Bonhoeffer and Reformation Ecclesiology

2018 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 164-189
Author(s):  
Javier Garcia
Keyword(s):  
Karl Barth ◽  
John Calvin ◽  
Reformed Tradition ◽  
The Common

AbstractThis article offers a threefold engagement with Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s ecumenically oriented ecclesiology. First, it proposes a new avenue of understanding Bonhoeffer’s ecclesiology in relation to the Reformed tradition by comparing him with John Calvin instead of with Karl Barth, which is the common route of Bonhoeffer scholarship. Second, it identifies points of convergence between Bonhoeffer and Calvin that have been neglected in the literature, notably in the areas of ecclesial participation and sanctification. Third, it calls for a return to Bonhoeffer’s primary goal in ecumenism—to discern God’s concrete commandment to the churches in history—in the Trump era.

scholarly journals Toward justice and social transformation? Appealing to the tradition against the tradition

2017 ◽  
Vol 73 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Piet J. Naude
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
21St Century ◽  
Social Transformation ◽  
Public Life ◽  
Karl Barth ◽  
John Calvin ◽  
Christian Life ◽  
Reformed Tradition ◽  
The Poor

This article starts with a brief statement on the well-known contradictory nature of the Reformed tradition in South Africa, defending injustice and struggling for justice in the name of the same tradition. By following the work of Reformed systematic theologian D.J. Smit, it argues that the justice-affirming potential of the Reformed tradition is a hermeneutical task built on three specific re-interpretations: (1) the reinterpretation of Scripture from the perspective of the weak, the poor and the oppressed (against a hermeneutic of creation orders and God-willed division of people) (2) a rereading of John Calvin to affirm the dignity and freedom of all humans (against the grain of neo-Calvinist interpretations) (3) a rereading of Karl Barth with a focus on God’s inclusive grace, Christian confessions and the nature of the Christian life (against the limitation of his influence because of his perceived actualistic view on Scripture or unscientific, foundational methodology). The article closes with a brief look into the agenda for social transformation faced by us in the second decade of the 21st century, and under what conditions the  Reformed faith will be able to make an enduring contribution to public life in (South) Africa.

The Augustinian Type of Theodicy: Is It Outdated?

2011 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 26-48 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nico Vorster
Keyword(s):  
Karl Barth ◽  
John Calvin ◽  
John Hick ◽  
Reformed Theology

AbstractIn his famous work ‘Evil and the God of love,’ John Hick suggests that the ‘Augustinian’ type of theodicy is based on an outdated worldview and ought to be replaced by what he calls an ‘Irenaean’ type of theodicy. This article examines Hick’s claim by analyzing the views of the three main theological exponents of the Augustinian paradigm on evil namely Augustine, John Calvin and Karl Barth. It suggests that Reformed theology rethinks its linear concept of time and considers the possibility that the Fall could be an event in time with an eternal significance that works both ‘backwards’ and ‘forwards’. The article concludes that weaknesses in the Augustinian paradigm can be resolved from within, and that no need exists for Reformed theologians to replace the Augustinian paradigm with an alternative Ireneaen paradigm that reject key Scriptural teachings on creation and sin.

The Theological Mediation

2020 ◽  
pp. 3-41
Author(s):  
Richard Viladesau
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Human Condition ◽  
Karl Barth ◽  
Theology Of The Cross ◽  
Reformed Tradition ◽  
Hans Urs Von Balthasar ◽  
The Holocaust ◽  
Reformation Theology ◽  
Late Modern

This chapter examines late modern reappropriations of the classical theology of the cross. In continuity with medieval and Reformation theology, these hold that Christ’s suffering was a divinely willed redemptive act, in vicarious satisfaction for human sin. The neo-orthodoxy of Karl Barth, in line with the Reformed tradition, emphasizes election and covenant. The theme of divine kenosis, found in nineteenth century German an English thinkers, is taken up into Orthodox trinitarian soteriology by the Russian theologian Sergei Bulgakov, with strong attention to Patristic dogma. Hans Urs von Balthasar stresses Christ’s “descent into hell” as the central symbol of the divine entry into the lost human condition. Jürgen Moltmann sees the suffering of God as the only possible theological response to the horrors of the twentieth century, especially the Holocaust.

The Doctrine of Reconciliation: A Survey of Barth's Kirchliche Dogmatik IV/2

1957 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 76-85
Author(s):  
G. W. Bromiley
Keyword(s):  
Jesus Christ ◽  
English Translation ◽  
Karl Barth ◽  
Previous Issue ◽  
Church Dogmatics ◽  
Comprehensive Survey ◽  
Present Part ◽  
The Common

IN the latest part-volume of the Church Dogmatics published in the autumn of 1955, Karl Barth has given us his second comprehensive survey of the doctrine of reconciliation. For the setting of this treatment within the whole, readers are referred to the synopsis of the first part-volume in a previous issue (Volume 8, Number 2, June 1955), or better still, to the English translation which is now available (cf. especially § 58, 4). Within this whole, the present part-volume deals with the common material under the general title of ‘Jesus Christ, the Servant as Lord’, and therefore from the standpoint of the kingly work of Christ. The volume consists of one long chapter (953 pages) within the Dogmatics, and is divided into five main sections. It is to be noted, incidentally, that in the rendering of Versöhnung in the main title of Volume IV the word ‘reconciliation’ has now been preferred to ‘atonement’, although the latter is often used where it agrees with the context.

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