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The majestic sequence of saving events in Rom 8:29–30 provides a framework within which to consider the four books reviewed here: 'For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the first‐born among many brethren. And those whom he predestined he also called; and those whom he called he also justified; and those whom he justified he also glorified'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The experiential bias in modern understandings of spirituality has led to readings of the pre-modern texts of Pseudo-Dionysius as referring to "negative experiences" of faith. Denys Turner, Bernard McGinn, and others have outlined the mistaken "spiritual positivism" of such readings and their contrast with the negative dialectics of the classical apophatic tradition. Indeed, the philosophical parameters of the Christian mysticism of the Dionysian tradition would deny "mystical experience" to be "experience" as such. Nevertheless, several modern theologians have attempted to integrate interpretations of the experiential in Christian mysticism into their theology. These include Sara Coakley in the idea of spiritual sense in her theology of the body, Karl Rahner in the conception of spiritual touch within his theology of grace, and Louis Dupré's view that there is religious significance in the experience of "emptiness" in modern-day atheism. I shall contrast these attempted integrations with the critique of "mystical experience" within classical understandings of apophaticism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Münchener Theologische Zeitschrift is the property of EOS - EDITIONS SANKT OTTILIEN and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This article argues that the tension identified by maximalist interpreters in Barth's theology between his concrete identification of Jesus Christ with the essence of God and affirmation of counterfactual possibilities is motivated by Barth's theology that God is the absolute person. Barth's theology of divine personhood includes an element of self‐mastery over Godself. It is demonstrated that Barth uses the concept of decision and counterfactual claims to secure God's Lordship over Godself and avoid any necessity of compulsion in God's actions. God is the absolute person, a self‐determining and self‐motivated intentional agent, which Barth utilises to secure God's irreducible, full presence in God's gracious turning towards us in revelation and reconciliation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this article is to address the psychic tension that arises between theological conviction and personal striving. In particular, it addresses the tension between the author's possessing both a Lutheran theology of grace and an opposing personal striving toward self-justification, signified in a fitness regimen. Drawing upon William James' (1902/2012) and his concept of the conservative nature of conversion in his Varieties of Religious Experience, the author "experiments" with this urge to self-justify, particularly through fitness as a form of playing, in which he generates new religious ways of being in the process of self-reconciliation. Ultimately, such playing involves experimenting within the tension between "forbidden" impulses and religious ideals. Playing, then, can be particularly of service to men, who often struggle to be their own saviors while desiring a salvation derived from without. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Scripta Theologica is the property of Servicio de Publicaciones de la Universidad de Navarra, S.A. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

"The Crisis of Calvinism in Revolutionary England, 1640-1660: Arminian Theologies of Predestination and Grace" by Andrew Ollerton explores the decline of Calvinism as the dominant theological tradition in seventeenth-century England. Ollerton argues that the rise of Arminianism during this period was not solely associated with Laudians or High Churchmen, but rather emerged during the English Revolution. He examines the intellectual landscape of the time, highlighting the diverse voices and doctrinal alignments within the Puritan, episcopalian, and sectarian communities. Ollerton's work challenges traditional historiography and offers a comprehensive understanding of the intellectual changes that took place during this period. [Extracted from the article]

In this text, the author analyzes the notion of charisma that appears implicitly in the medieval political theology of Ernst H. Kantorowicz. The text to be analyzed is Synthronos, a manuscript from 1951 on the iconography of the sharing-throne between gods and kings, which the author was unable to publish before he died. The notion of charisma is surveyed in St. Paul's theology of grace and Max Weber's sociology of dominion in order to find a third way to broaden the definition of charisma. Finally, a new perspective is proposed, based on literary and artistic representations, along with visual rhetoric, as driving forces of the ruler's gifts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Teología y Vida is the property of Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile, Facultad de Teologia and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The article presents the discussion on omission of women's voices within religious institutions and theological and religious studies literature. Topics include regards to the inclusion of women's voices and perspectives within scholarship and practice; and struggles sustaining through the experiences of grace and ‘dis-grace' accompanying labour migration.

