God In Scripture Research Articles

(Un)likely Allies: Public Theology and Theological Interpretation in Conversation

Abstract Theological interpretation of Scripture and public theology have so far said very little to one another. To a certain extent, this is understandable, as the two are involved in separate projects with differing priorities and questions. However, a mutually beneficial dialogue is possible. Public theology has yet to devote significant attention to the role of Scripture in public engagement and theological interpretation provides a framework better suited than historical criticism for allowing the Bible to speak to current situations. In return, public theology can help theological interpretation to clarify the public nature of the ecclesial community through the development of a public ecclesiology in order to better hear the voice of God in Scripture through a more holistic theological reading, one with a thicker defense against ecclesial tendencies toward authoritarianism and privatism. In establishing the possibility of a mutually beneficial relationship, this article provides a rationale for the relationship between public theology and theological interpretation to begin outright.

How to make the best Ganjang Gejang: The Missional Church Movement in Korea

In Korean Christianity, interest in missional church has almost exploded in the past 15 years, with two main streams of ideas. One emphasizes that a local church should reflect the missionary nature of the Triune God in a series of activities such as worship, preaching, praise and Bible study. The other insists that since the God of scripture always calls and sends people, church members should also go to their local community. This paper reviews the current discussion on missio Dei in Korea and the creation theology of Jürgen Moltmann. Moltmann states that God’s creation continues until the end and God’s ultimate purpose is to fellowship with all creation. Kong3al Community and Ilbeot Church, located in Gang-hwa Island, South Korea, practise such fellowship between human and human, human and nature, and creation and God. For the missional church movement to proceed fully in Korea, both streams should engage each other through the osmosis of the economy of salvation and the work of creation.

Imagining Theology: Encounters with God in Scripture, Interpretation, and Aesthetics , by Garrett Green

Imagining Theology: Encounters with God in Scripture, Interpretation, and Aesthetics , by Garrett Green

The Gospel of the Son of God: An Introduction to Matthew

The Gospel of the Son of God: An Introduction to Matthew

Baptists, Scripture, and the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification

The approach taken in this paper is based on two key considerations: (1) the emphasis that the Baptist theological tradition places on the role played by Scripture and its interpretation in the formulation, judgment, and renewal of our confessional statements; and (2) the testimony of the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification ( JDDJ) that the common understanding it articulates is grounded in a “common way of listening to the word of God in Scripture” ( JDDJ §8) and was derived, at least in part, by “appropriating insights of recent biblical studies” ( JDDJ §13). Its primary content is a brief summary of relevant discussions on justification and related themes in recent New Testament scholarship, some reflections on those discussions, and some suggestions for how those understandings might inform a collective Baptist response to the Joint Declaration. It concludes that the JDDJ should be taken by Baptists as a sign of hope and an encouragement to further conversation, including a distinctively Baptist explication of the common understanding stated in JDDJ §§15–17.

Encountering the Living God in Scripture: Theological and Philosophical Principles for Interpretation by William M. WrightIV and Francis Martin, Baker Academic, Grand Rapids, 2019, pp. xviii + 253, $26.99, pbk

Encountering the Living God in Scripture: Theological and Philosophical Principles for Interpretation by William M. WrightIV and Francis Martin, Baker Academic, Grand Rapids, 2019, pp. xviii + 253, $26.99, pbk

Prayer, Meditation & Spiritual Trial: Luther's Account of Life in the Spirit by Gordon L. Isaac

