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Science-faith dialogue would be strengthened by a greater sensitivity to the Bible's form as a two-testament collection of writings. Science-faith scholarship has often treated concepts from the Bible monolithically, without sensitivity to the particularity of each Testament and each particular book within a Testament with respect to (1) genre, (2) the state of science when a given text was authored, (3) the state of science education in an author's context, (4) a given author's own level of education, and (5) the rhetorical aims of a given text. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Easter narrative of Matthew 28, unlike those of Luke 24 and John 20 and 21, does not refer to the Risen One as 'Lord'. Unlike Luke 24, it does not call him 'Son of Man'. While once naming him as Son (in a baptismal formula), Matthew 28 five times calls him 'Jesus'. This is the personal name which the evangelist explained in his opening chapter, the name which held together the teaching, healing, and other activity of Jesus' ministry, and which unified the final Easter chapter. Up to Chapter 27, Matthew has cited the Scriptures to illuminate the ministry of Jesus. Now the Scriptures fall silent; the risen Jesus speaks for himself, the divine Emmanuel (Matt 1:23) who accompanies the Church on her universal mission. He will be 'with' his community until the end of history (Matt 28:20). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The idea of 'Christian doctrine' has become sundered over time from its spiritual roots as part of the formative Christian life shaped by a vision of the whole that sees everything in integral and open‐ended relation to God. This review article explores some of the reasons behind this severing of Christian doctrine from everyday Christian practice. It then unpacks how the unity between Christian doctrine and spiritual formation is retrieved in three recent publications that variously explore the nature of Christian doctrine. Together, they offer a vibrant account of Christian doctrine, its formative power and its calling to be humbly confident as a form of life under God. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article focuses on recent changes in Rhodes College's Foundations in the Liberal Arts curriculum that were motivated by a desire to help students become competent and engaged debaters of meaning and value in the trying times of the 21st century. I focus on how my own two foundational liberal arts classes—"The Bible* and Nationalism" and "The Bible* and Comparative Ethics"—sought to widen the category of scripture for college students in their value discussions, as well as the benefits and potential limitations of moving away from the Bible as the sole source of moral formation in the American classroom. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Accounts of revelation and contemporary views of these are based on beliefs and historical citations. These accounts shall not be limited to the understanding and interpreting of historical and other events within writings but must present the possibility of an objective analysis of the nature of revelation as a phenomenon, an object of our sensory and mental conscious experiences. This paper approaches the act or phenomenon of revelation regardless of the revealer and its nature. Can we abstract the revealer and the revealed from revelation and have an ontological account of revelation solely focusing on the occurrence itself? The central part of the discussion is based on the object/property pair as ontological categories through which the means are analyzed. A comparative method is used where Scripture, musical writings, and mathematical/physical formulae (as potential means of revelation) are scrutinized. As a result, without any need to determine the revealer, revelation can be based on and described through pure properties (not tropes) in human experience, intellect, and understanding. The possibility of revelation beyond Scripture and Jesus Christ—following a type of liberal and general theory of revelation—presents itself in arts and sciences. The "true" of a musical work, when found and experienced during musical performances and scientific truths represented by the formulae, which describe the world and a meta domain, can be derived from the chains of signs and symbols as it is through Scripture. Human cognitive faculties present a universal natural limit to our direct experiencing of the transcendent, of the supernatural. A new dualist conception of logos as a metaphysical category marks the domain bridging the non-transcendent with the transcendent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The doctrine of the inspiration of the Bible is commonly affirmed in the Pentecostal tradition. For the most part, Pentecostal statements regarding Scripture have parroted the views Evangelicalism that focus attention on infallibility and inerrancy. This article suggests that a Pentecostal theology of inspiration is needed that takes into account Pentecostalism’s epistemology, theology of the Holy Spirit, and understanding of prophecy. Utilizing a method that integrates theological interpretation and grammatical exegesis, this study suggests six theological maxims that can be inferred from a Pentecostal perspective on the doctrine of inspiration. These six points are offered as starting points for discussion and for the development of a robust theology of inspiration.

