Wolfhart Pannenberg

2018 ◽  
pp. 486-504
Author(s):  
Friedericke Nuessel
Keyword(s):  
Kingdom Of God ◽  
The Body ◽  
Political Order ◽  
Systematic Theology ◽  
Body Of Christ ◽  
Civil State ◽  
Wolfhart Pannenberg ◽  
The One ◽  
The Church

This chapter describes the development of Wolfhart Pannenberg’s ecclesiology in his early work and explores his fully developed ecclesiology in the Systematic Theology of 1993. It analyses the fundamental role of the church to be a sign and foretaste of the kingdom of God. This involves a constitutive self-distinction of the church from any political order or civil state on the one hand and from the future kingdom of God on the other. Moreover, the chapter emphasizes the simultaneity of individual salvation and incorporation into the church as the body of Christ in Pannenberg, and demonstrates the ecclesiological task to overcome the divisions between churches in order to witness to the unity, holiness, catholicity, and apostolicity of the church.

scholarly journals Die karakter van die kerk in perspektief van huidige teologiese besinning

1990 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 199-208
Author(s):  
P. C. Potgieter
Keyword(s):  
Kingdom Of God ◽  
The Body ◽  
Body Of Christ ◽  
Community Of Faith ◽  
Ecclesiastical Law ◽  
The World ◽  
Theological Thought ◽  
The Church ◽  
Apostolic Community

The character of the church - a perspective on current theological thought The role of the church in society is currently much focused upon in theological thought. The author analyses various characteristics of the church with reference to views of well known theologians. As community of faith it is the body of Christ revealed very visibly in the world representing the kingdom of God. For that very reason the idea of a national church is unacceptable. The church is one, catholic and apostolic community, even particularly in its visible form. Though Scripture gives no clear guidelines on the structure of the church, there are many general biblical norms to be considered in ecclesiastical law and government.

Pro-Nicene prosopology and the church in Augustine's preaching on John 3:13

2014 ◽  
Vol 67 (3) ◽  
pp. 253-264
Author(s):  
Adam Ployd
Keyword(s):  
The Body ◽  
Body Of Christ ◽  
Christian Life ◽  
Grammatical Subject ◽  
Central Tenet ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The One ◽  
The Church ◽  
Complex Subject

AbstractJohn 3:13 presents a grammatical and theological problem for Augustine. If the only one who ascends to heaven is the one who descended, namely Christ, then what becomes of the Christian life of ascent? To unpack Augustine's solution to this problem, this article explores his use of John 3:13 in his anti-Donatist sermons of 406–7. Here Augustine uses the grammatical method of prosopological exegesis both to identify and to solve the problem of Christ's solo ascent. Prosopology asks of a text, ‘Who is speaking? To whom is he speaking? And about whom is he speaking?’ in order to parse the sometimes ambiguous personae within a dramatic scene. Through this method, Augustine affirms that Christ is indeed speaking about himself alone, but the reflexive subject of Christ includes the church who is his body. The Christian life of ascent to God requires that we become participants in the subject of Christ's ‘I’. Building on the work of ‘New Canon’ Augustine scholarship, I argue that this use of John 3:13 to espouse the unity of the church in the body of Christ is founded upon a pro-Nicene understanding of the revelatory and epistemological role of the Son. The ability of Christ fully to reveal the Father is a central tenet of Latin pro-Nicene refutations of homoian christologies, and this revelation of the Father's Word through Christ's incarnation is accomplished in our union with that Word through his body. Based on this pro-Nicene affirmation of epistemological salvation through Christ, Augustine then uses John 3:13 to condemn the Donatists for damning themselves by separating from the body of Christ. The oneness of the ecclesial body of Christ is predicated upon the oneness of Christ himself because it is into his complex subject that we are incorporated. Separation from that unity is separation from the singular grammatical subject who ascends as Christ to the Father. Thus, Augustine's grammatical practice of prosopological exegesis to solve the problem of John 3:13 connects the pro-Nicene affirmation of Christ's revelation of the Father to an anti-Donatist defence of the necessary unity of the church. This should encourage us to consider further the ways in which pro-Nicene principles help to shape Augustine's vision of the church.

