Celibacy and Free Love in Early Christianity

Abstract

Mainstream Christianity places the defence of marriage and the household at the centre of Christian identity. It is therefore noteworthy that in the first two centuries of Christianity marriage was attacked from a variety of standpoints as incompatible with full Christian commitment. The best documented attack came from the Encratite movement, which held that all Christians are called to a life of sexual abstinence. It first surfaces in the First Letter of Paul to the Corinthians, where Paul defends the right to marriage but treats his opponents with notable respect. It can be argued that Encratism follows from the Pauline Gospel, and that Paul, in refusing to follow the logic of position to this conclusion, was guilty of inconsistency and timidity. Marriage was also attacked by those who wished to replace marriage with sexual communism. Epiphanes, On Righteousness, attacks marriage as part of a system of exclusive property rights that contradicts the original will of the Creator. Epiphanes was much indebted to the Cynic movement, as Encratism was also. Both Encratism and so-called ‘libertinism’ shared the same rejection of the narrow interests and the traditional family, and dreamt of a recovery of Paradise. Whether this recovery was attained by renouncing sex or by liberating it can be seen as a secondary question, where opposite views could be held in the context of the same radical interpretation of the Gospel, an interpretation that deserves serious attention even today.     

Dialogue in Dialog: Christology

David R. Mason, A Christology of Universal Redemptive Love , p.149
Carol Jacobson, Universality and Uniqueness: A Response to David Mason , p.160
Lois Malcolm, Generative Christology: A Response to David Mason , p.162
Paul Sponheim, Probing and Protesting: A Response to David Mason , p.164
David R. Mason, Response to Jacobson, Malcolm, and Sponheim , p.166     

早期基督教三一神学之辩

三位一体神学是基督教最核心和艰深的教义.早期基督教思想家历经四个世纪的探索,始在公元381年达成三一神学的正统表达,是为"尼西亚-康士坦丁堡信经".本文论述了存在于早期基督教三一神学中的东方进路("内在三一")和西方进路("经世三一")的张力,以及东西方在三一神学问题上长达半个多世纪的角力.本文深入分析了三一神学之争中东西方基督教的概念性误读,即所谓的ousia/hypostasisi和homoousia/homoiousia之争.由此,本文指出早期基督教在"三位格"和"一本质"之间所保持的适当张力,以及蕴合在三位一体问题中的辩证运思.     

Postmodernism: Its Origins and its Threat to Psychoanalysis

Postmodernism originated in an overreaction to "modernist" sociocultural trends of the past few centuries. Flaws of postmodern writers include: ignorance and distortion of the history of science and philosophy; the erroneous assumption that such faults of some natural scientists as reductionism and narrowness are intrinsic to the entire enterprise, even to rationality; overgeneralizing such valid criticisms to the level of metaphysical relativism; and deliberately obscure and pretentious writing. Its vogue is a threat to science in general and to psychoanalysis in particular. Psychoanalysis was vulnerable to a postmodernist attack because of Freud's rejection of scientific standards for his creation, his na¨ L ve realism, and his authoritarian heritage plus certain weaknesses of theory, technique, and organization resulting from it. Analysts are urged to stay close to clinical observation and abstain from generalizing outside their realm of expertise.     

A Feminist Lutheran Substantive Christology: Method and Methodology

Abstract : From a Euro‐American feminist perspective, not only the methods of North American ‘mainstream’ Christology but also of much feminist Christology needs refinement. The former must take into account the context of feminist consciousness, with particular attention to experience. The latter must reclaim kerygma and dogma. Drawn from history, kerygma, dogma, and experience, feminist Lutheran Christology is substantive, meaning that Jesus Christ is fully human and fully divine and sufficient for salvation.