Theology as a human science: Reflections on Gadamer’s Truth and Method

Abstract

Gadamer’s attempt to ’rehabilitate tradition in general clarifies that which theology and the human sciences have in common since he claims that the rehabilitation of tradition is crucial for all human science enquiry. His systematic unfolding of the hermeneutical process described in Truth and Method is discussed under three headings: The meaning of tradition and how the idea of tradition may be rehabilitated; how do we know in the human sciences? and, the nature of theological reflection as part of the human sciences. Gadamer’s hermeneutics helps to transcend the antithesis between reason and tradition. It offers a more appropriate way to understand cultural and historical texts and broadens the purview of the human sciences. It is within this broader understanding of the human sciences that theological reflection comes to itself.     

Calvin in the Context of Lutheran Consolidation1

Abstract

This study investigates the perception of Calvin and his theology in the polarizing domain of confessional reinforcement, and what image of him was formed and conveyed by the heirs of Wittenberg theology and later Lutheranism respectively. Historical circumstances and associated theological issues are taken into account, with a three-phase model emerging. Its interfaces are marked by the Zurich Consensus (1549) and by the experience of electoral Saxon ‘crypto-Calvinism’ in the 1570s. Drawing on the relevant sources, the article highlights issues specific to Lutherans in the interaction with Calvin and his doctrine. It shows how Calvin, who in the pre-confessional period was regarded as a distant kindred spirit, became increasingly discredited on the issuing of the Zurich Consensus and by the interventions of Joachim Westphal; how, apart from heated discussion between both sides on the doctrine of the Lord's Supper, christology increasingly took centre stage, accentuating the lines of demarcation; and finally how relatively late on admittedly, the person of Calvin himself (if not his personal integrity) also became the focus of polemics and apologetics.     

‘Sin is Rightly Called the Punishment of Sin’: Francis Turretin’s Reformed Doctrine of Sin

ABSTRACT

This article contextualizes Francis Turretin’s (1623–87) doctrine of sin, and in particular his understanding of sin as a punishment for sin. Specifically, it elaborates on the theological context into which Turretin speaks. Through analyzing Turretin’s historical situation, it progresses to the content of Turretin’s theology in light of his theological and political opponents. Utilizing Turretin’s Institutes of Elenctic Theology (1679–1685), St Augustine’s Contra Julianum, and John Calvin’s Institutes of the Christian Religion, amongst others, this article evaluates Turretin’s view of the doctrine of sin and its relation to medieval and early-modern European theology. Ultimately, it argues that Turretin’s view of sin as a punishment of sin is born from his understanding of God’s holiness being demonstrated through his ‘vindicatory justice’ and Turretin’s self-understanding as an ‘orthodox’ theologian in the grand tradition of Western theology extending back to the Church Fathers.     

Reformation Humanism: Reading the Classics in the New Theology

Scholarly discussions on what constitutes Christian humanism in the Renaissance and Reformation periods have typically concentrated on its manifestations before 1536, when Erasmus died. In this period, the old arguments for the reading of the Classics once set out by Basil and Augustine still predominated. Calvin’s teaching on the Fall and the noetic effects of sin, however, provided another basis for the incorporation of pagan thought into Christian learning. Christians who followed Calvin benefited from his precise and comprehensive theological position on the place of worldly knowledge in God’s original creation as a means for justifying their study of the Classics.     

Semantics and Ideology During the Renaissance: Confessional Translations of the Greek Word ἐπίσκοπος

During the sixteenth century the disputes between Catholics and Protestants became the battleground to determine and shape authentic Christianity and the Church. Humanism played a key role in this process conditioned by cultural and theological diversity, justifying doctrinal positions and legitimizing the existence of respective institutions with an appeal to history. Translations from church historical sources illustrate how they often derived from theological preconceptions. Starting with the ‘episcopacy issue’ opened initially by Luther and Calvin inter al., this article analyzes the translations of the Greek word episkopos in the Magdeburg Centuries, Cesare Baronio's Ecclesiastical Annals, in contemporary vernacular versions of Eusebius’s Ecclesiastical History, in J. C. Dietrich’s Lexicon and in some English Bibles. The material gathered and also compared with the position of the Council of Trent shows how these confessionally conditioned translations impacted on the scholarly world, and how they influenced church law with religio-political consequences, thereby having a striking significance.     

