Publications

Books

coverImagination in an Age of Crisis: Soundings from the Arts and Theology. Eugene: Pickwick Publications, 2022.

This book explores the vital role of the imagination in today’s complex climates–cultural, environmental, political, racial, religious, spiritual, intellectual, etc. It asks: What contribution do the arts make in a world facing the impacts of globalism, climate change, pandemics, and losses of culture? What wisdom and insight, and orientation for birthing hope and action in the world, do the arts offer to religious faith and to theological reflection? These essays, poems, and short reflections – written by art practitioners and academics from a diversity of cultures and religious traditions – demonstrate the complex cross-cultural nature of this conversation, examining critical questions in dialogue with various art forms and practices, and offering a way of understanding how the human imagination is formed, sustained, employed, and expanded. Marked by beauty and wonder, as well as incisive critique, it is a unique collection that brings unexpected voices into a global conversation about imagining human futures.

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Hallowed be Thy Name: The Sanctification of All in the Soteriology of P. T. Forsyth. London: T&T Clark, 2013.

This unique study by Jason Goroncy offers an accessible and constructive way of reading and critiquing the thought of one the most creative and robust theological minds that the English language has produced – P. T. Forsyth (1848–1921). It takes due account of, and elucidates, the theological, philosophical and historical locale of Forsyth’s thought, and explores whether the notion of ‘hallowing’ provides a profitable lens through which to read and evaluate his work. Goroncy suggests that the hallowing of God’s name is, for Forsyth, the way whereby God both justifies himself and claims creation for divine service. Reading Forsyth’s corpus as essentially an exposition of the first petition of the Lord’s Prayer, Goroncy invites us to better comprehend not only Forsyth’s soteriology but also, by extension, his broader theological vision and interests.

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Forsyth.DescendingonHumanity.90702Descending on Humanity and Intervening in History: Notes from the Pulpit Ministry of P. T. Forsyth. Eugene: Pickwick Publications, 2013.

This collection of forty-eight sermons, most of which have not been previously published, discloses the integration of vocation and imagination in the work of one of the greatest of Free Church theologians, P. T. Forsyth. At a time of fragmentation, when theological study has become too much removed from the task of the preacher, Forsyth’s work can remind us of the invigorating power of Christian doctrine interpreted and expounded in situations of pastoral and political exigency. Its capacity for the renewal of the church is evident again from this rich and timely anthology, compiled and introduced by Jason Goroncy.

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Tikkun Olam CoverTikkun Olam—To Mend the World: A Confluence of Theology and the Arts. Eugene: Pickwick Publications, 2014.

Tikkun Olam—To Mend the World is an edited volume of essays premised on the conviction that artists, theologians and others have things to learn from one another, things about the complex interrelationality of life, and about a coherence of things given and sustained by God. The essays attend to the lives and burdens and hopes that characterize human life in a world broken but unforgotten, in travail but moving towards the freedom promised by a faithful Creator. They reflect on whether the world – wounded as it is by war, by hatred, by exploitation, by neglect, by reason, and by human imagination itself – can be healed. Can there be repair? And can art and theology tell the truth of the world’s woundedness and still speak of its hope?

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Research Articles

‘Christology’. In The Oxford Handbook of Music and Christian Theology, edited by Steve Guthrie and Bennett Zon. Oxford: Oxford University Press, forthcoming.

‘Preface’. In T&T Clark Handbook of the Doctrine of Creation, edited by Jason A. Goroncy. London: Bloomsbury, forthcoming.

‘Christ as Strange(r)’. In Seeing Christ in Australia, edited by Kerrie Handasyde and Sean Winter. London: Palgrave Macmillan, forthcoming.

‘Daring Imagination’. In Imagination in an Age of Crisis: Soundings from the Arts and Theology, edited by Jason Goroncy and Rod Pattenden, 1–27. Eugene: Pickwick, 2022.

‘“My past has thrown me out”: Reading Samuel Beckett’s Plays in an Age of Trauma. In Imagination in an Age of Crisis: Soundings from the Arts and Theology, edited by Jason Goroncy and Rod Pattenden, 225–56. Eugene: Pickwick, 2022.

‘“Live Bread for the Starved Folk”: Some Perspectives on Holy Communion’. Ecclesiology 18, no. 1 (2022): 57–77.

