bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
History and Eschtology in the Lazarus Narrative John 11.1–44
Authors: Martin James P.
Published: February 2009

Two questions are usually asked concerning the historical J. value of the Lazarus narrative. One question is whether or not Lazarus rose from the dead. This will be answered by arguments concerning the possibility of miracles, but John is not concerned to indulge in such arguments. The other question is about the place of this event in the course of Jesus' ministry. If the synoptic tradition is taken as the norm, the historical value of the Lazarus story seems threatened. We appear to be forced to choose between the cleansing of the Temple (Mark 11.8) and the raising of Lazarus (John 11.47–53) as the direct cause of the final plot to kill Jesus. There is, however, no certainty that one event alone caused the final decision against Jesus; both Mark and John are aware of other attempts and plots (Mark 3.6, John 7.32).
Revelation and Manifestation
Authors: Bertalot Renzo
Published: February 2009

It is generally assumed that the two words ‘revelation’ (apocalypsis) and ‘manifestation’ (phanerosis) should be considered as synonymous and used as such in the exegesis of the New Testament. Nevertheless a closer examination of their peculiarities and use in the early Church would probably bring forward new material for the theological discussion of our time. Our study purposes to survey the matter and to relate its findings to the question of a revelation to the heathen and to the reason of their being without excuse before God's judgment.2
Protestant Missionary Thought in India
Authors: Cairns David
Published: February 2009

The contribution of J. N. Farquhar to Protestant missionary thought is the central theme of a recent important book. Not to Destroy but to Fulfil is, however, much more than a study of one of the most distinguished apologists and students of comparative religion in the early twentieth century. It is a vigorous and thorough investigation of the missionary encounter of Protestant Christianity with Hinduism from 1858 to 1914, in which the theological dialogue in its various phases is set before the reader. The book will have a further special appeal to Scotsmen, for whom many of the names cited will evoke personal memories from the past.
Ordo
Authors: Greenslade Canon S. L.
Published: February 2009

The Church Militant, living and working in history as an organic and visible society, must have a structure and organs which express its nature and enable it to be what it is and to fulfil its function or mission. Whatever might be argued a priori about this structure and these organs, and whatever might be learned from the experiences of history through the centuries, it is plain from the New Testament that the apostolic church possessed institutions which were part of its structure and which existed in order to further its mission. Among these was a ministry of men distinguishable qua ministers from the other members of the body, a special organ of, and therefore within, the one body.
Cheirotonia and Ordination
Authors: Every George
Published: February 2009

The verb ordinare and its cognates have been used for the setting apart of church officers ever since Latin began to be an ecclesiastical language. It is significant that the names of the offices were transliterated; cheirotonia, the laying-on-of-hands, was not. This no doubt may be very simply explained. Actions with the hands were used in healing, in the reconciliation of penitents, in the ceremonies in and after baptism. A distinction of terms was needed; the choice of a term points forward to the whole history of Latin Christendom.
The Relevance of Biblical Justice to Industry
Authors: Goyder George
Published: February 2009

Justice, according to Aristotle, is giving to every man his own. But what is a man's own, and how is it to be determined relative to what belongs to other men? We call fair distribution between persons by the name of justice, and in doing so we acknowledge that justice stands over and between men as something prior to and outside a man's will or even the State's will. The moment we invoke ‘justice’, we in fact appeal to a supreme Being as the source of justice. Either God disposes of the world, determines the order of His creatures, and endows them with the qualities necessary to that order, or justice is based on power, and the expression of justice is the edict of the State. Either there is a Supreme Lawgiver who is the source of Jus or right and therefore of law, or there is no objective right but only the will of the powerful. Hugo Grotius agrees with the Stoics in deriving Jus from Jove.
Luther's Doctrine of the Ministry
Authors: Hŏk Gŏsta
Published: February 2009

‘Ipse enim dixit, solum unum necessarium, nempe verbum Idei in quo vivit homo’ (Luke 10.42). One thing alone is essential, namely, the Word of God by which man lives. These words could be put as a motto to Luther's entire theology. For the Roman Catholic the sacrifice of the Mass is supreme and absolutely essential for salvation. In Luther the Word occupies this place, and he rejects the sacrifice of the Mass. It is not the Eucharist but the Word which stands in the centre of his theology; the Word has been given for man's salvation, and every-thing is subordinate to it.
Exodus 14: The Mighty Acts of God: An Essay in Theological Criticism
Authors: Tomes Roger
Published: February 2009

God is known by what He has done.' This sentence sums up one of the leading themes of biblical theology. The biblical writers (it is said) thought of revelation, not in terms of propositions or ideas, but as taking place through historical events in which God disclosed His nature and purpose. Moreover, these events were not the inner spiritual experiences of mystics, but public events involving the destinies of nations as well as individuals. The events had to be interpreted, of course, and the revelation was not complete without the interpretation; but the knowledge of God was always an inference from what had happened, never a matter of general or timeless concepts.
The logical placing of the name ‘God’
Authors: Robinson N. H. G.
Published: February 2009

