New Horizons in Patristic Theology: A Survey of Recent Work

Traditio ◽  
1958 ◽  
Vol 14 ◽  
pp. 33-61
Author(s):  
Herbert Musurillo
Keyword(s):  
Recent Work ◽  
New Testament ◽  
Golden Age ◽  
Modern Approach ◽  
New Horizons ◽  
Critical Attitude ◽  
The Past ◽  
Universal Statement ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
Critical Age

Since the period between the two world wars the study of the Fathers has gradually taken a new direction. In the first place, the age of the masters was past; their brilliant, all-embracing structures laid the foundations, it is true, of the modern critical age, while at the same time they have left us with a profound sense of dissatisfaction. Many of the great classics of patristic scholarship of the past attained the level of universal statement only by means of a swift and perhaps over-hasty reading of the evidence — a good example of this would be some of Harnack's monumental work — and so there remains the endless task of revision, of the painstaking work of filling in a mosaic of detail, without which the broad vision of truth is unattainable. In the second place, ours is a perhaps more historico-critical attitude towards some of the areas of patristic doctrine. Although it is hazardous to make a generalization, it may be said that the modern approach to the Old and the New Testament is apt to be widely divergent from that of many of the Fathers of the Golden Age; and our task is rather to understand the techniques which they used in solving their exegetical problems.

An Overview of the Catenae

2021 ◽  
pp. 135-154
Author(s):  
Gilles Dorival
Keyword(s):  
New Testament ◽  
Old Testament ◽  
Recent Progress ◽  
Literary Form ◽  
Sixth Century ◽  
The Past ◽  
Biblical Commentary ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
Persuasive Arguments ◽  
Severus Of Antioch

Catenae appeared in Judaea/Palestine at the beginning of the sixth century. They consist of commentaries, homilies, scholia of the past centuries, and any other literary form in which Scripture verses are explained. Ecclesiastical writings are quoted in the form of extracts, sometimes literal, sometimes rewritten, according to the order of the verses of each Biblical book. Each extract is normally preceded by the name of its author in the genitive case. With time, the catenae were formed not only from commentaries, homilies, scholia, and other patristic writings, but also from pre-existing catenae mixed with these sources. After the sixth century, catenae became the most important media of biblical commentary until the end of the Byzantium Empire (1453). Many debated issues remain. Is Procopius of Gaza (470–530) the father of the catenae? Maybe the two-author catenae predate him, even if this form is better connected with the Byzantine humanism of the ninth and tenth centuries. As for the multiple-author catenae, it is not certain if any of them do are prior Procopius. The compilers of the catenae began their project with the Old Testament, as it was considered to be obscure and foundational to the New Testament, whereas the New Testament was considered to be clear and explicative of the Old Testament. The identity of the compilers of the catenae is shrouded in mystery. Only a few names are known: chiefly, Procopius of Gaza in Palestine and Nicetas of Heraclea in Constantinople. Other names have been proposed: the patriarch Photius, Peter of Laodicea, John Drougarios, but without any persuasive arguments. A final issue concerns Monophysite (or Miaphysite) catenae: were some catenae Monophysite? Or was this literary form indifferent to questions of orthodoxy? In some catenae, Severus of Antioch is called ‘saint’, which may indicate a Monophysite origin. Finally, despite recent progress, many catenae still await publication. For instance, Nicetas’ catena on the Psalms is a monumental work of Byzantine scholarship and it deserves to be available to modern readers.

Christian Affirmation in The Book of the Duchess

PMLA ◽  
1969 ◽  
Vol 84 (2) ◽  
pp. 245-251
Author(s):  
Rodney Delasanta
Keyword(s):  
New Testament ◽  
The Past ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
Religious Meaning

Chaucer's elegy, The Book of the Duchess, has been read in the past either as an exercise in exclusively human consolation without religious meaning or—by the patristic critics—as so rigidly iconographic that the obvious dramatic situation has been sacrificed to accommodate patristic truths. Chaucer's real intention is more divinely directed than the former and more humanly directed than the latter. The poem offers Christian consolation complementary to the dramatic situation by weaving images of the resurrection into the warp and woof of mute pity. The recurrence of sleeping images, for example, in the case of the Dreamer himself and in the case of Ceys and Alcione, functions as a salubrious intermission between an anguished consciousness and a redemptive awakening. The repetition of horn blasts, both in the underworld episode and the hart-hunting scene, suggests the resurrectional trumpet of the New Testament. And the hunting scene, ambiguously involved as it is with the hart, suggests through the echoic use of resurrectional diction from the Canticle of Canticles further Christian affirmation about the mystery of immortality.

