Reformation

Abstract

Thomas Becon (1512/13–1567), one of the early English Reformers, is known for his dialogues, prayers, and Catechism. While the word ‘reformation’ occurs rarely in his works, the notion itself extends further than Church structures and theology. Becon’s approach to reformation does not envision the Church as an object of faith or an ecclesiastical construct to be refurbished. His style reveals undertones that convey a somewhat deeper flavour. Beside his Nicene definition of the Church, his idea of reformation is grounded in subliminal assumptions which we propose to elucidate. The Reformation as a return to a model of ideal Church organization or returning to the supposedly normative Apostolic Church is more like the expression or resurgence of a myth akin to resurrection.     

Alonzo church:his life,his work and some of his miracles

This paper is dedicated to Alonzo Church, who died in August 1995 after a long life devoted to logic. To Church we owe lambda calculus, the thesis bearing his name and the solution to the Entscheidungsproblem.His well-known book Introduction to Mathematical LogicI, defined the subject matter of mathematical logic, the approach to be taken and the basic topics addressed. Church was the creator of the Journal of Symbolic Logicthe best-known journal of the area, which he edited for several decades

This paper is in three sections. The first is written in journalistic style:the story of the life of AlonzoChurch is told, including some of the many anecdotes I have collected from different sources. The secondpart is devoted to his work, but is far from being exhaustive. The last part is more original; in it I attempto show that Church’s great discovery was lambda calculus and that his remaining contributions weremainly inspired afterthoughts in the sense that most of his contributions as well as some of his pupils derivefrom that initial achievement. Included are Kleene’s Recursion Theory and the completeness proof ofHenkin. I have added an appendix in which is presented the typed lambda calculus and a proof of theundecidability of first-order logic     

Review Article: Thomas Cranmer and the English Reformation

Abstract

Martin Bucer's role in the Edwardian Reformation has been the subject of much study, most of which has been focused on his involvement in the Vestments Controversy, his role in the revision of the 1549 Prayer Book, and on his last major work, De regno Christi, which he wrote in 1550. What has received less attention is his sojourn in Cambridge, where he spent the majority of his time in England. Bucer's sometimes tense relations with members of Cranmer's circle, and even with Cranmer himself, provide a striking contrast to the ‘electric’ impact he had in Cambridge, which serves to underscore the importance of Cambridge to Bucer's English sojourn. The individuals whom he most influenced were members of the academic community at the University of Cambridge (where he served as Regius Professor of Divinity), especially the so-called ‘Athenian tribe’—although he did encounter the hostility of many members of his College, the largely conservative Trinity College. Cambridge proved to be the locus of Bucer's influence upon the English Church in these years, and his residence there deserves greater attention than it has received to date.     

The Eucharistic Theology of Richard Field (1561-1616): Confusion,Contradiction, or Creative Synthesis?

Abstract

This examines the eucharistic thought of Richard Field, a Church of England clergyman scholar, as found in his major work, Of the Church (1610). This provided thorough treatment of a number of other topics. He argued that many of the differences apparently dividing Protestants were illusory. Field tends to be portrayed in the secondary literature as having obscured his own eucharistic views in his efforts to reconcile Lutheran and Reformed eucharistic doctrine. In addition, his eucharistic theology tends to be viewed in the literature as conforming to the English Reformed tradition. This paper argues that Field actually clarified his beliefs through his attempts to reconcile differing Protestant camps, and that he espoused not so much a wholly Reformed eucharistic doctrine as a creative synthesis of Lutheran and English Reformed elements, somewhat in tension but not necessarily in contradiction.     

