bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Christian unity: St. Cyprian's and Ours
Authors: Fasholé-Luke E. W.
Published: February 2009

St. Cyprian presided over the church of Carthage in one of the most decisive moments of her history. Persecution by the Roman imperial authorities, mass apostasy, formal schism, and the conflict of authority between bishop and confessors on the one hand, and bishop and clergy on the other, threatened the very existence of his community. He was a passionate believer in the unity of the Church and in the midst of disunity, declared that it was axiomatic, biblically and divinely guaranteed that the Church is visibly indivisible. Moreover, Cyprian has been described as the ‘Father of Western Christianity’, since his teaching belongs to so early a period in the life of the Church, that it has consciously and unconsciously influenced the theological presupposition of Western Christianity.
Christ and the Church: Twelve Theses for an Ecumenical Discussion between Theologians of the Protestant and the Roman Churches
Authors: Schlink Edmund
Published: February 2009

In his inquiries into the New Testament conception of the Church, Karl Ludwig Schmidt propounded the thesis: Ecclesiology is Christology—a thesis which is certainly not new, but which is by no means self-evident in the context of Protestant theology. At the outset I should like to say that I do not want my thesis to be understood in the sense of this equation, for the following reasons:

1. The terms in which the New Testament speaks of the Church are very manifold, and they are by no means merely Christological. Beside Christological designations of the Church—such as —there are also pneumatological designations such as ‘temple of the Holy Ghost’, and theological such as . Thus ecclesiology taken as a whole must be expounded and developed in a trinitarian way; and in this we should not forget that in the primitive Confessions the articles concerning the Church are directly connected with the articles on the Holy Ghost. This suggests that, within a trinitarian context, one should expound the doctrine of the Church as the opus proprium of the Holy Ghost.
Ephesians and the Church of South India
Authors: Macphail J. R.
Published: February 2009

Armitage Robinson said about Ephesians, ‘The truth of the corporate life which was revealed to [Paul] was never more needed than it is today. Our failure to understand his life and message has been largely due to our acquiescence in disunion.’ The Church ought to show people how to live together: it often teaches them how to quarrel.
The Filioque Clause
Authors:   Rt Rev The Bishop of Derby
Published: February 2009

The Church of England in the sixteenth century cast off allegiance to the Papacy and underwent (more especially in the critical years 1549, 1552, and 1559) a considerable measure of doctrinal purification and reformation. The Reformation was in England, however, carried out on conservative lines, and the main dogmas of the Faith, as set forth in the traditional Creeds, were accepted and handed on without question. One of the XXXIX Articles (Article VIII) lays it down that ‘The three Creeds, Nicene Creed, Athanasius’ Creed, and that which is commonly called the Apostles' Creed, ought thoroughly to be received and believed: for they may be proved by most certain warrants of Holy Scripture.'
Justin Martyr in Recent Study
Authors: Barnard L. W.
Published: February 2009

Justin Martyr was one of the most important of the second-century Christian Apologists. He made an outstanding contribution to the intellectual tradition of Christian thought by his interpretation of the logos and was also the first thinker after St. Paul to grasp the universalistic element in Christianity and to sum up the history of civilisation as finding its consummation in Christ. Yet Justin was far more than a Christian intellectual for his approach is biblical, pastoral and evangelistic and firmly based on God's care and love for men revealed supremely in Jesus Christ. And, as has long been recognised, the information that he gives about Christian worship and sacraments is of high value as being the fullest account to have come down from the ante-Nicene period of the Church.
Theology in a University Context
Authors: Ward Keith
Published: February 2009

At the moment, and for some years now, there has been a great deal of discussion about the nature and function of the university. Such discussion naturally involves some consideration of the sorts of things which should be taught in universities, and of how they should be taught. What I particularly want to consider is the place, if any, of Theology in a university context; but I think one must begin with the more general topic of the nature of a university. Only in such a way can one arrive at some criterion of what sorts of disciplines one wants in such institutions. I am, of course, hardly in a position to come to definitive, much less adequate, conclusions, about this subject; but I can at least canvass a few opinions, and try to assess their relative merits, and see how they might provide for the study of theology in some form.
The Occurrence of the Phrase ‘A Feast Upon a Sacrifice’ and its Influence Upon Sacramental Thought in Scotland
Authors: Hughes Kenneth G.
Published: February 2009

In 1642, there was published in London A Discourse concerning the True Notion of the Lord's Supper, by Ralph Cudworth (1617–88), the Cambridge Platonist. It was with Cudworth that the phrase ‘a feast upon a sacrifice’ originated. Moreover, through his distinction as a scholar, the concept which lay behind the phrase gained acceptance with other theologians, and the phrase itself is to be found in use not only in England, but also in Scotland long after Cudworth's demise.
Tillich's Tergiversations Toward the Power of Being
Authors: Ford Lewis S.
Published: February 2009

