LABOUR IS HOLY BUT BUSINESS IS DANGEROUS: ENTERPRISE VALUES FROM THE CHURCH FATHERS TO THE REFORMATION

2007 ◽  
Vol 15 (02) ◽  
pp. 133-163 ◽  
Author(s):  
SARAH DRAKOPOULOU DODD ◽  
GEORGE GOTSIS
Keyword(s):  
Cultural History ◽  
Work Motivation ◽  
Early Church ◽  
Church Fathers ◽  
Long Period ◽  
The Reformation ◽  
Religious Thinking ◽  
The Church ◽  
Religious Worldviews

This paper seeks to explore the religious valuation of entrepreneurship during a long period of Western cultural history that covers transformations of religious thinking from the early Church Fathers to the Reformation. The paper focuses on theological contributions to conceptualizations of labour, property and wealth, that serves as a basis for assessing entrepreneurial motives and enterprise activities. In doing so, this approach highlights the interactions between work motivation and entrepreneurship in distinct cultural and historical contexts. Particular attention is devoted to understanding the religious sanctification of labour. The emergence and formation of secular enterprise values are discussed and interpreted as integral parts of these religious worldviews in which they were deeply embedded.

scholarly journals A Protestant Purgatory? Visions of an Intermediate State in Eighteenth-century Scotland

2018 ◽  
Vol 97 (2) ◽  
pp. 153-186 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martha McGill
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Intermediate State ◽  
Early Church ◽  
Church Fathers ◽  
Wide Audience ◽  
Church Of Scotland ◽  
Standard Element ◽  
The Reformation ◽  
Identity Based ◽  
The Church

The protestant afterlife is generally presented in binary terms, with departed souls going directly to either heaven or hell. However, the possible existence of an intermediate state for the dead was discussed by protestant theologians from the reformation onwards. This article traces the evolution of these debates in Scotland, with particular focus on the eighteenth century. The bishops Archibald Campbell, Thomas Rattray and George Innes produced tracts in support of the intermediate state. By the end of the century it had become a standard element of doctrine among the episcopalians, reflecting the formation of a more distinctive theological and liturgical identity, based on the teachings of the early church fathers. Presbyterians generally dismissed the idea as a papish conceit, but there were exceptions. Most notably, in the 1720s the minister William Ogilvie described a series of meetings with the ghost of Thomas Maxwell, Laird of Cool. His account framed the intermediate state as a sympathetic alternative to calvinist predestination, and spread to a wide audience when it was printed as a chapbook. As the episcopalian church declined and the Church of Scotland fragmented, there was greater scope for individuals to formulate their own theologies, potentially challenging traditional notions of what it meant to be a protestant.

Thomas More and the Early Church Fathers

Traditio ◽  
1968 ◽  
Vol 24 ◽  
pp. 379-407 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. C. Marius
Keyword(s):  
Catholic Church ◽  
Early Years ◽  
Early Church ◽  
Church Fathers ◽  
Thomas More ◽  
The Reformation ◽  
Pope Gregory I ◽  
The Church ◽  
The Catholic Church

Thomas More, humanist, statesman, and martyr, was one of the most prolific apologists for the Catholic Church in the early years of the Reformation. In numerous polemical and apologetic works he ranged widely over the issues raised by the controversy. But if his scope was large, he possessed one sure foundation to which all his arguments inevitably returned. This was the faith of the early Church Fathers, those men who interpreted the life and faith of the Church from the time of the Apostles to the end of the pontificate of Pope Gregory I in 604.

scholarly journals Death After Life or Life After Death?

