bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Church Dogmatics by Karl Barth
Authors: Deegan Daniel
Published: February 2009

This final part of the third volume of Church Dogmatics contains Barth's theological ethics in so far as this subject belongs to the doctrine of God as the Creator and as it applies to man in his responsibility as the covenant-partner of God. Here we turn to the consideration of what God wills from man in choosing him for fellowship with Himself.
A Secondary Point of Reference in Barth's Anthropology
Authors: Gibbs J. G.
Published: February 2009

In twenty centuries theological anthropology has hardly seen a more revolutionary method than that proposed by Karl Barth in Church Dogmatics 111.2 of founding anthropology on Christology. At the outset, however, Barth makes clear that ‘there can be no question of a direct equation of human nature as we know it in ourselves with the human nature of Jesus, and therefore of a simple deduction of anthropology from Christology’. That is, Barth intends that the method of theological anthropology avoid monism.
Universalism in Second Isaiah
Authors: Davidson Robert
Published: February 2009

More scholarly lances have been broken, with apparently less conclusiveness over Isa. 40–55, the so-called Second Isaiah, than over any comparable section of the Old Testament. Ever since B. Duhm1 published towards the end of last century his epoch-making commentary, two interrelated problems have been at the centre of scholarly discussion.
The Word of God in the Synoptic Gospels
Authors: Frost G.
Published: February 2009

Amidst all the current discussion of the and of the early Church and the NT meaning of these expressions, there is one word which curiously seems to have been overlooked—curiously, because when it is the preaching of the Word of God which is under debate one would have expected the word to have received more attention than it has.1 Attention has fallen heavily upon —a rare word in the NT, but scarcely at all upon —a very common word in the NT. Indeed in the Acts of the Apostles, a book whose chief theme is the spread of the preaching of the Gospel from Jerusalem to Rome, occurs not at all, only twice (and then in close dependence upon ), but nearly forty times! These figures compel us to pay more attention to the word : if the meaning ‘proclamation’ is important in understanding the , and the meaning of ‘good news’ is important in understanding the , how is the meaning of ‘speaking’ or ‘speech’ important in understanding the designation of the early preaching as ?

It is the purpose of this article to examine how the evangelists used the term in the synoptic Gospels, to see what they and Jesus thought of His words, His speech and its relationship to His being, His person.
The Parable of The Unjust Judge and The Eschatology of Luke-Acts
Authors: Cranfield C. E. B.
Published: February 2009

At the present time a considerable amount of attention is being paid to the eschatology of St. Luke's Gospel and the Acts of the Apostles, largely as a result of the publication in 1954 of Professor Hans Conzelmann's Die Mitte der zeit,1 which has recently been made available in English under the title, The Theology of St. Luke.2 In addition to this work, Professor C. K. Barrett's Luke the Historian in Recent Research3 must now be mentioned.
The Christian View of Man: An Examination of Karl Barth's Doctrine
Authors: Whitehouse W. A. , Souček J. B.
Published: February 2009

Volume III of the Dogmatik is concerned with creation, and the first part dealt with the act of creation, elucidating from a specifically Christian point of view the relation of creation and covenant. In this second part, it is the creature which is studied. For a theology bound to the Word of God, the questions at issue concern the nature of man, and the enquiry is controlled by the fact of God having become man. The material which is handled in this vast volume is a selection from man's varied attempts to speak about himself. The aim is to illuminate and to correct the speech of the contemporary Christian Church on this subject, and to do so by proper theological method and criteria. The resultant doctrine may not be very different from what is said in section I (A) of the Lambeth Report Part II, but one cannot help asking whether the statements made there have been reached by the searching discipline of dogmatic theology, practised with the seriousness found in Barth's work. His declared purpose is to seek “comprehensive clarifications in theology, and about theology itself”, which will give the Church strength to offer “clarifications in the broad field of politics”, a strength which is not strikingly obvious in the Lambeth conclusions about “The Church and the Modern World” and “The Christian Way of Life”.
The Resurrection of the Body and the Life Everlasting
Authors: Whale J. S.
Published: February 2009

The golden ripple on the wall came back again, and nothing else stirred in the room. The old, old fashion! The fashion that came in with our first garments, and will last unchanged until our race has run its course, and the wide firmament is rolled up like a scroll. The old, old fashion—Death!
The Ministry of the Word
Authors: Louden R. Stuart
Published: February 2009

Any study of the nature of the Christian Ministry must begin by affirming the necessity of the Church. The New Testament knows of no“Church-less”Christianity. Furthermore, it is not only the invisible Church that matters for the Gospel, i.e.“the whole number of the elect that have been, are, or shall be gathered into one under Christ the head ”. The visible Church is also vitally relevant to the Gospel, consisting of“all those throughout the world that profess the true religion, together with their children ”. To identify the visible Church more particularly, the Westminster Confession of Faith proceeds:“Unto this catholic visible Church, Christ hath given the ministry, oracles and ordinances of God, for the gathering and perfecting of the saints in this life, to the end of the world; and doth by His own presence and Spirit, according to His promise, make them effectual thereunto.”
The Witness of the Laity
Authors: Henderson G.D.
Published: February 2009

