scholarly journals Are we »Christians« only on Sunday? What about Monday? - The biblical drama in four acts as a framework for an integrated view of work

2017 ◽  
Vol XV (3) ◽  
pp. 425-448
Author(s):  
Dražen Glavaš
Keyword(s):  
Biblical Theology ◽  
Biblical Story ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Theology Of Work ◽  
Biblical Drama ◽  
Biblical Faith ◽  
Complete Framework ◽  
New Framework

By percentage Croatia is a highly »Christian« country (more than 91 percent), sadly that does not mean that it is a country of high ethics. In reality Croatia struggles on many ethical battlegrounds. We start this paper with the assumption that a rightly understood and clearly communicated integration of biblical faith and work can contribute to the solution of problems in Croatia. But we found through research that few people read and understand the Bible. When the Holy Scriptures do not have such importance, for most people who describe themselves as Christians, it is hard to understand and talk about the biblical view of work or biblical theology of work. We propose a new framework for an integrated view of work as a lens through which we can better understand the whole biblical story. Without looking at this more complete framework, we lose the context and conception of work.

Biblical theology for oral-preference communities

2020 ◽  
pp. 009182962094482
Author(s):  
Andrew Buchanan
Keyword(s):  
Personal Growth ◽  
Theological Education ◽  
Biblical Theology ◽  
Philosophical Tradition ◽  
Critical Function ◽  
Biblical Story ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Western Philosophical Tradition ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Shed Light

Teaching in a non-individualist oral-preference culture in Indonesia, I have encountered the mismatch of theology developed for Western cultures and the needs of my students and their congregations that characterizes much postcolonial theological education. The use of proverbs and poetry as resources for theology addresses the need for theology to inspire and guide, but not the critical function of guarding responsible interpretation. Western theology has done the latter via abstraction of the biblical material into consistent propositional systems, an approach that also functions to inspire and guide for many of the highly literate people who developed Western theology. This connects with the deep Western philosophical tradition of finding order through abstraction, whereas oral and even literate Asian cultures create order through ritual. The Bible is not Western, however, and we show how the biblical story or theo-drama guides, guards, and inspires in a way that opens space for local theology. We then show how the identity of believers within this story is best developed for people in non-individualist cultures through ecclesial metaphors that in turn connect with divine metaphors. Three such “divine-ecclesial institutions” are sketched, namely family, kingdom, and cult. They shed light on missiological issues such as the priority of personal growth versus ritual observance. They provide a way of organizing the biblical material that offers a better starting point for the dialogue of contextualization than systematic Western theology.

Smart design of intelligent companion toys for preschool children

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-14
Author(s):  
Xin Wang ◽  
Nian Yin ◽  
Zhinan Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Artificial Intelligence ◽  
Early Childhood ◽  
Preschool Children ◽  
Essential Role ◽  
Childhood Education ◽  
Child Centered ◽  
Toy Design ◽  
Complete Framework ◽  
New Framework

Abstract Early childhood education has long-lasting influences on people, and an appropriate companion toy can play an essential role in children's brain development. This paper establishes a complete framework to guide the design of intelligent companion toys for preschool children from 2 to 6 years old, which is child-centered and environment-oriented. The design process is divided into three steps: requirement confirmation, the smart design before the sale, and the iterative update after the sale. This framework considers the characteristics of children and highlights the integration of human and artificial intelligence in design. A case study is provided to prove the superiority of the new framework. In addition to enriching the research on intelligent toy design, this paper also guides for practitioners to design smart toys and helps in children's cognitive development.

