Summa Theologica By John Milbank

For the Life of the World authored by Fr. Alexander Schmemann an Orthodox priest was originally intended as a “study guide” in the 1970’s for students preparing themselves for Missionary work, giving them a “world view”, helping to speak about Christian view points along with an approach to how they coalesce through the eyes of the Orthodox Church. A key theme Fr. Schmemann discussed is Secularism, which he believes developed from our progressive alienation of the Christian culture. Additionally, he presents his interpretation of the transforming biblical themes of creation, fall, and redemption through a sacramental understanding. Fr. Schmemann’s experiences within the Orthodox Church liturgy reveal unity in the meanings of these three themes. It is through these understandings he believes can effectively offset the disastrous effects of secularism while revitalizing the sacramental understanding of the world.

The subject of the book, author’s purpose and intended audience: The history of Christian thought in the modern era was a quest of today’s Christian. Faith in a multi-denominational society decreases a sense of belonging. Since the Enlightenment some

Christianity is a faith based religious tradition, of which the follower is considered to be a Christian adherent. Thus, being a living tradition, Christianity is continually subject to change in accordance to the needs of the adherent and reaffirming the Christian tradition within a contemporary context. The aspects, which attribute the present existence of Christianity and its dynamism therein, include sacred texts and writings, ritual and ceremonies, beliefs and believers, and ethics. Ultimately, the aforementioned characteristics strive to form and continually validate answers to the enduring questions of life through a process of change, which simultaneously highlights Christianity as a living tradition.

Although Catholic theology is indebted to Aquinas, I think there are good reasons to reconsider the Utility Thesis and points (1) and (2).

i) Basically holds concept of the Christian society of Christ’s mystical body. [Christ has triple mode of existence: eternal Word; God-man mediator; the Church of which he is head & the faithful the members.]

This book calls the church to rethink and modify its practices, by providing a middle path between the emerging church and the conservative that aims to benefit all. There are major shift happening in the Western Church that has people talking. The problem is that churches fail to follow a mission-centered approach. Chester and Timmis have found that in order to refocus the churches

The first section of the book is about “theological foundations”, as its title notes. Among all of the elements discussed in this section – all of which are valid and important, an

Living in Christian community is a necessity for the everyday life of a Christian. Without community, the Christian has no one else to “sharpen” them, no one else to understand the everyday struggle of living in the world, sharing the Gospel, but not partaking in the sinful ways of the world. In “Life Together”, Dietrich Bonhoeffer explores Christian community, and presents not only the benefits of Christian community, but also the toxins that can destroy the community. Living in Christian community brings incomparable joy and community in and through Jesus Christ, but can be easily lost due to humanistic ideals, or “dreams”.

For centuries The Five Ways, drawn from St. Thomas Aquinas’s Summa Theologica have been studied, scrutinized, and at the epicenter of heated debate.

In his article, "How Religion Can Lead to Violence", demonstrates a man who, however he's a philosopher and disturbed with religion, is totally mindful to what atheists and secularists have been stating for a large length of time. Gary clarifies the connection of religion to slim tolerance and the violence it can prompt.

Gerhard Lohfink, German-born in 1934, was Professor of New Testament at the University of Tübinger. In 1986 he resigned to live and work as a theologian in the Catholic Integrierte Gemeinde—a community of priests. This move seems to be a direct outflow of his studies and increasing conviction around the communal aspects of Church from which this book was birthed in 1982. In his introduction Lohfink talks about the influence of Adolf von Harnack towards an individual experience of God. Jesus and Community is Lohfink’s response to the outfall

Finally, those who adhere to the Reformed tradition have enthusiastically promoted a vision of the transformation of culture. According to this viewpoint, the various cultural and social structures in this life can be renewed in Christ. No aspect of reality is alien

At some point, every great theologian faces the challenge to read a journal article on a topic so he or she can write a critique in order to bring clarity or confirmation. We see this in the academic world a lot. And besides doing the work as a requirement, this is an opportunity to prepare one to write better, to expose to different disciplines of theology, to develop critical thinking, to expose to principles of rules, and to eventually write better Research Papers. All this in consideration, this critique paper is based on the systematic theology interpretation of the deity of Jesus Christ.

In the 20th century the question of natural theology was under deep debate. While the enlightenment had a deep confidence in gaining knowledge of God through observation of the natural world, this attitude was deeply criticised in both philosophy and theology. On the one hand Heidegger criticized this project as deeply ontotheological confusing the distinction between beings and the Being of beings. Moreover as a result of this enterprise, one was left with the philosopher’s God at best, a god to which one could not praise, pray to or sacrifice. On the other hand Barth lambasted it as denying the subjectivity of God, and submitting God to the same kind of being as humans, reducing the creator to the realm of the created while simultaneous denying the finitude and falleness of human rationality. For Barth there could be no “point of contact” and the analogy of being of the medieval period must be scrapped for the analogy of faith, an inbreaking from the top down miracle of grace . But while Barth claims Natural theology as an irrelevant for revelation, Natural theology is the condition of possibility of the human side of revelation. This will be shown through a critical examination of Barth’s doctrine of revelation, an appropriation of Jean-Luc Marion’s phenomenology of revelation and an exploration of Pannenberg’s theological method.

Central to this condition Albert Camus found the "death of god:" the realization, sometimes only subliminally, that, in Nietzsche's words, the "Christian god has ceased to be believable," at least for intelligent humans marked by the spirit of modernity. After 350 years of continual social transformations under the push of industrialization, capitalism, world-wide social revolutions, and the development of modern science, what reasonably remains of the traditional faith in divine transcendence and providential design except a deep-felt, almost "ontological" yearning for transcendent meaning?