Showing papers on "Revelation published in 2012"

"Clothes Make the (One Like a Son of) Man": Dress Imagery in Revelation 1 as an Indicator of High Priestly Status

Abstract: “CLOTHES MAKE THE (ONE LIKE A SON OF) MAN”: DRESS IMAGERY IN REVELATION 1 AS AN INDICATOR OF HIGH PRIESTLY STATUS

The early text of the New Testament

Abstract: Introduction: In Search of the Earliest Text of the New Testament I. THE TEXTUAL AND SCRIBAL CULTURE OF EARLY CHRISTIANITY 1. The Book Trade in the Roman Empire 2. Indicators of Catholicity in Early Gospel Manuscripts 3. Towards a Sociology of Reading in Early Christianity 4. Early Christian Attitudes towards the Reproduction of Texts II. THE MANUSCRIPT TRADITION 5. The Early Text of Matthew 6. The Early Text of Mark 7. The Early Text of Luke 8. The Early Text of John 9. The Early Text of Acts 10. The Early Text of Paul (and Hebrews) 11. The Early Text of the Catholic Epistles 12. The Early Text of Revelation 13. Where Two or Three Are Gathered Together: Evaluating Agreements between Two or More Early Versions III. EARLY CITATION/USE OF NEW TESTAMENT WRITINGS 14. In These Very Words: Methods and Standards of Literary Borrowing in the Second Century 15. The Text of the New Testament in the Apostolic Fathers 16. Marcion and the Early Text of the New Testament 17. Justin's Text of the Gospels. Another Look at the Citations in 1 Apol. 15.1-8 18. Tatian's Diatessaron and the Greek Text of the Gospels 19. Early Apocryphal Gospels and the New Testament Text 20. Irenaeus's Text of the Gospels in Adversus haereses 21. Clement of Alexandria's Gospel Citations

The Confessions as Autobiography

Abstract: At several points after deciding to join the catholic church in the summer of 386, Augustine framed current arguments – especially against the Manicheans – by referring to his own past. While these references can be appreciated as Augustine’s “first confessions” (so O’Donnell 1992: 1.li–lvi), they bear only a superficial resemblance to Augustine’s astonishing masterpiece of ca. 397. A brilliant and profoundly original work of creative theology, the Confessions combines biblical interpretation, late Platonism, and anti-Manichean polemic with haunting autobiographical narrative. Augustine’s account of his past, which begins in Book 1 and shapes his narrative through to the close of Book 9, is the stylistic hallmark of the Confessions. It is what makes this work so unusual in its own period, so perduringly valuable to Augustine’s later biographers, and so seemingly accessible to his modern readers. On the strength of this narrative, the Confessions has been hailed as the first introspective autobiography in western letters. In one sense, this description is apt. Composed as a prayerful address to God, the Confessions surveys Augustine’s life during the 33-year period from his birth and early education (Books 1 and 2), through his years with the Manicheans, up until his liberating encounter with Neoplatonic thought inMilan (Books 3–7) and his resolve to enter Ambrose’s church as a sexual celibate (Book 8), ending at the point when, shortly after baptism, his mother Monica dies (Book 9). Once this narrative section concludes, however, some 40 percent of the Confessions’ eighty thousand words remain. After Book 9, Augustine’s focus shifts abruptly from his past (ca. 387, when the “autobiographical” section ends in Italy) to his present (ca. 397, when the bishop of Hippo, resuming the question with which he had opened this work in 1.1.1, ponders how fallen humanity can know God). Book 10 contemplates memory; Book 11, the nature of time; Book 12, spiritual and material creation; Book 13, revelation, the church, and final redemption. These incandescent final books retrospectively alter any simple reading of the

Spinoza on Philosophy, Religion, and Politics: The Theologico-Political Treatise

Abstract: PART I. REVELATION PART 2. DEMYSTIFYING THE BIBLE PART 3. MEETING THE DEMANDS OF A RELIGIOUS LIFE PART 4. THE POLITICS OF TRUE RELIGION

