Terryl C. Givens
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780195167115
- eISBN:
- 9780199785599
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195167115.003.0004
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
Mormons believe God was once a man, and humans may become gods (theosis). God is embodied, sexuality is divinized, and the mundane, the quotidian, the earthly, is made celestial. Sacred distance ...
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Mormons believe God was once a man, and humans may become gods (theosis). God is embodied, sexuality is divinized, and the mundane, the quotidian, the earthly, is made celestial. Sacred distance collapses, and all things are spiritual. The result is a tension bordering on blasphemy or heresy.Less
Mormons believe God was once a man, and humans may become gods (theosis). God is embodied, sexuality is divinized, and the mundane, the quotidian, the earthly, is made celestial. Sacred distance collapses, and all things are spiritual. The result is a tension bordering on blasphemy or heresy.
Gregory A. Beeley
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- September 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780195313970
- eISBN:
- 9780199871827
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195313970.003.0003
- Subject:
- Religion, Church History
This chapter gives a new, comprehensive interpretation of Gregory's Christology, focusing on his account of creation, the fall, and final redemption; his seminal doctrine of divinization (theosis); ...
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This chapter gives a new, comprehensive interpretation of Gregory's Christology, focusing on his account of creation, the fall, and final redemption; his seminal doctrine of divinization (theosis); the relationship between soteriology and Christology; the singular identity of Christ as “one and the same” God and Son; the unity of Christ, against longstanding dualistic interpretations of Gregory's Christology; the principles of Christological exegesis; Gregory's vivid sense of the divine suffering in Christ and the centrality of Christ's crucifixion and resurrection; the predominance and unifying effect of Christ's divinity on his humanity; and Gregory's Christological spirituality, whereby the doctrine of Christ is itself the means of the Christian's ascent to God. Attention is also given to Gregory's opposition to the Antiochene Christology of Diodore, in addition to as that of Eunomius and Apollinarius.Less
This chapter gives a new, comprehensive interpretation of Gregory's Christology, focusing on his account of creation, the fall, and final redemption; his seminal doctrine of divinization (theosis); the relationship between soteriology and Christology; the singular identity of Christ as “one and the same” God and Son; the unity of Christ, against longstanding dualistic interpretations of Gregory's Christology; the principles of Christological exegesis; Gregory's vivid sense of the divine suffering in Christ and the centrality of Christ's crucifixion and resurrection; the predominance and unifying effect of Christ's divinity on his humanity; and Gregory's Christological spirituality, whereby the doctrine of Christ is itself the means of the Christian's ascent to God. Attention is also given to Gregory's opposition to the Antiochene Christology of Diodore, in addition to as that of Eunomius and Apollinarius.
Candida R. Moss
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- May 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199739875
- eISBN:
- 9780199777259
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199739875.003.0005
- Subject:
- Religion, Theology, Early Christian Studies
This chapter examines the status of the martyrs after death in the heavenly hierarchy and the way that this status informs our understanding of the martyrs’ identity. Rather than focusing on the ...
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This chapter examines the status of the martyrs after death in the heavenly hierarchy and the way that this status informs our understanding of the martyrs’ identity. Rather than focusing on the traditional terminology of theosis, it uses the language and imagery of the martyr acts to assess the relative status of the exalted martyr. It argues that the depiction of the martyrs as enthroned in heaven and their portrayal as sons of God and coheirs with Christ in conjunction with the unsettled issue of Christology yielded some ambiguity about the status of the martyrs in heaven. This ambiguity is preserved in the writing of some patristic authors, for whom this presented the dangerous possibility that martyrs were equal to Christ.Less
This chapter examines the status of the martyrs after death in the heavenly hierarchy and the way that this status informs our understanding of the martyrs’ identity. Rather than focusing on the traditional terminology of theosis, it uses the language and imagery of the martyr acts to assess the relative status of the exalted martyr. It argues that the depiction of the martyrs as enthroned in heaven and their portrayal as sons of God and coheirs with Christ in conjunction with the unsettled issue of Christology yielded some ambiguity about the status of the martyrs in heaven. This ambiguity is preserved in the writing of some patristic authors, for whom this presented the dangerous possibility that martyrs were equal to Christ.
