Cross Border Faith

A lot of times when people hear that I study theology, they ask me if I'm a religious person or not. This has surprised me a bit since I don't remember anyone ever asking me this question back in Finland. Maybe this tells something about the cultural differences in my homeland compared to other parts of the world: we tend to keep religious matters to ourselves and hold them as more personal and intimate than elsewhere. I don't really mind when people ask me about my faith. Actually, I'm even begging for it. It's definitely not something that one should be hiding about. People don't " light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house ." (NIV) My problem is, however, that when I'm faced with a substantial question like this, I sometimes struggle to formulate a meaningful answer to it. By this, I don't mean that I'm insecure with my personal standpoint. Ho...

Last week me and two of my Chinese friends, Ziming (Anthony) and Chen decided to take a leave from Göttingen and discover a bit of the southern Germany. Our mission was to visit Stuttgart and Ludwigsburg, which is about 15 min up north from Stuttgart. The plan was to go on Wednesday noon and get back before Friday evening. We checked the Flixbus schedule and reserved an Airbnb residence for two nights from Karl-Pfaff-Straße 60 in Stuttgart. The weather was good and everything seemed clear and ready to go. Until... Well, things didn't get off to a great start. The Flixbus we meant to take was supposed to arrive at 12:20, but it proved to be a little more "flexible" with the schedule than that. It didn't show up at all. Or if it did, it left 20 minutes early (we saw this bus leaving, but weren't sure if it was ours). So, after waiting for more than an hour or so, me and the boys decided to give up and go to the Innenstadt for some beers. We were one hap...

Our time needs a new approach in theology. And I believe this new approach means a narrative. Without reading any textbooks or utilizing other sources for this writing, I'll make an attempt to capture what narrative theology means to my mind in general. I'm explaining things in simple layman's terms, so don't be alarmed if you're new to the theological field of study: this shouldn't be too hard for you to understand, I promise! Who doesn't love good, meaningful stories? A book with biblical themes found inside the St. Paulus Catholic Church. 1. What is narrative? Basically, a narrative means a story. It's a story-based approach in theology; an alternative route to systematic theology. So, instead of debating with philosophical concepts and using rhetorical skills to convince other people of our systematic constructs, we gaze upon the stories of each and every person's life. In this way, it helps to bring a person, an individual into focus a...