Professional Documents
Culture Documents
and assignments
25 October 2016 08:28
God the future of the world: Ted Peter’s
Theology for the community of God: Stanley J Givens
Louis Berkoff
Reading of at least 450 pgs.
Doctrine:
Teachings of the church.
George Lindbeck equates religion to a language and doctrines are like grammar.
Definition:
Church doctrines are communally authoritative teachings that are considered essential to the
identity and welfare of the group in question.
Doctrines sometimes may be formally stated and sometimes may not be.
We need something to bind ua together. Thus it is impossible to have a creedless religious
community.
Creed comes from the word credo meaning i believe.
There is a difference between operational doctrine and official doctrine.
Not all official doctrines will be active in the daily church functions. It depends on the context.
The emphasis on the doctrine is laid when it is confronted.
Some doctrines come to the forefront and become operational.
2 heresies:
Docetism:
Δοκεω
This arose in early century AD. It came from Greek believers. It said that Jesus seemed like a man
and he was not crucified. It was someone like Jesus. It was a phantom.
Ebionism:
This was an opppsite heresey to docetism. It came from Jewish believers. It cuts out Jesus' divinity.
This resulted in the church bringing out Christology.
Most of the doctrines arose as a counter to heretical teachings.
Difference between Theology and Doctrines:
Eg. Mutton curry with vegetables and a mix solution.
Within a doctrinal agreement there can be varieties of theology. We can see different theological
persuassions under the same doctrine.
From a different perspective, doctrines arepieces of a larger faith which are put together. Theology
is made up of these different pieces.
Doctrines are particular teachings and for a particular community.
Theology is actually general.
Our doctrines distinguish us from other communities. It also distinguishes us from other
denominations.
We believe in jesus v/s not believe with jesus.
John Calvin:
In his book, Institutes, he talks about sensus divinitatis. Senseof divinity expressed as a sense of
dependence. A sense of responsibility.
A sense of incompleteness apart from that.
Even in animistic society, they have a sense of awe. They have some taboos too. Certain things are
considered as sacred.
Atheism came up a couple of hundred years ago.
Languages develops within a community.
Dogmas:
There will be some dogmas. It may be written or unwritten.
Its a manner of feeling and experiencing the ultimate common to the group.
A way of life.
A social order.
Ethical order.
How do i know God?
Which faculty do you use to know God?
• Reason
• Experience
• Senses
Creation:
God created the world out of nothing (ex‐nihilo)
God brings us out of nothing. Whatever we prove is within the range of nothingness.
God Talk:
Theology implies how we sense God in God's relationship to us. It's a matter of faith. God is not an
object that we can study.
Problems in knowing God:
1. Language:
Language is quite essential. Words can mean different meanings in different languages.
2. Space, Time & Causality:
We are confined by space. Our capacity to think is limited by space.
Time is also a factor that we are confined in. Eternity implies that we are constructing endless time.
Causality:
How can we talk about God when we cannot go beyond the above 3 categories.
3. Fallen Nature:
We assume that we are fallen in every sense. But in terms of reason, we do not hold on to it.
The capacity of our reason is very limited.
Book: Structure of Scientific revolution, Thomas Künd
We can only conceive God withing the above limits. And not beyond that.
When we talk about God,wecan only talk as an object.
Whenwe say God, we are picturising someone or something alongside it. An object must have
dimensions. What are the dimensions you use, in order to explain God. We attempt by saying that
God is eternal.
Wikenstein says, explain the flavour of the coffee you had......
If we can't do that how can we explain God.
Generally we explain by comparison. Our language is comparative. With what language can you
compare God?
Yet, as believers we have to explain God, within the capacity that we have to perceive.
Analogy:
So we explain through analogies. Eg. Bible talks about God as a Father. Thisis applicable in some
ways. God exercises His authority like a father, He cares for you, etc. We pick up experiences which
are positive in nature.... Only through this we can talk about God.
Origen and Menaces:
The understanding of Accommodation:
Eg. The concept of baby talk.
In the same way, the Bible is God's baby talk to us.
He accommodates himself in our world.
Anthropomorphism: God comes to our level with images that I can understand.
Eg. The 6 day creation was the only way in which God could convey to people. Thus the Bible was
written in the worldview that people could understand. Thus the Bible cannot be taken literally.
Copernicus and Galileo.....
For Calvin the physical world and human body both are witnesses to the....
Philosophical arguments for the existence of God:
Thomas Aquinas put these together.
1. Ontological Argument:
Anselm of Canterbury put forth this argument. He defines God as 'God is a being than which
nothing greater can be thought of or conceived'.
Greatness is not in size but in terms of perfection.
It can be said that this is just our imagination. In order to satisfy the definition, the being has
to have all the perfection in every area. But then the being has to have existence in order to be
completely perfect.
Anselm defined God in such a way that God cannot be thought of non existing.
