保罗神学中的恩典与律法

保罗的反对者的共同特征是:上帝在耶稣基督里使人得救的恩典本身是非自足的,必须在这恩典之外增添上人遵守的律法作为、接受世上的智慧与知识,否则,人就不可能获得完全的救赎。基于这种背景,在保罗神学中,他关于恩典与律法的关系,是他讨论社会正义的基础。他否定了所有犹太教形式中两个共同的柱石:以色列的神选和对于摩西律法的忠诚,将上帝的拣选范围扩大为包括外邦人在内的教会,用因信称义取代以律法称义。基督教正是在这两个方面而区别于犹太教。因信称义的教义落实到个人身上,保罗认为肉身与圣灵是对立的,他进而把人分为两类:一类按肉体生活,另一类按精神生活,认为存在着自然的人和精神的人,未皈依的人和皈依了的人,堕落了的人和得救的人,尘世之子和上帝之子。第一类人源出于亚当,第二类人来自于基督,提出旧人与新人的观念。     

Paul and Grace in Theological Perspective: A Grateful Response

This response to the above seven articles engages with some of the significant ways in which each takes forward the theological discussion of grace. While some areas of disagreement arise, the overall sense is of a conversation that is moving beyond Paul and the Gift, using its contribution to open fresh avenues for understanding between Catholic and Protestant theologians on this deeply controversial topic, and new possibilities for conversation between biblical exegesis and theology.     

Paradox and Paul: Catholic and Protestant Theologies of Grace

John Barclay offers a capacious and helpful framework for reflection on large swathes of the history of the theology of grace with his notion of the six ways of ‘perfecting the gift’. In this article, I extend his analysis to a consideration of certain typical differences between Catholic and Protestant conceptions of grace. Where Protestant theology tends toward a juxtaposition of grace with sin, Catholic theology often considers grace in relation to nature, and each side, I suggest, has its own characteristic proclivity towards paradox.     

Incongruous and Creative Grace: Reading Paul and the Gift with Martin Luther

Paul and the Gift by John Barclay advances an interpretation of Paul’s theology of grace that resonates with Martin Luther’s reading: God’s gift is God’s Son, Jesus Christ, given for and to the unworthy. To imagine Luther reading Paul and the Gift is thus to conjure images of deep and fundamental consensus. But questions remain. Is the law a cultural canon of worth that God’s gift of Christ ignores, or is it, as God’s law, a fixed judgement that God’s grace contravenes? Does God give only ‘without regard to worth’ and thus with a kind of divine indifference to cultural indices of value, or does the gift of Christ contradict the conditions of its receipts and thus come in a way that is actually incongruous? With these questions, Luther might push back against Barclay. With others he would ask Barclay to go further. Is not God’s incongruous grace also and characteristically creative? How is the gift of Christ that God gave present to and for recipients as the gift God now gives? In all these ways, Luther’s theology of the word poses questions to or invites expansions of Barclay’s theology of grace.     

Merit in the Midst of Grace: The Covenant with Adam Reconsidered in View of the Two Powers of God

Abstract:  The position of Barth and others, that the covenant with Adam is thoroughly legalistic, is based on the incorrect assumption that grace and works cannot coexist as covenant principles. However, the difficulty of seeing the harmony between these principles is real. This article reconsiders the covenant with Adam in light of the medieval concept of the two powers of God, or as we shall argue here, the two perspectives on God's power. These two perspectives, part of the original intellectual milieu in which covenant theology arose, demonstrate that the divine covenant with humanity may include aspects of both God's grace and human merit simultaneously. God's grace is apparent de potentia absoluta , from the perspective of God's absolute power, and God's justice and the possibility of Adam's merit are apparent de potentia ordinata , from the perspective of God's ordained power. Both perspectives, what God could do and what he has in fact chosen to do, are valid and necessary perspectives for understanding God's covenant dealings.     

Economy of Grace

Book reviewed:
Economy of Grace by Kathryn Tanner (Minneapolis, Minnesota: Fortress Press, 2005) xiii + 158 pp. Reviewed by D. Stephen Long Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary 2121 Sheridan Road Evanston, IL 60201 USA     

Scenes and Means of Grace

Abstract : The Word, Baptism, and Holy Communion—key means of grace according to the Lutheran tradition—take place in a web of earthly conditions whenever they are celebrated. Generating their own scenes of grace, the means of grace give voice, sense of place, and creativity where those are otherwise threatened. Other scenes of grace complement the means of grace, similarly bringing voice, place, and creativity in the face of environmental and social injustices. Martin Luther's affirmation of Christ's presence in creation, both in means of grace and throughout God's world, is a strategic and meaningful threshold for Christians to engage environment and justice while continuing to listen and look for the grace in Christ that feeds and shapes them.