Theological Significance Research Articles

Daniel E. Kim. Rest in Mesopotamian and Israelite Literature

In Rest, we find Daniel Kim’s revised dissertation, which he completed under Andrew Clarke at Aberdeen in 2015. Kim compares the concept of rest in Mesopotamian literature (or ML; pp. 13–79) with that in the Deuteronomistic History (pp. 81–200) and Chronicles (pp. 207–272), focusing on a few key terms: nâḫu and pašāḫu in ML and נוח‎/מנוחה in Hebrew.1In his analysis of the Mesopotamian literature (pp. 13–79), Kim surveys Enuma Elish, Atrahasis, and the Poem of Erra as well as, to a lesser degree, the Royal Inscriptions of Esarhaddon and the Annals of Ashurbanipal (pp. 65–74). He identifies four categories of rest in ML: “(a) rest as divine authority; (b) rest as divine provision; (c) rest in a divine abode; (d) and rest as divine appeasement” (p. 16).2 Kim is dependent on a small number of secondary sources, and he accepts their conclusions readily without clearly engaging them.3Kim’s lexical analysis of נוח (pp. 93–95) is limited to the hiphil stem and focused on the Deuteronomistic History. Curiously, Kim does not refer to previously mentioned journal articles or cite entries from lexicons on נוח in his own analysis.4 Instead, he seeks to collapse the theological use of נוח into the secular use so that he rarely finds a passage in which נוח simply means “put, place.” Unfortunately, this often makes Kim’s exegesis feel strained. For example, he asserts that when Yhwh allows nations to “rest” (that is, leaves them) in Canaan to test Israel, it is because “rest” has been “given (albeit in a different form) to the foreign nations to bring unrest to Israel” (p. 126–9). Similarly, when Gideon “rests” the offering before the angel of Yhwh in Judg 6:18, Kim infers a subtle theological affirmation of Deuteronomic rest (pp. 136–37). Regarding the “resting” of the tables in the temple in 2 Chr 4:8, Kim argues that “the Chronicler connects the ten tables in 2 Chr 4:8 with the table(s) for the bread of presence in 2 Chr 4:19” and that this connects these tables to creation, the presence of Yhwh, and the ark. For Kim, these theological associations explain the Chronicler’s decision to use נוח rather than נתן or קום (pp. 235–238). Some of Kim’s more modest exegetical proposals are compelling. For example, Kim’s reading of the promise to David in 2 Sam 7:1 and 11 (pp. 166–76) presents helpful arguments regarding source and textual criticism, and, in this case, נוח is associated with the kind of rest with which Kim is particularly interested. However, Kim fills many occurrences of נוח with more theological significance than is necessitated or implied by the context.In parallel with von Rad’s There Remains Still a Rest, Kim’s assessment of rest in the Deuteronomistic History is that it is “singular, permanent, spatial and fulfilled” (that is, oriented to the land); whereas, in Chronicles, it is “many, transient, relational, and eschatological” (p. 276).5 In comparison to ML, the differences in usage make comparison difficult. While rest is generally experienced by deities in Kim’s examples from Mesopotamia, in the biblical literature rest is almost exclusively experienced by humans.6 This results in a mismatch in the genre and content of texts and, thus, in the type of “rest” being compared.Some readers may find Kim’s exegesis creative and his suggestions stimulating food for thought. I was frustrated, though, by his engagement with both the Mesopotamian texts, which I found too limited, and with the biblical literature, which I found too narrow in its lexical analysis and too hasty in its transfer of theological significance into the use of נוח.

