The Self-giving Power of God

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan Hill
Keyword(s):  
The Self ◽  
First Century ◽  
Divine Power ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
Christian Understanding ◽  
Justin Martyr ◽  
The Way ◽  
Power Of God

This chapter puts forward the idea of a distinctively early Christian understanding of divine power in terms of a logic driven primarily by concerns about apostolic mission and preaching. It maintains that first-century Christian authors, notably Paul and Luke in Acts, offer a reimagining of the nature of divine power in six different ways: the Christological, communicative, pneumatological, kerygmatic, pre-eminence, and weakness aspects to the concept. Further, the essay seeks to trace the way in which these features of the divine dunamis are reinterpreted, and, sometimes, extended quite radically, by three early Christian authors of very different kinds: Ignatius of Antioch, who wrote epistles to some degree after Paul; Hermas, who wrote about visions and parables in a deeply allegorical style; and Justin Martyr, an apologist who used the language and concepts of contemporary Platonism.

A Wojtyłian Reading of Performativity and the Self in Judith Butler

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Angela Franks
Keyword(s):  
Human Nature ◽  
Human Person ◽  
Judith Butler ◽  
The Body ◽  
The Self ◽  
Power Dynamics ◽  
Divine Power ◽  
John Paul Ii ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Power Of God

Abstract Drawing on Hegel, Judith Butler argues that the subject is the product of its desire for subject-ion. The subject, its gender, and even the sexed body itself come into being through reiterating or parodying preexisting norms and discourses of power (“performativity”). Butler rejects the realities of substance and a fixed human nature that would limit the possibilities of performativity. I summarize and assess Butler’s proposals, highlighting both the value and the drawbacks of her theory. I then show how John Paul II’s understanding of meaning and of the body as tasks takes up what is positive in Butler. He escapes the pitfalls of her thought, however, by retaining both metaphysics and revelation. He argues that the subject exists as substance or suppositum, which defends it against the encroachment of power. He also insists on the importance of human nature, which makes the human person to be the kind of substance who can form herself through the God-given task of creative action directed toward meaningful self-gift. Lastly, John Paul II emphasizes that the divine power of God enables the person to transcend the power dynamics of the culture of death.

scholarly journals El texto de El ser sobrenatural como contexto próximo para entender la noología, la metafísica y la visión de Dios sobre Zubiri

2021 ◽  
Vol 17 ◽  
pp. 137-165
Author(s):  
Rafał S. Niziński
Keyword(s):  
20Th Century ◽  
The Self ◽  
Self Presentation ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
Diffi Cult ◽  
Core Meaning ◽  
The Way

The philosophy of Xavier Zubiri is recognized as one of the most diffi cult to understand because there is something unclear in it. Therefore one may guess that there is a hidden presumption done by Zubiri. Zubiri in the self-presentation of his philosophical backgrounds acknowledges that his philosophy owes most to the phenomenology of Husserl and metaphysics of Heidegger. He also admits of being infl uenced by Aristotle to a certain degree. Zubiri starts his analyses from perception of things, with which he fulfi lls phenomenological requirement of beginning philosophy with the description of reality. As the fi nal step he ads metaphysics, which explains the description of reality. Following this code of interpretation of Zubiri’s philosophy it is difficult to grasp its core meaning. What is this hidden supposition? In The Supernatural Being: God and Deifi cation in Saint Paul’s Theology, which he wrote in the 30s’ and 40s’ of the 20th century, Zubiri presents early Christian Neoplatonic theology. In the same work Zubiri also states that it is possible to discover the same ideas following the way up, i.e. departing from the creatures and ascending to God. And this will be the hidden supposition of his philosophy. This paper tries to show the philosophy of Zubiri can be understood as a kind of proof that the Neoplatonic vision of the reality presented in The Supernatural Being: God and Deifi cation in Saint Paul’s Theology is true and can be discovered by reason alone, i.e. departing only from description of facts.

The Significance of the Distribution of Self-designations in Acts

2012 ◽  
Vol 54 (1) ◽  
pp. 30-49
Author(s):  
Paul Trebilco
Keyword(s):  
The Self ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
Insight Into ◽  
The Way ◽  
Christian History

Abstract An analysis of the distribution of self-designations in Acts reveals that Luke’s use of these self-designations is not random. Rather significant insight into Luke’s theology and into early Christian history can be gained by looking at the way these self-designations are distributed throughout Acts, when they are actually used, and whether they are used by Luke’s narrator or by actors in his story. The self-designations discussed here are ἀδελφοί, µαθηταί, ἐκκλησία, “the believers” and “the saints” or “the sanctified ones.”

A Symposiastic Background to James?

