Bøger i American University Studies serien

The book was awarded the Alf Andrew Heggoy Book Prize in French Colonial History, 2009. This groundbreaking comparative study examines how church-state conflicts shaped the evolution of German and French language policy in Cameroon from the dawn of the colonial era to the onset of WWII. Despite lingering anti-Catholic sentiments generated by Germany¿s Kulturkampf and early twentieth-century French anti-clerical legislation, in Cameroon these conflicts created a curious inversion in which Protestant, rather than Catholic, missions were portrayed as obstructionist and unpatriotic due to their preference for using indigenous languages in educational and evangelical work. Inside French Cameroon this situation suddenly and dramatically reversed itself during the mid-1920s as the Catholics rethought their commitment to spreading French in the colonies. The result was repeated clashes between colonial authorities and mission personnel right up to the outbreak of war in 1939.

«Public Religion» and the Pancasila-Based State of Indonesia: An Ethical and Sociological Analysis analyzes the public role of religion in Indonesian society from the pre-independence period to the end of Suharto¿s New Order government. It offers constructive suggestions regarding how Indonesian religion can play a significant role within the framework of Pancasila, Indonesiäs national ideology. Based on a Christian-Muslim dialogue, it is only within the realm of civil society that Indonesian religion will be able to promote the ideas of democracy, tolerance, and human rights in Indonesian public affairs. In short, far from being anti-pluralist, Indonesian religion evolves as a liberating force in the life of society, nation, and state.

This book explores the unique and substantial contribution to reflection on conversion and Christian unity by the Groupe des Dombes, a Reformed-Lutheran-Catholic dialogue in French-speaking Europe. Catherine E. Clifford traces the development of the dialogue from its founding in 1937 by Abbé Paul Couturier and its contribution to ecumenical consensus on eucharist, ministry, sacraments, episcope, the papacy, and Marian doctrine and devotion. The theme of conversion grounds the ethos of the Groupe des Dombes, marked by a deep appreciation of the interdependence of common prayer, theological dialogue, and the promotion of ecclesial reform and renewal. The Groupe des Dombes¿ theological method, which leads to calls for the revision of both judgments of the past and of present theology and practice, suggests that the elaboration of ecumenical consensus, while significant, is but a first step toward the reconciliation of the churches. This is an important book for anyone engaged in ecumenical study and dialogue.

For Charles Comte and Charles Dunoyer, industrialism was a kind of philosophy of history, the purpose of which was to identify the tortuous stages through which the idea of liberty had developed. In doing this, as Robert Leroux explains, they shared a conviction, or perhaps a concern, based on clear historical evidence, that liberty is a fragile thing, and that its victory will never be final.

Examines of the philosophical investigatory practice known as genealogy. This book examines the principal ontological and epistemological problems with Nietzsche and Foucault's respective uses of the genealogical method.

Theological aesthetics is a rapidly expanding subject in the field of religious humanism that, until now, has not had a participating Lutheran voice. Musica Christi: A Lutheran Aesthetic fills this void by approaching the rich tradition of music and theology in the Lutheran Church through Christology. Furthermore, this study shows Christ¿s full participation in and by music. Selections from Lutheran works in Danish, German, Latin, Norwegian, and Swedish are offered in English translations for the first time by the author.

The Shoah ¿ the Hebrew term for Holocaust ¿ has continued to pervade theological thought, religious practice, and the contemporary identity of Judaism. Using the title of Franz Rosenzweig¿s masterpiece, the Shoah could ¿ and perhaps should ¿ be called «the star of irredemption» because of the struggling implications of its radical evil. In Auschwitz, God is at stake because the very existence of the Jews is threatened, but the Jewish identity is also at stake because the justice and reliability of God is questioned. The Shoah poses a double problem of caesura and continuum ¿ it is both a break in the continuity of the tradition and continuity inside of the break of modernity. The intersecting of these two dimensions constitutes the basic hermeneutic conflict of the Jewish consciousness at the beginning of the twenty-first century.

Deals with the field of postcolonial and Third World feminist studies. This title reevaluates the ways in which Third World women writers interrogate the relationship between woman and nation in the postcolonial context. It brings forth the concept of postnational feminism.

Among Hans Urs von Balthasar¿s vast corpus of theological works not one is found devoted specifically to an elaboration of a doctrine of God the Father. This study gathers and interprets Balthasar¿s many scattered reflections on the mystery of the God of Jesus Christ ¿ especially those concentrated in his Theological Dramatic Theory ¿ on its way to constructing an approach towards a theology of God¿s Fatherhood. Several of the most significant current issues in theology are addressed in this study, such as a reinterpretation of divine omnipotence in terms of the Father¿s all-powerful powerlessness, the question of the possibility of coexistence between infinite freedom and finite freedom, an understanding of the immutability of God that allows for the Father¿s being affected in some way by finite freedom, and an account of the Father¿s generative act that sees as integral to it a properly paternal modality of receptivity.