A key aspect of Oliver O'Donovan's approach to ethics and theology is the notion of Scripture's 'authorisation' of concepts. Authorisation is an organic process of concepts and Scripture illuminating each other, where Scripture has ultimate authority over concepts. That is, while concepts from various disciplines can illuminate biblical texts, the biblical texts in return shape those concepts. Here concepts are formed organically guided by the Spirit. Such a notion of authorisation lies dormant in O'Donovan's earlier political theology, The Desire of the Nations, and comes to fuller expression in his relatively recent Ethics as Theology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The matriarch of Theosophy, Helena P. Blavatsky (1831--1891), wrote a short devotional text called The Voice of the Silence (1889) towards the end of her life that she intended as scripture and which has been endorsed with enthusiasm by individuals both within and outside the parent Theosophical Society. This article approaches the production of The Voice of the Silence as a case study in the construction of scripture, outlining the work's doctrines (particularly regarding kundalini and the higher idhhis), describing the controversies that impelled Blavatsky to publish it, and exploring some of her key literary sources. It reveals that Blavatsky strategically rewrote an earlier publication, Light on the Path (1885), by the English Theosophist Mabel Collins (1851-- 1927). Blavatsky enriched her writing of The Voice of the Silence with material taken from a handful of articles on Hindu thought, including Yoga, written by Indian Theosophists and others. She responded to challenges to her authority by producing a new Theosophical scripture that addressed issues of spiritual and temporal power. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Trabalhos em Lingüística Aplicada is the property of Universidade Estadual de Campinas - Portal de Periodicos Eletronicos Cientificos 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.)

Although the binomial »Bible and communication« is very complex, in this paper, we will present some of, in our opinion, the most significant biblical horizons of communication. Word makes the first horizon. Like the human word, God's word is also information, invitation, revelation and fellowship. God also communicates with signs. The world created by the power of God's creative word is one of the privileged places of dialogue between man and God. A special communication mediator is also a prophet - a man of words. In this communication horizon, the word also played a leading role, as did various prophetic signs, among which the prophet's life has a special place. In Scripture, God, paradoxically, also speaks through silence. Sometimes, it is a consequence of man's sins; sometimes, it is God's powerful pedagogical tool; and in Jesus' death on the cross, according to Mk 15, 33-39, it is a revelation of love that transforms the cry of pain, not into the painful exhalation of the dying, but into the sigh of life of the woman giving birth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The idea of public reading and the mandate of obedience to a written document are the backbone of most scriptural ideologies. Some texts of the Deuteronomistic History and the Prophets display a consciousness that the written words of their texts have acquired the status of Scripture and are, therefore, to be read publicly with a mandate to obey them. Inner-biblical evidence suggests that scribes sought to project this idea through connections established between texts of the Deuteronomistic History and the prophetic books. The fulcrum of this entire system is Deuteronomy 31, which clearly underlines the transformation of Mosaic laws from spoken commands to written law. Moreover, by emphasizing the writtenness of the law, Deuteronomy 31 ensures its permanence and the possibility of its being transferred to a new custodian, Joshua, who succeeds Moses after the latter's death. The motif of a book as a witness to rebellion in Deuteronomy 31 is an Isaian motif adopted to express the relationship between divine judgment and the disregard for the law in Deuteronomy 31. This Deuteronomic chapter is also connected to Jeremiah 36, which mimics the former by presenting Jeremiah's prophecy as a complete book meant for public reading. The scheme of Jeremiah 36 is again fully understood in the prophetic role of Huldah as an interpreter of the book of the law. The connections underscore the traditional conception of Scripture as the Law and the Prophets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This perspective is an essay that tries to comprehend and reflect Andrea Vasella's work on the active sites of enzymes such as glycoside hydrolases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista Foco (Interdisciplinary Studies Journal) is the property of Revista Foco 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.)

Copyright of Kant-Studien is the property of De Gruyter 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.)