In a well-known essay on ‘The Two Types of the Philosophy of Religion’, Paul Tillich distinguishes between the ontological and the cosmological approaches in our philosophical understanding of God, and aligns himself with the former. The ontological approach may be historically associated with Augustine and Anselm's ontological argument, as contrasted with Thomas Aquinas and the cosmological argument, but the decisive difference from Tillich's perspective is whether God is treated as a being, an instance of being exemplifying the fundamental metaphysical categories, or beyond being, a radical and necessary exception to these principles. Championing the ontological approach, Tillich declares: ‘The being of God cannot be understood as the existence of a being alongside others or above others. If God is a being, he is subject to the categories of finitude, especially to space and substance. Even if he is called the “highest being” in the sense of the “most perfect” and the “most powerful” being, this situation is not changed. When applied to God, superlatives become diminutives’ (ST I, 235). In response, proponents of the cosmological approach may agree with Alfred North Whitehead: ‘God is not to be treated as an exception to all metaphysical principles, invoked to save their collapse. He is their chief exemplification.’
Calvin on Providence: The Developement of an Insight
Authors: Reardon P. H.
Published: February 2009

For the multitude of men John Calvin's name is but a synonym for the doctrine of predestination. It makes little difference that the notion of a twofold predestination (to heaven, that is, or to hell) was taught and defended as early as the 5th century A.D. by Augustine of Hippo. It matters little, also, that Calvin believed and stressed many other doctrines besides predestination. He is imagined to have so emphasised that doctrine that little room could be left for human initiative and industry, although history demonstrates that his general teaching had precisely the opposite effect on those who came under its influence. No, to many he remains the cold, calculating logician of God's ways.
Christian Speculative Thought
Authors: Ziegler Dom Paul G.
Published: February 2009

Mr Samuel Johnson said, I believe, that no question of precedence could arise between a flea and a louse. If we asked the average educated Westerner a similar question about theology and philosophy (at least of the old type), he would very probably, though perhaps more politely, give a similar answer; the question of precedence between theology and philosophy has become quite irrelevant, except perhaps to a small, archaic and esoteric clique still entrenched in the traditionalism of the older universities, who taught and wrote about theology and metaphysics. Having been jealous and contending queens these subjects have become Cinderellas.
Leprosy and Leviticus: The Problem of Description and Identification
Authors: Wilkinson John
Published: February 2009

For centuries, the identity of the unclean skin conditions described in the thirteenth chapter of the book of Leviticus has been accepted as that of the disease we know today as leprosy or Hansen's disease. These conditions are denoted there by the Hebrew term ṣārā'ath, which means by derivation ‘a stroke’, and by usage ‘an unclean skin disease’. This word has frequently been translated simply as ‘leprosy’, and it is used with this meaning in modern Hebrew. However, it has become increasingly uncertain in recent times that the identification of ṣārā'ath with modern leprosy is a valid one, and this identification is now widely questioned.
The Basis, Purpose and Manner of Inter-Faith Dialogue
Authors: Newbigin Lesslie
Published: February 2009

All intellectual activity implies some presuppositions. Thoughts can only be formulated in words and these words have been formed by the previous thought of the community whose language they are. Even the most radical scepticism can only be formulated in terms of presuppositions which are-for the moment—unquestioned. (See Michael Polanyi: Personal Knowledge, chap. 9, ‘The Critique of Doubt’, pp. 269–98.)
Moltmann's Eschatology of the Cross
Authors: Bauckham Richard
Published: February 2009

In Theology of Hope Jürgen Moltmann made the now wellknown claim that, ‘From first to last, and not merely in the epilogue, Christianity is eschatology… The eschatological is not one element of Christianity, but it is the medium of Christian faith as such, the key in which everything in it is set’ (TH 16). In his second major work, The Crucified God, he claims that ‘Theologia crucis is not a single chapter in theology, but the key signature for all Christian theology’ (CG 72). Superficially, therefore, it might seem that The Crucified God is a fresh start in Moltmann's theology, substituting the cross for eschatology as the unifying theme in theology. In reality this is not the case. Moltmann's theology in The Crucified God remains eschatologically structured, while already in Theology of Hope he claimed that Christian theology must be an eschatologia crucis (TH 160, cf. HP 147f., CG 5) founded on the resurrection of the crucified Christ. ‘Theology of hope is at its hard core theology of the cross’ (EH 57). Conversely, the theology of the cross is the ‘reverse side’ of the theology of hope, giving it ‘a more profound dimension’ (CG 5). For the form of the future of Christ in this world is the cross of Christ and the sufferings of Christians: only this emphasis can save Christian hope from escapism or naive utopianism (cf. M 44, EH 57f 72). The two works therefore display an essentially continuous theological development.
The Significance of Pentecost
Authors: Marshall I. Howard
Published: February 2009