Conversion and Narrative: Reading and Religious Authority in Medieval Polemic

Abstract: Note on Names, Titles, Citations, and Transliteration Introduction: Conversion and History 1. From Peripety to Prose: Tracing the Pauline and Augustinian Paradigms 2. Alterity and Auctoritas: Reason and the Twelfth-Century Expansion of Authority 3. In the Shadow of the Khazars: Narrating the Conversion to Judaism 4. A War of Words: Translating Authority in Thirteenth-Century Polemic 5. The Jargon of Authenticity: Abner of Burgos/Alfonso of Valladolid and the Paradox of Testimony 6. The Supersessionist Imperative: Islam and the Historical Drama of Revelation Conclusion: Polemic as Narrative Abbreviations Notes Bibliography Index Acknowledgments

The Function of the Church in Warfare in the Book of Revelation

Abstract: THE FUNCTION OF THE CHURCH IN WARFARE IN THE BOOK OF REVELATION Benjamin Steen Stubblefield, Ph.D. The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, 2012 Chair: Dr. William Cook III This dissertation demonstrates the function of the church in war in Revelation. Chapter 1 tracks the development of publications that address this subject and also illustrates the need for another academic contribution to it. Furthermore, it explains this dissertation’s particular narratological approach. Chapter 2 examines the plot of Revelation. Borrowing the tools from narrative plot criticism, this chapter shows the priority of the warfare motif to the structure and development of Revelation’s plot. Chapter 3 analyses Revelation’s characters. Like Chapter 2, it proves the significance of the warfare motif to the author’s process of characterization. Although minor characters are given a brief discussion, more attention is given to the way in which the main characters contribute to the concept of war. Chapter 4 illustrates the relevance of war to the author’s point of view (POV). This chapter presents an analysis of passages wherein the author’s POV is manifest in order to test the import of the war motif for the author’s perspective. Chapter 5 identifies specific images in Revelation that contribute to Revelation’s theology of the ecclesia. Provided is an exegetical defense for understanding the seven churches (1:4-3:22), the 144,000 and the multitude (7:1-17), the temple (11:1-2), the two witnesses (11:3-13), the 144,000 male virgins (14:1-5), and the judgment army (19;11-21) ecclesiologically. From those images, this chapter also renders a working definition of the essence of the church. Chapter 6 considers how each of the passages and images discussed in chapter 5 describe the function of the church in warfare in Revelation. All the preceding chapters warrant and support the concluding findings. Thus, this work hopes to fill a gap in ecclesiological and narratival studies in Revelation. The aim of this work is not simply to perform a specific kind of narrative critique upon Revelation, but to show how narrative criticism informs Revelation’s theology of the church. Specifically, the Apocalypse mandates the ecclesia to do much more than obey; the narrative calls the church to engage her enemies in the cosmic war with specific acts of obedience until Christ’s final, consummative victory. VITA Benjamin Steen Stubblefield PERSONAL Born: April 21, 1983, Mobile, Alabama Parents: William and Janet Stubblefield, Jr. Married: Caroline June Bredow, October 18, 2008 Children: Katherine Grace, born May 14, 2012 EDUCATIONAL B.S., Auburn University (Auburn, Alabama), 2005 B.A., Auburn University (Auburn, Alabama), 2005 M.Div., Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, 2007 MINISTERIAL Youth Intern, First Baptist Orlando, 2005 Pastor, New Washington Christian Church, New Washington, IN, 2008ACADEMIC Assistant to Dr. Jim Orrick, Boyce College, 2006Assistant to Dr. Rob Plummer, SBTS, 2008-2011 Instructor, Boyce College, 2009-2010 Instructor for Institute of Christian Leadership, SBTS, 2010 ORGANIZATIONAL Evangelical Theological Society

Revelations: Visions, Prophecy, and Politics in the Book of Revelation

Abstract: How has Revela on, a book of visions wri en as war me literature by a Jewish prophet nearly two thousand years ago, not only come to be included in the New Testament, but s ll read by countless people interpre ng world events today? We’ll consider how the structure of these visions allows for such wide-ranging--o en diametrically opposite--interpreta on of the same events, from the Muslim conquest of Egypt to the presidency of Barack Obama.

