bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Papacy and Scripture
Authors: Ehrlich Rudolf J. 
Published: February 2009

The subject ‘Papacy and Scripture‘ is of great importance today for two main reasons:1. Reformed Theology itself requires that we must not be satisfied with the theological standpoint reached at the time of the Reformation but should submit ourselves to continual questioning by the Truth, and so move on to a position more in accordance with the dictates of the self-same Truth which is Jesus Christ. The very fact that we are ‘Reformed’ theologians itself raises the question of whether the anti-Roman arguments legitimately used by the Reformers still hold good; which means that, as a matter of urgency, we must reappraise our relationship with the Church of Rome.
The Meaning of Grace in the Writings of Gregory of Nyssa
Authors: Dunstone A. S. 
Published: February 2009

There is a renewed interest in the relations between the Eastern and Western parts of the Church; and some have been surprised at the affinities of thought between the two. In a study of the Atonement in Gregory of Nyssa, the following examination was made of the meanings of the word Grace in his writings. It may be of interest to others who are working towards a closer understanding of the thought of the Eastern Fathers.I. From God's side(a) Grace may be used to point to the general attitude of kindly favour that God displayed to all creation and to mankind in particular. Verb and noun are both employed to indicate the distinction between man and all other animals, over whom he was given a royal authority. The potentiality in man for both good and evil is greater than in any other part of the universe. (b) This Fatherly care did not cease at creation, but is visible throughout the Old Testament history. It was present at Sinai; and spoke freely and often through the prophets, as when, under Ahab and Jezebel, Elijah fought single-handed against the prophets of Baal; and we even have the phrase reminding us of the Pauline charisma. Gregory often speaks of the Grace of God, much more commonly in fact than of His love.
Episcopacy In Post-Reformation Scotland
Authors: Mechie Stewart 
Published: February 2009

The purpose of this paper is to examine Scottish Episcopacy in the period 1560 to 1689 with a view to discovering how it was regarded by those chiefly concerned and how near or far apart the Churches of Scotland and England were at that time. In estimating these matters reference will have to be made to the doctrine of apostolic succession, by which we shall mean the doctrine that bishops who have received their office by succession from the Apostles are the necessary ministers of ordination and that the apostolic, succession so understood is essential for the authority of the ministry, the visible unity of the Church and the validity of the Sacraments.When was there episcopacy in post-Reformation Scotland? The answer depends on whether the frame of reference is ecclesiastical or constitutional.
Bonhoeffer, Calvinism and Christian Civil Disobedience in South Africa
Authors: De Gruchy John. W. 
Published: February 2009

In a much publicised address to the 1979 National Conference of the South African Council of Churches (SACC), Dr Allan Boesak, a theologian of the black Dutch Reformed Mission Church, challenged the Church in South Africa to engage in acts of civil disobedience against apartheid laws:The church must initiate and support meaningful pressure on the system as a non-violent way of bringing about change. The church must initiate and support programs of civil disobedience on a massive scale, and challenge especially white Christians on this issue. It no longer suffices to make statements condemning unjust laws as if nothing has happened. The time has come for the black church to tell the Government and its people: We cannot in all good conscience obey your unjust laws because non-cooperation with evil is as much a moral obligation as is cooperation with good. So we will teach our people what it means to obey God rather than man in South Africa.
Christianity and Politics: Another View
Authors: Haldane John J. 
Published: February 2009

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

A. The divine-human situation.God is the only being who, if he exists, must be present at all times and in all places.2. Therefore, it must at least be possible to detect the presence of God at any time and in any place.3. However, proof for God's existence lies with each individual, since ‘to prove’ means to be capable of becoming aware of God's presence.4. Not everyone at every time and place is aware of God's existence. But the divine nature must be such as to be ever-existent. That is, it is both capable of making its presence known and at the same time capable of having its presence unrecognized.5. God, then, can relate to each intelligent soul in a different way. Thus, he is subject to being described in a variety of ways.6. The non-uniformity of our experience of God indicates that human beings are capable of sensing God's presence but seldom in a uniform way.7. The time and place, the intellectual and cultural climate, the vitality or laxity of existing religious modes, all have a large role in determining how many human beings become aware of God's presence and accept that as proof.8. With regard to proving the ever-presence of God, the initiative and the control have been placed largely in human hands. Given God's presence at all times and at all places, and the great variety of ways we have of sensing and responding, the responsibility for determining God's existence is ours.
The Theatre of Parousia
Authors: Smalley Stephen 
Published: February 2009

