Divine Election Research Articles

«Слово о законе и благодати»: анализ христологии литературного памятника

This article is a theological analysis of the work "Word on Law and Grace" through the prism of the Christology of the OrthodoX Church. The Old Russian monument was created in the context of St. Hilarion of Kiev’s activity in catechizing believers and conveying the fundamentals of Christian doctrine through poetic and rhetorical forms. The author attaches importance to Christology as a central element in understanding the historical process. St. Hilarion also enters into a polemic with heterodoX views. He emphasizes the divine-human nature of the Savior and the role of oikonomia in the process of human history, which are the key themes in his theological reflections and arguments. In addition, the author builds a coherent argumentation around New Testament subjects, establishing a connection with the prophecies of the Old Testament and the historical event of the Baptism of Rus’. On the one hand, the saint succeeded in creating an original concept of the divine election of the Russian people with an appeal to the text of Holy Scripture, and on the other hand, he succeeded in conveying the foundations of OrthodoX Christology to the believers of the Russian Church.

With regard to persons: Divine election of the poor in James and Paul

With regard to persons: Divine election of the poor in James and Paul

The Problems of Divine Manipulation

Abstract Many Christian theologians believe in the existence of cases of divine hardening and divine election, where God either actively contributes to human evil or preordains it. God seems to act like a manipulator, who first covertly incites or determines people’s evil actions and then condemns those actions and punishes the wrongdoers. I raise three questions regarding such cases: (1) how can humans be responsible for wrongdoings that are determined by God via either direct involvement or predestination; (2) is God justified in using covert manipulation to achieve his goals; (3) how can God judge human evil, if God predestines them or actively incites humans to commit evils? The article outlines two cases of supposed divine manipulation, discusses the general nature of manipulation and then examines each question outlined above. The argument is that the problems surrounding divine manipulation present significant challenges to especially those Christian theists that subscribe to divine determinism.

ПРАГМАТИКА И КОНТЕКСТУАЛЬНЫЕ ОСОБЕННОСТИ ФУНКЦИОНИРОВАНИЯ РЕЛИГИОЗНЫХ КОНЦЕПТОВ В ИНАУГУРАЦИОННЫХ РЕЧАХ АМЕРИКАНСКИХ ПРЕЗИДЕНТОВ

The article is devoted to the study of the semantic and contextual features of the inaugural speeches organization in cases when religious concepts function in them. The relevance of the study is determined by the importance of analyzing the pragmatic characteristics of the religious concepts functioning in American presidents’ inaugural speeches. Research methods are cognitive-discursive analysis, contextual analysis, method of quantitative processing of the material. Empirical material contains 57 inaugural texts, in which the functioning of religious concepts is noted in 296 contexts. US presidents regularly use religious concepts in their inaugural speeches, in some cases of their functioning, inaugural texts have certain structural features that are emphasized in this work. The article analyzes the main pragmatic guidelines for using these concepts: actualization of the moral and ethical values of society, underlining the importance of continuity in the history of the state, implication of the meaning of the divine election of the president and the idea of a special relationship of the Creator to the American people, seeking divine help in leading the state. The study of the role of the religious concepts functioning in the inaugural speeches of American presidents allows us to consider in more detail the linguistic and extralinguistic features of political discourse texts.

Christianity, settler colonialism, and resource extraction

AbstractThis article explores the relationship between Christianity, extractivism, and Amer‐European settler colonialism. It argues that Amer‐European Christianity is an extractivist religion, with beliefs and practices that are deeply intertwined with an extractivist relationship to the natural world and Indigenous peoples. In conversation with the work of Willie Jennings and exploring the impact of the doctrine of Christian discovery, the extractivist theology of John Locke, and the supersessionist use of divine election and covenant, this article exemplifies how Amer‐European Christianity has shaped and been shaped by settler colonial extractivism. It raises the question whether and how Amer‐European settler Christians may decolonize their extractivist relationship to Indigenous peoples and the natural world by learning from Indigenous peoples in dialogue with the work of the Osage theologian “Tink” Tinker.

“Flourishing for All?: Chosenness and Divine Election in James Cone and Karl Barth”

ABSTRACT Unreflective notions of chosenness and divine election have been (mis)used to defend racist and colonial abuses. Reading together James Cone’s understanding of the Oppressed as the Elect and Karl Barth’s understanding of all humanity as elect in the Elect One, Jesus Christ, generates an understanding of how the flourishing of all peoples is possible when the particular, specific contexts of all peoples are addressed. Instead of abusing notions of chosenness and divine election to justify oppression, a rehabilitated understanding of chosenness and universal election can be a tool of antiracist, anticolonial theologies. Cone and Barth sought to communicate hope in their specific contexts through appeals to God’s gracious favour. Such hope remains possible today.