Pannenberg on the Resurrection and Historical Method

1980 ◽  
Vol 33 (4) ◽  
pp. 345-359 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. E. Michalson
Keyword(s):  
Philosophy Of Science ◽  
New Testament ◽  
Historical Event ◽  
Historical Explanation ◽  
Standard Methods ◽  
Past Event ◽  
Historical Method ◽  
The Past ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
Casual Observer

Even the most casual observer of the contemporary theological scene knows that Wolfhart Pannenberg's theology relies heavily on the resurrection of Jesus as a genuinely historical event. The peculiarity of this is that a theologian who has accurately been called a ‘rationalist’ should so forthrightly embrace a claim that the entire thrust of post-Enlightenment theology has seemingly undermined. But Pannenberg himself contends that his reliance on the resurrection is not legitimated by the subterfuge of an existential ‘moment’ or ‘leap of faith’; instead, he argues for the acceptance of the resurrection on purely historical grounds. This argument implicitly rests on Pannenberg's conviction that ‘the truth is one’ and that the theologian's worst mistake is to cut the ties between theology and secular disciplines and modes of inquiry, a conviction that has recently received its most forceful statement in Pannenberg's Theology and the Philosophy of Science. This means that, insofar as belief in the resurrection of Jesus entails a claim about a past event, the standard methods by which we normally adjudicate claims about the past must be brought into play. Accordingly, the resurrection of Jesus is for Pannenberg not a ‘faith claim’, for ‘faith cannot ascertain anything certain about events of the past that would perhaps be inaccessible to the historian’. Instead, the resurrection of Jesus must be understood as the best historical explanation accounting for the New Testament witness and the rise of Christianity.

Passover and Eucharist in the Fourth Gospel

1967 ◽  
Vol 20 (3) ◽  
pp. 329-337
Author(s):  
J. K. Howard
Keyword(s):  
New Testament ◽  
Fourth Gospel ◽  
People Of God ◽  
Dominant Position ◽  
The Past ◽  
The People ◽  
The Future ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
New Israel ◽  
Acts Of God

The events of the Exodus, in which the Passover occupied a central and dominant place, were one of the most deeply rooted of all Israel's traditions. The Passover itself lay at the very heart of the covenant concept and forms the basis of the Heilsgeschichte which records the redemptive acts of God for His people Israel. In later Judaism it became overlaid with eschatological ideas, especially those associated with a Messianic deliverance for the people of God, as God's saving act in the past became the prefigurement of an even greater saving act in the future. The Passover night was thus a night of joy for all Israel, the night on which Israel's future redemption, effected through the Messiah, would be revealed. The early Christians, however, believed that this Messianic deliverance had already appeared in the person of Jesus of Nazareth, and consequently, in Preiss' expression,‘the totality of the events of the Exodus centering on the Passover’ together with its associated ideas occupied a dominant position in Christian soteriological thought in the New Testament period, especially as Jesus Himself had instituted the eucharist in a distinctly Paschal setting. We may trace, as has been done in recent years, the idea of the Exodus complex of events running as a constant theme through the New Testament writings, and Jesus is pictured both as a second Moses leading His people forth from a bondage far greater than the slavery of a human despot, from the thraldom of sin and death, and as the Antitype of the very Passover sacrifice itself, through which the redemption of the New Israel was effected.

scholarly journals Tussen letterlijkheid en vergeestelijking. Op zoek naar een passende interpretatie van de oudtestamentische heilsprofetie

2021 ◽  
Vol 64 (1) ◽  
pp. 9-25
Author(s):  
A.J. Van den Herik
Keyword(s):  
New Testament ◽  
Special Position ◽  
Prophetic Preaching ◽  
The Past ◽  
Bright Future ◽  
The Future ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
Interpretative Framework

The prophets describe the future of Israel in a concrete manner and with vivid colours. Against the doom that Israel experiences, they proclaim a bright future, in which all that Israel received from the Lord, shall be restored. There is much discussion about how the interpretation of these eschatological pictures: more literally or more spiritually? Or is there a way in between? This article proposes an interpretative framework. Starting with the basis and content of the prophetic hope (God’s covenant) it explores the language and peculiarities of prophetic preaching, it shows how the context of the New Testament requires a recontextualization of the past promises, and it reaffirms the special position of Israel. The function of symbolism needs rearticulation.

