Christian Freedom Research Articles

“It Is No Longer I Who Live”: Christ’s Faith and Christian Faith

Abstract I offer a dogmatic analysis of Galatians 2:20 in three parts. First, Christ lives for us. Second, by faith we really do live in Christ. Third, there is an order and sequence to these two statements, and they require a theological framework within which they can be related. To that end, I point to two ways in which the common Reformational teaching on imputation was teased out in Luther’s definition of Christian freedom and the Reformed tradition of distinguishing between the covenant of works and the covenant of grace. These are not the only possible constructions which could maintain this order and sequence, but they have great historical prominence and a greater than commonly appreciated viability.

Zwischen Protest and Propaganda: Die Zeitschrift “Junge Kirche” im Dritten Reich (review)

Reviewed by: Zwischen Protest and Propaganda: Die Zeitschrift “Junge Kirche” im Dritten Reich Katharina Von Kellenbach Zwischen Protest and Propaganda: Die Zeitschrift “Junge Kirche” im Dritten Reich. By Ralf Retter. Munich: Allitera Verlag, 2009. Pp. 387. Paper €44.00. ISBN 978-3869060668. In their efforts to reclaim moral authority and public credibility, Roman Catholic and Evangelical church leaders asserted Christianity’s principled opposition to National Socialism immediately after Germany’s capitulation in May 1945. Catholic leaders pointed to the church hierarchy’s public resistance to the euthanasia program, while Protestants highlighted the struggle of the underground Confessing Church (Bekennende Kirche) to contravene the state law that imposed the Aryan Paragraph of 1933 on church employees. The military, political, and moral collapse of Nazi Germany was presented as proof of the eternal truths of biblical law and Christian doctrine: Only a return to Christian truths could protect people against the false teachings of modernity, rationalism, and secularism that had led to the type of human degradation and wholesale slaughter unleashed by the Nazis. This narrative proved to be remarkably persuasive and persistent; in fact, it is still endorsed by Pope Benedict XVI. A number of recent historical studies have slowly chipped away at this myth. Based on his dissertation, Ralf Retter’s study of the journal Junge Kirche adds more historical ammunition aimed at correcting this simplistic narrative. The journal was founded in May 1933 to disseminate information among members of the Jungreformatische Bewegung, which had been constituted that same month in opposition to the growing influence of the Deutsche Christen. The latter group, merging Christian and Nazi worldviews, had launched a campaign a year earlier to gain control of local and national church governing bodies. Appearing every two [End Page 428] weeks, Junge Kirche combined political and theological commentary with news and information. Based on unpublished materials from the archives of its publisher, Vandenhoeck-Ruprecht, Retter chronicles the internal ideological and personal struggles that reflected the overall failure of the Confessing Church to mount effective political resistance against National Socialism. In this careful and comprehensive analysis, Retter argues that Junge Kirche featured articles critical of National Socialism between 1933 and 1936, but then moved decidedly toward the right, until it finally ceased publication in May 1941 for economic and political reasons. Retter sees the year 1936 as pivotal in the journal’s loss of a critical function: that year witnessed the departure of Hanns Lilje from the editorial board, as well as growing tension between the more radical wings of the Confessing Church in Berlin and the “intact” Lutheran state churches—whose leadership had not been taken over by German Christians in the election of 1933—in Bavaria, Baden, Württemberg, and Hannover. The sole remaining editor, Fritz Söhlmann, was more susceptible to National Socialist ideology and began to cater to a more conservative, Lutheran, and southern audience. Until 1936, Junge Kirche included articles criticizing National Socialism as a “political religion,” analyzing the concept of race in völkisch theology, discussing the proper relation between state and church, and denouncing the Aryan Paragraph on the basis of the Barmen Theological Declaration of 1934. Retter considers Junge Kirche in its early period to be an example of what Martin Broszat called Resistenz (i.e., nonconformist activities that denied the Nazi state’s claim to total control), because it defended Christian freedom and established an open forum for critical reflection on theological and political issues. But the journal did not move beyond a church-centered, defensive posture to advocate proactively on behalf of victims of state persecution or to demand regime change. This reflected the Confessing Church’s overall unwillingness and inability to coalesce into a political movement against the Nazi state. Instead, it splintered along progressive and conservative, Reform and Lutheran, as well as northern and southern territorial lines. When the journal began to publish articles on Lutheran piety, extolling German patriotism and soldierly virtues and peppered with anticommunist and antisemitic polemics, more progressive members of the Confessing Church called on their followers to cancel their subscriptions. Söhlmann’s gamble to increase readership by tailoring the journal’s content ever more closely to reigning Nazi views could not save...

