scholarly journals Randomness and Providence in Christian Thought

2021 ◽  
pp. 171-197
Author(s):  
Karen R. Zwier
Keyword(s):  
Divine Providence ◽  
Christian Belief ◽  
Church Fathers ◽  
History Of ◽  
Way Of Thinking ◽  
Christian Thought ◽  
The Church

AbstractThe problem of randomness and providence is not new. Rather, there is a long history of sophisticated thought in response to this problem, which can be called upon to address the problem in its modern scientific variant. After an overview of Christian belief, I consider the concept of divine providence, concentrating on relevant pieces of Christian scripture and passages from the Church Fathers. Next, I cover, in historical fashion, how Christians have grappled with the question of randomness in relation to God’s providence. Finally, I propose my own way of thinking about randomness and providence.

scholarly journals Our Common Breath: ‘Conspiration’ from the Stoics to the Church Fathers

2021 ◽  
pp. 55-68
Author(s):  
Phillip Sidney Horky
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Second Century ◽  
Early Church ◽  
Third Century ◽  
Church Fathers ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
The Third ◽  
History Of ◽  
Christian Thought ◽  
The Church

AbstractThis essay tracks a brief history of the concept of ‘co-breathing’ or ‘conspiration’ (συμπνοία), from its initial conception in Stoic cosmology in the third century BCE to its appropriation in Christian thought at the end of the second century CE. This study focuses on two related strands: first, how the term gets associated anachronistically with two paradigmatic philosopher-physicians, Hippocrates and Pythagoras, by intellectuals in the Early Roman Empire; and second, how the same term provides the early Church Fathers with a means to synthesize and explain discrete notions of ‘breath’ (πνεῦμα) through a repurposing of the pagan concept. Sources discussed include figures associated with Stoic, Pythagorean, and early Christian cosmologies.

Penerimaan Gereja Orthodox Tewahedo Terhadap 81 Kitab

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 32-42
Author(s):  
Oktavia Kristika Sari
Keyword(s):  
Content Analysis ◽  
Orthodox Church ◽  
Church Fathers ◽  
Social Culture ◽  
God's Word ◽  
History Of ◽  
Worth Reading ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Church ◽  
Church Tradition

When the Church recognizes the quantity of books as part of God's Word, it uses various standards for book collection. The Tewahedo Orthodox Church, which has 81 books, is one of the churches that got so many. The question of why this Church accepts so many books in its canon and how this Church interprets these books adds to the intricacy of the problem of the number of books in the Tewahedo Orthodox Church tradition. This research employs a content analysis to conduct a literature review. This research demonstrates the Tewahedo Orthodox Church's devotion to the works in its canon. Both in terms of apostles' and Church Fathers' traditions, the lengthy history of Social Culture, Councils and Synods, and the impact of ancient literature in Ethiopia.Although it is well known that writings outside the Hebrew protocanon are employed for ceremonial theology and people's education rather than construction, the Orthodox Tewahedo also believes these works to be vital as books worth reading and historical bridges. Abstrak indonesia  Standar pengumpulan kitab yang digunakan oleh Gereja ketika menerima jumlah kitab-kitab sebagai bagian dari Alkitab yang dipegang menggunakan standar yang berbeda-beda. Salah satu gereja yang menerima begitu banyak kitab adalah Gereja Tewahedo Orthodox yang memiliki 81 kitab. Kompleksnya masalah jumlah kitab di dalam tradisi Gereja Tewahedo Orthodox ini, menjadi pertanyaan apa yang menyebabkan Gereja ini menerima begitu banyak kitab dalam kanonnya dan bagaimana Gereja ini memandang kitab-kitab tersebut. Penelitian ini menggunakan Kajian Kepustakaan berupa kajian isi. Dalam penelitian ini menunjukkan kompleksitas penerimaan Gereja Tewahedo Orthodox terhadap kitab-kitab dalam kanonnya. Baik karena pengaruh tradisi rasul-rasul dan Bapa Gereja, sejarah panjang dalam Social Budaya dan Konsili serta Sinode, maupun juga pengaruh dari Literatur kuno di Ethiopia. Dan diketahui bahwa kitab-kitab diluar protokanon Ibrani tidak digunakan dalam membangun doktrin namun digunakan untuk ritual-ritual dan pengajaran umat, Tewahedo Orthodox juga meganggap penting kitab-kitab ini sebagai kitab-kitab yang layak dibaca dan digunakan sebagai jembatan sejarah.

Economic Justice

2014 ◽  
pp. 532-548
Author(s):  
Albino Barrera
Keyword(s):  
Old Testament ◽  
Common Good ◽  
Human Person ◽  
Economic Justice ◽  
Church Fathers ◽  
Fish Stocks ◽  
Collective Action Problems ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
Christian Thought ◽  
The Church

Christianity has had a long-standing interest in economic justice, rooted in its Scriptures, especially Old Testament prophets and the New Testament Gospels. It was taken up by the Church Fathers and the Scholastics, in their concern for the poor, just prices, and usury. Taking this concern to modern market economies is complicated but important. After all, globalization has resulted in rampant problems of materialism, consumerism, and individualism. It has led to the commodification of the human person who is viewed only as a consumer or as a factor of production. Collective-action problems have become even more severe, as in the cases of global warming and the depletion of fish stocks. Christian thought and practice have unique contributions to offer on these challenges. In particular, its linkage of justice and charity as an inseparable pair, its notion of the common good, and its theological anthropology are well suited to addressing these issues in a rational fashion.

scholarly journals Repliek op Van der Watt se artikel oor ‘Intertekstualiteit en oorinterpretasie: Verwysings na Genesis 28:12 in Johannes 1:51?’

