Two Biblical Models of Conversion: An Example of Puritan Hermeneutics

1989 ◽  
Vol 58 (2) ◽  
pp. 182-196
Author(s):  
Charles L. Cohen
Keyword(s):  
Religious Experience ◽  
Kingdom Of God ◽  
Human Being ◽  
Psychological Experience ◽  
New Birth ◽  
God's Word ◽  
Born Again

Puritan religious experience centered around conversion, the soul's new birth in faith. Entry into the realm of the Spirit, the path to salvation, involved a protracted emotional confrontation with grace borne in God's Word. The injunction to begin life anew in grace is as old as John 3:3, which declares that one “cannot see the kingdom of God” without being “born again” but does not associate the event with any particular psychological experience; what one undergoes in becoming a child of the Spirit the gospel does not relate. Into this gap of possibility Puritan preachers insinuated their vision of holy passions; well known as physicians of the soul, they pieced together a compelling model of how the Spirit moves a human being as it translates individuals from the estate of damnation to that of grace.

Moral Theory and Divine Justice

2017 ◽  
pp. 87-127
Author(s):  
Hussein Ali Abdulsater
Keyword(s):  
Religious Experience ◽  
Moral Obligation ◽  
Human Being ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Divine Sovereignty ◽  
Divine Justice ◽  
The World ◽  
Human Autonomy ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Point Of Departure

This chapter investigates the position of human beings in this theological system. Its point of departure is a definition of the human being, from which it develops an understanding of human agency in relation to God and the world. Divine assistance (luṭf) is highlighted as the bridge between human autonomy and divine sovereignty. Following is an elaborate description of religious experience: its origins, justification, relevant parties, responsibilities and characteristics. The concept of moral obligation (taklīf) is shown to be the cornerstone of Murtaḍā’s theory on religion. The chapter is divided into three sub-headings: The Human Being; Justification of Moral Obligation; Characteristics of Moral Obligation.

The Outbreak of Evangelicalism

2020 ◽  
pp. 140-172
Author(s):  
Baird Tipson
Keyword(s):  
New England ◽  
Religious Experience ◽  
Holy Spirit ◽  
Essential Element ◽  
Jonathan Edwards ◽  
John Wesley ◽  
British Isles ◽  
New Birth ◽  
The Holy Spirit ◽  
George Whitefield

This chapter first describes the theology of the leaders of the evangelical awakening on the British Isles, George Whitefield and John Wesley. Both insisted that by preaching the “immediate” revelation of the Holy Spirit during what they called the “new birth,” they were recovering an essential element of primitive Christianity that had been forgotten over the centuries. Both had clear affinities with the conscience theology of William Perkins, yet both distanced themselves from it in important ways. In New England, Jonathan Edwards explored the nature of religious experience more deeply than either Wesley or Whitefield had done, and Edwards proudly claimed his Puritan heritage even as opponents found him deviating from it.

scholarly journals The Authority of Scripture in the Early Zurich Reformation (1522-1540)

2011 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 296-309 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Opitz
Keyword(s):  
Religious Experience ◽  
Early Modernity ◽  
The Bible ◽  
God's Word ◽  
Christian Society

Abstract The decisive impulse of the Zurich Reformation was not a particular theological tenet or the religious experience of one single reformer. It was the discovery of the authority of God’s Word. This discovery was essentially a liberating experience. Scripture was experienced as the place for encountering the living God, who is intrinsically a gracious God, and who correspondingly makes his will known to people. Given the circumstances of early modernity, it was, however, consequent and inevitable that in the process of restructuring a Christian society and church according to God’s Word the Bible became the authoritative scripture.

scholarly journals Pentingnya Peranan Guru Kristen dalam Membentuk Karakter Siswa Dalam Pendidikan Kristen: Sebuah Kajian Etika Kristen [The Significance of the Role of Christian Teachers in Building Students’ Character in Christian Education: A Study of Christian Ethics]

