The current state of research by Polish linguists on the Brest Bible: an overview

Abstract

2013 marked the 450th anniversary of the publication of the Brest Bible (1563), the first Protestant (Reformed) translation of the entire Bible into Polish. This translation coincided with the mature phase of the Polish Renaissance, which was at the same time a key period in the history of Reformed thought. According to researchers, the Brest Bible is characterized by typographical and translational novelty and numerous linguistic qualities which have also gained recognition for it among Catholic theologians and contemporary Bible translators. This article presents the current state of research on various aspects of the language of the Brest Bible as carried out by Polish linguists. It demonstrates the high value of the language of the Brest Bible, its place among Polish biblical translations and the important role it played in the development of Polish language and culture.     

INTRODUCING MICHAEL WYSCHOGROD

Michael Wyschogrod is an Orthodox Jewish theologian with an exceptional profile. While committed to rabbinic Judaism, he goes back to the Bible for direct inspiration and authority. His independence and originality are also evident in his unique emphasis on the corporeal election of Israel, his advocacy of theological dialogue, and his sympathetic confrontation with Christian thinkers while maintaining an uncompromising commitment to the integrity of Jewish theology.     

Reconciling Evolution and Biblical Literalism: A Proposed Research Program

Many leading Christian thinkers today accept evolution, but others worry that certain incompatibilities with Biblical doctrines concerning Adam remain. In Should Christians Embrace Evolution, theologian Wayne Grudem succinctly summarizes their main objections when he claims that adopting evolution leads to eight positions contrary to the teaching of the Bible. In response, I show that, regardless of whether evolution occurred or not, there is no incompatibility even when a consistently literal reading of the relevant Biblical texts is maintained.     

CONSIDERING STANLEY HAUERWAS

After introducing the five articles that comprise this focus issue, I consider Hauerwas's claim that he is a theologian without a position. The claim has merit, I hold, since Hauerwas writes in response to what he reads, which is his way of learning it better. Moreover, he writes socially, characteristically soliciting help from his friends. As such, he purposefully makes himself accountable to those he addresses. In his later years this accountability has extended especially to the Church and to the Bible, which helps explain why Hauerwas cares so deeply about his sermons, which he takes to be his most important work.     

Luis de Molina's ‘middle knowledge’: Thomas Stapleton's ‘antidote’ to John Calvin†

The Bible commentator, Thomas Stapleton (1535–98), an English Catholic exile in Leuven and Douai, played a vital role in the ‘golden age of biblical scholarship’ (1550–1650). His Antidota (1595) aimed at giving the ‘correct’ interpretation of the Bible in response to the ‘poisoned’ commentaries of Calvin and others. This battle for the ‘true’ faith also involved Stapleton in internal Catholic debates, especially the de auxiliis controversy pitting Jesuit theologians insisting on human free will against their more Augustinian-inclined peers emphasizing God's grace. While previous scholarship placed Stapleton within the latter camp because of his extensive citation of Augustine, this paper intends to establish that Stapleton actually belonged to the first group and that his orientation was not to Augustine, rather the Spanish Jesuit theologian, Luis de Molina (1535–1600). Through an analysis of Stapleton's Antidota, and specifically his commentary on Matthew 11:21, this paper demonstrates Stapleton's dependence on Molina's so-called theory of ‘middle knowledge’.     

Wayne G. Rollins' Soul and Psyche: An Appreciation

Professor Wayne G. Rollins has written a remarkably important book on the history of the interface between psychological and biblical studies. It is called Soul and Psyche: The Bible in Psychological Perspective. It is so comprehensive that it reaches from the words of Jesus of Nazareth to the models of Kohut and Winnicott, from the First Century to the Twenty-First, from Freud to Fowler and beyond. He definitively addresses the full range of issues relating to the psychological critique of the Bible and the history of Biblical Psychology.     

Changes in research on Judaism in the Hellenistic and early Roman periods

This article offers an overview of what every theologian and scholar of religion should know about changes in biblical studies that have taken place concerning the past depreciation of Second Temple Judaism, the use of newly discovered sources and their implications, as well as integrative approaches to top-down (reflected beliefs, prescribed practices, textual sources) and bottom-up (intuitive beliefs, lived practices, material culture) processes. Changes in the field lead to the re-writing of the history of the Bible and of Judaean society in the Greco-Roman context. By means of this co-authored research article, we wish to demonstrate the benefit of, as well as the need for, interdisciplinary work in the study of antiquity.     

