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Tracing the Hand of God: Divine Providence, Dutch Colonial Policy, and Herman Bavinck International Journal of Systematic Theology Pub Date : 2023-11-03 Bruce R. Pass
In this essay, I trace the main contours of Herman Bavinck's account of divine providence, outlining its unique features. I then highlight ways that Bavinck's parliamentary speeches which touch on the subject of colonial policy in the Dutch East Indies expose a hidden risk in his formulation of this doctrine. In conversation with recent reflections on this doctrine, I then argue that this problem is
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Author’s Response International Journal of Systematic Theology Pub Date : 2023-09-27 Katherine Sonderegger
This essay aims to reply to the three essays devoted to Systematic Theology, volume 2. Common to all three essays is the conviction that my Trinitarian theology exhibits a kind of unicity that gives rise to inconsistencies of method and worries in matters of doctrine. My reply lays out several forms of unity and details how I hope to present proper uniformity in form and matter of dogmatics. A precis
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Simply Given: Self-Gift and Consubstantiality in Aquinas and Social Trinitarianism International Journal of Systematic Theology Pub Date : 2023-09-25 Michael Joseph Higgins
Social Trinitarians have long argued that a strong reading of consubstantiality rules out the possibility of anything interpersonal – including interpersonal self-giving – in God. I argue that, for Aquinas, the claim that all three persons are identical to the same nature is no threat to interpersonal self-giving. Nor is it merely compatible with interpersonal self-giving. Instead, it is necessary
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To Think and to Speak of the Living God: Katherine Sonderegger's Systematic Theology, Volume 2 International Journal of Systematic Theology Pub Date : 2023-09-11 Philip G. Ziegler
This review of the second volume of Katherine Sonderegger's Systematic Theology reflects upon its several extraordinary features before exploring in some detail the theological account of Scripture integrated into its argument. The possibility of unfolding a metaphysically robust account of God's immanent triune life on the basis of the biblical witness turns upon a highly distinctive view of the Bible
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The ‘End’ of Memory: Memory, the Porous Self, and the Communion of Saints in Augustine's Confessions International Journal of Systematic Theology Pub Date : 2023-09-08 Abraham S-C Wu
This article presents a brief, constructive, theological account of memory in response to contemporary questions regarding memory loss via Augustine's account of memory, which elucidates the remembering subject's openness and relatedness to God and the communion of saints. First, I examine Augustine's Confessions, showing how memory is embodied, affective, and cogitative, and that memory's end is in
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‘The Bible is not “like any other book”’: Katherine Sonderegger and the Bible as Vestigium Trinitatis International Journal of Systematic Theology Pub Date : 2023-09-08 Matthew A. Wilcoxen
The second volume of Katherine Sonderegger's Systematic Theology is a daring attempt to do something new in trinitarian dogma: find a fulsome, technically sophisticated doctrine of the Trinity in key Old Testament texts using an interpretive approach, and employing assumptions, that might be recognizable to certain Jewish theological readings of the same texts. This paper situates this project in Sonderegger's
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A Treasure Hidden in a Field: Katherine Sonderegger on Scripture International Journal of Systematic Theology Pub Date : 2023-09-06 Kirsten Sanders
This paper considers Katherine Sonderegger's view of Scripture. In volume 2 of her Systematic Theology Sonderegger suggests a ‘dogmatic reading’ that overcomes the impasse of both a too historicist and a too theologically narrow view of the biblical text. As evidenced in her innovative reading of Isaiah 53, Sonderegger's engagement with Scripture is both thoroughly traditional and a novel approach
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Revisiting John Gill's Doctrine of Eternal Justification International Journal of Systematic Theology Pub Date : 2023-08-18 Garrett M. Walden
Richard Muller situated the English Baptist minister, John Gill (1697–1771), among the Reformed orthodox theologians. However, the Baptist tradition has often looked askance at Gill because of his debated association with hyper-Calvinism and one of its key pillars: eternal justification. Most historical scholarship has taken for granted that Gill affirmed eternal justification in such a way that renders
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Divine Providence through Predictable Chance Events: A Problem for Non-Competitive Accounts of Divine Action International Journal of Systematic Theology Pub Date : 2023-06-12 Josh Reeves