In recent years there has been a great deal written about religious language, but very often the reader is left guessing as to what answer the writer he has been considering would have given to the question, Is there a God? Does God exist? Is there some reality for which the word ‘God’ is the accepted name? This may seem to many an unsatisfactory state of affairs, for at least the plain man is impatient of what he deems to be undue sophistication, especially on ultimate questions of this kind; and he would much prefer, as he might put it, to get down to brass tacks. Consequently, the plain man would probably be very unhappy about the question which I have posed regarding the possible logical placing of the name ‘God’, and he would greatly prefer to see it put in straightforward fashion as the question, Does God exist or not?
The new testament as the church's book?
Authors: Wedderburn A. J. M.
Published: February 2009

At first sight this article would seem to be a critique of the views of Professor W. Marxsen of Miinster, in that it borrows the English title of one of his books and sets a question mark against it, a thing which he steadfastly refuses to do. However, it will become apparent that it is in fact more complementary to his book, and concentrates more on the points of agreement with the thesis contained in it.
The Limits of Pluralism
Authors: Woodhouse H. F.
Published: February 2009

This article touches on several themes grouped around the idea of pluralism. First, I give some examples of it and justify them. Second, I assert that it must have some limits, and third, I suggest criteria to determine these limits. Here I am somewhat tentative because I am opening up areas, a line of approach which is fresh, at least in part. For this reason it is wise not to be dogmatic. I hope others will ponder my ideas and where they stand examination classify, deepen and apply them. I believe my own and others' efforts in these directions will be worth while.
Some Reflections on the Identity of ἐγώ in Rom. 7:14–25
Authors: Martin Brice L.
Published: February 2009

Does ἐγώ in Rom. 7:14–25 refer to the Christian? This question, pivotal for understanding Paul's view of both man and the nature of the Christian life, has been debated throughout the history of the Christian Church. The Greek fathers generally answered ‘no’. Augustine, in his struggle against Pelagius, however, answered ‘yes’. The mediaeval Church, Luther, Calvin, and Calvinistic theology agreed. A swing of the pendulum back to the ‘pre-Christian’ view began with Pietism, and, at least on the continent, was made virtually complete with the publication of Werner Georg Kümmel'sRömer7und die Bekehrung des Paulusin 1929. Thus in 1964 the Dutch scholar W. K. Grossouw could say ‘ … among modern exegetes an occasional one still takes up an exceptional position and understands Rom. 7:(14)–25 of the Christian existence …’ A notable more recent continental exception, though, has been the Swedish scholar Anders Nygren. A considerable number of British scholars, too, hold to the ‘Christian’ position. Notable examples would include C. E. B. Cranfield, John Murray, F. F. Bruce, C. K. Barrett, J. I. Packer, and J. D. G. Dunn.
Concerning the Ministry
Authors: Camfield F. W.
Published: February 2009

The Ministry of the Church is a reprint of the reviews of the muchdiscussed volume, The Apostolic Ministry, which have appeared in The Record, to which has been added a preliminary chapter by Bishop Stephen Neill. For its scope and size it is about as good as anything could be; and it is highly satisfactory to find that progressive Evangelicals within the Church of England are rousing themselves to vigorous and effective warfare against a theory of the Church and ministry whose doctrinal implications strike at the very heart of their Evangelicalism. Something like a note of “righteous wrath” can be heard from time to time in these articles, and inasmuch as this note is sounded in the tones of first-rate scholarship, it is very welcome. The task of the writers was indeed a formidable one. They had to deal with a volume vast in bulk, heavily weighted with erudition, and abounding in historical constructions and generalisations of a very far-reaching kind. The number of effective criticisms which they have been able to make within so small a compass is really astonishing.

In the main, they have concerned themselves with three lines of attack. They have set themselves to show first of all how slender are the assured historical data from which so vast a web of theory has been spun.
In the Image of Man Create they God: A Challenge
Authors: Basinger David , Basinger Randall
Published: February 2009

Christian theists have not normally wished to deny either of the following tenets:

T1: God creates human agents such that they are free with respect to certain actions and, therefore, morally responsible for them.

T2: God is an omniscient, wholly good being who is omnipotent in the sense that he has (sovereign, providential) control over all existent states of affairs.

