Using the Bible and Christian Tradition in Theological Reflection

2003 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 133-151 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roger Walton
Keyword(s):  
Theological Reflection ◽  
Christian Tradition ◽  
The Bible

Habakkuk 2:2–4 in the Light of Recent Philological Advances

1980 ◽  
Vol 73 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 53-78
Author(s):  
J. Gerald Janzen
Keyword(s):  
Theological Reflection ◽  
Christian Tradition ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Locus Classicus

The concluding line of the short eschatological passage in Hab 2:2–4 is a locus classicus both within the biblical tradition and for subsequent theological reflection in the light of that tradition. Within the Bible it connects by well-beaten paths with other classic loci such as Gen 15:6, Rom 1:16–17 and Heb 11:1 (through the latter's contiguity with Heb 10:37–39). Beyond the Bible its importance is perhaps best known, within the Christian tradition, through Martin Luther's sola fide interpretation of it as quoted in Romans.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer's Christian Humanism

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jens Zimmermann
Keyword(s):  
Natural Law ◽  
Christian Tradition ◽  
Nazi Regime ◽  
Human Flourishing ◽  
Theological Interpretation ◽  
Christian Humanism ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Theological Politics

Based on a comprehensive reading of his entire work, in this book Jens Zimmermann presents Bonhoeffer’s theological ethos as a Christian humanism, that is, as an understanding of the gospel rooted in apostolic and patristic writers who believed God to have renewed humanity in the incarnation. The heartbeat of Bonhoeffer’s Christianity that unifies and motivates his theological writing, his preaching, and his political convictions, including his opposition to the Nazi regime, is the conviction that Christianity as participation in the new humanity established by Christ is about becoming fully human by becoming Christlike. In eight chapters, the author details Bonhoeffer’s humanistic theology following from this incarnational starting point: a Christ-centered anthropology that shows a deep kinship with patristic Christology, a hermeneutically structured theology, an ethic focused on Christ-formation, a biblical hermeneutic centered on God’s transforming presence, and a theological politics aimed at human flourishing. In offering a comprehensive reading of his theology as Christian humanism, Zimmermann not only places Bonhoeffer in the context of the patristic and greater Christian tradition but also makes apparent the relevance of Bonhoeffer’s thought for a number of contemporary concerns: hermeneutic theory, the theological interpretation of the Bible, the relation of reason to faith, the importance of natural law, and the significance of religion for secular societies. Bonhoeffer turns out to be a Christian humanist and a modern theologian who models the deeply orthodox and yet ecumenical, expansive Christianity demanded by our time.

Ritualizing Iconic Jewish Texts

2020 ◽  
pp. 239-255
Author(s):  
James W. Watts
Keyword(s):  
Semantic Interpretation ◽  
Religious Communities ◽  
Christian Tradition ◽  
Oral Performance ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Christian Worship ◽  
Scholarly Attention

Bibles and parts of bibles are themselves used as ritual objects in Jewish and Christian worship. Their display and manipulation, oral performance, and semantic interpretation have been ritualized by synagogues and churches since antiquity. The origins of these practices are rooted in the Bible itself. Their influence has shaped every Jewish and Christian tradition and reaches beyond them to Muslims, Manicheans, and other religious communities. This chapter and its companions in this volume on Christianity and Islam focus mostly on how the iconic dimension of scriptures gets ritualized, because the iconic dimension has received less scholarly attention than the ritualization of scripture’s oral performance, artistic illustration, and semantic interpretation.

scholarly journals Peduli kemanusiaan dan keutuhan ciptaan: Melacak pesan penatalayanan ciptaan di era pandemi

Kurios ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yohanes Hasiholan Tampubolon ◽  
Aeron Frior Sihombing ◽  
Robi Prianto ◽  
Oferlin Hia
Keyword(s):  
Pastoral Care ◽  
Research Method ◽  
Environmental Problems ◽  
Qualitative Approach ◽  
Theological Reflection ◽  
Global Problem ◽  
The Bible ◽  
The World ◽  
The Relationship

Covid 19 has hit the world and is a global problem today. Various theological responses are also present to interpret suffering, worship to pastoral care. However, this pandemic cannot be separated from the problem of the relationship between humans and other creations of God. Humanitarian issues and environmental problems are interrelated. So, there needs to be a theological reflection related to the integrity of creation in the midst of a pandemic. The author uses the term stewardship of creation to describe the relationship between humans and other creations of God. This article uses a descriptive-analytic research method with a qualitative approach. The author found that important themes in the Bible can encourage human involvement in the stewardship of creation even though there are certainly various challenges that will be faced.

