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Full-Text Articles in Arts and Humanities
The Remnant Church, Randall Otto
The Remnant Church, Randall Otto
Journal for Christian Theological Research
The invisible church idea is an apologetic device developed by the Reformers to comply with the creeds’ statements concerning a “catholic church” and is based on a conception of individual election that itself may need revision. The Reformed doctrine of an invisible church has no basis in the OT or NT, for in both it is those who unite and persevere in faithful obedience with God through his mediator in the covenant community who are saved. The invisible church should thus be replaced with remnant church, for the remnant is the ecclesiola in ecclesia which public demonstrates election in saving …
The Doctrine Of The Trinity In John Wesley’S Prose And Poetic Works, Seng-Kong Tan
The Doctrine Of The Trinity In John Wesley’S Prose And Poetic Works, Seng-Kong Tan
Journal for Christian Theological Research
One may easily judge John Wesley’s pietistic and anti-rationalistic Christianity to be an encumbrance toward a well-developed doctrine of the Trinity. That Wesley produced very limited systematic treatment on the subject augments the assumption that his theology, though implicitly trinitarian in general is, nonetheless, superficial in its ontology, and thereby, tends toward a subjective functionalism. This essay argues against such a pre-understanding, and appeals for an “organic” appreciation of John Wesley’s broad body of prose and poetical works, in order to recognize the solid doctrine of the immanent Trinity that is foundational to his soteriology. As a judicious editor of …
Testing Models Of The Incarnation: From Revelation To Historical Science, Alan G. Padgett
Testing Models Of The Incarnation: From Revelation To Historical Science, Alan G. Padgett
Journal for Christian Theological Research
Is it proper for the results of science to influence Christian theology? If so, on what grounds? I argue that science can and should influence theology, and give the example of historical investigation into Jesus (historical science) and Christology (theology). Proof, coherence and informal support are the three logical ways of relating data to theories. Abandoning proof, and assuming coherence, we look at the notions of abduction and retroduction (informal support á la C. S. Peirce) as models for the history-theology relationship. Among the theologians, I explicitly follow Basil Mitchell and Reinhold Niebuhr on the relationship between faith and history, …
Evidence For A Resurrection, Phillip H. Wiebe
Evidence For A Resurrection, Phillip H. Wiebe
Journal for Christian Theological Research
Most discussions of the evidence for the Resurrection of Jesus do not pay sufficient attention to the question of what evidence would be needed for an "ordinary" resurrection (a resuscitation). The criteria for establishing a resuscitation include showing (a) that a person truly died, (b) that the resuscitated person's corpse no longer exists, and (c) that the resuscitated person was seen after his or her supposed resuscitation. The difficulties of traditional attempts to defend the Resurrection are shown to hinge on the limited amount of evidence available in the New Testament for these three conditions. The possible value of the …
Dissolving The Inerrancy Debate: How Modern Philosophy Shaped The Evangelical View Of Scripture, John Perry
Dissolving The Inerrancy Debate: How Modern Philosophy Shaped The Evangelical View Of Scripture, John Perry
Journal for Christian Theological Research
The debate among American evangelicals over scriptural inerrancy has received less attention in recent literature than it did during its height in the 1970s and 1980s. Nonetheless the issue itself remains unresolved; indeed, many consider it beyond hope of resolution. Recent work by certain philosophers, however, suggests that there is a way out -- not by resolving the debate but by dissolving it. In particular, a model developed by Nancey Murphy for understanding the history of the split between Protestant liberals and conservatives can be appropriated for understanding the history of the inerrancy debate. Examining the history of …