bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
A review of factors affecting the food choices of disadvantaged women
Authors: Lawrence W. , Barker M.
Published: February 2009

The diets of young women are important not just for their own health but also for the long-term health of their offspring. Unbalanced unvaried diets are more common amongst poor and disadvantaged women. If the diets of these women are to be improved, it is first necessary to understand why they make the food choices they do. Influences on women's food choices range from the global to the individual: environmental factors, such as difficulty in acquiring and affording good-quality healthy foods; social support and social relationships, such as those with parents, spouses and children; life transitions, such as leaving home, living with a partner or having children; individual factors, such as having low perceived control or self-efficacy in making food choices and placing a low value on health in general and on their own health in particular. These interrelated factors all influence food choice, suggesting that if the diets of disadvantaged women are to be improved, it will be necessary to do more than simply educate about the link between diet and health.
Session 2: Personalised nutrition Genetic variation and disease risk: new advances
Authors: Scott John
Published: February 2009

Variations in human DNA, most frequently single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), can have functional consequences ranging from severe to none. Variations in outcome (phenotype) can be compared, from cystic fibrosis through haemochromatosis to general familial risks in, for example, colo-rectal cancer (CRC). Cystic fibrosis and haemochromatosis have severe phenotypes with high penetrance, with signs and symptoms always or mostly present; thus, they have been easy to identify from family studies. However, the familial risks that are known to contribute markedly to CRC are unknown. The sequencing of the human genome has now made possible the identification of these and other disease variants. Knowing the DNA sequence in an idealised individual adds little unless variants that increase (or decrease) disease risk from the norm can be identified. Such variants can be expected to be very common in the general population, but have low penetrance and only change risk to a limited extent. Many patients will not have the risk variant and many ‘normal’ patients will have the risk variant. Thus, very large case–control cohorts are essential. These case–control cohorts can be analysed at three different levels: (1) individual SNPs; (2) individual genes; (3) genome-wide analysis (GWA). Level 1 looks for case–control differences for specific SNPs. Alternatively, new technology can be applied to examine a range of SNPs within a gene to track differences in its regulation as well as in function. Finally, the whole genome with ≥0·5×106 SNPs could be marked. The first two approaches involve selecting ‘candidate’ SNPs or genes, while GWA looks for any variation in the genome that is enriched in the cases. All three approaches carry the certainty that significant associations will be found by statistical chance, for which correction must be made. This latter issue is helped by large numbers and by independent replication cohorts.
Nutritional models of the developmental programming of adult health and disease
Authors: Symonds Michael E. , Budge Helen
Published: February 2009

The ability to not only replicate but also extend the findings from both historical epidemiological studies and contemporary cohorts of the developmental programming of later disease are critical if the mechanisms by which early diet impacts on later disease are to be fully understood. To date, a plethora of models have been established, with the range including global changes in dietary input, imbalanced diets and diets deficient in single nutrients. Key factors in translating these findings to the human situation are the pronounced differences in the relative growth and development between large and small mammals from the time of conception through pregnancy, lactation and weaning. This disparity is reflected in the very different nutritional requirements between species and the substantial divergence between rodents and large animals in the ontogeny of many of the organ systems that are nutritionally regulated. For example, hypothalamic circuitry is much more developed in species with a long gestation and offspring are born with a mature hypothalamic–pituitary axis in sheep and man compared with mice and rats. Similarly, nephron number is established towards the end of gestation in large mammals compared with the lactational period in rats. These types of differences will impact on the ability of individual and combined nutritional interventions to reset developmental processes, and may be further compounded by the gender of a fetus. The challenge for future work in this exciting and dynamic area of research is to utilise these marked comparative differences to generate imaginative nutritional interventions in order to improve the viability, health and well-being of the offspring.
International moves to strengthen food policies
Authors: Lobstein T.
Published: February 2009

The present paper considers the need to move from a ‘health education’ approach to dietary health to an approach that focuses on food and nutrition policies at the population level, and especially those policies that avoid widening the inequalities in health between different socio-economic groups and those policies that promote healthy diets among children. Recent moves at the international level include measures to protect children from promotional marketing of fatty and sugary foods and the funding of free fruit for schoolchildren. By improving child health, improvements can be expected in the health of future generations.
‘Abba, Father’ and Baptism
Authors: Taylor T. M.
Published: February 2009

Among the many insights for which we should be indebted to Professor Rudolf Bultmann is the recognition that пίστις is for Paul at once active and passive. Simultaneously it is ‘faith’ and ‘obedience’. To be sure it receives the unmerited grace of God in a completely passive way, but at the same time it actively responds to that grace in obedience. By faith the believer accepted passively at God's hand a new freedom from sin heretofore unknown (Rom. 6.1–14), but in that very ‘act’ of receiving, he also by faith made himself obedient to God (Rom. 6–15–23). The one cannot be had without the other for they are absolutely inseparable.
The Patriarchs and the Promise
Authors: Blythin Islwyn
Published: February 2009

