Friendship and Rivalry: The Role of Amicitia in Twelfth-Century Monastic Relations

1993 ◽  
Vol 44 (3) ◽  
pp. 390-414 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julian Haseldine

The proliferation of new monastic orders in the twelfth century presented the Church with a dilemma which had previously challenged the theologians of Christendom: the flowering of diversity within the unity of the faith. Just as theologians had had to resolve contradictions among the writings of the Fathers – the primary authorities for the interpretation of the Bible, and hence the elucidation of God's truth as it was perceived – so, in the new climate of monastic revival, ecclesiastical leaders had to come to terms with the existence of a variety of new interpretations of the Rule of St Benedict, and indeed that of St Augustine – the primary guides to the living of a true Christian life.

2019 ◽  
Vol 67 (268) ◽  
pp. 977
Author(s):  
Maria Clara Lucchetti Bingemer

A V Conferência do Episcopado Latino-Americano, realizada em Aparecida no último mês de maio, trouxe consigo alguns pontos fortes a trabalhar para os próximos anos na Igreja do Continente. Este artigo pretende estudar as passagens que no Documento tratam da importância da formação de um laicato adulto e comprometido. Para isso, analisa a importância que o Documento dá à dimensão espiritual, da qual pode emergir o compromisso apostólico. Finalmente, procura assinalar a espiritualidade e a missão como os dois pilares para a vida cristã na América Latina e no Caribe nos próximos anos.Abstract: The 5th Conference of the Latin American Bishops, held in Aparecida last May, brought to the fore some of the strong points that must be developed in forthcoming years in the Church of the Continent. This article intends to study those passages of the Document that deal specifically with the educational development of a mature and committed laity. For this purpose, it analyses the importance that the Document attributes to the spiritual dimension from which the apostolic commitment may emerge. Finally, it attempts to emphasize the role of spirituality and of the mission as the two pillars for Christian life in Latin America and the Caribbean in the years to come.


Traditio ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 71 ◽  
pp. 143-178
Author(s):  
ANNA MINARA CIARDI

The phrase per clerum et populum (“by clergy and people”) was traditionally used to describe how the election of a bishop had been or should be undertaken. Over the course of the twelfth century this changed. Ecclesiastical legislation was step by step revised and codified. The aim of the reformers was to safeguard the autonomy of the Church and to reduce lay influence. The purposes of this article are, first, to examine legal terminology in the context of episcopal appointments from 1059 to 1215, with special reference to the formula per clerum et populum and the role of cathedral chapters as electoral bodies; second, to examine how episcopal appointments were actually undertaken and what terminology was used in the kingdom of Denmark until circa 1225; and, third, to share some ideas about the development of canon law in the context of “cathedral culture.” My conclusions are, first, that the mode of election per clerum et populum was gradually replaced and eventually became invalid, parallel to a legal development where cathedral chapters became the “proper” electoral body; second, that the monastic ideals of ecclesiastical freedom prompted by the reformers are evident in normative texts from cathedral chapters in Denmark already in the first quarter of the twelfth century; and, finally, that the legal developments strongly contributed to the formation of capitular institutions and a specific cathedral culture, which was rooted in monasticism but also differed from it, not least with regard to its legal functions.


2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 135-175
Author(s):  
Warseto Freddy Sihombing