Immanuel Kant refuted this argument:
Anselm talked about perfection. Perfection is a quality. Thus Anselm talks about the best of
qualities God has.
However Kant argued that existence is not a quality. Qualities are only for those entities that
exist.
2. Causal Argument:
First cause: Everything happens because of a cause. Question is where does it start?
Either rethink of an infinite regress or at some point it started.
Thomas Aquinas borrows Aristotle's Prime Mover concept and explains that God is the starting
point who started the whole process. Aquinas says, This is better than the infinite regress.
Argument against this:
Why hate infinite regress?
If we are bringing God in this process, it becomes illogical. The logical sequence is broken.
Why is the cause God?
3. Cosmological Argument:
Everything in this world is contingent (not necessary). It's possible to think that it might not
have been. If everything is contingent how can u explain its existence? Thus there has to be a
necessary being that can come into existence in order to bring the other things into existence.
4. Argument of design:
William Paley a bishop proposed this.
David Hume destroyed this idea....
I will be what I will be...
To know the name of God means to participate in God's life or have control over the diety. This was
the understanding not the earlier times.
Post Testament:
For church fathers, there was a synthesis of biblical understanding tbrough Greek and Latin culture
in their understanding of God known as Classical Theism.
The mysteries are being explained through Rationalisation.
They started giving attributes to God.
1. Negative or Apophatic categories. Eg. Invisible, immortal, infinite, ineffable, immutable, etc.
2. Positive or kataphatic ‐ eg. Creativity, goodness, lovingness, omniscient, omnipresent,
omnipotent, eternal.
Thus the quality that we admire, we increase it to the maximum and then apply it to God.
God is Faith which means that God can be trusted....
God is eternal:
Always God is the same. Eternal means everlastingly unchangeable. Ie. God Overcomes the passage
of time.
Botheius, a Greek philosopher explained philosophy and simultaneous and complete possession of
infinite life.
Simultaneously contemporaneous.
However this has problem coz the whole thing is brought to one point.
Define eternity.... Then what is eternal life?
Omnipotence:
God has power over everything. God can do anything.
If all power is with God then world has no power. Hence classical theologians divided power as :
• Unmediated power: power of creation, miracles in the Bible,
• Mediated power: this is the causal Nexus ‐ eg. I throw something up and it comes down,
choices, etc.
Parenthesis:
Comes from 2people:
• Heraclitus: Everything is changing. You cannot step into the same river twice. Everything is in
process.
• Parmenides: nothing changes. Fundamental stuff is the same. All changes are superficial.
Classical theology believes in Parmenides's understanding.
Alfred North Whitehead and Harstshorne . Based on their understanding we have people called
Process Theologians who reject classical theologians and call themselves as neo‐classical.
If God has absolute power, then the other things are meaningless. So they developed Panentheism.
In other words the world is contained in God. They are not separated. God may be more than the
world.
This means that the whole understanding of God creating the world out of nothing stands wrong.
Open Theism:
Clarke Pinnocle leading evangelical theologian.
Evangelicals borrow from process theologians. They were Armenians.
Trinity:
Acts 2:36
Ebionites: heretics. They claimed that Jesus was just a man and God raised him up as Lord. This is
called adoptionism.
John 10:30
God presented himself as Father in OT, presented himself as Son in NT and same God presented
himself as Holy Spirit after NT. This heresy is called Modalism. One God in 3 modes.
Israel was strictly monotheistic. Early Christians believed that God revealed himself through Jesus.
But they also believed that Jesus is the lord of the church. The doctrine of Trinity was developed by
classical theists. The early Christians believed that Jesus is the lord of the church and the creation.
Jn 1:1, Romans 9:5
Instead of the Sabbath, they started worshipping on Sunday, ie. the Lord's day. They developed the
worship of Jesus. They sensed this resurrected Lord to be God.
Jesus, during his earthly life, called God as Abba Father. Thus the distinction started happening in the
worship service. They found an identicality between father and son. They worshipped the Father and
Son. It was not consciously created. Jesus died and rose again, and ascended to heaven, still they felt
the presence of God with them. Again it happens naturally among them. In fact the NT writers
attribute personal characteristics to the Holy Spirit.
1 Cor. 2:10, 12:11, Romans 8:26‐27
Holy Spirit is a sense of continued presence of God at the same time it has been given a different
identity.
Arius was from Alexandria.
He taught a subordinate role for Logos. Logos was subordinate to the Father. He was a Greek
rationalist. Unknowingly he borrowed Greek concepts. In Greek god referred to the Monad. The
world was evil. He then put Logos in between the Monad (Father) and the world. Logos is the
intermediary between them where Father communictes with the world. There cannot be 2 Gods.
Father's essence cannot be shared with anyone. Logos according to Arius, is created by God.
Through the Logos God created the world. Logos is not the ultimate God. Thus logos is a created
entity. He also said that there was a time when the Son was not.
