Journal articles on the topic 'Yoido Full Gospel Church'

This paper considers the response of Pentecostals globally to matters of social concern, particularly as found in the teaching and ministry of David Yonggi Cho and the church he founded, Yoido Full Gospel Church. Global Pentecostalism has through its message the potential to engage in social transformation, and Cho’s ministry with its work among the poor, the leadership of women, and its theology of sacrificial love is an example of that potential.

Fibry Jati Nugroho, Pastoral Assistance Holistic: A Proposed Conceptual Development Residents Church. A strong church is formed of a strong congregation. Strong congregation obtained from the pastoral care that actively touches the whole life of the churches. The Church should strive to develop a holistic pastoral care to the congregation. Various programs designed to be used to achieve a holistic pastoral care. Multiculture congregation accompanied by multiproblem, requiring pastoral agents set the strategy and create a model to be able to provide a holistic pastoral care services to the citizens of his church. The concept of holistic pastoral care of Howard Clinebell and Totok Wiryasaputra will help create a framework to analyze the development of church people holistically. The theoretical framework will be integrated with pastoral models developed by David Yonggi Cho's Yoido Full Gospel Church. The concept and model of pastoral care holistic support each other as well as a "scalpel" of pastoral care that is geared towards the empowerment of the laity effectiveness and small groups methods. ABSTRAK: Fibry Jati Nugroho,Pendampingan Pastoral Holistik:Sebuah Usulan Konseptual Pembinaan Warga Gereja. Gereja yang kuat terbentuk dari jemaat yang kuat. Jemaat yang kuat didapat dari pendampingan pastoral yang secara aktif menyentuh keseluruhan kehidupan warga gerejanya. Gereja perlu berusaha mengembangkan pendampingan pastoral holistik kepada jemaatnya. Berbagai program yang dirancang digunakan untuk mencapai sebuah pendampingan pastoral holistik. Jemaat yang multikultur disertai dengan multiproblem, mengharuskan para pelaku pastoral mengatur strategi dan menyusun model untuk dapat memberikan pelayanan pendampingan pastoral holistik kepada warga gerejanya. Konsep pendampingan pastoral holistik dari Howard Clinebell dan Totok Wiryasaputra akan membantu menganalisis dalam kerangka membuat pembinaan warga gereja secara holistik. Kerangka teoretis tersebut akan dipadukan dengan model pastoral yang dikembangkan oleh David Yonggi Cho di Yoido Full Gospel Church. Konsep dan model pendampingan pastoral holistik saling menopang serta menjadi pisau bedah dari pendampingan pastoral yang bermuara kepada efektifitas pemberdayaan kaum awam dan metode kelompok kecil.

The use of the noun ekklesia forms a distinctive feature in Matthew’s Gospel. This term must have had a distinctive meaning for Matthew and his readers at the time he used it in his Gospel, though not as full blown as in the Pauline literature and later church history. At that stage the Matthean community considered itself outside the Jewish synagogues. This consideration can be noticed in the Matthean text, when reading the Matthean Jesus story as an “inclusive” story, including the story of the Matthean community. This story reveals a considerable portion of tension between the Matthean and Synagogue communities. An inattentive reading of this text has often unfairly led towards generalized Christian prejudice against all Jews. I argue that the conflict exposed in the text, must be read in context of the experiences of the Matthean community as to safeguard Christian from unjustified Anti-Semitism in general. Faith in or rejection of Jesus acts as dividing factor between the church and the synagogue, not ethnicity.

An Orthodox Christian with a higher medical education, living according to the commandments of God, a full-fledged church life, regularly (at least 1-2 times a month) partaking of the Holy Mysteries of Christ, professing the Orthodox faith in accordance with the Holy Gospel, apostolic rules, rules of the Ecumenical Councils and the Holy Fathers of the Church, by decisions of the Local Church Councils, recognizing the hierarchy (the Most Holy Patriarch, Synod, ruling bishops), attending church on Sundays and holidays, praying in the morning and evening, having or looking for a confessor, being in a married marriage or striving for such, praying for his patients, studying spiritual literature or studying at catechism or theological courses, taking care of both medical and spiritual education, regularly purifying his soul in the Sacrament of Repentance, repenting, among others, of medical sins.

AbstractThis essay examines the Anglican claim for the early church as the normative standard for liturgy, as reiterated throughout our history from the time of Thomas Cranmer through the liturgical revisions of the late twentieth century. A secondary claim of general uniformity through similarity in texts of common prayer is then discussed as a point of historic resonance for Anglican identity. Some very general examples of early church evidence follow, as a means of debunking the notion of a unified and simple structure for primitive liturgy. I will then discuss the notion of ‘early church’, and what we mean by terms like it, and follow this with a consideration of liturgical diversity. The gospel call to privilege Christian unity, I will assert, remains the primary stumbling block to the full embracing of the God-given diversity of the one holy, catholic and apostolic church.

This paper explores the relationship between disability and pentecostal theologies and practices of healing. First, it draws on the testimony of people with a disability, describing the challenge of being the “elephant in the room”: the obviously unhealed in a social space in which supernatural healing is understood to be connected to the gospel, a reward of faith, and a central part of a life and ministry of the church. Second, it deconstructs pentecostal theologies and practices of healing, identifying their potentially alienating effect. Finally, it proposes an alternative orientation, replacing the emphasis upon divine healing with a focus on well-being. To this end, it draws on the holistic intention of the pentecostal Full Gospel and relates this to the virtue tradition, with its concern for long-term flourishing in the midst of the hardship and fragility of life.

AbstractEcclesiology eventually imposed itself as the main theme of the international Methodist / Catholic dialogue by virtue of what have been from the beginning the differences in the respective self-understanding and ecclesial claims of the partners. Confessing that no ecclesiology shaped in a time of division is likely to be entirely satisfactory, the Joint Commission in its Nairobi Report of 1986 ('Towards a Statement on the Church') began exploring 'ways of being one Church' that might obtain in the case of reunion, and the goal of the Methodist / Catholic dialogue was formulated as 'full communion in faith, mission and sacramental life'; and so it has remained, although 'governance' should probably be added as a fourth element in communion. By the time of the Seoul Report of 2006 ('The Grace Given You in Christ: Catholics and Methodists Reflect Further on the Church'), the Commission decided to face head-on the need for 'a mutual reassessment' in the 'new context' set by the ecumenical movement: each partner would look at the other with the eye of faith for what could be discerned there as 'truly of Christ and of the Gospel and thereby of the Church'. The way was thus opened for an 'exchange of gifts' on the road to 'full communion'. The dialogue continues to confront long-standing questions on what may be called 'the instrumentality of grace' as the Joint Commission prepares a Report for Durban 2011 on 'Encountering Christ the Saviour: Church and Sacraments'. The classic Faith and Order themes of baptism, eucharist and ministry remain in need of full settlement, and an ecumenical confession of 'the faith of the Church' would be welcome. Meanwhile, the Joint Commission has produced – under the title 'Together to Holiness'- a thematic synthesis of the first eight rounds of dialogue (1967-2006).

The article “Do We Put a Full Stop?” describes the development of digitalization within the Christian church, which was significantly accelerated by the impact of the crisis caused by Covid-19, based on several surveys conducted in Europe, including Latvia. The Covid-19 crisis has necessitated the rapid development of various digital formats of proclaiming the Gospel. They attracted more people than the previous analogue worship services. However, a distinction should be made between streaming analogue formats and creating a specific digital offer characterized by digital belonging, participation, and interactive relationships. It is not clear at this moment whether these formats have a sustainable character or whether they are a transitory phenomenon. The digitalization of church work has also raised issues such as digital Holy Communion, the advantages of a network of small, horizontally structured communities versus large, hierarchically formed congregations and churches with a large analogue infrastructure. The development of the digital church alongside the proclamation in analogue formats is inevitable. The future of the church is hybrid – analogue and digital. Digital formats will develop alongside analogue without replacing them, while the analogue church will be enriched by the influence of public digital church platforms. The digital church is not an adjunct, but an important and essential part of the work of the congregation and the church.

AbstractThe Protestant church, for Reinhard Hütter, relinquished its ecclesial public character when it turned from ‘binding doctrine’ as the means for establishing and maintaining its concrete ‘time-space’. Christendom disguised this basic theological flaw, but with its collapse the public basis of the Protestant church fell away. This reduced the church's witness and destroyed its communal structure. His positive proposal re-establishes the church as a public by reference to the communion nature of God, and to church practices as mediate forms of the Spirit's acting. Hütter's account shadows an argument made fifty years before by Johannes C. Hoekendijk, observing an intensified focus on word and sacrament and the promotion of a culture as a solution to the problem of the church's witness. Yet, for Hoekendijk, this logic exemplifies the problem. The institutions of the church come to bear the full evangelistic load. Mission replicates the basic structures of a particular way of life as a necessary precursor to the gospel. The act of witness becomes propaganda because of an insufficient doctrine of the church. This insufficiency is a failing in the doctrine of the Trinity: God's own life is defined without sufficient attention to his act of reconciliation and redemption as itself material to understanding the nature of hisin selife.

AbstractThe responses of Christian religions to HIV/AIDS in Africa have been described either with regard to the stigmatising attitudes of churches, or with reference to the charitable acts of Christian organisations in the context of the epidemic. Drawing on fieldwork in a Neo-Pentecostal church in urban Tanzania, this article shows that the Full Gospel Bible Fellowship Church in Dar es Salaam is becoming highly attractive to its followers because of the social, spiritual and economic perspectives that it offers, and particularly because of the networks of healing and support that it has established under the circumstances of urbanisation, structural reform programmes and the AIDS epidemic. The author argues for a stronger focus on practices of healing and community building in studies on Pentecostalism, which may shed light on the continuities as well as the ruptures that are produced by the rise of Neo-Pentecostalism in the context of globalisation, modernity and HIV/AIDS.

This essay explores the possibility of a narrative theology of culture by drawing on the trinitarian metaphysics of Robert W. Jenson. Postliberal or narrative theologies have often been said to hinder the intercultural translation of the gospel by promoting the cultural forms of Western Christianity as the ideal, but I argue here that Jenson’s theology (enlisting some distinctively postliberal themes) creates a critical distance between the church and Christian civilization, while also enabling the free creation and expression of diverse cultural expressions of the gospel. The first section of the paper is a critical project, using a trinitarian metaphysics to rule out any reduction of Christian culture to its Western expressions. Since the community of the Trinity is the one cultural form to which God’s people strive, and because the church’s full participation in this community is eschatological, Christian cultural expression cannot be reduced to one particular cultural form. This creates distance between the church and the world, preventing a strict identification of Christianity with Western culture. The second part of the paper then offers a constructive project, demonstrating how a trinitarian understanding of creaturely freedom enables the development of human culture. By grounding creation’s freedom in the freedom of the triune persons, a trinitarian metaphysics enables the free and loving development of creation in an infinite number of ways. In doing so, Jenson’s metaphysics does not compromise the diversity of human cultures, but instead allows human cultures to flourish in their endless variety.

