Peace building in our societies should be central to Christian theology. In a postcommunist culture as is the case of Romania, part of the task of Christian theology is to construct the proper trajectories to peace building by looking back at the time when the Church was trapped in dictatorial clutches. Referring to the Pentecostal Church in Romania, we will see that the best way of bringing to light the possible contributions towards peace building is by making use of the (...) category of “imaginary”. This category helps us both to uncover the decisive identity markers of a given spirituality and to find those much-needed contributions towards peace building. (shrink)

This article focuses on the relevance of religious traditions of self-restraint, particularly Sabbath and Nyepi, in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. From an economic perspective, the pandemic interrupts a lifestyle marked by an unceasing process of production and consumption that affects almost all aspects of life. Such a lifestyle, known as ‘productivism’, has been confronted with ‘anti-productivism’ promoted by groups of Marxism-inspired intellectuals and activists. Employing the method of public theology, this study reveals that religious traditions of self-restraint prepare (...) humanity to anticipate interruptions of regularity, such as a pandemic, in a way that is critical of productivism yet distinct from anti-productivism. From a spiritual perspective, the pandemic and religious traditions of self-restraint should be perceived as synergistic appeals to a balanced lifestyle that is socially, economically, and ecologically harmonious. (shrink)