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. (shrink)

By urging Scripture alone Luther was in fact urging Christ alone.

This article explores Albert Stephanus Geyser’s understanding and application of the Christ-hymn, focusing especially on the use of the words μορφή θεοῦ. The tension between a literary-critical approach to the text versus a dogmatic understanding is exposed, as well as the challenge of a political ideology of power. Geyser’s understanding and application are measured in terms of the current state of New Testament exegetical research. In the footsteps of Stendahl and contemporary New Testament scholars, legitimacy is given to a socio-political (...) reading of the text. Geyser is appreciated as a public theologian with a deep consideration for the text as the source for theological and socio-political reflection and practice. (shrink)

In the 16th century, after the so-called Dark Middle Ages, the Reformation in the church in Western Europe aimed at reforming the church with consequences for society. Regarding the church itself, the Reformation aimed at bringing the total service of the church under the Word of God as its norma normans or norm of the norms. This is also true for the governing of the church and church polity. In the tradition of church polity and order that followed the thought (...) of reformers, such as Bucer and Calvin, in the history of, specifically, the Dutch Reformed Church (DRC), scholars and churches came to the conclusion that the principle of sola scriptura means that Scripture provides the principles or norms for a church polity. This does not mean that every article in a church order should indicate the text of the Bible on which it is based. Rather, a church order should – at least – be based on principles derived from the Scripture or norms from outside the Scripture in harmony with the Bible. Contribution: The governing of the church cannot be isolated from society or, for example, from the generally accepted norms for natural justice. The Church order of the DRC of 1962 is an example of a reformed church order. (shrink)

The meeting of worlds and the principle of sola Scriptura. Rather than function as a catalyst for unity, the Bible can be the cause of conflict among Christian believers. The Bible is also often the reason for strife, specifically in the Reformed tradition, even though Protestants uphold the creedal truism of sola Scriptura and though the authority of the Bible is seen as selfmandatory, transcending the normative power of ecclesiastical or confessional traditions. This article focuses on (...) biblical interpretation as both a cause of disunity and a possible means to achieve greater unity. The point of departure is that biblical interpretation consists of a fusion of horizons; it is primarily about the fusion of two horizons, namely that of the Bible and that of the reader. However, both these horizons represent a great diversity of perspectives. A variety of readers interpret the Bible from diverse contexts. The Bible itself also communicates a diversity of ideas. Even the notion ‘Jesus Christ’ does not function as a unified or unifying concept. The article proposes that the idea of ‘Jesus’ cause’ could provide continuity between the world of the reader and the world of a biblical passage. (shrink)

Seweryn Blandzi Plato and the Protestant Principle of Autarchy of the Scripture (sola scriptura)The author gives reasons why the new holistic Tübingen-interpretation of Plato (H. Krämer, K. Gaiser, Th. A. Szlezák), which combines the Dialogues with his unwritten teaching is still difficult to accept (especially in Germany). The discovery (on the basis of indirect testimonies of Aristotle and his commentators) that there was a separate oral (“exoteric”) metaphysics of principles, which was parallel to dialogues but more valuable (timiotera) (...) in content, and which Plato did not popularize in his writings, has been an antithesis to the traditional romantic paradigm (particularly strong in Germany) of F. Schlegel-Schleiermacher, founded on the conviction of the primacy of autarchy of the written (“exoteric”) text in general. This conviction leads us to the Protestant postulate of Biblical exegesis treated as self-sufficient (sola scriptura), interpreted exclusively on its own basis (sui ipsius interpres), and Schleiermacher transposes this requirement onto Plato’s writings. On the other hand, F. Schlegel, who emphasizes the fragmentary and asystematic character of Plato’s thought in dialogues, sees Plato as a thinker who constantly moves toward infinity, unable ever to reach it. With respect to the dialogues, the reader finds himself in a similar situation as the limited individuality of finite being to infinity. For the romantics (inspired by the idealistic philosophy of subjectivity and identity), man’s greatness as a finite being manifests itself in creating works which reflect infinity. The infinity of the Absolute manifests itself in the absolute freedom and the power of creation, which man – so to speak – meets halfway, with his infinite reflection, creativity, invention, interpretation as an expression of spirit’s freedom. Hence the lasting attraction of this traditional approach, which is unlike the new paradigm that imposes great requirements and constraints on the reader (studying doxographic literature, finding in it testimonies of Plato’s disciples regarding the intra-academic teaching). When Plato’s literary dialogue is treated as a kind of an “open text,” it thus justifies all the possible “hermeneutic” attempts at free and creative interpretations. Keywords: Plato, Hans Krämer, Friedrich Daniel Ernst Schleiermacher, Friedrich Schlegel, romantic paradigm, sola scriptura, infinity of reflection, new paradigm, unwritten teaching, metaphysics of principles. (shrink)

The paper displays the religious and theological foundations, which initiated the reformation process with the help of nowadays popular markers known as 5 Sola of Reformation. It demonstrates the main theological principles which identify Protestantism among other religious groups. But simultaneously the hermeneutics of these principles divides Protestantism into many currents, which forms this religious movement heterogeneity. The main focus of the article lays on the comparative description of each of five features of the theological system of Reformed theology (...) in the understanding of masters and radical reformation. The history of formation of 5 Sola and its theological meaning are analyzed as well. The paper's main interest is focused on the basic formal principle of all the Protestant movement - Sola Scriptura. The author of the article describes the Postmodern society challenges faced by this principle, he demonstrates what it does and what it does not mean in contemporary Evangelical movement. The meaning of Sola gratia as a formation point of Lutheran theological system is exposed, a different understanding of faith and interpretation of the principle of Sola fide in magisterial and radical Protestantism is exposed, the peculiarities of application of the principles of Solus Christus and Soli Deo Gloria in Eastern and Western Christian traditions. (shrink)

With a view to the theme of church renewal, this article explores the role of a well-known and popular phrase in the Reformed tradition within Protestantism, that is, ecclesia reformata semper reformanda [‘the reformed church should always be reformed’]. Is this a helpful slogan when considering the possibilities and the limitations of church renewal? Firstly, the historical background of this phrase is described: it is rooted in the Dutch Reformed tradition, and only in the 20th century it was widely recognised (...) in Reformed circles. Against this background the hermeneutical problem, linked with the principle of sola Scriptura, is presented, and put into an ecumenical ecclesiological perspective: the church is grounded in the gospel. Finally, the article focuses on church polity as an important field of renewal, taking into account Karl Barth’s interpretation of this phrase. From this perspective, a balanced and ecumenical approach of church renewal is possible. (shrink)

The Protestant Reformation is one of the greatest turning points in the history of Christianity. In some senses, it is described as a ‘theological revolution’ which led to the emergence of the Protestant movement and the separation of the Church. This research explores some of the theological themes that became the turning point of Christianity. These themes are sola scriptura, sola fide, sola gratia, solus Christus and Soli Deo Gloria. This article attempts to briefly explore these (...) essential theological principles of the Reformation and assess its relevance for today in light of new realities, encounters and theological developments. It pays particular attention to the realities of the Global South, mainly South Africa, and shows how these can form a basis for renewal and transformation of Reformed theology and practice today. In this sense, the article establishes that the ‘theological revolution’ continues into the 21st century bringing about ecclesiastical, social and cultural change. (shrink)