The Philosophy of Hebrew Scripture

Abstract: 1. Introduction: beyond reason and revelation Part I: Reading Hebrew Scripture: 2. The structure of the Hebrew Bible 3. What is the purpose of the Hebrew Bible? 4. How does the Bible make arguments of a general nature? Part II: The Philosophy of Hebrew Scripture: Five Studies: 5. The ethics of a shepherd 6. The history of Israel, Genesis-Kings: a political philosophy 7. Jeremiah and the problem of knowing 8. Truth and being in Hebrew scripture 9. Jerusalem and Carthage Part III: Conclusion: 10. God's speech after reason and revelation.

The gift of prophecy in the New Covenant.

Abstract: Chapter one surveys recent research, demonstrating different approaches yield different definitions for prophecy, and suggesting a combination of historical, exegetical and biblical-theological methodology. Chapter two concludes that intertestamental Judaism, the old covenant scriptures and the experiences of Christians formed the background to New Testament thought regarding prophecy, and the scriptures particularly encouraged a hope for widespread prophecy in the eschaton. Chapter three examines new covenant prophecy in the gospels, finding an unprecedented increase in the Spirit’s work, with more expected. Spirit-empowerment and prophecy are linked to speech that testifies to Jesus. Chapter four identifies two types of prophecy in Acts. One is a consequence of an eschatological outpouring of the Spirit on all people giving them prophetic ability to witness to Jesus, the second is modelled after old covenant prophets — though with a contemporary twist. Chapter five assesses prophecy in 1 Corinthians, concluding that prophecy is an intelligible Spirit-empowered revelation of the knowledge of God’s salvation and the mystery of Christ, that may be given to any believer. Chapter six examines the relationship between tongues and prophecy in Corinth, finding a close relationship between the two, with language the only difference. Tongues is Spirit-empowered speech uttered in the preferred language of the speaker, which is unknown to the majority of the congregation and therefore requires interpretation. The elite’s ability to speak in Latin gave social status, but it was not understood by most Greeks in the church. Chapter seven examines prophecy in several New Testament books, principally Revelation. The two witnesses in Revelation 11 demonstrate the church’s prophetic mandate: ‘the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy’ (Revelation 19:10). The thesis concludes by defining new covenant prophecy, ‘Spirit-empowered speech, promised to every believer, that witnesses to Jesus by revealing the knowledge of God’s salvation and the mystery of Christ’.

Christianity and Critical Realism: Ambiguity, Truth and Theological Literacy

Abstract: 1. Critical Realism and Dialectical Critical Realism 2. The Spiritual Turn: Transcendence and Meta-Reality 3. Christianity and Critical Realism 4. The Identity of Christianity 5. Trinitarian Theology and Epistemic Relativism 6. The 'Problem' of Christian Exclusivism 7. Classical Theism and the Triune God 8. The Triune God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit 9. The Economy of Salvation 10. The Epistemology of Divine Revelation 11. Theological Science 12. Radical Orthodoxy: Beyond Secular Reason 13. Towards a Critical Realist Historiography 14. The Quest for the Historical Jesus 15. Jesus Christ: A Critical Realist Reading

Irenaeus of Lyons and the Theology of the Holy Spirit

Abstract: Preface Introduction 1 Justin Martyr and the Pneumatology of the mid-Second Century 2 The Beginning of a Pneumatology 3 Pneumatological Expansion 4 The Emergence and Development of Foundational Themes 5 His Hand and Wisdom 6 The Salvific Spirit 7 Trinitarian Convictions, Trinitarian Logic Conclusion and Epilogue Appendix: Language of Revelation in Justin s First and Second Apologies, and Dialogue with Trypho Bibliography

Reading John with St. Thomas Aquinas: Theological Exegesis and Speculative Theology