Divine Election in the Hebrew Bible, written by Hallvard Hagelia

Divine Election in the Hebrew Bible, written by Hallvard Hagelia

A Critique of Philosophical Shamanism

A Critique of Philosophical Shamanism

The Church of America and the Heresy of Peace

America, said G. K. Chesterton, is a nation with the soul of a church. It is a sacred community commanding sacrificial loyalty. It is also a violent and weapon-loving civilization, in which force is tethered to patriotism and national identity. American culture is at once militarist and theological, Christian and violent. How can this paradox be explained? This article discusses the role of New England puritanism in establishing a providentialist nationalism that would define war as a theological prerogative and non-violence as heresy. It shows how theologians such as Cotton Mather identified the emerging nation of America with the sacred vessel of the Christian church to the point that ‘chosenness’ or divine election represented a blank cheque for military adventure. It also shows how theologies of peace and restraint were anathematized as not merely heretical but a form of spiritual violence against the American project. In this sense, American nationhood functions as a controlling consideration akin to an institution, and Christian pacifism serves as a charismatic critique – or inspiration. To what extent were attitudes to violence framed by models of salvation? How did identity or chosenness trump ethics or the duty of love in the puritan imagination? The article concludes with more recent observations about the relationship of the ‘institution’ of nationhood to the troublesome, fissiparous energies of peace.

Pacifist utopias: humanitarianism, tragedy and complicity in the Second World War

Pacifist utopias: humanitarianism, tragedy and complicity in the Second World War

Divine Election in the Hebrew Bible by Hallvard Hagelia

Divine Election in the Hebrew Bible by Hallvard Hagelia

Biblia e Inquisición. Criptojudaísmo y alimentación en la España Moderna

Los marranos españoles y portugueses en la época moderna respetaban las leyes de la casherut que figuraban en el Éxodo, el Levítico y el Deuteronomio. Algunos lo hacían por fidelidad a la tradición familiar, otros por costumbre cultural, y otros todavía para seguir los ritos y los preceptos de la ley mosaica. Así renovaban el sello de su elección divina y tenían la impresión de formar parte del pueblo elegido que, desde Noé, había heredado las tres noblezas teologal, natural y civil.

Divine Election in the Hebrew Bible, by Hallvard Hagelia

Divine Election in the Hebrew Bible, by Hallvard Hagelia

Original Sin, Preterition, and its Implications for Evangelization

Abstract In this paper, I examine the four elements—universal sinfulness, natural sinfulness, inherited sinfulness, and Adamic sinfulness—of the doctrine of original sin in both the Reformed confessions, with particular attention to the Canons of Dort, and the Council of Trent’s definitive teaching on Original Sin. I give particular attention to the question regarding how all men are implicated in the sin of Adam. Realism and federalism will be analyzed as answers to this question. Even if a theological account is given that justifies the claim that God may justly impute Adam’s sin to his posterity, that still leaves unanswered the question of unconditional negative reprobation, also called, preterition (praeteritio), namely, that God passes over some and not others. Does preterition jeopardize the Church’s call to evangelization? That question will need to be reconsidered briefly, and in conclusion, in light of the doctrine of divine election and its implications for the preaching and hence proclamation of the gospel.

Spinoza and Judaism in the French Context: The Case of Milner’s Le Sage Trompeur*

Abstract Jean-Claude Milner’s Le sage trompeur (2013), a controversial recent piece of French Spinoza literature, remains regrettably understudied in the English-speaking world. Adopting Leo Strauss’ esoteric reading method, Milner alleges that Spinoza dissimulates his genuine analysis of the causes of the persecution and survival of the Jewish people within a brief “manifesto” found at the end of the Tractatus Theologico-Politicus (TTP), Chapter 3. According to Milner, Spinoza holds that the Jewish people themselves are responsible for the hatred of the Jewish people, and that the engine of their longevity is the hatred they engender. Additionally, claims Milner, Spinoza covertly insinuates that the solution to this persistent state of hatred consists in the mass apostasy of the Jewish people under the leadership of a Sabbatai Zevi-like figure. This article presents the Milner–Spinoza controversy to the English-speaking public along with the larger context of French-language scholarship on Spinoza’s relation to Judaism. While refuting Milner’s reading of Spinoza, I simultaneously clarify relevant elements of Spinoza’s discussions of Judaism in the TTP, such as Spinoza’s examination of Jewish identity and the nature of divine election, Spinoza’s understanding of the causes of national hatred, and Spinoza’s appeals to Portuguese, Spanish, Chinese, and Turkish political history.

