LITMIR.BIZ

Boston Congregationalist ministers Charles Chauncy (1705-87) and Jonathan Mayhew (1720-66) were significant political as well as religious leaders in colonial and revolutionary New England. Scholars have often stressed their influence on major shifts in New England theology, from traditional Calvinism to Arminianism and, ultimately, to universalism and Unitarianism. They have also portrayed Mayhew as an influential preacher, whose works helped shape American revolutionary ideology, and Chauncy as an active leader of the patriot cause. Through a deeply contextualized re-examination of the two ministers as «men of their times,» John S. Oakes offers a fresh, comparative interpretation of how their religious and political views changed and interacted over decades. The result is a thoroughly revised reading of Chauncy's and Mayhew's most innovative ideas. Conservative Revolutionaries also unearths strongly traditionalist elements in their belief systems, centering on their shared commitment to a dissenting worldview based on the ideals of their Protestant New England and British heritage. Oakes concludes with a provocative exploration of how the shifting theological and political positions of these two «conservative revolutionaries» may have helped redefine prevailing notions of human identity, capability, and destiny.

Подробнее

"The divine mystery, as interpreted by Paul, offers transformation. The believer who identifies with the death and resurrection of Christ by putting to death the old way of life (Rom 6:5-11; Gal 2:20) enters into a new sphere of influence characterized by intimate fellowship with Christ. One who is in this sphere is free from the snare of Adam and the world and is no longer bound by the power of sin and death. The divine mystery also offers a new source of power by the indwelling Holy Spirit. The Spirit brings gifts to those in Christ that enable them to function as community. The highest and most significant of these is love which brings diversity together into unity. The indicative is that the Spirit graces believers with love. The imperative is that they should follow after the example of Paul, and hence Christ, in loving others. The divine Spirit is described as holy and makes holiness possible for those in Christ. The indicative is that fellowship with Christ is possible because of redemption. The imperative is that Christ demands loyalty which cannot be shared with any other, particularly with prostitutes who represent the ways of the world or idols that open doors for demons." –from the Conclusion

Подробнее

Has God said? Has God actually spoken, declared himself and his purposes to us? Historically the Christian faith has affirmed God's redemptive, revelatory speaking as historical, contentful, redemptive, centrally in Jesus Christ and, under Christ and by the Spirit, in the text of Holy Scripture. But in the past three centuries developments in Western culture have created a crisis in relation to historical, divine authority. The modern reintroduction of destructive dualisms, cosmological and epistemological, via Descartes, Newton, Spinoza, and Kant have injured not only the physical sciences (e.g., positivism) but Christian theology as well. The resulting «eclipse of God» has permeated Western culture. In terms of the Christian understanding of revelation, it has meant the separation of God from historical action, the rejection of God's actual self-declaration, and especially in textual form, Holy Scripture. After critical analysis of these dualistic developments, this book presents the problematic effects in both Protestant (Schleiermacher, Bultmann, Tillich) and Roman Catholic (Rahner, Dulles) theology. The thought and influence of Karl Barth on the nature of Scripture is examined and distinguished from most «Barthian approaches.» The effects of dualistic «Barthian» thought on contemporary evangelical views of Scripture (Pinnock, Fackre, Bloesch) are also critically analyzed and responses made (Helm, Wolterstorff, Packer). The final chapter is a christocentric, multileveled reformulation of the classical Scripture Principle, via Einstein, Torrance, and Calvin, that reaffirms the church's historical «identity thesis,» that Holy Scripture is the written Word of God, a crucial aspect of God's larger redemptive-revelatory purpose in Christ.

Подробнее

DIVINE DISCLOSURE By Robert Paul Roth
Table of Contents
1. Sounds and Silence, Colors, Touch, and Fragrance 2. The Sinking Sadness of Death 3. Power and Pain 4. Time For, Place Where 5. And Gladly Wolde He Lerne and Gladly Teche 6. Paradox and Contradiction 7. A Water Droplet Yearning 8. Two Loves 9. God Calling Yet 10. Ad Futurum et Mysterium

Подробнее

Jesus teaches that regardless of one's profession, if one does not demonstrate a changed life produced by God, one will not enter into heaven. Such a judgment will be made when Jesus returns and judges every person according to his or her «works.» While this may seem contradictory to some more well-known passages ruling out the role of works in salvation (e.g., Rom 3:21-4:25; Gal 2:16-21; Eph 2:8-9), there is every good reason to understand that Jesus' teachings complement such passages. The works that admit one into heaven are not works produced by the flesh before conversion but works produced by God after conversion. They will fundamentally be characterized by a life of discipleship, love for others, and endurance in faith and obedience, and will therefore serve to confirm that one indeed did have a relationship with God during one's life.

