scholarly journals God, Doctrine Immutability, unchangeableness, simplicity, Orthodox, evangelical, open theism

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Prof. Dr Godfrey Harold
Keyword(s):  
Process Theology ◽  
Early Church ◽  
Open Theism ◽  
Church Fathers ◽  
The Past

In recent years the doctrine of the immutability of God has come under attack within Evangelicalism from the adherents of process theology and open theism, who claim that the doctrine of immutability is based on an Aristotelian philosophy concerning God. This article engages a literary investigation to prove that the doctrine of God's immutability as understood within Evangelicalism finds its tradition within Christian orthodoxy. In an endeavour to take the attribute of God's immutability seriously, an investigation from early Church Fathers to later Reformers is undertaken to argue that the Evangelical understanding of the doctrine of immutability is orthodox, namely that God is both independent and self-sufficient and hence immutable in respect of his supreme existence. Therefore, the doctrine of immutability brings hope and comfort to Christians as it did in the past.

scholarly journals God’s Omnipotence: A Literary Investigation

2021 ◽  
Vol 103 ◽  
Author(s):  
Prof. Dr. Godfrey Harold
Keyword(s):  
Early Church ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Open Theism ◽  
Church Fathers ◽  
Time And Space ◽  
Divine Omnipotence ◽  
The World ◽  
Orthodox Theology

The omnipotence of God can be defined as the perfect ability of God to do all things that are consistent with the divine character. Open theists see God as one who is influenced as God interacts with human beings in time and space (temporally). Thus, for Open Theists, God is affected and influenced by the world. This paper revisits the historical, biblical and theological grounds for the doctrine of omnipotence with the aim of re-establishing the relevance of divine omnipotence. Using a literary investigation this article traces the developments of the doctrine of God’s power from the Early Church Fathers to the Reformers to establish whether the articulation of God’s power within Open Theism resonates with Orthodox Theology and Evangelicalism.

Scatter 2

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Geoffrey Bennington
Keyword(s):  
Jacques Derrida ◽  
The Other ◽  
Carl Schmitt ◽  
Early Church ◽  
The Political ◽  
Church Fathers ◽  
Jean Bodin ◽  
Marsilius Of Padua ◽  
The One ◽  
Nuremberg Trials

Scatter 2 identifies politics as an object of perennial difficulty for philosophy—as recalcitrant to philosophical mastery as is philosophy’s traditional adversary, poetry. That difficulty makes it an attractive area of attention for any deconstructive approach to the tradition from which we inevitably inherit our language and our concepts. Scatter 2 pursues that deconstruction, often starting, and sometimes departing, from the work of Jacques Derrida, by attending to the concepts of sovereignty on the one hand, and democracy on the other. Part I follows the fate of a line from Book II of Homer’s Iliad, where Odysseus asserts that “the rule of many is no good thing, let there be one ruler, one king,” as it is quoted and misquoted, and progressively Christianized, by authors including Aristotle, Philo Judaeus, Suetonius, the early Church Fathers, Aquinas, Dante, Ockham, Marsilius of Padua, Jean Bodin, Etienne de la Boétie, up to Carl Schmitt and Erik Peterson, and even one of the defendants at the Nuremberg Trials, before being discussed by Derrida himself. Part II begins again, as it were, with Plato and Aristotle, and tracks the concept of democracy as it regularly impacts and tends to undermine that sovereignist tradition, and, more especially in detailed readings of Hobbes and Rousseau, develops a notion of “proto-democracy” as a possible name for the scatter that underlies and drives the political as such, and that will always prevent politics from achieving its aim of bringing itself to an end.

scholarly journals Pseudoepigraph 'Epistula Apostolorum' and its place in the development of early church theology

Sabornost ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 15-30
Author(s):  
Aleksandar Đakovac
Keyword(s):  
Second Century ◽  
Christian Theology ◽  
Early Church ◽  
Church Fathers ◽  
Insight Into

The Epistle Apostolorum is a pseudo-epigraph created in the middle of the second century, which provides opportunities for insight into the developmental path of Christian theology. In this paper, we will try to show how the Christians of the first centuries tried to express their faith and the content of the tradition. The goal was to preserve both divine unity and divine multiplicity, while at the same time opposing Gnostic speculations and doctrinal attitudes. This process was not easy, nor was it devoid of many temptations and deviations, which this document confirms. It is precisely the theological shortcomings and ambiguities that we observe in this writing that can help us better understand the achievements of later generations of Church Fathers and theologians.

scholarly journals Death After Life or Life After Death?

Scrinium ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 143-159
Author(s):  
David C. Sim
Keyword(s):  
New Testament ◽  
Gospel Of Luke ◽  
The Body ◽  
Early Church ◽  
Post Mortem ◽  
Church Fathers ◽  
Life After Death ◽  
Christian View ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
The Church

The early Church Fathers accepted the notion of an intermediate state, the existence of the soul following death until its reunification with the body at the time of the final resurrection. This view is common in the modern Christian world, but it has been challenged as being unbiblical. This study reflects upon this question. Does the New Testament speak exclusively of death after life, complete lifelessness until the day of resurrection, or does it also contain the notion of life after life or immediate post-mortem existence? It will be argued that, while the doctrine of future resurrection is the most common Christian view, it was not the only one present in the Christian canon. There are hints, especially in the Gospel of Luke and the Revelation of John, that people do indeed live again immediately after death, although the doctrine of resurrection is also present. These two ideas are never coherently related to one another in the New Testament and it was the Church Fathers who first sought to  systematise them.


Erasmus the Educator

2018 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 208-223
Author(s):  
Justin Powell
Keyword(s):  
Early Church ◽  
Church Fathers

Erasmus is famous as the humanist scholar who helped shape what became modem education. W. H. Woodward and Erika Rummel have written standard works on his life and teachings, and others offer nuanced analysis. This article hopes to fill a small gap in Erasmus studies in that his “philosophy of Christ”, which finds its roots in the Early Church Fathers, is directly related to his pedagogy.

Human Life as a State of Mediocrity in John Locke

2021 ◽  
pp. 85-105
Author(s):  
Giuliana Di Biase
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
John Locke ◽  
Human Life ◽  
Human Condition ◽  
Early Church ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Church Fathers ◽  
Perfect Knowledge ◽  
Further Development ◽  
The Church

This chapter investigates the genesis and evolution of Locke’s idea of human life as a “state of mediocrity”. While this idea had ancient roots going back to the early Church fathers, it remained current in the seventeenth century where mediocrity was generally equated with a condition of partial ignorance and imperfection. Locke’s account of it is original; while life is a time of mediocrity, death opens the way to the extremes of eternal misery or eternal happiness. Initially, inspired by the Church fathers, Locke conceived of human life as a condition of intellectual mediocrity. Subsequently, and arguably prompted by his reading of the pessimistic outlooks of Nicole and Pascal, he redefined the state of mediocrity in more optimistic terms: humans are naturally suited to their mediocre state. A further development of his conception of mediocrity, again involving a partial rethinking of the human condition, can be found in the Essay, where Locke represents mediocrity as an imperfect state of insatiable desire. It is redeemed, however, by the ability of living human beings to attain perfect knowledge of morality.

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