‘Take Heed What Ye Hear’: Listening as a Moral, Transcendental and Sacramental Act

2010 ◽  
Vol 135 (S1) ◽  
pp. 91-102 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bernd Wannenwetsch
Keyword(s):  
Sensory Perception ◽  
Human Being ◽  
New Creation ◽  
Scriptural Interpretation ◽  
Religious Dimensions ◽  
In Christ

ABSTRACTThis paper aims to demonstrate that listening is not only a highly complex sensory-perceptive phenomenon, but also an activity that invites considerations of its moral, political and religious dimensions. Drawing from the perspective of an early monastic tradition that understood theology as a sounding practice rather than a primarily cognitive one, the author draws attention to the fact that the biblical tradition itself prioritized hearing over seeing in its portrayal of the human being as ‘all ear’ when communicating with and responding to a God that addresses her from the first. Analyses of Martin Luther's account of the new creation in Christ as one that will be awakened to hearing afresh, thus becoming attentive to the ‘address of creation through creation’, and of his theology of the psalter, in which the reformer presents an excitingly different hermeneutics of scriptural interpretation based on the sensory perception of hearing/chanting the text, prepare for concluding remarks on the inevitably communicative and quasi-sacramental character of listening.

Israel and the Mercy of God: A Re-reading of Galatians 6.16 and Romans 9–11

2010 ◽  
Vol 56 (3) ◽  
pp. 367-395 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan Grove Eastman
Keyword(s):  
New Creation ◽  
In Christ ◽  
The Law

Noting the conjunction of ‘mercy’ and ‘Israel’ in Galatians 6.16 and Romans 9–11, this article argues that in both letters ‘Israel’ denotes the Jews. In Galatians 6.16, with an on-going mission to the Jews in view, Paul invokes peace on those who live according to the new creation, and mercy on unbelieving Israel. In Romans 9–11, he draws on both Scripture and his own experience of mercy to revisit the question of Israel's destiny, discerning therein a providential pattern of a divine call that is interrupted by obduracy under the law, and ultimately fulfilled in Christ.

scholarly journals If anyone is in Christ – new creation!

2018 ◽  
Vol 56 (4) ◽  
pp. 525-541
Author(s):  
BEN PAGE
Keyword(s):  
New Creation ◽  
In Christ ◽  
Christian Thought

AbstractThis article investigates the metaphysical transformation that occurs when a believer becomes a new creation, something which hasn't yet been explored in the literature. I start by setting out what this ontological transformation involves, and then provide two models as to how it might go. The first is a type of substratism, based on a theory of mixing, while the second thinks about this transformation in terms of replacementism. Throughout the article I seek to resolve difficulties that both of these models bring, while also showing how other aspects of Christian thought can be explained by these models.

The Word Refreshed

2021 ◽  
pp. 358-374
Author(s):  
Jeremy Begbie
Keyword(s):  
Physical Environment ◽  
Human Freedom ◽  
New Creation ◽  
The World ◽  
In Christ ◽  
Theological Language ◽  
The Way

This chapter takes its cue from the vision of music adumbrated by the previous three essayists: in which music is seen as depending on a ‘faith in an order of things that exceeds the logic of statement and counterstatement’, arising from an embodied dwelling in the world which is pre-conceptual, pre-theoretical. As such, music has the capacity to free us from the kind of alienating relation to our physical environment that an over-dependence on instrumental language brings, and free us for a more fruitful indwelling of it that has been largely lost to modernity. This resonates with broadly biblical-theological view of humanity’s intended relation to the cosmos, as exemplified in the concept of New Creation in Christ. This essay returns to language, considered in this light: how can music, and thinking about music, enrich language? Specifically, how might music facilitate a deeper understanding of the way ‘God-talk’ operates? It is argued that music can offer a powerful witness to the impossibility (and danger) of imagining we can grasp or circumscribe the divine (the antithesis of human freedom). More positively, it can greatly enrich our use (and understanding) of existing theological language, and generate fresh language that enables a more faithful perception of, and participation in the realities it engages.

scholarly journals Van vyandigheid na versoening: Kolossense as narratief van kosmologiese verhuising

2007 ◽  
Vol 41 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
J. J. Fritz Krüger
Keyword(s):  
Jesus Christ ◽  
New Creation ◽  
Ethical System ◽  
Ethical Discussion ◽  
Peace And Justice ◽  
The Common ◽  
In Christ ◽  
Peace And Reconciliation ◽  
The Church

From animosity to reconciliation: Colossians as narrative of cosmologic migration Ethical discussion concerning the phenomenon of animosity can gain a lot in depth and effectiveness if a strategy is followed of uncovering the cosmological narratives on which worldviews are based. Each worldview generates its own ethical system on the basis of fundamental metaphysical matrices in the form of cosmological narratives. In this article, the letter to the Colos- sians is used to demonstrate how a cosmological narrative of cosmic estrangement results in an ethic of animosity, while a cosmological narrative of reconciliation in Christ results in an ethic of peace and reconciliation. Three cosmological narratives are compared for this purpose: a popular pagan, a Jewish apo- calyptic mystical and a Christ-centred cosmological narrative are read together. In this way it is demonstrated that a new ethic – which ends the common animosity of our world – is only possible if a cosmic migration occurs, from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of the beloved Son, Jesus Christ. In the discussion, the church will play a prominent role as exem- plary community of the new creation, because it is in the church that the peace of Christ, the result of his victory over the powers, rules over and in people, in this way establishing new relationships of peace and justice.

