bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Anselm's Theological Method
Authors: Campbell Richard
Published: February 2009

There cannot be many philosophical theologians whose work has been interpreted in such radically contrary ways as has Anselm's. He is seen as an arch-rationalist who did not baulk at trying to prove the necessity of the Incarnation and the Trinity (which is Gilson's basic interpretation); and he is seen as a certain kind of fideist for whom reason always moves within the circle of faith, a proof of faith by faith (which is how Barth's interpretation is commonly understood, or misunderstood).
Science and Christian Theism: A Mutual Witness
Authors: Jaki Staleny L.
Published: February 2009

The theme, science and Christian theism, is most likely to evoke today a curious mixture of reactions, mostly negative. While a celebration of warfare between science and Christianity is no longer a fare of the day as it was a century ago, Christianity is often taken for a vanquished enemy or for a successfully tamed beast. Such seems to be the case of the relation between science and religion in the Western World where science sprang into prominence a few centuries ago and where an atmosphere of intellectual and religious freedom is a part of daily life.
Stratification of the Meaning of Time
Authors: Yu Carver T.
Published: February 2009

It is no accident that when Socrates, Critias, Hermocrates, and Timaeus came to discuss the historicity of the Ancient Athens in correlation to Socrates' idea of the ideal city, they were led to the problem of the metaphysical reality of time. In Timaeus, time becomes the hinge of correlation between historical reality and eternity. And so it is with Augustine. In his Confessions, after a lengthy discussion of his personal history he sets out to construct an ontological structure for the interpretation of history as a whole. Right there, he encounters the problem of time. ‘What, then, is time? If no one asks of me, I know; if I wish to explain to him who asks, I know not.’ Lament as Augustine may, he plunges right into the puzzle.

The problem of time is more than a pastime interest for metaphysical speculation. It is at the root of our understanding of the structure both of physical and of human existence. Einstein's relational concept of time affects our understanding of the structure of physical reality, just as the former Newtonian habit of looking at time as an independently flowing stream governed our former way of seeing things. With the suggestion in the Newtonian model that one moment of time flows into the one immediately next in sequence, we unconsciously look at events as flowing one into the other, and so we perceive events in terms of causal connexions. The relational model breaks the necessity of causal connexions and replaces it with a concept of functional dependence.
Divine Suffering in Contemporary Theology
Authors: McWilliams Warren
Published: February 2009

Can God suffer? Can God feel real pain, anguish, or disappointment regarding the human situation? The answer of most classical Christian theists has been negative. Early in Christian history theologians began to develop the notion of divine impassibility, i.e. that God cannot suffer. This position was crystallised in the third century debates over patripassianism, a view proposed by Praxeas and Noetus that God the Father suffered and died in the crucifixion of Christ. Mainstream Christianity rejected this view because of its failure to maintain a clear distinction among the members of the trinity. In later Christological controversies, theopaschitism was also condemned for arguing that God suffered. In the twentieth century, however, numerous philosophers of religion, Biblical scholars, and theologians have criticised the doctrine of divine impassibility. Now it is not surprising to find a theologian arguing this way: ‘The concept of divine suffering is not only the core of our faith but the uniqueness of Christianity.’

One reason for the frequent debate over the impassibility of God is the kind of language used in the Bible to describe God. Many passages affirm the radical difference between divine and human natures (e.g. Isaiah 40.18, 25; Hosea 11.9). Other passages freely use anthropomorphic language to describe God, i.e. human form is attributed to God. God walks, talks, smells, hears, writes, and has a back side that Moses can see. Especially important for the impassibility discussion are the passages that use anthropopathic language for God, i.e. they attribute human moods, feelings, or emotions to God.
The Apologetic Force of a Theology of Hope
Authors: Muyskens James L.
Published: February 2009

Martin Marty and Dean Peerman in their New Theology series attempt to present the most significant recent theological trends. Volume 5, published in 1968, was devoted to the theology of hope. In the period from about 1967 to 1973 the word ‘hope’ appeared in the titles of numerous books to be found in theological bookstores and hope was the subject of various conferences at seminaries and universities. These books and symposia addressed themselves to an array of themes including a concern for the future, a call to political activism, a dialogue with Marxism inspired by the work on hope by the Marxist Ernst Bloch, exegetical studies of eschatology, Old and New Testament theological studies emphasising eschatology, and hope as the cognitive basis and starting-point for doing theology. The work that came closest to encompassing all these divergent strands and did much to stimulate thinking on these issues was Jürgen Moltmann's Theology of Hope published in 1967, in which he attempts ‘to show how theology can set out from hope’.
J. P. Gabler and the Distinction Between Biblical and Dogmatic Theology: Translation, Commentary, and Discussion of His Originality
Authors: Sandys-Wunsch John , Eldredge Laurence
Published: February 2009