The distinction between clerical and lay appeared early in the history of the Church as a natural influence of pagan and Jewish practice, and is assumed by Clement of Rome, who, however, makes an important point when he treats the laity as an order: “to the high priest his proper ministrations are allotted, and to the priests the proper place has been allotted, and on levites their proper services have been imposed; the layman is bound by the ordinances for the laity.” In course of time the gulf widened between clergy and laity and the laity degenerated into mere spectators, the liturgy being in the hands of the clergy. The distinction is sufficiently plain in Tertullian and Origen. The conception of opus operatum, though not intended to exclude the co-operation either of the celebrant or of the receiver, had the practical effect of setting the people a great distance away; and lay communion in one kind, though this was not its motive, seemed to symbolise the separation.
Amsterdam—What are the Implications?
Authors: Haire J. L. M.
Published: February 2009

Many Of Us Rejoice That Almost All The Churches Of The world have been able to unite and form a World Council of Churches. Many others—and also many of those who rejoice—are a little puzzled. To-day Baptists and Quakers and Salvation Army leaders unite in worship and discussion with old Catholics and Eastern Orthodox. A century ago they tended to look at one another as dangerous heretics or even as allies of anti-Christ. We find ourselves asking: Are we to rejoice because the ancient animosities have been laid aside or are we to hesitate in the fear that all this has happened through lack of insight into the great differences which divide us? Has the Holy Spirit so changed men's hearts that they can unite or has the spirit of the world so invaded the Church that she can no longer distinguish between light and darkness?
Calvin's Concept of Revelation
Authors: Parker T.H.L.
Published: February 2009

In his commentary on John 1.1 Calvin distinguishes between the words sermo (word) and verbum (word). The Greek text runs: ɛv αρχη ηνoγos, and for the translation of “Latin theology wavered between verbum, sermo and ratio before accepting verbum, the least satisfactory, perhaps, of the three.” Verbum was used in the Vulgate. Erasmus, however, went back to sermo in his translation, and Calvin followed him. “In the beginning was the Word” (sermo). In a brief note he justifies the word: “I wonder what induced the Latins to render ⋯ λ⋯γο ς by verbum; for that would have been the translation of τo ρημα. But granting that they had some plausible reason, yet it cannot be denied that sermo would have been far more appropriate.” It would seem as if we have here the basis for a distinction universal in his writings and upon which a consistent doctrine could be constructed. In fact, we have nothing of the sort, for Calvin uses the two words indiscriminately, even to the extent of using verbum when he quotes John 1.1! The most that can be said is that he always seems to couple “eternal” (aeternus) and sermo together, and never “eternal” (aeternum) and verbum, and that, on the whole, he uses sermo rather than verbum as the synonym for the “wisdom of God” (sapientia Dei), though there are exceptions.
God's Eternal Decrees
Authors: Riddell J.G.
Published: February 2009

In the first two numbers of the Scottish Journal of Theology the Rev. J. K. S. Reid contributed an interesting and enlightening treatment of The Office of Christ in Predestination. Taking as his main theme the classic doctrine of Predestination, he showed the “deplorable consequences”, particularly in the Calvinist tradition, that have followed a failure to realise the part played by Christ in Predestination. The limitation of Christ's function to the carrying out of “something already fixed and definitive”, or the idea of His giving effect to “a decree in whose formation He has apparently had no hand”, are shown to do dangerous injustice to His true office, in the suggestion that the divine decrees are somehow prior to the divine grace.
Philosophers and Theologians on the Freedom of the Will
Authors: Baillie D. M.
Published: February 2009

It is a curious fact that while the problem of free will has been long and widely discussed by both philosophers and theologians in the modern world, it has been largely in two separate compartments, the one set seldom conferring with the other, or even overhearing what the other has to say. Sometimes they seem almost to be talking of two different things.
P. T. Forsyth: The Prophet of Judgment
Authors: Simpson A. F.
Published: February 2009

In the recent revival of interest in the teaching of Dr P. T. Forsyth as “The Theologian of the Cross”, due attention has scarcely been given to the many implications of his message among which his doctrine of Judgment occupies so prominent a place. Indeed, one can say that it is impossible to grasp his doctrine of Redemption apart from the persistent stress he lays, in practically all his works, on Judgment. It was his contention, against the Liberal Christian theology of his day, with its emphasis on the latent divinity of man and the benevolence to the neglect of the severity of God, that it tended to produce pulpiteers rather than preachers and a soft rather than a stalwart faith. He drew a hard and fast line between the orator and the preacher. “Preaching”, he declares, “is the most distinctive institution in Christianity. It is quite different from oratory. The pulpit is another place, and another kind of place, from the platform. Many succeed in the one and yet are failures in the other. The Christian preacher is not the successor of the Greek orator, but of the Hebrew prophet.rdquo; 1 The Hebrew prophet with his “Thus saith the Lord” was invariably the prophet of judgment. When God speaks He speaks as Judge, and the prophet, speaking in His name, claims the right to pronounce judgment. So with Jeremiah, Amos and Hosea. John the Baptist was the herald of judgment, and our Lord, while he cautioned people against judging one another, considering their own faults, exercised the right equally with his heavenly Father to determine the merit and demerit of men.
Servant of the Lord and Son of Man
Authors: Black Matthew
Published: February 2009

