Bahan di bawah ini merupakan kuliah terbuka yang disampaikan Dr. Olav Fykse Tveit, Sekretaris Umum dari Dewan Gereja-gereja se-Dunia (DGD). Kuliah terbuka ini diadakan dalam rangka Asian Ecumenical Course (AEC) di STT Jakarta pada tanggal 17 Mei 2013. Bahan diambil dari Forum Teologi dan Biblika di Grup Facebook, postingan dari Bung Novel Matindas.
Sebagai pengajar teologi, saya ingin membantu mahasiswa/i
untuk membangun pemikiran kritis teologianya.Berikut ini beberapa tips untuk membaca buku-buku teologia.
- Ketika anda membaca buku teologi,
jangan terburu-buru mengangguk-anggukkan kepala. Lebih baik gelengkan kepala,
sebagai tanda bahwa anda belum tentu setuju dengan penulis.
- Jangan terlalu mudah “mencap” ini adalah gaya penulis tertentu.Penulis-penulis seperti Anselmus, Calvin atau
Tillich mengubah-ubah style penulisannya yang ditujukan kepada audience dan konteks yang berbeda.
- Cobalah untuk melihat hutan dan bukan sekedar melihat pohon. Lihat secara keseluruhan dan bukan per bagian
(lokalitas) saja.
- Sebuah gambar
bernilai 1000 kata.Sebagian orang akan
beruntung dengan mendapatkan sebuah peta konsep.
- Setelah membaca, taruhlah buku, coba simpulkan argumen utama dari buku
tersebut dengan kata-kata anda sendiri.Jika anda belum bisa menyimpulkan, itu berarti anda belum menangkap inti
buku tersebut. Bacalah sekali
lagi.
Siapkan debat/diskusi dengan teman
atau pikiran anda sendiri. Untuk membantu pemahaman dan mempertajam analisa.
- Jika anda belum mengerti, beristirahatlah sejenak. Mungkin pikiran anda
sedang penuh.Sapalah temanmu di
Facebook, nge-tweet dan minumlah kopi.
- Tertawalah kencang-kencang.Ini
strateginya Mary Daly (teolog feminis) agar bisa tetap survive di sekolah Alkitab.
- Buatlah indeks buku tersebut secara pribadi.Buku yang kita baca biasanya sudah ada indeksnya, namun tidak
sesuai yang diperlukan.Tulislah konsep-konsep atau ide-ide penting dari
buku tersebut dan tuliskan juga halamannya agar mudah ditemukan.
- Belilah buku.Ini bukan untuk memperkaya penerbit.Memiliki buku berarti anda bisa menggarisbawahi, membuat catatan kecil dan memberi warna pada statement penting.
- Rentangkan ide-ide selebar-lebarnya. Ini tips dari Gayatri Spivak, yang
membuat dia menjadi teolog feminis, penganut Marxis dan Poststrukturalis pada
saat yang sama.
- Rancang sebuah peta perjalanan yang berbeda. Menelusuri jejak pemikiran dari
penulis dan coba buat plot yang berbeda (antithesis)
- Imajinasikan bahwa anda bisa bertemu dengan sang penulis. Apa yang anda akan
katakan kepada penulis? Apa yang anda tanyakan kepadanya?
Paul Tillich is generally considered one of
the century's outstanding and influential thinkers. After teaching theology and
philosophy at various German universities, he came to the United States
in 1933. For many years he was Professor of Philosophical Theology at Union
Theological Seminary in New York City, then
University Professor at Harvard
University. His books
include Systematic Theology; The Courage to Be; Dynamics of
Faith; Love, Power and Justice; Morality and Beyond; and Theology
of Culture. The New Being was published by Charles Scribner's Sons in 1955.
This material was prepared for Religion Online by Ted & Winnie Brock.
Mereformasi Kristologi: Dia Tidak Mati untuk Dosa-Dosaku
Oleh: Uskup John S. Spong
(Uskup Episkopal dari Newark, A.S.)
"Paham kayu salib sebagai pengorbanan bagi dosa-dosa dunia
adalah ide barbar yang didasarkan pada suatu
konsep primitif tentang Tuhan yang harus ditolak." [1]
Christian are often heard speaking of 'non-christian.' For example: "Mr A is now a Christian but he comes from a non-Christian family"; "There are many millions of non-Christians in Asia"; "Marriage between Christian and non-Christian"; "Followers of the non-Christian religions"; "Pakistan is a non-Christian nation"; "Christian dialogue with non-Christians." (And there are even such expressions as non-Methodist, non Presbyterian, non Evangelical). Obviously this is a convenient distinction. We regard all those who differ from ourselves as nons. We look at humanity as a whole, and then classify all those who are not Christians under the heading "non-Christians." It is as comprehensive as the sweeping distinction between proletariat and bourgeois; free nations and the Communist world.
Paul says that Christ is the Head, the Beginning, and the Firstborn of all creation. He is the Head of the total creation! 'In Him all things were created.' The same Christ is the head of the Church, the redeemed community. He is the Head, the Beginning and the Firstborn 'from the dead.' He is in everything pre-eminent. There are not two head, one for the creation and one for the Church. (Colossians 1:15-20)
Through this Head and for this Head all things 'in heaven and on earth' are to be reconciled. Reconciliation is the work of God through this all pre-eminent Christ. It took this fullness of Christ to accomplish reconciliation. The New Testament reconciliation is abundant reconciliation ('grace upon grace' -- John 1:16).