‘The Powers of Death: Recognition, Resistance, Resurrection’. Jurnal Jaffray 19, no. 1 (2021): 1–26. [pdf]

‘Creation, God, and the Coronavirus’. Theology 123, no. 5 (2020): 346–52, with Mark G. Brett. [pdf]

‘Sanctification’. In The Wiley Blackwell Companion to Karl Barth, edited by George Hunsinger and Keith L. Johnson, 303–16. Chichester: Blackwell, 2020.

‘Race and Christianity in Australia’. Post-Christendom Studies 4 (2019–2020): 25–74. [pdf]

‘Christ’s Body, the Church’s Supper, and the Real Presence in Social Distance’. Stimulus 27, no. 1 (2020): e1–e5. [pdf]

‘Theologies of the Cross: James Denney and P. T. Forsyth’. In The History of Scottish Theology, Volume III: The Long Twentieth Century, edited by David Fergusson and Mark W. Elliott, 35–50. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2019.

‘“A Pretty Decent Sort of Bloke”: Towards the Quest for an Australian Jesus’. HTS Teologiese Studies/Theological Studies 75, no. 4 (2019): e1–e10. [pdf]

‘Dying Without a Script: Some Theological Reflections on Voluntary Assisted Dying’. Colloquium 51, no. 1 (2019): 25–39. [pdf]

‘Reformation and Secularity’. Journal of Reformed Theology 12, no. 1 (2018): 3–21. [pdf]

‘P. T. Forsyth’. In T&T Clark Companion to Atonement, edited by Adam J. Johnson, 499–503. London: T&T Clark, 2017.

‘Holiness in Victorian and Edwardian England: Some Ecclesial Patterns and Theological Requisitions’. HTS Teologiese Studies/Theological Studies 73, no. 4 (2017): e1–e10. [pdf]

‘Habits as Signs: Some Reflections on the Ethical Shape of Christian Community’. International Journal of Practical Theology 21, no. 1 (2017): 27–41. [pdf]

‘Ethnicity, Social Identity, and the Transposable Body of Christ’. Mission Studies 34, no. 2 (2017): 220–45. [pdf]

‘Euthanasia: Some Theological Considerations for Living Responsibly’. Pacifica 29, no. 3 (2016): 221–43. [pdf]

‘The Catholicity of Time in the Work of George Mackay Brown’. Pacifica 29, no. 1 (2016): 22–44. [pdf]

‘Semper Reformanda as a Confession of Crisis’. In Always Being Reformed: Challenges and Prospects for the Future of Reformed Theology, edited by David H. Jensen, 43–73. Eugene: Pickwick Publications, 2016. [pdf]

‘Humanising the Public Commons: A Response to Simone Sinn’s “Religious Communities and Civil Society”’. In Religion and State: A Comparison between Christianity and Islam. Geneva: John Knox Press, 2016.

‘John Calvin: Servant of the Word’. In Calvin: The Man and the Legacy, edited by Murray Rae, Peter Matheson and Brett Knowles, 13–40. Hindmarsh: ATF Press, 2014. [pdf]

‘Introduction’. In ‘Tikkun Olam’ – To Mend the World: A Confluence of Theology and the Arts, edited by Jason A. Goroncy, 1–20. Eugene: Pickwick Publications, 2014.

‘Preaching sub specie crucis: An Introduction to the Preaching Ministry of P. T. Forsyth’. In Descending on Humanity and Intervening in History: Notes from the Pulpit Ministry of P. T. Forsyth, edited by Jason A. Goroncy, 1–66. Eugene: Pickwick Publications, 2013. [pdf]

‘Foreword’. In Art That Tells the Story: A Conversation Guide, edited by Christopher R. Brewer, 2–5. Grand Rapids: Gospel through Shared Experience, 2013.