Why this is so is quite obvious. If T1 is denied, it is difficult to make sense of the standard Christian belief that God can justifiably discipline human agents when they perform actions which violate his commands — i.e., it is difficult to make sense of the basic Christian concepts of sin and punishment. T2 is equally important. If it is denied, it is difficult to make sense of such standard Christian beliefs as (1) God is in control of the significant aspects of our lives, (2) God will bring about his desired goals regardless of the action of human agents, and (3) God is capable of responding in a positive manner to any petitionary prayer that is in keeping with his will.
The Didache and St. Matthew's Gospel
Authors: Court J. M.
Published: February 2009

By widespread agreement the Didache is a riddle and an enigma, as to its chronological and geographical setting, its primitive character in matters of church order and theology, or its artificiality as a romantic contrivance or forgery. It is unlikely that the problem will be solved merely by reviewing the arguments yet again. But it may be possible to shed new light by concentrating on the tradition to which the Didache itself suggests that it belongs. An investigation of this tradition may also indicate a relationship between the Didache and St. Matthew's Gospel which is of mutual advantage in exegesis.
John Calvin — An Elusive Churchman
Authors: Knox R. Buick
Published: February 2009

It has become almost a commonplace in Calvin studies to assume that his teaching was distorted by later theologians who professed to be his disciples, notably Beza, Zanchi and Turretin. It is held that they transformed his vital teaching into a rigid intellectual and dogmatic scheme whose central tenet was the doctrine of election whereby God by his own inscrutable decree predestined a fixed number to salvation and reprobated all others to damnation. It is claimed that once the shell of this Protestant scholasticism is broken and once the later confessional declarations lose their mesmeric hold then Calvin's teaching can be studied afresh and he will be revealed as a theologian whose central theme is God's saving action in Christ. It will be seen, so it is claimed, that Calvin only dealt with the doctrine of election in the context of his exposition of the Person and Work of Christ, and when it is realised that Christ was the proper man who did a work for all mankind then it will be clear that all are elected in Christ and that the offer of salvation is made to all. Moreover, it is claimed that when due regard is paid to Calvin's pastoral concern for the people of Geneva and to his practical advice given to scores of correspondents then he can no longer be seen as the relentless theologian but as the generous shepherd of the flock.
Scotland and England: Our next task in church union
Authors: Lusk David C.
Published: February 2009

I have chosen a subject both common and extremely difficult. Where is God leading us, in the matter of Church union? What is our next task, in the Church of Scotland? We older members remember two Church unions. I do not expect to see a third—unless it be with some of our own separated fragments in the Highlands, or with the United Free Church. May God grant these in His time. For the moment these hardly appear to be tasks. What can we do but pray for the Spirit of God to move both these Churches and ourselves, and live as ‘visible Christians’ alongside them?

There are more perplexing problems. We know that our unions of 1900 and 1929 have been part of something greater, a ‘movement’, a ‘vision’ (we say) of our era. But the next steps for ourselves, what are they to be? Our unions of 1900 and 1929 were ‘cheek by jowl’ re-unions. Those towards which we are now being drawn, are mostly strange to our people. I imagine everyone who has tried to prepare our people, in any way, for whatever ‘drawing closer’ may be God's will, has found that. The difficulty of ‘ecumenism’ is not just the name. It means other churches that are strangers to the vast majority of our folk. Societies aiming at Church union not infrequently find, that eager members of a few years back have left them, feeling that they were ‘getting nowhere’.
The Gospels as Biographies
Authors: Cantwell Laurence
Published: February 2009

‘A Gospel is not a biography.’ The remark has often been made but rarely fully explained or defended. As I understand it, two related propositions are at issue, and they both merit examination:

1. ‘A Gospel is not a biography because it is a distinct and different literary form.’
The Use of Scripture in Augustine's Theology
Authors: Loewen Howard J.
Published: February 2009

The purpose of this study is to explore the use of Scripture in Augustine's theology with a view to bringing a renewed perspective to the question of scriptural authority in Augustine and possibly for us today. Although not to be viewed as an original contribution to patristic scholarship, this review is also given as a possible aid to those who are meeting Augustine's view of Scripture for the first time or who are desirous of renewing a forgotten acquaintance.
The Ghost in the Machine and the Body of the Resurrection
Authors: Gundry Canon D. W.
Published: February 2009

The great theme of the apostolic preaching in the Acts of the Apostles is ‘Jesus and the Resurrection’. The Resurrection also forms the climax of the creeds; and it has been taught as the end of man's salvation by the Church ever since, despite the threat of militant scepticism without and humanist rationalisation within.
Witness in the Fourth Gospel
Authors: Hindley J. C.
Published: February 2009

In his contribution to the volume Essays in Christology for Karl Barth, Professor D. M. Mackinnon wrote as follows: To acknowledge the supremacy of the Christology is to confess that finality belongs somehow to that which is particular and contingent, to that which has definite date and place, to that which is described by statements that are not ‘truths of reason’, or, in more modern language, ‘necessary propositions’. Further, it is to involve the confession of faith inextricably with the deliverances of flickering human perception and observation; indeed, the paradoxical and bewildering character of this involvement is clearly recognised in the New Testament itself, where, for instance, in the Fourth Gospel, the reader meets highly sophisticated discussion of the relations of seeing and believing. If he is a philosopher, as perhaps some of those for whom the author intended his book may have been, he will recognise a certain familiarity in the often tense and emotionally charged dialogue: he may even find in it, not simply echoes of the Platonists, but curious anticipations of what men of profoundly sceptical and critical intellect like Kant and Hume were later to write on the limitations of human sensibility, imagination and understanding.
Luther' Doctrine of Grace
Authors: Grace R. L.
Published: February 2009

