For this paper, I read and analyzed the Humanity of God, a series of three writings by Karl Barth. I focused specifically on his writing Evangelical Theology in the 19th Century. Barth begins by defining theology broadly and then evangelical theology specifically, he then expounds on its history, the theologians who represented it and the groundwork it was built on. He also discusses issues brought up by problems in the initial groundwork. This paper will explore the nature of theology drawing from the examples of the 19th century set by Barth and compare and contrast it with personal perspective on and experience with 21st century theology. The paper will conclude with an application of the Barth’s stance on the nature of theology to a …show more content…
He goes on to talk about the importance of history in academic fields but especially in Theology. This resonates with Wesley’s Quadrilateral, in which tradition is one of four important aspects that inform our theology. The cause for the breach between the theology of the two centuries is primarily because “theology turned into the philosophy of the history of religion in general, and of the Christian religion in particular [by the end of the 19th century]” (13). Why did this happen under the watch of individuals who Barth describes as “[the] type of person that merits our highest respect” (17)? He explains that a multifaceted attack of the culture, outlook and general mindset of the time period on theology as a whole changed its primary objective. According to Barth, the “[development] of a new and positive understanding of Christian truth and truths in themselves… [is] a primary necessity at all times” (19) and the primary purpose of evangelical theology. However, the 19th century theologians were primarily concerned with how theology would confront the spirit of the age. They managed to get so caught up in trying to grab the attention of the common man universally that they forgot that God was the foundation for theology. Barth describes theology’s self-exposure to the world as its strength (18) but goes onto say that 19th century theology went “overboard – and this was its weakness – insofar as
Rauschenbusch believes that theology has “lost its contact with the synoptic thought of Jesus” (133). While
“To be sure, some scholars have in recent decades argued that justification is not the center of Pauline thought but is rather a subsidiary doctrine. In its place they have proposed other integrating doctrines. Barth thinks that the confession of Jesus Christ is more basic than justification, which he defends—although he offers a novel doctrine of both: Justification he considers but a new insight into an already universally effective Christological salvation. Yet many others, including J. Gresham Machen and Leon Morris, have championed the evangelical mainstream view that justification is basic and central.”
As Christians we often believe certain things simply because it’s what our parents and the people around us believe. We often go about our Christian walk without ever giving thought or reason to why we believe what we do. The world of Christian Theology is a place where Christians can find answer to the ‘what and why’ of Christianity. If we are able to begin comprehending Christian Theology and the rudimental knowledge of it, then we can take it with us into more in depth books and discussions about theology, know the importance of it and how vital it is for Christians
The Bible and its text is trustworthy and reliable to its fullest, but on this journey in seeking the word of God can using it in how daily life is where arises an important question; How now is to understand the idea of the ‘Word of God” and its implications for how Christian theology is to be done. Karl Barth (1886-1968) a Swiss Protestant theologian who is one of the most substantial and influential recent works of Christian Theology in the twentieth century. In this text analysis of one of Barth teaching he breaks down in explaining what he means by “reflection” on the Word of God. Barth first address this three part: “the Word of God in a First Address in which God himself and God alone is the speaker, in a second address in which the
His methodology ties life in the early church with today’s everyday believers, which will help them to understand rudimentary theology. Hall begins by preparing the reader to learn theology from the Church Fathers by asking crucial questions and giving background information to explain
This semester, as a class, we have peeled away the layers of what evangelicalism and fundamentalism means throughout history, especially in our Western culture. I am intrigued with them both and their very presence in many of our modern-day congregations, as well as the secular parts of our society. After visiting Grace Covenant Church of Austin, Texas, many of the attributes that have been emphasized in books such as Rediscovering an Evangelical Heritage by Donald Dayton and American Apocalypse by Matthew Sutton, I experienced while visiting Grace.
advances from the 1870s to the 1910s to try and understand why most church leaders could say “Without blushing or winking” that the twentieth would be “the Christian century” (16). It seemed like it was not
As we have peeled away the layers of what evangelicalism and fundamentalism means throughout history, especially in our Western culture I am intrigued as to both and their very intense presence in many of our modern-day congregations. “Yet, the vast majority of evangelicals around the world today hail from Holiness, Pentecostal, and charismatic congregations”. After visiting Grace Covenant Church of Austin Texas, much of those aforementioned ‘typical’ contributions that have been emphasized in books such as The American Evangelical Story by Douglas Sweeney and American Apocalypse by Matthew Sutton, I experienced ever present at Grace.
