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Articles 1 - 30 of 60
Full-Text Articles in Religious Thought, Theology and Philosophy of Religion
Human Freedom And The Invisible Church From The Viewpoint Of Bavinck's Pneumatology, Dong-Yaul Tae
Human Freedom And The Invisible Church From The Viewpoint Of Bavinck's Pneumatology, Dong-Yaul Tae
CTS PhD Doctoral Dissertations
Although Reformed pneumatology is generally recognized by scholars of Calvin and Reformed confessions to be relatively well developed compared to the various pneumatologies of the Western theological tradition, it faces two important challenges. First, Reformed pneumatology is directly linked to the critique that Reformed soteriology’s accentuation of predestination and effectual grace leads to inevitable fatalism that ignores human freedom. This is because the ministry of the Holy Spirit is crucial in the Reformed understanding of the order of salvation beginning with regeneration and ending with glorification. Second, because the ministry of the Holy Spirit is a key to understanding Reformed …
The Metaphysics Of The Eudaimonological Argument., James H. Joiner
The Metaphysics Of The Eudaimonological Argument., James H. Joiner
CTS PhD Doctoral Dissertations
This work gives attention to a trajectory that attempts to chart a course from the human quest for happiness and ultimately arrives at a transcendent, universal terminus or summum bonum as the natural end of this quest. This trajectory of ascent has given rise to a specific kind of project in natural theology; namely, the Eudaimonological Argument. Herein I set out to defend the analysis and development of the thought of Thomas Aquinas on this ascent by the 20th century Neoscholastic, Réginald Garrigou-Lagrange (1877–1964). The central thesis contends that Garrigou’s Eudaimonological Argument represents a viable project in natural theology within …
Law And Religion In Alliance: Guido De Bres And The Restriction Of Religious Liberty, Antoine Theron
Law And Religion In Alliance: Guido De Bres And The Restriction Of Religious Liberty, Antoine Theron
CTS PhD Doctoral Dissertations
This study investigates why the Dutch reformer Guido De Bres believed that the law should restrict religious liberty. In other words, why did De Bres believe that political rulers should not tolerate religious liberty? The answer developed in this dissertation is that De Bres’s restrictive view of religious liberty was largely the result of his vision of an alliance between law and religion. De Bres’s vision of an alliance between law and religion was his theological response to the acute challenge of his concrete historical (political, social) context. De Bres’s vision offered a solution to the desperate plight of the …
Unearned Suffering Is Redemptive: The Roots And Implications Of Martin Luther King, Jr.’S Redemptive Suffering Theodicy, Mika Edmondson
Unearned Suffering Is Redemptive: The Roots And Implications Of Martin Luther King, Jr.’S Redemptive Suffering Theodicy, Mika Edmondson
CTS PhD Doctoral Dissertations
This dissertation analyzes the roots and implications of Martin Luther King Jr.'s redemptive suffering theodicy, reconsidering its continued relevance to contemporary discussions about theodicy among black theologians and within the black church. Through his home and church influences, King inherited a nearly 250-year-old black redemptive suffering tradition that traces back to early Negro spirituals and abolitionist works. King carefully developed these traditional theodical themes through critical engagement with Protestant liberal sources before applying his redemptive suffering formula during the Civil Rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s. With a view towards the cross and the omnipotent personal God's good purposes …
Spirit Determinism In The Christian Anthropology Of Yorù̀Bá Indigenous Churches, Bernard T. Ayọ̀Ọlá
Spirit Determinism In The Christian Anthropology Of Yorù̀Bá Indigenous Churches, Bernard T. Ayọ̀Ọlá
CTS PhD Doctoral Dissertations
There are people who think everything in life is an accident. Then, there are the Yorùbá of Southwestern Nigeria who believe that life outcomes are prearranged by the Supreme Being but may also be altered, for better or for worse, by the spirit beings in the universe. Yorùbá Christians, like their non-Christian kin, believe that many experiences in life are manifestations of the activities of the superhuman spirit beings in the community. While the good spirits (such as ancestors and angels) ordinarily have positive impacts on society, the evil spirits (such as witches, wizards, and demons) often work in collaboration …