Abstract: Written by leading experts on Aquinas's theology, the essays in Reading John with St. Thomas Aquinas bear common witness to a central theological conviction: the tasks of biblical exegesis and speculative theology, though distinct, indwell and inform each other. As the first book-length study of the full breadth of Aquinas's Commentary on the Gospel of John , this work illuminates the way in which thinking systematically or speculatively about revelation flows from questions raised within biblical exegesis itself. Like any medieval biblical commentator, Aquinas attempts to understand a biblical text not only in itself but also by appealing to parallel interpretive texts drawn from throughout the Bible as well as the accumulated insights of the Church Fathers. This method enables him to penetrate deeply into the thought of the Bible, recognizing that the biblical authors--speaking from within the context of Israel and the Church--raise questions that are theological and that belong to coherent speculative theological frameworks. The result is, in large part, a speculative theological commentary that is not imposed on the biblical texts but emerges from it. The essays in Reading John with St. Thomas Aquinas seek to illumine the necessary conjunction of the inspired words of Scripture, exegetical commentary, and theological analysis. The volume is both a study of Aquinas's thought and an attempt to foster contemporary exegetical approaches that emphasize the need to interpret Scripture speculatively, through the historical lens of tradition.

An explanatory account and examination of the doctrine of the mediation of Jesus Christ in the scientific theology of T. F. Torrance

Abstract: The doctrine of the mediation of Jesus Christ in the scientific theology of T.F. Torrance rests on the fundamental scientific axiom, derived from the natural sciences, that knowledge is developed in accordance with the nature (kata physin) of the object as it is revealed in the course of scientific inquiry. As a theological realist, Torrance finds real and accurate knowledge of God in Jesus Christ. To know God through the incarnate Son, who is “of one nature with the Father” (homoousios to Patri), is to know God in strict accordance with God’s nature and hence in a theologically scientific way. Scientific theology will operate on a christological basis, for the incarnation of Jesus Christ is the “controlling centre” for the Christian doctrine of God. Torrance’s holistic theology investigates its object of inquiry within the nexus of “ontorelations,” or “being-constituting” interrelations, that disclose its identity. Because the fundamental aspects of reality are relational rather than atomistic, a scientific theological approach to the doctrine of the mediation of Jesus Christ requires that he be investigated within the nexuses of interrelations that disclose his identity as incarnate Saviour of the world. An examination of Torrance’s doctrine of mediation reveals three specific nexuses of “onto-relations” that disclose the identity of Jesus Christ. These are his interrelations with 1) historical Israel, 2) God, and 3) humanity. In the present thesis, the vast and scattered array of Torrance’s thought on the mediation of Jesus Christ is reduced to a minimal number of basic concepts, or “elemental forms,” that arise from the nexuses of interrelations that constitute the identity of the incarnate Son. These basic, constitutive concepts of Torrance’s doctrine of the mediation of Christ are the Nicene homoousion and the Chalcedonian doctrine of the hypostatic union, as well as the doctrines of incarnational redemption and the “vicarious humanity” of Jesus Christ. These elemental forms provide a basic, organising framework to examine and explain the mediation of revelation and reconciliation of Jesus Christ in the scientific theology of T.F. Torrance.

Metaphysics: The Creation of Hierarchy

Abstract: This book seeks to retrieve metaphysics and reveals its theological nature. It shows how ancient and modern conceptions of being in terms of individual substance fail to account for the irreducible, ontological relations that characterize all things. Those relations bind immanent, finite beings to each other and also to their transcendent, infinite source in God. As such, there is no abstract individuality that is somehow more primary than being in relation. Rather, the ‘individuality’ of a thing is both existentially and essentially its metaphysical positioning in relation to other things. In turn, the relational ordering of all things suggests a priority of relation over substance. That priority intimates a first principle and final end that is itself relational – the triune God of the Christian faith. To develop this argument, the book provides a close reading of the Neo-Platonist theology that we find in the works the Church Fathers and Doctors. The main figures are St. Augustine, Boethius, Dionysius the Areopagite and St. Thomas Aquinas. Common to them is the idea that the creative relationality of the three divine persons brings everything out of nothing into existence. God gives all beings a share of Trinitarian being in which the created order participates. Thus, the argument is that the doctrine of creation ex nihilo and the Trinity provide a better account of individuation than purely philosophical theories. In short, the book combines the theological ‘turn’ of contemporary philosophy with the re-hellenization of theology that Pope Benedict XVI and other theologians have defended. Based on a genealogical account from Plato to ‘postmodernism,’ the essay argues that the Christian Neo-Platonic fusion of biblical revelation with Greco-Roman philosophy produced a theological metaphysic that surpasses ancient and modern ontology.

