scholarly journals Between tradition and renewal: Some considerations about the use of tradition in reformed theology

2013 ◽  
Vol 47 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Willem Van Vlastuin
Keyword(s):  
The Body ◽  
The Other ◽  
Body Of Christ ◽  
Reformed Theology ◽  
Christian Church ◽  
Christian View ◽  
The One ◽  
Fundamental Unity ◽  
The Church ◽  
Methodological Reflection

In the theology and practice of the Christian church a tension between tradition and renewal exists. This essay focuses on this tension to provide a first step of methodological reflection to deal with it. Firstly, this tension is illustrated from the reformed perspective of sola scriptura that led to criticism of the tradition on the one hand, whilst understanding the reformed movement as part of the tradition on the other hand. A danger of unqualified sola scriptura is subjectivity. Subsequently, the importance of tradition is elaborated from the perspective of the church as the body of Christ across all ages. This implies that Christians should study and love the traditional theology because of the fundamental unity of the church that transcends cultural diversity. Rejecting tradition will cut the church from its historical and spiritual roots. Thirdly, this raises the question whether the church is imprisoned by tradition, as well as the problem of the relation between tradition and renewal. In response, it is argued that the doctrine of incarnation guarantees openness to history. With the help of the philosophical and Christian view on structural contingency, the belief that tradition is principally open to renewal is defended. Some examples are given as illustrations of how classic theological concepts can be reframed in our postmodern context. The last part of this essay concludes with the insight of Cyprian that only the conveyed tradition can be renewed, implying that renewal is in essence not a new theology, but a new application of apostolic theology.Hierdie artikel fokus op die spanning tussen tradisie en vernuwing in die praktyk van die Christelike kerk. Eerstens word die probleem vanuit die reformatoriese perspektief van die sola scriptura geïllustreer, wat aan die een kant tot kritiek op die tradisie gelei het, maar terselfdertyd word die reformatoriese beweging as deel van die tradisie verstaan. Die gevaar van ’n ongekwalifiseerde handhawing van die solascriptura-oortuiging is subjektiwiteit. Vervolgens word die belangrikheid van die tradisie uitgebrei vanuit die perspektief van die kerk as liggaam van Christus oor alle eeue. Dit impliseer dat Christene tradisionele teologie behoort te bestudeer, omdat die fundamentele eenheid van die kerk kulturele diversiteit oorkom. Die verwerping van die tradisie sal gevolglik die kerk van sy geestelike wortels afsny. Derdens bring dit die vraag na vore of die kerk deur tradisie gevange gehou word. In hierdie verband wys die artikel daarop dat die leer van die inkarnasie openheid ten opsigte van die geskiedenis waarborg. Met behulp van die Christelike siening van strukturele gebeurlikheid, word die oortuiging dat die tradisie prinsipieel vir vernuwing oop is, verdedig. ’n Paar voorbeelde word gegee om te illustreer hoe klassieke teologiese konsepte in ons postmoderne tyd benut kan word. Die artikel sluit af met ’n verwysing na die insig van Siprianus, naamlik dat net die oorgelewerde tradisie vernuwe kan word. Dit impliseer dat vernuwing essensieel nie ’n nuwe teologie is nie, maar ’n nuwe toepassing van die klassieke teologie.

Ratramn’s Eucharistic Doctrine and its Influence in Sixteenth-Century England

1965 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
pp. 54-77
Author(s):  
J. N. Bakhuizen Van Den Brink
Keyword(s):  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
Ninth Century ◽  
The Body ◽  
The Other ◽  
Body Of Christ ◽  
Early Middle Ages ◽  
Reliable Interpretation ◽  
The One ◽  
The Church

In the two ninth-century treatises on the Eucharist written by Paschasius Radbertus and Ratramnus two opinions are expressed which seem to be in complete contradiction with each other. Both, however, are founded in the liturgy of the Church and spring from the same orthodox root. Their doctrines, therefore, do not differ from each other in every detail of the argumentation. The one may be characterised as the realistic-metabolic doctrine, the other as the symbolic doctrine. J. R. Geiselmann in his penetrating studies of the eucharistic doctrine in the early Middle Ages prefers to distinguish between three tendencies: (1) the metabolism of St Ambrose and the Gallican liturgies; (2) the realism of the Roman liturgy; (3) the dynamism of St Augustine’s more spiritual doctrine. The most diverse answers were inspired by closer inquiries into the realisation of the sacrament, i.e. the question firstly how the conversion of the elements should be understood and, secondly, how the relation should be seen between the consecrated elements and the body of Christ ascended to heaven. In these answers the terminology used is not always the same, so that a reliable interpretation offers great difficulties.

scholarly journals Towards a Kenotic Identity Politics: Migration, Transformation and the Eucharist

Religions ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (6) ◽  
pp. 380
Author(s):  
Matthew John Paul Tan
Keyword(s):  
Identity Politics ◽  
The Body ◽  
The Other ◽  
Body Of Christ ◽  
Eucharistic Theology ◽  
Critical Tradition ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Massive Influx ◽  
Identity Based ◽  
The One