The recognition that Isaiah's Servant of the Lord referred to the Messiah, and to himself as Son of man, goes back at least to the Founder of the Christian religion Himself. Does it go any further back, and has it any particular background in Hebrew thought and history? In other words, Is the New Testament doctrine of a Suffering Messiah unique to Christianity?
The Time of Hope in the New Testament
Authors: Minear Paul S.
Published: February 2009

The selection of hope as the central theme of the Evanston J. Assembly in 1954 has already prompted an intensive world-wide examination of the Church's mind and the Biblical witness. It has provoked the publication of many essays which bring the basic issues into sharper focus. Among these issues is the problem of grasping aright the connexions between the present activity of God in history and the eschatological future. As the Advisory Committee has expressed it, the question has to do with ‘the relative emphasis to be laid upon the witness to the coming Christ and upon the witness to the present Christ’. A few participants in the discussion argue for an exclusive stress on one or the other; in reaction, others call for maintaining a balance between these two accents. The flaw in both of these solutions is that they assume a dichotomy or even a contradiction between the two witnesses. They treat Christ as if He were divided, as if His present activity were not being empowered and directed by the same eternal purpose, the same Spirit, as His future activity. Others have seen a polarity in the Christian message at this point, that is productive of a necessary and fruitful tension. To illustrate this tension we might instance Paul's confession: ‘I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brethren, I do not consider that I have made it my own; but one thing I do … ’.
The Pastoral Responsibility of Theological Education
Authors: Glen J. S.
Published: February 2009

Our subject is one which concerns the personal aspect of theological education—that side of a student's preparation for the ministry which pertains to himself, to the secret of his individuality as distinguished from academic achievement. In particular, it has to do with his decision to enter the ministry, his problems of faith and life at each stage of his preparation, and finally the transition which he makes from student life to the full responsibility of his calling. If we take the position that theology is only properly understood as Church theology, then it follows that the teaching of theology must be regarded as a ministry of the Church with a responsibility to the student as a person, and, therefore, different from teaching considered as a secular function. And since the teacher in the New Testament has always had a close association with the pastor, if not often identified with him, we have further justification for the claim that theological education has a pastoral responsibility.
Towards a Theology of Nature
Authors: Whitehouse W. A.
Published: February 2009

The phrase ‘a theology of nature’ is an abbreviation for ‘a theological account of natural happenings’—happenings which are properly investigated in the first instance by appropriate ‘natural sciences’. A Christian theology of nature seeks to provide a systematic appreciation of the physical universe, its items and occurrences, from a Christian theological point of view. If it is to rank as a serious contribution to human wisdom, it must be a disciplined effort to understand in appropriate terms the object of interest. One version of the discipline would be to produce an extension of the natural sciences, to cover topics—God, freedom, immortality—which fall outside their scope by a ‘metaphysical’ science which links these topics to the subject-matter of natural sciences in a theoretical account of ‘being as such’. This would have the effect of reintroducing ‘Natural Theology’, reshaped and revitalised, into the fabric of Christian systematic theology. This project is not being advocated in this article. It is mentioned solely in order to distinguish the present topic, a ‘theology of nature’, from what is traditionally known as ‘natural theology’. The purpose of this article is to explore afresh the structure of Christian intellectual response to the wonder of the world, as it is now being analysed by science, with particular attention to the ‘evolutionary’ aspect of things, appreciation of which has radically affected modern sensibility.
Apologetic Aspects of the Virgin Birth of Jesus Christ
Authors: Wilkinson John
Published: February 2009

The fact of the Incarnation is one of the central affirmations of the Christian Faith. To deny that ‘the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us’ is to deny what is essential to Christianity. The mode of the Incarnation, however, has been held to be less essential to our Christian Faith than the fact. Nevertheless in the creeds and confessions of the Christian Church the fact of the Incarnation is almost invariably set forth in terms of the mode. For example, the clause qui conceptus est de Spiritu Sancto, natus ex Maria Virgine is the first intimation of the fact of the Incarnation in the Apostles' Creed.
The Covenant in the Theology of Karl Barth
Authors: Scott J. L.
Published: February 2009

