The continuity of selfidentity through death and resurrection
If mortals die, will they live again is a question older than Job 14 14 , but asked by every new generation. Not content with vague, impersonal generalities, Job persisted After my skin has been thus destroyed, then in my flesh I shall see God . . . and my eyes shall behold, and not another 19 27 . The concept of resurrection may not have been clear in the mind of Job, but he clearly expresses the desire that his very own self soul would survive the destruction of his flesh so that he, in his...
Lutheran and Reformed Theology a Christological Comparison
Unlike Lutheranism, Reformed theology did not look to one single individual as its symbolic theological fountainhead. Instead, its origins and development lay with a number of highly significant theologians, of whom Huldrych Zwingli, Martin Bucer, and Johannes Oecolampadius are probably the most significant of the first generation. In subsequent years, John Calvin, Heinrich Bullinger, Peter Martyr Vermigli, Theodore Beza, Jerome Zanchius, Amandus Polanus, Franciscus Junius, and William Perkins...
Modern Patristics
In his History of Dogma, Adolf von Harnack 1851-1930 emphasized that the discipline of the history of dogma distinguished itself from that of church history by its narrower subject matter, and differed from systematic theology in refusing to see dogmas as timeless truths the business of the history of dogma is, in the first place, to ascertain the origin of Dogmas or Dogma , and then secondly, to describe their development their variations von Harnack 189 7 1 . He developed a notion of...
Ray Anderson
Who knows whether the human spirit goes upward and the spirit of animals goes downward to the earth Ecclesiastes 3 21 . Who knows indeed In former times, we might account for such ignorance by attributing it to lack of scientific knowledge and philosophical precision. But how should we now account for the fact that some form of the same question tantalizes our scientists and torments our philosophers Even the terms spirit and soul remain ambiguous as used in contemporary thought, with soul...
A return to historical inquiry
The new sociological interest in the New Testament background represents, in a way, a return to the centrality of historical concerns, though in a new mode, prompted by the different emphases of historians today as against those of their predecessors in the mid-twentieth century. Historical criticism, however changed, is certainly not dead in New Testament studies. This is evident from the renewed interest in the historical Jesus, as attested in the Jesus Seminar already mentioned above and the...
The Witness Theory of History and Classical Christian Theology
Basing their work only partly on the Old Testament, the third- and fourth-century founders of Christian historiography introduced the leading edge of just that pneumatic theology. While history was the study of evidence of historical events, this evidence was seen as a metaphor, not for the events of history but for realities located beyond history. As a historian, one witnessed to that evidence, and as a believer, one witnessed to its metaphorical meaning. Eusebius of Caesarea 265-339 or 340...
Theology and Phronesis
Over the last several decades, there has been a rebirth of what is commonly called practical philosophy. This turn in philosophy has had important implications for theology, social theory, and the more discrete social sciences such as sociology, psychology, political science, and economics. It is associated with the hermeneutic philosophy of Hans-Georg Gadamer and Paul Ricoeur, the ordinary language analysis of Wittgenstein and Peter Winch, the discourse ethics of J rgen Habermas, and American...
Phronesis in Gadamer Ricoeur and Bernstein
Ordering the relation between practical, theoretical, and technical reason is only a small part of social theory. It is, nonetheless, an important beginning point. And, as I said above, it has important implications for defining the nature of both theology and social theory. It means that both, when fully and properly viewed, should be seen as forms of practical reflection and action. When this is acknowledged, theology and social theory have certain overlaps or analogies that give them an...