Pierre De Bérulle (1575–1629) and the renewal of Catholic spiritual life in France

Pierre de Bérulle, founder of the Oratoire de Jésus (commonly known as the Oratoire de France), is a leading figure in the renewal of the Catholic Church in France in the first half of the seventeenth century. He is generally regarded as the founder of the French School of Spirituality (École française de spiritualité), though this term has been much criticised in recent years. He is often described as a ‘reformer’ of the Church in France, but this is a half-truth which obscures his real originality; he certainly shared the aims of those striving to create a clergy which would be better educated, more morally upright and more pastorally sensitive and zealous; but above all else he was concerned with the spiritual renewal of the clergy and with the Church in France generally. Lastly, he has often been accused of wishing to create chiefly, if not exclusively, a spirituality of the priesthood and to work for the ‘sanctification’ of the clergy. But his work and ideas must be seen here in a broader perspective, for Bérulle and his disciples shared with St Francis de Sales the aim, expressed in his Introduction à la vie devote (1608), of creating and promoting a spirituality available to all Christians. This article examines his conception of the Oratory, which he intended to be an intermediary between the religious orders and the secular clergy, his spiritual theology, what I have called his ‘spiritual pedagogy’, and his influence in France and elsewhere.     

A Missionary Church: Introduction and Chapter One of Evangelii Gaudium

The article provides a summary and synthesis of the Introduction and Chapter One of Evangelii Gaudium (EG 1–18 and 19–49), where Pope Francis outlines his vision of the church and the program of his pontificate. He envisions the church as fundamentally a missionary church and sees the role of his pontificate as bringing about the transformation of the church into a missionary church. The article concludes by showing that Pope Francis’ vision of the church in EG echoes Vatican II's decree Ad Gentes and is shaped by his experience of the church in Latin America. Thus, it ends with two observations: first, that with EG, Ad Gentes’ statement that “the Church is missionary by her very nature” ceases to be merely a theological declaration and now becomes a concrete pastoral program of action; and second, that EG, where the concerns of the third world are allowed to shape the vision of the universal church, is an eloquent manifestation of the church becoming a World Church.     

Christ and the Homosexual: An Early Manifesto for an Affirming Christian Ministry to Homosexuals

In his book Christ and the Homosexual (1960), Rev. Robert Wood presented American Christians with a view of homosexuality that was revolutionary: in short, he argued that homosexuals held a rightful place in church and society and that they should abandon neither Christianity nor the church. More specifically, the author called for the advancement of civil rights for homosexuals; the construction of pro-homosexual theologies; the education, ordination, and career placement of “out” homosexuals; and marriage equality for same-sex couples. This article situates these topics within Wood’s lifelong (and ongoing) ministry of promoting the full acceptance of homosexuals in American society and in The United Church of Christ, his own denomination. The following sources from the Robert Wood Archive at The Congregational Library in Boston, MA, USA, have been used in this article: the author’s notes and early drafts of Christ and the Homosexual; his voluminous correspondence from the 1940s through the 1990s; and an unpublished biography of Wood. In addition, this article’s author draws upon an oral history interview conducted with Robert Wood in July 2012.     

Beyond Political Theology and its Liquidation: From Theopolitical Monotheism to Trinitarianism

One of the central theological challenges facing Erik Peterson was to help the mid‐twentieth century Catholic Church define its relationship with the wider world. He responded by advancing a distinctive understanding of the ‘polis.’ In this essay, I critically analyze Peterson's central and perhaps best known proposal about how the Church ought to negotiate the modern world — encapsulated in his expression, the ‘liquidation of political theology.’ I contend that Peterson's proposal is not congruent with a right understanding of patristic trinitarian monarchy, although a view that stands in sharp contrast to that of Carl Schmitt. Notwithstanding the effectiveness of Peterson's critique of Schmitt's political theology, I argue that Peterson nonetheless fails in his exposition of the thought of Gregory of Nazianzus and therefore in his interpretation of the role of the Church in what we have learned to call the ‘political’ and the ‘social.’ I conclude by outlining several ways that the Church today might take up the challenge of regaining a truly political thought, a new ekklesioteia, nourished by the monarchy of the triune God.     