Подробнее

In the late 1990s, «Open Theism» took the theological world by storm. Advocated by several prominent theologians, among them Clark H. Pinnock, the view argues that human beings cannot have a genuine relationship with God if God possesses what classical theology has affirmed to be exhaustive foreknowledge of future events. Such foreknowledge, open theists claim, would make human freedom (and salvation itself) meaningless and divine power akin to little more than meaningless, cosmic puppeteering. While several works have taken the important step of addressing open theisms scriptural deficiencies in its denial of Gods foreknowledge, none have dealt with the vital issue of divine-human relationality and how it can be understood in a classical, orthodox framework that maintains such foreknowledge. Consuming Glory remedies that lack by first providing a fresh critique of open theism using Clark Pinnock's version of it as representative, but then offering a reconstruction of divine-human relationality centered on the Biblical principle of Christus in nobis (Christ in us). Christus in nobis is coupled with an outworking of meticulous divine providence that serves Gods own self-glorifying orientation. It reverses the relational ordering advocated in open theism by grounding human love of God theologically rather than anthropologically. Love of God and divine-human relationality is established precisely because it is Gods own self-love that is providentially given to us and thus reciprocated as believers are brought into adoptive communion with the Triune Godhead. Drawing on diverse resources throughout the corpus of historical theology, Murphy concludes that divine-human relationality can be summarized as God delighting in himself, in us.

Подробнее

The theology of the cross is indisputably a trendy concept today. Numerous seminars, books, and dissertations tackle the topic. But The Theology of the Cross in Historical Perspective demonstrates that theology of the cross is no passing fancy. Theologies of the cross appear at the beginnings of the church, in the sixteenth-century reformations of the church, and in the more contemporary modernization of the church. Without theologies of the cross, what the church is called to be and to preach becomes unclear. So then, what is the theology of the cross?
Anna Madsen surveys the theology of the cross in the thinking of Paul and Luther. She also outlines several important twentieth-century contributions to the subject. On the basis of her analysis, Madsen suggests that the theology of the cross reveals God to be found even in death. In death, after all, boundaries disappear. The theology of the cross assures Christians that God is present in the death of sin and in the realities of suffering and uncertainty. Given that it announces God's presence, the theology of the cross is ultimately a theology of grace, freedom, and trust.

Подробнее

John Wesley by his own words considered himself a «Man of One Book,» meaning of course the Scriptures. Yet what does this seemingly declarative statement really mean? What was Wesley's view on the inspiration, authority, and even the infallibility of Scripture? This question is more than a historical curiosity when we recognize the current debate between evangelical groups over their views of the authority of Scripture.
Recognizing the debt all Wesleyan movements have to Wesley's teachings and doctrines, this book will attempt to answer some critical questions about Wesley's view and use of the Bible. How did Wesley develop his views? How did he incorporate Scripture into his development of the Methodist movement? What was the position of Scripture in what has become known as the Wesleyan Quadrilateral of reason, experience, tradition, and Scripture? What were his views on inspiration and infallibility and would his principles of interpretation hold up against modern, critical scholarship?
Finally, and perhaps most importantly, what influence did Wesley's view and use of the Bible have upon the success of the Wesleyan Revival? Are there lessons we can still learn from Wesley that could impact the world and church of the twenty-first century? This book will attempt to answer these and many other fascinating questions about John Wesley, a «Man of One Book.»

Подробнее

What Can a Modern Jew Believe? is an attempt to present to intelligent, contemporary Jews a brief summation of basic beliefs and tenets of Judaism. Divided into sixteen chapters and an introduction, the book deals with salient principles of faith: Why Religion? What Can a Modern Jew Believe? What Can We Believe About God? Can We Believe in Revelation? What Is a Human Being? Are Jews the Chosen People? Halakhah: Divine or Human? Why Ritual? Why Pray? Why Eretz Yisrael? Tolerance? Pluralism? Which? Why Evil? Can We Repair the World? How Can Jews Relate to Other Faiths? Messiah: Fact or Fancy? Is There an Afterlife? Each chapter analyzes traditional interpretations of the themes, citing appropriate biblical, rabbinic, medieval, and modern texts. The chapters also include the views of contemporary Jewish thinkers as well as the positions of the various modern Jewish religious movements. The author critiques the diverse opinions and then offers his own insights as to the significance and relevance of these principles for contemporary Jews. «Points to Ponder» follow each chapter and are designed to stimulate discussion and further reading and thinking.

Подробнее

Ecumenism in postwar Asia, institutionalized in the Christian Conference of Asia, displayed a remarkable this-worldliness from its inception in the 1940s. This tendency was in contrast to the tension between the church-centric and world-centric approaches to Christian mission that marked conciliar mission thinking in the West. This work examines the development of such this-worldly holiness in Asian ecumenism, focusing on M. M. Thomas of India and C. S. Song from Taiwan.
Special attention is drawn to the idea of «God's this-worldly presence» that considers God as redemptively at work in world history apart from the church. The study first compares the development of this-worldly holiness in the West and Asia and then examines the thinking of Thomas and Song. The chapters on these two theologians discuss their backgrounds, the basic concerns motivating their intellectual searches, and responses to the questions arising from such concerns. These chapters also try to understand how these theologians view the relationship between God and the world. In so doing, the study highlights the significance of the idea of God's this-worldly presence shared by Thomas and Song in spite of differences in their backgrounds, approaches, and theological formulations.
Having compared Thomas and Song, the study concludes that the idea of God's this-worldly presence became central to Asian ecumenism because it offered a common unifying vision to Asian Christians who come from a region characterized by tremendous diversity. The idea helped them to see the diverse peoples, cultures, and religions in Asia under one God who transcends the diversity and still takes it seriously.

Подробнее