AbstractNo one can be justified before God for doing good deeds. No matter how good a man is, if he does not believe in Jesus Christ, the Son of God, he will not be saved from the wrath of God to come. There is no human being who is right before God, and no sinful man can save himself in any way. The only way out is in the way that God has given to the problem of all sinners, by sending Jesus Christ to the world to die for sinners. "And for this he came, so that every man believed in him, who was sent by God" (John 6:29). The Bible teaches that salvation is only obtained because of faith in Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the object of that faith. This salvation is known as the statement "Justified by faith. Paul explained this teaching in each of his writings. This teaching of justification by faith has been repeatedly denied by some people who disagree with Paul's opinion. The history of the church from the early centuries to the present has proven the variety of understandings that have emerged from this teaching, but one important thing is that sinful humans are justified by their faith in Jesus Christ before God.Keywords: Paul;history; justified by faith.AbstrakTidak ada seorang pun yang dapat dibenarkan di hadapan Allah karena telah melakukan perbuatan baik. Sebaik apa pun manusia, jika dia tidak percaya kepada Yesus Kristus, Anak Allah maka ia tidak akan selamat dari murka Allah yang akan datang. Tidak ada seorang pun manusia yang benar di hadapan Allah, dan tidak ada seorang manusia berdosa yang dapat menyelematkan dirinya sendiri dengan cara apa pun. Satu-satunya jalan keluar adalah dengan cara yang Allah telah berikan untuk masalah semua orang berdosa, yaitu dengan mengutus Yesus Kristus ke dunia untuk mati bagi orang berdosa. “Dan untuk itulah Dia datang, yaitu supaya setiap orang percaya kepada Dia, yang telah diutus oleh Allah” (Yohanes 6:29). Alkitab mengajarkan bahwa keselamatan hanya diperoleh karena iman kepada Yesus Kristus. Yesus Kristus adalah obyek iman tersebut. Keselamatan ini dikenal dengan pernyataan “Dibenarkan karena iman. Paulus menjelaskan ajaran ini dalam setiap tulisannya. Ajaran pembenaran oleh iman ini telah berulang kali disangkal oleh beberap orang yang tidak setuju dengan pendapat Paulus. Sejarah gereja mulai dari abad permulaan sampai pada masa sekarang ini telah membuktikan beragamnya pemahaman yang muncul terhadap ajaran ini, namun satu hal yang terpenting adalah bahwa manusia berdosa dibenarkan oleh iman mereka kepada Yesus Kristus di hadapan Allah.Kata Kunci: Paulus; sejarah; iman; dibenarkan oleh iman.


Author(s):  
Paul A. Bramadat

Whenever I describe the IVCF to non-Christian academic peers, they almost invariably express their astonishment at the fact that at virtually every IVCF event I attend, approximately 70% of the participants are women. Perhaps this level of involvement is not unusual in the world of contemporary Protestantism; after all, in many of the churches IVCF members attend every Sunday, women outnumber men. However, the proportion of women to men is not as high in evangelical churches as it is in the IVCF (Bibby 1987:102; Rawlyk 1996:143). As well, women’s roles are usually much more tightly controlled in many if not most evangelical churches than they are in the IVCF. In fact, IVCF participants who attend churches in the Fellowship Baptist, Christian Reformed, and Brethren traditions may never see a woman in the pulpit, or, if women are allowed to speak at the front of the church, they are not usually permitted to become senior pastors or interpret the Bible. At the IVCF functions I have attended, however, women are in no way restricted in their abilities to lead worship, deliver sermons, organize events, or perform any of the myriad tasks involved in maintaining the group. In fact, the chapter’s paid staff worker is a woman, and she tries to ensure that the position of president alternates between a male and a female student every other year. I began to wonder how to make sense of the high level of female participation at every McMaster IVCF event I attended, especially in light of the fact that the scholarly literature on evangelicalism in North America often depicts the tradition as inimical or opposed to the egalitarian or feminist values that are so prevalent at universities. During my research, I found that many, but not all, of the evangelical women I interviewed maintain nonegalitarian views on the role of women. In other words, the common academic depiction of the place of women in evangelicalism seems to be confirmed by my experience, even though I hope to nuance this portrayal somewhat.


2018 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 34-42
Author(s):  
Mark A. Maddix

Central to Christianity is the belief is that the Bible is inspired and authoritative for Christian faith and practice. Even though Christians affirm the authority of the Bible, there is a decline in Bible reading and Scripture usage in worship and discipleship. More recent biblical scholarship, built on a pre-modern approach to interpretation, moves to a reader-centered approach to biblical reading. The focus of this article is to explore a reader-centered approach to Bible reading that gives focus to the role of Scripture as means of formation. This rediscovery of the formative power of Scripture has implications for how the Bible is appropriated in worship and discipleship for the church.


1988 ◽  
Vol 68 (2) ◽  
pp. 223-237 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. A. J. Bradley

SummarySymbolic perception of the church door in early English exegetical writings and in medieval liturgical practice is illustrated and discussed as the wider context of a proposal that the arched iron strip at the top of the twelfth-century church door at Stillingfleet, North Yorkshire, represents the rainbow of Noah's Flood, perceived as a reminder ofjudgement past and of judgement still to come, and as a symbol of the covenant between God and humanity. The possibility is considered that on other surviving early medieval church-doors too, the rainbow shape, even if primarily functional or dictated by the shape of the door-opening, and notwithstanding the absence of other figural imagery, may have been recognized as an emblem of the covenant, basis of all church-sanctioned contracts, aptly dislayed on the threshold—where various liturgical or other formal actions had their setting—of the sacred spaces of the domus dei.


