Tokens of Presence: Second-Personal Presence and Baptistic Accounts of the Eucharist

This paper attempts to provide a bridge between the two predominant Baptistic accounts of divine presence in Eucharist, with the help of Eleonore Stump’s account of second-personal presence and theories of emergence. Predominantly understood in either Zwinglian (memorialist) or Reformed (instrumentalist) categories, a dividing wall is erected with baptistic theology over the question of whether or not communion is strictly an act of human remembrance or involves divine presence in some form or fashion. After identifying three key problems with the memorialist account, this paper attempts to provide a middle way between the two views, arguing that the Spirit appropriates the bread and wine as tokens through which he communicates the thoughts, intentions, desires, and second-personal presence of Christ to the gathered body in order to strengthen the church's union with Christ.

Kuyper’s Spirituality in Its Calvin-Context

This article explores Abraham Kuyper’s spirituality by comparing it to that of John Calvin. Calvin’s Institutes exhibits three dimensions of his spirituality in the context of the mystical union with Christ, namely, the affective character of this union, its effects and its significance for a correct estimation of the world. By comparison, Kuyper put a greater emphasis on the importance of the affections in mystical union because he gives more weight to the regenerated life. This focus also coheres with Kuyper’s more optimistic approach to the Christian life, which contrasts with Calvin’s emphasis on the need for daily justification. In Kuyper’s approach the indwelling of the Spirit represents the union between heaven and earth, while Calvin stresses that God’s future kingdom is beyond the here and now.

Preaching and Definitive Sanctification

This article proceeds from the assumption that the way a preacher conceptualizes a Christian’s identity in Christ shapes how he brings moral exhortation to the congregation. The concept of definitive sancti- fication—first coined by John Murray and developed by Richard Gaffin and others—identifies the believer as, in some sense, holy in Christ. This is not the holiness of imputed righteousness but a renovative change. Moreover, having been made holy, believers must act according to the logic of their identity in Christ. Three implications for preaching emerge from definitive sanctification: (1) preaching Christ and moral commands must be kept together, (2) the biblical indicative and imperative must inform each other, and (3) preaching must be eschatologically oriented. KEYWORDS: Sanctification, John Murray, preaching, eschatology, definitive sanctification, union with Christ

A Comprehensive View of Luther’s Doctrine of Grace

This chapter offers a comprehensive presentation of the three dimensions of Luther’s Trinitarian doctrine of grace. (1) The conversion of the sinner and the birth of faith in Christ, justification “through faith alone,” is effected by prevenient grace, the sole work of God’s Spirit. (2) Participation in (2a) the cross and resurrection of Christ as well as in his (2b) person, life, and divine properties, are possible solely because of the presence of the Holy Spirit in the believer. Justification means simultaneously (2a) the forensic declaration of the guilty non-guilty on the basis of the atonement by Jesus’ cross (favor), as well as (2b) a union with Christ in the Holy Spirit (donum). The believer participates both in the person and life of the incarnated Son of God and in the historical facts of salvation in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. (3) Sanctification means the gradual growth of love for God and neighbor enabled by participation in divine love in the Holy Spirit who also enables the believer to cooperate with grace. Luther’s dependence on Augustine’s doctrine of grace is pointed out. The three-dimensional structure of Trinitarian grace offers an advancement to the Finnish school of Luther interpretation initiated by Tuomo Mannermaa. His fundamental finding of the participatory nature of justification, rooted in Patristic soteriology, is verified in the present study, but an amendment is also offered, based on a critical analysis of Mannermaa’s interpretation of Luther’s Lectures on Galatians (1531/1535).

Salvation, Baptism in the Holy Spirit, and Experience of God

This chapter begins by charting the failure of Herbert Asbury’s conversion, using this as a point of departure to review two classical ways to provide a taxonomy of divine action for the Christian life, especially the experience of the Holy Spirit. The Christian tradition imparts a variety of concepts like sanctification, theosis, holiness, baptism in the Spirit, and union with Christ to speak of the experience of the Christian believer. Furthermore, the tradition speaks of the action of the church and the action of other believers on Christians. By attending to the concepts of divine and human agency, this chapter provides a way forward through this debate.

Analytic Christology and the Theological Interpretation of the New Testament

This book draws upon the resources of both contemporary analytic theology and the theological interpretation of the New Testament in order to investigate a set of important issues in Christology. It is the first work in analytic Christology to draw upon both recent scholarship in biblical studies and recent contributions to analytic philosophy and theology. This book explores the themes of union with Christ and the faith of Christ as these are developed by the “apocalyptic” and “New Perspective” interpreters of Pauline theology, it offers an careful analysis of recent dogmatic proposals about the identity of Christ and the doctrine of election, it provides an examination of debates over the subordination of the Son in Hebrews, it probes the relationship of the incarnate Son to his Father in Johannine theology, and it offers an exegetically grounded theological engagement with recent work on the place of logic in the doctrine of the incarnation.

A Fifth Mark of the Church?

In addition to the four marks of the Church, mercy has been emphasized since the pontificate of St. John Paul II as essential to the authentic fulfillment of the Church’s identity and mission. A Christological and pneumatological understanding of these marks of the Church leads to a proper grasp of the Church in relation to mercy. The Church is merciful not de facto because of her works of mercy on behalf of the poor or sinners. Rather, she is first the recipient of unprecedented Divine Mercy, poured forth in the gift of the Holy Spirit, and so shares that same Spirit of Mercy with others through her sacraments, preaching, and service. The Church’s mission of mercy thus extends beyond the myriad of manners to alleviate human misery. In union with Christ, her Bridegroom, the Church is to communicate the one gift of Divine Mercy, the Holy Spirit, to all.

Justification and the Workings of the Gift of Grace

This chapter contends that the metaphysical complexity sustaining Vermigli’s work can be seen in his theology of justification, specifically in the way he envisages the gift of grace. If grace is given in such a way that it intrinsically transforms human beings, as Vermigli envisages especially in his theology of the union with Christ, this presupposes that God’s action is ontological, and that the finite realm participates in God. The same does not seem to be the case when gifts are given extrinsically. Vermigli holds both theses, insisting that human beings can receive the gift of grace only extrinsically (through imputation), while equally maintaining that this gift transforms them intrinsically.