‘“Tha mi a’ toirt fainear dur gearan”: J. McLeod Campbell and P. T. Forsyth on the Extent of Christ’s Vicarious Ministry’. In Evangelical Calvinism: Essays Resourcing the Continuing Reformation of the Church, edited by Myk Habets and Robert Grow, 253–86. Eugene: Pickwick Publications, 2012. [pdf]

‘The Final Sanity is Complete Sanctity: Universal Holiness in the Soteriology of P. T. Forsyth (1848–1921)’. In “All Shall Be Well”: Explorations in Universalism and Christian Theology, from Origen to Moltmann, edited by Gregory MacDonald, 249–79. Eugene: Cascade Books, 2011. [pdf]

‘Church and Civil Society in the Reformed Tradition: An Old Relationship and a New Communion’. Reformed World 61, no. 3 (2011): 195–210. [pdf]

‘The Homosexuality of William Stringfellow’. Journal for Public Theology (June 2010): np. [pdf]

‘The Elusiveness, Loss, and Cruciality of Recovered Holiness: Some Biblical and Theological Observations’. International Journal of Systematic Theology 10, no. 2 (2008): 195–209. [pdf]

‘“That God May Have Mercy Upon All”: A Review-Essay of Matthias Gockel’s Barth and Schleiermacher on the Doctrine of Election’. Journal of Reformed Theology 2, no. 2 (2008): 113–30.

‘Fighting Troll-Demons in Vaults of the Mind and Heart – Art, Tragedy, and Sacramentality: Some Observations from Ibsen, Forsyth, and Dostoevsky’. Princeton Theological Review 13, no. 1 (2007): 61–85. [pdf]

‘Lesson and the Arts: Dies Irae, John Donne and Luke 7:36–8:3’. Lectionary Homiletics (2007): 27–28. [pdf]

‘Lesson and the Arts: Dylan Thomas and Luke 7:11–17’. Lectionary Homiletics (2007): 19–20. [pdf]

‘Lesson and the Arts: Mark Tansey, Rembrandt Van Rijn, Matryoshka Dolls and Galatians 3:23–29’. Lectionary Homiletics (2007): 36–37. [pdf]

‘Lesson and the Arts: Pablo Picasso and Romans 5:1–5’. Lectionary Homiletics (2007): 10–11. [pdf]

‘Bitter Tonic for our Time – Why the Church Needs the World: Peter Taylor Forsyth on Henrik Ibsen’. European Journal of Theology 15, no. 2 (2006): 105–18. [pdf]

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Non-academic Articles and Poetry

‘Openness to the World: Wes Campbell, and his Disturbing Illusions of Peace’. ABC Religion and Ethics. 10 January 2023.

‘Interview with Associate Professor Jason Goroncy’. Vox, 17 June 2022.

‘On Max Ernst’s “The Virgin Chastises the infant Jesus before Three Witnesses: André Breton, Paul Éluard, and the Painter” (1926)’. Art/s and Theology Australia. 6 December 2021.

‘Advent: But Then They Appear’. Art/s and Theology Australia. 2 December 2021.

‘On the Gifts of Street Art’. ArtWay. 25 August 2021.

‘Testing Times for the Church: Fraught Future for the Knox Centre for Ministry and Leadership’. Knox News 322 (April–June 2021): 8–11, with Jill Rutherford and Graham Redding.

‘Lent, Easter, and COVID-19’. Heartbeat (March 2021): 2.

‘Spiritual Rhythms: Repentance and Confession’. Ethos EA Centre for Christianity & Society, 25 November 2020.

‘Flourishing Spirituality Devotions, Part 6: Spiritual Rhythms – Repentance and Confession’. Baptist Union of Victoria, 10 November 2020.

‘Seeking a More Just Post-Pandemic Path’. Crosslight, 11 June 2020, with Brendan Byrne, Chris Dalton, Claire Dawe, Daniel Farnsworth, Jiny Lee, Derek McDougall, and Sani Vaeluaga.

‘After Thoughts: When the Lockdown is Lifted, Will we Return to What we Knew, or Will a “New Normal” Emerge, one that Embraces the Poor, Lonely, Marginalised, Disadvantaged and Vulnerable?’. Crosslight (June 2020): 34–36, with Brendan Byrne, Chris Dalton, Claire Dawe, Daniel Farnsworth, Jiny Lee, Derek McDougall, and Sani Vaeluaga.

‘Coronavirus, Creation and the Creator: What the Bible Says about Suffering and Evil’. ABC Religion and Ethics, 30 April 2020, with Mark Brett.

‘Lent, Easter, and COVID-19’. The NET: The Magazine of Saint Andrew’s Episcopal Church, St. Andrews, Scotland. 10 April 2020, 3.

‘Holy Communion and COVID-19: The Body of Christ in a Time of Social Distancing’. ABC Religion and Ethics, 7 April 2020.

‘Is Now the Time to Make Art?’. Art/s and Theology Australia, 1 April 2020.

