scholarly journals THE COMPARISON OF JOHN CALVIN AND KARL BARTH ON THE DOCTRINE OF UNION WITH CHRIST

2018 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 15-48
Author(s):  
Jason Zhao
Keyword(s):  
Karl Barth ◽  
John Calvin ◽  
Union With Christ ◽  
Cultural Contexts ◽  
In Christ ◽  
Doctrine Of Election ◽  
Participation In Christ

This article will continue to explore the influences of Calvin and Barth's different ontology on their distinct doctrine of union with Christ. After presenting Calvin's doctrine of union with Christ and Barth's teaching of participation in Christ, I will bring together the work of the previous study through comparison and evaluation. Although both Calvin and Barth adopt a Christocentric approach and similarly have a distinction between believers' objective and subjective union with Christ, their distinct ontological presuppositions, within their own philosophical and cultural contexts, drive Calvin to a theology of union with "being" and Barth to that of union with "doing". In that sense, Barth, in line with his actualistic ontology, does not only depart from Calvin in his doctrine of election as he claims, but also in his doctrine of participation in Christ or union with Christ, although he retains the Calvinist terminology.  

scholarly journals THE ROOT OF UNION WITH CHRIST: COMPARISON OF ELECTION IN JOHN CALVIN AND KARL BARTH

2018 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 253-287
Author(s):  
Jason Zhao
Keyword(s):  
Significant Role ◽  
Future Study ◽  
Church History ◽  
Karl Barth ◽  
John Calvin ◽  
Union With Christ ◽  
Doctrine Of Election ◽  
The Way

As two of the arguably greatest theologians in church history, both John Calvin and Karl Barth have recognized the significant role of union with Christ and presented it in their works respectively. However, there is no study devoted specifically on the comparison of the two theologians' thoughts regarding this critical theme. This article will start from exploring Calvin and Barth's doctrine of election, the root of their theology of union with Christ. Karl Barth frankly admits that he has departed from Calvin radically on the doctrine of election. While vindicating Barth's assertion, this article further argues that Calvin and Barth's divergent understandings on the root of union with Christ are driven by their contrasting ontological presuppositions. The clarification of that rooted difference will pave the way for our future study of Calvin and Barth's distinctive characterizing of union with Christ.

John Calvin

2017 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
John Calvin ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Union With Christ ◽  
In Christ

This chapter describes John Calvin’s theology of salvation. Calvin champions the work of the Spirit’s indwelling, transforming, and glorifying human beings in Christ, as well as his understanding of the gospel as the double grace of justification and sanctification accessed through union with Christ, received through faith.

John Calvin — An Elusive Churchman

1981 ◽  
Vol 34 (2) ◽  
pp. 147-156
Author(s):  
R. Buick Knox
Keyword(s):  
Fixed Number ◽  
John Calvin ◽  
Central Theme ◽  
Practical Advice ◽  
The People ◽  
Central Tenet ◽  
In Christ ◽  
Doctrine Of Election

It has become almost a commonplace in Calvin studies to assume that his teaching was distorted by later theologians who professed to be his disciples, notably Beza, Zanchi and Turretin. It is held that they transformed his vital teaching into a rigid intellectual and dogmatic scheme whose central tenet was the doctrine of election whereby God by his own inscrutable decree predestined a fixed number to salvation and reprobated all others to damnation. It is claimed that once the shell of this Protestant scholasticism is broken and once the later confessional declarations lose their mesmeric hold then Calvin's teaching can be studied afresh and he will be revealed as a theologian whose central theme is God's saving action in Christ. It will be seen, so it is claimed, that Calvin only dealt with the doctrine of election in the context of his exposition of the Person and Work of Christ, and when it is realised that Christ was the proper man who did a work for all mankind then it will be clear that all are elected in Christ and that the offer of salvation is made to all. Moreover, it is claimed that when due regard is paid to Calvin's pastoral concern for the people of Geneva and to his practical advice given to scores of correspondents then he can no longer be seen as the relentless theologian but as the generous shepherd of the flock.

