Contemporary Believers Research Articles

A Critical Analysis of Selected Issues in the Book of Daniel: Implications for Contemporary Christianity

The book of Daniel is one of the frequently-quoted books when it comes to issues regarding resilience in one’s faith. The setting of the book and the events surrounding Daniel’s life in Babylon have many lessons for contemporary Christians. The purpose of this article was to bring out certain features and issues in the book of Daniel to present to readers relevant aspects of the context within which the book was written and to consequently equip them to successfully interpret and apply the message of Prophet Daniel. The paper is a literature-based research that gathered data from books and commentaries on Daniel and analyzed them critically to make meaning of the biblical book. One of the key findings was that God sovereignly guards his people and makes them have victory over evil. This study aimed at arousing interest in biblical scholarship on prophetic literature, especially the Book of Daniel. The paper encouraged contemporary believers to be resilient in their faith as they live in a world full of evil deeds. In times of difficult circumstances, Daniel persisted in not hesitating or giving up his faith to follow the patterns of the evil world; rather, he placed God above all things, and succeeded in his endeavours. Keywords: Daniel, God, Christianity, Old Testament

A Critique of Thomas Aquinas’ Three Percepts of the Old Testament Law

Aquinas’ three-part classification of the Old Testament law has gained popularity and is proving to be useful in addressing challenging questions about the Old Testament law when presented to modern audiences. This qualitative study will examine Aquinas’ thesis by examining it from the perspective of biblical writers. The hermeneutics approach will be used to investigate the three-part division of the Old Testament law in order to comprehend the division and its history as closely as possible to the author’s original intention, as God commanded through him. This critique intends to acknowledge and appreciate the valuable contributions of Thomas Aquinas in assisting modern believers in comprehending the intricate biblical law. Furthermore, it aims to align the context of the law with a biblical worldview. To comprehend the Old Testament law accurately, it is necessary to have a profound understanding of moral and ethical principles that transcend time, along with approaching the Old Testament law with the proper heart attitude. Such an approach can enable contemporary believers to view the Old Testament law as a guide that remains pertinent and practical in daily life.

Why Do Christians Believe in the Resurrection of Jesus?

Abstract In conversation with Dale Allison’s The Resurrection of Jesus, this short article argues that, while critical historiography cannot establish with complete certainty the veracity of Jesus’s resurrection, this is not a problem for contemporary believers who confess that God has raised Jesus from the dead. The NT writings indicate that the church’s experience of the risen Christ and the Spirit of Christ validates its belief in the historical reality of Jesus’s resurrection.

The Emergence of the Kabbalah: Early Sefirotic Theosophy as a Response to Contemporary Theological Challenges

Abstract This study offers a fresh view on one of the fundamental problems concerning the history of Jewish thought and religious discourse, namely, the cause for the sudden appearance of the Kabbalistic theosophy of the sefirot in the turn of the 13th century. Based on testimonies of 13th-century Kabbalistic and non-Kabbalistic authors, I show that the wide reception and rapid development of the sefirotic system in this period were due to the fact that it provided theological solutions to two acute difficulties with which contemporary believers and theologians struggled: first, rejection of the notion of divine providence over individuals, and second, enhancement of the Jewish worship of divine mediators.

Critical Thin

This article delves into the spectral and affective reserves of Zikr, the Sufi exercise of godly remembrance. It explores how performances of religious longing broaden the moral experience of a post-migrant Berlin by offering contemporary believers critically thin zones of hypersocial contact with Islamic holy figures. Zikr emerges as a key interface of felt and material worlds: through acts of remembrance, subliminal figures and migrant inheritances are made contemporaneous while suppressed civic-political matters find a spectral, more-than-visual presence in Berlin. Sufi haunting thus achieves, amid enduring conditions of migration, a provisional positioning of the not-here and the not-now as an also-here. Such remembrance affords migrants a greater awareness of being distinctly historical as well as the critical means to look past conditions of the present.

