This review both praises Richard Miller's book--a thoughtful, judicious, and comprehensive analysis of bioethics for the pediatric age group, notably the first effort worthy of the name--and points out the work still to be done in this area, work firmly based in and illuminated by Miller's ground-breaking thesis. Specifically, the book rightly compels us to recognize obligations of beneficence as primary and to refocus on the child's basic interests, rather than putative "best" interests. There remains much to be done in (...) defining and discerning basic interests and in distinguishing whose interests are on the table when decisions are being made for seriously ill and dying children. (shrink)

There is a fundamental inconsistency in Western society’s treatment of non-human animals on the one hand, and of human foetuses on the other. While most Western countries allow the butchering of animals and their use in experimentation, this must occur under carefully controlled conditions that are intended to minimize their pain and suffering as much as possible. At the same time, most Western countries permit various abortion methods without similar concerns for the developing fetus. The only criteria for deciding which (...) abortion method is used centre in the stage of the pregnancy, the size of the fetus, the health of the pregnant woman and the physician’s preference. This is out of step with the underlying ethos of animal cruelty legislation, cannot be justified ethically and should be rectified by adjusting abortion methods to the capacity of the fetus to experience nociception and/or pain. (shrink)

Responding to Max Weber’s modern diagnosis of nature, science, and medicine as disenchanted, this article aims to reenvision nature and medicine with a sense of enchantment drawing from the Christian themes of creation, Christology, suffering, and redemption. By reenvisioning nature as enchanted with these theological themes, the vocation of medicine might be revitalized in terms of suffering presence, healing care, and works of mercy toward the neighbor in need.

Inter-godsdienstige verhoudinge was nog altyd problematies. Teologie van godsdiens en teologie van godsdienste is die wyse waarop die Christendom oor die teenwoordigheid en aard van ander godsdienste besin. Die kerkhervormers het ook 'n bepaalde verstaan van die bestaan van en verhouding tussen die Christendom en nie-Christelike godsdienste gehad. Hierdie bydrae probeer aantoon hoe die kerkhervormers verskil het in hulle benadering tot ander godsdienste. Martin Luther en Philipp Melanchthon het die moontlikheid van verhoudinge met ander godsdienste, in besonder Jode en Moslems (...) voorgestaan, al was dit dan ook net n momentele mening van Luther. Daarmee verteenwoordig hulle n kategorie van 'moontlikheid'. Johannes Calvyn was meer afwysend teenoor die gedagte van moontlikheid van heil binne ander godsdienste en behoort daarom tot die kategorie van 'geslotenheid'. Die kerkhervormer Theodore Bibliander was oop vir gesprek en positief oor verhoudinge met Moslems alhoewel hy nie gedink het dat heil en verlossing buite die Christendom moontlik is nie. Vir Bibliander het verhouding met ander begin, met kennis van die ander. Hy verteenwoordig die kategorie van 'openheid'. Die kerkhervormers se verstaan van die verhouding met ander godsdienste lewer n bydrae tot n huidige besinning oor inter-godsdienstige verhoudinge. (shrink)

Does it make sense to think of eternal life not as an unending continuation of life subsequent to death but as fully actualized in one’s present mortal and finite life? After outlining conceptual and moral reasons for being troubled by the notion of an endless life, this article draws upon the thought of major Christian theologians and philosophers of religion to expound the idea of eternal life as a possession exclusively of the life one is presently living. Supplementing the claims (...) of religious thinkers with notions of four-dimensionalism and eternalism from theoretical physics and the philosophy of time, and considering important objections to the conception of eternal life in question, I argue for both the conception’s intelligibility and its ethical and spiritual profundity. (shrink)

