Books by Jason Goroncy
T&T Clark Handbook of the Doctrine of Creation, 2024
The T&T Clark Handbook of the Doctrine of Creation provides an expansive range of resources intro... more The T&T Clark Handbook of the Doctrine of Creation provides an expansive range of resources introducing the doctrine of creation as understood in Christian traditions. It offers an examination of: how the Bible and various Christian traditions have imagined creation; how the doctrine of creation informs and is informed by various dogmatic commitments; and how the doctrine of creation relates to a range of human concerns and activities.
The Handbook represents a celebration of, fascination with, bewilderment at, lament about, and hope for all that is, and serves as a scholarly, innovative, and constructive reference for those interested in attending to what Christian belief has to contribute to thinking about and living with the mysterious existence named 'creation'.
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Imagination in an Age of Crisis: Soundings from the Arts and Theology, 2022
This book explores the vital role of the imagination in today’s complex climates—cultural, enviro... more This book explores the vital role of the imagination in today’s complex climates—cultural, environmental, political, racial, religious, spiritual, intellectual, etc. It asks: What contribution do the arts make in a world facing the impacts of globalism, climate change, pandemics, and losses of culture? What wisdom and insight, and orientation for birthing hope and action in the world, do the arts offer to religious faith and to theological reflection?
These essays, poems, and short reflections—written by art practitioners and academics from a diversity of cultures and religious traditions—demonstrate the complex cross-cultural nature of this conversation, examining critical questions in dialogue with various art forms and practices, and offering a way of understanding how the human imagination is formed, sustained, employed, and expanded. Marked by beauty and wonder, as well as incisive critique, it is a unique collection that brings unexpected voices into a global conversation about imagining human futures.
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Published Essays by Jason Goroncy
Seeing Christ in Australia Since 1850, 2024
Strangely, Australian theologians have mostly been quite uninterested in pursuing the question of... more Strangely, Australian theologians have mostly been quite uninterested in pursuing the question of what an Australian Jesus might be like. This suggests an investment in a theological methodology at odds with the disruptive and inverting character of the presentations of Jesus offered in the Second Testament, wherein questions arising from particular contexts were considered basic for responsible theological work. Conversely, the figure of Jesus has occupied an endearing and idiosyncratic place in the broader Australian imagination. This essay represents an effort to listen to what two contemporary Australian artists—Nick Cave and Julie Dowling—make of Jesus and to consider some implications of their contributions for doing theology in Australia. Their work recognises that the question of Jesus’ identity and the countless cultures in which Jesus is woven cannot be unbraided, however interruptive and strange such a reality may prove to be. In testing the claim that it is only as a stranger that Jesus is ever a sign of the divine life among us, the essay is also an invitation to relinquish efforts to domesticate or homogenise Jesus. To experience this stranger is to experience one who ‘appears only in the moment in which we are dispossessed’ (Judith Butler) of them. This is the event that disrupts, disorients, and dissolves any sense one may enjoy of history’s continuity or possession. Recognition of this stranger is only ever the measure of our failure.
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Seeing Christ in Australia Since 1850, 2024
Strangely, Australian theologians have mostly been quite uninterested in pursuing the question of... more Strangely, Australian theologians have mostly been quite uninterested in pursuing the question of what an Australian Jesus might be like. This suggests an investment in a theological methodology at odds with the disruptive and inverting character of the presentations of Jesus offered in the Second Testament, wherein questions arising from particular contexts were considered basic for responsible theological work. Conversely, the figure of Jesus has occupied an endearing and idiosyncratic place in the broader Australian imagination. This essay represents an effort to listen to what two contemporary Australian artists—Nick Cave and Julie Dowling—make of Jesus and to consider some implications of their contributions for doing theology in Australia. Their work recognises that the question of Jesus’ identity and the countless cultures in which Jesus is woven cannot be unbraided, however interruptive and strange such a reality may prove to be. In testing the claim that it is only as a stranger that Jesus is ever a sign of the divine life among us, the essay is also an invitation to relinquish efforts to domesticate or homogenise Jesus. To experience this stranger is to experience one who ‘appears only in the moment in which we are dispossessed’ (Judith Butler) of them. This is the event that disrupts, disorients, and dissolves any sense one may enjoy of history’s continuity or possession. Recognition of this stranger is only ever the measure of our failure.
