The Doctrine of the Christian Faith

2020 ◽  
pp. 147-179
Author(s):  
Frederick C. Beiser
Keyword(s):  
New Testament ◽  
Christian Theology ◽  
Christian Faith ◽  
Existence Of God ◽  
Main Work ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
Historical Reliability ◽  
The Trinity ◽  
Christian Beliefs

Chapter 11 provides an account of Strauß’s main work on Christian theology, his 1840 Die christliche Glaubenslehre. This work was Strauß’s critique of Christian dogma and therefore concerned more than the historical reliability of the New Testament. But the work was marred by a deep ambivalence: Strauβ‎’s work was meant as a compendium and therefore needed to provide the student with an introduction to Christian dogma; but Strauß also had deep personal reservations about Christianity which resurface in the text. The work contains a severe critique of the Christian beliefs in miracles, immortality, the trinity, and incarnation; but it also provides a demonstration of the existence of God. Though Strauß now distances himself from Hegel, he still does not completely disavow him.

The Eschatology of Tertullian

1952 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 108-122 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jaroslav Pelikan
Keyword(s):  
New Testament ◽  
Christian Theology ◽  
Systematic Theology ◽  
Past Generation ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Subject ◽  
History Of Theology ◽  
Historical Theology ◽  
The Trinity

One of the most important results of the New Testament study that has gone on during the past generation is its realization that the theology of the New Testament is unintelligible outside the context of its eschatological message. The precise meaning of that message is still the subject of much investigation and controversy, but its importance has become a matter of general agreement among New Testament students. Much less general is the realization of the implications of this insight for other areas of theological concern. Rudolf Bultmann's recent essay on mythology and the New Testament has served to raise again the question of the relevance of New Testament eschatology for systematic theology. That question has far-reaching implications for the study of the history of theology as well, implications with which historical theology has not yet come to terms. The relation between primitive Christian eschatology and the development of ancient Christian theology is a problem deserving of more study than the standard interpretations of the history of dogma have given it, for it can help iiluminate the origins of such dogmas as the Trinity and ancient Christology. Among the historians of dogma, only Martin Werner has taken up the problem in great detail, and his discussion of it has not yet issued in any new historico-theological synthesis.

FIFTY YEARS ON FROM HONEST TO GOD (1963) AND OBJECTIONS TO CHRISTIAN BELIEF (1963)

Think ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 12 (35) ◽  
pp. 83-91
Author(s):  
George A. Wells
Keyword(s):  
New Testament ◽  
Christian Faith ◽  
Christian Belief ◽  
Older Children ◽  
Prayer Book ◽  
The Bible ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
Christian Beliefs

Bishop John A.T. Robinson's Honest to God was exceptionally successful. In the decade following its publication more than a million copies were sold in seventeen different languages. Robinson was aware that numerous awkward questions were being asked about traditional Christian beliefs, which it was no longer possible to ignore. His purpose was not so much to question traditional ideas of God as to suggest alternatives for those who found them unsatisfactory (8). He wanted to convince such persons that an inability to believe what is stated in the Bible or the prayer book does not disqualify them from calling themselves Christians and presenting themselves at church. He speaks of traditional Christian beliefs, as stated in the New Testament, as a ‘language’ (24) and thinks that Christianity should be conveyed to people in a variety of languages. By employing, as he does, the language of such Christian scholars as Bonhoeffer, Tillich and Bultmann, an atheist may find himself able to call himself a Christian. But the old familiar language of the Bible remains more pleasing to most of God's children, particularly to his ‘older children’ (43), so we must not give it up, although he allows that it is becoming increasingly unpopular, so that without ‘the kind of revolution’ he is advocating, ‘Christian faith and practice … will come to be abandoned’ (123).

Hellenistic Christian Traditions in Romans 6?

1983 ◽  
Vol 29 (3) ◽  
pp. 337-355 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. J. M. Wedderburn
Keyword(s):  
New Testament ◽  
Christian Faith ◽  
Vanishing Point ◽  
Sacramental Theology ◽  
Mystery Religions ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
Squeeze Out ◽  
Hellenistic Judaism ◽  
Christian Beliefs

My primary purpose in handling this topic is to investigate the question of Paul's indebtedness to Hellenistic traditions and above all to the theology of the mystery religions. Not that I think it likely that he was directly influenced by the latter; it seems to me that A. D. Nock's arguments from the vocabulary of the New Testament, and particularly from that of the Pauline homologoumena, are too cogent for that. Rather the question must be one of the indebtedness of Paul to this milieu via Hellenistic Judaism or his more Hellenized predecessors in the Christian faith or both. And for investigating this problem Romans 6 is of prime importance, being one of the principal strands of evidence for some that the Christian beliefs of some predecessors of Paul were characterized by ‘Hellenistic enthusiasm’, beliefs which Paul then countered in this chapter. For it is widely held that Paul here corrects an enthusiastic view of an already realized resurrection, usually regarded as derived, at least indirectly, from the sacramental theology of the mysteries. Others, however, play down the clash, arguing that Paul simply assimilates such traditions, from whatever source, into his own theology; others, as we shall see, go further still and squeeze out the traces of traditional material from this chapter almost to vanishing point.

Is Cornelius Van Til’s Apologetic Method Christian, or Merely Theistic?