Eschatological Images in the Living Speech of the Con­temporary Old Believers of Perm Prikamye

This article considers the reflection of certain peculiarities of Old Believer religious consciousness in the language of the contemporary Prikamye Old Believers. The description of vocabulary, phraseology, paremiology, and utterances found the living speech of contemporary believers is aimed at the restoration of the cultural context of tradition and revealing the peculiarities of expression of the eschatological theme, the main one for Old Believer ideology. Observations of the living speech of the Old Believer dialect bearers help reveal a set of linguistic forms expressing the meaning of human existence, including vocabulary and proverbs reflecting the ideas of Old Believers concerning death and new birth of the world, the ways of death visualisation, posthumous existence, and fate of the souls of the dead. In the course of interpretation of such means, supplemented by the descriptions of the Old Believer ritual practices, the author reveals the attitude tradition bearers have towards death as well as the peculiarities of their life ideals and moral values. To reveal cultural and ideological meanings, the author analyses the figurativeness of words and expressions existing in the Old Believer vocabulary, comparing religious and cultural connotations of language forms under study. While describing the means representing the ideas of the end of the world and the person’s death, the author emphasises their relation to religious texts and verbal pre-Christian tradition symbolism. The author concludes that the Old Believer linguistic worldview reflects a peculiar syncretic worldview which is associated with the fading away of the tradition and the decline of religious literacy. The linguistic representation of the Old Believer worldview peculiarities denotes that not only book learning, but also naive religious archaic ideas have an effect on their consciousness.

Literary Forms/Techniques & Methods of Study

Literary Forms/Techniques & Methods of Study Christopher T. Begg and Rhiannon Graybill ________ 145. [Ezek 22:6–12; Lev 19:11–18] Klaus-Peter Adam, “Bloodshed and Hate: The Judgment Oracle in Ezek 22:6–12 and the Legal Discourse in Lev 19:11–18,” Second Wave Intertextuality, 91–111 [see #776]. A.’s article focuses on the lexicographic and thematic overlaps between the Holiness Code in Leviticus 19 and the Priestly undercurrents in Ezekiel 22, highlighting both similarities and differences between the two chapters. In addition to its compositional analyses of two passages, A.’s intertextual reading yields the additional thematic insight that whereas Ezekiel 22 underscores the urban setting of the ruling elites, Leviticus reflects rather the rural context of the lay kinship community. [Adapted from published abstract—C.T.B.] 146. [Anthropology] Lars Allolio-Näcke, “Clothing and Nudity from the Perspective of Anthropological Studies,” Clothing and Nudity, 33–49 [see #771]. A fundamental question concerning the topics of clothing and nudity is the following: Why are humans the only primates that are furless? Or in other words: Why are humans naked? (p. 33). A.-N. organizes his reflections on this question under the following heads: (1) Why Are Humans the Only Naked Primates?; (2) Nude or Naked?; (3) Why Did Humans Make Clothes?; (4) What Kind of Clothes Did Humans Make?; (5) Fashion Developments; and (6) Why Does Euro-American Clothing Dominate the World? His article comes with numerous drawings and photos illustrating human dress (and undress) from many different time periods.—C.T.B. [End Page 45] 147. Michael Barram, “Teaching a Bible That Is Relevant: Reflections on Context, Genre, Emphasis, and Missional Foundation,” List 54 (2019) 18–31. B.’s stress on understanding context, genre, and emphasis in biblical books or passages helps put matters into manageable perspective, especially for first-time Bible readers, such as many, probably even most, college students: Beginning Bible readers—and even many seasoned ones—find it difficult to give adequate attention to the context of the ancient biblical text, a phenomenon that can obscure or even lead to minconstrual of the contemporary relevance of what they read. However, there is hope! Teachers especially can help clear the underbrush of expectations that are naïve or unhelpful or hostile toward reading the Bible. See also ##150, 153, 172. [Adapted from published abstract— C.T.B.] 148. [Orthodox Biblical Hermeneutics] Bruce N. Beck, “Unbinding the Book: Toward a Restoration of a Patristic Orthodox Hermeneutic of Scripture,” SVTQ 63 (2019) 161–89. If George Parsenios (see #176) emphasizes the importance of the rule of faith for Orthodoxy, B. draws attention to the use of Scripture in the Church’s worship. B. contends in particular that for most Orthodox believers, worship and public proclamation of Scripture in the Church constitute the main context for the appropriation and interpretation of the Bible and that such use should at least teach us something about, if not completely determine, Orthodox hermeneutics. Thus, in liturgical use, much attention is paid to discrete biblical words (e.g., the angelic acclamation “holy, holy, holy” in Isa 6:3 is expanded into “Holy God, Holy Mighty, Holy Immortal” of the Trisagion hymn) as is also the case with the connections made among seemingly disconnected pericopes in the liturgy. The hermeneutic of continuity might be achieved in a variety of ways. B. cautiously defends typological interpretation (when a past event becomes a type of a central NT figure or prefigures the present), as long as such an interpretation does not lead to supersessionism (the claim that OT revelation has been decisively replaced by the NT event or figure). According to B., typology is an invitation for the contemporary believer to imitate the ancient saints and be drawn into communion with them. Thus, the hermeneutic of continuity turns into what Margaret Mitchell calls a “hermeneutic of love.” According to the latter hermeneutic, to enter Scripture is to be in communion with its inspired authors, who were themselves in communion with God. To read Scripture properly one needs to first imitate the saints; such imitation should bring about a growth in holiness, and...

