The Sermon on the Mount and Christian Ethics in the Nazi Bible

2021 ◽  
pp. 095394682110511
Author(s):  
Ryan Buesnel
Keyword(s):  
New Testament ◽  
Religious Experience ◽  
National Socialism ◽  
Christian Ethics ◽  
Christian Theology ◽  
Ethical Principles ◽  
Sermon On The Mount ◽  
Nazi Ideology ◽  
Church Life ◽  
The New Testament

In 1939, scholars associated with the pro-Nazi Thüringian German Christian movement founded a research institute dedicated to the task of removing the legacy of Judaism from Christianity. The mission of the Institute for the Study and Elimination of Jewish Influence on German Church Life was to render Christianity acceptable within the antisemitic and militarized climate of National Socialism. This task required purging Christian theology of Jewish influence, a feature evident in the Institute's version of the New Testament titled The Message of God. This publication aimed to transform the religious experience of ordinary German believers and would eventually sell over 200,000 copies. This article examines material in this text as it relates to the Sermon on the Mount and concludes that, despite the apparent incongruity between Nazi ideology and New Testament ethics, the editors of the so-called ‘Nazi Bible’ believed their task to be guided by Christian ethical principles.

The Church of the Reigning Lord

1948 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 66-73
Author(s):  
R. Stuart Louden
Keyword(s):  
New Testament ◽  
Old Testament ◽  
Christian Theology ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Biblical Scholarship ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
Pauline Epistles ◽  
History Of ◽  
Four Square ◽  
The Church

We can trace a revival of theology in the Reformed Churches in the last quarter of a century. The new theological interest merits being called a revival of theology, for there has been a fresh and more thorough attention given to certain realities, either ignored or treated with scant notice for a considerable time previously.First among such realities now receiving more of the attention which their relevance and authority deserve, is the Bible, the record of the Word of God. There is an invigorating and convincing quality about theology which is Biblical throughout, being based on the witness of the Scriptures as a whole. The valuable results of careful Biblical scholarship had had an adverse effect on theology in so far as theologians had completely separated the Old Testament from the New in their treatment of Biblical doctrine, or in expanding Christian doctrine, had spoken of the theological teaching of the Synoptic Gospels, the Pauline Epistles, the Johannine writings, and so on, as if there were no such thing as one common New Testament witness. It is being seen anew that the Holy Scriptures contain a complete history of God's saving action. The presence of the complete Bible open at the heart of the Church, recalls each succeeding Christian generation to that one history of God's saving action, to which the Church is the living witness. The New Testament is one, for its Lord is one, and Christian theology must stand four-square on the foundation of its whole teaching.

Innovation Asserted

2019 ◽  
pp. 117-158
Author(s):  
Jonathan Klawans
Keyword(s):  
New Testament ◽  
Sermon On The Mount ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
Good And Evil ◽  
Sayings Of Jesus

This chapter traces the trajectory of early Christianity’s eventual embrace of the new, as articulated in the New Testament. Early sections probe the Gospels, illustrating how difficult it is to trace the word “new” back to the sayings of Jesus himself. Clearer evidence emerges in Paul, though he balances assertions of innovation with appeals to a prior covenant of faith. Other gospel traditions—above all, the Sermon on the Mount—seek to establish the novelty of Jesus’s teaching, a claim that sometimes entails denying earlier precedents for Jesus’s instruction. Going one important step further, the Letter to the Hebrews provides the earliest evidence for supersessionism, when the valorization of innovation is undergirded by a condemnation of the old. But an alternate discourse is also in evidence in texts like the Didache, which speak not of an old/new contrast but a timeless duality between good and evil.

scholarly journals Playing God or Participating in God? What Considerations Might the New Testament Bring to the Ethics of the Biotechnological Future?

