bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Bonhoeffer, Calvinism and Christian Civil Disobedience in South Africa
Authors: De Gruchy John. W.
Published: February 2009

In a much publicised address to the 1979 National Conference of the South African Council of Churches (SACC), Dr Allan Boesak, a theologian of the black Dutch Reformed Mission Church, challenged the Church in South Africa to engage in acts of civil disobedience against apartheid laws:

The church must initiate and support meaningful pressure on the system as a non-violent way of bringing about change. The church must initiate and support programs of civil disobedience on a massive scale, and challenge especially white Christians on this issue. It no longer suffices to make statements condemning unjust laws as if nothing has happened. The time has come for the black church to tell the Government and its people: We cannot in all good conscience obey your unjust laws because non-cooperation with evil is as much a moral obligation as is cooperation with good. So we will teach our people what it means to obey God rather than man in South Africa.
Philosophical Biblicism: The Teaching of The Westminster Confession Concerning God, The Natural Man, and Revelation and Authority
Authors: Robinson Charles K.
Published: February 2009

The thesis of the present essay is that the Westminster Confession represents a synthesis, unique among documents of confessional status and authority, of two intellectual and spiritual motifs which, at first look, might appear to represent almost opposite extremes: thoroughgoing philosophical rigor and radical biblicism. I shall undertake to explicate this thesis by an analysis of three areas of doctrine: those concerning God (including Christology), the so-called ‘natural man’, and revelation and authority. Under each of these three headings I shall present certain relevant material from the XXXIX Articles as a background ‘foil’ against which the contrasts as well as the similarities of the Westminster Confession may perhaps stand out more clearly.
The Role of Jesus in Bultmann's Theology
Authors: Ladd George Eldon
Published: February 2009

This paper seeks only to attempt a clarification of Bultmann's thought and to suggest several criticisms in the interests of clarification. A recent commentator on Bultmann says, ‘Although Bultmann's thought is more widely understood now than it was prior to the debate, misunderstandings of it still abound even in substantial analyses of his work.’
Methods of Christian Education and Theology
Authors: Gray John
Published: February 2009

The appropriateness of an article of this kind in a theological journal, even in a journal which recognises the importance of good religious education and sees it as a sphere of theological concern, may be open to question. For methods may seem to be of limited interest and importance to the educator himself, and certainly to be excluded by their very nature from any dialogue into which the theologian might wish to enter with him. A division has, in fact, been made between ‘method’ and ‘content’, as if these two existed in complete detachment from each other. ‘Content’ is regarded as the more important and of proper theological interest, inasmuch as the framing of catechisms or the drawing up of catechetical programmes or church curricula involves right understanding and right statement of the Bible witness. ‘Method’, if thought of at all, is regarded as neutral and unworthy of serious theological consideration. Such positions at least deserve re-examining, and their re-examination may help to justify this theme in this journal.
Calvini Opera sed non Omnia
Authors: Parker T. H. L.
Published: February 2009

We do not possess the complete works of John Calvin. Three editions calling themselves Opera omnia have been printed. The first at Geneva in 1617; the second at Amsterdam in 1671, and the third as volumes 29–87 in the series Corpus Reformatorum. The Geneva edition contained most of the Latin works published in the Reformer's lifetime, together with Latin translations of the sermons, delivered originally in French, on 1 Samuel and Job. It had also a collection of letters from, to, and concerning Calvin. Amsterdam differed from this in no significant point. Corpus Reformatorum was vastly superior to its two predecessors. Besides containing everything that they had printed, it also aimed at including all the French works published in the sixteenth century, it greatly increased the number of letters, it provided not only the definitive edition of the Institutio (as Geneva and Amsterdam had done) but also the earlier editions and the 1560 French edition, and finally it gave the three lives of Beza and Colladon and the Annals drawn from the Registers of Geneva which illustrate the course of Calvin's life and work in the city.
The historical problem in Paul Tillich's christology
Authors: Cameron Bruce J. R.
Published: February 2009

The foundation of Christian belief,' states Paul Tillich, ‘is not the historical Jesus, but the biblical picture of the Christ.’1 This statement is only now beginning to elicit the serious comment that one might expect from the statement of so great a theologian as Paul Tillich. Tillich's penetrating analysis of the meaning of Jesus as the Christ is a profound contribution to the Christian understanding of the Incarnation. Donald Baillie was surely right, too, in expressing his enthusiasm for Tillich's christological interpretation of history when he stated that there seemed to him to be ‘deep truth … in the idea that Christology stands for the Christian interpretation of history as against other interpretations’.2 Even Tillich's claim that ‘to practise Christology does not mean to turn backward to an unknown historical past or to exert oneself about the applicability of questionable mythical categories to an unknown historical persoanality’,3 contains a refreshing and valid emphasis upon Christology as living existential faith rather than arid theoretical speculation. Yet Christianity has always maintained that its foundation is Jesus of Nazareth in whom the Word of God became flesh. Tilliach's Christology must therefore stand or fall on this christological question which he regards as quite subordinate: the question of the historical basis of the biblical picture of the Christ. If the foundation of Tillich's Christology is “not the historical Jesus, but the biblical picture of the Christ”, how much importance Tillich does actually allow the historical dimension in his Christology must be carefully examined.
The missionary message of second Isaiah
Authors: Gelston A.
Published: February 2009

