Convincing the Doubter (Moabit 1912–13)

2021 ◽  
pp. 126-152
Author(s):  
Samuel Andrew Shearn

This chapter explores Tillich’s Moabit sermons (1912–13), apologetic evenings, and memorandum Kirchliche Apologetik. In his memorandum, Tillich calls for apologetics as an answer to the decline of the church. Tillich hopes to demonstrate atheistic monism’s philosophical error, the abyss of its autonomy, leading towards the insight that the paradox of thought (that thought alone comes to its end) is the paradox of Christianity, that thought requires foundation in Christianity. Thus the doubter is convinced, but not justified. In Tillich’s Moabit sermons, the answer to doubt is Christ, the image of God in the soul.

Diacovensia ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 27 (4) ◽  
pp. 637-651
Author(s):  
Wiesław Przygoda

Charity diaconia of the Church is not an accidental involvement but belongs to its fundamental missions. This thesis can be supported in many ways. The author of this article finds the source of the obligation of Christians and the whole Church community to charity service in the nature of God. For Christians God is Love (1 John 4, 8.16). Even though some other names can be found, (Jahwe , Elohim, Adonai), his principal name that encapsulates all other ones is Love. Simultaneously, God which is Love showed his merciful nature (misericordiae vultus) in the course of salvation. He did it in a historical, visible and optimal way through his Son, Jesus Christ through the embodied God’s Son, Jesus Christ, who loved the mankind so much that he sacrificed his life for us, being tortured and killed at the cross. This selfless love laid the foundations for the Church, which, in essence, is a community of loving human and God’s beings. Those who do not love, even though they joined the Church through baptism, technically speaking, do not belong to the Church since love is a real not a formal sign of belonging to Christ’s disciples (cf. John 13, 35). Therefore, charitable activity is a significant dimension of the Church’s mission as it is through charity that the Church shows the merciful nature of its Saviour. A question that needs to be addressed may be expressed as follows: in what way the image of God, who is love, implies an involvement in charity of an individual and the Church? An answer may be found in the Bible, writings of the Church Fathers of and the documents of Magisterium Ecclesiae and especially the teachings of Pope Benedict XVI and Pope Francis.


2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (14) ◽  
pp. 92-97
Author(s):  
Edvica POPA ◽  

The notion of divine image is generously described by the patristic literature, each of the authors trying to identify the content of this special characteristic of human being, considered (in different positions) the defining element of the created rational being, indicating the possibility of opening to God not through something external, but from the inside of the human being. Since when they speak of God, the Church Fathers do not consider the reality of the one being, but that of the three persons, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, as well as when the question of the image of God is raised, they emphasize that this the image by which human nature is conformed is the image of the Son, or the image of the Word. In this article I set out to draw some points on this patristic feature of the Eastern Fathers.


2007 ◽  
Vol 43 ◽  
pp. 69-79
Author(s):  
Stuart George Hall

The pathologically pious heresy-hunter Epiphanius, bishop of Salamis from 365 to 403, might be reckoned a champion of uniformity in the Church. Notoriously he promoted the campaign against Origen in Palestine, and in his Panarion attacks Origen’s theology at length. Never the brightest of the Fathers, he was confused by the question of the image of God in man. He comes to it when considering the sect of Audians, who were anthropomorphites; that is, they held God to have a bodily form which the human body replicates. According to Genesis 1: 26–7, God made man, male and female, in (after, according to) the image and likeness of God When Epiphanius gets to the detail of the Audian argument, it is plain that they argued from the use in Scripture of bodily language about God’s eyes, hand, feet, and other organs, and from the Lord’s appearances to Moses and the prophets, to demonstrate his bodily shape. Epiphanius can refute this in detail, but is aware of other suggestions about wherein what is ‘in the image’ consists, and regards none as wholly coherent with orthodox faith and Scripture. He mentions the theories that it is the soul that is in the image, or that it is virtue, or that it is the grace received in baptism, or that it applied to Adam only before his sin.


