Introduction

2018 ◽  
pp. 1-8
Author(s):  
William J. Abraham
Keyword(s):  
Systematic Theology ◽  
Current Crisis ◽  
Christian Teaching ◽  
The Reformation ◽  
Theology And Philosophy ◽  
The Church ◽  
Normative Account

Systematic theology aims to provide a constructive, normative account of Christian teaching for today. It tackles the big themes of theology that begin with issues of prolegomena and proceeds through the classical loci from Trinity to eschatology. It should not be confused with work in the epistemology of theology, an arena that requires its own sub-disciplinary site placed at the intersection of theology and philosophy. The current crisis of identity in theology which is brought home afresh by celebrations related to the Reformation requires a fresh approach. This approach sees theology as arising inescapably and naturally in the church and in the life of faith but also readily belongs in the contemporary university.

Prolegomena

2018 ◽  
pp. 24-38
Author(s):  
William J. Abraham
Keyword(s):  
Kingdom Of God ◽  
Systematic Theology ◽  
Divine Revelation ◽  
Christian Teaching ◽  
Central Elements ◽  
Intellectual Discipline ◽  
The Church ◽  
Theology Proper

Systematic theology is an intellectual discipline for insiders which presupposes the canonical faith of the church embedded in the creeds. This in turn assumes an understanding of the Gospel and serious initiation into the kingdom of God. As an intellectual discipline, systematic theology requires various modes of thinking: expository, hermeneutical, constructive, and apologetic. Epistemological issues can be mentioned but must not be allowed to marginalize the great themes of theology. In this work, the author draws on Scripture understood as a medium of divine revelation, experience, and reason. Yet the aim is to stick to theology proper and return to focused work on the central elements of Christian teaching.

Law and Protestantism in Denmark

2016 ◽  
Vol 102 (1) ◽  
pp. 406-418
Author(s):  
Ditlev Tamm
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Law ◽  
Marriage Law ◽  
The Reformation ◽  
The Law ◽  
The Concept Of Law ◽  
The Church ◽  
Concept Of Law ◽  
Catholic Bishops

Abstract This contribution deals with the influence of the Reformation on the law in Denmark. The Reformation was basically a reform of the church, but it also affected the concept of law and state in general. In 1536, King Christian III dismissed the catholic bishops and withheld the property of the church. The king, as custos duarum tabularum, guardian of both the tablets of law, also took over the legislation for the church. Especially in subjects of morals and criminal law new principles and statutes were enacted. Copenhagen University was reformed into a protestant seminary even though the former faculties were maintained. For that task Johannes Bugenhagen was summoned who also drafted the new church ordinance of 1537. In marriage law protestant principles were introduced. A marriage order was established in 1582.

‘The healthe of my soule’

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicola Clark
Keyword(s):  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
Early Stage ◽  
The Reformation ◽  
The Family ◽  
Kinship Relations ◽  
Royal Supremacy ◽  
The Church

Throughout the sixteenth century and beyond, the Howards are usually described as religiously ‘conservative’, resisting the reformist impulse of the Reformation while conforming to the royal supremacy over the Church. The women of the family have played little part in this characterization, yet they too lived through the earliest stages of the Reformation. This chapter shows that what we see is not a family following the lead of its patriarch in religious matters at this early stage of the Reformation, but that this did not stop them maintaining strong kinship relations across the shifting religious spectrum.

scholarly journals The Impact of the Church–State Model for an Effective Guarantee of Religious Freedom: A Study of the Peruvian Experience during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Laws ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 40
Author(s):  
Susana Mosquera
Keyword(s):  
Religious Freedom ◽  
Current Crisis ◽  
Dual Nature ◽  
Legal Model ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Right ◽  
Institutional Guarantee ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Individual Dimension ◽  
The Church

During the COVID-19 pandemic, many governments established important restrictions on religious freedom. Due to a restrictive interpretation of the right to religious freedom, religion was placed in the category of “non-essential activity” and was, therefore, unprotected. Within this framework, this paper tries to offer a reflection on the relevance of the dual nature of religious freedom as an individual and collective right, since the current crisis has made it clear that the individual dimension of religious freedom is vulnerable when the legal model does not offer an adequate institutional guarantee to the collective dimension of religious freedom.

