The theology of transcendental Thomism in the 20th-century is a fascinating course of study among Catholics of the 19th and 20th-century. They more meaningfully sought to engage tradition and culture at large. The impetus of the Enlightenment, naturalism, and secularism drove attitudes of modern thought that affected philosophers and theologians who wanted to bring into fuller meaning the church’s understanding of its positions of teaching and theology. There was a succession of individuals who developed methods of reason who relied upon well-known philosophers Plato, Aristotle, Aquinas, Kant, and various others. They combined preceded contributions to the overall theological and philosophical discourse to further deepen Church views about modernity, modern philosophy, critical issues, supernatural transcendentalism, and existentialism.
Advocates of Neo-Scholasticism wanted to reconcile theology and naturalism with the Enlightenment. The philosophical inclinations among seventeenth and eighteenth-century intellectuals of Western civilization gave a footing to Immanuel Kant to allow for a “coming of age” mindset throughout society. The Enlightenment brought an intolerance to knowledge developed by external means other than human reason. Consequently, the Enlightenment-era ushered into society’s misgivings and skepticism about external sources of authority and claims concerning religious doctrines. To counter this suspicion toward antipathy that has taken root within Western society, theologians and philosophers made numerous inroads to innovate new and explanatory forms of religious and existential thought.
Roman Catholic theology held to traditions and theology that contradict the mood of secular society that were aligned with modernity and, consequentially, naturalism and rationalism. As an answer to the Enlightenment, Neo-Scholasticism in the 19th-century directed its efforts after a rationalistic approach to theology to account for the effects of the Enlightenment upon the Roman Catholic Church. The advances of Neo-Scholastic advocates in the formation and defense of their theology drew traditional convictions about religious claims and supernatural revelation away from individuals and communities to reform or abandon traditions and beliefs that were a detriment to the Church. Neo-Scholasticism embraced elements of the Enlightenment to oppose it, and it adopted naturalism and rationalism to fight its philosophical effect upon people.
As the Enlightenment and Neo-Scholasticism had a corrosive effect on the faith of believers, a new theology (nouvelle théologie) emerged to counter human-centered reason with a Thomistic polemic. It was a different form of reason that applied the faculties of realism, as originated from the Divine, which produces love and faith. Both substantiate belief and credibility as fact concerning the origin and sources of truth claims believed and validated. Moreover, modern philosophy had no way of overcoming the epistemological concern of believers and their human spirit pressing for the realism of absolute transcendence. Human spirit pre-disposed to spiritual encounter with the unlimited being who orients them is interpreted as pure actuality. As pure act, God, as the unlimited being, gives concrete objects their being plus the knowledge of their existence and activity. As an apologetic, in defense of Catholic tradition and further reconciling its theology with the Enlightenment, Neo-Scholasticism produced a natural and supernatural duality. This separation translated to unintended consequences that had a negative bearing on the faith and belief of people.
Karl Rahner (1904-1984) was a prolific author, lecturer, theologian, and philosopher guided by a transcendental Thomist tradition. He was a German Jesuit priest and one of the most influential Roman Catholic theologians of the 20th-century. He brought considerable reflection to the discourse against the Enlightenment era by advocating Thomistic realism, where human self-consciousness and self-transcendence are ultimately situated and existentially determined by God. As Rahner’s theology developed, his work centered around Christology as God’s work in the world through the Spirit and the Word. While Catholics will espouse the primacy of sacred Scripture, as opposed to sola scriptura, Rahner makes no use of it within the Livingston text to give weight or authority to his voice and epistemological perspectives. Namely, human reason and intellect produce imagination that strives toward an infinity that transcends the world. Experiential conditions drive presuppositions of metaphysical reality, and events upon the human spirit are reminiscent of Schleiermacher’s views about human religious experience. There are clear distinctions, but their views are close enough to make comparisons to recognize what is unique concerning Rahner’s theology. Ultimately, Rahner seeks to show that metaphysical knowledge of God and Christian revelation are existential.
Rahner’s theology of transcendental Thomism led to the formation of a theological model linked to his Christology and anthropology. By the presence of Being to itself and beings as a plurality of actuality, religious experience to Rahner historically spans humanity’s consciousness as participants of Creation. This is transcendental Thomism, or more specifically, the ontological structure of reality and the classic Christian doctrines of God, Trinity, Creation, and Incarnation (i.e., the ontology of Karl Rahner). As the Word is God’s self-communication that entails Creation while Christ symbolizes God, Christianity is posited as a symbolization of God’s grace and presence universally manifest.
“With Rahner, persons through their decisions make a decision for or against the transcendence that is God. A decision for that transcendence is an implicit affirmation of God and God’s grace that is explicitly symbolized and thematized by the Church. God’s saving will and offer of grace is universal; therefore, God’s grace is implicitly present everywhere though it is categorically and explicitly symbolized in salvation history and in the Church” (Livingston, 213).
Some of the criticisms of Rahner’s theology and metaphysical ontology have to do with inattention to historical Christian revelation. Whether by Barthian tradition about the absence of the written Word within Rahner’s rationale on the metaphysics of existence or philosophical objections as they concern the relation between historical language and experience.
Bernard Lonergan (1904-1984) was another transcendental Thomist who was unique concerning human freedom along the Molinist line of thinking. Luis De Molina (1535-1600) was a Spanish Jesuit theologian and priest who defended human liberty by Divine grace. Lonergan integrated both divine transcendence and human freedom that guided his further philosophical and theological work. He is known for an explanation of falling in love with God. That is, religious conversion as coming to a totality of love where it is an efficacious grounding of all self-transcendence. As the knowledge of God appears at religious conversion (self-transcendence), it appears in the pursuit of truth, human values, and virtues as they link together in love, personal knowledge, and desire.
Edward Schillebeeckx (1914-2009) was a Belgian Roman Catholic theologian of the Dominican order who was viewed by many as a liberal Catholic. He was known for his contributions to the discourse of Catholic theology involving phenomenology and sacramental theology. Some criticized his writings concerning phenomenology as a New Theology that pronounced a subjectivism which caused deconstructed faith of believers on a large scale. For example, the presence of Christ in the Eucharist sacrament becomes contested as a phenomenological encounter where the appearance of Christ’s body and blood is what it means to its subjects (people) and not the actual objective truth of the thing. Where appearances invoke emotion and perception as a philosophical difference that helped highlight Nouelle Théologie’s influence upon him. Edward Schillebeeckx’s later historical approach to Catholic theology moved beyond phenomenology to situate itself as theologies of Christological correlation.
As with various others of the Catholic faith, those of the Thomistic tradition and beyond made continuing efforts to adapt, renew, and make itself more relevant in the face of modernity and secularized culture. Along the way, based upon history, tradition, philosophical interpretation, literary analysis, political pressures, and cultural changes, Thomists became relegated to a narrower set of theological adherents through compromise to Liberalism. A great multitude has since left the Catholic Church because of the destructive theologies that influential Liberal academics have pushed. It was concerned about what culture thinks of the Church and truth as revealed by God through Scripture and the Holy Spirit among believers in Christ.
The theologies of Karl Barth and Dietrich Bonhoeffer bring about an experience of wider knowledge concerning 20th-century theologians who were thought leaders in the arena of faith, freedom, and truth. The background and contribution of both Barth and Bonhoeffer are of utmost regard as their views and written work serve as points of deep and lasting value to build upon.
Barth
Karl Barth (1886-1968) was an exceptional theologian of the 20th-century, and the reach of his work extended far into various Catholic and Protestant traditions. He made a significant impact on Christianity as it pertains to biblical interpretation, Christology, and divine election. Further work around social ethics and its associated political theology were of paramount importance during the Nazi era within Europe. Particularly during the socialist lead up to World War II, including the rise and fall of the National Socialists of his day. Moreover, over time, his work influenced both Evangelical and Roman Catholic theologians as it concerned their constructive theologies that developed across decades of thought and activity. Karl Barth leaves a permanent and lasting legacy as it affects the theological development of humanity.
Over a period of decades, Barth’s views and convictions transformed as external social and political forces weighed upon him. Beginning as a younger socialist with aspirations to explore theological truth, he wrote and lectured profusely. In later years, some of his work was self-corrected, primarily due to the harmful effects of socialist pressures that weighed upon him and the Church. To include a commentary on Romans, his work would later become revised as he began to see flaws of reason about unwarranted philosophical presuppositions that he later in life repudiated. He did not renounce his work but the human-centered backdrop that served as a premise of understanding, interpretation, and regret. He updated his work and public discourse as a way to make clear his pursuit of theological truth from the divine revelation of Scripture and his disdain for human and socially centered formulations of reason. Barth relied on Anselm’s historically valid assertion that belief and theological development remain the Confessing Church’s function. Any externally grounded philosophy or anthropology that concocted a way of understanding theological truth was never a valid foundation to settle upon premise to build structures toward or around truth. Barth’s contribution to reformed epistemology was of staggering significance, especially as it concerns the authority and sole primacy of the revealed Word of God as written through Scripture. Barth was so against human inclination to originate divine truth from itself that he rejected the inference of Systematic Theology and instead entitled his most significant work as “Church Dogmatics.” He wanted to make it abundantly clear that social interest in theological matters of truth was not subject to varying depths of flawed reason, corruption, perversion, or profane thought. The Church retained its authority through apostolic witness, and the Word of God recorded in Scripture.
With the lead-up and installation of “Führer” Adolf Hitler as chancellor of Germany, Barth stepped up his work with a sense of urgency to form a Dialectical theology (neo-orthodoxy) with Emil Brunner (1889-1966) and Friedrich Gogarten (1887-1967). Once a Democratic Socialist that contributed to the rise of National Socialism of Nazi Germany, he eventually became opposed to its guiding principles as they claimed as orders of existence as a nation, a race, and folk. Particularly as it concerned the isolation and genocide of Jewish people throughout Europe. Barth had witnessed the formation of a grave evil throughout society, and he recognized the theological contributions were human-centered or socially adapted. He sought to do his part in reversing course. However, it was too late as idolatry of the State to support the population’s desire for socialism was too far advanced.
As Nazi Germany made efforts to harness the evangelical Church in Germany, it did so in an effort to transfer its faith and devotion to God to instead the national mission of the socialist nation. Nazi Germany claimed it was their God-given right as it was committed to them as orders of creation. The State situated itself against the Church’s freedom to hijack it toward its nationalistic aspirations. In opposition to the hostilities of Nazi Germany against the Church, German Christians began to form, and they organized a Pastor’s Emergency League. This organization became the foundation of the Confessing Church, and its first Confessing Synod in 1934 of Barmen Germany included 138 delegates. From that meeting, the famous Barmen Declaration was written by Barth as a theological statement. The Livingston text doesn’t adequately cover the material, so the articles of the Barmen Declaration for personal reference are as follows.
The Barmen Declaration
“In view of the errors of the “German Christians” of the present Reich church government which are devastating the church and also therefore breaking up the unity of the German Evangelical Church, we confess the following evangelical truths:”
Article 1:
“Jesus Christ, as he is attested for us in holy scripture, is the one Word of God which we have to hear and which we have to trust and obey in life and in death. We reject the false doctrine, as though the church could and would have to acknowledge as a source of its proclamation, apart from and besides this one Word of God, still other events and powers, figures and truths, as God’s revelation.” (John 10:1,9; Jn 14:6)
Article 2:
“As Jesus Christ is God’s assurance of the forgiveness of all our sins, so, in the same way and with the same seriousness he is also God’s mighty claim upon our whole life. Through him befalls us a joyful deliverance from the godless fetters of this world for a free, grateful service to his creatures. We reject the false doctrine, as though there were areas of our life in which we would not belong to Jesus Christ, but to other lords – areas in which we would not need justification and sanctification through him.” (1 Cor 1:30)
Article 3:
“The Christian church is the congregation of the brethren in which Jesus Christ acts presently as the Lord in word and sacrament through the Holy Spirit. As the church of pardoned sinners, it has to testify in the midst of a sinful world, with its faith as with its obedience, with its message as with its order, that it is solely his property, and that it lives and wants to live solely from his comfort and from his direction in the expectation of his appearance. We reject the false doctrine, as though the church were permitted to abandon the form of its message and order to its own pleasure or to changes in prevailing ideological and political convictions.” (Eph 4:1-16)
Article 4:
“The various offices in the church do not establish a dominion of some over the others; on the contrary, they are for the exercise of the ministry entrusted to and enjoined upon the whole congregation. We reject the false doctrine, as though the church, apart from this ministry, could and were permitted to give itself, or allow to be given to it, special leaders vested with ruling powers.” (Matt 20:26-26)
Article 5:
“Scripture tells us that, in the as yet unredeemed world in which the church also exists, the state has by divine appointment the task of providing for justice and peace. [It fulfils this task] by means of the threat and exercise of force, according to the measure of human judgment and human ability. The church acknowledges the benefit of this divine appointment in gratitude and reverence before him. It calls to mind the kingdom of God, God’s commandment and righteousness, and thereby the responsibility both of rulers and of the ruled. It trusts and obeys the power of the Word by which God upholds all things. We reject the false doctrine, as though the state, over and beyond its special commission, should and could become the single and totalitarian order of human life, thus fulfilling the church’s vocation as well. We reject the false doctrine, as though the church, over and beyond its special commission, should and could appropriate the characteristics, the tasks, and the dignity of the state, thus itself becoming an organ of the state.” (1 Pet 2:17)
Article 6:
“The church’s commission, upon which its freedom is founded, consists in delivering the message of the free grace of God to all people in Christ’s stead, and therefore in the ministry of his own Word and work through sermon and sacrament. We reject the false doctrine, as though the church in human arrogance could place the word and work of the Lord in the service of any arbitrarily chosen desires, purposes, and plans.” (2 Tim 2:9)
“The Confessional Synod of the German Evangelical Church declares that it sees in the acknowledgment of these truths and in the rejection of these errors the indispensable theological basis of the German Evangelical Church as a federation of confessional churches. It invites all who are able to accept its declaration to be mindful of these theological principles in their decisions in church politics. It entreats all whom it concerns to return to the unity of faith, love, and hope.”
These articles place the Church and State in subordination to the Word of God as given within Holy Scripture. These articles also served as a position of the Confessing Church. As further developments transpired beyond the Barmen Synod, the dialectical theology of Barth, Brunner and Gogarten eventually dissolved as Brunner and Gogarten theologically and indirectly aligned themselves with the National Socialists of Nazi Germany. As disputes around natural law and natural theology between Barth, the Catholic Church, and Brunner mounted, further erosion between Barth and Gogarten continued concerning “political ethics.” Gogarten had concerns about God’s intended meaning around law, orders, authority, and peace, where the State was an instrument to exact “orders of creation” within a sinful society. Gogarten viewed the sin that required justice were offenses against God. At the same time, Barth knew that the offenses were what the State would use to apply injustice and gain power to reach its murderous and blasphemous goals as millions were killed by socialism and Nazi Germany.
Barth’s commitment to social ethics did not begin with his opposition to socialism and Nazi Germany. As he further thought through disputes with his colleagues, the issues around natural theology convinced him that it contributed to the National Socialist attitudes and behaviors that produced a pervading worldview outside the Church. Barth was insistent, by theological development, “God is known only by God” and that civil law is an outworking product of the Gospel. God’s gift of freedom is a product of grace through the Gospel of Christ as people were to become obedient to God by explicit imperatives as revealed by His Word. Barth’s further attention to social ethics was demonstrated by his opposition to nuclear warfare. The threat of weapons of mass destruction was of deep concern to Barth while he served in the Swiss militia for a short while. He was a peace activist for a short time, but he accepted the necessity of warfare. His social ethics activism in the form of synodal involvement and theological development essentially took shape during the growth of National Socialism.
Barth was aggressively opposed to Liberal theology because of its inherently corruptive disposition and inclination toward eventual chaos and misery. While he undertook the initiative to write “Church Dogmatics,” he sought to make “dialectical shifts” of emphasis along with corrections of errors in earlier work. Without yet a way to validate Livingston’s coverage of Barth’s theologies, they are outlined as three major themes of his work: the doctrine of the Word of God and its Interpretation, Christology, and the doctrine of Election.
To Barth, the Word of God comes by no other means outside these three areas. Outside human expression, reason, or insistence that self-declares special revelation as the Word of God rejected by Barthian theology, and more specifically concerning the doctrine of Scripture. Barth held that the reality of the Word of God is given in three forms to narrow how anyone can recognize the doctrine coherently and authoritatively. The Word of God is exclusively characterized and given in the following three forms listed here.
As revealed in Jesus Christ
As written in Holy Scripture
As proclaimed by the Church
In defense of his position elaborated upon within his “Church Dogmatics,” he wrote guidelines and stipulations concerning interpretation through exegesis and proper hermeneutical application. Where human reason, concepts, and ideas were in subordination to the apostles, prophets, and patriarchs written text under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. By the Word, Barth wrote that people were obligated to place themselves under the authority of Scripture in obedience as it produced freedom through grace as given by God. The individuals‘ presuppositions brought to Scripture included grace, prayer, and faith for wisdom, godly living, and obedience to imperatives explicitly and implicitly interpreted. The Livingston text points out that cultural and philosophical presuppositions controlled by the text of Scripture have validity without an affirmation from Barth. It appears that the Livingston texts want the philosophical forms of thinking to serve as a meaningful way of interpretation and application when Barth elsewhere warns about schemes of understanding that are human originated.
