9 books found
Ranging across two centuries of world history, Alvarez's fascinating study throws open the Vatican's doors to reveal the startling but little-known world of espionage in one of the most sacred places on earth.
Multiple gods? Divinely mandated genocide? Rejection of an afterlife? If the Scriptures are the inspired and inerrant word of God that Christians claim them to be, how can they contain these things? For many believers in the modern age, traditional Christian answers to these challenges are no longer convincing. Though spiritually edifying, they are unable to account for the sheer scope and depth of problems raised through the advent of historical-critical scholarship. Following the lead of Pope Benedict XVI, in Dark Passages of the Bible Matthew Ramage weds the historical-critical approach with a theological reading of Scripture based in the patristic-medieval tradition. Whereas these two approaches are often viewed as mutually exclusive or even contradictory, Ramage insists that the two are mutually enriching and necessary for doing justice to the Bible's most challenging texts. Ramage applies Benedict XVI's hermeneutical principles to three of the most theologically problematic areas of the Bible: its treatment of God's nature, the nature of good and evil, and the afterlife. Teasing out key hermeneutical principles from the work of Thomas Aquinas, Ramage analyzes each of these themes with an eye to reconciling texts whose presence would seem to violate the doctrines of biblical inspiration and inerrancy. At the same time, Ramage directly addresses the problems of concrete biblical texts in light of both patristic and modern exegetical methods. PRAISE FOR THE BOOK "Ramage uses three difficult biblical motifs as proving grounds for this method: the nature of God, the nature of good and evil, and the afterlife. Exegetes and theologians will appreciate the author's wrestling with these issues in a considered way that tries to be true to both scientific methodology and the demands of a community of faith." -The Bible Today If a sacred text can be literally incorrect about topics on which it claims to speak authoritatively, how can its words be trustworthy? Dark Passages sets out to raise the reader's awareness of how to use the Bible in ways that are not so cut and dried. The Method C reader appreciates myth or authorial overreach where they exist, and always reads the biblical word theologically, as an encounter with the divine Word. Method C goes beyond a simple, formulaic answer to problematic Bible passages." -First Things
"Robert Stamps offers us a compelling case for the significance of the theology of Thomas Torrance to current discussions about Trinitarian doctrine and worship. He shows that Torrance's Christology and Eucharistic thought validates the Reformed confession of a profound, real spiritual presence in the Eucharist. This book serves as a helpful introduction to Torrance, especially his framing of revelation. Moreover, it invigorates our understanding of the theological meaning of sacramental devotion. Its readers will be stimulated, provoked, and, dare I say, inspired by its insights into--and critiques of--one of the most important and recent Reformed thinkers. In sum, this is a timely and exciting book. It will well serve pastors, theologians, and thoughtful Christians of many theological perspectives." MARK VALERI, E. T. Thompson Professor of Church History, Union Theological Seminary, Virginia "One of the values of this work is that it has deliberately sought not so much to discuss a particular problem or a collection of issues as to identify Torrance as an example of an archetypal Reformed theology of the Eucharist. To say that Dr. Stamps has been industrious is patently an understatement: the truth is that he has been indefatigable in his search for the least morsel that Torrance offers. Yet it is not so much as a study of Torrance that this book is to be commended: its great value is that it offers a contextualization of Torrance's thinking on the Eucharist--in ecclesiology, the more general dimension of an incarnational theology--as well as his understanding of cosmology and epistemology. . . . I hope that Dr. Stamps' book will not only find grateful readers but will be repaid by profound reflection on this symbol of the heart of faith." JOHN HEYWOOD THOMAS, Emeritus Professor of Theology, University of Nottingham
This study approaches John Henry Newman’s writings on the church from a fresh perspective by examining the development of Newman’s ecclesiological outlook over time. It demonstrates that it can be misleading to refer to Newman’s “Catholic ecclesiology” (singular), because such an approach gives the impression that Newman maintained a stable ecclesiological perspective during his Roman Catholic period. In reality, Newman’s outlook on the church underwent significant developments over the last four decades of his life. As a result of various events in his life, including the Rambler affair and his experience of the First Vatican Council, Newman slowly developed an ecclesiological outlook that counterbalanced the authority of the pope and bishops with a robust account of the role of theologians and the lay faithful in the reception and transmission of church doctrine. Whether consciously or not, Newman left his ecclesiological writings open for further development on the part of theologians who would follow after him.