The problem before us has about it features that are fashionable, if not familiar. When we sing,Saviour, take the power and glory:Claim the kingdom for thine own,precisely what do we expect to happen? Dr Robinson, the present Bishop of Woolwich, insists that we must not only suspect the dominical origin of this part of New Testament eschatology (Jesus and His Coming, 1957, chapters 2 and 3), but also re-focus the total concept of ‘coming’ itself. In his broadcast addresses, Christ Comes In (1960), Dr Robinson has drawn our attention away from a consideration of the Advent message as related to ‘a single moment at the end of time’ (p. 25), towards a theology in which every moment is surrounded ‘with all the seriousness of the Last Day’ (p. 26).
The Office of Christ in Predestination
Authors: Reid J. K. S. 
Published: February 2009

The title is suggested by Saint Paul's phrase (Ephesians 1.4) “according as he hath chosen us in him,” that is in Christ. The object of this essay is to point out the meagre use made of the phrase and of the idea it conveys by the classic doctrine of Predestination, and to show the deplorable consequences that follow.I. CalvinIt would of course be absurd to suggest that Calvin totally neglects the thought that Predestination is in Christ. Rather this is a presupposition in all he has to say about it, at least in this sense, that, challenged whether he held Predestination to be in Christ, he would unhesitatingly have affirmed that it was. But it is the fate of many presuppositions to fall into the background, if not into forgetfulness, and to exercise less influence than they should do. It is the view of the present writer that the Calvinist theology failed to draw fully upon the implications of the presupposition that Predestination is in Christ.Two questions are well asked at this point: What is the relation of those elected to Christ? and: What is Christ's part in their election?(i) Here the text which has already been quoted is cited by Calvin: We are in Christo electi, and we are in Christo adoptati (Inst.3.22.1). And in 3.22.2, the elect are said to be again “chosen in Christ.”
The Exposition Of Holy Scripture
Authors: Hendry G. S. 
Published: February 2009

There is an old custom which is to be observed in all proper churches: at the beginning of public worship the Bible is solemnly carried in and laid upon the pulpit—and then the minister follows. This is the right order of precedence; for the minister, as his name indicates, is but the servant, minister verbi divini; and it is fitting that the servant should follow the master. Further, to make his servitude more evident, the minister wears a livery. It is true, he may be a master of his servile craft, he may be called a doctor, and he may take it upon himself to wear the appropriate badges of proficiency. But his position remains essentially that of a servant whose office it is to attend upon his master, to make way for him, to do his behests.This little bit of familiar ceremony enshrines essential truth, and it may well form the starting-point of our consideration of the scope and function of the ministry of the Word of God.
The Problem of Communication
Authors: Neill Bishop Stephen C. 
Published: February 2009

FOR a considerable time the services of most missionaries of the larger British Societies have been engaged in institutional and administrative work, and comparatively few of them have had wide experience as evangelists among simple people. The work of direct contact with non-Christians has either been left to indigenous evangelists who tend not to be able to stand far enough back from their work to give a reasoned account of it, or to the missionaries of small pioneer Societies, a majority of whom, though admirable and successful evangelists, lack deep theological knowledge, and are not able to establish a rationale of the work which they themselves have been carrying out. The situation is very different with continental Societies. It has been known for some time that a number of very able and theologically well-trained Dutch and German missionaries have been serving as evangelists among some of the most primitive peoples in the world, and that their results have been such as to raise many important questions of method, which are of interest to all those concerned with the Christian missionary enterprise. Unfortunately, almost all their works have been written in Dutch or German, and are therefore much less widely accessible in the Christian world than could be desired.The book under review is a very good specimen of the type of missionary study produced by these continental scholars.
Re-conceiving the Trinity as the Mystery of Salvation
Authors: LaCugna C. M. 
Published: February 2009

