Papers by Rudolf von Sinner
Perspectiva Teológica, 2025
O jubileu é uma bela oportunidade para refletir sobre as implicações do perdão, da reconciliação,... more O jubileu é uma bela oportunidade para refletir sobre as implicações do perdão, da reconciliação, e da esperança. Ao mesmo tempo, continua carregando consigo, desde o primeiro jubileu de 1300, o cada vez mais incômodo conceito e a aparentemente ultrapassada prática das indulgências. Foi justamente esta que criou as 95 teses de Martim Lutero, propondo um debate que, ao ser refutado e excomungado seu autor, resultou na separação de caminhos e no surgimento de igrejas novas que reclamavam para si estar em melhor sintonia com a Sagrada Escritura do que a igreja existente. Não se trata de um dogma nem de uma doutrina de alta importância na hierarquia das verdades, e de uma prática provavelmente cada vez menos compreendida pelo povo católico. Continua, no entanto, incomodando as relações ecumênicas. Baseada em documentos do magistério e abordagens teológicas católicas e evangélicas, o presente artigo reflete, inicialmente, de forma mais ampla sobre o jubileu ordinário atual e seu antecessor de 2000, traça uma análise da bula do papa Francisco, destaca questões críticas do debate sobre as indulgências e apresenta uma visão luterana do tema para, concluindo, conduzir uma conversação ecumênica destacando o potencial caráter terapêutico da igreja, enquanto não vê espaço para indulgências na teologia e igreja atuais.
International Journal of Public Theology, 2025
By understanding the scope of public theology as the relationship between religion and public lif... more By understanding the scope of public theology as the relationship between religion and public life, the field opens up to interdisciplinary conceptual and empirical studies that find the term “public theology” helpful in engaging with their objects in descriptive or constructive ways. It also allows for theological interpretation of, broadly speaking, social—and environmental—concerns and challenges. The International Journal of Public Theology has proven to be a space to test different perspectives and explore their uses and limits. This current issue again shows the wideness of the concerns that a public theology can deal with. It also evidences that there is not one single public theology approach. The analyses and interpretations offered here are, therefore, as in all academic journals, open to discussion and critique. They are not necessarily reflective of the journal’s leadership or the Global Network of Public Theology’s positions, but take part in a forum of sharing and debate opened within the field of public theology. The Network’s Executive has taken a position recently on the Current US Administration, explaining and contextualizing its decision to move its triennial conference online, originally set to be held at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California, in September of 2025. We do publish the statement here.
Journal of Latin American Theology, 2024
To approach this broad subject, I will focus on the situation in Brazil in relation to the United... more To approach this broad subject, I will focus on the situation in Brazil in relation to the United States, especially under Bolsonaro (2018–2022) and Trump (2016–2020), respectively. I believe this specific caseresonates with other contexts in Latin America and the Global South, especially with regard to conservative agendas, some of them disruptive, that have flourished and are increasingly influential in the evangélico3 and political realms. First, I will describe and analyze aspects of Brazilian reality particularly from 2018–2022 but in dialogue with earlier times and current-day reflections. Then I will identify the agendas at play and critically analyze them in light of the gospel and what I call an “evangélico sense of shame.” Finally, I will hazard a few conclusions regarding Christian higher education, which I consider to be a key element in overcoming the obstacles we face.
Stellenbosch Theological Journal, 2024
Starting with an analysis of recent examples of Christian exponents trying to influence governmen... more Starting with an analysis of recent examples of Christian exponents trying to influence government in South Africa and Brazil, the article recalls the confessional declarations of Barmen, Belhar, and against the russkii mir, advocating a sovereign God against a totalitarian regime. While this shows efficiency in specific historical circumstances, it is insufficient in a secular, religiously diverse environment. God’s sovereignty is not only questioning human sovereignty but tempers the concept itself. Rather than an oppressive “monotheism of truth”, it is a “monotheism of loyalty” (Jan Assmann) in God’s covenant with the people that presupposes their consent and the giving of the law. “The people” are, however, a precarious category and reality, given the ambiguity of good and evil as present in the world, which does not leave Christian communities untouched. This should produce a humbler approach that seeks to formulate a new, relational and dynamic concept of God’s sovereignty that has its bearing on people’s sovereignty as they are bound together in a covenantal relationship governed by the law.