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Post-Christendom Studies, 2020
The thesis of this essay is that racism in Australia has explicitly Christian roots. In particula... more The thesis of this essay is that racism in Australia has explicitly Christian roots. In particular, these roots find their beginnings in the European story of Christendom. To defend that claim, the essay does three things. First, it traces the history of racism in Australia, mapping how immigration policies and practices regarding assimilation following the Second World War expose longstanding commitments to the idea of an Australia that is both “white” and “Christian.” Second, it explores how the roots of such racism intersect with and are sponsored by the “biological heresy” of Christendom and its practice of both politicizing and making “barbarians” of “the other.” Finally, it offers three brief theological reflections on the possibilities of an alternative Christian witness amidst the conditions mapped in the first two sections. Here the concerns are with conceptions of power, with what it means to speak of the Christian community as “the body of Christ,” and with the theological task itself.
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HTS Teologiese Studies/Theological Studies, 2019
From many Aboriginal elders, such as Tjangika Napaltjani, Bob Williams and Djiniyini Gondarra, to... more From many Aboriginal elders, such as Tjangika Napaltjani, Bob Williams and Djiniyini Gondarra, to painters, such as Arthur Boyd, Pro Hart and John Forrester-Clack, from historians, such as Manning Clark, and poets, such as Maureen Watson, Francis Webb and Henry Lawson, to celebrated novelists, such as Joseph Furphy, Patrick White and Tim Winton, the figure of Jesus has occupied an endearing and idiosyncratic place in the Australian imagination. It is evidence enough that ‘Australians have been anticlerical and antichurch, but rarely antiJesus’ (Stuart Piggin). But which Jesus? In what follows, I seek to listen to what some Australians make of Jesus, and to consider some theological implications of their contributions for the enduring quest for an Australian Jesus.
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Colloquium, 2019
In theological discourse about voluntary assisted dying, two of the most contested areas are thos... more In theological discourse about voluntary assisted dying, two of the most contested areas are those that relate broadly to matters of individualism, autonomy, and rights, and those that are concerned with interpretations around the sanctity of human life given by God. These two areas represent unavoidably difficult theological spaces, with profound implications for Christian theology, especially for theological anthropology and for theologies of death. Drawing upon a range of sources mostly from Christian traditions, this essay locates these two concerns in a broader milieu, and engages in some critical discussion around their theological complexities. It argues that fidelity to competing theological commitments presses against the temptation to make the terrain of relevant moral judgements incontrovertible.
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Journal of Reformed Theology, 2018
Among a growing body of recent scholarship that has shown interest in the geneses, definitions, a... more Among a growing body of recent scholarship that has shown interest in the geneses, definitions, and assessments of secularism is Brad Gregory’s book The Unintended Reformation. This essay begins with a brief assessment of Gregory’s thesis. By way of response, it then offers four reflections on what are live challenges for those Christian communities committed to a refusal to withdraw from sharing and creating common life with others, and for whom the various reformations of the sixteenth century remain critical for the formation of their identities. The reflections concern (1) the character and conditions of belief; (2) the existence of the church in late Christendom; (3) the church’s worldliness; and (4) the character of faithful public life. Each of these themes has pressing implications for the ongoing life of the reformed project.
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Pacifica, 2016
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HTS Teologiese Studies/Theological Studies, 2017
This essay begins by offering some observations about how holiness was comprehended andexpressed ... more This essay begins by offering some observations about how holiness was comprehended andexpressed in Victorian and Edwardian England. In addition to the ‘sensibility’ and ‘sentiment’that characterised society, notions of holiness were shaped by, and developed in reaction to, dominant philosophical movements; notably, the Enlightenment and Romanticism. It thenconsiders how these notions found varying religious expression in four Protestant traditions – he Oxford Movement, Calvinism, Wesleyanism, and the Early Keswick movement. Injuxtaposition to what was most often considered to be a negative expression of holinessassociated primarily with anthropocentric and anthroposocial behaviour as evidenced in thesetraditions, the essay concludes by examining one – namely, P.T. Forsyth – whose voice calledfrom within the ecclesial community for a radical requisition of holiness language as afundamentally positive reality describing the divine life and divine activity. The relevance of astudy of the Church’s understanding of holiness and how it sought to develop its doctrinewhile engaging with larger social and philosophical shifts endure with us still.