In this paper, I am going to share my ideas of theology. I believe that one of the biggest mistakes I made in the past was that I was afraid of being rejected, so I wrote a theology paper and tried to give the previous COM what I thought they wanted to hear instead of what was truly inside of me. Fortunately for me, even though I was not given a green light in order to see the Eccleastical Council, I was licensed to preach and this gave me time
Friedrich Schleiermacher's On Religion: Speeches to its Cultured Despisers led to his description of "the Father of Modern Theology." The first two speeches, "Defence" and "The Nature of Religion" both use established concepts to oppose orthodoxy and establish a new method of theological thought that influences theology to modern times. Paul Tillich and Karl Rahner are also influential, both supporting the vital and intimate relationship between the divine and the human. Furthermore, this essential interrelationship and theology's focus on it are supported by various Christian philosophical/theological thinkers, including Langdon Gilkey, Martin Luther, John Calvin and Blaise Pascal.
The purpose of the paper is to differentiate between Christ of faith and Jesus of history. New Testament biblical scholars from the 19th Century have been preoccupied by the notion of Christ of faith versus Jesus of History. Jesus of history can be described as the quest for historical Jesus, while the Christ of Faith is the Christ of Christian belief either through the Church or historically. Some traditions even went ahead to argue that the Jesus of History could never be found and therefore the Christ of faith is the only way forward for Christians. On the other hand, those who have been promoting the Jesus of History have often assumed that the historical Jesus is much superior as compared to the Christ of Faith. Despite the key differences between Christ of faith and the historical Jesus, both these aspect have an implication for Western Christianity.
Known as the father of modern liberal theology, Friedrich Schleiermacher was a German theologian, philosopher and biblical scholar who focused his attention on the nature of religious experience from the viewpoint of the individual and human nature itself (Mariña 3). Influenced by German Romanticism, Schleiermacher attempted to reconcile the criticisms of the Enlightenment with traditional Protestant Christianity (Crouter 261). By doing so, he abandoned the pietistic Moravian theology that had failed to satisfy his increasing doubts and he adopted the rational spirit of Christian Wolff and Johann Salomo Semler. He then became acquainted with the techniques of historical criticism of the New Testament and of Johann Augustus Eberhard, from whom he acquired a love of the philosophy of Plato and Aristotle. As a result, he began applying ideas from the Greek philosophers to a reconstruction of Immanuel Kant’s system (Mariña 3). On this basis, this essay articulate Friedrich Schleiermacher’s understanding of religion and its relationship to Christianity as described in Speech I: Defense and Speech II: The Nature of Religion of his work On Religion: Speeches to Its Cultured Despisers. The essay will explore Schleiermacher’s rejection of various views of religion held by the despisers, explain his identification of the true religion with feeling and describe his view of the relationship between religion and Christianity.
Barth, once again, provides a spiritual view of scripture and not a subjective approach and interpretation. Barth’s claim there is no room for natural revelation or even a doctrine of verbal inspiration. God speaks only through his Word and scripture is testimony to God’s self-revelation. The importance of this is establishing the role of scripture in the ascendency and authority of the church congregation as unique in that it can be, and only be, through the authority of the Scripture.
Church history reveals that a number of serious biblical doctrinal controversies occurred during the late 1800s and early 1900s that gave occasion for the formulation of certain fundamentalist principals to be implemented as a clarification and remedy against unbiblical manifestations. The authority of the Bible was brought into serious question.
Through out history, as man progressed from a primitive animal to a "human being" capable of thought and reason, mankind has had to throw questions about the meaning of our own existence to ourselves. Out of those trail of thoughts appeared religion, art, and philosophy, the fundamental process of questioning about existence. Who we are, how we came to be, where we are going, what the most ideal state is....... All these questions had to be asked and if not given a definite answer, then at least given some idea as to how to begin to search for, as humans probed deeper and deeper into the riddle that we were all born into.