For the Christian ‘Pentecost’ is a shorthand way of referring to the initial outpouring of the Spirit on the disciples of Jesus described in Acts 2, although of course the events of that historic day included a public address by Peter and the conversion and baptism of a substantial number of his hearers. The event is scarcely mentioned elsewhere in the NT. The narrative in Acts interprets it as the fulfilment of the prophecy of the baptism with the Spirit made by John the Baptist (Acts i.4f.), and there is one clear reference back to it in Peter's account of the conversion of Cornelius (Acts 11.15–17; cf. 10.47). Otherwise there is no specific reference to it anywhere in the NT, and there is an account of what appears to be a different bestowal of the Spirit by Jesus on ten of His disciples in Jn. 20.22. Luke's narrative is filled with problems of interpretation, and the lack of comparative material makes assessment of its historicity and significance all the more difficult. What we may be able to discuss with some hope of success is Luke's own understanding of the event, since we have the rest of his narrative in the Gospel and Acts as a context to aid us in discovering his interpretation.
The Transmission and Translation of the Collected Letters of John Calvin
Authors: Kelly Douglas
Published: February 2009

John Calvin was a prolific writer of letters. He carried on an increasingly large correspondence from his early life as an obscure student of law in Orleans (1528), to his last days of international renown as master theologian, patriarch and oracle of Protestantism (d. 1564). With the incessant demands on his time as preacher, professor, author, statesman, and pastor—not to mention his poor health and personal trials—one is amazed at the sheer amount of letters he wrote.
A Survey of Some Tensions emerging in the Charismatic Movement
Authors: Culpepper Robert H.
Published: February 2009

If the charismatic movement has its avid proponents, it also has its ardent opponents. These two tend to form polar extremes. In the conflict that emerges on various issues often the truth seems to lie not so much at either pole as where the Greek philosopher Aristotle sought it, in the golden mean between two extremes.
The Principle and Theology of Hope
Authors: O'Collins Gerald
Published: February 2009

In the introduction to his helpful edition of selected writings from Ernst Bloch, Hans Heinz Holz recognises that Christian theologians feel themselves drawn towards Bloch's philosophy, and have in fact ‘appropriated it (and obviously also his person, as theFestschriftfor his eightieth birthday shows)’. The theologians in question are principally Jürgen Moltmann, J. B. Metz, W.-D. Marsch and Gerhard Sauter. Of these Moltmann and Metz were among the contributors to theFestschrift, Ernst Bloch Zu ehren. These theologians, Holz complains, by their ‘inadequate reception’ and ‘incorrect interpretation’ of Bloch's Marxist thought have ‘falsified’ his intention. In this article I want to consider that verdict, putting three questions. What is the particular form of Marxism that Bloch sets before us? How have these theologians found his thought relevant and helpful? In their use of Bloch do they in fact incorrectly interpret and falsify his intention? I am not concerned here to ask whether the account of Christianity put before us by Moltmann and the others is acceptable or not.
Ecumenical Theology of Revolution
Authors: Lochman J. M.
Published: February 2009

One of the most stirring moments of the World Conference on Church and Society held in Geneva in 1966 was during the third plenary session on 14th July. For that evening the subject was ‘The Challenge and Relevance of Theology to the Social Revolutions of our Time’. It had been chosen with some hesitation by the preparatory Committee; for although the relevance of the subjects on the first and second evenings—the technological and social revolutions of our time—was clear to all the delegates, the importance of a ‘theological revolution’ seemed simply incommensurable in comparison with the others. However, this evening proved to be a real challenge to the Conference (and also in its repercussions on the social-theological thinking in the ecumenical movement) and its influence on the discussions afterwards was lasting and varied. The ‘theology of revolution’ presented itself as an extremely burning issue for ecumenism.
Revelation and religion in the theology of Karl Barth
Authors: Veitch J. A.
Published: February 2009

In the following discussion I wish to demonstrate the basic homogeneity of Barth's thinking on the relationship between Divine self-disclosure and Religion. In order to restrict the discussion, reference will be made to the second edition of the commentary on Romans, the first volume of the Church Dogmatics, the essays: ‘The Humanity of God’and ‘The Christian Understanding of Revelation’, and volume four of the Dogmatics— for if there has been a significant change in the structure of Barth's thinking, one must expect to find such evidence in these basic sources. While the primary aim is to explore the relationship between Revelation and Religion, the discussion must necessarily take into consideration a number of secondary relationships which impinge upon the central theme at certain places. These secondary relationships as it happens, vary in accordance with the dialogical situation in which Barth formulates his argument. In Romans for example, the resurrection of Jesus occupies a pivotal position, but in the first volume of the Dogmatics he has shifted his attention to the significance of the Incarnation. Again, however, at the closing stages of volume four attention has swung back to the importance and relevance of the resurrection for Christian faith.
The body of Christ and related concepts in I Corinthians
Authors: Wedderburn A. J. M.
Published: February 2009

This article takes as its starting-point certain questions raised by Ernst Käsemann's recently-published essay ‘Das theologische Problem des Motivs vom Leibe Christi’; it is, however, principally concerned with Paul's earlier letters and, more specifically, with I Corinthians, but this is done in the conviction that these writings provide the key to the later ones, and not vice versa.
Some Principles for Reconstructing a Doctrine of the Imitation of Christ
Authors: Tinsley E. J.
Published: February 2009

Generally speaking the Christian catholic tradition has been more uniformly well disposed than protestantism towards the idea of the imitatio Christi. In protestantism there is a perceptible nervousness about using the term at all. This has been particularly the case since the time of Luther. His final antipathy to the ideal became the orthodox protestant tradition on the matter. Luther was critical of the ideal of the imitatio Christi, partly because he was repelled by the excesses of some of the sects where it was being interpreted in a crudely liberal way (e.g. among the Anabaptists) and partly because he became convinced that the ‘imitation’ of Christ conflicted with the essence of the Christian gospel as he had come to interpret it. He found himself unable to reconcile the presuppositions of the practice of the imitation of Christ with his doctrine of justification by faith. The imitation of Christ he believed must inevitably involve a denial of grace and conceal an incipient doctrine of works.