Calvinistic Doctrines Reflected in Jonathan Edwards’s “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”

Preached on July 8, 1741, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” remains Jonathan Edwards’s most famous written work and a classic of the Great Awakening of New England. The long-famed power of this sermon rests not only in his searing images of hellfire and the insecurity they elicit, but also in the Calvinistic thoughts Edwards imparts to his Enfield listeners. This paper mainly examines some basic doctrines of Calvinism Edward expresses in this sermon, such as God’s absolute sovereignty, original sin, human depravity, and divine election, etc.

Historical Genesis of the State Rulemaking Activities (Middle Ages)

The article is studying the historical process of formation of rulemaking activity and rulemaking powers of medieval states (after the fall of the Roman Empire before the discovery of America, namely 476–1492 years), including Kievan Rus, on the basis of legal monuments and historiographical sources. The reasons for the monopolization of rulemaking by the ruling elite and rulers, influence on the process of formation of external forms of law of the historical, cultural and socio-economic conditions of the existence of states, power and tradition of the peoples are revealed. Features of procedures of preparation and adoption of legal acts are considered, the history of codification of customary law, peculiarities of elaboration of rules of legal technique, as well as the process of gradual reception of the revised, codified and updated European University of Roman Law in Italy, Germany, France, Switzerland, France cantons, Scandinavian countries, which replaced the ancient custom and resulted from the development of socio-economic relations. The article substantiates the conclusion that the nature of rule-making powers of the states during the Middle Ages stemmed from the theological justification of power and the corresponding conception of the divine election of the ruler, which led to the increase of absolutist tendencies in the exercise of state power, although some manifestations of influence and traceability were observed, although there were some manifestations of the influence of the population on power, and there were elements of the election of rulers in separate historical periods. However, there was a predominant concentration of rulemaking functions in the hands of the supreme power, which were used to effectively control the population with broad discretionary powers of the supreme power. Also noted as a general tendency is the further increase in the professionalisation of rulemaking activities in the period under review, the strengthening of the process of codification of customary law and the almost universal reception of Roman law in Western Europe, which was also characteristic of Kievan Rus.Manuscript received 29.02.2020

CHARACTERISATION AND PLOT(S) IN GENESIS 16: A NARRATIVE-CRITICAL ANALYSIS

A narrative analysis of the plot(s) of Genesis 16 brings to the fore the motifs of barrenness, wilderness, and divine encounter, and indicates that the text presupposes God’s choice of Isaac over Ishmael, which is more clearly emphasised in Genesis 17 and 21. Be that as it may, one of the major tasks facing a narrative-critical reader of Genesis 16 is to account for the author’s special concentration on the characters of Hagar and Ishmael in a narrative that majorly concerns Abraham and his household. Does this focus suggest the divine election of Hagar and Ishmael? In this article, I shall demonstrate that the motifs of barrenness, wilderness, and divine encounter are narrative devices used by the narrator to underline, in advance, the “theology of separation” and God’s compassion for, and salvation of, the afflicted. I shall also analyse how some factors in the narrative portray God’s and the narrator’s disapproval of Sarah’s involvement of Hagar in her marital life. This shows that Abraham and Sarah tried to bring about the fulfilment of God’s promise in their own way, which is contrary to the plan of YHWH, who had plans (of election) for Isaac. In other words, the focus on Hagar and Ishmael does not presuppose divine election of them, it rather prefigures, among other things, that the place of Ishmael would be in the wilderness.