The Christology of Barth involves Jesus’s preeminence in all of creation to include humanity. He clarifies that Christ is the God of and for humanity as His Word is inseparable from revelation through His incarnation. Barth also clarified that the doctrines of creation, election, anthropology, and reconciliation are Christological. Moreover, Barth’s entire theological focus was Christological. To understand God and humanity, it was and is necessary to recognize and understand Christ. According to Barth, it wasn’t required to undergo anthropological research to understand the origins of humanity, nor was it essential to look toward the fallen Adam. To Barth’s theology, Christ is the prototype of humanity. He elaborates about the functional work of Christ as messiah and savior in a context of sin and evil by comparison as “nothing” and an “impossibility” to withstand God’s intended plan and purpose of redemption.
Bonhoeffer
Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945) was a theologian of the 20th-century who authored numerous books, lectured among academic institutions, collaborated at seminaries, and participated in social work to include covert activism against National Socialist Nazi’s that ended in his capture, imprisonment, and death. At age 39, he was hanged in a Nazi concentration camp at Flossenbürg just days before liberation from American forces. Bonhoeffer’s interpersonal footprint was in numerous geographical locations within Europe and America. His occupation as a teacher, speaker, and author, gained him notoriety as he developed his theological work around systematic theology, sociology, and ethics. He had ecumenical interests he pursued with the Catholic church while doing civil charity work involving poverty and unemployment relief. He became engaged in American “Social Gospel” work through Liberal professors at Union Theological Seminary.
Like Karl Barth, Bonhoeffer was opposed to Liberal theology, and he wasn’t impressed with the theology that originated from the American institutions he visited. As his theology developed during his life, his early writings and relationship with Karl Barth were of significant influence on his contemporaries and those of later generations. The influence upon Bonhoeffer was widespread and fragmented in areas of philosophy, epistemology, revelation, and existentialism. His work as “Sanctorum Communio” (communion of the saints) drew upon his background in both disciplines of sociology and theology as he wrote to elaborate upon the relationships between the individual and the Church. He went on to describe what the Church’s relationship is with God and the world as it consists of social beings. The idea Bonhoeffer wrote about concerning “Christ existing as community” drew much attention. It appeared that statement contradicted the biblical account of God’s incarnation as Jesus in the flesh of an individual. Bonhoeffer rejected transcendentalism or the “wholly other” perspective about God’s existence. His view about “Christ existing in community” was an attempted answer to the Catholic Thomists and Heidegger to describe God’s continuous presence in this world. Barth merely agreed with Bonhoeffer to the extent that Christ’s revelation exists within community. And to understand that God’s freedom involved is co-presence in the world, not that He is fully incarnate within the spiritual community of believers.
Another one of Bonhoeffer’s main theological themes pertains to Christology. His view of Jesus concentrates upon his humanity, his fleshly condition (humiliation), what He does for His people, and His role and presence within the Church throughout history. Bonhoeffer placed significant weight upon the historicity of Jesus to validate the faith of the community. He didn’t outright reject the assertion that theological dogma about Jesus required historical confirmation. Bonhoeffer was sympathetic to a Social Gospel, which is what makes his theology attractive to liberals today.
Bonhoeffer’s written work was shaped by his circumstances as a believer, the Church, and academia. His convictions further developed around ethics and discipleship. His love of Christ was made evident through this life and publications such as The Cost of Discipleship and Prisoner of God. In The Cost of Discipleship, he wrote of exclusive devotion to Christ and how the Church was together in its fellowship and activity. Through a love ethic, he inspired people to live authentic Christian lives in freedom and charity. He believed that Christology was bound up in discipleship, and he saw the enduring value of unity in the Church before God reconciled to serve Him and the world in a more meaningful way. He understood and made clear to his readers and listeners that the penultimate in the world exists for the ultimate. Even if the penultimate exists independently for self-development apart from God as a natural course of existence, it was his view, contrary to Protestant theology, that the natural life had its place as it is common to the entire human race. He understood that people embrace the freedom and joy of the natural life, and it was the unnatural as the enemy of Christ. He made clear by his theology that the natural life wasn’t a means or a right but a gift of Jesus Christ.
Toward the end of Bonhoeffer’s life, while in prison, he went into deeper reflection about his thinking on modernity. As the modern world was coming of age at the time, he came to believe that Jesus wouldn’t regret or prevent that from occurring. Bonhoeffer felt that secularization was pervasive and growing, and he wanted to find a way of interpreting Christianity without religiosity or religion itself per se. His non-religious inclinations of the Christian life were about the individual who would live Christianity out loud but do so in a way that would connect with people. Conversely, if individuals in the Church were unable to connect authentically, they should live their faith in private while vulnerable, and inner reflection and belief. To communicate with unbelievers, it was in a person’s life and goodness that expressions of non-religious faith would be recognized as strength. The world coming of age meant a reduction in the practice of religion and religiosity toward the world and growth in the meaning of personal faith in Christ and care and service toward others. As a secret discipline, the life of a non-religious Christian in a modern world meant living a life of humility, reserve, prayer, unheralded person action, or of silence if a person is to be kept from the profane of the world.
Bonhoeffer looked back on his life and expressed doubt about what he learned, wrote, and spoke about. Yet, he developed relationships among socialists, both liberal and conservative theologians, including philosophers of his day. Bonhoeffer continues to stimulate a lot of thought as a product of his search for truth. He was well-studied and a model of an intelligent believer who lived his life of faith with conviction and purpose. Dietrich Bonhoeffer still carries a meaningful voice for many who seek to grow closer in their relationship with God and others.
African American Christians who hold to any form of Liberation theology must come to understand and accept the biblical gospel that explicitly informs us of the redemptive work of Christ. While there is tremendous motivation to support and contribute to African Americans’ theological work and interest, this entire effort must be made in spirit and truth (Jn 4:24, 8:31-32). Systemically denying the apostolic witness by not listening to it from Scripture is to dwell in a spirit of error (1 Jn 3:24). There is no question that America’s past was steeped in racism as it has caused neglect, exclusion, abuse, and trauma across the entire spectrum of black society. Yet, as with everyone, the pressing necessity is the right relationship with God for redemption and salvation while attaining social equality by biblical justice.
Within the 20h-century various influential figures made a lasting and ongoing impression about the development of Black Theology in America today. To say that “black theology” is a single monolithic study and practice of understanding and living sapiential truth would be a mistake. Aside from black theology, there is a range of traditions that span from historically erroneous exegetical and hermeneutical methodologies to many black Americans who today are entirely orthodox and abiding by meaningful Protestant and Catholic theologies that demonstrates a correct and productive path of discipleship and Godly living. By comparison, to understand the unique nature of black theology, with its current and ongoing challenges, it is essential to comprehend and accept the conditions by which it formed.
The historical enslavement and oppression of African Americans are deeply offensive. It was egregiously sinful, and a betrayal of the freedom given by our Creator for all people to live well, love God, love people, and function as productive individuals in search of meaning and truth. Enslavement and unjust predatory oppression in any form toward anyone is an attack on the Imago Dei. On the other hand, Western norms of constitutional society with Judeo-Christian formation, traditions, and heritage require a peaceful and law-abiding society commensurate with biblical principles in support of justice. Lawlessness and self-destructive behaviors shall never be tolerated either by civil society or the population at large. Efforts by segments of America (including African Americans) to subvert biblically founded constitutional principles to obtain a form of socialistic order (i.e., pockets of socialism or balkanization within a free capitalistic society) must be dismissed or destroyed if it should ever arise. Implementing Marxist ideology to correct for America’s historical or present evils is not acceptable as remedial action would become far worse than the condition. Reparations in the form of Marxism shall never succeed. Striving toward a cause that imposes historically defunct State ideologies would only bring about a far greater range of death, misery, and suffering.
From the Livingston text, the African American response to injustices of the 20th-century involved activists involved in the civil rights movement of the 1960s. Various African American individuals arose to become thought leaders and advocates of equal rights and rightfully used Christian doctrines and traditions. Black Americans sought to exercise Christianity’s principles to obtain equal treatment and access toward economic well-being, education, public privilege, employment, justice under the law, and other social, civil, and religious functions. The freedom to associate and contribute to society on an equal footing as everyone was the pressing motivation of black Americans within the Church and society.
Three key influences had a bearing on Martin Luther King, Jr. Together they helped form an ideology rooted in liberalism, nonviolent resistance, and civil disobedience (Livingston, 444-445). Consequently, King placed his attention on Liberal Theology which had a significant bearing upon this worldview of humanity. He believed that people, or the world, are basically good. His rationale was that if people could overcome ignorance and become informed or educated about the injustices that were antithetical to what God intended, his cause would yield the right kind of social justice fruit. Coupled with his views about God’s love for humanity, Mahatma Gandhi (not Christ) stood out as a model toward the dignities and self-respect of people who would practice nonviolent resistance in the face of structural racism. Finally, Henry David Thoreau’s influence on King brought insights into what disobedience of unjust laws would look like. As King’s political views changed, his fundamental convictions in these areas remained consistent. To such an extent that he endured periods of incarceration as he acted upon what liberalism (and its commensurate liberal theology), nonviolent resistance, and civil disobedience shaped within his thinking.
To those within the civil rights movement, the period of overt enslavement of Africans was over, but they were captive to injustices that remained for decades to follow. The continued drive for liberation became ingrained among many African Americans, where much of its culture influenced its theology. Their rejection of theologies centered upon the protestant reformation from European-originated nationalities was primarily evident as African American Christians sought to attain liberty through means supporting their cause. Liberation in the natural sense to improve the conditions of African Americans was of utmost necessity in addition to absolute freedom that Jesus informs us about (Jn 8:31-59).
Further development of Black Theology made its way into American society as cultural influences of black Christians grew toward greater prominence in the 1960s. Black clergy and laymen organized and produced black liberation doctrines that some would mix into a “Black Theology.” Namely, “The Black Manifesto” and “The Statement on Black Theology” contained principles of “Black Power” (July 31st, 1966) as the term was assigned to evoke theological meaning. “Black Power” was to set in place a way to install unique theological and social meaning and describe its efforts to produce potential and kinetic forces for outcomes concerning Black liberation. It calls out the white men and the white church as corrupted and unable to correct structural injustices. The Black Manifesto itself articulates that Black Theology is a theology of black liberation. It was declared that Black Theology was a theology of “blackness” and an affirmation that emancipates black people from white people and white oppression. More specifically, freedom is the gospel, and liberation from white people is the imperative (“The Statement on Black Theology,” in Black Theology: A Documented History, I, p. 38).
To build Black Theology as an ideology of liberation coupled with Christian values, liberal institutions, such as Union Theological Seminary (New York), supported the voices of African American academics who sought to further the cause of its liberation initiatives. Coupled with selected areas of relevant and helpful theology, Black Liberation Theology was formed to serve many African Americans’ spiritual and social interests who sought justice and freedom from oppression by exclusion, abuse, and historical trauma. The Black Theology of James Cone of Union Theological Seminary was a significant influence with his written work from 1969 to 1991. He authored several books concerning Black Theology.
Further distinctive reasoning arose out of Black Theology centered around black feminism in support of black liberation efforts. Namely, Black Womanist Theology arrived as a response to sexism that was evident within Black Theology churches. While Womanist theology was a spiritual endeavor, it was also a black feminist rejection of patriarchy—just the same as the rejection that exists with white feminists. Womanist theology, and Feminist Theology, operate from a liberal worldview with its opposition to oppression with grievances against racism, sexism, and class injustices. Womanist and Feminist theologies do not adhere to conventional exegetical methods with proper hermeneutical practices to interpret and apply scripture as intended. Instead, experiences involving the Spirit are relied upon for theological utility for more favorable social outcomes.
Black Theology is a cumulative response from among many African American Christians. From deep oppression arising out of present-day injustices and the enslavement of indigenous African people from centuries ago, African American Christians are reaching for spiritual and physical remediation for unacceptable hardships that they have endured.
For decades, since the 1960s, there has been a pressing desire for females to assert their status for equality, differences, or preeminence, depending upon what liberal philosopher, liberal theologian, or historical figure was most outspoken about oppression. The consistent theme among all feminists thought and theology variances beginning in the 1960s was opposition to Western male dominance and patriarchy throughout history, including modern and postmodern societies. After World War II, independent-minded women within liberal ideologies were outspoken about their stature in society as held down, isolated, excluded, or marginalized by men.
With longstanding scriptural definitions about gender distinctions between male and female, Christian tradition, doctrines, and institutional norms, God’s created order was set toward biological, physiological, and social structures of humanity. Functionally ordered to fulfill a purpose defined by the Creator of people within the human race, there are specific roles necessary to satisfy in an effort to fill the Earth, build societies, love, honor each other, and glorify God. Fulfilling God’s design for humanity and its unique cultures must be accomplished through a framework of order, justice, morality, and truth.
The four female persons of interest within Livingston’s coverage of Feminist Theology were of significant and growing interest as their notoriety became more widely known. Their perspectives concerning the feminist cause were especially diverse about realizing or attaining desired objectives while within social conditions that were assailed as oppressive from a range of self-ascribed causes and viewpoints. Mary Daly, Elizabeth Schüssler Fiorenza, Sallie McFague, and Luce Irigaray were all intellectually, emotionally, and socially persuaded by Liberalism. They did not place any weight upon the whole meaning of Scripture. Elizabeth Fiorenza sought to reinterpret Scripture to cast a different perspective on the anthropomorphic identity of God (i.e., as female, or something other than male). Moreover, between Daly and Fiorenza, they applied significant thought about the nature of the holy trinity to shape speculation about gender identity and the form of relationship within the perichoresis.
A common thread between all four liberal feminists appears to be about grievance, equal rights, and privilege to compensate for male-dominant conditions placed upon them. By feminists, the female, or women as a whole, were thought of as a class of inferiority, where great and irreversible changes were necessary. Feminist theology as a form of liberal opposition to conventional and proper hermeneutical interpretation of divine revelation through scripture abandons male authority and socially interrelated constructs such as language, identity, premise, functions, and traditions. With sympathy and support from other structurally oppressed or marginalized classes, the feminism of Daly, Fiorenza, McFague, and Irigaray aligns unorthodox, perverse, and evil perspectives against the male patriarchal figure.
Feminism, or feminist theology, doesn’t merely take the form of these four individuals who pioneered their personal campaigns within academia and society in general to their discovery and sufferings. There are numerous iterations of feminist ideals as a social justice endeavor without a common cause other than just opposition to patriarchy. More specifically, while educated in a prestigious Dominican seminary in Switzerland (Fribourg), Mary Daly experienced male traditions and assumptions that set her on a path of feminist separatism in the abandonment of Christian orthodoxy and Scripturally originated theology. She was a post-Christian feminist. Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza sought to re-interpret Scripture by using hermeneutical methods favorable to reframing the meaning of relationships. More generally, superior and subordinate references to males within familial obligations (i.e., father, mother). Fiorenza objected to “kyriarchal” oppression and even formal organizations that involve lordship, mastery, or male figures who have authority to apply power.
There are numerous ways to compare the four feminists in Livingston’s coverage of Feminist Theology. The historical background, philosophical differences, education, and life experiences of women who approach female liberation generally do so from a desire to correct injustices that arise from the male-dominated world that has existed for thousands of years. A modernist and postmodernist approach to theology as distinctly aimed toward disparate female interest represents a limited peace about created male and female order. Not from just oppression of sinful and unacceptable male behaviors, expectations, or attitudes, but simply by outright unwanted differences that bring distress or a need for feminism to assert its place. Numerous continuing manifestations of opposition or counter-perspectives appear to a person who has objections to male authority, power, and its prevailing mandate to “subdue the earth” (Gen 1:28) together with the female.
From the examples seen in the text and examples in society today, females who advocate feminist theology generally originate various formed alternatives to patriarchy or male leadership in the absence of insistent egalitarianism. For example, Sallie McFague advocates for changes in metaphorical language to account for sexist terminology (e.g., refer to YHWH as having female gender) or Luce Irigaray’s call for a feminine deity to center women around to gain power and access to status, resources, and self-realized sexuality as a form of divinity to project maternal, or matriarchal, recognition, and power. As there are intended differences between the female and male genders, there is a uniquely observable “hardwired” physiological separation characterized and made evident by masculinity and femininity norms.
There were and are many iterations and types of feminist objections to patriarchy and male dominance. Analyzing the theories, speculations, and interpretations of influential feminists who had grievances about the structured reality of gender is an often personal and exploratory exercise to determine what sources of systemic social injustices there were toward women. To craft a theology unique and exclusive to women as a feminist or separatist endeavor to achieve a favorable liberal outcome is to dilute and become amiss about the purpose of the gospel and work of Christ. It was Jesus Himself who prayed on behalf of His followers, “I do not ask on behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word; that they may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me (Jn 17:20-21).”