We have long been accustomed to thinking of the great prophet of the exile, whose words are recorded in Isa. 40–55, as the seer who first discerned plainly the truth that Yahweh is the only real God in existence, and who drew the inference that He must therefore be the God, not of Israel only, but of all men the world over. But we have not always borne in mind the way in which this revelation came to the prophet. This was no sudden disclosure, unrelated to Israel's previous experience of Yahweh; it was a revelation indeed, but it came to the prophet through the travail of his own and his people's experience in Babylon.
The Message of James
Authors: Cranfield C. E. B.
Published: February 2009

To James 2.14–26 we may give the title, Of true faith. The clue to the understanding of the section is the fact (very often ignored) that in verse 14 (‘What doth it profit, my brethren, if a man say he hath faith, but have not works? can that faith save him?’) the author has not said, ‘if a man have faith’, but ‘if a man say he hath faith’.1 This fact should be allowed to control our interpretation of the whole paragraph. The second ‘faith’ in the verse is to be taken as in inverted commas. By ‘that faith’ (ἡ πίςτις) the writer means that thing which the man in question wrongly calls ‘faith’; he does not imply that he himself regards it as faith. When this is recognised, it is clear that the burden of this section is not (as is often supposed) that we are saved through faith plus works, but that we are saved through genuine, as opposed to counterfeit, faith.
Is Newman a Mystery?
Authors: Thomas J. Heywood
Published: February 2009

It is ironic to reflect that Newman explicitly said that he did not wish his life to be written and that during the last few years something like a dozen biographies of him have appeared, some of which indeed tell us nothing new. At last we have—at any rate as far as material is concerned—as full a biography as we can hope to get. This is Miss Meriol Trevor's two-volume work based on the unpublished material at the Birmingham Oratory. As one would expect, Miss Trevor tells her story very well, but her portrait of Newman is marred by a too sentimental approach to her subject, and this may lend credence to the view, which has been widely canvassed, that Newman is an enigmatic figure. This is extremely strange in view of James Anthony Froude's description of him as ‘the most transparent of men, and Newman's own assertion that it was most repugnant to his nature to conceal things. Father Dessain rightly repudiates the suspicion that there was anything in Newman himself to hide and has decided not to help perpetuate this notion of the mystery of Newman by publishing a selection of the letters rather than the voluminous correspondence in its completeness. Seldom indeed has a man been at more pains both to understand himself and to reveal the workings of his mind, and seldom has anyone had greater mastery of lucid expression to enable him to say what he meant.
Exposition of Isaiah Chapter One Verses Ten to Seventeen:Verses 10–17: The Criticism of Religion
Authors: Jones Douglas
Published: February 2009

These verses form a clear and independent section, summing up in memorable and penetrating phrases the criticism levelled by Isaiah the prophet against the religion of his contemporaries.
Spatio-temporal Relations in Divine Interactions
Authors: Pierce Tom
Published: February 2009

It would seem that the trend in modern theological works on Christology is to place a positive emphasis primarily on the humanity of Jesus Christ; if, it seems, Christ's divinity can also somehow be worked into the overall picture of the figure he represents in the historical Church, then, so much the better; if not, well, we still are left with an historical religious prophet par excellence. And certainly, such an advocate might argue, this is better than placing one's entire faith in an irresolvable antinomy such as this issue otherwise presents. After all, he might say, if, for example, ‘God, the Father’ is really nothing more than a religious metaphor, then there is no need to consider ‘Jesus, the Son’ as more than this either.
Christian Spontaneity and the Clarification of Pleasure
Authors: Kendal Gordon
Published: February 2009

Christians are not the only people with reservations about ethical hedonism. But the leading of a Christian life—along the broad lines traced out in the New Testament, say—has often seemed to be particularly disprobative of the theory that the moral end consists in pleasure. And it is not just a theoretical matter: among Christians, pleasure has been ignored, suspected, feared; and only sometimes welcomed. What I shall try to do in this article is examine what substance there is behind this hesitancy, and what significance pleasure should still have in the Christian life. To do this successfully we shall have to clarify the concept of pleasure. This is a task that needs to be done as much for the sake of our moral philosophy as for the sake of our Christianity, and the way in which I shall proceed will be to develop the meaning and the importance of pleasure in close connection with another (and perhaps slightly less controversial) feature of the Christian life: spontaneity. I can anticipate the general drift of the paper here by saying that pleasure, roughly speaking, is felt spontaneity. This has important implications, as does the fact that, for all their doubts about hedonism, Christians have traditionally made use of a number of words not unrelated to ‘pleasure’: words like ‘joy’, ‘contentment’, ‘blessedness’ and ‘happiness’.
The Impassibility of God and the Problem of Evil
Authors: Surin Kenneth
Published: February 2009