Athanasius said if the generation was generating, the father first generated the Son, through Son
generated the world in time, then since time was created with the world, then before time which
means Son was there in eternity. This means that in God's being, God is relational.
Thus the scope of strict monotheism came to an end in the 1st century. If God had to have relation
with us he had to be relational. This relation didn't develop after we were created. God by himself
was relational in nature. Relational it is intrinsic to God.
The doctrine of Trinity is not an explanation of the structure of God. It is also not numbering God. To
describe God is duncical.
Can we call God a necessary being?
Being Means that which exists.
God is a person means that we sense or understand God to be relating to us in an 'I ‐ Thou'
relationship. God is someone who can feel. God relates to us as Father, Son and Spirit.
We are given the true impression that we experience God's love.
We call this eternal being transcendent. Meaning beyond us....
We use the transcendent in limitation otherwise.
Transcendent also means apart from us or we neither have anything from God nor take anything
from God.
God is immanent (pervasive with us).
God is active in us. Acts 17:27‐28.
The understanding of creation and sustenance. It's more of continuous creation.
Creation doesn't mean that he started at one go and let it go on its own.
This relational God is Spirit.
This God is person. It was created by Tertullian.
Perichoresis: Capodecian fathers (Basil of Caesarea, Gregory of Nyssa and Gregory of Naziansus)
gave this term meaning circumincession meaning interpenetration. Jn 17:1.
Trinitarian God and Creation God:
God is the Creator. Creation is a free act of God. It means there is no internal necessity for God to
create. There is no external necessity. Creation doesn't add anything to God nor does it subtract
anything from God. Aquinas said 'creation is the overflow of the abundance of God.'
The Christian understanding of God is explained in this expression: Creatio‐ex‐nihilo (creation out of
nothing!
This comes for the 1st time in an Apocryphal book called 2 Maccabees 7:28...
God is ultimately responsible for creation of the world. It means that God did not have to depend
upon some material to make the world....
There is no additional experience needed to explain how God created the world. Creatio‐ex‐nihilo
does not deal with the how of God's creation. It explains the absolute ultimate dependence of the
world upon God.
How does God act / Divine causality:
This is however a necessary construct to explain.
When did God create?
Augustine said : God created the world not in time but with time.
Creation vs sustenance: Sustenance is continuing creation.
The doctrine of creation that we have is depended upon our absolute dependence on God.
All dependence is mutual. The totality of the universe depends upon God.
The distinctive feature of God is ex‐nihilo (out of nothing). It means nothing of anything. This cannot
be a scientific explanation. Christianity denies all forms of ultimate dualism. Thus we believe that
nothing else existed before God.
Creation in the Genesis story:
The nature of the story is that it looks like History. Thus many take it literally. There are a lot of
parallel stories. However there is a difference between the 2. All of those stories are crude and not
cultivated, sometimes bordering towards immoral. The Jewish story maintains a high standing. This
one angle is viewed that the Jewish genesis story could be a reformed outcome or another angle
could be that the other versions are distortions of the original. But we don't know who came first.
However if we take it literally, then problems arise. A lot of things has to be taken literally. Was
there anything lacking God? Why did it occurr? When did it occur?
Many theologians assume the creation story as mere story.
Karl Barth callsit a saga. It means light history. When his granddaughter asked him, he said according
to him, creation is "a witness to the believing for becoming of all reality distinct from God in the light
of God's later acts and words relating to his people Israel ‐ naturally in the form of a saga or poem".
The chalcedonian definition in 451:
There is no positive statements about the concept of fully divine and fully human'. The only way it is
explained isn't eliminating the negatives. Thus they claim that it is without confusions, without
divisions, without change, without separations.
This has given rise to different heresies.
The natural 2 heresies that comes is:
1. Docetic ‐ underplaying the humanity of Christ. Docetic comes from the word δοκεω ‐ it seems.
The human aspect is only an appearance. It's not real.
2. Arian ‐ underplaying divinity of Christ.
3. Ebrionism ‐ This is by some Jewish Christians who taught that Jesus was a wonderful man
whom God adopted. Underplaying the divinity of Christ.
Thus one needs tomorrow balance between the 2.
Another 2 types of heresies possible:
1. Nestorianism: That which teaches that there is no relation between the 2 natures as they exist
together. (Eg. Water and kerosene mix)
2. Eutychianism: they are merged completely. (Eg. Milk and water)
These 4 natural heresies needed to be avoided.
Read: about theologian Jerm‐Luc‐Marion (he talks about ontotheology)
The Father, Son and Holy Spirit is mentioned in the NT, but they are never explained together. The
word Trinity was not even there.
Resurrection:
The idea of resurrection, we don't know when it came in the biblical Tradition. The 1st allusion can
be seen in 2 Macabees 7:9, John 20:28,
It just naturally occurs in the early church. The early church immediately believe Jesus as the Lord of
the church. Thus the Church makes a faith affirmation. Jesus calls God as the Father. Thus the church
makes a natural distinction between Jesus and Father but still believe in one God. After the
Resurrection, the never felt the absence of Jesus, because they felt the natural presence of God as
Holy Spirit. Their Salvation is real that Jesus is God, if Jesus is not God, then their Salvation is an
illusion.