Authority And Meaning In A Brave New World: Postconservative Evangelical Theological Method After The Cultural-Linguistic Turn, Jeffrey Halsted
Authority And Meaning In A Brave New World: Postconservative Evangelical Theological Method After The Cultural-Linguistic Turn, Jeffrey Halsted
CTS PhD Doctoral Dissertations
This dissertation fills a gap in the current scholarship by describing Stanley Grenz’s and Kevin Vanhoozer’s postconservative evangelical understandings of authority, meaning, and truth as they are related to Scripture and the community of faith. Acknowledging the postliberal influence of George Lindbeck, scholarship is further needed to describe whether theological authority ultimately rests in Scripture or the community of faith. Furthermore, scholarship needs to address the manner in which we seek, participate in, or determine meaning and truth within postconservative evangelical theological method. This dissertation provides this scholarship for Grenz’s and Vanhoozer’s thought while also providing a more extensive description …
Paul Helm's "Compatibilist" View Of Divine Providence In Light Of The Frankfurtian Debate., Simon Sang-Kyun Ko
Paul Helm's "Compatibilist" View Of Divine Providence In Light Of The Frankfurtian Debate., Simon Sang-Kyun Ko
CTS PhD Doctoral Dissertations
It is easy to find in prominent scholarly opinion today that to maintain its comprehensive divine determinism the Reformed Christian tradition must endorse metaphysical compatibilism to affirm some semblance of creaturely freedom. Arguably, one of the two Reformed scholars who have promulgated this idea the most is Paul Helm. Interestingly, while Helm’s “no-risk” view of divine providence started off with pretty straightforward classical compatibilism, it has since morphed into what is akin to source incompatibilism. At the heart of this transformation is Helm’s increasing interest in the feasibility of “irreducible agency, despite the fixity of the future” (or to use …
Sibrandus Lubbertus (1555-1625) And Reformed Polemics On Authority In The Church., Dave Holmlund
Sibrandus Lubbertus (1555-1625) And Reformed Polemics On Authority In The Church., Dave Holmlund
CTS PhD Doctoral Dissertations
Sibrandus Lubbertus (1555-1625) was a German born Reformed theologian who spent most of his life teaching at the University of Franeker in Friesland, a northern region of the Netherlands. Among his publications, the most significant in size and importance were his disputational works, which used a polemical form to address controversial issues of the post-Reformation period in which he gave a robust defense of the Reformed position over and against the most influential voices of his day, whether they themselves were a more heterodox expression of Protestant theology or simply Roman Catholic. This dissertation examines the major treatises of Lubbertus, …
Salvation By Faith: Faith, Covenant, And The Order Of Salvation In Thomas Goodwin (1600-1680)., Hyo-Nam Kim
Salvation By Faith: Faith, Covenant, And The Order Of Salvation In Thomas Goodwin (1600-1680)., Hyo-Nam Kim
CTS PhD Doctoral Dissertations
The doctrines of covenant, faith, and the order of salvation are crucial components of early modern Reformed soteriology. In seventeenth-century England, these three major doctrines of Reformed theology, which had been taken over undeveloped from the Reformers, took a mature shape, but aroused controversies among diverse Protestant groups. Modern historical scholarship on Reformed orthodoxy has produced little significant research that deals with these doctrines synthetically. The object of this dissertation is to explore the broader role of faith in relation to these two significant doctrines for salvation in the early modern Reformed theology, with specific reference to the thought of …
Driven By God: Active Justification And Definitive Sanctification In The Soteriology Of Bavinck, Comrie, Witsius, And Kuyper., Jae-Eun Park
Driven By God: Active Justification And Definitive Sanctification In The Soteriology Of Bavinck, Comrie, Witsius, And Kuyper., Jae-Eun Park
CTS PhD Doctoral Dissertations
For more than two millennia believers have struggled with the antinomy of God’s absolute sovereignty over and man’s ultimate responsibility in justification and sanctification. For at least the past several hundred years theologians have used some version of the terms “active justification” and “definitive sanctification” in an attempt to illuminate this mystery. However, in the past decade scho lars have begun to criticize these concepts, saying that they are unsupported in Scripture, lead to theological confusion, and are of no practical benefit to believers. Through the work of theologians from the broader Dutch Reformed tradition, especially Herman Bavinck (1854-1921), Alexander …