Beyond the New perspective

Krister Stendahl’s famous 1963 Harvard Theological Review article, “The Apostle Paul and the Introspective Conscience of the West”, is often seen as the kick-starter of the New Perspective on Paul. According to Stendahl, Protestantism could not trace its theological roots to the Pauline correspondence. Dogmatic reflections on the human condition had to await a figure like Augustine, whose elaborate theology complied with the new situation of the church as the official religion of the Empire. Nevertheless, in order to argue his case as a missionary among Jews and Gentiles, Paul was informed by the discussions of the human condition that characterized Hellenistic Judaism. A glance at Philo’s writings will help us to identify the problems to which Paul saw the Christ-event as the solution. Scholars are aware that in De opificio mundi – in his interpretation of the generation of the first woman and her fatal encounter with the snake (Opif. 152, 161) – Philo engages with the discussions among the various philosophical schools of his time about the character of the primary driver of human action. In this exposition, which links the desire for pleasure with generation – and consequently with the flesh – we find a preconception of Augustine’s doctrine of original sin. The present essay argues that anthropological ideas similar to those found in Philo’s treatises also influenced the arguments in Paul’s letters – above all Rom 7 and Gal 2. Consequently, some of the “truisms” of the New Perspective – and, especially, those of the radical branch of it – must be revisited and revised.     

Scripts we live by: on inheriting canonical texts

ABSTRACT

In this article, I theorize the interpretation of harmful canonical texts with special reference to John Calvin's Institutes of the Christian Religion. As a result of the actions and rhetoric of some of its North American evangelical readers, the Institutes has come to function as an intellectual foundation for certain expressions of modern homophobia. In conversation with Jacques Derrida on inheritance and Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick on reparativity, I thus consider how queer evangelicals (especially those who wish to continue identifying themselves as such) ought to engage both Calvin’s text, particularly, as well as, more generally, those other canonical texts that are sources of trauma. In so doing, I proffer a capacious view of interpretation as not only what one says but also how one lives.     

Why Theological Hermeneutics Needs Rhetoric: Augustine's De doctrina Christiana

To define theological interpretation, this article appeals to Augustine's De doctrina christiana. The article argues against the claim that De doctrina is a rhetorical handbook and asserts instead that the treatise can best be described as an ‘expanded hermeneutics’, that is, a hermeneutics that includes rhetoric. The discussion highlights that rhetoric is defined loosely as ‘communication’: the focus is on the target audience, not the mode of delivery. De doctrina is put into dialogue with a contemporary proponent of theological interpretation, Stephen Fowl, to highlight its distinctiveness. The article concludes that the paradigm for theological interpretation is the sermon.     

Sixteenth-Century Catholic Criticism of Erasmus’ Edition of St Jerome

Abstract

Erasmus’ edition of St Jerome, along with his other publications, served as a target for Catholic criticism during the sixteenth century. Polemicists, censors, and rival editors scrutinized his editorial commentary, identifying numerous offensive passages that evinced impiety and heresy and that required excision. The thorough criticism demonstrates not only the attention that the patristic edition attracted during and after Erasmus’ lifetime. More important, it points to the fundamental theological impetus that animated the (in)famous editor.     