This essay explores the possibility of a narrative theology of culture by drawing on the trinitarian metaphysics of Robert W. Jenson. Postliberal or narrative theologies have often been said to hinder the intercultural translation of the gospel by promoting the cultural forms of Western Christianity as the ideal, but I argue here that Jenson’s theology (enlisting some distinctively postliberal themes) creates a critical distance between the church and Christian civilization, while also enabling the free creation and expression of diverse cultural expressions of the gospel. The first section of the paper is a critical project, using a trinitarian metaphysics to rule out any reduction of Christian culture to its Western expressions. Since the community of the Trinity is the one cultural form to which God’s people strive, and because the church’s full participation in this community is eschatological, Christian cultural expression cannot be reduced to one particular cultural form. This creates distance between the church and the world, preventing a strict identification of Christianity with Western culture. The second part of the paper then offers a constructive project, demonstrating how a trinitarian understanding of creaturely freedom enables the development of human culture. By grounding creation’s freedom in the freedom of the triune persons, a trinitarian metaphysics enables the free and loving development of creation in an infinite number of ways. In doing so, Jenson’s metaphysics does not compromise the diversity of human cultures, but instead allows human cultures to flourish in their endless variety.

Early Pentecostalism embraced a historical narrative of restorationism that provided an apologetic for Pentecostal revivals by trumpeting the discontinuity with much of Christian tradition. As a counter to this restorationist historical narrative, I argue that early Pentecostalism transmitted a catholic spirituality, which explains not only how it fostered ecclesial renewal in other Christian traditions, but also offers a narrative of continuity with the history of Christianity. This catholic spirituality can be found in the way early Pentecostals fused together eschatological notions of the church as the bride with bridal mysticism to forge a theology of encounter that also offered an implicit renewal understanding of history. This fusion drew upon an eschatology of divine presence in which to encounter God was to live proleptically in the end. Restorationism, consequently, need not be tied to the narrative of discontinuity given in the latter rain, full gospel, and apostolic faith identity markers.

Faith-based communities supporting diverse and underserved communities are increasingly being recognized by researchers as community “anchor institutions” and equitable partners in research engagement. Research suggests that faith-based organizations (FBOs) can promote health and well-being within congregations and throughout communities. This evidence has energized community-academic partnerships to collaboratively support FBOs in plans to improve community wellbeing and health equity, particularly within communities of color. This paper describes the evolution of a community-academic collaboration led by a Full Gospel Midwest Regional Baptist Church where the co-partners professed a commitment to advancing the public good through collaborative governance and shared goal setting in the delivery of an engagement training program. Core features highlighted are: (1) establishing a Community Advisory Board; (2) developing a research engagement training program; and (3) analyses, results, and legacy. Extension of the church-led mission to lead research engagement connects leaders and communities to resources and scientific expertise in support of the data needs and aspirations of faith-based communities. As research-ready partners, faith-based communities have the capacity to function as localized anchors to drive urban health policy and to serve as advocates by being the “voice” in community-driven research engagement for “public good.”

Abstract1The popularity of faith-healing in sub-Saharan Africa has been widely acknowledged in research, but mostly treated as a phenomenon apart, instead of being viewed in relation to other modes of healing. In this article I focus on the reasons why believers choose faith-healing in a medically pluralistic situation and how they see other healing options available in a locally founded Charismatic church community, the Gospel Miracle Church for All People (GMCL), in the Southern Tanzanian city of Mbeya. I propose that, in order to see the medically pluralistic context in Tanzania through the journeys of health-seeking nomads, the focus must lie on two intertwined aspects of faith-healing: first, it is inevitably based on the need to be healed and speaks of a failure of biomedicine to explain illness and provide healing; and second, the long journeys that are made in search of healing mean traversing boundaries and switching between parallel healing systems: biomedicine, traditional healing, and faith-healing. While health seeking nomads are in many ways in a vulnerable position, I suggest that their ability to move from one healing option to another speaks of agency: not in the sense of full control over their life situations but, rather, as a way of coming to terms with their illness.

Theology, the study of God, consists of a network of subdisciplines: biblical theology, moral theology, ecumenical theology, and so on. Each branch of theology has its own distinctive object of study, methods, and purposes. For example, pneumatology studies the Holy Spirit, practical theology uses the pastoral cycle, and liberation theology seeks to transform unjust societal structures that oppress the marginalized. Each branch of theology has its own distinctive community of scholars. It is a common view (though perhaps a contested one, as between the different church traditions) that the main purpose of Christian theology is to proclaim the Gospel of Christ. The branches of theology, in turn, are vehicles for each of this core purpose. Legal theology could become a branch of theology with its own distinctive objects of study, methods, and purposes. What follows explores these themes, how the subdiscipline of legal theology might be defined and developed in the context of the study of the systems of law, order, and polity, of churches across the Christian traditions that deal with, for example, forms of regulation, ministry (lay or ordained), governance (institutions and functions), discipline, doctrine, worship, rites, property, and external relations. It does so as to the following. (1) The object of study: legal theology should at its core be about the relationship between theology and church law—more particularly, the relationship between church law and each of the other branches of theology. (2) The method of study: legal theology may involve the theological study of church law and/or the legal study of theology using standard juristic methods (such as text and context, critical, historical, analytical) as well as methods used in the other branches of theology (3) The purpose of study: the development of a community of scholars collaborating with a view to its impact on ecclesial practice. Theology is indispensable to a full understanding of the place of law in the life of the church; and law provides evidence to test the propositions of theology in the practical life of the church as this is translated through norms to action.

God’s church as always been facing obstacles and trials throughout history, the church has been challenged in many ways, whether it is from inside or outside, to bring the people’s faith to failure for centuries. Therefore, it cannot be ignored that there have been challenges in a large number. Paul wrote to the church at Colossae to respond to the false teachers that had been slipped into the church. They teach that surrendering to Christ and obedience to the apostles teaching is not sufficient to grant full salvation. These false teachers mixed philosophy and human tradition with the Gospel (Col. 2:8). And asked for the worship of the angels as the mediator between God and men (Col. 2:18). These false teachers demanded certain Jewish practices (Col. 2:16, 21-23) and also justified their fallacies by stating that they had the revelation through visions (2:18). Paul has proven the false teachers’ faults by showing that Christ is not only believers’ savior, but also the head of the church and the Lord, and the Creator. Therefore, it is neither the philosophy nor human wisdom that must be seeded, but Jesus Christ and His Power within a believer’s life that has redeemed and saved believers forever, we need no mediator and we as believers can approach God directly. Believers need only to have faith in Christ, rely on Him, love Him, and live in His presence. We, as believers, may not add rules that are not according to the Gospel.Sejarah kehidupan jemaat Allah selalu mengalami hambatan dan cobaan, gereja ditantang dengan berbagai cara baik dari luar maupun dari dalam untuk menggagalkan iman jemaat. orang percaya dari abad ke abad, maka tidak dapat disangkali telah terjadi banyak tantangan. Paulus menulis kepada jemaat Kolose oleh sebab guru-guru palsu telah menyusup ke dalam gereja. Mereka mengajar bahwa penyerahan kepada Kristus dan ketaatan kepada ajaran para rasul tidak memadai untuk mendapat keselamatan penuh. Para pengajar sesat ini mencampur filsafat dan tradisi manusia dengan Injil (Kol. 2: 8). Dan meminta penyembahan para malaikat sebagai pengantara Allah dan manusia (Kol. 2:18). Para guru palsu ini menuntut pelaksanaan beberapa syarat agama Yahudi (2:16, 21 – 23) serta membenarkan kekeliruan mereka dengan menyatakan bahwa mereka mendapat wahyu melalui penglihatan-penglihatan (2:18). Paulus membuktikan salahnya bidat ini dengan menunjukkan bahwa Kristus bukan saja Juruselamat pribadi orang percaya, tetapi kepala gereja dan Tuhan semesta alam dan pencipta. Karena itu, bukannya filsafat atau hikmat manusia yang diunggulkan, melainkan Yesus Kristus dan Kusa-Nya di dalam kehidupan orang percaya itulah yang menebus dan menyelamatkan orang percaya untuk selama-lamanya, perantara tidak perlu dan kita sebagai orang percaya langsung dapat menghampiri Allah. Orang percaya hanya beriman kepada Kristus saja, bersandar kepada-Nya, mengasihi-Nya dan hidup di hadirat-Nya. Kita sebagai orang percaya tidak boleh menambah aturan-aturan yang bertentangan dengan Injil Kristus.

Human resource management is a tremendous force that can be extracted and developed for church growth, both in quality and quantity. This research was conducted to determine the tendency of human resource management implementation and the most dominant dimension based on the book of Nehemia chapter 1-13 among pastors of the Gereja Bethel Injil Sepenuh (Full Gospel Bethel Church) in Surakarta. This research uses quantitative research methods with data analysis obtained from the study of the book of Nehemiah chapter 1-13 and other literature sources, carried out by measuring the application of the theory that has been obtained in the field by collecting data that is processed descriptively quantitatively. Data were obtained from 50 respondents, namely pastors from the Gereja Bethel Injil Sepenuh in Surakarta. The results obtained are the tendency of implementing human resource management based on the book of Nehemiah chapter 1-13 among the pastors of the Gereja Bethel Injil Sepenuh in Surakarta on moderate criteria. The dominant dimension in the implementation of human resource management based on the book of Nehemiah chapters 1-13 among pastors of the Gereja Bethel Injil Sepenuh in Surakarta is human resource management planning.Manajemen sumber daya manusia merupakan kekuatan yang luar biasa yang bisa digali dan dikembangkan bagi pertumbuhan gereja, baik itu secara kualitas maupun secara kuantitas. Penelitian ini dilakukan untuk mengetahui kecenderungan implementasi manajemen sumber daya manusia dan dimensi yang paling dominan berdasarkan kitab Nehemia pasal 1-13 di kalangan gembala sidang Gereja Bethel Injil Sepenuh Se-Surakarta. Penelitian ini menggunakan metode penelitian kuantitatif dengan analisis data yang diperoleh dari studi Alkitab Nehemia pasal 1-13 dan sumber literatur pustaka lainnya, dilakukan dengan mengukur penerapan teori yang sudah diperoleh tersebut di lapangan dengan mengumpulkan data yang diolah secara deskriptif kuantitatif. Data diperoleh dari 50 responden, yaitu gembala sidang yang berasal dari Gereja Bethel Injil Sepenuh se-Surakarta. Adapun hasil yang didapat adalah kecenderungan implementasi manajemen sumber daya manusia berdasarkan kitab Nehemia pasal 1-13 di kalangan gembala sidang Gereja Bethel Injil Sepenuh Se-Surakarta pada kriteria sedang. Dimensi yang dominan dalam implementasi manajemen sumber daya manusia berdasarkan kitab Nehemia pasal 1-13 di kalangan gembala sidang Gereja Bethel Injil Sepenuh se-Surakarta adalah perencanaan manajemen sumber daya manusia.

