Scriptural Principles Research Articles

Un regard neuf sur la formation du Canon

A New Look at the Formation of the Canon The work of explaining the process of the elaboration of the New Testament canon by the second century Church has given way, at times, to an attempt at justifying historically Protestant scriptural principles. There has been a shift from history to theology (O. Cullmann). It is, however, possible to explain the formation of the orthodox Ν. T. canon, without appealing to either the inherent authority of Ν. T. Scriptures or a providential act of grace, by « de-dogmatizing » the notion of orthodoxy and restoring its historical meaning. Irenaeus of Lyons, upon whose work André Benoît, a Protestant patristician, has shed light by his studies, may be used as a guide and historical reference in this enterprise.

Group Counseling in the Church: An Integrative Theoretical and Practical Analysis

Little, if any, study and research has focused upon integrative principles of group psychotherapy and biblical Christianity. In this article, both theoretical and practical implications of conducting group counseling in the Church are explored. Following an overview of the present utilization of group process within the existing Church structure, an integrative framework is proposed from which to formulate psychotherapy groups in churches. Utilizing Carter and Narramore's (1979) “Integrates” model, twelve major curative factors of group psychotherapy are systematically integrated with Getz’ twelve “one another” scriptural principles. Finally, after further discussion of the theoretical paradigm, several potential advantages and disadvantages of the process of conducting group counseling in churches are outlined and their practicality and feasibility are analyzed.

Varieties of Approaches to Psychotherapy: Options for the Christian Therapist

The multitude of existing approaches to psychotherapy can place Christian therapists in a dilemma as to which approach to use with their clients. It also makes it difficult for the students of psychotherapy to decide which approach best merits the investment of their time and energy in training. The problem is further aggravated by the Christian therapist's concern for the acceptability of the approach to therapy on scriptural grounds. While attempts have been made to create therapeutic approaches based strictly on scriptural principles, or on those aspects of secular systems for which a biblical justification can be found, or on a psychologically and theologically integrated theory of personality, no single approach appears to be adequate for all disorders, all persons, and all situations. Since our knowledge is at best partial and since truth often cannot be contained in unilateral concepts but appears to have a paradoxical quality, a structured eclectic rather than an integrated approach is a better choice for the Christian counselor. The Christian integrity of psychotherapy is ensured by the therapist's identity and by the treatment objectives rather than by a commitment to a specific counseling approach.

Authority and Theological Method: A Review Discussion

AUTHORITY AND THEOLOGICAL METHOD A Review Discussion * IN ECCLESIAL REFLECTION and in its predecessor Ecclesial Man (Fortress Press, 1975) Edward Farley, professor of theology at the Divinity School of Vanderbilt University, intends to offer a prolegomenon to theology. In Ecclesial Man the author addressed what he called " the problem beneath the problem of theological method," that is, the question whether faith in Jesus Christ involves reality-references and reality-apprehensions. Using social phenomenology to probe the linguistic, social, and psychological strata of the faith-world, he showed how faith apprehends directly or indirectly realities of this intersubjective faith-world, the ecclesia, the disrupted but redeemed existence. Ecclesial Reflection, building upon this foundation, discusses the problem of theological method or criteriology proper. It is written with elegance and great didactic skill. The ideas are carefully argued, often clearly enumerated; the main theses are highlighted by italics; each chapter or sub-division recapitulates the previous one and concludes with helpful summaries. It does not, however, mean that the book makes for easy reading , and this partly because it presupposes acquaintance with Husserlian philosophy and social phenomenology with their attendant unfamiliar concepts and vocabularies (e.g. livedspace , social self, cointentions, depth sociality, etc.), partly because Farley is forced at times by his-perspective to use old words with new connotations (e.g. ecclesia, Kerygma, ecclesial *Edward Farley: Ecclesial Reflection: An Anatomy of Theological Method (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1982). 4~1 PETER C. PHAN universal, generic universal, etc.) , and partly because any discussion of methodology cannot help but be abstract. Apart from its appendix on the general structure of social duration (its conditions, its elements, its process), the book is divided into two almost equal parts, the one critical, the other constructive. Convinced that most contemporary theological work, both Catholic and Protestant, is methodologically incoherent , Farley devotes the first part (pp. 3-168) to a radical critique of the classical criteriology which he calls the " House of Authority." His method is to unearth the various strata from the lowest to the highest that have been inserted into the structure of this House of Authority. He starts out therefore in chapter one with an analysis of the religious matrix that originates the methodology of classical Christian theology: the faith of Israel (Yahwism, covenanted people, land, Torah, tradition); Judaism (synagogue, sacred scriptures, apocalypticism , universalization); and early Christianity which retained and modified these elements of the faith of Israel and of Judaism. Of the faith of Israel, early Christianity preserved the Adamic myth, the heilsgeschichtlich framework, but rejected the motif of the land in the sense of a definitive territory given to the elect people as a nationally defined entity. Of Judaism, it took over the apocalyptic worldview, the Scripture principle, the missionary enterprise, and the synagogal organization, but modified them substantially. Instead of synagogue, we find local congregation; instead of rabbis, missionary preachers, and instead of the Torah piety, the Jesus kerygma and Jesus piety. In the next three chapters Farley traces the route that leads from this religious matrix to the three loci of the classical methodology, namely, Scripture, dogma, and Church. Obviously these three loci are not strictly speaking criteria but norms within the framework of authority. Supporting them are two foundational principles and their middle axioms. The first principle is the interpretative scheme of salvation history with its three elements: the people, their history teleologically interpreted , and the kingly deity who governs through causal AUTHORITY AND THEOLOGICAL METHOD 4~3 interventions (the" royal metaphor"). This salvation history scheme entails that history can be periodized (e.g. in apocalyptic literature); that the time of revelation can be fixed (e.g. the view that Christian revelation ended with the death of the last apostles); and that in the eschatological age the Church is the definitive institution of doctrinalization and locus of truth. The second principle, that of identity, affirms an identity between what God wills to communicate and what is brought to language in the interpretative act of a human individual or community. Thus the creaturely entity is the ersatz presence of the divine, the divine intention is identified with the human interpretation, divine qualities (e.g. infallibility and inerrancy) are predicated of the human...

