Joerg Rieger | |
---|---|
Born | August 3, 1963 |
Nationality | German and American |
Spouse | Rosemarie Henkel-Rieger [1] |
Ecclesiastical career | |
Religion | Christianity (Methodist) |
Church | United Methodist Church |
Ordained |
|
Academic background | |
Alma mater | |
Thesis | Approaches to the Real [3] (1994) |
Academic work | |
Discipline | Theology |
Sub-discipline | Constructive theology |
School or tradition | |
Institutions | |
Website | joergrieger |
Joerg Michael Rieger (born 1963) is a German and American [5] professor of Christian theology whose work emphasizes economic justice and political movements. Rieger is also an ordained minister of the United Methodist Church. [2]
Born on August 3,1963, [6] Rieger is Cal Turner Chancellor's Chair in Wesleyan Studies and Distinguished Professor of Theology at the Divinity School and the Graduate Program of Religion at Vanderbilt University. Previously he was the Wendland-Cook Endowed Professor of Constructive Theology at Perkins School of Theology,Southern Methodist University. He received a Master of Divinity degree from the Theologische Hochschule Reutlingen ,Germany,a Master of Theology degree from Duke Divinity School,and a Doctor of Philosophy degree in religion and ethics from Duke University. [7]
Rieger is the author and editor of more than 20 books and over 135 academic articles,which have been translated into Portuguese,Spanish,Italian,German,Korean,and Chinese. [8]
Rieger is editor of the academic book series New Approaches to Religion and Power with Palgrave Macmillan Publishers and,together with Kwok Pui-lan,he edits the academic book series Religion in the Modern World (Rowman and Littlefield). [8] [ failed verification ]
Rieger has lectured throughout the United States as well as internationally,including presentations in Argentina,Brazil,Costa Rica,Mexico,Canada,South Africa,Zimbabwe,Germany,Switzerland,Austria,Slovakia,the Netherlands,Belgium,England,Russia,Thailand,and China. [9]
Rieger is an activist constructive theologian [10] in the tradition of liberation theology. [11] Robert Wafawanaka has referred to Rieger as an "Occupy theologian" because he endorses the views of the Occupy movement and shares its ethos. [12] Rieger understands theology as functioning to support or transform reality,especially historical and contemporary economic systems. [13] His work focuses on economic class [14] and empire. [15] In politics,Rieger argues that religion and politics cannot easily be separated. [16]
Rieger describes his work as an effort to bring theology and contemporary liberation movements together. [17] His work addresses the relation of theology and public life,reflecting on the misuse of power in religion,politics,and economics. [a] His main interest is in developments and movements that bring about change and in the positive contributions of religion and theology. His work in theology draws on a wide range of historical and contemporary traditions,with a concern for manifestations of the divine in the pressures of everyday life. [9] [18] [19]
Rieger advocates for a materialistic spirituality centered on working to improve the material conditions of the marginalized. [20] He believes current economic systems are incompatible with the biblical conception of God. [21] Rieger has described economic ideologies as religions,and asserts that people typically assent to them as a matter of blind faith,not empirical evidence. He renounces the perceived hegemony of free market ideology offering Christian theology as an alternative. [22]
Rieger's criticizes the currently dominant economic system especially for increasing global economic inequality, [23] and also for poverty,distorting of the way people and their work are valued,and limiting control people have over their lives. [24] As a response to economic injustice,Rieger promotes solidarity with those negatively impacted by current economic processes [25] and encourages Christians to modify economic systems to promote the wellbeing of everyone. [26]
Rieger and Kwok Pui-lan coined the notion of deep solidarity, [27] which is a recognition that the community as a whole is harmed by the unjust system,not just a particular group to be paternalistically supported from a place of superiority or distance. [28] Within this framework,the presence of college-educated individuals participating in the Occupy movement is not lack of authenticity in their appeal for economic justice,but rather an achievement in helping a broader portion of the public identify themselves as oppressed and able to see inequality as a threat to society as whole. [29]
Year 383 (CCCLXXXIII) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Merobaudes and Saturninus. The denomination 383 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years.
Dorothee Steffensky-Sölle, known as Dorothee Sölle, was a German liberation theologian who coined the term "Christofascism". She was born in Cologne and died at a conference in Göppingen from cardiac arrest.
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Constructive theology is the redefinition or reconceptualization of what historically has been known as systematic theology.
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Political theology is a term which has been used in discussion of the ways in which theological concepts or ways of thinking relate to politics. The term is often used to denote religious thought about political principled questions. Scholars such as Carl Schmitt, a prominent Nazi jurist and political theorist, who wrote extensively on how to effectively wield political power, used it to denote religious concepts that were secularized and thus became key political concepts. It has often been affiliated with Christianity, but since the 21st century, it has more recently been discussed with relation to other religions.
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Kwok Pui-lan is a Hong Kong-born feminist theologian known for her work on Asian feminist theology and postcolonial theology.
Postcolonial theology is the application of postcolonial criticism to Christian theology. As in postcolonial discourse, the term postcolonial is often used without a hyphen, denoting an intellectual reaction against the colonial.
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