It was out of this profound religious experience of Luther—the depth of which is far from being plumbed in this verse—that his concept of grace was formulated, a concept which in its broad outline indicated the main lines of discussion for subsequent Protestant theology. Like Paul and Augustine before him, his theology was the outgrowth of an experience so traumatic that the whole course of his life was irrevocably transformed.‘Driven into a monastery by fear of the wrath of God and by the desire to earn divine forgiveness and approval by meritorious works, he discovered that it was impossible to secure peace of mind by such a method, and was finally led to believe that the only road to peace lay in repudiating all righteousness of his own, and depending wholly upon the free grace of God in Christ.’
Rudolf Bultmann and his Successors
Authors: Gibbs John G.
Published: February 2009

It is the purpose of this introductory, critical survey to indicate some major contributions of Rudolf Bultmann and his successors, and to describe some of the more important problems which have been raised by these contributions.
Myth and Symbol:I. Tillich's Definition of Unbroken Myth
Authors: Rosenthal Klaus
Published: February 2009

Paul Tillich did not contribute a detailed essay to the discussion of the programme of ‘Entmythologisierung’ (demythologising) as did Karl Barth or Karl Jaspers. However, it will not escape the reader of his works that Tillich has often expressed his views on this theme, though it be only by a brief reference. The question of the interpretation of myth has not only engaged him during the last decade; on the contrary, more than 30 years ago, Tillich had explained his position in systematic form in the article on myth in the 2nd edition of Religion in Geschichte und Gegenwart. Tillich has not substantially departed from the essential points of this position. On the one hand, Tillich is concerned with the fundamental distinction between unbroken and broken myth, and on the other hand, with the equally characteristic relation which he draws between myth and symbol. These definitions and questions permit us in the following detailed interpretation to construct a form adequate to Tillich's thinking. First we will present Tillich's understanding of unbroken myth, and second, his definition of broken myth, which in its determining points is an interpretation having recourse to his definition of symbol.
Dilige Et Quod Vis Fac
Authors: Lillie William
Published: February 2009

Of all our theological disciplines Christian ethics appears to be the one most open to attack. However careful the modern exponents of Calvinism have been in setting forth the truths of God's sovereignty and human depravity, they have sometimes used language which suggests that, since all good actions are the outcome of God's grace, ‘Christianity transcends morality altogether, and there is no such thing as a Christian ethic’. Again the apparently rigorous determinism of both Dialectical Materialism and Freudian Psychology has been interpreted in popular thought as removing every possibility of moral responsibility, for men's actions are thought to be as mechanistically determined as all other events in physical nature. Today the emphasis on personal decision in much existentialist thought is a welcome reaction against such determinisms whether theological or scientific. Yet the very demand for a new recognition of human freedom has sparked off a new attack on the Christian ethic, at any rate as this has been taught in the tradition of the Church. This ethic is now being labelled authoritarian, puritan, legalistic, rigoristic, heteronomous and the like, and it is taken for granted that these are all derogatory terms. If we are to seek a slogan for this new attack, we cannot find a better one than the familiar, if not quite accurate, translation of the saying of St. Augustine, ‘Love and do what you like’, and it is by examining this principle, that we shall try to gain some light on the position of Christian ethics today.
Hope and Perseverance
Authors: Denton D. R.
Published: February 2009

In 1950 a fine article appeared in SJT concerning hope in the NT. In it Allan Barr drew attention to several key aspects of hope, one of which was headed ‘The Patience of Hope’. I should like to develop this theme which was touched upon only briefly. As Barr indicated, the two terms are associated at times in the NT. In fact, in the Pauline epistles they occur in the same verse on six occasions, while in one further case they appear in consecutive verses (Rom. 5:4; 8:25; 12:12; 15:4; 1 Cor. 13:7; 1 Thess. 1:3; 2 Cor. 1:6,7). These form the basis of this investigation. Nowhere else in the NT are they associated so closely.
Theological Evaluation of Hegel
Authors: Handry George S.
Published: February 2009

Theological attitudes to Hegel have undergone considerable fluctuation in the 150 years that have elapsed since his death. If they were traced on a graph, the line would show a sequence of highs and lows. Hegel has been pronounced dead several times in these years, but he has shown a remarkable capacity for revival. And the occurrence of a revival near the 150th anniversary of his death may furnish an appropriate occasion for an examination of the ups and downs of Hegel in the theological stock-market.
The Deposit of Faith
Authors: Torrance T. F.
Published: February 2009