There are, very broadly speaking, two interpretative approaches to the study of Plato. Let us call the first the “Protestant” approach and the second the “Catholic” approach. According to the first, the fundamental principle of interpretation is sola scriptura, adherence to the texts of the dialogues as the only vehicle providing access to Plato’s philosophy. On this approach, putative evidence for Plato’s thinking drawn from Academic testimony or the indirect tradition is to be either excluded altogether or, if (...) given any evidentiary value, strictly subordinated to the “control” of the dialogues. Thus, the contents of the dialogues always trump testimony. According to the second approach, the dialogues are only .. (shrink)

Bertepatan waktu dengan Seminar Sola Scriptura bulan Maret 2015, dengan topik Miracles: The Credibility Of The New Testament Accounts, yang dibawakan oleh Prof. Craig Keener, oleh Perkantas diterbitkan terjemahan bukunya yang berjudul Gift and Giver: The Holy Spirit for Today (2001). Apakah eksemplar yang dihadiahkan kepada saya, akan bernasib sama seperti yang selalu saya kira terjadi dengan buku yang tidak dibayar, yakni tidak dibaca? Penampilan Keener yang sederhana, berbobot dan spiritual dalam seminar tersebut, menantang saya untuk membuka dan (...) membaca buku hadiah ini. Keener mau membantu kita untuk lebih memahami bagaimana Roh Kudus menolong kita menjalani kehidupan dan perutusan kristiani. Buku dimulai dari belajar mengenali suara Roh Kudus dan oleh Roh itu belajar mendengar Allah (bab 1-2). Selalu dengan bantuan Alkitab, Keener menguraikan bagaimana Roh Kudus memberdayakan kita untuk penginjilan (bab 3) dan mengerjakan peruba-han dalam pola hidup kita (bab 4). Sesudah itu Keener membicarakan aspek-aspek yang lebih kontroversial dalam karismatik, pertama-tama karunia-karunia Roh (bab 56), juga baptisan dalam Roh Kudus dan kapannya (bab 7-8), dan lebih khusus bahasa lidah (bab 9). Dalam beberapa bab ini Keener, sendiri seorang “karismatik” dalam arti mempraktikkan karunia-karunia Roh (hlm. 14), mempertahankannya terhadap orang-orang yang mengira tak perlu lagi mempraktikkannya setelah zaman rasul-rasul. Keener yakin bahwa karunia-karunia biblis dimaksud untuk terus dijalankan dalam masa sekarang di mana diberi. Ia juga membahas perbedaanperbedaan pemahaman antara pelbagai kelompok karismatik dan pentekostal tentang karunia-karunia tertentu, juga tentang momen pembaptisan dalam Roh, dan menjelaskan apa yang menurutnya dimaksudkan dalam Alkitab. Keener memang seorang pakar Perjanjian Baru yang disegani. Dalam bab terakhir, Mengapa menguji Roh (bab 10), Keener menjawab beberapa pra-sangka yang tidak benar terhadap gerakan karismatik, tetapi di lain pihak tidak menyembunyikan bahwa dalam jemaat karismatik dan pentekostal juga muncul ekses-ekses yang menurutnya menyimpang dari paham Alkitab dan bisa membahayakan iman pelaku dan kehidupan jemaat. Maka diberinya klarifikasi................................. Tekanan Keener pada Roh yang memberdayakan untuk penginjilan dalam arti berprakarsa memberitakan dan mengajarkan injil kepada semua orang, mungkin tak menimbulkan masalah di Amerika Serikat yang dominan Kristen, tetapi menjadi pertanyaan pelik bagi Gerejagereja di Asia. Orang kristen Asia yang didorong oleh Roh untuk hadir di tengah orang-orang beragama lain hanya dengan kesaksian hidup dan bekerja sama, dan —baru bila muncul kesempatan—berdialog dalam arti sharing iman dan bukan perdebatan, tidak menemukan pengarahan untuk itu dalam buku ini. Isu Yesus sebagai satu-satunya jalan keselamatan, prinsip yang Keener percaya sebagai inti injil (267), isu yang ia takut dapat menjadi hal utama yang menimbulkan perpecahan di antara orang kristiani sekarang ini, memang rela ia agendakan di tempat kedua demi misi bersama yang mempersatukan kita sebagai Kristen. Apakah itu berarti bahwa ia juga mau berbuat demikian demi misi bersama seluruh umat manusia, semua agama? Eksklusivisme keselamatan dalam agama-agama tetap mengakibatkan perpecahan yang kini merupakan ancaman yang lebih besar lagi bagi dunia daripada perpecahan-perpecahan di dalam agama Kristen. Apakah sikap dialogal antar kristiani yang sangat mewarnai sikap Keener dalam buku ini, juga diperluas kepada semua orang beragama? Beberapa catatan ini tidak mengurangi penghargaan tinggi saya akan penjelasan Keener tentang pemberian-pemberian Roh Kudus dari dalam pemahamannya yang mendalam akan Alkitab, dan sharingnya. yang tulus, berbobot dan personal tentang pengalamannya sendiri akan karunia Roh Kudus itu dalam hidup dan penginjilannya sendiri. Suatu buku penting untuk setiap orang karismatik untuk memahami yang paling pokok, dan bagi orang non karismatik untuk lebih mengenal yang terbaik di dalam gerakan karismatik. (Martin Harun, Guru Besar Ilmu Teologi Emeritus, Sekolah Tinggi Filsafat Driyarkara, Jakarta). (shrink)

Why does one say today that the hermeneutic problem begins with Schleiermacher? Is there not a Christian hermeneutic which from the time of the early church has sought to place the figures of the New Testament in an interpretative relation with the figures of the Old Testament? Is hermeneutical reflection also not in evidence in the Church Fathers? What of the theory of the “Four Senses of Scripture” from the medieval period, as has been so magnificently reconstructed by Henri de (...) Lubac? And was there not an ongoing hermeneutical debate at the time of the Reformation, the Protestant Reformation linking together the theological axiom “sola fide” and the hermeneutical axiom “sola scriptura,” the Counter-Reformation opposing this with the correlating of exegesis, tradition, and the magisterium? (shrink)

The Christian religion shares with all major religions a vision of reality informed by a specific cluster of metaphors. The Christian religion also shares with its parent religion, Judaism, and with the other major Western religion, Islam, the peculiarity that it is a religion of the book. The latter statement demands further elaboration. To speak of Western religions as religions of the book does not mean that they are only religions of a text; indeed, specific historical persons and events are (...) central to all Western religions, and one need not insist upon a "theology of word" as distinct from either a "theology of events" or a "theology of sacrament" to admit scriptural normativity. In fact, not only Reformed Christianity insists that certain texts be taken as normative for interpreting Christianity's root metaphors. Whatever their hesitation over the sixteenth-century Reformer's formulation of Sola Scriptura and however strong their insistence upon uniting Sacrament to Word for a full understanding of the root metaphors of Christianity, Catholic and Orthodox Christians have joined their Protestant colleagues in insisting upon the priority of the Scriptures. Indeed, to interpret the root metaphors of the Christian religion, the Scriptures must function, in the words of the Roman Catholic theologian Karl Rahner as the norma normans non normata for all Christian theologies. David Tracy, author of Blessed Rage for Order: The New Pluralism in Theology and The Analogical Imagination in Contemporary Theology, is professor of theology at the University of Chicago Divinity School. (shrink)

