"What Does Theology Do, Actually?” Dialogue between Differing Theological Approaches

Dear Colleagues,

After a century of secularization expectations, not only religions but also their theologies remain prominent and significant in social formations and discourses. At the same time, under conditions of late-stage globalization, the extraordinary religious diversity of societies around the world has become more palpable—both in terms of persisting plurality of religious traditions and of the evolution of multiple, hybrid, and novel forms of religious expression.

In recognition of the social and religious complexities arising in such a situation, this Special Issue proceeds on the basis of the assumption that it is impossible to say what “theology” “is”. And yet, uses of the language of “theology” and “theologies” persist as a widespread, if diversely understood/practiced, and documentable social fact. Seen as social discourses or as a societal semantic, theologies exercise potentially profound contemporary social significance. How might the diversity of theologies and theological contexts, media, modalities, institutions, or other groupings be analyzed in relation to “theology” as a persisting global discourse in a way that avoids taking recourse to universalizing categorizations, on the one hand, but that goes beyond merely cataloguing contexts and terminological instances, on the other hand?

This Special Issue aims to curate a robust set of scholarly discussions of “approaches” to “theology” as an important contemporary “societal semantic”. For purposes of this issue, the term “societal semantic” can be understood most basically as any way that social groups communicate to and about themselves in processing their relations to the various other social groupings with which they interact. In so doing, two vectors help guide the field of vision: First, rather than defining theologies or doing theology, contributions are sought that focus on describing what theologies do in and for the communities in which they hold significance and as far as possible in those communities’ own perspectives. This is not, however, to call for an “outside” or “neutral perspective”. Rather, second, contributions are sought that explore mixings, interactions, co-operations, and dialogues among theological approaches, however “approach” may be defined. This might range from more familiar approaches like interreligious and ecumenical dialogue to more experimental and still evolving approaches like theological performance or the participation of theologians in ethics advisory boards and so on.

We are pleased to invite original articles and substantial reviews that advance the state of research on this important question, from a broad array of perspectives in the humanities (including theology) and social-sciences. Research topics may include (but are not limited to) the following:

• Discussions of the ways “approaches” are framed, such as, for example, “ecumenical dialogue, “interfaith/-religious dialogue”, “world Christianity”, “intercultural theology”, “contextual theology”, “comparative theology”, “constructive theology” etc. and in relation to the purposes and implementations of such approaches.
• Analyses of transcultural flows in theological discourses in relation, for example, to colonization, missionary activity, population migrations, mass media, or the digital revolution, and from postcolonial, deconial, digital-religions or other perspectives.
• Analyses of the social locations of theology from sociological perspectives, especially from cultural-scientific perspectives or in the sociology of institutions and sociology of knowledge;
• “Theology” or “theologies” as social discourse or semantic in critical comparison with other social discourses and semantics, such as, for example, “politics”, “science”, “religion”, “crisis”, “challenges”, “sustainability”, “nationalism”, “populism”, etc.
• Review essays on past and recent scholarship on theological “methods”, “types”, “schools”.

Since 2019, the “What Does Theology Do, Actually?” Project has undertakeen to contextualize and decenter modern European approaches to theology by looking at the diversity of ways theology is institutionalized, practiced, and lived in different confessional and academic settings in various parts of the world. The Special Issues aims to advance and expand those efforts in an exponential way.

We request that, prior to submitting a manuscript, interested authors initially submit a proposed title and an abstract of 400-500 words summarizing their intended contribution. Please send it to the Guest Editor (ikenna.okpaleke@uclouvain.be), or to the Assistant Editor of Religions (religions@mdpi.com). Abstracts will be reviewed by the Guest Editors for the purposes of ensuring proper fit within the scope of the special issue. Full manuscripts will undergo double-blind peer review. We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Prof. Dr. Ikenna Paschal Okpaleke
Dr. Matthew Ryan Robinson
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Religions is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1800 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• theological method
• global
• intercultural
• semantics
• ecumenical
• comparative
• praxis
• politics
• postcoloniality