The problem which is pursued in this essay can be expressed in the following question: to what extent and in what form is the idea of the promise of land and progeny to be traced to the patriarchs? This is a problem of the History of Religion, and stems directly from the post-Wellhausen estimate of Hebrew history and religion which was facilitated by external archaeological data and internal biblical research inspired and informed by the principles of Formgeschichte.
Revolution and Quietism: Two Political Attitudes in Theological Perspective
Authors: Wainwright Geoffrey
Published: February 2009

At first sight, revolution and quietism are political opposites. This appears to be true even when both terms are taken in optimam partem. Viewed in the most favourable light, revolution is the active overthrow—in the name of freedom and justice (by what means is a question which may initially be left open)—of an oppressive and unjust system. For its part, quietism, benevolently considered, is the temporary acquiescence in an oppressive and unjust state of affairs whose wrongs will, the quietist hopes, eventually disappear.
Protestant Theology in Germany During the Past Fifty Years
Authors: Obendiek Harmannus
Published: February 2009

We may begin our survey of Protestant theology where Karl Barth left it off in Die Protestantische Theologie im Neunzehnten Jahrhundert, which he ended with the observation that for all his popularity and following, Ritschl failed finally to carry the day. Theology moved on beyond his moral evaluation of Christ. Even those under the influence of Ritschl did not simply repeat what he had said—e.g. Wilhelm Herrmann. In May 1900 Adolf Harnack's The Essence of Christianity was published. Harnack's aim was to demonstrate what the various Churches and Christian communities held in common: that God is our Father and the human soul is of infinite value. As to the Gospel of Jesus Christ he declared, ‘Not the Son but the Father alone has a place in the Gospel proclaimed by Jesus’.
The Biblical Doctrine of Conversion
Authors: Schniewind Julius
Published: February 2009

This is a very serious subject. Perhaps we are afraid to speak about it because of the controversies that once raged between pietism and the orthodoxy of Protestant scholasticism, controversies that have not yet been settled. Let us not forget, however, that even scholasticism spoke of conversion. There is a hymn by Paul Gerhard which runs:

The need for conversion is never forgotten. The only difference between orthodoxy and pietism in this respect concerns the manner in which this need can be met. The claim that is made upon us radically alters our whole life: conversion means a complete reversal. We know from personal experience as well as from the experience of others the feeling of apprehension when someone tries to ‘convert’ us. We may want to avoid a certain house or a particular group of people because we feel: ‘They want to convert me.’ Perhaps that feeling is caused by misunderstanding, for turning to God is joy—that is a fact that is often overlooked when we speak of conversion. But the challenge remains: Be converted.
Confirmation
Authors: Turner H. W.
Published: February 2009

The second of the seven sacraments of the medieval church, confirmation, consisted of anointing with oil and signing with the sign of the cross, and was restricted to the episcopacy. The Reformers rejected this sacramental confirmation, on the grounds that in this form there was no scriptural warrant for it, nor was there any gospel promise attached to it. Likewise they were opposed to a rite that by its restriction to the episcopacy had come to be known as ‘the bishoping’.
The Bride of Christ
Authors: Muirhead I. A.
Published: February 2009

Early in 1632 we find Samuel Rutherford writing in these words to his friend Lady Kenmure:

It is the crooked love of some harlots, that they love bracelets earrings and rings better than the lover that sendeth them; God will not be so loved; for that were to behave as harlots and not as the chaste spouse, to abate from our love when these things are pulled away. Our love to Him should begin on earth as it shall be in heaven; for the bride taketh not by a thousand degrees so much delight in her wedding garment, as she doth in her bridegroom; so we in the life to come, howbeit clothed with glory as with a robe, shall not be so much affected with the glory that goeth about us, as with the bridegroom's joyful face and presence.
The Ministry of Healing
Authors: McEwen J. S.
Published: February 2009

In most Protestant denominations of the present time there is growing interest in the possibility of healing by spiritual means. Those who speak and write on this subject make it clear that it is no new thing they desire to do: their aim is to recover the lost healing ministry of the Early Church.
Recent Biblical Studies and Their Doctrinal Implications
Authors: Garrett T. S.
Published: February 2009

