Search

The article discusses the role of storytelling in Christianity, particularly in its relationship with creation. It mentions how storytelling provides access to the word of God and its importance in the environmental movement and the limiting of consumption, which would lead Christians back to the moment of creation.

The blackened landscape of Cormac McCarthy’s The Road (2006) suggests the possibility of a future restoration of the earth through the survival of the nameless boy, who is variously figured as a fire-carrier and more specifically, as the Word of God, a chalice holder, a tabernacle. McCarthy’s privileging of the bodies of the boy and father suggests how the body is the basis for our encounters with the dynamism of place. The sacrificial love of the father for the son exemplifies embodied, emplaced love and is finally Christ-like in its manner and tone. This relationship and the relationship of father and son to the earth, which can be thought of figuratively as God’s body, can be best understood through “deep incarnation,” a dramatic understanding of God’s sacramental presence and action in the world in which human beings build communities and reconsider their place in nature. Moreover, reading the novel through Gerard Manley Hopkins’s sonnet “God’s Grandeur” allows us to see how The Road might suggest both the earth’s capacity to regenerate itself and its potential supernatural restoration. The present ecotheological reading of The Road is the first to unite McCarthy’s intertwined environmental and Christian emphases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The history of theology shows that great theologians have paid attention to the study of musical phenomena. The intimate relations between the realm of art and that of the comprehension of the Mystery have borne great fruits throughout the history, materialized in authentic works of art that manifest the Mystery. Moreover, in the context of the contemporary culture, the way of art -particularly that of the liturgical art- continues to be one of the few ways to express the greatness of God who reveals himself, speaks, and can enter-through the language of artistic beauty-into our daily life in a transforming way. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article explains the response of servants chosen by God to His call in biblical times, as referred to Samuel, the last Judge of Israel. Topics discussed include Samuel expressed his faith to God through say words that He said to the Israelite High Priest Eli, comparison of most Christian teachers to the sons of Eli in deceiving people from the truth coming from the Word of God, and movements that express less interest towards the truth of the Word of God like the Seeker Movement .

The article offers the author's insights on the definition of inerrancy in the holy book the Bible. The author defines inerrancy as the propositional truth and mentions that the Bible contains no false assertions. Topics discussed by the author include the word of God in life, the Biblical doctrines, and the Scripture of the mighty acts of God.

Copyright of Studia Universitatis Babes-Bolyai, Theologa Orthodoxa is the property of Babes-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania 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 Union of Evangelical Churches in the German Evangelical Church honored Prof. George Hunsinger with the “Karl Barth Prize 2010.” This is the laudation given at the conferment of the Prize in June 2011. It recalls Barth’s first trip to the United States in 1962 and the impression of it on Barth as well as on the American people. It explains the relation between Barth’s theology and American theology then and now. And, most of all, it honors George Hunsinger as a theological teacher who has been learning from and writing on Barth for decades, developing theological insights and political engagement true to Barth’s heritage. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article focuses on the interpretation of Scripture of "Verbum Domini," an apostolic exhortation issued by Pope Benedict XVI on November 11, 2010. It says that the two senses of Scripture are important in the future of biblical interpretation expressed by Pope Benedict in the document and to restore the proper balance of literal sense of Scripture and its spiritual sense. It mentions that the biblical interpretation in the document has been divided into three sections such as the Word of God, the Word in the Church, and the Word in the World. It discusses the interpretation of Pope Benedict regarding the Vatican II document "The Constitution on Divine Revelation (Dei Verbum)" 12.

