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Full-Text Articles in Religious Thought, Theology and Philosophy of Religion
On Enduring Political Authority: Comparing Oliver O’Donovan And The Book Of Revelation, Aaron Perry
On Enduring Political Authority: Comparing Oliver O’Donovan And The Book Of Revelation, Aaron Perry
Journal for Christian Theological Research
The political thought of Oliver O’Donovan is discussed alongside a key text for his thought, the book of Revelation. Specifically I examine the question of God’s providential relationship to enduring political authority. I suggest that while O’Donovan’s work presents a positive relationship between God’s providence and an enduring political authority, the book of Revelation presents a negative relationship, meaning God keeps at bay the forces that would otherwise destabilize political authority. We begin with an introduction to O’Dovovan and his notion of political authority, which is followed by an inductive study of Revelation. I conclude with a comparison of the …
Creational Ethics Is Public Ethics, Guenther Haas
Creational Ethics Is Public Ethics, Guenther Haas
Journal for Christian Theological Research
This paper presents the framework and key doctrines relevant to public moral engagement as found in the Reformed or neo-Calvinist tradition shaped by Abraham Kuyper and his disciples. My thesis is that Christian ethics is public ethics because it is creational ethics. Christian ethics has a place in the public arena because it is the articulation of the creational moral order that constitutes and guides all human beings. Neo-Calvinism considers the creation order as foundational. The fall of creation and its redemption must be understood in relation to this foundational doctrine. But the creational order also shapes the nature of …
A New Heaven And A New Earth: The Case For A Holistic Reading Of The Biblical Story Of Redemption, J. Richard Middleton
A New Heaven And A New Earth: The Case For A Holistic Reading Of The Biblical Story Of Redemption, J. Richard Middleton
Journal for Christian Theological Research
Many Christian voices have proposed that the eternal destiny of the redeemed consists not in a disembodied heaven hereafter, but in the resurrection of the body in the context of a new earth. This paper explores the theological—and especially the exegetical—case for a consistent understanding of redemption as the restoration of God’s creational intent, such that the appropriate hope for the redeemed is life in a renewed earthly creation. The inner theological logic of this position is explored through an integrated reading of the plot structure of the entire biblical metanarrative and by attending to representative New Testament texts that …
“At The Same Time Blessed And Lame”: Ontology, Christology And Violence In Augustine And John Milbank, Elizabeth Agnew Cochran
“At The Same Time Blessed And Lame”: Ontology, Christology And Violence In Augustine And John Milbank, Elizabeth Agnew Cochran
Journal for Christian Theological Research
In Being Reconciled, John Milbank affirms the necessity of Christ’s atonement for human redemption. Yet his Christological claims are undercut by the ontology that undergirds the narrative he puts forth in Theology and Social Theory. This narrative depends upon the premise that a denial of a positive ontological status for violence lies at the heart of Christianity. A comparison of Theology and Social Theory to Augustine’s The City of God demonstrates that Augustine accepts a form of dialectical ontology that Milbank rejects, and that this dialectical ontology undergirds Augustine’s Christology in crucial ways. Although the differences between Milbank’s …
Karl Barth Having No-Thing To Hope For, John C. Mcdowell
Karl Barth Having No-Thing To Hope For, John C. Mcdowell
Journal for Christian Theological Research
Barth's work on eschatology certainly deserves more critical prominence than it has frequently been given. He encourages theologians to think much more carefully about what it is to hope as a Christian, or, better, as one whose determination and responsibility are ecclesially learned and performed in witness to God’s coming in Jesus Christ. The challenge that his material puts to much that passes for Christian talk of hope is pronounced and radical. In particular, he challenges the very kind objectivity of hope that makes what Christians hope for just another object; and in so doing, although I will focus …
Trinity, Time And Sacrament: Christ's Eucharistic Presence In The Theology Of Robert W. Jenson, Jason M. Curtis
Trinity, Time And Sacrament: Christ's Eucharistic Presence In The Theology Of Robert W. Jenson, Jason M. Curtis
Journal for Christian Theological Research
A critical analysis of some key elements in Jenson’s theology. Some of his most stimulating theological themes are those surrounding his trinitarian ontology, where he combines a thoroughgoing knowledge of the tradition with biblical exegesis and philosophical reasoning. What emerges is a trinitarian theology dominated by the concern to overcome any vestige of divine timelessness and replace it with a biblical doctrine of the God who is temporal, yet overcomes temporal contingencies. The manner in which he does this is to link the divine identities with the temporal “moments,” and by maintaining the priority of the future over the past. …
The Obedience Of Faith: Barth, Bultmann And Dei Verbum, Daniel Gallagher
The Obedience Of Faith: Barth, Bultmann And Dei Verbum, Daniel Gallagher
Journal for Christian Theological Research