Religions, 2024
Since the arrival of Protestants in Brazil, the presence of Protestant educational institutions b... more Since the arrival of Protestants in Brazil, the presence of Protestant educational institutions became a reality. Seminaries were founded at the end of the 19th century, focusing on the training of clergy without much concern for dialogue with other churches or with society at large. Public issues, ecumenism—through dialogue and cooperation between Protestants and Catholics—and interdisciplinary theological approaches only became current concerns in the mid-twentieth century, especially with liberation theologies—both Protestant and Catholic. Before that, however, one of the authors who was able to grasp these dimensions in his theological endeavour was Richard Shaull, who, through his theological method, opened a dialogue with the social sciences in order to interpret the reality in which he placed Christian action and mission. Through bibliographical research and document analysis, focusing on the reading of “The New Revolutionary Mood in Latin America”, a report on Latin America presented by Shaull to the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A. Missionary Board, the article aims to show Shaull’s theology, institutionally located, as one that thinks about public issues in dialogue with social sciences and considers its implications for and within Christian churches. In the light of studies on public theology, this paper presents Richard Shaull’s writings as a theological approach to the church, considering its ecumenical stance; to society, considering its most pressing issues of the time; and to academia, through the interdisciplinary dialogue he undertakes with the social sciences.This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY
International Journal of Public Theology, 2024
The present issue of the International Journal of Public Theology brings a variety of issues to t... more The present issue of the International Journal of Public Theology brings a variety of issues to the fore, many of which challenge the Christian faith, ethics, theology, and the church both historically and in the present. In view of the terrible conflict happening in what is supposed to be a "holy land", the IJPT proposed a Special Issue on Israel/Palestine, of which two article art published herewith. Conflicts, of lower intensity, but still of high impact-religious, political, social, environmental-are also reflected in the other articles included in this issue. Each is seeking to give an adequate public theological answer. Wishing to do justice to the diversity of contexts as well as the worldwide entanglements, there are voices from Brazil, China, Fiji, Indonesia, Palestine, the United Kingdom and the United States of America.
Religions, 2024
The Holy See is an absolute monarchy, both as a political and as a spiritual entity. The Second V... more The Holy See is an absolute monarchy, both as a political and as a spiritual entity. The Second Vatican Council indicated, retrieving biblical terms and metaphors, a new way of giving value to the whole people of God, the laity (laos theou), constituted by baptism. Rather than a societas perfecta in a pyramidal system, the intention was to declericalise and in this sense democratise the church and its decision-making, not least seeking to secure its witness in an ever more secular world. Even if a sacramental and ontological difference is maintained, this indicates clergy are no longer a first class of believers against which the laity would be a second class; rather, they are rooted and stand with and within the whole people of God with their specific vocation and ordination. The notion of the royal and universal priesthood of believers, taken from 1 Peter 2:9 and emphasised by Luther and other reformers as they distributed power between ordained and not ordained leaders, was visible in the Second Vatican Council and finds new enactment in the synodality process which culminated in the Ordinary Synod in Rome, in October 2024. Based on his own theology of the people of God, developed during the dictatorship and economic oppression in Argentina, with strong cultural and religious connotations, Pope Francis seeks to further major involvement of the laity and especially of women in the church’s administration and transformation processes. Not surprisingly, this process has been receiving criticism both from those who find it is not going far enough and from those who believe the process has already gone far too far. Based on bibliographical and documental research, the intention of this article is to describe and analyse the notion of the people of God as proposed by Pope Francis and its forms of concretisation including its deficiencies, as well as, in dialogue with ongoing debates on populism, highlight the precariousness of any “people” as a concept and as a reality. A dynamic notion of “people” and a theological accountability of the people and the clergy towards each other, towards God and towards the world can do justice to both the ambiguities and the irreplaceability of the people as citizens of the church as well as the world.
