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Christian Philosophical Theology

Stephen T. Davis

This book exposes and defends crucial items in the theological world-view of Christianity from the perspective of Christian philosophy. The topics considered include the nature of religious unbelief, ... More

This book exposes and defends crucial items in the theological world-view of Christianity from the perspective of Christian philosophy. The topics considered include the nature of religious unbelief, the existence of God, the nature of God, religious faith, creation, revelation, Christology, redemption, scripture, and the beatific vision. The book revolves around questions like: Why believe in God? What is God like? Who was Jesus Christ? What is incarnation? How are humans redeemed? How should theology be done?Less

The Gospel in Christian Traditions

Ted A. Campbell

This book shows how a simple message embedded in the New Testament and also handed on in a Christian oral tradition has been expressed consistently through ancient Christian communities (Catholic and ... More

This book shows how a simple message embedded in the New Testament and also handed on in a Christian oral tradition has been expressed consistently through ancient Christian communities (Catholic and Orthodox churches), churches of the Protestant family, and Evangelical Christian communities. The book begins by examining the New Testament and the primitive expressions of the early Christian message that are embedded in New Testament documents. Using formal doctrinal statements of churches and more informal ways in which church teachings have been “received” in churches, the book highlights the single unifying core of faith that almost all Christian churches and communities have shared. The book examines not only Christian scriptures, traditional creeds, and doctrinal statements, but also forms of worship (liturgy), hymns, Gospel music, and contemporary Christian music to understand how they have conveyed this same message. It shows, moreover, how this message has been expressed in the ecumenical movement, the movement that has sought the unity of Christian churches since the early twentieth century.Less

Hilary of Poitiers on the Trinity: From De Fide to De Trinitate

Carl Beckwith

Hilary of Poitiers (c300–368), who was instrumental in shaping the development of pro-Nicene theology in the West, combined two separate works, a treatise on faith (De Fide) and a treatise against ... More

Hilary of Poitiers (c300–368), who was instrumental in shaping the development of pro-Nicene theology in the West, combined two separate works, a treatise on faith (De Fide) and a treatise against the “Arians” (Adversus Arianos), to create De Trinitate; his chief theological contribution to the 4th-century Trinitarian debates. Scholars have long recognized the presence of these two treatises in Hilary's De Trinitate but have been unable to settle the questions of when and why Hilary did this. This book addresses these questions concerning the structure and chronology of De Trinitate by situating Hilary's treatise in its historical and theological context and offering a close reading of the text. It is argued that De Fide was written in 356 following Hilary's condemnation at the synod of Béziers and prior to receiving a decision on his exile from the Emperor. When Hilary arrived in exile, he wrote a second work, Adversus Arianos. Following the synod of Sirmium in 357 and his collaboration with Basil of Ancyra in early 358, Hilary recast his efforts and began to write De Trinitate. He decided to incorporate his two earlier works, De Fide and Adversus Arianos, into this project. Toward that end, he returned to his earlier works and drastically revised their content by adding new prefaces and new theological and exegetical material to reflect his mature pro-Nicene theology. These revisions and textual alterations have never before been acknowledged in the scholarship on De Trinitate.Less

John Wyclif

Stephen Edmund Lahey

The 14th-century English philosopher and theologian John Wyclif (d. 1384) has been described as a forerunner of the Reformation, but is better understood as the last important thinker of Oxford’s ... More

The 14th-century English philosopher and theologian John Wyclif (d. 1384) has been described as a forerunner of the Reformation, but is better understood as the last important thinker of Oxford’s “Golden Age” of theology. Rather than describing him in terms of what would occur a century and a half after his death, this book describes Wyclif as coming at the end of a period of great intellectual activity. His logic, epistemology, and metaphysics emerge from academic discourse engendered by Ockham’s conceptualism and sharpened by the semantic analysis of the Mertonian Calculators. The theological innovations for which Wyclif is best known, including a heightened emphasis on Scripture in Christian life, his rejection of transubstantiation, and his program for ecclesiastical reform, are best understood in terms of the philosophical theology that he developed during his years at Oxford. This book attempts such an understanding by correlating the substance of these theological ideas to Wyclif’s philosophical works, showing how they articulate his scriptural hermeneutics and homiletics, his understanding of predestination, and his criticism of the doctrine of transubstantiation.Less