This article addresses the question, ‘How can divine providence be reconciled with statistically random events?’ To limit the scope of the article, I focus on one popular version of meticulous providence that relies upon the primary/secondary causation distinction, influentially defended by Kathryn Tanner and her book God and Creation in Christian Theology. I argue that modern conceptions of chance
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The Difference Jesus Makes: Yuval Noah Harari and Wolfhart Pannenberg on the Shape of Universal History International Journal of Systematic Theology Pub Date : 2023-06-12 E. J. David Kramer
The Christian confession of who Jesus is must be made in the contested space of conflicting accounts of history. This article compares the shape of universal history set out by Yuval Noah Harari with that of Wolfhart Pannenberg by sketching their accounts of human beginnings, the middle of history, and their view to the future. Harari's secular account can be summarized as the rise and fall of homo
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Play and Freedom: Patterns of Life in the Spirit International Journal of Systematic Theology Pub Date : 2023-06-09 Simeon Zahl
This article explores the pneumatological theme of the freedom of the Spirit from the perspective of experience. It deploys a recently developed methodology of attending to affective and experiential dynamics in pneumatology to identify two significant patterns or modalities of Christian life in the Spirit that are indexed to the Spirit's freedom: a pattern of divine resistance to human attempts to
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Gregory Palamas, Essence and Energy: Eradicating Falsehood and Establishing Truth International Journal of Systematic Theology Pub Date : 2023-04-13 Thomas G. Weinandy
This essay examines Gregory Palamas's distinction between God's essence and his energies. His position has been controversial down to the present day – some scholars supporting his distinction and others severely criticizing it. I demonstrate that the distinction between God's essence and his energies is indeed fallacious – scripturally, philosophically, and theologically. I offer, in its place, a
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A Christological Problem of Epectasy International Journal of Systematic Theology Pub Date : 2023-02-06 Joseph Walker-Lenow
This paper argues that the theological and anthropological assumptions underlying Gregory of Nyssa's doctrine of epectasy, an understanding of our eschatological state as one of perpetual growth in the love of God, mandate a christological conclusion that many will find undesirable: there will come a time in the course of eternal life at which each of the redeemed come to love the Father more than
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Deification and the Divine Image International Journal of Systematic Theology Pub Date : 2023-01-31 Rowan Williams
‘Glorification’ in time and eternity One of the really significant features of Khaled Anatolios' s groundbreaking study is that it obliges us to think more clearly about what the divine image is that is restored or liberated in the process of our redemption – our theosis. That this is pre-eminently the image of ‘filial’ love and intimacy is rightly at the centre of this discussion: to be ‘deified’
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Surprise, Hope and Gift: A Pneumatological Account of the Unexpected Nature of Vocation International Journal of Systematic Theology Pub Date : 2022-11-15 Cara F. Lovell
God's call can be surprising and unexpected. This article evaluates theologies of vocation in light of this potential for surprise. Contemporary Protestant theological interpretations of vocation are critiqued as incomplete due to their tendency to present vocation as the expression and utilisation of innate abilities without giving sufficient account of how an individual might be called to something
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Hope: Being Human in the Anthropocene International Journal of Systematic Theology Pub Date : 2022-11-09 Graham Ward
Given the calamities involved in climate change and the impact it is having – and will continue to have, on lives driven towards subsistence – what can be said about the goodness of creation? This essay explores how privileged theologians might rethink the notion of the common good in a situation where the majority are under-privileged. It argues for a need for imaginative investment to develop empathy
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Theology for the Life of the World International Journal of Systematic Theology Pub Date : 2022-11-09 Matthew Croasmun
The purpose of theology is to discern, articulate, commend, and embody visions of flourishing life in light of the self-revelation of God in the life, death, resurrection, exaltation, and coming-in-glory of Jesus Christ. This purpose of theology is timeless, but its articulation at this time has a particular shape to it. Aspects of this shape are sketched in light of a number of contemporary material