Neither Gerizim Nor Zion: Worship beyond Race (John 4:1–42)

Luke 4:18–19 is often referred to as the inaugural address of Jesus and the beginning of his public ministry. These verses are quoted from Isa 61:1–2. “Freedom” is a poignant theme in the passage and indeed the total ministry of Jesus. He came to “set the captives free.” The experience mentioned in John 4 is illustrative of our emancipation. Jesus set this woman free from the bondage to sin, from the intimidation of a manipulative society, from the imposition of sexism, from social control, from religious bigotry and from a confused understanding and relationship with God. She was set free to be herself and to rise to full freedom in Christ.

Neither Cyclops nor Sophist: Christian Formation Against the State

This article identifies a deep paradox at the heart of the modern state—in its ability and professed purposes to form the moral characters of its citizens—and then offers a Christian response. Were it not for the manifest success of states in persisting in this paradox, it would delegitimize them on grounds of incoherence and duplicity. In an argument that is occasionally Aristotelian, the article shows how modern (secular, liberal) states morally form citizens who willingly submit to the state's formation on grounds that the state has legitimacy so long as it does not claim moral authority. This line of reasoning is explicated with reference to Sheldon Wolin on Alexander Hamilton and feudalism as well as Martha Nussbaum on Aristotle. In response, Christian freedom, ecclesial peoplehood, and poverty not only run counter to state formation but positively resist it.

Wat is reformatoriese teologie?: Nadenke na aanleiding van ’n kerklike beswaarskrif

What is Reformational theology?: Thoughts on a petition of protest The Netherdutch Reformed Church of Africa (NRCA) has been associated with apartheid for decades. In 2010 the NHKA decided to withdraw its theological legitimisation of apartheid. This decision caused conflict and strife within the church. This article deals with the theological arguments of the opponents of Decision 54 of the General Church Assembly of 2010. It argues that the defe nders of apartheid deviate from the Reformational theology on central issues. Special attention is given to the doctrines of justification and the imago Dei. Christian freedom and ethical responsibility also receive attention.

Free as a Bird in the Path of the Plane: Youthful Liberty Amid Global Forces

This essay describes the desire for freedom found among youth on three continents. It contrasts the shape freedom takes when youth get sucked into prevailing global forces (individualism, consumerism, proteanism, etc.), versus the liberty promised by Christian faith. It proposes a vision for leading youth on the path of freedom in Christ, grounded in sacramental theology and halachic reasoning. This approach is offered as an alternative or supplement to approaches grounded in narrative theology.

Nobody Dares: Freedom, Dissent, Self-Knowing, and Other Possibilities in Sebald Beham'sImpossible*

AbstractFeaturing the image of an athlete tugging at a rooted sapling, Impossible is the most enigmatic of the many small-scale engravings produced by Hans Sebald Beham. Juxtaposed with the adage “Nobody should dare great things that are impossible for him to do,” the image not only challenges the astute viewer to a game of wits: the resulting paradox also unleashes a cascade of ethical questions concerning the boundedness of the will, Christian freedom, human perfectibility, and the paradoxical conditions of self-knowledge. These issues came to the fore in the sixteenth-century debate over free will, which pitted humanists, magisterial, and radical reformers against one another. Beham's documented experience as a religious and political dissident during the 1520s raises the possibility that the print, made later in life, embeds still another allegorical layer: the conflicted situation of the artist in an era of reform and iconoclasm, Renaissance and revolution, hope and disillusionment.

The Freedom of Christ in the Later Lonergan

The human freedom of Christ is a test case for how genuinely we admit the reality of Christ's humanity. This article presents Christ's freedom in light of Bernard Lonergan's later theology. A defining influence on the matter in this period was Lonergan's developing understanding of intentionality analysis. The article explains this complex notion and then shows how it throws light on the reality and historicity of Christ's human freedom.

Becoming Sinless: Converting to Islam in the Christian Solomon Islands

ABSTRACT Islam is beginning to have a significant presence in the predominantly Christian nation of Solomon Islands. A few well‐educated Islanders were drawn to Islam's elegant monotheism and promise of unity in the 1980s and early 1990s, but numbers have grown significantly in the years following a violent civil conflict (1998–2003). Many of these new Muslim converts, especially those from the island of Malaita, seem preoccupied with the problem of sin and blame Christianity for destroying customary rules, especially those enforcing gender segregation. Echoing long‐standing Malaitan critiques of Christian freedom, they say that Christians rely too heavily on God's grace and their own ability to resist temptation. Unlike Christianity and similar to the traditional religion of the islands, Islam provides clear moral rules for living. Seeking an escape from a cycle of sin and redemption, these ex‐evangelical Christians now see in Islam the possibility of becoming sinless.