Hugh of Saint Victor

Paul Rorem

Hugh of St. Victor (c.1096–1141) left a large and influential corpus of works on all aspects of theology, as well as the liberal arts broadly defined. This book introduces Hugh within his community ... More

Hugh of St. Victor (c.1096–1141) left a large and influential corpus of works on all aspects of theology, as well as the liberal arts broadly defined. This book introduces Hugh within his community in twelfth-century Paris and summarizes his major works according to his own threefold conception. First comes the pedagogical foundation (Didascalicon), including the historical sense of sacred scripture, then the (allegorical) framework of scriptural doctrine (especially creation and restoration in De sacramentis), and finally the tropological or spiritual finale of personal appropriation of the biblical message (the ark treatises and the Soliloquy). Hugh’s encyclopedic interests include grammar and geometry, philosophy and all of theology, history and eschatology, Job and Mary, the sacraments broadly and narrowly defined, spirituality, and the Dionysian Celestial Hierarchy. How he held all this together in his thought and corpus is a challenge to modern (and postmodern) readers.Less

Calvin at the Centre

Paul Helm

Calvin at the Centre explores the impact of various ideas on the thought of John Calvin and also that of later theologians who were influenced by him. The book therefore calls into ... More

Calvin at the Centre explores the impact of various ideas on the thought of John Calvin and also that of later theologians who were influenced by him. The book therefore calls into question the attitude that Calvin's views are purely biblical and unaffected by the particular intellectual circumstances in which he lived. It also provides reason for thinking that the relation between Calvin and Calvinism is more complex than is commonly believed. The focus is on philosophical ideas as they find a place within Calvin's theology, and the chapters are organized to reflect this, dealing in turn with epistemological, metaphysical, and ethical issues. So the book follows the general outlook of the author's John Calvin's Ideas (OUP: 2004), but extends its scope and range. The emphasis is upon the coincidence of ideas between Calvin and other thinkers, rather than offering a historical account of how that influence came about. So, for example, there is a study of the extent to which Calvin's view of the atonement is Anselmic in its character, and how Calvin's view was treated in later discussions of the atonement in Puritanism. But the question of the exact ways in which Anselm's ideas came to Calvin's notice is left to one side. Among the topics treated are: the knowledge of God and of ourselves, Scripture and reason, the visibility of God, providence and predestination, Calvin and compatibilism, and the intermediate stateLess

De Doctrina Christiana

Saint Augustine

R. P. H. Green (ed.)

This is a completely new translation of the work that Augustine wrote to guide the Christian on how to interpret Scripture and communicate it to others, a kind of do‐it‐yourself manual for ... More

This is a completely new translation of the work that Augustine wrote to guide the Christian on how to interpret Scripture and communicate it to others, a kind of do‐it‐yourself manual for discovering what the Bible teaches and passing it on. Begun at the same time as his famous Confessions, but not completed until some thirty years later, it gives fascinating insight into many sides of his thinking, not least on the value of the traditional education of which the Confessions gives such a poor impression. Augustine begins by relating his theme to the love (and enjoyment) of God and the love of one's neighbour, and then proceeds to develop a theory of signs with which he can analyse the nature of difficulties in scripture. In studying unknown signs, Augustine finds a place for some disciplines enshrined in traditional culture and the school curriculum but not all; as for ambiguous signs, he carefully explores various kinds of problems, such as that of distinguishing the figurative from the literal, and has recourse to the hermeneutic system of the Donatist Tyconius. In the fourth and last book, he discusses how to communicate scriptural teaching, drawing on a lifetime of experience but also making notable use of the writings on rhetoric of Cicero, the classical orator. The translation is equipped with an introduction that discusses the work's aims and circumstances, outlines its contents and significance, commenting briefly on the manuscripts from which the Latin text – which is also provided in this volume – is derived, and also brief explanatory notes. There is a select bibliography of useful and approachable modern criticism of this important work.Less

Origen on the Song of Songs as the Spirit of Scripture: The Bridegroom's Perfect Marriage-Song

J. Christopher King

This book explores Origen’s interpretation of the Song of Songs in his Commentary and two Homilies on the Song of Songs. Origen portrays the Song under two complementary and inseparable aspects: ... More