Cabler's inaugural address De justo discrimine theologiae biblicae et dogmaticae regundisque racte utriusque finibus was written in a very complex, classically-based Latin, but the ideas he expressed were those of eighteenth-century Enlightenment theology. The responsibility for this translation was shared in that Dr Eldredge dealt with the philological and idiomatic sense of the Latin, and Dr Sandys-Wunsch filled in the theological background to Gabler's thought. Dr Sandys-Wunsch alone is responsible for the commentary and discussion.
The Young Person's Religion: a Crisis of Attitude?
Authors: Francis Leslie
Published: February 2009

For many people the period of junior and secondary schooling establishes a pattern of attitudes which persists well into adult life, and, for some, throughout the whole of life. Attitudes are important. Attitudes function as a determinant both of overt behaviour and of personal self-development. It is not surprising, therefore, that educationalists have begun to take the training of attitudes seriously.
Karl Barth's Christological Basis for the State and Political Praxis
Authors: Hood R. E.
Published: February 2009

It would appear that one is an apostle of the obvious when speaking of Karl Barth's ‘christological basis’ for the state. According to G. C. Berkouwer, amongst others, to say Karl Barth is to mean simultaneously ‘christocentricism’, especially when speaking of Barth after his deliberate reversal in his dogmatics published in 1932—the date Barth published his Kirchliche Dogmatik after he discontinued writing his Christliche Dogmatik begun in 1927, which he later described as ‘my well-known false start’. But even Berkouwer, who criticises Barth for underplaying the demonic effects and influences of evil through his emphasis on grace, admits that Barth's ‘christocentricism’ has epistemological emphases not found in other theologians:

… Barth underscores with increasing emphasis that all knowledge of God is exclusively determined by and is dependent upon the knowledge of Jesus Christ, and that this is not simply a matter of our epistemology, but that it is directly related to the nature of God in Jesus Christ who is the dominant and all-controlling central factor in the doctrines of election, creation, and reconciliation. Only in Jesus Christ do we meet the true and decisive revelation of God.
Anselm's Background Metaphysics
Authors: Campbell Richard
Published: February 2009

In the background of Anselm's philosophical theology there appear a number of philosophical issues which have not received as much attention from philosophers as they deserve. Some of these issues are his view on the relation between language and reality; the way he handles the notion of being and its opposite, non-being; and his notions of necessity and eternity. Despite its title, this paper will not issue in a systematic and comprehensive reconstruction of the Anselmian metaphysics, since I doubt that that would be possible. Anselm's objectives were always ultimately theological in character, and he never purported to present a rounded metaphysical system. In his hands the basic notions mentioned were modified through their being employed by such an acute and subtle thinker to articulate and elucidate basic articles of Christian belief. But it is possible to discern a central unifying theme through which his views on metaphysical topics are connected. That theme is his interesting and quite novel account of truth. In this paper I will focus upon that theme for the light it sheds on these other issues.
Schleiermacher in Britain
Authors: Ellis Ieuan
Published: February 2009

IN the early nineteenth century visits by German philosophers and theologians to Britain were rare, rarer still when the visitor was of Friedrich Schleiermacher's distinction. However, Schleiermacher spent three weeks in London in September 1828, and the occasion provides a fascinating sidelight on this period of English Church history. It was his first and last visit: though Schleiermacher had learned English early in life, and translated two volumes of sermons and written various articles for the Athenaeum, he had felt no urge to cross the Channel before. The reasons now were political rather than religious. He lodged in London with his wife's cousin, Ludwig von Miihlenfels, a writer and critic who had been arrested for ‘demagogic’ activities in Germany and had subsequently escaped and settled in England. From this point of view the visit was a success; Schleiermacher appears to have reinstated von Mühlenfels in the eyes of the Prussian authorities since he was allowed to return home in 1830.
Responsible Preaching
Authors: Lorenzen Thorwald
Published: February 2009

Bored congregations, discouraged ministers, and many attempts to discover new forms of communicating the gospel signal a crisis of preaching. This crisis is not explained by the fact that preaching is difficult and often frustrating. We could live with that. Difficulties and frustrations can be utilised, if the preacher is convinced that his task is necessary and worth while. As long as we can see meaning in preaching; as long as we can hope that the words of men may become the word of God, no difficulties would deter the preacher from pursuing the privilege of preaching. The crisis is therefore a theological one. We have become uncertain as to who God is. We are not sure—deep down—whether our preaching corresponds to his will. This then creates our modern situation where responsible and effective preaching is declining and is also discouraged in our churches.
Every Context has a Context
Authors: Barnhart J. E.
Published: February 2009

Definition.—I define Epistemological Primitivism as the view that a given text exists in a state of nature or a condition of primordial meaning. It is the literary equivalent to the version of empiricism which stresses the passivity of the mind and the purity of the data in the knowing process. The impossibility of holding consistently to epistemological primitivism is seen when (1) the interpreter recognises that a text gains cognitive meaning only if it is interwoven with other texts and (2) the interpreter actively brings to the text a selective factor by designating which texts will interlace more predominantly and directly with one another.

