The Word of God in the New Model Army

1950 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 15-33 ◽  
Author(s):  
William Haller
Keyword(s):  
Free Play ◽  
Word Of God ◽  
House Of Commons ◽  
New Model ◽  
The People ◽  
Characteristic Modes ◽  
The Will ◽  
The Cost ◽  
Puritan Preaching ◽  
The Church

At the close of 1644 the Long Parliament and the Westminster Assembly found themselves in a difficult position. The preachers had declared that, if they all did the will of the Lord in the church, He would surely bless the efforts of their army in the war against the King. But the church was still unreformed and the King undefeated. They could have peace at the risk of allowing Charles to regain control of the church. They could go on with the war at the cost of permitting religious differences among their own partisans to continue and spread. In other words, nothing could be settled so long as Charles kept the field and the fear of defeat hung over English and Scots, Parliament and Assembly, Presbyterians, Independents, and sectaries alike. The predicament was made to Cromwell's hand. The campaign of 1644, having ended in frustration, he returned to his place in the House of Commons and initiated the maneuvers which led to the reorganization of the army with Fairfax in command but in the event with Cromwell still as its driving force. The result was the victory the Assembly divines had looked for as the sign of God's favor upon their efforts to reform the church but victory on terms which made reform of the church as they conceived it more difficult than ever. For Cromwell's accomplishment in war and politics was due to his gift for drawing upon those very energies of the spirit in himself and others which had been evoked in the people by Puritan preaching but which the ministerial caste was now striving to keep within bounds. He had succeeded in organizing victory not by curbing and containing the Puritan spirit but by giving it free play among the men under his command and by granting scope to its most characteristic modes of expression and organization. Hence the preaching of the Word in the parliamentary army as reconstituted in the New Model had not a little to do with the army's military success.

The people in the pews: Silent and betrayed

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patricia Casey
Keyword(s):  
Vatican Ii ◽  
Sexual Revolution ◽  
Christian Faith ◽  
Word Of God ◽  
Personal Choice ◽  
Death Of God ◽  
The People ◽  
Irish People ◽  
The Church ◽  
At Home

Patricia Casey’s chapter argues that up until recently there was no tradition of a questioning laity, or indeed, clergy, in the Irish Church. Centuries of persecution had brought priests and laity closer, even though they were never viewed as equals. A coalescence of events at home and abroad in the form of the sexual revolution, the rise of Communism, the reforms of Vatican II, created a Western Church where personal choice took precedence over the dictates of Rome. In Ireland, certain myths such as Catholic guilt, the links between celibacy and paedophilia, the death of God, the delusional nature of all religions, began to gain traction. The clerical abuse scandals served to reinforce hostility towards the Church and to add weight to the aforementioned myths, which has resulted in a society that is becoming increasingly impervious to the Word of God. Casey sees the need for Irish people to become educated about their faith so as to be in a position to speak to a secular audience and to find space for their Christian faith.

Ecclesia ex Auditu A Reformed View of the Church as the Community of the Word of God

1982 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
pp. 13-31
Author(s):  
Alan E. Lewis
Keyword(s):  
Word Of God ◽  
Systematic Account ◽  
Reformed Tradition ◽  
The People ◽  
God's Word ◽  
The Church ◽  
Church Tradition

Does a church in the Reformed tradition ever express its own essence and self-understanding more clearly than when, in the liturgy, with the subtlest blend of invitation and command, the minister bids the congregation: ‘Hear the Word of God!’? Here, in dramatic, personal (but corporate) encounter between the people and God's Word — delivered first as Scripture and then expounded as proclamation — the church becomes anew what it already and always is: a community of the Word. A people are summoned into being by living, creative, divine Speech, and from their own side come into being — or better, move toward their true being — through the only appropriate response to divine Speech, namely that faith which comes by hearing (Rom. 10: 17). Our concern here is not to offer a systematic account of this Reformed understanding of the church in all its major aspects, but simply to raise a few of the hermeneutical questions involved: what does it mean for a church tradition to understand itself in these predominantly verbal and auditory categories, indeed to think of the whole encounter between God and man as occurring primarily in the mode of speech and hearing?

scholarly journals Opwekking binnen de traditioneel- reformatorische kerken: over oprecht verlangen en grote verlegenheid

2006 ◽  
Vol 40 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Kommers
Keyword(s):  
Holy Spirit ◽  
Central Place ◽  
Word Of God ◽  
Missionary Zeal ◽  
The Past ◽  
The People ◽  
The Holy Spirit ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Church

Revival within churches from traditional-reformed origin: on sincere longing and extreme embarrassment Within churches from reformed origin the debate about revival has become an actual issue. It seems that these churches are becoming smaller and smaller, and that there is a lack of missionary zeal. Many pastors seem to have lost the courage to go on. What is happening in the churches? One can learn something from the history of the church. What was God doing in the past? The Word of God was there and it seems that in those places where revivals broke out, the Word of God was preached faithfully, in the power of the Holy Spirit. From sermons of three revival preachers who worked from 1816 to 1880 in Wuppertal (Germany), one can learn how their sermons contributed to revival in those days.   The missionary-soul caring message struck the people in their hearts, and not only individuals, but also whole regions changed; change took place not only in doctrine and lifestyle, but also holiness occupied a central place in the people’s hearts. When praying for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, people will repent and turn to God and “times of refreshing may come from the Lord” (Acts 3:19).