Bulttmann teaches that it is the elevation of crucified Jesus to the status of God. This elevation
happens in the mind of the Lord. In other words, Resurrection is a spiritual experience and not a fact.
However we have evidence for the Resurrection:
• all 4 gospels and Paul present it as a historical fact.
• There are 2 traditions: the empty tomb (but discredited by critics saying that it was women
who first went to the tomb, also since they were new to the place, they might have gone to
the wrong tomb. Other critic is that the disciples stole the body.) What is surprising is that the
disciples became courageous. If they stole the body, how will they destroy it?
Faith comes first. Theology comes later. Early church believes that Lord is the Lord of the church.
It's the same word
Jn. 1:1, Romans 1:5, write the meaning of God.
The early church worships only one God. There is an identicality between God of the Old Testament
and NT. At the same time they also make a differentiation between father and Son.
The resurrection formed the identity of the early church.
Significance of Resurrection:
• Victory of Jesus over death.
• It is God's confirmation of the claims of Jesus pre‐crucifixion.
• It stands as the sign of Jesus' divinity.
• Claims of Jesus was confirmed by resurrection
• Forms the basis of our hope.
• Pannenberg says: that which ought to happen to the creation at the Eschatological point has
proleptically happened in one person Jesus Christ.
• Its on the basis of Resurrection that we assert Jesus' godness.
• With resurrection, Jesus is Emmanuel.
Trinity is the way in which God gave Godself to us.
Different words for Holy Spirit:
Life breath (gen 2:7)
Wind
Fire ( Isaiah 12:4)
Water (Isaiah 32:15 )
Cloud (Ex. 22:18)
Dove (Jesus' baptism)
Paraclete (advocate)
Ruah (Spirit, wind, )
Pneuma (Spirit)
Usesof Holy Spirit:
Principle of life
God is a spirit, life of God is a spirit,
Pneuma is referred 40 timestamp human spirit. However in NT, Jesus is the unique man of spirit.
In Acts, the Spirit is found to be guiding, directing believers, helps in miracles, prophecies, etc.
However with Paul, there is an additional dimension. Romans 8:9‐ it's the spirit who makes
believers, Romans 8:14‐16, Galatians 4:6 ‐
In early times, the Christians worshipped the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
Athanasius is the person behind Nicene Creed. He was reluctant to call Holy Spirit as God. Gregory of
Naziansus used the word ousia (substance) to identify the separateness in the 3. He used the word
hypostius (person).
Nicene Creed:
We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and lifegiver who proceeds were from the Father who is
worshipped and glorified together with the Father and the Son who spoke through the prophets,
etc......
In 50 years, the phrase proceeds from the Father and the Son was added in the creed.
The Pope added it, but the eastern church rejected it. It's called the Filioque Controversy.
This started tensions between the 2 churches and finally split in 1054, The Great Schism.
Through most of he history of he West, Mary was more important than Holy Spirit.
In the West, the tribes would all become Christians. They had a snake figure as diety. This led to
Mary being worshipped as a diety.
Holy Spirit shared the same divinty as of the Father and of the Son.
The Capadocean fathers called the Holy Spirit as God.
In the East, they did not believe in guilt and sin as ethical. They believe that sin distorted the image
of God in us. The being is damaged. Salvation is the recreation of the image. Salvation is not moral, it
is deification (theosis). The operating system is ontological. If the Spirit has to do that, then the Spirit
has to be God. The Spirit has to be consubstantial to God.
However, the West doesn't address the being. For the West, the operating system is moral and
ethical.
Filioque:
The West started focussing on the Holy Spirit in around 1904. When it emerged in the West, it was
more of a Black Movement. It was more of a grassroot spiritual movement. It comprised of people
from the marginalised sections. It highlighted miracles, extraordinary charismata, speaking in
tongues, manifestation of the Holy Spirit,etc.
There were ceasationists who had long back claimed that these things had ceased to exist.
There was nothing new in Pentecostalism. It had been from the beginning of the church. But
whenever it would arise, the church would destroy this movement. However then it couldn't supress
it when it rose up in the USA.
IMS (International Missionary Society) in their meeting in Willimgen in 1952, understood their call as
Mission Dei ie. Proclaiming god's work in Christ through the Spirit. Even the churches' existence is
through the Spirit. Unity of the body of Christ is through the indwelling of the Spirit.
After the 1960s, charismatic movement similar to Pentecostalism rose up within the Roman Catholic
church. In 1999, a joint working group between WCC and Pentecostals was established.
Liberation Theology:
Theologians started thinking about basic Christian communities. These communities comprised from
small poor people who came together for prayer and discussion.