Luther did, however, leave a more positive legacy to Christian thinking about the imitatio Christi. This was his distinction between imitatio and conformitas. Imitatio he disliked because he thought it suggested some human moral endeavour to emulate Christ undertaken apart from the work of the Spirit in grace. He preferred to speak of conformitas to Christ: the Christian life as a process of conformation to Christ through the work of the Creator Spirit.
Ministry and Ordination According to Reformed Theology
Authors: Von Allmen J. J.
Published: February 2009

It is no simple matter to deal with this subject. In the first place, it is not a favourite theme of Reformed theology. In addition, there are a thousand variations of the ordination liturgy, whose comparative study is still in its infancy. Finally, a kind of mutation was produced during the eighteenth century which compromised the ‘catholic’ aspect of the Reformed Church and which made of her a Church of ‘protestant’ type (to use a term which must be precisely defined).
In the Fulness of Time
Authors: Capaldi Gerard I.
Published: February 2009

Thetime of which Paul speaks in this passage which ‘had fully come’ was not the time of the culmination of some natural process of evolution and development. Rather the time was ‘full’ because it had been ordained to be so by the appointment of God.2It was in God's good and own time that the Son was sent. This concept of a time that is God's has been analysed at length by Karl Barth, particularly in the section ‘Man in His Time’ inChurch Dogmatics, III/11.3For Barth all time is God's time, for time is not some absolute standing outside and against God. There is no god called Chronos rivalling God and imposing conditions upon him.4Nor is the relationship between God and time merely an extrinsic one; rather there is given an essential relationship, for ‘even the eternal God does not live without time.
Some Studies of New Testament diakonia
Authors: Tatton C.
Published: February 2009

In 1961 H. Wendland delivered a lecture expressing the opinion that the lack of theological discussion has meant that we have had to go without a thorough inquiry into the problems of diakonia seen as a whole. Since then, four larger contributions have been made to the debate. The first to appear was a Roman Catholic collection of essays edited by K. Rahner and H. Vorgrimmler under the title Diakonia in Christo. The thirtynine contributions cover a wide range of material in three main sections: the deacon in history and at present; the theology of the diaconate with regard to its renewal; efforts, practical possibilities and stimuli towards renewal of the diaconate. The chapter of immediate interest is that by J. Colson, Der Diakonat im Neuen Testament. He looks at the subject from four angles:
The Development of Johannine Motifs in Hilary's Doctrine of the Trinity
Authors: Kaiser Christopher
Published: February 2009

In an earlier paper, I attempted to analyse the primitive apostolic discernment of triunity on the basis of a phenomenological model of religious discernment (Otto, Eliade, Ramsey) and a recent biblical study of the prayer life of Jesus (Jeremias). At the close of that paper, I suggested that Hilary's doctrine of the Trinity might be especially meaningful in the terms of such an analysis, thus providing a possible connexion between the empirical life of Jesus and the high doctrine of the fourth-century fathers. In the present study, I wish to examine Hilary's approach in more detail in order to see how the basic discernment motifs found in the gospels (especially John) unfold into the complex set of propositions that has long since become the hallmark of orthodox trinitarianism.
The Humanity of God in the Theology of Karl Barth
Authors: Thompson John
Published: February 2009

The earlier theology of Karl Barth (particularly as represented in the second edition of his Commentary on Romans) had as one of its most significant characteristics a great emphasis on the ‘Godness’ of God, on God as ‘Wholly Other’ than man and (following Kierkegaard), on the ‘infinite, qualitative distinction’ between God and man. This was clearly an attempt to interpret the theme of the Bible and was also in strong reaction against the prevailing theology of the nineteenth century, liberal and, to some extent, orthodox as well. Among the many commentators on the early period Barth himself is the best interpreter of the necessity and meaning of this emphasis as well as of its limitations. He writes ‘What began forcibly to press itself upon us about forty years ago was not so much the humanity of God as hisdeity—a God absolutely unique in his relation to man and his world, over-poweringly lofty and distant, strange, yes even wholly other.’
The Freedom of God and Human Freedom
Authors: Steuer Axel D.
Published: February 2009

Our peculiar dignity as persons seems to rest on our freedom of action, since freedom of action is required to make sense both out of moral responsibility and out of the God—man relationship. Indeed, the possession of freedom seems to be a (if not the) major justification for claims that humans are in an important way images of God. Furthermore, the most promising theodicies all ascribe a good portion of the evil experienced in the world to the free actions of human beings.
The Consistent Christology of Paul Tillich
Authors: Page Ruth
Published: February 2009