2011 ◽  
Vol 58 (1) ◽  
pp. 105-122 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter-Ben Smit
Keyword(s):  
First Century ◽  
Christian Community ◽  
Common Life ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
Mediterranean World ◽  
The Common ◽  
Epistle Of James ◽  
The Way

The Epistle of James is not commonly seen in relation to early Christian common meals. At the same time, the work is preoccupied with the common life of an early Christian community, which in turn was, generally speaking, closely related to the way in which it celebrated its meals. In other words, ethics, ecclesiology, and etiquette were closely related. Based on this consideration, this essay attempts to relate aspects of the epistle to symposiastic conventions as they were known in the first-century Mediterranean world.

The Question as to Why We Have to Live Out the Agony of Our Epoch and its Fundamental Un-Answerability

Symposion ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 117-138
Author(s):  
Rajesh Sampath ◽  
Keyword(s):  
New Testament ◽  
Philosophy Of History ◽  
Human Freedom ◽  
The Self ◽  
First Century ◽  
Historical Time ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
Left Behind ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
Christian Proclamation

This paper excavates certain impulses that are buried in Pierre Klossowski’s 1968 edition of his original 1947 work, Sade My Neighbor. We argue that the self-suffocating nature of our historical present reveals the problem of an epochal threshold: in which twenty-first century democracy itself is threatened with death and violence in delusional neofascist attempts at national self-preservation. This speaks to a deeper enigma of time, epochal shifts, and the mystery of historical time; but it does so in a manner that escapes classical problems in the philosophy of history. Rather, by returning to Klossowski’s late 1940s and late 1960s contexts while reoccupying the New Testament question of Jesus’s foresakeness on the Cross, we unravel a series of paradoxes and aporias that attempt to deepen metaphysical problems of time, death, and the sovereign autonomy of human freedom and existence. Ultimately the paper concludes by offering certain speculative philosophical constructions on why today’s self-cannibalization of democracy has its roots in unresolved tensions that span these two poles: a.) the primordial secret of early Christian proclamation of Jesus’s death and b.) the post-Christian Sadean experiment of a philosophical revolution that was doomed to implode when the valorization of pain, suffering, and death fails to fill the vacuum left behind by atheism.

Early Christian Reception of the Prophets

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ronald E. Heine
Keyword(s):  
Second Century ◽  
Third Century ◽  
Reading Practices ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
The Third ◽  
Christian Understanding ◽  
Vision Of God ◽  
Hebrew Prophets ◽  
The Way

The Hebrew prophets were essential to the early Christian understanding of the identity of Jesus. This chapter first examines the use of the Hebrew prophets in the reading practices in the second-century worship assemblies of the Christians in relation to those of the early synagogue. This provides an understanding of an early Christian appropriation of the prophets that was not apologetic. It then turns to the third century to show the concern for unity between the Hebrew prophets and the Christian Gospel. Finally, it compares the way four major Christian exegetes of the third and fourth centuries, traditionally separated into the opposing hermeneutical camps of Alexandria and Antioch, interpreted Isaiah’s vision of God, to argue that differing theological positions had come to influence the interpretation of Scripture more than differing hermeneutical procedures.

scholarly journals “Why Should i not State my opinion, right or Wrong?” Considerations for Literary Criticism in the Letters of Pliny the Younger

2021 ◽  
Vol 60 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 105-119
Author(s):  
Ágnes Darab
Keyword(s):  
Literary Criticism ◽  
The Self ◽  
First Century ◽  
Essential Component ◽  
Pliny The Younger ◽  
Literary Techniques ◽  
The Way

SummaryLiterary self is an essential component of Pliny’s self-representation. Pliny’s literary self-portrait is shaped the way he wants it to be by a diverse set of literary techniques utilized in the letters. My paper explores the questions formulated in the letters that thematize the selection and composition of text, and the answers given to them (not necessarily in the form of assertive sentences). This interpretation is not independent from the self-representative character of the letters, yet, it exceeds it on the premise that another dimension may be opened to the understanding of the letters, which points towards the development of the literary and artistic taste of the first century, and its directions.

Considerations about the Theological Meaning of Migration in the Book of Acts

2021 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 87-117
Author(s):  
Meiken Antje Buchholz
Keyword(s):  
Culturally Diverse ◽  
The Self ◽  
First Century ◽  
Christian Community ◽  
Global Migration ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
Christian Churches ◽  
Theological Perspective ◽  
Book Of Acts ◽  
Christian Denomination