This article engages feminist critiques of Christology with the views of Christian women living on council estates in the United Kingdom. It explores some of the ways in which the faith of such women connects with and/or contradicts feminist and womanist understandings of Christ. It is demonstrated that Jesus has been thought of in terms of ‘Nan-Nan’, or as a ‘Street Mother’, and that women living in areas of economic deprivation, and elsewhere, might lay claim to such terminology as a (...) way to further articulate identification with Christ, and in order to challenge traditionally androcentric Christology. A series of Christological questions are explored, for example, ‘Who is Jesus?’; ‘Do you think Jesus puts men in charge of women?’ and the anonymised answers are recorded at the beginning of each chapter. It is proposed that feminist Christology may enhance a sentiment already present among Christian women on estates, and, further to this, propel the pursuit of liberation from kyriarchal oppression. In this way, the Christian faith of women on estates is, and can become more and more so, an act of insubordination in the face of oppression of many kinds. Not least, it contributes a fresh and important Christological perspective. (shrink)

I challenge the assumption that human uniqueness, of the sort motivated by the doctrine of the imago Dei, is incompatible with contemporary views in evolutionary biology. I first develop the functionalist account of the image of God and then argue that image bearing is a contingently imposed function. Humans, chosen by God to bear his image, are unique in that they alone possess an ideal range of image bearing capacities. This ideal range, in the end, makes humans well-suited for the (...) role of image bearing. (shrink)

Despite the fact that Stanley Hauerwas has not taken up many of the topics normally associated with virtue ethics, has explicitly distanced himself from the enterprise known as “virtue ethics,” and throughout his career has preferred other categories of analysis, ranging from character and agency to practices and liturgy, it is nevertheless clear that his work has had a deep and transformative impact on the recovery of virtue within Christian ethics, and that this impact has largely to do with the (...) ways in which his thought resists normalization. This essay traces the evolution of Hauerwas's reflections on virtue and the virtues over the course of his career, with special attention to how this has been bound up with an increasingly emphatic theological particularism that has remained ambivalent between what I term “comprehensive” versus “exclusive” particularism. I argue that it is important to distinguish between these, and suggest that grasping the destructive tendencies of “exclusive” particularism should cement our commitment to shouldering the responsibilities associated with comprehensive particularism. (shrink)

Martin Luther het as monnik getwyfel of hy ooit genoeg goeie werke sou kon doen en daarom nie genade by God sou kon vind nie. Danksy sy noukeurige bestudering van Paulus se briewe het hy ontdek dat God, die Vader van Jesus Christus, nie die toornige God is wat net wil straf nie, maar die barmhartige Vader is wat genade wil betoon. Die boodskap oor God se barmhartigheid sien Luther saamgevat in die begrip 'geregtigheid van God'. God se geregtigheid bestaan (...) in sy wil om sondes te vergewe sodat gelowiges voor Hom as geregverdigde mense kan bestaan. In hierdie hoofstuk word God se drie gestaltes van geregtigheid verduidelik aan hand van die drie gestaltes van sonde. Aangesien daar voortdurend misverstand is oor Luther se erns jeens goeie werke, word daar in diepte aandag gegee aan die samehang tussen geloof en werke in sy denke. Die vraagstelling word toegespits op die doen van liefde. Daar word daarop gewys dat Luther se betoog daarop neerkom dat slegs persone wat goeie bome gemaak word, in die doen van die liefde kan volhard. (shrink)

The paper examines the emphasis on knowing the inner life of Jesus by a prominent 19th century Liberal Protestant, and Albert Schweitzer's decisive blow to the Life of Jesus movement at the beginning of the 20th century. It gives critiques to both the former and the latter, and identifies the approach of the Liberal Protestants as ‘subjective’ in two senses. While the subjectivity of an interpreter can pose problems in the interpretation of Jesus, it is maintained that the possibility of (...) knowing some aspects of the subjectivity of Jesus cannot be ruled out a priori. A method of correlation is suggested to give a more objective and connected interpretation of Jesus' outer words/actions and his mind. (shrink)

ABSTRACTThis article uses Gadamer’s concept of play as a common lens through which both traditional church liturgy and imaginative evangelical practices of engaging with God can be understood. The category of play encompasses processes which exhibit a back-and-forth motion and functions in Gadamer’s aesthetics to describe the relationship between artwork and viewer. Through an aesthetics of play, Gadamer accounts for the presence of truth in art. As I demonstrate in this paper, liturgy displays the playful characteristics of artwork, allowing for (...) a theologically realist interpretation of divine presence. The final part of this paper considers the imaginative evangelical practices described by anthropologist T. M. Luhrmann, which I refer to as God-play. I argue that there is an unexpected commonality between God-play and traditional liturgy in the form of a functional similarity between the two and propose that God-play may be regarded as liturgy-like practice that has not been traditionalised. My evaluati... (shrink)