The Biblical shepherding model: it’s role in caregiving for people with bioethical-related issues

In Genesis 1:1, we read that "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth". God is not only introduced to us as the source of all creation but also as the one who owns everything, according to Psalm 24: 1- 2. Further, God is unequivocally introduced to us as interested and actively involved in every detail of the creation's day-to-day being and functions. This is evident in His nature of being and existence, showed in Jeremiah 23: 23 – 24. Bartholomew and Goheen summarize this for us when they observe that "God is the source of all that is. He stands apart from all other things in the special relationship of Creator to creation (Craig, 2014)". It is this special relationship between the sheep of God and creation and, in particular, humanity that gives birth to the ‘Shepherd motif’ that runs throughout the scriptures and will be the focus of this paper. God relates with humanity as a Shepherd does to the flock or sheep. This paper seeks to underscore the development of the Shepherd motif in Scriptures as well as its Biblical and theological significance for the pastoral vocation and for the discipline of Bioethics. Aspects of missional implications of the shepherd motif in pastoral vocation and bioethics will also be discussed.

The Church of the Dead: The Epidemic of 1576 and the Birth of Christianity in the Americas by Jennifer Scheper Hughes

Reviewed by: The Church of the Dead: The Epidemic of 1576 and the Birth of Christianity in the Americas by Jennifer Scheper Hughes Erik R. Seeman Jennifer Scheper Hughes, The Church of the Dead: The Epidemic of 1576 and the Birth of Christianity in the Americas (New York: New York University Press, 2021) Jennifer Scheper Hughes breathes new life into an important topic: the relationship between the devastating toll of disease on Indigenous communities in sixteenth-century Mexico and the Christian affiliation of many Native Mexicans in that same time span. Readers of this journal will be most impressed by Hughes's theological readings of her primary sources. Though she does not sustain some of her claims, Hughes succeeds in categorizing colonial Catholicism as a church of the dead. Hughes focuses on an epidemic that began in 1576 and lasted roughly five years. The epidemic is not well-known outside specialist circles, perhaps because the disease itself remains unidentified. Marked by grim symptoms, including hemorrhages from the nose, the disease may have been caused by the bacterium Salmonella enterica, Hughes speculates (13). Instead of getting bogged down in medical guesswork, Hughes wisely refers to the illness by its Nahuatl name: cocoliztli. The 1576 epidemic caused such widespread death that Spanish observers defined the period as one marked by mortandad, which can be translated as "mortality," but which also connotes "carnage" and "slaughter" (16). Faced with this mortandad and the demise of so many Indigenous Christians, some missionaries despaired for the future of the Mexican Church. Hughes analyzes this [End Page 116] moment of despair with great sensitivity, focusing on (but not limiting herself to) 135 unpublished missionary letters written from 1576 to 1581. Relying on these sources, Hughes argues that Mexican Catholicism became a church of the dead, meaning that "every aspect of [it] was in some way defined by or responsive to the fact of cataclysmic death" (99). When describing the church of the dead, Hughes uses language that sometimes seems hyperbolic, as when she states that this "spectral church" was an "ecclesial body absent of living persons" (95). In other places, her poetic writing suggests that such characterizations are not meant to be taken literally but are rather attempts to describe the essence or spirit of colonial Mexican Catholicism: the church "breathed in death; it exhaled death; it dwelled in death" (99). Hughes supports these claims in four vigorously analytical chapters. The first focuses on the intimate bodily and spiritual care missionaries offered sick Natives. Serving as healers, priests infused their ministrations with theological significance. Healing was "a religious rite"; indeed, it was "a kind of sacrament" that helped "transform Indigenous bodies into Christian flesh" (37–38). Unlike in English North America, where (following Joyce Chaplin's interpretation) Native susceptibility to illness led colonists to believe in their own racial superiority, missionary encounters with Native illness in Mexico led to "the mystical incorporation of Indigenous persons into a larger, encompassing Christian body" (39). Chapter two continues the analysis of Indigenous bodies, emphasizing their relation to the corpus mysticum, a medieval phrase that conjures both the mystical body of the church and the literal flesh of Christ. Even as missionaries incorporated Indigenous bodies into the colonial corpus mysticum, the mortandad threatened that project: the mystical body was "injured and at risk" (66). To remedy this, priests turned to the healing power of blood. They urged Indigenous Catholics to shed their own blood in scourging penitential processions, and they performed bloodletting on their dying Native parishioners. The result was not racial othering but mystical union: Mexico's sanguinary theology "was often more about assimilating and erasing difference than about drawing ever sharper lines of division and distinction" (84). The next two chapters take spatial relations as their organizing principle: the third from the perspective of the missionaries, and the fourth based on Indigenous sources. Whereas the mortandad led some priests to fear that the Mexican church was failing, others took up the challenge of ministering to a dying population. To do so, Archbishop Pedro Moya de Contreras walked 800 leagues (perhaps some 2,000 miles). According to Hughes, Moya and other missionaries "resanctified the landscape by walking" (106), expanding the...

