scholarly journals Calvin’s views on church governance

2010 ◽  
Vol 44 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
C.J. Smit
Keyword(s):  
New Order ◽  
Community Based ◽  
Human Community ◽  
God's Word ◽  
The World ◽  
Key Concepts ◽  
Full Power ◽  
Church Governance ◽  
Dynamic Domain ◽  
The Church

This article investigates whether the church was seen by Calvin as a mere human community based on laws, an association functioning on the basis of a constitution, or as a dynamic domain of the governance of Jesus Christ which functions on the basis of the Word through his Spirit.   According to Calvin the church is a new order ordained by Christ in which He never delegated his authority to his officers. He Himself, as the Head, remains the sole bearer of authority. Nevertheless, they receive full power, as representatives of Christ, to minister his Word and to administer the sacraments in his church. As such the church received the power to teach (“potestas docenda”), to govern (“potestas gubernatio”) and to make laws (“potestas regiminis”). This competence (“potestas”) is, however, exercised particularly as a ministry (“ministe- rium”) because it rests on God’s Word and is only ministered in conjunction with it. In the procedure of church governance Calvin considered faith and love as two key concepts.   In order to give a practical foundation to a spiritual mode of governance in the church as God’s new order in the world, a church order is needed which is founded in the Word. This church order must aim at the protection of the governance of the Spirit in the church.   For Calvin church government is, therefore, primarily a process of governing the heart – the hearts of those among whom God’s new order in the world exists.

Lived Catholicity

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 149-163
Author(s):  
Jeffrey S. Kirch
Keyword(s):  
Pope Francis ◽  
The World ◽  
Key Concepts ◽  
Multiple Levels ◽  
The Church

Both Pope Francis and Robert Schreiter recognize that the world has been profoundly affected by conflict, globalization, and the breakdown of relationships on multiple levels. They also assert that the Church must address these situations. The ecclesiologies of both Schreiter and Francis offer effective tools for this work. This article will examine several key, shared concepts within their ecclesiologies. Specifically, their understandings of the missionary nature of the Church and their robust understanding of catholicity prove to be key concepts in the Church's response to a world marred by sin.

The Role of the Christian Church in Combating 21st Century Racism

2021 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 219-231
Author(s):  
Clara M. Austin Iwuoha ◽  
Keyword(s):  
21St Century ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
Christian Church ◽  
God's Word ◽  
The World ◽  
Racial Harmony ◽  
Race And Religion ◽  
The Church

The demons of racism, bigotry, and prejudice found in society at large are also found in the Christian Church. Despite the very nature of Christianity that calls on Christians to be a counter voice in the world against evil, many have capitulated to various strains of racism. Some Christian denominations have begun to explore racism in the Church and have developed responses to addressing the issues in both the Church and the world. This article examines the historical context of race and religion in the Christian Church, and addresses the current efforts of some Christian denominations to become proactive in the struggle against racism. Jesus, in His Word, calls believers to pursue peace and oneness. The paper holds that racial harmony and racial unity are possible, but there are many false, old and d beliefs that will have to be crushed under the hammer of God's Word in order to get to a place of real peace.

scholarly journals Korupsi dalam Sorotan Etika Kristen dan Implikasinya Bagi Pendidikan Anti Korupsi

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 20
Author(s):  
Sostenis Nggebu
Keyword(s):  
Christian Ethics ◽  
Christian Morality ◽  
God's Word ◽  
The World ◽  
Material Things ◽  
The Church

