Category: Articles

This section is an attempt to gather brief remarks from people of diverse perspectives on the topic of the Israel/Palestine conflict.  The reader is introduced to the perspectives of two Palestinian Christians (Ms. Seda Mansour and Pastor/Professor Alex Awad), two Jews (Professor Dale Frank and Professor Sam Fleischacker), and two Muslims (Imam Mubasher Ahmad and Dr. Mehnaz M. Afridi), as well as a comment from Dr. Albert H. Baylis of Multnomah Biblical Seminary.  It is hoped that their brief commentaries will serve as catalysts for further reflection and discussion.

Modern or postmodern man/woman promotes self above the community in matters of ethical choices.  Proponents of such assertive ethical individualism have painted community ethics as backward, primitive and out dated.

This paper argues that assertive ethical individualism runs contrary to the way God intended for humanity to function.  Adam and Eve were both “created in the image of God” (Gen. 1:27).  A fundamental belief of the Christian faith is that God is triune – there is an intimate relationship (community) within the Godhead.  To be created in the image of God among other things means that human beings are fundamentally relational and exist in community.

From the African perspective, the idea of community is essential to existence.  A person takes decisions and makes choices as a member of society.  The Church is also a community which is the context of each believer’s life through the reading of Scriptures, discipline, and moral choices.

 

This presentation will offer a pro-life response to the issue of abortion by utilizing a social justice template. Pro-life and pro-choice adherents have very different understandings of how social justice should be applied to abortion, particularly whose rights take precedence. Yet in spite of our weighty, passionate differences on the legality and morality of abortion, both sides are driven by a concern for social justice. And both sides want to see abortions reduced. And therein lies fertile ground for united efforts to reduce abortions in America. Thus, I suggest three broad social justice activities to reduce abortion rates: material (physical) assistance, social support, and addressing abuse.

Hoping to give the modern evangelical an understanding of how postmodern thought has shifted the expectation of the exegete, Jon Robertson puts the hermeneutical practices of both premodern Athanasius and postmodern Hans-Georg Gadamer in conversation with one another. Through examination of both Gadamer’s and Athanasius’s concepts of interpretation as dialogue and importance of the pre-understanding of the interpreter and her community, Robertson offers an alternative to modern requirement for complete objectivity in interpretation. The essay also offers avenues for avoiding heresy or misinterpretation when using this pre and postmodern hermeneutical process.

According to director Guillermo del Toro, “the entire world we live in is fabricated,” and within this fabricated cosmos, there are two kinds of imaginations, two ways of living: one which favors the present world—the “Establishment”—and another which stands opposed to it. One kind uncritically affirms our present reality; the other, the one he prefers, rebels against it with “a beautiful anarchy.” Del Toro thus sees film as the medium for the imaginative and anarchic reinterpretation of the horrors of fascism. Film narrates a “spiritual reality” which funds a subversive counter-politics. In this essay, I bring del Toro into conversation with the theopolitical work of William Cavanaugh. I argue that despite del Toro’s rejection of Catholic faith, in two of his films, The Devil’s Backbone and Pan’s Labyrinth, he displays a distinctly Christian theological imagination.