Chapter Twenty-three. The Question of a ‘Biblical Theology’ and the Growing Tension between ‘Biblical Theology’ and a ‘History of the Religion of Israel’: from Johann Philipp Gabler to Rudolf Smend, Sen

2012 ◽  
pp. 625-650
Author(s):  
Joachim Schaper
Keyword(s):  
Biblical Theology ◽  
History Of

Martin Luther and the Holy Spirit

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lois Malcolm
Keyword(s):  
Holy Spirit ◽  
Martin Luther ◽  
Biblical Theology ◽  
Biblical Exegesis ◽  
Literary Genres ◽  
The Holy Spirit ◽  
History Of ◽  
History Of Theology ◽  
The One ◽  
The Trinity

Although often neglected in historical and theological studies of Martin Luther’s work, an understanding of the Holy Spirit undergirds his signal contributions to the history of theology and is essential to any case for his ongoing relevance to contemporary theology and practice. Drawing on biblical exegesis, Luther would reinvigorate the doctrine of the Holy Spirit he inherited from the Western theological tradition and from the Ancient Church. Nonetheless, he wrote in a variety of literary genres and in response to a range of issues. To address this linguistic and historical complexity, this article examines the role the concept of the Holy Spirit plays in his theology by providing readings of texts that have been influential on later appropriations of his work. In doing so, it focuses on two intertwined themes in his theology. First, it examines his understanding of the Holy Spirit in relation to justification—that is, the righteousness of God we receive as a gift by faith—looking at his early biblical theology and two especially influential texts, “The Freedom of a Christian” (1520) and his “Lectures on Galatians” (1535). Second, it discusses his portrayal of the Holy Spirit as sanctifier—that is, as the one who creates holiness or sanctification in us—in his most well-known catechisms, in the “Confession of 1528,” and in his “Lectures on Genesis” (1535) and “Sermons on John” (1537). Throughout, attention will also be given to his understanding of the Trinity, Word and sacraments, faith, hope, and love, and the themes of promise and gift. The article concludes with a sketch of historical work and a discussion of the influence of Luther’s pneumatology on later theology and current areas of research.

Limitations of a Purely Salvation-historical Approach to Biblical Theology

2017 ◽  
Vol 39 (2) ◽  
pp. 211-231
Author(s):  
Darian Lockett
Keyword(s):  
Subject Matter ◽  
Biblical Theology ◽  
Karl Barth ◽  
General Description ◽  
Historical Approach ◽  
Salvation History ◽  
Hans Frei ◽  
Primary Meaning ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Relationship

Abstract A salvation-historical approach to biblical theology emphasizes the historical and progressive nature of revelation such that the Bible’s primary meaning is (too often) reduced to its reference to the sequential events of a special (salvation) history. After offering a general description of the development of the salvation-historical approach to biblical theology, the essay considers the representative example of D. A. Carson. Then, noting the criticisms of Hans Frei, Karl Barth, and Brevard Childs, the paper argues that limiting one’s biblical theology to a salvation-historical approach replaces Christ as the subject matter of both Testaments with “the temporally distinct and ordered stages of the history of salvation.” Although the insights of a redemptive-historical biblical theology are important, when taken as the exclusive methodology for biblical theology it risks flattening the relationship between the two Testaments and missing Scripture’s theological subject matter.

Bible and Biblical Theology in the Early Reformation

1961 ◽  
Vol 14 (4) ◽  
pp. 337-352
Author(s):  
J. A. B. van den Brink
Keyword(s):  
Holy Spirit ◽  
Biblical Theology ◽  
General Situation ◽  
Lord's Prayer ◽  
Knowledge Of God ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Ten Commandments ◽  
The Reformation ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Church