Relevance. On one hand Catholic schools have a tradition of caring for the weakest, of paying attention to each person and to his or her needs; on the other hand, factually, they do not differ from other schools in the aspect of integrating of people with disabilities, as shown by the sources studied. Why is there a discrepancy between the paradigm of Catholic education and its realization? Authors (J. M. Barton (2000), M. E. Blackett (2001), J. Ruškus (2002), D. A. Bello (2006), T. J. Long, M. J. Schuttloffl (2006), A. Galkienė (2008), M. Scalan (2009), C. Ch. Grima-Farrell (2012), who have studied inclusive Catholic education pay more attention to the pedagogical or administrative questions raised by inclusive education than to the philosophical basis of such a choice. As a matter of fact, the analysis of Catholic education under the aspect of inclusive education is a new thing in Lithuania. The practical use of the research is the evaluation of the situation, with the identification of the weak aspects of inclusive education in Lithuania. This would allow, in the future, modeling the organization of the education of pupils with special needs on the basis of the paradigm of Catholic education. Problem question for the research: what is the situation of inclusive education in Catholic schools in Lithuania? How is it related to the conception of inclusive education expressed by the documents of the Catholic Church? The aim of the research: on the basis of empirical research find out the tendencies of inclusive education in Catholic Schools in Lithuania according to the documents of Catholic Church. The objectives of the research: 1. Make a survey of scientific literature about inclusive education in Catholic schools. 2. Analyze the vision of inclusive education contained in Church documents and the Church’s declarations about persons with a handicap, their needs and their rights. 3. Analyze the inclusive education in catholic schools according to the documents of Catholic Church. Methods of the research: 1. Survey of scientific literature and research results on inclusive education in Catholic schools. 2. Analyze documents of the Catholic Church from Vatican II on Catholic education and persons with a handicap. 3. Case study on the education of people with disabilities in Catholic schools. The analysis of the understanding of inclusive education in Catholic schools shows that: 1. It is obvious that students with disabilities should be integrated – this is understood as a norm and as a natural consequence of the Christian understanding of the value of each human person. 2. We underline the qualitative aspect of inclusive education – how it can be organized while, at the same time, maintaining the major components of Catholic education. 3. Practical research shows that, although Catholic education is favorable to inclusiveness, there are many obstacles to its qualitative realization: there is often a lack of financial and human resources, and, as a result, a gap between theory and practice. The documents of the Catholic Church show very clearly the theological grounds of inclusiveness: the person is accepted for his/her own valuable and unquestionable contribution to the community as a human person, since the definition of a Catholic school corresponds to that of a Christian community in which various persons, joined by a common aim live out the values of the Gospel and collaborate. The empirical method was applied in 17 Lithuanian Catholic schools, all of which were analyzed not as multiple cases, but as part of one case-situation of Catholic schools in Lithuania. The empirical research findings reveal that inclusiveness often means that students with disabilities are accepted in the common educational process, but without adapted conditions necessary for a full participation in this process and for personal success. As far as religious education is concerned, students with special needs are integrated in common programs, but there is practically no adaptation or personalization of pastoral work or moral education. The role of the disabled person in forming a community with other students is enhanced, but the vertical, transcendental dimension of his/her mission, which is underlined by the theological approach of the documents, is not mentioned by the schools authorities. Comparison between declarations of the Church documents on people with special needs and the information received from the schools shows a discrepancy between the aim and the reality as evaluated by school authorities, which is more functional than philosophical.

Kejatuhan manusia kedalam dosa telah membuat manusia kehilangan kemuliaan Allah. Manusia bukan saja harus menerima hukuman Allah secara rohani sebagai mahluk yang diciptakan dengan Kemuliaan Allah, namun secara fisik dan social mereka menerima ganjaran hukuman dari Allah. Kehidupan secara fisik berubah, dimana mereka kemudian menyadari bahwa dirinya dalam keadaan telanjang dan merasakan malu. Secara social mereka mengalami putusnya hubungan dengan Allah dan lingkungannya kemudian menjadi takut dan menyembunyikan diri dari hadapan Allah. Manusia kemudian menerima hukuman dari Allah yang berdampak secara rohani, dan juga jasmani. Mereka dibuang dari tempat kemuliaan kedalam dunia yang penuh dengan penderitaan sebagai akibat dari perbuatan dosa tersebut. Allah kemudian menunjukkan Kasih-Nya, dengan mencari manusia yang telah jatuh dalam dosa mengadakan pemulihan, akan tetapi tetap menegakkan keadilan dengan menjatuhkan hukuman-Nya dan mengadakan perjanjian akan Keselamatan bagi manusia berdosa. Rancangan keselamtan dari Allah inilah yang kemudian dilaksankan dengan Misio-Dei, dimana Allah mengutus Anak-Nya Yesus Kristus datang kedunia ini, para Nabi dan Rasul, kemudian Misio Eklesiae, dimana Allah menempatkan Gereja-Nya dan mengutus orang-orang percaya untuk memberitakan Injil Keselamatan. Injil Keselamatan itu adalah “Kabar Baik” dimana didalamnya ada berita tentang kelepasan manusia dari hukuman dosa. Dosa telah membuat manusia mengalami berbagai penderitaan, baik rohani, Jasmani juga hubungan berdampak pada lingkungan social. Pemulihan tidak hanya cukup pada tataran Rohani saja, karena dosa adalah permasalahan yang kompleksitas dan menyeluruh dalam kehidupan manusia didunia ini. Pelayanan “Holistik” adalah upaya untuk memulihkan keberadaan manusia seutuhnya, baik secara spiritual dimana manusia diperdamaikan dengan Allah tetapi juga secara mental dimana manusia dibangkitkan kembali semangatnya untuk memperjuangkan kehidupannya didunia ini. Dengan demikian Injil bukan saja menyelesaikan perkara-perkara rohani saja, akan tetapi juga berdampak pada kehidupan social masyarakat, karena itulah tugas Gereja untuk melakukan tiga hal penting dalam dunia ini: Marturia, Koinonia, dan Diakonia. Inilah merupakan bagian dari pelayanan yang bersifat “Holistik” Man's fall into sin has made man lose the glory of God. Humans must not only receive God's punishment spiritually as a creature created with the Glory of God, but physically and socially they receive punishment from God. Life physically changes, where they then realize that they are naked and feel ashamed. Socially, they experience a break with God and their environment and become afraid and hide themselves from God. Humans then receive punishment from God that impacts spiritually, and also physically. They are banished from the place of glory in a world full of suffering as a result of these sins. God then shows His love, by searching for people who have fallen into sin to make restoration, but still uphold justice by dropping His punishment and entering into a covenant of Salvation for sinful humans. This salvation design from God was then carried out by Misio-Dei, where God sent His Son Jesus Christ to come into this world, the Prophets and Apostles, then Misio Eklesiae, where God placed His Church and sent believers to preach the Gospel of Salvation. The Gospel of Salvation is the "Good News" in which there is news about human deliverance from the penalty of sin. Sin has caused people to experience various sufferings, both spiritual, physical and also the relationship has an impact on the social environment. Restoration is not only enough at the Spiritual level, because sin is a complex and comprehensive problem in human life in this world. "Holistic" service is an effort to restore the whole human existence, both spiritually where humans are reconciled with God but also mentally where humans are reawakened to fight for their lives in this world. Thus the Gospel not only resolves spiritual matters, but also has an impact on the social life of the community, because that is the Church's duty to do three important things in this world: Marturia, Koinonia, and Diakonia. This is part of the service that is "Holistic".

AbstractStudy of Barth's doctrine of angels has languished, and the time is ripe for a thorough reassessment. While any full account will centre on the magisterial theology of angels in the Church Dogmatics, much can be gained from a close, contextually informed reading of the earlier treatment of angels in the Göttingen dogmatics lectures. These lectures are shaped by a twofold procedural commitment: Barth's presentation is ordered, on one hand, to a recognisably modern conception of the logical content of Christian preaching; and it conforms, on the other hand, to a doctrinal sequence recommended by the dogmatic textbooks of the classical Reformed tradition. A tension between these two aspects becomes visible in Barth's handling of the doctrine of angels – a tract of teaching by which he is visibly unsettled. Barth accordingly attends with particular care to two fundamental modern objections to the doctrine – namely that it involves a superfluous reduplication of anthropological themes and that it has no independent doctrinal standing. The first objection exploits the observation that the doctrine of angels traditionally stands in close proximity to the doctrine of the human creature; the second follows from the claim that Christian preaching, and the dogmatic theology which serves it, attends strictly to the relationship between God and humanity, realised and revealed in the gospel. Barth's attempts to respond to these criticisms, and so to draw out the necessity and the proper dogmatic status of the doctrine of angels, are traced in detail. Angels and demons, conceived as real spiritual forces, are ineluctable features of the situation within which human moral agency is exercised. And angels are ingredients in, though not central to, the scriptural depiction of the relationship between God and humanity. Barth's elaboration of the positive features of Protestant scholastic angelology is summarised, and the motivating impulses and constructive potential of his theology of angels are briefly noted: Barth's exposition may be read as a complex exercise in theological self-differentiation; a recommendation of a distinctive style of biblical reasoning; and a creative contribution to the revitalisation of a culture of Christian witness.

The liturgical section of The New English Hymnal contains musical settings for both eucharistie orders of the Church of England’s Alternative Service Book 1980. The modern-language service, Rite A, is provided with a newly-composed congregational setting in speech rhythm. The texts of Rite B use the traditional language of the Book of Common Prayer, and are given a musical setting taken from The Booke of Common Praier Noted by John Marbeck, published in 1550. An accompaniment is added, and the text is adapted where the original is no longer accurate. Its inclusion in this new hymn-book is evidence of the popularity which Marbeck’s setting has enjoyed for more than a hundred years. Its rediscovery took place in the nineteenth century through the influence of the Tractarians and their successors, who sought to revive traditional liturgical practices such as the singing of plainsong during worship. The Booke of Common Praier Noted is a musical setting of parts of the first English Prayer Book, which had been promulgated in 1549. The appearance of a second Prayer Book in 1552 rendered Marbeck’s work obsolete, as the new book expresses a different attitude towards music in worship. The 1549 Prayer Book encourages singing in many of the services, not least the Office of Holy Communion. The clerks, singing-men usually in minor orders, are expected to take a full part, and the normal eucharistie celebration is one which is sung virtually throughout. The Offices in the 1552 Book contain very few references to singing, and the clerks are nowhere mentioned. The only direction for singing any part of the order for Holy Communion is found at the end, when ‘Glory be to God on high’ may be said or sung. A rubric at Morning Prayer allows for the singing of the lessons in that service and at Evening Prayer, as well as the Epistle and Gospel at Holy Communion, so that the people may hear them more clearly. It is possible that the retention of this reference to singing from the first Prayer Book may have been an oversight, as the rubric is situated away from the main body of the service.

