Is contemporary Black British gospel music a coloniality? What theological message is really conveyed in these songs? In this book, Robert Beckford shows how the Black British contemporary gospel music tradition is in crisis because its songs continue to be informed by colonial Christian ideas about God. Beckford explores the failure of both African and African Caribbean heritage Churches to Decolonise their faith, especially the doctrine of God, biblical interpretation and Black ontology. This predicament has left song leaders, musicians and songwriters with a reservoir of ideas that aim to disavow engagement with the social-historical world, black Biblical interpretation and the necessity of loving blackness. This book is decolonisation through praxis. Reflecting on the conceptual social justice album 'The Jamaican Bible Remix' (2017) as a communicative resource, Beckford shows how to develop production tools to inscribe decolonial theological thought onto Black British music(s). The outcome of this process is the creation of a decolonial contemporary gospel music genre. The impact of the album is demonstrated through case studies in national and international contexts.

Is contemporary Black British gospel music a coloniality? What theological message is really conveyed in these songs? In this book, Robert Beckford shows how the Black British contemporary gospel music tradition is in crisis because its songs continue to be informed by colonial Christian ideas about God. Beckford explores the failure of both African and African Caribbean heritage Churches to Decolonise their faith, especially the doctrine of God, biblical interpretation and Black ontology. This predicament has left song leaders, musicians and songwriters with a reservoir of ideas that aim to disavow engagement with the social-historical world, black Biblical interpretation and the necessity of loving blackness. This book is decolonisation through praxis. Reflecting on the conceptual social justice album 'The Jamaican Bible Remix' (2017) as a communicative resource, Beckford shows how to develop production tools to inscribe decolonial theological thought onto Black British music(s). The outcome of this process is the creation of a decolonial contemporary gospel music genre. The impact of the album is demonstrated through case studies in national and international contexts.

The Wana people of Morowali accept the experiences of pain, illness and loss and transform them into something positive: rituals that celebrate life, friendship and the community. Through fieldwork with the Wana people of Morowali, Central Sulawesi, Giorgio Scalici shows how music serves as a connection between the human world and the hidden world of spirits and emotion. By examining rituals such as the momago, the main Wana healing ritual, and the kayori, the funeral, this book investigates how music is used by the Wana to heal people, control emotions, reinforce the sense of community and to mark the cultural death of the community member. In this study, music transforms the pain of loss into a playful event that heals the community and assures its future. This book will be of interest to the wider academic study of religion, anthropology and ethnomusicology as it looks as at funerals as healing rituals for the community which lead the living and the dead through critical times.

Black theology has long been about oppression and liberation. But is there a different story to tell? Can the black story be one about a quest for flourishing through agency and self-determination and not only an existence of nihilistic struggle? Drawing on a fresh reading of Jeremiah’s letter to Jewish exiles, and his own Pentecostal tradition, Joe Aldred offers a fresh understanding of the Black British experience which draws on a realised eschatology rooted in identity, empowerment and an agenda. In a contested diasporan context in the shadow of empire there exists opportunity to fully flourish without apology – or as Jeremiah puts it to those in exile, to ‘settle, build and grow'.

Although Loyal Sisters is about Loyal Sisters it is not only for them. From ethnographic exploration into mainly two churches: Messa Pentecostal and High Parish, the religiosity and faith in the Triune God, through the Holy Spirit (pneumatology), of Loyal Sisters is realized. They are faithful and avid ecclesiastical worshipers amidst a tide of dwindling church-attendance. We can reflect on their faith-lifestyle and ontological passion for God which propels them into action in the British church. We discover their values and beliefs and how they transcend and redeem adversity and/or immigration, patriarchy, and racism, “come what may,” and seek for womanist, cultural, and religious change in the church through the Spirit. Furthermore, this book provides an insight into my autobiography/womanist testimonies as a British, Black, female practicing, ecumenical Christian who is an ally with Loyal Sisters. You do not have to be a Loyal Sister or identify as female of color to read this book. There is much we can learn from Loyal Sisters and about the British church which can enrich our understanding, epistemology, and/or spirituality as faith-believers or persons of no religious faith: whether we agree with all, some or none of their womanist spirituality.

