Revelation and the Veridicality of Narratives

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Eleonore Stump
Keyword(s):  
Philosophical Theology ◽  
Christian Doctrine ◽  
Biblical Story ◽  
Divine Attribute ◽  
Passion Of Christ ◽  
Love Of God ◽  
The Way

 On Christian doctrine, God is love; and the love of God is most manifest in Christ’s passion.  The passion of Christ thus matters to philosophical theology’s examination of the divine attribute of love. But the passion of Christ is presented in a biblical story, and there are serious methodological questions about the way in which a biblical story can be used as evidence in philosophical theology. And these questions in turn raise deeper epistemological questions. How does any narrative transmit knowledge? And what counts as veridicality in a narrative? This paper deals with some of the questions for philosophical theology and then concentrates on the more general epistemological questions about narratively transmitted knowledge.  

Timelessness, Dementia and the Appeal to Practice: A Response to Swinton’s Rejoinder

2021 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Pastoral Care ◽  
Empirical Evidence ◽  
Critical Appraisal ◽  
Theological Method ◽  
Philosophical Theology ◽  
Static Image ◽  
The Way

In this article, Wilko van Holten and Martin Walton continue the exchange with John Swinton regarding the understanding and usefulness of the “timelessness of God” (Swinton, 2016) in the context of dementia (see HSCC 8(1), “A Critical Appraisal of John Swinton’s Theology of Time and Memory” by van Holten and Walton, 2020, and “A Rejoinder to van Holten and Walton” by Swinton, 2020a). Both van Holten and Walton argue that Swinton’s restatement of God’s eternal presence in terms of unchangeableness comes with a serious theological price, namely, a static image of the divine. Swinton’s refusal to pay this price points to a tension in his thinking on this point. The authors adduce some empirical evidence to substantiate the claim that a timeless and immutable God is psycho-spiritually less appropriate in the context of pastoral care. For van Holten and Walton, their major concern is not with the intentions or conclusions at which Swinton arrives, but with the way in which he argues for those conclusions and expresses these intentions. In this exchange, practical and philosophical theology meet, and the authors explore some of the questions which are raised. These questions ultimately are concerned with theological method. A response to this article by Swinton will also be published in this issue of HSCC (see Swinton, 2022).

scholarly journals Nazwy stacji drogi krzyżowej (przemiany struktury i funkcji w XX wieku)

Onomastica ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 64 ◽  
Author(s):  
Agnieszka Sieradzka-Mruk
Keyword(s):  
Syntactic Structure ◽  
Religious Discourse ◽  
Second Vatican Council ◽  
Cultural Changes ◽  
New Evangelization ◽  
Current Trends ◽  
Vatican Council ◽  
New Type ◽  
Passion Of Christ ◽  
The Way

The names of stations in the Way of the Cross may be used as titles of pictures and sculptures, each corresponding to a particular event in the Passion of Christ, or as titles of meditations. The article focuses on the second meaning, but the trends of the development of both kinds of names are similar. The study is based on material consisting of about 200 texts of the service that have been published from the beginning of the 20 th century to the present (2020). The purpose of the article is to describe the changes that have taken place in the 20 th century, a period of particularly turbulent changes in religious discourse. The article deals with the function, syntactic structure and features of style, such as the use of archaic or colloquial vocabulary. These properties are considered in connection with social and cultural changes. At the beginning of the analyzed period, it was customary to use relatively long titles, which informed the participant or reader about a particular event using expressive and evaluative lexis. Those titles gradually gave way to short, schematic names. Since the Second Vatican Council, titles of a new type have appeared. Their purpose is to attract the attention of the recipient. They are based on a riddle, a contrast, allusions, etc. Therefore, the recipient derives satisfaction from deciphering the puzzle or finding the source of the quote or allusion. These phenomena are known from research on the language of press or fiction, but they can also be linked to current trends in the so-called new evangelization.

Incarnation and Process Philosophy

1967 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 225-232 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. E. Barnhart
Keyword(s):  
Process Philosophy ◽  
Christian Doctrine ◽  
The Way

The purpose of this article is to develop a Christian doctrine of the Incarnation in the light of a process philosophy of the type expounded by A. N. Whitehead and E. S. Brightman. Rather than offer at this time a detailed defence either of the idea of incarnation or of process philosophy, I wish to show that the two can be coherently related in such a way that each receives a greater degree of completion and clarity. Of course risks are unavoidable in any attempt to make Athens and Jerusalem respond to one another. But the risks and losses would be even greater if the way of isolation and of mutually ignoring one another were accepted.