Introduction to Danevirke IBy William MichelsenGrundtvig never wished to give a systematic presentation of his philosophy. He was a historian, and as such he realised that we only know the development of human life up to our own time and that no man has experienced its origin. A systematic presentation of human life would presuppose a knowledge which we do not possess. However, in his periodical Danevirke (1816-19) he does offer a number of “considerations of human life in general”, as he writes in the preface to its final volume, and it is on this foundation that his later thoughts rested.These considerations, which at first he called “papers”, were not republished in full until 1983. The beautifully-photographed reproduction of the entire work, published in the bicentenary year by J.rn Bergmann (AKA-print, .rhus), is thus the most important document for Grundtvig research of all the many publications in 1983.The periodical, which includes both poetry and prose of various content, was written by Grundtvig alone, in the same period which saw the publication of Prospect of World Chronicle Especially in the Age of Luther and the start of his translation of the medieval historians, Saxo and Snorri. Danevirke contains his first contributions to Beowulf research, his evaluation of the poets Baggesen and Oehlenschl.ger, and his dramatic poem, The Easter Lily, on the resurrection of Jesus. It is worth noting that Grundtvig’s criterion for true Christianity in the period 1810-25 is still the same as Luther’s: the holy scripture. His assessment of the relationship between religion, politics and scholarship (“Church, State and School”) changed in 1832 to a demand for “Freedom in Spiritual Things”. This did not, however, alter his view of man as it appears in Danevirke. The present and future articles contribute to an understanding of this.In preparation for these reflections Grundtvig wrote Grenzen der Menschheit, which was published in Grundtvig Studies 1984. An interpretation of this manuscript relates Grundtvig to Schelling’s philosophy. Grundtvig here asks the questions: What is my I? and: Is the true answer idealistic or materialistic? Grundtvig rejects both possibilities. Man cannot apprehend absolute being. In contrast to an idealistic view of man Grundtvig presents the Christian view: man is created from dust, and animated by God’s spirit - not a philosophical view but a religious one, interpreted in the gospel of John. Jesus’s appearance as the Son of Man was a repetition of the creation of man as depicted in Genesis 1 - 2. According to the Bible man is eternal and divine through the power of the living word, which is God’s creative Word. It is therefore untrue of Schelling to assert that man is created by “the idea everlasting”, which to him means, by man’s idea of God. This is a refusal to see man created in God’s image but only God created in man’s image, “an image of what is Nothing”. Without the divine creative Word, man is no more than transient body. Yet Schelling has understood the relationship between the temporal and the eternal. He has presented the riddle of human life, but he has not solved it. It is an illusion to believe that natural philosophy has solved it, and foolish to regard the gospel as a prophecy of natural philosophy. If that were so, then one would have to demand that it had as great an effect as the gospel of Jesus has actually had. But in Grundtvig’s opinion it has had as little effect as the philosophy of the gnostics in antiquity.It was not Grundtvig’s intention, however, to take part in the contemporarydebate on philosophy. By 1816 Schelling’s ideas were no longer dominant in German philosophy, and Hegel’s were not introduced to Danish philosophy until 1825 by J. L. Heiberg. Grundtvig’s aim was rather to formulate his alternative to the idealist German philosophy. That was the purpose of Danevirke. But it also had another purpose.To be Danish without being Norwegian was a new feeling for Grundtvig in 1816. In his programme On Danish Poetry, Language and History he refers to the Danes’ love of their language and their unwillingness to extend their country beyond its ancient borders. He thus deduces the concept of Danishness from the language and the historical sources. He sets out to spread knowledge of these by publishing works from the middle ages with commentaries and by translating Icelandic manuscripts. He protests against a human philosophy that ignores linguistic and national differences in literature and history. But in so doing he does not deny either his Christianity or his love for the rest of the North. On the other hand, he rejects the cosmopolitan human philosophy of the 18th century as derived from the century’s philosophical systems from Christian Wolf to Schelling. Schelling clearly belongs to the philosophers he rejects, and Kant and Fichte must now be counted alongside.

Ljubica Maric's music provides manifold encouragements for consideration in the light of the Logos, according to the teaching exposed in the prologue of the Gospel by St. John. It speaks of the essential inconceivability of time and life, which have their cause in God and His Logos. Seeing through and praising 'the logos of things' guide all its aspects: the tone reveals itself as a vibration, as the energy of lasting and existing, as the beginning of every time and motion; the sonority of different instrumental media is freely expressed and mutually determined in co-action with specific musical and contextual moments; the rhythm evades every regularity and mechanicalness, by which both single duration's and the whole metro-rhythmic course gain a vivid expression. The entire shape of the work is also taken from the reality of psychological and historical time, from its unreductable dynamics, being always in a vivid connection with the space, origin and tradition. The respect for 'the truth of things', the awe before the mystery of time and existence, which call upon the very principle of life in the divine Logos are obvious in everything. Designation of man as a being of light and reason created in the image of God to be the likeness of His being, is expressed in Ljubica Maric's music by the measure of human pulse taken as the basic tempo of her entire opus. Ljubica Maric expressed her consciousness of the reason as a special gift to the man by extremely careful treatment of the words - its meanings, melodies, rhythms, which she always considered the very source of music. The relation between the word and the voice - its sonorous body - is shown in the cantata Songs of Space (1956) as a mystery of the encounter of the Logos and the matter. In relation to her earlier works, this one is a marked breakthrough of the composer's authentic 'voice', which will find its full identity only after receiving the divine Word, symbolized by the melodies of the Serbian Octoechos in the cycle Musica Octoicha (1958-1963). Thus, Ljubica Maric's music has entered its 'New Testament' time and become a specific story of the Logos and His presence in the world and history. In the opaque and dramatic course of that related musical time, the melodics of chanting is experienced as the manifestation of the light, meaning, reason freedom, awe. These graceful effects bring into the work a certain beyond-time dynamics - inverse perspective of time - and, like a Byzantine church dome, they bear witness to the divine condescension. Ljubica Maric's music is steeped in the mystery of the beginning and the end, which meet in eternity, in the One who is Alpha and Omega; in its one tone and in its entire course, it grasps the whole of time and existence - through the divine Word itself by which it has also been made.

Ikeda Daisaku, as the third leader of Japan's largest so-called 'New Religion,' has received much journalistic and scholarly attention since his taking over leadership in 1960 of Soka Gakkai. None of these treatments, however, has looked at Ikeda in a rigorously comparative fashion. This essay will make an explicit comparison of Ikeda's career with: Cho Yonggi, the South Korean Pentecostal Christian minister who founded the world's largest church, the Yoido Full Gospel Church. The comparison will be made to highlight unique features of Ikeda, Soka Gakkai, and Komeito, Soka Gakkai's affiliated political party which presently forms part of the ruling coalition of the Japanese government. It will be argued, however, that this comparison tells us more about modern (and post-war) Japan than about Ikeda, especially the continuing marginal social standing of 'New Religions' and the cost of being a charismatic leader in a society dominated by 'groupism '.

The article gives a brief origin of the three classical Pentecostal denominations in South Africa, namely the Apostolic Faith Mission, the Full Gospel Church of God, and the Assemblies of God. The aim is to demonstrate the Pentecostals’ docility in the socio-political space in South Africa due to their church governance, structures and polity designed along racial lines. The main question is: Has the wheel in these churches turned around since 1994 after the dawn of democracy in South Africa? The conclusion suggests that these churches should demonstrate intrinsic reformation by continuing with proclamation and participation activities to demonstrate their alignment with the new democratic dispensation. A brief summary is given of these churches’ current activities in answer to the main question.

The purpose of the study was to determine the effect of church conflict on the growth of Pentecostal churches in Kenya with focus on selected churches in Nairobi which are struggling with growth. The objectives of the study were to investigate the nature of conflicts in the Pentecostal churches in Kenya, determine the effect of conflict on the growth of Pentecostal churches in Kenya, and to assess the conflict resolution mechanisms employed to solve the conflict in Pentecostal churches in Kenya. The study was carried out in branches of four churches which experienced growth challenges, namely: Full Gospel Churches of Kenya, Kenya Assemblies of God, Pentecostal Evangelism Fellowship of Africa, and Worldwide Gospel Church of Kenya. The study used qualitative research approach as it intended to collect data based on participants’ subjective experience, and its ability to uncover unexpected and exploring new avenues. The target population was church leaders who have been in the church for at least two years. The study used purposive sampling method to select the church leaders in influential positions (i.e., leaders that direct and/or lead a church ministry) of the selected churches according to the church leadership structure espoused by each of the four selected churches. Proportionate stratified sampling was used where equal number of units was selected from each stratum. Data was collected using face-to-face individual interview schedule. The data was analyzed thematically using content analysis method. The researcher came up with the vital themes, recurring ideas, and patterns of belief, which assisted with the integration of the results. The study found that there were conflicts in all the churches under study. The study established that there were top leadership wrangles at the national level seeking to control the church. There were also local church leadership wrangles pitting pastors and other leaders and conflict among other leaders within the church. The study established that conflict negatively affected the growth of the church as the churches lost members to other churches around. Among the conflict resolution mechanism used were prayer and fasting, dialogues, and courts. The study recommends that the Pentecostal churches should adopt conflict resolution methods and avoid conflicts by practicing inclusivity.

The communication of liturgical symbols with specific reference to the robe. Recently, in the name of renewal, full churches and the satisfaction of church members, the hunting season was opened on many of the church's traditional symbols. Renewal is necessary, but before a well-trusted custom is thrown overboard, the value of such a custom must first be established. A well-tried practice usually is worth, more than what can be seen on the surface at first glance. Liturgical symbols, amongst others the robe, are being put under suspicion by many church members as well as theologians. Do these liturgical symbols impede the communication of the word of God or does the robe, inter alia, contribute to the communication of the Gospel, which is the nucleus of protestant public worship? By means of empirical research, this article aims to establish the theological meaning and function of the robe as a liturgical symbol.

Abstract: Elderly is the final step of evolution in human life in which the function of oral cavity starts to degrade and impact life, as well as to reduce the aesthetic and phonetic functions. However, the loss of aesthetic and phonetic functions in the elderly stage can be restored by using dentures. This study was aimed to assess the perception about denture aesthetic and phonetic functions among elderly people at International Full Gospel Fellowship Church in Manado. This was a descriptive study with a cross sectional design. There were 73 respondents in this study obtained by using total sampling method and consisted of elderly people who used dentures and agreed to fill the questionnaires. Data were analyzed descriptively and presented in tables. The results showed that based on satisfaction of using denture, the perception of the respondents had the highest score of 361 points (good category). Based on the aesthetic function, the perception of the respondents had the score of 330.3 points (good category); and based on the phonetic function, the perception of the respondents had the score of 334 points (good category). Conclusion: The perception of aesthetic and phonetic functions of dentures among the elderly people at International Full Gospel Fellowship Manado belonged to good category.Keywords: elderly, perception, denture, aesthetics, phonetics Abstrak: Lansia (lanjut usia) merupakan tahap akhir perkembangan dalam kehidupan manusi dimana mulai terjadinya penurunan fungsi pada rongga mulut yang berdampak pada kehidupan lansia dan penurunan fungsi estetik dan fonetik. Kehilangan fungsi estetik dan fonetik pada lansia dapat dikembalikan dengan pemasangan gigi tiruan. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengetahui persepsi lansia terhadap fungsi estetik dan fonetik gigi tiruan lepasan di komunitas Gereja International Full Gospel Fellowship Manado. Jenis penelitian ialah deskriptif dengan desain potong lintang. Pada penelitian ini digunakan 73 responden yaitu lansia yang memakai gigi tiruan, diperoleh dengan metode total sampling, dan bersedia mengisi kuesioner. Data yang diperoleh diolah secara deskriptif kemudian disajikan berdasarkan distribusi dalam bentuk tabel. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan persepsi lansia berdasarkan kepuasan pada penggunaan gigi tiruan memiliki skor tertinggi yaitu 361 termasuk kategori baik, persepsi lansia berdasarkan fungsi estetik memiliki skor sebanyak 330,3 termasuk kategori baik,dan persepsi lansia terhadap fungsi fonetik sebanyak 334 termasuk kategori baik. Simpulan: Persepsi lansia terhadap fungsi estetik dan fonetik gigi tiruan lepasan di komunitas Gereja International Full Gospel Fellowship Manado termasuk kategori baik.Kata kunci: persepsi, lansia, gigi tiruan, estetik, fonetik

The Apostolic Faith Mission (AFM) of South Africa is one of the largest Pentecostal churches in Africa, with other denominational Pentecostal churches like the Full Gospel and the Assemblies of God. Since its inception in 1908, the AFM of South Africa has been divided into four main sections, namely: black, white, mixed race and Indian, for about 88 years. The church followed the divisions under apartheid in South Africa that divided people according to race, colour and ethnicity, with white people at the forefront of that division. It was only in 1996 that the AFM of South Africa decided to unite under one umbrella, with one constitution governing the structures and the members of the church. The 25 years of unity within the AFM of South Africa call for an evaluation of both the successes and the failures of this unity. Through a socio-historical analysis, it will be possible to identify the achievements of this unity on the one hand, and the loopholes on the other. The paper will show that the identified loopholes are detrimental to the unity of the church and its future. Therefore, in order to experience true unity, the church should address the challenges that compromise this unity by returning to the biblical basis of unity, dealing with structural impediments and encouraging multicultural fellowships. When the above is done, not only will the church experience true unity, but also maintain its growth that the church has experienced over the years of its existence.