The interest in textuality from a hermeneutic perspective has its historical origins in Martin Luther's doctrine of Sola Scriptura, “Only Scripture”. Schleiermacher, who to liberated hermeneutics from the Bible, presented a scientific account of textuality that consists in establishing a dialectic between the grammatical and the psychological. The modern hermeneutic theory of textuality was first developed by Hans‐Georg Gadamer. To be a work, says Ricoeur, textual discourse must satisfy three criteria: it must be a sequence longer than a (...) sentence; it must be codified into a genre (a story, poem, essay, etc.); and it must be uniquely configured into a style. Ricoeur's analysis of work in this sense is an attempt to synthesize the romantic hermeneutics of Schleiermacher with what he sees as being its antithesis. The hermeneutics of both Ricoeur and Gadamer are returned to their Lutheran origins through this faith in textuality, or textual goodwill. (shrink)

The first part of the correspondence between Friedrich August Tholuck, the leading theologian of the German Revival Movement, and Edward Bouverie Pusey, later the head of the Anglo-catholic Oxford-Movement, shows Pusey as a “pupil” of his German friends Tholuck, August Neander and Karl Heinrich Sack, whom he met while studying in Germany. In his “Enquiry into Theology” he wrote a remarkably liberal refutation of Hugh James Rose's confessionalistic high-church criticism of the “State of the protestant religion in Germany”. Based on (...) the protestant “sola scriptura” Pusey rejected any “check and restraint over the human mind” and took the stance of what he called an “animated science” mediating between free scientific enquiry and pious belief in one's personal need of salvation from sin through Jesus Christ. Thus Tholuck's and Pusey's standpoint came to somewhat unclearly oscillate between personal experience as the fundamentum inconcussum of their belief and the endeavour to base this belief on the authority of the historically secured messianic understanding of the prophecies of the Old Testament and the factual credibility of the gospel history. (shrink)

Enracinée dans la prière, fondée sur la Bible seule, centrée sur le Christ, et insistant sur la lutte contre le Malin, sur l'engagement éthique et sur la proximité du Royaume de Dieu, la théologie de Martin Luther, soutenue par le courage et l'humour d'un écrivain hors du commun, rencontre maintes préoccupations théologiques actuelles ; mais elle interpelle aussi des théologies souvent embarrassées par le sola scriptura et le solus Christus, promptes à faire de l'homme une victime et limitant (...) l'eschatologie à l'avènement du Christ dans l'intériorité du croyant. De la théologie contemporaine, elle peut apprendre que toute exégèse est située, que l'assertion n'est pas le seul registre du discours théologique, que le dialogue religieux ne se réduit pas à l'anathème et que l'action de Dieu dans l'histoire n'est pas univoque. Martin Luther's theology is rooted in prayer, founded only on the Bible, and centred on Christ ; it lays stress on the struggle against the Devil, on moral commitment, and on the proximity of God's Kingdom ; it is kept up by the courage and humour of an extraordinary writer. As such, it meets with many modern theological preoccupations, but it also challenges theologies that are often embarrassed by the sola scriptura and the solus Christus, theologies that are ready to victimize man and limit eschatology to the coming of Christ into the believer's inner self. From contemporaneous theology it can learn that each exegesis has its context, that doing theology does not only consist of uttering statements, that the religious dialogue does not confine itself to the anathema, and that God's acts in history are not univocal. (shrink)

Morality and immorality is a complex issue in Martin Luther's thought and the complexity increases the more he unfolds the topic. In the course of his controversy with Erasmus, he meets a well founded criticism of his own moralization. In the first three sections of this article I discuss their respective positions and the consequences of a moral vs. an immoral interpretation of Scripture. In the last three sections I proceed to inquire whether immorality or rather a-morality may play a (...) more basic and principal role for the interpretation of scriptures in general. The distinction between Scripture as a particular text corpus and the scripturality of the scriptures thereby becomes critical. I suggest that the latter plays a crucial role in Luther's radical criticism and destruction of the moral subsumption of theology, with consequences for a current reassessment of the sola scriptura. (shrink)

The most of Christian traditions embrase the notion of sacrament. This notion deals with the church directives in a narrow meaning. According to Saint Augustine, the sacrament is a visible action of an invisible grace thus the Church, the Christ, the Bible, being material phenomena where two natures combine, are also considered to be sacraments. Therefore, the author of the article presents the Bible as the most outstanding and the most visible example of a sacrament in a broad meaning. Using (...) the examples of the attitude change to the Bible in the Catholic tradition, the author studies the move from the sacral perception of the text in the decisions made at the Council of Trent to its open sacramental understanding in the documents of the Second Vatican Council and its post-council decisions. Due to the fact that Ukrainian scholars and local clergy theologically poorly interpreted the Bible as a Word of God in the Catholic tradition, the goal of this article is to make a diachronic comparison of the results of the Council of Trent and the Second Vatican Council, which allows to show the change dynamics in the attitude of the Catholic Church to the Bible. The Council of Trent was a reaction of the Catholic Church to the emergence and achievements of the Reformation and its important principle Sola Scriptura. The Council approved two doctrinal documents on the Sacred Scripture: the first one deals with the Scripture canon and the relations between the Scripture and the Sacred Tradition, and the second one defines which text of the Scripture is to be considered sacred and official and how to interpret this text. The author concludes that the Council limited the Sacred Tradition only with faith and moral issues, meaning spheres of doctrines and piety, and recognized Latin translation of the Bible - Vulgate - to be the only official version to have a sacred meaning and "a sacred book per se". The Bible is admitted to be a closed book, separated from the readers and receivers of the Gospel, which is prohibited for an autonomous interpretation. On the contrary, the Second Vatican Council and its documents, in their essence, had a pastoral task, manifested in an attempt of giving a comprehensible overview of the Catholic Church doctrine for the world community. Therefore, the author asserts that the last 400 years of the history of the Catholic doctrine show serious changes in its attempt of contextualization and mark its main peculiarity: reaction to the modern society challenges and needs. The task of the Second Vatican Council was to clarify the nature of the Sacred Scripture, which had to balance the Tradition and a new approach to the Scripture. Based on the analysis of the documents of the mentioned Councils and the commentaries of the authoritative Catholic preachers, the author concludes that the new approach to the Sacred Scripture essentially points to the open sacral and sacramental character of the Bible. The author emphasizes the modern approach to the sacrality of the Bible not only as to a "sacral book per se", but also in its sacral effect on the reader. The researcher asserts that new changes declared in Dei verbum and Verbum Domini, which emphasize the pastoral effect of the Bible as a way of knowing Jesus Christ, are crucial for the building relations between various Christian movements, especially for the Catholic and Protestant traditions. (shrink)

Adequate response to physician-assisted suicide and euthanasia depends on fundamental philosophical and theological issues, including the character of an appropriate philosophically and theologically anchored anthropology, where the central element of traditional Christian anthropology is that humans are created to worship God. As I will argue, Christian morality and moral epistemology must be nested within and understood through this background Christian anthropology. As a result, I will argue that physician-assisted suicide and euthanasia can only be one-sidedly and inadequately appreciated through rational (...) appeal to central values, such as “human dignity” and “self-determination”, or through “sola scriptura” biblical interpretation, or individual judgments of conscience. Adequately addressing physician-assisted suicide and euthanasia will depend on a more fundamental spiritual-therapeutic approach. This cluster of moral, epistemological, anthropological, and bioethical claims will be explored by drawing on the texts of St. Basil the Great, St. Maximos the Confessor, and St. Isaac the Syrian. Their reflections on medicine, the human good, and its relationship to worship, spiritual therapy, and God will be used as a basis to indicate a broader philosophical perspective, which will be needed to avoid a one-sided, incomplete approach to the challenges of physician-assisted suicide and euthanasia. Medical morality, I argue, is best understood within categories that transcend the right, the good, the just, and the virtuous; namely, the holy. (shrink)

