The Suffering of God According to Martin Luther's Theologia Crucis

The Suffering of God According to Martin Luther's Theologia Crucis PDF

Author: Dennis Ngien

Publisher: Peter Lang Incorporated, International Academic Publishers

Published: 1995

Total Pages: 312

ISBN-13:

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Dennis Ngien places Luther within the context of the medieval Church, the early Church's discussion of the suffering of God and the modern discussions of the essential Apathy. Luther accepts the Old Church's Theopaschitism, but he rejects Patripassianism, a heresy of the Old Church. This study breaks new ground by taking Luther a step further arguing that only a trinitarian theology of the cross is genuine Christian theology, and that the suffering of Christ touches the immanent Trinity as well as the economic Trinity.

God and Human Suffering

God and Human Suffering PDF

Author: Douglas John Hall

Publisher: Fortress Press

Published:

Total Pages: 228

ISBN-13: 9781451407174

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Professor Hall has written a major work on an agonizing subject, at once brilliant, comprehensive, and thought provoking.In contrast to many writers who gloss over one or the other, Dr. Hall is true both to the reality of suffering and to the affirmation that God creates, sustains, and redeems.Creative is his view that certain aspects of what we call suffering -- loneliness, experience of limits, temptation, anxiety -- are necessary parts of God's good creation. These he distinguishes from suffering after the fall, the tragic dimension of life.Unique is his structure: creation-suffering as becomingthe fall--suffering as a burdenredemption--conquest from within.Professor Hall succeeds in moving the reader beyond the customary way of stating the problem: "How can undeserved suffering coexist with a just and almighty God?" He also evaluates five popular, leading thinkers on suffering: Harold Kushner, C.S. Lewis, Diogenes Allen, George Buttrick, and Leslie Weatherhead.

Luther's Theology of the Cross

Luther's Theology of the Cross PDF

Author: Dennis Ngien

Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers

Published: 2018-06-11

Total Pages: 312

ISBN-13: 1532645813

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Luther was fundamentally a preacher-pastor, "a care-taker of souls," whose ingenuity lies in his usage of the biblical message as a source of pastoral encouragement. This book seeks to capture the often-overlooked pastoral side of the Reformer through an examination of his sermons on John's gospel. The sermons on John show the intrinsic, close, and causal link between doctrine and consolation. They are an exercise of his vocation as a pastor, or more precisely, as a theologian of the cross who seeks to inculcate the good news of justification by faith in his people, leading them to experience it within the dialectic of law and gospel. St. John, said Luther, "is the master in the article of justification." Luther's theological method, namely, his theology of the cross, permeates and governs the exposition of the text, and all major themes of his theology-- Christology, Trinity, and soteriology--appear in his exegesis of John.

The Scandalous God

The Scandalous God PDF

Author: Vítor Westhelle

Publisher: Fortress Press

Published: 2006

Total Pages: 196

ISBN-13: 9781451419474

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* A rich and detailed examination of the historical and theological dimensions of the Cross

Cross in Tensions

Cross in Tensions PDF

Author: Philip Ruge-Jones

Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers

Published: 2008-08-08

Total Pages: 237

ISBN-13: 1630878103

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Luther's theology of the cross is a direct critique of oppressive power relationships in his day. Luther's early thought challenges specific economic, political, social, ideological, and religious power dynamics; the cross confronts those who enjoy power, prestige, pomp, and profits at the expense of the poor. Ruge-Jones maps the power relationships that Luther's theology addressed and then turns to specific works that challenge established structures of his world. Luther's Latin texts undermine the ideological assumptions and presumptions that bolstered an opulent church and empire. Luther uses the cross of Christ to challenge what he called volatilem cogitatum, "knowledge that is prone to violence." His German writings (directed to a broader, more popular audience) focus this critique of human pretensions into an attack on systems of wealth, status, and power that refuse to look with compassion upon poor Mary, or upon the many domestic servants of Germany. God has respected the ones whom the world disrespects and has thus entered the world to turn it upside down. Also in the German writings, the Lord's Supper calls the powerful to enter into solidarity with the poor--suffering people to whom Christ has given himself. Finally, in his popular pamphlets, visual images show with graphic specificity that throughout his life Christ sought out solidarity with the least. These images contrast brutally with images of a church that has sold its soul to wealth, political influence, military power, and status.