According to a certain strand in the orthodox Christian theist tradition, God's impassibility is engendered by his immutable nature. For if God cannot change then he cannot experience pain or sorrow. This fundamental principle was appropriated from Plato, who maintained that a being who is perfect can experience neither sadness, pain, nor sorrow. Some modern Christian theists, however, concede that this is perhaps the most questionable aspect of certain forms of orthodox Christian theism.
Vicar of Christ
Authors: Reid J. K. S.
Published: February 2009

Where does one look for theological thinking in the Ecumenical Movement today? The first answer is obvious. From virtually its beginning, the Movement comprised two wings, whose respective functions are clearly enough indicated by the names under which they began to operate. The Life and Work element promotes the greatest possible degree of cooperation; the Faith and Order component works for theological and ecclesial understanding and consensus. For many reasons, among which is certainly to be reckoned the powerful presence of so-called Third World Churches as members, chief attention has swerved perceptibly to the Life and Work aspect: social justice evokes more interest than justification by faith, and the tendency is to be more concerned with bread than with God. Despite this, the theological work of Faith and Order continues.
Austin Farrer and the Paradox of Christology
Authors: Wilson M. P.
Published: February 2009

I have no doubt that the discomfort of sitting on one horn of a dilemma may awaken lively hopes of the cushioned ease its alternative horn affords; but the hopes are delusive. Sit there, and the horn will presently enter your soul. (FS8, p. 119)
Jesus The Christ
Authors: Sauter G.
Published: February 2009

‘Are you he who is to come, or shall we look for another?’ This was the question (according to Mt. 11.2ff., Lk. 7.18ff.) with which John the Baptist sent his disciples to Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus replied by pointing to his works among those who embodied the defectiveness of creation, the blind, lame, lepers, the deaf, the poor and even the dead: all those who need the gospel. These are, as Matthew points out, the ‘deeds of the Christ’, messianic signs. Whether John's disciples have received a sufficient answer to their question, is left open by Jesus. But he does bless those who take no offence at what he, Jesus, is and does: salvation is experienced by everyone who ‘hears and sees’ that salvation is here revealed.
Thomas Erskine of Linlathen, Lay Theologian of the ‘Inner Light’
Authors: Logan John B.
Published: February 2009

The sole influential Scottish lay theologian, Thomas Erskine of Linlathen, was born in Edinburgh on 13th October 1788, the fourth son of David Erskine, a W.S. of distinguished ancestry, a member of the Church of Scotland who bought the estate of Linlathen near Dundee but who died in 1791. So Thomas spent much of his boyhood at Airth Castle in a quiet privileged atmosphere under the devoted care of his maternal grandmother, Mrs Graham. She was a devout Episcopalian whose influence mellowed his Presbyterian inheritance so that he came to favour episcopal forms. Though holding a deep religious faith, he never became a communicant member of any Church, though he attended Episcopal, Presbyterian and Congregational services.
Ecumenism and Rome
Authors: Torrance T. F.
Published: February 2009

Few people in our time have been more deeply concerned with thinking into each other again the inner substance of the evangelical and catholic emphases in the Church of Jesus Christ, than Oscar Cullmann. This has been especially evident in the way in which he has consistently sought to penetrate into the essential harmony of the Gospel that not only underlies the whole history of the Church but underpins the divisions between the Evangelical Churches and the Roman Catholic Church, bringing his unusually fresh understanding of the NT and the Early Church to bear constructively upon the areas of discord and friction, not least in respect of the concept of the Papacy. His many writings reveal unparalleled sensitivity and appreciation for the centrality of the biblical message, the sanctity of tradition and the continuity of worship in the redeemed life of the people of God, which have allowed him to bring together, without compromise, the concentration upon the core of the Gospel which has characterised the Evangelical Churches and the universal task and unifying order which have characterised the Catholic Churches.
On Human Work: An Evaluation of the Key Ideas of the Encyclical Laborem Exercens
Authors: Volf Miroslav
Published: February 2009

Last year John Paul II published his encyclical, Laborem exercens (LE), and Roman Catholic social teaching was so much the richer for it. Only his illness prevented the encyclical from being published on the day of the ninetieth anniversary of the first encyclical on the question of work, Rerum novarum (1891), written by the great pope of the ‘social question’, Leo XIII. LE was intended to contribute to the ‘immortal fame of the encyclical, Rerum novarum’, as Pius XI said of his encyclical Quadragesimo anno (1931). This indicates a basic continuity of LE with the developments in Roman Catholic social teaching set in motion by Rerum novarum. In fact John Paul II explicitly states his intention to remain in organic connexion with these developments. And indeed, with respect to the content of the encyclical, one finds hardly anything fundamentally new.
Light from the East? Ninian Smart and the Christian-Buddhist Encounter
Authors: Barnes L. Philip
Published: February 2009

