Religious Thought, Theology and Philosophy of Religion Commons^™

Proper 12 • Deuteronomy 7:6-9 • July 27, 2014, Thomas Manteufel

Concordia Journal

God, our faithful God, keeps his word and covenant in redemption and forgiveness.

Back To The Beginning Creation Shapes The Entire Story, Charles Arand

Concordia Journal

So creation is more than a stage or scenery for God’s story. It is integral to the entire story. After all, the entire story is about God’s relationship to his creation, especially to those extraordinary creatures that he had formed from the ground to look after and cultivate his creation.

Finding Aid For Herald Of Truth Records, Mcgarvey Ice

Herald of Truth Documents

No abstract provided.

Divine Kingdom, Holy Order: The Political Writings Of Martin Luther By Jarre Carty, Editor, Theodore Hopkins

Concordia Journal

Only Carty’s introductory essay is necessary in order for the reader to understand Luther from Carty’s perspective, which enables the reader to read any selection of interest with a lessened chance of confusion.

The Bible Made Impossible: Why Biblicism Is Not A Truly Evangelical Reading Of Scrip By Christian Smith, John Bombaro

Concordia Journal

By making a compelling argument that christocentrism, not bibliocentrism, is the truly evangelical response to theological liberalism and cultural caricaturing, The Bible Made Impossible warrants mandatory reading by all thoughtful Christians and thorough discussion by Lutheran pastors, professors, and seminarians.

Lent 5 • Ezekiel 37:1–14 • April 6, 2014, Joel Okamoto

Concordia Journal

Psalm 118:22, “The stone the builders rejected has become the head of the corner.” Some who saw and heard Jesus firsthand did not believe but instead killed him.

Lent 4 • Isaiah 42:14–21 • March 30, 2014, Robert Kolb

Concordia Journal

Turn to the execution of his promise in Christ, the one who opens our ears to God’s communication, his torah, and who opens our eyes to his concern for us, both in his anguish over our sins and in his love that delivers us from evil.

Epiphany • Ephesians 3:1–12 • January 4, 2015, Joel Okamoto

Concordia Journal

Now, instead of the law separating Jews and Gentiles, God offered salvation apart from works of the law to both Jews and Gentiles.

The Scandal Of Having Something To Say: Ricoeur And The Possibility Of Postliberal Preach-Ing By Lance Pape, Dennis Matyas

Concordia Journal

Pape likens the cyclical nature of mimesis to be a spring, building on Ricoeur’s notion of mimesis gaining “altitude” with each cycle.

“These Are Written”: Toward A Cruciform Theology Of Scripture By Peter H. Nafzger, Greg Michael

Concordia Journal

Nafzger encourages the church to recognize the limitations of the doctrine of inspiration as the central guide to understanding Scriptures and to move towards an understanding of Scriptures that focuses on a Trinitarian economy of salvation and centers in the Christ event.

Proper 21 • Ezekiel 18:1–4, 25–32 • September 28, 2014, Kent Burreson

Concordia Journal

The preacher is encouraged to give attention to the rhetorical structure of the pericope that reconstructs a conversation between Yahweh and Israel through Ezekiel, although decidedly from God’s perspective.

Proper 14 • Job 38:4–18 • August 10, 2014, David Maxwell

Concordia Journal

In keeping with the flow of the book of Job, the preacher should replace the listener’s sense of indignation with a sense of wonder at God’s majesty and his grace.

Martin Luther’S Platzregen In Action The Changing Face Of Global Christianity, Douglas Rutt

Concordia Journal

The study of the momentous demographic shifts in Christianity that have taken place in the past two decades has become a growth industry of sorts.

God’S Word Produces Faith And Fruit Reflections From Luther’S Understanding Of The Sermon On The Mount, Robert Kolb

Concordia Journal

In his comments on the Sermon on the Mount in 1538 he made clear that the community’s light was to shine with good works, which meant specifically “the exercise, expression, and confession of the teaching of Christ and faith and suffering for its sake.”