Theologia Viatorum: Institutional Continuity And The Reception Of A Theological Framework From Franciscus Junius's De Theologia Vera To Bernhardinus De Moor's Commentarius Perpetuus, Todd M. Rester
CTS PhD Doctoral Dissertations
Some scholars have identified a certain amount of vagueness in continuity theses of scholarship regarding medieval, Reformation, and post-Reformation thought. A criterion of continuity is necessary in order to prosecute a continuity thesis. One way to root intellectual history within a particular social context over time is to examine a conceptual framework as it develops, changes, and even declines within an academic institution like an early modern university. Institutional continuity is a methodological approach that seeks to clarify the relationship between continuity, influence, confessionalization and deconfessionalization diachronically within an institutional context of an early modern university. The test case for …
Early Stuart Polemical Hermeneutics: Andrew Willet's 1611 Romans Hexapla., Darren M. Pollock
Early Stuart Polemical Hermeneutics: Andrew Willet's 1611 Romans Hexapla., Darren M. Pollock
CTS PhD Doctoral Dissertations
Andrew Willet, a Cambridge-educated minister, began his writing career as a popular anti-Catholic polemicist (best known for the influential Synopsis Papismi) during Elizabeth I’s reign. Early in the seventeenth century he shifted genres, writing a series of biblical commentaries using a distinctive six-fold method and earning a reputation as one of the country’s best textual scholars. Willet suggested that the change to exegesis was a move from religious controversy to more irenic waters, and many scholars have taken him at his word, writing of his abandonment of polemics. An analysis of his 1611 hexapla commentary on Romans, however, reveals a …
Inscrutable Providence: The Doctrine Of Divine Concurrence And The Theology Of Charles Hodge., Nathan J. Archer
Inscrutable Providence: The Doctrine Of Divine Concurrence And The Theology Of Charles Hodge., Nathan J. Archer
CTS PhD Doctoral Dissertations
This dissertation will discuss the doctrine of concurrence within the larger doctrine of providence. Although concurrence was once a key component of the doctrine of providence, it was difficult to maintain in a post-enlightenment theological and philosophical context, even for a Reformed thinker such as Charles Hodge. Although Hodge labored to explain the older formulation of this doctrine—especially as articulated by Francis Turretin—Hodge found concurrence problematic and did not commend its use. In addition to shifting philosophical sensibilities, concerns regarding pantheism were a significant reason why some nineteenth-century American Calvinists distanced themselves from concurrence. Nonetheless, Hodge’s theology stands largely in …
Calvin's Eschatology In Its Historical And Exegetical Context., Takashi Yoshida
Calvin's Eschatology In Its Historical And Exegetical Context., Takashi Yoshida
CTS PhD Doctoral Dissertations
This study reveals both the variety and complexity of Calvin’s eschatology by way of a historical and contextual approach. Against an ahistorical and dogmatic approach to Calvin, it discusses the necessity of locating and examining his eschatology in several contexts: theological and exegetical traditions, both his predecessors and contemporaries; variety of genre of his own works, from catechism to polemical treatise and biblical commentaries; and their chronological developments. Calvin’s eschatology is basically traditional and owes much to the theological and spiritual heritage in the past. It is definitely, among others, in the Augustinian tradition though strongly characterized by his biblical …
The End Of The Natural Law: Dietrich Bonhoeffer's Christological Ethics., Jordan J. Ballor
The End Of The Natural Law: Dietrich Bonhoeffer's Christological Ethics., Jordan J. Ballor
CTS PhD Doctoral Dissertations
Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945) has often been understood as articulating an occasionalistic, divine-command theory of ethics. In this regard, he is often seen as aligned with Karl Barth (1886-1968). This study challenges this view by demonstrating that Bonhoeffer’s own ethical project was aimed at resuscitating and reviving a distinctively Protestant form of natural-law thinking. Bonhoeffer’s approach was characterized by an emphasis on the origin, formation, and goal of natural mandates in, by, and toward Jesus Christ. Bonhoeffer’s early teaching concerning orders of preservation and laws of life was developed into a mature doctrine of divine mandates in his Ethics, which are …