The Cosmos was made, built, rebuilt and restored by the generative and regenerative power of the divine verb "to Be" ("sa Fie" - in Romanian), first time used as a divine utterance, then appropriated and uttered by man through Virgin Mary. The verb "To be" is related to concept of "being" - a philosophical and theological ideea with metaphysical resonance, which talks about the essence of the world, or reffering to the divine, the ultimate reality, the very existence of God. The One God revealed to Prophet Moses by the Holy Name - "I am Who I Am" - YHWH, meaning the divine Existence and true Reality. The Triune God revealed as a multi - personal Essence or Being. On one hand, the theology of being2 or onto-theology of God is mostly a western venue (anglo-saxon or german) of philosophical and scholastic thinking starting with catholic theologian Duns Scotus3 and continued later by modern philosophers Kant and Heiddeger. However, "I Am" is not "Is". There is a qualitative difference on how western and eastern Christian theologians approach the doctrines reffering to the divine Being or Essence and divine Ipostas or Person. Among others, this difference is reflected in the theology of grace, a created divine gift in Western view or uncreated energies/works in Eastern view. The Western theology tends to be focused on Being while loosing the fine theological refinement developed by the Eastern Fathers when referring to the uncreated workings of the divine Ipostases. The divine Being exists only as an ipostatic Reality, which is connected to the world thru personal energies. The Being works Ipostatic and Personal. That's why the Eastern theology is Christ - centered, Person - centered not Being - centered. The modern neo-patristic theology is also personalist. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The problem of evil asks why an all‐loving, all‐powerful God would permit evil and suffering. Gianni Vattimo, a postmodern philosopher influenced by Nietzsche and Heidegger, returned to religion in the 1990s, but only addressed the concept of evil in a sustained fashion some twenty years later. Vattimo's contribution to the problem of evil addresses the problem circuitously by analysing the concept of evil and by bringing in theological concept of grace, albeit rethinking these concepts in accordance with his own philosophical style of 'weak thought'. This article applies Vattimo's understanding of evil and grace to the problem of evil, comparing his approach to Pareyson's and analysing the extent to which Vattimo's understanding of evil enables someone drawing upon his weak thought to provide an appropriate response to the problem of evil. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Karl Rahner acknowledged freely that "the anonymous Christian," as a category, could be problematic. His interest, he stressed, was not in the term but in understanding the universality of God's grace and the access of all people to grace. Reception of Rahner's theology of salvation, however, has often neglected this broader framework to focus on the term itself. This article, which engages Rahner's theology of grace in both its ecclesiological setting and its universal reach, argues that this theology can be an asset to dialogue even in the context of religious pluralism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The notion of rest frames Augustine's Confessions: the expression of the desire for rest and the prayer for God's bestowal of rest. Between these bookends is an extended account of Augustine's past expressed in the form of a confession, one that is saturated with the Psalms. How are these major motifs – rest, memory, confession and the Psalms – related? And how do they relate to the seemingly paradoxical depiction of Augustine's own striving towards rest and God's bestowal of rest? This essay answers these questions by delineating the logic of grace and rest embedded in the Confessions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When persons with disabilities enter a room, they frequently elicit strong emotional reactions from their non‐disabled peers. These reactions are well known in disability studies and often they are blamed for the difficulty of integrating persons with disabilities into communities. Theologians have interpreted this emotional shock as proof that persons with disabilities are revelatory of God's grace because they shatter our idolatrous anthropologies and socio‐political constructs. What has been discussed less is why everybody does not recognize this presence of grace in persons with disabilities, nor how those who experience negative feelings such as anger or disgust could overcome them. This article addresses these questions by appealing to the Eastern Orthodox ascetic tradition, where the grace of God becomes visible for those who learn to control their emotions and purify their sight from self‐interest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Americans continue to be seduced by guns and victimized by gun violence. Following racial tensions across the land, especially since 2020, Americans also face increasing suspicion and hostility towards police. This essay intends to navigate the complex intersection of a culture of grief surrounding gun violence. There is careful consideration for police who find themselves too often overwhelmed in a violent society, and the discussion also considers the responsibility for people of faith to work towards a safer and more peaceful future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article explores theologian Karl Rahner's understanding of God as absolute mystery, nature and grace and suggests principles for the pastoral counseling of undergraduates to guide them into relationships of love with God. Topics discussed are transcendental knowledge of God rooted in experience of his creations, knowledge of God as an a priori openness, Thomistic theology of gratuitous or created grace that justifies and sanctifies a person, and beatic vision of God's work through grace.