Scrinium ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 143-159
Author(s):  
David C. Sim
Keyword(s):  
New Testament ◽  
Gospel Of Luke ◽  
The Body ◽  
Early Church ◽  
Post Mortem ◽  
Church Fathers ◽  
Life After Death ◽  
Christian View ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
The Church

The early Church Fathers accepted the notion of an intermediate state, the existence of the soul following death until its reunification with the body at the time of the final resurrection. This view is common in the modern Christian world, but it has been challenged as being unbiblical. This study reflects upon this question. Does the New Testament speak exclusively of death after life, complete lifelessness until the day of resurrection, or does it also contain the notion of life after life or immediate post-mortem existence? It will be argued that, while the doctrine of future resurrection is the most common Christian view, it was not the only one present in the Christian canon. There are hints, especially in the Gospel of Luke and the Revelation of John, that people do indeed live again immediately after death, although the doctrine of resurrection is also present. These two ideas are never coherently related to one another in the New Testament and it was the Church Fathers who first sought to  systematise them.


Human Life as a State of Mediocrity in John Locke

2021 ◽  
pp. 85-105
Author(s):  
Giuliana Di Biase
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
John Locke ◽  
Human Life ◽  
Human Condition ◽  
Early Church ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Church Fathers ◽  
Perfect Knowledge ◽  
Further Development ◽  
The Church

This chapter investigates the genesis and evolution of Locke’s idea of human life as a “state of mediocrity”. While this idea had ancient roots going back to the early Church fathers, it remained current in the seventeenth century where mediocrity was generally equated with a condition of partial ignorance and imperfection. Locke’s account of it is original; while life is a time of mediocrity, death opens the way to the extremes of eternal misery or eternal happiness. Initially, inspired by the Church fathers, Locke conceived of human life as a condition of intellectual mediocrity. Subsequently, and arguably prompted by his reading of the pessimistic outlooks of Nicole and Pascal, he redefined the state of mediocrity in more optimistic terms: humans are naturally suited to their mediocre state. A further development of his conception of mediocrity, again involving a partial rethinking of the human condition, can be found in the Essay, where Locke represents mediocrity as an imperfect state of insatiable desire. It is redeemed, however, by the ability of living human beings to attain perfect knowledge of morality.

scholarly journals Inleiding in die grondslag van die gereformeerde teologie

1995 ◽  
Vol 29 (1/2) ◽  
Author(s):  
L. F. Schulze
Keyword(s):  
Scientific Theory ◽  
Close Relation ◽  
Early Church ◽  
Word Of God ◽  
Reformed Theology ◽  
The Arts ◽  
The Reformation ◽  
Theology And Science ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Church

Theology is not a neutral science but should be embedded in the ser­vice of the Church. A close relation between theology and the church is clearly visible in the history of the early church until the era of the Reformation. The disintegration of religion and culture (church and world) during the Renaissance received new impetus from the En­lightenment. Consequently, the tie between church and theology was to a large extent dissolved and theology progressively became a ‘wordly ’ rationalistic enterprise, as a concomitant to what happened in the arts (l'art pour l'art). In this context the problems of defining theology and science are discussed and the popularity of modern scientific theory is uncovered. Finally it is argued that the basis (grondslag) and object for Reformed theology can only be the Word of God

Language Theory and Analysis in Augustine

1976 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-12
Author(s):  
Robert H. Ayers
Keyword(s):  
Liberal Arts ◽  
Formal Education ◽  
Saint Augustine ◽  
Logical Analysis ◽  
Language Theory ◽  
Early Church ◽  
Church Fathers ◽  
Greco Roman ◽  
To Receive ◽  
The Church

In spite of the fact that it is often ignored, one of the interesting features in the thought of some of the early Church Fathers, was a considerable skill at language and logical analysis. Given the basic liberal disciplines of Greco-Roman education it is not surprising that those Fathers who were fortunate enough to receive formal education were able to utilise the skills of rhetoric and logic as well as other skills of the liberal arts. Also it is ńot surprising that later great thinkers of the church informed by the liberal arts and by the writings of the earlier Fathers should make use of these skills. This is surely the case with Saint Augustine.