Book of Mormon Theology—Anticipating the Future of a Discipline

Book of Mormon Theology—Anticipating the Future of a Discipline

Christianity and Psychedelic Medicine: A Pastoral Approach

AbstractIn recent years, researchers in the “psychedelic renaissance” have been reinvestigating the therapeutic potential of psychedelic compounds for conditions like post-traumatic stress disorder, clinical anxiety/depression, and addiction. Each of these has treatment-resistant cases, sometimes decades in the making, but studies employing psychedelics to address them are yielding impressive results. Given the evolving legal situation around these substances as well as corporate investment in them, their availability and appeal promise to increase. The question facing Christians is: How do these developments impact the theological significance of psychedelics as a broader phenomenon? This paper argues that since the population standing to benefit from these treatments is likely to include Christians, a thoughtful and rigorous response is necessary. The inquiry proceeds by analyzing some of the pertinent research, showing the insufficiency of previous Christian responses, and considering some hurdles and objections before issuing a call to theologize on this timely and important cultural moment.

Resisting to the Beat: Exploring the Theological and Educational Significance of Hip Hop as an Act of Resistance

Abstract The article wishes to explore the theological significance of Hip Hop as an everyday practice of resistance that warrants practical-theological reflection. The first section provides a short background of how Hip Hop came into existence and highlights its core elements, like the role of memory, resistance, social analysis, and critique in a local and global context. This is followed by an explanation of the practical-theological focus of the article. The second section offers a detailed discussion of the religious and theological value of Hip Hop, while the final section focuses on how this act of resistance provides a platform that could shape agency, especially among youth, and dissects the educational value of Hip Hop as cultural text. Considering the context and content of Hip hop, it is argued that it could be instrumental in being a voice for the voiceless and marginalised as an essential aspect of popular culture in contexts like South Africa and Brazil.

Review: Painting in Stone: Architecture and the Poetics of Marble from Antiquity to the Enlightenment

Review: <i>Painting in Stone: Architecture and the Poetics of Marble from Antiquity to the Enlightenment</i>

An injured and sick body – Perspectives on the theology of Psalm 38

Descriptions of body imagery and body parts are evident in expressions of Old Testament texts. Although there is no single term for ‘body’ in the Hebrew mind, the concept of ‘body’ functions in its different parts. As part of anthropomorphic descriptions of God and expressions attached to humankind, body parts have special significance, contributing to the theological dimension of texts. The poems in the Psalter are no exception. Several body parts are mentioned in Psalm 38, an individual lament song. In addition to God’s hand (v. 3) and an allusion to his voice (v. 16), several body parts describe the psalmist’s condition. These include ‘flesh’ (bāšār, 3, 8), bones (‘ætsæm, 3), head (rôsh, 5), loins (kæsæl, 8), heart (lēb, 9, 11), eyes (‘yn, 11), mouth (pæh, 14, 15), and feet (rægæl, 17). In addition, allusions to the ear (14, 15) and injured body (wounds, 6) form part of the psalmist’s lamenting experience.Contribution: This presentation touches on the general meaning of these body imagery in the Old Testament and their specific function and meaning in the text of Psalm 38. A textual analysis will portray their theological significance.

