A new journal
was launched today by the Oxford Centre for Religion and Public Life. It is the Journal of Religion and Public Life. JRPL's purpose is
To provide a platform to publish research, studies and reflections
that relate to OCRPL’s understanding that religion is significant in shaping
all areas of public life.
The editors of
the journal state that they plan to include the following topics: Religious
Freedom, Human Rights, Extremism, Religion and State, Faith and Economics, the
Security of Religious Minorities, Religion and Refugees, Religion and
Globalisation, and Addressing Corruption.
The first issue
includes the following articles:
·
Editorial: Welcome to the First
Issue of the Journal of Religion and Public Life', pp.2-3
·
Reconstructing Public Theology
with Old Testament Foundations', pp.4-29
·
The Tamil Library in Tranquebar
(1708) and its Significance', pp.30-45.
·
Responses of African
Pentecostal Churches to African Refugees in Dusseldorf Between 2015 and 2020: A
Case Study of Mission and Migration', pp.46-63
·
Mission and Interfaith Dialogue:
Finding a Neutral Domain for Mission,' pp.64-75
·
Book Review : Tom Wright, Into
the Heart of Romans (London: SPCK, 2023), pp.76-77.
I contributed
the article entitled, ‘Reconstructing Public Theology with Old Testament
Foundations’. It is a textual study of
how Biblical interpretation sets a very different foundation for public discourse
than more generically defined values that some theologians believe to be essential
for dialogue for a wider public.
Demonstrating this with a study of righteousness and justice and related
values in the Old Testament and in the Ancient Near Eastern context, I outline
how liberation theology and Critical Theory have different conceptions of justice
and equity from the Old Testament. My
article is an appeal for a public theology that begins with a conviction of
Biblical authority and acknowledges the importance of its interpretation.
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