Blaise Pascal once pointed out in connection with mathematical demonstration that it is impossible to operate only with explicit propositions or definitions, for whenever we seek to define the meaning of something in precise terms we have to make use of other terms which for this purpose must themselves remain undefined. Michael Polanyi has shown that this applies no less to all acts of knowledge whether in everyday life or in rigorous scientific inquiry, for any formal account of what we know rests upon a base of informal undefined knowledge, from which it cannot be cut off without becoming empty and useless. This means that a complete formalisation of knowledge in explicit terms is impossible. A cognate reason for this is to be discerned in the fact that in objective knowledge the realities we seek to know inevitably break through any frame of concepts and statements which we use to describe them even though they are developed under the constraint of those realities. Concepts and statements of this kind do not have their truth in themselves but in the realities to which they refer. Hence if we are to do justice to the integrity and nature of the objects of our knowledge we must discriminate them from our knowing of them, and let them confer relativity upon our concepts and statements about them. Thus in all authentic knowledge we have to take into account an informal undefined knowledge grounded in the inherent intelligibility of what we know and must constantly find appropriate ways of letting it exercise a regulative force in all our explicit formulations of it.
The Nicene Creed: A Turning Point
Authors: Kelly Canon J. N. D.
Published: February 2009

While the other lectures at this Conference have explored the deeper theological issues raised by the Nicene Creed, the aims of this lecture are primarily historical. I should like to tell you something of the origins of the creed, and how it came to be adopted — or at least used — at the First Council of Constantinople in October 381. Theology will of course make its appearance, for it was in the context of the acrimonious theological debates of the fourth century that the creed emerged; and there is a profound sense in which, as I shall very briefly suggest, its adoption marked a significant turning-point. But my treatment of the theological background, and of the theological revolution of which it was the token, will remain historical.
The Doctrine of the Trinity Achieved in 381
Authors: Hanson R. P. C.
Published: February 2009

When we read the Creed of Constantinople of the year 381, which is generally called the Nicene Creed, we gain the unmistakable impression that we have travelled a long way from the opening verses of St. Mark's Gospel. This paper will consist of an attempt to answer the question, Was this journey really necessary? A number of negatives have been given to this question. It has been asserted that the doctrine of this creed was reached because the spirit of useless intellectual curiosity and of metaphysical speculation had gripped the theologians of the Church, so that the creed became only a stage towards ‘the bankruptcy of Patristic theology’ which was to be reached by the middle of the next century. It has been suggested, perhaps as a variant of the same argument, that this creed represents the capture of the original Judaeo-Christian message or gospel of primitive Christianity by a process of Hellenisation, a gradual approximation to late Greek, mainly Platonic, philosophy. The theory has even been put forward with a wholly misplaced confidence that the doctrine of the Trinity was produced in order to guarantee a celestial order and security corresponding to and supporting the order and security represented by the Christian Emperor himself. These are all explanations of the doctrinal journey which in one way or another see it as a superfluity or a deviation.
Historical Criticism and the Current Methodological Crisis
Authors: Nations Archie L.
Published: February 2009

More than two decades ago T. A. Roberts wrote,

On the one hand, if Christianity is not to be cut adrift from its historical roots, the question … is the gospel true? must be answered at the first level by a rigorous application of historical criticism, with all its techniques and methods for assessing the reliability of evidence about the past. But historical criticism is essentially a secular tool, fashioned to meet secular interests, and thus by its very nature useless to evaluate the religious affirmations of Faith. Yet the very documents which we seek to examine historically were written from Faith to Faith, bearing witness to the Word which became Flesh, dwelling amongst us, and revealing the glory of the Only-begotten Son of God. How this dilemma is to be resolved is the most pressing problem in the field of Christian apologetic.
Anselm and the Concept of God
Authors: Sontag Frederick
Published: February 2009

John Hick begins his essay on verification by agreeing that ‘there are many different concepts of God’. Thus, at the outset of considering the problem of verifying any one concept, we are faced with a plurality. This complicates the question, since some concepts of God relate more easily to verification than do others. But Hick opts at the outset for a strong meaning for ‘verification’: the removal of ignorance or uncertainty concerning the truth of some proposition. Of course, we are faced with the question of whether ‘dealing with God’ really means dealing with propositions. All this aside, it is clear that some classical notions of God defy verification while others fit more easily.
The place of the Virgin Mary in Dogmatics
Authors: Braine David D. C.
Published: February 2009

In their common acceptance of the immediacy of God and of the dependence of all things upon God, in their common belief in grace and the supernatural, the importance of God's free choice and initiative, and the value of prayer, and in their shared insistence on the immediacy with which the Father can be addressed, the immediacy of the presence of the Risen Lord, and the immediacy of the presence and activity of the Holy Spirit, Roman Catholics and Evangelicals (by which I mean those in the tradition of Luther and Calvin) are in perfect accord; and, as they begin to understand each other's positions better, when this accord is combined with their belief in the importance of assent to God's revelation, to his word as given, in the supremacy of this revelation and its authority as truth from God, the community between them is striking.
Can God Speak a Word to Man? Barth's Critique of Schleiermacher's Theology
Authors: Davison James E.
Published: February 2009