scholarly journals Os padrinhos de batismo no Direito Canônico

2019 ◽  
Vol 65 (257) ◽  
pp. 82
Author(s):  
Antônio Silva
Keyword(s):  
New Testament ◽  
Canon Law ◽  
Essential Feature ◽  
Council Of Trent ◽  
Code Of Canon Law ◽  
The Past ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
History Of

A história do passado permite ver que o padrinho, com vários nomes, foi usado já no Novo Testamento. Foi também criticado (Tertuliano), foi necessidade e até transformou-se em família sagrada para o batizado, a ponto de tornar-se problema do Tridentino. O Código de Direito Canônico de 1917 estabeleceu condições para ser padrinho, que o Código de 1983 reviu com muitas discussões A legislação atual, não assumida por muitos pastores, dá aos pais importância maior na responsabilidade no batismo das crianças, mas é bem mais adulta no aceitar os padrinhos para pequenos e grandes.Abstract: Thanks to the history of the past we can see that the figure of the godfather, with different names, was already used in the New Testament. It was also criticized, (Tertullian), it became an essential feature and even became a sacred family for the baptized, so much so that it also became a problem for the Council of Trent. The 1917 Code of Canon Law established the conditions for someone to become a godfather, and those were reviewed by the 1983 Code, after much discussion. The present legislation, not accepted by many persons, gives the parents greater responsibility in their children’ baptism, but is much more mature in its acceptance of godparents for children or adults.

scholarly journals Die oorspronge van die belydenis 'Jesus is God' in die vroegste Christendom: In Ondersoek na metodes en kriteria

1997 ◽  
Vol 53 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
D. J.C. Van Wyk
Keyword(s):  
New Testament ◽  
Early Christianity ◽  
Research Problem ◽  
Historical Jesus ◽  
The Past ◽  
The New Testament

The origins of the confession 'Jesus is God' in earliest Christianity: A quest for sound methodology and criteria. In this study an argument is made for reopening the debate on one of the most central and crucial confessions of Christianity, namely 'Jesus is God'. In current Christological research there is an apparent discepancy concerning the divinity of Jesus if the results of recent historical Jesus research is compared with the Constantine Confessions (Nicea and Chalcedon). Moreover, prominent scholars today point out that there are traces of a process of development within the writings of the New Testament that can boil down to a possible 'process of divinization' of Jesus in early Christianity. No conclusions concerning these matters are drawn in this study. The research problem is identified and it is shown that the theme is highly relevant. Examples are given of multiple and discordant conclusions of scholars who dealt with this problem in the past. Against this background, it is argued that sound methodology and criteria are necessary in trying to reach a justifiable conclusion.

Eucharistic Origins: From the New Testament to the Liturgies of the Golden Age

2005 ◽  
Vol 66 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-22 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert J. Daly
Keyword(s):  
20Th Century ◽  
New Testament ◽  
Golden Age ◽  
Pastoral Theology ◽  
Systematic Theology ◽  
Last Supper ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
Historical Fact ◽  
Clear Line ◽  
Ecumenical Theology

[Reviewing 20th-century research into the origins of the Eucharist, the author observes that many of the Church's theologians have yet to appropriate the significance of what is commonly accepted as historical fact by exegetes and liturgical theologians, namely, that there is no clear line of development from the Last Supper of Jesus to the theologically rich Eucharistic Prayers of the patristic golden age. The implications of this for methodology, for systematic theology and ecclesiology, for liturgical and ecumenical theology, and for pastoral theology and homiletics are then briefly discussed.]

scholarly journals ’n Verruimde invalshoek tot die verlede? Die sosiaal-wetenskaplike benadering tot die Nuwe Testament

1991 ◽  
Vol 47 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
S. J. Joubert
Keyword(s):  
New Testament ◽  
Social Contexts ◽  
Scientific Models ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Social ◽  
Scientific Approach ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
Social Scientific

A broadened perspective to the past? The social scientific approach to the New Testament This paper focuses on the possibilities that the social scientific approach holds out for the understanding of the New Testament. A review of the contributions of the sociological and the cultural anthropological approaches to the New Testament is undertaken before the social-scientific approach as a whole is evaluated. The use of social-scientific models, in particular, in the construction of the possible social contexts of the New Testament documents, is evaluated in terms of the ability of these contexts to establish ‘new’ systems of meaning.

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