Jaulung Wismar Saragih

Abstract This study explores the theological significance of Jaulung Wismar Saragih (1888-1968), the first-generation Christian, ordained pastor and theologian from the Simalungun ethnic group. He was also the first local person to translate the Bible into his local language in the Indonesian context. Saragih’s theological thinking foregrounded Indonesian postcolonial contextual theology regarding the identity and role of the church for social transformation in the context of religious pluralism and the struggle for gender justice, human freedom, and dignity. This study is an appreciative inquiry from a postcolonial theo-historical and biographical reconstruction of Saragih’s contextual theology and its public theological implications for contemporary Indonesia.

The Old Ways of the Transcendental God Who Comes ‘Close’ to Us: Focusing on Mezuza, Tefillin, and Tallit and Their Spiritual-Practical Implications

Humanity is finite, and God is infinite. Totally different being! Such an ontological or epistemological barrier lies between the naturally finite man/woman and the supernaturally infinite God. But how can humans imagine God? How can we men and women know and experience the God who is beyond that barrier? For the most part, Christian theology pushes these ontological/epistemological issues into the ream of revelation, making them approacheable through the New Testament mystery of the Incarnation —that is, the flesh of Jesus Christ, whom Karl Barth once identified as a veil that un-covers and covers God’s hiddeness from creation. However, this approach has resulted in Christian theology gaining one and missing the other. Christian theology certainly gained a New Testament perspective that captured the divine-human discourse on a Christological level, but not the Old Testament perspective that framed the same discourse on a different (non-Christological) level. The purpose of this study is to construct an appropriate response to these failures, especially by reading the Old Testament with reference to Jewish sources and interpretations. To this end, this study will focus on the three ‘old’ veils implicitly mentioned in the Old Testament rather than the ‘new’ veil that Barth had defined as the flesh of Jesus Christ with reference to the New Testament. The old veil includes ‘mezuzah,’ ‘tefillin,’ and ‘tallit,’ all suggesting a practically and spiritually theological significance functionally similar to the new veil (Jesus Christ’s flesh): God is holy and transcendent, separate from the world He created. Yet God is intimately accessible.

The Impact of Reformed Theological Seminary, Mkar: The Unfinished Agenda on Public Theology

Theological education has been very critical to the qualitative growth of the church. This reality finds its expression in the establishment and development of the Reformed Theological Seminary Mkar. The Universal Reformed Christian Church which founded the Seminary has benefitted from the depths of the Reformed theological knowledge that it has impacted church leaders. This theological education has been largely responsible for the transformation of the Tiv society. However, as the society keeps growing with fresh challenges, it has become necessary that the Seminary reflects on its new intellectual role in shaping the cultural, social, spiritual and political contexts. It is on this note that the question of public theology has become expedient for the Seminary to consider its inclusion in its curriculum. This research argues the significance of public theology as the new insight that it seeks to break the boundaries of Christian theology from the private life of the believer to the all-encompassing issues in human society. This is premised on the view that God holds the both private and public spheres accountable to himself.

The Messiah/Speaker and His Mission: A Linguistic Analysis of Isaiah 61:1-11

While the mission motif of Isa 61:1-11 seems to be passed over in silence, this study investigates the passage using linguistic analysis and discovers the theological significance of the motif of mission. The study indicated how YHWH relates to His mission, through the Speaker—identified as the Messiah, and His redemptive purpose for all humanity. Mission is centered on YHWH’s empowerment of the Speaker to deliver comforting messages and give hope to the discouraged, accelerate the freedom of prisoners, and console the grieving since their anguish and sadness is about to be converted into cheer. The focus is on Israel, though the nations will witness and glory in Israel’s salvation and righteousness. In effect, there will be a sprouting forth of YHWH’s righteousness and praises from the peoples of all the nations—an expression that has the worldwide salvific mission of the speaker in view.