In the past decade or so, Paul’s ideas about the eschaton as expressed in Romans 11 have been invoked in a lively discussion about why the Catholic Church today does not organize campaigns to convert Jews to Christianity. Particularly important have been his words about “the full number of the Gentiles.” This essay asks if Paul’s letters require, or support as most appropriate today, a triumphal Christian expectation that at the end of days Jews will inevitably admit that they had been wrong all along in saying “no” to the Christian proclamation of the Gospel. It suggests that a crucial factor is whether Christian readings of Romans 11 today—as well as typical translations of Romans 11—are predicated on a view of Paul as an apostate who departed from Judaism. It argues that current actualizations of Pauline eschatology are quite different if Paul is instead understood as an apostle to the nations from within Judaism. It concludes that present-day eschatological scenarios need to have greater complexity than simplistic zero-sum phrases like “a Jewish turn to Christ” or “Christians will see their error,” and that Paul himself—in a very different religious world—tried to resist such binary thinking when it came to Jews and non-Jews.

Resumo: O presente artigo analisa a presença e ação do Espírito Santo na formação das primeirascomunidades cristãs, com base nos escritos lucanos e paulinos. Esta ação é marcadamentepresente na Sagrada Escritura. No Antigo Testamento é a Lei que direciona os passos do povo.No Novo Testamento o Espírito Santo não substitui a Lei, mas desenvolve o que o próprio Cristodisse: “não vim abolir a Lei ou os Profetas, mas dar-lhes pleno cumprimento” (Mt 5,17). Nascomunidades lucanas, o Pentecostes é o dado originário da Igreja: todos ficaram repletos doEspírito Santo. Nos escritos paulinos é o Espírito Santo que faz da Igreja o templo do Deus vivoe a comunidade dos concidadãos dos santos e membros da família divina. Se para Israel a fé éuniversal e inclusiva, para os cristãos, a Igreja é o novo Israel. Assim dá-se a continuação da obrade Jesus Cristo. Portanto, o Espírito habita na Igreja e no coração dos fiéis. A acolhida pessoal doEspírito Santo é o marco do início da vida cristã para os convertidos. O Espírito de Deus é a fontede unidade e ação que move as neocomunidades à vivência do Evangelho. Este é percebidopelas comunidades como a Shekinah. No Pentecostes, sua dimensão é ilimitada, ultrapassa osparâmetros da fé judaica, e por isso, as comunidades dão início ao despertar de sua nova identidadee à reconstrução da história da Igreja e da missão cristã na perspectiva do plano salvífico deDeus na história. Portanto a comunidade entende-se como ekklêsia, convocação, congregaçãono Espírito Santo. Por conseguinte, é divina, é comunidade reunida no Espírito.Palavras-chave: Pneumatologia. Comunidade. Missão da Igreja.Abstract: This article analyzes the presence and action of the Holy Spirit in the formation of thefirst Christian communities, with base on lucanians and pauline writings. This action is markedlypresent in Holy Scripture. In the Old Testament the law directs the steps of the people. In contrastthe New Testament is the Holy Spirit that does not replace, but develops what Christ himself said:“I have not come to abolish the Law or the Prophets, but to Them full compliance (Mt 5,17)”. Inlucanians communities, Pentecost, is the Church original data, everyone got filled with the HolySpirit. In the pauline writings is the Holy Spirit that makes the Church the Temple of the livingGod, and the community of the saints and members of divine family. Thus, if Israel takes faith asuniversal and inclusive, for Christians, the Church is the new Israel. So give up the continuationof the work of Jesus Christ. Thus, Spirit dwells in the Church and in the hearts of the faithful.The personal welcome of the Holy Spirit is the mark of the beginning of the Christian life to theconverted. The Spirit of God is the source of unity and action that moves the neo-communities tothe Gospel living. This is perceived by the communities as the Shekinah. In Pentecost its size isunlimited, it exceeds the parameters of the Jewish faith, and so communities initiate the awakeningof his new identity and the reconstruction of church history and Christian mission in the salvificplan of God’s perspective on history. So the community is understood as ekklesia, call, churchin the Holy Spirit. Therefore, it is divine, it is the community gathered in the Spirit.Keywords: Pneumatology. Community. Church’s mission.

The objective of this article is to deal precisely and systematically with the preliminary urban missionary outreach of the apostle Paul as referred to the book of Acts, chapters 13�14. This article covers an ample spectrum of Paul�s mission work together with his companions. The book of Acts gives us a full exposition of the Holy Spirit as the primary agent of mission. The Holy Spirit led the church in Antioch of Syria in the dedication of Paul and Barnabas for their mission work which was specifically to the Gentiles as the Jews who were given the first preference rejected the Gospel (Ac 13:46). Christ in Acts 9:15 indicated his intention of choosing Paul as his chosen vessel to bear his name before the Gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel, and this commission of Paul to the Gentiles was also referred to in Acts 22:21. The result of the apostles� propagation of the Word of God was that many Gentile people from different cities repented and became Christians. Although the apostles encountered many challenges and opposition, their initial campaign ended in a good mode, as they experienced the wonderful works of God to the Gentiles as God had opened a door of faith (salvation) among the Gentiles.Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: This article deals with missiological issues as it refers to Paul, who together with his crew encountered many challenges in their mission work like an opposition, expulsion, exaltation, stoning and so on. Even though they faced those challenges, they did not evacuate their responsibility of propagating the Word of God in different metropolitan areas. Thus where the element of �perseverance of the saints� of the Reformed Dogmatics comes in.

This article sets out to retrieve the oral histories of a pioneer African Christian at Kagumo Full Gospel Churches of Kenya (FGCK), namely Rev. Ismael Mwai-Mabiu. Mwai-Mabiu offered exceptional leadership as he sought to revive the Mount Kenya region and the entire Kenyan nation, particularly in the mid-1940s–1980s and 2000–2012, through his oral “liberation theological discourses.” These efforts were well captured in his preaching as a roving pastor in mass seminars and in evangelism. His Afro-Pentecostal theology, which he propounded in the FGCK (a church he co-founded), provided the forum that he used as a platform to launch and advance his liberationist Afro-Pentecostal approach. Was Mwai-Mabiu a liberationist or a conservative ecclesiastical leader in his theo-social doctrinal matters; or was he seeking to indigenise theological discourses in his Afro-Pentecostal outfit? The concern of this article is to unearth the nature of leadership that Mwai-Mabiu employed and to describe the relevance of his Afro-Pentecostal oral and liberationist theologies. What were his fundamental concerns? Was his “ministry” evangelised in a cultural vacuum, rather than an inclusive environment that relied upon already existing networks of the host area of ecclesiastical operation? The methodology of this article comprises interviews conducted in four phases: 1) with Mwai-Mabiu himself; 2) with his wife; 3) with three focus discussion groups (FDGs) in interviews between 2016 and 2018; and 4) by the researcher with people closely related to him, namely Bishop Joshua Kiongo Kimani, assistant Bishop Rev. Joseph Muriithi Karugendo, elder Joseph Munene, elder Benson Ngiri, and the pioneers of the FGCK. Later, in May to October 2019, the researcher conducted further research to seek clarification on some areas that did not come out clearly during the first interviews. A review of the relevant literature was also conducted.