Karl Barth was an attentive observer of the Second Vatican Council, even though he did not participate in the ecclesial event due to health reasons. His rapprochement with the Catholic Church ended with his visit to Rome in 1966. In his theological writings and commentaries on the Council, his willingness to address the issues of the relationship between Revelation and Scripture, liturgy, the laity, ecumenism, religions, as well as the missionary and kerygmatic dimensions of the Church, can be seen. These texts of Barth are not entirely known in Spanish, which is why we offer them below. In them, the Swiss theologian makes an accurate and critical reading from the Reformed point of view on important topics such as biblical hermeneutics, the idea of the Church, the place of Mary in the history of salvation, religions and religious freedom. We approach these texts with a historical-critical method and from an ecumenical perspective, also making use of the preceding bibliography. Barth's interest in the conciliar texts, from which he tries to extract the spirit of Vatican II, stands out. The results obtained allow us to appreciate both his reformed perspective and the predominant missionary dimension of Vatican II, as well as the ecumenical will to seriously consider this important ecclesial event also for Protestants.

Before modern times, there was no systematic account of Jewish ethics. This can be attributed to the fact that Jewish tradition never considered ethics an autonomous subject matter or mode of inquiry. There is no indigenous Hebrew word for ethics, describing what ancient Greek thinkers used to denote the subjects of human character development, social responsibilities, and personal duties, yet there are numerous classical and premodern Jewish texts describing character virtues and development, social responsibilities, and personal obligations. Ethical concerns form part of the core of Judaism and Jewish culture, but they are embedded in Jewish Law (Halakhah), theology, and textual commentaries, and only modern thinkers would see Jewish ethics as an isolated and independent inquiry. Examples of this phenomenon are the minor tractate Avot (‘Fathers’) of the Mishna, Maimonides’ essay known as ‘Eight Chapters’, and his compilation of ‘Laws of Character Traits’. The first is a second- and third-century corpus of unsystematically collected aphorisms tracing the generations of early Rabbinic authorities, the second appears in the context of Maimonides’ medieval commentary on the Mishnah Avot, while the third is a section of Maimonides legal code, Mishneh Torah (MT). Systematizing Jewish ethics is also difficult because both Jewish ethics and law are strongly pluralistic, and hence cannot be formulated as an apodictic system similar to logic or mathematics, the way Benedict Spinoza and some modern ethical philosophers have attempted to do. A systematic treatment of Jewish ethics is therefore necessarily a ‘rational reconstruction’, i.e. a logical tapestry woven from many different strands of Jewish literature, law, liturgy, and theology.

This article defines the doctrinal concepts of ‘preexistence’ and ‘incarnation’ as they are applied to Jesus Christ. It explores the doctrine of the incarnation in Christian scripture as it was interpreted by the first seven ecumenical councils of the ancient church. It argues that these councils offer a coherent body of teaching on Christ, then it describes the significance of the incarnation for understanding Christian worship, salvation, and the sacrament of the Eucharist. It discusses modern challenges to this doctrine and surveys major modern theologians who have written on the doctrine among Catholics and Protestants.

This preface engages with the concept of echo as a creative way of generating ideas on how to assess issues in the reception history of a scripture text -- here, Galatians 6:17.