Church

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dale B. Martin
Keyword(s):  
English Word ◽  
Kingdom Of God ◽  
The Body ◽  
Body Of Christ ◽  
Ancient Greek ◽  
Christian Churches ◽  
Ancient City ◽  
Postmodern Theology ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
The Church

Chapter 7 begins by exploring what it means when Christians confess to “believe in the church. It proceeds by differentiating the church from the “kingdom of God” and comparing it to similar terms, such as the “household of God,” and the “body of Christ.” The gender of the church is explored, with arguments that Christians think of the church as male, female, neuter, androgynous, or intersexed. The English word “church” is a translation of the ancient Greek ekklêsia, a political term referring to the citizen assembly that made final decisions by democratic procedures in the ancient city. Thus the ancient political meanings of ekklesia, which included freedom, equality, and democracy, should inform postmodern theology and practice in Christian churches and denominations. Portraits of the church in the New Testament, however, should encourage Christians to reject modernist ideologies of family, nationalism, and capitalism. While avoiding Christian supersessionism over Judaism, Christians today must also avoid the oppressive politics of some forms of Zionism. Christians may also experience the church as a refuge in a sometimes hostile world. Finally, the book concludes with the church as a sacrament of eschatological hope for the future, an expectation of the coming kingdom of God.

Ratramn’s Eucharistic Doctrine and its Influence in Sixteenth-Century England

1965 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
pp. 54-77
Author(s):  
J. N. Bakhuizen Van Den Brink
Keyword(s):  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
Ninth Century ◽  
The Body ◽  
The Other ◽  
Body Of Christ ◽  
Early Middle Ages ◽  
Reliable Interpretation ◽  
The One ◽  
The Church

In the two ninth-century treatises on the Eucharist written by Paschasius Radbertus and Ratramnus two opinions are expressed which seem to be in complete contradiction with each other. Both, however, are founded in the liturgy of the Church and spring from the same orthodox root. Their doctrines, therefore, do not differ from each other in every detail of the argumentation. The one may be characterised as the realistic-metabolic doctrine, the other as the symbolic doctrine. J. R. Geiselmann in his penetrating studies of the eucharistic doctrine in the early Middle Ages prefers to distinguish between three tendencies: (1) the metabolism of St Ambrose and the Gallican liturgies; (2) the realism of the Roman liturgy; (3) the dynamism of St Augustine’s more spiritual doctrine. The most diverse answers were inspired by closer inquiries into the realisation of the sacrament, i.e. the question firstly how the conversion of the elements should be understood and, secondly, how the relation should be seen between the consecrated elements and the body of Christ ascended to heaven. In these answers the terminology used is not always the same, so that a reliable interpretation offers great difficulties.

scholarly journals The Challenge of the Unity of Christ Based on the Letters of 1 Corinthians 3:3-9 Its Relevance in Local Church Ministry

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (9) ◽  
pp. 330
Author(s):  
Enny Irawati
Keyword(s):  
The Body ◽  
Body Of Christ ◽  
1 Corinthians ◽  
Church Ministry ◽  
The Core ◽  
God's People ◽  
Differences Of Opinion ◽  
Corinthians 3 ◽  
The One ◽  
The Church

The research objective that the author means is to find out how the unity of the body of Christ in the church can be carried out properly according to 1 Corinthians 3: 3-9. moving on from the core written in the text above, the author wants the whole congregation to understand the unity of the body of Christ correctly today, given the importance of the unity of the body of Christ in the church, so that some of the more mature congregations in the faith must support the congregation that is not yet mature faith. This writing is intended so that all God's people understand well that the unity of the body of Christ is not to become divided because of disagreements, divisions and differences of opinion. but the body of Christ is the one that brings God's people better together. Some of the things that concern the author in this study are how the congregation can understand the unity of the body of Christ correctly.

The Postcolonial Paradox: Becoming Less than Whole(s) Producing Parts that Exclude Other Parts

2009 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 67-77
Author(s):  
Joseph F. Duggan
Keyword(s):  
Colonial Period ◽  
The Body ◽  
Whole Body ◽  
Body Of Christ ◽  
Ecclesial Identity ◽  
Theological Critique ◽  
The One ◽  
The Church

AbstractThe purpose of this article is to address coexistent Anglican faith identities that have flourished in contexts after the colonial period. Thus far these identities have been treated as differences in viewpoints. Metaphysically speaking member differences are included as ‘parts’ of the one ‘whole’ Body of Christ. Without a postcolonial metaphysical and theological critique that decolonizes the Body of Christ, as the Church, then parts repeatedly seek, to redefine, restore or reform the ‘whole’ to maintain the whole’s coherence and empowering the former part. Ignoring the metaphysical aspect of ecclesial identity postpones the emergence of a postcolonial Anglican Communion where multiple faith identities can coexist.

Head and Members

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Marshall
Keyword(s):  
Canon Law ◽  
Church Of England ◽  
Common Law ◽  
The Body ◽  
Body Of Christ ◽  
The Church

This chapter examines the role of the bishops of Rome, or popes, as ‘vicars of St Peter’, and also as ‘vicars of Christ’. St Paul taught that the Church was the body of Christ. If the Church was a body, then clearly, as John Alcock, bishop of Ely, declared in 1497, ‘in every realm of Christianity, the head thereof is Christ’. The chapter first considers what ordinary English people thought about popes and the papacy before discussing the issue of royal taxation of the clergy and the appointment of clergy to English benefices. It then explores lines of demarcation between common law and canon law, along with the arrest, imprisonment and death of a merchant named Richard Hunne, who was accused of heresy. It also looks at the issue of reforming the Church of England and people.

scholarly journals Reality of presence in virtually mediated sacramentality: Has sacramental theology sustained us?

