scholarly journals Theorizing Pentecostal Experiences Among Church of God (Cleveland, TN) Adolescents

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher D Fraley
Keyword(s):  
Religious Experience ◽  
The Body ◽  
Church Of God ◽  
Ethnographic Research ◽  
Emotional Intensity ◽  
Bodily Experience ◽  
Speaking In Tongues ◽  
Positive Experiences ◽  
The Church

This article describes and theorizes the liturgical contexts in which adolescents have Pentecostal experiences such as “speaking in tongues” and being “slain in the Spirit.” It is based on ethnographic research done at a Pentecostal church affiliated with the Church of God (Cleveland, TN).  I begin by offering a snapshot of modern Pentecostalism in order to demonstrate the framework that informed the context of the current study. Then I describe six factors of the liturgy that facilitate Pentecostal experience in adolescents: the language of encounter with God, the use of music to build emotional intensity, the prominent role of the body, the participatory nature of worship, the call for salvation, and the alter call as culmination of the liturgy.  My analysis reveals that adolescents are more likely to have positive experiences if they have been educated in a Christian environment, had a prayer partner, have experienced a sense of distance from God, have accepted a biblicist approach to Scripture, and have a common bodily experience. I argue that Pentecostal experiences are ultimately beneficial and that a thorough analysis of their underlying factors is essential towards the construction of healthier forms of religious experience. 

scholarly journals PERSPEKTIF RASUL PAULUS TENTANG BERBAHASA ROH BERDSARKAN 1 KORINTUS 14

2015 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 11-21
Author(s):  
Sarwono Sarwono
Keyword(s):  
The Body ◽  
Body Of Christ ◽  
1 Corinthians ◽  
Speaking In Tongues ◽  
The Gift ◽  
The Church

The gift of speaking in tongues is a message to the body of Christ which is given in tongues and is not understood by the user. Therefore, it must be followed by an interpretation by the language understood by the congregation. The gift of tongues is usually news of a prophecy for the Lord's church and must be followed by an interpretation. If the gift of tongues is not followed by an interpretation, it cannot build up the church. Therefore, the author will discuss the apostle Paul's perspective on tongues based on 1 Corinthians 14.

scholarly journals Die kerk

1995 ◽  
Vol 51 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
J. P. Oberholzer
Keyword(s):  
New Testament ◽  
Holy Spirit ◽  
The Body ◽  
Church Of Christ ◽  
Church Of God ◽  
View Point ◽  
New Creation ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
The Will ◽  
The Church

The church. This survey of biblical material on the church proceeds from the view-point that the identity of the church of God can be treated only as an existential question, asking 'who is the church?' and 'who am I?' at the same time. The article shows that, of the various images used in the New Testament to describe the church, virtually every one forms the basis of a call to a holy and dedicated life. At the same time these images, with the exception of the body image, unite the churches of the Old and New Testament in such a way that the church of Christ is shown to be heir and new creation at the same time. Two prominent features appear: the call to a holy life and acceptance of the universality of the church, emanating from the will and being of the Lord himself, and guided by his Holy Spirit.

scholarly journals Die karakter van die kerk in perspektief van huidige teologiese besinning

1990 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 199-208
Author(s):  
P. C. Potgieter
Keyword(s):  
Kingdom Of God ◽  
The Body ◽  
Body Of Christ ◽  
Community Of Faith ◽  
Ecclesiastical Law ◽  
The World ◽  
Theological Thought ◽  
The Church ◽  
Apostolic Community

The character of the church - a perspective on current theological thought The role of the church in society is currently much focused upon in theological thought. The author analyses various characteristics of the church with reference to views of well known theologians. As community of faith it is the body of Christ revealed very visibly in the world representing the kingdom of God. For that very reason the idea of a national church is unacceptable. The church is one, catholic and apostolic community, even particularly in its visible form. Though Scripture gives no clear guidelines on the structure of the church, there are many general biblical norms to be considered in ecclesiastical law and government.

Wolfhart Pannenberg

2018 ◽  
pp. 486-504
Author(s):  
Friedericke Nuessel
Keyword(s):  
Kingdom Of God ◽  
The Body ◽  
Political Order ◽  
Systematic Theology ◽  
Body Of Christ ◽  
Civil State ◽  
Wolfhart Pannenberg ◽  
The One ◽  
The Church

This chapter describes the development of Wolfhart Pannenberg’s ecclesiology in his early work and explores his fully developed ecclesiology in the Systematic Theology of 1993. It analyses the fundamental role of the church to be a sign and foretaste of the kingdom of God. This involves a constitutive self-distinction of the church from any political order or civil state on the one hand and from the future kingdom of God on the other. Moreover, the chapter emphasizes the simultaneity of individual salvation and incorporation into the church as the body of Christ in Pannenberg, and demonstrates the ecclesiological task to overcome the divisions between churches in order to witness to the unity, holiness, catholicity, and apostolicity of the church.