Untangling Spiritual Contradictions Through the Psychology of Lived Paradox: Integrating Theological Diversity in the Old Testament with Durand's Framework on the Imaginary.

There are many theological themes that appear in the Old Testament in Israel's relationship with Yahweh. These themes contain multiple emphases throughout different times in Israel's history that can richly inform how the contemporary believer is to relate with God. At times though, these varied themes can seem to cross in opposition with one another. Having a framework of theological diversity is helpful in untangling potential theological contradictions that can otherwise threaten to strangle the well-being of the believer trying to live faithfully in light of the whole canon of Scripture. Insights from the French anthropologist Gilbert Durand on the psyche's unconscious structures of the imaginary seem to be of help in this endeavor. They can aid the contemporary believer's journey in discerning when to take the initiative in acting on behalf of God, when to be expectantly passive while waiting for God to fulfill his promises, and when to engage in a joint decision-making process with him. They can also aid the believer toward both psychological and spiritual maturity as well as provide help in navigating different seasons in one's spiritual journey.

Tinjauan Teologis Integritas Elia

Integrity is important as long as someone is still alive. The importance of integrity is so important since the time of Elijah's ministry that was very necessary to bring change in the midst of Israel, which is to return to true worship. The changes brought by Elijah were only determined because Elijah had integrity. How about today, is integrity still relevant for believers? The author himself believes that integrity is still relevant for contemporary believers. The reason, because the success or failure of a person is determined by integrity. Integrity itself has the meaning of the integrity of a person, that means talking about one's own truth.

Orthodox Fasting in a Postsecular Society: The Case of Contemporary Russia

The article deals with the revival of fasting in Russia after a long period of its nearly full neglect. On the basis of electronic sources, such as web forums, question-and-answer services, streaming video channels, and other publications the author shows how the clergy and the laity together discuss, collectively test and evaluate diverse fasting practices. The discourse on fasting practices in Russia is polyphonic and highly personalized; even the clergy has no single authoritative position. It remains unclear, who should be responsible for fasting mitigation in case of illness, pregnancy, or other circumstances; people are exposed to many different opinions, what results in confusion and anxiety. The article shows that contemporary believers—including the clergy—are not ready to follow tradition blindly. The discussants are roughly divided into two groups: those supporting traditional rules (fasting from animal products), and those inventing their own practices (fasting from sweets, or switching to cheaper foods). Both groups are interested in rational, mundane arguments in support of their choice: the traditionalists emphasize that fasting from meat is “healthy”, or that Lenten food is “tastier”; their opponents point out that fish and seafood are more expensive than dairy products and poultry; therefore, no money can be saved for the destitute.