2022 ◽  
pp. 000332862110603
Author(s):  
Lizette Larson-Miller
Keyword(s):  
The Body ◽  
Theological Reflection ◽  
Body Of Christ ◽  
Sacramental Theology ◽  
Eucharistic Theology ◽  
On Demand ◽  
Global Pandemic ◽  
Real Presence ◽  
The One ◽  
The Church

The global pandemic has impacted the liturgical life of the church by forcing worshiping communities to turn to online liturgies in lieu of gathering together as the body of Christ in one place and time. But the ongoing theological reflection has been particularly concerned with sacramental liturgy online. How can incarnate matter-filled ecclesial sacraments be celebrated without being “in-person”? This article suggests that the ritual and sacramental effects of the pandemic brought an already-existing lack of catechesis on sacramental theology to the surface by exploring two connected conversations: on the one hand, eucharistic theology and the meaning of “real presence” in a time of Internet religion, and on the other hand, the effects of the insidious inculturation of consumerism and commodification highlighted in the “liturgy on demand” world of online ritual and ritual online.

scholarly journals Between tradition and renewal: Some considerations about the use of tradition in reformed theology

2013 ◽  
Vol 47 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Willem Van Vlastuin
Keyword(s):  
The Body ◽  
The Other ◽  
Body Of Christ ◽  
Reformed Theology ◽  
Christian Church ◽  
Christian View ◽  
The One ◽  
Fundamental Unity ◽  
The Church ◽  
Methodological Reflection

In the theology and practice of the Christian church a tension between tradition and renewal exists. This essay focuses on this tension to provide a first step of methodological reflection to deal with it. Firstly, this tension is illustrated from the reformed perspective of sola scriptura that led to criticism of the tradition on the one hand, whilst understanding the reformed movement as part of the tradition on the other hand. A danger of unqualified sola scriptura is subjectivity. Subsequently, the importance of tradition is elaborated from the perspective of the church as the body of Christ across all ages. This implies that Christians should study and love the traditional theology because of the fundamental unity of the church that transcends cultural diversity. Rejecting tradition will cut the church from its historical and spiritual roots. Thirdly, this raises the question whether the church is imprisoned by tradition, as well as the problem of the relation between tradition and renewal. In response, it is argued that the doctrine of incarnation guarantees openness to history. With the help of the philosophical and Christian view on structural contingency, the belief that tradition is principally open to renewal is defended. Some examples are given as illustrations of how classic theological concepts can be reframed in our postmodern context. The last part of this essay concludes with the insight of Cyprian that only the conveyed tradition can be renewed, implying that renewal is in essence not a new theology, but a new application of apostolic theology.Hierdie artikel fokus op die spanning tussen tradisie en vernuwing in die praktyk van die Christelike kerk. Eerstens word die probleem vanuit die reformatoriese perspektief van die sola scriptura geïllustreer, wat aan die een kant tot kritiek op die tradisie gelei het, maar terselfdertyd word die reformatoriese beweging as deel van die tradisie verstaan. Die gevaar van ’n ongekwalifiseerde handhawing van die solascriptura-oortuiging is subjektiwiteit. Vervolgens word die belangrikheid van die tradisie uitgebrei vanuit die perspektief van die kerk as liggaam van Christus oor alle eeue. Dit impliseer dat Christene tradisionele teologie behoort te bestudeer, omdat die fundamentele eenheid van die kerk kulturele diversiteit oorkom. Die verwerping van die tradisie sal gevolglik die kerk van sy geestelike wortels afsny. Derdens bring dit die vraag na vore of die kerk deur tradisie gevange gehou word. In hierdie verband wys die artikel daarop dat die leer van die inkarnasie openheid ten opsigte van die geskiedenis waarborg. Met behulp van die Christelike siening van strukturele gebeurlikheid, word die oortuiging dat die tradisie prinsipieel vir vernuwing oop is, verdedig. ’n Paar voorbeelde word gegee om te illustreer hoe klassieke teologiese konsepte in ons postmoderne tyd benut kan word. Die artikel sluit af met ’n verwysing na die insig van Siprianus, naamlik dat net die oorgelewerde tradisie vernuwe kan word. Dit impliseer dat vernuwing essensieel nie ’n nuwe teologie is nie, maar ’n nuwe toepassing van die klassieke teologie.

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