Terryl L. Givens
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- January 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780195369786
- eISBN:
- 9780199871292
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195369786.003.008
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
This chapter connects Joseph Smith's religion-making, in both its scope and its method, to the intellectual revolution called Romanticism. Like all intellectual revolutionaries of that era from ...
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This chapter connects Joseph Smith's religion-making, in both its scope and its method, to the intellectual revolution called Romanticism. Like all intellectual revolutionaries of that era from Malthus to Marx to Darwin, Joseph Smith rearticulated the fundamental vision of his field of influence in terms of contestation, struggle, and dynamism. His collapse of sacred distance, rupturing of the canon, doctrines of pre-existence and theosis, and gestures toward a comprehensive, scriptural Ur-Text—all betoken an emphasis on process over product, and a precarious tension between the searching and certainty that characterized both his personality and the faith he founded.Less
This chapter connects Joseph Smith's religion-making, in both its scope and its method, to the intellectual revolution called Romanticism. Like all intellectual revolutionaries of that era from Malthus to Marx to Darwin, Joseph Smith rearticulated the fundamental vision of his field of influence in terms of contestation, struggle, and dynamism. His collapse of sacred distance, rupturing of the canon, doctrines of pre-existence and theosis, and gestures toward a comprehensive, scriptural Ur-Text—all betoken an emphasis on process over product, and a precarious tension between the searching and certainty that characterized both his personality and the faith he founded.
Terryl L. Givens
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- February 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195313901
- eISBN:
- 9780199871933
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195313901.003.0011
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
Romanticism brings back the twinned concepts of preexistence and theosis. The revival of Plato (under Thomas Taylor's influence) sparks revival of interest in preexistence especially. William Blake, ...
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Romanticism brings back the twinned concepts of preexistence and theosis. The revival of Plato (under Thomas Taylor's influence) sparks revival of interest in preexistence especially. William Blake, William Wordsworth, and Samuel Coleridge are only the most prominent names among the Romantics, as is Alfred, Lord Tennyson among the Victorians, and Ralph Waldo Emerson among the Transcendentalists, to espouse preexistence.Less
Romanticism brings back the twinned concepts of preexistence and theosis. The revival of Plato (under Thomas Taylor's influence) sparks revival of interest in preexistence especially. William Blake, William Wordsworth, and Samuel Coleridge are only the most prominent names among the Romantics, as is Alfred, Lord Tennyson among the Victorians, and Ralph Waldo Emerson among the Transcendentalists, to espouse preexistence.
Terryl L. Givens
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- February 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195313901
- eISBN:
- 9780199871933
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195313901.003.0008
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
The tradition of prisca theologia and the Corpus Hermeticum are Pico della Mirandola instrumental in revival of preexistence. Real flowering is under the Cambridge Platonists, especially Henry More, ...
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The tradition of prisca theologia and the Corpus Hermeticum are Pico della Mirandola instrumental in revival of preexistence. Real flowering is under the Cambridge Platonists, especially Henry More, along with Anne Conway and Kabbalists, who often combined the idea with theosis or deification. Thomas Traherne was the most prolific poet of the idea. Poets reworked Milton's great epic, to restore what they saw as occluded references to human preexistence.Less
The tradition of prisca theologia and the Corpus Hermeticum are Pico della Mirandola instrumental in revival of preexistence. Real flowering is under the Cambridge Platonists, especially Henry More, along with Anne Conway and Kabbalists, who often combined the idea with theosis or deification. Thomas Traherne was the most prolific poet of the idea. Poets reworked Milton's great epic, to restore what they saw as occluded references to human preexistence.
Oliver D. Crisp
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- January 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780199755295
- eISBN:
- 9780199979486
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199755295.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Theology
Jonathan Edwards (1703–1758) is widely regarded as a philosopher and theologian of the first rank, sometimes even as “America's Theologian.” This study offers a major revisionist account of his views ...
