Theology

Prosper of Aquitaine is best known for instigating the Semi-Pelagian controversy in his characterization of the non-Augustinians in the 5th century. Less known, however, is that Prosper's theological career was spent dealing with the problem of Augustinian monergism and God's will for universal salvation. He eventually came to deny Augustinian predestination and provided his own account of divine grace and human agency in On The Call of All Nations. Prosper attempted to uphold monergism while denying soteriological determinism. Scholars and interpreters of Prosper tend to follow the evaluation of De Letter that Prosper's account of grace fails to defend divine grace that is both monergist and God's universal salvific will. This essay will argue that Prosper's account is not only uniform, it prefigures a model of agency and grace defended by Eleonore Stump called "the quiescent will" model. If this is the case, then Prosper of Aquitaine provides a genuine alternative to the Augustinian/Pelagian dilemma while deliberately avoiding Semi-Pelagianism (which he himself defined).

Has there ever been a society in history where sex isn’t a hot topic? I am not qualified to give a definitive answer, but my gut tells me “no.” Today, as we peruse news headlines or watch reality shows or listen to conversations at water coolers and play-dates, it’s easy to see how pervasive sexuality has become. It’s everywhere. And it is awfully controversial. What does God say about sexuality? That’s another big question. The first step in approaching this delicate subject is to keep one eye on our present culture while putting the other squarely on the biblical world. We need to grasp the ancient setting behind the text and the literary world of the text. If we miss these, we may not accept the validity of Leviticus’ restrictions on homosexuality (Lev 18:22) or embrace Jesus’ heavy teaching on divorce and remarriage (Matt 19:1–12) or enjoy Solomon’s poem on marital sexuality (Song of Solomon). William Loader helps us see the ancient world more vividly in his work Making Sense of...

This study explored how undergraduate students perceive, self-regulate, and respond to feedback from instructors on written work.  The general problem was that students in college are not prepared to practice metacognitive regulation to promote learning, particularly in the context of utilizing instructor feedback on written work to improve their submissions.  The specific problem was that students often lack the metacognitive regulatory skills to implement the feedback they receive.  Subjects for this study were a sample of instructors at a private Bible college who provide quality feedback on written work and their undergraduate students.  This qualitative multiple case study approach examined student’s perceptions of feedback from instructors on written drafts through think-aloud sessions.  Student revisions of their drafts following feedback were compared to previous drafts using document analysis.  Finally, semi-structured interviews took place to investigate how undergraduate students perceive, self-regulate, and respond to feed up, feed forward, and feed back from their instructors.

Theology is inherently theatrical, rooted in God’s performance on the world stage and oriented toward faith seeking performative understanding in the theatre of everyday life. Following Hans Urs von Balthasar’s magisterial, five-volume Theo-Drama, a growing number of theologians and pastors have been engaging more widely with theatre and drama, producing what has been recognized as a “theatrical turn” in theology. This volume includes thirteen essays from theologians and pastors who have all contributed in distinct ways to this theatrical turn and who desire to deepen interdisciplinary dialogue between theology and theatre. The result is an unprecedented collection of essays that embodies and advances theatrical theology for the purpose of enriching theological reflection and edifying the church.

Reading Christian Theology in the Protestant Tradition offers a distinctive approach to the value of classic works through the lens of Protestantism. While it is anachronistic to speak of Christian theology prior to the Reformation as “Protestant”, it is wholly appropriate to recognize how certain common Protestant concerns can be discerned in the earliest traditions of Christianity. The resonances between the ages became both informative and inspiring for Protestants who looked back to pre-reformation sources for confirmation, challenge, and insight.

Thus this book begins with the first Christian theologians, covering nearly 2000 years of theological writing from the Didache, Justin Martyr, and Origen to James Cone, José Míguez Bonino, and Sallie McFague. Five major periods of church history are represented in 12 key works, each carefully explained and interpreted by an expert in the field.

My section includes essays on Friedrich Schleiermacher, Charles Hodge, G. W. F. Hegel, Soren Kierkegaard, Walter Rauschenbusch, Paul Tillich, Karl Barth, James Cone, Jose Miquez Bonino, Kosuke Koyama, George Lindbeck, and Sallie McFague.

Isolating individualism, rank injustice, and everyday monotony threaten to suffocate our souls. But Wesley Vander Lugt shows how beauty can breathe life back into us. Written in a graceful cadence that invites readers to turn these pages slowly, Beauty Is Oxygen weaves together theological reflection, poetry, cultural criticism, and Scripture. Throughout, Vander Lugt shows how beauty can break us out of self-centered malaise, promote healing and hope for our broken world, and reenchant our lives. 

Beauty is about more than positive feelings or pleasing aesthetics. Beauty is as essential to our souls as oxygen is to our bodies. As readers encounter these traces of divine glory in Vander Lugt’s finely crafted meditations, they will find how Christ will “make all things new.”