International Journal of Public Theology, 2024
The current issue of the International Journal of Public Theology, in keeping with its growing gl... more The current issue of the International Journal of Public Theology, in keeping with its growing global embrace of a glocal conversation, brings to the table a number of articles submitted from Australia, Chile, Indonesia, Nigeria, South Korea and the United States of America. They are clearly and declaredly rooted in their respective contexts: nevertheless, they also draw on resources developed in other contexts that are deemed to be helpful inasmuch as they help make sense of a Christian understanding of what it means to be a human being: they do so in the particularity of their situatedness in the public sphere. Such approaches contribute to an interdisciplinary conversation with political and social theories, and also with medicine and life sciences. They point to those places of intersection where such conversation is mutually enriching and where it reveals limitations of either approach-or both. As the articles deal with often unwanted, marginalized or outrightly excluded minorities, common conceptual, but also phenomenal understandings are challenged. Is there 'normalcy'-and if so, what would that mean? Do identities classified as 'different' need to conform to normalcy or, if unable to do so, be excluded and be discriminated against? Or else, should normalcy be expanded to accept as 'normal' the conviviality of the different that still share a common humanity and, as religious people, a common belief that welcomes them (and the 'others'!) just the way they are? If the majority has difficulties in understanding minorities, might this lack of comprehension be the majority's and not the minority's problem? Such debates are-and have to beheld in the public sphere as they concern the participation of different publics in what concerns them all. The present issue seeks to contribute to this debate.
International Journal of Public Theology, 2024
Global dialogues in a variety of fields have shown the tensions arising from the necessary contex... more Global dialogues in a variety of fields have shown the tensions arising from the necessary contextual, post- and decolonial perspectives that question concepts hitherto maintained by the holders of epistemological power. These positions are often taken for granted and understood to be universally valid. Public theology is no exception to such tensions. The 18 years of the publication of this journal bear witness to this emerging and deepening level of contestation. While tension and conflict (not violence) are necessary and can be extremely fruitful, they do not rule out the potential global impact of contextual positions and actions; nor do they preclude productive resonance of concepts developed in contexts other than one’s own. Over the last decades, this inter-perspectival engagement has become a two- or, rather, multi-way process of giving and taking, in what some call a polylogue rather than a dialogue: there
are many agents together at the table (or equivalent ways of practising a communion of sharing). The IJPT seeks to continue fostering such global discourse and the inter- and transcontextual exchange as it receives contributions from an ever more diverse number of authors.
International Journal of Public Theology, 2024
What does the 'public' in 'public theology' stand for? Certainly, this is the kind of question an... more What does the 'public' in 'public theology' stand for? Certainly, this is the kind of question anyone starting to enter the realm of public theological discussions, or even someone that for the first time hears of it, might make, and, of course, may try to answer. The second step would be to challenge the understanding of 'theology'. Both concepts receive relevant meanings from the articles that form part of the first issue of the International Journal of Public Theology 18th volume. And they remain relevant also for experienced theologians and activists. Thinking the public theologically is a task that requires contextual sensitivity, thick theoretical background, and global awareness. 2024 started bringing with it ongoing public issues and the expectations of public and theological answers. Amidst wars, elections, social upheavals, religious conflicts, and many other challenges, theologians are urged into action and reflection. Two movements become commonplace: trying to identify the theologies relevant to public life, and searching for theological responses to public issues. Thus, public theologians are not rarely engaged with at least one of the two, and, as is to be expected, the results are diverse, even controversial. Public theology, then, may help other areas of knowledge understanding the role religions play nowadays in various dimensions, and, still, it may instruct faith communities in respecting human rights and to be present in public matters not merely to their own benefit, considering that their voice may be heard, but it should not become mandatory or oppressive in a democratic setting.
International Journal of Public Theology, 2023
Introduction to the Special Issue on Public Theologies in Vibrating Cities - Global Perspectives
Religions, 2023
he growing political influence of evangélico Christians in traditionally Catholic Brazil has caug... more he growing political influence of evangélico Christians in traditionally Catholic Brazil has caught the attention of social and political scientists as well as theologians. Among others, the reasons for two-thirds of the mainly Pentecostal and Neo-Pentecostal electorate voting for Jair Messias Bolsonaro include a moral agenda concerning human sexuality and the “traditional family,” namely the rejection of abortion under any circumstance and same-sex marriage. This conservative agenda is shared in other countries and churches and shows as “traditionalist” (Benjamin Teitelbaum), especially in Brazil, the USA under Trump, and Russia. At the same time, other, more social aspects of Christian diaconia in caring for the integrity of the body are left aside, although they are foreseen in those churches’ declarations of faith and ethical catechisms. The 2019–2022 government’s blatant failure to cope with the COVID-19 pandemic, the appalling rise of hunger, and the destruction of the Amazon rainforest should give rise to what I call an “evangélico sense of shame” as a consequence of the incompatibility of many of the faith convictions of that part of the electorate with Bolsonaro’s stances and actions, retrieving shame as an ethical category. To this end, I analyze biblical notions and theological reflections on shame, as well as publications of evangélico churches with a focus on the largest of its churches in Brazil, the Assemblies of God. Thus, I intend to reclaim an integral diaconia for evangélico churches.