Liberation Pneumatology:
The experience of the Spirit in Latin America. It's the experience of action. People who were passive
sufferers are energised by the Spirit to action tomrenew their lives. It's an experience of rebirth.
Rebirth to a freedom against 500 years of no freedom. The Spirit liberated from the bondage. Jürgen
Moltman and Johann Bapist Metz talk about liberating faith or freedom as subjective or liberating
love or Freedom as sociality. liberating hope or freedom as future.
Feminist Theology:
Pneumatology:
Most important images of God are all related to men.
Addressing the Spirit as feminine.
The exploitation of the earth which has reached crisis proportion in our day is intimately linked to the
marginalisation of women, and that both of these predicaments are intrinsically related to forgetting
the creator Spirit who pervades the world in the dance of life.
Elizabeth Johnson
Hierarchical Dualism:
This leads to abuse of women and abuse of nature.
Thus Jesus was regarded as friend rather than lord or κύριος.
The Spirit is the originator of the whole life. The Spirit rejuvenates. It overcomes the dualism
between matter and Spirit.
Evangelical Theology:
Ministry of the Spirit...
• Fruits of the Spirit
• Guidance
• Convicts of our sins
• Helps in groaning, praying
• Helps in worship
• Binding people together
• Intercedes
Gifts of the Holy Spirit:
All reformed churches or Calvinistic churches believe in the cessation of gifts with the end of the
apostolic times.
Benjamin Warfield:
They believed that gifts were given for a specific time.
Charismatic gifts, miracle working, were actually endorsement of the Apostles.
Gifts were given at a time when there were no NT.
From 1904, modern charismatic movement emphasised on the gifts.
Based on genesis, Christianity emphsises baths are the crown of God's creation.
Gen. 1:27 says that wears created in the image of God. In the likeness of God we are created. This s
ancasenof Hebrew Parallelism.
Theologian Philip Eügeumbe Hughes, The True Image.
Man is to represent God on the face of the earth. Images served to represent the majesty and
power.
Augustine said that image of God is our rational faculty.
We also have a capacity to relate to God which sets us apart from the creator. This is the central
element of human nature.
We were created in original uprightness.
In a state of blessedness.
Paul develops the doctrine of sin.
Why the fall?
They were Dissatisfied
They wanted to be like God
Didn't rest.
Pride
We are called to be stewards of God.
The image of God.
The best representative of the image of God is God himself.
We belong to creation yet we are different.
Thomas Aquinas talks about analogia entis. The analogy between us and God.
However Barth says that this is not possible. Instead it's analogia relationship.
Each person is infinitely valuable.
Transmission of sin:
From Adam to posterity.
Debate between Augustine and Pelagius.
Pelagius was a British monk,had a good childhood, with no problems at all.
Debate rose up regarding the freedom of will.
Tertullian coined the term freewill. Do we have freewill?
According to Augustine, we have freewill but we are so much in sin that the freewill is incapacitated.
We are biased towards evil. Our freedom is freedom to do evil. We are like habitual offenders.
Pelagius didn't we the struggles of life.
He says, we are free. We have freedom. Humanity possesses total freedom of will. We can choose to
do either good or bad. God does not intervene in our freedom. If God interferes with our
freedom,then God is dominating us. God does not violate our freedom that infringes on the integrity
of humanity. For Pelagius, we are responsible. We cannot escape. We are not frail or weak. We
cannot blame our weakness. God made human nature.
Traditionally we divide sin into original sin and actual sin.
Original sin can be understood as Adam's sin or inherited of a pool of sins. Paul picks this up and
compares old and new Adam. Is the first Adam an actual person or a concept is something that we
need to choose. Inherited sin is like a cesspool of sins. How did this cesspool come about we have no
idea.
Critique: The reason why original sin is used is to find a way out of tthe things we do. John 15:5 ‐ we
are totally dependent on God for our salvation. Grace is totally God's gift. Healing process can
happen only by unmerited grace. Pelagius understand grace as God's natural gift given to you. These
are natural faculties that cannot be corrupted. Your responsibility is as deep as anyone else. You are
punishable. We must choose to avoid sin. It also means the external needs God gives to us.
Salvation by imitating Christ was Pelagius' idea. The church contended with Pelagius' idea.
Grace is only a gift. If we merit it, it's more grace.
If it's a reward, we earn our salvation. If grace is free then God must've free to give it to whomever
he wants. If grace is offered on some basis, then it's merited.
God elected some people for salvation.
Limited atonement
Calvin:
T ‐ Total Depravation
U ‐ Unconditional election
L ‐ Limited atonement
I ‐ Irresistible grace
P ‐ perseverance of saints
Joseph Armenius
In Armenian,the word predestination is maintained but content is different.
In Calvinism, the individual is the object.
God predestined the church. The object of Predestination is the group of people who would
persevere in faith.