The survey of recent trends in Old Testament Scholarship, entitled The Old Testament and Modern Study, has indicated the changes of approach which have taken place in the present generation. The consensus of opinion amongst the acknowledged authorities who have contributed to this volume seems to be that, while the older methods of study have by no means been driven from the field and the opinions of scholars who ignore them should be treated with caution, the new approach, associated in particular with the names of Swedish scholars, which seeks to trace the growth of Hebrew literature through the oral tradition of cultic circles has, in spite of doubts and opposition, now gained a place as an approved method of study beside the methods evolved in a previous generation. The result has been a profound change in the pattern of the Old Testament which critical scholarship presents to us. It is not without significance that a similar method began to be applied at an earlier date to the analysis of the oral tradition behind the New Testament. There too, this method has gained its place as one of the approved methods of study, though by no means the only one. There too our concept of the way in which the Gospels, in particular, came to be compiled has undergone a transformation.
Bultmann's Estimate of Jesus
Authors: Barr Allan
Published: February 2009

The name of Rudolph Bultmann has recently become specially associated with the proposal to demythologise the New Testament and reinterpret it in terms of a Christian existentialism. The discussion of this proposal will be further stimulated by the recent publication in English of Kerygma and Myth, which contains Bultmann's original essay on the subject and a selection of the contributions made by German scholars in the ensuing controversy. It appears to the present writer that insufficient attention has been given in discussion to the connexion between Bultmann's opinions on the historical Jesus and the proposal now so prominently before us. It may be that in Bultmann's teaching there is an underlying interplay between his criticism of the history and his hermeneutic proposal; such that on the one hand his estimate of the historical Jesus is influenced if not controlled by his general philosophical and theological assumptions, while on the other hand his radical conclusions regarding the history have tended to lead him to his extreme position as an interpreter.
The reformation of worship
Authors: Read D. H. C.
Published: February 2009

There is probably no activity of man at once so congenial to his instincts and baffling to his intelligence as the worship of God. Worship may be described as congenial to man's instincts since it exists, and has existed, in some form or other in every human society, and is a recognisable impulse in even the most secularised product of a modern sceptical world. It may be described as baffling to his intelligence since it escapes the definitions of our scientific culture, and is, in fact, so unaccountable on any merely rational view of human nature that rationalism has handed the problem over to the psychologist to explain in terms of repressions, mother-fixations, infantile-regressions and the like. This modern rejection of worship with the surface of the mind, coupled with the persistence of the instinct in powerful and often perverted forms is worth examining in the light of the enduring summons of the Christian Church to the worship of Almighty God.
Church and Intercommunion: Some Considerations bearing on the Present Problem
Authors: Manson William
Published: February 2009

In introducing this subject I recognise that some degree of objectivity and dispassionateness is prescribed by regard for the inter-Church membership of the society which I address. This limitation is not, however, to the disadvantage of the discussion any more than it is separable from the historical situation which lies behind the problem, and therefore I make no apology for soliciting the privilege of the occasion for the observations which I have to make on “Church and Intercommunion”. The subject is one which needs for its setting a really ecumenical atmosphere. What has become regular and normal on the platform of the Faith and Order Conference should not be out of place in the more intimate arena of the present or similar fellowships. The representatives of the Churches must think together the nature of the ecumenical problem. They must seek together the lines of a practicable solution. The theologians and philosophers of the Churches should take responsibility for the straightening out of our ideas in the very tangled situation which history has produced and which it presents for our unravelling. The World Ecumenical Conference has signalled for an advance in this direction, and a theology divorced from interest in the Unity of the Church is not any longer justifiable.
The Making of a Liturgy
Authors: Brown L. W.
Published: February 2009

This article contains a brief account of the way in which the eucharistic liturgy of the Church of South India was drawn up and indicates some of the points about which opinions differed among the representatives of the different traditions sharing in this task.
Recent Trends in Biblical Studies
Authors: Abba Raymond
Published: February 2009

In September 1940 an incendiary bomb set fire to the Natural History Museum in London. Two months later when the débris was being cleared it was discovered that some Albrizzia Julibrissin seeds a hundred and fifty years old had begun to sprout. Heat and hose-water had induced germination. Unsuspected life which had persisted through a century and a half was suddenly revived by the ravages of war.
Eschatology in the Old Testament
Authors: Knight G. A. F.
Published: February 2009

The Hebrews had an ineradicably “whole” view of life and the universe. We Westerners, whose educational system rests upon the assumption of the “Greeks” that matter and spirit are separate entities, find it hard to think as the Old Testament thinks. Plato was not the first of the philosophers to dissociate the realm of ideas from the realm of things, since some of the Ionian philosophers before him had already conceived that truth is the truth of propositions. One result of such a dichotomy was the conception that matter or things are not so important or even so real as are ideas; it is the study of the world of ideas, or of the world of spiritual values, which primarily leads mankind to a knowledge of God.
Christ and the Forces of Destruction: and a Word concerning the De-mythologising of Christianity
Authors: Nygren Anders
Published: February 2009