The article explores the Galilean corpus on theology's status as a science relating to inferences by Alfredo Damanti. Topics discussed are inferiority of theology to natural philosophy and mathematics, superiority of theology due to nobility of its subject matter which are salvation, ordering of things to heaven and earth and grace, polysemy of Scriptural language, distinction of faith and morals from nature, and Catholic theology's determine of the true sense of Scriptural passages.

This study is situated within the newly emerging interest in the concept of grace as a legitimate topic for empirical enquiry, and draws on the theoretical framework provided by the SIFT approach to biblical hermeneutics, an approach rooted in reader-perspective hermeneutical theory and in Jungian psychological type theory. Data were draw from two one-day workshops with Anglican Readers (lay ministers). On each occasion the participants were invited to divide into three separate groups according to their preferences for sensing or intuition (the two perceiving functions) and within these groups to explore the messages of grace in Matthew 6: 25–30 (Jesus' invitation to look at the birds and to consider the lilies). The rich data gathered from these workshops generated insights into contemporary theologies of grace and also confirmed the hypothesis that biblical interpretation is shaped by the reader's psychological type preference for sensing or for intuition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

'I Hear that God Saith Work': Wunnampuhtogig and Puritans Laboring for Grace in Massachusetts, 1643-1653," details how beliefs about life after death transformed, and were transformed by, labor practices for both wunnampuhtogig ("praying Indians") and English colonizers as they navigated the fraught terrain of seventeenth-century colonial encounters. This article argues that beliefs about the afterlife and those about labor were mutually constitutive, building distinctive and sometimes paradoxical worldviews for wunnampuhtogig and English alike. Traumas wrought by virulent epidemics among Eastern Algonquian polities catalyzed reassessment of eschatology and labor practices, the two variables appearing profoundly intermeshed in the conversion narratives spoken in Wôpanâak by wunnampuhtogig and translated for English readers across the Atlantic. Epistemological emphasis on the confluence of labor and cosmology was not a foreign imposition, but an engrained element of Eastern Algonquian cultural histories. Labor and eschatology converged in English evangelists' rhetoric in ways that both reinforced and strained key tenets of Puritan covenantal theology, pointing toward scriptural tensions that preoccupied colonial evangelists. This article examines how religious beliefs about death and afterlives organized, inflected, and recast the labor performed by Indigenous and settler communities in Massachusetts throughout the mid-seventeenth century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Accordingly, Scheck replicates Souter's use of square brackets for enclosing text omitted by certain manuscripts but thought to be original to Pelagius on account of style. Scheck is unswervingly charitable to Pelagius, but the unwarranted criticisms by Augustine, the debate over the actuality of so-called "Pelagianism" and the tried legacy Pelagius would experience in the Church seems to have led not only to caution but to what at times reads like special pleading and defensiveness. Scheck has again provided a readable translation that, along with the notes, shows deep familiarity with not only the texts of Pelagius, but also the tradition of interpretation dating back to Augustine. [Extracted from the article]

The article presents Christian philosophical perspective related to ancestors confronting obstacles, experiencing reversals of fortune, and enduring in the face of daunting threats to God's covenantal promises given in the Genesis 25:19–34, the Christian old testament. Topics discussed include sinners as instruments of God's grace, communal growth and resilience and ingenious tactics to promote Jacob's flourishing.

This article argues that views of sin and salvation are shaped by one's view of God. Thus, whenever it is thought that God is a metaphor that theologians can change to attain a desired social or psychological result, then the true meaning of sin and salvation are lost. Relying on Karl Barth's view of Jesus as the Judge judged in our place, this article argues against ideas that sin can no longer be understood as self-will, and that salvation must be understood only as our working for a better world. Such views fail to recognise that, since only God can reveal God, the true meaning of sin is and remains most visible today in our attempts to redefine God and salvation in social and psychological rather than strictly theological terms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Scripta Theologica is the property of Servicio de Publicaciones de la Universidad de Navarra, S.A. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper engages with the theme of disgrace from a Bourdieusian point of view. Starting out from a specific definition of 'grace' in terms of misrecognition, it goes on to consider some of the ways in which disgrace can be generated and some of the ways it can be handled by the disgraced party. While there are certainly many intra-field modalities of the genesis of disgrace, including violation of the rules of the game, the paper also emphasizes that disgrace can be generated by cross-field events, necessitating a switch of perspective from individuals in one field to individuals in multiple fields. This is also true of strategies for coping with disgrace. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers information on film language, the sacred, and grace in films "Raging Bull" and "Babette's Feast". Topics include language of these films grounds the sacred in a representation of grace as both painfully immanent and divinely revealed, sacred implications of film could be much more intangible, and the complex relationship between the sacred and film.