This book explores Origen’s interpretation of the Song of Songs in his Commentary and two Homilies on the Song of Songs. Origen portrays the Song under two complementary and inseparable aspects: first, as the unique Scripture in which the eschatological nuptials of Christ and his Bride are really present as text; second, as the spirit of Scripture unveiled, laid bare, and fully manifest in all its erotic power to lure, inflame, and make the reader ‘one spirit’ with the Lord. The study proceeds in two parts. The first establishes some of the relevant principles of Origen’s hermeneutic, and clears away prior accounts of his Song exegesis that have obscured the actual foundations of the reading developed in the Commentary and Homilies. The second part shows that Origen’s actual exegetical procedure in the Commentary proves that his spiritual reading of the Song is rooted entirely in certain hermeneutical demands, not in psychological or ascetical compulsions. These hermeneutical demands lead Origen to make the greatest conceivable claims for the character of the Song, namely that the Song fully and intelligibly represents the eschatological mystery, manifesting the ‘spirit’ of Scripture in the plan form of a text.Less

Toward a Generous Orthodoxy: Prospects for Hans Frei's Postliberal Theology

Jason A. Springs

Toward a Generous Orthodoxy provides a refined exposition of Hans Frei's christologically motivated engagement with Ludwig Wittgenstein, Clifford Geertz, Erich Auerbach, his use of ... More

Toward a Generous Orthodoxy provides a refined exposition of Hans Frei's christologically motivated engagement with Ludwig Wittgenstein, Clifford Geertz, Erich Auerbach, his use of ordinary language philosophy and nonfoundational philosophical insights, while illuminating and expanding his orientational indebtedness to Karl Barth's theology. By placing Frei's work into critical conversation with developments in pragmatist thought and cultural theory since his death, the rereading of Frei offered here aims to correct and resolve many of the complaints and misunderstandings that vex his theological legacy. The result is a clarification of the unity and coherence of Frei's work over the course of his career; a reframing of the complex relationship of his work to that of his Yale colleague George Lindbeck and successive "postliberal" theological trends; demonstration that Frei's uses of Barth, Wittgenstein, Auerbach, and Geertz do not relegate his theological approach to critical quietism, methodological separatism, epistemic fideism, or a so-called "theological ghetto"; explication and development of Frei's account of the "plain sense" of Scripture that evades charges of narrative foundationalism and essentialism on one hand and, on the other, avoids criticisms that any account so emphasizing culture, language, and practice will reduce scriptural meaning to the ways the text is used in Christian practice and community. What emerges from Toward a Generous Orthodoxy is a sharpened account of the christologically anchored, interdisciplinary, and conversational character of Frei's theology, which he came to describe as a "generous orthodoxy," modeling a way for academic theological voices to take seriously both their vocation to the Christian church and their roles as interlocutors in the academic discourse.Less

Word and Supplement: Speech Acts, Biblical Texts, and the Sufficiency of Scripture

Timothy Ward

What are Christians saying when they call the Bible the Word of God? How is that statement to be understood in relation to postmodernity's suspicion of meaning? This book tackles these questions by ... More

What are Christians saying when they call the Bible the Word of God? How is that statement to be understood in relation to postmodernity's suspicion of meaning? This book tackles these questions by bringing postmodern theory into critical dialogue with the often-neglected doctrine of the sufficiency of Scripture. The notion of the ‘sufficiency’ of a text, and the contrasting idea of the ‘supplement(s)’ which texts carry with them, together provide a sharp critical tool for analysing a variety of contemporary hermeneutical and doctrinal positions. Brought into this discussion are Derrida, from whom the idea of ‘supplement’ is borrowed; Barth, Frei, Fish, Hirsch, Hauerwas, Gadamer, Bakhtin, Fowl, Wolterstorff, Vanhoozer, Childs, and Warfield. Building especially on descriptions of language as action, the book critically reconstructs ‘the sufficiency of Scripture’ as both a concept and a doctrine which must remain central to Christian theology and practice.Less

Mysticism and Sacred Scripture

Steven T. Katz (ed.)