2003 ◽  
Vol 75 (3) ◽  
pp. 257-268
Author(s):  
John J. Johnson
Keyword(s):  
New Testament ◽  
Christian Faith ◽  
Existence Of God ◽  
Effective Manner ◽  
Objective Evidence ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
Truth Claims ◽  
Christian Apologetics ◽  
Van Til

This paper compares J. W. Montgomery’s evidentialist approach to apologetics to Cornelius Van Til’s presuppositional approach. My position is that Van Til’s system is only theistic; it may support the existence of ‘God,’ but it does not prove the existence of the Christian God. In fact, Van Til’s method could just as easily be used by a Muslim apologist to assert the validity of Islam. This is because Van Til refuses to allow objective evidence to have any place in Christian apologetics. Because of this, he offers the non-theist no way of judging between the truth claims of Christianity and other religions. In fact, the most powerful weapon in the Christian apologist’s arsenal, the resurrection of Christ, cannot be used in an effective manner. This is in direct contradiction to the New Testament itself, where the resurrection is often used evidentially to validate the Christian faith.

Paschal-Eucharistic Soundings: Intimations and Challenges

2011 ◽  
Vol 76 (4) ◽  
pp. 357-369
Author(s):  
Anne Hunt
Keyword(s):  
New Testament ◽  
The Self ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
The Trinity

The founding paschal narrative in the New Testament and the liturgy of the Eucharist continue to afford fresh insights into the mystery of the Trinity. This article first re-visits this mystery as gleaned from these two privileged sources. Having examined the hypostatic traits manifest there in the paschal drama, notably the self-giving, self-surrendering love, which characterizes the trinitarian communion and the receptivity, obedience, and Fatherwardness of the Son, the article proceeds to consider some of the challenges that these trinitarian soundings pose to contemporary theology, in particular, for feminist theologies and the values espoused therein.

The Church of the Reigning Lord

1948 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 66-73
Author(s):  
R. Stuart Louden
Keyword(s):  
New Testament ◽  
Old Testament ◽  
Christian Theology ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Biblical Scholarship ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
Pauline Epistles ◽  
History Of ◽  
Four Square ◽  
The Church

We can trace a revival of theology in the Reformed Churches in the last quarter of a century. The new theological interest merits being called a revival of theology, for there has been a fresh and more thorough attention given to certain realities, either ignored or treated with scant notice for a considerable time previously.First among such realities now receiving more of the attention which their relevance and authority deserve, is the Bible, the record of the Word of God. There is an invigorating and convincing quality about theology which is Biblical throughout, being based on the witness of the Scriptures as a whole. The valuable results of careful Biblical scholarship had had an adverse effect on theology in so far as theologians had completely separated the Old Testament from the New in their treatment of Biblical doctrine, or in expanding Christian doctrine, had spoken of the theological teaching of the Synoptic Gospels, the Pauline Epistles, the Johannine writings, and so on, as if there were no such thing as one common New Testament witness. It is being seen anew that the Holy Scriptures contain a complete history of God's saving action. The presence of the complete Bible open at the heart of the Church, recalls each succeeding Christian generation to that one history of God's saving action, to which the Church is the living witness. The New Testament is one, for its Lord is one, and Christian theology must stand four-square on the foundation of its whole teaching.

scholarly journals Faith and the Fourth Gospel: A Conversation with Teresa Morgan

2018 ◽  
Vol 40 (3) ◽  
pp. 289-298
Author(s):  
Judith M. Lieu
Keyword(s):  
New Testament ◽  
Christian Faith ◽  
Fourth Gospel ◽  
The New Testament

In Roman Faith and Christian Faith Teresa Morgan brings a classicist’s sensitivities to a subject that lies at the heart of the New Testament but that is often taken as self-evident. This article engages in a conversation with its insights, with particular reference to the Johannine literature. It suggests that more nuancing might be needed, not least from a recognition of the demands of the genre of the gospel, but also finds much to provoke further reflection.

Hasker’s Tri-Personal God vs. New Testament Theology

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 153-177
Author(s):  
Dale Tuggy
Keyword(s):  
New Testament ◽  
Strong Evidence ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
Triune God ◽  
Social Trinity ◽  
The One ◽  
Catholic Tradition ◽  
The Trinity

Hasker’s “social” Trinity theory is subject to considerable philosophical problems (Section II). More importantly, the theory clashes with the clear New Testament teaching that the one God just is the Father alone (Section III). Further, in light of five undeniable facts about the New Testament texts, we can know that the authors of the New Testament thought that the only God was just the Father himself, not the Trinity (Section IV). Hasker can neither deny these facts nor defeat the strong evidence they provide that in affirming a triune God in the late 4th century, catholic tradition departed from apostolic teaching about the one God (Section V).

Duns Scotus

2019 ◽  
pp. 69-80
Author(s):  
Richard Cross
Keyword(s):  
Twelfth Century ◽  
Christian Faith ◽  
Existence Of God ◽  
Duns Scotus ◽  
Immaculate Conception ◽  
Doctrine Of The Trinity ◽  
The Trinity ◽  
Original Thinker

After a brief summary of Duns Scotus’ life and works, this chapter offers an overview of Scotus’ theology, showing how Scotus’ principal theological aim was theoretical generality: the attempt to treat of God and creatures using the same metaphysical tools—in particular, the same theories of unity and distinction. Despite his status as a radically innovative and original thinker, Scotus’ debt to twelfth-century theology is also highlighted, along with the aim, shared with these earlier theologians, of showing as much as possible of the Christian faith without appeal to revelation. Topics covered include: the theory of individuation, the coherence of the doctrine of the Trinity, the proof for the existence of God as a Trinity of persons, the univocity of being, the Immaculate Conception, Christocentrism, will and freedom, and the doctrine of grace.

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