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Jonathan Edwards (1703–1758) is widely regarded as a philosopher and theologian of the first rank, sometimes even as “America's Theologian.” This study offers a major revisionist account of his views on the relationship between God and creation, and a fresh analysis of other central issues in Edwardsian philosophical theology, such as the divine nature and attributes, the doctrine of the Trinity, and eschatology. A number of recent Edwards scholars have argued that he reconceived the doctrine of God and creation along dispositional lines—God and the world being dispositions, not substances with attributes. By contrast, this work argues that Edwards was very much a Reformed theologian standing in the tradition of scholastic and Puritan theology. He did not think of his work as a break with this tradition. Instead, he sought to revision Calvinistic theology for an early modern audience using ideas culled from philosophers like Locke, Malebranche, Newton, and the Cambridge Platonists. Ironically, he ended up with a much more exotic picture of the God-world relation than many other Reformed divines. This included his commitment to continuous creationism, occasionalism, an idiosyncratic doctrine of the Trinity that is inconsistent with divine simplicity, panentheism, and a doctrine of theosis. The upshot of this is an interpretation of Edwards's thought that does justice to his theological conservatism while also explaining how he ended up embracing novel, even unusual metaphysical views.Less
Jonathan Edwards (1703–1758) is widely regarded as a philosopher and theologian of the first rank, sometimes even as “America's Theologian.” This study offers a major revisionist account of his views on the relationship between God and creation, and a fresh analysis of other central issues in Edwardsian philosophical theology, such as the divine nature and attributes, the doctrine of the Trinity, and eschatology. A number of recent Edwards scholars have argued that he reconceived the doctrine of God and creation along dispositional lines—God and the world being dispositions, not substances with attributes. By contrast, this work argues that Edwards was very much a Reformed theologian standing in the tradition of scholastic and Puritan theology. He did not think of his work as a break with this tradition. Instead, he sought to revision Calvinistic theology for an early modern audience using ideas culled from philosophers like Locke, Malebranche, Newton, and the Cambridge Platonists. Ironically, he ended up with a much more exotic picture of the God-world relation than many other Reformed divines. This included his commitment to continuous creationism, occasionalism, an idiosyncratic doctrine of the Trinity that is inconsistent with divine simplicity, panentheism, and a doctrine of theosis. The upshot of this is an interpretation of Edwards's thought that does justice to his theological conservatism while also explaining how he ended up embracing novel, even unusual metaphysical views.
A. N. Williams
- Published in print:
- 1999
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195124361
- eISBN:
- 9780199853502
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195124361.003.0003
- Subject:
- Religion, Theology
With the conclusion of the doctrine of the Trinity, Aquinas turns his attention to creation. Characteristically, the border between the doctrine of God and the doctrine of creation is indistinct. As ...
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With the conclusion of the doctrine of the Trinity, Aquinas turns his attention to creation. Characteristically, the border between the doctrine of God and the doctrine of creation is indistinct. As the questions treating Trinitarian doctrine drew heavily, especially at first, on the doctrine of the one God, so the opening questions on creation seem to flow uninterruptedly from the doctrine of the Trinity just concluded. Indeed, so seamless is the fabric that drawing any sort of line between Questions 43 and 44 may seem rather arbitrary. The absence of such sharp division is itself significant, for it suggests the close connection of Creator and creature that constitutes the heart of theosis.Less
With the conclusion of the doctrine of the Trinity, Aquinas turns his attention to creation. Characteristically, the border between the doctrine of God and the doctrine of creation is indistinct. As the questions treating Trinitarian doctrine drew heavily, especially at first, on the doctrine of the one God, so the opening questions on creation seem to flow uninterruptedly from the doctrine of the Trinity just concluded. Indeed, so seamless is the fabric that drawing any sort of line between Questions 43 and 44 may seem rather arbitrary. The absence of such sharp division is itself significant, for it suggests the close connection of Creator and creature that constitutes the heart of theosis.
A. N. Williams
- Published in print:
- 1999
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195124361
- eISBN:
- 9780199853502
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195124361.003.0005
- Subject:
- Religion, Theology
This chapter gathers the variegated strands of Palamas' doctrine of deification and groups them into two main themes. Identifying the principal themes of the Palamite doctrine of theosis will provide ...
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This chapter gathers the variegated strands of Palamas' doctrine of deification and groups them into two main themes. Identifying the principal themes of the Palamite doctrine of theosis will provide a understanding of how the doctrine functions in relation to Palamas' theology as a whole, and grasping this relationship is crucial to understanding the doctrine of theosis itself. Furthermore, exploring the relationship between the twin themes and the essence-energies distinction will assist in clarifying the function of the distinction in his work.Less
This chapter gathers the variegated strands of Palamas' doctrine of deification and groups them into two main themes. Identifying the principal themes of the Palamite doctrine of theosis will provide a understanding of how the doctrine functions in relation to Palamas' theology as a whole, and grasping this relationship is crucial to understanding the doctrine of theosis itself. Furthermore, exploring the relationship between the twin themes and the essence-energies distinction will assist in clarifying the function of the distinction in his work.