NOTE: This chapter of the Livingston text makes reference to an article by Valerie Saiving Goldstein entitled, “The Human Situation: A Feminist View” (reference The Journal of Religion 40.2 (April 1960), pp. 100-112). Observations and impressions about the article are as written here:
I must confess that after reading through about 1/3rd of Goldstein’s paper, I stopped listening and put on my boots so to speak. I read it to acknowledge the points made, and the author’s views are very well thought out, but there are subtext inferences between the lines that are meant to cast a contentious “(human) situation” about men. Goldstein calls attention to the use of “man” in the generic sense to highlight the use of language under dubious pretenses about being “on guard” concerning sources of theological work. When, really, the point was to mark the use of the term “man” in the article to diminish the value of masculinity and the unique role of the male gender in the remainder of the paper. She doesn’t refer to “man” in a generic sense when she turns her attention to females (women) later toward the end.
Sin is spoken of as a condition that all men can’t help themselves about, but only seek to overcome it by a pursuit of power, righteousness, or knowledge.
Goldstein goes on to catalog the sins by the male gender. She doesn’t state as much, but the article reads as offenses against the female and not as heavily weighted sins against God and humanity. She doesn’t list the same detail for the female, other than the planned mention of “will-to-power” and “pride.” The author, a student of theology, doesn’t make use of scripture, early church authorities, or tradition to reinforce her views or support her convictions. I understand this is a pioneering work from 1960 just before the sexual revolution, and it might be a misread from me, but the paper reads like a work of analytical resentment couched as a “situation.” I have more to learn about feminist theology, but the feel of the paper is confrontational and just isn’t productive.
The catalog of the sins of the male gender:
a. The article assumes the arrogance of all men b. Men are generally driven to objectify c. Men are manipulative by nature d. Sin pervades everything man does
True, or not, the rationale appears that this catalog of sins gives cause to further explore the need for scrutiny of the human condition (i.e., male oppression).
The author also speaks from an assumed premise that women come from a position of inferiority. While equating sexuality with a person’s identity, Goldstein doesn’t write about gender. So this confuses me since she was a theologian and would know that the identity of female believers rests within Christ.
Positive and favorable perspectives of Goldstein appear within the paper as well. She highly values motherhood and childbearing, the God-given inclination to find joy and peace in her work, and a prevailing quality of empathy as a trait of femininity.
The legacy of modernity and its challenges toward historical theology has brought a sense of relief and clarity as to the developments that have come about as a result. The pernicious and corrosive effect of subjective liberal thought that developed into a flawed intellectual ethos proved chaotic. It yielded no meaningful substance as it concerned significant themes about the essence of Christianity in the 19th-century.
Increasingly, by the impetus of Kant’s call for “autonomy,” individual reason and conscience became the arbiters of religious truth. Romans rejected but shifted to religious experience (pg. 2). Tradition emerged from the working of the “Divine Spirit” or religious experience of the Christian community. Others relied upon authority from antiquity (i.e., the early Church fathers) as they regarded the doctrine of apostolic succession as the guarantor of tradition of the ancient and undivided Church. Roman Catholicism fell back to Papal infallibility (1870) to secure the Church against modern rationalism, subjectivism, ecclesial chaos, and schism (as supported by John Henry Newman).
Albert Ritschl (Protestant scholar) rejected Schleiermacher’s appeal to the authority of religious feeling and experience and the orthodox rationalists’ appeal to reason and rational “proofs” as mediated through the Christian community (i.e., “consensus fidelium” or the collective mind of the people of God). Where authority is concentrated correlates to power and the source of it. Therefore, it is of interest to people and spiritual principalities who do not want the authority of the biblical authors (i.e., revelation by Scripture inspired by the Holy Spirit) over their preferences around tradition or social feelings and imaginations.
Church Doctrine was a point of unification for the Church and, more broadly, Christianity. Eventually, the spectacle of doctrinal pluralism became an issue due to differences or disagreements about interpreting, understanding, and applying Scripture. As immutable truths were sought that theists could agree upon, a search for commonality was diluted to such an extent that orthodox unity around doctrine could be achieved. As matters grew worse, particularly during the unstable time of Zeitgeist, some began to insist that there were no immutable, unchanging, or normative doctrines. An inability to arrive at a consensus about the authority of doctrinal beliefs was a source of significant attention in the Church during the 19th-century.
Over the span of decades, Friedrich Schleiermacher (Protestant) and John Henry Newman (Catholic), among other Catholics, separately sought to find common ground about doctrinal belief in the face of significant differentiation and a plurality of traditions or faith practices. Schleiermacher drew his attention toward the affections and doctrines of expression to support a common interest as illuminated in the life of the Church. Livingston points out that the same “illumination” was present upon the early Church as given by the exegetical analysis of the New Testament. However, Livingston does not refer to the social or communal leanings of Schleiermacher concerning authority that rests upon the subjective nature of people and their interests (i.e., rather than Scripture). Conversely, with Newman, the Catholic Church places significant attention on the historical development of dogma in an effort to understand and define the essence of the Church. The rationale between both the Protestants and Catholics was that God’s truth could not be divided against itself (Livingston, 4) even when Protestants and Catholics remain separate within the body of Christendom (notwithstanding Eastern Orthodoxy).
Both Liberal Protestants and Catholics refused to return to the Bible as the source of authority to understand Christian essence. It was Newman’s view that “the essential Christian idea” was formative over the centuries and Scripture was a corruption of the apostolic witness from the first century Church. The opposition of immutable dogma from Liberal Protestants and Catholics focused on the rejection of Scripture. In contrast, Scripture held primacy, but not sole authority, to define the essence of Christianity and its expression within the Church. As propagated through centuries, preeminent tradition itself came in the form of Scripture testimony, Church doctrines, liturgy, worship, and the priestly organization. To John Henry Newman and Johann Adam Mohler, Christianity tradition carried equal distributed weight to define Christian essence.
Later in the 19th-century, further efforts were made to consolidate human reason and philosophical rationale around Christianity’s historical development. From pervasively errant understanding about the corruption of early canonical writings, it was of the utmost interest to spread the notion that authority was in revelation of Scripture, historical traditions, and Christian philosophy attending to human feeling and action. It was the role of the will and conscience to cultivate a knowledge of God.
Human intuition, experience, and feeling were prominent features of Liberal theology. These were the primary route to God as recorded by Schleiermacher and poets of the time. Natural expression through people and creation were in witness to God, and human understanding about Him was revealed primarily through those means. Kant and Albrecht Ritschl highlighted another route to belief in God to involve the demands of moral obligation, reason human freedom, and the world of Spirit. From “the will to power” (Nietzsche) to “will to believe” (William James), the philosophical views of Kant, Bergson (vitalism), and Blondel’s (L’Action), there was inevitable push-back against idealism and subjectivism. Princeton Theology (Protestant) and Neo-Thomism (Catholic) directed their counterarguments against agnostic, fideistic, and pragmatic thought as they both traced the chaotic intellectual ethos to Immanuel Kant and his influence. Both Protestants and Catholics drew much attention to both faith and reason, where each was complimentary and not in contradiction. Both schools of theology made substantial inroads with the support of Aristotle’s inductive and scientific realism and Scottish empiricist philosophy. Today, debates concerning faith and reason about the existence and authority of God and His revelatory work continues.
As the search for historical Christianity developed over the last two centuries, numerous challenges and competing interests were at the forefront of theological debate within the modern context of scientific and historical disciplines. From first-century A.D. Christianity, there was substantial and eternal value among the claims of testimony, early witness, tradition, and Scripture. Those claims were contested because of the anthropomorphic language of Scripture and the miracles espoused by historical accounts among theologians and philosophical leaders. Even simply, the historicity of the life of Christ and the Christian life were countered as probative questions were posed about modern Christianity while adapted to the Enlightenment period. It was questioned, as it is now, whether Christianity today is the same as the religion founded by Jesus and the apostles.
D.F. Strauss’s book, Life of Jesus in 1835, explored the historicity of Jesus against the theological presuppositions of early Jewish messianic traditions and preconceptions of the later and more modern interest in His life. The historical Jesus of the New Testament is distinguished from records of the antiquity of Him as early Jews looked back upon his identity as a legendary figure within Hebrew literature. Krauss also demonstrated that our view of Jesus is from a modern consciousness that the earliest Christians did not have. Their recognition and interest in Jesus were from a pre-scientific point of view as they interpreted Jesus from a mythopoetic standpoint. As a further interest to validate the historicity of Christianity developed, a new standard pursuit emerged where The historical Jesus must withstand the theological Jesus who produced signs and miracles. The same was true, vice versa. Strauss found that the historical Jesus was left untouched by harsh criticism and inquiry, especially concerning the supernatural Christ of Scripture.
In a further effort to find authority and validate New Testament claims about Jesus, later advancements were made by research through Form criticism. As this led to new doubts about the use of the Gospel records and getting a historical understanding of Jesus’s inner life, there remained a highly desirable understanding of Jesus’s personality and inner psychological life. This was the desideratum of the Life of Christ at about the turn of the 19th century. The life of Jesus from a historical context to recover details about His character, personality, and life from outside the New Testament was the desideratum for theologians of later years of the 19th-century and well into the 20th.
There were four pronounced efforts to pursue the historical Jesus and challenge theological and religious claims. Each effort was distinct in its way as they all had different objectives.
Comparative Religions (Religionswissenschaft)
“History of Religions” is a science to explore religion’s origin, growth, and commonalities to include Christianity. Exhaustive development of methods and materials to understand what themes or similarities existed to explain the historical value and merit of faith and follower claims of any given religion.
Eschatological Interpretation
The notion that Jesus could be properly understood within the apocalyptic framework of ancient Jewish traditions and expectations. As Jesus recognized an imminent catastrophic end to the present age, He gave Himself up to death in desperation to usher in the new supernatural Kingdom of God to which He would more immediately return.
History of Religions School (Religionsgeschichtliche Schule)
As a new generation of Jesus critics arose to explore the historicity of Christianity, a new crop of historians sought to interpret Jesus through its beliefs, Judaism, and Hellenism. As new scientific tools (e.g., textual criticism) were applied to historical research of Jesus, derived observations and comparisons were made to the social and cultural conditions of His time. Namely, a complex mixture of Jewish apocalyptic eschatology, Hellenistic Judaism, Greek and Eastern Mysticism, Stoicism, Gnosticism was formulated to arrive at a Jesus beyond the reach of meaningful historical analysis about His inner person. Instead, He was viewed as Jesus the Kyrios, or Christ the divine Lord and Savior.
Form Criticism (Formgeschichtliche Schule)
While prior pursuits of organized research came up empty to understand and recognize the historical Jesus, further work was undertaken to develop a critical method around a Framework of the Story of Jesus (K.L. Schmidt (1891-1956), Der Rahmen der Geschichte Jesu). Schmidt concluded that the traditions of Christianity were arbitrary and artificial while there was considerable geographical detail within the gospel of Mark. Time and place weren’t so much of a synchronized historical account of the life of Jesus but more of a story to support tradition.
Another approach to Form criticism involved the work of Martin Dibelius (1883-1947) entitled From Tradition to Gospel (Die Formgeschichte des Evangeliums, 1934). Here Dibelius traced the different forms of oral traditions to include paradigm, novelle (tales), legend, parenthesis, and myth. From among the five forms, Dibelius found that paradigms to illuminate the sayings of Jesus were the clearest way to understand the historical Jesus.
Form criticism further advanced through the efforts of Rudolf Bultmann (1884-1966), who wrote History of the Synoptic Tradition (Die Geschichte der Synoptischen Tradition, 1921). This was a radical approach to Form criticism. Bultmann observed that there were traditions in the Gospels written to meet the needs of the early Church. This meant that the written synoptic text wasn’t a collection of historical documents as such, but a compilation of writings to satisfy a spiritual need as confessions and instructions for life and worship. It was clear that Jesus to know was through the apostolic witness, proclamations, and traditions given in the Gospels of the New Testament. This was the kerygmatic theology that neutralized pursuits of the historical Jesus that was out of reach. The kerygma was unquestionable, and it served as the bedrock for Dialectical theology in the years to follow.
When it comes to Ernst Troeltsch (1865-1923), during this era of historicism, and research, about historical Jesus, the essence of Christianity, the absoluteness of Christianity (among other religions), Christology, and theological rationale, his pursuits and ideas appeared detached from Scripture. As he relentlessly pursued the historical Jesus, it doesn’t appear that he placed authoritative weight on Scripture. He did not concern himself with the historicity of Jesus much farther than comparisons among other religions, sociopsychological influences, traditions, and other means outside of the revelatory discourse of Scripture. Karl Barth was right; Troeltsch’s efforts were a “dead-end street” in the absence of what facts were revealed in Scripture to attain clarity about the identity of Jesus. Through various methods of Christological understanding from Scripture, there is much to explore as it concerns Jewish ideas of messianic rule, kingly accession, ceremonial customs, familial relationships, economic status, refugee trials, and other hardships in Scripture to develop a portrait of Jesus. History is simply the backdrop or canvas by which events occurred across time. In contrast, the social, geographical, and historical conditions were subordinate and in service of the theological intent and meaning of Christ’s work. Christ’s identity and historical significance are best placed upon the kerygmatic interpretation of divine revelation.
This post attempts to collect in one place various belief systems, traditions, and theologies by name and description. As an open-ended post, it will be edited over time to add, delete, change, and format changes as they come about. The purpose is to set in place a personal record of who’s who of given theological and eschatological protestant beliefs. Individuals listed appear among the various systems are notable and historically of some significant contribution or influence to the widely distributed perspectives that are less than obvious.
This post is simply a component among others to map how individuals, churches, agencies, and institutions organize around historical interpretations of faith and a more coherent understanding of humanity’s existence and relationship with God and His creation. The numerous individuals listed as having a personal alignment are a matter of historical record. Within context to understand what systems and theologies fit together among persons with other adjacent beliefs and commitments that have a bearing on worldview, credibility, and truth or error.
Belief Systems
Title
Description
Personal Alignment
Arminianism [4]
A theological system based on the teachings of Dutch theologian Jacobus Arminius and his early followers, the Remonstrants. After Arminius’s death, the Remonstrants issued five articles summarizing their beliefs in opposition to Calvinists, who countered with the Canons of Dort, much later summarized by TULIP. While originally condemned as heretics by the Synod of Dort, the Remonstrants later obtained legal toleration in Holland, and many Protestants still adhere to Arminianism today. While it has many doctrines in common with Reformed theology, it differs significantly in its teaching on predestination, free will and atonement. The system follows Arminius’s original teachings that God’s election is conditional on his foreknowledge of human free choice, that God provides prevenient grace to everyone in order to enable people to choose faith in Jesus, and that believers are able to lose their salvation since they always have the free will to accept or reject Christ. Contemporary Arminianism includes a wide variety of viewpoints on key issues, like whether the governmental or penal-substitutionary atonement is more accurate. Arminians today also differ at times with Arminius’s own views, such as his support of infant baptism, which is now opposed by most Arminians.
Abraham, William J. Andrews, Herbert T. Basinger, David Basinger, Randall G. Carter, Charles W. Cottrell, Jack W. Craig, William L. Earle, Ralph Evans, C. Stephen Findlay, George G. Finney, Charles Forester, Roger T. Fritz, Guy Graham, Billy Headlan, Arthur Lewis, C. S. MacDonald, William G. Mantey, Julius R. Marshall, I. Howard Marston, V. Paul Melanchthan, Philip Miethe, Terry L. Miley, John Montgomery, John Warwick Osborne, Grant R. Pinnock, Clark Reichenbach, Bruce R. Rice, Richard Sanday, William Sanders, John E. Shank, Robert L. Simpson, Albert B. Taylor, Vincent Turner, George Allen Walls, Jerry L. Wesley, John Wiley, H. Orton
Calvinism [4]
As a synonym for the Reformed tradition, this term highlights the influence of John Calvin and his work in Geneva in shaping the movement. While Calvin did wield considerable influence, Calvinism is a complex tradition shaped in its early stages by many leaders, including Ulrich Zwingli, William Farel, Heinrich Bullinger, Martin Bucer, and John Knox. Calvin himself was interested in reconciling with Lutheranism, which shared similar concerns for sola scriptura, justification by faith, rejection of a corrupt and theologically errant papacy, and the marks of the true church. By the mid-sixteenth century, however, differences had solidified, and the Reformed or Calvinist perspective was demarcated by a commitment to the comprehensive sovereignty of God, a view of the Lord’s Supper distinct from Lutheranism, an emphasis on the positive third use of the law and a distinct practice of church polity. It is difficult to generalize, however, because as the theology and cultural system of Calvinism spread from Switzerland to France, the Netherlands, Scotland, Ireland, England, Hungary, and eventually North America, it continued to develop and adapt to particular localities, controversies, and personalities. The Canons of Dort were a benchmark for distinguishing the movement from Arminianism, although numerous confessions of faith had previously outlined Calvinist belief and practice. Consequently, while some identify TULIP as an accurate summary of the five points of Calvinism, these doctrines alone actually limit, and in some cases even caricature and misrepresent, the complexity and breadth of the tradition.
