The Whole is Greater than the Sum of the Parts: Moving beyond Word and Deed

1993 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 65-75
Author(s):  
Wilbert R. Shenk
Keyword(s):  
New Testament ◽  
Social Gospel ◽  
Human Welfare ◽  
Men And Women ◽  
The Enlightenment ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Future ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
Christian Witness ◽  
The Way

The way we think about Christian witness has been shaped by the controversy early in the century between the social gospel and fundamentalist movements, each a reaction to the Enlightenment. The social gospel emphasized the immanent kingdom expressed concretely in improved human welfare; the fundamentalist put priority on evangelism—calling men and women to prepare for the future kingdom. Since 1945 there has been considerable movement toward a mediating position that holds the two elements together; but this has not resolved the problem. The New Testament model of the kingdom provides the only solution.

scholarly journals Household and gender

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Halvox Moxnes
Keyword(s):  
New Testament ◽  
Social Unit ◽  
Men And Women ◽  
Political Ideologies ◽  
The Social ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
Pentecostal Churches ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Analytical Category ◽  
The Church

In this paper, I will try to engage with African positions on gender and households and respond with a reading of New Testament texts from my position in a Nordic context within Europe. The terms “household” and “gender” refer to central issues in social and historical studies of societies. Household signifies a central social unit in a society whereas gender is an analytical category when discussing the social and ideological roles of men and women. The question of the forms of household and of the roles of men and women respectively, is part of the larger context of worldviews, political ideologies and ethics. The specific forms of household and gender play a large part in the societies that make up the contexts of New Testament texts, as well as in contemporary societies where these texts play important roles. In this essay, I seek a “dialogue” between the New Testament context and the church in Africa, focusing especially on the understanding of gender roles within Pentecostal churches.

Doubts about Doubt: Honest to God Forty Years On

2005 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 181-195
Author(s):  
N. T. Wright
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
New Testament ◽  
Christian Faith ◽  
Real Problem ◽  
Christian Tradition ◽  
The Enlightenment ◽  
Church Life ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
Alternative Proposal ◽  
The Way

ABSTRACTHonest to God, published in 1963, was one of the most public religious bestsellers of the twentieth century. Because it was written by an Anglican bishop it was especially controversial. Yet there are questions that remain and this article highlights seven such questions which draw attention to weaknesses in the book. An alternative proposal is offered here. Robinson had his finger on a real problem in postwar British church life and, in a measure, theology. I believe the problem was mostly or largely caused not by the New Testament and historic Christianity itself, but by the way in which the post-Enlightenment world had assimilated and re-expressed the Christian faith. What Robinson referred to when speaking of supraor supernaturalism belonged within an essentially Deist or Epicurean framework, and he was struggling with the unwelcome consequences of people being unable to relate to their absentee landlord, and simultaneously puzzling over the fact that some people did not find this a problem. The huge popularity of his book shows that he struck a chord with a great many people. The tragedy of Honest to God, as I perceive it, is that Robinson did not see that what he was rejecting was a form of supernaturalism pressed upon Christianity by the Enlightenment; that he did not therefore go looking for help in finding other ways of holding together what the classic Christian tradition has claimed about God.

A Neglected Feature of the Christology of the Fourth Gospel

1975 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 32-51 ◽  
Author(s):  
B. A. Mastin
Keyword(s):  
New Testament ◽  
Fourth Gospel ◽  
General Terms ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
The Way

Because the term θεóς is used so infrequently of Jesus in the New Testament, it is not surprising to find that there are relatively few discussions of it as a christological title. However, it may be of value to investigate the way in which the Fourth Gospel speaks of Jesus as ‘God’ since its usage differs somewhat from that of the rest of the New Testament. First, the extent to which the New Testament describes Jesus as God will be surveyed, and this will be contrasted in general terms with the approach of the Fourth Evangelist. Then the passages in the Fourth Gospel which may call Jesus ‘God’ will be examined in more detail, and an attempt will be made to establish the way in which this designation is used by the evangelist. Next it will be asked how the distinctive usage of the Fourth Gospel came to be adopted. Finally the view that the word θεóς expresses a functional christology will be considered.

Futures Honed

Futures ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 118-134
Author(s):  
Barbara Adam
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Original Work ◽  
Collective Responsibility ◽  
The Past ◽  
Writing Theory ◽  
Time Space ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Future ◽  
Verse Form ◽  
The Way

This chapter comprises an interview between Barbara Adam and the editors, and is followed by Adam’s ‘Honing Futures’, which is presented in four short verses of distilled theory. In the interview Adam reflects on thirty-five years of futures-thinking rooted in her deeply original work on time and temporality, and her innovative response to qualitative and linear definitions of time within the social sciences. The interview continues with a discussion of the way Adam’s thinking on futures intersects in her work with ideas of ethics and collective responsibility politics and concludes with a brief rationale for writing theory in verse form. In ‘Honing Futures’, a piece of futures theory verse form, Adam charts the movements and moments in considerations of the Not Yet and futurity’s active creation: from pluralized imaginings of the future, to an increasingly tangible and narrower anticipated future, to future-making as designing and reality-creating performance. Collectively, the verses identify the varied complex interdependencies of time, space, and matter with the past and future in all iterations of honing and making futures.

scholarly journals Armoedekultuur: Die leefwereld van die Nuwe Testament en die situasie in Suid-Afrika vandag