Psychological implications of the doctrine of Christian Perfection with special reference to John Wesley's view

The doctrine of Christian Perfection is viewed by some as a wonderful and liberating doctrine, but by others it is seen as producing false expectations and guilt. John Wesley, the first major theologian to develop a theology of Christian Perfection, encountered misunderstandings and problems with this doctrine. He wrote and preached to correct the misunderstandings. Unfortunately, misunderstandings persist and sometimes have psychological effects on individuals. This article explores common understandings, beliefs, and experiences regarding Christian Perfection among evangelical Christians from the holiness tradition. The material was gathered by means of interviews that were recorded. The interviews were then studied by a theologian and by a clinical psychologist in order to examine how close the beliefs were to Wesley's position and what psychological implications were contained in both the beliefs and the experiences related to the belief of those interviewed.     

Text and Interpretation: Christian Understandings of Authoritative Texts in the Light of Social Change

In purely oral cultures, traditions seamlessly adapt to changing social and political realities. But writing down authoritative religious texts freezes their content. As society changes, so arises the need to interpret the meaning of ancient authoritative traditions in the light of new social realities. The authoritative texts for Christianity have been gathered together into the Bible, and the central issue that will be addressed in this article is the interrelationships between social change and biblical interpretation. It is written in four major sections. The first traces several substantial changes that took place in Christianity as it moved from the social environment of Palestine into the wider Greco-Roman world. The second and third consider Anglicanism and Seventh-day Adventism as case studies of attempts to discover the historical moment against which to measure whether or not a development or idea is authentically Christian. The final section explores the merits of the so-called Wesleyan quadrilateral as an approach to authentic interpretation of authoritative texts in the light of social change. It does so through a consideration of the developing stance of the evangelical theologian Clark Pinnock.     

EXTINCTION,NATURAL EVIL,AND THE COSMIC CROSS

Did the God of the Bible create a Darwinian world in which violence and suffering (disvalue) are the means by which the good (value) is realized? This is Christopher Southgate's insightful and dramatic formulation of the theodicy problem. In addressing this problem, the Exeter theologian rightly invokes the Theology of the Cross in its second manifestation, that is, we learn from the cross of Jesus Christ that God is present to nonhuman as well as human victims of predation and extinction. God co‐suffers with creatures in their despair, abandonment, physical suffering, and death. What I will add with more force than Southgate is this: the Easter resurrection is a prolepsis of the eschatological new creation, and it is God's new creation which retroactively determines past creation. Although this does not eliminate the theodicy question, it lessens its moral sting.     

Luther and China

Abstract : Luther, a founding father of Protestant Christianity, has a promising future in Chinese theology and in the study of Christianity in China, both in the theological seminaries and in the secular universities. As a theologian, he has the potential to greatly impact Chinese Christian thought and he remains a model of social reform. He can be a source of inspiration for Chinese theologians and scholars who are creating in their own cultural contexts new ways of constructing an authentic Chinese Christian theology     

Against Anthropocentrism: A Jobian Appeal to Science on Theology's Behalf

Abstract : The author asks how science can affect the work of the theologian and uses the experience of Job in the “wild” as pointing toward a new seeing. From science's study of temporality the theologian may learn (1) that humans belong with the (other) creatures, against anthropocentrism, (2) that the traditional distinction between creation and preservation inadequately recognizes God's continuing creative work, and (3) that Christian soteriology needs to address the “groaning” (Romans 8) of the whole creation. While science may help the theologian see thus newly, theology needs to retain its own integrity, as represented by the distinction between creation and fall.     

Teaching the Bible as a common culture

This essay discusses the teaching of Bible in the Israeli public school as reflected in the encounter between new immigrants and long-time Israelis during the two first decades of the state. The Israeli secular curriculum defines the study of the Bible as a prime agent of Zionist acculturation. This definition, however, was challenged by the arrival of new immigrants, pupils and teachers alike, who did not view the Bible – as it was taught in secular schools – as primarily a means of reinforcing the link between Jews and their land. For them, this conception had no resonance in the traditional cultures in which they had been reared, which perceived and taught the Bible as an important component in defining Jewish religious identity. The result was cultural interaction, which expressed itself in various ways. Some immigrants assimilated the prevalent secular view of the Bible, while others expressed reservation and continued to voice criticism. At the same time, there were non-immigrant teachers who adopted immigrant usages, for instance, men covering their heads during Bible lessons. But there was also interaction between teachers of varying background, and here the result was an amalgam, even a fruitful pluralism of approaches.     

Bible Knowledge and Moral Judgment: Knowing Scripture and Using Ethical Reasoning

The relationship between moral judgment and religious knowledge was investigated, with an analysis of the impact of academic skill on both domains. Fifty-six Bible college seniors completed measures of moral judgment (Defining Issues Test), Bible knowledge (Standardized Bible Content Test), and academic skill (Academic Profile). Results indicate that the three measures were significantly correlated in a positive direction. Bible knowledge was positively related with the most sophisticated level of Kohlberg's moral reasoning and negatively correlated with preconventional morality. These relationships could not be simply explained by the level of cognitive ability. Discussion follows on the potential causal directions and implications for Bible knowledge and sophisticated moral judgments being related.     