Christian ethics in the face of secularism

Abstract: This article deals with the implications of modern secularism for the concept of Christian ethics How does the decline of Christianity in modern Western societies impede the validity of a Christian ethical approach to contemporary social issues? The concept secularism is explained The argument then moves to the meta-theory of Christian ethics, namely the revelation of God as it is expressed in the ‘book of nature’, the written word, and the incarnate Word, Jesus Christ The article concludes that as long as Christian ethics remains faithful to this meta-theory, understands the modern macro-ethical questions and maintains a deep social focus, it will remain relevant in a secular society

Apophatic and Cataphatic Theology

Abstract: The terminology of “apophatic” and “cataphatic” theologies, that is, the use of negation ( apophasis ) and affirmation ( kataphasis ) in our ways of talking about God, was introduced into Christian theology by the probably early-sixth-century author who wrote under the pseudonym of the Apostle Paul’s convert, Dionysius the Areopagite (generally referred to as Pseudo-Dionysius). It was, however, only terminology that Dionysius introduced; the use of negation and affirmation in relation to God had a long history, longer even than Christianity, reaching back into the traditions of the Hebrew scriptures and classical Greek philosophy to which Christian theology had early laid claim. Human beings have always affirmed something of God, either as a result of speculation about the divine or as an affirmation of revelation about God – the Hebrew scriptures contain records claiming to be God’s self-revelation, and followers of other religious traditions have both claimed similar revelations and celebrated the divine in hymnic aretalogies, that is, lists of divine virtues. But this affirmation of the divine has always been hedged about by a sense of the mysteriousness of the divine, leading to the negating of any affirmations about God, thereby bearing testimony to the inadequacy of any human conception of God. So a Hebrew prophet exclaims in God’s name, “To whom then will you compare me, that I should be like him? says the Holy One” (Is 40:25) and even the revelation of God’s name to Moses – “I am that I am” (Ex 3:14) – is an affirmation about God inviting or even requiring an apophatic interpretation. Similarly, within the Greek philosophical tradition, we find Plato asserting in the Timaeus that “to discover the Father and Maker of the universe would be some task, and it would be impossible to declare what one had found to everyone” and in The Republic that the Idea of the Good, for Plato the highest reality, is “beyond being.”

Apocalypse of Abraham

Abstract: The book of revelation to Abraham (Knigi otkrovleniya Avrame), son of Terah, son of Nahor, …, son of Jared, as the fuller title reads, has been preserved only in the Old Slavonic version It consists of two parts: Keywords: Judaism; literature; religious history

Origen's Role in the Formation of the New Testament Canon

Abstract: This thesis examines the influence of the Church father Origen, ca. 185-254, on the formation and development of the New Testament canon. Origen wrote about and understood the writings of both the Old and New Testaments as sharing a genuine unity, encouraging this idea by being the first person on record to use the term “New Testament” to refer to a number of Christian writings which complimented what was then known to some as the “Old Testament,” better known generally as the Jewish Scriptures. Origen also recognized that both collections were divinely inspired, and inspired by one and the same God. Yet it is also true that when Origen referred to the Jewish Scriptures in his writings, he typically prefixed the word “Scriptures” with the words “sacred,” “holy,” or “divine,” whereas he refers to the Gospels and Apostolic letters as merely “Scripture.” This bifurcation in Origen’s thinking actually makes the evidence in his work on the unity of the two sets of writings more profound in that although he was committed to the special nature of the Jewish Scriptures vis-a-vis all others, his writing clearly shows a preponderance to characterize the Christian writings as belonging to the same class of revelation as the Jewish Scriptures. I suggest Origen’s coalescence of the two bodies of writings makes him one of the most important historical players in the development of the NT canon.