Adams, Jay Edward Alexander, J. A. St. Augustine Bavinck, Herman Beeke, Joel Berkhof, Hendrikus Bloesch, Donald Boetner, Loraine Boice, James Bridges, Jerry Buswell, J. O. Calvin, John Carson, Donald A. Dabney, Robert L. Dever, Mark Duncan, J. Ligon Edwards, Jonathan Ferguson, Sinclair Filson, Floyd Vivian Frame, John Hacket, Horacia Haldane, Robert Haykin, Michel Hendricksen, William Hodge, A. A. Hodge, Charles Horton, Michael Hughes, Philip Johnson, Phil Keller, Timothy Kik, Jaboc Marcellus Lawson, Steve Lecerf, Auguste Luther, Martin MacArthur, John Malone, Fred Marcel, Pierre Martin, Albert Mohler, Albert Moore, Thomas V. Moule, H.C.G. Murray, Andrew Murray, John Nicole, Roger Orr, James Packer, J. I. Pieters, Albertus Pipa, Joseph A. Piper, John Robertson, O. Palmer Rushdooney, R. J. Ryken, Philip Graham Ryle, J. C. Schaeffer, Francis Sproul, R. C. Steele, David N. Storms, C. Samuel Strombeck, J. F Strong, A. H. Thiessen, Henry Clarence Thomas, Curtis C. Van Til, Cornelius Ware, Bruce Warfield, B. B. Watson, Thomas Well, David White, James Whitney, Donald Wilson, Jeffrey B.
Molinism [5]
Molinism is a view of the relation between God’s grace and human free will, emanating from the Spanish Jesuit theologian Luis de Molina (1535–1600). Molina asserted that God has a special kind of foreknowledge of human free acts, which are the basis of God’s gracious gift of salvation. Molinism was widely adopted by Jesuits and opposed by Dominicans. After examination by a special congregation in Rome (1598–1607), both views were allowed in Catholic schools.
According to Molinism, God has three kinds of knowledge: natural, middle, and free. 1.) Natural knowledge is God’s knowledge of all possible worlds. This knowledge is essential to God. It is concerned with the necessary and the possible. 2.) Free knowledge is God’s knowledge of this actual world. After a free act of his will, God knows these things absolutely, but such knowledge is not essential to God. 3.) Middle knowledge or scientia media is distinctive of Molinism. God cannot know future free acts in the way he knows other things. God knows some things absolutely, but future free acts are known only contingently. “God, from a most profound and inscrutable comprehension of every free will in His essence, has intuited what each, according to its innate liberty, would do if placed in this or that condition” (Garrigou-Lagrange, The One God, 460; see FREE WILL). Unlike natural knowledge, this middle or intermediate knowledge is in some sense dependent on what free creatures choose to do. God’s omniscience “waits” to see what a free creature does “before” he selects those who will be saved. Since God is eternal, the sequence is only logical, not chronological.
Craig, W.L. Molina, Luis de
Primary Theologies
Title
Description
Personal Alignment
Covenant Theology [6]
Also known as federal theology, this form of biblical theology focuses on the way God relates to his creatures through covenants—binding relationships between God and humanity involving mutual promises and responsibilities. In Reformed theology, this perspective traces back to Zwingli’s emphasis on God’s covenant with Abraham, which he used in defense of infant baptism. Bullinger wrote the first full Protestant treatise defending a unified biblical covenant, although Calvin similarly stressed the unity of God’s covenant of grace and continuities of law and gospel in both Testaments. The covenant theology of Johannes Cocceius, who built on the work of Calvin, Zacharias Ursinus, Caspar Olevianus and others, is important because of the distinctions he developed between an eternal covenant of redemption between Father and Son and two basic redemptive-historical covenants: the covenant of works and the covenant of grace. God established the covenant of works with Adam and Eve, promising life conditional on obedience, but after Adam and Eve’s disobedience, God established the covenant of grace as a promise to bring victory over the devil (Gen 3:15). This covenant is reiterated in various forms throughout redemptive history and culminates in the new covenant of Christ. Cocceius’s perspective was widely received by Reformed theologians and found expression in the Westminster Standards. Covenant theology continued to be a prominent theme in Reformed theology in contrast to dispensationalism, although significant debate emerged regarding the distinction between a covenant of works and a covenant of grace, which was rejected by Karl Barth and John Murray but accepted by others in the tradition.
Allis, O. T. Bass, Clarence B. Bear, James Berkof, Louis Carson, Herbert Cotton, John Fuller, Daniel Paxton Gerstner, John Goodwin, Thomas Hendricksen, William Hodge, A. A. Hodge, Charles Ladd, George Eldon Lincoln, C. Fred Mauro, Philip Murray, John Orr, James Owen, john Payne, J. Barton Poythress, Vern Robertson, O. Palmer Sproul, R. C. Van Gemeren, Willem Van Til, Cornelius
Dispensational Theology [7]
Dispensationalism, a periodization of human history into distinct time periods, or dispensations, during which God relates to humans in unique ways, was popularized in Darby’s frequent trips to America and contributed to the rise of fundamentalism.
A theological system dividing the history of redemption into separate periods (dispensations) in which God relates to his people in unique ways, first developed by Englishman John Nelson Darby (1800–1882) and primarily popularized in the United States through the Scofield Reference Bible. Dispensationalism differs from covenant theology by identifying two separate peoples—Israel and the church—to whom God relates in distinct ways, thus introducing greater discontinuity into the biblical story than normally affirmed in the Reformed tradition. Given its wide-ranging influence, however, dispensationalism has been affirmed by some Reformed theologians, particularly in North America.
Barnhouse, Donald Grey Brooks, James H. Chafer, Lewis Sperry Darby, John Nelson English, E. Schuyler Feinberg, Charles L. Gaebelein, Arno C. Gaebelein, Frank Graves, J. R. Hoyt, Herman Ironside, H. A. Kelly, William MacArthur, John Mackintosh, C. H. Mason, Clarence E. Mayhue, Richard McClain, Alva J. Pache, Rene Pentecost, J. Dwight Pettingill, William Ryrie, Charles Sauer, Erich Scofield, C. I. Scroggie, W. Graham Walvoord, John F.
Ultra-Dispensational Theology [8] (Church began with Paul, not at Pentecost)
In modern times, the term dispensationalism is most often associated with nineteenth-century theologian John Nelson Darby, who was associated with the Plymouth Brethren Church in England. Darby’s key work, Synopsis, clearly delineated human history into well-defined time periods called dispensations. In each dispensation, God demands different expressions of faith from believers. In the dispensation of law, for example, the faithful were obedient to the Mosaic code, but this no longer applied after the death of Christ, when the dispensation of grace began. Later teachers, such as C. I. Scofield (1843–1921), expanded the number of dispensations to seven periods. Each dispensation ended in judgment, and only a few, a remnant, survive that testing to begin the next dispensation. Important to this view is the idea that Israel is distinct from the church and the promises and covenants made to Israel do not necessarily apply to modern-day believers.
Baker, Charles F. Berean Bible Society Bullinger, Ethelbert W. Gelesnoff, Vladimir Knoch, A.E. McGee, J. Vernon O’Hair, J.C. Sellers, Otis Q. Stam, Cornelius R. Welch, Charles H.
Secondary Theologies
Title
Description
Personal Alignment
Antinomianism [9]
A form of spiritual anarchy, which rejects the law as having any place in the Christian life, whether as instructor or as assessor. Paul’s teaching that Christians are free from the law is sometimes misunderstood as antinomian. But Paul reveres God’s law, and teaches believers, who are free from the law as a system of salvation, to keep it out of gratitude for salvation freely given, and because holiness, as defined by the law, is the Christian calling.
Agricola, Johannes Brearley, Roger Crisp, Tobias Eaton, John Hutchinson, Anne Saltmarsh, John, Traske, John Towne, Robert
Black Theology [10]
Derived from both traditional African-American religion and the historical process of liberation, Black Theology focuses on God in Christ as deliverer of oppressed people, and blackness as the key to understanding that deliverance.
Cleage, Jr., Albert B. Cone, James Roberts, Deotis
Charismatic Renewal [11] (Generally Arminian)
Neo-Pentecostalism – The classical Pentecostal movement usually traces its origin to New Year’s Day, 1901, when Agnes Ozman first spoke in tongues in Charles F. Parham’s Bible school in Topeka, Kansas. The movement that ensued was ridiculed by many outsiders as the religion of the economically deprived, the socially disinherited, the psychologically abnormal and the theologically aberrant. However, by the 1960s many sociological, psychological and theological theories had given way under the increasing evidence that Pentecostals were becoming middle class and educated. At the same time, their characteristic teachings were gaining acceptance among Christians within mainline Protestant denominations, as well as the Catholic Church. As the national media publicized this new movement, American Christians began to grapple with a phenomenon that would come to be known as the charismatic, or neo-Pentecostal, movement.
Benett, Dennis Braham, William Bredesen, Harald Christensen, Larry Coe, Jack duPlessis, David Harper, Michael C. Irwin, David Osborne, Tommy Lee Roberts, Oral Smith, Chuck (Calvary Chapel) Wilkerson, David
Creation Spirituality [12]
New Age Movement (NAM) – The NAM is both eclectic and syncretistic, drawing on sources as diverse as Vedantic Hinduism, assorted varieties of spiritism and avant garde theories in quantum physics. It is best viewed not as a unified denomination, sect, cult or conspiracy—although these factors are not lacking—but rather as a world view shifting away from both monotheism and atheistic materialism, and toward the “ancient wisdom” or “perennial philosophy” (A. Huxley) of various Eastern religions (e.g., Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism, etc.), pre-Christian Western religions (e.g., Druidism), Christian heresies (Gnosticism, heterodox mysticism) and the occult (e.g., divination, magic, spiritism).
In the 1980s the Dominican priest Matthew Fox was teaching what he called “Creation Spirituality” in books such as The Coming of the Cosmic Christ (1988) and through his Institute in Culture and Creation Spirituality. Clearly a proponent of the New Age perspective, in October 1988 Fox was ordered silenced by the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
Matthew Fox (Catholic)
Feminist Theology [13]
Feminist theology has an unmistakable ideological slant (Colin Grant, “Feminist Theology Is Middle Class). It is patently tied to the women’s revolution in society, which insists on equal pay for equivalent work and presses for the liberation of women from male domination. God becomes the Empowering Matrix (Rosemary Ruether) that enables both men and women to realize their full potential as sons and daughters of a new age in which sexual differences are no longer a barrier to economic and political advancement as well as to spiritual leadership. The immanentalistic bent of feminist theology is tied to its reconception of God as the vital force within nature rather than as Sovereign King or Lord (Cf. Dorothee Sölle: “God is our capacity to love … the spark that animates our love.”). Feminist theology converges with process theology at many points, for both mirror the new wave of democratic egalitarianism that seeks to eradicate all hierarchy in human relationships.
Bilezikian, Gilbert Frymer-Kensky, Tikva Gundry, Patricia Hardesty, Nancy Jewett, Paul Mollenkott, Virginia Myers, Carol Ogden Bellis, Alice Scanzoni, Letha Spencer, Aida Bensancon Trible, Phyllis Williams, Dan
Liberation Theology [14]
The term “liberation theology” is attributed to the Latin American theologian Gustavo Gutierrez. In 1970, Gutierrez published A Theology of Liberation, in which he offers a theological perspective “from the underside of history” (Huebner, Introduction, 466).
According to Thiselton, a liberation hermeneutic shares these common themes with feminist and womanist hermeneutics (Thiselton, New Horizons, 410):
1.) They critique frameworks of interpretation. 2. ) They offer alternative reinterpretations. 3.) They unmask the ways in which interpretations are used to serve the interests of those in power.
Liberation theologies and hermeneutics find expression in critical scholarship, but more so among theologians in active, missional movements that derive their theology from an “ecclesial location,” such as Gutierrez who is known for theological reflections located in stories from his life among the poor (Gutierrez and Muller, On the Side). Juan Luis Segundo, a Uruguayan liberation theologian, suggests that the key to a “this-worldly” hermeneutic (and not an “other-worldly” one, meaning one that is practicable now) is the kingdom—preached, lived, and initiated by Jesus (Segundo, Grace, 73). Liberation theology and hermeneutics attempt to inform a kingdom of justice, which is often described as a spirituality that holds in tension divine transcendence and human action, gift and initiation (Segundo, Grace, 73).
Boff, Leonardo Gutierrez, Gustavo Miguez-Bonino, Jose
Lutheranism [15]
The theological and ecclesiastical tradition based on the teachings of Martin Luther (1483–1546), who is credited with launching the Reformation in Germany. Luther’s “tower experience” convinced him that the essence of the gospel is that justification comes only by the gift of God’s grace appropriated by faith (see sola gratia; sola fide). According to Luther, God declares the sinner righteous through Jesus’ death rather than through human merit or works. Faith entails trust in and acceptance of God’s gift of salvation through the “merits” of Christ.
Althaus, Paul Bornkamm, Heinrich Chemnitz, Martin Forde, Gerhard O. Gerhard, Johann Jensen, Robert Kolb, Robert Lohse, Bernhard Luther, Martin Maier, Paul L. Melanchthon, Philip Montgomery, John W. Pieper, Franz Preus, Robert Sasse, Hermann Veith, Gene Edward Walter, C. F. W. Wengert, Timothy
Mercersburg Theology [16]
Mercersburg Theology was a German-American theological movement that began in the mid-19th century. It draws its name from Mercersburg, Pennsylvania, home of Marshall College from 1836 until its merger with Franklin College (Lancaster, Pennsylvania) in 1853, and also home to the seminary of the Reformed Church in the United States (RCUS) from 1837 until its relocation to Lancaster in 1871.
A significant aspect of the Mercersburg Theology is the view of history and theology found in Philip Schaff’s Principle of Protestantism. In this work, Schaff takes a Hegelian model of history and applies it to the history of theology. Theology must come to one final synthesis, as Schaff expressed in his remark that “the Reformation must be regarded as still incomplete. It needs yet its concluding act to unite what has fallen asunder, to bring the subjective to a reconciliation with the objective.”[4] By this, he proposes a reunion of the subjective doctrines of Protestantism with the objective character of the Roman Catholic Church. Thus, an outworking of this belief is a generous ecumenism extended toward all, especially toward Roman Catholics.
The Mercersburg Society was founded in 1983 to maintain the sacramental and ecclesial approach of the theology.
Nevin, John Williamson Schaff, Philip
Liberal Theology [17] (Neo-Liberalism) (Existential Theology, Existentialism)
American liberal theologians in the early twentieth century emphasized Scripture as experience. Standing in the tradition of Friedrich Schleiermacher (1768–1834), Albrecht Ritschl (1822–1889) and Adolf von Harnack (1851–1930), these theologians sought to reconstruct traditional orthodoxy to meet the challenges of the modern world. They viewed the Bible as an ancient document written by fallible, human writers who were “religious geniuses.” These inspiring writers produced a literature that conveys religious experience to its readers as it brings them into contact with the great questions of human existence. Thus the liberal pulpiteer Harry Emerson Fosdick spoke of the Bible as presenting “abiding experiences and changing categories.” This means the basic human experiences of which the Bible speaks will be the same in any age, though expressed in various concepts and frameworks at different periods of history. Theologians must search out the abiding experiences that underlie biblical categories and express them in ways appropriate to the present times. For liberal theology, God is revealed in the events of history and especially in Jesus Christ. Humans may open themselves to this revelation and find the ring of truth in Scripture as biblical experiences coincide with their own religious experiences.
Bultmann, Rudolf (existential) Coffin, Henry S. Gilkey, Langdon Van Dusen, H.P Schleiermacher, Fredrich Fosdick, Harry E. Kierkegaard, Søren (existential) Ogden, Schuber Niebuhr, Reinhold (“post-liberal”) Tielhard de Chardin, Pierre Tillich, Paul (existential) Tracy, David (Catholic)
Neo-Orthodoxy [18]
The Swiss theologians Karl Barth and Emil Brunner are associated with neo-orthodox theology, a movement which characteristically speaks of Scripture as witness. Barth, reacting strongly to the liberal theology in which he was schooled, developed a dialectical theology that in its early stages stressed the great contrast and distance between the transcendent, holy God and finite, sinful humanity. In Jesus Christ, this gulf was bridged. Christ is God’s self-revelation so that to say revelation is to say the Word made flesh. Barth spoke of the threefold Word of God as the Word revealed (Jesus Christ), the Word written (Scripture) and the Word proclaimed (preaching). Scripture “becomes” God’s Word when, through its proclamation, it witnesses or points to the Word made flesh, Jesus Christ. The inspired writers of Scripture were witnesses to God’s revelation. Barth could speak of “verbal inspiration” in the sense that the witnesses to God’s revelation recorded their witness in words. But these were fallible words of humans, having “the capacity for errors,” yet nevertheless used by God to accomplish his own purposes. Scripture gains authority insofar as the Holy Spirit takes human witnesses and through their witness creates faith and obedience to Jesus Christ.
Barth, Karl Bonhoeffer, Dietrich Bunner, Emil
New Covenant Theology [19]
A position teaching that the person and work of Jesus Christ is the central focus of the Bible. One distinctive assertion of this school of thought is that Old Testament Laws have been abrogated or cancelled with Jesus’ crucifixion, and replaced with the Law of Christ of the New Covenant. It shares similarities with, and yet is distinct from, dispensationalism and Covenant theology.