Reviewed by: Prayer, Meditation & Spiritual Trial: Luther's Account of Life in the Spirit by Gordon L. Isaac Steven Bielenberg Prayer, Meditation & Spiritual Trial: Luther's Account of Life in the Spirit. By Gordon L. Isaac. Peabody: Hendrickson Publishers, 2017. 206 pp. Through his sermons and writings, Luther promoted a daily theology that ranged beyond the world of clerics and academics. In a variety of ways, he taught the laity to pray and meditate regularly. He prepared them for spiritual trials. Regardless of the believer's education, Luther believed the rules of oratio, meditatio, and tentatio to be the basis for every Christian's life in the Spirit. From his own experience, Luther knew the terror of the law and the consolation of the cross of Christ. He knew the daily battle to love God and to [End Page 237] be Christ to one's neighbor. Life in the Spirit can only be lived in a context of daily prayer, meditation, and the wrestling that comes in spiritual trial. Luther made it abundantly clear that the Word of God must not only be read and studied. One's theology must also be lived. Throughout, the author gives practical illustrations of living in the Spirit and God's Word from Luther's published writings and personal letters. In the latter, Luther is conversational in his approach, as one Christian comforting another who struggles with sin, temptation, doubt, death, and the devil. Luther doesn't spout theology; he lives his theology, walking closely beside others. "Lived theology" begins with prayer (oratio). The rule of prayer is informed by Holy Scripture and guided by the Spirit of God. "The goal of prayer is thus to find oneself in the hands of the Holy Spirit, who will enlighten the mind through the text of Scripture" (30). The next rule for "lived theology" is meditation (meditatio). Isaac traces Luther's own spiritual history as he meditated on God's Word and wrestled with the God of scripture. As the Christian is terrified by God's wrath and his inability to keep the law perfectly, the Holy Spirit prepares him to receive the forgiveness of sins and the righteousness of Christ. This is an ongoing process; "the strangling of the old Adam does not take place all at once" (83). Isaac has several helpful discussions on Luther's distinction between law and gospel. To rightly distinguish between the two, one must consider Christ to be God's gift to us and not merely an example for us to follow. If we take Christ only as an example, we turn the gospel into yet another series of laws. For many, Christianity has only been another variety of moralism, an avoidance of sin and nothing more. The third rule is spiritual trial (tentatio/Anfechtung). Luther's own life offered nearly every kind of trial: fear of God's wrath, fear of death, persecution, and plague. When this book landed on my desk, little did we know that 2020 would provide extreme opportunities to be in prayer and meditation as we experienced spiritual and physical trials. Isaac's discussion of Luther's 1527 treatise, Whether One May Flee from a Deadly Plague, is timelier now than ever. In all trials, [End Page 238] personal or public, Luther leads his hearer to Christ, even as the devil is working his worst. His bold pastoral letter to Jerome Weller in 1530, quoted at length, should be more widely known. As always, physical and spiritual concern for one's neighbor is part of living our theology, directed by the Word and the Spirit. Isaac concludes with Luther's use of Abraham as an exemplar of all three rules, drawing chiefly from his Lectures on Galatians. While Abraham and Christ suffered trials we hope we never know, we can turn to their examples in hope as we face our own trials. This volume serves as a helpful guide for those who strive for a "lived theology." Scholarly yet accessible, Isaac's work clarifies our understanding of Luther's development in his daily application of oratio, meditatio, and tentatio. Isaac's carefully chosen examples will encourage readers in their own concern for each other...

The Psalms as Christian Praise: A Historical Commentary

The Psalms as Christian Praise: A Historical Commentary

William M. Wright and Francis Martin, Encountering the Living God in Scripture: Theological and Philosophical Principles for Interpretation (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2019), pp. xviii + 253. $26.99.

William M. Wright and Francis Martin, Encountering the Living God in Scripture: Theological and Philosophical Principles for Interpretation (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2019), pp. xviii + 253. $26.99. - Volume 73 Issue 3

Encountering the Living God in Scripture: Theological and Philosophical Principles for Interpretation by William Wright IV and Francis Martin

Encountering the Living God in Scripture: Theological and Philosophical Principles for Interpretation by William Wright IV and Francis Martin

Holy, holy, holy: divine holiness and divine perfection

AbstractDespite being emphatically ascribed to God in Scripture, holiness is little examined in the current literature on the divine attributes. This article defends a normative theory of holiness, taking as its point of departure Rudolf Otto's classic account of the phenomenology of the experience of holiness as that of a mysterium tremendum et fascinans. To be holy is to merit this dual response, that is, to merit both the overwhelming attraction and distinctive sort of repulsion that is characteristic of the experience of holiness. It is plausibly an implication of this account that a supremely holy being – one who is holy, holy, holy – must be the most perfect possible being.

Stephen R. Holmes, The Quest for the Trinity: The Doctrine of God in Scripture, History, and Modernity

Stephen R. Holmes, The Quest for the Trinity: The Doctrine of God in Scripture, History, and Modernity

Introducing Biblical Hermeneutics : A Comprehensive Framework for Hearing God in Scripture : Craig G. Bartholomew, Baker Academic: Grand Rapids, Michigan, 2015

Introducing Biblical Hermeneutics : A Comprehensive Framework for Hearing God in Scripture : Craig G. Bartholomew, Baker Academic: Grand Rapids, Michigan, 2015

Experiencing the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist

We present a new understanding of Christ’s real presence in the Eucharist on the model of Stump’s account of God’s omnipresence and Green and Quan’s account of experiencing God in Scripture. On this understanding, Christ is derivatively, rather than fundamentally, located in the consecrated bread and wine, such that Christ is present to the believer through the consecrated bread and wine, thereby making available to the believer a second-person experience of Christ, where the consecrated bread and wine are the way in which she shares attention with him. The consecrated bread and wine are then, in a sense, icons of Christ.

