The image of God in man

History of Christian Philosophy in the Middle Ages

Genesis as Myth, and Other Essays:

This work seeks to explore the problem of self/other relationality with reference to certain key tflinkers in western philosophy and theology. To this end we have deployed the notion of coadunacy as a specifically theological model of human relationality. In chapter one we present a substantive picture of the biblical tradition's understanding of human communality, suggesting that this presents Christian theology with its ideal of coadunacy expressed in the Old Testamenfs insistence that "it is not good that man should be alone" and the New Testament ideal that we should be "all one in Christ". We continue by examining the observable social phenomenon of radical individualism and isolation within our society and suggest that this ought to stand as a challenge to modern Christian theology. In chapter two we outline the fields of inquiry which will guide us through the task of constructing a theological understanding of human coadunacy and in presenting a critique of those approaches to self/other relating which are in some way insufficient or unchristian. Chapters three to six contain analyses of the approaches to the issue of self/other relationality argued for by Kant, Fichte and Hegel, Barth and Pannenberg. These thinkers are selected for their major contributions to both western thought and theology in particular. It will be argued that in each of these thinkers a significant deficiency exists in their treatment of self/other relationality which ultimately does violence to the other by prioritizing the self. Furthermore it will be argued that the issue of situatedness, as an element within the discussion of human relationaltty is, by and large, ignored by the aforementioned thinkers. The concluding chapters suggest that a truly Christian notion of coadunacy ought to prioritize the other by way of a Christ-like act of self-abandonment and take into account the human experience of situatedness and embodiment. The Notion of Coadunacy and the Problem of Self/Other Relationslity in la-pa-logy with special reference to Kant, Fichte, Hegel, Barth and Pannenberg.

The notion of coadunacy and the problem of self/other relationality in theology, with special reference to Kant, Fichte, Hegel, Barth and Pannenberg

Book Review: Man: Christian Anthropology in the Conflicts of the Present

The argument of my thesis concerns the understanding of the doctrine of sin in systematic theology, and, as a corollary of this, the scope of the doctrine in terms of its content. My argument is that the doctrine of sin is particularly prone to being defined with a strictness or narrowness which causes it to lose much of its meaning; that such limiting treatment tends to be accompanied by distorted relationships with, or over-determination by, other key doctrines, particularly that of salvation; and that it is helpful to see this tendency as a failure to see sin as a symbol with a complex of meanings, this complex being essential to the doctrine. A brief introductory survey of the usual perspectives on sin and of recent monographs firstly indicates the major issues raised by sin. Then more detailed analysis of the work of Barth, Brunner, Rahner, Pannenberg and Ricoeur provides examples of different methods of dealing with sin and leads to the conclusion that the tension between freedom and inevitability is essential to the doctrine of sin: it is part of sin's meaning and attempts to suppress, explain or relocate it lead to unacceptable tensions elsewhere. The use of Ricoeur's analysis of the symbolism of evil as a critical tool demonstrates the significance of the Adamic narrative for Christian doctrine, and the way in which its neglect can lead to the acquisition of ideas characteristic of non-Christian mythologies. The positive suggestion of the thesis is that sin should be seen as a tensive symbol incorporating a wide complex of meanings and involving a specific mythology of "the beginning" and that its paradoxical nature should be maintained as indicating a conflict within humanity, and seen in relationship to the suffering of God in Christ.

Sally Elizabeth Alsford

Papers

Sin as a problem of twentieth century systematic theology

Prestige, power, practice, and professional development: exploring transnational teachers’ experiences of a UK-based lecturer development course