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Books > Religion & Spirituality > Christianity > Christian theology > General
With its focus on the traditions and communities that form us
over the course of a lifetime, virtue ethics has richly expanded
our understanding of what the Christian life can look like. Yet its
emphasis on human virtues and habits of mind and life seems
inconsistent with the Reformed tradition's insistence that sin lies
at the heart of the human condition. For this reason, virtue ethics
seems out of place in Reformed theology, especially in the company
of the Reformed tradition's greatest twentieth-century theologian,
Karl Barth.
In this new addition to the Columbia Series in Reformed
Theology, Kirk Nolan argues that Barth's theology actually proves
virtue ethics can be compatible with the Reformed tradition. Rather
than see virtue as an inevitable and natural process of growth,
Barth helps us understand that development in the Christian life
comes through a process of repetition and renewal, and that all
virtue comes solely as a gift from God. Nolan establishes an
important bridge between Reformed moral teaching and the tradition
of virtue ethics.
In a world often consumed with self-sufficiency, this book reminds
us that humans have an innate need for the grace of God's personal
presence. Christa McKirland, an author doing research at the
intersection of Christian theology and the sciences, argues for a
new way of understanding the image of God that might precondition
science-engaged theology. She makes an exegetical and theological
case that human beings were created to need the presence of God in
order to flourish. Such a need is not a liability but our greatest
human dignity. Foreword by Alan J. Torrance.
Fundamental Theology examines the light by which the mysteries of
Christ and the Church, the Trinity and the Sacraments, are revealed
to us. That light we call "revelation," and fundamental theology
examines in the first place what this light shows about itself, and
how it is sustained in the world. Or again, fundamental theology
considers what the word of God has to say both about itself and
what it has to say about where in the world it is to be heard. So,
first it is a theology of Revelation (chapter 1), and second, a
theology of the transmission of Revelation in Tradition, Scripture,
and the Church (chapters 2, 3, and 4). Why must Revelation have the
shape it does, and why must it be constituted by both word and
event? Why is Tradition prior to Scripture, why must the word of
God be written down, and why must Scripture come to us in two
testaments? And why must the message conveyed in Tradition and
Scripture have a living interpreter in the Church? Since no word is
spoken unless it is heard, fundamental theology also investigates
the conditions of hearing the word of God, the very hearing itself
in the assent of faith, and a necessary consequence of this
hearing. The remote conditions of hearing are also what theology
calls our ability to come to the knowledge of the preambula fidei-
the things about God than can be known by the natural light
(chapter 5). The immediate condition of hearing is the credibility
of the word (chapter 6). Hearing is faith (chapter 7). And true
hearing gives the hearer to recapitulate what is heard in his own
wondering and thankful voice in theology (chapter 8). The
introduction to theology in the last chapter is by way of
considering the history of Catholic theology in the 20th century.
Now available in J.K.S. Reid's widely-praised translation, this is
Calvin's most sustained treatment of the central theme of his
theological writings, predestination.
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Paul on Humility
(Hardcover)
Eve-Marie Becker; Translated by Wayne Coppins; Series edited by Wayne Coppins, Simon Gathercole
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R1,369
Discovery Miles 13 690
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Ships in 7 - 11 working days
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Humility in the modern world is neither well understood nor well
received. Many see it as a sign of weakness; others decry it as a
Western construct whose imposition onto marginalized persons only
perpetuates oppression. This skepticism has a long pedigree:
Aristotle, for instance, pointed to humility as a shameless front.
What then are we to make of the New Testament's valorization of
this trait? Translated from German into English for the first time,
Paul on Humility seeks to reclaim the original sense of humility as
an ethical frame of mind that shapes community, securing its
centrality in the Christian faith. This exploration of humility
begins with a consideration of how the concept plays into current
cultural crises before considering its linguistic and philosophical
history in Western culture. In turning to the roots of Christian
humility, Eve-Marie Becker focuses on Philippians 2, a passage in
which Paul appeals to the lowliness of Christ to encourage his
fellow Christians to persevere. Becker shows that humility both
formed the basis of the ethic Paul instilled in churches and acted
as a mimetic device centered on Jesus' example that was molded into
the earliest Christian identity and community. Becker resists the
urge to cheapen humility with mere moralism. In the vision of Paul,
the humble individual is one immersed in a complex, transformative
way of being. The path of humility does not constrain the self;
rather, it guides the self to true freedom in fellowship with
others. Humility is thus a potent concept that speaks to our
contemporary anxieties and discomforts. Not for sale in Europe.
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