Abstract This essay develops a social‐practical account of Christian doctrine: theology is adequate when, under Scripture's authority and the Spirit's work, ecclesial speech proves semantically and pragmatically fitting, pastorally fruitful, and doctrinally answerable. Contemporary theology needs disciplined disambiguation more than doctrinal differentiation, since shared confessional sentences and infrastructures can be deployed toward divergent, even harmful, ends across racialized and global contexts. Against a Christendom reflex for doctrinal differentiation, the essay proposes artificial theological intelligence, a Spirit‐formed competence for contextual discernment, catholic learning, and answerable judgment. Recent multilingual large language model AI research serves as a heuristic. Two Korean American case studies test the proposal.
The Alevis of Anatolia and the Balkans and the Alawites of Syria and southeastern Turkey are two distinct ethnoreligious communities frequently conflated in both media and scholarly literature, despite their divergent historical origins, theological differences, and varying sociocultural formations. While their shared histories of marginalization and persecution, certain theological parallels, and cognate ethnonyms contribute to this conflation, it largely stems from a broader tendency within mainstream Islamic frameworks to homogenize so-called heterodox communities without sufficient attention to their doctrinal and cultural specificities. This paper, grounded in a synthetic analysis of current scholarship, maps the key historical, theological, and sociocultural intersections and divergences between Alawite and Alevi communities. Situated within the broader framework of intra-Islamic diversity, it seeks to move beyond essentialist and homogenizing paradigms by foregrounding the distinct genealogies of each tradition, rooted, respectively, in the early pro-Alid movements of Iraq and Syria and in Anatolian Sufism. In addition, the study examines the communities’ overlapping political trajectories in the modern era, particularly their alignments with leftist and secular–nationalist currents, as well as their evolving relationship—from mutual unawareness to a recent political rapprochement—prompted by the growing existential threats posed by the rise of Sunni-Salafi Islamist movements.
Background: Governments and major platforms increasingly portray online discourse as a “misinformation” crisis, justifying far-reaching controls that risk eroding free expression rooted in scriptural and constitutional principles. Purpose: The article develops a biblically grounded, constitutionally coherent framework that protects truthful speech while restraining coercive uses of the misinformation label. Design/methodology/approach: Using mixed-methods secondary research, the study integrates three analytical lenses—agenda-setting and propaganda theory, the political economy of platform regulation, and Christian public theology (imago Dei, sphere sovereignty, subsidiarity). It triangulates doctrinal legal analysis, a systematic scoping review (2015–2025), documentary scrutiny of United Nations and platform policies, a cross-jurisdictional policy matrix, and computational discourse analysis. Findings: Regulatory trends align with global governance agendas, foster state–platform collusion, and frequently misclassify dissenting yet factual claims as “misinformation.” The proposed framework shows that upholding truthful speech, mandating radical transparency, decentralising content moderation, and investing in digital literacy better curb harms without enabling authoritarian control. Implications: An accompanying impact matrix equips lawmakers, platforms, and civil society to test legislation and moderation rules against constitutional free-speech guarantees and the biblical conviction that humans created in the imago Dei (Genesis 1:27) are called to seek and speak truth. Originality/value: By uniting media theory, legal scholarship, and Christian ethics, this study offers the first interdisciplinary blueprint that both diagnoses the power dynamics behind misinformation policy and sets out actionable, faith-informed remedies for a resilient digital public square.
This study investigates how climate change influences biblical interpretation and theology, with the aim of aligning ecological concerns with scriptural and doctrinal perspectives. Key goals include examining reinterpretations of scripture, assessing the ethical and theological dimensions of ecological crises, and evaluating denominational responses. Using a qualitative, interdisciplinary approach, the study incorporates literature review, ecological hermeneutics, and theological reflection to explore how environmental issues reshape core biblical themes and doctrines. Engaging scholars like Jürgen Moltmann, Sallie McFague, Richard Bauckham, and Pope Francis, it analyzes eco-theological insights on creation, stewardship, sin, redemption, and eschatology. The findings suggest that climate change compels a renewed focus on stewardship, reimagines eschatology with ecological justice, and inspires churches to integrate climate action into doctrine and practice. The study recommends educational initiatives in churches, ecological integration in theological training, and advocacy by faith leaders for sustainable policies—contributing a framework that brings ecological awareness into theological discourse. Keywords: Climate Change, Biblical Interpretation, Theology, Impact
Рецензія на After Science and Religion: Fresh Perspectives from Philosophy and Theology (ред. Peter Harrison, John Milbank, Cambridge University Press, 2022).
ABSTRACT Historians have studied the relationship between the Early Christian Creeds and Christian Doctrine. Yet before doctrinal language, there was embodied practice. Practices of prayer, singing, care and preaching preceded the accepted credal formularies. The paper discusses the relationship between creed and practice from a practical theological perspective. It departs from an analysis of baptismal practice in the Early Church and its relation to the doctrinal language in the creed. The analysis applies the approach of the ‘four voices of theology’ and it is argued that normative theology as expressed in creeds is preceded by operant theology in practices. Next, this is explored more broadly in relation to other religious practices, such as singing, preaching and care. The closing section explores the complex relationship between beliefs and practices and suggests further research in the areas of historical analysis and normativity in theology.
Abstract What can we learn from Augustine’s preaching about the nature and purpose of preaching? In this paper, I will argue that in his preaching Augustine presents to his audience a theology of words and the Word that achieves what it declares; that is to say, rather than a mere doctrinal curiosity, Augustine’s preached theology of words and the Word accomplishes a homiletical goal that transcends the transmission of an idea and, instead, guides the faithful listener’s heart towards the eternal Word of God through the temporal words of the preacher and the written words of scripture. To put it another way, Augustine’s theology of words and the Word is both a theological claim and a practical pastoral tool.
