find to be characterized by an emphasis on its Turkish ethno-cultural roots and Islamic religious identity. The group is following the national Cem Vakfı’s definition of Alevilik according to these terms, and reflects an openness to negotiation with both official institutions of state authority as well as semi-official public discourses that other Alevi groups do not. I analyze this conciliatory approach within the Alevi Movement in light of hegemonic majority discourses on national and religious identity. Specifically, I explore post-migration geographies, ethnicity and the Kurdish issue, as well as internal factors within the Alevi community regarding religious legitimization and the sanctity of its leaders (dede).
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Unspeakable Fat, Unspeakable Beauty: Fatness, Apophasis and the Overflowing of ExcessThis chapter draws on Augustine’s theology of perfect heavenly bodies including his theological rendering of beauty and fat to consider what apophasis might mean for feminist theological thinking about fatness and women’s fat. Routinely criticized for promoting a flight from the body and its excessive passions and a vision of resurrection bodies as free from the imperfections of the material flesh, Augustine provides an interesting although perhaps unlikely dialogue partner for thinking about this. My claim is that there is much to glean from him, despite the difficulties he presents. There is also much to garner from feminist fat activism and from critical feminist reflections on the fluidity of fat embodiment. Both inform my feminist theological appraisal of fat bodies as unspeakable bodies
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How do Baptists discern the 'mind of Christ' at the Church Meeting?At the heart of every Baptist church is the Church Meeting, where church members make decisions for their local congregation by discerning the mind of Christ. As a Baptist minister, I operate as a practitioner-researcher in this project by observing four local Baptist churches in north London and interviewing twelve members on the practice of discernment. As a relatively unexamined area of church life, this project aims to articulate Baptist discernment to renew the Church Meeting. Through the data collected and analysed by thematic and axial coding, Baptist discernment is identified, articulated, and named as slow wisdom. Slow wisdom is slow, listens to all members, and seeks consensus agreement through a prayerful and prophetic atmosphere. The theological emphasis on participation, described as ‘this body life’ is shown to be based on biblical images of the church as the body of Christ (1 Corinthians 12.4-27) as the priesthood of all believers (1 Peter 2.4-5). By comparing slow wisdom to bell hooks’ practical wisdom (1994, 2003, 2010), slow wisdom finds broader terms of expression and rationale for participation and the Church Meeting is recast as a radical place. Slow wisdom uses embodied knowledge to form Christian practical wisdom (Miller-McLemore, 2016) that long-standing members use as an epistemological source to verify discernment. Therefore, knowledge of Baptist discernment is expanded from a biblical basis to recognise phronesis in the lived experience of faith and bodily practice of attending the Church Meeting as fundamental to discernment. Slow wisdom is not present when the Church Meeting fails to listen to all members. The project shows how members who are different to the habitual norm of the church are excluded. The low attendance of younger members and members from other denominations is shown to be effectively addressed by examples of best practices, alongside the project recommendation of sharing slow wisdom as a model for reflection. To explore Black and Brown members whose voices have been overruled in Church Meetings, Willie Jennings’ (2010, 2020) work on challenging racism in education provides a contrasting analysis. Through Jennings’ example, the project demonstrates how the design of the Church Meeting can be changed to be inclusive of all members to increase belonging among Black and Brown members. Having articulated slow wisdom, this new knowledge contributes to other denominations' discernment approaches and provides a pathway for renewal of practice and a revitalisation of the Baptist Church Meeting for Baptists. The portfolio submitted before this thesis shows a reflective research journey in Practical Theology as a Baptist minister. At the beginning of the professional doctorate programme, my research question concerned a critical discussion held at my first church in London. At the Church Meeting, church members shared their different views regarding whether the church building was a sacred space. My focus throughout the programme has been to understand how Baptists hear varied opinions and make decisions together at the Church Meeting. In my literature review, I examined the concept of churches as sacred spaces and places in Baptist research and other Christian traditions. By using a modified pastoral cycle, I reflected on the critical Church Meeting discussion, followed by an exploration of biblical models of revelation, churches understood as storied and incarnational places, and sociology and place. The review highlighted that while the content of the original discussion on sacred places was important, the context of the Church Meeting in which it was held was critical for Baptists. For my publishable article, I reviewed a contrasting sample of literature on unholy places. Now in my second pastorate in Cheshire, I explored ‘Mischief Night’ and the practice of charismatic Christians to prayer walk outdoors to reclaim the local streets from an unholy environment into a sacred place. I identified parallels between Baptist charismatic views regarding place and Celtic views on liminal places. I argued that determining good from evil through testing in prayer was believed by Baptists as a factor in discernment practice on Mischief Night. To complete the first stage of the professional doctorate, I returned to reflecting on decisionmaking within the Church Meeting to form the basis of my research proposal. Now in my third pastorate, I sought to make generalisations about the practice of discernment for Baptists at the Church Meeting. I selected a qualitative research approach to analyse a set of Baptist churches using the tools of observation, interviewing and coding. With a concern to express the lived experience of faith for Baptists, these methods were chosen to generate fresh data concerning an unarticulated discernment practice to existing discernment literature. I sought to articulate how Baptists discern together at the Church Meeting with an interest in revelation, testing or judging good decisions in discernment, the role of prayer and the significance of the Church Meeting for members. The project began with a specific question of revelation and sacred space in a multi-ethnic Baptist church. Through stage one, a broader topic emerged of how Baptists search for revelation from God to make decisions together which led to the final research question of ‘How do Baptists discern the mind of Christ at the Church Meeting?’
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God's Patience and Our Work. Hans Frei, Generous Orthodoxy and the Ethics of HopeThis book offers a new interpretation of Hans Frei's theology and ethics, their development, coherence in context and their relevance to contemporary Christian political theology and ethics. On this reading, Frei offered a subtle, flexible account of the essence of Christianity, a Christology which grounds Christ's living presence and enduring solidarity with the poor and marginalised and to history and the church in his particular identity. I show that he sought to recover the conditions for an ethics of responsibility and to articulate the terms of the publicness of Christian theology and ethics. His vision of Christian discipleship, shaped by Christ's identity, emphasises generous, reconciliatory love and practices of penultimate reconciliation amidst the structural divisions engendered by social sin. Above all, he outlined a theology of God's patience and providence to frame a hopefully realistic, contextually pragmatic, progressive engagement of Christian communities with politics and society.
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Postliberal TheologyAn overview of Postliberal Theology, its characteristic concerns and themes, the contributions of key figures, debates about their ideas, its influence, achievement and agenda.