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Thinking Faith International Journal of Systematic Theology Pub Date : 2022-11-09 Anne Käfer
Faith and science have been continuously portrayed as incompatible counterparts. This article argues conversely that scientific reflection on faith, namely academic theology, is not opposed to but essential for a Christian life. The contents of faith require precise description, as they constitute the Church community and can be even dangerous if unprecise or incorrect. In cooperation with other disciplines
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Toward a Renewed Theological Culture: Introduction International Journal of Systematic Theology Pub Date : 2022-11-09 Oliver Dürr, Christophe Chalamet
This article introduces a series of articles analysing the current state of theology and inquiring about the possibilities of a renewed theological culture (not least within secular societies). It places theology, and more precisely, the conditions of a possible renewal thereof, in several fields of tension. Paradigmatic for secular societies is the tension between theology and the natural sciences
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Karl Barth's Theology of God as the Absolute Person: Decision and the Problem of the Counterfactuals International Journal of Systematic Theology Pub Date : 2022-10-17 Sara Mannen
This article argues that the tension identified by maximalist interpreters in Barth's theology between his concrete identification of Jesus Christ with the essence of God and affirmation of counterfactual possibilities is motivated by Barth's theology that God is the absolute person. Barth's theology of divine personhood includes an element of self-mastery over Godself. It is demonstrated that Barth
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Forming Humanity as Threefold Task International Journal of Systematic Theology Pub Date : 2022-10-17 Jennifer A. Herdt
The theological task can fruitfully be framed as that of forming humanity in the face of recognizing our inhumanity when this is interpreted as a restatement of the Twofold Love Commandment. We can identify three distinct phases of reflection on the formation of humanity – the archaic, historicist, and evolutionary. The movement from one to the next does not represent theological or ethical progress
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Generous Orthodoxy: Theology, Church and the Gift of the Spirit International Journal of Systematic Theology Pub Date : 2022-10-17 Graham Tomlin
The article explores the concept of ‘Generous Orthodoxy’. It argues that the phrase focuses the task of theology on the worship of God, and its significance in spiritual formation. It also works to enable the church's witness by engaging with the realities of the world from the perspective of credal orthodoxy. The words ‘Generous’ and ‘Orthodoxy’ each illuminate the other, in that true orthodoxy is
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Seeing, Embodying, and Proclaiming Christ International Journal of Systematic Theology Pub Date : 2022-10-17 John Behr
This essay examines the way Irenaeus of Lyons describes Blandina in her martyrdom: seen by others as embodying Christ and so encouraging them to also bear witness and be born into life by the Virgin Mother, the Church. It explores in particular Irenaeus' exegetical moves, so as to regain a sense of the unity of theology and exegesis as a transformed and transforming vision, which in turn extends the
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What's Not to Love? Rethinking Appeals to Tradition in Contemporary Debates in Trinitarian Theology International Journal of Systematic Theology Pub Date : 2022-10-03 Thomas McCall
Contemporary discussions of the doctrine of the Trinity are sometimes centered on debates between ‘Social Trinitarians’ and ‘Classical Trinitarians.’ Those who align with ‘Social Trinitarianism’ usually insist that an adequate doctrine of the Trinity demands an affirmation of intra-Trinitarian mutual love – and thus reject the doctrine of divine simplicity and numerical sameness out of a commitment
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Imaging the Trinity in the Flesh: Somatic Union as an Aspect of Theosis in Cyril of Alexandria International Journal of Systematic Theology Pub Date : 2022-09-26 Andrew Mercer
In this article, I seek to show how Cyril of Alexandria's exposition of the effects of eucharistic participation provide us with a hitherto overlooked component of his overall vision of theosis, which may deepen our understanding of theosis in the Christian tradition more broadly. Based on his understanding of what the Eucharist is, he develops the idea that eucharistic participation creates a fleshly
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The Doctrine of the Trinity: Intellectual Construct or Ontological Reality? Reflections from the Philosophy of Science International Journal of Systematic Theology Pub Date : 2022-09-26 Alister E. McGrath