Norman Russell
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199205974
- eISBN:
- 9780191695636
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199205974.003.0008
- Subject:
- Religion, Early Christian Studies
This chapter examines the monastic synthesis, looking at Evagrius Ponticus, the Macarian writings, Diadochus of Photice, Dionysius the Areopagite, and Maximus the Confessor. Deification entered the ...
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This chapter examines the monastic synthesis, looking at Evagrius Ponticus, the Macarian writings, Diadochus of Photice, Dionysius the Areopagite, and Maximus the Confessor. Deification entered the Byzantine tradition through Dionysius the Areopagite and Maximus the Confessor. For Dionysus, theosis was primarily the attaining of unity and likeness. Deification is the condition of the saved, which begins with baptism and is nurtured by participation in the holy synaxis, by reception of the Eucharist, and by opening the mind to divine illumination. For Maximus, it was not the problem of oneness and multiplicity that was central, but how a mortal human being can participate in a transcendent God. He took up the Gregorian and Dionysian approach but supplied a major corrective, for Dionysius has little to say about the Incarnation.Less
This chapter examines the monastic synthesis, looking at Evagrius Ponticus, the Macarian writings, Diadochus of Photice, Dionysius the Areopagite, and Maximus the Confessor. Deification entered the Byzantine tradition through Dionysius the Areopagite and Maximus the Confessor. For Dionysus, theosis was primarily the attaining of unity and likeness. Deification is the condition of the saved, which begins with baptism and is nurtured by participation in the holy synaxis, by reception of the Eucharist, and by opening the mind to divine illumination. For Maximus, it was not the problem of oneness and multiplicity that was central, but how a mortal human being can participate in a transcendent God. He took up the Gregorian and Dionysian approach but supplied a major corrective, for Dionysius has little to say about the Incarnation.
Vigen Guroian
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- May 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780823285792
- eISBN:
- 9780823288755
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fordham/9780823285792.003.0005
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
With the notable exception of the Russian mission in Alaska, for the most part the Orthodox Church did not come to America as mission but followed its people’s departure from the homeland, often ...
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With the notable exception of the Russian mission in Alaska, for the most part the Orthodox Church did not come to America as mission but followed its people’s departure from the homeland, often under extremities of war, social upheaval, or natural disaster. There was no preparation for coming here. They left behind historical Orthodox cultures and were immersed immediately into a society that the Orthodox faith had no role in shaping, a secular society that bafflingly was also religious, though not in any familiar way. Through conversation with theologians and public intellectuals like Schmemann, Parsons, Herberg, Berger, and Berry, this essay first traces the lineage of secularism back to Christianity. The unmooring of virtue from the transcendent, more specifically from the salvific sacrifice of Christ, has yielded secularism as a “step-child” of Christianity. In response, many Orthodox Americans turn to ethnic identity as a means of imbuing daily life with the faith. This, however, is more a sign of a dying church than a means of sustaining its life. The challenge is to renew a sense of the sacred, a liturgical worldview, within the pluralism of American society.Less
With the notable exception of the Russian mission in Alaska, for the most part the Orthodox Church did not come to America as mission but followed its people’s departure from the homeland, often under extremities of war, social upheaval, or natural disaster. There was no preparation for coming here. They left behind historical Orthodox cultures and were immersed immediately into a society that the Orthodox faith had no role in shaping, a secular society that bafflingly was also religious, though not in any familiar way. Through conversation with theologians and public intellectuals like Schmemann, Parsons, Herberg, Berger, and Berry, this essay first traces the lineage of secularism back to Christianity. The unmooring of virtue from the transcendent, more specifically from the salvific sacrifice of Christ, has yielded secularism as a “step-child” of Christianity. In response, many Orthodox Americans turn to ethnic identity as a means of imbuing daily life with the faith. This, however, is more a sign of a dying church than a means of sustaining its life. The challenge is to renew a sense of the sacred, a liturgical worldview, within the pluralism of American society.
