Wiley: Dialog: Table of Contents

Resonance in Theology – Theology in Resonance

Jan‐Olav Henriksen, Niels Henrik Gregersen — Mon, 30 Mar 2026 04:01:56 -0700

Dialog, Volume 65, Issue 1, Page 8-8, Spring 2026.

Spirituality and Mercy—Or, a Crisis of Spirituality's Making

Vincent Evener — Mon, 30 Mar 2026 04:01:56 -0700

Dialog, Volume 65, Issue 1, Page 3-7, Spring 2026.

Ordinary Faith in Polarized Times: Justification and the Pursuit of Justice

David A. Brondos — Mon, 30 Mar 2026 04:01:56 -0700

Dialog, Volume 65, Issue 1, Page 50-51, Spring 2026.

The Promise and Peril of AI and IA. New Technology Meets Religion, Theology, and Ethics

Julius Trugenberger — Mon, 30 Mar 2026 04:01:56 -0700

Dialog, Volume 65, Issue 1, Page 52-53, Spring 2026.

Bondage Instead of Freedom? How Can Lutheran Theology Prevent the Use of Sola Scriptura as an Entrance to Pathological Theology?

Jan‐Olav Henriksen — Mon, 30 Mar 2026 04:01:56 -0700

ABSTRACT

The principle of Sola Scriptura was originally intended to liberate the Church from external authorities, ensuring that no power other than the Word of God dictated its teachings and practices. It served a critical role over against human authorities that demanded obedience to doctrines and practices that were not grounded in Scripture. The following analysis explores the shadow side of this principle, inspired by some elements in the psychology of religion. The reason for this approach is that the meaning of theology is not found solely in its articulation but in its practical effects—how it orients life, shapes identity, and enables or constrains human flourishing. To examine this, I will also employ Hanna Reichel's concept of theology as design. Her approach addresses “bad theology,” or theology that fosters pathological dynamics, and this can also be the case with the principle in question.

Christian Faith, Contingencies, and Resonance

Jan‐Olav Henriksen — Mon, 30 Mar 2026 04:01:56 -0700

ABSTRACT

How are experiences shaping how people understand, relate to, and see Christian faith and doctrine as relevant in their lives? It can be argued that this is due to how such doctrines can relate to and interpret their experiences of contingency and resonance. This approach entails elements that can help understand the quest for experiences with religion within a larger theoretical framework and point to some of the implications that can be derived from a theoretical approach that addresses a specific understanding of Christian—and especially Lutheran—theology. A main idea here is that the contemporary discussion about the uncontrollable features of reality corresponds to and supports the notion of the human being as being referred to something other than its own agency.

From Recognition to Resonance: Insights for Lutheran Theology From Hartmut Rosa's Critique of Honneth

Mikkel Gabriel Christoffersen — Mon, 30 Mar 2026 04:01:56 -0700

ABSTRACT

This article engages Hartmut Rosa's critique of Axel Honneth's theory of recognition to reconsider Lutheran interpretations of the doctrine of justification. While recognition theory has offered fruitful resources for articulating justification as divine recognition, it also risks reducing faith to a form of moral validation. Drawing on Rosa's concept of resonance, the article argues that justification can also be understood as an uncontrollable, transformative event in which God addresses human beings and evokes faith as response. Through a systematic comparison of recognition and resonance, the article explores possible implications for faith, the good life, world relations, divine–human mutuality, and social struggle. It proposes that resonance expands Lutheran theology by addressing contemporary experiences of alienation and spiritual muteness, reframing justification as participation in a living, responsive relation to God with consequences for relations to the world.

Resonance Theory as a Resource for Diakonia: A Contribution to Social Practice in the Church

Helmuth Liessem — Mon, 30 Mar 2026 04:01:56 -0700

ABSTRACT

Diakonia, grounded in theological anthropology and oriented toward inclusion, justice, and care, requires sociologically attuned frameworks capable of interpreting contemporary forms of social fragmentation and vulnerability. Rosa's resonance theory provides such a framework by conceptualizing human–world relations as potentially transformative encounters characterized by mutual affectivity, self-efficacy, and openness. Crucially, resonance cannot be instrumentalized; it emerges only under conditions that allow subjects and their environments to “speak” with their own voices.

The article argues that diakonia can foster resonance axes—horizontal, vertical, diagonal, and intra-subjective—through practices such as community building, ritual participation, pastoral care, and advocacy work. These axes secure conditions for participatory agency while avoiding authoritarian or efficiency-driven modes that inhibit resonance. Moreover, resonance theory illuminates diakonia's longstanding engagement with vulnerability: resonant relations presuppose trust and exposure, both of which are undermined in late modern contexts marked by structural acceleration, control regimes, and competitive pressures.

Finally, the article highlights the potential of religious practices to cultivate “listening hearts” and counter political alienation, thereby contributing to more dialogical democratic cultures. Resonance thus offers diakonia a critical lens for evaluating social structures and a constructive framework for shaping relational, inclusive spaces.