Calvin and the Priesthood of all Believers

1968 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 145-156
Author(s):  
John R. Crawford
Keyword(s):  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
John Calvin ◽  
Priesthood Of All Believers ◽  
Christian Doctrine ◽  
Modern Times ◽  
God's People ◽  
The Reformation ◽  
The Way

A Mong those elements of Christian doctrine which surged anew to the forefront of Christian thinking during the early sixteenth century was that biblical idea which, in more modern times, we have come to call the ‘priesthood of all believers’. Luther used the doctrine almost as a battle-axe, to hew away at the pretensions of the Roman hierarchy and sacramental system. Almost invariably, it is Luther's name which we find linked to this doctrine in studies of the Reformation period. However, any serious study of the idea of the priesthood of God's people would do well to include an examination of the way in which John Calvin dealt with it, and indeed, the way in which the idea found certain expressions within his system of ecclesiastical organisation. It is our purpose here to see what Calvin taught in relationship to this biblical idea, and what elements of the life of the Genevan church may be considered to be, at least in part, an expression of the idea.

Philosophical Theology and Christian Doctrine

2008 ◽  
Vol 25 (3) ◽  
pp. 329-331
Author(s):  
Kevin Timpe ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Philosophical Theology ◽  
Christian Doctrine

Rediscovering Israel’s Messiah

Pro Ecclesia ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 106385122095382
Author(s):  
Jennifer M Rosner
Keyword(s):  
Jewish People ◽  
Christian Theology ◽  
Christian Doctrine ◽  
Vantage Points ◽  
Key Questions ◽  
Land Of Israel ◽  
The Way

In the ongoing endeavor to increasingly recast traditional Christian theology in non-supersessionist terms, recent books by Mark S. Kinzer and Edjan Westerman deserve particular attention. Both authors lucidly illustrate the way in which the gospel of Jesus is intimately bound to the life and destiny of the Jewish people and the land of Israel. From different vantage points, these authors pose a set of key questions to the contemporary church by reframing central aspects of Christian doctrine.

A Text with Teeth: Augustine’s Exegesis of Song of Songs 4:2 as Paradigm of His Hermeneutics

2010 ◽  
Vol 39 (3) ◽  
pp. 421-434 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert P. Kennedy
Keyword(s):  
Song Of Songs ◽  
Christian Doctrine ◽  
Scriptural Interpretation ◽  
Modern Reader ◽  
Love Of God ◽  
Biblical Texts ◽  
The Church

In the second book of his treatise on scriptural interpretation, On Christian Doctrine, Augustine introduces the theme of the obscurity of some biblical texts with a quotation from the notoriously difficult Song of Songs: ‘‘Your teeth are like a flock of shorn ewes coming up from the washing, which all give birth to twins, and there is not one among them that is barren’’ (4:2). Unsurprisingly, he finds references to baptism and the double commandment of love of God and neighbour. What strikes a modern reader is Augustine’s unembarrassed use of violent imagery to describe how the saints cut off errors and then chew the newly converted until they are soft for digestion by the Church. In later texts, Augustine will advert to the violence of biblical imagery to emphasize the necessity of transformation into the likeness of God and to reinforce the eschatological hope of the Church. This paper will examine the role of difficulty and obscurity in Augustine’s understanding of the process by which Scripture forms and orients its readers to prepare them for the vision of heaven.

scholarly journals God, Supernatural Kinds, and the Incarnation

1991 ◽  
Vol 27 (3) ◽  
pp. 353-370 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas D. Senor
Keyword(s):  
Natural Kinds ◽  
English Word ◽  
Primary Task ◽  
Philosophical Theology ◽  
Kind Terms ◽  
Alternative Understanding ◽  
The Way

Thinking about God often leads to thinking about ‘God’. And it has never been completely clear how best to understand this little English word. Traditionally, ‘God’ has been taken to be either a description or a name. However, a third option has recently captured the attention of philosophical theologians. It is claimed that just as one should think of, say, ‘humanity’ as a kind term, so one should think of ‘God’, or perhaps ‘divinity’, as a kind term. But given the tight link between semantics and metaphysics, if one is tempted to understand ‘humanity’ or ‘divinity’ as kind terms, then one will naturally begin to think of humanity and divinity as kinds. Characterizing divinity this way, a primary task of philosophical theology is to give a characterization of the divine kind-essence. In this paper, I want to consider the claim that divinity is profitably construed as a kind-essence, and argue that the way that this has typically been understood is not altogether adequate. I shall then present and develop an alternative understanding of this kind-essence approach that takes the analogy of `supernatural kinds’ and natural kinds much more seriously. I will conclude by considering some objections.

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