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What Is Justification About?
This book offers a Reformed perspective on contemporary ecumenical discussion by carefully exploring the biblical message of justification and then demonstrating how justification as a doctrine functions as an integrative theological principle. Written by an international group of distinguished Reformed scholars, with the support of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches, What Is Justification About? also considers the relevance of justification for social ethics and contemporary cultural issues. / Contributors: Martien Brinkman, John P. Burgess, George Hunsinger, Chris Mostert, Fazakas Sndor, Dirkie Smit, Laura Smit, Katherine Sonderegger, Henk M. Vroom, John Webster, Michael Weinrich.
A Reformed Voice in the Ecumenical Discussion
In A Reformed Voice in the Ecumemenical Discussion Martien E. Brinkman offers a critical account of the main international ecumenical developments of the last three decades. He delivers a sketch of the Reformed contribution to the ecumenical dialogues dealing with issues like contextuality, state-church relations, the ethical implications of baptism, the church as sacrament of the kingdom and apostolic tradition. He pleas for a stronger non-Western input in the ecumenical discussions and emphasizes that in many contexts (Indonesia, India, China) the interreligious dialogue has become part of the inner-Christian dialogue. This study can be considered as a constructive contribution to the development of a hermeneutics of tradition and puts itself the critical question what is lost and found in translation.
The Tragedy of Human Freedom
Human freedom has been the source of both the high points of humanity as well as of its low points, thus giving rise to the impression that it is a somewhat ambivalent concept. According to Martien Brinkman, the major factor in this ambivalence is the rather narrow meaning that the concept has received in the course of history. Freedom is, for the most part, understood as 'freedom from' or 'freedom to' but only rarely as 'freedom for'. However, it is precisely this latter understanding that is closest to the Christian understanding of freedom, which Brinkman defines as 'internal attachment'. In his view Christian freedom is at bottom characterized by that to which one commits oneself in trust. He sees primarily the Christian theology of baptism, with its accent on 'dying' and 'rising' with Christ as the model for the way in which one acquires freedom. Brinkman illustrates this in this study by means of a great number of biblical images and images borrowed from the historical debates between Augustine and Pelagius and Luther and Erasmus.
Creation and Salvation
Christians trying to "save the planet" have to relate "creation" with "salvation." This volume explores the ways in which this task is approached by a wide range of recent theological movements.
Contextuality in Reformed Europe
The scope of this volume is how churches experience themselves and their mission in their context. The discussions in this volume provide ample material to substantiate the claim that the church should not be an ecclesia incurvata in se ipsa, (a church curved into itself) but welcoming and directed not only to personal needs but to social needs as well—but not bound to what people often feel the needs are and delving deeper to the real roots of sin and selfishness, be it personal, social or national. Contextualization in itself is part of the mission of the churches, but it is on the edge: should the church adapt to its context and lose both its identity and witness or should it find a way between the Scylla of easy adaptation to the changing contexts of this world that is passing and the Charybdis of a preservation of forms and identities of bygone times that have lost the freshness of the message of liberation of bondage, conversion and freedom, freedom to be what the church is called to be, a sign of hope, peace, reconciliation, justice and love?
The Command to Exterminate the Canaanites: Deuteronomy 7
According to Deuteronomy 7, God commands Israel to exterminate the indigenous population of Canaan. In The Command to Exterminate the Canaanites: Deuteronomy 7, Arie Versluis offers an analysis and evaluation of this command. Following an exegesis of the chapter, the historical background, possible motives and the place of the nations of Canaan in the Hebrew Bible are investigated. The theme of religiously inspired violence continues to be a topic of interest. The present volume discusses the consequences of the command to exterminate the Canaanites for the Old Testament view of God and for the question whether the Bible legitimizes violence in the present. Finally, the author shows how he reads this text as a Christian theologian.
Going Dutch in the Modern Age
Abraham Kuyper is known as the energetic Dutch Protestant social activist and public theologian of the 1898 Princeton Stone Lectures, the Lectures on Calvinism. In fact, the church was the point from which Kuyper's concerns for society and public theology radiated. In his own words, ''The problem of the church is none other than the problem of Christianity itself.'' The loss of state support for the church, religious pluralism, rising nationalism, and the populist religious revivals sweeping Europe in the nineteenth century all eroded the church's traditional supports. Dutch Protestantism faced the unprecedented prospect of ''going Dutch''; from now on it would have to pay its own way. John ...
Four Philosophical Anglicans
Alan Sell explores the lives and ideas of four unjustly neglected Anglican philosophers: W. G. De Burgh (1866-1943); W. R. Matthews (1881-1973); 0. C. Quick (1885-1944); H. A. Hodges (1905-1976). This study fills an important gap in the history of twentieth-century philosophical and theological thought. Sell argues that these writers covered a wide range of philosophical topics in an illuminating way, and that a comparison of their respective standpoints and methods is instructive from the point of view of the viability or otherwise of Christian philosophizing. He discusses the challenges these four philosophical Anglicans issued to certain important trends in the philosophy and theology of their day, and argues that some of them are of continuing relevance.
The Spirit Is Moving: New Pathways in Pneumatology
The work of the Spirit of God is a vibrant and much discussed topic in many contemporary Christian communities worldwide. Apparently, the Spirit is moving. Theological reflection on this phenomenon has even given rise to what is often called a ‘pneumatological renaissance’. This volume not only takes stock of these remarkable developments, but also probes some of their hidden aspects and highlights avenues for future exploration. It contains a wide-ranging but coherent assortment of essays, covering the five relations of the Holy Ghost distinguished already in the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed: how does the Spirit of God relate to the Bible, to the Christ, to the human person, to the c...
Probing the Depths of Evil and Good
In the few years since the attack on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, evil has become a central theme in the media and human consciousness: the evil of terrorism, the evil of secular culture, concern for poverty, and climate change... Yet different cultures and religious traditions have different ideas of what evil is and what its root causes are. Although there is no massive clash of cultures, many disagreements and also conflicts in the world arise from the deep differences in views of evil. This volume explores religious views of evil. Scholars from different religions and from various parts of the world describe how people probe the depths of evil--and by necessity that of good--from their own background in various worldviews. In their explorations, almost all address the need to go beyond morality, and beyond legalistic definitions of evil and of good. They point to the radical depths of evil in the world and in human society and reinforce our intuition that there is no easy solution. But if we can gain a better understanding of what people from other worldview traditions and cultures consider evil, we are that much closer to a more peaceful world.