This essay advances an interpretation of early Christian codex books, which goes beyond Catherine Pickstock’s critique of Jacques Derrida. Firstly, it summarizes Derrida’s deconstruction of Plato’s Phaedrus and introduces his understanding of writing as différance. Secondly, it outlines Pickstock’s After Writing in order to understand her emphasis upon the liturgical nature of platonic dialogue. It is here that an ambiguity emerges between writing and codex books in Pickstock’s account. In response, the insights of book historians such as Roger Chartier will (...) be brought to bear in order to understand the longer history of the codex, which sees the printing press as a continuation of the early transition from roll to codex in the second century of the Common Era. It has long been noted that Christians of this period were early and pervasive adopters of codex binding for their sacred literature. By summarizing the reasons why, it will be shown how the codex expressed early Christian religious concerns. (shrink)

Resumo: A questão que move este trabalho é a seguinte: é possível justificar e fomentar o diálogo inter-religioso, através das abordagens pluralistas atuais? Pretende-se empreender uma análise de duas teorias pluralistas, mostrando suas vantagens e limites, para justificar e fomentar o diálogo inter-religioso. Num primeiro momento, será feita uma breve introdução e contextualização dos problemas filosóficos gerados pela diversidade religiosa. Feito isso, serão apresentadas e discutidas duas teorias pluralistas atuais. Será focalizada primeiramente a teoria pluralista de John Hick, o qual (...) possui uma proposta de justificação do pluralismo religioso que tem como ponto central a distinção, emprestada de Kant, entre a realidade fenomênica e a realidade numênica ou entre fenômeno e coisa em si. É daí que seu pluralismo pode ser chamado de pluralismo transcendental. Serão abordados e discutidos os principais conceitos, alcances e limites dessa teoria. Após isso, o mesmo se fará com a teoria de Victoria Harrison, conhecida como pluralismo internalista, que parte de uma adaptação do realismo interno de Putnam ao âmbito da diversidade religiosa. Por fim, esboçar-se-á uma avaliação comparativa das duas teorias, analisando-se as possibilidades e limites dessas teorias, no que se refere ao diálogo inter-religioso.: Is it possible to justify and promote inter-religious dialogue through current pluralistic approaches? This paper analyses two pluralist theories, showing their advantages and limits in justifying and promoting interreligious dialogue. First I make a brief introduction and contextualization of the philosophical problems generated by religious diversity. Next I present and discuss two current pluralistic theories. The first is the pluralistic theory of John Hick, which in justifying religious pluralism has as its central point the distinction, borrowed from Kant, between phenomenal and noumenal reality; Hick’s theory can be called transcendental pluralism. The second is Victoria Harrison’s theory, known as internalist pluralism. This theory is an adaptation of Putnam’s internal realism to the problems of religious diversity. Finally, I make a comparative evaluation of the two theories, analyzing their possibilities and limitations with regard to interreligious dialogue. (shrink)