Reforming authority,reforming obedience

Abstract

Past commentators have remarked on the apparent similarities in the theological methods and the attitudes toward God and the world that are to be found in the writings of Ignatius of Loyola and John Calvin, whose careers overlapped briefly at the Colle`ge de Montaigu in the University of Paris. This essay places them in dialogue, as it were, both with one another and within a common spiritual heritage, the late-medieval Devotio moderna or the Modern-day Devout. First, it argues that the influence of the Devout, especially as mediated through the personnel and institutional structures of Montaigu, can help explain the religious formation and mindset of both men. Second, the essay considers how ideas that bear the stamp of the Devout may have shaped Ignatius's and Calvin's views on specific theological topics such as ecclesiastical authority and religious obedience     

Martin Luther in The Netherlands

ABSTRACT

Martin Luther’s influence in the Netherlands has often been overlooked in favour of a focus on the theology of Calvin. However, several historical facts lead us to consider the importance of Luther for the Dutch and the abiding significance of his work. The article examines several of those historical phenomena including the fluid ecclesiastical situation in the Netherlands from the 1520s to 1546, the year of Luther’s death. It also considers the impact which the reception of Luther’s writings had on Dutch society, both directly and in interaction with other theological perspectives. This leads naturally to a consideration of the general importance of Luther’s writings for the Dutch and their church(es). And after a survey of the variations and mutations which Luther’s ideas underwent in the Dutch context, we conclude with a brief survey of Luther’s continuing reception in the Netherlands beyond the sixteenth century.     

Johannes Oecolampadius. An Exposition of Genesis

Abstract

The frequency with which Old Testament figures use mendacious means to achieve good and even holy ends presents a challenge to John Calvin's exegesis of the Hebrew Scriptures. Following Augustine, Calvin takes a hard line against all forms of intentional deception. He rejects the solution offered by some in the Christian tradition that there are situations that call for a ‘dutiful lie’ (mendacium officiosum). This necessitates some exegetical acrobatics on Calvin's part when he interprets texts in which liars are blessed, rewarded, and praised for their actions. Calvin does not, however, reject all forms of dissimulation, which is all the more surprising given his opposition to the half-truths employed by the Nicodemites. While Calvin strives for a consistent ethic of veracity in his exegesis, however, there remains the question of how consistently truthful Calvin was in his own practices, particularly in his use of Renaissance flattery and pseudonyms.     

William Tyndale on Covenant and Justification

Abstract

This article offers a fresh interpretation of William Tyndale’s doctrine of justification with particular reference to his concept of covenant. It resists past scholarly attempts to resolve the apparent tension in his theology between faith and works in favour of either solifidianism or legalism. Instead, a close examination of Tyndale’s publications suggests that he maintained the gracious nature of justification without adopting justification by faith alone in the style of Martin Luther. Tyndale emphasized love for divine law as the essence of Christian righteousness. The gradual development of reciprocity in his concept of covenant came to undergird this formulation. Greater clarity with regard to Tyndale’s own theological position exposes misplaced comparison between Tyndale and Luther whilst encouraging the identification of views shared with Erasmus and the Swiss reformers consistent with certain trends in late-medieval theology.     

Calvin's Metaphysics of Our Union with Christ

This study of the Calvin corpus asks whether the older works of Emmen, Dominicé and Kolfhaus and English monographs adequately answer the question of how human beings can receive life‐giving properties from the person of Christ without recognizing Calvin's use of the conceptual tool of reduplicative predication to explain our unio spiritualis cum Christo. Thanks to a renaissance in the use of conceptual analysis in the service of theology, we identify Calvin's use of this conceptual tool and propose a tentative solution to the vexing question of how he predicates a unio spiritualis between humans and the person of the Mediator, since he states that the unio is, in the first instance, between our self‐subsistent natura humana and Christ's anhypostatic natura humana. How then can this unio‘channel’ life‐giving properties to us? Calvin himself states the rule that ‘the flesh of Christ does not of itself have a power so great as to quicken us’; that is, only a supposit, not a nature, can perform such operations. Calvin relieves this predicative tension by employing the conceptual tool of reduplicative predication – the borrowing and ‘channeling’ of properties across the hypostatic union of Christ as well as across the unio spiritualis– such that Homo secundum istum unionem est iustus.     