Ecology in Hartmut Rosa's Theory of Resonance: A Four‐Level Reconstruction

Niels Henrik Gregersen — Mon, 30 Mar 2026 04:01:56 -0700

ABSTRACT

This article discusses Hartmut Rosa's sociological theory of resonance with special emphasis on religion and ecology. In Rosa, resonance experiences refer to (always) participatory and (normally) enlivening world relations. I argue that Rosa's resonance theory is multi-pronged and covers at least three interconnected levels. (1) At the phenomenological level, Rosa points to ever-fleeting experiences of resonance and more long-lived axes of resonance. (2) At the sociological level, he analyzes the structural conditions that either promote or inhibit an openness to resonance among late modern citizens. (3) At the philosophical level, Rosa argues that resonance constitutes basic and primordial ways of being-in-the-world more fundamental than alienation. Adding to Rosa's sociological theory, I propose (4) the level of a pre-cultural world of ‘natural resonance’ ubiquitously ingrained in the more-than-human world. Natural resonance is presented as a prelude to Rosa's sociological theory, which supports his constitutive view of resonance by fueling human existence below the threshold of awareness. In discussion with Bruno Latour, it is argued that Rosa's resonance theory links religion, ecology, and ethics without reducing them to one another.

What Makes a Christian Life Alive? On Call and Creation in N.F.S. Grundtvig and Jean‐Louis Chrétien

Anders Skou Jørgensen — Mon, 30 Mar 2026 04:01:56 -0700

ABSTRACT

According to 19th-century Danish theologian and poet N.F.S. Grundtvig, Christianity truly comes alive when it is freely expressed in the congregation through confession of faith, preaching, song, and praise. This article presents a contemporary systematic reading of Grundtvig's important essay, The Christian Signs of Life, alongside his hymn There Sat a Fisherman Deep in Thought, which depicts the conversion of Simon. It is argued that Grundtvig's hymn may be taken to show not only what it means to be called to a Christian life, but also the necessity of contemplation, as well as the movement from contemplation to action. To further elaborate on Grundtvig's insights, the article draws upon 20th-century philosopher Jean-Louis Chrétien's work concerning the call and the response. By reading Chrétien alongside Grundtvig's hymn Creation, it is shown how being called may be understood as a foundational moment not only in discipleship, but in Creation as such.

Issue Information

Mon, 30 Mar 2026 04:01:56 -0700

Dialog, Volume 65, Issue 1, Page 1-1, Spring 2026.

When God Does Not Answer: Prayer, Silence, and Response in the Age of AI

Anna Cho — Thu, 26 Mar 2026 05:38:10 -0700

ABSTRACT

This article examines how artificial intelligence reshapes expectations of response within Christian prayer and spirituality. While AI systems generate immediate and linguistically coherent outputs, such responses remain non-intentional and lack ethical and ontological responsibility. Drawing on speech act theory, the study clarifies the distinction between simulated responsiveness and divine address. Prayer is interpreted as a performative practice marked by waiting, vulnerability, and openness to transformation, while divine silence is understood not as absence but as a mode of temporality. Rather than proposing a new spirituality, the article offers a speech act-theological clarification of classical Christian spirituality under altered linguistic conditions.

Kierkegaard and Luther

Allen G. Jorgenson — Sat, 28 Feb 2026 04:44:31 -0800

Dialog, EarlyView.

“We Can't be Quiet. We Can't Sit Back.”: Examining the Indecent Eco‐Theology Praxis of Christian Environmentalists in Trump's America

Margrethe Kamille Birkler, Emily Jean Cornwell, Rebecca Leigh Rutt — Fri, 30 Jan 2026 23:01:11 -0800

ABSTRACT

In this time of crises, we analyze whether and how Christian environmentalism in the United States embodies ‘indecent eco-theology’ (IET): a critical theological approach centering the experiences of especially marginalized groups in (re)defining Christianity alongside action toward eco-justice. Using qualitative research and a case study, we examine how one organization is challenging dominant U.S. political and Christian norms that ignore ecological concern, and instead forwards an eco-justice-, practice-based faith. Specifically, we document the iterations between their practice and theological perceptions, advancing an interdependence with the more-than-human world while destabilizing dominant theological assumptions of the linear path from perception to practice. We also explore how they understand and mobilize ‘justice’, intersectionality, and engage with marginalized groups and the more-than-human world. Throughout, we draw insights to advance IET. Our findings thus reveal the organization's resonance with IET alongside the particularities that emerge from a situated case study that are fruitful for further theoretical development.

Reflections on Demonic Activity, the Reality of Hell, and Universalism

Richard E. Gallagher — Thu, 14 Aug 2025 19:16:14 -0700

ABSTRACT

This article addresses several critical questions of current vexed debates about the existence of evil spirits, the nature of hell, and the possibility of human damnation. First, it explores the evidential sources and plausibility of traditional notions of demonic activity and hell. Second, it presents a theological understanding of related subject matter that confuses and disturbs so many modern individuals while discussing the trend of not a few contemporary Christian theologians’ opting for universalism.