Keeping Time with the Tales: Repetition, Epiphany, and the Heptameron’s Narrative Change

Despite the Heptameron's near-pastoral setting, its characters appear strikingly attentive to the passing of time. Far from truly killing time as they await the completion of the bridge that will permit their return to civilization, the devisants pursue a structured regime of repetition, carrying out an identical string of scheduled activities day after selfsame day. In the morning, the devisants strive to read the Bible for exactly one hour before heading off to ten o'clock mass. In the afternoon, they tell stories from exactly noon to four p.m., voicing dissatisfaction when vespers are not begun predictably on time. (1) During the Reformation, praying on a repetitious basis and at particular times stood as practices of contested value. The Reformed church denied the efficacy of repetitious, mechanistic prayer, as well as the setting of particular times for worship, deeming this mere superstitious ritual. Given Marguerite's sympathies with this Reforming spirit, what are we to make of the Heptameron's repetitious, scheduled behavior and how does repetition relate to the devisants' spiritual growth as it appears in the latter portions of the text? Although the Heptameron otherwise stands as an active participant in the Protestant critique of superstitious practice, I would like to suggest that Marguerite's text veers away from mainline Protestant values insofar as it expresses a clear textual predilection for repetitious deeds and 'special times.' Reluctant to embrace the Christian freedom of worship initially encouraged by the Lutheran Church, the Heptameron instead adopts an aesthetic of repetition, depicting highly structured forms of worship and daily routine. (2) While the somewhat compulsive scheduling which Marguerite attributes to her characters is not wholly at odds with certain aspects of Reformed culture and spirituality--as I shall show in the middle portion of my essay, scheduling and repetition in the Heptameron can partly be understood to embody values of punctuality emerging in Calvinist Switzerland--even this is not a total explanation. The Heptameron's treatment of time is unorthodox, positioning repetition such that it is shown to generate much more than Calvinistic social order. We see this generation in the spiritual change the devisants undergo at the end of Day Four and the beginning of Day Five, a surge in fervor and spiritual aptitude that appears in some way to emerge from their reiterative deeds. In the Heptameron, Marguerite emphatically moves away from the poetic and dramatic genres of her earlier works, choosing to situate her characters in the textual vein of narrative, a modality in which repetition rarely denotes (or makes sense as) stasis, but rather builds towards a climax and a linchpin of change. In making her characters' daily storytelling and repetitious Bible reading part of a narrative, a properly evolving story rather than (for example) a cyclic, reiterative poem, (3) Marguerite veers away from static closure, both as a literary form and as a spiritual forecast. Responding to a Calvinistic take on time in which repetition and concerted human effort can only produce, at best, this-worldly social order, the Heptameron reasserts repetition's potential to participate--however mysteriously--in spiritual change and the acquisition of grace. It is far from my wish to suggest that Reformation-era narrative, or even those instances of narrative most rich in dramatic transformation and character development, be globally or naively mapped onto the instantaneous spiritual change deemed possible by Roman Catholic notions of ritual pardon or deathbed absolution. Religious associations doubtless underlie the temporal poetics of many literary works in the period; however, teasing out these analyses calls for ginger, well-informed reading. As a literary form, narrative carries with it no inherent sectarian alliance. However, a temporo-religious analysis seems worthwhile and justified in the case of the Heptameron insofar as the text quite explicitly foregrounds the time of its unfolding, placing it in parallel with the monastic clockwork of an abbey. …

The Freedom of Christ in the Early Lonergan

The central problem posed in this article concerns the coexistence in Christ of both divine freedom and human freedom. Drawing on the thought of Bernard Lonergan the article first considers the problem against the background of the difference between intellectualist and voluntarist tendencies. Human freedom arises in considering means to an end, but only in so far as the will is necessitated with regard to the end. This fits in well with the notion of the unshakeable commitment of Christ's human will to that of his Father. When this is treated in terms of Lonergan's account of how God stands outside the order of past, present and future, and in a sense outside the order of the necessary and the contingent, we have some basis for resolving the antinomies which arise from the coexistence of two freedoms in the one person.