Baptism in Martin Luther’s Theology

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kirsi Stjerna
Keyword(s):  
Nervous System ◽  
Religious Experience ◽  
Human Life ◽  
16Th Century ◽  
Sacramental Theology ◽  
Christian Community ◽  
Christian Communities ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Church

Baptism opens a window to the heart of Martin Luther’s 16th-century theology. It offers a perspective for how Luther understands the impact of grace and its channels, as well as the nature of justification in an individual’s life. In his teaching about baptism, Luther demonstrates the vital working of the Word and lays a foundation for a Word-centered and faith-oriented spirituality. With baptism, Luther articulates his vision for the purpose of the Church and the rationale for sacraments. Baptism reveals different sides of the theologian: one who argues with a zeal on the “necessity” of baptism and its meaningful God-mandated practice in Christian communities and another who imagines God’s saving grace too expansive to be limited to any ritual. The apparent tensions in Luther’s articulation can be understood from his overlapping agendas and different audiences: in his baptismal talk, Luther is both processing his own Angst about salvation and negotiating his developing position in relation to the medieval sacramental theology and other emerging reform solutions. While feistily refuting his opponents, he is also speaking from his personal religious experience of being as if reborn with the encounter of the Word of grace and passionately extrapolating his most foundational conviction: God’s unconditional promise of grace as the ground of being for human life, given to humanity in the Word. The matter of baptism leads to the roots of different Christian “confessional” traditions. The format of the ritual has generated less anxiety than differing theological opinions on (1) the role of faith in the validity of baptism, and (2) the effects of baptism in one’s life. Whether infant or adult baptism is favored depends on whether baptism is primarily understood as a sign of faith, a cause of forgiveness and transformation, or an initiation into the Christian community—or all of the above. Baptism is at the center of Luther’s theological nervous system; it connects with every other vital thread in the theological map. Baptism is a mystery and a matter of faith; it calls for a philosophical imagination and mystical willingness to grasp the questions of reality beyond what meets the eye. “I study it daily,” Luther admits in his “Large Catechism.” “In baptism, therefore, every Christian has enough to study and practice all his or her life. Christians always have enough to do to believe firmly what baptism promises and brings.”

Irenaeus and Origen

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brian E. Daley, SJ
Keyword(s):  
Hebrew Bible ◽  
The Body ◽  
Material World ◽  
Son Of God ◽  
God's Word ◽  
Origen Of Alexandria ◽  
In Christ ◽  
Providence Of God ◽  
The Church

Irenaeus wrote his two extant works chiefly to distinguish right faith from the various contemporary forms of “Gnostic” Christianity, which challenged the goodness and relevance of the material world, the body, and human institutions, promising instead secret, deeper knowledge of salvation in Christ that was available only to an elite. In response, Irenaeus affirmed the unity and constant providence of God in history, the narrative and doctrinal unity of the Hebrew Bible and the chief Christian documents, the personal unity of Christ as Son of God and son of Mary, and the worldwide unity of the church and its tradition of teaching. Origen of Alexandria also focused his efforts on correcting Gnostic understandings. The role of Christ, as God’s Word made flesh, is the heart of human redemption, revealing in his own biblical “titles” his identity as mediator between the unknowable Father and a straying humanity.

The Name-Glorifiers (Imiaslavie) Controversy

2020 ◽  
pp. 326-342
Author(s):  
Scott M. Kenworthy
Keyword(s):  
Thirteenth Century ◽  
Religious Experience ◽  
Philosophy Of Language ◽  
Russian Orthodox ◽  
Orthodox Church ◽  
Russian Orthodox Church ◽  
Religious Symbols ◽  
Jesus Prayer ◽  
The Church

In 1912–1913, a controversy erupted first among the Russian monks on Mount Athos of the claim in one book on prayer that ‘the Name of God is God Himself’. The so-called ‘Name-Glorifiers’ teaching would be condemned by the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church. Nevertheless, leading Russian religious thinkers, especially Sergius Bulgakov, Pavel Florenskii, and Aleksei Losev, would take up the issue. The very nature of the controversy would provoke these thinkers to reflect broadly on the philosophy of language in general. More specifically, they also reflected on the nature of religious symbols and the role of religious symbols such as language in mediating religious experience between the person in prayer and God. This chapter surveys the genesis of the debate and its treatment within the Church. The debate itself originated in connection with the practice of hesychastic spirituality and the Jesus Prayer, but the Church authorities reacted in a swift way, without fully understanding the issues at stake. One important consequence of the controversy was the revival of the theology of St. Gregory Palamas, the Byzantine theologian who had defended the hesychasts in the thirteenth century, but whose theology had largely been forgotten in Russia. Although the debate erupted on the eve of the revolution and therefore was forgotten by many, the reflections on language and symbols by thinkers such as Florenskii and Losev would have a broader resonance in later Russian thought, not only with regard to language but even in mathematics.

scholarly journals Die Nederduitsch Hervormde Kerk van Afrika: ’n Vrywillige vereniging of ’n vereniging sui generis?

1994 ◽  
Vol 50 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
S. H. Gregan
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
South African ◽  
Case Law ◽  
The Body ◽  
Voluntary Association ◽  
Legal Person ◽  
English Court ◽  
Communion Of Saints ◽  
The Church

The Nederduitsch Hervormde Kerk van Afrika: A voluntary association or an association sui generis The Nederduitsch Hervormde Kerk is seen as a voluntary association in South African law which is founded on a contractual basis. Recent case law has re-affirmed this fact. This was not always the case. Earlier case law referred to the church as a legal person (universitas). Because of the influence of English law and also the role of De Mist in the Cape during the nineteenth century, the courts have adopted the view that the church is a voluntary association The Nederduitsch Hervormde Kerk, however, disagrees with this view of the courts. According to the the Nederduitsch Hervormde Kerk, one cannot simply talk of ‘voluntariness’ when membership of the church is at stake. The church is also not found on a contractual basis; Christ brought it together. The church is the communion of saints, because the believers, being members of the body of Jesus Christ, share in Christ and all He has. Recently an English court found that a church had the power to decide whether a preacher (rabbi) was fit to be a preacher and declared that the court will not interfere in such matters. This case could help to convince South African courts that the church differs from the ordinary voluntary association. The Nederduitsch Hervormde Kerk also has the task to convince the courts in this regard and should be adamant in its stance that it should not be considered as a voluntary association, but rather as an association sui generis.

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