Karl Barth on Religion: A Study for Christians in Mission

1978 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 441-461
Author(s):  
Carl F. Starkloff
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Sensitivity ◽  
Driving Force ◽  
Religious Life ◽  
Karl Barth ◽  
Spiritual Life ◽  
Careful Study ◽  
Theory Of Religion ◽  
Basic Issue ◽  
In Christ ◽  
Positive Input

Many feel Karl Barth has had his day, Father Starkloff disagrees. He feels a careful study of Barth's theory of religion, within the context of the search for “cultural sensitivity,” can be very rewarding. For it is Barth who reminds us that the central driving force of man's religious life is self-affirmation and self-insurance. Although a solid grasp of the phenomenology of religion is “essential to the training of all missionaries in order to overcome ‘adversaries' and for its positive input into the spiritual life,” the basic issue remains unchanged — the essence of God's unique and once-for-all disclosure and giving of himself to man in Christ.

scholarly journals Redefining the Position of Daoism (Taoism) in Vietnamese History from the 2nd Century to the 9th Century

2020 ◽  
pp. 54-60 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vu Hong Van
Keyword(s):  
Development Process ◽  
Historical Data ◽  
Early Period ◽  
Religious Life ◽  
Difficult Problem ◽  
Spiritual Life ◽  
Historical Document ◽  
Vietnamese History ◽  
Working People ◽  
History Of

Redefining the value of Taoism in Vietnam is a complex and difficult problem to evaluate thoroughly. This issue of defining and evaluation relates to historical document sources, archaeological relics still exist to this day and especially the influence of Taoism on beliefs life, religious life in particular and in the spiritual activities of Vietnamese people in general. Of the three religions of the Orient: Buddhism, Confucianism, Taoism, Taoism is a religion that is difficult to study. Throughout the development process of the Vietnamese nation, along with Confucianism and Buddhism, Taoism has a significant influence on the spiritual life, tradition, and culture of the Vietnamese nation, especially in the spiritual life of the working people. However, research on this issue is still a very large gap, little attention of researchers. When studying Taoism in Vietnam, it is usually divided into stages, specifically: Taoism in Vietnam in the early period (from the 2nd century to the 9th century); Taoism under the Ly and Tran dynasties (the period when Taoism held the best position in history of Vietnam, often called the Royal Taoism); Taoism under the Le and Nguyen dynasties (the process of Taoism folkization through the worship of Mau Lieu Hanh). In this article, the author focuses on studying Taoism from the 2nd century to the 9th century. Because, at present, the historical documents on Taoism in this period are still quite vague, there are still many the debate broke out about the time when Taoism spread into Vietnam, the audience, Taoist missionaries have been to Vietnam, etc. Therefore, this article focuses on the process of Taoism propagating into Vietnam, identifying historical data that still exist today, Taoist figures have been to Vietnam.

scholarly journals Redefining trauma in an African context: A challenge to pastoral care

2012 ◽  
Vol 68 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ray G. Motsi ◽  
Maake J. Masango
Keyword(s):  
Pastoral Care ◽  
Cultural Sensitivity ◽  
Driving Force ◽  
Correct Treatment ◽  
African Worldview ◽  
African Context ◽  
To Come ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
The Right

The article attempted to analyse critically the definition of trauma as it is used in the Western medical and psychiatry contexts in order to come up with an appropriate African definition. This was undertaken with the view to demonstrate that the Western worldview is different from the African worldview. Superimposing solutions or providing pre-packed answers to unique African problems will lead only to re-traumatisation, whereas cultural sensitivity and the right diagnosis will lead to the correct treatment. The driving force behind this article was therefore to aim to be relevant, effective and contextual in all African-based pastoral care.

What does it mean to call Karl Barth a ‘christocentric’ theologian?

2007 ◽  
Vol 60 (2) ◽  
pp. 127-143 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marc Cortez
Keyword(s):  
Karl Barth ◽  
In Christ

Karl Barth's interpreters often characterize him as a ‘christocentric’ theologian. This term, however, is subject to a variety of interpretations, ranging from the totalitarian and isolationist critiques of the ‘christomonist’ objection to the indeterminate and decentred approaches offered by various postmodern readings. The disparity between these two approaches suggests a level of ambiguity in the term that hinders its usefulness unless carefully qualified. Indeed, ‘centric’ terminology itself remains rather ambiguous until the substantive formal and material considerations that lie behind any given form of centricity are addressed. This article proposes to alleviate the ambiguity that has thus clouded the use of ‘christocentric’ as a description of Barth's theology by offering five formal and material qualifications; Barth's christocentricity must be understood in terms of (1) a veiling and unveiling of knowledge in Christ, (2) a methodological orientation, (3) a particular christology, (4) a trinitarian focus and (5) an affirmation of creaturely reality. Using these criteria, the article also argues that both the christomonistic and postmodern interpretations break down at certain points because they fail to appreciate fully these qualifications and thus the particular nature of Barth's christocentrism.