Revelation As Primal Sensing: A Theological Investigation Into The Interaction Between Christian Faith And African Religious Traditions., Philip M. Wandawa
Revelation As Primal Sensing: A Theological Investigation Into The Interaction Between Christian Faith And African Religious Traditions., Philip M. Wandawa
CTS PhD Doctoral Dissertations
This dissertation fills a gap in African Christian thought regarding the relationship between Christian faith and African traditions. The gap is that—notwithstanding the light shed on the relationship by the debate within the threefold typology (exclusivism, inclusivism, pluralism)—there is ambivalence in African Christian thought regarding the value of African religious traditions for Christian faith. This ambivalence is sometimes expressed in complaints by theologians against what appears to be either “syncretism,” “divided loyalties,” “religious schizophrenia,” or “double-mindedness” in African Christian religious experience and expression. In the view of this dissertation, the ambivalence in African Christian thought stems from the inability of …
The Pactum Salutis In The Theologies Of Witsius, Owen, Dickson, Goodwin, And Cocceius., Byunghoon Woo
The Pactum Salutis In The Theologies Of Witsius, Owen, Dickson, Goodwin, And Cocceius., Byunghoon Woo
CTS PhD Doctoral Dissertations
The doctrine of the pactum salutis (covenant of redemption) offers the idea of a covenant between the very persons of the Trinity for the redemption of humanity. The doctrine received most of its attention in seventeenth-century Reformed theology, but has been criticized and almost totally forgotten in dogmatics since the eighteenth century. Most of recent Reformed dogmatics, with very few exceptions, tend to ignore the doctrine or disparage it from biblical, trinitarian, christological, pneumatological, and soteriological perspectives—namely, the doctrine lacks scriptural basis; it is tritheistic; it leads to subordination of the Son; it omits the role of the Holy Spirit; …
"A Knot Worth Unloosing": The Interpretation Of The New Heavens And Earth In Seventeenth-Century England, John H. Duff
"A Knot Worth Unloosing": The Interpretation Of The New Heavens And Earth In Seventeenth-Century England, John H. Duff
CTS PhD Doctoral Dissertations
Scholars interested in the history of Christian eschatological thought have focused primarily on the theme of heaven or on the various interpretations of the thousand years mentioned in Revelation 20:1-6. Virtually no attention has been given to past interpretations of the biblical phrase the new heavens and earth. This dissertation uncovers the interpretations of this phrase that were extant in seventeenth-century England. These interpretations fall into two basic camps—those that understood the phrase metaphorically and those that understood the phrase literally. One group of English divines believed the new heavens and earth was a phrase referring to the new age …
Symphonia Catholica: The Merger Of Patristic And Contemporary Sources In The Theological Method Of Amandus Polanus (1561-1610)., Byung Soo Han
Symphonia Catholica: The Merger Of Patristic And Contemporary Sources In The Theological Method Of Amandus Polanus (1561-1610)., Byung Soo Han
CTS PhD Doctoral Dissertations
This dissertation intends to answer, by investigating the merger of patristic and contemporary sources in the theological method of Amandus Polanus, a significant question concerning the way in which the intellectual and methodological eclecticism of the Reformed was able to establish a coherent “system” of thought capable of defense as not only confessional but also orthodox in its theology and broadly catholic, drawing both on the thought of the Reformers and on the resources of the great tradition of Christian thought that extended back to the church fathers. From a methodological perspective, Polanus’s development from the Ramistically-organized doctrinal framework of …
The Son Of God Beyond The Flesh: A Historical And Theological Study Of The Extra Calvinisticum., Andrew M. Mcginnis
The Son Of God Beyond The Flesh: A Historical And Theological Study Of The Extra Calvinisticum., Andrew M. Mcginnis
CTS PhD Doctoral Dissertations
This dissertation examines the doctrine that the incarnate Son of God was not limited to fleshly, human existence but continued to exist etiam extra carnem (“even beyond the flesh”), a doctrine that has come to be known as the extra Calvinisticum. The study argues that the doctrine had a significant role in the thought of three important theologians of the patristic, medieval, and Reformation eras—namely, Cyril of Alexandria (d. 444), Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274), and Zacharias Ursinus (1534–1583)—and explains how each of these theologians employed the doctrine. In general, however, the extra dropped from the theological scene by the end of …
