Addiction is an insidious disease process that robs the person of her/his ability to exercise choice. The author, who has worked for decades in the area of addiction, has seen that it affects every aspect of society, be it social, racial, religious, economic or ethnic. Addiction is an “unsanctioned illness,” that prompts a sense of “disgrace shame” that results in attempts to keep it hidden and secret from others. More often than not, especially among those working in a ministry role, the pervasive idea is that “it will never happen to me!”
Reviews of recent published works by authors of interest to the readers of the journal and on subjects of interest to them as well.
Terrell’s generous and critical response to Catherine Cornille’s keynote affirms Divine presence and loving goodness that precedes the particularities of religious traditions and religious language we cherish; a Divine presence not limited to the dualities, binaries, and boundaries we enforce. Furthermore, Divine love has deployed multiple religious traditions and many modes and methods to overcome the harm done by cultural hubris, empowered racist, and extended colonialist forms of any one religion. Terrell offers an autobiographical narrative that endorses a continuing process drawing upon the insight and grace of pre-critical/natural knowledge of God, nurtured in deepening Christian, Buddhist, and Daoist practice, informed and sharpened by a Womanist sensibility, all to cultivate a habitus of openness to Divine presence and provision that is as eager for claims of ultimacy, as it is impatient with claims of exclusivity and finality.
Christ and the church are central for Barth’s conceptual and contextual theological understanding of the Christian identity and vocation in his time. Built on these two key themes, this paper has a threefold aim. First, it discusses Barth’s understanding of the distinction between the Christian identity and others. Second, it examines Barth’s threefold concept of faith, prayer, and obedience as the theological frameworks for Christian identity and vocation. Third, it looks at Barth’s concept of Christian identity and vocation from a critical perspective and explores how and why the Christian vocation and other human vocation should be related in the broader creational providence of God.
This issue of Currents in Theology and Mission offers up queer theologies that resist categorization. Now, perhaps more than ever before, there is need for the church to show leadership by taking a theological and ethical stance on behalf of marginalized communities. Inspired by this, queer theology has continued to grow and develop, doing the messy work of creating new ways of doing theology in community. The authors of the included essays hold a variety of lived experiences, which overlap in the messiness of queer and LGBTQIA+ theologies.