Evaluating The Authenticity Of The Gospels, James O'Brien

Spring 2015, Faith and Science

Today, moderns, as well as biblical scholars, have a hard time accepting the possibility that the Gospels are authentic. The idea that a document composed two thousand years ago could be trusted is dismissed as absurd. However, this assumes that there is no evidence suggesting the contrary. Richard Bauckham, in his book, Jesus and the Eyewitnesses, rejects this “gratuitous doubt” and provides a novel contribution to our knowledge of the historical Jesus. This book has awakened scholars to the possibility that the skepticism of form criticism is not only uncritical but also unwarranted. Contra to popular opinion in the …

Deification, Friendship, And Self-Knowledge, Matthew Hale

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

How does human friendship contribute to the process of deification? In this thesis, I will argue that a kind of “spiritual friendship” contributes to the process of deification by placing the human agent in a better position for acquiring self-knowledge, and avoiding false beliefs or misunderstandings about the self. This acquisition of self-knowledge is an important part of the deification process, which involves not just a moral and ontological transformation, but an epistemological one as well.

Answering Your Question: Creeds And Confessions, Wayne A. Kobes

Faculty Work Comprehensive List

"The church could well benefit from a clear, contemporary statement of the essentials of the Christian faith in language that speaks to 21st century people."

Posting about the value of new creeds and confessions in the church from In All Things - an online hub committed to the claim that the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ has implications for the entire world.

http://inallthings.org/answering-your-question-creeds-and-confessions/

One Big Thing: Suffering As The Path To New Life In Crime And Punishment, Kelly M. Kramer

Montview Journal of Research & Scholarship

After spending a whole semester reading and thinking about Dostoevsky, the main thing that has struck me about him is his treatment of the theme of suffering. Despite, and even through, his extremely complicated characters and events, he nevertheless focuses his novels, particularly Crime and Punishment, on presenting a nuanced yet unified picture of suffering. After a brief analysis of several of the relevant characters and plot points, his thoughts on what suffering does to and for the individual will be presented. In contrast to our culture’s almost idolization of suffering as an experience which gives one instant respect, …

A Musical Homiletic: Drawing On The Sonic Dimensions Of The Word And Spirit, Thomas H. Troeger

Yale Journal of Music & Religion

The article begins by addressing two primary areas of concern: 1. Can music communicate meaning, and if so, how? 2. Can theological realities be expressed through music and other artistic forms whose primary medium is not language? The author then lays out a schema featuring four different aspects of developing a musical homiletic, starting with the simplest and moving to the most complex. (1) Preachers can speak in a way that captures the musicality of human conversation: its sonically engaging use of inflection, volume, pace, and timbre. (2) Preachers can interpret the theological and poetic meaning of the texts that …

Singing The Sermon: Where Musicology Meets Homiletics, Emmett G. Price Iii

Yale Journal of Music & Religion

From the beginning of the Christian Church, singing and preaching have served as major tools of communication. In fact, they remain the most utilized methods of articulating and explicating personal and communal theologies across the diverse and expansive expressions of Christianity.

From the life, ministry, and legacy of Jesus Christ through the teachings of the Apostle Paul, the roles and functions of singing and preaching are well known but not well studied as a unit. From the foundational writings of the early Church Fathers through the various theses of the reformers, the acts of singing and preaching have been studied …

Preaching And The Power Of Music: A Dialogue Between The Pulpit And Choir Loft In 1689, Markus Rathey

Yale Journal of Music & Religion

During the ecclesiastical year 1689-90 the Lutheran superintendent in Leipzig, Johann Benedict Carpzov, and his cantor, the composer Johann Schelle, embarked on a collaboration of unusual scale. In the previous year, Carpzov had preached a cycle of sermons based on well-known hymns from the Lutheran tradition. In 1689-90 Carpzov gave a short summary of the earlier hymn sermons, while Schelle composed for each Sunday a cantata based on the very same hymn. The result is a unique collaboration between preacher and musician, pulpit and choir loft. Only a few of Schelle’s compositions have survived; however, the extant cantatas together with …

The Reformation Of Preaching: Transformations Of Worship Soundscapes In Early Modern Germany And Switzerland, Barbara Pitkin

Yale Journal of Music & Religion

The evangelical sermon was the Protestant Reformation’s central ritual event and the catalyst for a host of other changes, ranging from the abolition of the Mass to acts of violent iconoclasm. In promoting the sermon, reformers in Germany and Switzerland were in continuity with trends in medieval preaching, but at the same time the new centrality given to the preached word fundamentally altered the worship experience, particularly the aural experience. The present investigation traces the contours of the preaching landscape in the late Middle Ages and the Renaissance, outlines the innovations in sermonizing in Reformation Switzerland and Germany, and, by …

Does Artwork Have To Be Beautiful?, Sister Mary Benedicta Maier Rsm

Aristos

Beauty’s relation to art work is a contentious problem for the philosophy of art. The problem is not new to the history of philosophy. Hume and Kant attempted to tackle the question in the modern era. Contemporary philosophers have broadened the definition of art to include works that stretch modern philosophers’ conceptions. With philosophers shifting their definition from the object to the subject, they have effectively marginalized beauty in place of another good or valued concept.