Example.—The famous or infamous passage of Romans 9.11–24 serves as a vivid example of a network of interwoven texts whose overall impact forces the conclusion that Paul is advancing a doctrine of strict predestination. In this passage, each verse seems to prepare the way for the following verse in elaborating the theme of predestination of human choice itself. In his book The Debate About the Bible evangelical Christian Stephen Davis, recognizing the force of the Romans 9 passage, writes, ‘I do not claim to know how to reconcile Paul's teachings on election with the Bible's apparent commitment to the notion that people are free and morally responsible agents.’ Davis' point is that within the Bible are texts other than Romans 9 which seem to force the conclusion that some human choices are neither caused by God nor predestined.
Baptised Children, Confirmation and Holy Communion
Authors: Macdonald Finlay
Published: February 2009

My primary concern in this article is with the Christian nurture of children. In particular, I would contend that one of the present deficiencies in the nurture of children within the Reformed tradition lies in the fact that we regard Holy Communion more as the goal of than the means to such nurture. There is, in my view, a clear case for admitting baptised children to Holy Communion, and it rests both upon the Reformed understanding of the Lord's Supper as a means of grace, and upon the growing realisation that the Christian nurture of children is no mere didactic matter but must be conducted within the whole life and worship of the church. Plainly though, the question of Christian nurture cannot be considered without reference to Christian initiation, debate about which in recent years has been much concerned with the doctrine of confirmation. I should make it clear, right at the start, that I do not intend to discuss the issue of infant versus believers' baptism, or to consider the place of the unbaptised child within the church. My question is simply: if a church practises infant baptism, is there any justification for excluding baptised children from the sacrament of Holy Communion?

Initiation practices vary from denomination to denomination. On the one hand there is the Baptist tradition of believers' baptism. But in those churches where infant baptism is not only practised, but is the norm, questions of subsequent initiation procedures are answered in differing ways.
Apostolic Succession
Authors: Hall Noel
Published: February 2009

The renewed emphasis on the doctrine of apostolic succession which was the outcome of the Oxford Movement in the Church of England is an example of the power inherent in dogmas to recover their vitality. This is no isolated phenomenon confined exclusively to the dogmas of the Christian faith; in our own times we have witnessed the far-reaching results of the revival of the Marxian dogma of dialectical materialism in the sphere of international politics. That bishops are the successors of the Apostles was a belief held without question by the majority of Anglican Churchmen at the dawn of the nineteenth century, but it cannot be contended that they were fully alive to its implications. The awakening came through the publication of the Tracts for the Times. The challenge was sounded with unambiguous clarity in the very first of them to issue from the press. ‘Now then, ’ wrote John Henry Newman, ‘let me come at once to the subject which leads me to address you. Should the Government and the country so far forget their God as to cast off the Church, to deprive it of its temporal honours and substance, on what will you rest the claim of respect and attention which you make upon your flocks? Hitherto you have been upheld by your birth, your education, your wealth, your connexions; should these secular advantages cease, on what must Christ's ministers depend?… I fear we have neglected the real ground on which our authority is built: our Apostolic Descent.
‘Episcopate’ and ‘Presbyterate’ in the Anglican ‘Ordinal’
Authors: Barkley John M.
Published: February 2009

In the belief that the Church of Christ is ‘one, holy, catholic, and apostolic’, and with the prayer that God may bless the Ecumenical Movement and all who strive for the unity—not uniformity—of the Churches, this examination of the Anglican ‘Ordinal’, in so far as it throws light upon the relationship of presbyterate and episcopate, is undertaken.
Preaching the Law
Authors: Bring Ragnar
Published: February 2009

In The New Testament the word ‘Law’ is largely equivalent to what we today call the Old Testament. But there are exceptions to this use of the term. The Law sometimes designates the Pentateuch. This is the case in the liturgy of the Synagogue. But for the Jews the term ‘Law’ also could include their entire religious tradition. It governed the daily life of the people—not only in matters of what we call worship, morality, ethics or religion but also in matters legal, social and political. Additions to the commandments found in the Pentateuch and the commentaries that had been added and still were being added, were not thought to be something foreign to the law. It was thought that they simply applied what the Scriptures said. The phrase ‘it has been said to them of old times’ is often understood as being merely a formula of disapproval, since in the Gospels Jesus criticised these rules. But their original purpose was to continue the tradition of which the Scriptures were the core. Their contemporary significance was manifest in the constantly renewed discussion of how they were to be interpreted and applied. For this purpose casuistic rules were needed, that took into account all the concrete situations of life. Thus a lawabiding Jew could always know how he had to act.
Bible and Biblical Theology in the Early Reformation
Authors: van den Brink J. A. B.
Published: February 2009

Everywhere in Europe the translations of the Bible into the evernacular languages have been the strongest help towards Reformation. It would be a very attractive task to study in detail, to compare and to summarise the history of the Bible in the Reformation movement, from West to East and from South to North in Europe.2 John Knox tells us that, when the Act of Parliament of 1543 allowed the Scriptures to be read freely, this was ‘no small comfort to such as before were held in such bondage that they durst not have read the Lord's Prayer, the Ten Commandments, nor articles of their faith, in the English tongue, but they should have been accused of heresy. Then might have been seen the Bible lying almost upon every gentleman's table. The NT was borne about in many men's hand.3 By these words is given no doubt a true and striking picture of the general situation in Scotland in those days and this may be true also for the beginnings of the Reformation in other countries some decades earlier. The Scots reformer adds that, although for reasons of profit many acted in an inexcusable way with the new book, ‘yet thereby did the knowledge of God wondrously increase and God gave his Holy Spirit to simple men in great abundance’.