Monsignor Paul McPartlan, Professor Emeritus of Systematic Theology and Ecumenism at the Catholic University of America in a conversation with Dr. Jem Sullivan explores how Dei Verbum , the dogmatic constitution of Vatican II on divine revelation relates to the three other constitutions issued by the Council and how that document with its focus on who God has revealed is foundational to those other texts. God has revealed the Son, an intensely personal communication of the word that is incarnate and living. The one source of revelation is the person of Jesus. Before there is either Scripture or Tradition, there is the person of Jesus. Scripture exists within a living tradition. McPartlan illustrates the shift in thinking that was underway as the text on revelation was being drafted and the eventual implications it would have for ecumenism by recounting the tumultuous story of this document's evolution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to suggest a hypothetical interpretation of Christoph Theobald's theological production and to briefly verify its relevance by interpreting some particularly problematic traits of his Christology. In light of this reading, some possible structural problems of his overall theological project are then brought into focus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on some research work by the French theologian Emmanuel Falque, his theological hermeneutics is analyzed and described in a Catholic key, marked by a review of the concepts of body and voice applied to the biblical text. It is an update of the Christian message through prior philosophical reflection, with a clear phenomenological and existential orientation, and through the final theological decision anchored in the foundations of Catholicism. We verify, finally, that in the catholic hermeneutics proposed by the author there underlies a theological anthropology based on corporeity with roots in tradition and the ecclesiastical magisterium. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Benjamin Disraeli has often been represented as a mercurial self-fashioner who adopted various expedient personae over the course of his public life. The biographical emphasis on his eccentric personality has caused many historians to distance Disraeli from his nineteenth-century intellectual contexts in their analysis of his thought. Disraeli wrote within a literary culture that remained invested in the Bible as an important narrative authority. The poetry and fiction of the period inflected, transformed, and challenged this authority, but it also remained in purposeful conversation with the Bible as it forged new moral and literary territory. Disraeli participated in this discourse throughout his fiction, especially in two of his works: Alroy (1833) and Tancred (1847). In these novels Disraeli drew considerably on biblical patterns of kingship and nationhood and often used language from the King James Bible. In surfacing his interest in Scripture, this article suggests that Disraeli represented the Bible's ancient wisdom as an important bulwark against some of the fast-paced social and political changes of his time and particularly against the 'Whiggish' tendencies of his political opponents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article is a discussion of two Greek loanwords found in the Rabbinic text Song of Songs Rabbah. It shows that these words are best identified and explained through a comparison with a Stoic theory of fire, described and refuted by Philo of Alexandria. That these words, both hapax legomena in Rabbinic literature, are used in the Midrash show that at least some rabbis were conversant in Greek scientific terminology—and perhaps specifically with a version of this Stoic dispute. The uses to which these terms were put show that the rabbis deployed their vast, specialized knowledge where it was most important to them: interpreting the scriptures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is not uncommon to stick to Father António Vieira the label of "messianism" - which has even happened to illustrious "vieirists" - but this is clearly a mistake. To the Coimbra's court of the Holy Office, the Jesuit confessed to being a "millenarian", simply because he believed in the advent of a "new state" of the Church, which he called "the Kingdom of Christ consummated on Earth" and which he identified with the new eon announced by the Old Testament prophets and initiated in Jesus Christ (see The Key of the Prophets). The theme addressed here Vieira's relationship with tradition allows us to understand his deter- mination to give a new answer to a new reality: the possibility of evangelization (and conversion) of the whole world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Second Vatican Council formulated its ecclesiological teaching on the basis of the concept of communio. It involved turning to the Bible, the teaching of the Church Fathers and the liturgy. This choice resulted in a move away from the juridical language inherent in pre-secular ecclesiology to a religious language that drew concepts from the Bible and the teaching of the Church Fathers, thus emphasising their theological teaching. One of the extremely important Church Fathers writing in the golden age of theology was Jerome of Stridon. The teaching on the Church contained in his Epistles should be considered from two aspects. First, the monk from Bethlehem is particularly sensitive to the emerging heresies, which he condemns extremely strongly, drawing attention to the threats to the unity of the Church. In the article, the heresy of Pelagianism is presented as an example. The second particularly valuable aspect of Jerome's ecclesiology is his teaching on the Church based on the proper interpretation of Scripture. Exegesis is the main source of teaching about the Church. This teaching is deeply connected to Christ and to personal experience of faith. Stridonian gives his ecclesiology a Christological meaning, which bears the hallmarks of an eschatological Christology. An ecclesiology understood in this way, based on a correct interpretation of Scripture and pastoral care manifested in warning against the pernicious influence of heresy, is in line with the teaching of Vatican II. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay examines the interconnected nature of salvation and health, and it does so by engaging both recent qualitative research and three scriptural accounts from the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. In doing so, the essay argues that salvation and health—and their conceptual pairings, sin and disease—are never individualistic. These realities are always cosmic, communal, and interpersonal, even as sin and disease are fundamentally disintegrating and isolating. The salvation and health of people suffering with substance use issues are bound up with the transformations of governing principalities and powers, social realities, and relationships. Health care practitioners and clergy should be wise, communal guides offering care and accompaniment in the pursuit of salvation and health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the Bible, legal discourse is often employed for theological purposes. It contributes to the search for an ordered life in the presence of God. While many factors are involved in such a quest, this essay focuses on four primary concepts: divine presence, holiness, righteousness, and the covenantal community. After introducing these concerns, the claim that law was divinely revealed to Israel is examined. Discussion of the method of biblical law is illustrated by a description of the theology of four major bodies of instructions in the Pentateuch: the Book of the Covenant, Priestly writings, the Holiness source, and the laws of Deuteronomy. Examples from other biblical texts are also used. On that basis, the article considers the appropriation of biblical law within Christian traditions.