A socio-linguistic approach to the latin middle ages

1975 ◽  
Vol 11 ◽  
pp. 69-82
Author(s):  
Michael Richter
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Fundamental Difference ◽  
Main Concern ◽  
Word Of God ◽  
People Of God ◽  
Intellectual Elite ◽  
The People ◽  
Political Relationship ◽  
Linguistic Approach ◽  
The Church

There are two lights, a greater and a smaller one, that is to say, the wiser men and the less wise; the day signifies the wise men, and the night the uninformed. The greater light illuminates the day, for the wiser men instruct those who are more able. What is Augustine if not a sun in the Church? to whom does he speak if not to the wise? You, however, the priests, knowing less, are the smaller light, you illuminate the night, for you preside over the laity who do not know the Scripture and remain in the darkness of ignorance ... The other section of the clergy who do not preside over the people of God are the stars, because although they cannot shine by doctrine, do nevertheless shine by their work onto the earth, that is, the Church.These sentences are taken from an anonymous sermon ‘On the Priesthood’, based on Genesis i, 16–20. The author of the sermon showed the priests their place in society: even though they did not belong to the intellectual elite, their profession and knowledge separated them clearly from the darkness of night in which the laity was imprisoned. In the course of the twelfth century, this passage from Genesis underwent an exegetical change and was used, from then onwards, to explain the political relationship between regnum and sacerdotium. What did remain was the notion of a fundamental difference between clergy and laity, and nowhere was this notion better expressed than in our sermon to the priests: quodcunque lumen estis, lumen estis tamen. In true medieval fashion, our author equated knowledge with the knowledge of the Word of God. He also stressed the fundamental difference between light and darkness, between the clergy and the laity. While theology emphasises that ordination makes the clergy by virtue of its office into the mediator between God and man, this was not the main concern of our author. Instead, he voiced the belief, widely shared by the clergy generally, that knowledge as such was the prerogative of the clergy. Such an attitude raises the question of how the clergy was able to achieve monopoly of knowledge, and how it reacted to attempts by the laity to challenge this monopoly. In what follows I propose to enquire into this phenomenon by looking at the linguistic scene in the medieval west.

scholarly journals The Mandate Of Making Disciples: Teaching As Incarnational Ministry

2020 ◽  
pp. 68-77
Author(s):  
John Abedu Quashie
Keyword(s):  
Christian Education ◽  
Human Life ◽  
Pastoral Ministry ◽  
Word Of God ◽  
Incarnational Ministry ◽  
The People ◽  
Teaching Ministry ◽  
Christian Leader ◽  
Making Disciples ◽  
The Church

This paper discusses how the Church can achieve the goal of discipleship through an “incarnational” model of teaching. It argues that teaching in the Church should be incarnational so as to realize transformation in the lives of people. Incarnation is used in the sense of the word of God which the Christian leader has been commanded to teach, becomes flesh and makes a dwelling among the people so that the learner can behold the glory of the word being lived out in human life. The Pastoral ministry must engage in teaching so that learners can become new creations who demonstrate the nature of Christ. In discipleship, the pastor acts as the teacher of teachers, equipping the laity so that they can teach others. Teaching, a key aspect in Christian education, is at the heart of discipleship. As such, for the teaching ministry to be incarnate, it must identify with Jesus Christ. What is preached and taught must become flesh in the teacher’s own life and help the learner to behold the glory of Jesus the Christ. Keywords: Discipleship, Pastoral ministry, Incarnational ministry, Christian education, teaching

scholarly journals San Giuseppe il modello della partecipazione nell’Eucaristia

2020 ◽  
pp. 165-180
Author(s):  
Dariusz Kwiatkowski
Keyword(s):  
Word Of God ◽  
Pope John Paul Ii ◽  
John Paul Ii ◽  
The Will ◽  
Willingness To Sacrifice ◽  
The Church ◽  
Will Of God

Pope John Paul II in the encyclical Ecclesia de Eucharistia called Mary a ‘Woman of the Eucharist’. He pointed out the attitudes that can be described as Eucharistic. This article, using the principle of analogy and maintaining an appropriate balance, shows St. Joseph as a model of the Eucharistic ap- proach of every Christian. The life of Saint Joseph was characterized by deep faith and love for God and man, the ability to hear and receive the word of God and the constant willingness to sacrifice his life in order to be able to fulfill the will of God. All these qualities are needed to participate in the Eucharist in a conscious and active way. These attitudes result from participation in the Eucharist and should shape the life of every Christian. In addition, it should be emphasized that the Church introduced the name of St. Joseph to the Eucharistic prayers and ordered it to be mentioned immediately after Mary. Placing the name of St. Joseph in the most important prayer of the Holy Mass, introduces him to the heart of the Eucharist.

scholarly journals Glas in beeld – beeld in glas. Verkondiging in fragment en fragmente van verkondiging ...