Scriptural Principles of Earthly Citizenship

Scriptural Principles of Earthly Citizenship

Grundtvigs mageløse opdagelse. Et bidrag til dens tilblivelseshistorie.

Grundtvig s “Matchless Discovery” (a contribution to the history of its origin). By Kai Baagø. Grundtvig’s “matchless discovery” in 1825 that the faith of the Church as expressed in the Apostolic Creed existed before the Bible, and that we find in it the unshakable foundation on which we can build when the question is “What is true Christianity?” — this discovery was not unconnected with some ideas concerning Church policy and theology which came strongly to the fore among some young theologians in the winter and spring of 1825. 1) During this winter a young clergyman, Jørgen Thisted, began to make a violent attack particulary against the rationalistic Professor C. F. Hornemann, and it was precisely the Creeds which he used as his weapon; Hornemann’s exegesis of the New Testament was not in accordance with the Apostolic Creed, “inter alia”. Thisted was powerfully supported by a couple of young and learned theologians who had just returned from Germany: J. A. L. Holm and A . G. Rudelbach, who had been influenced especially by the Professors Tholuck and Neander in Berlin. During the same winter Rudelbach lectured at the University on the Creeds, and in their new periodical, “Theologisk Maanedsskrift” (“Theological Monthly”), of which Grundtvig was co-editor, Holm attacked Hornemann with the same weapons as Thisted. Undoubtedly these happenings drew Grundtvig’s attention to the significance of the Creeds in the fight against the rationalists. 2) Grundtvig also learnt something in this circle with reference to the question concerning the relation between the Bible and the Church. Rudelbach brought home from Germany the Lutheran Scriptural principle, which he stressed strongly in his writings, namely, that the right interpreting of the Scriptures can only be done by believers, that is, in the Church. It was precisely this view which Grundtvig put forward in “Kirkens Gienmæle” (“The Church’s Reply”) in the autumn of 1825. The Bible is indeed written for the Church (“menighed”), which was a fact before the Bible. Therefore theology in its interpretation must keep within the bounds which the Church’s confession of faith marks out. 3) Until 1825 Grundtvig had used the word “Kirke” (“church”) of the clergy and “menighed” (“congregation”) of the laity. Together with his “discovery” a new conception of the Church appears: the Church (“Kirke” as “corpus Christi”, the Church (“menighed”) gathered round the sacraments of Baptism and Communion, the Church (“menighed”) as the living chain of professing Christians. Here, too, he may have learnt much from his coloborator in the “Theologisk Maanedsskrift”, Rudelbach, who in his sermons and articles during 1824 and 1825 strongly stressed the conception of the Church as the Church of Christ, militant in this world, triumphant in the next, the Church of Christ, which exists wherever He feeds those who believe on Him with His own flesh and blood. 4) But the decisively new feature in Grundtvig’s “discovery” appears in the use which he made of the Apostolic Creed in his fight against the rationalists. Like the Early Church in its contest with the Gnostics, so, too, Grundtvig used “the historical argument” : that in the rule of faith (which for Grundtvig is the same as the confession of faith — the Creed) the right expression of true Christianity is to be found. He himself wrote, in a review of Neander’s “Antignosticus” which appeared in the spring of 1825, that Marheinicke and Neander in Germany brought this truth forth before him. There is therefore reason to believe that a study of Marheinicke’s “System des Catholicismus” (1810) and Neander’s book on Tertullian (“Antignostikus” 1825) led him to his new outlook. In both these works we also find a view concerning the Apostolic Creed, especially in its relation to the Scriptures,which is entirely parallel to that of Grundtvig.