scholarly journals Rowan Williams

2018 ◽  
pp. 504-524
Author(s):  
Mike Higton
Keyword(s):  
Jesus Christ ◽  
Spiritual Life ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
God's Love ◽  
In Christ ◽  
The Church

Rowan Williams’s ecclesiology is shaped by his account of the spiritual life. He examines the transformation of human beings’ relationships to one another, driven by their encounter with God’s utterly gracious love in Jesus Christ. The church is the community of forgiven people generated by Christ’s resurrection. It is animated by its constant exposure to God’s love in Christ in word and sacrament. It is held to that exposure by its doctrinal discipline. It is a community in which members go on learning from one another how to go more deeply into that exposure. For Williams, the church’s commitment to unity and its commitment to truth go together: truth cannot be discovered without holding together in unity to learn from one another; and proper ecclesial unity is unity in this search for truth.

Sin and Evil

2019 ◽  
pp. 353-372
Author(s):  
Günter Thomas
Keyword(s):  
Karl Barth ◽  
Proper Understanding ◽  
In Christ ◽  
The Devil

This chapter reconstructs the context and argument of Karl Barth’s innovative account of human sin and evil. For a proper understanding of the shifts in Barth’s treatment of these core themes, some ‘default positions’ are briefly sketched. The chapter next describes the implications that attend a transference of the doctrine of sin from anthropology to Christology. This shift is not only epistemic, changing the basis on which sin is recognized and understood. It is also a significant conceptual move, with sin described as a specific posture towards the grace of God, manifest in Christ. The chapter also shows how Karl Barth resists the temptation to reduce the existence of evil to a manageable deficiency of creation, while avoiding any dramatization of the experience of evil. Barth construes evil (nothingness, das Nichtige) in light of God’s creation as an election, with nothingness being that which is rejected in the divine act of creation. Rejecting a personification of evil (i.e., the devil), Barth nonetheless emphasizes the agency of evil as that against which the sovereign God battles.

Church Dogmatics by Karl Barth

1962 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 74-83
Author(s):  
Daniel L. Deegan
Keyword(s):  
Jesus Christ ◽  
Natural Theology ◽  
Natural Sciences ◽  
Karl Barth ◽  
Divine Providence ◽  
Theological Interpretation ◽  
Church Dogmatics ◽  
Central Concern ◽  
In Christ ◽  
Universal Rule

In this third part of volume III of his Dogmatics Barth sets forth the doctrine of divine providence as the objective and universal rule of God which establishes and encompasses but does not absorb the existence of the person or community which becomes the object of His preservation. Barth's steadfast aim has been to produce a theology dominated by its object, Jesus Christ. This part of the Dogmatics is no exception, for here he argues that the order of being and the order of knowledge start with the event of God's action in Christ. Hence he does not speak of a natural theology with an independent cosmological interest in the work of divine preservation, for he insists that Scripture is differently orientated. It does not witness simply to the highest being as first cause; it witnesses primarily to the Lord of history, the God of the Covenant. This means that the doctrine of providence does not become a Weltanschauung. What Barth says concerning this problem in C.D.III.3 should be read in conjunction with C.D.III.2, pp. 3ff. Because he affirms that the central concern of theology is the relation of God and man established in Jesus Christ he regards cosmology as a peripheral concern arid draws the line against attempts to integrate scientific views and theological interpretation into a comprehensive Weltanschauung. Yet he readily admits that the natural sciences which know their limits have their appropriate place in elucidating the nature of man against the background of creation.

Something is Happening But You Don't Know What It is, Do You, Mr. Jones?

PMLA ◽  
1970 ◽  
Vol 85 (3) ◽  
pp. 417-422
Author(s):  
Henry Nash Smith
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Liberal Arts ◽  
Careful Study ◽  
Language Program ◽  
American Imperialism ◽  
European Languages ◽  
Study And Teaching ◽  
Basic Issue ◽  
Arts Curriculum ◽  
Faculty Exchange

Stirrings of protest within the MLA during the past year challenge many received ideas about the structure and functioning of the Association. For example, we need to consider constitutional revisions transferring power from the Executive Council to a more representative legislative body. There is a basic disagreement within the MLA between conservatives who believe that the study and teaching of literature should be and can be “objective,” and radicals who maintain that such a claim is fraudulent because if the scholar fails to denounce the existing social and economic order, he is in effect an apologist for it. Although the Foreign Language Program has been characterized as merely an adjunct to American imperialism, it has operated primarily to increase study of major European languages long a part of the liberal arts curriculum. The Faculty Exchange, which has been vigorously criticized, is highly useful to small departments; the question of its abolition requires careful study. These various controversies are generated by conflicting notions of how the MLA should serve society. We must resolve the basic issue if we are to maintain the integrity and effectiveness of the intellectual enterprise to which our profession commits us.

