Clear assessment of our needs in a global society, and sound creative solutions from an Oceanic perspective and beyond, form the subject matter of this book. Here, the cries of suffering from women in violent relationships, people yearning for growth and dignity, others with mental and emotional trauma, and mother Earth herself are heard, and enlist support and direction from those whose energy and insight are centred in faith, hope and love and firmly anchored in Christian professional academic endeavour. The book is patterned after the woven mats, roof and sails of the great ocean-going canoe to image the diversity of content of this extraordinary gathering of hearts, hands and minds. While it reflects the global scholarly Christian concern and outreach indicative of our times, and a theological approach that is interactive and interdependent, it reveals a ‘weaving’ that is unfinished because the voyage must continue onwards, in an attitude of deep listening and open questioning. As such, the work gathered here represents an energetic contribution towards courageous engagement in the travail that characterises our extraordinary transitional era as we move towards a new consciousness, and the book will be of particular interest to academic theologians, educationalists, Church authorities and pastoral workers from the Oceanic region. However, it will also inspire and inform comparable groups from other parts of the world simply because what is presented here has universal implications.

Clear assessment of our needs in a global society, and sound creative solutions from an Oceanic perspective and beyond, form the subject matter of this book. Here, the cries of suffering from women in violent relationships, people yearning for growth and dignity, others with mental and emotional trauma, and mother Earth herself are heard, and enlist support and direction from those whose energy and insight are centred in faith, hope and love and firmly anchored in Christian professional academic endeavour. The book is patterned after the woven mats, roof and sails of the great ocean-going canoe to image the diversity of content of this extraordinary gathering of hearts, hands and minds. While it reflects the global scholarly Christian concern and outreach indicative of our times, and a theological approach that is interactive and interdependent, it reveals a 'weaving' that is unfinished because the voyage must continue onwards, in an attitude of deep listening and open questioning. As such, the work gathered here represents an energetic contribution towards courageous engagement in the travail that characterises our extraordinary transitional era as we move towards a new consciousness, and the book will be of particular interest to academic theologians, educationalists, Church authorities and pastoral workers from the Oceanic region. However, it will also inspire and inform comparable groups from other parts of the world simply because what is presented here has universal implications.

"For the first time, women's theological reflections from South Pacific nations have been gathered together in a published volume. This historic achievement represents the collective vision, will, energy, and commitment of women representing a broad cross-section of Pacific Islands ethnic and church communities. This work is not a publication merely for women, but it is a valuable ground-breaking contribution to the development of theology in Oceania and a gift to the churches of the Pacific and the worldwide church. It will be required reading the theological studentsm pastors, and laity across the region. The book has much to offer to the fields of women's and feminist theologies, contextual and non-western theologies, and to all in the worldwide church family who are open to hearing and learning from their sisters in this part of the world."--Back cover.

In a sense, Oceania can be considered a microcosm of World Christianity. Within this region are many of the same observable trends on the global level that impact Christian life, faith, and witness. The geography of Oceania--the "liquid continent"--is unique. Christianity arrived in Australia and New Zealand in the late eighteenth century via British colonial powers. Indigenous Aboriginal peoples, Torres Strait Islanders, and Māori peoples were dispossessed of land, property, rights, and dignity. Christianity grew by migration and conversion (not always voluntary), and over time became tightly intertwined with culture. In the twentieth century, rapid secularization moved Christianity into the private sphere, and by 2020 Christian affiliation had dropped from 97 percent to 57 percent. However, the history of Christianity in the Pacific Islands--Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia--is quite different. Christianity arrived via Protestant and Catholic missionaries between the fifteenth and nineteenth centuries and grew substantially in the twentieth century largely due to indigenous Christian efforts. Islanders brought Christianity to neighboring islands, indigenous theologies developed, and churches gradually separated from their Western mission founders. One of the great "success stories" of World Christianity is Papua New Guinea, which grew from just 4 percent Christian in 1900 to 95 percent in 2020. However, growth is never the entire story. Violence against women is endemic in Papua New Guinea and is often combined with accusations of witchcraft. An estimated 59 percent of women have experienced physical or sexual violence in their lifetime (and 48 percent in the last year). As Christianity continues its shift to the global South, it becomes increasingly critical to heed the experiences, perspectives, and theologies of Christians, particularly women, in the Pacific Islands.

Practical theology has become a well-established academic discipline in Britain and Ireland over the past half century, evidenced in its chairs, journals, books, conferences, and contribution to transformed practices. The British and Irish Association for Practical Theology (BIAPT) and its journal, Practical Theology, has had a significant role to play in the story of the discipline. This volume is a celebration of practical theology in Britain and Ireland in all its inventiveness and variety on the occasion of BIAPT’s twenty-fifth birthday. It offers an account of its roots in its emergence from the Scottish Pastoral Association in the 1960s, its trajectories established in the journal Contact/Practical Theology and how human experience has been a constant companion on the journey. The book considers a range of methodologies including engagement with popular culture, public theology, the arts, and the importance of conversation. It explores new shoots in the discipline that consider how sexuality, ethnicity, and different religious traditions may be addressed within practical theology. It concludes by asking how it may be fruitful in the future, by reflecting on the challenges ahead, not least the ubiquity of ignorance. This is a landmark text in the unfolding of British and Irish practical theology in all its glorious distinctiveness, which promises to be a major contribution to international debate in the discipline. The chapters in this book were first published in Practical Theology.

Socio-Anthropological Approaches to Religion: Environmental Hope interprets the fundamental functions of spirituality through the theories and practices of hope and understanding the futuristic aspiration of new religious movements. The book portrays a neutral notion of hope that can be either religious or humanistic in the face of the suffering or despair of present reality. The concept of hope (or hopelessness) is demonstrated in each chapter under the global circumstance of health risk. Part One represents the various theories of hope in Christian history, ecology and climate, the Sabbath and surveillance, and the triune God. The insecure situation that creates the expectation of hope is demonstrated in Part Two, where the case studies of terrorist attacks, immigration, volunteering behavior, religious education, and medieval Islamic tradition indicate social unbalance. The last section illustrates the cultural anthropology of hope through the activities of different native new religious movements including the Moonies’ Unification movement, Yoruba Nigerian indigenous spirituality, and Cosmovisions of Sepik New Guinea. This book examines hope as a crucial element of human’s internal healing beyond medical technology.

This history of the Catholic Church in Asia and the Pacific illuminates the processes of globalization Since the sixteenth century, Catholicism has contributed significantly to global connectivity. Except for the Philippines and Timor-Leste, Catholicism in Asia is, and is likely to remain, a minority religion. For this reason, it can serve as a unique prism through which to look at the processes of globalization in Asia. Asian Pacific Catholicism and Globalization demonstrates to scholars and students of Catholic history that the development of Catholicism in Asia and later in the Oceania-Pacific region is closely associated with three different phases of globalization. This book approaches the historical processes of globalization not as structural agencies or causal forces, but rather as the historical contexts that condition possibilities for human action and reaction in the world. The editors identify three distinct phases in the development of Catholicism in Asia and Oceania: early modern (sixteenth–eighteenth centuries), modern Western hegemony (1780s–1960s), and the contemporary (1960s–present). The book’s contributors discuss the development of Catholicism in all the major countries of the region, including China, Japan, South Korea, the Philippines, Vietnam, India, and Australia.