Considering the status quo, this paper argues that beauty is a necessary condition for art work. It argues that philosophers have a problem …

The Real Presence Of Christ In The Eucharist, Samuel French

Aristos

The dogmatic constitution Lumen Gentium describes the Eucharist as “the source and summit of the Christian life.” It is not hard to imagine then, that this subject of principal importance is still being debated two millennia after its institution. Even when it was taught from the lips of Jesus himself, there were many disciples who grumbled saying: “This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?” (Jn 6:60) Unfortunately, this is still the case today. There are some among the faithful who no longer believe in the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist, and others who simply misunderstand …

Epicureanism: The Pursuit Of Eudemonia, Annetta Kassis

Aristos

Since ancient times, the study of eudemonia has been paramount in the discipline of philosophy. Various schools of thought have developed ideas and theories that discuss the nature of this happiness and methods of attaining it.

A famous school of thought, which presents such theories, is that of Epicureanism; founded by Epicurus. Epicureanism asserts a strong focus on the necessity of ‘ataraxia’ and the fulfillment of necessary pleasures for the acquisition of eudemonia. The human condition is explored to understand the nature of happiness and discover methods of achieving this happiness, which according to Epicureanism, heavily involves ones beliefs …

Heraclitus On The Logos: Unity In Opposition, Nathan Hall

Aristos

The Logos, to Heraclitus, is a universal Law of becoming, conceived from the perpetual motion of opposition within all things. This relationship of opposites finds its locus in Fire, as, to Heraclitus, all things are modifications of Fire.[1]

Understanding Heraclitus’s interpretation of the Logos requires the analysis of obscure fragments (denoted by fr.) which riddle and perplex. However, these fragments are the means by which Heraclitus’s interpretation of the Logos is to be found.

This paper will analyse four fragments, aiming to demonstrate Heraclitus’s interpretation of the Logos, with particular focus on the nature of unity in opposition. Appropriately, …

Aristotle's Illicit Quantifier Shift: Is He Guilty Or Innocent, Jack Green

Aristos

In accusing Aristotle of committing an illicit quantifier shift, some scholars point to I.i.1094a1-3 of the Nicomachean Ethics and others point to I.ii.1094a18-22. The author of this paper analyses the logical translations of both passages in order to determine the success of the cases for and against Aristotle.

Wading through the various translations found in the secondary literature and also analysing the primary text, the author of this paper argues that the correct logical translation of both passages frees Aristotle from the accusation of an illicit quantifier shift. The first passage does not present an argument, but a description of …

Aristotle's Κινησις-Ενεργεια Distinction And The Ends Of Human Action, Joseph Murphy

Aristos

A key passage in the development of Aristotle’s argument in book Θ of the Metaphysics is the distinction between the concepts of κίνησις and ἐνέργεια (1048^b18-35).

The distinction is made initially on the basis of particular grammatical features of verbs denoting human actions/states: some verbs in the present tense necessarily imply the contemporaneous achievement of the same verb in the Greek perfect tense (e.g. If x is seeing y, then it is the case that, at the same time, x is in a state of having seen y), whereas other verbs in the present tense are …

Logic Versus Science, Graeme Wertheimer

Aristos

To comprehend St Thomas Aquinas’ statement that, “A student should address themselves to logic before the other sciences, because it deals with their common procedure”[1] this essay argues that it is necessary to ask the question of whether one’s world view comes before science or whether science forms one’s world view.

A world view that comes before science first requires understanding and logic to make a hypothesis which is to be confirmed through scientific experiment. If science forms one’s world view, however, conversely, scientific experiments create our logical thoughts and world view.

This essay will analyse St Thomas Aquinas’ …

What Is Grace And What Grace Is Given In The Sacraments?, Rosamaria Agostino

Aristos

The Catholic understanding of the word grace is extremely rich and multifaceted. A more focused exploration of grace from its biblical roots to its use in the sacraments provides one with a profoundly humble appreciation of how deeply grace is interwoven into the faith and how undeserving yet privileged one is to be able to receive it. This understanding allows grace to manifest itself more clearly in the everyday life of the believer and continue to deepen their faith. The sacraments play an important role in this as they are where grace is received, restored, nourished and maintained.