Decolonisation – A reading strategy for the African (re-) interpretation of the Old Testament in a (South) African context

The interpretation of the Bible cannot escape being influenced by developments and exposure to the social sciences, hermeneutics, globalisation, and so on. While acknowledging the context of progressive universalisation and the multidimensional pull towards homogenisation, the specificity of the African context(s) in the ongoing discourse regarding the theological significance of the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament texts must be acknowledged. The discourse is about positionality and considers theoretical concerns raised by the social sciences and the notion of cognitive existentialism. In so doing, a reading strategy and agenda for African Bible studies can gradually be more explicitly enunciated. Issues that need to be more overtly considered are the epistemological basis upon which a historical-critical approach can continue to inform the discourse and narrow the distance between the ordinary reader with a focus on life interests and the scholarly reader with a focus on interpretive interests.Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: Acknowledgment that Bible Interpretation is situated in a context influenced by modernity, and interdisciplinary discourse (science, philosophy, humanities and social sciences) is providing a platform for engaging various readers of the Biblical Text as religious document in the discourse.

The Idea of Unity and Catholicity of the Church in the Custom of Mentioning the Bishop’s Name in the Eucharistic Prayer

The editio tertia emendata of the Paul VI Missal was made available to the Church in 2008. Particularly noteworthy among the many emendationes of this edition is the one that refers to the situation when the bishop celebrates the Holy Mass outside his own diocese. In the Missal published in 2002, it was suggested that this mention should be as follows: et me indigno famulo tuo, et fratre meo N., Episcopo huius Ecclesiae N. In the revised edition it is proposed that the “guest” bishop should mention his brother first (et fratre meo N.), who for him is the bishop of the diocese where he celebrates Mass, and only later mention himself (et me indigno famulo tuo). In doing so, he should also not additionally define the local Church as “N.,” i.e., for example, Varsovian or Washingtonian, which, as such, do not exist, but he should pray for the bishop of “this Church” (huius Ecclesiae), within which he celebrates the liturgy in communion with the universal Church, emphasized by fraternal unity with the local pastor. The article shows that this modification is of great theological significance and corresponds to the ecclesiology of Vatican II.

개인 탄원시에 나타나는 가난한 자들의 탄원 연구

This research analyzes the special structure in the lament of the poor which appears in the psalms of individual laments, and observes its theological significance. The psalms of lament from the ones who are suffering from poverty consist of self-lament, God-lament, and enemy-lament.<BR> The poor experience a sense of loss of life amid economic exploitation, social alienation, and hunger. At the same time, the poor also experience abandonment and a deep despair in their relationship with God like the fear of abandonment as well as emotional abandonment. But it does not stop there. They confess their pain of poverty as a self-lament. The worse the poverty gets, the deeper they lament. Here, self-lament gets connected to the God-lament. The poor meet God through the God-lament, and God lightens up their faces. They meet God as the one who frees them from poverty as well as the legal helper of the poor. In this way, the lament of the poor functions as the most direct and essential driving force that induces YHWH’s astonishing Magnalia Dei.<BR> Therefore, the lament of the poor changes their stance of suffering, and they disclose the sufferings caused by exploitation. They lament about the poverty and social isolation caused by social structure. The poor do not hesitate to lament about the enemies’ affront (Ps 14:32, 35). The lament of the poor who experienced suffering amid the existential danger accelerates God’s act of salvation, and leads to the insight that liberation from poverty is possible.<BR> The purpose of this study also has another important intention: Although the Hebrew terms referring to “the poor” — the subject that shapes the lament of the poor — and “the enemy” — the target of the lament of the poor — appear variously, and the understanding of “God”, the recipient of the lament appears differently according to the situations or characteristics of the lament, the Korean translation is overly uniform.<BR> Thus, this research presents one useful data and standard to understand the lament of the poor by analyzing the theological intention of each term although it accepts the existing translation and its uniform translation.

