The Absoluteness of Christianity and the History of Religions

The Absoluteness of Christianity and the History of Religions PDF

Author: Ernst Troeltsch

Publisher: Westminster John Knox Press

Published: 1971-01-01

Total Pages: 180

ISBN-13: 9780664230166

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In this seminal work, pioneering theologian Ernst Troeltsch raises the question, how can we pass beyond the diversity with which history presents us to norms for our faith and for our judgments about life? He trenchantly probes the issue of how one religion--when viewed historically in the context of other world religions--can be universally and absolutely true. Though many others since have explored the issue of historical relativism and religious truth, few have done so with Troeltsch's determination and incisiveness, and for this he has made a lasting contribution to Christian theology and the philosophy of religion. The questions Troeltsch poses in this book remain utterly significant for the thoughtful Christian today. This reissue of a well-known classic includes a foreword by theological titan James Luther Adams.

Religion in History

Religion in History PDF

Author: Ernst Troeltsch

Publisher: Fortress Texts in Modern Theol

Published: 1991

Total Pages: 408

ISBN-13:

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These essays, only two of which have appeared previously in English, reflect Troeltsch's vast knowledge and deep insight into modernity, which led him to discern the radical implications of historicity for religion and theology. His thought remains a resource, a guide, and a prod in an ongoing theological quest.

No Other Gospel

No Other Gospel PDF

Author: Carl E. Braaten

Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers

Published: 2000-08-31

Total Pages: 161

ISBN-13: 1579104630

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With increasing awareness of the permanence of religious pluralism and increasing acceptance of other religions as valid ways to God, some theologians have argued that Christianity needs to abandon its traditional, biblical claim that Jesus is the unique, normative, decisive and final self-revelation of God and the salvation of the world. Braaten's response is an unequivocal reassertion of the exclusive claim of the gospel. To do so, he surveys the range of current options and dives into questions of the uniqueness of Christ, the absoluteness of Christianity, and the universality of salvation. Working with concepts of justification, eschatology, and Trinity, Braaten affirms that the gospel relativizes other religions. The gospel, however, also relativizes Christianity. Thus Christianity's strong claims for Christ need to be tempered by acknowledging that Christians do not know beforehand the final outcome of God's unfolding plan for the world. Although not all will agree, this book is an important call to Christian conscience from a theologian who sees Christian theology teetering on the brink of confusion.

Ernst Troeltsch and Comparative Theology

Ernst Troeltsch and Comparative Theology PDF

Author: Echol Lee Nix

Publisher: Peter Lang

Published: 2010

Total Pages: 268

ISBN-13: 9781433108372

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Ernst Troeltsch and Comparative Theology examines the methodological attempts of Ernst Troeltsch and Robert Neville for discerning Christian normativity. The investigation of Troeltsch focuses on his treatment of the absoluteness of Christianity and highlights the crisis brought upon absolute religious claims by the study of the history of religions. By rejecting both the supernatural-exclusive apologetic of orthodox Protestantism and the evolutionary apologetic of liberal Protestantism, Troeltsch insists that theology's method should be the history of religions' method (die religionsgeschichtliche Methode). Like Troeltsch, Neville agrees with historical inquiries, but, contrary to Troeltsch, Neville advances an axiological hypothesis to thinking, which is founded in valuation. Neville explains the role of valuation at the imaginative level of thinking and relates it to his theory of normative truth in religious symbols. This study shows that Neville begins with Troeltsch's methodological presuppositions but achieves more normative theology than Troeltsch, especially on ways in which God is engaged in symbolically shaped thinking and practice. Both thinkers offer creative insights for theology that make possible a critical comparison of truth claims regarding the validity of Christianity in and for a historically conscious age.

