This essay begins with a retrospective survey of theological responses to psychology over the last seventy-five years. These are organized by the way in which they have been shaped by two underlying religious concerns: the necessity to defend against the diminishment of the human as oriented to the transcendent (the “Catholic” position) and the concern to protect the divine against its reduction to the merely human (the “Protestant” position). In the final two sections of the essay I consider how, prospectively, the theological appropriation of psychology may enter a new phase first with a reformulation of the task of theological reflection, exemplified by Tracy's model of mutual critical correlation, and secondly by the emergence of neopsychoanalytic theory as a new dialogue partner with theology. The potential significance of the latter is explored by examining its influence on the soteriological projects of Jürgen Moltmann and Sebastian Moore.

This article examines the “Message” of J.B. on the basis of internal evidence from the play and direct comments by its author, Archibald MacLeish. The conclusion is that the play dismisses God as a significant factor in human experience and substitutes human love as providing an island of meaning. A reading of Job, based on the thesis that the work is ironical throughout, comes to a similar conclusion that the final author/redactor of Job also dismisses God but that he provides no new island of meaning for humanity. Thus MacLeish may be nearer to the mainstream of the canonical tradition than the final text of Job.

The promise of Christian ethics is its contribution to the forging of covenants of mutual assistance among human creatures in the variety of human activities. Such covenants bear witness to the work of the covenanting God. The pathos of Christian ethics, however, concerns the difficulty of making the language and reality of covenant intelligible in a culture bound to an ideal of autonomy. Christian ethical reflection concerning abortion and the value of unborn human life must attend to both features if it is to remain fully concrete in its faithfulness.

This paper compares the shamanism of seventeenth-century Indians in southern New England with the religion of the New England Puritans. The paper identifies shamanic elements within Puritan religion, focusing particular attention on the visionary experiences and social control the Puritans gained through praying, preaching, reading, and writing. Although the literacy and moralism essential to Puritan religion were absent in seventeenth-century Algonquian shamanism, the powers of Puritan literacy and moralism can be understood in shamanic terms.

In the encyclopedic poetry of one of Islam's most prominent mystics, Jalāl ad-Dīn Rūmī (1207-73), one can discover a great deal about the main lines of classical Islamic cosmology and psychology. Conceiving of all of creation as a mirror with two sides, both of which have their reflective values, Rūmī describes both the macrocosm and the microcosm as theaters of divine revelation. In the end, one must come to know God's reflection in the intimacy of the solitary heart; but the cosmos will do for a start. Through his classic understandings of space, time, causality, the evolution of consciousness, and the attractive power of like beings in creation, Rūmī tells of Creation's potential for making known the Creator. And in his images of body, spirit, intellect, and heart, the poet limns the outlines of the essentially human. In the process, he proceeds from macrocosm to microcosm and back; for just as the heart of the individual is the locus of God's reflection in the person, His prophets are as Heart to the Body of the cosmos, in their function of revealing the divine presence and word.

Henri de Lubac and Hans Urs von Balthasar have criticized my “Theology of Hope” as being written “messianically” in the spirit of Joachim de Fiore and grounded from an Old Testament-Jewish perspective, whereas they claim true Christian hope is “present” in character and oriented vertically: not the future but the heavenly eternity is its fulfillment. Because both of them call upon Thomas Aquinas I have undertaken in this article a dialogue with Joachim de Fiore and Thomas Aquinas in order to elucidate my own position in conversation with them: the biblically grounded Christian hope is directed toward the parousia of Christ and sees in it future for Israel and future for the world. Chiliasm and eschatology designate the immanent and the transcendent sides of this future of Christ. Christian hope is messianic hope in the horizon of eschatological expectation.

Is it possible to write contemporary scripture? This discussion highlights the pedagogical value not only of teaching with primary resource materials, but also of having students creatively rewrite sacred texts. First, I discuss the purpose of a religious studies journal, and then provide some practical guidelines for journal-keeping along with suggestions for grading them. Secondly, I focus upon one type of creative journal exercise—rewriting sacred texts. In response to Ira Progoff s statements that we can create the Bibles of the world anew by recording images drawn up from our depth consciousness, I encourage students to write scripture-styled passages which deepen their appreciation for and understanding of sacred texts. To conclude, I provide six sample creative journal exercises, one from each of the sacred texts read in my Eastern Religions classes, along with several student responses.