It is well-known that Karl Barth, in his ringing denunciation of Protestant theology as it had developed in the nineteenth century and into the first decades of the twentieth century, gave especial emphasis to the figure of Fried rich Daniel Ernst Schleiermacher. Barth considered Schleiermacher to be the greatest theologian of the liberal Protestant tradition as well as its fountainhead. He expressly and repeatedly repudiated Schleiermacher's theology, and his criticism was often stinging. On one occasion, for instance, Barth denied that his own theological ‘ancestral line’ could include Schleiermacher, because he could only judge that Schleiermacher had never learned the basic point that ‘one can not speak of God simply by speaking of man in a loud voice’.
John Hick's Philosophy of World Religions
Authors: Byrne Peter
Published: February 2009

The most important intellectual problems facing modern Christianity stem from our awareness that Christianity is but one religion alongside many. John Hick's philosophy of world religions deserves attention because amongst English theologians he has been one of those most concerned to give a systematic answer to these problems.
The Origins of Infant Baptism — Child Believers' Baptism?
Authors: Wright David F.
Published: February 2009

Baptism has been placed firmly on the agenda of ecumenical theology by the Lima Report, Baptism, Eucharist and Ministry. It makes no attempt to resolve the question of baptismal origins, but judiciously summarizes the state of the debate: ‘While the possibility that infant baptism was practised in the apostolic age cannot be excluded, baptism upon personal profession of faith is the most clearly attested pattern in the New Testament documents’. The paucity of recent discussion of the beginnings of infant baptism may suggest that they are deemed insoluble, short of the discovery of new evidence. Theology, at any rate, may neither be able nor need to wait until historians of primitive Christianity reach a consensus. The possibility that infant baptism was practised relatively early, perhaps even in the New Testament Churches themselves, was no deterrent to Karl Barth's regarding it as theologically indefensible. Nevertheless, he could not ignore what he called ‘the brute fact of a baptismal practice which has become the rule in churches in all countries and in almost all confessions’, and he ventured his own explanation of the triumph of infant baptism and of the New Testament passages to which its advocates customarily appeal. His sharp critique of the tradition provoked a greater stir on the continent of Europe than in the English-speaking world. A fresh look at the historical question is certainly overdue, although its starting-point is bound to be the celebrated exchange between Joachim Jeremias and Kurt Aland of two decades ago. Ecumenical discussion, and in some Churches, ecumenical reality, call on both paedobaptists and credobaptists to examine the others' Practice with a new seriousness. In such a context the beginnings of the dominant tradition cannot healthily be left unscrutinised or treated as inscrutable.
Theodore Beza: A Reassessment
Authors: Letham Robert
Published: February 2009

The claim in recent years of a radical disjunction between the theologies of Calvin and the Calvinists has frequently come to focus on the seminal influence of Calvin's successor at Geneva, Theodore Beza. Scholars who have suggested Beza as the main culprit behind an increasing trend in sixteenth century Reformed theology to a rationalistic, scholastic, predestinarian rigidity include Ernst Bizer, Walter Kickel, Basil Hall, Brian G. Armstrong, Johannes Dantine, Edward A. Dowey Jun., John W. Beardslee III, and R. T. Kendall. Indeed, in order to appreciate Beza's significance we are compelled to see him in comparison with his great predecessor.
Interpretation and the ‘Culture Gap’
Authors: Downing F. Gerald
Published: February 2009

Presumably it is not necessary here to offer a potted history of discussions of ‘cultural relativity’ and supposed ‘culture gaps’ … we can press the story back through Professor Dennis Nineham, (and other contributors to The Myth of God Incarnate,) to T. S. Kuhn and to suggestions from Alasdair Maclntyre, and others such as Peter Winch claiming the support of Ludwig Wittgenstein. We can go. back beyond them to Rudolph Bultmann, as does Professor Joseph Runzo in his ‘Relativism and Absolutism in Bultmann's demythologising Hermeneutic’ recently in this journal. We can go back even further to Albert Schweitzer (‘Jesus as a concrete historical personality remains a stranger to our time’) and then behind him to the Enlightenment — or at least to its immediate heirs' assessment of it.
Powerlessness as Power: A Key Emphasis in the Gospel of Mark
Authors: Lee-Pollard Dorothy A.
Published: February 2009

In this paper the relationship between power and powerlessness in the Gospel of Mark is discussed — a theme which, though touched upon, has not been developed at any length nor traced throughout the Gospel. Yet to explore the dynamic that exists between power and powerlessness within the structure of the Gospel is essential for understanding Mark as a theologian and a story-teller. This is because in the first place, the notion of power is central to the image of ‘kingdom’ as it is generally understood — power, indeed, as a political conception, though this is often obscured by the tendency, even in modern exegesis, to interpret Mark in exclusively spiritual terms. Mark's Gospel is filled with the signs of this power and their impact on all aspects of human life cannot be underestimated. In the second place, the idea of powerlessness arises out of the recognition (now widely accepted) that at the centre of Mark's story lies a theologia cruets, a theology of Jesus' suffering and death which is not far from the Pauline kerygma of the crucified Christ (e.g. 1 Cor. 1.18ff.)
Necessity and Unfittingness in Anselm'sCur Deus Homo
Authors: Root Michael
Published: February 2009