I investigate the African philosophical foundations of a pneumatological controversy inside the Church of Central African Presbyterian in Malawi. While apparently the conflict consists in difficulties in embracing both the New Pentecostal Theology and the Reformed Calvinist Theology within CCAP, it is rooted in the philosophical conflict between communitarianism and individualism. CCAP fully embraced the African communitarian philosophy mixed with Christian communism as its essence, while adherents of NPT followed individualism. Consequently, this affected the interpretation of the fundamental doctrines such (...) as sola scriptura, sola grazia, and other practices. I suggest a philosophical solution constituting in rebuilding African identity and a theological solution in promoting a new pneumatology based on the concept of enculturation. Keywords: Pneumatology, Communitarianism, Individualism, African philosophy, inculturation. (shrink)

ZUSAMMENFASSUNGWas ist eigentlich »die« Schrift bzw. »die Bibel«, auf welche sich das sogenannte reformatorische Schriftprinzip beruft? Der kanongeschichtliche Befund, wonach die Bibel der Reformation ein Hybrid mit antirömischer Stoßrichtung ist, scheint auf die endgültige Dekonstruktion des reformatorischen Schriftprinzips hinauszulaufen. Leserorientierte bzw. rezeptionsästhetische Texttheorien verleihen dem sola scriptura jedoch neue Plausibilität. Dazu ist es allerdings erforderlich, die klassische Inspirationslehre als Theorie des inspirierten Lesers zu erneuern. Auf ihrem Hintergrund lässt sich auch die Frage, wieweit die Kirche Subjekt oder Objekt (...) des Kanons ist, einer neuen Lösung zuführen. Auch nach der Aufklärung braucht die Skriptologie eine pneumatologische Grundlegung. Außerdem hat der christliche Kanon implizit eine trinitarische und eine christologische Struktur, die ebenso inkarnationslogisch wie kreuzestheologisch zu rekonstruieren ist.SUMMARYWhat is actually “the” Scripture, or “the Bible”, which the Reformation Principle addresses? The canonical-historical result, which brought together the Bible of the Reformation with an anti-Roman direction of impact, seems to amount to the final deconstruction of the Reformation principle. Reader-oriented, and reception-aesthetic text theories accord to “sola scriptura” new plausibility. Here it is essential to renew the classic doctrine of inspiration as theory of the inspired reader. In this regard, the question offers itself as to how far the church is the subject or object of the canon itself. Also after the Enlightenment Bibliology needs a pneumatological foundation. Besides this, the Christian canon has an implicit Trinitarian and a Christological structure, which is always to be reconstructed with the logic of the Incarnation and Cross. (shrink)

Why does one say today that the hermeneutic problem begins with Schleiermacher? Is there not a Christian hermeneutic which from the time of the early church has sought to place the figures of the New Testament in an interpretative relation with the figures of the Old Testament? Is hermeneutical reflection also not in evidence in the Church Fathers? What of the theory of the “Four Senses of Scripture” from the medieval period, as has been so magnificently reconstructed by Henri de (...) Lubac? And was there not an ongoing hermeneutical debate at the time of the Reformation, the Protestant Reformation linking together the theological axiom “sola fide” and the hermeneutical axiom “sola scriptura,” the Counter-Reformation opposing this with the correlating of exegesis, tradition, and the magisterium? (shrink)

Two conditions for internal peace : absolutism and identification --Four approaches to Leviathan -- Outline of a new approach -- Reason, natural law, and absolutism -- The role of part 1 in Leviathan -- The metaphysical conception of human nature -- The state of nature -- The argument for absolutism -- Criteria for the identification of the sovereign -- Natural law -- Reason, revelation, and the interpretation of scripture -- Historical background : sola scriptura and biblical criticism -- (...) Hobbes and sola scriptura -- Sola scriptura and revelation -- Principles of biblical interpretation -- Metaphysics and eschatology -- Metaphysics : body and spirit -- The kingdom of God -- Eschatology -- Church and state -- Politics and the problem of double vision -- Politics and metaphysics -- Case A and the kingdom of God -- Case B and the argument for the identification of the true sovereign according to scripture -- The theological-philosophical argument for absolutism -- Hobbes and the kingdom of darkness -- The kingdom of darkness -- Misinterpretations of Scripture -- The false foundations of church tradition -- The kingdom of fairies -- The religious sincerity of Thomas Hobbes. (shrink)

Trois manuels d’herméneutique luthérienne parus entre 1567 et 1636 (Matthias Flacius Illyricus, Johann Gerhard, Salomon Glassius) : on examine comment, dans la mise en place d’une méthode d’exégèse des textes sacrés, le ministère pastoral s’impose comme une catégorie rectrice de l’interprétation, parallèlement à l’affirmation du principe de la Sola Scriptura.

This article summarises the basic features of Melanchthon’s approach to Aristotle’s philosophy in the areas of logic, ethics and natural philosophy. Although Melanchthon builds upon the humanistic ideal of purifying classical heritage, his Aristotelianism should not be viewed as ‘pure’. His conception of natural knowledge (notitiae naturales) could be regarded as a significant non-Aristotelian element of his philosophy. The view consequently penetrates his logic, ethics as well as epistemology. Primarily, however, the reason behind his reception of Aristotle is a defence (...) of Luther’s views: the aims of logic and rhetoric lie in theexegesis of the Bible within the context of the principle of ‘ Sola Scriptura’; he rejects the medieval concept of felicity and puts antropology into the dialectics of Law and Gospel; the aim of natural philosophy is the exposition of the existence of God’s Providence. Melanchthon’s reception of Aristotle is thus influenced by the theology of the Reformation to such an extent, that we might refer to it as Lutheran Aristotelianism. (shrink)

Freedom ist a basic theme oftheological ethics. In protestant theology it is treated in different forms. They can be clarified by the different ways in which freedom is related to the obligatory force of ethical decisions. Freedom as obligation, freedom as the only reason for obligation, and historization of all obligations in the name of freedom are the three typical concepts. The discussion on obligation itself entails also three main answers: The obligatory force ofthe given reality, the universal communicability of (...) ethical norms and the sola scriptura are here the three typical concepts. The article pleads for a processual understanding of obligation in Christian ethics and uses as model the ecumenical concept of conciliarity. This concept shows a specific correspondence to the Christian understanding of freedom as communicative freedom. (shrink)

Freedom ist a basic theme oftheological ethics. In protestant theology it is treated in different forms. They can be clarified by the different ways in which freedom is related to the obligatory force (Verbindlichkeit) of ethical decisions. Freedom as obligation, freedom as the only reason for obligation, and historization of all obligations in the name of freedom are the three typical concepts. The discussion on obligation itself entails also three main answers: The obligatory force ofthe given reality, the universal communicability (...) of ethical norms and the sola scriptura are here the three typical concepts. The article pleads for a processual understanding of obligation in Christian ethics and uses as model the ecumenical concept of conciliarity. This concept shows a specific correspondence to the Christian understanding of freedom as communicative freedom. (shrink)

The present essay is concerned with the question of whether analytic theology can be properly phenomenological. Both analytic theology and phenomenology are defined by reference to leading practitioners of both, and responses are given to objections to both approaches. The critique of analytic theology recently proposed by Martin Westerholm is considered, as well the objections to phenomenology brought forth by Tom Sparrow. The compatibility of analytic theology and phenomenology is argued on the basis of the definitions provided. Four brief arguments (...) are given for establishing why an analytic theologian might consider adopting a phenomenological method. The essay concludes with a demonstration of a properly phenomenological analytic-theological treatment of the question of the relationship between Scripture and ecclesial tradition in dialog with the canonical _sola scriptura_ of Kevin Vanhoozer and John Peckham. (shrink)