This article draws on the distinction between instrumentalism and realism in the philosophy of science to consider the merits of two possible approaches to the doctrine of the Trinity. One considers this doctrine to be an intellectual construct, which coordinates multiple insights about the nature and action of God; the other considers it to be a statement about the ontological reality of God. After
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‘Word without Measure’: The (Ir)reducible History of Jesus Christ in John Webster International Journal of Systematic Theology Pub Date : 2022-09-18 Brent A. Rempel
John Webster's Christology bears a twofold character. First, Webster attends to the particular identity of the Son of God who is and acts in and as Jesus Christ. Second, Webster articulates, in increasing measure, the rootedness of the Word's assumption of the flesh in the Son's eternal relation to Father and the Holy Spirit. Both features of Jesus' history – namely its irreducible particularity and
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Herman Bavinck on the Beatific Vision International Journal of Systematic Theology Pub Date : 2022-09-18 Nathaniel Gray Sutanto
Herman Bavinck's account of the beatific vision has been a source of debate in recent years. While Hans Boersma has argued that Bavinck was too preoccupied with the renewal of creation to give proper attention to the beatific vision, Cory Brock has responded to the effect that the brevity of Bavinck's treatment of the visio dei in volume four of the Dogmatics was fuelled rather by epistemic modesty
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Of Signs: Matter and Revelation in the Liturgies of William Durand and John Calvin International Journal of Systematic Theology Pub Date : 2022-09-12 Lee Palmer Wandel
This article seeks to set aside what we might call Cartesian physics to revisit William Durand's conception of sign as set forth in the Rationale divinorum officiorum and John Calvin's as set forth in the Institutio christianae religionis. Reading the two works through the lens of medieval physics reveals commonalities – both held signs to be ever-present modes of divine communication – and enables
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Calvin's Visual Exegesis of Old Testament Prophecy: Figural Reading and the Sacramental Character of Scripture International Journal of Systematic Theology Pub Date : 2022-09-06 Sujin Pak
This article provides a study of John Calvin's treatment of the Old Testament prophets' language, images and metaphors to illuminate the distinctly visual character of his theology. It explores Calvin's theology of Scripture as shaped by the visual theology rooted in his exegesis of the Old Testament prophetic books. The author argues that the Old Testament prophets serve as supreme models for imitation
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John Calvin's Apoiconic Vision of the Body and the Blood International Journal of Systematic Theology Pub Date : 2022-08-23 Franklin Tanner Capps
This article offers a reading of a feature of John Calvin's theology that has received little attention – the role of visuality in his writings on the sacraments as developed between the years of 1536 and 1561. As an intervention into longstanding debates over the legacy of his sacramental theology, I argue that Calvin's use of visual categories to describe the sacramental event is best understood
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‘A Mark of Perfection:’ Receiving and Perfection in Aquinas’s Trinitarian Theology International Journal of Systematic Theology Pub Date : 2022-06-12 Michael Joseph Higgins
In the last three decades, some Thomists have argued that receiving is a pure perfection, others that it is a transcendental, and others that it is neither. All agree, however, that Aquinas himself holds that it is neither a pure perfection nor a transcendental. I argue here that, while Aquinas does not number receiving among the pure perfections or the transcendentals, he comes closer to doing so
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Is Eusebius of Caesarea a ‘Nicene’? A Contribution to the Notion of Conciliar Theology International Journal of Systematic Theology Pub Date : 2022-05-25 Adam R. Renberg
Amidst recent explorations in conciliar theology by Timothy Pawl and others, pressing questions about our theological readings of the councils have arisen – are we to treat the theology of the councils as unique to their historical context? Or as a unified body of ‘conciliar’ theology? This paper addresses these questions, using Eusebius of Caesarea as a unique example of Nicene theology. It defines
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The Devil's Envy: On Christ as Angelic Justifier and Demonic Stumbling Block International Journal of Systematic Theology Pub Date : 2022-05-25 Brendan Case
At least since Augustine, Christian theology, especially but not only in the Latin West, has been dominated by an account of angelic origins in which the Incarnation was a response to humanity’s fall, itself occasioned by the prior angelic fall, whose cause in turn was the proud desire to be like God. (We’ll call this the ‘pride-account’). Nonetheless, that Augustinian view has been balanced from the