Michael J. McClymond and Gerald R. McDermott
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199791606
- eISBN:
- 9780199932290
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199791606.003.0013
- Subject:
- Religion, Theology
The Trinity was central to Edwards's theology. More than most early modern Christian thinkers, Edwards delineated distinct roles for each of the three divine Persons. He departed from the Western ...
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The Trinity was central to Edwards's theology. More than most early modern Christian thinkers, Edwards delineated distinct roles for each of the three divine Persons. He departed from the Western Trinitarian tradition by rejecting its emphasis on divine simplicity and by starting with threeness rather than oneness. He also placed more emphasis on the Holy Spirit and put a new spin on the way the moral life relates to the Trinity by recasting moral life as divinization or theosis. Edwards provided resources for what could play something of a mediating role in the filioque debate between East and West. For him, Trinitarian doctrine was not for mere speculation but for the enjoyment and enrichment of God's people in the church.Less
The Trinity was central to Edwards's theology. More than most early modern Christian thinkers, Edwards delineated distinct roles for each of the three divine Persons. He departed from the Western Trinitarian tradition by rejecting its emphasis on divine simplicity and by starting with threeness rather than oneness. He also placed more emphasis on the Holy Spirit and put a new spin on the way the moral life relates to the Trinity by recasting moral life as divinization or theosis. Edwards provided resources for what could play something of a mediating role in the filioque debate between East and West. For him, Trinitarian doctrine was not for mere speculation but for the enjoyment and enrichment of God's people in the church.
Alexander Chow
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- February 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780198808695
- eISBN:
- 9780191846229
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198808695.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, World Religions
It has been widely recognized that Christianity is the fastest growing religion in one of the last communist-run countries of the world: the People’s Republic of China. Yet it would be a mistake to ...
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It has been widely recognized that Christianity is the fastest growing religion in one of the last communist-run countries of the world: the People’s Republic of China. Yet it would be a mistake to describe Chinese Christianity as merely a clandestine faith or, as hoped by the Communist Party of China, a privatized religion. Alexander Chow argues that, since the end of the Cultural Revolution (1966–76), Christians in mainland China have been constructing a more intentional public theology to engage the Chinese state and society. Chinese Public Theology recalls the events which have led to this transformation and examines the developments of Christianity across three generations of Chinese intellectuals from the state-sanctioned Protestant church, the secular academy, and the growing urban renaissance in Calvinism. Moreover, Chow shows how each of these generations have provided different theological responses to the same sociopolitical moments of the last three decades. This book explains that a growing understanding of Chinese public theology has been developed through a subconscious intermingling of Christian and Confucian understandings of public intellectualism. These factors result in a contextually unique understanding of public theology, but also one which is faced by contextual limitations as well. Mindful of this, Chow draws from the Eastern Orthodox doctrine of theosis and the Chinese traditional teaching of the unity of Heaven and humanity (Tian ren heyi) to offer a path forward in the construction of a Chinese public theology. Chinese Public Theology promises a new perspective into the vibrant and growing area of Chinese Christianity.Less
It has been widely recognized that Christianity is the fastest growing religion in one of the last communist-run countries of the world: the People’s Republic of China. Yet it would be a mistake to describe Chinese Christianity as merely a clandestine faith or, as hoped by the Communist Party of China, a privatized religion. Alexander Chow argues that, since the end of the Cultural Revolution (1966–76), Christians in mainland China have been constructing a more intentional public theology to engage the Chinese state and society. Chinese Public Theology recalls the events which have led to this transformation and examines the developments of Christianity across three generations of Chinese intellectuals from the state-sanctioned Protestant church, the secular academy, and the growing urban renaissance in Calvinism. Moreover, Chow shows how each of these generations have provided different theological responses to the same sociopolitical moments of the last three decades. This book explains that a growing understanding of Chinese public theology has been developed through a subconscious intermingling of Christian and Confucian understandings of public intellectualism. These factors result in a contextually unique understanding of public theology, but also one which is faced by contextual limitations as well. Mindful of this, Chow draws from the Eastern Orthodox doctrine of theosis and the Chinese traditional teaching of the unity of Heaven and humanity (Tian ren heyi) to offer a path forward in the construction of a Chinese public theology. Chinese Public Theology promises a new perspective into the vibrant and growing area of Chinese Christianity.
