scholarly journals What Jesus Did, Does and May Do in Future: Gospel Miracles, Human Augmentation, Transhumanism and the Future of New Testament Studies

2021 ◽  
pp. 0142064X2198997
Author(s):  
William John Lyons
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
New Testament ◽  
Human Body ◽  
Ethical Implications ◽  
The Future ◽  
New Testament Studies ◽  
Mental Abilities ◽  
Biblical Texts ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Human Augmentation

The quest of New Testament studies for a well-resourced future would be substantially aided by its explicit abandonment of a narrow methodological focus in favour of building links with other disciplines and by its acknowledgment that exegetical insights may arise from examining the impact of biblical texts down the centuries. In the potential appropriation of Jesus by Christian transhumanists interested in human bodily enhancement, for example, the healings of his earthly ministry are ignored because they are understood to restore human bodies to a previous form (a position recognizable in much of New Testament scholarship) rather than augment them to a new one. Building on deaf nineteenth-century interpretations which see the mental abilities of the deaf man in Mk 7.32-37 as being enhanced beyond human norms by Jesus, this article examines the healings of three blind men (Mk 8.22-26, Mk 10.46-52 and Jn 9.1-41). While the Johannine blind man is explicitly said to be blind from birth (whatever New Testament translations have often been made to say!), this article proposes that Blind Bartimaeus in Mk 10 should also be viewed this way. While their becoming sighted restores them to a common human pattern, their lack of prior sighted-experience means that it is their ability to see instantly that strongly implies the presence of an augmentative element to their healings. A postscript notes the different attitudes to the permission required to transform the human body within these narratives and suggests transhumanists consider the ethical implications of each story carefully before they incorporate the earthly Jesus into their arguments.

Dealing With Development: The Protestant Reviews of John Henry Newman’s An Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine, 1845–7

2004 ◽  
Vol 38 ◽  
pp. 357-364
Author(s):  
Erik Sidenvall
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
New Testament ◽  
Catholic Church ◽  
Roman Catholic ◽  
Roman Catholic Church ◽  
Christian Doctrine ◽  
Central Topic ◽  
The Future ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
The Impact

The greatness of John Henry Newman’s Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine has been acknowledged many times since it was first published in 1845. Its international repute was secured by the beginning of the twentieth century; for example, the future Archbishop of Uppsala, Nathan Söderblom, writing on the modernist movement, described it and its author in 1910 as ‘the most significant theological work, written by England’s foremost theologian, and together with Leo XIII, the most important man in the Roman Catholic Church during the last century’. This estimation is confirmed by the impact Newman’s book has had on twentieth-century theology. One recent observer has judged that it is ‘significant, less for its positive arguments … [than] for its method of approach to the whole problem of Christian doctrine in its relation to the New Testament’. In other words, Newman’s book touches on a central topic of modern theology.

scholarly journals Crossbreed – (Re) producing the Future

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yael Brosilovski
Keyword(s):  
Information Flow ◽  
Human Body ◽  
Human Intervention ◽  
Breeding Ground ◽  
Ethical Implications ◽  
The Future ◽  
Technological Intervention ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Near Future

The subject of technological intervention has been largely debated among the world’s greatest minds. Political, theological, psychological, biological and ethical implications have all been argued for and against the ‘technological other’. Does the fact we now CAN perform certain operations and changes to the human body and society at large actually mean we SHOULD? What impact can we foresee with unlimited human intervention in nature ‘as it was intended’? How can we benefit from an era of information flow, where crossing and hybridizing-disciplines, or as I term it “crossbreeding”, become the new breeding ground for innovation? How would Architecture be affected by a future that belongs to organic, non-organic humans and anything in between? This paper will discuss these issues and take a peep into where we might be headed in the near future, so to better understand the challenges that are ahead of us.