Now this is my first thesis: that the Bible in the early Reformation was passionately desired, not for the book as such, nor to have it as a weapon against the Church and its superfluous appendages, but as a help to find a better way to God.
The Historical Jesus and the Origins of Christianity
Authors: Anderson Hugh
Published: February 2009

The problems of Christian origins are many and varied. Even an incomplete bibliography of works devoted to the beginnings of Christianity, as M. Goguel remarked, would fill a volume of over five hundred pages. But the central and crucial problem, and certainly one of the liveliest issues in theology in our time, is the question of the relation of the historical Jesus to the Christ of the Church's faith. The twentieth century has been marked by a great shift away from the historical Jesus as the centre of theological interest to the Kerygma, the Church's proclamation, the Christ of faith, toGemeindetheologieandexistentialistische Exegese.
The Samaritan Doctrine of Moses
Authors: Macdonald J.
Published: February 2009

The Samaritan doctrine of Moses is the second tenet of the Samaritan Creed. Before realising the centrality of this tenet, it is necessary to relate it to the others. Then it will become clear that the second tenet is the one which, as it were, binds all the tenets of the Creed together.

The Creed is a statement of fundamental belief, consisting of five tenets with the addition of a sixth which may be regarded as later or merely supplementary. The first is belief in the Oneness of God; this belief the Samaritans hold no less strictly than Jews, Christians or Muslims, but the emphasis is on the Oneness, not the Unity of God. The unpartnered, unassisted, un-seconded God is sole Creator, ruler of men's spirits in a royal sense, king of rulers in an historical sense, and, as the Muslims too put it, ‘Lord of this world and the next’. The One God chose to express His relationship to His creatures preeminently through Moses, and it is solely in terms of Moses that God's will and purposes for mankind are to be interpreted.
The Contribution of the Revival of Worship in the Church of Scotland to Problems of Christian Reunion
Authors: Robertson A. K.
Published: February 2009

From 1857, when Dr Robert Lee introduced his ‘innovations’ in public worship at Greyfriars' Church, Edinburgh, until the reunion of the Church of Scotland and the United Free Church of Scotland in 1929, there was a relationship, sometimes direct and conscious, sometimes indirect and unconscious, between the revival of public worship in the Church of Scotland and the problems of Christian reunion.
Lutron
Authors: Levison Nahum
Published: February 2009

It is very dangerous to make a single word or paragraph the central theme of a doctrine or dogma, even when due considerations are given to content and context; but in the case of lutron, in Mark 10.45, it becomes inevitable, for it expresses the essence of the mission of our Lord. ‘For the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve and give His life a Lutron on behalf of many.’
The Use of Scripture in the Nestorian Controversy
Authors: Greer Rowan A.
Published: February 2009

The first half of the fifth century saw the emergence of the christological controversy which led to the Council of Chalcedon in 451. The two chief protagonists were Cyril of Alexandria and Nestorius, the Antiochene monk who became patriarch of Constantinople in 428. There are several different ways of regarding the conflict. On one level it involved the political and ecclesiastical rivalry between Alexandria and Constantinople. From another point of view it was a struggle between the Alexandrian and Antiochene Christologies. This essay will attempt to present some reflections upon a third aspect, the exegetical dimension of the Nestorian controversy. The two words currently used to describe patristic exegesis are ‘typology’ and ‘allegorism’. I shall argue that, although there is good reason for supposing the two methods to have been antipathetic, they do not come into direct conflict with one another in the Nestorian controversy. This judgment can be made, first, because Antiochene hostility to allegorism cannot be connected with the christological controversies and, second, because the exegetical differences which marked the Nestorian controversy cannot be described as differences of method. Such a conclusion demands redefinition of the exegetical dimension of Nestorius' struggle with Cyril, and I shall conclude by suggesting some lines upon which redefinition might proceed.
Karl Barth's Doctrine of the Sabbath
Authors: Brown James
Published: February 2009