Christian faith & human understanding: studies on the Eucharist, Trinity, and the human person

Abstract: In this collection of essays, renowned philosopher Robert Sokolowski illustrates how Christian faith is not an alternative to reason, but rather an enhancement of it. Reflecting on the mysteries of Creation, the Holy Trinity, the Incarnation, and the Eucharist, he examines in his distinctive lucid style the ways in which Christian faith contributes to the understanding of the human person. The book is divided into four sections. The first directly addresses the relation between faith and understanding, showing how philosophy has an autonomy within Christian theology even as it acknowledges that revelation makes known truths that could not have been reached by reason alone. It also explains how central the doctrine of Creation is to the relation between faith and reason. The rest of the book illustrates particular ways in which reason and faith interact in Christianity. The second section deals with the mysteries of the Holy Trinity, the Church, and the Eucharist. It shows that Christ is the primary minister of the Eucharist because his words are quoted in its celebration, and it offers a contemporary interpretation of the meaning of transubstantiation. This section also discusses the episcopal teaching office in the Church, and it shows how Christ's words in the gospels, his use of the first-person pronoun, serve to manifest the Holy Trinity. The third section discusses the human person in the light of Christian faith, exploring what is meant by the human soul, natural law, and personal relationships, as well as the place of political philosophy within revelation. The fourth and final section turns to the relationship between faith and practical reasoning. It discusses Christian aspects in the art and science of medicine, psychoanalysis, and the professions, as well as issues in Catholic higher education, including the place of philosophy in seminary formation.

Trinity and society

Abstract: God addresses Himself to the whole world and all social classes through His Spirit; even then, only as far as every person obeys the spirit whom one may hear and understand by means of His breath. This communion between God and world is not a direct one and is being expressed by means of words and deeds that express the way in which people understood and answered to God’s presence in their life, in various historical moments of their experience. Still, it may be a direct revelation as a consequence of a direct intervention of Trinity in the social and personal level. People will never be completely free from the theories and the systems of the creation, but we must insist upon the affirmation that only the dogmas offer us an interpretation of the socially implemented human knowledge, no matter what level they are situated on. The social perspective of the Church helps people see if a doctrine from the social background is authentic and consonant to the criteria of the true religions knowledge-the Gospel-if it has a revelation basis.

Divine hiddenness and creaturely resentment

Abstract: On Schellenberg’s formulation of the problem of divine hiddenness, a loving God would ensure that anyone capable of having a relationship with Him, and not resisting it, would be granted sufficient evidence to make belief in God rationally indubitable. And He would do this by granting a powerful religious experience to every person at the moment he or she reaches the age of reason. Here I lay out a new reason why God might delay revelation of himself, justifiably allowing for some nonresistant nonbelief.

The righteousness of God, begging for the poor and Paul’s apostolic mission according to his Letter to the Romans

Abstract: In Romans 15:22−33 (the concluding section of Paul’s last written letter) ‘the apostle for the gentiles’ motivates his financial contribution ( diakonia ) to the poor ( ptōchous ) in Jerusalem in terms of his mission to the nations ( ta ethnē ). The aim of this article is to argue that Paul’s notion, ‘the righteousness of God’ ( diakaiosunē tou theou ), mentioned for example in Romans 1:18−3:20, not only accentuates God’s saving act (a vertical dimension) but also God’s intervention on behalf of the poor and other outcasts through the apostolic mission (the horizontal dimension). The article explains Paul’s use of the concept righteousness as a ‘virtue’ by focusing on both the Hellenistic moral philosophy and the occurrence of the term zedaqah in the Old Testament. For Paul, the revelation of God is the revelation of the righteousness of God (Rm 1:17) in, among others, the Law (e.g. Ex 22:21−24), the Prophets (e.g., Zch 7:9−10) and the Writings (e.g. Job 24:9). Those affected, are the poor without patrons, women without patriarchs, children without parentage and foreigners without a paterfamilias. The pilgrimage to the nations includes all four groups of marginalized people. Blending the concepts ‘the righteousness of God’, ‘begging for the poor’ and Paul’s apostolic mission helps us to understand why the end of Romans (15:22−33) and its beginning (1:18−2:20) come to full circle. The vertical dimension of God’s saving act merges with the horizontal dimension of God’s saving act.