Divine Election: A Catholic Orientation in Dogmatic and Ecumenical Perspective by Eduardo J. Echeverria

Reviewed by: Divine Election: A Catholic Orientation in Dogmatic and Ecumenical Perspective by Eduardo J. Echeverria Jordan J. Ballor Divine Election: A Catholic Orientation in Dogmatic and Ecumenical Perspective by Eduardo J. Echeverria (Eugene, OR: Pickwick, 2016), 314 pp. This study is an ambitious and wide-ranging effort to articulate the clear but generous boundaries of Roman Catholic orthodox teaching concerning predestination within the context of alternatives, both within and without Roman Catholicism. Eduardo J. Echeverria's interlocutors thus range from the Protestant reformer John Calvin (1509–1564) to the Dutch Reformed theologians Herman Bavinck (1854–1921) and G. C. Berkouwer (1903–1996), as well as the German Protestant Karl Barth (1886–1968), Matthias Joseph Scheeben (1835–1888), and Hans Urs von Balthasar (1905–1988). A noteworthy feature of Echeverria's engagement with these diverse figures is his care to provide as nuanced and sympathetic an account of their views as possible. Thus, even where there is disagreement—and in some cases it is sharp—Echeverria provides a model of principled and charitable ecumenical interaction. Echeverria's erudition is on full display in this volume. In addition to those figures named above, who receive chapter-level attention, Echeverria brings to bear a wide array of secondary sources and commentators related to the figures themselves and their respective traditions or schools of thought, as well as to Scripture and Church tradition. If the doctrine of divine predestination has been called "a portentous, awesome word in theology" (Scheeben) and "deep waters, in which every human mind begins to flounder" (Balthasar), then this treatment does justice to its subject matter by consistently placing the reader into very deep waters indeed. At the same time, Echeverria provides a very helpful and summative statement at the end of each chapter, as well as in the concluding chapter of the book itself, concerning the Roman Catholic orientation for the elements that have been discussed in the preceding sections. This "Catholic orientation" is one of the clear strengths of the book and provides a valuable service for those looking to, as Echeverria puts it, understand "the boundaries of confessional Catholicism" (283). As might be expected, given the disagreements over predestination and grace that were at issue during the era of the Protestant Reformation, the Council of the Trent [End Page 271] figures largely in drawing such boundaries. Nevertheless, Echeverria is to be commended for making clear from the outset that predestination is itself an ecumenical topic. Much popular and even semi-academic writing has characterized predestination as a specifically Protestant, and particularly Reformed or Calvinist, distinctive. Not so, contends Echeverria. Predestination is itself a biblical doctrine, and thereby an inheritance of theological tradition from the Church Fathers onward, particularly Augustine in the West. Echeverria's book thus explores questions that are of ecumenical or universal concern to all Christians: "The topic of the mystery of God in himself and his relationship with human persons, in short, divine election and human freedom. In other words, how do we reconcile God's sovereignty of grace with human freedom, not just in general but particularly with respect to the Church's full understanding of God's plan of salvation as a work of grace?" (2). Even if predestination as such is not solely the domain of the Reformed tradition, Echeverria does consider whether Calvin, perhaps that tradition's most identifiable figure, is culpable of the heresy of predestinarianism, which logically equates and holds as symmetrical God's decision to elect some to eternal life and reprobate others to eternal damnation in the same manner and mode (62). Likewise, the Reformed tradition, as represented by Calvin, is judged to depart from the "Augustinian Principle," which holds that human nature remains fundamentally unchanged in the states of creation, fall, redemption, and consummation (36). Because this position holds that human nature is capable only of evil in the fallen state, "this fallen state is inconsistent with Calvin's description of the created will in its pre-fallen condition" (46). Echeverria leaves unexplored how the basically Augustinian view that humanity in the fallen state is unable to not sin (non posse non peccare), affirmed and codified by Bernard of Clairvaux (1090–1153), differs...

Milton’s Ethos, English Nationhood, and the Fast-Day Tradition in Areopagitica

During the English Revolution, Westminster divines Cornelius Burges and Stephen Marshall resurrected the practice of preaching in Parliament in an attempt to articulate, without repair to kingship or Catholicism, what it meant to be free, godly, and English. Though scholars have acknowledged Areopagitica’s debt to the nation-forming biblical rhetoric of these sermons, in this study I argue that Milton commandeers that rhetoric—especially the application of the figure of Israel to the would-be commonwealth—in order to renovate his own public image, such that he and the nation cannot be thought apart. Milton projects an ethos that is at once representative and apostolic, Isocratean and Pauline. At the same time, he reworks the sermons’ figural depictions of England’s divine election, covenant, and religious conformity such that his nation could not exist without him. This imbrication of persona and patria reconciles contrasting theories about Milton’s self-understanding and extends our understanding of Milton’s nationalism in a time of revolution and religious upheaval.