This essay presents a comparative theological interpretation of Matthew 11:1-10 and Qur'an 3:48-51, which both reveals the prophetic identities of Jesus and John the Baptist. Topics discussed are authentication of Jesus as the prophet and messiah, the shared prophetological picture of Jesus in the Qur'an and Matthean corpus, Christian Islamophobia triggered by the contrast between law or sharia and grace, and sharia as grace as prescribed by the same messiah who heals and restores life.

Copyright of Lumen Veritatis is the property of Lumen Veritatis and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This article analyzes the vision of Dostoevsky's The Brothers Karamazov as a narrative riff on Kant's three basic questions. The novel shows what it means to live out "What can I know?" "What ought we do?" and "What may we hope?" It argues that this approach, combined with a rejection of the modernist dichotomy of "faith vs. reason," overcomes the problems many critics see in the text. Ivan lives out a "first critique materialism"; Zosima and Alyosha show how to live out a "revised second critique solidarity"; the evolution of Grushenka and Dmitri—both "different people" in the final third of the novel than they were earlier—demonstrates "what we may hope." Dostoevsky does, despite some critics' claims, offer realistic responses to Ivan's profound challenges to faith in the often-excerpted chapters, "Rebellion" and "The Grand Inquisitor." The essay suggests that the lessons the novel teaches are applicable in our own world, where grace is also fragile. Grace can be rejected, as it is by Ivan, yet also be found in and through flawed vessels like Zosima, Alyosha, Grushenka, and Dmitri. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article investigates action of grace in Titus 2:11 and argues for a congeniality in this epistle with Pauline thought on grace as interpreted by John Barclay in Paul and the Gift. Barclay's disentanglement of the concept, including his newfound taxonomy for χάρις, advances Pauline studies significantly, yet it has not informed studies of the Pastoral Epistles. The article examines the juxtaposition of soteriology and ethics found in Titus 2:11–14 and 3:4–7, proposing that the subsequent passage is an elaboration of the first, which sheds light on the idiosyncratic notion of God's grace performing ethical training. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Expanding upon Rahner's theology of the fundamental option, Fritz thereby concludes that the divine freedom 'becomes manifest in each human person, paradoxically, in a definitive I and i incomplete decision' (p. 73). The general tendency of Fritz's apologetic, however, is to respond to criticism of Rahner by painting Rahner as if he were in fact the ideal resource to represent the concerns of the critic. Fritz presents Rahner's theology of the symbol as provisioning the ontological basis for his aesthetic reading. [Extracted from the article]

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The article addresses the question concerning the foundations of church unity and their relevance for the current autocephalous system in the Orthodox Church. This question is particularly striking, since the modern concept of autocephaly is in many ways similar to that of political sovereignty and seems to be in an inner contradiction to theological-ecclesiological thinking. In Orthodox ecclesiology, the concept of unity is not uniform and can be viewed in three ways: essentially - regarding the unity of the church; structurally - regarding the unity in the church; potentially - regarding the unity of churches. For thinking about essential church unity, in many cases dogmatic foundations are applied: trinitarian theology, Christology, pneumatology, theology of divine grace. In structural thinking the identity in faith and doctrine, liturgical unity, and the episcopate or priesthood play a key role. The potential point of view is concerned primarily with interchurch unity. However, this approach gains relevance for the Orthodox autocephalous system as well, which is a unity in diversity of independent local churches. Given the fact that autocephaly is primarily about diversity and independence, its relationship to unity can apparently be explained only antinomically. This autocephalistic antinomy cannot be overcome ontologically, but only structurally - first of all by synodal forms of communication. At the same time the structural principles of unity have to be connected with the essential principles: it is important to begin with the essential in order to develop a sustainable theological vision and structural model of unity in Orthodox ecclesiology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A literary criticism is presented for the book "The Violent Bear It Away" by Flannery O'Connor. It mentions the connection between Matthew 11:12 and the Kenosis Hymn both advances and fills in important gaps in recent scholarship on the book; and also mentions that O'Connor acknowledges that the devil accomplishes a good deal of groundwork for grace.