In the theology of Karl Barth the fact of the life, death and J. resurrection of Jesus Christ is not merely the central point in our knowledge of God and His ways, a central point which might, however, be merely one, the greatest one, in a series of ways whereby we might know God and learn to speak about God. The Incarnation is for Barth the one and only revelation of God to men. In page after page he stresses that man by his unaided efforts can never know God. It is not only that man's reason is inadequate to read of God in the works of His hands, but by the fact of the Fall man has, ‘made himself quite impossible in relation to the redemptive Grace of God; and in so doing has made himself quite impossible in his created being as man, who has cut the ground from under his feet, who has lost his whole raison d'être‘ (p. 10). For such a man the knowledge of God has become quite out of the question, an utter impossibility, which can only again become possible in the quite incomprehensible ‘yet and never the less’ of the Grace of God in Jesus Christ, in Jesus Christ alone.
Confessionalism and Ecumenism: a Consideration of the Wider Loyalties of the Church of Scotland
Authors: Louden R. Stuart
Published: February 2009

The spurious word Confessionalism is employed to describe a church's adherence to a particular tradition of doctrine and order, and the elements in that tradition which hold a group or family of churches together in a common sharing of life, worship and fellowship. The confession of faith as such is very much a Reformation phenomenon and the various particular Confessions of Faith in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries played a large part in creating the families of churches to which we are now accustomed within Protestantism. It is by the Augsburg Confession (1530) that Lutheran church tradition is denned; the Heidelberg Catechism (1563) stamped the Continental Reformed Churches with their own particular character; the Thirty-Nine Articles (1563) were for many long years and are still officially the defining document for the Anglican Communion; and it is largely the existence of the Westminster Confession of Faith (1647) which has made it possible to identify Presbyterianism as a family of churches at least within the Anglo-Saxon world. It is true that the relation of even the English-speaking Presbyterian churches to this Confession of Faith has been greatly modified over the years, but it still provides the essential criteria for recognising one of our churches as Reformed and Presbyterian.
‘Non-Metaphysical’ Christian Philosophy and Linguistic Philosophy
Authors: Woelfel James W.
Published: February 2009

In the continuing discussion between Christian theology and linguistic philosophy there is a fundamental division of the theological responses which has weighty implications for the whole encounter between the two disciplines. This basic distinction into two types of Christian response is one of those simple categorisations which by their very obviousness are often overlooked. I refer to two kinds of Christian thinkers who deal with linguistic analysis: the ‘non-metaphysical’ and the ‘metaphysical’. In this article I have chosen to discuss certain types of the ‘non-metaphysical’ response.

Whether a Christian theologian deals with Oxford philosophy from a metaphysical or a non-metaphysical perspective is vital to the whole discussion. It is vital to the theologian because linguistic analysis is the latest in a series of philosophical movements beginning with Hume which claim to have undermined metaphysics finally and forever. If the theologian responds in a metaphysical way to the questions asked by the Oxford philosophers, he must justify his appeal to metaphysics over against the critique of metaphysics which lies behind language analysis. If, on the other hand, the theologian replies in a non-metaphysical way, he must demonstrate the epistemological significance of Christian doctrine apart from metaphysical support.

The major contemporary criticisms of theological language come not from language analysis considered independently but from a revitalised logical positivism aided by analytical methods. I call this ‘new’ positivism ‘linguistic empiricism’ or ‘analytical positivism’. Linguistic analysis is fundamentally a method, while positivism is a theory of knowledge.
‘The Uniting Church’
Authors: Hebert Fr. Gabriel
Published: February 2009

‘The Uniting Church’ has been chosen as the name for the proposed united church which is to be composed of the Gongregationalist, Methodist and Presbyterian Churches in Australia, which is described in the Final Report of the Joint Commission of the three Churches which was published in Australia in April of this year.1 The Report includes a Basis of Union which is now submitted to the responsible authorities of the three Churches for full discussion and for final decision.

It is impossible in a brief article to do more than summarise what is set out carefully and in detail in the Report itself. It is however a document of great importance, since it recommends union on an episcopal basis; and this is the first time that such a proposal has been made in a Joint Commission set up by non-episcopal churches.

Some three years ago we had Part I of their Report, entitled The Faith of the Church—not, be it noted, ‘The doctrinal beliefs of the three churches concerned’, but rather ‘the faith which the Church has held from the beginning’. This is completed by the final Report now published, setting out the doctrine of the Church, the Sacraments and the Ministry, and not envisaging any mere amalgamation of the three church orders, but having in view the structure of the Church as it has been from the beginning and as it was reconsidered at the Reformation.
Johannes Cocceius: Federal Theologian
Authors: McCoy Charles S.
Published: February 2009