The Catholic formulation of "faith" as expressed in Dei Verbum owes much to the influence of Protestant theologians such as Karl Barth and Rudolf Bultmann. Dei Verbum offers the Pauline phrase "obedience of faith" (Romans 1:5 and 16:26) as constitutive for understanding the relationship between the believer and the God who reveals himself in Jesus Christ. This essay examines the obediential dynamic of faith as developed in the exegetical, theological, and ethical work of Barth and Bultmann, demonstrating how the biblical and personalist dimensions of faith implicit in paragraph 5 of Dei Verbum, to a large degree, find their inspiration …
Practices, Core Practices And The Work Of The Holy Spirit, David L. Stubbs
Practices, Core Practices And The Work Of The Holy Spirit, David L. Stubbs
Journal for Christian Theological Research
The recent interest in "practices" has created a multi-faceted discussion in theological circles that brings together insights from many disciplines such as ethics, philosophy, and cultural anthropology. However, there has been little extended analysis about how the many claims made about practices are related to quite similar claims traditionally made about the work of the Holy Spirit. In this paper, four distinctions are highlighted that can help us better conceptualize how the Holy Spirit might be related to different kinds of practices.
The Death Of Jesus And The Truth Of The Triune God In Wolfhart Pannenberg And Eberhard Juengel, Jonathan P. Case
The Death Of Jesus And The Truth Of The Triune God In Wolfhart Pannenberg And Eberhard Juengel, Jonathan P. Case
Journal for Christian Theological Research
For Pannenberg and Juengel the death of Christ has an integral role to play in instantiating in the life of God the critical moment necessary to their respective conceptions of truth. For Pannenberg a claim's capacity for truth lies in its ability to be disputed. Confirmation must follow if a claim is to be judged true, but even this confirmation is open to subsequent challenge. Truth is hence a historical process, only the end of which will bring about a definitive conclusion. Given this understanding of truth, the death of Christ on the cross is to be understood as a …
The Trinity And The Freedom Of God, Paul D. Molnar
The Trinity And The Freedom Of God, Paul D. Molnar
Journal for Christian Theological Research
One of the most serious problems facing contemporary Trinitarian theology concerns the extent to which terms we use in ordinary parlance can be used to describe God and God's relations with us in history. This article argues that a contemporary doctrine of the immanent Trinity should help theologians recognize and respect the freedom of the triune God as the basis of human freedom. By allowing our concept of God to be shaped by who God is in Christ and the Spirit we would exclude any agnosticism with respect to the eternal Trinity and would not define God by our experiences …
He Takes Back The Ticket . . . For Us: Providence, Evil, Suffering, And The Vicarious Humanity Of Christ, Christian Kettler
He Takes Back The Ticket . . . For Us: Providence, Evil, Suffering, And The Vicarious Humanity Of Christ, Christian Kettler
Journal for Christian Theological Research
The existence of evil and suffering is one of the great challenges to belief in a good and all-powerful God. How can we believe in all honesty? Building upon Karl Barth's argument that providence should proceed from Christology, this article considers the biblical emphasis of what T.F. Torrance has called the vicarious humanity of Christ. This means that Christ in his humanity believes when we find it difficult, if not impossible, to believe, especially when it comes to facing human suffering. Jesus lived a life of perfect faith in, worship of, and service to the Father, even at the cross, …
Claiming Jesus As Savior In A Religiously Plural World, Gabriel Fackre
Claiming Jesus As Savior In A Religiously Plural World, Gabriel Fackre
Journal for Christian Theological Research
Taking up the bold claim for the universal significance of christological particularity, this essay begins with a brief description of a range of contemporary perspectives on the relation of Jesus Christ to religious pluralism, using a ten-fold taxonomy rather than the popular but inadequate pluralism/inclusivism/exclusivism formula. Current perspectives are identified as: common core, common quest, common community, common pool, common range (all variations on a pluralist approach); anonymous particularity, revelatory particularity, imperial particularity, pluralist particularity and narrative particularity as types giving pride of place to Christian singularity. The heart of the paper is an exposition of the tenth perspective, a …
Liturgical Hospitality: Theological Refl Ections On Sharing In Grace, Hans Boersma
Liturgical Hospitality: Theological Refl Ections On Sharing In Grace, Hans Boersma
Journal for Christian Theological Research
This essay looks at the Church's liturgy using the metaphor of hospitality. The following assumptions will guide its development: (1) that the Church's practice of hospitality is both a reflection and an extension of God's own hospitality (Reinhard Huetter); (2) that there is a participatory identity between Christ and the Church, with this connection implying that liturgical hospitality forms the primary shape of God's gracious hospitality in our world, specifically as that hospitality is mediated by the Church through the preaching of the Gospel and the administration of the sacraments; (3) that liturgical hospitality cannot function properly without regard for …
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 …
Book Review: A Review Of God And Contemporary Science, By Philip Clayton, Lewis S. Ford
Book Review: A Review Of God And Contemporary Science, By Philip Clayton, Lewis S. Ford
Journal for Christian Theological Research
This is a book review of God and Contemporary Science by Philip Clayton.