MARKETING THE TESTAMENTS: CANONGATE AND THEIR POCKET-SIZED BIBLES

2002 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 221-244
Author(s):  
Keyword(s):  
Biblical Studies ◽  
Christian Tradition ◽  
The West ◽  
Positive Potential ◽  
Publishing Firm ◽  
Investment Promotion ◽  
The Bible ◽  
King James Version ◽  
As If

AbstractRecently the Edinburgh-based publishing firm Canongate has brought out the Bible in the form of single books in the King James Version. Each of these volumes is introduced by a writer not necessarily associated with the Christian tradition, thus inviting the readers to approach them as literary works in their own right. For long the Bible came with commentaries written by prominent religious scholars, but now it looks as if it needed an introduction by novelists, pop artists, scientists including and even by some who are outside the Christian tradition to make the once familiar texts now widely neglected in the West come alive again. The purpose of this essay is to look at the following: the positive potential of this Pocket Canon; the role of the interpreter's personal voice within the process of discovering meaning in a narrative; the marketing of the Bible and appropriation of religious themes by secular marketeers; the re-iconization of the Bible though the King James Version; the colonial parallels in the investment, promotion and dissemination of the Bible; and the challenge of personal-voice criticism to biblical studies. Put at its simplest, can this disparate group of essayists rescue the Bible, which is fast losing its grip and importance in the West, and discover fresh significance in it?

Exodus

2019 ◽  
pp. 40-49
Author(s):  
Ellen F. Davis
Keyword(s):  
Theological Reflection ◽  
Slave Labor ◽  
Master Narratives ◽  
Divine Sovereignty ◽  
God's Will ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Initial Resistance ◽  
Food Economy

Together the two parts of Exodus—Israel in Egypt and in Sinai—form one of the master narratives of the Bible. The first part pits against each other two opposite responses to YHWH’s self-revelation: while Moses yields to God’s will, Pharaoh consistently resists manifestations of God’s presence and power. The second part introduces three elements of Israel’s formation as a people. The gift of manna establishes a godly food economy. The treatment of covenant provides theological reflection on divine sovereignty, divine dangerousness, the goodness of creation, and the problem of slavery. Finally, the instructions for the building of the tabernacle and its completion show Israel’s initial resistance to God’s commands and their eventual obedience; it also provides a humanizing counterpoint to Israel’s slave labor in Egypt.

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.

scholarly journals The First Witnesses. Martha, Longinus and Veronica in the Slavic Manuscript Tradition (Initial Observations)

2011 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
pp. 101-126
Author(s):  
Małgorzata Skowronek ◽  
Marek Majer
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Literary Texts ◽  
Christian Tradition ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Manuscript Tradition ◽  
The One ◽  
Canonical Texts ◽  
Patron Saints ◽  
Popular Texts

The epithet ‘first witnesses’, conferred on the three saints in the title, is but a conventional designation; it seems fitting as common for the figures of saints, who gave proof of their devotion to Christ. Otherwise, although they make no simultaneous appearance in any of the canonical texts, there are – interestingly – far more interconnections between the three characters in pseudo-canonical and legendary literature than could be surmised from the lack thereof in the Bible. The aim of the paper is to present a literary picture of three New Testament heroes, as commemorated in different literary texts representing diverse cultural registers, even from the Ancient Christian Times until the close of the Middle Ages. Among them there are short and extended lives and passions of saints, liturgical poetry, as well as specific, more popular texts, such as ‘tales’ and legends. The material under discussion largely includes texts that form a part of the Slavic Orthodox tradition, depicting them on the background of fairly wellknown works belonging to the Western Christian tradition. It turns out that the legends are inspired by the canonical text on the one hand, while on the other hand they themselves infiltrate official texts – they become officially sanctioned as soon as their popularity is taken over and adopted by liturgical practice. It should be borne in mind that those legends – part of which is known both in the Eastern and in the Western Christianity – confirm one further crucial characteristic of texts constituting the canonical and pseudo-canonical tradition: the commonness of themes and motifs which can without exaggeration be called ‘wandering’. They determine the fact that there is hardly any originality in the formation of the characters of patron saints; moreover, on the level of creating the notion of sainthood and its reception, there seem to be far more common points than differences between both of the Early Christian traditions – the East and the West. The paper is an attempt to point out how the Christian tradition exemplifies various manifestations of holiness, what means it has for annotating, elucidating and embellishing the Biblical hypertext, and how it adapts pseudo-canonical legends for the purposes of liturgical use.