We believe him because we first experienced him. Our faith needs an explanation. We have to
answer questions that come to us from ourselves, and within church. Those who are within faith
provide simple and comprehensive answers to our faith. We have to live in a world as people
belonging to different faith. When we think through our faith we produce theology.
Doctrine:
That is always by the churches through the total life of the church, through the decisions of the
church.
Theology is the business of believers. It is the business of those who participate in faith.
Theology is reflecting on our faith in God.
God is the object of our faith.
Can God be conceived as an object?
Theology is a product of intellectual reflection of our faith.
Our answers are tentative and can be modified in future. Theology is a guide to our actions, to our
church, to teach and to preach, to train our children.
Theology is for the purpose of the church.
We have to have the sense of inadequacy but also with a sense of dignity and confidence.
Sources and Formative factors of Theology:
Certain factors we take the content of those factors and certain factors are formed.
Ur Theology depends on how you access the sources and put it all together.
Sources of theology:
1. Bible
2. Apostolic tradition
Martin Luther vigorously argued against this tradition.
Wesleyan Quadrilateral:
1. Scripture: ultimate norm
2. Reason
3. Experience
4. Tradition: teachings of the church through history.
The Bible is the Revelation of God given to us. Our faith is inscripturated in the Bible.
The NT was constructed by the first generation believers. That's why it is authoritative. As was the
case in first century, so also the Spirit speaks to us through the Bible in the present context.
As a church we have submitted ourselves to the foundation of this original document.
Secondary Source:
1. Tradition of the church
Luther had opposed it. Church said the church wrote the Scriptures. But Luther replied that
the church was formed by the Gospel. So Gospel is more authoritative than church.
Initially the gnostics heavily influenced to form the canon. But Irenaeus and others opposed.
Tradition helps us to guard against individualism and traditionalism.
Tertiary Source:
It's the culture in which we live. All theology is contextual.
Theology must always emerge. You cannot fossilise a particular theology.
In the world but not of the world:
However we are of the world. The church is of the world.
The cognitive tools. Symbols, myths,outlook, all of it we borrow.
The history of the church is part of the history of the developed world.
Philosophy, logic, politics, language, etc. Are all sources of theology. We have to factor all
these aspects.
Tielhard de Chardin: a theologian cum scientist.
He was scientifically convinced about the theory of evolution.
Experience:
Our experience.
John Macquarie defines theology as the study which through participation in and reflection
upon a religious faith seeks to express the content of this faith in the clearest and most
coherent language available.
Theology is for communication. It has to be put in a language with the audience in mind.
Experience is not a source. It's a condition under which reflection takes place. Therefore
Macquarie puts it as Formative factors.
As a theologian, who experiences throuh faith, one must critically evaluate.
Authority:
The writings are authoritative because of their source.
Marcion creates his own canon and gives a different interpretation of the Bible.
Early church had a problem. Paul was giving answers to the problems of his time.
The writings were authoritative because it came from the Apostles.
Gnostics:
They believe that they have a secret knowledge that is passed on.
By 160 CE, they became as big as the church.
The theologians among them were Marcion, Basilides nd Valentinius
Marcion removed all the references and content related to the Jewish Scriptures and
presented his canon.
Irenaeus opposed and said that true interpretation comes from the church.
Which is the church?
Irenaeus said the church of Rome is the authority as it was founded by Peter.
The material norm is the Scripture and formal norm is the church. Those who deviate from
their norms, are called heretics.
However this hierarchy became stronger and stronger. The Bible was not available to all. Thus
the church started becoming corrupt. Thus the church as the authority became corrupt.
Luther then divided the entire books of the NT as per the material norms into 3 levels:
a. Level 1: John, Paul, 1 Pet, 1 John
b. Level 2: Synoptic gospels, Acts, 2 Peter, 2 & 3 John
c. Level 3: Jude, Hebrews, James, Revelation.
He called James as the Epistle of straw.
Anselm of Canterbury developed a book Cur Deus homo, on why God had to become man.
Acco
4. Cross as moral examples:
The person associated with this theory is Peter Abelard. The purpose of Incarnation is to
illuminate the world to excite the world to love God. And the purpose of the cross is to move
us. Therefore the Son took our nature. The Son taught us both by word as well as deed. Even
to the extent of the cross and point of death such that it would morally excite us. There is no
transaction. Instead we need to be moved. We are invited to love God. We are forcefully
persuaded to love God. He presents a powerful subjective impact of Christ's death on earth.
The NT uses the word εκκλησία for church. This is used in the LXX also.
Εκκλησία means called out (εκ + καλεω).
Church and εκκλησία. Difference....
εκκλησία was the special group of people called out to manage the affairs of the city.
The early church used this word because they believed themselves to be a called out assembly. But
church is called out and needs to be organised this it is an organisation. The church is a visible entity.
On the other hand church is an invisible entity.
Church is one body. Is a large entity.
Church is formed by the Holy Spirit.
Euchraist and Reformation debate:
Roman Catholic church:
They teach transubstantiation.