Introduction

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fiona Price
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Civil War ◽  
Historical Fiction ◽  
Historical Novel ◽  
The Other ◽  
The Future ◽  
The One ◽  
Historical Past ◽  
The Impact

The historical novel has often been defined in the terms set by Walter Scott’s fiction, as a reflection on a clear break or change between past and present. Returning to the range of historical fiction written before Scott, Reinventing Liberty explores this often neglected and misunderstood genre by reconstructing how conservatives and radicals fought through the medium of the historical past over the future of Britain. Aware of the events of the Civil War and 1688, witness to the American and French Revolutions, Scott’s precursors realized the dangers of absolutism, on the one hand, and political breakage, on the other. Interrogating the impact of commercial modernity, the works considered here do not adopt the familiar nineteenth-century Whig narrative of history as progress but instead imagine and reimagine the possibilities of transition. As such, they lay the groundwork for the British myth of political gradualism, while problematizing the rise of capital.

scholarly journals The Origins of Pauline Theology: Paratexts and Priscillian of Avila'sCanons on the Letters of the Apostle Paul

2016 ◽  
Vol 63 (1) ◽  
pp. 125-145 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. J. Lang ◽  
Matthew R. Crawford
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
New Testament ◽  
Fourth Century ◽  
Literary Creation ◽  
Apostle Paul ◽  
New Testament Studies ◽  
Pauline Theology ◽  
Paul's Letters

Pauline theology is a well-established undertaking in modern New Testament studies, and yet it is almost entirely without precedent prior to the nineteenth century. This article explores the enterprise of Pauline theology by considering an important and overlooked exception to its otherwise exclusively modern provenance: Priscillian of Avila's fourth-centuryCanons on the Letters of the Apostle Paul. The key to Priscillian's dogmatic synthesis of Paul's thought was his innovative ‘versification’ of Paul's letters, which facilitated efficient citation and cross-referencing of epistolary data. This article uses Priscillian's literary creation to examine the intriguing correlation of technologies for ordering textual knowledge with the systematic abstraction of Pauline theology.

scholarly journals The ethical implications of 2 John 10�11

2015 ◽  
Vol 36 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jan Van der Watt
Keyword(s):  
New Testament ◽  
Christian Ethics ◽  
Ancient World ◽  
Moral Issues ◽  
Ethical Implications ◽  
The Future ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
Open Discussion ◽  
To Receive ◽  
Research Show

The imperative in 2 John 10�11 not to receive a visitor with a false doctrine into one�s house is one of the most controversial prohibitions in the New Testament, especially in light of the commandment of love, ancient hospitality conventions, and modern-day expectations of open discussion. This raises the question what this prohibition is specifically about and whether hospitality is really asked for. This question is considered in some detail in this article. A widely held view is that the prohibition in 2 John 10 is not in line with generally accepted Christian ethics, since it militates against the attitude of love, care, and hospitality. This view is dominant in commentaries. This article aims at countering this view by proposing that the issue is not hospitality but endangering the identity and tradition of the group. This should be regarded as a positive Christian value.Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: I challenge theological readings of 2 John 10�11 that regard the text as unchristian in its exhortation. The results of the research show that hospitality is not the communicative centre of the text, but protection of the group, which was a common feature, not only in Christianity, but also in the ancient world in general. The future discourse should now move from focusing on moral issues related to hospitality to issues related to preserving tradition within a religion.

scholarly journals P. G. Lindhardt: Konfrontation. Grundtvigs prædikener i kirkeåret 1854-55 på baggrund af Kierkegaards angreb på den danske kirke og den »officielle« kristendom. Akademisk forlag. 1974

1975 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 69-73
Author(s):  
William Michelsen
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
New Testament ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
The Future ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
Way Of Thinking ◽  
The Moment ◽  
The Church