One of the most pressing tasks for the Christian theologian at the present time is the construction of a theology of the religions which can adequately account for the continuing diversity of religious belief and practice, and which offers a distinctively Christian approach to religious pluralism. In the last few decades this topic has increasingly commanded the attention of prominent writers (e.g. P. Tillich, W. Pannenberg, J. Moltmann). Not only has it become the subject of numerous monographs and articles, but it seems to have established itself as an indispensable theme within any comprehensive (systematic) presentation of the Christian Faith.
Realized Eschatology in Q? A Consideration of the Sayings in Luke 7.22, 11.20 and 16.16
Authors: Mearns Chris
Published: February 2009

It is surprising that more British scholars have not investigated the theology of Q. Those scholars who have done so are mainly German, with a few other continentals and some Americans. The hypothesis I wish to maintain is that Q has a consistently futurist eschatology. Those verses which apparently uphold a realized eschatology are to be explained as compatible, without contradiction, with the overall futurist eschatology that pervades Q.
Two Nineteenth Century Theologies of Sin — Julius Müller and Soren Kierkegaard
Authors: Russell Stanley
Published: February 2009

A common assumption about the 19th century is that it was a complacent age, and that by and large theologians, though not quite sure of the exact terms of adjustment, had an overall confidence in the compatibility of faith and culture. Yet that same century is also notable for producing two of the most significant theological treatments of human sinfulness; the treatise of Julius Müller which is marked by its systematic comprehensiveness, and the more occasional writings of Soren Kierkegaard with all their fecund suggestiveness for the future. It is perhaps remarkable that our own century which has witnessed far more overt human evil has produced hardly anything comparable, apart possibly from Vol. 1 of Reinhold Niebuhr's Nature & Destiny of Man.
Christianity and Politics: Another View
Authors: Haldane John J.
Published: February 2009

Abstract

The essay explores the relationship between Christian faith, ethical thought and political action. It examines two views of the matter. First, the autonomy thesis, advanced by writers such as Edward Norman in his Reith Lectures and elsewhere, which claims that Christianity in general is independent of political concerns, and that Church leaders in particular have no business engaging in political debate, or using their teaching authority to commend or condemn the actions of governments. Second, the commitment thesis, here derived from writings of Kenneth Leech, which maintains that fidelity to the biblical revelation involves an explicit commitment to Christian humanism, and thereby to practical opposition to capitalism and support for radical socialism.
St. Thomas on the Identity and Unity of the Person of Christ: A Problem of Reference in Christological Discourse
Authors: Morris Thomas V.
Published: February 2009

Over the past few decades philosophers have gathered quite a few logical and linguistic insights from a close study of traditional religious claims and arguments: But on the whole, theologians have not benefited reciprocally from those philosophical explorations into their territory. I believe this has been due in part to the philosophers' unhelpful approach. Their procedure, all too often, has been to lay out a claim or argument in its traditional form, and then go ‘fallacy hunting’, finally to reject it as hopelessly ridden with logical error and based on some outmoded metaphysical notions which are entirely unsalvageable. In all this there is seldom evinced any sensitivity to that religious perception the communication of which was intended by the particular formulation of doctrine they have examined. Thus the philosophical enterprise has time and again come across as inimical to the theologian's interest. In this paper I hope to show that this is not a necessary course of affairs. I intend to examine some traditional Christian claims about the person of Christ as presented by St. Thomas, primarily in the third part of his Summa Theologiae. I shall reject the bulk of his particular formulations but at the same time concur with some of the insights which found expression in those formulae. The particular topic I shall address is the question of the identity and unity of the person of Christ.
Martin Luther: Prophet to The Church Catholic
Authors: Atkinson James
Published: February 2009

Controversy forced Luther into a confessional position which history has hardened almost into a kind of denominationalism. The subsequent rise of the ‘Lutheran’ Church, and of ‘Lutheran’ theology, owing to Luther's excommunication and his exclusion from the Roman Catholic Church, have contributed to a general acceptance of this evaluation. Save for a few distinguished Roman Catholic and Protestant scholars, who have worked on the sources and allow Luther to speak for himself, most historians, and certainly the general reader, work on the assumption that Luther is such a ‘confessional’ figure. To find a truer understanding of Luther, of what he was concerned to say to the Church of his day, it is necessary to detach him from this confessional, denominational location by setting him in the Catholic environment in which he was born, in which he was educated, and to which he felt called by God to speak the Word of God. He should be seen as a reformer of a Catholicism which had largely become de-spiritualised and secularised. He offered a reformatio of that which had suffered a de-formatio, and did so for the sake of God, propter deum, as he put it. He sought only to reform a Catholicism which he loved, and to reform it, not as he thought fit, but according to the intent of Jesus Christ and his Apostles, and that on the lines of solid biblical scholarship, authentic tradition and fair argument.
Kierkegaard on History and Faith
Authors: Whittaker J. H.
Published: February 2009