Antoine De Chandieu (1534-1591): One Of The Fathers Of The Reformed Scholasticism?, Theodore Gerard Van Raalte
Antoine De Chandieu (1534-1591): One Of The Fathers Of The Reformed Scholasticism?, Theodore Gerard Van Raalte
CTS PhD Doctoral Dissertations
The present work is the first dissertation to study any of Antoine de Chandieu’s prodigious output of scholastic theological works. Chandieu was a French Reformed pastor and theologian who lived from 1534 to 1591. He had a fascinating life as a French nobleman with extensive land holdings in France who was Protestant in the time of the Wars of Religion. His role in the church polity of the French Reformed Churches was crucial in the period 1559-1572. After this he resided in Lausanne and Geneva and in time taught theology at their academies, with a break from 1585-1588 while he …
Covenant Of Redemption In The Theology Of Jonathan Edwards: The Nexus Between The Immanent And The Economic Trinity, Reita Yazawa
Covenant Of Redemption In The Theology Of Jonathan Edwards: The Nexus Between The Immanent And The Economic Trinity, Reita Yazawa
CTS PhD Doctoral Dissertations
Contemporary trinitarian theologies tend to hold that the doctrine of the Trinity, especially the immanent Trinity, became impractical, speculative, and abstruse over the years in the history of Christian theology. In response, the recent theologies of the Trinity explore various practical implications of the doctrine of the Trinity with emphasis on God’s economic work of redemption in history. However, the Reformed idea of the covenant of redemption helps us to reconsider whether the doctrine of the Trinity, even of the immanent Trinity, has been really so impractical. In this study, I argue that the Reformed idea of the covenant of …
Re-Visioning Reason, Revelation, And Rejection In John Locke's An Essay Concerning Human Understanding And John Toland's Christianity Not Mysterious., Jonathan S. Marko
Re-Visioning Reason, Revelation, And Rejection In John Locke's An Essay Concerning Human Understanding And John Toland's Christianity Not Mysterious., Jonathan S. Marko
CTS PhD Doctoral Dissertations
Histories of philosophy that cover the rise of natural religion in England will inevitably move from John Locke to John Toland. The typical account portrays Locke as sincerely Christian and trying to balance the demands of faith and reason. His rationalistic epistemology in An Essay Concerning Human Understanding (Essay) even defends doctrines that are “above reason.” Toland is portrayed as a disciple of Locke whose modified Lockean epistemology in Christianity Not Mysterious (CNM) results in a subordination of revelation to reason and a dismissal of doctrines that are above reason. More detailed treatments note that CNM is the catalyst of …
The Antitheses (Matthew 5:21-48) In The Sermon On The Mount: Moral Precepts Revealed In Scripture And Binding On All People, Amos Winarto Oei
The Antitheses (Matthew 5:21-48) In The Sermon On The Mount: Moral Precepts Revealed In Scripture And Binding On All People, Amos Winarto Oei
CTS PhD Doctoral Dissertations
While many may agree that the Sermon on the Mount is the epitome of Jesus' ethics, many also recognize that the Sermon is often a riddle. The vastness and variety of literature demonstrates that the interpretation of the Sermon is subject to many disagreements. At the heart of the Sermon of the Mount, the antitheses (Matthew 5:21-48) become one source of polemics in the study of the Sermon. The purpose of this dissertation is to contribute to the scholarship of the Sermon on the Mount by addressing two problems in the study of the antitheses. The first concerns the nature …
In Defense Of Leibniz's Theodicy, Nathan A. Jacobs
In Defense Of Leibniz's Theodicy, Nathan A. Jacobs
CTS PhD Doctoral Dissertations
G. W. Leibniz professes a commitment to historical Christian theism, but the depth and orthodoxy of his commitment has been questioned throughout the past three centuries. In this project I defend both the cogency and the orthodoxy of Leibniz’s philosophical theology and, by extension, its application to the Christian task of theodicy. At the heart of this defense is the central claim of this project, namely, that Leibniz’s philosophical theology represents a traditional brand of Augustinianism. In short, I argue that Leibniz’s theodicy is not his own, but is the tacit claim of a longstanding theological tradition made explicit and …
