Beyond the Canonical and the Apocryphal Books, the Presence of a Third Category: The Books Useful for the Soul

2012 ◽  
Vol 105 (2) ◽  
pp. 125-137 ◽  
Author(s):  
François Bovon
Keyword(s):  
New Testament ◽  
Early Christianity ◽  
The Other ◽  
Gospel Of Thomas ◽  
New School ◽  
The Face ◽  
Gospel Of Judas ◽  
The Mind ◽  
Similar Kind

I like tennis—both to play and to watch it.1 Nothing is more pleasant than watching an exchange between Federer and Nadal. There is a similar kind of exchange that has been going on in this country in recent years. On one side, there are evangelical New Testament scholars; on the other, liberal scholars working on early Christianity. In the camp of the evangelicals, Ben Witherington,2 Craig A. Evans,3 and Darrell L. Bock4 are playing a defensive game, accusing the others of constituting a “new school,”5 one that prefers heresy over orthodoxy and promotes diversity where unity once was. In the camp of the critics, Elaine Pagels promotes the spirituality of the Gospel of Thomas; 6 Bart D. Ehrman's Lost Christianities flies in the face of his opponents;7 and Marvin Meyer considers the Gospel of Judas a valuable work that reveals in the mind of the dark apostle knowledge of the divine realm.8

The Qur’an and Christianity

2020 ◽  
pp. 151-164
Author(s):  
Neal Robinson
Keyword(s):  
New Testament ◽  
Lord's Prayer ◽  
Gospel Of Thomas ◽  
Last Supper ◽  
Islamic Tradition ◽  
Q 61 ◽  
Death Of Jesus ◽  
Early Islam ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
The Face

This chapter advocates a critical stance towards both normative Christianity and normative Islamic tradition but highlights the inadequacies of revisionist histories of early Islam. It suggests that the fātiḥa was intended to replace the Lord’s Prayer and that sura 112 was a response to the Christology of the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed. It finds a precedent for the 114 suras of the Qur’an in the 114 logia of the Gospel of Thomas. It argues that Q. 7:157 was revealed in Medina but concedes that Q. 61:6b may be a later editorial addition. However, it stresses that regardless of whether these two passages are authentic the biblical teaching about the prophet like Moses and the Paraclete is the key to understanding the dynamics of the Qur’anic discourse. It maintains that the Qur’an is not concerned with the death of Jesus as such. Rather Q. 4:156–7 rebuts Jewish anti-Christian polemic and Q. 3:55 serves to strengthen the believers in the face of death and defeat. Q. 5:112–5 differs from the biblical accounts of the last supper because the crucifixion is not viewed as an act of atonement. The three elements in Jesus’ name, al-Masīḥ ʿĪsā Ibn Maryam, are examined in the light of the Qur’anic chronology, philology, and the New Testament. The background to the designation of Christians as naṣārā is explored with reference to the New Testament and other pre-Islamic sources.

From Jesus to the Writings of the New Testament

2021 ◽  
pp. 41-64
Author(s):  
Donald Senior
Keyword(s):  
New Testament ◽  
Acts Of The Apostles ◽  
Early Christianity ◽  
Essential Elements ◽  
The Other ◽  
Christian Perspective ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
The Impact

While Jesus is not the author of any of the New Testament writings, the link between the mission and identity of Jesus viewed from the perspective of faith and the content and purpose of the New Testament books is essential for their sacred character from a Christian perspective. This chapter reviews the evolution of the traditions about Jesus in early Christianity, tracking the impact of this tradition on the writings of Paul, on the Four Gospels, and on the Acts of the Apostles and the other New Testament books. The chapter also considers some of the essential elements in the transmission of the New Testament and their writings, including their composition in Greek, the nature of early manuscripts of the New Testament, and the question of translation.