2013 ◽  
Vol 66 (4) ◽  
pp. 448-465
Author(s):  
Marsaura Shukla

AbstractMost maps of theology in the twentieth century, particularly theology in North America, would include the delineation of revisionist theology and postliberal theology as mutually exclusive, opposed options in theological method. This article begins to challenge the contours of this received map through a comparison of David Tracy and Hans Frei, pre-eminent figures in revisionist and postliberal theology, respectively. I show that, for all their differences, both Tracy and Frei posit the reader–text relationship as the site and even in some sense the source of revelation. Their turn to reading is motivated by the perception of a certain loss or estrangement characterising contemporary religiosity. Though the scope and details of their description of the problem differ, there is a similarity in the vision of Christian life which stands in contrast to the contemporary situation. For both, their visions of Christian life can be articulated through the notion of orthodoxy, understood in its full sense as referring to a coherent, vibrant and all-encompassing immersion in Christian doctrine and practice. Engagement in proper reading practice becomes for each the entrance into and sign of full participation in religious life, analogous to the role of belief in traditional notions of orthodoxy. I suggest that Tracy and Frei represent two forms of ‘theology of ortholexis’ or ‘right reading’. The turn to reading is most obvious in Frei, who explicitly links the modern difficulty in attaining a sense of the coherence of Christian history, doctrine and lived life to a misconstrual of the nature of the biblical text which leads to a misguided reading practice. Yet Tracy also places the model of reading as conversation at the centre of his revisionist account of the possibility of a contemporary experience of the authority of the Bible and the power of the Christian tradition more generally. In these ‘theologies of ortholexis’, a constellation of modern anxieties concerning the limits and possibilities of our knowledge and experience of the divine are addressed through positing the reader–text relationship forged through proper reading practice as the place of and way to authentic revelation.


2000 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 240-261
Author(s):  
Johannes Nissen

AbstractThe focus of this article is on the church-state issue, particularly in relation to the use of the Bible. The article has three parts. The first introductory part identifies four contemporary challenges: the attitude of Christians toward asylum-seekers and refugees, the question of civil disobedience, the role of the church in nation-building and the problem of nationalism and identity. Then follows some notes on the question of definition and methodology. The way we define the "state" influences our selection of relevant biblical texts. Any use of the Bible must face the risk of "proof texting." The second part offers some historical comments on selected texts. This includes the traditional "state" texts as well as other texts that reveal a critical perspective on the power issue. The third part points at a number of hermeneutical problems: (1) diversity and unity in the New Testament; (2) various levels of authority; (3) selective Bible reading and the method of correlation; (4) three different ways of perceiving the church-state issue: assimilation, alienation and critical solidarity. Both formation and malformation can be the result of the encounter of the churches with the public world. The article concludes with some reflections on the search for a just society in the biblical tradition.


2021 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 45-65

This study examines the pilgrimage of Christian women ascetics in the early Christian period from the fourth to sixth centuries AD, focusing on wealthy Roman women who were influenced by the Church Fathers, such as Jerome and left their world, freedom, family and social class. They sold their properties in order to come to the Holy Land (the Land of the Bible) to visit the holy places and the desert hermits and to build monasteries, hospitals, hospices, orphanages and accomodations for old people through the Holy Land. The pilgrimage of women ascetics was a characteristic feature of the period. In spite of the difficult journey, these ascetic women came to fulfill their religious and spiritual needs. These women have been remembered throughout the ages for their faith, piety, tenderness, purity and devotion and have served as role models for women after them. This study examines the concept of pilgrimage in Christianity and the pilgrimage of the women ascetics and their religious and social accomplishments in the Holy Land.


Author(s):  
William J. Abraham

This chapter examines the spiritual theology of Symeon the New Theologian. It examines Symeon’s thought on the role of human agents in providing forgiveness of sins in the life of the church, ordination in priesthood, divine equipping of the laity to speak on God’s behalf to those seeking salvation, and the deeper questions these questions raise about divine action in salvation. The questions about the mediation of divine forgiveness among the laity inevitably raise questions about the nature of the action of the Holy Spirit in the Christian life, whether one can know that God is present in the personal life of the believer, and how these claims can be defended epistemologically.


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