This article addresses the problem of corruption in Christian ethics based on the reference of God's word. Christians involved in corruption show that carrying out governmental duties is outside the control of God's word. To examine this topic more deeply, the author uses descriptive methods and literature studies. The results and conclusions of this study show that the corruptors prioritize the works of the flesh, worship material things, give in to worldly temptations, violate Christian morality, and do not glorify God in their lives. Those corrupt Christian bureaucrats who are dominated by greed and greed are not the characters expected by God, and by doing so, they lose the opportunity to be witnesses of Christ in the world. Corruption is bad behavior, so there is an opportunity for the church to pay attention to anti-corruption education for the congregation so that those who sit in government can carry out their duties and responsibilities by the demands of the Christian faith.AbstrakArtikel ini menyoroti permasalahan korupsi secara etika Kristen berdasarkan acuan firman Tuhan. Untuk mengkaji topik ini lebih mendalam, penulis menggunakan metode deskriptif dan studi literatur. Hasil dan kesimpulan dari studi ini menunjukkan bahwa para koruptor mengutamakan perbuatan daging, mendewakan materi, menyerah pada godaan keduniawian, melanggar moralitas Kristen dan tidak memuliakan Allah di dalam hidup mereka. Para birokrat Kristen yang korup itu dikuasai oleh sifat serakah dan tamak bukanlah karakter yang diharapkan oleh Tuhan dan dengan berbuat seperti itu mereka kehilangan kesempatan menjadi saksi Kristus di tengah dunia. Korupsi itu sebagai perilaku yang buruk maka terbuka peluang bagi gereja untuk memperhatikan pendidikan anti korupsi bagi jemaat agar mereka yang duduk dalam pemerintahan dapat menjalankan tugas dan tanggung jawabnya sesuai dengan tuntutan iman Kristen.

What is Catholic Theology?

2016 ◽  
pp. 4-41
Author(s):  
Lewis Ayres
Keyword(s):  
Human Activity ◽  
Final Section ◽  
Catholic Theology ◽  
Human Reason ◽  
Dynamic Relationship ◽  
God's Word ◽  
The World ◽  
The Church ◽  
Theological Thinking

This chapter argues that theological thinking should be considered as intrinsic to the activity of proclamation and as a form of speculation called forth as part of God’s salvific economy. God’s Word not only became flesh and revealed the Father, but Christ and his Spirit also act in his body, the Church, to reform and elevate human reason, to shape our understanding and celebration of revelation. This is so, even as theological thinking is also a human activity that may go astray. Theological thinking contains at its heart a dynamic relationship between attentive interpretation to Scripture and attention to the radical newness brought about by the continuing activity of Christ and the Spirit in the world. At the same time, in attention to the Church’s tradition, the theologian finds a school for the speculative imagination. The final section focuses on the unity and diversity of different theological acts and subdisciplines.

scholarly journals Sastra Satire Kitab Yunus: Analisis Naratif Prolog dan Epilog Kitab Yunus

2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 106-118
Author(s):  
Muryati Muryati ◽  
Gernaida Pakpahan ◽  
Junifrius Gultom
Keyword(s):  
Narrative Analysis ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Narrative Approach ◽  
Analysis Method ◽  
Modified Method ◽  
New Findings ◽  
God's Word ◽  
The World ◽  
God's Call ◽  
The Church

The anomaly of Jonah's attitude in rejecting God's call (Jonah 1) and his anger at Nineveh's conversion caused various opinions on the genre of his book. This encourages the need to produce new findings to narrow the view of experts by placing the book of Jonah as satire literature. The purpose of this research is to describe the satire elements contained in the prologue and epilogue of the book of Jonah. The method used in this research is a narrative approach using a modified method that departs from the four narrative elements namely the narrator, character (characterization), point of view, and storyline then combined with some elements of general interpretation in it. through the narrative analysis method, the researcher sees the text as a "mirror" that projects a certain picture, namely the world of narratives that provides benefits to explore the forms and elements of the prologue and epilogical satire texts of the book of Jonah. The results showed that Irony underlies all elements of satire spread in articles 1 and 4. Researchers classify the elements of irony as personification, repetition, hyperbole, sarcasm, paronomasia, and parody. These characteristics indicate Jonah 1 and 4 are narratives containing satire. The implication of the teaching of the church by referring to the didactic values in the satire of the story of Satire Jonah can be used as a reference for learning the truth of God's Word. Abstrak Anomali sikap Yunus dalam menolak panggilan Tuhan (Yunus 1) dan kemarahannya pada pertobatan Niniwe menimbulkan beragam pendapat pada genre kitabnya. Hal ini mendorong adanya kebutuhan untuk menghasilkan temuan baru guna mempersempit pandangan para pakar dengan menempatkan kitab Yunus sebagai sastra satire. Tujuan dilakukan penelitian ini adalah untuk mendeskripsikan unsur satire yang terdapat dalam prolog dan epilog kitab Yunus. Metode yang digunakan dalam penelitian ini adalah pendekatan naratif menggunakan modifikasi metode yang berangkat dari empat unsur narasi yaitu narator, karakter (penokohan), sudut pandang, dan alur cerita lalu dikombinasikan dengan beberapa elemen penafsiran umum di dalamnya. melalui metode analisis naratif peneliti melihat teks sebagai sebuah “cermin” yang memproyeksikan gambaran tertentu, yaitu dunia narasi yang memberikan manfaat untuk mengeksplorasi bentuk dan unsur satire teks prolog dan epilog dari kitab Yunus. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa Ironi mendasari semua unsur satire yang tersebar di pasal 1 dan 4. Peneliti mengelompokkan unsur ironi adalah personifikasi, repetisi, hiperbola, sarkasme, paronomosia dan parodi. Karakteristik ini mengindikasikan Yunus 1 dan 4 adalah narasi yang mengandung satire. Implikasinya terhadap pengajaran gereja dengan merujuk pada nilai-nilai didaktis dalam satire kisah Satire Yunus dapat dijadikan rujukan untuk mempelajari kebenaran Firman Tuhan.

