The transliterations follow the non-technical transliteration system found in the Theological Dictionary of the Old Testament.'. Historical theology is the study of theology as it has developed over the centuries of the church's history.
Theology is important because correct doctrinal beliefs are essen- tial to the relationship between the believer and God. One of these
Philosophy can thus serve to partially justify the endeavor that theology engages in.26 While philosophy, along with other disciplines of knowledge, can also contribute something from general revelation to the understanding of theological notions, this contribution is very small. compared to the special revelation that we have in the Bible. Theology is important because correct doctrinal beliefs are essential to the relationship between the believer and God.
Theology is necessary because truth and experience are related
It complicates the Christian message, making it confusing and difficult for the layman to understand.
Thomas Aquinas maintained that God's existence could be proven by pure reason, without relying on any external authority. Based on his observations, he formulated five proofs (or a fivefold proof) for God's existence (eg the proof from motion or change, the proof from order in the universe).
God exists (this point is assumed as a fist truth or established by an empirical proof)
The first alternative, beginning with a discussion of God before considering the nature of the Bible, has been followed by a number of traditional theologies. A more common approach is to attempt to establish the existence of God on an extrabiblical basis.
God has specially revealed himself in the Bible
In terms of our task here, should we deal first with the doctrine of God or the doctrine of the Bible. While some simply begin to use the Bible to discuss God without forming a doctrine of the Bible, the problem with this is quite obvious.
This special revelation must be investigated in order to determine what God has revealed
On the other hand, however, the method of knowing will depend largely on the nature of the object to be known. With Thomas Aquinas, theology was seen as the queen of the sciences.
Theology may also be judged by philosophy. From the position that theology can be proved by philosophy came the logical development
At this point it is necessary to briefly examine several important philosophical movements of the twentieth century. It was the most influential philosophy in the United States in the first quarter of the twentieth century.
What does it mean to say that something “works”? Does this not require some standards by which to measure our ideas and actions? To
In the pragmatist sense, it is not a true religion, as it does not help people, individually or collectively, to develop true values. Regarding "true" faith, James once said, "On pragmatic principles, if a hypothesis about God works satisfactorily in the broadest sense of the word, it is 'true.'"18.
In effect James reduces the proposition “it is true that X exists” to
In fact, pragmatism appears even in Christian circles in the form of an impatience with problems and ideas that do not immediately show applicability. The value of the movement has been to draw attention to the important link between ideas and actions.
What is the time span for the evaluation of ideas? Is a true idea one which will work immediately? In a year from now? In ten years? In a
In his opinion, religion has the instrumental value of bringing people together in a unity of communication, of shared life and shared experience.17 Religion that does not contribute to this unity, for example institutional and faith religion, must be rejected. It is difficult to judge the truth and validity of pragmatism because the writings of Peirce, James, Dewey and others contain such a variety of viewpoints.
There are many aspects or dimensions to the tenet of irrationalism
Another form of inauthenticity is the denial of one's freedom by seeking to explain one's actions on "the basis of some kind of determinism." Any form of inauthenticity constitutes an unwillingness to accept responsibility for one's own behavior.
The existentialists’ distinction between objective evidence for the truth of a tenet and fervency of passion is worth noting, but this passion
One should rather be one's own person, have one's own ideas, "do one's own thing," in the popular terminology. Where the object evokes great inner passion or subjectivity, there is truth.*' This is the really important type of truth; it involves knowing persons rather than things.
Existentialism has difficulty justifying the choice of one particular object to which to relate in faith. If it does not offer a basis for preferring
Ernst Kasemann, "The Problem of the Historical Jesus," in Essuys on New Testa- jrwr~t Themes, trans. Gradually, however, the approach to the study of the Bible changed.1 The discipline of historiography developed new methods.
Textual criticism (which in the past was sometimes referred to as lower criticism) is the attempt to determine the original text of the bibli-
From these early beginnings, the critical study of the Bible has become a highly developed process that even includes the use of computers. Textual criticism (sometimes called lower criticism in the past) is the attempt to determine the original text of the Bibles.
Literary-source criticism is the effort to determine the various liter- ary sources upon which books of the Bible are based or from which
The harmonies of the Gospels were formulated that purported to give something of a biography of Jesus. Discussions of the historical 'itv' of the New Testament can be collected in two chapters in History, Criticism and /Gilli, c%cl.
Form criticism is the endeavor to get behind the written sources of the Bible to the period of oral tradition, and to isolate the oral forms that
An overview of the historicity of the Old Testament and the use of critical methods is given by Gordon Wcnham, "History and the Old Testament," in History, Criticism and Faith, cd. Historical criticism was applied to the Pentateuch, and by the mid-nineteenth century the "documentary hypothesis" was fairly fully developed.
Redaction criticism is a study of the activitybf the biblical authors in shaping, modifying, or even creating material for the final product
But the critical examination of Valia, Reginald Pecock independently in 1450, and many others thereafter, established the document's falsity. If this method could be successfully used to determine the authenticity or falsity of the "Donation of Constantine", it seemed reasonable to some to assume that it could also be applied to the books of the Bible.
Historical criticism in a sense employs all of the above and, in addition, draws upon the data of archaeology and of secular historical
It was believed that this consisted largely of the sayings of Jesus. It should also be noted that the Gospels present some of the same incidents in different contexts.