Many consider Georges Rouault (1871–1958) to be one of the most important religious painters of the last few centuries. Yet both the secular art world and the church have struggled to engage with his work, which is profoundly shaped by his Christian faith and also starkly explores the pain and darkness of human experience.

In this volume, a group of theologians, artists, and historians seek to bring Rouault out of the shadows. They offer a deeper understanding of the theological impulse of modern art and of Rouault's distinct contributions. Chapters explore how Rouault's unique work was influenced by his historical context, by personal suffering, and by biblical themes, especially the Passion of Christ. Essays are interspersed with original artistic responses to Rouault in the form of images and poetry, with contributions from Sandra Bowden, William A. Dyrness, Thomas Hibbs, Soo Kang, and others.

Rouault displays our need for mercy within a world of anguish. This book explores how his prophetic creativity continues to inspire artists and thinkers seeking to understand the powerful intersection of lament and hope.

Almost a generation ago Francis Schaeˆer issued a challenge for the evangelical church to take more seriously issues of environmental stewardship: “God’s calling to the . . . Christian community . . . is that we should exhibit a substantial healing, here and now, between man and nature and nature itself, as far as Christians can bring it to pass.” 1 Many segments of the evangelical community have in fact responded positively to Schaeˆer’s challenge in the last two decades. Evangelical theologians, however, have exhibited a rather uneven record in their incorporation of environmental concerns into the basic fabric of their theologies. The purpose of this paper is to argue that certain “blind spots” in the structure and content of recent evangelical systematic theologies have contributed to the neglect of environmental issues and environmental stewardship in certain segments of the evangelical subculture. 2 More speci cally, it will be argued that de ciencies in the doctrines of creat...

This article argues that within the framework of historic Chalcedonian Christology, Jesus should be recognized not only as a fully divine Person, as the incarnation of the Logos, but also as a fully human person, and that this recognition of the full human personhood of Jesus does not constitute a new form of Nestorianism. It is further argued that the concept of the human hypostasis of Jesus nested within the divine hypostasis of the Logos provides a plausible explanation of how Jesus’s human lack of knowledge of the time of the second coming can be consistent with the omniscience of the divine Logos.

The practicing physician can be faced with situations where one ethical obligation appears to be in conflict with another. Consider, for example, the following five cases that were mentioned to me recently in a personal communication from Dr. Ed Payne: 1) the case of a cancerous uterus during pregnancy or an ectopic pregnancy, when preserving the life of the mother will end the life of the unborn child. 2) Membership in medical organizations that endorse abortion, homosexuality, and other sinful practices. To leave the organizations means losing the opportunity to be "salt and light"; to remain in the organizations may appear to be endorsement of their policies. 3) What about medical students, interns, and residents whose training or career paths require them to participate in abortions? 4) Requests to prescribe birth control pills to an unmarried (teenage) woman. Should the Christian physician prescribe the birth control pills as the "lesser of two evils"? 5) Tr...

In the United States, the homelessness situation has developed into what is commonly called a crisis. An array of helpful and unhelpful responses has been proposed, and public opinion on the homeless varies. Apathy or inaction on the part of the church is not an option, since concerns for the poor and displaced permeate Scripture. This article considers the complex factors related to homelessness and the theology of Scripture on the subject, evaluating approaches and offering meaningful and effective responses in light of the role of the church in the world. The intersection of ecclesiology and a practical response to the crisis will be examined to elucidate better a specifically Christian approach.

Since the publication of J. Gresham Machen’s The Virgin Birth of Christ in 1930, there has been a wide variety of popular and scholarly engagements with the content and implications of Jesus’ infancy narratives. Machen’s weighty defense was among the most thorough treatments available at its time, and it cemented his already seminal role as a bastion oftheological conservatism in the midst of a changing era. Many of the initial responses to Machen’s work were positive, and with a few exceptions, publications produced in the decades immediately following were largely supportive of historic, traditional interpretations of the virgin birth. However, in the second half of the twentieth century, publications began to reveal a greater divide between the methodology and conclusions of interpret￾ers, with a greater proliferation of dissenting voices. Within the last three decades, publications about the infancy narratives have reflected a further shift, namely, that the virgin birth has come to be viewed by an increasing number of interpreters as not only false but harmful. Even with more dissenting voices, there has also been an increase in defenses of the doctrine, following in Machen’s footsteps. This article will review how Jesus’ infancy narratives have been interpreted since 1930, examining developments over time. The analysis will begin with an examination of Machen’s original work and the responses to it, and will proceed by analyzing literature related to the virgin birth over the three thirty-year periods that have followed, with a view to affirming Machen’s arguments, interpretations, and enduring influence.