The Bible in The Pedagogy of the Oppressed

One thing I found to be particularly interesting while reading Paulo Freire's The Pedagogy of the Oppressed is the extent that biblical themes permeate the work. After some further research on Google I found out that Freire was himself Christian, so this should come as no surprise! Freire writes of his model of education that "problem-posing education …

Pedagogy of the Oppressed 2

This post follows my last on the first chapter of Paulo Freire's Pedagogy of the Oppressed. I found the following chapters to be a bit more dense terminologically and would need to do a slower reread for some deeper reflections. Nonetheless, here are some of the little things I noticed. In the second chapter, Freire turns …

Pedagogy of the Oppressed 1

This week I've been in Perth, Australia for a theology conference (more on that soon). Today, though, I picked up Paulo Freire's Pedagogy of the Oppressed (trans. Myra Bergman Ramos; Penguin Classics, 2017; original Portuguese in 1968) for the first time and read the opening chapter with interest. Here are some quotes and comments. Early on in …

Eating Fish in a Resurrected Body: A Problem for Christian Vegetarianism?

When I was studying for my undergraduate in theology, one of my lecturers suggested that the story of the resurrected Jesus eating fish with the disciples was a problem for Christian arguments for vegetarianism/veganism. The basic logic is that Jesus' body is a new creation and one on which ours will be based when we …

Moltmann, Bonhoeffer, and “Violence in Exceptional Situations”

I'm currently reading through Moltmann's The Politics of Discipleship and Discipleship in Politics (Cascade, 2006). Moltmann's essays in this volume were originally available in English in Following Jesus Christ in the World Today (now open access), and republished in On Human Dignity: Political Theology and Ethics. Here they are paired with response essays from various Mennonite scholars, a newer …

Moltmann at the 2017 World Communion of Reformed Churches

One of the students doing his doctorate with me at the University of Otago in New Zealand has just returned from the 2017 World Communion of Reformed Churches in Leipzig. Moltmann spoke there and this was posted online about a month ago (starting at 19:45, where Moltmann's section begins]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eOT6hJGI0mI&start=1185 Also uploaded is a short …

Kierkegaard on the Cartesian Approach to Missing the Point

Today I have been searching the works of the Danish Christian philosopher-theologian Søren Kierkegaard for statements on the eternal present, something with which Moltmann takes issue. On quite a different note, I was reading the introduction to the Hong and Hong edition of The Concept of Anxiety when I found this killer insight: Kierkegaard criticized the Cartesian principle …