Tillich claimed often and vehemently that the risk of faith in Jesus as the Christ ‘lies in quite a different dimension from the risk of accepting uncertain historical facts’.1 The ultimate concern expressed in and through Christology is free from the contingencies of history and the consequent possibility of falsification. Yet many critics have accused Tillich of making covert historical assumptions in an inconsistent manner, thus failing in practice to make good his claims. I wish to defend Tillich on his own systematic grounds from such criticism, but also finally to raise the question whether his grounds are tenable.
Holiness and separation in the early centuries
Authors: Eno Robert B.
Published: February 2009

The second letter of Peter follows the usual sequence of proclamation and exhortation. But it is also typical when it betrays a melancholy realisation of the gap between hope and reality. First, there comes the proclamation of salvation. ‘He has bestowed on us the great and precious things he promised, so that through these you who have fled a world corrupted by lust, might become sharers of the divine nature.’ (1.4) Yet, evidently this initial conversion by no means gives irreversible thrust and momentum. Thus an exhortation to keep working must be added. ‘Be solicitous to make your call and election permanent.’ (1.10) Finally, beyond the exhortation, there is need to confront the discouraging reality reflected in the mockery of the sceptics. ‘They will ask: Where is that promised coming of his? Our forefathers have been laid to rest, but everything stays just as it was when the world was created.’(3.4)
‘Not Assumed is Not Healed’: The Homoousion and Liberation Theology
Authors: Gorringe T. J.
Published: February 2009

Liberal theology since Harnack has failed to make much sense of the patristic axiom, ‘Not assumed is not healed’. Harnack is severe: ‘The mystical doctrine of salvation and its new formulas had not only no Scriptural authority in their favour, but conflicted also with the evangelical idea of Jesus Christ.’ More recently Maurice Wiles questioned the cogency of the axiom, negatively on the grounds of difficulties in the idea of ‘divinisation’ and of the corporate nature of salvation, but positively on the grounds of a quite different understanding of what salvation means. ‘If salvation be thought of in personal terms’, he argues, ‘then its effective outworking is through the experience of divine grace in the human soul. Whatever media may be involved, the locus of salvation is the sphere of ordinary personal existence in which God establishes fellowship with man.’
Triumphalism in the Gospels
Authors: Visser 'T Hooft W. A.
Published: February 2009

While the words ‘triumph’, ‘triumphal’ and ‘triumphant’ are words with a long history, the expression ‘triumphalism’ is a modern invention. It seems to have started its career when first Bishop de Smedt of Belgium and later other speakers used it in their speeches in the early sessions of the Second Vatican Council. Through the innumerable articles and books about the Council it became widely known and became a current expression in the terminology of writers on religious themes. The speed and extent of its success showed that it pointed to the existence of an acute problem in the life of the churches. This problem was clearly stated in a contribution to the council's debate on the nature of the Church by Bishop Laszlo of Eisenstadt.
The Reconciliation of Rom. 8.26f. To New Testament Writings and Themes
Authors: Obeng E. A.
Published: February 2009

Romans 8.26f. has no parallel in the NT. A. J. M. Wedderburn writes,

Today it is still puzzling, troublesome, divisive; for some it is the essence of the Christian faith, to others it is incomprehensible and repellent.

This statement sums up adequately the position of most NT scholars on Rom. 8.26f. Its strangeness derives from three basic ideas. First, this is the only passage in which it is asserted that the Christian does not know how to pray as he ought. This is an exception to what is otherwise said of prayer in the NT. Second, this is the only passage in biblical writings where the Holy Spirit is described explicitly as an intercessor. Third, the passage appears disjointed from its context. The guiding thought in vv. 18–25 is suffering but in v. 26, Paul talks about prayer. Can these themes be related in a single unit?
Christology, Imitability and Ethics
Authors: Webster John B.
Published: February 2009

Our conduct is shaped by the condition of our vision; we are free to choose or to struggle against only what we can see. Our vision, however, is determined by the most important images of the self from which we have fashioned our sense of identity. These furnish us with our perspective upon everything else; they finally legislate not only what we will and what we will not see, but the particular angle or point of view from which the whole of reality will be assessed. How we see ourselves, then, determines how we will conduct ourselves in relation to others, to the world, and even to God — and all this is ultimately a matter of images. If we cannot see ourselves as Christians, we shall scarcely be able to act except in the ways that the fashions of this world legitimate.
Did Athanasius Deny Christ's Fear?
Authors: Pettersen Alvyn
Published: February 2009

InContra Arianos3 Athanasius considers two frightened cries of a man about to be crucified:

My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me;

nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou wilt.

My God, my God, why has thou forsaken me?