Theodicy As A "Lived Question:" Moving Beyond A Theoretical Approach To Theodicy, Todd Billings
Theodicy As A "Lived Question:" Moving Beyond A Theoretical Approach To Theodicy, Todd Billings
Journal for Christian Theological Research
The thesis of this essay is that the theodicy question should be configured as a "lived question" for Christians, an open question, which affects the shape of Christian practice. Building upon the work of Terrence Tilley and Kenneth Surin, who chronicle the perils of disconnecting theodicy reflection from questions of practice, this essay seeks to articulate a Christian framing of the theodicy question in which confession and practice are configured as a mutually forming dialectic. The result is that compassionate action is rendered as a way of protesting against the present state of violence, asking with the sufferer, "my God, …
From Thinking To Religion: The Opening Of Ideality In 19th Century Protestant Thought, Jeffrey W. Robbins
From Thinking To Religion: The Opening Of Ideality In 19th Century Protestant Thought, Jeffrey W. Robbins
Journal for Christian Theological Research
In this essay, I argue for a philosophical continuity and progression to Protestant religious thought in the Nineteenth Century. More specifically, I center on the work of Immanuel Kant, Friedrich Schleiermacher, and Sören Kierkegaard, all of whom are Protestant Christians concerned with maintaining the worth of religion in a culture grown skeptical. The essay argues that it is the great value of Kierkegaard as a religious thinker that he provides a way beyond the conditions and strictures placed on thought by those "defenders of faith' who came before him. Kierkegaard does this by enfranchising a kind of thinking that might …
Orthos Logos, Recta Ratio: Pope John Paul Ii, Nihilism, And Postmodern Philosophy, Michael Peters
Orthos Logos, Recta Ratio: Pope John Paul Ii, Nihilism, And Postmodern Philosophy, Michael Peters
Journal for Christian Theological Research
Pope John Paul II's encyclical letter, Fides et Ratio, delivered in Rome at Saint Peter's, on 14 September 1998, is the first encyclical to address the relationship between faith and reason, and other matters philosophical, for over a hundred years. Pope John Paul II suggests that, in the history of philosophy, postmodernism appears as a form of nihilism, resulting from the crisis of rationalism. He argues for a new dialogue between theology and philosophy to recover authentic wisdom and truth. This article reviews and discusses the argument of the letter, briefly sketching the Pope's argument concerning the relationship of the …
Nature Dis-Graced And Grace De-Natured: The Problematic Of The Augustinian Doctrine Of Grace For Contemporary Theology, D. Lyle Dabney
Nature Dis-Graced And Grace De-Natured: The Problematic Of The Augustinian Doctrine Of Grace For Contemporary Theology, D. Lyle Dabney
Journal for Christian Theological Research
Contemporary theologians, as one of their number has commented, have turned from a theology of the Word to a theology of the world. After a period during the first half of the twentieth century in which theologians concerned themselves primarily with questions of their discipline's identity and character, they have in recent years turned to address as a matter of first principle the physical, the social, and the political issues in the world about them. In the course of this effort to shift theological direction, a number of fundamental issues have been raised which have yet to be fully examined. …
Author's Response To James J. Buckley, Henry H. Knight Iii
Author's Response To James J. Buckley, Henry H. Knight Iii
Journal for Christian Theological Research
A response to James J. Buckley's review of A Future for Truth: Evangelical Theology in a Postmodern World.