2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Kiki Debora ◽  
Chandra Han
Keyword(s):  
Christian Education ◽  
Holy Spirit ◽  
New Birth ◽  
Christian Teachers ◽  
The Holy Spirit ◽  
Born Again ◽  
Correct Understanding ◽  
Modern Era ◽  
Good Deeds

<p class="abstracttextDILIGENTIA">Transformation for the nation's generation can be done through education because education has a very important influence on the nation's generation. Christian education is not only talking about ways to educate children of the nation, but also Christian education is holistically paying attention to the entire existence of students. The development of the modern era has caused the character of the nation's generation to decline and moral damage is getting higher. The role of the qualified Christian teachers is very important in improving the quality of education, especially students. Beside the parents, teachers have a big influence in the life the of students. The Christian education is not just to improve science, but to shape the character of students through the role of Christian teachers who have experienced a new birth because only Christian teachers who have been born again are able to do good deeds because the Holy Spirit enables them. Every example of good deeds done by a Christian teacher will influence the formation of student character. Christian teachers who have experienced a new birth as agents of transformation took change play a role in shaping the character of students. The formation of student character aims to make students know the truth and errors and the meaning of each action they do. Through correct understanding students are able to make decisions and take responsibility in the modern era. The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the important role of Christian teachers in shaping students' character through Christian education. This paper begin with some explanations of the study focus based on the title. The next explanation is to examine the role of the Christian teacher in shaping students’ character and finally make conclusions and suggestions.</p>

Pietism

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ulrike Gleixner
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Modern Society ◽  
Individual Responsibility ◽  
Reform Movement ◽  
Media Policy ◽  
Human Being ◽  
Religious Literature ◽  
Cultural Reform ◽  
Intensive Reading ◽  
Born Again

This article discusses German Pietism as a religious, social, and cultural reform movement from the late seventeenth to the end of the eighteenth century. Based on a millenarian and as a consequence positive vision of future religious and ecclesiastical renewal, it aimed for a better society. Pietist anthropology was based on education, individual responsibility, and self-improvement. Every human being should be born again including women and men, socially marginalized, and non-Christians. Innovative forms of sociability named conventicle, intensive reading of religious literature, a new pattern of individuation, as well as a sophisticated media policy characterized the Pietist project. Pietism contributed to modern society through its part in the religious Enlightenment.

scholarly journals Böhl on Justification and Regeneration: Some Implications for Preaching and Pastoring

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 101
Author(s):  
MEINE VELDMAN
Keyword(s):  
Holy Spirit ◽  
Human Being ◽  
God's Word ◽  
Power Of God

By the preaching of God’s law, the human being is confronted with his fallenness and existence in flesh, sin, and death. Eduard Böhl, with his emphasis on the synchronicity of God’s act of justification and regener- ation, seeks to maintain the boundary between Creator and creature in creation and history, and between sinner and Christ, flesh and the Spirit. From the viewpoint of the power of God’s word in preaching, the possibility of a redeeming dialogue is reestablished, and the reality of participation by faith in God is restored. By the gospel as the power of God in which his righteousness is revealed, the believer in the word is powerfully brought to newness of life and sustained in sanctification. KEYWORDS: Justification, regeneration, preaching, law of God, Holy Spirit, Christ

scholarly journals KEBEBASAN BERAGAMA DALAM ISLAM

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 53-64
Author(s):  
Tri Yuliana Wijayanti
Keyword(s):  
Religious Experience ◽  
Religious Freedom ◽  
Religious Pluralism ◽  
Religious Life ◽  
Freedom Of Religion ◽  
Human Being ◽  
Personal Beliefs ◽  
Religious Plurality

Every human being is free to choose a religion according to his religious experience and in accordance with his personal beliefs. Freedom of religion also includes the situation conducive for people to choose religion (according to his) and to his religion without restriction and coercion from any party. The challenges of today's religious life in contrast to the issue of religious freedom and the fact of religious plurality. Religious pluralism urged all religions to think practically how to get along with other religious and theological interpret the meaning of the presence of religion and belief.