‘In general, theological ethics has handled this command of God [the fourth Mosaic commandment] … with a casualness and feebleness which certainly do not match its importance in Holy Scripture or its decisive material significance’ (Church Dogmatics, 111.4, P. 50). Thus Karl Barth in the English translation of his Kirchliche Dogmatik (hereafter referred to as CD.). His own treatment is neither fragmentary nor perfunctory. There are references to ‘Sabbath’ in the indexes of six of twelve volumes of the Dogmatics so far published. The particular discussion of the Fourth Commandment occurs in his treatment of Special Ethics in CD. 111.4, where ‘the one command of God’ the Creator is set forth ‘in this particular application’ of ‘The Holy Day’ (p. 50). But for Barth the scriptural references to Sabbath rest have relevance to the doctrines of God, and Revelation; to the relation of God's Eternity to man's temporal being; to the biblical conception of Creation as the setting for the Covenant history of the Old Testament and the New Testament fulfilment of the divine purpose in redemption in Christ, to be completed and perfected in the ‘rest that remaineth to the people of God’ (Heb. 4.9). The treatment of the topic throughout the Dogmatics constitutes a corpus of exegesis and doctrine of which even a summary statement such as is here attempted might well be a useful contribution towards modern efforts at rethinking the Christian use of the Lord's Day.
Lord Also of the Sabbath
Authors: Leitch James W.
Published: February 2009

The question of the Sabbath is still a living issue. Unfortunately it is also one that all too often becomes bogged down either in a legalism which prescribes a list of do's and don't's (mainly don't's), or in a humanism which leaves us to please ourselves. In between, there are many who are frankly puzzled. On the one hand they are not enthusiastic about the Scottish Sabbath of the past (though in actual fact our forefathers do not seem to have found it as grim and irksome in practice as we feel it must have been), while on the other hand they are apprehensive of what is commonly known as the ‘continental Sunday’. But there seems to be equally little promise in the nondescript hybrid which is fast emerging among us, and which has no definite character at all but is merely a part of the ‘weekend’. Obviously new thinking is urgently needed here. This article attempts a few steps in that direction. It takes its cue not from the fourth commandment, but from a Gospel passage (Mark 2.2–28) which in a sense points behind and before it and sets the whole question of the Christian Sabbath in a new light.
Reflections on the History of the Interpretation of Schleiermacher
Authors: Graby James K.
Published: February 2009

Bicentennials are celebrated, it would seem, because the person or institution in question has considerable contemporary significance. At least this is the case with Friedrich Daniel Ernst Schleiermacher, the bicentennial of whose birth in Breslau is celebrated in 1968. Accordingly, one of the appropriate commemorations of Schleiermacher's birth would be an attempt to state some aspect of his contemporary significance. This paper, written about the study of Schleiermacher's thought and predicated upon a conviction which I believe I have learned from Schleiermacher, is intended as just such a tribute which, in effect, proclaims, ‘The man lives!’
The Influence of Schleiermacher on Söderblom and Twentieth-Century Swedish Theology
Authors: Curtis C. J.
Published: February 2009

The year 1968 marks the two hundredth anniversary of the birth of Friedrich Daniel Ernst Schleiermacher. During these two centuries his impact has been felt all over the theological world and earned him the title of ‘father of modern theology’.
Trent and Justification (1546): A Protestant Reflection
Authors: Anderson Marvin W.
Published: February 2009

Study of St. Paul among reforming theologians raised high shopes for definitive dogmatic decrees of an ecumenical council which would incorporate the new biblical insights. Cardinal Pole addressed an irenic plea to members of the Council, that they must begin the reform with themselves. One can read into Pole's philippic all the dreams of the Cardinal reformers, marshalled again after the bitter frustrations of 1541 and 1546 at Ratisbon. Pole's homily helps to penetrate the climate of opinion on the eve of the oft-postponed reforming council. There is still only a partial and imperfect understanding of Pole's role at Trent.
Worldliness or Unwordliness? The Issue between Bonhoeffer and Bultmann as seen by Ronald Gregor Smith
Authors: Clements Keith
Published: February 2009

The names of Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Rudolf Bultmann have frequently and inevitably been associated in theological debate since the Second World War. On a popular level in the English-speaking world, it was perhaps J. A. T. Robinson's Honest to God (1963) which most notably placed Bonhoeffer alongside Bultmann, along with Tillich, as close allies in the search for a fresh and viable understanding of God.
Faith, Reason, and Love: A Reply on behalf of Cardinal Newman
Authors: Armour Leslie
Published: February 2009

In a recent paper,1Professor Jay Newman alleged that Cardinal Newman was entangled in a conundrum about faith and reason — a conundrum from which the cardinal tried, but failed utterly, to escape by means of a doctrine about love. He alleges that Newman is finally unable to arbitrate amongst rival faiths and is left holding an implausible account of love and of its relation to Christian virtue.
‘The Spirit of God’: The Exegesis of I Cor. 2: 10–12 by Origen and Athanasius
Authors: Haykin Michael A. G.
Published: February 2009

Recent scholarly interest in the Fathers as exegetes of Scripture has tended to examine the reasons why a patristic author takes a particular exegetical position. Rowan Greer's fine study of the Greek patristic exegesis of Hebrews best exemplifies this current tendency. Greer refuses to judge the ‘correctness’ of the Fathers' exegesis, for they have as much right to their interpretations as sixteenth-century or modern exegetes. Rather, he attempts to see how their theological concerns determined the questions which they asked of the Scriptures. These questions, in turn, shaped the answers that were given. This dialectic does not necessarily mean that these Fathers consciously forced the Scriptures into pre-formed theological moulds. The Fathers were honest in their desire to remain faithful to the Scriptures. Nevertheless, the theological principles which they either inherited from traditional views of Scriptural texts or formed in response to what they considered heretical opinions definitely shaped the questions which they asked of the Scriptural text and consequently, the answers which they received from it. This is no less true today.
Article Review
Authors: Deegan Daniel L.
Published: February 2009