Oliver D. Crisp
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- January 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780199755295
- eISBN:
- 9780199979486
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199755295.003.0009
- Subject:
- Religion, Theology
Chapter 8 offers a critical account of the Edwardsian doctrine of the consummation of creation, focusing on the question of the destiny of the saints in theosis and the reprobate in hell, and whether ...
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Chapter 8 offers a critical account of the Edwardsian doctrine of the consummation of creation, focusing on the question of the destiny of the saints in theosis and the reprobate in hell, and whether Edwards's views in this matter are consistent with other aspects of his philosophical theology considered earlier in the book. This involves taking issue with several recent objections to this way of thinking about the consummation of creation by systematic theologians like Bruce McCormack and Edwardsian interpreters like Robert Caldwell III. Like other Edwards scholars such as Michael McClymond, the chapter argues that Edwards's commitment to theosis must be taken with full seriousness. He really thinks the goal or end of creation is the union of elect creatures with the divine nature. He also offers a robust defense of the justice of hell and its place in the grand scheme of creation. In so doing, says Amy Plantinga Pauw, “Edwards's Trinitarian harmony faltered.” The chapter argues that the internal logic of Edwards's position is consistent; his defense of hell may be unpalatable to some modern readers but is not a failure of nerve. The chapter also shows that such Edwardsian logic could be used to develop a much more optimistic eschatology than Edwards would have acceded to. This may be one way in which contemporary theology might reappropriate and develop basically Edwardsian insights.Less
Chapter 8 offers a critical account of the Edwardsian doctrine of the consummation of creation, focusing on the question of the destiny of the saints in theosis and the reprobate in hell, and whether Edwards's views in this matter are consistent with other aspects of his philosophical theology considered earlier in the book. This involves taking issue with several recent objections to this way of thinking about the consummation of creation by systematic theologians like Bruce McCormack and Edwardsian interpreters like Robert Caldwell III. Like other Edwards scholars such as Michael McClymond, the chapter argues that Edwards's commitment to theosis must be taken with full seriousness. He really thinks the goal or end of creation is the union of elect creatures with the divine nature. He also offers a robust defense of the justice of hell and its place in the grand scheme of creation. In so doing, says Amy Plantinga Pauw, “Edwards's Trinitarian harmony faltered.” The chapter argues that the internal logic of Edwards's position is consistent; his defense of hell may be unpalatable to some modern readers but is not a failure of nerve. The chapter also shows that such Edwardsian logic could be used to develop a much more optimistic eschatology than Edwards would have acceded to. This may be one way in which contemporary theology might reappropriate and develop basically Edwardsian insights.
Terryl L. Givens
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- October 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780199794928
- eISBN:
- 9780199378432
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199794928.003.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Church History
Assent to Mormonism as a belief system is largely a matter of assent to several alleged historical events. These begin with visions and revelations of Joseph Smith, as well as his production of the ...
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Assent to Mormonism as a belief system is largely a matter of assent to several alleged historical events. These begin with visions and revelations of Joseph Smith, as well as his production of the Book of Mormon. Before his murder in 1844, Smith would dictate well over a hundred revelations, write doctrine-filled epistles, and give numerous sermons, expounding principles of a “restored gospel.” He would describe other visions and angelic visitations, some associated with the bestowal of additional priesthood authority or “keys,” and he would produce other scriptural writings later canonized by the Mormon Church. His successor Brigham Young and subsequent LDS prophets would add clarity and detail, occasionally propound new doctrines, and revise or even rescind old ones. However, with the death of Smith virtually all theological foundations were in place.Less
Assent to Mormonism as a belief system is largely a matter of assent to several alleged historical events. These begin with visions and revelations of Joseph Smith, as well as his production of the Book of Mormon. Before his murder in 1844, Smith would dictate well over a hundred revelations, write doctrine-filled epistles, and give numerous sermons, expounding principles of a “restored gospel.” He would describe other visions and angelic visitations, some associated with the bestowal of additional priesthood authority or “keys,” and he would produce other scriptural writings later canonized by the Mormon Church. His successor Brigham Young and subsequent LDS prophets would add clarity and detail, occasionally propound new doctrines, and revise or even rescind old ones. However, with the death of Smith virtually all theological foundations were in place.