Christianity, as everyone knows, is a historical religion — historical because belief in Christianity involves belief in various claims about what happened in the past. This seems simple enough, but it really is not. For the more that one thinks about it, the more complex this ‘historical’ aspect of Christianity becomes. One's faith in Christianity involves beliefs about the man Jesus, to be sure; yet how can one's beliefs about the past save anyone? Does God judge people on the basis of the opinions that they hold, and only choose for his kingdom those who hold correct opinions about the historical Jesus? If that were the case, one would expect tremendous interest in historical research on the life of Jesus; people would be desperate to find out all that they could know.
A Historical Reconsideration of Newman and Liberalism: Newman and Mivart on Science and the Church
Authors: Burrows Mark S.
Published: February 2009

I say, that a power, possessed of infallibility in religious teaching, is happily adapted to be a working instrument, in the course of human affairs, for smiting hard and throwing back the immense energy of the aggressive, capricious, untrustworthy intellect …
Three Ways
Authors: Sontag Frederick
Published: February 2009

A. The divine-human situation.

God is the only being who, if he exists, must be present at all times and in all places.

2. Therefore, it must at least be possible to detect the presence of God at any time and in any place.

3. However, proof for God's existence lies with each individual, since ‘to prove’ means to be capable of becoming aware of God's presence.

4. Not everyone at every time and place is aware of God's existence. But the divine nature must be such as to be ever-existent. That is, it is both capable of making its presence known and at the same time capable of having its presence unrecognized.

5. God, then, can relate to each intelligent soul in a different way. Thus, he is subject to being described in a variety of ways.

6. The non-uniformity of our experience of God indicates that human beings are capable of sensing God's presence but seldom in a uniform way.

7. The time and place, the intellectual and cultural climate, the vitality or laxity of existing religious modes, all have a large role in determining how many human beings become aware of God's presence and accept that as proof.

8. With regard to proving the ever-presence of God, the initiative and the control have been placed largely in human hands. Given God's presence at all times and at all places, and the great variety of ways we have of sensing and responding, the responsibility for determining God's existence is ours.
Sovereignty and Freedom: Some Pauline Compatibilisms
Authors: Gooch P. W.
Published: February 2009

How divine sovereignty and human freedom are to be related is a question of importance to the believer. It is something about which St Paul has several things to say: but while his contributions may be necessary for Christian faith, they are not sufficient for the understanding which faith seeks. We also need the help of philosophical reflection. That at least is the burden of this paper. It begins with Paul's assumptions about freedom in order to reject a harsh view of sovereignty. Then, after sketching three ways of reconciling freedom and sovereignty, we examine Paul's concept of God's sovereignty in Romans 9–11 in order to conclude that there is only one kind of compatibilism which holds promise for faith and understanding.
Natural Theology and the Ministry of the Word
Authors: Griffith Gwilym O.
Published: February 2009

We understand that if Theology in general means the systematised interpretation of Divine truth, Christian Theology means the systematised interpretation of the redemptive revelation of God in Christ. That is its subject, and its method is the exposition of Holy Scripture. Natural Theology differs from Christian Theology both in subject-matter and in method. Its subject is the revelation of God in Nature and in the world of man, and its method is the exposition of that revelation in the light of human reason and conscience. Of course this is not to say that there cannot be a Christian Natural Theology. That would be to prejudge an issue which is sharply dividing Protestant theological thought on the Continent at the present time and which is the occasion of this paper. But I think that, without prejudging that issue, it can be said that if the exposition of Nature and man's world be made in the light and under the authority of the Christian revelation, then, in a not unimportant sense, Natural Theology loses its distinctive character. For though, in that case, it continue to interrogate Nature and Man, it derives its decisive answers from the revelation in Christ, and thus becomes distinctively Christian and Scriptural.
The Idea of Substitution in the Doctrine of the Atonement
Authors: Camfield F. W.
Published: February 2009

“I Believe that we have to learn anew what the Holy Scriptures say and mean by substitution of Jesus Christ and satisfaction.” These words, spoken by Karl Barth in the course of a discussion on “The Christian as Witness”, provide much food for reflection. For if there is one conclusion which had come almost to be taken for granted in enlightened Christian quarters, it is that the idea of substitution has led theology on a wrong track; and that the word “substitution” must now be dropped from the doctrine of the Atonement as too heavily laden with misleading and even false connotations. By “liberal” or “modernist” theology the idea of substitution is of course rejected out of hand. And even the theology which prides itself on being “positive” and “evangelical” and which seeks to maintain lines of communication with the great traditional doctrines of atonement is on the whole disposed to reject it. And this, not merely on the ground that it holds implications which are irrational and morally offensive, but even and specifically on the ground that it is unscriptural. Thus Dr. Vincent Taylor as a result of an exhaustive examination of the “Idea of Atonement in the New Testament” gives it as his conclusion that the idea of substitution has no place in the New Testament writings; that in fact it is opposed to the fundamental teaching of the New Testament; that even St.
The Theology of Emil Brunner
Authors: Cairns David
Published: February 2009