In hisCur Deus HomoAnselm of Canterbury immediately tells the reader the question he is seeking to answer. The first chapter of the first book is entitled: ‘The central problem governing the entire work’ [Questio de qua totum opuspendet47.4 (49)]. In the first speech of this chapter, the problem is succinctly stated:

I mean the following problem: For what reason and on the basis of what necessity [qua scilicet ratione vel necessitate] did God become a man and by His death restore life to the world (as we believe and confess), seeing that He could have accomplished this restoration either by means of some other persons (whether angelic or human) or else by merely willing it? [48.2–5 (49)].
Sonship in Luke: The Advantage of a Literary Approach
Authors: Wren Malcolm
Published: February 2009

‘Teaching about Jesus' sonship is not a characteristic or important aspect of Luke's writing’, claims J. D. G. Dunn.1 Indeed the arguments he adduces to support this statement may have some validity. But nevertheless this paper will propose that the concept of Jesus as son may well be the characteristic and most important aspect of Luke's writing. It is vital to state at the outset then that we do not propose to argue with Dunn on his own terms; this study will rather be devoted to consideration of the Lukan concept of sonship from the rather different approach of his narrative technique.
Love and Sexuality: An Eastern Orthodox Perspective
Authors: Chryssavgis J.
Published: February 2009

When we speak of sexual love, we imply an entire host of meanings, moods and activities. It is not my intention to analyse the distinct concepts of affection (στoργ⋯), friendship (φιλ⋯α), love (⋯γ⋯πη) and eros. When one speaks of these, one usually finds a prepared audience — that is to say, one that is in some way prejudiced. Rather, what I would like to look at briefly is that vital force of love within human nature.
The Recovery of Christian Education
Authors: Thatcher A.
Published: February 2009

Christian theology is an important perspective for theorizing about education. This article develops a possible theological perspective on religious education. RE these days is seldom Christian education. It is dominated by secular assumptions: it is to be open, multi-faith and descriptive. What might a Christian theology of education say of these developments? In section 1 the question is raised why RE should be taught in schools at all. In section 2 a theological analysis of what may be called ‘the climate of unbelief’ is attempted, and it will be shown how several of the assumptions of the new RE arise directly out of this. In section 3 some fresh criticisms of the phenomenological approach to religion are made, which if they are sound, will indicate that this approach need not be preferred to more traditional approaches to teaching religion. In section 4 it is suggested that both the alleged fact of modern secularity and the fear of religious absolutism provide no grounds for embracing a purely descriptive approach to religion. There is a simple, practical conclusion – there should be more Christian Studies and less Religious Education in schools.
The Doctrine of the Holy Spirit in the New Testament
Authors: Johnson G.
Published: February 2009

In its classical expression Christianity means a new life which God makes available for all who become apprentices of His Son Jesus Christ. Now sinful men cannot unaided appropriate the blessings of that life. Besides the message of the Prodigal who “ came to himself” the Gospel exhibits in the Cross divine love that has entered the far country and suffers the ordeal inevitably imposed there by human sin. Really to hear the Gospel is to respond in penitent love to the God who was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself. But how shall men hear unless there be preachers? The Gospel by God's gracious provision is brought to each new generation by those who enter into the apostolic tradition; apostolic, because in history we depend upon those who were the first eye-witnesses of Jesus and His resurrection. Nevertheless the apostles preached under the authority of the Holy Spirit who testifies to Christ and proceeds from the eternal life of the Father and the Son (see John 14.26; 15.26 f.). Paul the apostle preached in the power of the Spirit (Rom. 15.19; 1 Cor. 2.4); it was God who had given apostles to the Church, inspiring them with wisdom and knowledge (1 Cor. 12.8, 28). We find similar testimony in Eph. 3.5 (a revelation disclosed to the apostles and prophets by the Spirit); 1 Pet. 1.12, which links preaching and inspiration; and Acts where we read of men filled with the Spirit, like Stephen and Philip, going out as evangelists.
Missionary Communication
Authors: Lillie William
Published: February 2009

What has the missionary to communicate? It is primarily “the given Word, the essential and unvarying Gospel”, the kerygma, “ the kind of speech which is likely to draw men into the Christian community” as contrasted with “ the kind which is required for the further instruction of those already within it”. Professor John Baillie in his Whitby paper gives from the New Testament accounts of our Lord's own kerygma, and those of St. Peter and St. Paul. From these it is evident that the Christian kerygma has two parts; on the one hand, there is a statement of events that have happened or are about to happen, events that we may call “ the mighty acts of God ”; on the other hand, there is a call to repentance and faith; part is in the indicative and part is in the imperative mood. The only adequate way of stating facts and of giving commands is for human beings the spoken or written word, and the emphasis at Whitby on the Gospel being proclaimed by life does not alter the fact that it is “ by the foolishness of preaching ” as a general rule that it has pleased God “ to save them that believe ”. Dr. Van Dusen has most clearly expressed what may be called the Whitby view: “ The Word is principally to be communicated —not through ideas, or even speech but through life … Preaching, theology, the Word spoken, the Word formulated, are not to be undervalued.
The Impassibility of God
Authors: Pollard T. E.
Published: February 2009