Wells, Tom Zaspel, Fred Lehrer, Steve Reisinger, John
Pentecostalism [20]
Pentecostalism is a movement that began in the early twentieth century that emphasizes a post-conversion “baptism in the Holy Spirit” for all believers, with glossolalia (speaking in tongues) as the initial evidence of such baptism. Historically, Pentecostals have been missionary-minded people, due in part to the fact that the first Pentecostals taught that one central purpose of baptism in the Spirit was to endow the believer with power for evangelism.
Hayford, Jack Mason, Charles H. McPherson, Amy Semple
Pietism [21]
Pietism as it is now widely understood has its roots both in the magisterial and radical phases of the Reformation, as well as in the emphasis on “godliness” of many Puritans. It gradually comes into view in what is sometimes referred to as “precisianism” in the Reformed churches of the Netherlands. Among the Dutch Reformed it was represented by men like Willem Teellinck (1579–1629); the scholarly Gysbertus Voetius (1509–1676); Jadocus van Lodensteyn (1620–1677); as well as the Brakels—Theodor Gerardi (1608–1669) and his son Willem (1635–1711). Among separatists with a Dutch Reformed background, mention should be made of the former Jesuit Jean de Labadie (1610–1674) and his gifted disciple Anna Maria van Schurmann (1607–1678).
Arndt, Johann Francke, August Hermann Spener, Philipp Jakob Zinzerdorf, Count Von
Process Theology [22] (Panentheism)
Panentheism is not to be confused with pantheism. Pantheism literally means all (“pan”) is God (“theism”), but panentheism means “all in God.” It is also called process theology (since it views God as a changing Being), bipolar theism (since it believes God has two poles), organicism (since it views all that actually is as a gigantic organism), and neoclassical theism (because it believes God is finite and temporal, in contrast to classical theism).
Cobb, John B. Hartshorne, Charles Peters, Eugene H. Whitehead, Alfred North
Prosperity Theology [23]
Prosperity theology (sometimes referred to as the prosperity gospel, the health and wealth gospel, the gospel of success, or seed faith) is a religious belief among some Protestant Christians that financial blessing and physical well-being are always the will of God for them, and that faith, positive speech, and donations to religious causes will increase one’s material wealth.
Prosperity theology views the Bible as a contract between God and humans: if humans have faith in God, he will deliver security and prosperity. The doctrine emphasizes the importance of personal empowerment, proposing that it is God’s will for his people to be blessed. The atonement (reconciliation with God) is interpreted to include the alleviation of sickness and poverty, which are viewed as curses to be broken by faith. This is believed to be achieved through donations of money, visualization, and positive confession.
Capps, Charles Cho, Paul Copeland, Kenneth Hayes, Narvelle Hagin, Kenneth Kenyon, Essek William Osteen, John Price, Frederick K. C. Savelle, Jerry
Puritanism [24]
A reform movement heavily influenced by Calvinism but initially part of the Church of England that had its zenith in the seventeenth century in England and North America. The stereotype of a Puritan as someone who is prudish and legalistic is quite misleading; Puritans enjoyed their beer and knew how to laugh. They were agents of cultural renewal in spheres as diverse as poetry and political philosophy, and they left a lasting imprint through the colonies founded in New England.
Ames, William Baxter, Richard Bolton, Robert Bridge, William, Brooks, Thomas Burroughes, Jeremiah Bunyan, John Charnock, Stephen Clarkson, David Cotton, John Flavel, John Goodwin, Thomas Gouge, William Hooker, Thomas Manton, Thomas Owen, John Perkins, William Rutherford, Samuel Shepard, Thomas Sibbes, Richard Swinnock, George Ussher, James Watson, Thomas
Scholasticism [25]
Through their intense study of the Bible and their preservation of ancient manuscripts, the monks did much to keep the spirit of learning alive during the Dark Ages. The cathedral and monastic schools were centers of study that served as seed beds for the later universities. Scholasticism refers both to the revival of learning that occurred during the Middle Ages and the method of study by which it occurred—the process of careful, rational scrutiny, logical deduction, and the systematic ordering of truth.
Abelard, Peter Anselm Aquinas, Thomas Bonaventure Ockham, William of
Secular Theology [26] (“God is Dead”)
Secular theology rejects the substance dualism of modern religion, the belief in two forms of reality required by the belief in heaven, hell, and the afterlife. Secular theology can accommodate a belief in God—as many nature religions do—but as residing in this world and not separately from it.
Historians such as Charles Freeman hold that the AD 325 Council of Nicaea did much to establish dualism in Christian thought. Dualism has greatly influenced not only religion but science as well. By desacralizing the natural world, dualism has left it vulnerable to exploitation and damage.
The field of secular theology, a subfield of liberal theology advocated by Anglican bishop John A. T. Robinson somewhat paradoxically combines secularism and theology. Recognized in the 1960s, it was influenced both by neo-orthodoxy, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Harvey Cox, and the existentialism of Søren Kierkegaard and Paul Tillich. Secular theology digested modern movements like the Death of God Theology propagated by Thomas J. J. Altizer or the philosophical existentialism of Paul Tillich and eased the introduction of such ideas into the theological mainstream and made constructive evaluations, as well as contributions, to them.
Altizer, Thomas Cox, Harvey Hamilton, William Robinson, John A. T. Rubenstein, Richard L. (Jewish Rabbi) Vahanian, Gabriel
Social Gospel [27] (Liberal Theology, Liberalism)
The Social Gospel was a social movement within Protestantism that applied Christian ethics to social problems, especially issues of social justice such as economic inequality, poverty, alcoholism, crime, racial tensions, slums, unclean environment, child labor, lack of unionization, poor schools, and the dangers of war. It was most prominent in the early-20th-century United States and Canada. Theologically, the Social Gospelers sought to put into practice the Lord’s Prayer (Matthew 6:10): “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven”. They typically were postmillennialist; that is, they believed the Second Coming could not happen until humankind rid itself of social evils by human effort. The Social Gospel was more popular among clergy than laity. Its leaders were predominantly associated with the liberal wing of the progressive movement, and most were theologically liberal, although a few were also conservative when it came to their views on social issues. Important leaders included Richard T. Ely, Josiah Strong, Washington Gladden, and Walter Rauschenbusch.
Ely, Richard T. Gladden, Washington Rauschenbusch, Walter
Third Wave Movement [28]
Although Wagner has been influential in the wider evangelical world, his extensive research into and writing on the Pentecostal and charismatic movements have given him particular expertise in these areas. Through his longtime association with the charismatic leader John Wimber, leader of the Vineyard Movement, and their joint teaching of a controversial course on charismatic ministry at Fuller Theological Seminary entitled, ‘MC 510 Signs and Wonders’ (1984), he became identified with the charismatic movement. He is credited with originating the term ‘third wave’, to designate the increased openness among other evangelicals to the miraculous power of the Holy Spirit and joint ministry with Pentecostals and charismatics.
Wagner, C. Peter Wimber, John
Wesleyan Theology {Wesleyan Quadrilateral)
The various groups and churches associated with, spawned by, or that look for their genesis in John Wesley (the founder of Methodism) and his theology. These include the various Methodist churches, the Holiness Movement and Pentecostalism. Wesley’s theology attempted to balance the doctrine of justification by faith with an emphasis on the Spirit’s ongoing process of sanctification in the life of the believer. Wesleyans are often known for certain doctrines, including entire sanctification and the second blessing. Wesleyans tend to be Arminian as opposed to Calvinist in their understanding of the dynamic of personal salvation.
The four “sources” on which Wesleyan theology is often constructed and defended: Scripture, reason, tradition and experience. There is some debate today as to whether the Wesleyan quadrilateral actually dates to Wesley himself, although there is general agreement that it does represent Wesley’s own theological approach.
Allen, Richard Asbury, Francis Coke, Albert C. Varick, James Wesley, Charles Wesley, John
Eschatological Systems
Derived from the combination of the Greek eschatos, meaning “last,” and logos, meaning “word” or “significance.” Refers to the biblical doctrine of last things. The doctrine of last things normally focuses on a discussion of the return of Christ at the end of the age, the coming judgments, various expressions of the kingdom of heaven and the kingdom of God, the nature of the glorified body, and the prospects for eternal destiny. Generally, eschatology sets itself apart as a theology of the future and in juxtaposition to both history and the present age.[1]
Millennialism
This expression, taken from Latin words, means 1,000 years. The Bible passage that mentions the “thousand years” is Rev. 20:1–7, where the word appears six times. The Latin Vulgate uses mille anni and its variant renderings to translate the Greek chilia ete. Various theological proposals have been offered to explain this passage from Rev. 20 as well as various other Scriptures that might be taken to speak to the same issue. One’s view on this text will be determined by one’s approach to interpreting predictive prophecy and by one’s view on symbolic and apocalyptic language.[1]
Title
Description
Typical Association
Personal Alignment
Amillennialism [2]
The belief that the thousand years mentioned in Revelation 20 do not represent a specific period of time between Christ’s first and second comings. Many amillennialists believe instead that the millennium refers to the heavenly reign of Christ and the departed saints during the Church Age. Amillennialists usually understand Revelation 20 to mean that the return of Christ will occur at the end of history and that the church presently lives in the final era of history.
Amillennials usually commit to Covenant theology
Adams, Jay Edward Allis, Oswald T. Augustine Bass, Clarence B. Beckwith, Isbon T. Bennett, T. Miles Berkof, Louis Berkouwer, G. C. Bowman, John Wick Brown, David Calvin, John Charles, Robert H. Colclasure, Chuck Ellison, Henry L. Farrar, Fredric W. Ferguson, Sinclair Foster, Richard J. Gerstner, John Gifford, Edwin H. Hamilton, Floyd E. Hendricksen, William Hoekema, Anthony A. Hoeksema, Herman Kik, Jacob Marcellus Laetsch, Theodore F. K. Lenski, Richard Leopold, Herbert C. Luther, Martin Machen, John Gresham Mauro, Philip Morgan, George Campbell Morris, Leon Pink, A. W. Pusey, Edward B. Ridderbos, Herman Riddlebarger, Kim Sproul, R.C. Summers, Ray Swete, Hanry Barclay Van Til, Cornelius Vos, Gerhardus Waltke, Bruce Warfield, B. B. Young, Edward J
Premillennialism [2]
The view that the millennium follows the return of Christ, which therefore makes his return “premillennial.” In the teaching of some premillennialists, the millennium will begin supernaturally and cataclysmically, preceded by signs of apostasy, worldwide preaching of the gospel, war, famine, earthquakes, the coming of the antichrist, and the great tribulation. Jesus will then return and rule on the earth with his saints for one thousand years, during which time peace will reign, the natural world will no longer be cursed and evil will be suppressed. After a final rebellion, God will crush evil forever; judge the resurrected, nonbelieving dead; and establish heaven and hell.
Historic premillennialists usually commit to Covenant Theology, with post-tribulation eschatology.
Dispensational premillennial is generally pre-tribulation.
Alford, Henry Amerding, C. A. Anderson, Robert Beasley-Murray, G. R. Bengel, _ Blackstone, William E. Bonar, A.A. Bowman, John (Historic) Chafer, Lewis Sperry Culver, Robert D. Darby, John Nelson DeHaan, Martin R. Ellicott, C.J. English, Eugene Schuyler Erickson, Millard (Historic) Fausset, A. R. Feinberg, Charles L. Fuller, Daniel Payton (Historic) Gaebelein, A. C. Gill, John Goodwin, Thomas Grudem, Wayne Hiebert, Davis Edmond Hoyt, Herman A. (Disp.) Ironside, H. A. Jennins, Frederick C. Jeremiah, David Keach, Benjamin Kromminga, D. H. Ladd, George E. (Historic) Lange, John Lightfoot, J.B. Lillie, (John?) Luck, G. Coleman MacArthur, John MacIntosh, C.H. Mauro, Philip (Historic) Mayhue, Richard McClain, Alva (Disp.) Meyer, F.B. Morgan, George Campbel Mounce, Robert Newell, William Reed Ottman, Ford C. Payne, J. Barton (Historic) Piper, John Ross, James Robert (Historic) Ryle, J.C. Ryrie, Charles (Disp.) Seiss, Joseph A. Smith, Jacob B. Smith, Wilbur M. Steir. _ Stevens, W. C. Stifler, James M. Strombeck, J. F. Tatford, Frederick A. Tenney, Merrill C. Tregelles, Samuel P. Unger, Merril Walvoord, John (Disp.) Westcott, B.F. Wiley, H. Orton
Postmillennialism [2]
The view that Christ’s second coming will follow the millennium; that is, his return is postmillennial. Postmillennialists assert that the millennium will come by the spiritual and moral influence of Christian preaching and teaching in the world. This will result in increased conversions, a more important role of the church in the world, earthly prosperity, the resolution of social ills and a general adoption of Christian values. Evil will diminish until the time of Christ’s second coming, which will mark as well the resurrection of the dead and the last judgment.
Alexander, Archibald Alexander, Joseph A. Barnes, Albert Boettner, Loraine Brown, David Dabney, R. L. Dabney, Robert T. Edward, Jonathan Fairbairn, Patrick Hodge, A. A. Hodge, Charles Marcellus, K. K. J. Murray, John North, Gary Shedd, W. G. T. Snowden, James H. Strong, Augustus H. Warfield, Benjamin B
Rapture
God’s taking the church out of the world instantaneously. The Latin term rapio, which means to “snatch away” or “carry off,” is the source of the English word. While there are differing views of the millennium (Rev. 20:2–7) in relation to Christ’s second coming (e.g., premillennial, postmillennial, and amillennial), nevertheless, all evangelicals affirm a literal return of Christ to the earth preceding the eternal state. In premillennialism, however, the distinct event of the rapture is often emphasized.
The main biblical passage for the rapture (Gk. harpazo) of the church is 1 Thess. 4:15–17. Other texts often used to support the doctrine of the rapture are John 14:1–3 and 1 Cor. 15:51–52. There are three main approaches to understanding the rapture in premillennialism:
Title
Description
Personal Alignment
Pre-Tribulational [3]
In the pretribulational view, Christ raptures the church before any part of the seven-year tribulation begins (Dan. 9:24–27; Matt. 24:3–28; Rev. 11:2; 12:14). Upon Christ’s coming in the air, which is distinct from and that precedes His coming to the earth, believers will be “caught up together … in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air” (1 Thess. 4:17). In this view, believers are delivered “from the coming wrath” (1 Thess. 1:10; Rev. 3:10) by being taken out of the world.
Harrison, Norman B. Hogg, Charles F. Stanton, Gerald B. Theissen, Henry C. Vine, Howard Frederick
Mid-Tribulational [3]
A midtribulational view also sees the rapture as a distinct event that precedes Christ’s second coming and delivers believers from the last half of the seven-year period, the “great tribulation” (Matt. 24:15–28; Rev. 16–18).
Peters, George N. H.
Post-Tribulational [3]
A posttribulational view holds that the rapture and the second coming occur at the same time. Therefore, the church remains on earth during “the time of Jacob’s distress” (Jer. 30:7 NASB). Unlike the world, however, believers who go through the tribulation will be protected from the devastating outpouring of God’s wrath and judgment (1 Thess. 5:9).
Erickson, Millard Ladd, G. E. Lang, George H. Tenney, Merrill C.
Citations
[1] Doros Zachariades, “Millennium,” ed. Chad Brand et al., Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary (Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers, 2003), 1127. [2] Stanley Grenz, David Guretzki, and Cherith Fee Nordling, Pocket Dictionary of Theological Terms (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1999), 8–9. [3] Pete Schemm, “Rapture,” ed. Chad Brand et al., Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary (Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers, 2003), 1366. [4] Kelly M. Kapic and Wesley Vander Lugt, Pocket Dictionary of the Reformed Tradition, The IVP Pocket Reference Series (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2013), 29–30. [5] Norman L. Geisler, “Molinism,” Baker Encyclopedia of Christian Apologetics, Baker Reference Library (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 1999), 493. [6] Kelly M. Kapic and Wesley Vander Lugt, Pocket Dictionary of the Reformed Tradition, The IVP Pocket Reference Series (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2013), 38–39. [7] Ibid, 41. [8] Nathan P. Feldmeth, Pocket Dictionary of Church History: Over 300 Terms Clearly and Concisely Defined, The IVP Pocket Reference Series (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2008), 52–53. [9] Martin H. Manser, Dictionary of Bible Themes: The Accessible and Comprehensive Tool for Topical Studies (London: Martin Manser, 2009). [10] Daniel G. Reid et al., Dictionary of Christianity in America (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1990). [11] Ibid. [12] Ibid. [13] Donald G. Bloesch, Freedom for Obedience: Evangelical Ethics in Contemporary Times (Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock Publishers, 2002), 266–267. [14] Carrie Sinclair Wolcott, “Liberation Theologies and Hermeneutics,” ed. John D. Barry et al., The Lexham Bible Dictionary (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2016). [15] Stanley Grenz, David Guretzki, and Cherith Fee Nordling, Pocket Dictionary of Theological Terms (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1999), 74. [16] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercersburg_theology [17] Daniel G. Reid et al., Dictionary of Christianity in America (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1990). [18] Ibid. [19] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Covenant_theology [20] Stanley Grenz, David Guretzki, and Cherith Fee Nordling, Pocket Dictionary of Theological Terms (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1999), 90. [21] Daniel G. Reid et al., Dictionary of Christianity in America (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1990). [22] Norman L. Geisler, “Panentheism,” Baker Encyclopedia of Christian Apologetics, Baker Reference Library (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 1999), 576. [23] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prosperity_theology [24] C. Stephen Evans, Pocket Dictionary of Apologetics & Philosophy of Religion (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2002), 98. [25] David S. Dockery, ed., Holman Bible Handbook (Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers, 1992), 865. [26] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secular_theology [27] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_Gospel [28] D. Hedges, “Wagner, Charles Peter,” ed. Timothy Larsen et al., Biographical Dictionary of Evangelicals (Leicester, England; Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2003), 691. [29] Stanley Grenz, David Guretzki, and Cherith Fee Nordling, Pocket Dictionary of Theological Terms (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1999), 120–121.