When we encounter a discussion concerning Christ and the forces of destruction, our thoughts go immediately to Luther and to his explanation of the second article of the Apostle's Creed in his catechism: “I believe that Jesus Christ is my Lord, who has released, redeemed and won me from all sin, from death and the power of the devil.” Sin, death and the devil—these are the powers, which have subjected human life to their control and lead it to destruction. But now Christ has come and redeemed me and the whole human family to which I belong. He has deprived these other masters of their power and Himself become “My Lord”, so that I am no longer a slave unto death, but may live under His dominion: “So that I shall be His own, remain and live with Him in His Kingdom and serve Him.”
God's Heavenly Kingdom and his Servants the Angels: An Account of Kirchliche Dogmatik III/3 §51 by Karl Barth
Authors: Whitehouse W. A.
Published: February 2009

Modern exponents of the doctrine of creation skate as lightly as possible over the thesis that God is Maker of heaven as well as of earth. And St. Matthew's habit of referring to the Kingdom of Heaven does not commend itself as important to most scholars in their elucidation of the Kingdom of God. For Barth, whose doctrine of Providence was outlined in the last issue of this Journal, “God's Kingdom which comes to us on earth is the Kingdom of Heaven; and when God's will is done on earth as it is in heaven, that is not only a divine event, i.e. one established, governed, and consummated by God, but also a heavenly event, i.e. one worked out in the presence, power, co-operation, and co-revelation of heaven on earth” (p. 558). Though this is a secondary aspect of the event, a theology which ignores it is gravely impoverished. And a proper recognition of this aspect entails a further recognition that man's encounter with God in His saving act is also an encounter with the angels of God, the creatures who inhabit heaven. Schleiermacher wrote a notable appendix Of the Angels (§§42–43 in the Second Edition of The Christian Faith) which dismissed the topic from Protestant theology for 150 years, but now it has come back in a treatise which will surely rank with the other two great monuments of angelology, the Celestial Hierarchy of Pseudo-Dionysius, and the Summa Theologica of Aquinas (1.50–64, 106–114), both of which are sympathetically evaluated.
Faith and Truth
Authors: Robinson N. H. G.
Published: February 2009

One of the most striking and significant features of the present climate of opinion is to be found in the resumption, often tentative, questioning but real, of the age-old conversation between philosophy and theology. It is not to the present purpose to trace in detail the reasons which led to the lapse of this conversation in the first instance; but it would probably not be misleading to lay very considerable weight in this connexion upon two developments in modern thought, one in the sphere of philosophy and the other in that of theology.

The former of these consists in the rise of the school of radical empiricism or logical positivism, and especially in the enunciation of the principle of empirical verifiability according to which the test which determines whether an alleged statement purporting to be informative and not just tautologous or analytic is really meaningful or not is that it should be in principle empirically verifiable or falsifiable, in other words, that there should be the possibility of certain observations in sense-experience relevant to its truth or falsity. It is now some thirty years since Professor A. J. Ayer announced the elimination of metaphysics on the ground that ‘no statement which refers to a “reality” transcending the limits of all possible sense-experience can possibly have any literal significance’, so that ‘the labours of those who have striven to describe such a reality have all been devoted to the production of nonsense’ and Professor Ayer was no less emphatic, when he turned his attention to theology, that ‘the possibility of religious knowledge’ had ‘already been ruled out by our treatment of metaphysics’.
Romans 8.28
Authors: Cranfield C. E. B.
Published: February 2009

We must first set this verse in its context. Paul has given in chapters 5, 6 and 7 of the Epistle to the Romans three definitions of that life which, according to 1.17, is promised for the man who is righteous by faith. In chapter 8 he goes on to define it further and finally as life in the Spirit, that is, life in obedience to God's law established in its true character by God's gift to us of His Spirit. The basic statement of this definition is contained in verses 1–11. In verses 12–16 the meaning of obedience is clarified. Its substance is summed up in verse 15. Obedience to God's law is to call God ‘Father’ in all seriousness and sincerity, in gratitude and joy. This, as Barth has pointed out, is in principle the whole of our obedience; for it naturally involves seeking wholeheartedly to please Him in thought, word and deed, and to avoid displeasing Him. Verse 17 by its movement of thought from sonship to heirship effects the transition to the subject of Christian hope, with which verses 17–27 are concerned. Life in the Spirit, life under God's law as established by His Spirit, life in obedience to God, is life characterised by hope. The content of the hope is indicated by verses 18, 19 and 21, its present painful context by verse 20.
‘Who Does He Think He Is?’:An Interpretation of Christ's Self-Witness
Authors: Hutchison Harry
Published: February 2009

No more important question can be asked than the wellknown New Testament inquiry, ‘What think ye of Christ?’—unless it be the question, ‘What thinks Christ of Himself?’ In past decades this question has not, perhaps, been asked as often as it might. Is there a reason for this? Undoubtedly there is. This (it will be claimed) is so controversial a question, with reputable scholars taking widely divergent views, that there seems little point in giving it the importance which many of our forefathers gave to it.
The Date and Significance of the Last Supper
Authors: Gilmore A.
Published: February 2009

