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Faculty Profiles
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JAMES
NIEMAN
 Three
books stand out as important markers along my scholarly journey.
One was published shortly after I began serving a congregation of
Iñupiaq Lutherans in Anchorage, Alaska. These marvelous people
lived out a complex faith, blending traditional native beliefs and
Protestant commitments in a fashion that often baffled me. Constructing
Local Theologies by Robert Schreiter helped me appreciate more
deeply what was going on and kindled my interest in contextual
theologies. Several years later, another text gave me a vantage
point on the rapidly changing scene in theology. Were there common
points of interest in the otherwise dizzying diversity of emerging
political and liberation theologies? Faith
in History and Society by Johannes Metz offered a credible
answer in both theology and method, and became my introduction to
practical theology as well. The final book perhaps sounds most
offbeat of all, but for me it was far from arcane. Like any
teacher of preaching, I knew the underrated world-shaping force
our words can bear. Even so, The
New Rhetoric by Chaïm
Perelman and Lucie Olbrechts-Tyteca
completely reshaped my thinking in this area, driving me beyond
the classical patterns I knew and into a contemporary way of
naming the social impact of language. In sum, each of these books
gave me new ways to think at key moments when the way ahead was
anything but clear.
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Contact
Info:
Hartford Institute for Religion Research
77 Sherman Street
Hartford, CT 06105 USA
Telephone: 860/509-9543
Fax: 860/509-9551
Email: jnieman@hartsem.edu |
Visit
Dr. Nieman's web page
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Hartford Institute for Religion Research Web Site |
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