Developed in medieval times under sacramental superstitions. It's based on Aristotle's
differentiation between accidents and substance.
Aquinas and others borrow this. Substance is the essence of essential nature of something.
Accidents ‐ Outward appearances.
Transubstantiation: Father takes the bread and prays, accidents remain the same but substance
changes. From bread to flesh, wine to blood.
Mass means missa.
Arguments:
Luther's view: Consubstantiation:
He rejects the distinction between substance and accidents. Luther takes it literally. He says that
body and blood of Christ is present in, with and under the elements. Bread and wine and
interspersed. What we are eating is bread and wine but identically the body and blood.
Calvin uses the lllustration of sun and rays.
We are spiritually nourished by participants not by eating and drinking.
It's the initiatory right of the church.
John's baptism was different in meaning.
Christian baptism is closely connected with the symbolism of death and resurrection of Christ.
It's a visible word of proclamation. Baptism doesn't regenerate you.
It's a divine act to the extent that whatever is humanly
Revelation:
1. Understanding the concept of Revelation in Christian Theology:
The word revelation means an 'unveiling' or 'disclosure' of something previously hidden.
a. Revelation as God's own self disclosure:
Daniel Migliore says: Revelation in Christian theology means the self disclosure of God
in the creation, in the history of the people of Israel and above all in the person of Jesús.
Revelation is not the transmission of a body of knowledge but a personal disclosure of
one subject to another subjects. God graciously takes the initiative and freely
communicates with us. Its thus a gift that comes to us rather than some discovery about
God, the world, or ourselves that we might have made entirely on our own.
b. Revelation points to a particular events and particular people:
These are the people whom God has communicated in decisive ways with humanity. The
revelation of God implies Jesus Christ.
c. Revelation of God calls for our personal response and appropriation:
As God's personal approach to us, revelation seeks the response of the whole person.
True knowledge of God is practical rather than theoretical. The goal of revelation is not
the possession of secret doctrines but the generation of a new sensibility, a new way of
seeing, new dispositions and affections, a transformed way of life.
d. Revelation of God is always a disturbing, even shocking event:
It disrupts the way we have previously understood God, the world and ourselves.
Revealed God is free and ever‐surprising. Revelation through Jesus Christ….
e. Revelation is the New Interpretative Focus
It becomes the new interpretative focus for our understanding of God, the world and
ourselves. It doesn’t narrow our vision or restrict our search for understanding rather it
transforms our imagination.
2. General Revelation & Special Revelation:
Christian theology has traditionally distinguished two channels of knowledge of God: general
revelation and special revelation. General revelation implies a revelation of God in the created
order, in the human conscience, and in the religions other than Christianity. The heavens are
telling the glory of God and the firmament proclaims his handiwork (Ps. 19:1). Romans 1:20…
General revelation, whether immediate or mediate, is directed to all men. It is, however, “not
sufficient to give that knowledge of God, and of His will, which is necessary unto salvation”
(Westminster Confession of Faith, I.1). General revelation does not reveal Jesus Christ or His
work of redemption for sinners. Thus there is a need for what is called “special revelation.”
Special revelation is the revelation of the way of salvation.
General revelation encourages Christians to be receptive to knowledge acquired by the human
sciences and to be respectful of and open to the teachings of other religious traditions.
John Calvin's position on this issue was that there is a natural knowledge of God. He speaks of
a universal 'sense of divinity' and a universally implanted 'seed of religion'. He claims the
'there is within the human mind and by natural instinct an awareness of divinity.'
Special revelation repeatedly challenges, corrects and transcends all of our earlier knowledge
of God, from whatever source, as well as confirming what is good and true in it.
3. Revelation as God's Self Disclosure:
Christian theology looks primarily to the revelation in Christ for an understanding of God and
of all things in relation to God. Richard Niebuhr says: While God is present and active in all of
nature and history, for Christian faith and theology, the fullness of revelation can only come in
a personal life.
Basil Mitchel: The basic analogy involved in all talk of revelation is that of communication
between persons.
A. Themes of Creation:
1. Radical Otherness, Transcendence and Lordship of God:
Creatio Ex‐Nihilo (Read that section)
God was not compelled to create the world. Neither was there an inner deficiency in the
divine that needed satisfaction. It is an act of grace. Creation is a gift, a benefit. By saying
that God is the creator, we are talking about God's character. We confess that God is
good, gives life to others, lets others exist alongside and in fellowship with God, that
God makes room for others.
Kenosis: Aspect of 'costly grace'. Kenosis can be seen even in creation ‐ a self humiliation
or self limitation ‐ that others may have life, may have a relatively independent
existence alongside God. Emil Brunner says: The kenosis, which reaches its highest
expression in the cross of Christ, began with the creation of the world.
2. The world as a whole and all beings individually are radically dependent on God:
In confessing that God is the creator and we are his creatures, we acknowledge that we
are finite, contingent, radically dependent beings.