As a theologian, Emil Brunner has always had two main concerns: firstly the exposition of the special revelation of God, which culminated in Christ, and its maintenance as something distinct from the general revelation of God in nature, conscience and history; and, secondly, the evaluation of this general revelation from the standpoint of faith in the special revelation. Like Barth and most of his contemporaries in theological study, Brunner started in the liberal camp, and his first important book, Mysticism and the Word (1927), was a critical discussion of the whole trend of Protestant theology since the collapse of verbal inspirationism. In it, a short study of the wide and difficult field of mysticism is followed by a detailed examination of the theology of Schleiermacher, who is taken as the chief representative of Protestant theology since the days of the Enlightenment. Although Mysticism and the Word has not been translated into English, the loss to the English-reading public is lessened by the fact that much of the argument is recapitulated with less detailed reference to Schleiermacher in Brunner's next book, The Mediator. This is divided into three parts; the first is entitled “Presuppositions”, and the second and third deal respectively with the person and work of the Mediator. In the first part Brunner argues that the usual evaluation of Schleiermacher's theological work is false. It has been customary to contrast him with Kant and Hegel. Kant found that faith in God was one of the postulates of the practical reason, or the will.
The Pain of God
Authors: Woollcombe Kenneth J.
Published: February 2009

The problem of the Pain of God is for me a perennial one, for wherever in the Anglican Communion God calls me to minister (with few exceptions) I have been and shall be called upon to assent to the proposition that God is ‘without body, parts or passions’ (Article I of the XXXIX Articles of Religion). My difficulty is simply that, although I am content to admit that God is incorporeus et impartibilis without any qualifications at all, I cannot admit that He is impassibilis without making so many qualifications that the admission almost dies of them. I suspect furthermore that those who are obliged to give general assent to the Westminster Confession of Faith may have a similar difficulty with Chapter II, Section I, which contains the same proposition. The scriptural warrant for it is said to be found in Acts 14.15, where Paul and Barnabas cry to the people of Lystra, ‘Men, why are you doing this? We also are men, of like nature with you, and bring you good news, that you should turn from these vain things to a living God who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and all that is in them.’ In its context, I understand this verse to imply that God, unlike Zeus and Hermes, is neither fickle nor whimsical, but constant and free to achieve His purpose. As the Greek Fathers would say, He is both autokinetos and tautokinetos.
The Christocentrig Ethics of Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Authors: Kohler R. F.
Published: February 2009

Bonhoeffer's Ethics demonstrates the depth of his christolJcentric theology. Every theme has at its very heart the action of God in the incarnation, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. His work of substitutionary atonement and reconciliation becomes the basis for man's ethical responsibility. From this basic observation, we can see that Bonhoeffer will have nothing to do with a theology or ethics in which man is seeking the answer to the nature of his own being or the foundation of his own action within himself. ‘It is necessary to free oneself from the way of thinking which sets out from human problems and which asks for solutions on this basis. Such thinking is unbiblical. The way of Jesus Christ, and therefore the way of all Christian thinking leads not from the world to God but from God to the world’ (E 356).1 It is the seriousness with which he takes revelation and the inversion of the priorities of ‘liberal’ and ‘existential’ theology which is rigorously applied throughout his Ethics. Even in his Christology the question of ‘who’ Christ is is given priority over ‘what’ Christ did, though the person and work can never be separated.
The Problem Posed by the Severe Sayings Attributed to Jesus in the Synoptic Gospels
Authors: Fairhurst Alan M.
Published: February 2009

In his book In the end, God… Dr J. A. T. Robinson argues for luniversalism from two myths of the end, one taken from Matthew 25.31–46 and the other from Paul (London: James Clarke, 1950, p. 99 f). If the two myths were both taken from the sayings of Jesus his argument would be immeasurably stronger, though it is fair to add that he does see them both being represented in the present in John 3.17–18 (p. ioo).2
Calvin's Saturday Morning Sermon on Micah 6.6–8
Authors: Lewis A. David
Published: February 2009

With what shall I appear before the Lord and bow before the sovereign God? Shall I come before Him with burnt-offerings and year-old calves? Will the Lord want a thousand sheep or ten thousand cattle from the rich valleys? Shall I give my first-born son in payment? The fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? O Man, He has told you what is good; and what else does the Lord require of you but to do justice and to love kindness and to walk humbly withyour God
The Ascension and the Eschatology of Luke-Acts
Authors: Franklin Eric
Published: February 2009