Reception in the Renaissance and Reformation

2019 ◽  
pp. 685-703
Author(s):  
Esther Chung-Kim
Keyword(s):  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
Early Church ◽  
Church Fathers ◽  
Renaissance Humanism ◽  
The Church ◽  
Intellectual Movement ◽  
Patristic Exegesis

The retrieval of patristic exegesis made great strides during the revival of Renaissance humanism and the spread of European Reformations. While devotion to the recovery of the early Church writings was primarily an intellectual movement, it was shaped and motivated by distinct social, political, religious, and philosophical developments of fifteenth- and sixteenth-century Europe. Humanists appreciated ancient Christian writings because they sought to combine piety with eloquence, which would reinvigorate religion for educated laity. When humanists, such as LeFèvre and Erasmus, offered their translations and interpretation of Scripture and the church fathers, others responded with their own interpretations from Lutheran, Calvinist, Swiss Reformed, Anabaptist, English, or Catholic perspectives. Although the development of confessionalization shaped the integration of Renaissance patristic scholarship, the patristic reception of Protestants and Catholics portrayed both respect and criticism of ancient exegetes because they struggled to define their theological positions among a plurality of interpretations.

scholarly journals Kritik terhadap Teologi Proses dan Pembelaan terhadap Pandangan “Greater Good” dalam Menanggapi Masalah Kejahatan

2017 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 155-168
Author(s):  
Jessica Novia Layantara
Keyword(s):  
Problem Of Evil ◽  
Process Theology ◽  
John Calvin ◽  
Church Fathers ◽  
The Holocaust ◽  
The Reformation ◽  
The Problem Of Evil ◽  
Greater Good ◽  
Free Will Defense ◽  
The Church

Selama berabad-abad, para teolog Kristen mencoba menanggapi pergumulan filosofis mengenai masalah kejahatan. Bapa-bapa Gereja dan tokoh-tokoh reformasi di masa lalu telah mencoba menanggapi permasalahan ini dengan argumen kebaikan yang lebih tinggi (greater good). Tetapi solusi-solusi semacam itu ditolak mentah-mentah setelah peristiwa Holocaust (Auschwitz), yang merupakan peristiwa kejahatan sangat dahsyat dan mengakibatkan penderitaan banyak sekali orang. Solusi tradisional dianggap sudah tidak relevan dalam menanggapi masalah kejahatan. Teologi proses kemudian mencoba menanggapi masalah ini dengan cara mereduksi atribut-atribut Allah. Tujuan karya tulis ini adalah untuk mengkritik pandangan kontemporer khususnya teologi proses dalam menanggapi masalah kejahatan, dan juga membela pandangan greater good sebagai solusi yang masih tetap dapat dipertahankan walaupun dengan beberapa penyesuaian. Kata-kata kunci: Teodisi, Soft-determinism, Kompatibilisme, Kedaulatan Allah, Masalah Kejahatan, Holocaust, Auschwitz, Teologi Proses, Pembelaan Kehendak Bebas, Teodisi Pembentukan Jiwa, Greater Good Theodicy, John Calvin, John Feinberg   English: Throughout the ages Christian theologians have attempted to understand, from a philosophical vantagepoint, the problem of evil. The Church Fathers as well as theologians during the era of the Reformation have offered a solution that argues from the basis of the greater good. However, solutions of that nature seem to ring hollow when one considers the magnitude and scope of the Holocaust (Auschwitz). In light of that historical reality traditional solutions to the problem of evil seem inadequate. Process theology attempts to overcome the impasse by restricting the attributes of God. The purpose of this article is to critically evaluate contemporary solutions to the problem of evil, especially process theology, as inadequate solutions. Further, to argue for the traditional positional argument of the greater good as offering a tenable solution. Keywords: Theodicy, Soft-determinism, Compatibilism, Sovereignty of God, Problem of Evil, Holocaust, Auschwitz, Process Theology, Free Will Defense, Soul-shaping Theodicy, Greater Good Theodicy, John Calvin, John Feinberg

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