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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; …