The Question of God’s Perfection

2021 ◽  
pp. 014610792110306
Author(s):  
Cornell Collin
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
The Netherlands ◽  
Biblical Theology ◽  
The State ◽  
Rabbinic Literature ◽  
Central Question ◽  
Theological Interpretation ◽  
World Religions ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Present Essay

Is God perfect? The recent volume entitled The Question of God’s Perfection stages a conversation on that topic between mostly Jewish philosophers, theologians, and scholars of rabbinic literature. Although it is neither a work of biblical theology nor a contribution to the theological interpretation of scripture, The Question of God’s Perfection yields stimulating results for these other, intersecting projects. After briefly describing the volume’s central question and contents, the present essay situates the volume’s offerings within the state of the biblical-theological and theological-interpretive fields. In its next section, it considers—and compares— The Question of God’s Perfection with one twentieth-century theological antecedent, the Dutch theologian K.H. Miskotte. In closing, it poses questions for ongoing discussion. The Question of God’s Perfection: Jewish and Christian Essays on the God of the Bible and Talmud, edited by Yoram Hazony & Dru Johnson. Philosophy of Religion – World Religions 8. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 2019. ISBN 9789004387959

Canons to the Left of Him: Brevard Childs, his Critics, and the Future of Old Testament Theology

1997 ◽  
Vol 50 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-38 ◽  
Author(s):  
Iain Provan
Keyword(s):  
Old Testament ◽  
18Th Century ◽  
Biblical Theology ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
The Bible ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Probable Origin ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The Church

It is well known that the seeds from which the modern discipline of OT theology grew are already found in 17th and 18th century discussion of the relationship between Bible and Church, which tended to drive a wedge between the two, regarding canon in historical rather than theological terms; stressing the difference between what is transient and particular in the Bible and what is universal and of abiding significance; and placing the task of deciding which is which upon the shoulders of the individual reader rather than upon the church. Free investigation of the Bible, unfettered by church tradition and theology, was to be the way ahead. OT theology finds its roots more particularly in the 18th century discussion of the nature of and the relationship between Biblical Theology and Dogmatic Theology, and in particular in Gabler's classic theoreticalstatementof their nature and relationship. The first book which may strictly be called an OT theology appeared in 1796: an historical discussion of the ideas to be found in the OT, with an emphasis on their probable origin and the stages through which Hebrew religious thought had passed, compared and contrasted with the beliefs of other ancient peoples, and evaluated from the point of view of rationalistic religion. Here we find the unreserved acceptance of Gabler's principle that OT theology must in the first instance be a descriptive and historical discipline, freed from dogmatic constraints and resistant to the premature merging of OT and NT — a principle which in the succeeding century was accepted by writers across the whole theological spectrum, including those of orthodox and conservative inclination.

History, Providence, and Eschatology

2021 ◽  
pp. 214-234
Author(s):  
Jan Stievermann
Keyword(s):  
Biblical Theology ◽  
Salvation History ◽  
The Bible ◽  
The Enlightenment ◽  
End Times

This chapter discusses Edwards’s view of history and the end times. It does so by examining four interlocking frameworks of interpretation that Edwards inherited from Reformed-Puritan theology: first, a general approach to relating the Bible and history; second, an intense kind of providentialism; third, specific forms of biblical theology aiming toward an integrated salvation history; and fourth, a futurist type of millennialist eschatology. What emerges from this is the picture of an Edwards who was, for the most part, a traditionalist. At the same time, he, like many of his peers, engaged with the intellectual discourses of the Enlightenment, both by partaking in them and criticizing their perceived excesses. Edwards’s version of a moderate Protestant Enlightenment produced a deepened, eschatologically inflected interest in redemption history, which he understood as a progressive continuum. Within this framework of history Edwards came to assign crucial significance to revivals.

Global Thefts of Biblical Narrative

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gerald West
Keyword(s):  
Third World ◽  
Biblical Narrative ◽  
Biblical Story ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Biblical Narratives ◽  
African Experience ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Family Resemblances ◽  
African Perspective ◽  
The Subject

This chapter takes its starting point from the African experience, across a range of African contexts, of Africa as both the subject and object of biblical narrative. When the Bible came to Africa, it came with well-established colonial metanarratives, constructed in part from biblical narratives. These colonial metanarratives were in turn partly reconstructed by the engagement with African others, from both a European and an African perspective along two diverging trajectories, with biblical narrative making a contribution to both. This chapter focuses on the capacity of biblical narrative, biblical story, to be both incorporated into “local” metanarratives and to shape these metanarratives. The contexts that are the focus of this chapter are largely “third world” contexts, across which there are significant family resemblances and important contextual differences.