We welcome this book by Robert Voelkel on Herrmann, who in his own day wrestled with theological problems which have continued to be debated at great length. Other works have far more extensively pointed out lines of continuity between nineteenth and twentieth-century theological thought. This is not the primary aim of the author, who provides us rather with an excursus on Herrmann's thought with an interest in furthering our own.
Predestination
Authors: Nelson John
Published: February 2009

The classical discussion of the doctrine of Predestination and the problem of Free-will is still to be found in Luther's book, the Bondage of the Will. In the course of four hundred pages he ranges through profound Biblical exegesis, trenchant theological statement, narrow scholastic argument, virulent vituperation—developing, through it all, the most powerful exposition of the doctrine ever made. The question naturally arises: How far can we, in our generation, go with him? The following paragraphs suggest the main points involved, and discuss the modifications of his position that would seem to be necessary.

The initial point where Luther joins issue with Erasmus is on the unlawfulness of human speculation before the final mysteries of the Faith, and the need to put the hand upon the mouth at that point, and simply confess. Erasmus has argued that certain Christian doctrines are ambiguous, and should therefore be rejected in the interests of a more rational theology. Luther quotes Erasmus as follows and replies:

In like manner, your examples which you subjoin, not without suspicion and bitterness, are nothing at all to the purpose. Such are those concerning the distinction of Persons, the union of the divine and human natures, the unpardonable sin, the ambiguity attached to which, you say has never been cleared up. If you mean the questions of Sophists that have been agitated upon these subjects, well. But what has the all-innocent Scripture done to you, that you impute the abuse of the most wicked of men to its purity?
The One Baptism as a Category of New Testament Soteriology
Authors: Robinson J. A. T.
Published: February 2009

‘I Acknowledge one baptism for the remission of sins’ ‘There is one body and one Spirit, … one Lord, one faith, one baptism’ (Eph. 4.4 f). What precisely is here the significance of the word ‘one’ ? It would clearly be inadequate to see this unity simply as a matter of Church order—though it may yet be more significant than we have allowed that, in spite of everything, divided Christendom still today recognises a single baptism. We should be nearer the heart of the matter to say that baptism is one because it makes one. Just as it is ‘because there is one bread’ that ‘we, who are many, are one body’ (I Cor. 10.17), so it is baptism which in the first place creates this unity: ‘In one Spirit were we all baptised into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether bond or free’ (I Cor. 12.13); ‘for as many of you as were baptised into Christ … are all one man in Christ Jesus’ (Gal. 3.27 f).

Yet there are other elements in the NT doctrine of baptism which suggest that even this does not exhaust the meaning of the phrase. To be baptised ‘into Christ’ is not merely to find a new and given unity among ourselves. It is to be ‘baptised into his death’ (Rom. 6.3), to be ‘circumcised … in the circumcision of Christ’ (Col. 2.11).
St. Mark 13
Authors: Cranfield C. E. B.
Published: February 2009

Jesus' answer, which takes up the rest of the chapter, falls quite naturally into three divisions: vv. 5–23, 24–27, and 28–37.

It is very hard to find an altogether satisfactory single title for this section. We might call it The End is not yet; for Jesus is certainly warning His disciples that much has still to happen before the consummation of all things. They were, apparently, like people who ‘wish to reap the harvest before the season arrives’, inclined to ‘confound the perfection of Christ's reign with the commencement of it’. So they needed to be warned that ‘the end is not yet’ (v. 7) and that they must resist the deceivers who would be only too ready to play on their impatience. Or we might with equal fairness entitle this section The Characteristics of the Last Times, i.e., of the time between the Incarnation and the Parousia; for that is what we have here. Jesus warns His disciples what they are to expect during the time before the End. Or again, we might call it, as Roux does, The Signs of the End; for these characteristic marks of the time before the End are also signs which point to the End. Though not to be mistaken for the End, they are nevertheless eloquent of it.

