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Journal of Religion and Public Life (JRPL)

 

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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