English summary: Rochus Leonhardt discusses the relationship between Protestantism and scepticism in a critical analysis of the philosophical approach used by Odo Marquard. He shows that the most important goal of Marquard's philosophy was to establish a pluralism in hermeneutics. In view of this fact, the author questions the extent to which such a pluralism is related to the Protestant emphasis on the Scriptures. German description: Rochus Leonhardt diskutiert das Verhaltnis von Protestantismus und Skeptizismus anhand einer kritischen Analyse des philosophischen (...) Ansatzes von Odo Marquard. Als Pointe des Marquardschen Skeptizismus stellt er die Forderung nach einer pluralisierenden Hermeneutik heraus und konfrontiert diese Forderung mit dem protestantischen Schriftprinzip. Dessen originare Gestalt, Luthers Betonung der uneingeschrankten Schriftautoritat ( sola scriptura ), schliesst zwar einen hermeneutischen Pluralismus kategorisch aus, aber die immer drangendere eKrise des Schriftprinzips' macht die Problematik dieser esingularisierenden Hermeneutik' deutlich. Im Gesprach mit wichtigen Vertretern der zeitgenossischen evangelischen Theologie pladiert der Autor daher fur eine Integration der in der Literaturwissenschaft langst etablierten pluralisierenden Hermeneutik in die Bibelauslegung - und damit fur eine Ubernahme des hermeneutischen Skeptizismus in die Theologie. (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Scriptural AuthorityA Christian (Protestant) PerspectiveReinhold BernhardtThe Sola Scriptura Principle in the Reformation MovementIn curbing the authority of the ecclesiastical Magisterium the Reformation movement brought the authority of the Holy Scripture to the forefront as the normative foundation of Christian theology. One of its basic axioms is the sola scriptura principle, meaning that all one needs to know in order to live in a salvific relation (...) to God can be acquired “by scripture alone.” This constitutes the formal, epistemological principle of Protestant theology up to today, and complements the material principles solus Christus, sola gratia, and sola fide. Whereas these material principles refer to the manifestation of salvation in Christ (alone), to the eternal ground of salvation through the grace of God (alone), and to the gift of salvation by faith (alone), the formal principle of sola scriptura calls upon the Christian to realize that these three principles of material truth are made known to us (only) by the formal principle—by Holy Scripture. “The whole counsel of God concerning all things necessary for his own glory, man’s salvation, faith and life, is either expressly set down in Scripture, or by good and necessary consequence may be deduced from Scripture.” 1On the one hand, the Reformers taught that Holy Scripture not only offers testimony to the Word of God but also is itself of divine origin since the authors wrote under the immediate influence of God. In view of this, God is ultimately the principal author, while the writing humans are only instrumental scribes. It follows from that that the Bible possesses divine authority.On the other hand the Reformers distinguished between the Bible as the Word of God and the Word of God in the Bible. Furthermore they made a distinction between the written word of the biblical books and the “Logos,” the eternal word of God, which speaks through the words of the Bible and addresses the reader here and now, existentially. As a testimony to and a medium of the Word of God the Holy Scripture for Luther is “Christ’s spiritual body,” 2 and thus the authority of the biblical scriptures is a derived and secondary authority. This authority does not rest simply on the sacred text as such but rather on the proclamation of God’s grace-filled Lordship over nature [End Page 73] and history in general and over the individual life in particular. It is not the text as such which is to be regarded as Word of God, but the text’s message. “Message” does not refer primarily to the semantic focus of the text as intended by the human author and as understood by the reader, but to the kerygma, the living and effective word of God. The Reformers stressed the soteriological efficacy of the “Word of God” as witnessed in the Scripture. Not only does this Word bear a specific significance and lead to insight and knowledge, but it also heals the broken relationship between the human and God, imparts forgiveness, incorporates into the community of saints, creates faith, and renews life. The Bible is the instrument of God through which God reveals Godself and opens the way to salvation through faith (which signifies existential incorporation) in Christ.Let us now take a closer look at the differences among the three branches of the Reformation movement—the Lutheran, the Calvinist-Reformed, and the Spiritualist—with regard to their understanding of scriptural authority.LutheranFor Luther there is a normative core message in the New Testament, a gospel within the gospels. It consists in the “good news” of the justification of the sinner sola gratia in Christ, without any contribution on the part of the one justified. God is the author of that “good news,” though it is not expressed in all of the biblical scriptures with equal clarity. As a consequence of this difference between the gospel and the scriptures Luther assesses the relative worth of the various books of the Bible, using the gospel of unmerited and unconditionally granted grace as the criterion for interpreting and evaluating the various biblical texts. The Epistle of James, for instance, he dismissed as a stroherne Epistel—a... (shrink)