Kylie Minogue, her interviewer tells us in the October 2000 issue of Sky Magazine, is a "fatalist": meaning she "believe[s] everything happens for a reason" (Minogue "Kylie" 20). And what kind of reason would that be? Well, the Australian singer gives us a few clues in her interview of the previous month with Attitude, which she liberally peppers with references to her personal beliefs (Minogue "Special K" 43-46). When asked why she shouldn't be on top all the time, she explains: "It's yin and yang. It's all in the balance." A Taoist – or at any rate Chinese – perspective then? Yet, when asked whether it's important to be a good person, she responds: "Do unto others." That's St. Matthew, therefore Biblical, therefore probably Christian. But hang on. When asked about karma, she replies: "Karma is my religion." That would be Hindu, or at least Buddhist, wouldn't it? Still she goes on … "I have guilt if anything isn't right." Now, far be it from us to perpetuate religious stereotypes, but that does sound rather more like a Western church than either Hinduism or Buddhism. So what gives? Clearly there have always been religious references made by Western pop stars, the majority of them, unsurprisingly, Christian, given that this has traditionally been the major Western religion. So there's not much new about the Christian references of Tina Arena or Céline Dion, or the thankyous to God offered up by Britney Spears or Destiny's Child. There's also little that's new in references to non-Christian religions – who can forget the Beatles' flirtation with Hinduism back in the 1960s, Tina Turner's conversion to Buddhism or Cat Stevens' to Islam in the 1970s, or the Tibetan Freedom concerts of the mid- to late nineties organised by the Beastie Boys' Adam Yauch, himself a Buddhist convert? What is rather new about this phenomenon in Western pop music, above and beyond its scale, is the faintly dizzying admixture of religions to be found in the songs or words of a single artist or group, of which Kylie's interviews are a paradigmatic but hardly isolated example. The phenomenon is also evident in the title track from Affirmation, the 1999 album by Kylie's compatriots, Savage Garden, whose worldview extends from karma to a non-evangelised/ing God. In the USA, it's there in the Buddhist and Christian references which meet in Tina Turner, the Christian and neo-pagan imagery of Cyndi Lauper's recent work, and the Christian iconography which runs into buddhas on Australian beaches on REM's 1998 album Up. Of course, Madonna's album of the same year, Ray of Light, coasts on this cresting trend, its lyrics laced with terms such as angels, "aum", churches, earth [personified as female], Fate, Gospel, heaven, karma, prophet, "shanti", and sins; nor are such concerns entirely abandoned on her 2000 album Music. In the UK, Robbie Williams' 1998 smash album I've Been Expecting You contains, in immediate succession, tracks entitled "Grace", "Jesus in a Camper Van", "Heaven from Here" … and then "Karma Killer". Scottish-born Annie Lennox's journey through Hare Krishna and Buddhism does not stop her continuing in the Eurythmics' pattern of the eighties and littering her words with Christian imagery, both in her nineties solo work and the songs written in collaboration with Dave Stewart for the Eurythmics' 1999 reunion. In 2000, just a year after her ordination in the Latin Tridentine Church, Irish singer Sinéad O'Connor releases Faith and Courage, with its overtones of Wicca and paganism in general, passing nods to Islam and Judaism, a mention of Rasta and part-dedication to Rastafarians, and considerable Christian content, including a rendition of the "Kyrié Eléison". Even U2, amongst their sometimes esoteric Christian references, find room to cross grace with karma on their 2000 album All That You Can't Leave Behind. In Germany, Marius Müller-Westernhagen's controversial single "Jesus" from his 1998 chart-topping album Radio Maria, named after a Catholic Italian radio station, sees him in countless interviews elaborating on themes such as God as universal energy, the importance of prayer, the (unnamed but implicit) idea of karma and his interest in Buddhism. Over a long career, the eccentric Nina Hagen lurches through Christianity, Hinduism, Hare Krishna, and on towards her 2000 album Return of the Mother, where these influences are mixed with a strong Wiccan element. In France, Mylène Farmer's early gothic references to Catholicism and mystical overtones lead towards her "Méfie-toi" ("Be Careful"), from the 1999 album Innamoramento, with its references to God, the Virgin, Buddha and karma. In Italy, Gianna Nannini goes looking for the soul in her 1998 "Peccato originale" ("Original sin"), while on the same album, Cuore (Heart), invoking the Hindu gods Shiva and Brahma in her song "Centomila" ("One Hundred Thousand"). "The world is craving spirituality so much right now", Carlos Santana tells us in 1995. "If they could sell it at McDonald's, it would be there. But it's not something you can get like that. You can only wake up to it, and music is the best alarm" (qtd. in Obstfeld & Fitzgerald 166). It seems we're dealing here with quite a significant development occurring under the auspices of postmodernism – that catch-all term for the current mood and trends in Western culture, one of whose most conspicuous manifestations is generally considered to be a pick 'n' mix attitude towards artefacts from cultures near and distant, past, present and future. This rather controversial cultural eclecticism is often flatly equated with the superficiality and commercialism of a generation with no historical or critical perspective, no interest in obtaining one, and an obsession with shopping for lifestyle accessories. Are pop's religious references, in fact, simply signifieds untied from signifiers, symbols emptied of meaning but amusing to play with? When Annie Lennox talks of doing a "Zen hit" (Lennox & Stewart n.pag.), or Daniel Jones describes himself and Savage Garden partner Darren Hayes as being like "Yin and Yang" (Hayes & Jones n.pag.), are they merely borrowing trendy figures of speech with no reflection on what lies – or should lie – or used to lie behind them? When Madonna samples mondial religions on Ray of Light, is she just exploiting the commercial potential inherent in this Shiva-meets-Chanel spectacle? Is there, anywhere in the entire (un)holy hotchpotch, something more profound at work? To answer this question, we'll need to take a closer look at the trends within the mixture. There isn't any answer in religion Don't believe one who says there is But… The voices are heard Of all who cry The first clear underlying pattern is evident in these words, taken from Sinéad O'Connor's "Petit Poulet" on her 1997 Gospel Oak EP, where she attacks religion, but simultaneously undermines her own attack in declaring that the voices "[o]f all who cry" will be heard. This is the same singer who, in 1992, tears up a picture of the Pope on "Saturday Night Live", but who is ordained in 1999, and fills her 2000 album Faith and Courage with religious references. Such a stance can only make sense if we assume that she is assailing, in general, the organised and dogmatised version(s) of religion expounded by many churches - as well as, in particular, certain goings-on within the Catholic Church - but not religion or the God-concept in and of themselves. Similarly, in 1987, U2's Bono states his belief that "man has ruined God" (qtd. in Obstfeld & Fitzgerald 174) – but U2 fans will know that religious, particularly Christian, allusions have far from disappeared from the band's lyrics. When Stevie Wonder admits in 1995 to being "skeptical of churches" (ibid. 175), or Savage Garden's Darren Hayes sings in "Affirmation" that he "believe[s] that God does not endorse TV evangelists", they are giving expression to pop's typical cynicism with regard to organised religion in the West – whether in its traditional or modern/evangelical forms. Religion, it seems, needs less organisation and more personalisation. Thus Madonna points out that she does not "have to visit God in a specific area" and "like[s] Him to be everywhere" (ibid.), while Icelandic singer Björk speaks for many when she comments: "Well, I think no two people have the same religion, and a lot of people would call that being un-religious [sic]. But I'm actually very religious" (n.pag.). Secondly, there is a commonly-expressed sentiment that all faiths should be viewed as equally valid. Turning again to Sinéad O'Connor, we hear her sing on "What Doesn't Belong to Me" from Faith and Courage: "I'm Irish, I'm English, I'm Moslem, I'm Jewish, / I'm a girl, I'm a boy". Annie Lennox, her earlier involvement with Hare Krishna and later interest in Tibetan Buddhism notwithstanding, states categorically in 1992: "I've never been a follower of any one religion" (Lennox n.pag.), while Nina Hagen puts it this way: "the words and religious group one is involved with doesn't [sic] matter" (Hagen n.pag.). Whatever the concessions made by the Second Vatican Council or advanced by pluralist movements in Christian theology, such ideological tolerance still draws strong censure from certain conventional religious sources – Christian included – though not from all. This brings us to the third and perhaps most crucial pattern. Not surprisingly, it is to our own Christian heritage that singers turn most often for ideas and images. When it comes to cross-cultural borrowings, however, this much is clear: equal all faiths may be, but equally mentioned they are not. Common appropriations include terms such as karma (Robbie Williams' 1998 "Karma Killer", Mylène Farmer's 1999 "Méfie-toi", U2's 2000 "Grace") and yin and yang (see the above-quoted Kylie and Savage Garden interviews), concepts like reincarnation (Tina Tuner's 1999/2000 "Whatever You Need") and non-attachment (Madonna's 1998 "To Have and Not to Hold"), and practices such as yoga (from Madonna through to Sting) and even tantrism (Sting, again). Significantly, all of these are drawn from the Eastern faiths, notably Hinduism, Buddhism and Taoism, though they also bear a strong relation to ideas found in various neo-pagan religions such as Wicca, as well as in many mystical traditions. Eastern religions, neo-paganism, mysticism: these are of course the chief sources of inspiration for the so-called New Age, which constitutes an ill-defined, shape-shifting conglomeration of beliefs standing outside the mainstream Middle Eastern/Western monotheistic religious pantheon. As traditional organised religion