Ulema ve münevver bu çalışmada Osmanlı klasik çağı ile Tanzimat sonrası modernleşme sürecini temsil eden iki aydın tipidir. Bu iki tip aynı zamanda dönemlerinin düşünce yapısını, olaylara bakış açısını ve Osmanlı tasavvurunu da temsil etmektedir. Doğası gereği bu iki aydın tipi arasında bir farklılıktan ve çekişmeden söz edilebilir. Bu durum pek çok konuda kendini göstermektedir. Bu çalışmada bu düşünce ve bakış açısı farkının merkezine Kürt dili özelinde yerel dilleri koyacağız: Osmanlı’nın klasik döneminde geleneksel tarzda eğitim almış uleması ile modern dönemde Batılı tarzda eğitim almış münevverinin başta Kürtçe olmak üzere Osmanlı’da konuşulan yerel dillere bakış açısını inceleyeceğiz. “Bu iki eğitimli grup Osmanlı’nın mevcut durumunda ve gelecek planlamasında Kürtleri ve Kürt dilini nereye koyuyordu?” sorusuna cevap arayacağız. Osmanlı klasik çağında imparatorluk atmosferi içinde sıradan bir olgu olan çok dilliliğin Tanzimat sonrası dönemde nasıl çözülmesi gereken bir “sorun” hâline geldiğini örneklerle inceleyeceğiz. Bu bağlamda Gelibolulu Âli, Evliya Çelebi, Namık Kemal, Şemseddin Sâmi, Babanzade İsmail Hakkı, Said-i Meşhûr, Abdullah Cevdet, Ziya Gökalp gibi şahsiyetler ile İstanbul’da yayımlanan Kürd Teavün ve Terakki Gazetesi, Rojî Kurd dergisi, Serbestî gazetesi ve Diyarbekir’de neşredilen Peymân gazetesi başlıca araştırma kaynaklarımız olacak.
This article emphasizes the particular contours that define the Franciscan theological paradigm as a distinct contribution to the discipline of Roman Catholic theology. Grounded in the lives of Francis and Clare of Assisi, the tradition unfolds as a Wisdom tradition, both christocentric and praxis-driven. A highly pastoral vision, Franciscan theology emphasizes the contingent particular (person and experience) and focuses on the dynamic of ongoing conversion in the life of the individual believer within the faith community. This article integrates major figures of the tradition within a thematic unfolding that frames the singularity of the Franciscan theological and pastoral paradigm, according to its trinitarian, christological, soteriological, ecclesiological, and sacramental aspects.
Informed by wisdom texts, Franciscan theologians link salvation history to concrete human experience (praxis). Key crises surrounding Franciscan identity deepen the tradition, particularly the debates over poverty, divine foreknowledge, and human freedom. Apocalyptic visions of the fullest realization of the reign of God inform the deepening historical consciousness and ecclesiology of scholars throughout the tradition. Finally, the commitment to theology as a science of praxis (rather than theory) distinguishes this tradition from other major approaches (e.g. Thomistic) and finds significant echoes in contemporary theological reflection on creation, the incarnation, ecclesiology, and human fulfillment.
The central goal of the presented article is to show that the type of rationality proper to the method of the contemporary sciences yields a unique conceptual environment in which the spirit of rationality instilled to the theological thought by its encounter with the Greek philosophy finds its natural expansion. At the outset, the origins of the Greek rationality in the Ionian school of philosophy are briefly discussed in order to illuminate their adequacy for the exposition and defense of doctrine in the times of the early Church Fathers. Next, the specificity of the scholastic method of St. Thomas Aquinas briefly surveyed to indicate the nature of the unique harmony between faith and reason achieved by the Angelic Doctor. In the following step, the role of rationality in theology is gleaned through negative examples of its elimination as evident in nominalism and the subsequent Lutheran intervention. This is followed by a short discourse into of the origins and the specificity of the contemporary scientific method with particular emphasis on the method’s unique potential to expand and deepen the Greek rationality. Finally, a case study of the evolutionary theology is offered in which the implementation of the dynamic (evolutionary) picture of the Universe as the conceptual foundation opens up new and profound ways of understanding the Universe’s meaning and the meaning of man in particular. Thus the spirit of the hellenistic rationality in theology is not only preserved but also significantly enhanced.
El libro trata de una catequesis práctica, pues, insiste en una "catequesis para la realidad de la vida" y quiere acomodarse a una línea de pedagogía actual, lográndolo de modo conciso, preciso y ameno. Se trata de una experiencia de catequesis en la diócesis de Madrid (España) que da buenas bases para una buena reflexión en nuestra catequesis colombiana y Latinoamericana, ya que estamos haciendo buenos esfuerzos de mejorar nuestros propios planes catequísticos. (…)
La Compañía de Jesús ha estado empeñada en la acomodación del régimen original de pobreza religiosa a las nuevas circunstancias históricas a través de nuevas estructuras. Este tema se trató especialmente en las Congregaciones Generales 31 y 32. Se expone en este estudio la génesis de esta reforma y sus líneas esenciales examinando el grado y modo de su coherencia con el espíritu y régimen original de la pobreza de la Compañía. El tema consiste en un esfuerzo en expresar un mismo espíritu en normas parcialmente distintas de las originales. Se trata de hacer servir siempre las normas al espíritu que se pretende encarnar. Las conclusiones de esta acomodación apuntan a vivir en la práctica en circunstancias históricas y socioculturales muy distintas de las primitivas, la exigencia nuclear de la pobreza de los orígenes.