‘Securing the day’s devotion’: the spirituality of John Henry Newman and his Anglican inspirers

John Henry Newman’s spirituality and understanding of prayer was formed and framed by his years as an Anglican, from 1801 until his move to the Roman Catholic Church in 1845, and particularly by the years following his Anglican ordination in 1824. Influenced originally by the aspects of the Evangelical tradition, Newman discovered both the Fathers of the Church and the seventeenth-century Anglican divines. This paper explores the significance for him of the devotional work of three Anglican divines, the Sacra Privata of Thomas Wilson, Bishop of Sodor and Man (1663–1755), the Golden Grove of Bishop Jeremy Taylor (1613–1667), and the Preces Privatae of Bishop Lancelot Andrewes (1555–1626), as encapsulating models of Christian devotion which, as an Oxford Movement leader, he wished to commend to others.     

Social identity, status envy and Jesus'Abba

The historical Jesus grew up as a fatherless son. The aim of this article is to focus on two issues. It is argued that Jesus' fatherlessness should be taken into account when one considers his social identification. Secondly, a social-scientific explanation is given of his a-patriarchal ethos, his behavior towards endangered women and children, and especially his trust in God as his “Abba.” The theory of identification which is regarded as a model for interpretation of the data is the so-called “status envy hypothesis.” This paper was presented at the SBL International Meeting, Dublin, July 21–24, 1996.     

George Herbert and the Heroic Tradition: A Consideration of the Third Movement of The Temple

Abstract

For the past two hundred years scholars have repeatedly dismissed ‘The Church Militant', the third movement of George Herbert's The Temple. In fact, this scholarly disavowal has been so severe that many students of Herbert's work are unaware of the poem's very existence. Upon close analysis of ‘The Church Militant', however, we find the poem to be a vital, integral part of The Temple. I contend that not only is this movement integral but that a careful consideration of the poem will serve also to unravel some of the mysteries surrounding the structure and arrangement of Herbert's work. Especially instructive is a consideration of the heroic tradition as it informs this third and final movement of The Temple. While using elements of the epic to express a narrative of Christian history and doctrine, Herbert in ‘The Church Militant’ reawakens in his readers an awareness of the significance of the legacy of Christian heroism.     

Exercising a free conscience: The conscientious objectors of the Soviet union and the German democratic republic

Die ukrainische katholische Kirche (The Ukrainian Catholic Church) 2nd expanded edition Munich: Kirche in Not, 1989.165pp.

Die römisch‐katholische Kirche in der Sowjetunion (The Roman Catholic Church in the Soviet Union) Munich: Kirche in Not, 1989.143 pp.

Tserkva v Ruyini — Church in Ruins. The Demise of Ukrainian Churches in the Eparchy of Peremyshl by Oleh Wolodymyr Iwanusiw, Shevchenko Scientific Society Ukrainian Studies Volume 56. Ontario: St Sophia Religious Association of Ukrainian Catholics in Canada, 1987. Parallel text in English and Ukrainian. 350 pp.

Áron Márton a lelkiismeret apostola (Áron Márton, the Apostle of Conscience) compiled by László Virt. Budapest: Ecclesia, 1988. Paperback, 262 pp., 85 Ft.     

Scotland: religion,culture and national identity

In this initial article of the International Journal for the Study of the Christian Church's special issue on Perspectives on the Church in Scotland, as well as offering a wider context for the contributions that follow, I want to explore what connections in general might be said to exist between Scottish identity and Christianity, and then, more particularly, the impact of religion on the country's artistic culture, written as well as visual. Even those whose interest in the Scottish dimension may be marginal at best may find the discussion of broader relevance, since all nations now face to varying degrees the problem of how to relate their present pluriform identity to a narrower past. England, for instance, is ethnically much more diverse than its near neighbour and so struggles to find an appropriate contemporary self-definition. This can be seen reflected in the way in which politicians, in speaking of ‘British core values’, often merely reiterate what are universals in the western world, such as democracy, equal respect before the law, gender equality and so on, as with Nick Clegg's recent list on the Today programme on Radio 4 (10 June 2014) in which Gordon Brown's similar list during his premiership was simply reiterated. Others, though, continue to wrestle with what appeal to England's past history might mean and even with whether the established Church might have some continuing role within it, with the philosopher Roger Scruton offering a particularly intriguing instance in his Our Church: A Personal History of the Church of England (2012).     