Much recent discussion of Luke and his theology has revolved around his interpretation of the eschatological outlook of early Christianity. That he has at this point entered upon a certain amount of redefinition seems clear from his handling of St. Mark's gospel. What is less clear, however, is that his interpretation represents the turning away from eschatology that is sometimes attributed to him and that, because of this, he merits the accusation of having compromised the outlook of the early proclamation. Wilckens defends Luke against such accusations on the grounds that they rest upon a one-sided conception of Paul's theology. It may also be suggested that they can be substantiated only by a failure to appreciate Luke's own outlook and by a determination to force him into the mould of ‘redemptive historya’.
Is the penal theory of the Atonement scriptural?
Authors: Crawford R. G.
Published: February 2009

We live in a day and age when Creeds and Confessions are ‘under fire’ from different quarters. The reasons for this are varied, but undoubtedly one of the main exceptions which is taken to them is that their content cannot be justified in the light of modern biblical scholarship.
The concept of responsibility in the ethics of Karl Barth and H. Richard Niebuhr
Authors: Willis Robert E.
Published: February 2009

In his posthumously published work, The Responsible Self, H. Niebuhr raises certain objections against the ethics of Karl Barth. Without holding any particular brief for Barth's formulations, I wish to examine those objections with some care, for I believe that one of the crucial points in Barth's thought that is criticised, the relation between Gospel and Law (and the understanding of Law that emerges from it), actually displays a striking congeniality to Niebuhr's own development of the concept of responsibility. The clue to this congeniality lies in seeing that Barth's understanding of the relation of Gospel and Law to man's moral life necessitates the formulation of an act-rather than a rule-deontology. When this important distinction is observed and applied to Barth's position, it results in precisely the same emphasis on response that Niebuhr sets forth in his later ethical thought.
The Indissolubility of Marriage as a Theological Problem
Authors: Ehrlich Rudolf J.
Published: February 2009

From an ecumenical point of view the theological examination of marriage and its indissolubility is one of the most urgent tasks to be undertaken by the Churches of the Reformation. It has been repeatedly stated by them that as long as the Roman Church makes the validity of so-called mixed marriages between Protestants and Roman Catholics depend on the observance of the ‘canonical form’ and refuses to grant freedom to the partners of a mixed marriage in the education of their children the ecumenism of Rome—to say the least of it—will remain suspect. The Instructio Matrimonii Sacramentum of 1966 which for all practical purposes reiterates the legislation laid down by the Codex Iuris Canonici of 1918 shows that in spite of Vatican II the official attitude of the Holy See has remained intransigent. Nevertheless although the Roman Church has arbitrarily erected canonical barriers which interfere with or even (from a Roman Catholic point of view) invalidate the most intimate human relationship, we have no intention of doubting the ecumenical honesty and sincerity of Roman Catholics. It should be remembered that the Instructio is as unsatisfactory to many leading Roman Catholics as it is to the Churches of the Reformation. This can be deduced from the fact that at the First International Synod of Bishops (1967) 31 per cent of its members voted in favour of the removal of the present impediment of mixta religio including the promise to educate the children of a mixed marriage in the Roman Catholic faith.
Discipleship in mark: Mark 8.22–10.52
Authors: Best Ernest
Published: February 2009

Recent study of the Gospels has concentrated on the contribution which the individual evangelists have made to the material they received. Here, and in such matters as their selection and arrangement of material, we can discern the particular point of view of each writer. Admittedly this is relatively easy when we see the way in which Matthew and Luke have varied the material they took from Mark, less easy when we examine the material they have in common from Q, and most difficult when they use material from their special sources. In the case of Mark it all, as we might say, comes from his special source and so it is extremely difficult to determine what he is trying to say to us. But, like going to the moon, the greater the difficulty, the greater the challenge. We take up this challenge in respect of one theme in Mark, viz. discipleship. This means we are not attempting to answer questions as ‘Was Jesus a Rabbi who instructed scholars with his own particular teaching?’; ‘Did Jesus attempt to weld his followers into a community to continue after his death?’ Indeed no attempt will be made to answer any of the questions about the historical relationship of Jesus to the actual disciples he had on earth; our concern lies with what Mark thinks a disciple ought to be.
Article Review
Authors: Robinson N. H. G.
Published: February 2009

The purpose of this paper is to take account of the contribution to religious thought of Professor Nels F. S. Ferré with special reference to two fairly recent books, Reason in Religion and The Living God of Nowhere and Nothing. For more than a quarter of a century Dr Ferré has occupied a prominent place in the field of theological education in the United States, first at Andover Newton Theological School and for the last few years at Parsons College; and by articles and books he has proved himself a most prolific writer. By and large, moreover, he has persistently evinced an evangelical concern to be faithful to the fulness of the Christian Gospel, so that if by chance, at this point or that, he is deemed to have fallen short, that has certainly happened, not by intention, but in spite of it, by the logical development of his presuppositions. In a much earlier book he offered his readers a choice, ‘either a staggering faith beyond our wildest imagination, centred in God, or else the darkness of description, explaining nothing’ and there is no doubt which alternative he himself preferred. ‘Feeding back modern man his own thoughts and feelings will not nourish him. He must be helped to see and to accept the truth that saves.’ ‘Unless “God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself” in a historically factual way, without all cavil or equivocation, I know no Gospel for mankind.’
Reason and Revelation in Saint Athanasius
Authors: Louth Andrew
Published: February 2009