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International Journal of Practical Theology, 2017
The Christian faith is concerned not simply with what we might call “ideas” or “beliefs” but is a... more The Christian faith is concerned not simply with what we might call “ideas” or “beliefs” but is also profoundly attentive to the question “How then shall we live?” This essay suggests ten particular habits and convictions that undergird, make judgements about, and give shape to Christian faith communities committed to pursuing such a question in ways that embody theological integrity.
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Mission Studies, 2017
This essay attends to the relationship between our ethnic, social, and cultural identities, and t... more This essay attends to the relationship between our ethnic, social, and cultural identities, and the creation of the new communal identity embodied in the Christian community. Drawing upon six New Testament texts – Ephesians 2:11–22; Galatians 3:27–28; 1 Corinthians 7:17–24 and 10:17; 1 Peter 2:9–11; and Revelation 21:24–26 – it is argued that the creation of a new and prime identity in Christ does not abrogate other creaturely identities, even as it calls for the removal of such as boundary markers. Catholicity, in other words, is intrinsically related to the most radical particularity, and demands an ongoing work of discernment and of judgement vis-à-vis the gospel itself. Those baptized into Christ are now to live in the reality of Christ who is both the boundary and center of their existence, a boundary which includes all humanity in its cultural, ethnic, gendered, social and historical particularities.
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Pacifica, 2016
This essay introduces and explores some explicitly theological concerns in the work of the Orcadi... more This essay introduces and explores some explicitly theological concerns in the work of the Orcadian poet, novelist, and dramatist George Mackay Brown (1921–96). More specifically, its interest is with Brown’s presentation and treatment of the notion of time. Drawing on examples from a wide selection of his work, it is argued that Brown’s conversion to Roman Catholicism, and in particular his delight in the enchantment of the Mass, allowed him to exploit a distinctly Catholic sacramental theology and aesthetic of creation – its location, people, and history – appraised in light of the Eucharist.
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Always Being Reformed: Challenges and Prospects for the Future of Reformed Theology (edited by David H. Jensen), 2016
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Calvin: The Man and the Legacy (edited by Murray Rae, Peter Matheson and Brett Knowles), 2014
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Candour, 2013
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Evangelical Calvinism: Essays Resourcing the Continuing Reformation of the Church (edited by Myk Habets and Robert Grow), 2012
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Books by Jason Goroncy
The Handbook represents a celebration of, fascination with, bewilderment at, lament about, and hope for all that is, and serves as a scholarly, innovative, and constructive reference for those interested in attending to what Christian belief has to contribute to thinking about and living with the mysterious existence named 'creation'.
These essays, poems, and short reflections—written by art practitioners and academics from a diversity of cultures and religious traditions—demonstrate the complex cross-cultural nature of this conversation, examining critical questions in dialogue with various art forms and practices, and offering a way of understanding how the human imagination is formed, sustained, employed, and expanded. Marked by beauty and wonder, as well as incisive critique, it is a unique collection that brings unexpected voices into a global conversation about imagining human futures.
Published Essays by Jason Goroncy
The Handbook represents a celebration of, fascination with, bewilderment at, lament about, and hope for all that is, and serves as a scholarly, innovative, and constructive reference for those interested in attending to what Christian belief has to contribute to thinking about and living with the mysterious existence named 'creation'.
These essays, poems, and short reflections—written by art practitioners and academics from a diversity of cultures and religious traditions—demonstrate the complex cross-cultural nature of this conversation, examining critical questions in dialogue with various art forms and practices, and offering a way of understanding how the human imagination is formed, sustained, employed, and expanded. Marked by beauty and wonder, as well as incisive critique, it is a unique collection that brings unexpected voices into a global conversation about imagining human futures.