EO 37 (2020) by Kimberly Hope Belcher
Papers by Kimberly Hope Belcher
Theological Studies, Nov 28, 2022
Yearbook for Ritual and Liturgical Studies
Protest and reconciliation rituals play a contested but important role in social change. This ess... more Protest and reconciliation rituals play a contested but important role in social change. This essay analyzes how rituals of reconciliation effectively negotiate between competing factions and norms by using ritual techniques as embodied symbols. Against the horizon of theory from Victor and Edith Turner and Cas Wepener, participant observation of the Lutheran and Catholic Joint Commemoration of the Reformation “Common Prayer” in Lund, Sweden on October 31, 2016 reveals five stages: crisis/diagnosis, redress, forgiveness and acceptance, binding, and reparative mission. Each is marked by its own characteristic techniques, whereas some symbolic elements manifest the different stages throughout the liturgy. This liturgy demonstrates how one liturgy can speak to various factions and stages in the process of accommodating a new norm (Christian unity) within a contested set of identities (“Lutheran” and “Catholic”). It is in the stages of forgiveness and binding that the relationship betwe...
Eucharist and Receptive Ecumenism
Eucharist and Receptive Ecumenism
Eucharist and Receptive Ecumenism
Eucharist and Receptive Ecumenism
Eucharist and Receptive Ecumenism
Eucharist and Receptive Ecumenism, 2020
Hymns and Hymnody, Volume 1, 2020
Eucharist and Receptive Ecumenism, 2020
Religions, 2020
Contemporary sacramental theology construes the sacraments as a symbolic gift exchange between Go... more Contemporary sacramental theology construes the sacraments as a symbolic gift exchange between God and humanity; God initiates in the ministry of Jesus Christ, and human beings acknowledge and respond to God’s gift. The gratuity of that initial gift is ensured not only by reference to God’s all-sufficient nature, but also in many cases by excising economic value and economic exchange from the symbolic realm within which the sacramental gift exchange proceeds. This poses an intellectual and a practical problem. Intellectually, economic exchange is fundamentally symbolic and even ritualistic, so that the division between them is difficult to define and maintain. Practically, economic behavior is morally relevant, and the sacraments ought to give some purchase on marketplace behavior. In this essay, anthropological and economic work on “consumption rituals,” based on the work of Mary Douglas and Baron Isherwood, is brought to bear on defining the relationship between sacraments and eco...
All doctrinal development and debate occurs against the background of Christian practice and wors... more All doctrinal development and debate occurs against the background of Christian practice and worship. By attending to what Christians have done in the eucharist, Kimberly Belcher provides a new perspective on the history of eucharistic doctrine and Christian divisions today. Stepping back from the metaphysical approaches that divide the churches, she focuses on a phenomenological approach to the eucharist and a retrieval of forgotten elements in Ambrose's and Augustine's work. The core of the eucharist is the act of giving thanks to the Father – for the covenant and for the world. This unitive core allows for significant diversity on questions about presence, sacrifice, ecclesiology, and ministry. Belcher shows that the key is humility about what we know and what we do not, which gives us a willingness to receive differences in Christian teachings as gifts that will allow us to move forward in a new way.
Theological Studies, 2020
Eucharist and Receptive Ecumenism, 2020
All doctrinal development and debate occurs against the background of Christian practice and wors... more All doctrinal development and debate occurs against the background of Christian practice and worship. By attending to what Christians have done in the eucharist, Kimberly Belcher provides a new perspective on the history of eucharistic doctrine and Christian divisions today. Stepping back from the metaphysical approaches that divide the churches, she focuses on a phenomenological approach to the eucharist and a retrieval of forgotten elements in Ambrose's and Augustine's work. The core of the eucharist is the act of giving thanks to the Father – for the covenant and for the world. This unitive core allows for significant diversity on questions about presence, sacrifice, ecclesiology, and ministry. Belcher shows that the key is humility about what we know and what we do not, which gives us a willingness to receive differences in Christian teachings as gifts that will allow us to move forward in a new way.
Theological Studies, 2016
salvation, sin, or God’s suffering—but either closes them quickly or walks through without suffic... more salvation, sin, or God’s suffering—but either closes them quickly or walks through without sufficient explanation or elaboration. This can be distracting and leave the reader wondering why she places so much on the table that she has no intention of developing in this particular work. She admits that it is impossible to adequately address each topic and integrate it fully into her theological anthropology, but this weakness remains. All in all, G.’s book is a resounding success. This creative work deserves to be studied by a wide audience of fellow scholars, graduate students, and those seeking to better understand the foundation of the question of innocent suffering.
Theological Studies, 2013
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EO 37 (2020) by Kimberly Hope Belcher
Papers by Kimberly Hope Belcher