Tony Kelly

Faith Seeking Fantasy: Tolkien on Fairy-Stories

This artide responds to the topical interest in Tolkiens Lord of the Rings, now appearing in Peter Jacksons film trilogy. It presents and comments on Tolkiens “theology” of fairy-stories as it is to be found in a reflective essay he produced in the course of his writing the work concerned. After examining the various features of artistic fantasy, we reflect on the theological meaning of art, its relationship to the Gospel story, and its place in theological method and cultural communication.

Whither “Australian Theology”? A Response to Geoffrey Lilburne

This reflection offers a positive appreciation of Geoffrey Lilburnes call for a greater contribution from the Protestant traditions to a contextualised Australian theology. His critique of my own methodology suggests a number of clarifications of the meaning of “context”, “spirituality”, “the self” and the relationship of a specifically Christian theology to such issues.

The Historical Jesus and Human Subjectivity: A Response to John Meier

Problems associated with the distinction between the historical Jesus and the historic Jesus can be satisfactorily clarified only by paying much greater critical attention to the subject, the person making and using such distinctions, and by a methodological reintegration of the wholeness of consciousness. Faith can thus employ historical scholarship, not cowed or threatened, but astutely aware of the possibilities, limitations and necessity of searching into its past, and of incarnating itself in this stream of time, space, human experience and development.

Book Review: A Different Touch: A Study of Vows in Religious LifeMerkleJudith A., A Different Touch: A Study of Vows in Religious Life. Collegeville: Liturgical Press, 1998. ISBN 0814624650. Pp. 294. Rrp.

The author of this balanced and hopeful book is a member of the Ohio Province of the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur (The Liturgical Press ublished her Committed b CIoice: Religioiis Life Today in 1982). The present work begins with the paradox piercingly ex erienced in our various orders and tgeir communities today: “After thirty years of renewal of religious life, its future and meaning stand in question” (p. vii). Whilst we bequeath to the future innumerable sheaves of most inspiring documents, a uzzled posterity must inevitably as: the uestion, “So, what went wrong?” %hat there might be someone around to suggest an answer, Merkle judiciously addresses the problems of the present and the recent past, and inculcates a what lies ahead, not so muckati;: new definitions of religious life, but with something more demanding: “Religious life is a framework of Christian living outlined by the vows. Yet, the vows involve processes of conversion undertaken by all adults in the Church.” ( . vii).

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Part two, Women in the Old Testament, presents stories of the strongminded and independent women of the Hebrew Scriptures, including Eve, Hagar, Deborah and Jael, Bathsheba, Jezebel and Ruth. We learn more of the back round to the lives of women during t k s period, for example their significant contribution to the culture and economy, and their active role in religious matters. The courage and ingenuity over adverse circumstances of these women is highlighted. Insi hts are provided about ways in wiich images of the deit were increasin ly described in m a c terms and sin fecame linked to impurity with imagery demeaning to women. Part three, Women in the New Testament, begins by examining women’s lives at the time of Jesus. The profound effect of Platonic dualism, which placed women in a negative category, is contrasted with the Jewish world-view in which all things in creation were seen as integrated and complementar~. Fletcher emphasises that the ”real Jewish woman of Palestine was not confined to the home and was not retiri and dependent on men. The Newyestament stories of women include Mary of Nazareth, Mary of Magdala, Martha and Mary, the Woman of Samaria and the Cri pled Woman. We learn of women ofgreat faith and loyalty, confident about their place in society. Further, we learn of Jesus, for whom gender did not appear to matter, who treated women as the e ual to men. The reader learns also o? the earl Christian communities, of their proglems about the role of women: should they be ministers or should the tradition Jewish custom be followed with ministry limited to men? The stories of women in the Bible are presented as valuable to us today because they deal with universal themes of every ty e of human ex-

Book Review: Divine Energy: God beyond Us, within Us, among UsDorrDonalDivine Energy: God beyond us, within us, among us. Goldenbridge: Gill & Macmillan, 1996. ISBN 071721923. Pp. 178. Rrp. N.P.

In 1993 a group of theologians teaching within the Melbourne College of Divinity began to meet on an informal, ecumenical basis for the purpose of sharing their common interests in new areas of theological research and reflection. On one occasion the group met to discuss Tony Kellys recent book An Expanding Theology. Two members of the group - Frank Rees and Margaret Jenkins — read papers and Tony Kelly offered a response to them. What follows here is a modified version of the conversation.

An Expanding Theology: A Colloquium

In offering a constructive response to Honners “New Ontology”, this article suggests: (1) some continuities with a number of traditional theological techniques; (2) the desirability of greater emphasis on the doctrines of creation and the Trinity; (3) the need for a more careful retrieval of some former distinctions dealing with the incarnation, the eucharist and eschatology; and (4) the foundational relevance of a more thorough-going “turn to the subject”.