Ours is an age not only of discovery but also of rediscovery. By some process of reincarnation in the history of ideas, eras of the past remembered with reproach have successively come to be regarded as wellsprings offruitful thought. Medieval philosophy, once treated with deprecation as illustrating the enslavement of reason to theology, has acquired respect and been reborn in a vigorous neo-Thomism. Reformation thought, considered hopelessly obscurantist by disciples of Enlightenment, has found rebirth through powerful theological spokesmen and a hearing far beyond the confines of the organised churches. Biblical theology, reinvigorated by nineteenth-century investigation of Scripture and given impetus by Reformation doctrinal motifs, has enjoyed a renaissance in recent decades.
Platonism and Hebrews
Authors: Williamson R.
Published: February 2009

The late Dr W. F. Howard once wrote that in Hebrews ‘we find side by side, without any apparent sense of incongruity, the Judaic conception of the two ages, and the Platonic conception of the two worlds, the real and the phenomenal’. Dr C. H. Dodd was of the opinion that the Author of Hebrews was ‘profoundly influenced by Greek thought of a Platonic type’, and Dr Vincent Taylor declared that the aim of the Author of Hebrews was ‘to present the new faith in terms which have been suggested by the Platonic philosophy’. Dr Taylor went on to express the view that the Author of Hebrews ‘may not have read the writings of Plato, but he is certainly influenced by the Platonic principle of the antithesis between the heavenly Idea, which is the real, and the earthly Copy, which is transient and temporal’. The late Bishop Rawlinson described the Author of Hebrews as ‘a Jew, perhaps, of the Alexandrian school, at once Biblical theologian and Platonist’.
Thomas Halyburton
Authors: Dickie E.P.
Published: February 2009

Converging lines of thought suggest that it may be timely to revive the memory of the ‘great, little man’, Thomas Halyburton. There is a new emphasis on the distinction between the knowledge of hearsay and the knowledge of the heart (the distinction which Robert Barclay had in mind when he contrasted ‘the saving heart-knowledge’ with ‘the soaring, airy head-knowledge’). A whole school of thought has grown up around the importance of the I-Thou relation. Karl Heim made a particularly notable contribution to the discussion of the theological problem uncovered by this philosophy, namely the question to what extent our knowledge of God is analogous with our knowledge of the other person; and in his God Transcendent he underlines the fact that, when we pass from one ‘dimension’ of thought to another, it is not by the way of syllogistic reasoning, but by a species of illumination. Side by side with this movement of thought has gone an increasing interest in the work of Wilhelm Dilthey, who, drawing a sharp distinction between the natural sciences on the one hand and the humanistic studies on the other, sums up his wide and stimulating research in the principle, ‘We explain nature; but we understand the human spirit’.
The Relevance of the Old Testament for the Doctrine of the Church
Authors: Smith Robert
Published: February 2009

In recent discussions the doctrine of the Church has been approached from an unusual angle, by way of certain conceptions found in the Old Testament, such as the Covenant, the Remnant, and the Suffering Servant. In this article I propose to examine the validity and significance of this approach.Is it legitimate to use the Old Testament in this way as a source of Christian doctrine? If so we must be quite clear what we are doing and why we are doing it. The importance of these ideas in the history of Israel is generally agreed. Their influence on the New Testament is obvious. But can we make them into normative and formative principles in the life of the Church for all time? In so doing we are not merely borrowing certain moral and religious ideas from the legacy of Israel and adding them to the store of Christian truth. That is a common practice which needs no special justification, because it does not affect the basis of Christian doctrine. Any theological jackdaw can collect whatever suits him from the prophetic writings and use it in building a Christian nest. But we are going to the Old Testament for the foundation plan of the Christian Church. We are applying the promises and attributes which belong by historic right to the sons of Abraham to the mission and destiny of the Church of Christ. There is a big assumption here which is too often taken for granted.
The Church and the Historical Jesus
Authors: Nicholls William
Published: February 2009

The Christological approach to the doctrine of the Church. which is now seen as the most hopeful way forward fot the work of Faith and Order, could mislead us if it were to direct our attention away from the dependence of the Church on the historical Jesus, and to lead us to think instead only in the dogmatic terms of a Chalcedonian analogy. While there is much to be learned about the right way to formulate our doctrines from such theological machine-tools, our first business in thinking about the nature of the Church is to learn to bear witness to the acts of Christ Himself in founding the Church as the new People of God, and in keeping it throughout its history as the instrument of His present work. If the purpose of this paper is to think especially of the dependence of the Church, as a continuous society in history, on its origins in the historical actions of Jesus, in the Incarnation and Passion of Christ as concrete facts in space and time, there is no intention thereby to deny the equal importance of the corresponding dependence of the Church on the present action of its living and ascended Lord.
The Holy Spirit And The Word Of God
Authors: Young William G.
Published: February 2009

