Papers by Teresa G Brown
International Journal of Practical Theology, 2020
In the Catholic Church, which includes in its mission the provision of school education, the sign... more In the Catholic Church, which includes in its mission the provision of school education, the significant rise of “no religion” in Western societies prompts serious new questions about how this mission can be lived out. An important response can be found in the Enhancing Catholic School Identity Project, which provides empirical evidence of the lived faith dispositions of members of Catholic school communities and recommends the enhancement of Catholic school identity through the recontextualisation of faith in dialogue. We argue that the dispositions of teachers are a vital factor in the development of a Catholic Dialogue School. Using aggregated data in Australia, we illustrate the importance of a teacher disposition that is intentionally and explicitly open to Catholic faith.
In this study, we brought the question of the role of faith as a teacher disposition to prominenc... more In this study, we brought the question of the role of faith as a teacher disposition to prominence. We examined what happened when we brought reflection on personal engagement in Christian faith to bear on postgraduate student learning about their leadership of the KU Leuven Enhancing Catholic School Identity Project in Australia. While there are acknowledged limitations in our research, we conclude that this explicit reflection on faith through formative activities in the postgraduate unit THCT605 was helpful overall in enabling participants to lead the implementation of the ECSI Project in their workplaces.
Conference Presentations by Teresa G Brown
This paper outlines the theological and pedagogical bases of the hermeneutic-communicative model ... more This paper outlines the theological and pedagogical bases of the hermeneutic-communicative model of religious education (HCM), a model proposed as an approach to teaching and learning in religious education that supports the development of a Catholic Dialogue school. The paper explores the application of the HCM in professional learning programs for leaders and teachers of religious education and proposes that such an approach enables participants to engage deeply with scripture. It is argued that this process has the potential to assist teachers of religious education to consider the implications of the text for their personal faith and professional practice. The hermeneutic-communicative model aims to build the theological capacity of religious education teachers and students in Catholic schools and helps to create the conditions for authentic recontextualisation.
The exhortation of the Second Vatican Council to examine the “signs of the times” led to a resurg... more The exhortation of the Second Vatican Council to examine the “signs of the times” led to a resurgence in trinitarian theology and propelled a renewed consideration of the implications of faith in God as Trinity for Christian life and practice. Trinitarian theology became the basis upon which theologians such as Karl Rahner, Jürgen Moltmann, and Leonardo Boff mounted arguments for (respectively) the recognition of human experience and freedom, the need for communities to work together for social change, and the agency of the human person in effecting salvation. In approaches such as these, the universal assumption of Christian faith led to the positing of the Christian narrative as the universal answer to particular and contextual questions and to the affirmation of the relevance of Christian faith for the world.
The current (Western) context of pluralisation, secularisation and detraditionalisation calls for new ways of thinking the relationship between Christian faith and the world. No longer can we assume adherence to a Christian or other religious worldview, and no longer can we easily correlate the values of Christian faith with those of society so as to establish its relevance. While modern contextual theologies, such as those posited by political and liberation theologians, are concerned to critique social structures that tend towards exclusion and subordination, the narratives they present, with their ideal of universal adherence to Christian faith, frequently recapitulate the assumptions of modernity they seek to overcome. Against the modern attempt to found knowledge by way of the subject, postmodern thinkers call for a recognition of the other—the unpresentable of discourse—who resists the universalising tendencies of modernity.
One theologian who has considered the recontextualisation of theology in light of postmodern concerns is Lieven Boeve, a Belgian theologian whose work underpins a key educational project in Catholic schools in Australia. He argues that a consideration of Christian faith through the contextual and theological category of interruption provides the means by which Christian faith can continue to speak meaningfully to the world. This paper explores the contribution that Boeve’s “theology of interruption” can make to a contemporary consideration of trinitarian theology.
Thesis Chapters by Teresa G Brown
Thinking God in Contemporary Theology: The Trinity and Christian Life Through the Lens of a Theology of Interruption
PhD Thesis, 2020
In this dissertation, I consider the question: How does a theology of interruption help us to und... more In this dissertation, I consider the question: How does a theology of interruption help us to understand the relationship between Christian life and faith in the Trinity today? Flemish theologian Lieven Boeve has developed a contextual-theological-hermeneutical approach to theology—a “theology of interruption”—that brings a postmodern critical consciousness into dialogue with the Christian narrative tradition. He argues that such an approach can be supported not only on contextual grounds, but also on theological grounds. For Boeve, the recognition of the cultural interruption of the Christian tradition by means of an increasing diversity in the religious and cultural landscape leads to a rediscovery of the interruptive nature of the Christian narrative, and it is this insight that I take up in this work. By considering a theology of interruption as a lens through which to think about the relationship between Christian life and faith in the Trinity, I explore the implications of Boeve’s approach for contemporary theology. The dissertation begins with an exegesis of Boeve’s work. I examine his philosophical and theological influences, and I discuss critically his contention that a theology of interruption is narratively signified in the Christian tradition. As Boeve is not explicit about the ways in which he engages a theology of interruption as a hermeneutical approach to theology, I examine case studies within his corpus to distil its philosophical-conceptual elements. Turning to the question of the relationship between trinitarian faith and Christian life, I examine modern and postmodern trinitarian approaches and engage these critically through the lens of postmodern philosophical and contextual concerns. I then consider this theme through the lens of a theology of interruption and offer a critical evaluation of Boeve’s approach. This work contributes to theological discourse in a number of ways. It supports the use of a theology of interruption as a means by which theology might proceed today. It presents a way of thinking about the relationship between trinitarian faith and Christian life that takes seriously the particularity of the Christian tradition and other faith traditions and worldviews in the contemporary context. It recognises the importance of engaging reflexively with diverse particular discourses within the context and affirms the fruits of such an engagement for Christian self-understanding. Finally, it provides theological support for a recontextualisation of sacramentality in relation to Christian life.