The first of these signs of the End is the presence of deceivers and the possibility of the disciples of Jesus being led astray. Throughout the last times they will be liable to seduction.
A Dialogue between Man and God
Authors: Roshwald Mordecai
Published: February 2009

The purpose of this essay is to address one of those passages in the Bible, and in the annals of human spirit, which strike one as monumental. It is not only an exemplary piece of biblical literature, as well as a particularly fitting fragment in the context of a particular story. It stands out because of its relevance in places and times other than those set for it in the text. It transcends the setting of the story and of the epoch, whatever it may be, and becomes perennial. It is, of course, of primary significance to Judaism and an important contribution to what is best in Western Civilization.
John Calvin: Biblical Preacher (1539–1564)
Authors: Anderson Marvin
Published: February 2009

Calvin is often seen as ‘larger than life’ by his disciples and his enemies. This contention animates a recent article by William Bouwsma, whose forthcoming Oxford monograph is titled,John Calvin: A Sixteenth Century Portrait. One must be cautious in obtruding the historical Calvin over against the theologian, thereby contending that for the Genevan Reformer theological questions were primarily a way of life. For Calvin hisInstitutewas also a response to contemporary theological questions. One such question elicited Calvin's response in 1555 to Laelius Socinus on the merits of Christ. Calvin warns against ‘certain perversely subtle men’ who obscure God's mercy in Christ. Socinus asked whether the death of Christ which won merit for all persons was also meritorious for Christ himself. To set Christ's merit against God's mercy ‘is no less stupid curiosity than their temerity in making such a definition’. Calvin inserted that letter into the 1559Institute. Concurrent with Bouwsma's article, Alister McGrath points to Calvin's response to precise questions raised by thevia modernaschool of theology at Paris under the Scot John Major in which human merit and that of Christ rest on divine good pleasure alone. Calvin's solution is continuous with the voluntarism which he encountered while in Paris.
God's People in Asia: A Key Concept in Asian Theology
Authors: Mackie Steven G.
Published: February 2009

How far are contextual theologies emerging in Asia today? How far are they similar to or different from Liberation Theologies in Latin America, Southern Africa and the U.S.A.?
Amsterdam and the Church's Former Teaching on Social Order
Authors: Mechie Stewart
Published: February 2009

None of the findings of the Amsterdam Assembly has excited more interest than that which calls upon the Church to refuse to identify itself with either Communism or laissez-faire Capitalism. On the one hand this finding has brought the World Council of Churches into bad odour with big business circles in America: on the other hand it has caused a certain quiet rejoicing among British Socialists. It is not surprising that Labour supporters in Britain should claim to have the desired solution intermediate between Communism and Capitalism. What is surprising, however, is that some churchmen appear to be inclined to agree. Without being an opponent of Labour one may question the wisdom of such easy acceptance of its views. Would it not be wiser for churchmen to recall the social teaching of the Church in earlier ages and seek there the inspiration for new creative solutions?
Professor T. W. Manson on Baptism
Authors: Payne Ernest A.
Published: February 2009

The last number of the Scottish Journal of Theology contained an article of great interest and importance by Professor T. W. Manson under the title “Baptism in the Church”. It was a weighty and illuminating contribution to the discussion of the ordinance of baptism which is now proceeding vigorously in almost every Christian communion. One brought up in the Baptist tradition and adhering to it by conviction read with appreciation Professor Manson's admission of the strength of the case against infant baptism so far as it rests on the New Testament evidence. On the other hand, the general treatment of the subject and the conclusions reached include some rather surprising statements and raise a number of questions.
The Theology of Luther's Lectures on Romans
Authors: Wood A. Skevington
Published: February 2009

In a previous article Luther's doctrine of Justification as ex-pounded in his Lectures on Romans has been subjected to analysis. We now proceed to examine his teaching on Sanctification. But here a caveat must be entered. Luther is often seriously misinterpreted on this point. He is unjustly accused of severing Justification from Sanctification. He failed, it is said, to link faith with love. This alleged dissociation is classed as one of the two radical errors of Protestantism in the recent Anglican report entitled “Catholicity” (p. 25). Such a misconception arises, no doubt, from an unduly subjective approach to Luther's doctrine of Sanctification and a corresponding neglect of the objective emphasis necessarily implied in his major theocentric concern.
Man in his Time
Authors: Camfield F. W.
Published: February 2009

In a recent excellent review of Barth's Dogmatik III/2 (Scottish Journal of Theology, March 1949) the Rev. W. A. Whitehouse found himself unable through the exigencies of space to deal, save in the briefest way, with that great section of the book which treats of man in his time. Very rightly he appealed for a speedy translation, for only thus could the scope and richness of the treatment of this theme become apparent to those who do not read German. It is indeed the case that any summary of this section which extends to over two hundred and fifty large pages, and in which the thought moves forward with the most careful precision while continually opening out new perspectives, must appear somewhat jejune and lifeless. In responding therefore to the request of the editors to provide such a summary I find myself confronted with a most difficult task. I can only request readers to read what I have written in conjunction with Mr Whitehouse's article and with that of Professor Souček which follows it. In that way a summary, unsatisfactory as it must be, may not be entirely useless.
Re-Thinking the Pastoral Ministry
Authors: Stevenson J. W.
Published: February 2009

“When I see you setting off down the road on Monday morning,” the village schoolmaster once said to me, “I sometimes wonder if you are regarding human life as radically as you did when you were preaching in the kirk the day before. You seem, somehow, easier-minded about it. You come into the school. What, honestly, do you see there? A fine bunch of children, going on their pleasant way to become decent men and women—or are they really heading for a life which is rooted in the world's evil, a life out of which you'll tell them in a few years they must be saved by the grace of God?