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‘True God from True God’: The Logic of Eternal Procession International Journal of Systematic Theology Pub Date : 2022-05-25 Steven J. Duby
While the eternal processions of God the Son and God the Holy Spirit are integral to orthodox Christian teaching on the Trinity, some philosophical theologians have recently debated whether the teaching of the eternal processions is necessary or even coherent with other elements of orthodox trinitarianism. This essay focuses on the eternal procession of the Son and attempts to show something of the
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Communal Reconciliation: Corporate Responsibility and Opposition to Systemic Sin International Journal of Systematic Theology Pub Date : 2022-04-25 D. T. Everhart
Recent events have given rise to considerations of systemic sin and how the church should respond to it. This article looks at passages in the Hebrew Bible which demonstrate the communal character of sin and atonement. God holds the whole nation responsible despite righteous individuals, often for the sins of individuals. Paul develops this relation between individuals and groups in his ecclesiology
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The Orders of Vocation: A Brunnerian Proposal International Journal of Systematic Theology Pub Date : 2022-04-23 Taylor D. Holleyman
This article draws on the idea of the ‘orders of creation’ as developed in Emil Brunner’s The Divine Imperative (1932) and shows that Brunner’s understanding of the orders provides a fruitful theological foundation for conceptualizing Christian vocation and for framing the process of discernment therein. However, the concept of orders of creation is a mistrusted doctrine with problematic historical
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Body Without End: Biological Mutualism and the Body of Christ International Journal of Systematic Theology Pub Date : 2022-03-23 Hannah Malcolm
This article argues that the ecological turn towards biological mutualism enlivens our understanding of the eschatological promise contained in Christ’s resurrected and ascended body. I examine the implications of proposing that Christ’s body was not only incarnate as microbiome, but also rose and ascended as microbiome. First, I analyse contemporary approaches to Christology’s relation to creation
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On the Present Possibility of Sola Scriptura International Journal of Systematic Theology Pub Date : 2022-03-18 Philip G. Ziegler
The historic Protestant wager that Christian theology is funded and governed sola scriptura sui ipsius interpres commits Protestant exegesis and theology to a particular hermeneutical programme. But is this programme viable? I argue that it is, and that it should be undertaken today by practising the theological interpretation of Scripture as a particular kind of Sachkritik: one that seeks the evangelical
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Critical Ressourcement and Evaluative Correction in Trinitarian Theology: A Case Study on Richard of St Victor’s De Trinitate International Journal of Systematic Theology Pub Date : 2022-03-18 Dennis Bray
I begin this article by suggesting that the current phase of trinitarian theology is characterized by an impetus to evaluate and correct work done in earlier phases. One evaluative-corrective voice is that of Stephen Holmes, who critiques recent trinitarian ressourcement and advocates a return to more traditional conceptions. I suggest that Richard of St Victor can serve as an excellent model of traditional
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MikeHigton, The Life of Christian Doctrine. London: T&T Clark, 2020, ix + 275 pp. £95.00/$120.00 International Journal of Systematic Theology Pub Date : 2022-03-16 Adam T. Morton
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Akratic Action and John Calvin’s Understanding of Adam’s Prelapsarian Free Choice International Journal of Systematic Theology Pub Date : 2022-02-23 Edmund Fong
I argue in this article that the concept of akratic action can be profitably employed to better secure the twin notions that John Calvin sought to establish with the doctrine of the Fall: the necessity and inevitability of the Fall (due to God’s predetermination) and the assumption of full moral responsibility on the part of Adam (due to his action being a free choice). Furthermore, this picture of
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The ‘Monarchy’ of God the Father International Journal of Systematic Theology Pub Date : 2022-02-20 Nicholas E. Lombardo
According to the Eleventh Council of Toledo (675), God the Father ‘takes his origin from no one’ and is ‘the font and origin of all divinity’. This article clarifies and defends these declarations about God the Father and the patristic consensus on which they rely. First, it documents the patristic consensus about the Father’s fontal role within the Trinity. Afterwards, it responds to revisionist narratives