Negotiating meaning through costume and social media in Bulgarian Muslims’ communities of practice

This paper shows how contemporary believers are negotiating a new identity of Islamic piety in Bulgarian Muslim communities. Driven by communal memory of repression and contemporary Islamophobia, Bulgarian Muslims have created communities of practice (Wenger 1998), participatory groups that share a common interest in learning more about their faith. Communities function on multiple levels: there are small pockets of Islamic activity at the local level, and at a broader level, an imagined community of Bulgarian-speaking Muslims connected to an imagined global Islamic community, the ummah. The practices examined here include face-to-face activities, such as learning to read the Qur'an and prayers in Arabic, learning Islamic principles and practice, and talking about faith in mosques and homes in Bulgaria. This paper also examines virtual practices, such as discussing faith on social media. The article focuses on women's and girls’ Qur'an reading groups and discussions about wearing hijab, and it examines an online mixed-gender discussion of daily prayers. Such grassroots practice of Islam fosters a newly articulate and participatory version of religion, embracing and encouraging believers’ literacy and knowledge, activism, and agency. The mutual goals, repertoires, and activities of this community of practice create a sense of commonality and cohesiveness, while leaving room for some diversity of focus.

Wisdom, Prophecy, and the Guidance of Humanity

While there are major differences between their respective religious paths and personal lives, there are also important areas of convergence between the beliefs and practices of Pope John XXIII (formerly Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli) and Said Nursi. Both saw a world of massive injustice, inequality and violence; both saw humans on their own as unable to meet these challenges; and both found resources to guide humanity in the wisdom of their respective religious traditions. Both worked tirelessly to actualise the promise of peace of their particular religious paths. Both believed in religious freedom. Roncalli knew and respected Muslims from his years serving as a papal envoy in Sofia, Bulgaria, and in Istanbul. As Pope John XXIII, he changed Catholic teaching by affirming for the first time in Catholic history the right of religious freedom. Nursi interpreted the Islamic heritage of prophecy and wisdom in relation to the challenges of his context. Pope John and Nursi drew lessons from the prophets of their traditions to guide contemporary believers. Both stand as beacons of hope for humanity in the 21st century. Nursi and Pope John appreciated the deep anxieties of their contemporaries over the many threats and uncertainties of modern life; both knew the havoc that can be brought by unchecked human passions. Submission to God as the one sure path to peace was at the very centre of Nursi’s understanding of Islam and human life. It was also central to Pope John’s understanding of Christian discipleship.

DEVELOPMENT OF THEOLOGICAL TRAINING AND HERMENEUTICS IN PENTECOSTALISM: A HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE AND ANALYSIS

The article hypothesises that the historical development of Pentecostal hermeneutics is closely related to and illustrated by Pentecostals’ attitude towards theological training. A short survey is given of the development of theological training within the Pentecostal movement in order to demonstrate how it accompanied a change in the way the Bible was considered during the past century in terms of three phases. For the first three decades Pentecostals had no inclination towards any theological training; they considered that the Bible provided all they needed to know and what was important was not what people in biblical times experienced with or stated about God, but the way these narratives indicate contemporary believers to an encounter with God themselves, resulting in similar experiences. From the 1940s, Pentecostals for several reasons sought acceptance and approval and entered into partnerships with evangelicals, leading to their acceptance of evangelicals’ way of reading the Bible in a fundamentalist-literalist way. From the 1970s they established theological colleges and seminaries where theologians consciously developed Pentecostal hermeneutics in affinity with early Pentecostal hermeneutics, although most Pentecostals still read the Bible in a fundamentalist-literalistic way − as do the evangelicals. Its hermeneutics determined its anti-intellectual stance and the way Pentecostals arranged the training of its pastors. The history of the Pentecostal movement cannot be understood properly without realising the close connection between its hermeneutics and its view of theological training.

The imitation game: becoming imitators of Christ

AbstractWhat is it to lead a Christian life? At least part of the answer, from St Paul to Thomas à Kempis, to makers of WWJD bracelets, is to imitate Christ. But while there is a lot of practical advice in the spiritual literature for imitating Christ, there is little by way of philosophical analysis of what it is to imitate Christ. In this article, I aim to fill this lacuna. I argue that the imitation of Christ, as conceived of by St Paul, Thomas à Kempis, and others, requires a radical transformation of character, which, in turn, I argue, based on considerations from developmental psychology, requires direct engagement with Christ. This conclusion may be surprising, since Christ does not seem to be directly present to contemporary believers in the same way as, say, a mother is directly present to her infant child. I deal with this objection, and conclude with some applications of this approach to the philosophy of Christian spirituality.