Some contemporary Baptists (Medley and Kharlamov) argue that the conservative Baptists in North America need to incorporate the concept of deification into their traditional soteriology because they failed to present the continual and transforming nature of salvation. However, many leading conservative Baptist systematicians (Garrett, Erickson, Demarest, and Keathley) demonstrate their concern about a possible pantheistic connotation of the doctrine of deification. Unlike the conservative Baptists, I argue for the necessity of working with the concept of deification in the traditional Baptist (...) soteriology. The concept of deification is not something foreign to the Baptist tradition because Keach, Gill, Spurgeon, and Maclaren already demonstrated the patristic exchange formula ‘God became man so that man may become like God’. They considered the hypostatic union of two natures in Christ as the source and model of becoming like God or Christ, the true Image of God. Christians are called to be united with the glorified humanity of Christ by their adopted sonship and participation in the divine nature. Christification speaks of the real transformation of Christians in terms of a change in the mode of existence, not in nature. The four Baptists taught that Christian could participate in the communicable attributes of God, but not in the essence or incommunicable attributes of God. Therefore, Christification never produces another God-Man. Conservative Baptists do not have to compromise their traditional commitment to sola scriptura and the forensic nature of justification in their employment of the theme of deification. This paper concludes with four suggestions for contemporary Baptist discussions on deification. (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Buddhist-Christian Studies 20 (2000) 296-298 [Access article in PDF] Book Review Le Sutra D'amida Prêché Par Le Buddha Le Sutra D'amida Prêché Par Le Buddha. By Jérôme Ducor. Schweizer Asiatische Studien: Monographien; Vol. 29. Bern: Peter Lang, 1998. 216 pp. Paper. $35.95 (in U.S.A.; available from the New York office of the publisher) It is immediately clear that this edition of the Smaller Sukhavativyuha Sutra must be regarded as (...) the standard work on it in a European language. Ducor is both a scholar (at the University of Lausanne and at the Museum of Ethnography in Geneva) and a practitioner (an ordained minister of the Honganji branch of Jodo Shinshu) [End Page 296] and he combines his skills to produce a well-rounded and balanced treatment that demonstrates, by comparison, the limitations of the standard Buddhological approach to Sutra studies.The methodology of sutra translation is, I believe, a Buddhist-Christian problem, since, ostensibly Buddhist, it often proceeds along crypto-Christian lines. Why do we translate sutras at all? Or, rather, why are the sutras as a rule translated nude, as it were, quivering in the scholar's spotlight, bereft of their seemly covering of s´astras? Sutras are, by themselves, largely unintelligible. They are nuggets of Dharma, to be, on the one hand, digested by the teachers so that they might (to paraphrase St. Bernard of Clairvaux) proffer the milk of nourishing discourses to their disciples and, on the other hand, chanted in mystifying, often artificial, languages, for their meritorious and pacifying effect. When chanted, it is the sound that matters, not the meaning. It is said that a pigeon was reborn as a monk because Asaga compassionately chanted out loud the texts that he was studying. We are to suppose that the fortunate pigeon was not well versed in Sanskrit, yet it benefited remarkably from the chanting. Ducor is aware of this traditional use of the sutras and includes a discussion on "The Amida Sutra in Liturgical Practice" (pp. 131-137). He cites Gyoyo, writing in fifteenth-century Japan, to the effect that the incomprehensible Sino-Japanese "preserves multiple meanings: the masses, on hearing them, mysteriously, according to their capacities, achieve enlightenment," whereas the Japanese translation "bears only a single sense" and therefore "for normal chanting it is best to chant in the Sino-Japanese pronunciation" (p. 134).But Eurocentric, especially Anglophone, Buddhologists have insisted on translating only the sutras and ignoring their attendant s´astras. Often enough the translations are done from an archaic or even an invented version which is never used in practice but is preferred simply because it is in Sanskrit. The scholar then searches, in the presumed "more original" text, for precisely that single meaning against which Gyoyo warns us. Something seems familiar. Can it be Martin Luther whom we espy lurking behind our Monier Williams? Are we still in thrall to Max Muller, who, even after having naturalized as British, was evangelisch to the core and fought in the Academy under the banner of sola scriptura, believing, with Luther, that a sacred text, because it is revealed, is most truly interpreted by reference to itself, and that its meaning would only be obscured by a human, and therefore fallible, commentary? Perhaps: for the bionic Belgian Buddhologists, we note, were more Catholic in their approach, and translated the summa of the great Buddhist scholastics.The point is that a sutra can only be said to have been properly presented for our study when it is displayed in its native context, that is, with full reference to the commentarial tradition. Ducor does this. He opens with a translation from the rufubon (the textus receptus or "vulgate" as he calls it) version of the Chinese, attributed to Kumarajiva, and follows it with notes on Kumarajiva, on the principal doctrines of the sutra, and on the place of the sutra in the trilogy (sambukyo) tradition in Japan. Then he repeats the translation, interspersing it with references to the commentaries in China, Korea, and Japan. This is followed by detailed textual notes... (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Buddhist-Christian Studies 20 (2000) 296-298 [Access article in PDF] Book Review Le Sutra D'amida Prêché Par Le Buddha Le Sutra D'amida Prêché Par Le Buddha. By Jérôme Ducor. Schweizer Asiatische Studien: Monographien; Vol. 29. Bern: Peter Lang, 1998. 216 pp. Paper. $35.95 (in U.S.A.; available from the New York office of the publisher) It is immediately clear that this edition of the Smaller Sukhavativyuha Sutra must be regarded as (...) the standard work on it in a European language. Ducor is both a scholar (at the University of Lausanne and at the Museum of Ethnography in Geneva) and a practitioner (an ordained minister of the Honganji branch of Jodo Shinshu) [End Page 296] and he combines his skills to produce a well-rounded and balanced treatment that demonstrates, by comparison, the limitations of the standard Buddhological approach to Sutra studies.The methodology of sutra translation is, I believe, a Buddhist-Christian problem, since, ostensibly Buddhist, it often proceeds along crypto-Christian lines. Why do we translate sutras at all? Or, rather, why are the sutras as a rule translated nude, as it were, quivering in the scholar's spotlight, bereft of their seemly covering of s´astras? Sutras are, by themselves, largely unintelligible. They are nuggets of Dharma, to be, on the one hand, digested by the teachers so that they might (to paraphrase St. Bernard of Clairvaux) proffer the milk of nourishing discourses to their disciples and, on the other hand, chanted in mystifying, often artificial, languages, for their meritorious and pacifying effect. When chanted, it is the sound that matters, not the meaning. It is said that a pigeon was reborn as a monk because Asaga compassionately chanted out loud the texts that he was studying. We are to suppose that the fortunate pigeon was not well versed in Sanskrit, yet it benefited remarkably from the chanting. Ducor is aware of this traditional use of the sutras and includes a discussion on "The Amida Sutra in Liturgical Practice" (pp. 131-137). He cites Gyoyo, writing in fifteenth-century Japan, to the effect that the incomprehensible Sino-Japanese "preserves multiple meanings: the masses, on hearing them, mysteriously, according to their capacities, achieve enlightenment," whereas the Japanese translation "bears only a single sense" and therefore "for normal chanting it is best to chant in the Sino-Japanese pronunciation" (p. 134).But Eurocentric, especially Anglophone, Buddhologists have insisted on translating only the sutras and ignoring their attendant s´astras. Often enough the translations are done from an archaic or even an invented version which is never used in practice but is preferred simply because it is in Sanskrit. The scholar then searches, in the presumed "more original" text, for precisely that single meaning against which Gyoyo warns us. Something seems familiar. Can it be Martin Luther whom we espy lurking behind our Monier Williams? Are we still in thrall to Max Muller, who, even after having naturalized as British, was evangelisch to the core and fought in the Academy under the banner of sola scriptura, believing, with Luther, that a sacred text, because it is revealed, is most truly interpreted by reference to itself, and that its meaning would only be obscured by a human, and therefore fallible, commentary? Perhaps: for the bionic Belgian Buddhologists, we note, were more Catholic in their approach, and translated the summa of the great Buddhist scholastics.The point is that a sutra can only be said to have been properly presented for our study when it is displayed in its native context, that is, with full reference to the commentarial tradition. Ducor does this. He opens with a translation from the rufubon (the textus receptus or "vulgate" as he calls it) version of the Chinese, attributed to Kumarajiva, and follows it with notes on Kumarajiva, on the principal doctrines of the sutra, and on the place of the sutra in the trilogy (sambukyo) tradition in Japan. Then he repeats the translation, interspersing it with references to the commentaries in China, Korea, and Japan. This is followed by detailed textual notes... (shrink)

Though the problem of conceptual idolatry has captivated contemporary scholarship on the relationship between philosophy and theology, these discussions’ doctrinal consequences remain underdeveloped. I intervene in these debates by engaging and elucidating Martin Luther’s critique of scholastic metaphysics, a critique which foregrounds ontotheology’s spiritual and ecclesial detriments. Luther’s reforming works, from his pivotal 1525 De servo arbitrio to his last major project, the 1545 Genesis commentaries, reveal how a metaphysical theology based on natural reason leads to Pelagianism by generalizing faith (...) to a rational conceptual norm, the moral Law. Returning, however, to Scripture’s “grammar” – which, when read plainly, deconstructs natural reason’s vanity – allows us to encounter Christ ‘in person’ rather than in the concept. Luther thus suggests sola scriptura as a method for resisting ontotheology, but with dramatic dogmatic consequences, such as justification by faith alone. These consequences complicate modernity’s, and especially modern philosophy’s, theological origins and implications. (shrink)