Restoring the Shamed: Towards a Theology of Shame

Abstract: Restoring the Shamed does not describe itself as a work of Practical or Pastoral Theology, yet it starts from the author’s pastoral experiences and returns there with some stories of shamed people and liturgies directed towards them at the end. Furthermore, the methodology used in the book is one of trying to establish resonances between Christian faith and tradition, particularly biblical elements of that tradition, and human. This will sound familiar to pastoral theologians, though there is no direct mention of pastoral theology as such within this work. And many of the recent contributions to pastoral theological understandings of shame from Donald Capps (1993), Paul Goodliff (1998), and Jill McNish (2004), and others are entirely absent from it. This bears sad witness, perhaps, to the continuing gap between those who perhaps regard themselves as “theologians proper,” working basically from the tradition outwards, and those who find a primary text in contemporary experience and interdisciplinary understandings and commentaries on that experience. Having said that, this is a remarkably useful small book that fills a real gap in understanding the theology of shame from a revised, reinterpreted biblical perspective. Stockitt argues that the relational Trinitarian God created humans for relationship. Shame as a sense of primary alienation from self, others, and God is fundamental in human life; it is this turning away from the face of God that comprises the basic meaning of sin, not notions of guilt, judicial offence, or financial debt. Stockitt determines to re-read the entire biblical tradition in this light, drawing to a large extent on recent critical socio-historical scriptural scholarship that emphasises the long-ignored primacy of shame and honour in biblical societies. Working through the Bible more or less in order from Genesis to Revelation, at all times the author points up the divine work in overcoming alienation and redeeming humans from exclusion and exile, both individually and socially. The work of establishing face-to-face relations with humans and with the divine, figured in the Aaronic blessing, reaches its climax in the inclusive ministry of Jesus in whose living, dead, and resurrected face shame is seen to be shamed. A new order of inclusion and fellowship with God is thus inaugurated, shame is overcome, and the divine glory is shared with humans. The main strength of this book lies in its systematic reconsideration of the whole biblical tradition of shame and honour that has so often been concealed by the Augustinian/Lutheran focus on guilt and offence that underlies many atonement theories. In this light, biblical concepts of guilt, justice, divine

Paul Tillich and the Possibility of Revelation through Film

Abstract: Thank you for downloading paul tillich and the possibility of revelation through film. Maybe you have knowledge that, people have search numerous times for their chosen books like this paul tillich and the possibility of revelation through film, but end up in infectious downloads. Rather than enjoying a good book with a cup of tea in the afternoon, instead they cope with some malicious virus inside their desktop computer.

The blind man of John 9 as a paradigmatic figure of the disciple in the Fourth Gospel

Abstract: This article seeks to compare Christian discipleship with Mosaic discipleship. The Pharisees, needing to survive, rejected the Christological revelation the Son of Man brought in order to make God known on earth. The study of discipleship in John 9 leads us to understand that ‘discipleship in Moses’ which seeks to please God by upholding the Law or Torah is no longer defensible. Discipleship in chapter 9 redefines the believer’s covenant relationship with God and demonstrates how it takes place in the person of Jesus (the envoy motif) and in his work (functional Christology) in order that the disciple may follow him into the light. The portrayal of the blind man as a role model of the disciple implicitly explains how Christology played a major role in an environment of conflict and ideology and how it relates discipleship to the devotion of Jesus as the plenary manifestation of God.

“God is Technology”: Mediating the Sacred in the Congolese Diaspora

Abstract: Pastor Joshua’s experience of divine revelation refl ects the importance of mediation but also suggests the absence of contradiction between technology and the realm of religious identities and practices. The example he quotes demonstrates that “old-time” religion is very much at home in the world of computer-mediated communications, and is far removed from the idea that religion might increasingly recede from the public sphere and become privatized with secularization and the inexorable advance of scientifi c rationalization. In fact, there might be a close “elective affi nity” between modern forms of communication and a “glocal” Pentecostal performance of the sacred. When Pastor Joshua tells us that revelation is like a phone signal ringing in the believer’s heart, he not only illustrates the strongly localized and embodied dimensions of the charismata, the gifts of the Holy Spirit, which are vital to the Pentecostal personal encounter with the sacred; in addition, the poignant expression “God is technology” and the metaphor of the electronic signal to represent divine calling points to the way in which religious transcendence dovetails with the dialectic of deterritorialization and reterritorialization generated by ICT networks. The simultaneously globalizing and localizing quotidian operation, computermediated communications mirror the powerful, anti-structural but deeply personal and immediate experience of the Holy Spirit. This mirroringfacilitates the portability of the tight spirit-matter nexus in Pentecostalism: the idea that the Holy Spirit and the spirits serving the devil are engaged in a cosmic battle that is manifested in daily life across the globe. ICT networks, then, become a medium to transmit this worldview and a key tool to fi ght the cosmic battle on God’s side, more specifi cally to conquer territory for Jesus.