One of the greatest needs of our day and generation is for an approach to the question of the inspiration and authority of the Bible which will be sufficiently clear and embracing in its statement of the truth to be a means, both of assurance to all who seek to find God's Word for their daily spiritual food in the Bible, and of reconciliation to those who have approached the problem from varying angles in their search for a satisfying solution, and who, instead of welcoming one another's insights, treat one another with hostility and contempt. Fifty years ago Fundamentalists and Liberals looked at one another across a vast chasm of bitterness and difference: that chasm has persisted to the present day, but in many ways it is not so wide or so deep as it was—and neo-Calvinism has interposed a third approach. Is it too much to hope that the time should now have come when each of these groups will be ready to confess the defectiveness of its own understanding, and the extremes to which it has at times gone in overemphasising one side of the truth; and that each will seek that fuller understanding which an appreciation of the contributions of the others can bring? The barriers between the theologians of these three schools are in some ways more difficult to overcome than those between Christian denominations.
The Ecumenical Significance of Anglicanism
Authors: Bailey Sherwin
Published: February 2009

Such generous and sympathetic recognition of the ecumenical importance of Anglicanism as that expressed by Professor Manson in his paper on Church and Intercommunion1 is always both inspiring and humbling to Anglicans who feel the pain of separation from their Christian brethren. They believe that God is calling the Anglican Church to play a difficult but important role in the healing of Christian divisions, and cannot but be encouraged when they find, among members of other Churches, an appreciation of what Professor Manson calls the ‘immense ecumenical potentiality’ of Anglicanism. But if Anglicanism is to be in any real sense an ‘instrument of ecumenical rapprochement’, both Anglicans and non-Anglicans must understand clearly what it is and what it is not; much confusion exists because it has been misrepresented both from within and from without, by those who would have it, or suppose it to be, something other than it really is. To define Anglicanism, how-ever, is far from easy, for it has an elusive and, indeed, a unique quality, but I hope to suggest in this paper certain lines at least along which better understanding may be sought, and to remove one or two of the more obvious misconceptions which tend to confuse discussion and to exacerbate controversy.
Luther and the Doctrine of the Church
Authors: Rupp Gordon
Published: February 2009

It is important for the historian that he should exercise a salutary scepticism towards his materials and his sources, but even more important that he should adopt this detachment towards himself, and when confronted by apparent confusion and contradiction in some great figure of the past, to ask whether perhaps he himself as historian may be asking the wrong questions, and evaluating another century in the themes and categories of a later age. This is particularly true about Luther's doctrines of the Church. For while there is no doctrine of the Church which does not somewhere blur its edges (by reason of the eternal and eschatological dimension intersecting the empirical and historical plane) and Luther's is no exception, there is I think a demonstrably consistent core to his teaching, from the beginning to the end of his career.
Changing Emphases in the Work of the Ministry
Authors: Tindal William S.
Published: February 2009

In a few brief months some of you will be going out into the active ministry, exchanging the life of classroom, library and common room for the very different life of parishes or service in the Church in other lands.
Early Exegesis of the Parables
Authors: Wiles M. F.
Published: February 2009

The last fifty years have seen revolutionary progress in the work of the interpretation of the parables of Jesus. This progress has been made possible primarily by the final discarding of the allegorical method and the repudiation of ‘the centuries of distortion and ill-usage that the parables have suffered through allegorical interpretation’.1 Exegesis of the parables in centuries before the present might seem therefore to be of purely antiquarian interest. Nevertheless it seems worth while attempting to discover whether there may not be some light to be gained from the way in which the parables were understood by those who stood nearest to them in point of history. This study is therefore devoted to the interpretation of parables in the ante-Nicene fathers.

The way in which anybody interprets the parables will largely be controlled by the answer which he gives to two prior questions—namely: What constitutes a parable? and Why did Jesus use the parabolic method? There is not much direct discussion of these issues. Origen defines a parable as ‘an account of an event which did not literally take place, but which, could have done so. It is a figurative representation of certain things by virtue of their correspondence to the things spoken of in the parable.’ He distinguishes it from a fable (αἴνιγμα) where the event spoken of is something which could not conceivably have happened in real life.2
The Old Testament and a Future Life
Authors: Logan Norman A.
Published: February 2009

Barth, in his Dogmatik (III/2), enters upon a close and detailed scrutiny of certain passages in the Old Testament generally considered to have some sort of reference to a future life. After quoting from Ps. 118 (p. 752), he goes on to say that we come here upon a definite borderline, beyond which the Old Testament does not venture. God is and remains the Israelite's hope in death and in deliverance from death. Of any renewal or continuance of life beyond the grave, however, the Old Testament has nothing precise to say. Even the few passages cited as proof to the contrary do not, in fact, speak of any such future existence. Barth examines these passages: Pss. 16.10, 17.15, 27.13, 49.15, 73.23 f; Job 19.25 f; Isa. 26.19; Ezek. 37; Dan. 12.2. He comes to the conclusion that, even in the last-quoted passage, the most explicit of all, we can only perceive the exception which, as such, confirms the general rule. Thereafter he reviews the ends of the lives of Enoch, Moses and Elijah, and describes them also as exceptional. In every case the text speaks of an extraordinary interposition of God which nevertheless leaves its precise nature wholly obscured. So, too, in every other instance where a man is recorded as having died gladly or full of days, we are to understand this as the direct result of divine intervention.
The Relation of the Incarnation to the Atonement
Authors: Blair J. L.
Published: February 2009