These he analyses in accordance with the general pattern of his explanation of the passions suffered by the Logos incarnate.
Christ as Divine Agent in Paul
Authors: Wanamaker C. A.
Published: February 2009

E. L. Allen, writing in a little noticed article in 1953, claimed that just as the early Christian Apostles were the representative of Jesus in accordance with the shaliach conception of Rabbinic Judaism, Jesus himself was portrayed as the representative or shaliach of God in a number of New Testament works from the writings of Paul to the Gospel of John. Some fifteen years later, apparently without knowledge of Allen's essay, Peder Borgen examined the representative idea, or the agency idea as he more aptly called it, in Jewish halakhic writings and argued that the long recognized sending motif in John showed close affinities with this material. He went on to argue that the portrayal of Jesus as a ‘heavenly agent who has come down among men’ needed to be understood in terms of Jewish Merkabah mysticism. Merkabah mysticism combined among other things,halakah, heavenly figure and the heavenly world just as the concept of agency does in the Gospel of John. He was also able to show the same phenomena in Philo and suggested that this too must be seen as part of the background for the agency concept in John.
Praxis and Theology in Recent Debates
Authors: Min A. K.
Published: February 2009

One Of the many challenges of the theology of liberation of Latin America (TL or LT) has been to rethink the relation between theory (theology) and praxis. A debate, which has been going on for over a century among philosophers and social thinkers since Hegel and Marx has finally hit the serene shores of Christian theology. Are theory and praxis two co-equal dimensions of human existence, or is the one derivative from the other? Is Christian faith primarily a matter of theory, belief and truth, or is it primarily a matter of praxis, action and justice? Is theology only a reflection on faith or a reflection in faith as well? What is the relation between theology and contemporary historical praxis? Does theology have to remain ‘external’ to that praxis in order to preserve its critical objectivity, or is participation of theology in that praxis the very condition of its objectivity? Is the prior commitment of theology— so much insisted on by TL — to the praxis of liberation detrimental or necessary to the integrity of theology? In this essay I propose to deal with these issues in the context of recent debates between Schubert Ogden and the Vatican on the one hand and TL on the other. I shall first review Ogden's and the Vatican's critique of TL, then present the position of TL, and finally evaluate both TL and its critics and reconstruct a theory of the relation between theology and praxis in light of the preceding discussion.
Is ‘Righteous’ Right?
Authors: Knight G. A. F.
Published: February 2009

The root ts-d-q found in the Old Testament has always presented its interpreters with a challenge. It is the root from which modern versions usually offer us the word ‘righteous’. Actually two problems arise over it, for from this root we have both a verb and a noun. So we must discover in the case of the noun, what the feminine form tsedaqah actually means and how it differs from its masculine counterpart, tsedeq, if at all; and, in the case of the verb, what tsedeq means in the Qal as well as in the Hiphil, as hitsdiq.
Huldrych Zwingli: The Swiss Reformer
Authors: Stephens W. P.
Published: February 2009

All figures in the past suffer from their interpreters, who too often see them as the embodiment or antithesis of their own position. Zwingli is no exception in this. He has in turn been welcomed as the liberal among the reformers or repudiated as the rationalist among them. He has been portrayed as the heroic Swiss patriot dying on the field of battle or dismissed as the preacher turned politician who took the sword and deservedly perished by it.
A Scottish Chapter in the History of Toleration
Authors: Knox R. Buick
Published: February 2009

The year 1988 is the tercentenary of the accession of William and Mary to the throne of England at the invitation of the English Parliament. In 1689 the Estates of Scotland invited them to the Scottish throne. Their accession has been called a Revolution and it made a decisive change in the constitutional and ecclesiastical situation in both countries. Henceforth, the monarchy could not claim to rule solely by divine right. The hereditary principle still operated and the panoply of coronations retained many echoes of a divine commission, but monarchs now ruled within the law and were accountable to the parliaments of the two kingdoms and after 1707 to the parliament of the United Kingdom.
Killing and the Principle of Double Effect
Authors: Van Den Beld A.
Published: February 2009

When we raise the question of whether the pleasures of the human body are as valuable as those of the human mind — whether, for example, pushpin is as good as poetry — it is quite possible that people will disagree on their answers. But we would also expect most people to agree with the assertion that the death of a human being would generally be a bad thing; whilst his continuing to live would be a good thing. Furthermore, we would expect most people to concede immediately that the death of five human beings is a worse evil than the death of one single individual: all other things being equal, I hasten to add. It seems to follow now, on the basis of this commonly held view, that saving the lives of five people, who would be doomed to a certain death without an intervention on the part of another, would be morally right, if not praiseworthy, even if the action which is necessary to save those five lives would also entail the death of another person. To liven up the proceedings, if you will pardon the expression in this context, let me put to you this specific case:

organs distributed. In that case, there would be one dead but five saved.’
Barth as Critic of Dualism: Re-reading the Römerbrief
Authors: Lowe W.
Published: February 2009