Ekklesia as enterprise: Discovering the Church at work

2018 ◽  
Vol 115 (3) ◽  
pp. 372-377
Author(s):  
Daniel Pryfogle
Keyword(s):  
Common Good ◽  
Meaning Making ◽  
Human Flourishing ◽  
New Creation ◽  
Theology Of Work ◽  
God's Word ◽  
The World ◽  
The Status ◽  
Institutional Church ◽  
The Church

A growing number of leaders around the world believe that business can be a force for good: for justice and equity, for meaning-making, and for human flourishing. Yet the Church has very little to say about engagement in the marketplace beyond the tradition’s negative injunctions (i.e., do not abuse people). This lack of theological address to the marketplace leaves the Church with a partial witness amid empire, with a critique but without creativity. This gap is not problematic for the “powers that be,” which let the Church preach and have its protests so long as the status quo is protected – which is what happens unless there is a new creation. The new creation provokes the “powers” and the institutional Church by concretizing hope in God’s economy and evoking the gifts God gives for human flourishing. Reimagined as ekklesia in enterprise, the Church will undertake the construction of a new theology of work. It accomplishes this first by the creative discovery of divine movement in the world that began at creation with God’s word that work is good, then by the appropriation of ekklesia’s cultural orientation for the common good, which leads to the marketplace, the heart of the empire and the locus of human flourishing, the place for the Church to make its revolutionary witness to the way of Jesus.

scholarly journals The Issue Of Christian Anthropology

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leszek Kuc
Keyword(s):  
Pastoral Ministry ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Modern World ◽  
Systematic Analysis ◽  
Basic Premise ◽  
Human Community ◽  
Christian Anthropology ◽  
The World ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Church

2e text of Gaudium et spes has not yet become the basis for a systematic analysisfrom the point of view of Christian anthropology+>. We shall not conducta systematic analysis at the end of this article. We will only mention a fewissues that are particularly important in our opinion. 2e first issue is the veryarrangement of the first chapter of the Constitutions. It speaks firstly of thedignity of the individual, then of the human community, and only then does itmove on to the discussion of human activity in the world and the tasks of theChurch in the modern world. 2e anthropological concept of the text can beseen from the very layout of the chapters of the first part.2e idea is that the concept of the presence of the Church in the contemporaryworld, that is, the concept of the Church as a sign, that is, a modern conceptof pastoral ministry with the whole Church as a subject, depends on the rightattitude and resolution of the question of who I am and who I – man – become.2is is the basic premise of an anthropological structure, expressed in questionsabout the dignity of the person and the human community.