What Christians call ‘creation’ is fundamentally, inescapably, and entirely temporal. Humans, too, are temporal beings. As such, understanding the nature of time has been a philosophical pursuit since the pre-Socratic philosophers. Theologians have not been exempted from this interest, and thus, unsurprisingly, reflection on God’s relation to time similarly spans back many hundreds of years. In fact, one might argue that the topic ‘God and Time’ underlies almost all key theological debates, for two reasons. First, because the nature of God’s relation to time concerns the relationship between creator and creation, a core component of the bedrock of theology. Second, because understanding whether God is temporal or atemporal enables insight into what the mind of God might be like. Determining God’s temporal status can inform us about issues ranging from incarnation to omniscience, from divine action to omnipotence. Thus, understanding the topic ‘God and time’ is integral for many (arguably most) important theological pursuits. This article sets out the main points of interest in this intellectual terrain. Each half of the conjunction ‘God and time’ will be defined, and then the various ways of framing the relationship will be explored. The article will begin by setting out the kind of ‘God’ upon which God and time discourse is focused. Then, it will turn to ‘time’ by briefly introducing temporal metaphysics, with a focus on debates between the A-theory, B-theory, and C-theory of time. This terminology serves as the conceptual architecture within which much contemporary God and time discourse takes place. Following this, the ways that contemporary physics shapes our understanding of temporal reality will be set out. Then, the article will sketch the key arguments for divine atemporality and divine temporality in turn, examining how each of these models of God’s relationship to time impacts our understanding of both the divine nature and the ways God might relate to the world and its inhabitants. The article will close with a few reflections on the implications of the preceding discussion for our understanding of human nature. In so doing, the article provides an up-to-date survey of this highly important topic.

Inspired by Plantinga’s Evolutionary Argument Against Naturalism (EAAN), we develop an argument—the “Scriptural Argument Against Dogmatic Protestantism” (SAADP)—that Protestants who accept the doctrine of sola scriptura cannot reasonably hold that Catholic and Eastern churches are in doctrinal error. If sola scriptura is true and Catholic and Eastern Churches have fallen into error, it is improbable that any Protestant can reliably form true beliefs about controversial points of Christian doctrine, including sola scriptura or suggestions that Catholic and Eastern Christians are in error. We evaluate potential responses to SADDP, considering how SAADP should affect ecumenical doctrinal debates.

Luther anvender kategorien «offentlig» om Skriftens autoritet, klarhet og utlegning, om kirkens fellesskap og den nødvendige enhet i samfunnet. Det offentlige er kategorien for det sanne. Det onde og sataniske er skjult i mørket. Tanken om frelse ved troen på Kristus alene er offentlig i Skriften. Samtidig er troens liv skjult i den korsfestede Kristus. Denne fordypning av den tradisjonelle oppfatning av det offentlige og det skjulte bruker han til å forene en åpenbart frelsende Gud med en som er skjult i sin majestet. Den åpenbarte og den skjulte og majestetiske Gud blir ett ved troen på Kristus alene.

