Teologia Wesleyana, Latino-Americana e Global: Uma homenagem a Rui de Souza Josgrilberg. Série Teologia Wesleyana Brasileira, Edição Espécial

The future of Wesleyan theology depends to a great extent on its ability to nurture an increasingly global conversation. Teologia Wesleyana, Latino- Americana e Global is a valuable contribution to that future. The book is part of the Série Teologia Wesleyana Brasileira, a series on Wesleyan theology published by the Faculdade de Teologia of the Brazilian Methodist Church. The series has the goal of fertilizing the fields of Wesleyan theology in Brazilian soil. It has produced books on scriptural hermeneutics, anthropology, pneumatology, and eschatology among others.The present book is a Festschrift to Rui de Souza Josgrilberg. The tribute is well deserved; Professor Josgrilberg is a Wesleyan systematic theologian whose decades of service to Methodist theological education in Brazil has led to the formation of what many recognize as the most significant centre for Methodist studies in Latin America. The essays that make up this homage cover a range of topics.First, the collection includes essays celebrating the teaching ministry of Rui Josgrilberg. Paolo Tarso de Oliveira Lockmann and Otoniel Luciano Ribeiro offer biographical sketches that highlight (with pictures) Josgrilberg's service as rector of the Faculty of Theology at the Methodist University of São Paulo. Essays by Bishop Adriel de Souza Maia and Almir de Souza Maia focus on the intellectual contributions of Professor Josgrilberg to the field of Methodist studies. Of special importance in this connection is Rui de Josgrilberg's consistent characterization of Methodist theology as a theology of caminho (the way). In Wesleyan theology there is a long-standing discussion as to whether Wesley's soteriology is best understood as an ordo salutis or a via salutis. Professor Josgrilberg decisively embraces the latter, not only because he understands the work of God's grace as dynamic, but because he understands that Methodism as a whole is born from the journey. The Wesleyan caminho is more of a march for holistic (social, personal, and ecological) holiness than a solo race to sanctity.Second, the collection contains essays reflecting on topics that are significant for Josgrilberg and Wesleyan theology. Tercio Machado Siqueira, Paulo Roberto Garcia, Ely Eser Barreto César, and Randy Maddox explore issues pertaining to scriptural interpretation. By variously bringing John Wesley, modern biblical scholarship, and the Latin American context into conversation with the Bible, these authors present a mosaic of what a homo unius libri should look like in the twenty-first century. Walter Klaiber and Claudio de Oliveira Ribero give us a compelling vision of a Wesleyan theology that takes its context seriously. In particular, both authors look for a Brazilian Methodist theology that stretches the Wesleyan quadrilateral by intentionally making space for the poor and for the natural creation. José Carlos de Souza, Levy da Costa Bastos, and Helmut Renders bring our attention to the Brazilian Methodist Church and to the challenges and promise of living in a Wesleyan way in a context where ecumenism is contested, the prosperity gospel is powerful, and popular religiosity is theologically ambiguous. These authors dispel the facile characterizations of Global Methodism common among First World Methodists. The Brazilian Methodist Church resists easy labels and categorizations. It is a Church that is growing numerically and at the same time faces a crisis of identity and mission. Turning to issues of moral theology, Manfred Marquardt, Jung Mo Sung, and Theodore W. Jennings Jr examine the shape of Christian life in the contemporary world. They do so in different ways: Marquardt by attending to the ethical implications of the doctrine of the imago Dei; Sung by exposing the challenges that globalization presents for holy living; Jennings by promoting a dialogue with Lenin. Finally, Blanches de Paula and Magali do Nascimento Cunha remind readers of the importance of practical theology for Methodists and seek to draw lessons from the Wesleyan movement for Christian engagement with modern media.Looking at Teologia Wesleyana, Latino-Americana, e Global as a whole, I have to admit that the results are uneven. Not surprisingly, some essays end up doing more of the heavy lifting and not all the authors are rowing in the same direction. More significantly, it is strange that a book that purports at one level to offer a Latin American theology does not include contributors from Latin America outside of Brazil. Nevertheless, the book accomplishes its goal. It honours Josgrilberg and his labours by presenting a vision of Wesleyan theol-ogy that is very Brazilian in origin and global in scope. For this reason, this book should be of interest not only to Brazilian Methodists but to the Wesleyan diaspora seeking to spread scriptural holiness throughout the world.

Fetched live from OpenAlex and de-inverted. Abstracts are not stored in this database: the inverted indexes are 8.6 GB of the frame’s 9.3 GB of text, and the host has 13 GB free.