“And then on the Tuesday morning,” he went on, “you're off to the Presbytery. Now, tell me honestly, don't you meet together pretty much as any other body of people would do—to transact your business, to express your opinions, and to come to the judgment which your own experience has led you to hold? And yet your distinctive characteristic is supposed to be that you believe that human experience and human judgment are shot through with a deadly evil. You say that you distrust yourselves, that ‘of yourselves you can do nothing aright”—but I can't say that you look or sound particularly like people who are distrusting themselves. You say in your opening prayer that you want to be over-ruled and corrected—but you'll forgive me for saying that you don't seem very often to go through the process during the meeting that follows.
The Relation of God and Man in the Writings of Nicolas Berdyaev
Authors: MaCkay Donald G. M.
Published: February 2009

Nicholas Berdyaev was born in 1874 in Kiev, the cradle of Russian Christian culture. He was a scion of an aristocratic family, but while studying in Kiev, came under the influence of the writings of Kant and Hegel. While Hegel himself drew conservative conclusions from his own system, Karl Marx drew revolutionary conclusions, and the young Berdyaev followed Marx and the early Communists. Expelled from the University for these Marxist leanings, he found himself in exile in the north in company with some of the founders of Russian Communism. Yet all through his life he remained an independent and a rebel. Although he accepted the economic and political conclusions of Marxism, he rejected the dialectical materialism on which they were supposedly based, and as a result he was again exiled in 1922, this time by the Communists, after he had served as professor of philosophy in Moscow University. Most of the rest of his life was spent in exile in Paris, with the little group of Russian emigrés, but as he remained true to the Marxian analysis and critique of capitalism to the end of his days, and loathed the bourgeois order of society as cordially as any disciple of Lenin, he was naturally in little favour with them. He died there on 24th March 1948 at his writing table.
Is the Use of the Word Predestination Really Necessary in Theology?
Authors: Cunliffe-Jones H.
Published: February 2009

The Divines of the Westminster Assembly, conscious of the J. difficulty of the doctrine of Predestination and aware of its power to provoke interminable argument that may be a substitute for the obedience of faith, uttered a warning about its use: “The Doctrine of this high mystery of Predestination is to be handled with special prudence and care, that men attending the will of God revealed in his Word, and yielding obedience thereunto, may from the certainty of their effectual vocation, be assured of their eternal Election. So shall this doctrine afford matter of praise, reverence and admiration of God, and of humility, diligence and abundant consolation to all that sincerely obey the Gospel.”
Berger's Plausibility Structures: A Response to Professor Cairns
Authors: Gill Robin
Published: February 2009

Few sociologists can afford to ignore Peter Berger, and theologians only do so at their cost. Berger's contributions to both the sociology of knowledge and the sociology of religion are important and widely influential. However, I think he would be the first to admit that his specifically theological contributions are more tentative and exploratory. Professor Cairns ably shows that in fact Berger's theological ideas have shifted considerably over the last decade. From a highly Barthian position, distinguishing rigidly between ‘religion’ and Christianity, he has now almost become a natural theologian, appealing to ‘signals of transcendence’ within the experience of everyone, whether Christian or not.
Anders Nygren's Philosophy of Religion: A Critique of Meaning and Method
Authors: MacCormac Earl R.
Published: February 2009

In Meaning and Method, Anders Nygren has returned to his earlier field of study, the philosophy of religion, and has attempted to formulate a legitimate method for the philosophical study of religion. He accomplishes this task by retaining many of his earlier concepts including ‘motif research’, ‘a repudiation of metaphysics’, ‘religion as expressive of the concept of the eternal’ and adds to these the programme of language analysis proposed by the later Wittgenstein in his Philosophical Investigations. Philosophy of religion becomes the logical analysis of the presuppositions found in the religious context of meaning. Such an enterprise is a science (Wissenschaft) because it is capable of objective argumentation.
The Ordinal of the Church of South India
Authors: Garrett T. S.
Published: February 2009

The revised orders for the ordination of deacons and presbyters and the consecration of bishops were approved by the C.S.I. Synod in January 1958. The author must confess to some delay in writing this account of them; but this tardiness has at least given opportunity to begin with some comment on the essays Apostolic Succession, by Bishop Noel Hall, and ‘Episcopate’ and ‘Presbyterate’ in the Anglican Ordinal, by Professor J. M. Barkley, which appeared in Vol. 11, No. 2 (June 1958) of SJT.It may be a fruitful line of approach to this liturgical product of C.S.I, to set it beside the Anglican and Presbyterian standpoints concerning ordination, as stated in these essays, and to try and estimate what contribution it makes to the debate.
The Use of KYRIOS in the Book of Acts
Authors: O'Neill J. C.
Published: February 2009

Dr Cullmann, in his recent discussion of NT origins has again drawn attention to the hypothesis that the Lordship of Christ is the key to the understanding of the primitive Gospel. The task of this paper is to examine the meaning of the word κύριος in Acts. We must first discover whether or not the very use of the word ‘lord’ tells us about its origin, date and meaning.