Veneration of Rural in Armenia: The Transformation of Tradition

2021 ◽  
pp. 120-133
Author(s):  
Наталья Владиславовна Крюкова
Keyword(s):  
Rural Areas ◽  
Religious Life ◽  
Local People ◽  
Spiritual Life ◽  
Complex Concept ◽  
Local Shrines ◽  
Cult Of Saints ◽  
Material Form

В сельских областях Армении повседневная религиозная жизнь протекает в сурбах - местных святилищах, домашних реликвариях, часовенках и молельнях. Сурб - в переводе с армянского «святой» - это комплексное понятие, которым верующие обозначают и святого, и пространство его почитания. Сурбами могут быть действующие или разрушенные церковные и монастырские постройки, книги, хачкары, родники, деревья, камни. Материальная форма сурба не ассоциированный со святым предмет, несущий на себе печать его святости, как принято в традиционном христианском культе святых, а сам святой. Именно это делает культ сурбов уникальным в ряду похожих культов народного христианства. Обустройство сурбов и паломничество к почитаемым локальным святыням - наиболее распространенные вернакулярные формы духовной жизни местных жителей. В статье исследуются изменения традиционных аспектов почитания сельских сурбов на основе доступных историко-этнографических источников и полевом материале, собранном автором в Армении в 2016-2021 гг. In rural areas of Armenia, daily religious life takes place in “surbs” - local shrines, domestic reliquaries, chapels and oratories. “Surb” means “saint” in Armenian; it is a complex concept that believers use to designate both a saint and the space of his veneration. Surbs can be an active or demolished church or monastery building, books, khachkars (carved stone stelae with the image of a cross), springs, trees, stones. The material form of the surb is not an object associated with the saint, bearing the seal of his holiness, as is customary in the traditional Christian cult of saints, but the saint himself. This is what makes the surb cult unique among similar cults. The arrangement of surbs and pilgrimage to revered local shrines are the most common popular expressions of the spiritual life of local people. The article examines changes in the traditional veneration of rural surbs on the basis of available historical and ethnographic sources as well as field material collected by the author in Armenia in 2016-2021.

On patience: thinking with and beyond Karl Barth

2015 ◽  
Vol 68 (3) ◽  
pp. 273-298
Author(s):  
Paul Dafydd Jones
Keyword(s):  
Human Activity ◽  
Free Action ◽  
Careful Analysis ◽  
Human Existence ◽  
The Self ◽  
Karl Barth ◽  
Human Being ◽  
Church Dogmatics ◽  
In Christ

AbstractThis article has three goals: (1) to provide a careful analysis of Barth's treatment of divine patience in Church Dogmatics II/1; (2) to show how Barth's thinking about divine patience helps to illumine his account of human being and human activity in later portions of the Church Dogmatics; and (3) to offer a series of constructive suggestions which connect Barth's theology with liberationist visions of human existence.With respect to Church Dogmatics II/1, I argue that Barth breaks with a number of earlier thinkers and focuses attention on God's exercise of patience, treating it as a key dimension of God's creative and providential work. This exercise of patience means, specifically, that God accords creatures their own integrity and a capacity for free action, tempers God's punishment of sin and, in Christ, fulfils but does not temporally close the covenant. My analysis of divine patience in II/1 then serves as an interpretative key for reading later volumes of the Dogmatics. It sets in vivid relief Barth's belief that Christ's fulfilment of the covenant, achieved through Christ's life, suffering, death and resurrection, is the condition of possibility for humans being able to act with genuine integrity and consequence in the created realm. I propose, too, that Barth develops his thinking about patience by emphasising the ‘pressure’ of the patient God's empowering command – a command which is a constant summons, directed towards each and every human being, to live freely into God's future through acts of gratitude, obedience and responsibility, and to play some part in bringing creation to its glorious end. Finally, I explore the convergence between certain aspects of the Church Dogmatics and anti-essentialist construals of the self in contemporary theology. I aim to identify points of connection between Barth and thinkers like Marcella Althaus-Reid, and I voice support for a style of scholarship which elides the distinction between ‘systematic’ and ‘liberationist’ modes of inquiry.

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