1976 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 69-80 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark D. Keyser ◽  
Gary R. Collins

The study investigated similarities between the concept of Cod and the image of the parents in evangelical Protestants. The results were then compared with a previous study done with Catholic subjects. The study found that among evangelicals the image of God was rated equally high on maternal and paternal items. This suggests that God is perceived as a well integrated parental image by evangelicals. When compared with Catholics, it was found that evangelicals perceived God as more maternal. The possible effects of the Mother Mary figure on the divine image as an explanation for this difference are considered. Furthermore, it was found that evangelicals also perceived God as more paternal than did Catholics. It is suggested that this indicates that evangelicals understand God as a parental figure while Catholics perceive Him as an institutional figure. Implications are drawn for Christian education in both the church and home.


1993 ◽  
Vol 49 (1/2) ◽  
Author(s):  
L. Steyn ◽  
J. H. Koekemoer

Sally McFague’s image of God: A critical evaluation In the past decade, many feminist publications on the image of God have seen the light of day. This article concentrates on the viewpoint of Sally McFague in addressing the problem of God-language. It attempts to poin t ou t the positive and negative aspects of McFague’s images of God-as-Mother, God-as-Lover and God-as-Friend. Finally, it aims to pinpoint the value of the feminist viewpoint for theological discussion in general and the proclamation of the church today in particular.


Numen ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 63 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 210-244
Author(s):  
Anne Karahan

Monumental picture programs of Byzantine churches exist within a spatial and liturgical setting of rituals that depend on circumstances that create a distinction from profane to sacred. The core theme is the epic narrative of the holy drama of the incarnated son, i.e., the image of God (eikon tou theou), acknowledged as indivisibly as much human as divine. In a Byzantine religious sense, images of Christ prove the incarnation, yet human salvation depends on faith in the incarnation but also in the transcendent unknowable God. From the perspective of visual culture, the dilemma is that divine nature is, in a religious sense, transcendent and unknowable, beyond words and categorizations, unintelligible, as opposed to human nature, which is intelligible. This article concerns the strategy of Byzantine visual culture to weave together expressible and inexpressible in order to acknowledge “right belief,” without trespassing the theology and mode of thought of the church fathers on the triune mystery of the Christian God and the incarnation. In a Byzantine religious sense, circumscribed by time and space, the human condition is inconsistent with cognition ofwhat God is. Nonetheless, salvation depends on faith inthat God is, a “fact” acknowledged through holy images. Particular theoretical and methodological focus will be on how the three fourth-century Cappadocian fathers and Dionysius the Areopagite, but also Maximus the Confessor discuss God’s unintelligibility but also intelligibility, with some comparative Platonic outlooks.


2014 ◽  
Vol 45 (127) ◽  
pp. 399
Author(s):  
Maria Clara Lucchetti Bingemer

A autora propõe uma leitura da Eucaristia a partir da perspectiva do corpo feminino, admitindo uma estreita afinidade simbólica entre ambos. Ela lembra que, enquanto sinal da identidade da mulher e objeto de discriminação, o corpo feminino constitui uma interpelação lançada à sociedade e à Igreja. Após passar em revista alguns textos-chave da tradição eclesial em que o corpo feminino esteve associado à imagem de Deus, a autora examina três exemplos desta afinidade simbólica: as mães da Plaza de Mayo na Argentina, uma mãe pobre no nordeste do Brasil e o itinerário existencial de Simone Weil. Ao final, a autora salienta a rica contribuição que o corpo feminino pode oferecer à compreensão da Eucaristia em âmbito não apenas teológico, mas também político.ABSTRACT: The author proposes a reading of the Eucharist from the perspective of the female body, admitting a close affinity between both items. She remembers that, as a sign of women’s identity and object of discrimination, the female body is a challenge projected to society and to the Church. After reviewing some key texts of the ecclesial tradition in which the female body was associated to the image of God, the author examines three examples of this symbolic affinity: the mothers of the Plaza Mayo in Argentina, a poor mother in northeastern Brazil and the existential itinerary of Simone Weil. In the end, the author stresses the rich contribution that the female body can provide in the understanding of the Eucharist in not only a theological scope, but also in a political scope. 