The date, nature and significance of the Last Supper has long been a living issue in biblical scholarship, but the issues have taken on a new importance in recent years, due mainly to some of the writings of Mile A. Jaubert,1 who has been working on the Dead Sea Scrolls and whose discoveries go further towards the solution of this problem than anything previously discovered. It is unfortunate, however, that her writings have not been translated into English and have therefore not been widely noticed in this country.2 What we propose to do in this paper is first, to outline again the problem, drawing attention to the main contributions that have been made in recent years; second, to estimate the significance of the problem; and third, to summarise the contribution made by Mlle Jaubert.
A Fresh Look at the Kenotic Christologies
Authors: Dawe Donald G.
Published: February 2009

One of the most influential Christologies in the recent past was that based on the kenosis or divine self-emptying in Christ. Starting with Gottfried Thomasius in 1845 through P. T. Forsyth and H. R. Mackintosh in this century, men sought a key in the idea of kenosis for interpreting to the modern mind the traditional Christian affirmation that Christ is both human and divine. There are two questions about the kenotic Christologies and their place in the history of Christian thought that can provide a key to a fresh understanding of the kenotic theme and its function in modern christological thinking.
The Foundation of The Church
Authors: Torrance T. F.
Published: February 2009

The Church is grounded in the Being and Life of God, and rooted in the eternal purpose of the Father to send His Son, Jesus Christ, to be the Head and Saviour of all things. The Church does not exist by and for itself, and therefore cannot be known or interpreted out of itself. Both the source and the goal of the Church are in the eternal love of God which has overflowed in the creation and redemption of the world. God has not willed to live alone, but to create and seek others distinct from Himself upon whom to pour out His Spirit, that He might share with them His divine life and glory, and as Father, Son and Holy Spirit dwell in their midst for ever. God will not be without His Church; the Church is nothing without God. But in God the Church exists as the supreme object of divine grace, and in the Church God is pleased to live His divine life and manifest His divine glory. That is the mystery and destiny of the Church, hidden from the foundation of the world, but revealed and fulfilled in the Incarnation of the Son of God and in His glorious work of redemption, for in Jesus Christ the Church as the redeemed people of God is the crown of creation living in praise and gratitude to the Creator and reflecting with all things, visible and invisible, the glory of the eternal God.
Hooker's Doctrine of the Eucharist
Authors: Parris J. R.
Published: February 2009

‘The doctrinal history of the English Reformation’, writes J. Brilioth, ‘is only of secondary interest; it contains little creative originality, much imitation and compromise. But the problem of the Eucharist took a prominent place from the very start.’ Indeed, he postulates a ‘special Anglican Eucharistic type’, stemming from the Reformation period. It is with the formulation of the doctrine of the Eucharist in the writings of Richard Hooker that this study is concerned. Hooker is regarded as ‘par excellence the apologist of the Elizabethan Settlement of 1559 and perhaps the most accomplished advocate that Anglicanism has ever had’. And since it is maintained that ‘the typical Anglican doctrine of the Eucharist was fashioned in the period between Hooker and Waterland’, Hooker's historical importance for the understanding of Anglican Eucharistic teaching is obvious. Not that Hooker's teaching was normative for his successors, for there were deviations both to the ‘left’ and, more notably, to the ‘right’, especially under the Caroline divines. But Hooker's influence was important for the evolution of the ‘central’ churchmanship that was to be most characteristic of the Anglican Church.
The Parable and the Preacher
Authors: Wallace R. S.
Published: February 2009

In his endeavour to expound the Parables of Jesus, the preacher who turns for help to the work of modern New Testament scholars will not be disappointed. Certainly the present writer has put himself very much in their debt. At the same time there are rules and definitions by which some modern scholars restrict the understanding of the parables in a way that is often baffling to the preacher. As the parables, however, are peculiarly the domain of the preacher, it would appear that these elements require further discussion and clarification if he is to get full benefit from recent research and do justice to the kerygmatic setting in which we have received the parables.
Calvin's Doctrine of the Christian Life
Authors: Matheson J. G.
Published: February 2009

It may be useful first of all to summarise the argument under this heading in the Institutes, both to set limits to our subject, and also to furnish us with points of reference for our discussion. The preceding chapters deal with the operation of the Holy Spirit in those who are united with Christ, especially showing Him to be the author of faith and repentance. Our subject is placed in this setting at the beginning of chapter 6, where, in the opening sentence we read: “ We have said that the end of regeneration is, that the life of the faithful may exhibit a symmetry and agreement between the righteousness of God and their obedience.” The roots of the Christian life, then, are in regeneration. But since “ our tardiness needs much stimulation and assistance ” it is necessary for us to have a rule by which we may be guided in the regulation of our life. Such a rule is to be found in Scripture, not, of course, laid down in a methodical way, yet with sufficient emphasis and clarity. This treatment of the Christian life, therefore, confines itself to discovering, under the guidance of Scripture, how the new life born in us by God's Spirit, is to be developed and made perfect.
I The Nature and Mission of the Church: A Discussion of Vols. I and II of the Preparatory Studies
Authors: Torrance T. F.
Published: February 2009

