Hope for the Future of New Testament Theology

This paper presents the author’s hope for changes in New Testament (NT) theology particularly as currently experienced in American Christian culture. Those changes are based on exegetical work that seeks to place the NT texts into their Jewish first-century thought world. The first part of the paper presents examples of theological concepts that have crept into NT exegesis, translations, and Christian thinking, concepts that appear to be foreign to or contrary to that original-audience thought world. The second part of the article seeks to present a reading of Rom 3:21–26 that better represents Paul’s thinking than what is found in some English translations that read the text through the lenses of some of the foreign concepts mentioned in Part 1. The resulting vision for the future of NT theology is twofold: for NT theologies to self-critically rid themselves of the infiltration of foreign concepts, and for the field to better ground its work in exegesis and translations that better respect the Jewish thought world of the texts.

Women Philosophers in the Long Nineteenth Century

The long nineteenth century spans a host of important philosophical movements: romanticism, idealism, socialism, Nietzscheanism, and phenomenology, to mention a few. Hegel, Schopenhauer, Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, and Marx are well-known names from this period. This, however, was also a transformative period for women philosophers in German-speaking countries and contexts. Their works are less well known yet offer stimulating and pathbreaking contributions to nineteenth-century thought. In this period, women philosophers explored a wide range of philosophical topics and styles. Throughout the movements of romanticism, idealism, socialism, and phenomenology, women philosophers helped shape philosophy’s agenda and provided unique approaches to existential, political, aesthetic, and epistemological questions. While during the nineteenth century women continued to be (largely) excluded from formal education and positions, they developed ways of philosophizing that were accessible, intuitive, and activist in spirit. The present volume makes available to English-language readers––often for the first time––the works of nine significant women philosophers, with the hope of stimulating further interest in and scholarship on their works. The editors’ introductions offer a comprehensive overview of the contributions of women philosophers in the period as well as to individual figures and movements. The translations are furnished with explanatory footnotes and are designed to be accessible to students as well as scholars.

The John the Baptist of the German University Ideal

Henry P. Tappan, president of the University of Michigan, was, in the era before the Civil War, the leading advocate of the new German ideal for the modern university. While the Whig ideal was built on Enlightenment principles of common sense and fixed truths, the more progressive nineteenth-century thought was shaped by romantic ideals of progress. While Tappan had a strong evangelical pedigree, he was strongly against sectarianism at Michigan. He believed that what distinguished a university from a lower school was great scholars and their research. Although he did not entirely transform Michigan before his abrupt dismissal in 1863, he did make it into a leading university and recruited some leading scholars.

Editors’ Introduction

The introduction offers an overview of women philosophers in nineteenth-century German philosophy. In particular, it emphasizes the growing self-awareness of women philosophers and their exploration of a practice-oriented and socially aware philosophy. It situates the work of women philosophers within the larger tradition and calls for a new narrative of nineteenth-century thought that acknowledges the contributions of women philosophers and their lasting significance.

Conclusion

Here we trace the beginning of metatheology to the differences between Anselm and Aquinas, through the Protestant Reformation, arguing that the golden age for metatheology is in post-Kripke twentieth century thought. We then note the ways in which it is much to easy to mix and confuse theological projects with metatheological projects. The results of our study are then summarized in terms of an endorsement of Metatheological Anti-Fundamentalism, the viewpoint that rejects the claim than any of our three metatheologies can be adequate. Instead, the proper version of Anti-Fundamentalism claims that God is best depicted at the fundamental level in terms of being the asymmetrical source of all else who is also supremely worthy of the highest worship.

Allegory and Analogy in Menzel’s The Iron Rolling Mill

Adolph Menzel’s Das Eisenwalzwerk, or Moderne Cyklopen (The Iron Rolling Mill, or Modern Cyclopes) from 1875 depicts an analogy central to nineteenth- century thought, namely, that between the human motor and the combustion engine. The painting visualizes the differing rhythms of these two “machines” and the entropy produced as a result of that difference. The painting’s reflection on labor also elaborates an allegory of the activity of painting. Such an allegorical reading, motivated by particular attention to the objects placed in the painting’s foreground, entails a reevaluation of Menzel’s self-understanding and of the changing nature of allegory in nineteenth- century painting. In this instance, allegory operates not through identification but by means of analogy.