Religião e teologia entre estado e política: uma abordagem interdisciplinar, 2023
Essa obra é resultado do evento realizado pela Associação Nacional de Ciências da Religião e Teol... more Essa obra é resultado do evento realizado pela Associação Nacional de Ciências da Religião e Teologia (ANPTECRE) o Congresso de 2021, com o tema Religião e Teologia entre o Estado e a Política: uma abordagem interdisciplinar. A relação entre Religião e formas recentes de ideologias de Estado, de política e de governo; As teologias emergentes da relação entre religião e sociedade; o jogo das linguagens religiosas frente às exigências do bem comum (política, religião, comunicação e economia); aspectos históricos da relação religião, poder, Estado, regimes de governo; formas históricas de teologias de poder, estado, sociedade, política e regimes de governo; Esfera pública, Religião e Teologia; demandas éticas para a Religião e a Teologia; Religião, Teologia, política, saúde em contexto de pandemia e pós-pandemia.
Estudos Teológicos, 2022
Pensar teologicamente um Estado Democrático de Direito é tarefa assumida pelo teólogo suíço-brasi... more Pensar teologicamente um Estado Democrático de Direito é tarefa assumida pelo teólogo suíço-brasileiro, Rudolf von Sinner, que privilegia a cidadania como termo-chave de sua abordagem. A proposta sinneriana de uma teologia da cidadania como teologia pública para o contexto brasileiro se estrutura em cinco pilares que buscam haurir de fontes teológicas para contribuir com a construção de um espaço público mais justo e solidário, sem tentativa de imposição de pautas eclesiásticas privadas, mas reconhecendo na tradição cristã, em especial a luterana, elementos que ajudam a pensar demandas públicas. Ser um cidadão cristão, pilar mais explicitamente teológico, está em correlação com os desafios de ser, viver, perseverar e servir como pessoa cidadã. Assuntos teológicos como a graça, a imago Dei, a justificação pela graça por meio da fé, o simul iustus et peccator, bem como a questão dos dois regimentos são acessados para dar forma à proposta de uma presença cidadã no mundo, teologicamente informada e ativa no serviço amoroso e gratuito ao próximo. Rudolf von Sinner, busca, portanto, qualificar a presença cristã e sua incidência na vida pública, para que, em nível instrutivo, as igrejas cristãs, provocadas pelo evangelho que professam, exerçam sua cidadania em favor das outras pessoas, sobretudo daqueles e daquelas que mais sofrem, não legislando em causa própria, mas, de modo ousado e humilde, denunciando injustiças e lutando por uma efetiva implantação e consolidação de direitos e liberdades fundamentais.
Caminhos de Diálogo, 2022
A invasão russa à Ucrânia começou em 24 de fevereiro de 2022 e a guerra dela decorrente continua ... more A invasão russa à Ucrânia começou em 24 de fevereiro de 2022 e a guerra dela decorrente continua até hoje, porém tem raízes mais profundas. Estas ficaram especialmente visíveis ao redor do chamado Euromaidan, em 2014, e a subsequente anexação da Crimeia por tropas russas. Mais do que naquela vez, ficou visível a atuação tímida, se não diretamente apoiadora, da Igreja ortodoxa russa em relação às agressões promovidas pelo presidente russo, Vladimir Putin, em 2022. A partir de análise bibliográfica e documental, privilegiando vozes enraizadas no Oriente europeu e com conhecimento profundo de causa, além de documentos recentes de críticos à guerra e do Conselho Mundial de Igrejas, em sua reunião do Comitê Central, em junho de 2022, e sua XI assembleia realizada em Karlsruhe, Alemanha, em setembro do mesmo ano, destaca-se a necessidade de manter juntos crítica profética e diálogo ecumênico, o qual, contudo, não deve ser confundido com leniência ou harmonia romântica.