Introducing Biblical Hermeneutics: A Comprehensive Framework for Hearing God in Scripture by Craig G. Bartholomew

Introducing Biblical Hermeneutics: A Comprehensive Framework for Hearing God in Scripture by Craig G. Bartholomew

The Hidden God: Luther, Philosophy, and Political Theology by Marius Timmann Mjaaland

Reviewed by: The Hidden God: Luther, Philosophy, and Political Theology by Marius Timmann Mjaaland Gregory Walter The Hidden God: Luther, Philosophy, and Political Theology. By Marius Timmann Mjaaland. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2016. xii + 233 pp. Marius Mjaaland has written an important book on Luther's Hidden God and the nature of modernity. This work differs from other approaches because it adopts a genealogical perspective, uses a variation of Carl Schmitt's research program into secularization, and focuses entirely on the uses Luther puts to the Hidden God to discuss Luther's political theology. This combined approach is what "political theology" means in the book, a coinage of Schmitt's that is only somewhat related to other uses of political theology that seek to show how theological positions may have a political effect. Mjaaland's work shows how the political is not purely secular but instead is theological in ways that Luther can criticize. In sum, "Luther thus draws the hiddenness of God into the praxis of reading and interpreting texts, as a condition of understanding" (173). Mjaaland establishes the hiddenness of God as this pre-condition for thought, whether political or theological, in distinction from other modern ways of interpreting Luther's discourse on the Hidden God. These other traditions, associated with the names of Eberhard Jüngel, Karl Barth, and Gerhard Ebeling, reduce any divine hidden-ness to the revealed God. While these approaches to the Hidden God are undertaken for theological purposes, Mjaaland also objects to assimilating Luther too readily to the various positions on contingent and absolute power in late medieval theology. Yet another trajectory allies Luther with German mysticism or the Pseudo-Dionysian tradition; for these interpreters, Mjaaland has more sympathy. While Mjaaland's case is sharply presented, readers devoted to these alternatives may desire more substantial evidence and discussion of the positions Mjaaland sets aside. To show that the Hidden God is the condition for political and theological thought in Luther, Mjaaland takes up the distinction [End Page 445] between God in and outside of Scripture that Luther employs against Erasmus in the bound will debate. This distinction shows that one can neither abandon the Hidden God skeptically, acting as if hiddenness does not exist and adopting the motto "that which is above us, doesn't concern us," nor can one attempt to tame the Hidden God by reducing it to God in scripture. Mjaaland shows that the Hidden God as precondition of theology and the political alike does not rest in grasping, writing, or otherwise fixing the character of God or of political life. Such efforts are fleeting at best according to Mjaaland's Luther. For Mjaaland, God's hiddenness always destroys, destabilizes, and undermines the secular and religious alike. Thus, for Mjaaland the Hidden God is a genuine continuation of Luther's theologia crucis. The Hidden God as the pre-condition of all thought gives way to a surprisingly incomplete discussion of God's grace as a gift. Mjaaland claims that the unconditionality of the Hidden God is a kind of pure or free gift. Owing to the substantial discussion of gift in contemporary theology and philosophy, sometimes directly dealing with Luther's work, Mjaaland's argument here deserves further development, especially since Luther prefers promise to gift in most of his articulations of God's graciousness. In the course of this work, Mjaaland considers Luther's Heidelberg Disputation, his dispute with Erasmus on the bound will, and writings concerning the peasants' revolt. Mjaaland makes considerable use of the work of Martin Heidegger, Jacques Derrida, and other philosophers to aid his argument. Written in the style of continental philosophy, this work should be considered by Luther scholars of all stripes, especially those interested in Luther's theology and its relationship to modernity. Mjaaland's approach to this relationship is especially valuable because he has shown how Luther's use of the Hidden God has been overlooked as a factor in the formation of modernity. [End Page 446] Gregory Walter Saint Olaf College Northfield, Minnesota Copyright © 2017 Johns Hopkins University Press and Lutheran Quarterly, Inc.

Book Review: Craig G. Introducing Biblical Hermeneutics: A Comprehensive Framework for Hearing God in Scripture

Book Review: Craig G. <i>Introducing Biblical Hermeneutics: A Comprehensive Framework for Hearing God in Scripture</i>

Introducing Biblical Hermeneutics: A Comprehensive Framework for Hearing God in Scripture

Introducing Biblical Hermeneutics: A Comprehensive Framework for Hearing God in Scripture

Stephen R.Holmes, The Quest for the Trinity: The Doctrine of God in Scripture, History and Modernity. Downers Grove: Intervarsity Academic, 2012, xix + 231pp. $26.00

Stephen R.Holmes, The Quest for the Trinity: The Doctrine of God in Scripture, History and Modernity. Downers Grove: Intervarsity Academic, 2012, xix + 231pp. $26.00

An Empirical Approach to Mark's Account of Discipleship: Conversation between the Word of God and the People of God

This study invited the participants at a residential Diocesan Ministry Conference (N = 73) to function as a hermeneutical community engaging in a conversation between the Word of God and the People of God on the theme of discipleship. Building on the SIFT approach to biblical hermeneutics, the participants worked in groups structured according to dominant psychological type preferences: sensing, intuition, feeling and thinking. This process facilitated rich and varied insights into what God may be saying to the People of God about the place of discipleship within the contemporary church, grounded on the Word of God in scripture and, in this case, contextualised within one specific rural diocese.