Summaries of Doctoral Dissertations

2011 ◽  
Vol 104 (4) ◽  
pp. 489-505
Keyword(s):  
Integral Relation ◽  
Image Of God ◽  
Human Being ◽  
Philosophical Discourse ◽  
Human Subjectivity ◽  
Theological Discourse ◽  
In Christ ◽  
The Creation ◽  
Doctoral Dissertations ◽  
The Image Of God

THOU ART is an interdisciplinary and christological aesthetics that theorizes an integral relation among Christ, representation, and the formation of human subjectivity. Through a critical poetics it addresses the space of difference between a theological discourse on the creation of human being in the image of God—understood as creation in Christ, Word (logos) incarnate—and a philosophical discourse on the constitution of human subjectivity.

scholarly journals Pendidikan Kristen dan Karakter

JURNAL KADESI ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 28-50
Author(s):  
Merri Natalia Situmorang
Keyword(s):  
Christian Education ◽  
Religious Education ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Biblical Studies ◽  
New Creation ◽  
God's People ◽  
God's Word ◽  
Living Together ◽  
In Christ ◽  
Education Process

The basis of Christian ethics in living together and working is not in rules, but in God's unchanging character. As the image and likeness of God, humans have good social and relational relationships with one another. The problem in this research is that the damage to humans due to sin makes humans no longer able to have the character that comes from God in achieving their life goals and in living together. Humans face many challenges in life so that there is competition for millions of people in a place (Gen. 3: 17-19). Humans throw each other down, hate, jealousy, bribes, injustice happen everywhere. This research uses descriptive theoretical qualitative research methods through literature and biblical studies. The benefit of this research is that through the Christian Religious Education process, Christians are active in teaching and learning the truth of God's Word, teaching God's people that in Christ man is a new creation (Ephesians 2:10) to do good deeds. The conclusion in this research is that with a mind and conscience renewed by Christ, it is possible for humans to develop the world of creation and life together with honesty, holiness, justice and love. Man in Christ finds himself stronger and can bring honor to his Creator. God's character is reflected in the character life of Christians in fulfilling God's purposes. This Christian character cannot be obtained simply through shortcuts but can only be obtained through the process of Christian education.

Creation

2019 ◽  
pp. 178-195
Author(s):  
Matthew Puffer
Keyword(s):  
Jesus Christ ◽  
Christian Theology ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
New Creation ◽  
Limited Role ◽  
The World ◽  
In Christ ◽  
Access To Knowledge ◽  
Good And Evil ◽  
The Church

Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s theology of creation is rooted in the confession that Jesus Christ is the mediator. Apart from Christ’s mediation human beings cannot perceive God’s creation, because our postlapsarian world manifests only a fallen creation in which good and evil are confused and intermixed. Whereas Bonhoeffer in his student years affirmed a limited role for the orders of creation, his subsequent writings on the theology of creation can be read as a response to and reaction against the orders of creation. Although human beings have no unmediated access to knowledge of God’s creation, and know the world as fallen creation only through Christ’s redemption, in Christ they are empowered by the Spirit, incorporated into Christ’s body the church, and made a new creation. Only in light of the hoped-for eschatological fulfilment of the new creation may Christian theology speak of the beginning of God’s ways as Creator.

Being the Church in Philippi

2008 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 163-178
Author(s):  
Brian Peterson
Keyword(s):  
Church Planting ◽  
New Creation ◽  
The Face ◽  
Life Itself ◽  
In Christ ◽  
The Church

AbstractContrary to widespread assumptions, neither Paul's pattern of church-planting nor his vision of those churches' mission was focused on efforts by those churches to draw and make more members for the church. Rather, Paul saw the church's life itself, both in relation to one another and in relation to their neighbors, as its calling and its mission. For Paul, the church's mission is to live out its identity in Christ as God's new creation in the face of empire. A careful look at Philippians in particular will make the contours of such a mission clear.

On patience: thinking with and beyond Karl Barth

2015 ◽  
Vol 68 (3) ◽  
pp. 273-298
Author(s):  
Paul Dafydd Jones
Keyword(s):  
Human Activity ◽  
Free Action ◽  
Careful Analysis ◽  
Human Existence ◽  
The Self ◽  
Karl Barth ◽  
Human Being ◽  
Church Dogmatics ◽  
In Christ

AbstractThis article has three goals: (1) to provide a careful analysis of Barth's treatment of divine patience in Church Dogmatics II/1; (2) to show how Barth's thinking about divine patience helps to illumine his account of human being and human activity in later portions of the Church Dogmatics; and (3) to offer a series of constructive suggestions which connect Barth's theology with liberationist visions of human existence.With respect to Church Dogmatics II/1, I argue that Barth breaks with a number of earlier thinkers and focuses attention on God's exercise of patience, treating it as a key dimension of God's creative and providential work. This exercise of patience means, specifically, that God accords creatures their own integrity and a capacity for free action, tempers God's punishment of sin and, in Christ, fulfils but does not temporally close the covenant. My analysis of divine patience in II/1 then serves as an interpretative key for reading later volumes of the Dogmatics. It sets in vivid relief Barth's belief that Christ's fulfilment of the covenant, achieved through Christ's life, suffering, death and resurrection, is the condition of possibility for humans being able to act with genuine integrity and consequence in the created realm. I propose, too, that Barth develops his thinking about patience by emphasising the ‘pressure’ of the patient God's empowering command – a command which is a constant summons, directed towards each and every human being, to live freely into God's future through acts of gratitude, obedience and responsibility, and to play some part in bringing creation to its glorious end. Finally, I explore the convergence between certain aspects of the Church Dogmatics and anti-essentialist construals of the self in contemporary theology. I aim to identify points of connection between Barth and thinkers like Marcella Althaus-Reid, and I voice support for a style of scholarship which elides the distinction between ‘systematic’ and ‘liberationist’ modes of inquiry.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document