2015 ◽  
Vol 71 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Elsabé Kloppers ◽  
Wian Kloppers
Keyword(s):  
Religious Education ◽  
Dutch Reformed ◽  
Word Of God ◽  
Stained Glass ◽  
Work Of Art ◽  
Reformed Church ◽  
Liturgical Year ◽  
The Bible ◽  
The People ◽  
The Church

Glass in the image – image in glass. Preaching in fragments and fragments of preaching . . . The view that the sermon is an ‘open work of art’, promoted the awareness that the ‘meaning’ of a sermon is not fixed, but that possibilities are presented for the listeners to ‘assign meaning’. ‘Assigning meaning’ does not mean something fully ad libitum: ‘meaning’ is formed within the guidelines of the text from which a sermon stems. Visual works of art could also be based on Biblical texts or stories, analysed and interpreted by the artist. The artist could mould the encounter with the Biblical text into various forms of art, proclaiming the gospel in ways similar to that of a spoken sermon: a work of art could present possibilities for assigning meaning related to faith. In this article the new stained glass windows, symbolically depicting the Liturgical Year, in a Dutch Reformed church in Pretoria, are discussed with a view to the possibilities they present to form part of experience-based religious education in ‘bringing home’ stories from the Bible and aspects of the Liturgical Year. Also asked is how they could function as visual ‘sermons’, speaking and communicating the ‘Word of God’ to the people inside the church, as well as to people on the outside.

scholarly journals Is die idee van ’n kerkorde nog kerklik byderwets?

2008 ◽  
Vol 42 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
C. J. Smit
Keyword(s):  
Church History ◽  
Word Of God ◽  
People Of God ◽  
The Real ◽  
The People ◽  
Church Law ◽  
The Church ◽  
New Millennium

Is the idea of a church order still relevant for the modern church? The question is whether church order could be of any sig- nificance for the church of our time. Should the church order be modernised to fit the church of a new millennium? Is the con- cept of a church order at all still feasible for the modern church?   Where does the idea of a church order come from? This article shows that the concept of a church order originated from the Scriptures, the Old and the New Testaments. Throughout church history there was always the danger that where the church order became insignificant, the existence of the church itself came under threat.  The real questions are what a church order ought not to be and what it ought to be. This article determined that the church or- der has no independent authority. The church order should not be rendered as a church law. In fact, the church order should be only the principle-bearing pointer to the Word of God. In itself the church order has no own authority. It is only a servant of the authority of the Word. As such a Scripture-bound church order is indispensable for the existence of the church, also the church of our time. The nature of such a church order is not to create the services of the church, nor the essence of church being, but to ensure the task of the church to proclaim the Word of God and to protect the solemn being of the church in its orderly existence as the people of God in this world.

Joseph Ratzinger

2018 ◽  
pp. 448-466
Author(s):  
Theodor Dieter
Keyword(s):  
The Body ◽  
Body Of Christ ◽  
Word Of God ◽  
Local Churches ◽  
People Of God ◽  
The People ◽  
The World ◽  
Joseph Ratzinger ◽  
The Church ◽  
Point Of Reference

Ratzinger’s ecclesiology is a Eucharistic ecclesiology: the church is the people of God existing from the sacramental Body of Christ and thus becoming the ecclesial Body of Christ. Therefore the church is communio: the communion at the table with Christ and among the believers, and also a communion of local churches (communio ecclesiarum) that is the basis for the collegiality of the bishops. The spiritual and institutional dimensions of the Body of Christ are mutually interwoven. In every particular church the universal church is present; its representation and the point of reference in doctrinal matters for all is the pope. The church serves the presence of the Word of God in the world in such a way that the Word as it is witnessed to in Holy Scripture is communicated to all by authorized witnesses. Witness (content) and witnesses are inseparable, as succession and tradition are mutually interrelated as form and content.

Word and Sacrament in the Fourth Gospel

1976 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 49-63
Author(s):  
Barnabas Lindars
Keyword(s):  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
Fourth Gospel ◽  
Word Of God ◽  
Organic Life ◽  
The People ◽  
The Reformation ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
Divine Activity ◽  
The Mind ◽  
The Church

Word and sacrament belong together in the Christian life. It has been one of the achievements of the renewal of Christendom in the present century to overcome the deepseated sense of opposition between them. This opposition can be traced to the polarisation of theological emphases in the Reformation of the sixteenth century. The divine activity in performance of the sacraments was stressed to such a degree that they appeared to be almost magical acts, encouraging a superstitious approach on the part of the people. The Protestant reaction placed all the emphasis on the word of God, appealing to the heart and the mind. There could be no operation of the grace of God in the soul except through the opening of the heart to God, through personal assent to his word and through the commitment of faith. Now it is recognised that sacramental acts have a social function in the organic life of the church, that they preach to the people through symbols and actions, so that they require (and also evoke) the proper dispositions for receiving the grace of God, and that the inclusion of scripture readings and a homily in the course of sacramental services produces a fruitful interaction between them. This recovery of the balance between word and sacrament has proved beneficial for the life of the church. It has also marked a return to the perspective of the New Testament.

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