Historically, Christian Realism centers around the brothers Richard Niebuhr (1894-1962) and Reinhold Niebuhr (1892-1971), who both were immersed in 20th-Century theology as influential thinkers of their time. They were both American Realists and were primarily concerned with human nature and human history. Their epistemological concerns were largely driven by individual and social conditions that they believed had explanatory power about the Christian faith. Their contributions to theological discourse were largely situated upon the doctrine of man and the human condition, especially as it concerns the life of faith from the perspective of Liberal theology.
James C. Livingston, the author of the text, refers to Niebuhr as a “post-liberal“ theologian as his exposure and acceptance to Barthian neo-orthodox theology is of coherent influence, but as one traces Niebuhrs’ life’s work, his writing, speaking, collaborative efforts, and criticisms, it is easy to dismiss the proposition as “post-liberal.” The functional name of “Christian Realism” is simply a rebranding of a social gospel (i.e., justice as the only proper outworking of agape love) that seeks to make use of the historical and eternal work of Christ for purposes of attaining distributed human power through social acquiescence or upheaval. It seeks to weaponize theology through social means as it concentrates on the human condition at the expense of sovereign, supernatural, limitless purposes of God. More specifically, in the here and now, it exchanges the pursuit of God for the pursuit of utopia by social means. Instead, biblical justice is simply an important and necessary component of deep and enduring theological interest. Instead of the default social pragmatism of Christian Realists, the practical imperatives of God through Christ are revealed in history to function as a pressing necessity for Godly living. A type of living that serves as a foundation for doctrine and confessional commitments that shape attitudes, conduct, disciplines, worship, devotion, and outreach. Charity, missional work, shelters, poverty relief, disaster recovery, hospitality, and economic justice are merely components of outreach and permanent support that extends from the proper application of the New Covenant.
As Livingston refers to the “social gospel,” it is normally attributed to Christian Realism. A person of liberal social interest would normally conclude there is a universal meaning associated with the term gospel. Aside from God’s redemptive work through Christ, the gospel takes on a useful purpose to achieve social objectives. Rather than for the purpose of saving individuals, and society, from real justice as eternal condemnation and separation from God in a permanent punishment of Hell. The meaning of “gospel” is reserved explicitly for a specific purpose as articulated in Scripture and the Greek semantic range found in BDAG and elsewhere. There is no “social gospel,” or “American gospel,” or “European gospel,” or “individual gospel,” as such. There is the “gospel” without descriptive adjectives to redefine its meaning. As clearly expressed in Scripture, the gospel is the saving work of Christ from personal sin against God (whether through idolatry, biblical injustice, social neglect, and various other covenant violations).
The meaning and background of Christian Realism set the terms of faith in God as relative to social interests. Specifically, where theology cannot describe God as such but only through human language and experience (Livingston, 169) to set the conditions by which people understand what traditions, practices, and lifestyles should be lived out. This indicates that divine revelation was purely codependent upon people without observation in Creation, direct encounter, Holy Spirit testimony, historical facts, archaeological discoveries, ancient literature, and means of communication other than immediate verbal or written interaction. Not to dismiss the purpose and intent of spoken and written communication among those who experience shared faith (such as at Pentecost), but to place proper and necessary emphasis upon revelation through absolute primary means. Where reason, language, culture, tradition, etc., are entirely subordinate to revelation with various weights of relevance.
Among the numerous explanatory positions Richard Niebuhr wrote, the Livingston text does not present Niebuhr as using scripture as a source of rationale to form substantive arguments to support his views. Philosophical consideration in support of a coherent and persuasive understanding of divine revelation toward Christian Realism would produce a lot of traction. He otherwise acknowledges the necessity of revelation to become informed of theological truth, and especially as interpreted among peers, but Niebuhr’s verbiage is a word salad of articulation that goes from revelation to knowledge, to experience, to reason, and back again to knowledge, experience, and reason as the whole endeavor is progressive for a desired or suitable outcome.
Reinhold Niebuhr viewed himself as a social critic and moralist. He also held to Liberal theology and attracted a lot of criticism from Protestants who were doctrinally grounded as his concern with justice was the embodiment of love (according to Livingston). Reinhold’s perspective concerning liberal theology revolved around love, justice, and power. Livingston’s interpretation of Reinhold’s views was that the failure to acquire and use power for the common good in one’s interests (Livingston, 189) was a persistent human sin. It was a failure to recognize one’s own will to power, as it was otherwise left to another group or class where injustice would be certain to arise from a secular or Christian source. Power, or equilibrium of it, was to be the objective, for the stated ideal of “love of neighbor.” More specifically, not through the Kingdom with its prescribed methodology by revelation or Scripture, but to achieve a systemic love-of-neighbor through the State, or socialism through the Church if need be. This is Liberal theology. Reinhold is noted for his changed thinking toward neo-orthodoxy later in life. Still, he did not develop a robust and coherent theology that was a source of reliable thought and influence among Protestants in the 20th century. Reinhold Niebuhr was a professor and Union Theological Seminary (liberal theology). He significantly influenced progressive political leaders such as Carter, Albright, Clinton, Obama, Comey, and others along the progressive-socialist spectrum.
With the emergence and development of Dialectical theology, it is apparent that early German Reformers and Liberal theologians had a lasting and permanent influence upon 20th-century theology. The chapter stretches across the time of socialist thought around theological meaning at a time it underwent a remarkable change for the better. The cultural degradation of society marked the inferior theology of liberalism and social doctrines as it sought meaning in the absence of God and His divine revelation through His inspired Word.
At the forefront of the Dialectical Theology movement was Karl Barth (1886-1968). He was a German Reformed Protestant Theologian who opposed the Nazi’s National Socialist movement in his native Deutschland. He was the most influential theologian of the twentieth century. His notoriety began with an encounter of betrayal as he observed 93 German intellectuals and his teachers as signatories of the Nazi war policy of Kaiser Wilhelm and Chancellor Bethmann-Hollweg. Barth stood up for Jews and other oppressed people while he viewed the compromise of his leaders as an ethical failure. He had concluded that 19th-century German theology was gone and of no further interest, so he set about to develop a “Theology of Crisis,” which is also understood as “Theology of the Word of God.” Both titles were correlated to the name and meaning of Dialectical Theology.
After the onset of the First World War in 1914, Barth found himself at the head of a theological revolution with the formation of a Dialectical Theology program with fellow contemporaries. The national socialist policy had a lasting and devastating impact on him, and the credibility of his theological leadership was lost. In the 1920s, Barth organized and led a group of young theologians as he counted his leadership within liberal socialist theology of Herrmann, Weiss, Troeltsch, and Schleiermacher as completely corrupted. Barth remained adherent to the Socialist Democrat Party while developing a new theology as the Bible came alive to him during a period of rediscovery of Scripture as divine revelation. While he functioned as a pastor and head of Reformed theology at Gottingen (1921), his continued progression toward opposition of the German National Socialist movement led to his exile. Eventually, he taught theology at the University of Basel, Switzerland, until retirement. Barth’s developed theology led to his rejection of socialism and its inherent effect of oppression upon people and economic injustices.
Within the formation of Dialectical theology, the notion of “Wholly Other” originated from Barth and was positioned among those who recognized a dire need for theological revolution. The biblical revelation of God as wholly other moved Barth to cast a different sort of reality less favorable to socialistic ideals. Moreover, entrenched social theologians who objected to Barth’s views about divine revelation through the “Word of God” spared no criticism. Barth’s detractors were numerous and persistent while sympathy and interest in Dialectical theology grew. “Crisis Theology” introduced doubts about subjectivism and the corresponding personal religious experience advocated by Schleiermacher while students, peers, and younger theologians demonstrated a loss of confidence in culture and state religion.
As a matter of course, a new generation of dialectical and liberal theologians arose to counter one another. They were divided on a number of subjects, but of critical interest was faith and modern historical consciousness. To the liberal theologians, it was important to understand the historical Jesus as it was necessary for faith in Christ. Advocates for theological historicism extended their rationale that knowledge of God, including moral and religious principles, definitively appears through relationships within biblical history. Rather from God as the source of divinely inspired revelation.
Friedrich Gogarten (1887-1967), a co-founder of dialectical theology, was a defender of Barth’s work while against the historicism of liberal theologian Ernst Wilhelm Troeltsch (1865-1923) of the German Democratic Party. As Livingston uses painstaking and extraordinarily elaborate prose to describe the dispute between Gogarten and Troeltsch’s views about the passage of time and God’s use of it, it becomes clear that the liberal and social theologians’ Jesus is a product of history and His place within the unfolding of time is requisite to knowing Him (i.e., as a counter to divine revelation through Scripture where Christ is within history). God instantiates and uses events and the passage of time to telegraph theological messaging as He is situated within it as the person of Christ. Still, He is wholly other or transcendent from creation to include time itself.
The crux of the dispute between Gogarten and Troeltsch appeared as the difference between the relative and absolute passage of time. Where, to Troeltsch’s view, the relationship between history and revelation of God was somehow mutually exclusive. As Troeltsch’s frame of reference was squared upon a social and subjective worldview, God’s work and existence in Christ had to be within the parameters of time and place where people were set in history. To understand their relationships with one another and with God was to become informed about how God provided theological truth. Whereas to Gogarten and Barth, the testimony and witness of Scripture revealed theological truth within history to situate absolute events and passage of time as prescribed for necessary outcomes (i.e., theological truth by divine revelation). “The ‘historical Jesus’ reconstructed from the records is not identical to revelation, to the act of God, which cannot be directly perceived in history” (Livingston, 71).
The Dialectical Method is a third way between dogmatism and mysticism or liberalism and orthodoxy. It doesn’t propose immediate solutions, but it leads to better-formed questions and a more coherent premise of thought around what God reveals about Himself. The wholly other God as present within our existence of space and time is revealed in a limited way through Christ, Creation, and Scripture. Yet, an inner and direct understanding of God is unattainable while in this plane of existence, and He cannot be fully known within this finite realm. To adopt the dialectical method is to embrace paradoxical expressions and works of God and what becomes comprehensible to us by His revelation.
The developments of evangelicalism from its fundamentalist roots in contrast to liberal and Catholic forms of religious tradition read as contentious and challenging. By denominational identity of historical, traditional, and theological commitments, it appears that individuals and groups situated themselves as counter positional to the preferences or convictions of people and entities who did not share a common interest or unity in Protestantism. The propagation of evangelical thought appeared in a continuous search for stability and coherence with fragmented organizations of influence and stature.
Through the historical development of evangelical theology or evangelicalism, the formation of the Kingdom to involve discipleship, the gospel, missions do not appear to elevate these as imperative matters of course from Christ across generations and cultures. The history of evangelical theology suggests such pursuits were merely incidental or adjacent to defense against liberalism and anti-intellectualism. The ever-present pressures of modernism and liberalism have taken a toll on the growth and development of Protestant interests. To such an extent that they had a leavening effect upon the Church. Especially from early institutions such as Princeton Theological Seminary and Fuller Theological Seminary, among others (Union, Vanderbilt, etc.).
Reactions from the Presbyterian General Assembly sought to establish pillars of unity around essential beliefs to include five fundamentals that countered theological Liberalism and Modernism. These convictions were centered and interrelated around the gospel, but their stated purpose read like an abbreviated form of confession to stave off theological dilution. It opened the door to a type of Walmart Christianity that brought about stigma and derision among unbelievers within Western culture. While fundamentalists sought to defend against Liberal Christianity, they instead achieved forms of isolation and separation of culture from society at large. The efforts of fundamentalists had an insulative effect as it withered in decline until it took on a new identity by the use of the respectable term “evangelical.”
Evangelicalism represented the transformation of fundamentalism as it valued academic scholarship, reformed tradition, confessional loyalty, and intellectual theologians to build a rightful and necessary stature around doctrine and revealed truth. Notably to gain its footing upon grounded theology as a formidable defense that took shape in the form of apologetic and eristic disciplines while making use of the sciences, philosophy, logic, and human reason to support its cause. Evangelicalism served as a reset from earlier fundamentalism that was repugnant to Western society. That is, it wasn’t an accommodation or capitulation to Liberal theological thought but a growing answer to its growth, influences, and pressures within the Church and academic institutions.
Conservative theologians of a Reformed heritage became further engaged within the Protestant Church and academic institutions to again bring scholarship as a grounded set of disciplines around doctrines, dogmatics, and a coherent repudiation of anti-intellectualism. Moreover, some had ecumenical aspirations to build limited solidarity around meaningful theological thought against Liberalism and Socialist Theology. As cases on point, Emil Brunner (1889-1966) regularly reached out to Catholic and Interdenominational organizations, while Carl F.H. Henry (1913-2003) founded the Institute for Advanced Christian Studies. Notably, while various other enterprises stood against earlier fundamentalist perspectives, further advancements were made in Europe with the growth of Neo-Orthodoxy from leaders Karl Barth, Rudolf Bultmann, and Emil Brunner.
There were tensions between rationalist reformed theologians like Carl Henry and formative leaders of neo-orthodoxy. Adherents to traditional confessional heritage were at odds with the Enlightenment’s challenges to theological methodologies. While more developed Protestant orthodoxy from the theology of Karl Barth and others was at odds also, it was best able to come to terms with the Enlightenment and more effectively assert Christian rationale and doctrines. The direction of theological discourse took a turn for the better. New and innovative methodologies emerged from the Bible and proper interpretation as supported by divine revelation with more meaningful presuppositional criteria, historicity, and compelling traditions.
The new theological trajectory of the 20th century was cast forward from fundamentalism by key influential figures. While Cornelius Van Til, E.J. Carnell, and Carl Henry stood in opposition to a new modern theology of Barth and other Neo-Orthodox theologians, it was C.G. Berkouwer and Bernard Ramm who called attention to the need for an answer to the Enlightenment (i.e., Immanuel Kant, Francis Bacon, and others). Consequently, the appeal of Barth’s neo-orthodox theology gained strength to adapt to changing social conditions brought about by more advanced philosophical thought.
Clark Pinnock (1937–2010), a Canadian theologian, sought to define the essence and identity of Christianity through narrative theology that involved community traditions like creeds, liturgies, hymns, prayers, and various actions unique to the faith. His efforts appealed to human interest in Christianity as a whole, where no single individual had the right to change its traditions. His perspective focused upon human benefit, the practice of worship, and the use of Scripture for the betterment and consumption of people. The idea of narrative theology to Pinnock was primarily a “Christian story” and secondarily a God-centered form of understanding through revelation. Pinnock emphasized the humanness of Scripture and the work of the Holy Spirit within it as he questioned the doctrine of inerrancy and aligned with the Pentecostal tradition of the Church. He sought to dissuade against the inspiration and illumination of Scripture but directed attention to the work of the Holy Spirit within people.
According to Livingston, some additional postmodern thinkers centered themselves on social and individualistic interest around tradition for religious meaning and truth within the greater evangelical sphere. They centered themselves around a contextual view of doctrine due to historical and cultural conditions that prevailed over time. Clark Pinnock and Stanley Grenz gave more weight to social interests concerning theological truth than to what divine revelation specifies about new covenant obligations, the life of faith, discipleship, and the gospel. It is highly suspect that this form of evangelical theology contributed to the rise of the social gospel and the enormous growth of “exvangelicals” in recent years. The expected course of liberal theology empties the use of divine revelation and its historical presence. It de-values the meaning and weight of redemptive intervention with the necessary truth claims made through Scripture. It helps explain trends toward individuals deconstructed from their faith where apostasy is on the increase, church attendance is significantly reduced, and evangelical theology is set on a trajectory of dissolution. Until Protestant interests return to the principles of Christ-centered theology, rather than the Wesleyan “quadrilateral” (i.e., Scripture, tradition, experience, reason), it has nowhere to go but inward while fraught by contradiction and confusion.
My reading this week made a connection between the method of interpretation and the authority of Scripture. The reason why some choose “reader response” as a hermeneutical method of scripture rather than “authorial intent” is because they do not want the authority of God’s Word on its divinely inspired terms. They want the meaning of scripture in human terms to suit personal interests.
Reader response is reading the Bible to suit what you want it to say and mean. Authorial intent rests upon what the Biblical authors intended by the Spirit in terms of meaning and principles (patriarchs, kings, sages, prophets, apostles, etc.). The tension is reminiscent of making something “in your own image” vs. accepting scripture as God’s revealed and authoritative word. Even further, the Bible is authoritative only to the extent people agree with it (i.e., it is not authoritative to those engaged in Reader Response).
