Doing Theology in Plural Contexts

Faced with the widespread and radical forgetting of Christian tradition, this work models a renewed theological practice for teachers in line with Pope Francis' repeated calls for a dialogical theology: recontextualization. Recontextualization is not about reading into the text what we want to hear. Instead, it is about engaging in a repeated process of meaning-making in order to listen to the way God continues to reveal Godself through the text in new contexts and in new times. Engaging with seven challenging biblical accounts, the book shows how these texts can open onto significant issues in contemporary culture and the Church.

Table of Contents:
Acknowledgements Preface: Who Needs to Read this Book? 1. Introduction 2. Jesus and the Woman Caught in Adultery-The Experience of Shame 3. Jesus and the Woman with the Haemorrhage-The Experience of Abjection 4. Jesus Stills a Storm-The Experience of Hell 5. Jesus and the Death of Lazarus-The Experiences of Grief and Compassion 6. Jesus Turns the Tables-The Experience of Anger 7. Jesus on the Road to Emmaus-The Experience of God with U 8. The Spirit of God Pours Out into the World-The Experience of Difference Conclusion Select Biliography Appendix: Four Steps to Recontextualisation

About the Author :
Robyn Horner is Professor of Theology at Australian Catholic University, Australia Teresa Brown is a Senior Lectuer in Theology at Australian Catholic University, Australia.

Review :
This is a fascinating and highly readable book. The theological background, namely that Christian tradition develops through recontextualisation and that we are therefore also called upon today to recontextualise that tradition ourselves, is introduced by the authors in a very understandable way. The choice of biblical texts in combination with the thematic organisation of the chapters is highly original and challenges us to reflect on bodiliness and shame, anger at injustice, mental well-being, sexual and power abuse and disaffiliation from the church. This is a timely and deeply humane contribution to contemporary Catholic theology. Drawing on long experience in theological education and formation, Horner and Brown offer a vision of theology that is rigorously faithful to tradition while attentively responsive to plural, secular, and searching contexts. Shaped by the synodal vision animating contemporary Catholic theology, the book models a way of doing theology that listens carefully, enters dialogue generously, and allows faith to be rearticulated through lived human experience. Scripture and tradition are engaged not as static inheritances but as living sources, capable of interruption, renewal, and transformative meaning. Combining theological expertise with pedagogical experience, this volume presents theology as both an intellectual discipline and a formative practice. This is an invaluable resource for theologians, educators, and practitioners seeking a theology able to hold faith, experience, and difference in creative and life-giving relation. Horner and Brown have produced a work of enduring significance for theologians, theological educators, pastors, and all those interested in developing a recontextualized approach to reading sacred scripture hermeneutically for our time and contexts today. Their 'four steps' framework successfully makes complex theological dimensions accessible and achievable. They demonstrate the rich and provocative results of a layered hermeneutical approach, weaving phenomenological reading, biblical criticism, post-biblical tradition, and lived contemporary context into a unified and theologically rich reflection. Experts in the field and those with limited background will both find empowerment in this work. Readers will be especially appreciative of their choice to wrestle with 'challenging' scriptural narratives and sensitive contemporary experiences. Through this choice, they demonstrate the hermeneutical capacity of the theological tradition to speak to, from, and with the realities and questions of life today. A best-in-class resource for both scholarship and practice. This book adopts an approach of recontextualisation of some key passages from the New Testament. Robyn Horner and Teresa Brown provide insights into the different meanings of some of key events in the life and ministry of Jesus. They also engage with theological questions such as the divinity/humanity of Jesus Christ and contemporary issues such as clerical child sexual abuse, cultural genocide and the role of women in the Church. This is a skilful and meticulously executed study, and, throughout the book, they draw on scholarship on scripture, Patristics, Thomas Aquinas and some key ideas in contemporary theology. Thought provoking and challenging, this book is a welcome and significant contribution to Catholic theological research.