Annotation: The article contains the research concerning the possible impact of Karl Barth`s figure and theological issues on the theology of the 20th century and the first decades of the 21st century. There is a comparative analysis of how powerful and significant was the level of impact of Barth`s scientific experience on the theologians of his era, in comparison with the most prominent representatives of Christian thought from the earlier centuries, beginning with the times of ancient church, the Middle Ages, (...) the 16th century protestant Reformation, as well as his contemporaries. As it was clarified, Karl Barth made a striking impulse for the further radical deconstruction of what is considered to be the achievements of 19th`s century liberal protestant theology (which made him a lot of detractors among his colleagues), made a loud accent on the necessity of the Christocentric approach to all the spheres of theology, newly updated, actualized and convincingly demonstrated the importance of ancient church creeds and dogmas in the field of Triadology and Christology, as well as in an unusual way he intensified and revived the intellectual search in the protestant universities and academies by his reshaping and changing the paradigms of the whole western theology in a radical way. In the article were taken into account some reviews on Barth`s “Epistle to the Romans” (second edition, 1922), which caused lively discussions and prolonged controversy because of specific and non-standard hermeneutical approaches to the biblical text, which Barth demonstrated in this one of the most eminent theological works of the 20th century. The article reveals not only the attitude towards Barth`s theological heritage that was showed by his protestant colleagues, but also reveals the sincere admiration for his theology from some Orthodox researchers, in particular, the honored professor of Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, John Karavidopulos, and the world famous specialist in the history of Christianity and medieval intellectual history, Jaroslav Jan Pelikan Jr., who converted to Orthodoxy in 1998. In the article`s conclusion there`s a piece of information concerning the fact that the impact of Barth`s dogmatics and hermeneutics on the modern departments of theology is not so noticeable as one might expect. In particular, we can make such a conclusion because of (1) the absence of true consolidation and common vision about the methods of theologizing between the western universities and church seminaries, (2) the popularity of so called “natural theology” which nowadays often seems to be regarded as an important prerequisite for all further theological researches, while Barth himself was a categorical opponent of this discourse, (3) the domination of binary opposition between conservatives and liberals in context of some modern theological discussions, while Karl Barth always tried to organically combine his devotion to the protestant orthodoxy with his efforts to be relevant and adequate to the requirements of his time. (shrink)

I suggest that it is beneficial for Christian feminist theologians to affirm divine personhood on the basis of the revelation of God in the person of Jesus Christ. Doing so allows feminist theologians to connect the doctrines of God and Christ within systematic theologies. Moreover, by affirming divine personhood in concert with an extension of Friedrich Schleiermacher’s transcendental reasoning about redemption, feminists could contribute to the disruption of sexist ecclesial belief and practice. I examine Schleiermacher’s account and rejection of Nazareanism, (...) Manicheanism, Pelagianism, and Docetism, inferring from them four marks of personhood as conditions for the possibility of redemption. These include the communicability of difference, material activity, differentiated relationality, and discerning attention with circumscribed ineffability. In this way, I link feminist anthropologies with Christologically regulated soteriological claims vis-à-vis the doctrine of God. (shrink)

Although Henry David Thoreau stands outside the Christian canon, his outlook on the relations among spirituality, ecology, and economy highlights how Christian theologians can develop a theological work ethic in our era of economic and ecological precarity. He can furthermore help theologians counter the pro-work bias in much Christian thought. In Walden, Thoreau shows that the best work is an ascetic practice that reveals and reaps the abundance of nature and connects the person to the immanent divine and thereby glimpsing (...) eternity. Thoreau thus offers the outline of a transformed theology of work even as he challenges Protestant vocationalism in the early industrial era. He is therefore a fitting if challenging guide for formulating a theology of the self as agent and product of work, at a moment when the postindustrial ideal of work that is both meaningful and remunerative seems ever more unattainable while the negative impact of our work on nonhuman nature is ever more apparent. (shrink)

The vexed and ever-controversial question of hell and the possibility of its final realization is the subject matter of this article. The current fading of belief, or at least serious interest, in this traditional aspect of Christian teaching is the starting-point for a brief historical survey of the meaning of the term in general and its meaning within Christianity in particular. The article argues for a retention of the doctrine, albeit shorn of some of its more flamboyant, traditional attributes, as (...) being of lasting significance to the Christian understanding of salvation. (shrink)