scholarly journals The Normative-Ethical Context of the Golden Rule

TECHNOLOGOS ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 9-21
Author(s):  
Apressyan Ruben
Keyword(s):  
Golden Rule ◽  
Christian Tradition ◽  
Cultural Traditions ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Ethical Context ◽  
Three Stages ◽  
Similarities And Differences ◽  
Normative Content

According tocommonunderstanding, the Golden Rule exists in a form of maxims and various proverbs. However, in many cultural traditions, this rule is present as part of institutionalized texts and has a specific normative context. The article proposes an account of the Golden Rule within a particular example of the Judeo-Christian tradition (based on a study of the Bible books), in relation to the Lex Talionis and the Commandment of Love, in respect to what the Golden Rule is contextualized, in three stages. Firstly, the main passages, in which these principles are compared and contrasted have been selected in the books of the Bible. Such are the following: Lev. 19.18, 33–34, Matt. 6.37–38; 7.12; 22.40. Secondly, it has been taken into account that the normative content of these principles, although they are expressed in strict formulations, is internally dynamic. When clarifying both the normative context of the Golden Rule and the content of each of the principles, it is necessary to take into account their internal normative dynamism. Thus, Talion, which historically arose as a principle of retribution, limiting the amount of punishment to the degree of harm caused, eventually transformed into a principle of compensation, primarily monetary, and in a later era, early Christian authors reinterpreted it as a principle that admonishes against causing harm to anyone. The Commandment of Love for one’s neighbor covers the spectrum of demands from love for one’s neighbor as a close one through love for one’s neighbor, who is considered a stranger, to love for a neighbor, who is actually a foe. The normative dynamics of the Golden Rule can be traced in its two formulas – negative and positive. At the same time, it is necessary to take into account the examples of thinking in the spirit of the Golden Rule, which are found in the oldest Bible books. Thirdly, the three principles are compared in their imperative characteristics by a number of parameters, regarding which similarities and differences between them are presented in different configurations.

scholarly journals Towards a Theological Overcoming of Anthropocentrism. The Vegetarian Choice

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 54-65
Author(s):  
Paolo Trianni ◽  
Sara Sgarlata
Keyword(s):  
Thomas Aquinas ◽  
New Method ◽  
Christian Tradition ◽  
Ethical Implications ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Sacred Scripture ◽  
History Of ◽  
Christian Thought ◽  
Contrary Evidence ◽  
Supportive Argument

The article intends to demonstrate that a theology of vegetarianism is possible, despite some contrary evidence present in the biblical texts. Like other theologies dealing with issues not directly voiced in the Bible, it becomes possible to interpret the biblical statements in a new way, on the bases of a specific methodology. As a result, an objective comprehension will go back inductively to Sacred Scripture. The article advocates for applying this new method as well as for introducing its ethical implications into the Christian tradition. An additional supportive argument in favour of establishing the new understanding can be found in the history of the Roman Church, besides the consolidated custom of carnivorous nutrition: there has been no shortage of positions in favour of vegetarian asceticism. This stance was also represented by Thomas Aquinas. By valorizing classic Christian authors in favour of vegetarianism (starting with Jerome), the inauguration of the theology of vegetarianism becomes legitimised. Such an inauguration would reorient Christian thought toward reconsidering cosmology, ecology and topical contemporary issues such as anthropocentrism and speciesism.

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