Hippolytus' Conception of Deification

1959 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 388-399
Author(s):  
Dietrich Ritschl
Keyword(s):  
Holy Spirit ◽  
Union With Christ ◽  
Mystical Union ◽  
The Holy Spirit ◽  
In Christ ◽  
Participation In Christ ◽  
Doctrine Of The Church ◽  
The Church

It is true that the theology of Tertullian and Novatian has linfluenced later trinitarian conceptions much more than Hippolytus has. His ecclesiology and soteriology, however, are an important point of transition from Irenaeus' doctrine of the Church and of Union with Christ towards the later conceptions of a mystical sacramental understanding of Union with Christ. Hippolytus is in many ways responsible for the development of a doctrine of participation in Christ expressed as deification or mystical union. His theological interest is limited to a part of Trenaeus' doctrine of participation: to the καινòς ἂνθρωπος, and hence to the Church as the assembly of the saints, the baptised, the just, who possess the Holy Spirit, and are connected with the apostles through the hierarchical episcopate.

Karl Barth and the Importance of Thinking Theologically within the Nicene Faith

Ecclesiology ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 153-176
Author(s):  
Paul D. Molnar
Keyword(s):  
Holy Spirit ◽  
Karl Barth ◽  
Union With Christ ◽  
Unique Object ◽  
Church Unity ◽  
The Holy Spirit ◽  
In Christ ◽  
Nicene Creed ◽  
The Church

This article argues that if Catholic and Protestant theologians, prompted by the Holy Spirit, allowed their common faith in God as confessed in the Nicene Creed to shape their thinking and action, this could lead to more visible unity between them. Relying on Barth, the article suggests that the oneness, holiness, catholicity and apostolicity of the church can be understood best in faith that allows the unique object of faith, namely God incarnate in Christ and active in his Spirit, to dictate one’s understanding. Such thinking will avoid the pluralist tendency to eviscerate Christ’s uniqueness and attempts to equate church unity with aspects of the church’s visible existence. These approaches tend to undermine the importance of faith in recognizing that such unity means union with Christ through the Spirit such that it cannot be equated with or perceived by examining only its historical existence in itself and in relation to other communities of faith.

Karl Barth on Religion: A Study for Christians in Mission

1978 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 441-461
Author(s):  
Carl F. Starkloff
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Sensitivity ◽  
Driving Force ◽  
Religious Life ◽  
Karl Barth ◽  
Spiritual Life ◽  
Careful Study ◽  
Theory Of Religion ◽  
Basic Issue ◽  
In Christ ◽  
Positive Input

Many feel Karl Barth has had his day, Father Starkloff disagrees. He feels a careful study of Barth's theory of religion, within the context of the search for “cultural sensitivity,” can be very rewarding. For it is Barth who reminds us that the central driving force of man's religious life is self-affirmation and self-insurance. Although a solid grasp of the phenomenology of religion is “essential to the training of all missionaries in order to overcome ‘adversaries' and for its positive input into the spiritual life,” the basic issue remains unchanged — the essence of God's unique and once-for-all disclosure and giving of himself to man in Christ.

The Augustinian Type of Theodicy: Is It Outdated?

2011 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 26-48 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nico Vorster
Keyword(s):  
Karl Barth ◽  
John Calvin ◽  
John Hick ◽  
Reformed Theology

AbstractIn his famous work ‘Evil and the God of love,’ John Hick suggests that the ‘Augustinian’ type of theodicy is based on an outdated worldview and ought to be replaced by what he calls an ‘Irenaean’ type of theodicy. This article examines Hick’s claim by analyzing the views of the three main theological exponents of the Augustinian paradigm on evil namely Augustine, John Calvin and Karl Barth. It suggests that Reformed theology rethinks its linear concept of time and considers the possibility that the Fall could be an event in time with an eternal significance that works both ‘backwards’ and ‘forwards’. The article concludes that weaknesses in the Augustinian paradigm can be resolved from within, and that no need exists for Reformed theologians to replace the Augustinian paradigm with an alternative Ireneaen paradigm that reject key Scriptural teachings on creation and sin.

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