Key gems in our reading distill these assembled facts: Those who refuse to acknowledge the Bible’s authority will not experience spiritual transformation by the Spirit and the Word. The Bible inherently possesses authority regardless of whether or not the church or individual recognizes it. The ontological ground of the text’s authority is not the same as the epistemic acceptance of the text’s authority. God’s act of inspiration grounds the Bible’s status as God’s revelation. God speaks through the Word whether people recognize or accept its authority or not and it is for this reason that contemporary agendas will never gain control over theology.
The weight of authority comes from a source of authority by revelation as God’s self-witness (e.g., fulfillment of prophecy, miracles, promises, judgments, etc.). This stands as warranted belief in the face of a multitude of defeater claims.
There is a difference between “what it meant” and “what it means.” “What it meant” leads to “what it means” as a matter of coherent principle where implications follow the intent and not what a reader surmises. Especially to form preferred outcomes according to biases stemming from cultural contexts. Moreover, it is possible to treasure biblical principles more than the Bible itself.
There are numerous meta-details around the poetry of Scripture, especially throughout the Psalms. An analysis of facts and details around the structure and background of poetry from a historical, theological, and literary perspective offers a deeper and more comprehensive view of ancient biblical literature and worship.
Themes of Psalms
A. The Sovereign God
The God of Creation (Ps 33, 74, 89, 95, 104, 135, 136, 147, 148)
The God of Israel (Ps 105, 106)
The God of the Nations (Ps 33)
The God who will establish His Rule upon the Earth
B. The People of God – the Righteous; the Enemies of God – the Wicked
C. God’s Attributes Known to His People (Ps 100, 107)
The wicked borrows and does not pay back, But the righteous is gracious and gives.
Ps 37:21, Ps 1:6, Prov 10:1, 2, 4, 7
Synthetic Parallelism
God is our refuge and strength, A very present help in trouble.
Ps 46:1, Ps 3:4, 29:1, 95:3, Eccl 11:1
Climactic Parallelism
In You our fathers trusted; They trusted and You delivered them. To You they cried out and were delivered; In You they trusted and were not disappointed.
Ps 22:4-5
Emblematic Parallelism
As the deer pants for the water brooks, So my soul pants for You, O God.
Ps 41, Ps 42:1, Ps 103:13
Formal (Catch-All)
“But as for Me, I have installed My King Upon Zion, My holy mountain.”
Ps 2:6, others
Rhythm of Thought – Types of Hebrew Parallelism
Rhythm of Sound – Types of Hebrew Poetry
Name
Definition
References
Acrostic
Text stanzas begin with a new letter of the Hebrew alphabet and continue sequentially until completion. A memory device.
The same sound begins with different words through the text.
Ps 122:6
Assonance
The end of each line is a sound alike.
Ps 119:29
Paronomasia
A play on words as written and read – Mispat (justice) vs Mispah (bloodshed)
Is 5:7
Onomatopeia
A word that sounds like what it is describing.
Ps 81:7
Inclusion
A line of text is repeated again in the same text.
Ps 118:1, 29
Rhythm of Sound – Types of Hebrew Poetry
Messianic Psalms
Instance
Messianic Description
Psalm
Fulfillment
1
God declares Jesus to be His Son.
Ps. 2:7
Matt. 3:17
2
All things will be put under Jesus’ feet.
Ps. 8:6
Heb. 2:8
3
Jesus will be resurrected from the dead.
Ps. 16:10
Mark 16:6-7
4
God will forsake Jesus in His hour of need.
Ps. 22:1
Matt. 27:46
5
Jesus will be scorned and mocked.
Ps. 22:7-8
Luke 23:35
6
Jesus’ hands and feet will be pierced.
Ps. 22:16
John 20:25-27
7
Others will gamble for Jesus’s clothing.
Ps. 22:18
Matt. 27:35-36
8
Not one of Jesus’ bones will be broken.
Ps. 34:20
John 19:32-33, 36
9
Jesus will be accused by false witnesses.
Ps. 35:11
Mark 14:57
10
Jesus will be hated without a cause.
Ps. 35:19
John 15:25
11
Jesus will come to do God’s will.
Ps. 40:7-8
Heb. 10:7
12
Jesus will be betrayed by a friend.
Ps. 41:9
Luke 22:47
13
Jesus’s throne will last forever.
Ps. 45:6
Heb 1:8
14
Jesus will ascend to God’s right hand.
Ps. 68:18
Mark 16:19
15
Zeal for God’s house will consume Jesus.
Ps. 69:9
John 2:17
16
Jesus will be given vinegar and gall to drink.
Ps. 69:21
Matt. 27:34
17
Jesus will be a worldwide king.
Ps. 72:1-19
Rev. 19:11-20:6
18
Jesus will pray for His enemies
Ps. 109:4
Luke 23:34
19
Jesus’ betrayer’s place will be filled by another.
Ps. 109:8
Acts 1:20
20
Jesus’ enemies will be made subject to Him.
Ps. 110:1
Matt. 22:44
21
Jesus will be a priest like Melchizedek.
Ps. 110:4
Heb. 5:6
22
Jesus will be the chief cornerstone.
Ps. 118:22
Matt. 21:42
23
Jesus will come in the name of the Lord.
Ps. 118:26
Matt. 21:91
Messianic Psalms
Interpretive History of Psalms
A. Writings – Individual and Freestanding
Psalms separately inspired and valued as:
Prophetic
Instructive
Allegorical
Historical-Grammatical
B. Worship – For Choirs and Others
C. Compilations – Scrolls, Codices or Books
Ancient Development of Psalms
The process of origination of the Psalms followed (1) individual personal development (2) giving of the Psalms to the Levites for temple worship (later synagogues), and (3) for collection to the book or compilation.
Each psalm originated as a separate piece of individual original work among the political and cultic leaders of Israel (Levites). The political leaders of Israel include Moses, David, and Solomon, and the cultic leaders include Asaph, the sons of Korah, Heman, and Ethan among them all.
After the Psalms were given to the Israelites for public worship in the temple, they were arranged in collection for retrieval and use. The origination of the Psalms was not collected in chronological order, theme, or by the author. They were collected and arranged with editorial intent. The words were retained, but the accompanying music detail was lost.
Psalm Order Formation by Intent
Hebrew Terms of Intent:
Zakar
Yadah
Halel
Meaning:
Remembrance
Acknowledgment
Praise
Idea:
A plea to God we are in trouble
Acknowledgment of answered prayer
Exaltation to God for who He is
Type:
Dirge: Lament (Psalms of Disorientation)
Gratitude: Declared Praise (Psalms of Reorientation)
Hymn: Descriptive Praise (Psalms of Orientation)
Psalm Order Formation by Intent
Psalm Order Formation by Type
The Laments (Psalms of Disorientation)
The Declaratives (Psalms of Reorientation)
The Descriptives (Psalms of Orientation)
Components:
Address Lament Confession of Trust Petition Vow to Praise or Declarative Praise of God
Components:
Proclamation to Praise God Summary Statement Report of Deliverance Praise of God
Components:
Call to Praise Cause of Praise Renewed Call to Praise
Songs to the accompaniment of a stringed instrument. Psalmoi (Greek) or Tehillim (Hebrew) to mean songs of praise or interest to the reader or listener. My personal prayers while reading through the Books of Psalms.
Book One
Chapter
Context
Response
Psalm 1
The Righteous and the Wicked Contrasted
LORD, you alone are completely righteous and You are my everlasting source of righteousness.
Psalm 2
The Reign of the LORD’S Anointed
LORD Jesus, You are the all-powerful and ultimate ruler of all, and I praise You for Your authority, wisdom, and reign.
Psalm 3
Morning Prayer of Trust in God
LORD Jesus, You are my shield and my rock and there is salvation by no other name than Yours.
Psalm 4
Evening Prayer of Trust in God
Holy Spirit, Your presence is what I desire to worship You, LORD, for who You are when I draw near to You.
Psalm 5
Prayer for Protection from the Wicked
LORD, I trust in You to lead me in Your way to keep me safe as you are my refuge.
Psalm 6
Prayer for Mercy in Time of Trouble
LORD, let not my iniquities keep me from You while I plea for your mercy and forgiveness.
Psalm 7
The LORD Implored to Defend the Psalmist against the Wicked
LORD, you have sustained me all these years and it is my continuous heart of repentance that I offer to You.
Psalm 8
The LORD’S Glory and Man’s Dignity
LORD, how awesome is the work of Your hands to bring to existence the Universe and all that exists.
Psalm 9
A Psalm of Thanksgiving for God’s Justice
LORD, let the people of all nationalities see Your glory and what You have made and decreed.
Psalm 10
A Prayer for the Overthrow of the Wicked
LORD, let not the wicked prevail and lend Your strength to the afflicted who trust in You.
Psalm 11
The LORD a Refuge and Defense
LORD, as you hate the wicked and violent, let Your compassion be the source of refuge for those who are Yours.
Psalm 12
God, a Helper against the Treacherous
LORD, while many have abandoned You and Your ways, remember me, and deliver me to safety as I trust in Your word.
Psalm 13
Prayer for Help in Trouble
LORD, while at times I grow distant, may Your steadfast love cause me to rejoice in Your salvation.
Psalm 14
Folly and Wickedness of Men
LORD, You cannot abide those who deny You exist while You restore the fortunes of Your people.
Psalm 15
Description of a Citizen of Zion
LORD, You dwell with those who walk blamelessly before You by the power of Your Spirit.
Psalm 16
The LORD the Psalmist’s Portion in Life and Deliverer in Death
LORD Jesus, Your defeat over death and Your resurrection is astonishing and I confess as my testimony that You are God.
Psalm 17
Prayer for Protection against Oppressors
LORD, as I call upon You day-by-day, deliver me of any wickedness within me and let my praise please You.
Psalm 18
The LORD Praised for Giving Deliverance
LORD, You are the source of my security and significance while my identity and whole being rests in You.
Psalm 19
The Works and the Word of God
LORD, never let Your word depart from my heart and mind as I worship and honor you throughout all my days.
Psalm 20
Prayer for Victory over Enemies
LORD, as I bear Your name, let it be both in voice and deed that I remember all You’ve spoken in Your word.
Psalm 21
Praise for Deliverance
LORD, I exalt You over all authorities and powers that reside on the Earth for all time.
Psalm 22
A Cry of Anguish and a Song of Praise
LORD Jesus, You are worthy of all power and authority as the lamb who was slain for the redemption of the world.
Psalm 23
The LORD, the Psalmist’s Shepherd
LORD, Your goodness and mercy are a comfort to me as I seek You and dwell in Your house forever.
Psalm 24
The King of Glory Entering Zion
LORD, You are the King of glory, and it is You in whom I delight.
Psalm 25
Prayer for Protection, Guidance and Pardon
LORD, I am completely reliant upon You to guide my decisions and the course of this life You have given to me.
Psalm 26
Protestation of Integrity and Prayer for Protection
LORD, You are my focus, and I will proclaim You, and serve You as my delight all my days.
Psalm 27
A Psalm of Fearless Trust in God
LORD, if not You in my life, then nothing as You are the One I desire above all else.
Psalm 28
A Prayer for Help, and Praise for Its Answer
LORD, you are the refuge of Your anointed, and those who trust in You rejoice!
Psalm 29
The Voice of the LORD in the Storm
LORD, Your voice is full of power, majesty, and splendor as it speaks of Your glory and holiness.
Psalm 30
Thanksgiving for Deliverance from Death
LORD, my heart sings of your mercy and abundant forgiveness that I would tell others of your love, kindness, and faithfulness!
Psalm 31
A Psalm of Complaint and of Praise
LORD, as I age and become drained of vitality and strength by wear and decay, I place into Your hands my entire being.
Psalm 32
The blessedness of Forgiveness and of Trust in God
LORD, You are my hiding place as my sins are covered and my transgressions are forgiven.
Psalm 33
Praise to the Creator and Preserver
LORD, by the guidance of Your word, in spirit and truth, I worship You as Your abundant love is steadfast and my continued delight.
Psalm 34
The LORD, a Provider, and Deliverer
LORD, the presence of Your Spirit overflowing within and over the pages of Your Word testifies to my spirit Your goodness.
Psalm 35
Prayer for Rescue from Enemies
LORD, You are Great and above all, and I trust You to go before me during trials and encounters of heavy burden.
Psalm 36
The wickedness of Men and Lovingkindness of God
LORD, Your steadfast love is new every morning and it stands as an example of the love You have empowered me to give to people when it sometimes isn’t so easy.
Psalm 37
Security of Those Who Trust in the LORD, and Insecurity of the Wicked
LORD, You have demonstrated again and again that when I delight in You, You, in turn, give me the desires of my heart and help make my steps sure and straight.
Psalm 38
Prayer of a Suffering Penitent
LORD, while on my knees and face to the floor before You, You know my heart and my day-by-day desperate prayers of deliverance and repentance from the sins that I despise.
Psalm 39
The Vanity of Life
LORD, PLEASE hear the complaint of my distress for permanent sanctification as I desire to walk by the Spirit and continuously bear the fruit You desire.
Psalm 40
God Sustains His Servant
LORD, while the pressures and evils of this world clamor for my attention and interest, I remember Your work of faithfulness and mercy as You are my ever-present help and deliverer.
Psalm 41
The Psalmist in Sickness Complains of Enemies and False Friends
LORD, I confess I have greatly sinned against You and others, and yet by Your grace, I trust in You for forgiveness and cleansing You have done.
Book Two
Chapter
Context
Response
Psalm 42
Thirsting for God in Trouble and Exile
LORD, even as some who are known by your name are contentious and contradictory, let Your grace and peace rest upon me as I seek Your truth.
Psalm 43
Prayer for Deliverance
LORD God, my hope is in You even while some within the household of faith are in turmoil and live in a spirit of error.
Psalm 44
Former Deliverances and Present Troubles
LORD, You are my ever-present and constant source of help and confidence.
Psalm 45
A Song Celebrating the King’s Marriage
LORD, You are my delight, and I worship You and honor You as my everlasting and glorious King.
Psalm 46
God the Refuge of His People
LORD, be forever exalted among the nations as You are our eternal rock and high tower worthy of all glory, praise, and honor.
Psalm 47
God the King of the Earth
My LORD Most High, Your reign and seat of power over all Heaven and Earth is filled with righteousness and praise.
Psalm 48
The Beauty and Glory of Zion
LORD, Your steadfast love is abundant while You dwell in our hearts by Your Holy Spirit.
Psalm 49
The Folly of Trusting in Riches
LORD, even in times of fear and anxiety, I will attend my heart, mind, soul, and strength to You and Your Kingdom as You are worthy of all praise and glory.
Psalm 50
God the Judge of the Righteous and the Wicked
LORD, as my thought life is my biggest problem, I will trust in Your righteous judgments and discipline as I desire to be close to You always.
Psalm 51
A Contrite Sinner’s Prayer for Pardon
LORD, I have sinned against You innumerable times, yet I trust you and desire to please You in repentance as I love You and want to serve You all the days You have given to me.
Psalm 52
Futility of Boastful Wickedness
LORD, all that I have is Yours, and it is Your steadfast love that I will always trust.
Psalm 53
Folly and Wickedness of Men
LORD, I ask for Your continued presence and protection all my days as I seek You and call upon You as my God who I love and worship.
Psalm 54
Prayer for Defense Against Enemies
LORD, hear my prayer and uphold my life to glorify You and serve Your Kingdom in every way that You desire as I trust and obey You in truth.
Psalm 55
Prayer for the Destruction of the Treacherous
LORD, yet while in distress about society today, I trust in You as You are Just, and I am assured and confident that You are at work in Your Kingdom.
Psalm 56
Supplication for Deliverance and Grateful Trust in God
LORD, as You know my pleas for deliverance from besetting sin and obstinate selfish interest, I have faith in You, and I trust You for what You’re doing to transform my heart.
Psalm 57
Prayer for Rescue from Persecutors
LORD, awaken my spirit to produce a love that I wish to live in full all my days before You.
Psalm 58
Prayer for the Punishment of the Wicked
LORD, Your judgments upon the wicked are righteous, and I rejoice in Your acts of justice.
Psalm 59
Prayer for the Deliverance from Enemies
LORD, deliver me from the enemy of sin as I trust You to permanently remove corrupt desires that set a distance between us.
Psalm 60
Lament Over Defeat in Battle, and Prayer for Help
LORD, my courage originates from You as You are my shield and my defense.
Psalm 61
Confidence in God’s Protection
LORD, appoint Your steadfast love and guidance over those who are shepherds of Your word.
Psalm 62
God Alone a Refuge From Treachering and Oppression
LORD, You are my safety and security, and You are the source of my significance while I trust you for fulfillment and nourishment; Your word is my lamp and my guide.
Psalm 63
The Thirsting Soul Satisfied in God
LORD, while adversaries of Your kingdom are contentious and critical, I will trust in You and Your word for instruction and truth by Your Spirit.
Psalm 64
Prayer for Deliverance From Secret Enemies
LORD, keep my heart and mind from the deceptive and wicked influences of evil people who appear well-meaning and of “goodwill.”
Psalm 65
God’s Abundant Favor to Earth and Man
LORD, forgiveness, restoration, and salvation are made possible through Your Son so that You are glorified and given all due honor and praise.