This is the fourth in an influential series of volumes on mysticism, presenting a basic revaluation of the nature of mysticism. Each book in the series presents a collection of chapters by experts in ... More

This is the fourth in an influential series of volumes on mysticism, presenting a basic revaluation of the nature of mysticism. Each book in the series presents a collection of chapters by experts in the study of religion. This volume explores how the great mystics and mystical traditions use, interpret, and reconstruct the sacred scriptures of their traditions.Less

Union and Distinction in the Thought of St Maximus the Confessor

Melchisedec Törönen

This book is the first study that presents, in a single volume, the whole of St Maximus the Confessor's thought in the light of unity and diversity. The principle of simultaneous union and ... More

This book is the first study that presents, in a single volume, the whole of St Maximus the Confessor's thought in the light of unity and diversity. The principle of simultaneous union and distinction forms the core of Maximus’ thought, pervading every area of his theology, and it can be summarized thus: things united remain distinct and without confusion in an inseparable union. The study is divided into five parts. Part I introduces the logical tools and metaphors of Maximian thought. Parts II and III examine the way in which Maximus views unity and difference in the Trinity and in Christ. The distinction between the universal and the particular, expressed in terms of essence (or nature) and hypostasis (or person), proves fundamental for a correct interpretation. Maximus’ dyophysite Christology includes topics on natural difference and number, composite hypostasis, enhypostaton, will, and activity, and it culminates in the notions of ‘union without confusion’ and ‘perichoresis’. Part IV highlights questions of unity and difference in the universe, Scripture, and the Church. God is the principle of unity behind the multiplicity and there is a dynamic in a perspective of eschatological fulfilment, from and through the multiplicity of the visible things to the unity of the invisible. Part V discusses Maximus’ spirituality of the twofold love for God and neighbour, and how this influences the unity (or disunity) of humanity.Less

What's Divine about Divine Law?: Early Perspectives

Christine Hayes

In the thousand years before the rise of Islam, two radically diverse conceptions of what it means to say that a law is divine confronted one another with a force that reverberates to the present. ... More

In the thousand years before the rise of Islam, two radically diverse conceptions of what it means to say that a law is divine confronted one another with a force that reverberates to the present. This book untangles the classical and biblical roots of the Western idea of divine law and shows how early adherents to biblical tradition—Hellenistic Jewish writers such as Philo, the community at Qumran, Paul, and the talmudic rabbis—struggled to make sense of this conflicting legacy. This book shows that for the ancient Greeks, divine law was divine by virtue of its inherent qualities of intrinsic rationality, truth, universality, and immutability, while for the biblical authors, divine law was divine because it was grounded in revelation with no presumption of rationality, conformity to truth, universality, or immutability. The book describes the collision of these opposing conceptions in the Hellenistic period, and details competing attempts to resolve the resulting cognitive dissonance. It shows how Second Temple and Hellenistic Jewish writers, from the author of 1 Enoch to Philo of Alexandria, were engaged in a common project of bridging the gulf between classical and biblical notions of divine law, while Paul, in his letters to the early Christian church, sought to widen it. The book then delves into the literature of classical rabbinic Judaism to reveal how the talmudic rabbis took a third and scandalous path, insisting on a construction of divine law intentionally at odds with the Greco-Roman and Pauline conceptions that would come to dominate the Christianized West. This book sheds critical light on an ancient debate that would shape foundational Western thought, and that continues to inform contemporary views about the nature and purpose of law and the nature and authority of Scripture.Less

Understanding the Book of Mormon: A Reader's Guide

Grant Hardy

While the significance of the Book of Mormon in American history and religion is universally acknowledged, its complicated narrative can be bewildering to outsiders. In addition, controversy over its ... More

While the significance of the Book of Mormon in American history and religion is universally acknowledged, its complicated narrative can be bewildering to outsiders. In addition, controversy over its historical claims tends to overshadow its contents. This book argues that whether the Book of Mormon is approached as history, fiction, or scripture, focusing on its narrative structure, and in particular on the contributions of the major narrators, allows for more comprehensive, detailed readings. The Book of Mormon is nearly unique among recent world scriptures in that it is presented as a lengthy, integrated narrative rather than a series of doctrinal expositions, moral exhortations, or devotional hymns. Joseph Smith, whether regarded as an author or translator, never speaks in his own voice in the text; nearly everything is mediated through the narrators Nephi, Mormon, and Moroni. This study takes readers through the basic characters, events, and ideas in the Book of Mormon by focusing on each of the major narrators in turn and identifying their characteristic literary techniques. Critics and believers alike can agree that someone, sometime, decided how to tell the story—where to employ direct dialogue, embedded documents, parallel narratives, allusions, and so forth. This introduction sets aside questions of ultimate authorship in order to examine how the text operates, how it makes its points, and what its message is. Despite its sometimes awkward style, the Book of Mormon has more coherence and literary interest than is often assumed.Less