Balkan Contextual Theology

Stipe Odak is a Lecturer and Postdoctoral Researcher at the Université Catholique de Louvain (Belgium).Zoran Grozdanov is an Assistant Professor at the University Centre for Protestant Theology Matthias Flacius Illyricus at the University in Zagreb, Croatia.

• Introduction: Balkan the Unifier and Balkan the DividerStipe Odak and Zoran GrozdanovPart I: Religion, Politics, Identity 1. Religion and National/Ethnic Identity – Theological and Contextual Positions in IslamEnes Karić2. Religion and National/Ethnic Identity – Theological and Contextual Positions in OrthodoxyVukašin Milićević3. Divided Ecumenism – Christian Churches at the Fault LinesRadmila Radić and Neven Vukić4. IncarNation: On the Possibilities of Balkan Contextual TheologyZoran Grozdanov5. Gender and Religion in The Balkans: The Example of Croatia and Bosnia and HerzegovinaRebeka Anić and Zilka Spahić Šiljak6. "Democratic Jet-Lag" and EUgoslav YutopiasDavor DžaltoPart II: Violence, God, Memory7. Prayer as the Curse: Religious Tabooization of GodMarko Vučetić8. Balkan Love Triangle – God, Love, and ViolenceDrago Bojić and Viktor Ivančić9. Theology in the Spirit of Palanka: Catechism of Croatian Catholic and Serbian Orthodox Ethnonationalist ImaginariesBranko Sekulić10. Lost Bodies, Missing Persons and Extended MourningJadranka Brnčić11. Identities Built on the Memory of Wrongdoing and Ecumenism of CompassionIvan Šarčević12. The Grace of Not Remembering: Painful Memories and Their Theological ImplicationsMiroslav VolfPart III: Culture, Life, Longing 13. Inat, the Explosive Instinct of Freedom: Towards the Theology of SpiteAmila Kahrović Posavljak14. Other God or God of the Other: Sevdah, Queer Laments and the Balkan Religious ImageryMiljenko Jergović15. Neither Exclusionary Religious Nationalisms, Nor Abstract Religious Humanisms: Belonging and Border-Living in the BalkansSlavica Jakelić16. Komšiluk: The Starting Point of the Balkan Contextual TheologyStipe Odak17. The Rootless God – Theology of EmigrationsAlida Bremer and Ivana Bodrožić18. Paradise Lost: Theology of Nostalgia and HopeJosip Novakovich

"Balkan Contextual Theology is a rich book, as polyphonic as is the Balkans that divides and unites. It is about liberated religions and nations after the collapse of Yugoslavia. This book is the first contextual and politically critical theology for the Balkans. Its theology is a model for other difficult regions." - Jürgen Moltmann, University in Tübingen, Germany"Balkan Contextual Theology introduces and explores the culturally rich religious traditions of the Western Balkans. A very significant contribution to Christian political theology. I highly recommend it." - Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza, Harvard University, USA"Scholars of religion usually talk about the Balkans. This book lifts up the unique questions and challenges posed to theology from within the Balkans, as well as the particular cultural, historical, and intellectual resources for enriching theological thinking. With contributions from scholars across disciplines, this book offers a much needed and valuable contribution to contextual theology." - Aristotle Papanikolaou, Fordham University, USA