This paper will focus on one element of the pushback against the massive influx of immigrants taken in for humanitarian purposes, namely, an identity-based chauvinism which uses identity as the point of resistance to the perceived dilution of that identity, brought about by the transformation of culture induced by the incorporation of a foreign other. The solution to this perceived dilution is a simultaneous defence of that culture and a demand for a conformity to it. While those in the critical tradition have encouraged a counter-position of revolutionary transformation by the other through ethics, dialogue, or the multitude, such a transformation is arguably impeded by what is ultimately a repetition of the metaphysics of conformity. Drawing on the personalism of Emmanuel Mounier and the Eucharistic theology of Creston Davis and Aaron Riches, this paper submits an alternative identity politics position that completes the revolutionary impulse. Identity here is not the flashpoint of a self-serving conflict, but the launch-point of politics of self-emptying, whose hallmarks include, on the one hand, a never-ending reception of transformation by the other, and on the other hand, an anchoring in the Body of Christ that is at once ever-changing and never-changing.

The Christian Church in the Last Seventy Years

1943 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 28-34
Author(s):  
Kenneth Scott Latourette
Keyword(s):  
Large Volume ◽  
The Other ◽  
Recent History ◽  
Christian Church ◽  
The Past ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
The Status ◽  
The One ◽  
The Church

A strange contrast exists in the status of the Christian Church in the past seventy years. On the one hand the Church has clearly lost some of the ground which once appeared to be safely within its possession. On the other hand it has become more widely spread geographically and, when all mankind is taken into consideration, more influential in shaping human affairs than ever before in its history. In a paper as brief as this must of necessity be, space can be had only for the sketching of the broad outlines of this paradox and for suggesting a reason for it. If details were to be given, a large volume would be required. Perhaps, however, we can hope to do enough to point out one of the most provocative and important set of movements in recent history.

scholarly journals Jewish fish (ΙΧΘΥΣ) in post-supersessionist water: Messianic Judaism within a post-supersessionistic paradigm

2016 ◽  
Vol 72 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Joel Willitts
Keyword(s):  
Ethnic Identity ◽  
New Testament ◽  
The Body ◽  
The Other ◽  
Messianic Judaism ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
The One ◽  
The Church

This article defines, explains and argues for the necessity of a post-supersessionistic hermeneutical posture towards the New Testament. The post-supersessionistic reading of the New Testament takes the Jewish nature of the apostolic documents seriously, and has as its goal the correction of the sin of supersessionism. While supersessionism theologically is repudiated in most corners of the contemporary church through official church documents, the practise of reading the New Testament continues to exhibit supersessionistic tendencies and outcomes. The consequence of this predominant reading of the New Testament is the continued exclusion of Jewish ethnic identity in the church. In light of the growing recognition of multiculturalism and contextualisation on the one hand, and the recent presence of a movement within the body of Messiah of Jewish believers in Jesus on the other, the church’s established approach to reading Scripture that leads to the elimination of ethnic identity must be repudiated alongside its post-supersessionist doctrinal statements. This article defines terms, explains consequences and argues for a renewed perspective on the New Testament as an ethnic document; such a perspective will promote the church’s cultivation of real embodied ethnic particularity rather than either a pseudo-interculturalism or the eraser full ethnicity.

scholarly journals The Monk by M. G. Lewis: Revolution, Religion and the Female Body

Text Matters ◽  
2016 ◽  
pp. 15-34
Author(s):  
Agnieszka Łowczanin
Keyword(s):  
French Revolution ◽  
Female Body ◽  
The Body ◽  
The Other ◽  
Visual Responses ◽  
Royal Family ◽  
Marie Antoinette ◽  
Social Expectation ◽  
The One ◽  
The Church

This paper reads The Monk by M. G. Lewis in the context of the literary and visual responses to the French Revolution, suggesting that its digestion of the horrors across the Channel is exhibited especially in its depictions of women. Lewis plays with public and domestic representations of femininity, steeped in social expectation and a rich cultural and religious imaginary. The novel’s ambivalence in the representation of femininity draws on the one hand on Catholic symbolism, especially its depictions of the Madonna and the virgin saints, and on the other, on the way the revolutionaries used the body of the queen, Marie Antoinette, to portray the corruption of the royal family. The Monk fictionalizes the ways in which the female body was exposed, both by the Church and by the Revolution, and appropriated to become a highly politicized entity, a tool in ideological argumentation.