From the time of its publication, Barth's commentary onRomanshas been regarded by many as the very paradigm of theological dualism. ‘If I have a system,’ the author announces, ‘it is limited to a recognition of what Kierkegaard called the “infinite qualitative difference between time and eternity” … ’1That distinction is succeeded by a series of others – revelation versus reason, the Gospel of God versus the ways of humankind, faith versus religion, etc. – which have the effect of ruling out of court every conceivable form of human initiative. One is left to wonder whether Barth's God serves any other function than that of a cypher for the repudiation of all that is finite or mortal.
The Concept and Task of Eschatology — Theological and Philosophical Reflections
Authors: Sauter Gerhard
Published: February 2009

(1) The term ‘eschatology’ stems from Abraham Calov who entitled the twelfth and last section of his masterpiece of dogmatics, Systema locorum Theologicorum (1677), ‘EΣXATOΛOΓIA Sacra’. This final section, which concludes the Dogmatics of a leading representative of Lutheran Orthodoxy, deals with the ‘last things’ (de novissimis), specifically death and the state after death, the resurrection of the dead, the last Judgment, the consummation of the world, hell and everlasting death, and, finally, life everlasting. Calov does not define the artificial term ‘eschatologia’ which he himself had probably coined; he hardly even explains it in the course of his presentation, so that it remains a mere heading. Clearly it applies to the eschaton, namely ‘the end’, which, according to I Cor. 15.24, comes about when Christ, after subjugating all powers and authorities, delivers over the dominion to God the Father (quaestio 2). In the preceding section Calov had cited NT texts which explicitly or implicitly speak of the eschata, the last things, or of the last day/days as the conclusion of human history.
An Exchange Between Scotland and Germany in 1879: Ebrard of Erlangen and Matheson of Inellan
Authors: Heron A. I. C.
Published: February 2009

In 1988 the Reformed Church in Bavaria commemorated the life and work of August Ebrard (1818–1888), the first Professor Ordinarius of Reformed Theology in the University of Erlangen. Ebrard is today almost completely forgotten; Karl Barth is reported to have opined that his theology was ‘deader than dead’. Yet he was a remarkable man, successively Professor in Erlangen, Konsistorialrat in Speyer, independent author and lecturer, finally minister of the French Reformed congregation in Erlangen (as his father had been long before). He contributed considerably to the maintenance and strengthening of the Reformed witness in Germany in the nineteenth century, took up the cudgels to defend the faith against D. F. Strauss on the one hand and Haeckel's Darwinism on the other, and published voluminous theological works, from biblical exegesis through church history to dogmatics, apologetics and practical theology, including liturgies, hymnology and sacramentalia. His interests were wider still; he was a kind of nineteenth century ‘renaissance man’, his studies extending inter alia to geology, mineralogy, musical theory and linguistics; learned, cultivated, busily writing up to the day of his death. Alongside his specifically theological works stand historical novels (written under the pen-name Gottfried Flammberg), poems, travel reports, an autobiography of Herculean proportions and such special gems as a System of Musical Acoustics and a Handbook of Middle Gaelic. Ground enough there alone for a Scot occupying Ebrard's chair a century after his death to look more closely at the man and his writings! Ebrard's papers are preserved in the Erlangen City Archives.
The Function of the Immanent Trinity in the Theology of Karl Barth: Implications for Today
Authors: Molnar Paul D.
Published: February 2009

Many modern theologians, including Jürgen Moltmann, Wolfhart Pannenberg and Eberhard Jüngel have been influenced by Karl Barth; they also accept Karl Rahner's axiom that the immanent and economic trinity is identical. By accepting this axiom, however, they actually stand opposed to Barth's most basic theological insight, namely, that ‘a deliberate and sharp distinction between the Trinity of God as we may know it in the Word of God revealed, written and proclaimed, and God's immanent Trinity, i.e., between “God in Himself” and “God for us,” between the “eternal history of God and His temporal acts,”’ must be maintained in order to avoid confusing and reversing the role of Creator in relation to creature both theoretically and practically. This article will explore Barth's reasons for neither identifying, separating nor synthesizing the immanent and economic trinity; and will contrast his method with more recent theological approaches. We hope to show that the contemporary tendency to identify the immanent and economic trinity uncritically compromises God's freedom. Barth was concerned that Moltmann had subsumed ‘all theology in eschatology’:

To put it pointedly, does your theology of hope really differ at all from the baptizedprincipleof hope of Mr Bloch? What disturbs me is that for you theology becomes so much a matter of principle (an eschatological principle).…Would it not be wise to accept the doctrine of the immanent trinity of God? Barth hoped that Moltmann would ‘outgrow’ this ‘onesidedness’.
Wolfhart Pannenberg's Doctrine of the Trinity
Authors: Olson R.
Published: February 2009

In the past some of Wolfhart Pannenberg's interpreters have suggested that a major weakness of his revision of the doctrine of God is a neglect of the doctrine of the Trinity. In 1975 Herbert Burhenn criticised Pannenberg for exercising considerable reservation with regard to the three-in-oneness of God and for reducing the trinitarian distinctions of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit to temporal distinctions. He also stated that ‘The Trinity cannot function for Pannenberg, as it does for Barth, as a structural principle of theology.’ About a decade later Elizabeth Johnson very cogently noted the need for a well-developed concept of the Trinity in Pannenberg's theology:
Christ's Passion as Tragedy
Authors: Lunn A. J.
Published: February 2009