Accounts of revelation and contemporary views of these are based on beliefs and historical citations. These accounts shall not be limited to the understanding and interpreting of historical and other events within writings but must present the possibility of an objective analysis of the nature of revelation as a phenomenon, an object of our sensory and mental conscious experiences. This paper approaches the act or phenomenon of revelation regardless of the revealer and its nature. Can we abstract the revealer and the revealed from revelation and have an ontological account of revelation solely focusing on the occurrence itself? The central part of the discussion is based on the object/property pair as ontological categories through which the means are analyzed. A comparative method is used where Scripture, musical writings, and mathematical/physical formulae (as potential means of revelation) are scrutinized. As a result, without any need to determine the revealer, revelation can be based on and described through pure properties (not tropes) in human experience, intellect, and understanding. The possibility of revelation beyond Scripture and Jesus Christ—following a type of liberal and general theory of revelation—presents itself in arts and sciences. The “true” of a musical work, when found and experienced during musical performances and scientific truths represented by the formulae, which describe the world and a meta domain, can be derived from the chains of signs and symbols as it is through Scripture. Human cognitive faculties present a universal natural limit to our direct experiencing of the transcendent, of the supernatural. A new dualist conception of logos as a metaphysical category marks the domain bridging the non-transcendent with the transcendent.

In the attempt to creatively bring the complex multi-religious (Judeo-Christian) scripture to bear on both the contemporary global and local Christian communities, a formulation of a relevant hermeneutical method becomes imperative. The reason is that in a globalised world, there is a tendency for a dominant culture to designate the interpretative approach that comes from a minor culture as only “contextually” relevant. The question that comes to mind is: Could there be an academic reflection in the interpretative process that is faithful to both the global and local contexts? This paper demonstrates the quest for such a relevant hermeneutical approach that could also be used to re-read biblical texts by introducing mother-tongue theological hermeneutics. This approach, understood and utilized, would therefore serve as a hermeneutical approach that bridges the gap between global and local perspectives on a biblical text.

The aims of this study is to gain an in-depth comprehension of the teachings of Aluk Sola Pemali among Aluk Todolo adherents, and to facilitate a theological dialogue based on scriptural interpretation aimed at fostering harmony. This study employs a method that is qualitative and descriptive in nature, which involves both an analysis of relevant literature and conducting field research. To create harmony within the Sillanan society, field research was conducted by means of in-depth interviews to ascertain the meaning of Aluk sola Pemali, which was then compared with the teachings of the Scriptures. The research findings indicate that the encounter between Aluk sola Pemali and the Scriptures shares a common core teaching. In Aluk sola Pemali, the emphasis is on the way of life by Tintiri Buntu as a guiding principle, while in the Scriptures, rules and regulations are contained within the Law of Moses and the Law of Christ, serving as a way of life with a similar core teaching to Aluk sola Pemali. The particularistic differences between the two represent a beauty that needs to be embraced with an attitude of tolerance in weaving harmony.

Christians throughout the world recite the Lord’s Prayer in their personal devotions and in liturgical settings. Its universality and authority stem from its origin in the very words of Jesus in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke. Thus, Cyprian of Carthage (210–258) could write: ‘For what can be a more spiritual prayer than that which was given to us by Christ, by whom also the Holy Spirit was given to us?’ (2004: 66). Early Christians established other versions that became standardized in communal prayer. Translations from Greek into Latin, Syriac, and other languages made the prayer more accessible, but they also separated the prayer from its full scriptural, linguistic, and cultural contexts, thereby often clouding some of the significant nuances in the original Matthean and Lukan versions. In turn, a rich theological and devotional commentary tradition – sermons, dedicated commentaries, scriptural commentaries, etc. – emerged that sought to unpack the prayer’s mysteries, refute misinterpretations, and suggest applications for daily life. The prayer contributed to Christian reflections on Christology, Trinitarian theology, ethics, ecclesiology, and sacramental theology – especially on the Eucharist and baptism – while also influencing such cultural expressions as music and art. The prayer and its accompanying traditions offer a summary of major themes in Christian theology and spirituality.