Grant Macaskill
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- January 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780199684298
- eISBN:
- 9780191764943
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199684298.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Biblical Studies, Theology
This book is a study of the union between God and those he has redeemed, as it is represented in the New Testament. In conversation with historical and systematic theology, it is argued that the ...
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This book is a study of the union between God and those he has redeemed, as it is represented in the New Testament. In conversation with historical and systematic theology, it is argued that the union between God and his people is consistently represented by the New Testament authors as covenantal, with the participation of believers in the life of God specifically mediated by Jesus, the covenant Messiah: hence, it involves union with Christ. His mediation of divine presence is grounded in the ontology of the Incarnation, the real divinity and real humanity of his person, and by the full divine personhood of the Holy Spirit, who unites believers to him in faith. His personal narrative of death and resurrection is understood in relation to the covenant by which God’s dealings with humanity are ordered. In their union with him, believers are transformed both morally and noetically, so that the union has an epistemic dimension, strongly affirmed by the theological tradition but sometimes confused by scholars with Platonism. This account is developed in close engagement with the New Testament texts, read against Jewish backgrounds, and allowed to inform one other as context. As a ‘participatory’ understanding of New Testament soteriology, it is advanced in distinction to other participatory approaches that are here considered to be deficient, particularly the so-called ‘apocalyptic’ approach that is popular in Pauline scholarship, and those attempts to read New Testament soteriology in terms of theosis, elements of which are nevertheless affirmed.Less
This book is a study of the union between God and those he has redeemed, as it is represented in the New Testament. In conversation with historical and systematic theology, it is argued that the union between God and his people is consistently represented by the New Testament authors as covenantal, with the participation of believers in the life of God specifically mediated by Jesus, the covenant Messiah: hence, it involves union with Christ. His mediation of divine presence is grounded in the ontology of the Incarnation, the real divinity and real humanity of his person, and by the full divine personhood of the Holy Spirit, who unites believers to him in faith. His personal narrative of death and resurrection is understood in relation to the covenant by which God’s dealings with humanity are ordered. In their union with him, believers are transformed both morally and noetically, so that the union has an epistemic dimension, strongly affirmed by the theological tradition but sometimes confused by scholars with Platonism. This account is developed in close engagement with the New Testament texts, read against Jewish backgrounds, and allowed to inform one other as context. As a ‘participatory’ understanding of New Testament soteriology, it is advanced in distinction to other participatory approaches that are here considered to be deficient, particularly the so-called ‘apocalyptic’ approach that is popular in Pauline scholarship, and those attempts to read New Testament soteriology in terms of theosis, elements of which are nevertheless affirmed.
Shaul Magid
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- May 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780804791304
- eISBN:
- 9780804793469
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Stanford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.11126/stanford/9780804791304.003.0004
- Subject:
- Religion, Judaism
This chapter engages a series of texts that I determine illustrate what I call “incarnational ethics” and juxtaposes them to the larger discussion of Jewish ethics in Modern Jewish Thought. The ...
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This chapter engages a series of texts that I determine illustrate what I call “incarnational ethics” and juxtaposes them to the larger discussion of Jewish ethics in Modern Jewish Thought. The Hasidic thinkers in question (Menahem Mendel of Vitebsk and Levi Yizhak of Berdichev) present a model of ethics that more closely resembles a Christian Orthodox ethics of “becoming divine” (theosis) and seeing the other as “divine” than the virtue or Kantian ethics that dominate modern Jewish Thought. The central point of this chapter is that this Hasidic ethics I am suggesting does not emerge from nor is it bound to, the law but is focused on the divine element on the self and other as its foundation. This would be a major departure from classical and modern conceptions of Jewish ethics.Less
This chapter engages a series of texts that I determine illustrate what I call “incarnational ethics” and juxtaposes them to the larger discussion of Jewish ethics in Modern Jewish Thought. The Hasidic thinkers in question (Menahem Mendel of Vitebsk and Levi Yizhak of Berdichev) present a model of ethics that more closely resembles a Christian Orthodox ethics of “becoming divine” (theosis) and seeing the other as “divine” than the virtue or Kantian ethics that dominate modern Jewish Thought. The central point of this chapter is that this Hasidic ethics I am suggesting does not emerge from nor is it bound to, the law but is focused on the divine element on the self and other as its foundation. This would be a major departure from classical and modern conceptions of Jewish ethics.