‘Voluntary Assisted Dying: Some Theological Considerations’, written on behalf of the Synod Ethics Committee, with Robyn Whitaker. Unpublished paper, 2019.

‘On the Gifts of Street Art’. Zadok 146 (2019): 13–15. [pdf]

‘Seeking Transcendence in Chilean Churches’. Exploring Liturgy, 22 November 2018.

‘Transfiguration’. In Mark: The Illustrated Gospel, edited by Malcolm Gordon, 102. Dunedin: Knox Centre for Ministry and Leadership, 2018.

‘How to Write an Essay: General Guidelines for Writing Academic Essays’. YouTube, 2 September 2018.

‘Talkin’ ’bout the Reformation’. Crosslight (December 2017): 13–15, with Penny Mulvey and Geoff Thompson.

‘Second Best: Rethinking the Roles of Church and State in the Same-Sex Marriage Debate’. Vox, 27 September 2017.

‘Second Best: Rethinking the Roles of Church and State in the Same-Sex Marriage Debate’. ABC Religion and Ethics, 25 September 2017.

‘Voluntary Assisted Dying is not a Black-and-White Issue for Christians – They Can, in Good Faith, Support it’. Vox, 18 June 2018.

‘Voluntary Assisted Dying is not a Black-and-White Issue for Christians – They Can, in Good Faith, Support it’. The Conversation, 1 August 2017, with Robyn J. Whitaker.

‘Between Muddle and Ambiguity’. The Christian Century, 5 February 2016.

‘Assembly’. Grouch 4 (March 2015).

‘Return’. Grouch 3 (December 2014).

‘Theology Matters’. Spanz 58 (Winter 2014): 16. [pdf]

‘Contribution 7: Six (draft) Propositions on Marriage’. In Christian Perspectives on Marriage: A Discussion Document, edited by Bruce Hamill, et al., 25–27. Wellington: Presbyterian Church of Aotearoa New Zealand, 2014.

‘Called, Sent, Empowered: A Theology of Mission’. In PCANZ Global Mission – Why, Where, and How, np. Wellington: Presbyterian Church of Aotearoa New Zealand, 2014.

‘Mission and the Priesthood of the Christ’. The Other Journal, 25 March 2013.

‘Mission and the Priesthood of Christ’. Candour 7 (2013): 7–11. [pdf]

‘Tui’. Otago Daily Times, 29 October 2012, 9.

‘Tikkun Olam: Can Artists and Theologians Mend the World?’. Transpositions, September 2011.

‘No Faith Is an Island’. Spanz 44 (September 2010): 16.

‘Carrying’. In Notes on Mark’s Gospel: GCSE Religious Studies for Edexcel A – Unit 16 by Ina Taylor, edited by Holly Cole and Lee J. Taylor, np. Haddenham: Folens, 2010.

‘World Communion of Reformed Churches: A Report’. Candour 8 (2010): 14–15, with Bruce Hamill. [pdf]

‘John Calvin: Servant of the Word’. Candour 9 (2009): 15–23. [pdf]

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Reviews

Review of Living for Shalom: The Story of Ross Langmead, by Jeanette Woods. Australian Journal of Mission Studies 16, no. 1 (2022): 59–61.

Review of Toward a Pentecostal Theology of the Lord’s Supper: Foretasting the Kingdom, by Chris E. W. Green. Colloquium 48, no. 2 (2016): 225–29.

Review of The Theodicy of Peter Taylor Forsyth: A “Crucial” Justification of the Ways of God to Man, by Theng Huat Leow. Colloquium 48, no. 1 (2016): 97–99. [pdf]

Review of Hinterland Theology: A Stimulus to Theological Construction, by Alan P. F. Sell. International Journal of Systematic Theology 16, no. 1 (2014): 109–13.

Review of Dementia: Living in the Memories of God, by John Swinton. International Journal of Public Theology 8, no. 4 (2014): 497–98. [pdf]

Review of Face of the Deep: A Theology of Becoming, by Catherine Keller. Candour 15 (2014): 14–15. [pdf]

Review of John Calvin: Christian Humanist and Evangelical Reformer, by John W. de Gruchy. Candour 12 (2014): 17. [pdf]

Review of Entering the New Theological Space: Blurred Encounters of Faith, Politics and Community, edited by John Reader and Christopher R. Baker. International Journal of Public Theology 7, no. 2 (2013): 213–14. [pdf]

Review of Ethics in the Presence of Christ, by Christopher R. J. Holmes. Candour 7 (2013): 22–24. [pdf]

Review of Changing the Conversation: A Third Way for Congregations, by Anthony B. Robinson. International Journal of Public Theology 7, no. 1 (2013): 121–23. [pdf]

Review of Barth’s Interpretation of the Virgin Birth: A Sign of Mystery, by Dustin Resch. The Journal of Theological Studies 64, no. 2 (2013): 818–23.