Wesley Carr, religious institutions, and institutional integrity

2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 103-111
Author(s):  
Edward R. Shapiro
Keyword(s):  
Church Of England ◽  
Primary Task ◽  
Religious Institutions ◽  
Group Relations ◽  
Life And Death ◽  
Human Community ◽  
Institutional Integrity ◽  
The World ◽  
Private And Public ◽  
The Church

Wesley Carr devoted his life to the Church of England, using group relations theory to frame some of his thinking. He saw the primary task of religious institutions as containing irrationality and dependency on behalf of society. This article offers a summary of Wesley’s central ideas, with an extended illustration of his management (as Dean of Westminster) of Princess Diana’s funeral. The private and public mourning of millions around the world during and after this funeral is an example of the way religious institutions can respond to the needs of society by helping to manage the boundary transitions of life and death. The rituals of religion during such transitions can help individuals move beyond narrow subgroup identifications to discover their membership in a larger human community. For Wesley Carr, integrity meant to commit all of oneself to an institution’s primary task, negotiated with and on behalf of others, that connects to a transcendent set of ideals and beliefs.

Moral Leadership: A Challenge and a Celebration

2021 ◽  
Vol 82 (1) ◽  
pp. 138-155
Author(s):  
Linda Hogan
Keyword(s):  
Analytical Framework ◽  
Moral Leadership ◽  
New Order ◽  
Theological Ethics ◽  
Substantive Issue ◽  
The World ◽  
The Moment ◽  
The Church ◽  
Ordinary Citizens

This article analyses recent writings on moral leadership in politics and society (Part 1), and also in the church (Part 2). Although calls for moral leadership are frequent, only rarely is the substantive issue considered directly in theological ethics. Rather, it is demonstrated in the ethical analyses of and responses to contemporary political, social, and ecclesial challenges, and is captured in reflections on the activism of ordinary citizens around the world who are seizing the moment to protest injustice, to resist violence, and thereby to exercise moral leadership. This article examines moral leadership using Emmanuel Katangole’s analytical framework, assessing moral leadership through the multiple lenses of (i) critique and denouncement; (ii) the annunciation of a new order; (iii) the invitation to a new kind of knowledge; and (iv) the call for bold action.

scholarly journals Grundtvigs væksttanke - Fra menneskelivets begyndelse til dets fuldendelse

1977 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 213-246
Author(s):  
Lise Brandt Fibiger
Keyword(s):  
Human Life ◽  
Relationship With God ◽  
Holy Communion ◽  
God's Word ◽  
The World ◽  
Natural Man ◽  
Body And Soul ◽  
Church Service ◽  
The Church ◽  
Natural Life

Grundtvigs View of the Growth of Man: From the Beginning of Human Life to its Perfectionby Lise Brandt FibigerGrundtvig never discusses growth in the sense of bodily growth only or Christian growth only. On the contrary, he always speak of the growth of natural man and of the growth of natural and recreated man, in the sense that natural man is the person who has within him a living faith in God as the Creator, and who enjoys a childlike trust in God. Man is not natural unless he acknowledges his creation. Natural man grows in body and soul, and the natural human life is the absolute prior condition for re-creation to occur. Re-creation takes place in baptism, where man receives Jesus as his brother, and the child’s condition in his relationship with God. The natural man does not lose his significance, for the baptized man is natural and re-created, and growth now occurs according to the same order of things. By insisting that the natural and the re-created human life are a unity Grundtvig avoids a «oiritualization of the Christian life. Growth takes place here and now, in and thiough natural human life. When the child is baptized and has assumed the child’s conditions and Jesus as his brother, God’s Word and Spirit can take root in his heart. As the creative word and spirit God’s Word and Spirit have been in the heart before baptism - now this creative word and spirit are united with the redeeming Word and Spirit. So it is not a new Word and a new Spirit that has entered into existence, but rather a development of them. From the Word and the Spirit in the heart grow faith, hope and love. This traid also belonged to the natural human life; this triad is also developed; and it is with this triad that man grows. But growth does not come of its own accord. Just as man in the natural life must have nourishment in order to grow, so must the natural and re-created man be nourished, and thus whoever is baptized must come to Holy Communion and there get the nourishment to continue his growth. Nourishment is necessary because only through the church service does growth continue unhampered. In life there are still obstacles; man loses faith in his creation and re-creation. If growth is not to stop completely, whoever is baptized must join in the service, where he is able to grow again and where he is nourished and strengthened. Growth cannot be spiritualized, for it is not a Sundays-only growth but an everyday growth. It is not a growth away from the world but a growth in the world in which God’s Kingdom is reflected.

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