The Universal Church in God's Design, and The Church's Witness to God's Design, the first two volumes written in preparation for the meeting of the World Council of Churches at Amsterdam, are an ecumenical event in themselves. They form the most significant attempt at combined thinking about the nature and mission of the Church that has yet taken place. The stage is now set for a fresh and exhaustive inquiry behind the present divisions among the Churches into a Biblical and Christological doctrine of the Church which may yet knit into a theological unity the agreement of the Churches reached at Amsterdam. After all “the only valid argument for the union of the Churches is theological, a belief that unity is the will of God for His Church, and that the Church as the Body of Christ ought to represent on earth the mysterious unity of the Godhead” (Vol. II, p. 202). The purpose of this essay is not so much to review the actual material presented in these volumes as to face the questions they raise and, if possible, to point the discussion further along the road to that theological unity.
II Variations on a Theme of Responsibility: A Discussion of Vols. III and IV of the Preparatory Studies
Authors: Reid J. K. S.
Published: February 2009

IT is not easy to know how best to deal with the two notable volumes named above. Some attempt ought certainly to be made to present their contents and message to readers of the Journal. But many of them must already themselves have studied the volumes; and no doubt the best thing to say to those who have not done so is to emphasise their importance and plead for their being read. The Archbishop of Canterbury in a closing address, we are told, remarked that the total number of words spoken at the Assembly must have attained to the fantastic region of the numbers used to represent distance between the earth and the farthest stars. All these words were recorded—but not, one hastens to add, in the four volumes of preparatory studies and the single volume of the Official Report. But even so the scope of the volumes is prodigious, and the weight of the contributions most imposing.
Universalism or Election?
Authors: Torrance T. F.
Published: February 2009

In the foregoing number of this Journal Dr. J. A. T. Robinson has done us the service of raising once again the question of universalism in a way that both merits admiration and challenges discussion. Rarely has the case for universalism been stated so adroitly and so persuasively, but when even that statement rests upon deep inconsistencies one has less hesitation in turning away from the formidable authorities which he cites to the voice of the Catholic Church which throughout all ages has consistently judged universalism as a heresy for faith and a menace to the Gospel. Without doubt however there is a great truth here and that must be disentangled from the dangerous untruth.
Luther's Doctrine of Vocation
Authors: Watson Philip S.
Published: February 2009

“Vocation” is a word of varied significance, both secular and religious. Religiously, it can mean God's calling of men into His kingdom through the proclamation of the Gospel, or His calling of particular persons to particular spheres of service such as the Ministry. Secularly, it can mean any trade, profession, or employment that a man may follow, including such occupations as the Ministry. The Latin original of the word, vocatio, and its German equivalent, Beruf, are used in all these senses by Luther, but with important differences. In the first place, the distinction between religious and secular is entirely foreign to his thinking. When he speaks of weltlicher Beruf, or “worldly vocation”, he never thinks of it as either irreligious or non-religious, but as a Divine appointment for our life in this world. In the second place, his conception of vocation includes a great deal more than ours normally does. In one of his sermons he raises the question, what it means to have a vocation. He answers it by saying: You are in a Stand, “station”, you are a married man or woman, a son or daughter, a man-servant or maid-servant; and he goes on to point out what duties such “stations” impose upon us, so that we had four heads and ten hands we should still have quite enough to do. Other lists bf “stations”—or “offices”, as he also calls them—include: the prince, the magistrate, the teacher, the scholar, the father, mother, children, master, servant, and many more.
Theology and Action
Authors: Fraser Ian M.
Published: February 2009

Prophetic speech and action have been regarded with suspicion both in the old Israel and in the new. The doctors and lawyers of the church have sought to apply the brake (“Prophesy not any more in Bethel…”). In the past, theological dealing with prophetic movements has often been haphazard, unsympathetic, or scholastic. We stand now at some watershed of history. It is of urgent importance that sound theology and right action should have a church wedding. In this article I hope to do no more than draw attention to the danger that theological thinking to-day may do less than justice to prophetic action. The theologian may misinterpret the nature and scope of his task. My concern that this should not happen is sharpened by my membership of a movement which I count prophetic, the Iona Community (though in this article I speak personally, in no sense as the Community's representative). Where any such movement exists the theologian has inevitably his contribution to make. There is the obvious need to sift affirmations and scrutinise methods. It is the manner of that contribution which requires careful thought.
Existentialism in France
Authors: Mathers J.
Published: February 2009

