“Theological animation” is a holistic pedagogy seeking to integrate disciplines of popular education, evangelism, political organizing, pastoring and theological reflection. At the center of this approach is the practice of relectura: a “rereading” of the Bible in light of concrete struggles against violence and oppression past and present.
by Ched Myers A Chapter in Earth and Word: Classic Sermons on Saving the Plante, edited by David Rhoads, Continuum, pp 211-223. 8 pp. IN MID-FEBRUARY OF 2005 a 73-year old nun was murdered by ranchers near Anapu, Brazil because of her attempts to halt the illegal logging of the rainforest. Dorothy Stang, a Notre…
by Ched Myers A chapter in: Mark, Gospel of Action: Personal and Community Responses, edited by John Vincent, London:SPCK. 12 pp. Nearly two years after U.S. President George W. Bush declared the second war with Iraq officially over, British and American soldiers remain mired in an increasing violent and controversial occupation of that country. As…
By Ched Myers Bartimaeus Cooperative Ministries E-News. 7 pp. I didn’t grow up in the church. When I came to faith at age 18 I had no experience with the Bible, and I remember my first connection with it. I was reading about Jesus’ feeding with the loaves and fishes, and was excited by the…
By Ched Myers In Getting on Message: Challenging the Christian Right from the Heart of the Gospel, ed. by Peter Laarman, Boston: Beacon Press, 2006, pp. 51-67. 9 pp In the first-century Pax Romana, Christians had the difficult and demanding task of discerning how to cling to a radical ethos of life – symbolized preeminently…
By Ched Myers Wipf & Stock (reprint of 1968 edition). 4 pp. “We have assumed the name of peacemakers, but we have been, by and large, unwilling to pay any significant price,” Daniel Berrigan wrote in the wake of his famous Catonsville Nine anti-war protest in 1968. “And because we want the peace with half…
By Ched Myers Bible in TransMission (U.K.). (Note: A short version of “The Radical Nonviolent Witness of Jesus, May 2009). 9 pp. Rev. James W. Lawson, a retired Methodist minister in his 80s now, has been a major figure in faith-based activism in the U.S. One of Martin Luther King Jr.’s closest colleagues in the…
By Ched Myers A sermon delivered at Greenbelt Festival, UK, August. 4, 2004. 4 pp. To the hardworking organizers of this amazing Greenbelt gathering; to the campers soldiering through the mud; to all the beautiful families, teenagers, and elders; to the artists and musicians andpoets—and all of us who wish we were; to the crews…
By Ched Myers Entries in The Encyclopedia of Religion and Nature. Edited by Bron Taylor. NY: Continuum. 9 pp. The Fall story of Genesis 1-11 is not only a theological text. It is also an etiological narrative (a story about origins) concerning the rise of civilization in the late Neolithic period. Since the mid-19th century…
By Ched Myers The Living Pulpit. 5 pp. Mark’s gospel portrays Jesus interacting with children in two vignettes that appear close to each other (Mk 9:36-37 and 10:13-16) in a sequence of teaching episodes I call the “discipleship catechism” (1988:235ff). Both episodes begin with almost identical stage directions (Jesus “takes them in his arms,” using…
By Ched Myers A chapter in: The New Testament: Introducing the Way of Discipleship, edited by Sharon Ringe and Wes Howard Brook. Orbis Books. 19 pp. The great Hebrew prophet Isaiah envisioned a day in which Israel’s God would “destroy on this mountain the net that is cast over all peoples, the veil that is…