Education is ultimately concerned with man's relationship with the whole which is created 'in him.' Since this whole is now a reconciled whole in God in Christ (II Corinthians 5:19) man must be brought to realize the depth of this new educational arrangement. And is not this the grand theme and subject of education?
Thus, when we speak of reconciliation, we are speaking of salvation in which we find the goal of education. In this reconciliation, theology and education meet.
So if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you; leave your gift there before the altar and go, first be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift. (Matthew 5:23-24)
I see in this straightforward warning of the Lord an encounter between theology and education which is full of implications. How embarrassing and inconvenient it is to remember at the most sacred moment of divine worship that 'your brother has something against you.' The Lord says that you must delay your act of offering a gift. But you must not delay the act of reconciliation. Go! and be reconciled! Why cannot reconciliation be delayed? It is the work of the Head of the Universe and the Church. This is the mind of Christ the Reconciler, through whom the new age of worship has come.
Then does not Matthew 5:23-24 speak of the central concern of education theologically grounded? How can we find the genuine value of education apart from man's finding his place in the created and reconciled world? And how can education become real --- as real as the Word which became flesh (John 1:14) --- unless we go through the educational process of leaving our gift and have the new experience of "first being reconciled'! What a great theological educational value is discovered when we remember that our brother has something against us there in front of the altar!
The reconciliation is wrought in the freedom of God. God, in his freedom, acted 'in him' to reconcile the universe to Himself. The spirit of slavery, then, must not step into our education (Galatians 4:7). We remember, in our freedom, that our brother has something against us, and, in our freedom, leave our gift and go! When this happens education becomes a present and concrete life experience. What else is more present and more concrete than the experience of reconciliation? Is there anything more educational than the experience of reconciliation?
Sometime in the early sixties, while he was in prison, Paul wrote the message of the abundant reconciliation. 'remember my fetters!" (Colossians 4:18 cf. 3:10). He was an 'educated man' since he was able to place himself in the total saving history of God and speak of the freedom of Christian man even though he was in fetters. It seems to me that the value and character of education should be judged according to the degree to which it can bring man, in spite of all kinds of 'fetters' (you can name them!) to the experience of freedom in the context of God's act of reconciliation.
We must not say what we do not mean, particularly in relation to God. How very difficult that is! "You shall not make wrong use of the name of the Lord your God." (Exodus 20:7). Who among us can be free from this 'wrong use of the name of God?'
Ichthyology (what a big word!) is fish-understanding. (Ichthy - fish, logy - understanding). It speaks about fish. Theology (another big word) is God-undertanding. (theo - God, logy - understanding). It speaks about God. Fish understanding, I would think, is more direct than God understanding. The reason is obvious. Fish we can catch: from “teri” fish to sharks, from piranha to sarden. We can catch them and study their behaviour, dissect them and see their organs. We can take our time and consult other authorities when necessary. We have control over the fish, the object of our studies. God understanding is quite different. We cannot catch Him, watch Him or open Him up. ‘God is Spirit’ (John 4:24). In fish understanding man observes and studies fish. In God-understanding man is, as it were, studied by God. It is --- let me be a little confusing here --- an anthropology (man-understanding) by God, a very special kind of anthropology.
Recently I visited Tarus Theological School in Kupang, Timor, an eastern island of Indonesia. Tarus Theological School has fifty-five students and is located outside the city. As you enter you see many chickens because the school runs a poultry farm and students also breed chickens for their personal income. When I met the students I began my lecture by asking them:
I want to publish Kosuke Koyama's meditation. I always enjoyed reading his books. The first time i knew him, when i took Asian Contextual Theology class for master degree. My lecturer gave an assignment for me to discussed Koyama's theology, a well-known theory Water Buffalo Theology. And our class had an interesting discussion about his theology. Kosuke Koyama is senior lecturer in religious studies, University of Otago in Dunedin, New Zealand. He was a Japanese Kyodan missionary to the Church of Christ in Thailand, 1960-1968, teaching at Thailand Theological Seminary in Chiengmai. From 1968 to 1974 he was executive director of the Association of Theological Schools in Southeast Asia. Koyama died on March 25, 2009.
Di dunia selalu terdapat 2 pandangan yang saling bertentangan. Sebenarnya sih ada 3, tapi yang terakhir ini cuma jadi penonton doang. Engga ya engga tidak, netral, cari aman bahkan mungkin mengintai kesempatan dalam kesempitan. Mana yang menguntungkan, itulah yang dibelanya. Inkonsisten kata orang Barat. Namun berbahagialah bagi mereka yang punya prinsip.
Di kalangan gereja juga ada pertentangan apakah merokok itu boleh atau tidak? Bagi kalangan Pentakosta hukumnya haram (meminjam istilah teologi Arab), sementara golongan non Pentakosta tidak terlalu dipermasalahkan. Debat mengenai hal ini bisa membuat saraf kaku dan tekanan darah selalu ‘gigi lima’ apalagi sampai mengobrak-abrik ayat-ayat Alkitab.