It is clear that the story of Christ's Passion has a certain family resemblance with tragic stories: the presence of moral conflict; the death of a man; a certain inevitability. But there is another resemblance popularly recognised in tragedies which is problematic: the point to which they bring their audience as they conclude; tragedy is thought of as involving an ‘unhappy’ ending. The conclusion of the Passion comes with the resurrection which is seen as contradicting the proper ‘unhappy’ ending expected in a tragedy; yet the resurrection is surely essential to this story of faith. Is it possible to reach this end-point of tragedy while holding to an active and healthy Christian faith? To answer such a question we need to get to grips with both the nature of tragedy, and with the conditions under which Christian faith is lived. Let us consider first some writers on tragedy who have suggested a rather different idea of tragedy's conclusion.
Language, Revelation and Illumination
Authors: Fudge Erik C.
Published: February 2009

This paper1 is an attempt to sketch to sketch the role of language in man's relationship with God, especially as a means whereby God teaches men about himself. Serious doubts have been raised about the adequacy of human language for this purpose—even many of those who see no inadequacy within language itself would feel that, since the human mind is finite, no message communicated through it by an infinite God can be reliable. Some believe that a man may become genuinely aware of the reality of God, but that it is immaterial whether any linguistic propositions involved in this process (and in particular the propositions of the Bible) are true or false.
Fides Quaerens Intellectum in Anselm's Thought
Authors: Kane G. Stanley
Published: February 2009

For a long time it has been widely believed that both in doctrinal content and intellectual method the thought of Saint Anselm closely follows that of Saint Augustine. The major thesis of this paper is that this widespread belief is not entirely accurate. It is not entirely inaccurate either, for, as I shall try to show, Anselm's intellectual career falls into two distinct periods, in the first of which his thought does greatly resemble that of Augustine. But the first period does not last long; in fact it encompasses only the writing of the Monologion, the Proslogion, and the Reply to Gaunilo—a period of about five years. In contrast to many of the works in Anselm's later period, which are virtually unknown in theological and philosophical circles today, these writings are much more generally known—a fact which helps to explain the widespread misunderstanding concerning the degree of similarity between Anselm's thought and Augustine's. Anselm's later period covers a much longer span of time, and it includes a greater number and variety of writings. These writings show a marked shift both in general philosophical perspective and in intellectual method, and this shift represents a significant departure from the pervasive Augustinianism of the earlier period.
George Tyrrell: Precursor of Process Theology
Authors: Wells David F.
Published: February 2009

In the current turmoil over the reality and identity of God, process theology has offered itself as having the most acceptable alternative to ‘classical theism’ and ‘substance philosophy’ with which, it is said, traditional Christianity, both Protestant and Catholic, has aligned itself. As an indirect child of Bergsonian philosophy, though, process theology is not new. And when it is recalled that Bergson not only influenced Whitehead, before the latter exchanged Cambridge for Harvard, but also the leaders of avant-garde Catholicism at the turn of the century, it will be seen that contemporary process theologians have some interesting relatives. Those of Bergson's progeny who have been born through Whitehead and Hartshorne tend to be North American and Protestant; but his other children are European and largely Catholic. The purpose of this essay, then, is to examine the ideas of one of these, George Tyrrell, with the intention of tracing out the similarities that exist between his theology and that advanced by contemporary process theologians. To look for precise coincidence between the positions would be foolish, but to find close parallels would be instructive. It would confirm the view that currently a convergence is taking place between the Protestant avant-garde and its Catholic counterpart, for very frequently the latter is merely reiterating ideas which George Tyrrell had already articulated and for which he was excommunicated in 1908.
The Importance of Theology for Church and Society
Authors: Lochman Jan Milič
Published: February 2009

The times seem to have passed when one could give without JL hesitation a positive answer to the question concerning the meaning of theology for church and society. The traditionally privileged status of theology in European culture had become problematical. In Eastern Europe this has occurred in a direct and frontal ideologically intensified way. However, in Western Europe it has been rather indirect and concealed, but of perhaps even greater consequence in light of the discrepancy between the still existing privileges of ecclesiastical institutions and the in reality largely secularised cultural climate. For many contemporaries theology has become a curious, if not dubious, matter. One is somewhat justified in speaking of the ‘end ofthe protected season for theologians’.

But is this ‘end of the protected season’ simply to be identified with the ‘end of theology’? Some tend to this conclusion—even among theologians. I would reject this conclusion, however, and not as the result of a dogmatic prejudice, but out of the personally felt and ecumenically reflected experience of an Eastern European theologian. The hour when the church and its theology lost some of their privileges has proved in no way to be the end, but rather the beginning of a new, certainly narrow, but more credible path, which in the long run might be perhaps even more efficient in view of our role in church and society. We should not overlook this experience—it is valid, mutatis mutandis, also for other situations. The end of the ‘protected season’ need not be only troublesome, but can at the same time be an opportunity: an opportunity for a new credibility.