This article has two main divisions, the first consisting in parts 1-3, the second in parts 4-8. The purpose of the first division is to assess Hauerwas's contentions regarding what he takes to be serious debilities in modern theological culture. The objects of Hauerwas's criticism are: natural theology; reason as it is represented in the structure of the modern university and in the "Enlightenment Project"; and liberal Protestantism--the latter particularly as it turns up, by his account, in Reinhold Niebuhr's theology. (...) The article will offer a defense of natural theology and an alternative approach to Niebuhr's theology while showing how Hauerwas's contentions concerning these two matters are mistaken. Parts 4-8 are theological studies. These studies concentrate on selected though main aspects of Hauerwas's outlook. Part 4 concerns a problematic implication of the notion, mainly from Barth, of divinity's humanity; Part 5 a note of difficulty from William James about the idea of the theistic God and its pertinence to the Barthian or Hauerwasian God; Part 6 the relation between belief and witness; Part 7 theology's discourse and analogy; Part 8 the Barthian-Hauerwasian theology as a metaphysics. Part 1, concerning natural theology, stands over both divisions. These observations are not in the main intended as textual studies, though in certain passages the analysis is closely attentive to Hauerwas's text. Also, the paper does not offer the sort of account that would come from a historian, intellectual biographer, or social or cultural analyst or critic. Its focus is philosophical-theological criticism. (shrink)

Gedurende 2017 herdenk Lutherse en Calvinistiese kerke die Kerkhervorming wat 500 jaar gelede plaasgevind het. Hierdie hoofstuk fokus op Johannes Calvyn se eerste publikasies, dit wil sê publikasies wat verskyn het voordat hy met sy bediening in Genève begin het. Die fokus val op die drie belangrikste publikasies in hierdie periode, te wete sy 'Kommentaar op Seneca se De Clementia', die 'De Psychopannychia' en die eerste uitgawe van sy 'Christianae Religionis Institutio'. In hierdie eerste drie publikasies is 'n jeugdige Calvyn (...) aan die woord. Ten spyte daarvan is die publikasies omvangryk en is dit duidelik dat Calvyn vroeg in sy lewe oor omvangryke kennis en insig beskik het. Die vroegste publikasies word somtyds as van minder belang geag. In hierdie bydrae word die stelling gemaak dat die publikasies van groot belang is omdat Calvyn talle van die gedagtes wat later in sy werke na vore kom, reeds in sy vroeë werke aan die orde gestel het. (shrink)

During 2017, churches with their roots in the 16th-century Reformation, will be celebrating the legacy of the Reformation. It affords theologians and churches the opportunity to reflect on the principles of the Reformation and its relevance at the start of the 21st century. This contribution reflects on the question of the necessity of church reformation, based on three texts from different periods in the history of the church. Firstly and primarily, Calvin's 'De necessitate reformandae ecclesiae' of 1543 sheds light on (...) the issues the 16th century reformers were faced with and why they believed the church needed reformation. Calvin had a very clear view on the necessity of church reformation, but that it should also come to some conclusion once the liturgy and doctrine are in order. The question of church reformation is then further discussed in the light of two other texts, one from Jodocus van Lodenstein and Karl Barth. All agree on the necessity of church reformation, but differ in terms of theological and practical implications. The contribution concludes with a few remarks on the modern maxim 'ecclesia semper reformanda'. (shrink)

This essay explores the relationship between nature and grace and the theological impact of this relationship on feminist anthropological debates. Engaging this debate through an examination and critique of Serene Jones’ ‘eschatological essentialism’, this essay suggests that Jones mistakenly characterizes constructivism, and thus turns too quickly to an essentialist paradigm without considering its risks. Using Judith Butler and Karl Barth, this essay proposes an account of identity that the author calls a ‘Christological constructivism’. Suggesting that the person and work of (...) Christ instantiates a grace that disrupts nature, Daniels argues for an account of identity as ‘more-than’, suggesting that this anthropology engenders healing for women, and men, within communities religious and otherwise. (shrink)

In hierdie hoofstuk word Luther se teologiese denke oor die huwelik en seksualiteit bespreek. Luther se invloed op teologiese denke oor die huwelik word aangetoon. Die hoofstuk wys daarop dat sedert Luther tot vandag, seksuele verskille 'n belangrike kwessie is wanneer daar vanuit 'n teologiese perspektief oor die huwelk nagedink word. 'n Hermeneutiek van suspisie word gebruik om die skeppingsorde teologie sowel as die begrip 'mens as geskape na die beeld van God', wat tradisioneel gebruik word in die nadenke oor (...) die huwelik, te interpreteer. (shrink)