Protestants and the Marian Doctrine

PROTESTANTS AND THE MARIAN DOCTRINE IN this study an important place is accorded the comparison between sixteenth century and contemporary Protestantism . At the very outset ·it will be noticed how different these positions are. This difference is all the more evident from a comparison of the thought of Luther with that of contemporary Calvinism. I believe that on this point Hebert Roux represents the average contemporary Calvinist attitude. He writes: " To the question, ' What place does the Virgin Mary hold in reformed piety?,' we can and must reply with firmness, 'None whatever.'" 1 This position, moreover, may be considered as the logical outcome of the very principles of the Reformation. We shall see, however, that at the beginning of the Reformation the position was less radical, especially in the mind of Luther. Indeed, we may speak of Luther's Marian devotion, despite his denial of fundamental 'elements of Catholic theology concerning Mary. LUTHER In his commentary on the M agnificat, in the explanation of the verse, " The Almighty has done great things for me," Luther writes: " These great things are just this, that she has become the Mother of God. So great and numerous are the bless.ings which have been bestowed upon her by this event, that no one can comprehend them. All honor and happiness flow from it, as likewise the fact that in all mankind, one person ah:me is above all others, to whom no one may be held equal, since a unique Child, and what a Child, is the Son of the Heavenly Father and also her very own. Therefore, the honor due her can be summed up in a single word, by calling her the 1 Jean Bose, P~re Bourguet, Pierre Maury, and Hebert Roux, Le protestantisme et la Vierge Marie, Paris, 1950, p. 8. 480 PROTESTANTS AND THE MARIAN DOC'l'RINE 481 Mother of God.... No one could say to her anything more grand. Nothing greater can be said of her." 2 The tone of this passage is striking, so far removed is it from the reserve of the average contemporary Protestant position. As far as Luther is concerned, Mariology is shaped by two principles, Christus solus and Scriptura sola. But within this framework Luther seeks to give Mary a real place. In the name of his Christological principle Luther rejects the cult which acknowledges Mary as "Queen of Heaven." For this reason he cannot tolerate the Salve Regina. How could one possibly say that Mary is " our Life, our Sweetness, and our Hope"? The Regina Caeli ought also to be discarded. To call Mary " Queen of Heaven is to attribute to a creature that which belongs to God alone." 3 Speaking of Mary, Luther continues, " I accept the fact that she prays for me, but that she is my consolation and my life, this I cannot admit." 4 Mary's merits may not even be considered. According to Luther the angel's salutation, " Thou hast found grace with God," does away with the idolatry of placing Mary on a level with God Himself. All that Mary has is grace, not merit. No confidence may be placed in Mary or in her merits, but in God alone. In the devotional order we must reject the distinction between dulia and hyperdulia, which is " man-made thought without basis in Holy Scripture." 3 Attributing to a creature the exercise of divine mercy is, on Luther's part, cause for great indignation. The rebuff at the wedding of Cana serves precisely the role of stressing that Christ alone is Mediator. With polemic excess, Luther does not hesitate to say that all Christians are of the same rank. Peter is no greater than the thief on the cross, and the Mother no higher in dignity than the sinner, Mary Magdalene.6 •Cf. R. Schimmelpfennig, Die Geschichte der Maienverehrung im deutschen Proteatantismus, Paderborn, 195!it, p. l!it. •Cf. Schimmelpfennig, op. cit., p. 9. •Ibid. •Cf. Schimmelpfennig, op. cit., p. 10. •Cf. Schimmelpfennig, op. cit., p. 11. 482 JEROME HAMER In accord with his Scriptural principle, Luther remarks that Holy Scripture is purposely silent concerning Saint Ann, precisely in order to avoid our going elsewhere to...

Grundtvig som tænker. Henning Højrup: Grundtvigs syn paa tro og erkendelse

Grundtvig som tænker. Henning Højrup: Grundtvigs syn paa tro og erkendelse

Book Review: The Bible, the Church and South India. The proposed Scheme of Church Union in South India considered in the light of scriptural and historical principles, with some positive proposals for its modification

Book Review: <scp>The Bible, the Church and South India</scp>. The proposed Scheme of Church Union in South India considered in the light of scriptural and historical principles, with some positive proposals for its modification

The Physical Nature of Verse

IF Prof. E. W. Scripture (NATURE, October 11, p. 534) had said that normal English verse was mainly a matter of rhythm—instead of saying that verse is purely a matter of rhythm—he would have been in line with ordinary opinion to-day. I have myself taught this, at Cambridge and elsewhere, for a quarter of a century. Prof. Scripture contributes nothing new except his method of research and the unnecessary word “centroid.” His conclusion is too sweeping, and at the same time defective. The works of Homer, Pindar, Virgil, Horace, and Ovid are verse; and in them we are obliged to take account of quantitative feet. Shakespeare's blank verse line is rhythmic; Milton's is rhythmic and quantitative as well; both observe the principle of number. One of the great aesthetic principles, that uniformity shall admit of variety, so that we receive a continual satisfaction of expectation, mingled with recurrent surprise, would be thwarted if verse were written solely on Prof. Scripture's principle.