Journal Articles by Teresa G Brown
Modern Theology, 2024
The recent translation into English of Klaus Hemmerle's Theses Towards a Trinitarian Ontology has... more The recent translation into English of Klaus Hemmerle's Theses Towards a Trinitarian Ontology has led to a renewed interest in ontology and in the construction of new trinitarian ontologies. In his Theses, Hemmerle argues that a new trinitarian ontology discloses a new order of things: the analogy of Being becomes an analogy of the Trinity. A trinitarian ontology, therefore, turns on an axis of relationality and its impetus is reflexive and performative. In this article, I take up Hemmerle's argument that dialogue with theological anthropology is essential in the development of a trinitarian ontology. I engage the theological anthropologies of Kwok Pui-Lan and Rita Nakashima Brock, whose work reflects a relational turn in theological anthropology, and bring these into dialogue with Hemmerle's insights. In doing so, I consider the implications of contemporary critical consciousness for thinking the human-divine relationship and argue for a Christian trinitarian praxis which explicitly works to subvert narratives and structures that perpetuate the silencing of diverse discourses.
Openness to Faith as a Disposition for Teachers in Catholic Schools
International Journal of Practical Theology, 2020
In the Catholic Church, which includes in its mission the provision of school education, the sign... more In the Catholic Church, which includes in its mission the provision of school education, the significant rise of "no religion" in Western societies prompts serious new questions about how this mission can be lived out. An important response can be found in the Enhancing Catholic School Identity Project, which provides empirical evidence of the lived faith dispositions of members of Catholic school communities and recommends the enhancement of Catholic school identity through the recontextualisation of faith in dialogue. We argue that the dispositions of teachers are a vital factor in the development of a Catholic Dialogue School. Using aggregated data in Australia, we illustrate the importance of a teacher disposition that is intentionally and explicitly open to Catholic faith. Zusammenfassung: Durch die wachsende Zahl konfessionsloser Menschen in westlichen Gesellschaften sieht sich das römisch-katholische Privatschulwesen dazu herausgefordert, neue Wege zur Erfüllung seines religiösen Bildungsauf-trags zu finden. In Australien leistet das "Enhancing Catholic School Identity Pro-ject" einen wichtigen Beitrag hierzu. Die hier vorgestellte Studie untersucht, wie stark persönliche Glaubenshaltungen unter den Schulangehörigen verbreitet sind und stellt die Bedeutung einer dialogischen und kontextbezogenen Auseinander-setzung mit dem Glauben heraus. Der Offenheit der Lehrkräftekommt dabei eine Schlüsselrolle zu, wie die empirische Untersuchung zeigen konnte.
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Papers by Teresa G Brown
Conference Presentations by Teresa G Brown
The current (Western) context of pluralisation, secularisation and detraditionalisation calls for new ways of thinking the relationship between Christian faith and the world. No longer can we assume adherence to a Christian or other religious worldview, and no longer can we easily correlate the values of Christian faith with those of society so as to establish its relevance. While modern contextual theologies, such as those posited by political and liberation theologians, are concerned to critique social structures that tend towards exclusion and subordination, the narratives they present, with their ideal of universal adherence to Christian faith, frequently recapitulate the assumptions of modernity they seek to overcome. Against the modern attempt to found knowledge by way of the subject, postmodern thinkers call for a recognition of the other—the unpresentable of discourse—who resists the universalising tendencies of modernity.
One theologian who has considered the recontextualisation of theology in light of postmodern concerns is Lieven Boeve, a Belgian theologian whose work underpins a key educational project in Catholic schools in Australia. He argues that a consideration of Christian faith through the contextual and theological category of interruption provides the means by which Christian faith can continue to speak meaningfully to the world. This paper explores the contribution that Boeve’s “theology of interruption” can make to a contemporary consideration of trinitarian theology.
Thesis Chapters by Teresa G Brown
Journal Articles by Teresa G Brown
The current (Western) context of pluralisation, secularisation and detraditionalisation calls for new ways of thinking the relationship between Christian faith and the world. No longer can we assume adherence to a Christian or other religious worldview, and no longer can we easily correlate the values of Christian faith with those of society so as to establish its relevance. While modern contextual theologies, such as those posited by political and liberation theologians, are concerned to critique social structures that tend towards exclusion and subordination, the narratives they present, with their ideal of universal adherence to Christian faith, frequently recapitulate the assumptions of modernity they seek to overcome. Against the modern attempt to found knowledge by way of the subject, postmodern thinkers call for a recognition of the other—the unpresentable of discourse—who resists the universalising tendencies of modernity.
One theologian who has considered the recontextualisation of theology in light of postmodern concerns is Lieven Boeve, a Belgian theologian whose work underpins a key educational project in Catholic schools in Australia. He argues that a consideration of Christian faith through the contextual and theological category of interruption provides the means by which Christian faith can continue to speak meaningfully to the world. This paper explores the contribution that Boeve’s “theology of interruption” can make to a contemporary consideration of trinitarian theology.