One of the main findings of John Barclay's Paul and the Gift is that divine grace was everywhere in ancient Judaism, but not everywhere the same. Though Barclay does not emphasize this point, something similar could be said about the worthiness or merit of the recipients of grace. Human worthiness is everywhere in Judaism and Christianity, but not everywhere the same. This article situates Barclay's account of human worthiness relative to other possible configurations. According to Barclay's Paul, the Christ‐gift is given without regard for the worth of the recipients, but this same gift remakes those to whom it is given, enabling them to become worthy of God. This account of human response places Barclay in surprisingly close proximity with non‐Protestant Augustinian streams of interpretation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the relationship between the theological concept of grace and the effects of grace on human beings in bodies and in time, in critical engagement with John Barclay's account of Paul's theology of grace in Paul and the Gift. It begins by showing how one of the book's most significant contributions is its 'thick' description of the effects of incongruous grace in the world in terms of its socially transformative power in the formation of communities. It then argues that Barclay's account is substantially less successful at giving a compelling account of the more rapid and immediate changes that Paul also associates with encounter with divine grace in the lives of Christians. The article concludes by showing how Barclay's picture can be expanded and improved by examining how the 'incongruity' of grace functions to pattern experience in relatively sudden, emotionally immediate ways rather than just through the long‐term formation of a Christian habitus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Starting out from John Barclay's Lutheran‐inclined, actualist reading of the in‐breaking quality of grace and the Spirit in Paul, this article asks how a Catholic theology of grace – typically more focused on identifying the relatively stable structures and effects of grace – might with integrity learn from the Barclayan‐Lutheran‐Pauline difference. By pursuing a close, four‐step reading of Thomas Aquinas' theology of grace, as that appears in the Summa Theologiæ and his lectures on the Pauline epistles, the article demonstrates that just such a Catholic appropriation of a more dynamic graced actualism is indeed possible; one which leads, with dynamic integrity, to a deepened understanding, articulation and practice of core Catholic instincts rather than to their reduction or distortion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

John Barclay offers a capacious and helpful framework for reflection on large swathes of the history of the theology of grace with his notion of the six ways of 'perfecting the gift'. In this article, I extend his analysis to a consideration of certain typical differences between Catholic and Protestant conceptions of grace. Where Protestant theology tends toward a juxtaposition of grace with sin, Catholic theology often considers grace in relation to nature, and each side, I suggest, has its own characteristic proclivity towards paradox. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction to the journal is presented which discusess topics within the issue including God's mercy, the relationship between the theological reality of divine grace and its concrete effects on human beings in bodies and in time; and Paul's theology of grace.

This response to the above seven articles engages with some of the significant ways in which each takes forward the theological discussion of grace. While some areas of disagreement arise, the overall sense is of a conversation that is moving beyond Paul and the Gift, using its contribution to open fresh avenues for understanding between Catholic and Protestant theologians on this deeply controversial topic, and new possibilities for conversation between biblical exegesis and theology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Paul and the Gift by John Barclay advances an interpretation of Paul's theology of grace that resonates with Martin Luther's reading: God's gift is God's Son, Jesus Christ, given for and to the unworthy. To imagine Luther reading Paul and the Gift is thus to conjure images of deep and fundamental consensus. But questions remain. Is the law a cultural canon of worth that God's gift of Christ ignores, or is it, as God's law, a fixed judgement that God's grace contravenes? Does God give only 'without regard to worth' and thus with a kind of divine indifference to cultural indices of value, or does the gift of Christ contradict the conditions of its receipts and thus come in a way that is actually incongruous? With these questions, Luther might push back against Barclay. With others he would ask Barclay to go further. Is not God's incongruous grace also and characteristically creative? How is the gift of Christ that God gave present to and for recipients as the gift God now gives? In all these ways, Luther's theology of the word poses questions to or invites expansions of Barclay's theology of grace. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this essay, I try to make sense out of Kant's unusual concept of grace, particularly as regards its uneasy relationship to education within the context of the effort to overcome evil. The key to the puzzle, I argue, lies in what I call 'moral receptivity'. Part of education's job is to make us morally receptive to grace by preparing us for its possibility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]