Abstract Through the migration movements at the beginning of the twenty-first century, the significance of global migration has become a mainstream topic in discourses of almost every Christian denomination. How migration and related phenomena are approached by Christian churches and mission movements, is influenced by their theological interpretations of these issues. Beyond sociological and mission-strategical considerations, it is, therefore, necessary to reflect on a theological perspective on migration and diaspora-life. The article argues that a function of Stephen's speech in Acts 7 is to provide the followers of Christ with a new hermeneutics for their experiences of displacement and life in culturally diverse societies. It elaborates the theological consequences for the self-understanding of the early Christian community as a transcultural community and its emerging ecclesiology in the Book of Acts. Some concluding practical considerations sketch out how the theological meaning of migration which is laid out in Acts relates to missiological issues in multicultural contexts.ZusammenfassungAufgrund der Migrationsbewegungen zu Beginn des 21. Jahrhunderts wird die Bedeutung der globalen Migration heute in so gut wie allen christlichen Denominationen diskutiert. Wie christliche Kirchen und Missionsbewegungen mit Migration und damit verwandten Phänomenen umgehen, hängt auch von ihrer theologischen Perspektive auf diese Themen ab. Darum ist es notwendig, über soziologische und missionsstrategische Überlegungen hinaus auch theologische Deutungen von Migration und Diaspora-Existenz zu reflektieren. Dieser Artikel vertritt die These, dass eine Funktion der Stephanusrede in Apostelgeschichte 7 darin besteht, den Nachfolgern Jesu Christi eine neue hermeneutische Perspektive für Erfahrungen von Vertreibung und einem Leben in kulturell pluralen Kontexten zu vermitteln. Es werden die theologischen Konsequenzen für das Selbstverständnis der ersten christlichen Gemeinden als transkulturelle Gemeinschaften sowie für ihre heranwachsende Ekklesiologie in der Apostelgeschichte herausgearbeitet. Einige abschließende Bemerkungen skizzieren, wie die in der Apostelgeschichte angelegte theologische Bedeutung von Migration auf aktuelle missiologische Fragestellungen in multikulturellen Kontexten bezogen werden kann.RésuméAvec les mouvements migratoires du début du XXIe siècle, le sens à donner à ce phénomène de migration globale est devenu un thème dominant dans les débats d’à peu près toutes les dénominations. La manière dont les Églises et les missions chrétiennes abordent la migration et tout ce qui l’accompagne dépend de leur interprétation théologique de ces réalités. Au-delà des considérations touchant à la sociologie et à la stratégie missionnaire, il est donc nécessaire de réfléchir à une perspective théologique de la migration et de l’exil. L’article soutient qu’une fonction du discours d’Étienne en Actes 7 est de fournir aux disciples de Christ une nouvelle façon de lire leur expérience de déplacement et de vie dans des sociétés aux cultures diverses. Il développe les conséquences théologiques: la façon dont la communauté chrétienne primitive s’est vue en tant que communauté transculturelle et dont s’est dégagée son ecclésiologie dans le livre des Actes. Pour conclure, il propose quelques conclusions pratiques esquissant le lien existant entre l’interprétation théologique de la migration telle que décrite en Actes et les questions de la mission dans des contextes multiculturels.

Vérités et Mensonges

2020 ◽  
Vol 39 (2) ◽  
pp. 188-224
Author(s):  
Erik Gunderson
Keyword(s):  
Theory And Practice ◽  
The Self ◽  
Faithful Representation ◽  
Political Subject ◽  
Concrete Reality ◽  
Hermeneutic Process ◽  
The Way

This is a survey of some of the problems surrounding imperial panegyric. It includes discussions of both the theory and practice of imperial praise. The evidence is derived from readings of Cicero, Quintilian, Pliny, the Panegyrici Latini, Menander Rhetor, and Julian the Apostate. Of particular interest is insincere speech that would be appreciated as insincere. What sort of hermeneutic process is best suited to texts that are politically consequential and yet relatively disconnected from any obligation to offer a faithful representation of concrete reality? We first look at epideictic as a genre. The next topic is imperial praise and its situation “beyond belief” as well as the self-positioning of a political subject who delivers such praise. This leads to a meditation on the exculpatory fictions that these speakers might tell themselves about their act. A cynical philosophy of Caesarism, its arbitrariness, and its constructedness abets these fictions. Julian the Apostate receives the most attention: he wrote about Caesars, he delivered extant panegyrics, and he is also the man addressed by still another panegyric. And in the end we find ourselves to be in a position to appreciate the way that power feeds off of insincerity and grows stronger in its presence.

The Quranic Jesus: Prophet and Scapegoat

2019 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 183-220
Author(s):  
John Ranieri
Keyword(s):  
Major Theme ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Christian Understanding ◽  
The Way

A major theme in René Girard’s work involves the role of the Bible in exposing the scapegoating practices at the basis of culture. The God of the Bible is understood to be a God who takes the side of victims. The God of the Qur’an is also a defender of victims, an idea that recurs throughout the text in the stories of messengers and prophets. In a number of ways, Jesus is unique among the prophets mentioned in the Qur’an. It is argued here that while the Quranic Jesus is distinctly Islamic, and not a Christian derivative, he functions in the Qur’an in a way analogous to the role Jesus plays in the gospels. In its depiction of Jesus, the Qur’an is acutely aware of mimetic rivalry, scapegoating, and the God who comes to the aid of the persecuted. Despite the significant differences between the Christian understanding of Jesus as savior and the way he is understood in the Qur’an, a Girardian interpretation of the Qur’anic Jesus will suggest ways in which Jesus can be a bridge rather than an obstacle in Christian/Muslim dialogue.

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