The politics of a conversion – the case of Robert Isaac Wilberforce

Robert Isaac Wilberforce (1802–1857) was an Anglican archdeacon and a supporter of the Oxford Movement. This article claims that his conversion to the Roman Catholic Church in 1854 had theo-political dimensions. To Wilberforce the constitutional establishment of the Church of England was not only a question of political pragmatics. His sacramental vision of the Church and his diagnosis of the actual ecclesiastical situation in England as ‘Erastian’ meant that his conversion could be seen as an act of existential political theology. His conversion is a strong suggestion that the Oxford Movement needs to be considered both as a spiritual and a political force in nineteenth-century England.     

The place and understanding of the doctrine of God in Heinrich Bullinger’s theology

Abstract

The article examines the place of, and the main emphases in, the doctrine of God in Bullinger’s theology. In comprehensive presentations of his theology, the doctrine of God generally follows that of the Word of God. He usually begins with God as one (against the role of creatures such as the saints and images) and God as three. The other main elements (besides the knowledge of God) are God as creator, his providence and his predestination, usually in that order. Underlying all of them is the stress on God’s goodness. Highlighted is Bullinger’s appeal throughout to the Bible and Church Fathers, often identifying the views of his opponents with early Church heresies. This appeal also supports his claim to orthodoxy and catholicity, as do the creeds in his prefaces to The Decades and to The Second Helvetic Confession. His underlying pastoral and practical concerns are evident.     

Calvin's Conversion as his First Step Towards the Ministry

Abstract

Scholars proposing an early date for Calvin's ‘sudden conversion’ (between late 1527 and 1529) are influenced by Theodore Beza's account (1564). Those who propose a later dating (1533-1534) have looked for signs that show Calvin as a convinced Protestant. A crucial question is whether his conversion actually coincided with his break with the Church of Rome. In this study we follow especially the thread Calvin offers in the preface to his Psalms commentary (1557). This leads to a breakthrough date of about December 1532. It also points to his conversion and later entry into the ministry as a unity, the former as the beginning, the latter as the conclusion. During the Disputation of Lausanne (late 1536) Calvin distanced himself both from the Church of Rome and from the strategy of prudence which the évangeliques of Meaux advocated: Calvin's anti-Nicodemism was born.     

Prejudice, Prodigality, and the Precariousness of Life

In this essay, I focus on James Dittes' Bias and the Pious (1973), which addresses the relationship of religion and prejudice from a psychological perspective. I give particular attention to his discussion of the needs that underlie prejudice, his suggestion that religion may meet these needs better than the prejudice itself, and his distinction between contractual and prodigal faith. The incident discussed in the book involving conflict between the minister and church leaders of Augustana Lutheran Church in Omaha is highlighted because of my personal association with this church.     

The Church in St Ambrose of Milan

Abstract

A brief account is given of the life of St Ambrose and of modern scholarly views on his work. The Church was favoured by the Emperor Constantine and Christianity established as the state religion by the Emperor Theodosius. Ambrose might have been expected to have been interested in promoting the interests of the Church as an institutional and juridical organisation but he was in fact overwhelmingly interested in its spiritual aspect, as von Campenhausen asserts, opposed by Morino. The Church is seen in Ambrose's writings as the City of God and as the Kingdom of God into which believers are received. His understanding of the Church is markedly christocentric and biblical and is closely linked with his thinking on the Holy Spirit. This article also examines his attitude to the see of Rome, of which he did not recognise a general supremacy. The relevance for Christians today of Ambrose's experience of the Church as a unique spiritual fellowship is touched on.     

Laudato Si’: Care for Creation at the Center of a New Social Issue

This essay reviews the documents of the pontifical magisterium of the Church from the encyclical Mater et magistra ( 1961 ) to the exhortation Evangelii gaudium (2013), in order to show the Church’s historical commitment to the defense of the environment. It then argues that Laudato si’ elevates the theological status of the environmental crisis to that of a new social issue, much as Leo XIII did for the industrial crisis with his encyclical letter Rerum novarum ( 1891 ).