1996 ◽  
Vol 52 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Andries Van Aarde
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
New Testament ◽  
Social Dynamics ◽  
Eastern Mediterranean ◽  
Culture Of Poverty ◽  
Economic Statistics ◽  
The Social ◽  
The World ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
Social Scientific

Culture of poverty: The world of the New Testament then and the situation in South Africa today. In this article poverty in the world of the New Testament is explained in the  light of the social dynamics of the first century Eastern Mediterranean. The focus is on the sub-culture of the disreputable poor. Features of a culture of poverty are reflected upon from a social-scientific perspective in order to try to understand why poverty is intensifying in South Africa today. The article aims at identifying guidelines for Christians in using the New Testament in a profound way to challenge the threat of poverty. The following aspects are discussed: the underdevelopment of third-world societies over against the technical evolution in first-world societies during the past two hundred years, economic statistics with regard to productivity and unemployment in South Africa, the social identity of the disreputable poor, poverty within the pre-print culture of the biblical period, and the church as the household of God where Christians should have compassion for others.

Social Innovation Practices in Services for Sustainable Consumption

2017 ◽  
pp. 32-65
Author(s):  
Banu Atrek ◽  
Burcu İlter
Keyword(s):  
Natural Resources ◽  
Social Innovation ◽  
Sustainable Consumption ◽  
Emerging Economy ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Innovations ◽  
The Future ◽  
Innovation Practices ◽  
The Way

Overconsumption is fueled by the idea that the more people buy, the happier they become; however, this is not compatible with sustainability and the future of the planet. Deep concerns about the sustainability of nature and natural resources give rise to discussions of sustainable consumption, and social innovation applications may lead the way to sustainable consumption. Thus, this chapter aims to provide a picture of social innovation practices in services for sustainable consumption in an emerging economy. Although the chapter focuses mainly on contemporary social innovations, an overview of the social innovation concept and possible historical roots of social innovations from Turkish history are also provided.

Paradigm Shift for the Future

2021 ◽  
pp. 173-201
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Paradigm Shift ◽  
Political Influence ◽  
Political Events ◽  
The Social ◽  
The World ◽  
The Future ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
The Way

Through case studies of incidents around the world where the social media platforms have been used and abused for ulterior purposes, Chapter 6 highlights the lessons that can be learned. For good or for ill, the author elaborates on the way social media has been used as an arbiter to inflict various forms of political influence and how we may have become desensitized due to the popularity of the social media platforms themselves. A searching view is provided that there is now a propensity by foreign states to use social media to influence the user base of sovereign countries during key political events. This type of activity now justifies a paradigm shift in relation to our perception and utilization of computerized devices for the future.

Greatness of Soul Across the Ages

2019 ◽  
pp. 292-318
Author(s):  
Robert C. Roberts
Keyword(s):  
New Testament ◽  
Mutual Exclusion ◽  
Abraham Lincoln ◽  
Thomas Aquinas ◽  
The Other ◽  
Scottish Enlightenment ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
Greatness Of Soul ◽  
The Way ◽  
Strength And Toughness

That a virtue should be called magnanimity suggests that souls come in sizes. But what makes for this sizing? This chapter is framed between the Homeric heroic ideal embodied in the megalêtôr and the gentle but resolute American hero, the magnanimous Abraham Lincoln, interacting along the way with the other chapters in the volume. This chapter compares conceptions of greatness of soul (heart, spirit, mind), touching on Socrates, Aristotle, the New Testament, Stoicism, Yaḥyā ibn ‘Adī and al-Rāghib al-Iṣfahānī, Thomas Aquinas, Descartes, the Scottish Enlightenment, Kant, and Nietzsche. The story is one of diversity, indeed in some cases mutual exclusion, with overlap and continuities. But in the end the chapter suggests a certain evolution of our conception of human greatness in which the virtues of strength and toughness are integrated with those of generosity and compassion.

A Renewal of the Social Contract

2021 ◽  
pp. 113-132
Author(s):  
Charles Devellennes
Keyword(s):  
Social Contract ◽  
Economic Justice ◽  
Economic Independence ◽  
Family Assistance ◽  
The Enlightenment ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Future ◽  
Economic Trends ◽  
Traditional Sense ◽  
New Form

This chapter provides a reflection on the new social contract, taking Diderot as dialectician of change, and offer ways to think about the future of the tradition. It shows that such a model is possible. A new social contract will take into account the need for liberty, democracy and economic justice. Most working class people have finished high school and been awarded a Baccalauréat, and many are home-owners of one of the millions of bungalows built throughout peripheral France. Yet their ability to secure economic independence, a promise of the Enlightenment, has not materialized. Many are worse off than their parents, and those without family assistance are extremely exposed to the ebb and flow of macro-economic trends such as global slowdown and recession. A social contract of the future has to address these needs that were posited as the sine qua non condition for social advancement more than two centuries ago. The revolt of the gilets jaunes against rent-seeking economic actors, such as landlords, motorway management companies, insurance and mortgage companies, and utilities, is testament to the economic plight that needs redressing. Although the gilets jaunes have failed to organize themselves politically in the traditional sense, they have provided one of the strongest political challenges to the very existence of the French state as it currently stands. It is this new form of politics, which does not go through political parties but demands social and economic justice directly, that is at the centre of the new social contract they demand.

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