2017 ◽  
Vol 51 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Hennie F. Stander
Keyword(s):  
Church Fathers ◽  
John 1 ◽  
History Of Interpretation ◽  
The Bible ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Church

A response to Van der Watt’s article on ‘Intertextuality and over-interpretation: References to Genesis 28:12 in John 1:51?’ This article is a response to an article of Van der Watt titled ‘Intertextuality and over-interpretation: References to Genesis 28:12 in John 1:51?’ (2016). He states in this article that his aim is ‘to illustrate the dangers of over-interpretation when dealing with intertextual relations between texts, especially when allusion is assumed’. He then gives a brief survey of different interpretations of John 1:51. Van der Watt shows in his article how theologians use themes from Genesis 28:12 (like the ladder, Jacob or Bethel, which are not mentioned in John 1:51) in their expositions of John 1:51. Van der Watt regards some of these expositions as examples of over-interpretation. The aim of my article is to show how Church Fathers interpreted Genesis 28:12 and John 1:51. I show in my article that the Church Fathers saw several parallels between these two sections from the Bible. Furthermore, I suggest that the early theologians’ interpretations formed a tradition that probably influenced modern interpreters of the Bible. I also discuss the role of typology in the history of interpretation, specifically also in the case of Genesis 28:12 and John 1:51. I then argue that it is perhaps not so far-fetched to see an intertextual relation between Genesis 28:12 and John 1:51.

Towards the Courtier: The University Formation of Public Servants in the Age of Richard Fox

2019 ◽  
pp. 9-21
Author(s):  
† Jeremy Catto
Keyword(s):  
Latin Literature ◽  
Church Fathers ◽  
Public Servants ◽  
New Era ◽  
Corpus Christi ◽  
History Of ◽  
Spiritual Reform ◽  
The University ◽  
The Church

This introductory chapter provides an overview of Corpus Christi College in Oxford, founded in 1517 by Bishop Richard Fox, which occupies a particular place in the history of English universities. Corpus Christi College was a new kind of foundation, with a humanist curriculum and a distinctive emphasis on pedagogy. Endowed with lecturers in ‘Humanity‘ (Latin literature), Greek, and Theology—the last appointed to teach Scripture and the church fathers rather than the medieval authorities—it seemed to harness the learning of the Renaissance to the contemporaneous project of spiritual reform and reformation. Moreover, Corpus Christi College’s trilingual library—containing texts in Latin, Greek, and Hebrew—was famously judged by Erasmus as a wonder of the world. So it is that Corpus has been identified as one of a ‘group of Renaissance colleges‘, introducing ‘a new era in the university‘.

Introduction

2019 ◽  
pp. 1-8
Author(s):  
John Watts
Keyword(s):  
Latin Literature ◽  
Church Fathers ◽  
New Era ◽  
Corpus Christi ◽  
The World ◽  
History Of ◽  
Spiritual Reform ◽  
The University ◽  
The Church

Corpus Christi College, Oxford, founded just over five hundred years ago in 1517 by Bishop Richard Fox, occupies a particular place in the history of English universities. Together with Christ’s College, Cambridge (1506) and St John’s College, Cambridge (1511–16), it was a new kind of foundation, with a humanist curriculum and a distinctive emphasis on paedagogy. Endowed with lecturers in ‘Humanity’ (Latin literature), Greek and Theology, the last appointed to teach Scripture and the church fathers rather than the medieval authorities, it seemed to harness the learning of the Renaissance to the contemporaneous project of spiritual reform and reformation; and its trilingual library—containing texts in Latin, Greek and Hebrew—was famously judged by Erasmus a wonder of the world. So it is that Corpus has been identified as one of a ‘group of Renaissance colleges’, introducing ‘a new era in the university’....

The Effects of Confessional Strife on Religious Authority in the First Half of the Seventeenth Century

2021 ◽  
pp. 303-324
Author(s):  
Henk Nellen
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Hard Core ◽  
Roman Catholic ◽  
Religious Authority ◽  
Church Fathers ◽  
Biblical Authority ◽  
The Bible ◽  
The Status ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Church

This chapter discusses the confessional controversies on biblical authority and ecclesiastical tradition in the first half of the seventeenth century. While Protestant theologians upheld the status of the Bible as a divinely inspired, unique, coherent, and self-evident source of faith and stressed the subordinate significance of the patristic legacy, the Roman Catholic camp embraced the importance of the teachings of the Church Fathers, conciliar decrees, and papal decisions as a rock-solid criterion for a sound interpretation of the Bible. On the basis of treatises authored by eminent and hard-core exponents of Calvinism like Abraham Scultetus, Jean Daillé, Louis Cappel, and André Rivet, set against the views of the Jesuit Denis Pétau, expert in the history of the primitive church, it is argued that debates led to a reciprocal undermining of viewpoints, which eventually paved the way for more radical positions at the end of the century.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document