A psychodynamic hermeneutic of the fall story: Genesis 2:25–3:24: Through a psychological lens

Genesis 3 is a theological myth in the form of a dramatic narrative of extraordinary literary quality which attempts to take account of the righteousness of God and the problem of pain in the created universe. It is an ancient Mesopotamian story which, appears in the Gilgamesh Epic as well as in Enuma Elis and was edited by the Yahwist theologian for the Genesis account to make it fit the essential requirements of an early Hebrew theological woridview. To appreciate its full weight the passage must be read through the lens of theological reflection, exegetical explication, literary criticism, and psychological analysis. This article suggests a way in which viewing the text through a psychological lens illumines the literary structure, the exegetical implications, and the theological interpretation of the story of the fall of humanity into pain, perplexity, and alienation.J. Harold Ellens, is Executive Director Emeritus of the Christian Association for Psychological Studies, Founding Editor and Editor in Chief Emeritus of theJournal of Psychology and Christianity, a retired Presbyterian pastor and theologian, and a licensed psychotherapist. He holds graduate degrees of MDiv from Calvin Theological Seminary, a ThM from Princeton Theological Seminary, and a PhD from Wayne State University.     

Prayer and the Theologian of the Cross: Julian of Norwich and Martin Luther

This article constructs a dialogue between Julian of Norwich and the concept of “theologian of the cross,” as found in Martin Luther and his recent interpreters. Since she is Catholic and medieval, one might begin by suspecting that her theology is not acceptable to someone who follows Luther's teaching in the Heidelberg Disputation. However a closer look will suggest that what she has to say is largely in accord with Luther's standard for a theologian of the cross. Put more positively, Julian is a theologian of the cross, in spite of her use of different language and concepts from those of Luther. The focus of the article is the subject of prayer: what Julian teaches about it, and what may be inferred about prayer from Luther's dramatic theses in his disputation.     

What might a non-confessional theory of Catholic education look like?

This article emulates the new stance of Professor Michael Hand on faith schools. He illustrates how theological criteria could be used to inform and guide curriculum aims in a way that avoids indoctrination and the perils of faith-based education. This approach is adopted vis-à-vis Catholic education in order to sketch out what a non-confessional theory of Catholic education might look like. It is argued that a central feature of Catholic theology, as presented by the leading theologian Karl Rahner, is a recognition of the centrality of mystery in human existence. This theological insight is applied to the curriculum and it is used to provide a theological justification for a non-confessional account of Catholic education.     

Narrating and Navigating Authorities: Evangelical and Mainline Protestant Interpretations of the Bible and Science

Research on the way Protestants interpret the Bible in relationship to science has tended to focus on biblical literalists; less research, however, has examined the heterogeneity of how nonliteralists interpret the Bible. Utilizing data from semi‐structured interviews with 77 evangelical and mainline Protestants who attend high‐SES congregations, we find that members of both groups draw on similar interpretation strategies in discussing the Bible and evolution. Both eschew literal interpretations of the Bible, demarcate boundaries between the Bible and science, and subsume evolution under broader theological beliefs. Mainline Protestants and evangelicals differ in the way they interpret miracles, with mainline Protestants revealing more openness to scientific and social interpretations of the Bible's miracles, while evangelicals emphasize God's authority over nature. Findings show that different strategies are evoked depending on the issue discussed, revealing implications for a deeper understanding of the way different traditions provide resources for interpreting the Bible and its relationship to scientific issues. Finally, findings contribute to a more robust knowledge of boundary work between the Bible and science as institutional and epistemic authorities.     

The Bible in early Muslim anti‐Christian polemic

During the early centuries of Islam, the Bible did not usually receive specific attention from Muslim polemicists. Among those who did refer to it, some rejected the text on the grounds that it was corrupt, and developed accounts of how the original injil had been lost and replaced by the canonical Gospels. The majority, however, have left no expressed view, but do not appear to have experienced difficulty in employing suitable verses in their arguments as illustrations and proofs. A few scholars were in a position to use the Biblical texts to good effect in their arguments. The Christian convert ^cAli b. Rabban al‐Tabari employed a distinctively Muslim method of exegesis, and demonstrated how predictions of the coming of Muhammad and Islam are scattered throughout the biblical books. The Zaydi theologian al‐Qasim ibn Ibrahim al‐Rassi followed a more radical method in translating parts of Matthew's Gospel into Arabic, and altering words and phrases and omitting sections in order to make the original conform to Islamic beliefs. This Islamicization of the Gospel is symptomatic of the confident early third/ninth‐century belief that Islam provided the criteria for true teachings.