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In Behold the Pierced One, Joseph Ratzinger recounts how the composition of a 1981 paper on the Sacred Heart of Jesus had led him to "consider Christology more from the aspect of its spiritual appropriation" than he had done previously. Upon realizing that this same year was the 1300th anniversary of the Third Council of Constantinople, he decided to study the pronouncements of this Council, and came to believe "that the achievement of a spiritual Christology had also been the Council's ultimate goal." Ratzinger's conclusion in attempting to define a spiritual Christology was that "the whole of Christology--our speaking of Christ--is nothing other than the interpretation of his prayer: the entire person of Jesus is contained in his prayer." The spiritual Christology subsequently developed by Ratzinger is one of communio. Indeed, it is one of theosis. Through a personal and ecclesial participation in the prayer of Jesus, exercised in purity of heart, and consummated in the eucharistic celebration, one comes into communion with Jesus Christ and all the members of his Body, so that eventually one can say truly, "It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me" (Gal 2:20).
In this book Rowlands interrogates the theological and philosophical foundations of the 'Quest' for the historical Jesus, from Reimarus to the present day, culminating in a call for greater metaphysical transparency and diversity in the discipline. This multidisciplinary approach to historical Jesus research, drawing on historiography, sociology, philosophy, and theology, makes a significant and original contribution to the field. Part I outlines the implicit role of metaphysical presuppositions in historical methodology by examining the concept of an historiographical worldview. Part II provides an overview of the 'Quest' for the historical Jesus, demonstrating that the disparate historiographical worldviews operative in the 'Quest' evidence a particular shared characteristic, in that they might accurately be described as ‘secular.’ Rowlands’ study concludes with a call for a greater plurality and openness regarding the philosophical and theological presuppositions at work in historical Jesus research. The Metaphysics of Historical Jesus Research is of interest to students and scholars working on New Testament studies and historical Jesus research.
An exploration of how the truth, love, and power of God revealed in Jesus Christ are contemporary to and transformative of human life.
The complex nature of Christian communion with a personal God requires a nuanced expression. Since its inception, the early church affirmed God’s unknowable nature and also participation in God through Christ. The church fathers employed the language of theosis in talking about union with God and human transformation in the likeness of God. However, the term theosis or deification is a broad category and requires precise explanation to avoid human dissolution into the divine in the mystical union it attempts to describe. In Triadosis, Eduard Borysov offers a new approach to the conundrum of the imparticipable divine nature and the prospect of personal union between human and the Trinity. Most significantly, he proposes that if God is Trinity, then we are created and restored in the image of the same tri-personal God.
This book provides a comprehensive literary and theological analysis of Gregory of Nyssa's theology of union with God, culminating in a fresh reading of his final written work, In Canticum Canticorum (c.391), a collection of fifteen allegorical homilies on the Song of Songs. Part I gives the essential background for the study of In Canticum Canticorum by analysing several of Gregory's earlier works (c.370--385), tracing the main contours of his account of the human transformation and union with God. Author Alexander Abecina explores topics such as Gregory's theology of virginity and spiritual marriage, his theology of baptism, his trinitarian theology, and his Spirit-based Christology. In Pa...
The prevalence of salvation language in the first letter of Peter has often been acknowledged though rarely investigated in depth. In this book Martin Williams presents an account exploring the concept of salvation in this theologically rich letter. He brings together the disciplines of hermeneutics, New Testament studies, and systematic and historical theology in order to explore the language of salvation which resonates within the text. The book also elaborates on a methodological level the segregation which has arisen between biblical studies and theological studies. In doing this, Williams identifies a basis for how there can be interaction between these two different viewpoints. This book will be a valuable resource for students and scholars interested in the exegesis and theology of 1 Peter, the doctrine of salvation and biblical interpretation.
The principal doctrines defining Mormonism today often bear little resemblance to those it started out with in the early 1830s. This book shows that these doctrines did not originate in a vacuum but were rather prompted and informed by the religious culture from which Mormonism arose. Early Mormons, like their early Christian and even earlier Israelite predecessors, brought with them their own varied culturally conditioned theological presuppositions (a process of convergence) and only later acquired a more distinctive theological outlook (a process of differentiation). In this first-of-its-kind comprehensive treatment of the development of Mormon theology, Charles Harrell traces the history...
What does it mean to say that Scripture is God's Word? And just how true is the Bible? Though sometimes dismissed as "fundamentalist" concerns, these questions also sent twentieth-century Catholic theology searching for a new paradigm of biblical inspiration. Theologians repeatedly attempted to reconcile the traditional conviction that the Bible shares in the omniscience of its divine author with scholarly findings that suggested otherwise. Joseph Ratzinger contributed both negatively and positively to this project, deconstructing the regnant manualist models of inspiration and constructing an alternative inspired by St. Bonaventure. The result is an ecclesial model of surprising comprehensi...
This book offers an entryway to the discussion between theological interpretation of Scripture and contextual theology (i.e., tribal theology). It argues for the need to consider the importance of reading the Bible with multiple contexts in mind, while addressing the tension between church and academy in the area of biblical interpretation. Adapting from the theological method of Kevin J. Vanhoozer, it argues for a multi-contextual biblical-theological interpretation of Scripture that maintains evangelical ethos (i.e., the solas of the Reformation), recognizes canonical sense (i.e., the measuring and guiding criteria), asserts Catholic sensibility (i.e., value the contribution of the local and Catholic church), and affirms contextual sensitivity (i.e., the local/tribal confessing community). These are the contexts that enable Christians to read the Bible as what it is, namely, human and divine discourse.
The notion that the Bible is inerrant in everything it teaches is something those with conservative upbringings are conditioned to take for granted. However, after being exposed to scholarship in biblical studies and other disciplines, some draw the unexpected conclusion that inerrancy as a doctrine is in dire need of serious revamping. Unfortunately, inerrantist politics and culture are making the constructive, restorative process impossible to intitiate. In Rehabilitating Inerrancy in a Culture of Fear, Carlos Bovell offers a synoptic overview of the issues to be addressed if inerrancy is to survive as a viable bibliological option.