Abstract In recent decades Finnish Luther research has become part of the mainstream of Luther research. The central claim and result are that the idea of Christ present in faith is the core of Luther’s theology and understanding of the doctrine of justification. Tuomo Mannermaa’s study Christ Present in Faith: Luther’s View of Justification (1979/2005) has played a significant role in this. Some scholars have referred to obvious similarities between Finnish research and Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s thinking. This article’s task is to analyze the confluence between Mannermaa’s and Bonhoeffer’s Luther interpretations. The focus is on questions of theological ontology. Both highlight the coexistence of relationality, and the ontic dimension. However, Bonhoeffer places more emphasis than Luther on ecclesiology. These approaches have promoted not only Lutheran-Orthodox but also Lutheran-Catholic dialogue.

Abstract This article argues that Baptists can learn, with regard to their practice of governance, from the seventeenth-century Congregational churches of New-England. After showing that The Cambridge Platform of Discipline (1648) offers two accounts of polity, ‘congregational’ and ‘neo-congregational’, it is argued that neo-congregational polity is not only more desirable than congregational polity (as the Platform argued) but offers a more consistent account of biblical ecclesiology. Baptist churches, sharing similar roots and ecclesiology with Congregationalism, stand to benefit from the insights of their seventeenth-century brothers and sisters.

Abstract Is it possible to overcome the inclination of a victim of violence to become a perpetrator? The objective of the article is to present a conceptual framework for a community that has the potential to interfere with the continuing cycle of violence in situations where the victim transitions into the perpetrator. We can address these inquiries by discussing providence Theology, vulnerable communities, trauma survivors, and the act of remembering to establish connections between these three aspects. Providence Theology embodies the Christian community as a person’s providence capable of imagining the past, remembering the future, and enacting the present as a vulnerable community. Ultimately, we designate the concept as the vulnerable providence community by linking the imagination of past events with remembering God’s future providence to enact the present and break out from the cycle of violence.