Friedrich Schleiermacher describes the universal feeling as 'absolute dependence on
God'. It is a sense of being dependent everywhere and everytime on the creative power
of God.
Comparison of radical dependence with Christian salvation. Recepeints of grace.
We are utterly dependent on God for the gift of life, for new life, and for the final
fulfilment of life.
3. In all of its contingency, finitude, and limitation, creation is good:
If God is good, then for all its limitations and precariousness the gift of life which God
gives is good.
i. Creation is good implies rejection of every metaphysical dualism: spiritual is good ‐
physical is evil, intellectual is good ‐ sexual is evil, masculine is good ‐ feminine is
evil, etc. Manichean heresy: to regard any part of the creation as inherently evil.
ii. Creation is good is different from saying that the world around is useful for
whatever purposes we have. Every aspect of creation needs to be treated with
respect.
4. The co‐existence and interdependence of all created beings
Luther says: God has created me and all that exists.
Creaturehood means radical co‐existence, mutual interdependence rather than solitary
or monarchic existence.
5. God the creator is purposive, and the world that has been created is dynamic and
purposeful
B. God the Creator:
The creation of the world is the first of the majestic and glorious acts of the triune God.
The triune God who eternally dwells in loving community also welcomes into existence a world
of creatures different from God.
C. Creation ‐ Evolution ‐ Creationism
D. Scientific Theories of the Origin of Universe and Creatio ExNihilo
1. Creatio ExNihilo:
Creation is God's calling 'into existence the things that do not exist' (Rom. 4:17). God
creates Ex Nihilo ‐ Out of Nothing. 'Nothing' is not a primordial stuff out of which the
world was created. Creation 'out of nothing' implies that God alone is the source of all
that exists.
E. Implication of the Doctrine of Creation:
Analogies:
a. Generation: God is described as a father or mother to Israel. This is not in terms of
sexual procreation but in terms of parental love and care.
b. Fabrication or Formation: Fabrication is depicted with God as a builder (Ps. 127:1)
and formation is depicted with God as a potter who forms clay into vessels (Jer 18,
Rom. 9:21). Does have disadvantage: exNihilo compromised.
c. Emanation: means 'sending out'. Creation is an overflowing of God's fullness; it
has its origin in the richness and abundance of deity.
Disadvantage: it suggests an impersonal and involuntary process. George Hendry
comments that it didn’t gain much acceptance.
d. Mind / body relationship: Theologians proposed this analogy where the world is
described as the body of God as an alternative to oppressive hierarchical models.
This analogy best expresses the intimacy and reciprocity between God and the
world.
Disadvantage: Incapable of articulating the gracious, nonnecessary, asymmetrical
relationship of God to the world as said in the Bible.
e. Artistic Expression:
3. Sacramental Universe
4. Ecological Crisis:
Experts say that the damage to the environment is already severe and in some cases
probably irreversible.
Cause:
Critics blame the Bible as it teaches that human beings alone are created in the image of
God and are commanded by God to exercise 'dominion' over all the other creatures has
given Western civilisation religious justification for treating the natural environment in a
ruthless and brutal manner. All our wanton destruction of nature is sanctioned in the
name of fulfilling the divine command. This divine command has been twisted into an
ideology of mastery.
Historian Lynn White Jr. concludes that Christianity bears 'a huge burden of guilt' for our
present ecological crisis.
Case Studies: Bhopla gas tragedy, Chernoboyl disaster, oil spills, pollution in streams,
etc.
Solution:
The scope and gravity of the ecological crisis give new urgency to the task of rethinking
the Christian doctrine of creation.
When the Bible states that human beings are created in the image of God and are given
the command to have dominion over the earth, it must be understood in the context of
distinctive identification of God ‐ as God not of arbitrary power but of free grace and
covenantal love.
The command of God to humanity to have dominion calls for respect, love and care for
the good creation.
Aspect of Servant Leadership / Stewardship… There is no absolute right of humanity
over nature on the contrary, human beings are entrusted with its care and protection.
Integrity:
The Bible presents the non‐human creatures as inseparable companions of humanity in
creation, reconciliation and redemption. The bible asserts that God values and takes
delight in all creatures and that all creatures are in some way able to give glory to God
their creator. Psalms 19:1 ‐ the heavens are telling the glory of God …. Book of Job
describes strange and wondrous creatures (Job 39 ‐ 41).
Justice:
The Bible not only presents the nonhuman world as part of God's good creation but also
views the whole creation as mysteriously entangled in the drama of sin and redemption
and included in the hope of God's coming kingdom. Humanity and other creatures are
bound together in suffering and hope.
Under the present condition, humanity and nature are caught in a web of mutual
alienation and abuse. Humans brutally exploiting nature…. Natural disaster affecting
humans…
Peace:
Inadequate Approaches to Scripture:
1. Supernatural origin:
Protestant theologians became extremely defensive. Insisted that every