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Praying the Imprecatory Psalms? Reflections on an Unresolved Theological Problem with Dietrich Bonhoeffer International Journal of Systematic Theology Pub Date : 2022-02-13 Nadine Hamilton
This article probes the question of whether or not the so-called imprecatory Psalms may be prayed either in private settings or churches. In his Finkenwalde sermon on Psalm 58, Dietrich Bonhoeffer considers them ‘the prayer[s] of the innocent’. This article examines Bonhoeffer’s understanding and handling of the imprecatory Psalms, which leads to the overall question of the theology of Scripture –
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Rethinking Nature and Grace: The Logic of Creation’s Consummation International Journal of Systematic Theology Pub Date : 2022-01-21 Ian A. McFarland
A central challenge of Christian reflection on eschatological hope is the ability to balance affirmations of continuity and discontinuity between life now and the life to come. This challenge is exemplified in 2 Peter’s assurance that believers become ‘participants in the divine nature’ (1:4), which raises tricky questions regarding the relationship between human nature as created and the grace by
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Beyond the Realistic-Ethical Distinction in Deification: Reconsidering Norman Russell’s Assessment of Gregory of Nyssa International Journal of Systematic Theology Pub Date : 2022-02-07 Chungman Lee
The notion of deification (θεοποίησις) or divinization (θέωσις), a fundamental theme in Eastern Orthodox theology, has long fascinated theologians from different traditions. In spite of the general interest in this theme, scholarship has fallen short on several accounts. One issue is that the intrinsic relationship between the ‘realistic’ and ‘ethical’ senses of deification has defied clear explanation
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Existential Theodicy as a Response to the Limits of Classic Theodicy on the Basis of Kierkegaard’s Religious Writings International Journal of Systematic Theology Pub Date : 2022-02-04 Andrzej Słowikowski
The aim of this article is to reconstruct an existential vision of theodicy from the religious writings of Kierkegaard – one which could constitute a response to the limits of classic theodicy. As distinct from classic theodicy, which has an immanent and theoretical dimension, Kierkegaard’s considerations take a transcendent and practical form. Good and evil are not here objective and moral markers
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Vocation to Love: Supererogation in Aquinas International Journal of Systematic Theology Pub Date : 2022-02-02 James Dominic Rooney
Thomas Aquinas’s account of religious vocation has been interpreted as involving a qualified duty, where ordinary people fall short of living up to the moral ideal of becoming a monk or nun. Such an account of religious vocation makes a hash of Aquinas’s thought and misses important aspects of his ethics. Aquinas holds that religious life is praiseworthy, but not morally required, because there are
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Performative Finitude: Theological Language and the God–World Relationship in Nicholas of Cusa’s De Non Aliud International Journal of Systematic Theology Pub Date : 2022-02-02 Silvianne Aspray
In Christ the Heart of Creation, Rowan Williams regrets that he cannot explore Nicholas of Cusa’s ‘uniquely lucid insights’ concerning the relationship between God and the world. This article takes up the challenge, enquiring how Cusanus approaches this relationship in his treatise De Non Aliud. First, the article attends to how Cusanus understands theological language, arguing that he invites his
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Trinity, regiratio and Mind: An Exploration of the Systematic-Theological Resources of Ruusbroec’s Regirative Model International Journal of Systematic Theology Pub Date : 2022-01-31 Rik Van Nieuwenhove
This article discusses the original and highly dynamic doctrine of the Trinity of Jan van Ruusbroec (1293–1381) and explores its potential for systematic theology today. Ruusbroec characterizes the Trinity as ‘a flowing, ebbing sea’ in which the divine processions are being reversed through a moment of regiratio or return. The theological-anthropological implications of this view (as well as Ruusbroec’s
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A Reformed Account of Eucharistic Sacrifice International Journal of Systematic Theology Pub Date : 2022-01-26 Stephen R. Holmes
Christian writers have always described the Eucharist as a ‘sacrifice’, but this was ill-defined before 1500. The Tridentine Fathers offered an account of the priest somehow offering the one sacrifice of Calvary anew at the altar, which depended on transubstantiation, but later theologians have found it difficult to narrate this. I propose a eucharistic theology that draws on Calvin’s account of the