Kenarchy Journal: Volume 7, "Perfecting Love"
- Steve Schallert
- Jun 10
- 2 min read
The collaboration that is The Kenarchy Journal presents the research of academics and activists engaged in the politics of love. The Journal exists to advance applied academic research, and is published in partnership with the Jim Forest Institute for Religion, Peace and Justice as the Institute’s academic journal.
Kenarchy is a newly constructed word signifying an innovative, inclusive reconfiguration of Jesus’ politics of love. It is derived from ken(osis): emptying out sovereign power and replacing it with a love measured by readiness to die for the other, even one’s enemy, and archy: a way of ordering or relating in social space. It has been articulated over the last 15 years by a growing network of theologians and activists around original work begun with and on behalf of them by political theologian Roger Haydon Mitchell. (See Discovering Kenarchy: Contemporary Resources for the Politics of Love. Roger Haydon Mitchell and Julie Tomlin Arram eds. Wipf & Stock, 2014). While based unapologetically in the Jesus story as found in the four gospels of the Christian scriptures, and drawing on the theology of trinity and incarnation, it configures an inclusive politics of love as a gift to people of all faiths and none. We enthusiastically invite researchers and activists in the politics of love from other backgrounds to engage with us from their own perspective.
While kenarchy is a gift for everybody, those of us who configure the politics of love in these terms are strongly motivated to do so in a way that deeply penetrates existing socially constructed mind-sets. This is why we combine applied academic research and writing together with grassroots social, economic and political activism. Kenarchy developed initially as a form of political theology and we make no apology for that, but it now embraces a wide and interdisciplinary perspective relevant to the politics and theology of love.
KENARCHY JOURNAL VOLUME 7: Editorial
Sue Mitchell
The Great Music: Perfecting Love in Order and in Chaos
Sencer Thompson
At last Towards the Good: The Eschatology of St. Gregory of Nyssa
Jeffrey Mears
Old Testament Land Promises and the Justification of Violence in the Crusades
Faith A. Edwards
The Rise of Intercultural Theology and its challenge for Western and Non-Western Theologies
Paul Lancaster
The need for contextual theology in the modern world: An exploration of Minjung Theology
Johan Francis
The Double-Edged Sword of Proximity: the Dialectic of Hostility and Hospitality in Light of God’s Cruciform Love
Lenée Fuelling
How kenotic alignment reframes spiritual warfare prayer
Roger Haydon Mitchell
Book review: Apocalyptic Theopolitics: Essays and Sermons on Eschatology, Ethics, and Politics
Mike Love
Book Review: Faith, Politics, and Belonging: A Reflection on Identity, Complexity, Simplicity, and Obsession
Sam Tomlin
Book Review: FREEDOM- The Case for Open Borders
Mike Winter
Book Review: Reconciling Justice: Concepts of Justice in the Multireligious Context of Palestine/Israel
Robert Cohen
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