Antonio Sison

"This breathtakingly beautiful, scholarly, and thought-provoking book is basically about one thing: doing justice to the incarnation. It is the doctrine that confesses not only that God became human, but that God became flesh, became material, thereby signifying the holiness of all God's creation. It is with this conviction that Antonio Sison embarks on a quest to 'midwife' the 'indigenous inculturation' present in a triptych of images from the 'folk Catholic imaginary' in Nairobi in Kenya, Chicago in the United States, and Manila in the Philippines. His purpose is, with a rich hermeneutic of suspicion, generosity, and serendipity, to bring the edges of theologizing to the center. In doing so, however, he reveals to us that, instead of a new theological hegemony (marginal replacing the center), the edges are actually the center."-From the Foreword by Stephen B. Bevans, SVD

This is, in effect, a companion to his earlier The Art of Indigenous Inculturation with three case studies that show how Christianity has made its home in local culture--along the way receiving new insights and modes of expression: "Intercultural Epiphanies represents my continuing journey to be in closer touch with inculturation from the side of the Global South. Here, local cultures, sedimented with the contingencies of colonial and sociopolitical history that often blur the outline of their cultural identity and heritage, are on a liberative pilgrimage toward self-realization, renewal, and, ultimately, intercultural reconciliation."

Traditionally, inculturation has referred to a strategy employed by Western missionaries to evangelize non-Christian cultures. But what does this look like from the other side, from the perspective of indigenous cultures of the Global South and immigrant-heritage cultures in the interstices of dominant cultures? Deep Inculturation features original essays by seven leading global theologians with a focus on what this inculturation looks like in particular contexts: Africa, Mexico, Japan, Australia, and Indonesia. Contributors include Agbonkhianmeghe E. Orobator, SJ; Marzanna Poplawska, PhD; ngel F. M ndez Montoya, PhD; Carmel Pilcher, RSJ, PhD; Ferdinand Okorie, CMF, PhD; and Christopher D. Tirres, PhD.

Forging an open-minded but reasoned dialogue between nine acclaimed titles of world cinema, and a range of theological perspectives that touch on the theme of human experience, World Cinema, Theology, and the Human offers fresh portals of insight for the interdisciplinary area of Theology and Film. In Sison’s approach, it is the cinematic representation of vivid humanity, not necessarily propositional statements about God and religion, that lays down a bridge to a conversation with theology. Thus, the book’s project is to look for the divine presence, written not on tablets of stone, but on "tablets of human hearts" depicted on screen by way of audiovisual language. Seeking to redress the interdiscipline’s narrow predilection for Hollywood blockbusters, the book casts its net wider to include a culturally diverse selection of case studies– from festival gems such as Singapore’s Be With Me and South Africa’s Yesterday, to widely-acclaimed sleeper hits such as Britain’s Slumdog Millionaire and New Zealand’s Whale Rider. The book will appeal to scholars of theology and religious/cultural studies interested in the Theology/Religion-Film interface, and, because of its commitment to an examination of film qua film, a crossover readership from film studies.

Forging an open-minded but reasoned dialogue between nine acclaimed titles of world cinema, and a range of theological perspectives that touch on the theme of human experience, World Cinema, Theology, and the Human offers fresh portals of insight for the interdisciplinary area of Theology and Film. In Sison’s approach, it is the cinematic representation of vivid humanity, not necessarily propositional statements about God and religion, that lays down a bridge to a conversation with theology. Thus, the book’s project is to look for the divine presence, written not on tablets of stone, but on "tablets of human hearts" depicted on screen by way of audiovisual language. Seeking to redress the interdiscipline’s narrow predilection for Hollywood blockbusters, the book casts its net wider to include a culturally diverse selection of case studies– from festival gems such as Singapore’s Be With Me and South Africa’s Yesterday, to widely-acclaimed sleeper hits such as Britain’s Slumdog Millionaire and New Zealand’s Whale Rider. The book will appeal to scholars of theology and religious/cultural studies interested in the Theology/Religion-Film interface, and, because of its commitment to an examination of film qua film, a crossover readership from film studies.