R. Zachary Manis
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- July 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780190929251
- eISBN:
- 9780190929282
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780190929251.003.0011
- Subject:
- Religion, Philosophy of Religion
In some brief concluding remarks, the author considers the degree to which his proposed model is successful, according to the criteria established in the book’s introduction, in addressing the ...
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In some brief concluding remarks, the author considers the degree to which his proposed model is successful, according to the criteria established in the book’s introduction, in addressing the problem of hell as a “weak” theodicy. He contends that the model should be judged a success when evaluated on these terms, while recognizing that this is not enough to demonstrate that its claims actually are true. In closing, the author considers whether the divine presence model, or the broader theological framework in which it is most naturally situated, supports any reasonable conjectures as to what lies beyond the Day of Judgment.Less
In some brief concluding remarks, the author considers the degree to which his proposed model is successful, according to the criteria established in the book’s introduction, in addressing the problem of hell as a “weak” theodicy. He contends that the model should be judged a success when evaluated on these terms, while recognizing that this is not enough to demonstrate that its claims actually are true. In closing, the author considers whether the divine presence model, or the broader theological framework in which it is most naturally situated, supports any reasonable conjectures as to what lies beyond the Day of Judgment.
Jordan Wessling
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- July 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780198852483
- eISBN:
- 9780191886935
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198852483.003.0008
- Subject:
- Religion, Theology
Chapter 7 proposes a manner of conceiving of God’s deifying love, whereby God shares His intra-trinitarian life of love with men and women through the life and death of Christ. The proposal, which ...
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Chapter 7 proposes a manner of conceiving of God’s deifying love, whereby God shares His intra-trinitarian life of love with men and women through the life and death of Christ. The proposal, which builds upon the Eastern Orthodox distinction between God’s essence and energies, includes partial accounts of both the Atonement and deification, along with an explanation of how these two doctrines fit together. The offered account of God’s deifying love is also shown to fit nicely with the understanding of love’s union exposited and defended in Chapter 2, thereby highlighting a connection between the defended model of God’s love and a classical way of thinking about Christian salvation.Less
Chapter 7 proposes a manner of conceiving of God’s deifying love, whereby God shares His intra-trinitarian life of love with men and women through the life and death of Christ. The proposal, which builds upon the Eastern Orthodox distinction between God’s essence and energies, includes partial accounts of both the Atonement and deification, along with an explanation of how these two doctrines fit together. The offered account of God’s deifying love is also shown to fit nicely with the understanding of love’s union exposited and defended in Chapter 2, thereby highlighting a connection between the defended model of God’s love and a classical way of thinking about Christian salvation.
Grant Macaskill
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- January 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780199684298
- eISBN:
- 9780191764943
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199684298.003.0002
- Subject:
- Religion, Biblical Studies, Theology
This chapter surveys modern research on participatory accounts of salvation in the New Testament, particularly those developed in Pauline scholarship, with a view to establishing key considerations ...
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This chapter surveys modern research on participatory accounts of salvation in the New Testament, particularly those developed in Pauline scholarship, with a view to establishing key considerations for the rest of the study. The connections between participation in Christ and the discussions of justification theology in the ‘New Perspective on Paul’ will be noted, as will the significance of the so-called ‘apocalyptic’ approach to Paul, with its hostility to covenant theology. The growing interest in theosis and the problems associated with this will also be explored. In each of these areas, the relevance of historical theology to New Testament scholarship will be demonstrated, highlighting the need for an integrative study of union with Christ, particularly one that pays attention to primary theological literature.Less
This chapter surveys modern research on participatory accounts of salvation in the New Testament, particularly those developed in Pauline scholarship, with a view to establishing key considerations for the rest of the study. The connections between participation in Christ and the discussions of justification theology in the ‘New Perspective on Paul’ will be noted, as will the significance of the so-called ‘apocalyptic’ approach to Paul, with its hostility to covenant theology. The growing interest in theosis and the problems associated with this will also be explored. In each of these areas, the relevance of historical theology to New Testament scholarship will be demonstrated, highlighting the need for an integrative study of union with Christ, particularly one that pays attention to primary theological literature.