This article on evangelism in a European context explores the relationship between the revelation of God in Christ the word of God, our words about him as we seek to express the Gospel and the corporate worship of the local congregation. The article draws heavily from the work of Lesslie Newbigin whose missiological project directly interacted with these three aspects of the doctrine of revelation. Newbigin's belief in a homogenous European culture, however, is first discussed and found wanting. His emphasis on the role of the Church is still very valuable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents an overview of the Liturgy of the Word during the celebrations from the readings between October 2011 and January 2012. It highlights the readings of Ordinary Time and explains the gospels of Matthew and Mark. It explores the topics discussed in the readings including Paul's longing for God, God's gift of wisdom, and David's desire to offer God with a worship-house. The verses of the Bible where the topics are taken are also given including 2 Samuel &:1-5, Isaiah 63: 16-17, and 1Thessalonians 2:7-9.

The article discusses the three forms of God's word based on the theology of Karl Barth. It highlights the preached word which triggers human beings to spread and share the message of God throughout the world. It says that when the preacher is inspired by the Spirit of God that is the time that the preached message becomes a written word. It also explains the revealed word which can be experienced by people who contemplate the Scriptures and received God's wisdom after reading. Meanwhile, it mentions the link of transcendence and immanence to the association of Word and Spirit.

With an aim to develop a public theology for an age of information media (or media theology), this article proposes a new God-concept: God is a communicative system sui generis that autopoietically processes meaning/information in the supratemporal realm via perfect divine media ad intra (Word/Spirit). For this task, Niklas Luhmann's systems theory is critically appropriated in dialogue with theology. First, my working postmetaphysical/epistemological stance is articulated as realistic operational constructivism and functionalism. Second, a series of arguments are advanced to substantiate the thesis: (1) God is an observing system sui generis; (2) self-referential communication is divine operation; (3) unsurpassable complexity is divine mystery; (4) supratemporal autopoiesis of meaning is divine processing; (5) agape is the symbolic medium of divine communication. Third, this communicative model of God is developed into a trinitarian theology, with a claim that this model offers a viable alternative beyond the standard (psychic, social, process) models. Finally, some implications of this model are explored for constructive theology (conceiving creation as divine mediatization) and for science-and-religion in terms of derivative models: (1) God as a living system sui generis and (2) God as a meaning system sui generis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses how the Gospels, especially the Gospel of Mark, became included in the Bible by the ecclesial authorities of established Christianity during the fourth and fifth centuries. It cites the oral and written aspects for the emergence of the Gospel of Mark as scriptural including the Gospel's relation to Scripture, its features that made it memorable and its resonance with hearers. It suggests that the authoritative, scriptural texts of Mark led to their inclusion in the canon.

The article presents the sermon for the 9th Sunday after Pentecost on July 17, 2016. It mentions that one shows hospitality to the Word of God when he welcomed Jesus and his disciples to his house and when he provided them shelter and food. It also notes that Luke pay more attention to the women who followed Jesus than they do, and was even more inclined than other disciples to register their importance to Jesus.

This article examines a new and growing movement in Korean Christianity: making hand-written copies of the Bible. Over the last ten years, the practice of copying the Bible has become increasingly popular among ordinary Christians beyond the boundaries of denomination, age, gender, and profession. It is reported that, by December 2006, there were over 300,000 participants. The Centre for the Bible-Copying Movement, established in 1991, aims at increasing this figure to one million by 2010. In an attempt to uncover the rationale which motivates the practice of copying the Bible, this article situates this movement within the distinctive Korean cultural context of the continuing interplay between Confucianism and Christianity. It is based on the fact that Korea, once the most Confucianised state in East Asia, has become one of the most dynamic Christian countries in the world during the last century. This article argues that the movement of copying the Bible represents a harmonious combination of Christian and Confucian spiritualities: Christian piety for embodying the Word of God and Confucian devotion to self-cultivation through learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article elaborates on the role and responsibilities of the church regarding natural law and reason, as outlined in the religious document "Profesión de Fe." The attention required of Christians individually to this domain is discussed, as well as the possibility of raising conscientious objections regarding the decisions of church authorities. The author explains that the Catholic Church receives the word of god both in sacred scripture and tradition, which is in contrast to Lutheran Christianity.