The New Testament interpretation of the Cross is the starting point for the doctrine of Incarnation and of Atonement. Their relationship is governed by the emergent elements, which are both central and permanent.
The Reformation of Worship: III. The Direction of Contemporary Worship
Authors: Read D. H. C.
Published: February 2009

This title is deliberately ambiguous. The word ‘direction’ X covers both the trend of modern worship and its leadership or conduct. In the light of our understanding of the nature of Christian worship and of its tradition we must ask both: Where are we going? What movement, if any, is discernible in the pattern of public worship in this generation? and also: What ought we to be doing? What practical steps can be taken today by those who are responsible for the conduct of worship? The first question is a matter of observation about which we may be in general agreement; the second concerns the changes we consider desirable and it is quite certain that no two of us will be in entire agreement on that. This lecture, then, will as it descends from the realm of principle to that of practice become inevitably more controversial, and I ought to say right away that in these matters I represent no movement, organisation, or society, but simply offer you one man's ideas on the subject, with the hope that, however uninspired they may be, they may serve as a starting-point for some useful and necessary discussion in the churches.
The Sign of the Son of Man
Authors: Tinsley E. J.
Published: February 2009

In an article published some time ago Dr Vincent Taylor drew attention to the fact that the question raised fifty years ago by Wrede in Das Messiasgeheimnis in den Evangelien had not been satisfactorily answered in all respects, and went on to suggest that the ‘Messianic secret’ is not, as Wrede supposed, merely a clumsy editorial explanation of a difficult problem, but is derived from and reflects beliefs about the nature and methods of His own Messiahship held by Jesus Himself. The views expressed in this article may be found summarised in the Introduction to Dr Taylor's Commentary on St. Mark where he writes:

Jesus imposed silence because of the nature of Messiahship as he conceived it to be. To him it was not primarily a matter of status but of action. In his own estimation Jesus is Messiah in his works of healing, his exorcisms, his victory over Satanic powers, his suffering, dying, rising, and coming with the clouds of heaven. Messiahship is a destiny; it is that which he does, that which the Father is pleased to accomplish in him and which he fulfils in filial love. It is for this reason that he silences the demoniacs and commands the disciples to tell no man his secret till after the resurrection.
Analogy
Authors: McIntyre John
Published: February 2009

One of the major discoveries—it may be only a rediscovery—of recent theology has been the central place which analogy occupies in theological inquiry of all kinds. Our present task falls into three parts: (1) to indicate the different areas to which the problem of analogy seems to be relevant; (2) to discuss the origin of the interpretations of the nature of analogy which are gaining a certain acceptance today; and (3) finally, to estimate the use that may validly be made of the traditional analyses of analogy.
The Reply of Professor Cullmann to Roman Catholic Critics
Authors: Meye Robert P.
Published: February 2009

I am pleased to have an opportunity to make a provisional reply to my Catholic critics. For the objections formulated by Father G. Bavaud on the subject of my Christology of the New Testament are representative of those which I have encountered in other Catholic writers. I respond all the more willingly to his article since I discern in it a sincere desire to understand me and to converse with me in a spirit of complete honesty. Despite this, I do not feel that he has understood me at a very important point; and this is because I expressed myself too briefly in certain parts of my book. But, on the other hand, since only Catholic theologians (and not all of them) have attributed ideas to me which I do not recognise as my own, I wonder whether, besides a difference of method of which I will speak at the end of this article, there is not something else equally important.
Albrecht Ritschl on the Historical Jesus
Authors: Deegan Daniel L.
Published: February 2009

Contemporary concern with the problems, exegetical and theological, relating to the nature and significance of the historical Jesus, is receiving widespread attention. Paul Althaus in his book The So-Called Kerygma and the Historical Jesus puts the matter thus: ‘… Certain though it may be that dogmatic theology is forbidden to try to get behind the Kerygma and the Christ proclaimed by it, the question still arises whether in another sense theology must not go behind the Kerygma; i.e. whether it must not inquire what is the relation of the Kerygma to the history, about which it informs us, and to which it bears witness.’ Althaus' book is useful in reminding us that we cannot properly emphasise the fact of Jesus' historical life without concern for the actual content of this life and the concrete character of the converse of Jesus with men. Althaus points to preservation of the Synoptic records in the canon as the reflection of the significance attached to the teaching and healing ministry of the historical Jesus.
‘The Jesus of History’ in 1961
Authors: Lillie William
Published: February 2009