We began by wondering what it might mean to speak of the immanent and economic threefoldness of God. Rahner's axiom provided leverage on the problem by showing that trinitarian theology is meant above all to be a truth about the mystery of salvation. That is, it is a way of both narrating and conceiving the God whosavesand theGodwho saves.The correspondence between these two emphases presented a hermeneutical problem at two methodological levels, and so the second step was to examine the meaning of the copula in Rahner's axiom in order to decide how we might (a) link up our narrative of God's history with us with God's inner history, and, having answered that, how we might (b) link up our speculation about God's ‘inner’ life with the divine reality. We replied in the case of (a) that the axiom legislates speaking of God by drafting an equivalence between the temporal history of God-with-us and the eternal history of God, andvice versa: the economic trinityisthe immanent trinity, andvice versa. In the case of (b) and building on the answer to (a), we proposed an understanding of the trinity as a theological model. The model (trinity of relations) is related to the ‘modeled’ (God-in-relation) both heuristically and ontologically. The theological model of trinity therefore must incorporate imagistic as well as discursive, indirect as well as direct modes of discourse.Finally, we indicated some of the theological and methodological consequences of understanding God as being the ‘God for us’, and of re-conceiving the doctrine of the trinity to be a theological model of salvation.
Article Review: Was Calvin a Calvinist?
Authors: Bell M. Charles 
Published: February 2009

In a previous issue of SJT Paul Helm reviewed the work of R. T. Kendall in which Kendall ‘contends that Calvinism in general and particularly English Calvinism down to 1649 shows a marked departure from the teaching of John Calvin’. Mr Helm concluded that Kendall's thesis ‘does not stand up to serious scrutiny’. More recently, Mr Helm has underscored his rejection of Kendall's thesis with the publication of his monograph, Calvin and the Calvinists. A major point of contention concerns Kendall's assertion that Calvin teaches a doctrine of unlimited atonement. Mr Helm also takes exception to the implications for faith and assurance which Kendall draws from this view of the atonement. In his refutation of Kendall's work Mr Helm begins with a presentation of what he believes to be Calvin's own position. After a survey of quotations, primarily from the Institute, he concludes that,in Calvin's teaching the work of Christ, from incarnation to heavenly intercession, is one work, focused on the death of Christ which expiated sin by satisfying divine justice. Christ's death brings salvation to the elect, for in dying Christ intended only the salvation of the elect (p. 22).
Analysing a Biblical Text: Some Important Linguistic Distinctions
Authors: Poythress Vern S. 
Published: February 2009

Sometimes exegetes differ from one another not so much because they have seen different data but because they are in fact looking for different types of ‘meaning’. For this reason, it is useful to classify different types of analysis of a text, and different types of ‘meaning’ resulting from such analysis.The need for such classification has increased with the progress of biblical scholarship. Biblical exegetes and theologians have long had to deal with questions like ‘What is the meaning of this word of Scripture?’ and ‘What is the meaning of this verse, paragraph, section, or book?’ The intrinsic difficulties of recovering meaning from dead languages and sometimes unfamiliar cultural settings are often challenge enough. But, as increasing refinement and exactitude are sought, another kind of difficulty can arise, namely a difficulty with kinds of ‘meaning’. Is it indeed true that there is always only one meaning which isthemeaning of a text? Is this the case even in poetic passages that may suggest or allude to new perspectives and comparisons without explicitly teaching them?1Moreover, supposing that someone has arrived at ‘the meaning’ of a text, how is he to communicate this to someone else? In a commentary? In a sermon? In a form like Kittel'sTheological Dictionary of the New Testament? Or perhaps even in the form of a painting or a new social and political organisation?
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.
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.
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.