P. G. Lindhardt: Confrontation. Grundtvig’s Sermons for the Church Year 1854-55 in the light o f Kierkegaard’s attack on the Danish Church and »Official« Christianity. (Akademisk Forlag, Copenhagen, 1974).Reviewed by William Michelsen.In 1961, when Lindhardt published Kierkegaard’s The Moment, he attempted in the Preface to show the »point« at which he found Kierkegaard’s attack not only meaningful but also necessary. A corresponding preface is not required for this book, which can be read independently, as Lindhardt describes in a commentary and an epilogue the confrontation with Kierkegaard which he rightly finds in the previously unpublished sermons of Grundtvig. If Grundtvig had had the opportunity to re-edit them, they would most likely have lost their present freshness as well as their value as documents. Of course they are not all good; but they are all real - as a preacher’s response to the gospel in a particular situation. They are what a sermon should always be, and as such these sermons are, from a non-theological point o f view, as they should be.It may be that Grundtvig did not read or understand all that Kierkegaard wrote. But he knew the situation in which he wrote, though from another viewpoint since he belonged to an older generation. This situation has now changed, inasmuch as the Danish Church has become more accomodating and at the same time more shapeless. To regard the Danish people as Christian was for Kierkegaard an illusion that he considered scandalous. But it is only scandalous if w e allow ourselves to be deluded by it. That is hardly the case today. At that time it was normal to go to church; it is not so today. And yet people want their children christened and called Christian. It is just as difficult now as then to infer anything from outward conduct.Lindhardt emphasizes that in his sermons Grundtvig made the admission that Kierkegaard demanded; but even so he does not think that Grundtvig understood Kierkegaard. It is reasonable to ask whether Lindhardt has understood Grundtvig. Lindhardt stresses quite rightly that whereas Kierkegaard wished to hold people to their time (or moment), Grundtvig referred always to the future, which alone could decide the dispute over Christianity. This future, according to Grundtvig, will not come until the end of all time. But is such a faith in the future identical with nineteenth century theology?However, Grundtvig had another concept of »development«, different from contemporary theologians. He did not subject his Christian outlook on life to an idealist philosophy, such as Protestant theologians after Kant considered it necessary to maintain as modem people. But it was exactly this idealist way of thinking that was the startingpoint for Kierkegaard’s philosophy.The man who refers to the future risks more than the man who holds himselt and others to what they believe at the moment. For Kierkegaard (as for Nietzsche) history was reduced to an existential, irrelevant past. To take up a religious committal to the future is from a Christian point of view to believe that the Christianity of the New Testament will remain the truth - not just for me at the moment (and in a possible, transcendental world) but also after my death in this world. This was what Grundtvig - troubled perhaps but unshakable - believed and preached in this welcome publication of his sermons.

scholarly journals Speech act theory and New Testament exegesis

1991 ◽  
Vol 47 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Botha
Keyword(s):  
New Testament ◽  
Speech Act ◽  
Speech Act Theory ◽  
The Future ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
Biblical Texts

Speech act theory offers New Testament exegesis some additional ways and means of approaching the text of the New Testament. This, the second in a series of two articles that make a plea for the continued utilisation and application of this theory to the text of the New Testament, deals with some of the possibilities and potential this theory holds for reading biblical texts. Advantages are pointed out and a few suggestions for the future proposed.

Why Study the New Testament?

2005 ◽  
Vol 51 (2) ◽  
pp. 155-170 ◽  
Author(s):  
WAYNE A. MEEKS
Keyword(s):  
New Testament ◽  
Biblical Theology ◽  
Historical Research ◽  
The Real ◽  
Christian Communities ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Future ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
New Testament Studies ◽  
Discussion Partners

‘New Testament studies’, as most of us learned the discipline, depends on some fundamental assumptions: that scientific history leads us toward objective, secure knowledge of the past; that careful method can unlock the real meaning of a stable text; that we have an audience who genuinely care what we say. Every one of these assumptions has become problematic. For the future, we must not give up on historical research, but we must think more urgently about what it means to write history well. In our role as teachers of Christian communities, we need to examine ways in which texts are used, rediscovering the formative uses in place of an almost exclusive stress by ‘biblical theology’ on the normative. Finally, acknowledging the demise of Christendom, we must seek to engage an ever larger circle of discussion partners, seeking to overcome our isolation within the academy and within a world that has grown rapidly more diverse even as it has become astonishingly smaller.

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