Evangelicals have often considered C. S. Lewis's view of scripture insufficient, viewing several of his statements as directly rejecting the inerrancy of scripture. However, this reading overlooks a foundational theological principle which frames Lewis's view on scripture--his notion of 'transposition'. When read in light of this principle, Lewis's statements on the inspiration of scripture gain greater nuance and resist a strict reading of him as noninerrantist. More, Lewis's principle of transposition, when applied to scripture, affords space for developing a thick account of inerrancy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper seeks to establish the current situation in respect of Barth reception among evangelicals, focussing on Barth reception among evangelicals in Scotland. Describing my own theological pilgrimage, I noted that this reception involved a contrast between two Reformed 'tribes', the one centred on Cornelius Van Til (against Barth) and the other on T.F. Torrance (for Barth). In the early period of Van Til's criticism of Barth, most evangelicals supported him. Today the state of affairs is very different, with Barth finding acceptance among perhaps a majority of evangelicals. I note that, for some evangelicals, critical differences remain on Scripture, on the nature of Reformed Theology, on election and on the atonement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present paper focuses on a didactic analysis of the most used sets of writing books used for writing practice in the first year of primary education. The paper has a theoretical-research character, its theoretical part analyses the importance of writing in the cognitive and motor development of the pupil, the research part in the form of a questionnaire analyses the criteria for the selection of individual sets of writing materials from the point of view of teachers - elementarists. The aim of the research part of the paper is to provide view of the criteria applied by the educators in the selection of writing materials and the process of practicing writing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In keeping with the call of this Special Issue, this article is but one voice in the midst of a much broader conversation, attending to whether the differences between narrative and performance criticism are a matter of degree or kind. Narrative and biblical performance criticisms are natural bedfellows. The two appear genealogically related as they share similar founders, attend to similar features, and to a degree share similar interests with regard to interpretation. In fact, their interests appear to be so closely aligned at several points that attempts to distinguish between these two approaches run the risk of simply "splitting hairs". Yet, our recognition of these distinctions is essential for highlighting the unique contribution of each approach. In what follows, I suggest that the differences between performance and narrative criticisms are rather (at least theoretically) a "shifting of gears", a progression toward a more complex understanding of how biblical texts work in various contexts and how we as scholars may approach them as objects of study. While the object of study in narrative criticism is relatively well established (again, at least theoretically), this is not necessarily the case for performance criticism. In short, by way of contrast, I will suggest that for performance criticism, its object is similar to yet distinct from the object of study of narrative criticism. Such a claim is by no means groundbreaking, especially among the performance critics, nor should it necessarily be viewed as controversial. Rather, in exploring the contours of each approach, this contribution aims to provide additional theoretical credence to certain areas within this conversation. In doing so, this inadvertently has implications not only for our thinking in this particular volume, but also perhaps more broadly for biblical studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dante’s Paradiso presents a gothic theophany realizing the divine vision (visio Dei) in poetic language. Specifically, Dante’s vision of a line from Scripture (DILIGITE IUSTITIAM QUI IUDICATIS TERRAM) in the Heaven of Jove (Canto XVIII) gives a concrete form of written letters to his vision of God. Yet all that Dante actually sees is only a sign of the invisible, metaphysical reality of God and the supersensible universe of pure being or love. This tension between the sensory plenitude of his vision and the transcendent truth that Dante envisages lends his poem its extraordinary force and attractive power. The paradoxes of negative theology and its inevitable relation with an affirmative theology expressed as poetic vision are worked out with matchless subtlety in Dante’s descriptions and reflections, some of which are expounded in a speculative key in this essay drawn from a more detailed and comprehensive inquiry into the subject. The immediacy of Dante’s vision of letters of Scripture in the Heaven of Jove serves as a metaphor for an unmediated vision of God, but the vision’s content turns out to be nothing other than mediation – concretely, language as the medium mediating his relation to God as Logos. Dante’s vision from beginning to end of the Paradiso is placed under the sign of the ineffability topos, yet what he sees are words and language and ultimately letters. Dramatically displaying the mediations in which language consists becomes itself a metaphorical realization of divine revelation. The mechanisms of signifying in languagemade visibly manifest in writing and specifically as the first line of the Book of Wisdom in Scripture are unveiled as a negatively theological revelation of divinity.

This article reflects on the intersection of the New Testament's witness with current questions of illness, medication, risk, luck, death, and hope. Drawing principally on the Gospel of Matthew and the letters of Paul, I argue that, for Christians, hope in the resurrection—not the ability to avoid suffering and death—provides the best context for prudential judgment in light of the inscrutability of the future and the concomitant opacity that attends medical decision-making. We do not and will not know what we would need to know in order to make decisions we can count on with surety, and we thus read Scripture in order to become the people who can make wise judgments in the meantime called hope. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]