Christian Modernism, Freedom and Fetish in the Mission Encounter

Christian Modernism, Freedom and Fetish in the Mission Encounter

The specter of freedom: ressentiment and Dostoevskij’s notes from underground

The essay examines the Underground Man’s ambivalent position in Dostoevskij’s hierarchy of values in light of the Nietzschean concept of ressentiment. To elucidate the problem of free will in Notes from Underground, I propose to supplement Nietzsche’s theory with the concept of ressentiment as developed by Max Scheler, whose endorsement of Christian love as a means of overcoming ressentiment suggests an affinity with Dostoevskij’s own deeply religious worldview. With the help of Schelerian phenomenology, I read the novel as an early statement of the problem of Christian freedom in Dostoevskij’s oeuvre. Like the “Pro and Contra” section of The Brothers Karamazov, Notes from Underground turns our attention to the “costs” of the Christian ideal: in a world exposed to the ultimate horizon of desire through Christ, those lacking the serenity of faith may be doomed to the merciless torment of ressentiment.

The ethic of the free: A walk according to the Spirit! A perspective from Galatians

The article argues that Galatians does not distinguish between soteriological and ethical freedom. Freedom encompasses the believer in Christ’ s entire salvation. However , he not only possesses freedom in Christ, but has to equally live it fully as a vocation. In as much as law has no salvational role in his life, it also has no ethical roll. The believer receives the Spirit by faith in Christ. The Spirit who quickens new life in him, orientating him to Christ, also guides and enables him to do God’ s will according to Christ’ s faithfulness. The latter is illustrated in His giving of Himself in loving service, even unto a cross, and so doing the will of our God and Father. The believer also glorifies God by doing his will in the loving and serving faithfulness of Christ, by the guidance of the Spirit. Thus, the believer’ s ethic of freedom is fully christological-pneumatological and anomistic without being libertinistic at all. Believers should not fear their God-given freedom by reverting to any form of law observance, but rather celebrate it by trustingly and freely walking in step with the Spirit

Book Review: The Betrayal: The Hostile Takeover of the Southern Baptist Convention and a Missionary's Fight for Freedom in Christ

Book Review: The Betrayal: The Hostile Takeover of the Southern Baptist Convention and a Missionary's Fight for Freedom in Christ

Called into the Freedom of Christ in a Postmodern Age and the Moral Debate

Within Postmodernity we are facing tremendous ethical challenges while upholding a strong sense of freedom. In this essay I argue that this freedom is often still interpreted within a modern paradigm as an essential freedom of presence which has its roots in Neo-Platonic thinking. In Paul’ s letter to the Galatians there are insights to a different interpretation of the freedom we have in Christ as an eschatological freedom of calling and promise. This freedom can only be grasped in faith and is never the possession of any one individual or community, but rather a continuous challenge. It is a freedom that creates space for the other (for that, that seemed impossible) to become present (possible) and therefore it finds itself between justice (dike) and mercy – justice, as that which creates space for those who do not have space (presence), the unheard voices and the marginalised voices; and mercy which brings these unheard voices (the non-present) into being. This is the freedom to which the Cross beckons and the Resurrection inspires.

La liberté du chrétien dans l’apologétique et l’hagiographie antiques. Statim Christiana libertate prorumpens (Pass. Mart. Abitinae, 7)

In the Passion of Abitinae's Martyrs the expression christiana libertas, which characterizes the heroic attitude of young Victoria, implies that there is a specific Christian way of being free. This wording may allude to the παρρησία of the martyr. But, more deeply, the expression echoes the Christian thoughts defined by the apologists (especially Tertullian, Apologetics, 24 and 49) on freedom considered as the basis of martyrdom, conversion and religion in a broader sense. The idea was new in antiquity, and we owe it to the Christian thinkers that the characteristics of the philosophers’ freedom of conscience have been transposed into the religious field. But a further reason may justify the use of the expression in the text of the Passion : it is likely to be a donatisi addition aimed at reminding the Catholics of the demands of a true Christian freedom.

BIBLE STUDY I CORINTHIANS 12 MISSION RELATIONSHIPS AND PARTNERSHIP: NEW MODELS OF PARTNERSHIP?