Biblical theology and/or theological interpretation of scripture?

2008 ◽  
Vol 61 (1) ◽  
pp. 16-31 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel J. Treier
Keyword(s):  
Internal Structure ◽  
Biblical Theology ◽  
Theological Method ◽  
Theological Interpretation ◽  
Theological Hermeneutics ◽  
Disciplinary Boundaries ◽  
Organic Unity ◽  
The Bible ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Biblical Teaching

Abstract‘Biblical theology’ has long influenced modern theological method, especially Protestant, as both boon and bane. Its role has been seen as either pivotal or problematic in the attempt to construe the Christian Bible as scripture with unified teaching for the contemporary church. The attempt to unfold biblical teaching as having organic unity, related to an internal structure of theological concepts, is frequently perceived as a failure, a has-been that leaves us only with fragmentation – between parts of the Bible, between academy and church, church and world, clergy and laity, and between various theological disciplines. Today a new movement is afoot, often labelled ‘theological interpretation of scripture’. Some of its adherents define this practice as distinct from, even opposed to, biblical theology. Others treat the two practices as virtually coterminous, while perhaps contesting what ‘biblical theology’ is typically taken to be in favour of new theological hermeneutics. Much of the difficulty in defining the relationship, then, stems from lingering debates about what biblical theology can or should be. The rest of the difficulty is perhaps rooted in the dilemma of any interdisciplinary efforts: how to breach unhelpful sections of disciplinary boundaries without redefining territory so nebulously that no one knows where they are.

scholarly journals Foucault’s On the Government of the Living

2015 ◽  
pp. 266-276 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Konstan
Keyword(s):  
Early Church ◽  
Self Disclosure ◽  
The Bible ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Biblical Faith ◽  
Christian Beliefs

In The Government of the Living, Foucault demonstrates elegantly and convincingly the emergence of a new idea and practice of penitence within the early Church, one that traced its origins to the Bible but in fact represented a departure from earlier Christian beliefs. This shift occurred largely under the influence of monastic and ascetic tendencies that came to play an increasingly powerful role in the second and third centuries after Christ. I suggest that this is the fundamental contribution of the lectures, rather than the framing narrative concerning truth and power. In my comments, I focus on the ideas of conversion, change of heart, remorse, and repentance, and show how the classical Greek and Latin terms for a change of mind (metanoia, paenitentia) assume meanings as widely different as “conversion” and “penitence.” This semantic slide or instability mirrors and enables the reinterpretation of Biblical faith as penitence. I also discuss the relationship between self-disclosure, as the classical writers understood it, and confession, and relate this to a new conception of the inviolable self.

scholarly journals The strange biography of Samson

2003 ◽  
Vol 24 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 19-36
Author(s):  
Yair Zakovitch
Keyword(s):  
World View ◽  
Biblical Story ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Book Of Samuel ◽  
Book Of Judges ◽  
Story Elements

The biblical story of the life of Samson hides much from the reader&&the Book of Judges has deleted from the story elements that were deemed improper for the book’s placement among the Holy Scriptures. In this article, the author shows how the Bible transforms Samson from a mythological hero, the son of a god, to a mere mortal whose extraordinary strength came through the spirit of God that rested with him so long as he kept his Nazirite vows. The biblical storyteller could not prevent the story of Samson from entering into the biblical corpus since it was a tale of tremendous popularity. He thus told it in such a way as to bring it closer to his monotheistic beliefs and world-view. In its ‘biblical’ form the story does not bring honor to the figure of Samson, and so his placement as the last of the judges in the Book of Judges prepares the reader for the establishment of the institution of kingship, in the Book of Samuel.

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