The Pauline Epistles and the Synoptic Gospels: The Pattern of the Parallels

1982 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-32 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dale C. Allison
Keyword(s):  
New Testament ◽  
The Other ◽  
Historical Jesus ◽  
Synoptic Gospels ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
Pauline Epistles ◽  
The One ◽  
The Mind

The question, What did Paul know about Jesus of Nazareth?, has long been debated by students of the New Testament. The debate has not issued in any consensus. Indeed, critical appraisals of Paul's relation to the Jesus of history and to traditions about him have been unusually disparate. Thus, on the one side, W. D. Davies has argued that ‘Paul is steeped in the mind and words of his Lord.’ On the other side, R. Bultmann could claim that ‘the teaching of the historical Jesus plays no role, or practically none, in Paul’. The contrast between these two assertions is puzzling, and all the more so as neither can be regarded as idiosyncratic: Davies is not alone in avowing that sayings of and traditions about Jesus were of momentous significance for Paul, and it is not difficult to find critics at one with Bultmann. Moreover, as our two quotations do not simply represent two circles of opinion but also mark poles between which appears a variety of viewpoints, matters are even further complicated.

Jewish and Christian Ordination

1954 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 125-138 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arnold Ehrhardt
Keyword(s):  
New Testament ◽  
Early Christianity ◽  
The Other ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
Main Thesis ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
Rabbinical Literature ◽  
Laying On Of Hands ◽  
The Church

In recent discussions about the Apostolic Ministry of the Church the Jewish factor in its development has proved a disturbing element. Therefore, a book dealing with the early rite of rabbinical ordination, which has been lately published in Germany, should be certain of an interested reception, even though the main facts can be found already in Billerbeck. Dr. Lohse, its author, shows himself well versed in rabbinical literature, and the evidence which he has collected is well-nigh complete. Unfortunately, the author's main thesis, although it is by no means new, is apt to provoke serious misgivings. For he claims (101) that ‘the Christian ordination was modelled on the pattern of that of Jewish scholars, although early Christianity filled it with a new content’. To support his claim the author has given only one important reason, namely that both rites had the imposition of hands as their centre. The other support which the author has tried to build up to strengthen his thesis is, to say the least, feeble. It is therefore necessary to enquire whether the laying-on-of-hands had the same intention in the early Christian ordination rite as in the rabbinical rite. Such identity of intention is, however, not even to be found in all the various cases of laying-on-of-hands in the New Testament, and the same is also true of contemporary Judaism.

Assertive Behavior in A New Testament Perspective

1980 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 288-292 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arthur C. Moy
Keyword(s):  
Present Article ◽  
New Testament ◽  
The Other ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
The Face ◽  
Assertive Behavior

As a rule of Christian behavior, the expression “turn the other cheek” has been overly used and sometimes too broadly applied. Many Christians have the impression that they are to weakly submit in the face of any opposition or demand. The present article, however, contends that it is biblical for Christians to react with appropriate and responsible assertive behavior in such situations. First, assertive behavior is seen in examples from the New Testament. Secondly, assertive behavior is viewed in the context of New Testament teachings. Finally, the application of assertiveness in the Christian context must go beyond the popular sense. Christians must exercise a radical assertiveness or temperate assertiveness depending on the need.

The Modern Aristotle: Michael Polanyi’s Search for Truth against Nihilism

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ronald Hoinski ◽  
Ronald Polansky
Keyword(s):  
Philosophy Of Science ◽  
Modern Science ◽  
Michael Polanyi ◽  
Contemporary Philosophy ◽  
The Face ◽  
Human Desire ◽  
The Mind ◽  
Theoretical Science

David Hoinski and Ronald Polansky’s “The Modern Aristotle: Michael Polanyi’s Search for Truth against Nihilism” shows how the general tendencies of contemporary philosophy of science disclose a return to the Aristotelian emphasis on both the formation of dispositions to know and the role of the mind in theoretical science. Focusing on a comparison of Michael Polanyi and Aristotle, Hoinski and Polansky investigate to what degree Aristotelian thought retains its purchase on reality in the face of the changes wrought by modern science. Polanyi’s approach relies on several Aristotelian assumptions, including the naturalness of the human desire to know, the institutional and personal basis for the accumulation of knowledge, and the endorsement of realism against objectivism. Hoinski and Polansky emphasize the promise of Polanyi’s neo-Aristotelian framework, which argues that science is won through reflection on reality.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document