Jacob as ‘the prophet’ in Nahmanides’ commentary

This article is part of a series of studies that examines Nahmanides’ use of rhetorical devices in the design of his Torah commentary. It addresses Nahmanides’ use of epithets for biblical characters. Nahmanides scarcely uses a consistent epithet for one character; therefore an intensive and consistent repetition of a specific epithet calls for special attention on the part of the reader. The epithet ‘the prophet’ is used twelve times in reference to Jacob in Nahmanides’ exegesis. Moreover, Nahmanides emphasizes Jacob’s prophetic skill and his unique virtue as a prophet, a theme entirely absent from his commentary on the Abraham and Isaac narratives. This study brings to light the theological significance of the epithet ‘the prophet’ with regard to Jacob’s character.

Paying Attention to Biodiversity and Its Theological Significance

AbstractThis paper focuses on one scientific aspect of eco-theology, which I argue has not yet received sufficient attention either within public discussion or from theologians, namely, that of biodiversity. Given the entanglement between biodiversity loss, climate change, and poverty, understanding the biological context is significant ethically quite irrespective of the presuppositions of different philosophical approaches to eco-theology. After beginning with a more general argument for why it is important for theologians and theological ethicists to engage with and understand different aspects of the relevant science, I will then survey scientific accounts of current biodiversity loss, including arguments for its relevance to social justice questions. I then provide an outline of the first steps towards a theological ethic on biodiversity, drawing on the insights of Pope Francis’ Laudato Si’ and Thomas Aquinas’ understanding of the ecologically relevant virtues of practical wisdom and mercy.

Christianity and the Triumph of Humor: From Dante to David Javerbaum by Bernard Schweizer

Reviewed by: Christianity and the Triumph of Humor: From Dante to David Javerbaum by Bernard Schweizer Jahdiel Perez (bio) Christianity and the Triumph of Humor: From Dante to David Javerbaum Bernard Schweizer Routledge, 2020. vii + 254 pp. $160 cloth, $48.95 paperback, $44.05 ebook. Schweizer's Christianity and the Triumph of Humor is a well-written gem of interdisciplinary research. Its synthesis of religious studies, theology, social science, and humor research into a coherent argument is insightful and impressive. [End Page 229] Chapter one questions and refutes the notion that humor is an inherently liberal phenomenon, that "all laughter has an anti-authoritarian function" (14). Schweizer observes how humor has historically thrived under authoritarian conditions. He notes that the Nazi regime encouraged jokes as a way to alleviate grievances against totalitarian policies. Then, Schweizer draws upon the social scientific data of a "humor appreciation survey" he conducted in 2016, which studied how nearly 800 liberals and conservatives responded to twenty-four different jokes. He found that there was no significant influence of political ideology on humor appreciation. In chapter two, statements from the Bible and some Patristic theologians, like Tertullian, Basil, Augustine, and Jerome, among others, seem to denounce laughter and festivities. Since these statements are listed in isolation from relevant context, Schweizer's analysis here is objectionably thin. However, his citation of the 1431 condemnation of the Feast of Fools, the 1534 ban of popular mystery plays by English Protestants, and the prohibition of Easter Laughter throughout the 1670s as examples in which church authorities "sought to curb the people's inclination toward mirth and levity" (51) supports his overall point. A significant shift occurred in the 1970s, when some Christian theologians sought to overturn this "long and regretful history of denunciations of laughter" by affirming the theological significance of levity and comedy (31). These "theologians of laughter" include Conrad Hyers, Richard Cote, Karl-Jusef Kuschel, J. William Whedbee, Gerald Arbuckle, James Martin, Jaqueline Bussie, Charles Campbell, and Johan Cilliers, among others. Schweizer criticizes their approach by denying three propositions that he thinks most of them affirm—namely, that laughter is a gift from God, that Scripture is replete with humor, and that laughter can be neatly divided into positive and negative expressions. Chapter three is a diachronic view of religious comedy from the Middle Ages to the present century. Schweizer selects several works that he thinks represent the high points of religious humor: Dante's Divine Comedy, Boccaccio's The Decameron, Erasmus's In Praise of Folly, Rabelais's Gargantua, Voltaire's Candide, Twain's The Mysterious Stranger, France's The Revolt of Angels, Hašek's The Good Soldier Švejk, Morrow's The Godhead Trilogy, Currie Jr.'s God is Dead, and Javerbaum's The Last Testament. The account Schweizer offers here is that of a gradual progression up a hierarchical scale of comic objects. The lower-order targets of the hierarchy range from laypersons to lower clergy like monks and priests to higher-ranking clerics like bishops, cardinals, and the Pope. The higher-order targets range from ecclesiastical institutions to orthodox doctrine to Scripture to the Trinity and religion in general. Where Dante playfully ridiculed individual Christians and lower clergy, Javerbaum irreverently mocks the Bible and the Trinity. [End Page 230] Admittedly, the inclusion of such atheistic or "misotheistic" authors (76) as Voltaire, France, and Javerbaum into a historical survey of specifically religious humor is innovative, some might even say objectionable. However, it is only problematic if one understands the term to mean humor produced by and for religious people. Schweizer defines religious humor as humor about religion (203), which does not refer to the religious sensibilities of its producers or intended audiences. As such, he can group Christian and atheist writers into the same historical account of religious humor. A synchronic view of religious comedy in contemporary Anglo-American popular culture is provided in chapter four. Schweizer begins with Christian stand-up comedians Mark Lowry, Brad Stine, and Anthony Griffith, proceeds to the Life of Brian film by Monty Python, the atheist YouTube channel DarkMatter2525, and ends with comic skits by Rowan Atkinson, Robin Williams, Stephen Colbert, and Steve Carell. The point Schweizer makes...

