Bonhoeffer and the Benedict Option: The Mission of Monasticism in a Post-Christian World

Ecclesiology ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 11-31
Author(s):  
Derek W. Taylor
Keyword(s):  
The World ◽  
In Christ ◽  
The Church ◽  
The Way ◽  
Power Games

This article brings Bonhoeffer into conversation with the Benedict Option in order to analyse the inner logic of neo-monasticism. Both contend that missional faithfulness in a post-Christian context requires the church to abandon the pursuit of power, a task that lies at the heart of the neo-monastic posture. But Bonhoeffer does so while remaining alert to the great temptation of monasticism. The temptation is not merely that the church becomes sectarian. The more serious problem has to do with the way the church’s separation from culture is theologically construed. This article suggests that whereas the Benedict Option is grounded in a Christ-idea, Bonhoeffer’s neo-monasticism is grounded in Christ himself. The temptation, in other words, is that ideology becomes confused with Christology. Following Bonhoeffer, this article claims that confusion on this point risks embroiling the church in the very power games that neo-monasticism attempts to avoid. Whereas ideologically grounded neo-monasticism must confront the world in the mode of conflict, Christologically grounded neo-monasticism is free from the temptation of power, and from this posture authentic witness becomes possible.

scholarly journals Die roeping van die kerk

2013 ◽  
Vol 69 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jaco Beyers
Keyword(s):  
The World ◽  
God's Call ◽  
The Church ◽  
The Way

The calling of the church. The question as to the calling of the church is not a practical but a theological issue. The church can easily keep itself busy with activities that seem important. However, are these activities really the motivation behind God’s call to the church? This article investigates the calling of the church as perceived from various relationships: church and world, church and culture and church and church. Church and world addresses the age-old argument that the church is in the world but not of the world. The church does have an obligation in the world towards politics and ecology. Another factor addressed in the article is the way in which the church copes with the secularised society. Regarding culture, the premise is that the church has no obligation towards culture. Culture merely becomes a means to an end for the church. The church wants to exist in a ‘free culture’, as Barth suggests. When discussing the calling of the church, an ecclesiology of some sorts is in fact presented. This is reflected in the paragraph on church and church. The church is always seen in relationship with God’s intention with the community He assembles. This might be the true calling of the church: to be a community that calls others to community.

scholarly journals The ethics of absolute relativity: An eschatological ontological model for interpreting the Sermon on the Mount

2014 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Andre Van Oudtshoorn
Keyword(s):  
Social Construction Of Reality ◽  
Sermon On The Mount ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Everyday ◽  
The World ◽  
Everyday World ◽  
Ontological Model ◽  
In Christ ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
The Church

Jesus� imperatives in the Sermon on the Mount continue to play a significant role in Christian ethical discussions. The tension between the radical demands of Jesus and the impossibility of living this out within the everyday world has been noted by many scholars. In this article, an eschatological-ontological model, based on the social construction of reality, is developed to show that this dialectic is not necessarily an embarrassment to the church but, instead, belongs to the essence of the church as the recipient of the Spirit of Christ and as called by him to exist now in terms of the coming new age that has already been realised in Christ. The absolute demands of Jesus� imperatives, it is argued, must relativise all other interpretations of reality whilst the world, in turn, relativises Jesus� own definition of what �is� and therefore also the injunctions to his disciples on how to live within this world. This process of radical relativisation provides a critical framework for Christian living. The church must expect, and do, the impossible within this world through her faith in Christ who recreates and redefines reality. The church�s ethical task, it is further argued, is to participate with the Spirit in the construction of signs of this new reality in Christ in this world through her actions marked by faith, hope and love.

The Word Refreshed

2021 ◽  
pp. 358-374
Author(s):  
Jeremy Begbie
Keyword(s):  
Physical Environment ◽  
Human Freedom ◽  
New Creation ◽  
The World ◽  
In Christ ◽  
Theological Language ◽  
The Way

This chapter takes its cue from the vision of music adumbrated by the previous three essayists: in which music is seen as depending on a ‘faith in an order of things that exceeds the logic of statement and counterstatement’, arising from an embodied dwelling in the world which is pre-conceptual, pre-theoretical. As such, music has the capacity to free us from the kind of alienating relation to our physical environment that an over-dependence on instrumental language brings, and free us for a more fruitful indwelling of it that has been largely lost to modernity. This resonates with broadly biblical-theological view of humanity’s intended relation to the cosmos, as exemplified in the concept of New Creation in Christ. This essay returns to language, considered in this light: how can music, and thinking about music, enrich language? Specifically, how might music facilitate a deeper understanding of the way ‘God-talk’ operates? It is argued that music can offer a powerful witness to the impossibility (and danger) of imagining we can grasp or circumscribe the divine (the antithesis of human freedom). More positively, it can greatly enrich our use (and understanding) of existing theological language, and generate fresh language that enables a more faithful perception of, and participation in the realities it engages.