Divine Suffering

Divine Suffering PDF

Author: Andrew J. Schmutzer

Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers

Published: 2023-02-22

Total Pages: 327

ISBN-13: 1725268272

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Divine Suffering is an inter-disciplinary study that draws from systematics, philosophy, biblical theology, and pastoral experience. In addition to covering topics like the suffering of the Father in the Son and God’s cruciform vulnerability, this book also explores how divine suffering animates the Christian gospel and resonates in the ongoing persecution of believers. The study of the suffering God has everything to do with Theology, History, and Church Mission. Like exploring a cathedral from all its entrances, both scholars and seekers will find ample opportunity for theological challenge, biblical insight, and missional hope. To accomplish this, both Scripture and doctrine are closely investigated. Today, divine suffering must face the contemporary realities of protest atheism, escalating wars, new studies in relational theology, and dialogical personhood that presses the need to explain a Christian message about the kind of God who is not only transcendent but also personal. Divine Suffering introduces us to the history of God, not just the God of history. In this study, we meet a God available to our pain though not diminished by it. Mounting forms of grief need to be met with an equally pastoral understanding that validates suffering without valorizing it.

Theodicy in Light of Theologia Crucis

Theodicy in Light of Theologia Crucis PDF

Author: José Luis Avendaño Manzanares

Publisher:

Published: 2018

Total Pages:

ISBN-13:

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The objective of this dissertation is to delve into the sensitive reality of human suffering and evil in creation, in the light of a God who is believed and confessed to be omnipotent and morally perfect, from the standpoint of a theodicy based on the classic elements of Martin Luther's theologia crucis. This theology, which is not circumscribed to a specific written work of the Reformer expressis verbis but rather constitutes the guiding thread that traverses practically all of his theological thought -notwithstanding its evident progression, tension and development- is most noticeably and consequentially expressed when addressing the problem of suffering and evil in the human being and in the creational order in two of his works, namely: The Heidelberg Disputation and De servo arbitrio, which I deal with in this thesis. It is our conviction that only from a theodicy articulated from the theology of the cross such as Luther offers is it possible to overcome both that unfortunate aporia between the theoretical and the practical that currently characterizes it, as well as to offer a true and enlightening contribution from that which is specific to the Christian faith to the painful and contradictory reality of human suffering and evil in creation. Lastly, it is our challenge here also to illuminate or deepen those dimensions of the theologia crucis not noticed or not sufficiently developed by the Reformer, so that the word of the cross remains a challenging - but at the same time consoling - voice in this wounded world today.

Cross Narratives

Cross Narratives PDF

Author: Neal J. Anthony

Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers

Published: 2010-06-01

Total Pages: 344

ISBN-13: 1498271693

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Luther's radical interpretation of the two natures of Christ, and specifically its expression through the ubiquitous presence of the humanity of Christ, is a fundamental, integral expression of that same theology. This expression of Luther's theology of the cross, Anthony asserts, provides both a fuller elaboration and an important and creative corrective with reference to recent signal expressions of the theology of the cross. As contemporary theologians of the cross have articulated (most notably Douglas John Hall and the late Alan E. Lewis), the theology of the cross, through a transformation of the divine attributes that honors the integrity of created beings, is preeminently a theology of redemption from within ("within-redemption"). In the process of outlining and analyzing these theologies of "within-redemption," Anthony exposes an impasse created by these theologies regarding the relationship of "within-redemption" to individual human narratives. It is through Luther's radical interpretation of the two natures of Christ, Anthony contends, that complete "within-redemption" can be expressed. Anthony also evaluates the Christology of Karl Barth from the perspective of his findings. Not only is Anthony's work an innovative and fresh application of Luther's Christology for contemporary discussions of the theology of the cross, but it places Luther's Christology at the cutting edge of contemporary discussions regarding the theology of the cross and its "within-redemption.