Special Revelation allows us to see Christ and thus a relationship with God that is more than the knowledge of his existence. Scripture, especially New Testament Scripture confirms that God wants to reveal more of Himself than what is revealed through General Revelation. Paul wrote to the Romans that confirming Jesus as Lord brings us into right relationship with God and the salvation that is promised throughout scripture (Romans 10:9). References Braaten, C. E. (2004). The Christian Faith in an Inter-Faith Context.
Liberty Theological Seminary The Theology of the Emerging Church: Is an Emerging Theology the Answer for Postmodern America? A Project Submitted In Partial Fulfillment of The Requirements for The Course THEO 510 Submitted By Carson Moore September 15, 2013 Table of Contents Introduction.......................................................................................3 Thesis..................................................................................................3 The Christian Life as a Journey......................................................3 The Knowability of God...................................................................5 Uncertainty is not Humility.............................................................7
Contextualization of Christian Worldview: Christ and Culture: Niebuhr vs. Yoder Introduction The next two modules address key issues in attempting to be in yet not of the world in the exercise of Christian discipleship in secular societies and cultures. The context of the discussion revolves around H. Richard Niebuhr's articulation of and responses to the challenges of balancing Christ and Culture. What Niebuhr called the "enduring problem" is perhaps more pronounced than ever before in these days of great diversity and increased interactions and conflicts of postmodern global cultures. The problem is involved in relations between loyalties to Christ and culture, church and state, faith and reason...[and] how the assumptions, values, perceptions, and understandings of society penetrate us and influence our understanding of who Christ is, what it means to follow him, and what the mission of the church is. (Stassen, Yeager, & Yoder, 1996, p. 10) Module 4 consists of a clear presentation of the teleological ethical perspective of Niebuhr, as well as his classical typology (and examples from church history) of distinct responses to the enduring problem of how Christians can or should live in a fallen world.
This, along with some neo-Marxists ideas, such as liberation theology in Latin America support the idea that religion could be viewed as undermining integration, acting as a potential source of conflict and change. Another example can be the New Christian Right, which is a protestant fundamentalist movement that aims to bring take America ‘back to God’. They want to make homosexuality and abortion and divorce illegal. They believe strongly in traditional gender and family roles. However it has been largely unsuccessful in achieving its goal as the campaigners find it difficult to cooperate with other religious groups, it also lacks widespread support.
Dawn. Wells wishes to make readers aware of the effects of mixing modernity and culture with religion. He makes mention that the centrality of this book focuses primarily upon the church taking a turn towards modernity and the effect the world and secular culture has placed upon this concern. Because of Wells’ observation of the church’s decline in morality, he often refers to some Christians as consumers of a marketing strategy. What is meant by this?
We see an example of one of Luther’s critical writings in Document 8. In this Document we see Luther take a strong anti Catholic stance and even go so far as to condemn the Pope. Document 9 also serves as another example and shows Luther’s being critical of the Churches officials and the need for priests by clamming “every baptized Christian is a priest already.” This last point struck a major cord with the peasants in Europe. Luther was telling them they could gain their own salvation by studying the bible for themselves. No longer would they need to be dependent on the Church.
A. Examine the key characteristics of Situation Ethics (21 Marks) Although Christian ethics has traditionally followed divine command ethics – the view that morality came directly from God – an alternative approach emerged in the 1960s that could be used more widely in ethical decision making. Situation Ethics, a teleological theory, most commonly associated with Joseph Fletcher (an American Episcopalian moralist from the US) and J.A.T. Robinson (Was the Bishop of Woolwich, from the UK), emerged at a time when society and the Church were facing drastic and permanent change. Situation ethics is a consequentialist theory, as well as a relativist one; an action is only wrong if the motive for the action is wrong i.e.
For better and/or for worse the church has had an integral part in the shaping of world and American history. I heard a quote recently from a respected Christian figure; “the greatest cause of Atheism today, are Christians…” Christianity has been used throughout history to justify a plethora of abuses against people and society; both violent and peaceful. King Charles I in 1626 noted, “People are governed by the pulpit more than the sword in time of peace.” England’s monarchs had a habit of doing just that. The people were kept in line with the crown through the Clergy, which was essentially the monarch’s sword. (p. 160) The Puritans were well aware of the abuses of the Church of England and wished to “purify” it.
The Book of Revelation: A Study of the Last Prophetic Book of Holy Scripture. (Mansfield Centre: Martino, 1919), 180. [ 3 ]. Tim LaHaye, and Ed Hindson.,ed. The Popular Encyclopedia of Bible Prophecy.
In the later additions of his work he wrote in an appendix on how some had read his statements in regards to religion, and believed he was opposed to Christianity. Frederick Douglass is to me an example of how we can cling to Christ and speak out against the “culturally - correct” views of “Christian conservatives”. We must remember in the 1840’s conservative Christians wanted to ‘conserve’ the systems and traditions of slavery, and it was the liberal, yet biblical, Christians who wanted to open-up, or ‘liberate’ views that were contrary to the status-quo of the day. I am not talking about politics, I am talking about basic Christian lifestyle - that opposes conserving cultural systems that are contrary to the gospel.