These self-contained units or elements of material found in the Gospels can be classified according to their literary forms.4 This tenet is
These independent units or elements of material found in the Gospels can be classified according to their literary forms.4 This principle is.
The setting in life (Sitz im Leben) of the early church can be deter- mined.9 A careful study of the Gospels will reveal to us the problems
The form critics have pointed out that the Gospels are products of the group of believers. Consequently, the history of the early church is to some extent illuminated by what is included in the Gospels.
S. Barbour has pointed up well the shortcomings of redaction criticism:38
- Redaction criticism seems to credit the evangelists with a remark- able refinement of theological purpose and method. The authors
- The search for the Sitz im Leben has a tendency to assume that everything in the Gospels or even the entire New Testament is said with
- The force of linguistic or stylistic criteria varies greatly. It may indeed be of significance that the little word 7676 (then) occurs ninety-
- It is sometimes assumed that the theology of the author can be determined from the editorial passages alone. But the traditional mate-
- Redaction criticism as a method limits itself to the investigation of the situation and purpose of the evangelists. It does not raise questions
- We need to be watchful for the presence of circular reasoning
- We need to be aware of arbitrariness and subjectivity. For example, redaction critics often attach a considerable degree of conclusiveness to
- We should be alert to the presence of assumptions regarding an antithetical relationship between faith and reason. For example, Perrin
In it he noted that the New Testament gives us a mythical view of the world. The Bible, then, is not so much a record of the actions of God as of the Hebrew religion.
Gresham Machen was an articulate defender of this view. He takes particular note of the attempt to separate Jesus’ ethical teaching from
All cognitively meaningful language is either definitional or empiri- cal in nature
No religious language is either definitional or empirical in nature
No religious language is cognitively meaningful language.24 There are, according to Gill, three main responses which theologians
We have knowledge of other human persons, but it comes from the sensory experience of the other. It is the frame of reference that enables us to function by understanding the diversity of experience. Thus, it is shown to mean something more than the simple literal meaning of the symbol.
PART TWO
The culmination of God's actions is found in the life of Jesus. Warfield, “The Biblical Idea of Inspiration,” in The Inspiration and Authority of the Bible, ed. In the primary sense, it is the writer who is the object of inspiration.
Warfield, "The Real Problem of Inspiration," in The Inspiration and Authority of the Bible, ed. The infallibility of the Pope is the logical complement to the infallibility of the Bible.
1 PART THREE
We will look for genuinely transcendent working by God. Thus we will not expect that only those things which can be accomplished by
In the doctrine of the Trinity, we encounter one of the truly distinctive doctrines of Christianity. E Knight argued against it in a monograph entitled A BibZicuZ Approach to the Doctrine of the Trinity. It is clear that the orthodox formula protects the doctrine of the Trinity against the danger of modalism.
The threeness and the oneness of God are not in the same respect
However, two points were made to protect the doctrine of the Trinity from tritheism. Secondly, they insisted on the concreteness and indivisibility of the divine substance. The divinity of each of the three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, must be affirmed.
The function of one member of the Trinity may for a time be subordinate to one or both of the other members, but that does not
In practice, even orthodox Christians find it difficult to cling to the many components of the doctrine simultaneously. It appears that Tertullian was correct in affirming that the doctrine of the Trinity must be divinely revealed, not humanly constructed. We do not hold faith in the doctrine of the Trinity because it is obvious or logically compelling.
God’s Plan
The plan of God and the decisions contained therein are free on God’s part. This is implied in expressions like “the good pleasure of his
This does not mean that there are no secondary motives behind God's plan and resultant actions. This is implied in the great variety of items that are mentioned in the Bible as part of God's plan. Beyond this, however, there are clear statements of the scope of God's plan. Paul speaks of God as the one who "fulfills all things according to the counsel of his will" (Eph. 1:ll).
The plan of God in terms of its specifics is unchangeable. This idea has already been introduced in the statement regarding the efficacious-
Paul says that we believers "are [God's] workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them" (Eph. On the other hand, the evil works of men, which are contrary with God's law and moral purposes are also seen in Scripture as part of God's plan, as predetermined by Him. The particular way in which God's will relates to evil actions will be discussed more fully later in this chapter; at this point we shall just note that these actions also fall within the scope of God's plan.).
Calvinists believe that God’s plan is logically prior and that man’s
This statement of the logical order of God's decrees reflects the variety of Calvinism known as Sublapsarianism. The very first statement of the Bible is: "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth" (Genesis 1:1). The study of the doctrine of creation is a point of potential dialogue between Christianity and natural science.
The doctrine of creation is first and rather obviously a statement that everything that is not God has derived its existence from him. To put
Thus, even the most recent species are also God's work, because the material from which they arose was created by Him and the laws of genetics through which they developed are also His doing. And, perhaps just as important for our purposes, what is rejected or contradicted. The doctrine of creation is first and rather obviously a statement that everything that is not God derives its existence from him.
The original act of divine creation is unique. It is unlike human
The age of creation is a point of conflict between science and the Bible. The apparent age of the Earth and the fossil records showing its development over long periods of time must be attributed to the first creation. God's plan thus includes and uses the best human skills and knowledge in the genetic refinement of creation.
There is justification for scientifically investigating the creation
The saving of the people at the time of Moses is also particularly remarkable. It involves God's protection of His creation from harm and destruction, and His providing for the needs of the elements or members of creation. Nothing in the biblical descriptions of the divine preservation work suggests that there is a series of atomistic and endlessly repeated.