When looking for a suitable passage for this Bible study, I was very much tempted to choose some obscure passage, preferably an Old Testament one, in connection to which various issues of partnership could be discussed. One of these (not so obscure), I will return to towards the end of this contribution. However, during my search, I gradually began to realize that whatever interesting passages I might have come across, they would never fit the present theme as closely as would some of Paul's passages about the Christian community. The church of Paul's day perhaps was not quite so widespread and multicultural as the church of our days, but it definitely had already transcended significant borders of race, religion and culture. Paul's letters clearly indicate that he had begun to reflect.on how the Christian community was to deal with this growing cultural and ethnic diversity. One of Paul's most extensive writings on the how's and why's of a Christian community appears in his first letter to the Corinthians. In this letter, Paul addresses a whole number of issues that troubled him about the Corinthian community. He had heard about their quarrels over what teachers they followed (1:10ff) and about the very liberal interpretation of being free of the sins of this world. He was aware of a man that apparently had a sexual relationship with his father's wife (5:1) and others who saw no problem in going to prostitutes (6:12ff). Paul had also heard about others in Corinth who used their freedom to eat meat that had been sacrificed to idols, without any regard for those in the community who did not share that conviction (8:1ff). He knew about women who understood their freedom as allowing them not only to preach and prophecy (an opinion apparently shared by Paul), but to do that without covering their heads, which in the eyes of Paul and perhaps of other Christians of Jewish background c learly was shameful (11:5ff). Finally, Paul was very concerned about the way in which the Corinthians abused the Lord's supper (11:l7ff). Whatever we think of Paul's argumentation in the individual cases, at least three important principles arise from these discussions that are also of importance for chapter 12 and following: (i) the individual's Christian freedom is restricted by the good of others; (ii) the new life of a Christian is not just a matter of his or her soul or spirit, but also of their bodies -- honour God with your -- the body is a member of (6:15-20); (iii) there is a close connection between the body of Christ being the Christian community and the partaking of the body of Christ during the Lord's supper (11:17ff). In the following chapters (12 to 14), Paul begins to address another important issue: that of the Much can be said about the various gifts that Paul mentions in these chapters, and many attempts have been made to classify them and link them to present-day phenomena, either of the miraculous, extraordinary sort, or of the more institutionalized and orderly kind. That is not a discussion I will go into in this Bible study, apart from saying that although large parts of the church have tried hard to demythologize these gifts and understand them primarily in the realm of the institutionalized gifts, it seems very likely that Paul has the extraordinary in mind: the gifts of prophesying, healing, miracles, speaking in tongues and special kinds of wisdom, that apparently all occurred in churches established by Paul and whose occurrence definitely is not contested in these chapters. (1) What Paul is contesting, however, becomes clear in chapter 14. It is that a far too one-sided stress on the gif t of tongues had apparently become customary in the community of the Corinthians. Rather than allowing the full variety of spiritual gifts to be experienced and used in the community, the gift of tongues had overtaken and pushed aside all other gifts. Rather than allowing for too much diversity (which might have been the case in the earlier issues addressed by Paul), in this matter the Corinthians did not allow for enough differences or diversity. …

Sovereign Grace: The Place and Significance of Christian Freedom in John Calvin's Political Thought. William J. Stevenson, Jr.

Previous articleNext article No AccessBook ReviewsSovereign Grace: The Place and Significance of Christian Freedom in John Calvin's Political Thought. William J. Stevenson, Jr. Derek S. JeffreysDerek S. Jeffreys Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by The Journal of Religion Volume 81, Number 1Jan., 2001 Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/490793 Views: 1Total views on this site Copyright 2001 The University of ChicagoPDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.

Gewetebinding, Calvyn en die viering van die Nagmaal

Binding of the conscience, Calvin and the celebration of Holy Communion The context in which Scripture uses “conscience” determines the underlying relation of binding the conscience, freedom in Christ and essential and moderate matters. The Holy Spirit enables the conscience to discern which matters are essential and the believer receives the freedom (authority) in Christ not to be bound by moderate matters. Instances in which Scripture does not present a direct opinion and where it is doubtful whether a matter would indeed be essential or moderate, the conscience must not be bound, and the believer must be allowed to make a judgement of conscience by virtue of the gift of freedom in Christ, with the guidance of the Holy Spirit. For Calvin essential things are the dual unity of the Word and Holy Communion, the presence of Christ in Holy Communion, the sursum corda, and eating and drinking Christ with the Spirit through faith (cf. Confessio Belgica, art. 35). Moderate matters are external procedures, traditions elevated to principles, but even many more important aspects, such as the frequency of partaking of Holy Communion. Although Calvin provides Scriptural evidence for these aspects, he does not bind the conscience of others, as other conclusions could also be made from Scripture. Moderate matters are not of less importance and therefore Calvin leaves it to believers themselves to make their decisions on this matter by virtue of the freedom in Christ before God.