Ecclesiology

2019 ◽  
pp. 224-240
Author(s):  
Tom Greggs
Keyword(s):  
Holy Spirit ◽  
The Body ◽  
The Other ◽  
Body Of Christ ◽  
Corporate Body ◽  
The World ◽  
The Holy Spirit ◽  
The Church

This chapter examines Bonhoeffer’s account of the church and advocates that throughout Bonhoeffer’s corpus there remains a desire to explicate the reality of the church in terms of its structural being with and for the other. This structure exists both internally in terms of its members’ relation to each other, and externally as the church relates as a corporate body to the world. The chapter considers Bonhoeffer’s ecclesiological method; the visibility of the church; vicarious representation; the church as the body of Christ; the agency of the Holy Spirit; preaching, the sacraments, and the offices of the church; and the question of the church in a religionless age.

scholarly journals Sabbath Observance in the Context of COVID-19 Pandemic

2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-12
Author(s):  
Geoffrey Kinyua Njeru ◽  
John Kiboi
Keyword(s):  
The Body ◽  
Seventh Day Adventist ◽  
The Other ◽  
Body Of Christ ◽  
Church Fathers ◽  
Crucial Question ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
The Church

The study of the nature of the church1 is very significant to the body of Christ. Often, when this subject is introduced, Christians tend to ask: which is the true church and how can it be identified? Most churches claim to be the only ‘true church’ based on their teachings and this has continued to divide the body of Christ across the centuries. The Seventh Day Adventist (SDA) church has maintained the physical observance of the Sabbath to be one of the marks2 of identifying the ‘true church,’ yet the church fathers described the church as One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic. The SDA uses the Sabbath worship as a mark of identifying a ‘true church’ alongside the four attributes; and on the other hand, those churches that do not worship on Saturday regards the SDA’s emphasis of worshipping on Saturday as ‘worshipping the day’ rather than the almighty God. Besides this, misunderstandings have been encountered between the SDA and the so-called Sunday churches concerning the issue of what constitutes the true Sabbath. The study employs the dialogical-ecclesiological design in its bid to understand the contestations between the SDA and the ‘Sunday churches’ and in its building on the premise that dialogue is critical in our endeavor to find a new understanding and re-interpretation of the Sabbath, as one of the marks of a true church. The crucial question remains: can the observance of physical Sabbath be considered as one of the key marks of knowing the ‘true Church’?

scholarly journals Studi Apologetika Tentang Pandangan Rasul Paulus Terhadap Kepemimpinan Wanita Di Gereja

2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 51-68
Author(s):  
Jessica Elizabeth Abraham
Keyword(s):  
Church Leadership ◽  
Women's Leadership ◽  
The Body ◽  
The Other ◽  
Body Of Christ ◽  
Leadership Roles ◽  
Timothy 2 ◽  
Women In Church Leadership ◽  
Women's Role ◽  
The Church

Paul’s theological view on women in church leadership is often misinterpreted if not misunderstood. It is true that at first glance, his prohibitions and policies for women sound degrading the women’s role. Yet, the application of the appropriate hermeneutical approach to his writings such as in 1 Corinths 11:2-16, 1 Corinths 14:34-35 and 1 Timothy 2:9-14 will show that Paul is never against women leading the church. This writing hopes to expand the church’s perspective on women’s leadership so that the church can provide women with the same opportunity as for the men in building up the body of Christ. On the other hand, it hopes to empower more women to take on leadership roles in the church without hesitation. [Pandangan teologis Rasul Paulus terhadap kepemimpinan wanita di gereja seringkali diterjemahkan dengan keliru atau disalah pahami. Jika dilihat secara sekilas, larangan dan aturan yang ia berikan kepada wanita terdengar merendahkan mereka. Namun, penerapan pendekatan hermeneutika yang sesuai dengan tulisan-tulisannya seperti dalam 1 Korintus 11:2-16, 1 Korintus 14:34-35 dan 1 Timotius 2:9-14 akan menunjukkan bahwa Rasul Paulus tidak pernah menentang wanita untuk memegang jabatan kepemimpinan di gereja. Tulisan ini diharapkan dapat memperluas perspektif gereja tentang kepemimpinan wanita sehingga wanita dapat memiliki kesempatan yang sama layaknya pria dalam membangun tubuh Kristus. Di sisi lain, gereja juga diharapkan untuk dapat memberdayakan lebih banyak lagi wanita untuk mengambil peran dalam kepemimpinan gereja tanpa ragu.] 

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.

scholarly journals The Challenge of the Unity of Christ Based on the Letters of 1 Corinthians 3:3-9 Its Relevance in Local Church Ministry

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (9) ◽  
pp. 330
Author(s):  
Enny Irawati
Keyword(s):  
The Body ◽  
Body Of Christ ◽  
1 Corinthians ◽  
Church Ministry ◽  
The Core ◽  
God's People ◽  
Differences Of Opinion ◽  
Corinthians 3 ◽  
The One ◽  
The Church

The research objective that the author means is to find out how the unity of the body of Christ in the church can be carried out properly according to 1 Corinthians 3: 3-9. moving on from the core written in the text above, the author wants the whole congregation to understand the unity of the body of Christ correctly today, given the importance of the unity of the body of Christ in the church, so that some of the more mature congregations in the faith must support the congregation that is not yet mature faith. This writing is intended so that all God's people understand well that the unity of the body of Christ is not to become divided because of disagreements, divisions and differences of opinion. but the body of Christ is the one that brings God's people better together. Some of the things that concern the author in this study are how the congregation can understand the unity of the body of Christ correctly.

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