Everywhere in Europe the translations of the Bible into the evernacular languages have been the strongest help towards Reformation. It would be a very attractive task to study in detail, to compare and to summarise the history of the Bible in the Reformation movement, from West to East and from South to North in Europe.2 John Knox tells us that, when the Act of Parliament of 1543 allowed the Scriptures to be read freely, this was ‘no small comfort to such as before were held in such bondage that they durst not have read the Lord's Prayer, the Ten Commandments, nor articles of their faith, in the English tongue, but they should have been accused of heresy. Then might have been seen the Bible lying almost upon every gentleman's table. The NT was borne about in many men's hand.3 By these words is given no doubt a true and striking picture of the general situation in Scotland in those days and this may be true also for the beginnings of the Reformation in other countries some decades earlier. The Scots reformer adds that, although for reasons of profit many acted in an inexcusable way with the new book, ‘yet thereby did the knowledge of God wondrously increase and God gave his Holy Spirit to simple men in great abundance’.Now this is my first thesis: that the Bible in the early Reformation was passionately desired, not for the book as such, nor to have it as a weapon against the Church and its superfluous appendages, but as a help to find a better way to God.

Psalm 2 In The Context Of Biblical Theology

1990 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 73-91 ◽  
Author(s):  
James W. Watts
Keyword(s):  
New Testament ◽  
Old Testament ◽  
Biblical Theology ◽  
Theological Reflection ◽  
Biblical Text ◽  
Ancient Israel ◽  
History Of ◽  
Royal Ideology ◽  
Psalm 2 ◽  
Religious Nature

AbstractPsalm 2 is an intersection in which a variety of issues in biblical theology meet. The psalm impacts upon our understanding of monotheism in ancient Israel, the religious nature of Judah's royal ideology, the origins of eschatology, and New Testament Christology. Theological reflection on Ps 2 should therefore not only consider the recent exegetical discussions of the text, but also the theological issues raised by the Old Testament context, the New Testament's use of the psalm, and the history of the psalm's interpretation. In what follows, a survey of all these aspects will lay the basis for a theological construal of this biblical text.

A History of the Concept of the Soul during the 20TH Century

1998 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 66-82 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeffrey H. Boyd
Keyword(s):  
20Th Century ◽  
Sigmund Freud ◽  
Intermediate State ◽  
Biblical Theology ◽  
The Body ◽  
Health Movement ◽  
Bible Translations ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Whole Person ◽  
History Of

The word soul can have many meanings. In this article it is taken to mean the inner or subjective person. When the body dies and disintegrates, the inner person survives and provides continuity of personal identity between this life and the resurrection life. Sigmund Freud and the mental health movement have been involved in treating the soul, and I argue that the soul is the central focus of all psychotherapy. During the 20th century the Biblical Theology Movement sought to discredit soul-body dualism as an allegedly Greek philosophical idea that contradicted the whole-person view of human nature that was found throughout the Bible. They restricted their use of the word dualism to refer only to Platonic dualism, in which the body was despised or inferior. There are other forms of dualism which say that the human is made of two parts, only one of which is the corpse. The Biblical Theology Movement emphasized this life and the resurrection life, but paid little attention to the intermediate state. The word soul was, to some extent, dropped from contemporary Bible translations. But that anti-soul position is not tenable when one considers the intermediate state (between death and resurrection) when there is a clear dichotomy: the soul (or spirit) is with Christ while the body lies in the grave. I propose that it would be theologically acceptable to bring the soul back from Siberia, so as to make it again a part of theology and the theological object of care and healing.

scholarly journals ON FINDING THE THEOLOGICAL MESSAGE OF OLD TESTAMENT BOOKS: A PLEA FOR PAYING ATTENTION TO THE REDEMPTIVE-HISTORICAL CONTEXT

2019 ◽  
pp. 45-60
Author(s):  
GERT KWAKKEL
Keyword(s):  
Old Testament ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
Biblical Theology ◽  
Broad Context ◽  
Sermon Series ◽  
History Of ◽  
Theological Message

What is the theological message of an Old Testament book? How should one proceed in attempts to trace and formulate it? The answer to these questions is vital for the study biblical theology. These are likewise relevant for students working on the exegesis of a pericope or ministers preparing a sermon series on a specific book. In this study, I will argue that it is not only helpful but also necessary to pay more attention to the position of the books in the broad context of the history of Israel and the history of redemption. As this context is particularly relevant for the interpretation of the historical books and the prophets, I will focus on examples taken from these books.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document