I have chosen to speak of Existentialism in France for two reasons. First because it is in France that Existential thinking has won its most distinguished success, both as a fashionable craze among laymen, and in the region of philosophical research. Amongst contemporary Existential thinkers, Jean-Paul Sartre and Gabriel Marcel stand out as leaders, and it is to their contrasting types of thinking that we shall pay most attention. But the second reason for confining attention mainly to French Existentialism is that there are so many other types of Existential thinking to be found in various countries. Not only France, but Denmark, Germany, Russia, Italy, Spain, and to a lesser degree America and Britain, have thinkers whose basis of thought is existentialist. And as Foulquié says: “There are as many Existentialisms as there are Existentialist philosophers”. Moreover the claim is made that Existentialist modes of thought are to be found even in Classical Philosophy. Mounier in his book Existentialist Philosophies has an interesting illustration which throws light on this history of Existentialism. He calls it “the Existential Tree”. Below the ground the several roots of this tree are labelled “Socrates”, “Stoics”, “St. Augustine” and “St. Bernard”. Where the stem emerges from the ground we find “Pascal”. The long trunk bears the name of “Kierkegaard”. At the top of the trunk, before the branches spread out, “Phenomenology” indicates that this type of philosophy is a basis of most modern Existentialist thinking. The branches are labelled with fourteen names, representing authors from various countries.
The Holy Spirit and the Sacraments
Authors: Synge F. C.
Published: February 2009

There are few doctrines which Christians handle with less assurance than the doctrine of the Holy Spirit. The major causes of this embarrassment are a failure to think Biblically and a failure to think Trinitarianly. We confess a Trinitarian creed, but we think as Binitarians. One symptom of this error is the frequent interpretation of the Holy Spirit's work in terms of inspiration.
The Task of Apologetics in the Future: Karl Heim's Theology after Fifty Years
Authors: Michalson Carl
Published: February 2009

Karl Heim has just completed two epochs in his theological biography. The first is a twenty-one year project entitled Der evangelische Glaube und das Denken der Gegenwart, a series of six volumes in which an impressive span of contemporary problems has been probed and illuminated by the Christian faith. The second is the golden anniversary of the literary effort which he initiated in 1902 with a volume entitled Psychologismus oder Anti-Psychologismus and which he has now rounded out with his Weltschöpfung und Weltende.
History and Tradition in Old Testament Studies
Authors: Jones Douglas R.
Published: February 2009

One who is engaged in university teaching must often wonder what happens to the discipline of knowledge with which he is concerned, when his pupils begin to make professional use of it. The example of Aristotle may haunt him. Alexander the Great was a distinguished enough pupil. But did the master ever intend that his teaching should be exploited as Alexander exploited it? A universe seems to lie between the search for truth we see in Aristotle, and the practical utilisation of knowledge for the purpose of world hegemony that we see in Alexander. The university teacher who specialises in biblical studies is in a fascinating position, for at least two kinds of pupil take what they have learned from him, and then begin themselves to teach. They are the schoolteacher and the minister or parson. What kind of use do they make of what they have learned? What has happened to the product by the time the process has come to an end?
Christian Ethics and Moral Philosophy: Some Reflections on the Contemporary Situation
Authors: Sell A. P. F.
Published: February 2009

‘In our half century’, says Professor Gilbert Ryle, ‘philosophy land theology have not been on speaking terms.’ This is broadly true, and many philosophers and theologians seem to be quite content in the knowledge that their respective spheres are isolated from one another. Others, however, are dissatisfied with the prevailing situation, and feel that contemporary philosophy has much to offer theology by way of technique and procedure, and that philosophers display more bravado than wisdom if they rule that theology and religion are beyond the scope of philosophical investigation, and that religious statements are meaningless. Nowhere is the extent of the gulf between philosophy and theology more noticeable than in the field of morals. For example, one has only to consult the indices and bibliographies of books on Christian Ethics and on Moral Philosophy to see just how little overlapping of sources there is. This gives rises to the question whether there is, or ought to be, any common ground between them. Is it possible that representatives of the two camps could engage in profitable discussion? We shall observe certain hesitations and suspicions which the moral philosopher may entertain concerning Christian Ethics; we shall note what appear to be limitations in each discipline as currently practised; and we shall seek to draw certain conclusions. First, let us try to indicate the scope of Christian Ethics.
Calvin and the Church
Authors: Walker G. S. M.
Published: February 2009

