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Essays

AAR Political Theology Unit Call for Papers – 2024

The deadline for submission to the AAR Annual Meeting’s Political Theology Unit is February 29 (at 5:00pm American EST).

The Way to Save a Life

Yet this “good news” – profoundly strange, even apparently morbid – promises that, in relinquishing our supereminent concern for the self, pursuing instead the way of peace and justice, we become so free that even a violent end may be an expression of an ultimately joyful reception of the gift of life – that is, it may be the way to save a life.

The Fierce Urgency of Butler’s Future is NOW!    

As literary works of speculative fiction, Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Sower (1993) and Parable of the Talents (1998) thrust us into an all-too-near future, offering a haunting perspective on what our world could entail by the year 2035. In 2024, however, Butler’s Parables are no longer mere imaginative forays into the future.

The Political Theology of Jesus’ Baptism: Towards a Counter-Cultural Lent

Lent can become a season of personal and societal transformation as people of faith respond to the counter-cultural call from Jesus’ baptism. It challenges us to examine our own attitudes and behaviours, encouraging a shift towards a more compassionate and just way of living.

Transgressing ‘white’ Transfiguration

A political theology of the transfiguration of Jesus has to expose and transgress the elevation of whiteness as divine, as a norm and as something superior to multi-coloured local expressions of faith. It also calls us to celebrate the mystery of transfiguration as trans-figuration of the body ethic of Jesus and of all humanity.

A Biblical Case for Binaries

If Christians believe in a God of the oppressed, it is incumbent upon them to similarly locate themselves on the side of the oppressed.

Knowing Who You Are

Jesus does not need others to define who he is because he rests in the knowledge that he is called and beloved by God. Jesus does not need the man with the unclean spirit to proclaim that he is the “Holy One of God” (Mark 1:24) in order to own and live this identity for himself.

Caught in the Undertow

As we enter a new election season with our polarized political communities occupying different epistemologies and worlds, it remains an open question what it will look like for us to cultivate a better politics. We are caught in a riptide, being pulled further apart with few resources at our disposal for anything other than the zero-sum game we’ve inherited. The Jonah story, however, offers a different kind of political imagination, where God confronts and offers grace to enemies by putting them into contact with one another. This multi-layered grace introduces moral complexity and political uncertainty, but it also opens the door to a world not entirely determined by scarcity and competition.

<em>Political Theology</em> Journal Open House and FAQ

The journal Political Theology will host an open house on February 1 at noon eastern for prospective authors and contributors to the journal.

Listening to the Call

Listening and responding is a blueprint for us all: it’s amazing and wise to discern God’s leading in the context of community.