The Ecumenical Review, 2022
Theological Education is facing a number of advances and setbacks. The globalization and transfor... more Theological Education is facing a number of advances and setbacks. The globalization and transformation of Christianity, the evolution of communication tools and the striving for formal theological education by groups that customarily shunned it as well as a generalized awareness for the contextuality of theological education are among the advances. Setbacks can be seen in the re-confessionalization of theological education in many parts of the world and the end of significant ecumenical initiatives as well as the continuous difficulty of guaranteeing sustainability both to models of Theological Education and to the institutions that offer them. Mindful of these trends, the present lecture seeks to provide a panoramic analysis of Theological Education in the context of an ever-growing diversity of Christianity and offer reflections and proposals on what is needed for a sustainable ecumenical and contextual Theological Education today.
International Journal of Public Theology, 2022
The growing political influence of evangélico Christians in traditionally Catholic Brazil has cau... more The growing political influence of evangélico Christians in traditionally Catholic Brazil has caught the attention of social and political scientists as well as theologians. What are the reasons for two thirds of the mainly Pentecostal and Neo-Pentecostal electorate voting for Jair Messias Bolsonaro, the representative of an extreme right? This article explores traditional positions aligned with Bolsonaro’s morality, but also those that are contrary. The government’s blatant failure to cope with the COVID-19 pandemic has given, and indeed should give, rise to what the author calls an “evangélico
sense of shame” as a consequence of the incompatibility of many of that part of the
electorate that explicitly identified its faith convictions with Bolsonaro’s stances and actions. At the extreme end of an uncritical adherence is idolatry, visible, in the president being anointed by Edir Macedo, the supreme bishop of the Universal Church of God’s Kingdom. A genuinely theological dialogue and criticism is needed that would evaluate not only cognitive, but also affective and spiritual arguments and aspects.
Pistis & Praxis, 2022
Karl Barth é reconhecido como um dos mais relevantes teólogos do século XX, contribuindo com obra... more Karl Barth é reconhecido como um dos mais relevantes teólogos do século XX, contribuindo com obras que impactaram o mundo teológico de seu tempo. Por meio de uma análise bibliográfica, o presente texto faz uma leitura de Barth como um clássico cristão que pode ajudar a pensar a condição humana hoje. Com base em critérios públicos de argumentação, elabora-se um exame de sua proposta de humanismo, considerando-a dentro de sua tradição reformada na relação com Calvino, na escuta atenta de pertinentes comentadores, bem como na análise de fontes primárias. A partir de aspectos de sua antropologia teológica, destaca-se um humanismo cristão que pensa o humano em sua co-humanidade e suas relações desde uma ética de gratuidade e responsabilidade. Neste sentido argumentamos que Barth pode ser compreendido como teólogo público.
Taking a Deep Breath for the Story to Begin …, 2021
Religions, 2022
Religious incidence in Brazilian public space is a widespread fact that has been gaining new visi... more Religious incidence in Brazilian public space is a widespread fact that has been gaining new visibility in pandemic times. Responsibility in liminal situations represents specific theological hermeneutics, as well as what matters for the respective religious agents. Thus, based on a bibliographical review connected to an analysis of websites, this article aims to reflect on the current Brazilian context, the challenges to doing theology in Brazil today and points to some possible responses. “Pandemic religion”, as we call it, is the synthesis of theologies and religious practices that legitimise irresponsible approaches to life, vulnerabilising the other instead of assuming care-based ethics. Firstly, we briefly describe current theological trends, followed by an analysis of the Brazilian scenario by way of three representative scenes of public religious incidence that reflect a lack of responsibility in view of the pandemic challenges caused by COVID-19. Subsequently, we look back into history for alternative responses to public health crises that required theological positioning. In a Brazilian perspective of a public theology, we finally reflect on a responsible ethics that may help respond to the current challenges, particularly for pandemic religion.
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Papers by Rudolf von Sinner
are many agents together at the table (or equivalent ways of practising a communion of sharing). The IJPT seeks to continue fostering such global discourse and the inter- and transcontextual exchange as it receives contributions from an ever more diverse number of authors.
sense of shame” as a consequence of the incompatibility of many of that part of the
electorate that explicitly identified its faith convictions with Bolsonaro’s stances and actions. At the extreme end of an uncritical adherence is idolatry, visible, in the president being anointed by Edir Macedo, the supreme bishop of the Universal Church of God’s Kingdom. A genuinely theological dialogue and criticism is needed that would evaluate not only cognitive, but also affective and spiritual arguments and aspects.