Salvation

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Keith E. Yandell
Keyword(s):  
Religious Experience ◽  
Basic Problem ◽  
Kingdom Of God ◽  
Proper Treatment ◽  
False Beliefs ◽  
Advaita Vedanta ◽  
True Nature ◽  
Religious Traditions ◽  
The Will ◽  
Religious Term

For there to be such a thing as salvation, there must be someone to be saved, something from which they need to be saved, and some way in which they can be saved from it. ‘Salvation’ is primarily a religious term, and religious traditions typically assume that there is some basic religious problem that all people face. Monotheistic religions (for example, Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Viśiṣṭādvaita and Dvaita Hinduism) whose central doctrine concerns God conceived as Creator and Providence take this basic problem to lie in the fact of sin. Human persons have sinned (knowingly acted against the will of God) and sinning has become habitual. Thus there is need for forgiveness and reformation, which are available only in God’s gracious pardon and restorative power. People can receive forgiveness and reformation through repentance and faith. Salvation by sheer self-effort is impossible. Nonmonotheistic traditions (for example, Buddhism, Jainism, Advaita Vedānta Hinduism) take a particular sort of ignorance to be the basic problem. The ignorance in question involves having false beliefs about the nature of persons and their cosmic environment. The proper treatment and cure is the achievement of an esoteric religious experience in which calm and bliss are accompanied by an understanding of the true nature of reality. The different traditions give very different accounts of what this nature is. Thus religious traditions differ greatly in the ways in which they conceive persons, their basic religious problem, and the proper treatment and cure. Secular notions of salvation, as in classical Marxism, tend to be secularizations of one or another religious conception – in the Marxist case, of the notion of the Kingdom of God.

Spirituality and Devotion

2021 ◽  
pp. 352-369
Author(s):  
Charles E. Hambrick-Stowe
Keyword(s):  
Religious Experience ◽  
Full Range ◽  
Theological Reflection ◽  
Jonathan Edwards ◽  
Intellectual Work ◽  
Devotional Practice ◽  
God's Word ◽  
Core Idea ◽  
Empirical Methodology

The spirituality and devotional practice of Jonathan Edwards, glimpsed in his personal writings and in the first-hand observations of Samuel Hopkins, is illuminated as well in the full range of his writings, including decades of sermons, notes on Scripture, and theological reflection in the ‘Miscellanies’. Pre-eminently biblical in focus, his piety was both intensely personal and integral to his intellectual work and public ministry. Even sensing the divine while meditating in nature, his mind was always fixed on God’s Word and the work of Christ in redemption. Rooted in the Augustinian–Reformed–Puritan tradition, he balanced ecstasy and order in his ‘sense of the heart’ core idea, embraced the new hymnody along with Psalm singing, and engaged Enlightenment empirical methodology in his understanding of religious experience. For Edwards, behaviour and piety were united in a spirituality of beauty and benevolence.

Christian Faith and Thanataphobia

1975 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 202-209 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leonard J. Cerny
Keyword(s):  
College Students ◽  
Field Survey ◽  
Orange County ◽  
Religious Faith ◽  
Past Research ◽  
Kingdom Of God ◽  
Fear Of Death ◽  
Christian Faith ◽  
Group A ◽  
Born Again

The problem of whether Christian faith increases or decreases thanataphobia (fear of death or anxiety regarding it) was investigated. A field survey of 248 undergraduate college students from four colleges in Orange County, California using the Boyar Fear of Death Scale demonstrated significantly less fear of death in the Christian group as compared to a non-Christian group. A Christian was defined as a person who knew he had been “born again” by God's Spirit and would thus have a living relationship with Jesus Christ. Over half of the non-Christian group considered themselves to be Christians but didn't know they were “born again” Christians. While past research showed a contradictory picture as to the effect of religious faith, a major contribution of this study is that generalized religious faith is reduced to more specifically Christian faith emphasizing the spiritual rebirth and resulting divine relationship spoken of by Jesus in John 3:3, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

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