That hostility to the Reformation was a feature of the Oxford Movements outlook is a truism, but Tractarians’ anti-Reformation sentiments went much further than the purely theological. Tractarians consistently held that in its repudiation of antiquity and elevation of sola scriptura, the Reformation had launched a wider rationalism whose socio-economic as well as religious consequences they abhorred. If a Tractarian paternalism – which mourned the welfare consequences of the dissolution of the monasteries, and the rise of capitalism and (...) its bourgeoisie,– had much in common with other nineteenth-century social criticism, a crucial difference emerged at the point of prescription. Their uncompromising advocacy of the church as the sole agency of amelioration, and promotion of such schemes as sisterhoods, sharply distinguished Tractarians,from advocates of legislative intervention or ethical socialism. Tractarians therefore looked not forward, to the ideal of a welfare state, but back, to the ideal of a welfare church. (shrink)

Im September 1994 wurde in Durham das dritte Durham-Tübingen Symposium über ‘frühestes Christentum und Judentum’ abgehalten. Das Thema war diesmal ‘Paulus und das mosaische Gesetz’. In seinem zusammenfassenden Schlussreferat ‘In Search of Common Ground’ , veröffentlicht in dem Sammelband ‘Paul and the Mosaic Law’ , hat der Vorsitzende, James Dunn, in einer lakonischen Anmerkung feststellen müssen dass ‘angesichts deren Wichtigkeit in der Evangelium/Gesetzantithese, der Stelle Römer 10,4 mehr Aufmerksamkeit hätte gegeben werden müssen als es die Zeit oder der Verlauf der (...) Diskussion erlaubte’ . Man kann sich fragen ob tatsächlich nur Zeitmangel oder der Verlauf der Diskussion als Ursache der Vernachlässigung dieses wichtigen Textes anzusehen sind. Es könnte auch sein – wie von einigen englischsprachigen Teilnehmern angedeutet wurde – dass der Horizont mancher Teilnehmer etwas eingeengt war durch das reformatorische Adagium sola fide, sola scriptura, sola gratia. Jedenfalls kommt es mir vor, dass man einen Versuch wagen könne, die eigene Sicht des Paulus zu erarbeiten und sich von daher behutsamer einer Erklärung von Römer 10,4 in seinem Zusammenhang zu nähern als es jene tun die im Namen des Paulus kategorisch behaupten: ‘Christus ist das Ende des Gesetzes’. (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Reviewed by:Eighteenth-Century Hermeneutics: Philosophy of Interpretation in England from Locke to BurkePaul J. KorshinEighteenth-Century Hermeneutics: Philosophy of Interpretation in England from Locke to Burke, by Joel Weinsheimer; xiii & 275 pp. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1993, $30.00.Hermeneutics has until the present study had little application to eighteenth-century England. The omission is curious for, although there were few advances in biblical scholarship during the Restoration and eighteenth century, modern (...) literary criticism begins in this century with Dryden and Johnson, modern aesthetics with Shaftesbury and the Scottish school of taste, and modern theories of art with Reynolds and writers on the picturesque. Joel Weinsheimer’s treatment of this topic, then, instantly possesses originality, not only from a lack of serious competition but because of its approach to [End Page 365] hermeneutics. He “does not offer a historical narrative” of what happened in hermeneutics in eighteenth-century England (p. xi). Rather, Weinsheimer prefers to see hermeneutics as a series of snapshots of how various writers, of whom only a few are conventional exegetes, deal with matters of interpreting texts. In all, the book treats eight major figures (Swift, Locke, Toland, Bolingbroke, Hume, Reid, Blackstone, and Burke), devoting a chapter to each.The method in each one is approximately the same: Weinsheimer produces a reading not of a single work alone but of all, or almost all that an author writes about interpretation. In the case of Swift, for instance, his principal contribution on exegesis, A Tale of a Tub, is a satire on styles of exegesis Swift considered ridiculous. This chapter adds little to what we know of Swift but, in relation to Weinsheimer’s analysis of Sir William Blackstone, we can see that there is a legal background to parts of the debate among the three brothers on the meaning of Scripture. Locke (pp. 23–45) also dealt with the Bible extensively, but his tendency to prefer the doctrine of “sola scriptura” limits what an author can say about his hermeneutics. John Toland (pp. 46–71), in his Christianity Not Mysterious, proposes radical notions of biblical exegesis, and Weinsheimer gives us a lucid reading of the first English skeptical exegete. All the other figures he studies, however, had little interest in traditional literary exegesis. Weinsheimer sees Bolingbroke (pp. 72–102) as a philosopher of history who tried to generate a theory of decoding the past, but he does not clearly distinguish Bolingbroke’s rules for writing history. Hume (pp. 103–34) wrote extensively on exegetical topics without actually being an exegete; although this is one of Weinsheimer’s more opaque chapters, it does succeed in showing the diversity of Hume and his inability to reason conclusively on matters of interpretation. Hume basically did not think that there is any problem in understanding others, so his theories of exegesis are not coherent. So, too, Thomas Reid (pp. 135–65) considered language, properly used, as lacking in opacity; hence elaborate theories of interpretation have little use for him.However, with Blackstone and Edmund Burke, Weinsheimer contributes his two most interesting chapters. The law, as Blackstone conceived of it, is extremely difficult to understand, so his Commentaries on the Laws of England is an attempt to read legal texts “in the context of general literacy” (p. 168); Bentham would later imitate him. Burke, Weinsheimer argues, started as an aesthetician and ended applying principles of good and bad taste to political behavior, always one of the weaknesses of reactionary politics.In a brief epilogue (pp. 226–33), Weinsheimer speculates on the effort of eighteenth-century hermeneutics to understand historical reason, but he does not comment on the failure of the period to produce a single important hermeneuticist. His own choice to avoid major exegetes such as Samuel Johnson and Joshua Reynolds abridges his results dramatically, but a study based on scholarly snapshots always courts this risk. Hermeneutics is a [End Page 366] recondite concept, yet Weinsheimer renders his topic more difficult than it need be by frequent shifts in its definition and a complex, often unclear, style. Eighteenth-Century Hermeneutics provides a start, if not a definitive treatment, for later students of exegesis in the English Enlightenment.Paul... (shrink)

L’articolo mette in luce due paradossi, il primo dei quali è dato dal fatto che proprio in quelle terre dove si affermò la radicale impostazione anti-umanistica del protestantesimo ebbe a scaturire una straordinaria fioritura dell’umano fino alla consacrazione della libertà come principio della ricerca scientifica e del vivere civile. Il secondo paradosso è dato dalla manifestazione in quelle stesse terre meno di un secolo fa dell’ideologia nazista. La tesi sostenuta è che il principio protestante di fatto affermatosi nella coscienza europea (...) consiste non tanto nella teoria teologica della giustificazione (sola Gratia, sola Fide, sola Scriptura) quanto nella affermazione filosofica e politica della libera coscienza personale, il cui evento decisivo fu la dichiarazione di Lutero alla Dieta di Worms. Ma proprio il carattere abissale della libertà e il destino di interpretazione infinita cui la consegnò Lutero sono anche all’origine di quel disagio della coscienza e dell’esistenza da cui sorse il malessere che portò al totalitarismo.Nel sostenere la tesi enunciata l’articolo si struttura secondo quattro movimenti: 1) argomentazione sul carattere radicalmente anti-umanistico del protestantesimo; 2) argomentazione sui notevoli effetti umanistici storicamente prodotti dalla Riforma protestante; 3) argomentazione sulle possibili connessioni tra il terreno preparato dalla Riforma nella società tedesca e il sorgere in essa dell’ideologia nazionalsocialista; 4) considerazioni finali sulla dialettica della libertà umana. (shrink)