‘For all his abhorrence of Rome, he was after his manner as good a Churchman as any Pope’. Such, whether it be intended to express approval or the reverse, seems to be a sound judgment on Calvin's churchmanship. To a liberallike Grosclaude, it was indeed his chief fault that he could not rid himself entirely of Roman ideas: that he continued to regard the Church as depository and dispenser of the means of grace, rather than as a free association of like-minded believers. Unity and universality were lost in the general turmoil of the Reformation; but that outcome was the direct opposite of what this allegedly ‘devil-worshipping genius’ had intended; for Calvin stressed, more strongly than any other Reformer, the catholicity of the Una Sancta. And if the ideal of a Free Church in a free state has grown on Calvinist soil, Calvin himself would have repudiated such a deduction from his doctrine of the Crown Rights of the Redeemer. His entire object was to bring human life in its totality under common obedience to God in Christ.
Death and Life in Christ
Authors: Berry Ronald
Published: February 2009

In 1 Cor. 15, his fullest doctrinal statement on the resurrection of the dead, Paul teaches that Christians will receive their spiritual body at the Parousia, those who are dead by resurrection and those who are still alive by transformation. The term applied to the dead, , suggests provisional and intermediate state from which they will ‘awake’ at the Lord's coming. Paul does not, however, discuss the nature of this state.
The Command of God the Creator;An Account of Karl Barth's Volume on ethics
Authors: Whitehouse W. A.
Published: February 2009

This twelfth chapter of the Dogmatik is an exposition of the ethical teaching which follows upon an understanding of the doctrine of creation. Further chapters on ethics will come at the end of the volumes on reconciliation and redemption and Barth notes that the whole complex of state, community and law must wait for more thorough treatment until the next volume is completed. Here we have a generous and moving exposition of man's freedom in relation to God; his freedom in the community of male and female, parent and child, near and distant neighbours; his freedom for life with due evaluation of reverence for life, its protection and its industriousness; and his freedom within appointed limits where opportunities do not recur, where each person has his ‘station’ and must live with the honour appropriate to his limitations. The exposition follows the formal lines worked out in the volume on man. It is studded with careful reviews of the more important recent books dealing with the themes under discussion. In this field Barth shows the greatest respect for Schleiermacher who of course worked out his theology with a profound sense of the richness and complexity of human life, though here, as well as in his grasp on the Gospel, Barth's understanding seems to be both richer and more sensitive. The distinctive feature of the work is its firm adherence to the conviction that ethics, as the doctrine of God's command, exhibits the law as a form of the Gospel, grounded everywhere in the knowledge of Jesus Christ and of God's gracious election of man to covenant fellowship with Himself in Christ.
The Old Testament Conception of Miracle
Authors: Knight Harold
Published: February 2009

The purpose of this study is to elucidate the significance underlying the concept of miracle in the world of Old Testament thought and theology, in the hope that the results attained may shed fresh light upon something which touches the very centre of religious life and is a frequent cause of genuine doubt and perplexity for modern man. Perhaps the word miracle itself is ambiguous in this connexion, for it has gathered around itself a penumbra of associations derived from its use in our modern scientifically determined modes of thought and speech. Broadly speaking the background which it implies is that of nature conceived as an independent system presupposing fixed laws or if, with the more modern scientific outlook we reject the notion of materialistic determinism and mechanism, then, at any rate, we must substitute for ‘laws’ the tendency for uniform patterns and processes to emerge. Against such large uniformities, miracle, in the modern sense, stands out somewhat sharply as an exception, mysterious and apparently inexplicable, repugnant in its arbitrariness to the spirit of pure science. Such presuppositions do not exist in the Old Testament World of ideas where we are confronted by a type of thought which is through and through theological rather than philosophical and scientific. The corner-stone of the Old Testament system of ideas is the primacy of God as self-existent Creator whose creative activity is unceasing, upholding and interpenetrating by His watchful redeeming care all that is.
The Term ‘Life’ in Syriac Theology
Authors: Klijn A. F. J.
Published: February 2009

In 1899 Burkitt posed a question to which no answer has yet been given. It was as follows: ‘It is still more surprising and instructive to find that “salvation” is identified by the Syriac usage with “life”. Σωτ⋯ρ is Mahyânâ, “Life-giver”, and “to be saved” is “to live”. This is the more remarkable, as Syriac has several words meaning “to deliver”, “to protect” and “to be safe and sound”. May we not therefore believe that this identification of “salvation” and “life” is the genuine Aramaic usage, and that the Greek Gospels have in this instance introduced a distinction which was not made by Christ and his Aramaic-speaking disciples?' If Burkitt is right, it is evident that quite a new light is thrown on a number of instances in the NT where the word σᾡζω occurs. This can be seen at once as one thinks of the somewhat negative ‘Saviour’ becoming the more positive ‘Life-giver’. Theologically also, however, there is a difference in meaning, which Burkitt remarked on a few years later. ‘The use ofḥajē,ē life, to render σωηρἱα and σωτ⋯ριoν, instead of some word meaning “deliverance“, together with the corresponding equivalent verb ḥj' and σᾡζɛσθαι belongs rather to theology and philosophy than to linguistics.'