‘It becomes theologians to be cautious in accepting the gifts of the Greeks.’ It is the conviction of the present writer that Christian theology as a whole, and the doctrine of God in particular, have suffered because of the lack of caution which theologians in every age have shown in their too ready acceptance of the gifts which the Greeks have brought. Of no age is this more true than of that which witnessed the formalisation and systematisation of the Christian doctrine of the Godhead, namely, the second, third and fourth Christian centuries, during which ‘theologizing’ was for the most part in the hands of men who had been trained in the philosophical schools of the Hellenistic world, and who refused to do intellectually what Justin Martyr had refused to do literally, refused, that is, to doff the academic dress of the philosopher. But it is still true that philosophical theologians today, in their desire to interpret the Christian faith in modern philosophical terms, tend to be too ready to accept as gifts the presuppositions of some modern philosophical school, and in doing so to give away much that is vital to the faith which they are seeking to interpret.
The Christological Determinant in Barth's Doctrine of Creation
Authors: Deegan Dan L.
Published: February 2009

Karl Barth's Christological formulation has taken with increasing seriousness the participation of Christ in the creaturely mode of existence. His effort to interpret the Chalcedonian dogma concerning reality of Jesus Christ as two natures, God and man, united without confusion, change, division, or separation, has contributed to his conception of the creature as existing with its own proper mode of being and activity. We are not concerned to trace in detail in this essay the developments in Barth's thought which have led to modification in his understanding of creation. Fundamentally, Barth recognises that the theology of Crisis characteristic of the second edition of his Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans so emphasised the timeless and transcendental character of revelation that it had no place for a conception of creaturely being and time as constitutive of the incarnation.
The Catholic Critics of Karl Barth In Outline and Analysis
Authors: Foley Grover
Published: February 2009

In 1932 R. Grosche, editor of the newly founded magazine Catholica, attributed to Karl Barth the chief honour of ‘having made the Catholic-Protestant controversy again possible in the form of theological discussion’. For the Catholic critics of Barth the full possibilities of this discussion were first realised in 1951 in a brilliant work by Urs von Balthasar, whose central thesis was rated by Barth himself as ‘incomparably more powerful than that of most of the books which have clustered around me’ (C.D. IV. 1, 768). Now, in his latest part-volume, Barth expresses his gratitude to three other Catholic authors of excellent books on his theology, one each in German, French, and Italian, all showing a ‘thorough familiarity with the text’, and even more important, ‘an earnest wish to comprehend and a real comprehension’ (K.D. IV.3.1, viii). Hans Küng's Rechtfertigung reconciling the Catholic doctrine of justification with Barth's own, and raising a storm of interconfessional debate, has since become virtually a part of the continental theological vocabulary. Henri Bouillard's three-volume 900-page analysis, surpassing even von Balthasar's research in objectivity and breadth, and stimulating sheer envy for its French-reading public, appears to be the introduction to Barth's theology for the foreseeable future. And Emmanuele Riverso worthily represents even Italy's traditionally conservative Catholicism with a lengthy critique ranking with most Protestant attempts to date. Among the multitude of questions which this whole remarkable phenomenon raises for the Protestant spectator, several are basic: how does catholicism see Barth's dogmatics, what does it say to what it sees, and why should it to a greater extent than Protestantism be so obviously interested in seeing anything at all there?
The Authority of the Holy Spirit
Authors: Woodhouse H. F.
Published: February 2009

What is the ultimate seat of authority to which Christian theology makes its appeal?' Dr Whale in posing this question says that answers fall into three great and distinctive types. ‘The first type emphasises the authority of the Church’ while ‘the second type emphasises the sole authority of the Bible’ and ‘the third type may be loosely described as mystical—its constitutive principle is the “Inner Light”'.1
Robert Leighton: The Bishop
Authors: Louden R. Stuart
Published: February 2009

In 1611, Robert Leighton was born into the era of the Church of Scotland's 1610 Accommodation between the Presbyterian and Episcopalian systems of church government. The Episcopalian Bishop of Dunblane and Archbishop of Glasgow between the ages of fifty and sixty, was the same man as had been the Presbyterian Parish Minister at Newbattle between the ages of thirty and forty. Leighton's especial significance is that he represents in his own person the very kind of accommodation which the signatories of the Joint Report on Anglican-Presbyterian Relations (1957) were aiming at, and which is an ecumenical possibility which will obviously continue to be explored.
Religious Education—an Attempt at a Theological Appraisal
Authors: Kinniburgh Elizabeth
Published: February 2009

For many, that might well be the motto of Scottish Religious Education. It is what older people remember of it—Bible stories and the learning of the Scottish psalms. For a great many children, it is still its basis—except that by the time they reach Primary 7 they most certainly have heard it before and have no desire to hear it again. Scottish Religious Education, like much outside Scotland, has been Bible-centred.