The Political Theory of the Disruption

1916 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 437-464 ◽  
Author(s):  
Harold J. Laski
Keyword(s):  
Political Theory ◽  
Political Authority ◽  
The State ◽  
The Political ◽  
The Reformation ◽  
Secular Society ◽  
The One ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Political Principles ◽  
The Church

“Of political principles,” says a distinguished authority, “whether they be those of order or of freedom, we must seek in religious and quasi-theological writings for the highest and most notable expressions.” No one, in truth, will deny the accuracy of this claim for those ages before the Reformation transferred the centre of political authority from church to state. What is too rarely realised is the modernism of those writings in all save form. Just as the medieval state had to fight hard for relief from ecclesiastical trammels, so does its modern exclusiveness throw the burden of a kindred struggle upon its erstwhile rival. The church, intelligibly enough, is compelled to seek the protection of its liberties lest it become no more than the religious department of an otherwise secular society. The main problem, in fact, for the political theorist is still that which lies at the root of medieval conflict. What is the definition of sovereignty? Shall the nature and personality of those groups of which the state is so formidably one be regarded as in its gift to define? Can the state tolerate alongside itself churches which avow themselves societates perfectae, claiming exemption from its jurisdiction even when, as often enough, they traverse the field over which it ploughs? Is the state but one of many, or are those many but parts of itself, the one?

Thomas Arundel as Archbishop of Canterbury, 1396–1414

1973 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 9-21 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard G. Davies
Keyword(s):  
Medieval England ◽  
Political Involvement ◽  
Considerable Success ◽  
Repeated Calls ◽  
The Reformation ◽  
The Church

The appearance of the contemporary archbishop of Canterbury in the crises and conflicts of later medieval England has never surprised historians. For not only by tradition but in terms of real political weight the archbishop, unlike his brother of York, had a part to play in the affairs of the realm which he could scarcely hope to avoid, no matter how invidious. Appointed almost invariably with the close and usually decisive interest of the Crown in mind, the archbishop could anticipate repeated calls from the Crown for his support, counsel and service. However, thoughtful contemporaries and broadminded historians alike have for the most part been at pains to put this particular aspect into the wider context of the archiepiscopal function as a whole; the approaching cloud of the Reformation has not deceived historians into underestimating the considerable stature and merits of the metropolitans of this period. Whatever unsatisfactory reasons of state, ambition or faction lay behind their promotion, almost to a man they performed their arduous duties, with their diverse and often contradictory obligations, with good intent, frequent self-sacrifice and more often than not considerable success, at least in the eyes of the orthodox churchmen of their own time. If their political appearances alone have entered the textbooks, closer observers have been aware that the care of the Church was their first concern, and political involvement a distraction and a burden. At times the service of two masters posed its dilemmas, but usually the Crown preserved the archiepiscopal position by a fundamental respect for its other loyalties to God, the pope and the Church, and did not call for an irrevocable commitment fracturing these obligations.

Reformation und politisch-gesellschaftliche Emanzipation

2014 ◽  
Vol 74 (2) ◽  
pp. 118-126 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bernd Oberdorfer
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
Learning Processes ◽  
Priesthood Of All Believers ◽  
Pluralistic Society ◽  
Protestant Churches ◽  
The Reformation ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Church ◽  
Modern Sense

AbstractThe relevance of the reformation for the development of modern liberty rights is much debated. Although the Protestant Reformers fought for the »Freedom of a Christian« against religious patronization, they were not tolerant in a modern sense of the term. However, the Reformation released long-term impulses which contributed to the origin and formation of a modern civil society, e. g. the respect for the autonomy of the individual over against the church, the passion for education, the emphasis on the »universal priesthood of all believers«, and the appreciation of civil professions. Long historical learning processes were necessary, though, until the Protestant churches acknowledged and adopted modern liberty rights, a participatory democracy and a pluralistic society as genuine forms of expression of a Protestant ethos.

Political Authority and Ecclesiology in Melanchthon's “De Ecclesiae Autoritate”

1996 ◽  
Vol 65 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-14
Author(s):  
Ralph Keen
Keyword(s):  
Political Authority ◽  
Christian Doctrine ◽  
The Reformation ◽  
Historical Importance ◽  
The Church

Philip Melanchthon's 1539 treatise On the Authority of the Church and the Writings of the Ancient Fathers (hereafter De ecclesiae autoritate) occupies a prominent place in the canon of his theological writings. Few texts of the Reformation period state so clearly the principles according to which the Fathers and the councils of the church may be considered authentic sources for Christian doctrine. To set the work within the canon of Melanchthon's theological work is not necessarily to say that other genres are not present in it, however. The compartmentalization of a thinker's work, while perhaps heuristically necessary, always risks distortion. The danger is all the more present with regard to an author like Melanchthon, whose intellectual interests were broad and whose historical importance is many-sided. The scope of Melanchthon's activities is broad, and so are the contexts and ramifications of his important writings. In 1960 Peter Fraenkel called De ecclesiae autoritate Melanchthon's “patrology”—not an inaccurate label, but an overly restrictive one.

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