Heidegger’s Destruktion of Theology: ‘Primordial Faith’ and ‘Recognition’ of the Messiah

Heidegger’s phenomenology of religious life offers important insights by engaging Paul’s Epistle to the Galatians, where he distinguishes ‘Paul the Pharisee’ from ‘Paul the Christian’ in order to explicate the nature of faith in contrast to systematic theology. Neither certitude in God’s existence is primordial to Christian faith, according to Heidegger, nor is rabbinic nor theological disputation concerning God’s existence or God’s nature. Instead, what is essential to Heidegger’s phenomenology of religious life are: (1) faith as lived experience and (2) recognition of ‘the Christ’ (ho christos/ha ma?ía?). This ‘recognition’, however, requires phenomenological clarification and not philosophy of religion as traditionally construed.     

Sapientia and Stultitia in John Colet's Commentary on First Corinthians

ABSTRACT

While John Colet, friend of Erasmus and founder of St Paul's School, London, was himself widely read in Classical and pagan authors, he famously characterized pagan books as having the ‘savour of the Demon’ and exhorted minor clergy to reject human or secular wisdom. This article seeks to resolve the apparent tension between Colet's disparagement of human wisdom in his commentary on First Corinthians and his own use of pagan learning and humanist activities. Through a close analysis of Colet's understanding of human and divine wisdom and human stultitia (foolishness) in the commentary, the article argues that Colet's principal concern in reproaching human wisdom (sapientia) was the moral purity of his audience. The article concludes by considering how Colet's view of secular wisdom, thus conceived, represented an early expression of his commitment to religious, ecclesiastical and moral reform.     

Looking at My (Real) World through Mathematics: Memories and Imaginaries of Math and Science Learning

Abstract

Critical math and science educators have argued for pedagogies that focus on equity, social justice, and the identities of learners. To inform debates about the purposes and values of math and science pedagogy, we need to better understand how different kinds of curriculum and instruction are taken up by learners over time. This study examines the ways one Latinx immigrant learner, Calvin (a pseudonym), constructed the values and purposes of his earlier math and science learning experiences, as an adult hoping to pursue a career in science. Narrative analysis is used to explore the ways Calvin made sense of his learning of math and science in high school, in community colleges, and on his own. Drawing on the construct of appropriation, we examine the conceptual tools Calvin took up from different math and science pedagogies (reform, critical, and traditional) in narrating his desire to explore and understand scientific phenomena. Narrative frames position Calvin with greater or lesser agency as he navigates different learning environments, imagines possible futures, and constructs the purposes of science and mathematics. The narratives of Calvin’s learning illustrate the conceptual tools he appropriates from reform and social justice pedagogies: real-to-my-life mathematics, learning as connecting and imagining, harder-but-easier math for a purpose, and the ways reading and writing the world can be applied to imagining planets and the universe. The analysis suggests the usefulness of restorying as a way to explore how our pedagogies interact with learners’ subjectivities, desires, values, and purposes for learning.     

Journey to transcendence: Dostoevsky’s theological polyphony in Barth’s understanding of the Pauline KRISIS

Anticipating Mikhail Bakhtin’s appreciation for the unfinalizability of Fedor Dostoevskij’s universe, prominent Protestant theologian Karl Barth celebrates the Russian novelist’s presentation of “the impenetrable ambiguity of human life” characteristic of both the ending of Dostoevsky’s novels and Paul’s Epistle to the Romans. Barth’s unique reading of The Brothers Karamazov not only demonstrates the barrenness of the “theocratic dream” but also complements Bakhtin’s discussion of polyphony with an explicitly theological dimension by focusing on the dialogue between Creator and the created. Dostoevsky’s prophetic voice provides Barth with a poetic expression of the divine command that highlights the ethical dimension inherent in every theological choice.