scholarly journals Tertullian on the Trinity

Perichoresis ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 81-98
Author(s):  
Bryan M. Litfin
Keyword(s):  
Second Century ◽  
New Development ◽  
The World ◽  
Generation Theory ◽  
Justin Martyr ◽  
Eternal Generation ◽  
The Church ◽  
The Trinity ◽  
The Way

Abstract Tertullian is often portrayed as a prescient figure who accurately anticipated the Nicene consensus about the Trinity. But when he is examined against the background of his immediate predecessors, he falls into place as a typical second-century Logos theologian. He drew especially from Theophilus of Antioch, Justin Martyr, and Irenaeus of Lyons. At the same time, Tertullian did introduce some important innovations. His trinitarian language of ‘substance’ and ‘person’, rooted in Stoic metaphysics, offered the church a new way to be monotheistic while retaining the full deity and consubstantiality of the Word. Tertullian also significantly developed the concept of a divine oikonomia, God’s plan to create and redeem the world. The Son and Spirit are emissaries of the Father’s will—not ontologically inferior to him, yet ranked lower in the way that the sent are always subordinate to the sender. For this reason, Tertullian denied that a Father/Son relationship was eternal within the Trinity, seeing it rather as a new development emerging from God’s plan to make the world. Such temporal paternity and filiation distances Tertullian from the eventual Nicene consensus, which accepted instead the eternal generation theory of Origen. While Tertullian did propose some important terms that would gain traction among the Nicene fathers, he was also marked by a subordinationist tendency that had affinities with Arianism. Tertullian’s most accurate anticipation of Nicaea was his insistence on three co-eternal and consubstantial Persons. Historical theologians need to start admitting that Tertullian was a far cry from being fully Nicene. Rather, he offered a clever but still imperfect half-step toward what would become official orthodoxy..

Overcoming Digital Distance: The Challenge of Developing Relational Disciples in the Internet Age

2017 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 376-390
Author(s):  
Chris Shirley
Keyword(s):  
Digital Technology ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Christian Community ◽  
Internet Age ◽  
The World ◽  
Disciple Making ◽  
In Christ ◽  
The Church

Jesus' model for discipleship (John 15:1–16) is grounded within a context of human and divine relationships: abiding in Christ, fellowshipping with other disciples, and ministering to needs of others in the world and in the church. As the Christian community becomes increasingly reliant on digital technology and the Internet to provide an environment and resources for disciple-making we must also be familiar with the available options and understand the benefits and limitations of using these methods as we seek to establish and enhance these essential spiritual relationships.

Kenneth E. Bailey: An Ambassador Serving the Middle East and the West

2017 ◽  
Vol 41 (2) ◽  
pp. 152-159
Author(s):  
Gary M. Burge
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
New Testament ◽  
Cultural Anthropology ◽  
Biblical Exegesis ◽  
The West ◽  
Arab Culture ◽  
The World ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
The Church ◽  
The Way

Kenneth E. Bailey (1930–2016) was an internationally acclaimed New Testament scholar who grew up in Egypt and devoted his life to the church of the Middle East. He also was an ambassador of Arab culture to the West, explaining through his many books on the New Testament how the context of the Middle East shapes the world of the New Testament. He wed cultural anthropology to biblical exegesis and shaped the way scholars view the Gospels today.

scholarly journals Some Remarks on the Islamic and the Secular Paradigms of Knowledge

1995 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 539-544
Author(s):  
Taha J. Al Alwani
Keyword(s):  
Driving Force ◽  
Religious Freedom ◽  
Similar Degree ◽  
The West ◽  
Daily Lives ◽  
The World ◽  
The Universe ◽  
The Church ◽  
The Way