comes under attack, opening up the possibility of a personal spirituality where we can pick and choose, and as we simultaneously seek to redress the imbalance of religious understanding by extending tolerance to other faiths, it is unsurprising that we are looking for alternatives to the typical dogmatism of Christianity, Islam and even Judaism, to what German singer Westernhagen sees as the "punishing God" of the West ("Rock-Star" n.pag.). Instead, we find ourselves drawn to those distant faiths whose principles seem, suddenly, to have so much to offer us, including a path out of the self-imposed narrow-mindedness with which, all too often, the major Western religions seem to have become overlaid. Despite certain differences, the Eastern faiths and their New Age Western counterparts typically speak of a life force grounding all the particular manifestations we see about us, a balance between male and female principles, and a reverence for nature, while avoiding hierarchies, dogma, and evangelism, and respecting the equal legitimacy of all religions. The last of these points has already been mentioned as a central issue in pop spirituality, and it is not difficult to see that the others dovetail with contemporary Western cultural ideals and concerns: defending human rights, promoting freedom, equality and tolerance, establishing international peace, and protecting the environment. However limited our understanding of Eastern religions may be, however convenient that may prove, and however questionable some of our cultural ideals might seem, whether because of their naïveté or their implicit imperialism, the message is coming through loud and clear in the world of pop: we are all part of one world, and we'd better work together. Madonna expresses it this way in "Impressive Instant" on her 2000 album, Music: Cosmic systems intertwine Astral bodies drip like wine All of nature ebbs and flows Comets shoot across the sky Can't explain the reasons why This is how creation goes Her words echo what others have said. In "Jag är gud" ("I am god") from her 1991 En blekt blondins hjärta (A Bleached Blonde's Heart), the Swedish Eva Dahlgren sings: "varje själ / är en del / jag är / jag är gud" ("every soul / is a part / I am / I am god"); in a 1995 interview Sting observes: "The Godhead, or whatever you want to call it - it's better not to give it a name, is encoded in our being" (n.pag.); while Westernhagen remarks in 1998: "I believe in God as universal energy. God is omnipresent. Everyone can be Jesus. And in everyone there is divine energy. I am convinced that every action on the part of an individual influences the whole universe" ("Jesus" n.pag.; my transl.). In short, as Janet Jackson puts it in "Special" from her 1997 The Velvet Rope: "You have to learn to water your spiritual garden". Secularism is on its way out – perhaps playing the material girl or getting sorted for E's & wizz wasn't enough after all – and religion, it seems, is on its way back in. Naturally, there is no denying that pop is also variously about entertainment, relaxation, rebellion, vanity or commercialism, and that it can, from time to time and place to place, descend into hatred and bigotry. Moreover, pop singers are as guilty as everyone else of, at least some of the time, choosing words carelessly, perhaps merely picking up on something that is in the air. But by and large, pop is a good barometer of wider society, whose trends it, in turn, influences and reinforces: in other words, that something in the air really is in the air. Then again, it's all very well for pop stars to dish up a liberal religious smorgasbord, assuring us that "All is Full of Love" (Björk) or praising the "Circle of Life" (Elton John), but what purpose does this fulfil? Do we really need to hear this? Is it going to change anything? We've long known, thanks to John Lennon, that you can imagine a liberal agenda, supporting human rights or peace initiatives, without religion – so where does religion fit in? It has been suggested that the emphasis of religion is gradually changing, moving away from the traditional Western focus on transcendence, the soul and the afterlife. Derrida has claimed that religion is equally, or even more importantly, about hospitality, about human beings experiencing and acting out of a sense of the communal responsibility of each to all others. This is a view of God as, essentially, the idealised sum of humanity's humanity. And Derrida is not alone in giving voice to such musings. The Dalai Lama has implied that the key to spirituality in our time is "a sense of universal responsibility" (n.pag.), while Vaclav Havel has described transcendence as "a hand reached out to those close to us, to foreigners, to the human community, to all living creatures, to nature, to the universe" (n.pag.). It may well be that those who are attempting to verbalise a liberal agenda and clothe it in expressive metaphors are discovering that there are - and have always been - many useful tools among the global religions, and many sources of inspiration among the tolerant, pluralistic faiths of the East. John Lennon's imaginings aside, then, let us briefly revisit the world of pop. Nina Hagen's 1986 message "Love your world", from "World Now", a plea for peace repeated in varying forms throughout her career, finds this formulation in 2000 on the title track of Return of the Mother: "My revelation is a revolution / Establish justice for all in my world". In 1997, Sinéad points out in "4 My Love" from her Gospel Oak EP: "God's children deserve to / sleep safe in the night now love", while in the same year, in "Alarm Call" from Homogenic, Björk speaks of her desire to "free the human race from suffering" with the help of music and goes on: "I'm no fucking Buddhist but this is enlightenment". In 1999, the Artist Formerly Known as Prince tells an interviewer that "either we can get in here now and fix [our problems] and do the best we can to help God fix [them], or we can... [y]ou know, punch the clock in" (4). So, then, instead of encouraging the punching in of clocks, here is pop being used as a clarion-call to the faith-full. Yet pop - think Band Aid, Live Aid and Net Aid - is not just about words. When, in the 2000 song "Peace on Earth", Bono sings "Heaven on Earth / We need it now" or when, in "Grace", he begs for grace to be allowed to cancel out karma, he is already playing his part in fronting the Drop the Debt campaign for Jubilee 2000, while U2 supports organisations such as Amnesty International, Greenpeace and War Child. It is no coincidence that the Eurythmics choose to entitle their 1999 comeback album Peace, or give one of its tracks a name with a strong Biblical allusion, "Power to the Meek": not only has Annie Lennox been a prominent supporter of the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan cause, but she and Dave Stewart have divided the proceeds of their album and accompanying world tour between Amnesty International and Greenpeace. Religion, it appears, can offer more than hackneyed rhymes: it can form a convenient metaphorical basis for solidarity and unity for those who are, so to speak, prepared to put their money - and time and effort - where their mouths are. Annie Lennox tells an interviewer in 1992: "I hate to disappoint you, but I don't have any answers, I'm afraid. I've only written about the questions." (n.pag). If a cursory glance at contemporary Western pop tells us anything, it is that religion, in its broadest and most encompassing sense, while not necessarily offering all the important answers, is at any rate no longer seen to lie beyond the parameters of the important questions. This is, perhaps, the crux of today's increasing trend towards religious eclecticism. When Buddha meets Christ, or karma intersects with grace, or the Earth Goddess bumps into Shiva, those who've engineered these encounters are - moving beyond secularism but also beyond devotion to any one religion - asking questions, seeking a path forward, and hoping that at the points of intersection, new possibilities, new answers - and perhaps even new questions - will be found. References Björk. "Björk FAQ." [Compiled by Lunargirl.] Björk - The Ultimate Intimate. 1999. 26 Jan. 2001. <http://bjork.intimate.org/quotes/>. Dalai Lama. "The Nobel [Peace] Lecture." [Speech delivered on 11.12.89.] His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet. The Office of Tibet and the Tibetan Government-in-Exile. Undated. 26 Jan. 2001. <http://www.dalailama.com/html/nobel.php>. Hagen, N. "Nina Hagen Living in Ekstasy." [Interview with M. Hesseman; translation by M. Epstein.] Nina Hagen Electronic Shrine. Undated. 26 Jan. 2001. <http://208.240.252.87/nina/interv/living.html Havel, V. "The Need for Transcendence in the Postmodern World." [Speech delivered on 04.07.94.] World Transformation. Undated. 26 Jan. 2001. <http://www.worldtrans.org/whole/havelspeech.php>. Hayes, D. & D. Jones. Interview [with Musiqueplus #1 on 23.11.97; transcribed by M. Woodley]. To Savage Garden and Back. Undated. 26 Jan. 2001. <http://www.igs.net/~woodley/musique2.htm>. Lennox, A. Interview [with S. Patterson; from Details, July 1992]. Eurythmics Frequently Asked Questions. Undated. 26 Jan. 2001. <http://www1.minn.net/~egusto/a67.htm>. Lennox, A. & D. Stewart. Interview [from Interview Magazine, December 1999]. Eurythmics Frequently Asked Questions. Undated. 26 Jan. 2001. <http://www1.minn.net/~egusto/a64.htm>. Minogue, K. "Kylie." [Interview with S. Patterson.] Sky Magazine October 2000: 14-21. Minogue, K. "Special K." [Interview with P. Flynn.] Attitude September 2000: 38-46. Obstfeld, R. & P. Fitzgerald. Jabberrock: The Ultimate Book of Rock 'n' Roll Quotations. New York: Henry Holt, 1997. [The Artist Formerly Known as] Prince. A Conversation with Kurt Loder. [From November 1999.] MTV Asia Online. Undated. 26 Jan. 2001. <http://www.mtvasia.com/Music/Interviews/Old/Prince1999November/index.php>. Sting. Interview [with G. White; from Yoga Journal, December 1995]. Stingchronicity. Undated. 26 Jan. 2001. <http://www.stingchronicity.co.uk/yogajour.php>. [Müller-] Westernhagen, M. "Jesus, Maria und Marius." [From Focus, 10.08.98.] Westernhagen-Fanpage. Undated. 26 Jan. 2001. <http://home.t-online.de/home/340028046011-001/Presse/Focus/19980810.htm>. [Müller-] Westernhagen, M. "Rock-Star Marius Müller-Westernhagen: 'Liebe hat immer mit Gott zu tun.'" [From Bild der Frau, no.39/98, 21.09.98.] Westernhagen-Fanpage. Undated. 26 Jan. 2001. <http://home.t-online.de/home/340028046011-001/Presse/BildderFrau/19980921.htm>.