by Jerry J. Jones
2017 · Xlibris Corporation
One hundred and sixteen years have passed since Kansas Wesleyan University (KWU) formed basketball teams known as the Wesleyans, the Methodists, the Preachers, and now, the Coyotes. Fathers, sons, and grandsons have worn the purple and gold colors, winning and losing but always striving to represent the university in a most positive manner. Head coaches had been students, middle school, high school, and college teachers. Like the players themselves, the coaches had come from different states, scattered in all directions. But they were here in Salina back in 1901 and continuing on in 2017 as teammates and brothers of the basketball, bound together by the mutual story that is Kansas Wesleyan basketball.
John Henry (later Cardinal) Newman is generally known to have been devoted to reading the Church Fathers. In this volume, Benjamin King draws on archive as well as published material to explore how Newman interpreted specific Fathers at different periods of his life. King draws connections between the Alexandrian Fathers Newman was reading and the development of his thought. This analysis shows that it was events in Newman's life that changed his interpretation of the Fathers, not the interpretation of the Fathers that caused Newman to change his life. King argues that Newman tailored his reading, 'trying on' the ideas of different Fathers to fit his own needs. An innovative comparison of Newman's two translations of Athanasius of Alexandria, from 1842-44 and 1881, demonstrates that by 1881 the Cardinal was swayed by the theology favored by Pope Leo XIII. King reveals that although Newman was a controversial figure in his own day, eventually his view of the Fathers and their doctrines came to be accepted by many scholars. This new exploration of his work, however, shows that the Cardinal's interpretation of the Fathers should still be controversial today.
In March 2013, millions of people sat glued to news channels and live Internet feeds, waiting to see white smoke rise from the Sistine Chapel, signaling the election of the new pope. For two millennia, the papacy, leader of the Roman Catholic Church, has played a fundamentally important role in European history and world affairs. Transcending the religious realm, it has influenced ideological, philosophical, social, and political developments, as well as international relations. Considering the broad role of the papacy from the end of the eighteenth century to the present, this original history explores the reactions and responses it has evoked and its confrontation with and accommodation of the modern world. Frank J. Coppa describes the triumphs, controversies, and failures of the popes over the past two hundred years—including Pius IX, who was criticized for his campaign against Italian unification and his proclamation of papal infallibility; Pius XII, denounced for his silence during the Holocaust and impartiality during World War II; and John XXIII, who was praised for his call to update the Church and for convoking the Second Vatican Council. Examining a wide variety of sources, some only recently made available by the Vatican archives, The Papacy in the Modern World sheds new light on this institution and offers valuable insights into events previously shrouded in mystery.
Reason, Revelation, and Devotion argues that immersion in religious reading traditions and their associated spiritual practices significantly shapes our emotions, desires, intuitions, and volitional commitments; these in turn affect our construction and assessments of arguments for religious conclusions. But far from distorting the reasoning process, these emotions and volitional and cognitive dispositions can be essential for sound reasoning on religious and other value-laden subject matters. And so western philosophy must rethink its traditional antagonism toward rhetoric. The book concludes with discussions of the implications of the earlier chapters for the relation between reason and revelation, and for the role that the concept of mystery should play in philosophy in general, and in the philosophy of religion and philosophical theology in particular.
At the same time, the author analyses the reevaluation of Jewish stereotyping after 1930, both as a result of the natural development of the crime novel, and more immediately, in light of the rise of Hitler, World War II, and the Holocaust."--BOOK JACKET.