Autism and Love

Abstract: This response critiques the idea that verbal narratives of people with autism offer new theological perspectives on the nature and experience of love. It explores something of the mysterious nature of divine love in biblical revelation, and the human experience of God, particularly as uncovered in the life of a young autistic woman who has no capacity for verbal communication.

Coping with violence in the New Testament

Abstract: Preface Jan Willem van Henten (University of Amsterdam, University of Stellenbosch), Pieter G.R. de Villiers (University of the Free State) Part I INTRODUCTORY ESSAYS Chapter One: Religion, Bible and Violence Jan Willem van Henten (University of Amsterdam, University of Stellenbosch) Chapter Two: Violence in the New Testament and the Roman Empire: Ambivalence, Othering, Agency Jeremy Punt (University of Stellenbosch) Part II CASE STUDIES Chapter Three: Paul's Version of "Turning the Other Cheek". Rethinking Violence and Tolerance Andries van Aarde (University of Pretoria) Chapter Four: Violence in the Letter to the Galatians? Francois Tolmie (University of the Free State) Chapter Five: A Godfighter Becomes a Fighter for God Rob van Houwelingen (Theological University Kampen) Chapter Six: Jesus and Violence: An Ideological-Critical Reading of the Tenants in Mark 12:1-12 Ernest van Eck (University of Pretoria) Chapter Seven: The Use of Violence in Punishing Adultery in Biblical Texts (Deuteronomy 22:13-29 and John 7:53-8:11) Wim Weren (Tilburg University) Chapter Eight: Violence in a Gospel of Love Jan van der Watt (Radboud University of Nijmegen, University of Pretoria) and Jacobus Kok (University of Pretoria) Chapter Nine: Images of War and Creation, of Violence and Non-Violence in the Revelation of John Paul B. Decock (University of KwaZulu-Natal, St. Joseph's Theological Institute) Chapter Ten: Exegetical Perspectives on Violence in Revelation 18 Pieter G.R. de Villiers (University of the Free State) Chapter Eleven: The Eschatological Battle according to the Book of Revelation: Perpectives on Revelation 19:11-21 Tobias Nicklas (University of Regensburg) Part III EPILOGUE Chapter Twelve: Hermeneutical Perspectives on Violence in the New Testament Pieter G.R. de Villiers (University of the Free State) Bibliography Subject Index

Die theologie isaak august dorners

Abstract: The following Text is to introduce the outline of the theology of a german theologian Isaak August Dorner, a so called mediating theologian. As a mediating Theologian, he tries to the mediating between faith and ration, theology and philosophy. His theological tendency is represented by the christo-centrism and the concern for the church-practice. For him, the foundation of the theology always Christ himself. It means, Christ himself is understood as a objective basis for the theology, and Christ stands as that against the human subjectivity. In this meaning, he emphasizes especially the objective historical revelation of Christ. With this basic perspective, the following text shows the important contents of his theology, for example the methodology of his theology, the doctrine of God, the doctrine of trinity, etc. on the basis of survey of his important works, for example System der christlichen Glaubenslehre, and it shows how he makes a development his christo-centrical theology in his work. With the emphasis of christo-centrical methode Dorner makes a great influence on the theology in 20th Century, especially K. Barth accepts important concepts of his theology, when he developed his dogmatics. Otherwise his theological methode was criticized because of his speculative theological methode, which was made with the conceptual background of classical German Idealism.