The article focuses on Thomas More's polemics on the religious movement attempting to reform the Roman Catholic Church. It says that the Reformation contributes on the conflict in communication not only on the issue of which church had the authority to transmit the doctrine, but also on how God communicates with people. Reformers insists that a return to the Bible could be of help to return Christendom to its original path since the scripture contains the saving message of Christianity. They also contend that the Catholic Church had substituted the Word of God with human traditions and rituals. More argues that God reveals himself to humanity through the Catholic Church and that revelation is a temporal phenomenon.

Evangelical Protestant pilgrims come to the Holy Land to be able to feel God's presence in the Land by feeling the presence of Christ in themselves. Their understanding of the Land as the living Word of God, their capacity for embodied spiritual experience, and their rejection of traditional Christian rites and places of worship - together with the theatrical potential of the Bible - open the Evangelical Protestant pilgrims to ritual experimentation in alternative places. I use the case of an organized pilgrimage group from the American Midwest to discuss how the pastor and the tour guide, each from their different but overlapping perspectives, create a context in which Jesus is encouraged to enter the pilgrims through the performance of the biblical battle between David and Goliath in a valley southwest of Jerusalem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents abstracts of papers related to mission studies and theology. They include "Luo Women's Negotiation of Mission Education: A Critical Analysis of Anglican Women in Nyanza Kenya From 1895," by Emily A. Onyango, "The Reception in Transylvania of Karl Barth's Theology of the Word of God," by József Kovács, and "Leadership in a Bangkok Slum: An Ethnography of Thai Urban Poor in the Lang Wat Pathum Wanaram Community," by Alan R. Johnson.

The article reflects on the core understanding of the Christian Gospel in the pluralistic world. It traces the thoughts about public truth as well as public policy in contemporary Christian perspectives. It also discusses public theology as a re-emerging discipline in Christian religion. On the other hand, It argues on the relation of Christian pietism with fideism.

The article examines the cantatas of Johann Sebastian Bach to explore an example of how a particular culture form at a particular moment was used to transmit the Christian gospel, to speak or rather sing the Word. There is no clear distinction between sacred and secular in Bach's theology. The cantatas were written for particular days of the liturgical year.

An anonymous Vita written in the years immediately following Joachim of Fiore's death presents him as an alter-Jeremiah or Ezekiel, a prophet of the exile. His life is described as a transmigration from the Holy Land, where he received his first revelation, to the monastery he founded in Fiore, or as a journey from exile to redemption. Calabria becomes the new Holy Land, blessed by the Holy Spirit. In contrast, the thirteenth-century Kabbalist Abraham Abulafia depicts Sicily as the place where prophecy will be renewed and the Messiah revealed. He refers to himself as Zachariah, the prophet of redemption, particularly in work in which his connection with Christians is emphasized. This article suggests that Abulafia adapted the Joachite teachings which he would have encountered in Sicily and southern Italy to a polemical dialogue with his Christian counterparts in an attempt to prove to them that he was the one who would bring the redemption and unification of Jews and Christians in a spiritual understanding of the divine Name. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents an illustrative example of an anonymous treatise with scriptural testimonies used against the Jews. Scriptural testimonies against the Jews; Affirmation about the word of God and the Holy Spirit; Religious beliefs of Jews.

Present information on several doctrinal reflections on the hermeneutics in modern theology. Factors linked to the decline of theology; Characteristics of the Word of God; Relationship between the reading of theological texts and the Church.

The author reflects on the risk of ethical thinking to lose its way in proving its own worth. He argues that the nature of ethical thinking can be taken to the boundary of what lies beyond and to be held by what is to come. He emphasizes that the eschatological character of the biblical witness is central to Christian teaching. The author places emphasis on the significance and power of the Word of God.

Editorial. Comments on the characteristics of good theology. Application of the scientific method to the raw facts of the Bible to create an edifice of truth; Importance of laughter in theology; Distinction between theology and the Word of God.