Journeying To The God Who Is Here: John Baillie's Theology Of Revelation In The Context Of His Life And Thought, Jessica Edwards Maddox
Journeying To The God Who Is Here: John Baillie's Theology Of Revelation In The Context Of His Life And Thought, Jessica Edwards Maddox
CTS PhD Doctoral Dissertations
Scottish Presbyterian theologian John Baillie (1886-1960) was a significant theologian and scholar who thoughtfully took up throughout his career the questions of how and why we know God. This dissertation shows that Baillie’s unique contribution to the theology of revelation in the idea of the mediated immediacy of God’s presence plays a formative role in the rest of his theology and is valuable for a Reformed theological engagement of twenty-first century theology. Throughout his career Baillie made several offerings relevant to this area of study, most notably Our Knowledge of God (1939), which has been considered Baillie’s most original work. …
Claude Pajon (1626-1685) And The Academy Of Saumur., Albert J. Gootjes
Claude Pajon (1626-1685) And The Academy Of Saumur., Albert J. Gootjes
CTS PhD Doctoral Dissertations
This thesis examines the life, writings and polemics of Claude Pajon (1626-1685) throughout the first so-called Pajonist controversy (1665-1667). Previous scholarship situated him in the context of a development it saw within the theology originating from the Academy of Saumur and passing from John Cameron (ca. 1579-1625), through Moïse Amyraut (1596- 1664), and then to Pajon. This study argues that this trajectory needs revision. Pajon developed a theory of grace which denied the necessity of an immediate, internal work of the Holy Spirit on either intellect or will, preceding the mediate work through the Word and other means. To characterize …
Called Into Communion: A Paradigm Shift In Holiness Theology, B. Susan Carole
Called Into Communion: A Paradigm Shift In Holiness Theology, B. Susan Carole
CTS PhD Doctoral Dissertations
This dissertation argues that current problems in Nazarene holiness theology can be traced to a person-centered theological approach, which was introduced into theological reflection and practice during the Nineteenth Century Holiness Movement. Subjectivism has resulted in articulations of holiness doctrine that over-value the human role in religious experience and obscure the primacy of grace. These problems can be overcome by an articulation of holiness doctrine from the standpoint of its transcendent goalfullness in divine-human communion. Fullness of communion is divine-human fellowship characterized by the full actualization of divine Lordship and wholehearted human devotion, through the fullness of the Holy Spirit. …
Johannes Piscator (1526-1625) And The Consequent Development Of The Doctrine Of The Imputation Of Christ's Active Obedience, Heber Carlos De Campos Júnior
Johannes Piscator (1526-1625) And The Consequent Development Of The Doctrine Of The Imputation Of Christ's Active Obedience, Heber Carlos De Campos Júnior
CTS PhD Doctoral Dissertations
Though the forensic understanding of imputation of Christ's righteousness was consistently asserted by the Reformers, the discussion around what constituted this imputed righteousness was a Post Reformation debate. However, secondary literature is often unaware of the development of such doctrine when they assert that early Reformed figures such as John Calvin, Zacharias Ursinus and Caspar Olevianus were either in favor or opposed to the doctrine of the imputation of Christ's active obedience. These labels are preferable if attributed to those who responded to Johannes Piscator's disagreement with Theodore Beza's theology of imputation of righteousness, this being the debate which sparked …
The Mythos Of Sin: C. S. Lewis, The Genesis Fall, And The Modern Mood, Jeremy G. Grinnell
The Mythos Of Sin: C. S. Lewis, The Genesis Fall, And The Modern Mood, Jeremy G. Grinnell
CTS PhD Doctoral Dissertations
This dissertation wrestles with the question how to profitably and theologically handle the Fall narrative of Genesis 3 once it has been classified as “myth,” as was the conclusion of the Formgeschichte school. The dissertation begins by establishing the theological conversation of the mid-twentieth century, which marks a zenith in the discussion. Beginning with a survey of the traditional interpretation of the narrative as historical account, which dominated pre-Enlightenment churchly thought, the survey then summarizes the change of tenor that Enlightenment and higher critical voices brought to the question. The survey concludes with consideration of Reinhold Niebuhr, Karl Barth, and …