MELINTAS ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 35 (2) ◽  
pp. 195-218
Author(s):  
Yanuarius Muni

Fake news spreads quickly and changes situations in the society. It has become a sort of linguistic violence circulating negative ideologies and perspectives that slowly destroy people both mentally and physically. The growing tendency of circulating fake news raises a serious problem in the society and moreover among Christians, for important human values, including religious values, are disregarded. Christian understanding of human beings as created in the image of God implies that they have the capacity to use good words to build a sacred society, that is, a society blessed by God. However, the tendency to retrieve and to disseminate information too quickly occurs almost automatically in this age of information, which ironically threatens every good intention of the self in building a trusting community. This article explores the elements of Christian communication based on the Church teachings on the subject matter, in order to counter the tendency of desacralisation of the self on social media and to promote truthful as well as deliberating communication in the society.


Vox Patrum ◽  
2004 ◽  
Vol 46 ◽  
pp. 511-525
Author(s):  
Elżbieta Kotkowska

Analyzing the work of St Gregory of Nyssa, in the first approximation we can say that he is a typical representative of his age. In the theology of the 4th century the power of God as the absolute ruler was emphasized more than his other attributes, so the image of God did not show him as the One who reigns through humility. In this regard, it is worthwhile to draw attention to a small, polemic treatise In illud: tunc ipse filius of St Gregory, in which his understanding of God's omnipotence receives a deeper dimension that appears to the modern man. In his work, this Father of the Church comments on one verse from the Letter of St Paul to the Corinthians: „And when everything is subjected to him, then the Son himself with be subject in his tum to the One who subjected alt things to him, so that God may be all in all" (1 Cor 15, 28; KJ). The problem which preoccupied Gregory of Nyssa, was the incorrect opinion or heresy of Arius and his followers. According to them, the Son is subjected to God, by the rule of creation, so He cannot be equal to God the Father and, in this way, He is not God. One from the crown arguments, which the Arians used were St. Paul’s words from his Letter to the Corinthians. However, the Bishop of Nyssa shows, that exactly this quotation, from the historical-salvific perspective, emphasizes the divinity of Christ. He portrays to us the Son who is subjected to God's vivifying power and the Father who receives the Son's subjection in His human nature. So, in this way, God is omnipotent on the cross, as a humble man. The image of God, which emerges from Gregory's theology, allows us to include his voice into present discussion of God's omnipotence and man's free will.


2008 ◽  
Vol 42 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
J. L. Helberg

The extraordinary birth of Jesus Christ and the reign of his church, especially regarding women The issue whether there is room for women in the special ser- vices of the church, especially as elder, is currently corespons- ible for tension within the Reformed Churches in South Africa (RCSA). The ruling task of the church is closely linked with the way God rules his people and with what the relation between Him and his people is. The book of Matthew shows that there is an essential unity but also a drastic difference between the Old Testament and the New Testament dispensations in this regard. This article investigates at what dominates both dispen- sations and how they differ concerning this. Sin disrupted humanness and harmony fundamentally and in the most intimate relations. In the old dispensation power was inter alia exercised by force, for example in slavery and disregard of women’s full humanness. The birth of Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit from a woman without a man is the fulfilment of the Old Testament promises. All believers without difference in class or gender are recreated by Jesus Christ as the image of God and are reinstated in a personal relation with Him. Exercise of power over others, like in male domination of women and in earthly kingship and slavery makes room for being serviceable. Jesus Christ exercises his authority in a serving way. Especially his church must rule in a serving way by acknowledging Him as Head and testifying about his life, death and resurrection as contained in his Word. A believing woman is just as well equiped for this as a man.


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