Lorri Neilsen, whose feature article appears in this edition of M/C Journal, is Professor of Education at Mount Saint Vincent University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. Neilsen has been teaching and researching in literacy studies for more than four decades. She is internationally recognised as a poet and as an arts-based research methodologist specialising in lyric inquiry. In the latter half of this last decade she was appointed for a five year term to be the Poet Laureate for Nova Scotia. As an academic, she has published widely under the name of Lorri Neilsen; as a poet, she uses Lorri Neilsen Glenn. In this article I refer to her as Neilsen. This article reflects specifically on the poetics and the politics of the work of poet-scholar Lorri Neilsen. In doing so, it explores the theme of catastrophe in several senses. Firstly, it introduces the reader to the poetic articulations of the everyday catastrophes of grief and loss found in Neilsen’s recent work. Secondly, it uses Neilsen’s work on grief and loss to draw attention to a rarely recognised scholarly catastrophe: the catastrophe of the methodological divide between the humanities and the social sciences that runs the risk of creating, for the social sciences, a limiting and limited approach to research project design, knowledge production, and relationships between researchers and subjects, to which Lorri Neilsen’s ground-breaking use of lyric inquiry is a response. And thirdly, it alerts us to the need to fight to retain the arts and humanities within universities, in order to avoid a scholarly catastrophe of a different order. In undertaking this exploration, the article uses several terms with which some readers of M/C Journal might not be familiar. Research literacies is a term used to signal capacity and fluency in the understanding and use of research methodologies. Arts-based inquiry is the umbrella term used by researchers using their creative practice in the arts—in writing, theatre performance, visual arts, music, dance, movement—to lead them into new insights into the topic under investigation. This work is frequently embodied and sensuous. So, for example, the understanding of anorexia might be deepened by a dance performance or a series of paintings or a musical score devised in response to work with research participants; or, as I argue here, understandings of the everyday catastrophes of grief and loss might be deepened by the writing of poetry or expressive prose that uncovers nuance and sheds light in ways not possible using the more traditional research methodologies available to social scientists. Lyric inquiry, a sub-set of arts-based inquiry, is Neilsen’s own term for a research methodology that uses writing itself as the research tool, and whose hallmark is embodied language expressed as poem, song, or poetic prose, to “create the possibility of a resonant, ethical, engaged relationship between the knower and the known” (Handbook 94).This article, then, reflects on the research work of Lorri Neilsen. In this article I use Neilsen’s responses to grief and loss as the starting point to follow her journey from the early days of her involvement in literacy research to her present enchantment with arts-based inquiry in literacy and social science research. I outline her writing on research literacies, explore her notion of lyric inquiry as a crucial facet of arts-based research, and conclude with examples of her poetry born of creative reflection on what we might call everyday catastrophes. Ultimately I argue the need to avoid a scholarly catastrophe of a different order from those Neilsen explores, through the continued recognition of the crucial place of the arts in academic institutions.I open with excerpts from a piece in Lorri Neilsen’s collection, Threading Light, published in 2011. This piece, The Sea, written out of the grief of losing her aged mother, is one I find most moving. It begins: Days later—a week, a month, hard to tell—sun comes out of drizzle and ice and fog and snow showers, ripping open a bright day. Snow-mounded. If you were a kid, you’d look for your sled. He is sure the box of wrenches is in the cabin, and you know a drive to the country is better than another day in bed with Kleenex and a hacking cough, hiding a flayed heart, and pouring CBC into your ears around the clock. (104) The two figures in the piece, he and she, head south to their seaside cabin. They take a walk beside an ice-covered seashore.Today, you step carefully because of ice, and what you find catches your breath. For a brief moment you have escaped the grizzly claws of grief ripping at your chest. You are kneeling on the ice, touching the frosted edges of kelp and weeds, slimy umber and sienna, and putrid green growths that slurp in and out most of the year, but here, now, are stunned, immobile, impaled on the rocks by the cold. Desire is a feral animal; let it loose, it will seek beauty. You point out to each other tableaus: rimming white, translucent blues and greens, coppered plants flash-frozen, fringed by crystalline tatters. A Burtynsky, you think, but not man-made. This is life’s ebb, as Tu Fu wrote. The ocean’s winter verge. Death’s magnificent intaglio. Your fingers follow the lines of kelp: these things once lived, and moved. Take the long view, maybe they still do. You pause to sit on a cold rock and look at the sky; for a moment you are back beside her body, that last morning, your fingers on cooling flesh. Then, water, the sound of waves. Presence. You look up. He has found one periwinkle fused to a rock, then another. Several more. He places them in your hand, one by one, each dark brown ball with its own scurf of ice that gives off the smallest breath of mist as it touches the heat of your palm. Each a small jolt. This is what the sea creates while you are busy with your own tides: precise cups of glossy perfection with curves like a blues howl that open your heart, craning for light. (Threading Light 104–5)One of the things I appreciate most about Lorri Neilsen’s lyric work is her capacity to hold the miniscule simultaneously with the universal; a flash of insight under the arc of a timeless sky. “Smaller than small; larger than large,” write the Hindu prophets (Upanishads). “This is what the sea creates while you are busy with your own tides,” she writes, and in that moment of reading I am jolted into an awareness of the contours of grief that no amount of social scientific observation could provide: an awareness of the nature of self-absorption and inward focus so intense that even the most inevitable of natural rhythms—the ocean’s tides—are forgotten: forgotten, that is, until the protagonist is shaken awake again, by exquisite beauty, into a new kind of response-ability to the world. Lorri Neilsen’s feature article in this edition of M/C creates layer upon layer of insights exploring the notion that loss, an everyday catastrophe, involves a turning inside-out, a jolting into a new sense of self, or a propulsion out of an old, restrictive one; and that inevitably it propels us headlong into a state of living in the moment, of being present to what is, rather than distantly taking stock of what we have. As I ponder this experience, as a reader of her work, I re-experience that moment of stasis:physiologically we all know that experience of time suspended after shock, time inexplicably, irrationally, standing still. But what Neilsen has done so successfully as a poet-scholar, in my view, is not simply find words to express this turning inside out as poetry. Additionally, she has claimed the moment of poetic insight as a crucial form of knowledge-making that has a central and necessary place in illuminating our social worlds. This claim has far-reaching political significance for social science researchers, introducing, as it does, a re-invigorated understanding of the very concept of research:Research [she tells us] is not only the creation of products to market at the academic fair; research is the process of learning through the words, actions and revisionings of our daily life. […] Research is the attuned mind/body working purposefully to explore, to listen, to support, to transgress, to gather with care, to create, to disrupt, to offer back, to contribute, sometimes all at once […] Inquiry is praxis that cannot be boxed up and delivered: it is a story with no ending. (Knowing 264) Neilsen’s particular fascination is with lyric inquiry which she claims as political, poetic, and sustaining of the individual and the larger world: It has the capacity to develop voice and agency in both researcher and participant; it foregrounds conceptual and philosophical processes marked by metaphor, resonance and liminality; and it reunites us with the vivifying effects of imagination and beauty – those long-forgotten qualities that add grace and wisdom to public discourse. (Knowing 101)So what has led her here, to that place where lyric inquiry forms the basis of her engagement with the knowledge-making endeavour in the academy and beyond? As a feminist scholar fascinated by biography, by life writing and story, I find myself drawn as much towards the story of Neilsen’s evolution as a poet-scholar as to the work itself. How has she come to an awareness of the need to create new ways of doing research? What has she uncovered here about the ethics and the politics of doing research in the social world? As I read her work I become aware that her current desire to dance at the edge of the conventional research world has been driven as much by a series of professional catastrophes as by an underpinning desire for methodological innovation. Neilsen herself explores these issues in her 1998 collection of academic essays, called Knowing Her Place: Research Literacies and Feminist Occasions. There are several threads weaving their way through this account of a young academic researcher and scholar finding her way into a larger, wiser, more resonant space: there’s the story of the young graduate student learning the language of and experiencing the perpetual isolation of disembodied fact-finding statistically resonant research into literacy; there’s the story of the young mother juggling academic life and research and parenting, wanting to make sense to the teaching research participants she is working with, wanting to close the gap between the public and the private worlds, wanting to spend time with her partner and her two sons, especially her second son whose birth could have been a catastrophe but whose gentle ways of being in the world gifted them all with the desire to slow down, to see afresh; and, later, there’s the story of the mature woman whose impulse is to community and to solitude, to living with a generosity of spirit that takes seriously the intertwining of her poetic life and her academic and everyday worlds. Interwoven with these stories is the story of writing itself: here we find the formal disembodied writing of Western scientific research practices; here now is collectivist writing generated at kitchen tables, in community centres, in schools; here now is every mode of writing that evokes nuance and explores the senses; and here now too is the research writing that privileges response-ability, scholartistry, bodily sensation, reciprocity, engagement with the world.Neilsen’s account of this journey begins when, as a young postgraduate student doing research into literacy, she learned the language of statistical significance to measure syntactic complexity, noting, as she wrote up her MA, the distance between the language she had learned and the everyday language of the classroom teachers the research was meant to inform. The emphasis of this early research was on removing language from its context, isolating components of language for scrutiny, making findings that were replicable. In time she came to see this kind of knowledge-making as dry, limited, rule-bound, androcentric. From this disengaged, disembodied place she moved, over decades, into a space where compassion, wisdom, humility, and wonder combine to locate her as researcher who understands, alongside researcher David Smith, that “writing is a holy act, an articulation of limited understanding” (qtd. in Neilsen, Knowing 119). In an echo of Luce Irigaray’s insistence that the research and writing we do as fully alive feminist scholars will link the celestial and the terrestrial, the horizontal, and the vertical, and in a further echo of Helene Cixous’ claim that when writing from the body, “an opera inhabits me” (Cixous 53), Neilsen writes unabashedly of the metaphysical nature of her research world: Artful living, artful writing, connecting with a purpose to help each other transcend and grow through inquiry. Connection, embodiment, transformation, transcendence. All these expressions tap spiritual chords […] But if inquiry is to transcend the destructive circumstances of our lifeworlds, if its purpose is to make a difference, not a career, we cannot avoid using words such as vision, spirit, humanity, soul. Interest in metaphysical perspectives is not new in feminist circles, but is IS new in conventional research communities where the intangible, the deeply disturbing and consciousness-awakening dimensions of life are compartmentalized, reserved […] for a walk by the ocean, for the rare meditative times of our lives, if we find them at all […] But (she concludes) the awareness that we know when we live in the eternal present […] is an awareness full of tremendous power, and, ultimately, hope. (Knowing 280)In the final chapter of this 1998 text outlining her journey into research literacies, called Notes on Painting Ghosts and Writing the Poetry Report: Some Things I know But Not For Certain, Lorri Neilsen writes confidently against the grain of what she sees as the limits of androcentric research practices: Everything we know is at once out there and in here […] My place is to apprentice myself to the world, to paraphrase Merleau-Ponty, not in subservience and compliance, as the androcentric practices we have followed would keep me, but in reciprocity, curiosity and response-ability. What we must seek are the transgressive experiences and the fresh words which reveal us, in Annie Dillard’s words, ‘startlingly to ourselves as creatures set down bewildered’. (qtd. in Neilsen, Knowing 261)And in a gesture that I find heartwarming, she writes of the impact of being scooped up into a collective research-making endeavour, of belonging to a community of scholars (including poet-sociologists Laurel Richardson and Trinh T. Minh-ha) whose research agenda is to expand the ways we might know, to reflect the fullness and richness and complexity of the research endeavour itself, and, in so doing, of human experience: Time and enculturation have combined to make inquiry a terrain where I live, rather than a place I visit on occasion.Inquiry is less a stance and more an intentional gesture, a re-bodied approach to working with people, particularly women, on projects which matter to them locally and globally. Inquiry is a conspiracy, a breathing together, for which we need the conditions of being together and sharing a climate, or air, for breathing. Inquiry values difference, rather than fearing it, sees contiguity or complementarity as necessary for working together without suppressing our diversity. (Knowing 262) Hers is no airy-fairy disengaged mood-making endeavour. It is decidedly political: the inclination is to openness and growth, to take risks, to create critical spaces[…] When we make the assumptions of the norms of research problematic, we make the assumptions and the norms of life together on this planet problematic as well. We begin to dismantle the Western knowledge project, and we begin to learn a fundamental humility. Expanding our research literacies keeps us full of wonder, in spite of the shakey ground and the shadows. We can learn more when our pen is a tool of discovery, not domination.And her focus is ever on the artistry of research practices: The ontological and epistemological waters in which these [research] literacies continue to develop are social, political, ecological [...] Re-imagining inquiry is re-imagining ways to work with people and ideas which keep us, like the painter, the dancer, and the performance artist, watchfully poised, momentarily still, and yet fluidly in motion. (Knowing 263)In summary, then, the kind of writing that accompanies the research methodology that Lorri Neilsen has created cuts across the notion of knowledge as product, commodity, trump card. Knowing [for Neilsen] is an experience of immersion and expression rather than one of gathering data only to advance an argument […] A reader does not take away three key points or five examples. A reader comes away with the resonance of another’s world…our senses stimulated, our spirit and emotions affected. (Knowing 96) This kind of writing emerges from her desires to create a resonant, embodied, ethical, activist, feminist-honouring, and collaborative way to grapple with the nuance of human experience. This she calls lyric inquiry. Lyric inquiry sits on the margins, inhabits the liminal spaces, “places where we perceive patterns in new ways, find sensuous openings into new understandings, fresh concepts, wild possibilities” (Knowing 98). In her chapter on lyric inquiry in the 2008 Sage Handbook of the Arts in Qualitative Research, Neilsen argues that lyric inquiry leans on no other mode of enquiry: it stands on its own, resonant and expressive, inviting fresh ways to see, read, consider experience. Unlike the narrative enquiry that currently popularly accompanies much social science research in order to bolster an argument, or illustrate a point being made in policy formulation or discussion (Hopkins), lyric inquiry adopts its own mode, its own performative spaces. It’s a heady concept and, I would argue, a brave contribution to the repertoire of qualitative arts-based research methodologies.For me Lorri Neilsen’s stance as poet, writer, researcher, woman, is beautifully captured in her piece from Threading Light which she has titled Writing has always felt like praying. Here we glimpse the lives of four figures: the Buddha, Muhammad, Jesus Christ, and the poet herself, each responding to catastrophe of sorts: Gotama saw the face of his infant son and sleeping wife,shaved his head and beard, put on his yellow robe, andleft without saying good-bye. Duties, possessions,ties of the heart: all dustweighing down his soul. He walked and walked,seeking a life wide open, complete and pure as polished shell.In a cave away from the fray of Mecca, vendettas,and a world soured by commerce, Muhammadshook as the words of a new scripturecame to him. Surrendered himselfto its beauty, singing and weeping verse by verse, year by yearfor twenty-one years.Of course you remember the man from Galileewho carried on his back the very wood on whichhis blood was spilled. How he pushed back the rockfrom the front of the cave and – this is gospel –ascended, emptied of self and full of god, returningnow in offerings of bread and wine.I pace back and forth on a cliff above the unknowable, luredby slippery and maverick tales that call forth terror, crackthe earth, shatter my bones with light. I have no needto verify old brown marks of stigmata, translate Coptic fragments.A burlap robe on display in the cold stone air of the Church of Santa Croceis inscrutable: it tells me only that my body is a ragged garmentand will be discarded too.But here, now, I am ready as a tuned stringto witness what is ravenous, mythic. Here I am holy, misbegotten,gossip on the lips of the gods, forgotten by the time the cupsare washed and put away. So I start as I start every day,cobbling a makeshift pulpit, casting for truths as they are given me:Man, woman, child, sun, moon, breath, tears,Stone, sand, sea. (Threading Light 102–3) It is ironic that the kind of research that Neilsen advocates, research that draws specifically on the arts to create new methodologies for the uncovering of topics traditionally explored by the social sciences, is being developed at precisely that moment when university arts departments around the world are being dismantled, and their value questioned (See Cohen, NY Times; Donoghue, Chronicle of Higher Education; Kitcher, Republic). As I indicated at the beginning of the article, I use this homage to Lorri Neilsen and her work to make the broader point that we lose the arts and the humanities in our universities at our peril. It’s not just that the arts are a pleasant addition, a ruffle on the edge of the serious straight-tailored cut of the research garment: rather, as Neilsen has argued throughout her research and writing career, the arts are central to our survival as a response-able, interactive, creative, thoughtful species. To turn our back on the arts in contemporary research practices is already a dangerous erosion, a research and knowledge-making catastrophe which Neilsen’s lyric inquiry seeks to address: to lose the arts from universities altogether would be a catastrophe of a much higher order. References Cohen, Patricia. “In Tough Times, the Humanities Must Justify Their Worth”. New York Times. 24 Feb. 2009. Cixous, Helene. Coming to Writing and Other Essays. Ed. Deborah Jensen. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1991.Dillard, Annie. The Writing Life. New York: Harper & Row, 1993. Donoghue, Frank. “Can the Humanities Survive the 21st Century?” The Chronicle of Higher Education. 5 Sep. 2010. 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