‘“Heroes of the church” stories – great for young readers: A Review of three books by Simonetta Carr – John Calvin, Athanasius and Weight of a Flame: The Passion of Olympia Morata’. Candour (2012): 21–22. [pdf]

Review of Barth, by Eberhard Busch. European Journal of Theology 21, no. 1 (2012): 78–79.

Review of The Purple Crown: The Politics of Martyrdom, by Tripp York. Religious Studies Review 37, no. 1 (2011): 40.

Review of Reading the Decree: Exegesis, Election and Christology in Calvin and Barth, by David Gibson. The Journal of Theological Studies 62, no. 1 (2011): 415–19. [online]

Review of Theosis in the Theology of Thomas Torrance, by Myk Habets. Colloquium 43, no. 1 (2011): 109–13.

Review of Jürgen Moltmann’s Ethics of Hope, by Timothy Harvie. Studies in Christian Ethics 24, no. 3 (2011): 391–94. [pdf]

Review of Incarnation Anyway: Arguments from Supralapsarian Christology, by Edwin Christian Van Driel. The Journal of Theological Studies 61, no. 2 (2010): 887–90.

Review of SCM Core Text: Christian Doctrine, by Mike Higton. International Journal of Systematic Theology 12, no. 1 (2010): 100–03.

Review of Transformation of the Self in the Thought of Friedrich Schleiermacher, by Jacqueline Mariña. The Journal of Theological Studies 61, no. 1 (2010): 434–39.

Review of Introduction to Modern Theology: Trajectories in the German Tradition, by John E. Wilson. Religious Studies Review 36, no. 2 (2010): 136.

Review of Theosis in the Theology of Thomas Torrance, by Myk Habets. Religious Studies Review 36, no. 4 (2010): 277.

Review of Intimate Horizons: The Post-Colonial Sacred in Australian Literature, by Bill Ashcroft, Frances Delin-Glass, and Lyn McCredden. Colloquium 42, no. 2 (2010): 271–74. [pdf]

Review of The Double Rainbow: James K. Baxter, Ngāti Hau and the Jerusalem Commune, by John Newton. Candour 7 (2009): 20–21. [pdf]

Review of Barth and Schleiermacher on the Doctrine of Election: A Systematic–Theological Comparison, by Matthias Gockel. The Journal of Theological Studies 59, no. 1 (2008): 415–19. [online]

Review of Jesus: A Question of Identity, by J. Leslie Houlden. European Journal of Theology 17, no. 2 (2008): 189–90.

Review of Jesus: A Question of Identity, by J. Leslie Houlden. Religious Studies Review 34, no. 1 (2008): 38.

Review of Ecumenical and Eclectic: The Unity of the Church in the Contemporary World: Essays in Honour of Alan P. F. Sell, edited by Anna M. Robbins. Friends of the Congregational Library 3, no. 1–2 (2008): 6–7.

Review of Nonconformist Theology in the Twentieth Century, by Alan P. F. Sell. European Journal of Theology 17, no. 1 (2008): 91–93.

Review of On Being the Church of Jesus Christ in Tumultuous Times, by Joe R. Jones. Religious Studies Review 34, no. 1 (2008): 38–39.

Review of The Barth Lectures, by Colin E. Gunton. Scottish Bulletin of Evangelical Theology 26, no. 1 (2008): 116–18.

Review of An Introduction to Torrance Theology: Discovering the Incarnate Saviour, edited by Gerrit Scott Dawson. Princeton Theological Review 14, no. 2 (2008): 122–26.

Review of Invitation to Dogmatic Theology: A Canonical Approach, by Paul C. McGlasson. Religious Studies Review 33, no. 1 (2007): 47.

Review of Justification in Perspective, edited by Bruce McCormack. Religious Studies Review 33, no. 2 (2007): 130.

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