Unbelief, the Senses and the Body in Nicholas Bownde's The vnbeleefe of S. Thomas (1608)

Doubt and unbelief were central to the ways in which ministers and theologians in post-Reformation England thought and wrote about religion. Far from signalling spiritual failure, grappling with unbelief could be an important stage in developing the faith and religious understanding of the individual believer while establishing a role for physicality and the senses. Nicholas Bownde's The vnbeleefe of S. Thomas the Apostle, laid open for the comfort of all that desire to beleeue (1608) suggests that unbelief was relational and that belief required not only an acknowledgement of doubt but also extensive exploration of what doubtful and unbelieving experiences involved and how they were to be overcome. Bownde's work demonstrates that this ongoing spiritual conversation could make use of important scriptural examples such as the ‘Doubting Thomas’ episode in order to elucidate intimate theological problems for contemporary believers. This process suggests that early modern religion can only be properly understood with close reference to the role of doubt, unbelief and spiritual uncertainty in religious discourse because belief itself was predicated on the logical possibility of unbelief.

Piñata Spirituality: A Reflection on The Evangelical Mobility of the Spiritual Classics

Piñata Spirituality:A Reflection on The Evangelical Mobility of the Spiritual Classics Gilberto Cavazos-González, OFM (bio) I remember as a young child taking a stick and dancing around a traditional Mexican piñata of seven brightly colored cones with wavy strands of crepe paper. With a jerk the candy-filled star flew up into the air as a bandana was tied around my face to cover my eyes and my primos y primas (cousins) and friends began to yell, “¡Dale!, ¡dale!, ¡dale! más arriba; más abajo; más fuerte; ¡dale!”1 I don’t remember breaking the piñata, I suspect an older and stronger primo, busted it open. I do remember scrambling around with my primas y primos collecting sweet Mexican goodness off the ground. That is the secret of a good piñata, the candy, graces showering down upon the earth for the joy of all God’s children. I begin my article on the evangelical mobility of the Christian spiritual classics, with a star shaped piñata for a specific reason. It will serve as the model of evangelical and spiritual mobility I am considering in this essay. Mobility, which is migration from one place to another, as well as the ability to move and adapt easily and quickly, occurs and has occurred in Christianity to such an extent that Christians often forget or ignore the cultural origins and contexts of certain spiritual classics. Of course this spiritual and religious immigration is not always that easy or quick. Often it takes years for spiritual writings, art, music, and so on to become classics, and, when they do, they often times lose their connection to their original contexts and perhaps even lose some of their spiritual gusto as a result. Did you know Santa Teresa de Avila (Teresona to her amigo/as) and Ignazio de Loyola (Nachito) are from Spain, therefore Hispanic saints? Contextually, Piñatas are immediately associated with Hispanic customs and traditions, specifically Mexican! So why do Christians ignore the Spanish roots of Modern mysticism as if Pedro de Alcantara (not Peter), Francisco de Osuna, Teresa de Avila, Juan (not John) de la Cruz y muchos otr@s grew up in a Christian vacuum where cultural nuances, customs, traditions and beliefs had nothing to offer our spiritual masters, or even contemporary theologians and spiritual writers? If they continue to inspire and move contemporary audiences around the world, it is because their form of Spanish spirituality and mysticism [End Page 1] Click for larger view View full resolution Piñata. Courtesy José Lira [End Page 2] had and has “religious mobility,” which, although rooted in a cultural and historical cotidiano2 and context, transcends this to speak to contemporary cultures and peoples. The question of “religious mobility,”3 is not just a question for social and religious studies. It is so much more than changing from one religion to another or from one form of Christianity to another. Religious seekers today are finding that the Christian spiritual classics4 of the past have an evangelical and spiritual mobility that makes them inviting to contemporary believers. Moreover, when these classics are contextualized in their cultural and religious world, they tend to regain much of their oomph, making them especially enticing and challenging to contemporary participants. I choose to use “participant” rather than readers of the spiritual classics, because as we know, the spiritual classics of Christianity are not always the written works like poetry, prayers or spiritual treatises of great spiritual writers. Very often, they are the devotional practices, art and music of popular Catholicism that require active participation. These spiritual classics are the product of a sacramental or symbol producing Christian mindset because as doctoral student at the Gregorian University, Marcello Schiano states, everything “that concerns the spiritual life of an individual finds symbolic expression in a spontaneous way. Symbol is not limited to a single expressive function, but extends the ordinary appearance of things according to a spiritual path; it allows us through visible means to touch the invisible.”5 These symbols are participative events like the breaking of a piñata, which entices participants with the promise of graces and...