Sugirtharajah, seorang pakar biblika kelahiran Sri Lanka, yang mengajar di Universitas Birmingham, U.K., dan dikenal sebagai godfather penelitian pascakolonial dalam bidang Alkitab, menambahkan suatu karya inovatif lagi pada daftar tulisan-tulisannya yang sudah sangat mengesankan. Perhatiannya untuk suara penafsiran pinggiran sudah diketahui dari karyanya yang paling terkenal, Voices from the Margin (1991). Meskipun Alkitab berasal dari Asia, namun kebanyakan peneliti-an tentang Alkitab dan juga tentang pengaruhnya sepanjang sejarah, terfokus pada Eropa dan Amerika, dengan meminggirkan Asia. Itu mendorong S untuk mengadakan penelitian (...) tentang Alkitab di Asia, khusus-nya sejarah penerimaannya. Ia menyadari bahwa dampak Alkitab terhadap kebudayaan Asia minim bila dibandingkan dengan pengaruhnya atas kehidupan dan kebudayaan di Eropa. Itu menjadi sangat tampak dalam uraiannya tentang peran Alkitab dalam sastra Asia (bab 7) di mana kutipan, tokoh, dan cerita Alkitab jarang muncul, dan bila ada, lebih banyak dipakai sebagai kritik terhadap kolonialisme Barat atau institusi kekristenan.... S mengakhiri tulisannya dengan menegaskan bahwa prinsip sola scriptura, Alkitab saja, tak punya pasar di Asia yang cenderung membaca Alkitab bersama dengan yang lain, Bhagavad Gita, Dhammapada, Analecta (mengapa di sini Alquran tak disebut S?). Hermeneutika Asia yang diselidiki oleh S, menolak kecenderungan kolonial yang ada baik dalam Alkitab sendiri dan lebih lagi dalam interpretasi kekristenan Barat: Kebudayaan dan masyarakat Asia tidak bergantung pada nilai-nilai kristiani untuk pemerintahan dan pengembangan yang baik.... Di Asia Alkitab adalah salah satu di antara banyak teks yang berwenang (hlm. 259). Tugas kita, menurut S, adalah membebaskan Asia dari klaim monopolistis kitab suci tertentu. Tugas ini mendesak di saat para fundamentalis dari semua agama memakai kitab sucinya untuk membenarkan kekerasannya terhadap yang lain. S bahkan mempertanyakan monoteisme yang dapat menekan perbedaan dan mengabaikan kemungkinan pusat-pusat yang banyak (p. 260). Ia tidak menganjurkan untuk kembali kepada penyembahan banyak dewa-dewi tetapi men-dorong kajian terhadap spirit politeistis yang mendorong toleransi, kemurahan hati, dan koeksistensi. Pembaca tentu bertanya: di mana sesungguhnya posisi S di medan diskusi pluralisme dan inklusivisme, berkaitan dengan cara dialog antaraagama, dan ditantang untuk memikirkan posisinya sendiri. S mengakui bahwa banyak hal mengenai Alkitab di Asia masih perlu diselidiki. Lima belas abad pra-kolonial dibicarakan dalam dua halaman saja. Alkitab yang oleh gereja Nestorian tanpa kekuatan apa pun disebarkan ke India, Sumatra, dan China cuma dihormati tetapi tinggal tidak diterjemahkan selama belasan abad; kabarnya hanya diketahui melalui liturgi. Ada pula kesan bahwa Asia dalam karya S terutama Asia Selatan dan Asia Timur. Asia Tengah (bekas bagian-bagian USSR) memang dari awal tidak dimasukkan dalam penelitiannya, tetapi juga Asia Barat Daya dan Asia Tenggara yang multi-agama hampir tidak disentuh. S mungkin tidak mengetahui beberapa penelitian tentang penerimaan Alkitab di Indonesia yang sudah dipublikasikan oleh Lembaga Alkitab Indonesia. Namun demikian, apa yang disajikan sungguh menarik dan penting, serta membuka mata dan jalan bagi penelitian yang lebih luas. (Martin Harun, Guru Besar Ilmu Teologi Emeritus, Sekolah Tinggi Filsafat Driyarkara, Jakarta). (shrink)

sola scripturarum ars est, quam sibi omnes passim uindicent: ‘scribimus indocti doctique poemata passim’ [Hor. Epist. 2.1.117]. hanc garrula anus, hanc delirus senex, hanc soloecista uerbosus, hanc uniuersi praesumunt, lacerant, docent, antequam discant. alii adducto supercilio grandia uerba trutinantes inter mulierculas de sacris litteris philosophantur, alii discunt—pro pudor!—a feminis, quod uiros doceant, et, ne parum hoc sit, quadam facilitate uerborum, immo audacia disserunt aliis, quod ipsi non intellegunt. taceo de meis similibus, qui si forte ad scripturas sanctas post saeculares (...) litteras uenerint et sermone conposito aurem populi mulserint, quicquid dixerint, hoc legem dei putant nec scire dignantur, quid prophetae, quid apostoli senserint, sed ad sensum suum incongrua aptant testimonia, quasi grande sit et non uitiosissimum dicendi genus deprauare sententias et ad uoluntatem suam scripturam trahere repugnantem. quasi non legerimus Homerocentonas et Vergiliocentonas ac non sic etiam Maronem sine Christo possimus dicere Christianum, quia scripserit: ‘iam redit et uirgo, redeunt Saturnia regna, iam noua progenies caelo demittitur alto’ [Verg. Ecl. 4.6–7], et patrem loquentem ad filium: ‘nate, meae uires, mea magna potentia solus’ [Verg. Aen. 1.664], et post uerba saluatoris in cruce: ‘talia perstabat memorans fixusque manebat’ [Verg. Aen. 2.650]. puerilia sunt haec et circulatorum ludo similia, docere, quod ignores, immo, et cum stomacho loquar, nec hoc quidem scire, quod nescias. (shrink)

Although he was not and could not have been a phenomenologist in the proper sense of the term, the writings of Origen of Alexandria contain certain insightful observations about the way in which Scripture is encountered in lived experience, and these can be fruitfully interpreted from a phenomenological perspective. The object of this essay is to present two aspects of Origen’s “proto-phenomenology of Scripture” and to draw from them a conclusion of theological-methodological import. The discussion will revolve around a phenomenological (...) distinction between Scripture and biblical text, a distinction which, though familiar to previous writers, has not yet been fully appreciated. (shrink)

This essay addresses one of the central questions in the ongoing debate about just war theory: are soldiers morally responsible for serving in unjust wars? Francisco de Vitoria addressed this question in the sixteenth century using the concepts of invincible and vincible ignorance. He excused soldiers serving in unjust wars, if they did not know the war was unjust and if they did not have the means to overcome their ignorance; if they had the means, they were morally culpable. In (...) modern just war theory, ignorance is still used both to blame and excuse military service in unjust wars. This essay identifies ten different ways that scholars have used ignorance to argue about the moral responsibilities of soldiers. It then applies the different meanings of ignorance to soldiers serving in Western nations and, using Vitoria’s means tests, evaluates if modern soldiers do indeed have the means to overcome their ignorance. Since many soldiers do have the means, invincible ignorance should no longer be used as an excuse for their service in unjust wars; furthermore, soldiers may, in fact, be morally culpable for serving in them. (shrink)

Catholicism played a main role in the long and controversial process of constructing the Spanish national identity. as a consequence, the christian creed ended up becoming a condition sine qua non for “being Spanish”. Marcelino Menéndez Pelayo (1856-1912) and his Historia de los Heterodoxos Españoles were to become a basic milestone in the conformation of this peculiar case of Spanish catholicism, to whom we direct our attention at the present study.