Ernst Troeltsch and the Future of Theology

Ernst Troeltsch and the Future of Theology PDF

Author: John Clayton

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 1976-08-12

Total Pages: 244

ISBN-13: 9780521210744

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A reassessment of the theology of the German Protestant theologian, Ernst Troeltsch (1865-1923) and of his significance for contemporary theology. The six papers here presented were originally delivered at an international colloquium on Troeltsch held at the University of Lancaster. The contributors focus on the fundamental issues raised by Troeltsch which remain central to theology today and seek to engage him as a discussion partner in a continuing debate. Troeltsch has been unduly neglected as a theologian, a fact which is due partly to the dominance of the 'dialectical' theology of Barth and Bultmann in Germany after the First World War. This book seeks to remedy this state of affairs by dealing critically with Troeltsch's theology as well as constructively with the issues. The papers fall into three groups: in the first Troeltsch is considered as a Christian theologian; in the second are studied the possibilities of systematic and historical theology along Troeltschian lines; in the third the questions of what makes Christianity Christian and of Christian claims to exclusive truth are examined in the light of Troeltsch's work. Each of the contributors is a noted Troeltsch scholar and the book contains an extensive bibliography, which adds to its usefulness to students and scholars alike.

History of Christianity

History of Christianity PDF

Author: Paul Johnson

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2012-03-27

Total Pages: 816

ISBN-13: 1451688512

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First published in 1976, Paul Johnson’s exceptional study of Christianity has been loved and widely hailed for its intensive research, writing, and magnitude—“a tour de force, one of the most ambitious surveys of the history of Christianity ever attempted and perhaps the most radical” (New York Review of Books). In a highly readable companion to books on faith and history, the scholar and author Johnson has illuminated the Christian world and its fascinating history in a way that no other has. Johnson takes off in the year AD 49 with his namesake the apostle Paul. Thus beginning an ambitious quest to paint the centuries since the founding of a little-known ‘Jesus Sect’, A History of Christianity explores to a great degree the evolution of the Western world. With an unbiased and overall optimistic tone, Johnson traces the fantastic scope of the consequent sects of Christianity and the people who followed them. Information drawn from extensive and varied sources from around the world makes this history as credible as it is reliable. Invaluable understanding of the framework of modern Christianity—and its trials and tribulations throughout history—has never before been contained in such a captivating work.

An Introduction to the Theology of Religions

An Introduction to the Theology of Religions PDF

Author: Veli-Matti Kärkkäinen

Publisher: InterVarsity Press

Published: 2009-08-20

Total Pages: 373

ISBN-13: 0830874402

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How does Christianity relate to other religions? Beginning with a consideration of the biblical perspective, Veli-Matti Kärkkäinen offers a detailed and comprehensive survey of the diverse explanations proposed by teachers of the church down through the ages. This indispensable guide is for anyone seeking to grasp Christianity?s relationship to world religions.

Religion within the Limits of History Alone

Religion within the Limits of History Alone PDF

Author: Demian Wheeler

Publisher: State University of New York Press

Published: 2020-09-01

Total Pages: 528

ISBN-13: 1438479352

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Among the greatest challenges facing religious thinkers today is that created by historicism, the notion that human beings and their myriad understandings of reality are utterly historical, conditioned by contingent circumstances and tied to particular contexts. In this book, Demian Wheeler confronts the historicist challenge by delineating and defending a particular trajectory of historicist thought known as pragmatic historicism. Rooted in the German Enlightenment and fully developed within the early Chicago school of theology, pragmatic historicism is a predominantly American tradition that was philosophically nurtured by classical pragmatism and its intellectual siblings, naturalism and radical empiricism. Religion within the Limits of History Alone not only undertakes a detailed genealogy of this pragmatic historicist lineage but also sets forth a constructive program for contemporary theology by charting a path for its future development. Wheeler shows that pragmatic historicism is an underdeveloped resource for contemporary theology since it offers a model for normative religious thought that is theologically compelling yet wholly nonsupernaturalistic, deeply pluralistic, unflinchingly liberal, and radically historicist.

The Historical Jesus Question

The Historical Jesus Question PDF

Author: Gregory W. Dawes

Publisher: Westminster John Knox Press

Published: 2001-01-01

Total Pages: 412

ISBN-13: 9780664224585

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A natural sequel to "The Historical Jesus Quest", this book provides commentary on the work and significance of the classic writers presented in that volume: Spinoza, Strauss, Sweitzer, Troeltsch, Bultmann, Kasemann, and others.