Development of theological training and hermeneutics in Pentecostalism: a historical perspective and analysis

The article hypothesises that the historical development of Pentecostal hermeneutics is closely related to and illustrated by Pentecostals’ attitude towards theological training. A short survey is given of the development of theological training within the Pentecostal movement in order to demonstrate how it accompanied a change in the way the Bible was considered during the past century in terms of three phases. For the first three decades Pentecostals had no inclination towards any theological training; they considered that the Bible provided all they needed to know and what was important was not what people in biblical times experienced with or stated about God, but the way these narratives indicate contemporary believers to an encounter with God themselves, resulting in similar experiences. From the 1940s, Pentecostals for several reasons sought acceptance and approval and entered into partnerships with evangelicals, leading to their acceptance of evangelicals’ way of reading the Bible in a fundamentalist-literalist way. From the 1970s they established theological colleges and seminaries where theologians consciously developed Pentecostal hermeneutics in affinity with early Pentecostal hermeneutics, although most Pentecostals still read the Bible in a fundamentalist-literalistic way − as do the evangelicals. Its hermeneutics determined its anti-intellectual stance and the way Pentecostals arranged the training of its pastors. The history of the Pentecostal movement cannot be understood properly without realising the close connection between its hermeneutics and its view of theological training.

Against Patriarchy

Against Patriarchy

Is Durkheim's understanding of religion compatible with believing?

Does Durkheim's sociology of religion pose a challenge to the faithful? Durkheim said no in debate with contemporary non-believers and believers, portraying religion not as ‘mere illusion’ but as consisting in ‘moral forces’ that command, comfort and strengthen the faithful, forces generated and regenerated within them by the ‘collective effervescence’ of rituals. Thus empowered, the faithful imagine in symbolic form ‘the society of which they are members and the obscure yet intimate relations they have with it.’ Durkheim's answer is shown to have three components: a critique of naturist and animist ‘error theories’ of religion; a method of ‘deep interpretation,’ uncovering the ‘reality’ beneath the symbolism; and an explanation of why the meaning of religion thus interpreted should have been for so long unacknowledged by the faithful. It is argued that, in principle, they can, on certain assumptions, accommodate his sociology of religion. But this, in turn, makes key assumptions and claims that have been seriously questioned: notably, that ‘religion’ names a unified phenomenon and that Durkheim's definition captures it. Recent revised ‘Durkheimian’ accounts of religious thought and practice are considered, accounts that abandon these assumptions and also his ‘social realism,’ while seeking to preserve his insights. It is argued that these too need not directly challenge religious belief in the way that the cognitive science of religion does.

Miejsce i rola Starego Testamentu w adhortacji Benedykta XVI Verbum Domini (na przykładzie stosowanych cytacji)

Benedict XVI underscores the unchanging validity of the Old Testament. In the exhortation Verbum Domini this is manifested by quotations of texts from the Hebrew Bible or the Septuagint in the context of problems discussed in connection with the theology of any of the New Testament writings. Moreover, the Pope shows Jesus himself as a new perspective of what is foretold by the text of the First Covenant and that is why the Old Testament becomes a lasting point of reference for the conduct of contemporary believers. It is also a unique and uniform source of revelation of the word for the Church. The Pope’s exegesis of the texts is decidedly more theological than literal so it is worthwhile to undertake the analysis of particular quotations in a broader perspective of biblical theology and the entire teaching of the Church. The exhortation sincerely recommends such a task.