How does a regime, whose members have been actively involved in the previous one, appropriate and deploy religious ideas and rhetoric to cast itself as 'born-again' and attractive? Exploring intersections between politics, religion and economics, this book examines invention of Zimbabwe's 'New Dispensation,' the regime of Emmerson D. Mnangagwa, and how it has aimed to separate itself from the previous regime of Robert G. Mugabe. Utilizing the concept of 'invention', contributors reflect on how Mnangagwa and his publicists deploy religious ideas, concepts and rhetoric in the quest for legitimacy in a heavily contested political field. The book also reflects on the ways opposing political actors have utilized the same template in their quests to secure power. The contributors interrogate the use of time, theological ideas and religious practices to separate Mnangagwa's regime from Mugabe's. This book provides insight into how religious rhetoric is used not only to gain, but also to contest legitimacy in Zimbabwe's political sphere.

This book reflects the wide-spread belief that the twenty-first century is evolving in a significantly different way to the twentieth, which witnessed the advance of human rationality and technological progress, including urbanisation, and called into question the public and cultural significance of religion. In this century, by contrast, religion, faith communities and spiritual values have returned to the centre of public life, especially public policy, governance, and social identity. Rapidly diversifying urban locations are the best places to witness the emergence of new spaces in which religions and spiritual traditions are creating both new alliances but also bifurcations with secular sectors. Postsecular Cities examines how the built environment reflects these trends. Recognizing that the 'turn to the postsecular' is a contested and multifaceted trend, the authors offer a vigorous, open but structured dialogue between theory and practice, but even more excitingly, between the disciplines of human geography and theology. Both disciplines reflect on this powerful but enigmatic force shaping our urban humanity. This unique volume offers the first insight into these interdisciplinary and challenging debates.

A key refrain in Reformed theology is that God's Spirit trumpets the message of salvation through Jesus Christ into every nook and cranny of the universe--but how? And in what way does this cosmic truth touch and shape the mundane reality of our lives and our world? In this distillation of his Warfield Lectures, delivered at Princeton Theological Seminary in spring 2014, leading Reformed theologian Cornelis van der Kooi examines the relationship of the Holy Spirit to Jesus Christ. He demonstrates how a fuller understanding of the interplay between Christology and pneumatology can encourage the Christian church to have open eyes and ears for the inbreaking of God's "incredibly benevolent force" into the cosmological emptiness of today's world.

In The Holy Spirit as Communion, Leon Harris examines the pneumatologies of Colin Gunton and Frank Macchia. For both theologians, the doctrine of the Holy Spirit is foundational to understanding their doctrine of God, Christology, and ecclesiology. Drawing on the theme of communion, The Holy Spirit as Communion expresses the concept that the Holy Spirit is the person who perfects the divine nature and personhood of the Father and Son. It is the Holy Spirit who perfects the eternal communion within the divine Trinity, which is the source of the divine action that also perfects the communion in creation as an expression of the Father’s will through Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit as Communion explores the essentiality of the Holy Spirit through a unique approach to Spirit Christology: Gunton is represented by a radicalized version of Chalcedon Christology, and Macchia formulates his account through the overarching metaphor of “Spirit baptism.” Therefore, the doctrine of God, Christology, ecclesiology, and eschatology cannot be construed without a proper account of pneumatology that takes into consideration the eschatological perfecting work of the third person of the Trinity—who perfects creation’s koinonia as a gift from the Father through the grace of Jesus Christ.

Hitler's Theology investigates the use of theological motifs in Adolf Hitler's public speeches and writings, and offers an answer to the question of why Hitler and his theo-political ideology were so attractive and successful presenting an alternative to the discontents of modernity. The book gives a systematic reconstruction of Hitler's use of theological concepts like providence, belief or the almighty God. Rainer Bucher argues that Hitler's (ab)use of theological ideas is one of the main reasons why and how Hitler gained so much acquiescence and support for his diabolic enterprise. This fascinating study concludes by contextualizing Hitler's theology in terms of a wider theory of modernity and in particular by analyzing the churches' struggle with modernity. Finally, the author evaluates the use of theology from a practical theological perspective. This book will be of interest to students of Religious Studies, Theology, Holocaust Studies, Jewish Studies, Religion and Politics, and German History.