The purpose of this article is to examine the place of reason in Athanasius' theology. We begin by looking at the Contra Gentes and De Incarnatione, a single work in two parts, since this is in some ways the most systematic of Athanasius' writings. Having taken our bearings in these early works we shall try and give some indication of how the notion of submission to the Logos is developed in his later writings (mainly the orations against the Arians and the Serapion correspondence). The notion of submission to the Logos we find to be a key in understanding the place of reason in Athanasius' thought.
The Parables as Language-Event: Some Comments on Fuchs's Hermeneutics in the Light of Linguistic Philosophy
Authors: Thiselton A. C.
Published: February 2009

This study has two aims. The first is to clarify and to assess some major conclusions reached by Ernst Fuchs in his work on the parables of Jesus. The second is to shed some fresh light on the parables themselves, with special reference to their linguistic forms and functions. The method of enquiry is partly determined by two particular issues, and some initial comments may serve to bring these into focus.
The Church and Science
Authors: Macarthur J. S.
Published: February 2009

The Church and science have often enough been or at least appeared to be in conflict with each other, though it might be truer to say that it is Churchmen and scientists who have found themselves in opposition. Who has been to blame? In such strife it is rare that the fault can be attributed to only one side, and it may be that a more accurate delineation of the nature and purpose of the Church on the one hand and of the scope and function of science on the other might resolve the causes of the conflict.
The Proselyte in Biblical and Early Post-Biblical Times
Authors: Levison Nahum
Published: February 2009

The term may have and convey a clear Greek concept from its derivation pros-elthein to come near. The Hebrew is not quite so simple, for though the term Gër is generally used, when it came to legislation it was found that there were different categories to be taken into consideration. There were the Ezraḥim, the natives, or free tribesmen, there were the Toshabhim, temporary residents, and there were the slaves, and all these were the concern of the community. The common word Gër, it should be noted, had a connotation for the Hebrew that meant very much more than a proselyte. It came very near the word ’ibhri, Hebrew, one from the other side, a foreigner. The Hebrew never forgot that he was himself a Gër, in Egypt, and afterwards in the various countries of his exile. Another Greek word, Diaspora, came to be used in this connexion, but in reality Gër was still the most suitable term.
The Philosophy of Religion, the Banner of a Sect
Authors: Gundry D. W.
Published: February 2009

The age-old device of using a text is an extremely useful one. A text summarises—or should summarise—what the preacher has to say; and, even if, as is often the case, the congregation forget the contents of the sermon almost straight away, there is just a chance that they will remember the text. As an eighteenth-century divine wisely observed in advising young clergymen, ‘Propose one point in one discourse, and stick to it; a hearer never carries away more than one impression.’The text and the one point of this paper is evident from the title: ‘The philosophy of religion, the banner of a sect.’
The Redemptive Mission of the Church
Authors: Peter J. F.
Published: February 2009

The title given to this paper makes clear what it sets out to do. The ‘mission of the Church’ is the work which the Church is meant to carry out, and the inclusion of the epithet ‘redemptive’ indicates that what is in mind is the Church's mission in relation to the world (she has also her Godward mission of offering worship). The aim, then, is to indicate the principles by which the Church must be guided as she seeks to fulfil her manward vocation, which is one of bringing men to redemption; and I propose to draw out these principles by following three lines, which I call the primary, the secondary, and the tertiary, because I believe that they should always be thought of in that order, though I do not think it possible for any of them to exist without the others. The mission of the Church, primarily, is to bring men into confrontation with God; secondarily, it is to bring men into the fellowship of the Church; tertiarily, it is to redeem society as a whole.
The Relevance Of Kierkegaard to the Demythologising Controversy
Authors: Thomas J. Heywood
Published: February 2009

The controversy which has this forbidding name arose as a result of Bultmann's essay «New Testament and Mythology’. The essay appears to have evoked a very loud and fierce criticism in Germany and has become the bone of contention among its theologians. This controversy has spread to America where Bultmann's friend Professor Paul Tillich has put before the theological public not only the issue involved in the debate but also his own unhesitating support of Bultmann's programme. It has also come to us in Britain through the publication of Professor Henderson's Myth in the New Testament, and the ‘documents in the case’ in the volume Kerygma and Myth. First let us see what it is that Bultmann has to say.
Didactic Kerygma in the Synoptic Gospels
Authors: Vincent John J.
Published: February 2009

‘Kerygma’ is probably the most popular catch-word of contemporary Anglo-Saxon biblical theology. It purports to sum up what the NT has to say in a single word; it is taken over gratefully by systematicians and preachers as the longawaited ‘conclusion’ of the NT critics; it is a point from which other elements can be judged and pronounced more or less Christian.