NTT Journal for Theology and the Study of Religion - Volume 73, Issue 3, 2019

Abstract Recent years’ emphasis on contemplation, prayer and ritual has raised new questions about the ‘site’ of theological reflection: is an inhabited theology newly disclosive? What are the implications of such an appreciation of the role of the body – of language, gesture, posture, sound, variations of light and space, the passage of time – for theological understanding? The space of the liturgy, the edifice of the Chu Read More

Abstract This paper seeks to interrelate the ritual turns in biblical studies and systematic theology, in order to explore whether the latter can be used to further the former. In order to do so, first, the ritual turn in biblical studies is outlined, second, aspects of the ritual turn in systematic theology are presented, third, an exegetical case study focusing on 1 Corinthians 11:17-34 is presented, and fourth and finally, conclusio Read More

Abstract Why does it seem that humans are in need of ritual and contemplative practices, such as singing, for their intellectual reasoning on theological matters? First of all, this study introduces Liturgical Theology as an endeavor to establish liturgy as an activity that connects physical and intellectual dimensions of faith. Secondly, insights into the dialogue between theology and the natural sciences will provide a frame Read More

Abstract The present article aims at making again a connection with central intuitions of the early Liturgical Movement in francophone Belgium at the outset of the 20th century. The reason for doing that is that it is still quite uncommon for professional theologians to consider liturgy as a real source for theologizing. The major focus of the article is the Body of Christ, a profound image, symbol, doctrine and reality, the impact a Read More

Abstract In the last thirty years, theologians such as Milbank and Hauerwas have allowed ecclesiology to play a fundamental role in theology. This move is grounded in their conviction that the meaning of Christianity consists primarily not in its theory and doctrine but in its lived form, which is the church. Interestingly, this contemporary 'turn to the church' in many ways resembles an earlier revival of ecclesiology in the beginni Read More

Abstract The ‘contemplative turn’ in today’s theology had already a predecessor in the theology of O. Noordmans. That theology, developed in the first half of the 20th century, was (as Noordmans himself put it) ‘embedded’ in ‘the church as mother church’, as a ‘womb of piety’. This article describes how that can be seen in Noordmans’s appreciation of the pastoral character of Reformed dogmatics and in his sharp distinctio Read More