Beyond Evangelical Theology's Scholasticism And Pietism? A Review Of A Future For Truth: Evangelical Theology In A Postmodern World, By Henry H. Knight Iii, James J. Buckley
Beyond Evangelical Theology's Scholasticism And Pietism? A Review Of A Future For Truth: Evangelical Theology In A Postmodern World, By Henry H. Knight Iii, James J. Buckley
Journal for Christian Theological Research
A review of A Future for Truth: Evangelical Theology in a Postmodern World by Henry H. Knight III.
Have We Need Of Invoking Postmodernity? Identity And Difference In Theological Discourse, Jeffrey Bloechl
Have We Need Of Invoking Postmodernity? Identity And Difference In Theological Discourse, Jeffrey Bloechl
Journal for Christian Theological Research
While the term "postmodernity" remains vague or equivocal, theologians increasingly concede that it is one which they can not avoid trying to understand and deal with. One definition of the term proceeds by way of sharp contrast with specific features of modernity, thus clearly distinguishing postmodernity from even late modernity. The key to this distinction seems to be a particular conception of "difference" which is worked out rigorously in Heidegger's, "The Principle of Identity." Proceeding from Heidegger's claim to think difference anterior to identity, postmodernity is then presented here as the source of considerable difficulty to a theology which would …
The Rebirth Of Luther's Two Kingdoms In Kant's Commonwealths, Mark Wilms
The Rebirth Of Luther's Two Kingdoms In Kant's Commonwealths, Mark Wilms
Journal for Christian Theological Research
To most people acquainted with Immanuel Kant and Martin Luther, their differences in philosophical and religious outlook prevent comparison on most levels. Nevertheless, it is in the idea of two realms of spiritual or moral renewal that they begin to speak similar language. More specifically, Luther's description of Christians living in two kingdoms, living the spiritual life of faith alongside their imperfections in daily life, is echoed in Kant's notion of the ethical and political commonwealths, where a society of people ruled by morality is put alongside the political realm where these same people must be ruled by law. Like …
The Logic Of Theodicy: A Comparative Analysis, David Basinger, Randall Basinger
The Logic Of Theodicy: A Comparative Analysis, David Basinger, Randall Basinger
Journal for Christian Theological Research
The purpose of this essay is to compare how three theistic perspectives -- theological determinism, freewill theism and process theism -- do (in fact, must) approach the reality of evil in this world and then reflect on whether any of these approaches (theodicies) can be judged superior to the others. We conclude that, while a person can justifiably maintain for herself that one of these responses to evil is superior, there exists at present no objective basis for claiming justifiably that any one of the theodicies (and thus theisms) is in fact more plausible than the others. However, even if …
The Relationship Between Incarnation And Atonement In The Theology Of Thomas F. Torrance, Gunther Pratz
The Relationship Between Incarnation And Atonement In The Theology Of Thomas F. Torrance, Gunther Pratz
Journal for Christian Theological Research
Thomas F. Torrance's understanding of the relationship between incarnation and atonement is deeply shaped by his understanding of the Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed and Greek patristic theology, particularly that of Athanasius. The soteriological emphasis of Nicene theology and the soteriological orientation of Athanasius in his whole approach to the doctrine of the Son and his cosubstantial relation to the Father are central points in Torrance's Christology. He gives a supreme place to the Nicene homoousion and interpreting from this foundation he sees atonement as taking place within the incarnate being of Jesus Christ. An examination of the modes of atoning redemption which …
In The Company Of Hauerwas, Max L. Stackhouse
In The Company Of Hauerwas, Max L. Stackhouse
Journal for Christian Theological Research
This critical response to Stanley Hauerwas' work, especially as found in his recent book, In Good Company, raises questions about the nature and character of Christian Ethics. For instance, it doubts that a tradition so closely linked with Israel as Christianity must be, can so easily dismiss principles of right and wrong (cf. the Torah). Furthermore, one must question whether we should be so confident of the human capacity to cultivate virtues by habituation to overcome evil, or so doubtful of the capacities for humans to carry on commensurable discourse about serious matters between contexts. Still, there are areas …