By the time secularist thought had succeeded, at an intellectuallevel, in challenging the authority of the Church, its roots had alreadytaken firm hold in western soil. Later, when western political and economicsystems began to prevail throughout the world, it was only naturalthat secularism, as the driving force behind these systems, shouldgain ascendency worldwide. In time, and with varying degrees of success,the paradigm of positivism gradually displaced traditional andreligious modes of thinking, with the result that generations of thirdworld thinkers grew up convinced that the only way to “progress” andreform their societies was the way of the secular West. Moreover, sincethe experience of the West was that it began to progress politically,economically, and intellectually only after the influence of the Churchhad been marginalized, people in the colonies believed that they wouldhave to marginalize the influence of their particular religions in orderto achieve a similar degree of progress. Under the terms of the newparadigm, turning to religion for solutions to contemporary issues is anabsurdity, for religion is viewed as something from humanity’s formativeyears, from a “dark” age of superstition and myth whose time hasnow passed. As such, religion has no relevance to the present, and allattempts to revive it are doomed to failure and are a waste of time.Many have supposed that it is possible to accept the westernmodel of a secular paradigm while maintaining religious practices andbeliefs. They reason that such an acceptance has no negative impactupon their daily lives so long as it does not destroy their places ofworship or curtail their right to religious freedom. Thus, there remainshardly a contemporary community that has not fallen under the swayof this paradigm. Moreover, it is this paradigm that has had the greatestinfluence on the way different peoples perceive life, the universe,and the role of humanity as well as providing them with an alternativeset of beliefs (if needed) and suggesting answers to the ultimate questions ...

Creation

2019 ◽  
pp. 178-195
Author(s):  
Matthew Puffer
Keyword(s):  
Jesus Christ ◽  
Christian Theology ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
New Creation ◽  
Limited Role ◽  
The World ◽  
In Christ ◽  
Access To Knowledge ◽  
Good And Evil ◽  
The Church

Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s theology of creation is rooted in the confession that Jesus Christ is the mediator. Apart from Christ’s mediation human beings cannot perceive God’s creation, because our postlapsarian world manifests only a fallen creation in which good and evil are confused and intermixed. Whereas Bonhoeffer in his student years affirmed a limited role for the orders of creation, his subsequent writings on the theology of creation can be read as a response to and reaction against the orders of creation. Although human beings have no unmediated access to knowledge of God’s creation, and know the world as fallen creation only through Christ’s redemption, in Christ they are empowered by the Spirit, incorporated into Christ’s body the church, and made a new creation. Only in light of the hoped-for eschatological fulfilment of the new creation may Christian theology speak of the beginning of God’s ways as Creator.

scholarly journals ’n Pastoraal hermeneutiese lees van Paulus se briewe: 1 Tessalonisense as toetsgeval

2016 ◽  
Vol 50 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jaco Putter
Keyword(s):  
The Other ◽  
Church Community ◽  
The World ◽  
Paul's Letters ◽  
Difficult Situations ◽  
Interactive Dynamic ◽  
The Church ◽  
Cognitive Areas ◽  
The Way ◽  
Church Communities

Paul’s letters, filled with pastoral content, are illustrating how he founded the church communities, shaping them and caring for them with various techniques. Paul shaped these communities within their own contexts after they had received and accepted the gospel. The outcome was that such a church community and its individuals created their own worldview from which they viewed and experienced the world. It is argued here that their worldview influenced the individuals’ and groups’ identity, values, norms and actions. All these aspects influenced each other in an interactive dynamic way with interdependence as a result. If one aspect changes, it affects all the other areas. These aspects are rooted in the individual’s emotive and cognitive areas. Paul addresses this in his letters by referring to these two areas on a constant basis by reflecting on how the converts had to change the way they thought and lived in order to imitate Christ. This motivated them to endure difficult situations they found themselves in. When reading Paul’s letters with this in mind a new pastoral understanding of it emerges, as illustrated with reference to 1 Thessalonians.

African Christology: Hope for the Anglican Communion

2009 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 183-193
Author(s):  
Ande Titre
Keyword(s):  
Jesus Christ ◽  
Majority World ◽  
Alive Today ◽  
Healing Power ◽  
The World ◽  
In Christ ◽  
The Church

AbstractThe Anglican Communion has been tested by difficult theological tensions that have painfully affected mission in different contexts. The troubled question is: ‘Who is Jesus Christ for Anglicans?’ This paper suggests that, as the spiritual centre has already shifted to the church in the Majority World, the reflections and insights of Africans concerning Jesus Christ should be taken into account in any Christological reflections. African Christology is more holistic as it integrates the person and the work of Christ, which apply to the whole of African life.Jesus, the Lord of cultures and the Healer, is alive today. He has overcome death so that God’s transforming power may heal our deeply wounded souls and our broken communities. The Anglican Communion should recognize the healing power of the Lord Jesus, and continually re-affirm the salvation in Christ, forgiveness of sins, transformation of life and incorporation into the holy fellowship of the church. The world needs the credible witness of Christians who live in the world, but are not of the world.

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