2019 ◽  
Vol 32 (2) ◽  
pp. 152-164
Author(s):  
Grant Macaskill
Keyword(s):  
New Testament ◽  
Jesus Christ ◽  
Theological Reflection ◽  
Christian Theology ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Playing God ◽  
The New Testament

The Bible is normative for all Christian theology and ethics, including responsible theological reflection on the biotechnological future. This article considers the representation of creaturehood and what might be labelled ‘deification’ within the biblical material, framing these concepts in terms of participation in providence and redemption. This participatory emphasis allows us to move past the simplistic dismissal of biotechnological progress as ‘playing God’, by highlighting ways in which the development of technology and caregiving are proper creaturely activities, but ones that must be morally aligned to the goodness of God. Framing our approximation of divine character in terms of ‘deification’ highlights its relational and soteriologically defined shape, preventing us from conceiving its attainment in any way that is loosed from the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The discussion allows us to affirm the pursuit of biotechnological research, but to recognize that it is unable by itself to accomplish certain ends, and that it must be pursued in alignment with the standards of goodness by which God loves his world.

Jesus' Resurrection in the Early Christian Texts: An Engagement with N.T. Wright

2005 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 197-208
Author(s):  
Larry Hurtado
Keyword(s):  
New Testament ◽  
Religious Experience ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
The New Testament

AbstractWright's latest book in his multi-volume treatment of 'the New Testament and God' reveals an impressive amount of research and reflection on practically every topic. The size and detail of Wright's book make it difficult to do justice to it, and it requires anyone who engages it in such a limited presentation to select matters for particular attention. This is an attempt to contribute productively by offering critique of certain matters, particularly those of apologetics, Wright's portrayal of Jesus' resurrection in the New Testament, 'metaphorical' use of resurrection language, religious experience and devotion to Jesus, and variety in early Christian resurrection-beliefs. But the critical focus should not be misconstrued and the overall reaction is one of appreciation and gratitude.

Setting the Issues: Women'S Liberation and Christian Theology

1976 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
pp. 313-317
Author(s):  
C. E. Cerling
Keyword(s):  
New Testament ◽  
Christian Theology ◽  
Women's Liberation ◽  
1 Corinthians ◽  
Women Ministers ◽  
Women’S Liberation ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
Key Issues ◽  
Women's Role ◽  
Biblical Teaching

Meaningful discussion cannot take place until agreement has been reached about the subject for discussion. This article sets out what the author considers are the key issues relating to the debate between women's liberation and Christian theology. The single most important issue is this: Is the biblical teaching about women so conditioned by the culture of biblical times that it has no application to the present. Certain definitions are important. What is the meaning of “headship” in the New Testament? The other side of this question is, what is the meaning of subjection or subordination? We must also ask, how can the apparent partnership of Genesis 2 be reconciled with subordination as spelled out by Paul? In regard to the question of the ordination of women, we must ask if there were women ministers in the New Testament. This question is posed with signal difficulty by Paul's contrasting statements in 1 Corinthians 11 and 14 where he both restricts women's role in the church and provides a qualified opening for their teaching.

The New Testament in Religious Studies

1974 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 385-406 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Morgan
Keyword(s):  
New Testament ◽  
Religious Studies ◽  
Christian Theology ◽  
Colleges Of Education ◽  
Christian Church ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Dialectical Theology ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
New Testament Studies ◽  
New Situation

The aim of this essay is to show the significance for a new situation of Barth's attack upon some of the historical scholarship of his day over fifty years ago. Barth was motivated by Christian theological concerns, but what he stood for has important implications for New Testament studies generally, and in particular for its purpose and place within a Religious Studies syllabus. If what is written has a mildly polemical edge this will betray the scarcely veiled theological interests which prompt the warning against New Testament studies that spurn theology and a theology that spurns the New Testament. But the argument depends upon considerations arising from the character of the New Testament material and the educational reasons for studying it outside the Christian church. Within the theological circle, liberal protestantism is at last emerging from under the cloud cast over it by the dialectical theology. The rediscovery of Schleiermacher is rightly being followed by a rediscovery of Troeltsch. But for reasons for which dialectical theology is itself partly to blame this is being accompanied in some quarters by a failure to insist upon the importance of the Bible for Christian theology. Despite all their differences, liberals and dialectical theologians agreed in defending biblically rooted theologies. Some of those engaged in revising the map of recent theological history need reminding that the emphasis upon the theological use of the New Testament which has dominated the work of Barth and Bultmann has more than a narrowly confessional interest. It is directly relevant to the recent swing towards Religious Studies in British universities and colleges of education.

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