LIBERTY BAPTIST THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY BOOK REVIEW: “Here I Stand” by Roland H. Bainton A Paper Submitted to Dr. Jason Graffagnino In partial Fulfillment of the requirements for The Course CHHI 525 – “History of Christianity II” By: September 13, 2015 Table of Contents I. Introduction………………………………………… 3 II. Brief Summary……………………………………... 4 III. Critique……………………………………………… 5 IV. Conclusion…………………………………………… 8 Bibliography…………………………………………. 9 I.
INTRODUCTION The book Truth and Tolerance by Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger is one that captures and tackles the tensions that arise from rival claims to ‘the truth’ by different religions of the world. It is a response to the criticisms by modern society and non-Christian cultures against the (Catholic) Christian claim on the “Unicity and Salvific Universality of Jesus Christ and the Church”. How can Christianity insist it is true in the face of other religions and philosophies making competing claims? Is Christianity not being religiously arrogant by imposing its teaching, and thus intolerant to other religions of the world? As such, central to this thesis is the theme of truth- truth in the Christian religion expressed in the faith and teaching of the Catholic Church which Ratzinger sets out to address together with the questions above.
It is in that vain that Wright authored “Knowing Jesus Through The Old Testament”. Dr. Wright translates his love for the Old Testament scriptures into a look at Jesus Christ, a look that Wright suggests made Jesus who He was and reflects the life He lived, the words He read and the religion He practiced. Wright uses this look to emphasize how the Old Testament is not simply for the Jew but is equally important to Christians in understanding their savior. Brief Summary of the Book At first glance one would think that Dr. Wright has written another book that takes the reader on a journey through the Old Testament showing the reader the many Old Testament prophecies that point to His coming and to the numerous Christophanies that one can see in the Old Testament. While Dr. Wright does deal with some of the prophecies, it is in a different context entirely.
The book focuses on exclusion between groups of people and reaches back to the New Testament metaphor of salvation as reconciliation. It offers the idea of embrace as a theological response to the problem of alienation of peoples. Other books authored by Volf include A Passion for God’s Reign: Theology, Christian Learning, and The Christian Self (Eerdmans, 1997) and After Our Likeness: The Church as the Image of the Trinity (Eerdmans, 1998). The latter is the inaugural volume in the
It is due to this position that Barth famously fell out with fellow theologian Emil Brunner (1889-1966) over Brunner’s Nature and Grace. The main point of contention is over Brunner placing natural theology side-by-side with the Word of God, thereby merging both general and special revelation together . For Barth, there is no analogy of being based on human insight, only an analogy of faith based on God’s self-revelation . From Barth’s reply “Nein!” to Brunner’s Nature and Grace, the opposition to natural theology is very much evident. The Barthian viewpoint of developing a systematic natural theology would mean support of the “German Christians” notion; recognizing other forms of divine revelation.
As much of Christianity cannot be proven and may not be accepted on faith alone, one must be brought to understand Christianity. The compelling arguments in the Bible are used by Biblical apologists who employ the art of persuasion to defend the Christian faith. The role of an apologist is to study, practice and demonstrate the truth of Christianity in an effort to bring a non-believer to the table of believers with the hope that those converted will also share the gospel of Jesus Christ. There have been many notable apologists since the first century, all of whom had a historical impact on how Christianity is perceived today. This writing will note the reason apologetics proved to be necessary, provide a brief history of selected apologists and describe their literary contributions to the Christian movement.
While the orthodox group upheld that Jesus Christ and the Father are of the same nature, Arians argued that Christ was created and so could not be of the same nature with the Father. Theological controversies have plagued Christianity since its inception. The burning issue during Paul’s period was how the Jewish Christians and Gentile converts could relate. This issue became so serious that the first Christian council was held in Jerusalem to settle it. Subsequently, the nail biting debates over Gnostics and their
Anderson also stated that “the Western world has experienced a massive paradigm shift in its worldview and voiced his concern about the influence of the “kingdom of darkness” (pp. 29-31). Additionally, Anderson (2000) affirmed “that the Christian worldview sees life through the grid of Scripture and not through culture
Trinitarian theology is essential to the evangelic mind. We find the theme of Father, Son, and Spirit woven throughout our various Christian theologies in a masterful way. But what of the Atonement of Jesus Christ for the sins of the world? Where do we see the Trinity in God’s beautiful conclusion to his much larger redemptive story? The evangelic community seems silent when it comes to this region of theology and the Trinity.
The changes made in John therefore are a reflection of the Christological and eschatological statements that the author is trying to make, which this essay argues is partly in response to the absence of the imminent Second Coming proclaimed in the Gospel of Mark. The two Gospels’ telling of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane show stark Christological differences in Jesus’ relationship with his disciples, specifically the extent to which Jesus is understood and respected by his disciples. The disciples portrayed in the Gospel of Mark are largely unsympathetic, being dull-witted, unreliable and at least in one case, treacherous. In Mark’s telling of the betrayal, his disciples are unable to heed their teacher’s last words to them: “I (Jesus) am deeply grieved, even to death; remain here, and keep awake” (Mark 14:34). The disciples not only fail to keep awake three times, but also desert the forcibly arrested