Psalm 66
Praise for God’s Mighty Deeds and For His Answer to Prayer
LORD, You have given me the ability to perceive by the sense within me You have designed, and with these faculties, I choose to see and hear You, and learn Your ways and praise You.
Psalm 67
The Nations Exhorted to Praise God
LORD, the nations are under Your rule and subject to honor You and confess before You that You are LORD and Creator of Heaven and Earth.
Psalm 68
The God of Sinai and of the Sanctuary
LORD, may You be blessed by your graciousness and peace upon Your people who are known by Your name.
Psalm 69
A Cry of Distress and Imprecation on Adversaries
LORD, may Your name be magnified through my life, conduct, and character as You are faithful and my anchor during times of trouble.
Psalm 70
Prayer for Help Against Persecutors
LORD, be promptly attentive to my pleas for your presence so that I would be delivered of anything and everything that might offend You.
Psalm 71
Prayer of an Old Man for Deliverance
LORD, it is my prayer that the fruits of the Spirit would reign within me as I age according to Your will.
Psalm 72
The Reign of the Righteous King
LORD Jesus, may I model Your heart for the needy, the poor, and the oppressed as You are my treasure and everlasting perfect King.
Book Three
Chapter
Context
Response
Psalm 73
God is My Strength and Portion Forever
LORD, You alone possess the words of eternal life and salvation, and You are my refuge in who I trust to guide me with Your counsel and Spirit.
Psalm 74
Arise, O God, Defend Your Cause
LORD God, call to remembrance how I have trusted You and delighted in You where You were at work in my heart and soul for your glory and good pleasure.
Psalm 75
God Will Judge with Equity
LORD, Your judgments are righteous and just as You lift up and redeem some while holding down and casting aside others.
Psalm 76
Who Can Stand Before You?
LORD, You are awesome and wonderous; who can stand before You and Your majestic glory?
Psalm 77
In the Day of Trouble I Seek the Lord
LORD, without You, life is desolate and unfruitful, yet I remember Your work in my heart and spirit to love and worship You to honor and praise You all my days.
Psalm 78
Tell the Coming Generation
My LORD Most High, deliver me with permanent repentance that I would not offend You by repeat offenses. Please pierce my heart to change it where I would delight in You more than any other thing that I would want or desire.
Psalm 79
How Long, O LORD?
LORD, deliver me from any and all competing interests that would draw me away from You. My desire is to be holy, pure, and righteous as You are, and as You are the God of salvation, I trust in You for the work of Your compassion.
Psalm 80
Restore Us, O God
LORD, save and restore me from my lapses in attention and sincere devotion. My desire is with You, but I ask You to cleanse and sustain me as my spirit is nourished by Your steadfast love.
Psalm 81
Oh, That My People Would Listen to Me
LORD, I call to You from within my mind and soul to transform my heart and fill me with Your Spirit. You alone are my delight and satisfaction.
Psalm 82
Rescue the Weak and Needy
LORD, I am in awe of Your pronouncements of justice among those who were appointed to govern and judge the nations. Let Your heart for justice and compassion be seared into my heart and mind as I want to be marked and indwelled by Your righteousness and holiness.
Psalm 83
O God, Do Not Keep Silence
LORD, You are great and most fearsome over all the nations and across all generations for all time!
Psalm 84
My Soul Longs for the Courts of the LORD
LORD of Hosts, I trust in You, and I am ever grateful to appear before You in Your presence. Accept my worship and prayer as I honor You all the days of my life.
Psalm 85
Revive Us Again
LORD, let me not turn back to the folly of my old ways as You are faithful. Keep me from temptation and stumbling as I offer You my prayers and devotion.
Psalm 86
Great Is Your Steadfast Love
LORD, even in the face of my repeated sin which I despise, I lift up my soul to You. Hear my pleas for Your mercies and grace for sanctification. Let Your Spirit remind me each day of Your ways and to fear Your name.
Psalm 87
Glorious Things of You Are Spoken
LORD, it is entirely pleasing that You would love to dwell among Your people!
Psalm 88
I Cry Out Day and Night Before You
LORD, every day my prayers are offered to You in adoration, confession, thanksgiving, and supplication, where I am calling to You for peace and right relationship with You. Please hear my prayers and answer me in Your abundant mercy and kindness.
Psalm 89
I Will Sing of the Steadfast Love of the LORD
LORD, how abundant are Your mercies and faithfulness as You are awesome and worthy of praise and exaltation. Your steadfast love for David and Your people proves to me Your faithfulness, and Your works of salvation give me hope.
Book Four
Chapter
Context
Response
Psalm 90
From Everlasting to Everlasting
LORD, the prayer of Your servant Moses is a delight as he is faithful and loyal to You and Your name. Let me bear the heart of Moses and the heart of David by what I learn in Your Word. You are generous and satisfying as I seek to know You through Your faithfulness to who You have appointed as leaders of Your people.
Psalm 91
My Refuge and My Fortress
LORD, the beauty of Your Word in this Psalm is unmatched by words uttered by human voice. For many years I have dwelled in Your Word, and by Your Spirit, I have been in Your keeping. I delight in Your dwelling places and where You would want me to be, where You would want me to go, and what You would want me to do. LORD, never let me forsake You and make Your keeping of my soul permanent as I seek You and abide in You.
Psalm 92
How Great Are Your Works
LORD, as I worship You and give offerings at Your church I attend, let this time and effort bear fruit as righteousness grows among members to glorify You.
Psalm 93
The LORD Reigns
LORD, as You reign in the hearts of Your people, let everyone see and understand how awesome and powerful You are. To see Your glory and holiness and proclaim Your goodness and trustworthy ways.
Psalm 94
The LORD Will Not Forsake His People
LORD, how long will You permit people to mock and profane Your Imago Dei in the name of modern “social justice”? Let Your justice and care for the impoverished, fatherless, abused, and oppressed grow in the hearts of Your people.
Psalm 95
Let Us Sing Songs of Praise
LORD, in joy, overflowing, I praise You and worship You. You are my peace and rest as I adore You because of who You are and by all Your wonderful attributes.
Psalm 96
Worship in the Splendor of Holiness
LORD, You reign over all the Earth, and You are worshiped by all Your people as creation testifies of Your goodness.
Psalm 97
The LORD’S Power and Dominion
LORD, I give thanks to Your holy name, and I rejoice in You. You are most high exalted over of creation and far above all elohim.
Psalm 98
Sing Praise to the King
LORD, Your judgments upon the nations are righteous, and Your steadfast love and faithfulness upon Your people bring praises to my lips. I rejoice in You by song and adoration as You are my everlasting confidence and peace.
Psalm 99
The LORD is Holy
LORD, You are holy, holy, holy as You are great and exalted above all Your creation and all nations!
Psalm 100
Give Thanks to the LORD
LORD, Your enduring love, which began from before Your creation, is steadfast and faithful.
Psalm 101
Remembering God’s Love
LORD, let Your people and appointed leaders be subject to Your wisdom according to Your truth and righteousness.
Psalm 102
A Prayer for Help
LORD, when I am in distress and circumstances seem hopeless, and without any viable way through hardship, You are there and bring me through. You are able to deliver Your people and Your creation through difficulties and disasters because You are God and in total control.
Psalm 103
Praise God, who Forgives
LORD bless You as your kingdom rules over all and as Your authority is set over all of the heavens and the Earth.
Psalm 104
Praise God, who Creates
LORD God, by Your will, You created everything, and by Your will, they are sustained. How incomprehensible are Your ways, and how marvelous are Your power and glory.
Psalm 105
Thanksgiving for God’s Deliverance
LORD God, I thank You for Your faithfulness to Your covenant across all generations. Your covenant fulfilled through Jesus, where the new covenant of Your kingdom lives on for Your glory is my joy and delight.
Psalm 106
The Unfaithfulness of God’s People
LORD God, I thank You for Your faithfulness to Your covenant across all generations. Your covenant fulfilled through Jesus, where the new covenant of Your kingdom lives on for Your glory is my joy and delight.
Book Five
Chapter
Context
Response
Psalm 107
Let the Redeemed of the LORD Say So
LORD, Thank You for Your steadfast love as it is wonderous and everlasting. By Your steadfast love Your people are delivered.
Psalm 108
With God We Shall Do Valiantly
LORD as I praise and worship You, I am moved and heartened as I desire to obey You with all my mind, heart, and strength.
Psalm 109
Help Me, O LORD My God
LORD, please be merciful to me as I have sinned in attitude, thought, and mind against Your people who are willfully disobedient against Your word. Please forgive me as I work to live out the fruits of the Spirit in gentleness, kindness, and grace.
Psalm 110
Sit at My Right Hand
LORD Jesus, it is awesome to consider who You are and Your authority over all of creation. You are the eternal High Priest and King of kings as our Messianic mediator between God and humanity.
Psalm 111
Great Are the LORD’s Works
LORD, thank You that You have given us Your word to learn of who You are, what You have done and what You are doing.
Psalm 112
The Righteous Will Never Be Moved
LORD, while Your word says that perfect love casts out all fear, I am in awe of Your fearsome power, knowledge, and presence.
Psalm 113
Who Is like the LORD Our God?
LORD, let me be humbled to witness Your glory as Your power and work are revealed throughout creation.
Psalm 114
Tremble at the Presence of the Lord
LORD, just as You have delivered Your people from captivity thousands of years ago, please deliver Your people from indifference, corruption, and their own spiritual preferences against Your interests.
Psalm 115
To Your Name Give Glory
LORD, much of what is produced in Your church is about money and status, as compared to Your instructions and glory. My heart and mind rests in You and as You have given abundant grace to Your people, that is my desire, too.
Psalm 116
I Love the LORD
LORD, You are gracious and righteous, and my gratitude belongs to You for who You are and what You have done through Your Son and the work of creation.
Psalm 117
The LORD’s Faithfulness Endures Forever
LORD, as Your lovingkindness is great and Your truth is everlasting, let all the nations praise and exalt You above all else.
Psalm 118
His Steadfast Love Endures Forever
LORD, as isolation, rejection, and enmity of people in Your church become pressed against me, and one another, my confidence stands in You and Your word as an anchor.
Psalm 119
Your Word Is a Lamp to My Feet
LORD, Your Word lights my path before me as Your truth and instructions are a delight to my soul. Your Word is pleasing, and the source of nourishment needed to glorify You and dwell in Your truth. By Your Spirit, teach me Your Word as it was originated and intended for Your purposes and good pleasure.
Psalm 120
Deliver Me, O LORD
LORD, I confess that at times my word is terse and abrasive from unwanted emotions or circumstances that have become contentious. Please help me to guard my tongue from deception and error where dishonor or indifference gets in between us, or those we love.
Psalm 121
My Help Comes from the LORD
LORD, I trust You to keep my heart and soul directed to Your ways and Your interests all my life.
Psalm 122
Let Us Go to the House of the LORD
LORD, let my worship be directed to You and just for what You have done for me. I want to be in worship where Your holiness and beauty is cherished and admired without sensational allure or mere emotional entanglement.
Psalm 123
Our Eyes Look to the LORD Our God
Non nisi te, Domine.
Psalm 124
Our Help Is in the Name of the LORD
LORD, I am susceptible to worldly influences that direct my attention away from the path of sanctification You have set before me. As you have directed my steps in life, I trust You to bring me to completion as Your workmanship.
Psalm 125
The LORD Surrounds His People
LORD, it is You alone I trust for my security and significance. It is not my desire to derive my sense of self-worth or value from anything other than who You say that I am. You are my prize and the treasure that I long to have. Please let Your Spirit keep my heart and mind directed toward You even in the face of towering obstacles.
Psalm 126
Restore Our Fortunes, O LORD
LORD, I am available for the work You see fit in which I could honor and serve You. Bring me to people and ministry that is for Your kingdom as suitable to Your interests.
Psalm 127
Unless the LORD Builds the House
LORD, You provide the resources necessary for Your people to dwell in You. As the birds of the air are cared for, and the lilies of the field are arrayed in beauty, warmth, and sunlight, You care for Your children because You love them.
Psalm 128
Blessed Is Everyone Who Fears the LORD
LORD, the lived and labor of this household belongs to You, and it is my desire that we honor You in obedience and by the fruit of the Spirit.
Psalm 129
They Have Afflicted Me from My Youth
LORD, I respect, admire, support, and defend Your people of modern Israel as I love Your people of ancient times even during their times of tribulation and alienation.
Psalm 130
My Soul Waits for the Lord
LORD, I do hope in Your word and my soul waits for You to dwell in Your lovingkindness. Thank you for Your lovingkindness, forgiveness, and renewal that I could stand before You.
Psalm 131
I Have Calmed and Quieted My Soul
LORD, how You guide me and where You take me is where I want to be. Even with persistent worldly pressures, and desires of the flesh, I will trust in You for my present and my future as You have guided me and kept my soul with You in the past.
Psalm 132
The LORD Has Chosen Zion
Father God, thank You for Your Son who makes it possible to love and honor You with all my heart, mind, soul, and strength. Thank You for Your servant, David who You love, and for Your promises fulfilled down through the ages as You are faithful.
Psalm 133
When Brothers Dwell in Unity
LORD, You are the origin of unity in truth. In You there is peace through You where the unity of Your people is found by what we accept as truth in what we understand and conclude about how existence, creation, and social order really is.
Psalm 134
Come, Bless the LORD
LORD, as blessings come from You, we bless You by praising You. Your blessings are abundant and beyond measure, as You bring to Your people the capacity to receive and give due honor and praise to You for Your glory.
Psalm 135
Your Name, O LORD, Endures Forever
LORD, You provide all that we need as You are good and above all gods, all pleasures, and anything above creation itself. I treasure You for the good that You have done and Your Son for what He is doing.
Psalm 136
His Steadfast Love Endures Forever
LORD, for the numerous works You have done for Your people, Your presence and power are undeniable and praiseworthy.
Psalm 137
How Shall We Sing the LORD’s Song?
LORD, as You have permitted the captivity of Your people to Babylon, I am reminded of the times of spiritual exile I have endured over the course of life. Help me to learn from those seasons of dryness where I am fully confident in You and Your sovereignty.
Psalm 138
Give Thanks to the LORD
LORD God, I do not want to set anything before You or above You. LORD, transform my heart will full and lasting repentance and obedience where I am able to walk according to the Spirit, according to Your will.
Psalm 139
Search Me, O God, and Know My Heart
Search me, O God, and know my heart; Try me and know my anxious thoughts; And see if there be any hurtful way in me and lead me in the everlasting way.
Psalm 140
Deliver Me, O LORD, from Evil Men
LORD, Your servant David serves as a model for me as praises and prayers are offered to You. When hardships from others are upon me, I will recount Your promises about maintaining my desire, will, and efforts to follow You and obey.
Psalm 141
Give Ear to My Voice
LORD, be merciful to me a sinner. The root of my unacceptable thoughts and words is my heart that needs regeneration and renewal. As I call out to You in repentance, please guard my heart that I would not think or speak in ways displeasing to You.
Psalm 142
You Are My Refuge
LORD, in our distress we reach out to You for mercy and deliverance. We at times become afraid because of what hardships and circumstances are upon us. We wish to avoid pain and suffering, and so we call to You even when our motives are not pure. Please be merciful to us who are unable to pray, praise, and petition correctly out of proper reasons to love and obey You.
Psalm 143
My Soul Thirsts for You
LORD, the urgency of restored fellowship with You by Your Spirit is heavy on the heart and mind as I reach out to You in prayer for cleansing, deliverance, and sanctification. Let my prayers be heard and answer them according to my plea, so that I would not ever offend You.
Psalm 144
My Rock and My Fortress
LORD, Your ever-present help is needed before, during, and after times of conflict with personal temptations, pressures, and interpersonal struggles. Let my voice be heard and anticipate what is needed for my continued and lasting work of devotion.
Psalm 145
Great Is the LORD
LORD, the best part of following You is Knowing You for who You are. You are my joy and my righteousness and my heart’s desire is to know You, LORD. I want to be found in You as I belong to You. You are my treasured possession, my peace, and I am nothing without You.
Psalm 146
Put Not Your Trust in Princes
LORD, it isn’t enough that my thoughts and words praise You and honor You. My desire is that my actions and conduct reflect Your grace and presence in my life. Let my life be a living sacrifice acceptable to You by what I do for those whom You love.
Psalm 147
He Heals the Brokenhearted
LORD, the power You have demonstrated since the beginning has been made evident by historical records from antiquity. Even today and until the new Heaven and Earth, You are at work to bring together Your interests and purposes for the nations and mankind.
Psalm 148
Praise the Name of the LORD
LORD, how wonderful is the splendor and magnificence of Your creative work. When I look to the mountains, I see You there. When I look to the stars and galaxies, I see You there. In my limited capacity to understand You and Your ways, I worship You.
Psalm 149
Sing to the LORD a New Song
LORD, as I sing and play my instruments of praise, may they be an acceptable offering to You. Bring to my heart more time and energy to commit the music I play in honor to You for worship and praise pleasing to You and Your people.
Psalm 150
Let Everything Praise the LORD
LORD God, may my offerings of praise, worship, confession, lament, and adoration be acceptable and pleasing to You. Let the accumulation of all my lifetime praises be as fruit that is well-pleasing and a blessing to You. I praise You and love You.