Teological Views of Imam Maturidi

The article analyzes the theological system of Imam Abu Mansur al-Maturidi and his theologians, the founder of the Maturidiyya Madhhab, which is widespread in Central Asia as a sect of Islam. It is stated that Imam Maturidi developed his school following the tradition of Imam Aqzam Abu Hanifa, the main sect of the Ahl as-Sunnah wa'l-Jama'ah. Maturidi's views focus on reason and provide a detailed description of his role in the knowledge of God. Here are the opinions of the students who continued the school of the scholar. We have also paid special attention to the theological significance and methods of the two books "Tawilatu-l Quran" and "Kitabu-t Tawhid", which have survived to the present day. Imam Maturidi's works discuss the issues of "divinity", "human will and desire", "destiny", "prophethood", "faith and great sin". Also, Imam Maturidi's theological views include "knowledge of God", "art and ugliness", "human freedom", "imposing an insurmountable task", "taqwa", "wisdom and reason", "hearing the word of God", "prophets". The issue of being a man or a woman ”will be selected and studied in comparison with the theological views of the Ashariyya Madhhab. Keywords: Imam Maturidi, Kalam, Ahl as-Sunnah, Intellect, Faith

Interpreting Disaster and Culpability in the Book of Jeremiah

The book of Jeremiah contains many passages condemning the people of Judah for their sins, including acts of injustice. The book also makes clear that God is punishing Judah through the coming Babylonian invasion. A theological problem that confronts the reader is that the violent actions of the Babylonian army do not correspond to the ideals of justice that are described elsewhere in the book. One solution to this problem is to find the theological significance of Jeremiah in the guidance it offers to those who have experienced any kind of communal or personal disaster, without reference to human culpability for sin. Without denying the legitimacy of this approach, this essay proposes a theological reading of Jeremiah that recognizes the gap between perfect divine justice and the horrific calamity that Babylon inflicted on Judah, and yet seeks to incorporate Jeremiah’s rhetoric of human culpability into a coherent theological framework that speaks to matters of justice and injustice. It is suggested that the book of Jeremiah interpreted the Babylonian invasion typologically as a symbol of divine justice, but as with other forms of typology, the historical type and the spiritual reality did not perfectly correspond.