At the beginning of 1917, there was published The Jesus of History by T. R. Glover, and it would be difficult to overestimate the influence that this book had on students and others of my generation. It seemed to bring Jesus down from the stained-glass existence in which our youthful piety had pictured Him, to make of Him a person real, vibrant and responsive to our twentieth-century needs—‘a man living upon victuals’ as Carlyle said of Richard Cœur de Lion. Glover too dispensed with all the theological jargon that seemed to us to stand as a barrier between the Jesus of the Gospels and the common man, and we heard Him speaking to us in a language that we could understand. Besides, this Jesus of History was a Jesus that could be preached, and the Gospel that was proclaimed by many younger men from their pulpits in the years following the 1914–18 War was the Gospel according to T. R. Glover. Glover has gone very much out of fashion today, and there were indeed limitations in his portrait of Jesus as there are bound to be in every such portrait made by man. Yet when I read this book again a few months ago, it seemed to me that almost everything that Glover said—and how well he said it!—was true in the sense that it fitted into the picture that any honest historian would make of the Jesus of the Gospels.
The Christian's Political Responsibility according to the New Testament
Authors: Cranfield C. E. B.
Published: February 2009

The New Testament contains a very considerable amount of material bearing on the political responsibility of the Christian—much more, I think, than someone who has not yet questioned it seriously on the subject would be likely to expect. It will, therefore, be wise for us, before attempting to draw out the New Testament teaching, to try to get a general idea of the various ranges of material which ought to be taken into account.
Bultmann's View of the Old Testament
Authors: Young Norman J.
Published: February 2009

For the Christian faith, the Old Testament is no longer revelation as it had been, and still is, for the Jews. For everyone who stands in the Church, the history is no longer a live issue … the history of Israel is not the history of revelation for us.

So Bultmann writes in an article on the significance of the Old Testament for Christian faith, and on the basis of this we might be inclined to dismiss the whole discussion of Bultmann and the Old Testament, and to add ‘Marcionism’ to the list of heresies already attributed to him. But this would be too hasty, for over against the above quotation we can cite another:
For anyone who has done even a minimum of historical reflection, it is senseless to try to hold on to Christianity and at the same time to discard the Old Testament. One should realise then that the Christianity he hopes to preserve is no longer Christianity. Either–or; both, or none at all.
Developing Doctrines and Changing Beliefs
Authors: Nicholls David
Published: February 2009

The notion of doctrinal development has become increasingly popular with Roman Catholic theologians in recent years, and has received official recognition in the decree of the second Vatican Council on Revelation. ‘There is’, the document maintains, a growth in the understanding of the realities and the words which have been handed down. … As the centuries succeed one another, the Church constantly moves forward toward the fulness of divine truth until the words of God reach their complete fulfilment in her. But, if dogma develops, how can revelation be constant? This, starkly put, is the dilemma to which many Roman Catholic theologians have directed their attention in recent years. If there has been a growth in dogma, must we not say that the contemporary Church is in a better position than the early Church? How can we deny that the Church today, in which dogmas have been better understood and more fully expressed, has an advantage over the primitive Christian community? As one nineteenth-century theologian observed, If there be a difference of any sort between Augustine and Liguori (and if there be not, what becomes of Mr Newman's theory?) it must manifestly be incalculably to the advantage of the latter … to compare the catachetical schools of Alexandria, Antioch, Gaesarea, with our Irish Maynooth, would palpably be an insult to the latter, too gross even for the licensed bitterness of religious controversy.
The Westminster Confession of Faith
Authors: Davidson Nevile
Published: February 2009

Every attempted statement of Christian doctrine is inevitably coloured by the circumstances in which it was drawn up, and by the motives which prompted its preparation.
It is evident from the New Testament documents that even in the earliest period of Christian history, some kind of statement of belief was essential for the instruction of catechumens. ‘Wherefore I give you to understand, that no man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed; and that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost’ (i Cor. 12.3). ‘For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures’ (ibid., 15.3).
Exposition of Isaiah Chapter One Verses Eighteen to Twenty
Authors: Jones Douglas R.
Published: February 2009

The commentaries make heavy weather of this section. The reader who comes upon the usual translation with delight, as he recognises a vivid statement of God's forgiveness, is correspondingly mortified by scholarly disagreement about its interpretation.
The Ontology of Tillich and Biblical Personalism
Authors: McCollough Thomas E.
Published: February 2009

In 1960 a unique encounter between East and West took place. Paul Tillich visited Japan for a lecture visit of three months. In a recent article appearing in The Christian Century in the series ‘How My Mind Has Changed’, Tillich declares that this encounter was perhaps the most significant experience of the past ten years of his life. His discussions with Japanese religious leaders, especially those of Buddhism, ‘served to bring to full awareness elements of thought which had been present for a long time’ (‘On the Boundary Line’, Christian Century, 6th Dec. 1960, p. 1435). While not becoming a convert to Zen Buddhism (as he puts it), he was impressed with the ultimate concern he found in forms of religious life uninfluenced by Christianity. He declares that his observations strengthened his theological conviction that the concept of religion in its larger sense ‘transcends the concrete existence of any religion, as God transcends each of his manifestations’ (ibid.).