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1. Term What is called natural theology is not an independent theme but an ongoing, urgent problem in Christian theology relating to the question of truth. Natural theology wants to show that God is self-evident and that he does not serve merely as a deus ex machina in the world. It thus claims the adjective “natural” in two ways. The first reference is to the natural sphere in the concrete world order (Nature) as the natural horizon against which God appears. It is as natural beings that humans are under God’s impact and summoned to know him. The world itself has a…

1. Biblical The dogma of the state of innocence represents an attempt to develop systematically what the Bible has to say about the creation of humanity according to (or “in”) the image of God (Gen. 1:26–27; 1 Cor. 11:7). It shows that the emergence of sin was the decisive event in human history that triggered the events of salvation history (Rom. 5:12–21). It also presents the standards set up with creation that enable us to interpret both sin and regeneration or renewal (Eph. 4:24). Despite their dissimilarity, the two motifs—the historical and the anthropological (Anthro…

[English Version] I. Religionsphilosophisch Begriff und Thema der n.Theol. sind philos. Herkunft und somit älter als die christl. Theol. Sie gehen auf die mittlere Stoa zurück (Panaitios), deren Einteilung der Theol. in die drei Genera der mythischen, natürlichen und polit. (zivilen) Theol. sich über Augustin und Thomas von Aquin bis in die Anfänge der Aufklärung verfolgen läßt. Innerhalb dieser Trias kommt der n.Theol. eine ausgesprochen krit. Funktion zu: Weil sie das Göttliche gemäß seiner eigen…

[English Version] . Die von Calvin (Inst. I,7) formulierte, in die ref. Bekenntnisschriften (: I.,3.; Confessio Gallicana 4) aufgenommene Lehre vom T. besagt, daß die unverbrüchliche Geltung und Autorität der Schrift nicht vom Urteil (einer Übereinkunft oder einem Konsens) der Kirche abhängt, sondern auf dem Zeugnis des Geistes (Geist/Heiliger Geist) beruht. J.H. Alsted hat sie als Fundament der gesamten Theol. gewürdigt. Hier wird gegenüber der »Selbstevidenz« der Schrift kein zweites subjektives…

[English Version] . Die nach einer Mitteilung Augustins (De haeresibus 83; MPL 42,46) bereits bei den »Arabern« z.Z. des Origenes verbreitete Vorstellung des S. bzw. Seelentodes besagt, daß die Seelen im »Zwischenzustand« das Schicksal der sterblichen Leiber teilen und erst am Jüngsten Tage zus. mit ihnen wieder zum Leben erweckt werden. Diese Vorstellung findet sich mit unterschiedlichen Begründungen u.a. wieder bei Papst Johannes XXII., dem Renaissance-Gelehrten P. Pomponazzi, vereinzelten täufe…

[German Version] The theological concept of YHWH’s zeal (האָנְקִ/ qinʾāh) stands at the center of the struggle to assure that only the biblical God be worshiped (Monotheism and polytheism); it is intimately associated with his holiness (Josh 24:19; Sacred and profane: V). It gives expression – first and foremost in the cult – to God’s intolerant demand for exclusivity, championed against the religion of Baal by the prophetic and Levitical “YHWH alone movement” of the 9th century (2 Kgs 9f.) and reflected…

[German Version] I. Terminology – II. Historical Development – III. Results I. Terminology Covenant theology or federal theology (Ger. Föderaltheologie), an old Reformed doctrinal system whose origins are to be sought in Zürich, Heidelberg and Herborn, is the broad attempt to comprehend and portray as a unity the history of God with humanity attested in the OT and NT by means of the biblical covenant concept (Covenant). Correspondingly, the whole substance of dogma, from the creation…

[German Version] According to Augustine of Hippo ( De haeresibus 83; MPL 42, 46), the notion of a sleep or death of the soul was already current among the “Arabs” in the time of Origen. This means that souls in the “intermediate sate” share the fate of their mortal bodies, rising to life again with them only on the Last Day. This idea, with various rationales, was later advocated by Pope John XXII, the Renaissance savant P. Pomponazzi, a few Anabaptist groups, A. v. Karlstadt, and Luther. The arguments f…

[German Version] I. Philosophy of Religion The notion and theme of “natural theology” are of philosophical origin and thus antedate Christian theology. They go back to the Middle Stoa (Stoics, Panaetius), whose division of theology into three genera – mythical, ¶ natural, and political or civil – can be traced through Augustine of Hippo and Thomas Aquinas to the dawn of the Enlightenment. Natural theology plays a critical role in this triad: because it claims to represent the divine in accord with its own nature, it seeks to bring out …

[German Version] In the mirror of Lutheran denominational polemics, the term designates a Reformed doctrinal decision concerning Christology which can already be identified in Athanasius, Gregory of Nyssa, and Peter Lombard, and which J. Calvin formulated in terms of the divine Logos, despite his full in-dwelling in the humanity of Christ, as also remaining outside ( extra) Christ and “as in the beginning, filling the whole world” ( Inst. II:13:4). The scope of this disputed doctrinal formulation became apparent in…

[German Version] I. Dogmatics – II. Fundamental Theology I. Dogmatics The terms infralapsarianism and supralapsarianism designate the alternate positions in the 17th-century dispute between the various schools of Reformed theology regarding the understanding of predestination. The controversial issue was: who is the eternally chosen or damned human being? The yet to be created and fallible person (thus supralapsarianism: T. Beza, F. Gomarus, in certain respects already Calvin) or the already created and…

[German Version] (“continuous creation”) aims to express the idea that the created world is dependent at each moment in its temporal existence on the active presence of God for its maintenance and subsistence. ¶ The term interprets the conservatio and at the same time shifts it in the closest conceivable proximity of the concept of initial creation (VI): “For God, creation and maintenance are one and the same thing” (Luther). If creation is not to remain a speculative idea, of no consequenc…

[German Version] The doctrine of the testimonium was formulated by Calvin ( Inst.I 7) and included in various Reformed articles of faith (I, 3; Confessio Gallicana 4). It means that the unimpugnable validity and authority of Scripture (Holy Scriptures) does not depend on the judgment of the church (in the form of an agreement or consensus) but on the testimony of the Spirit (Spirit/Holy Spirit). J.H. Alsted honored it as the foundation of all theology. It does not mean that the “self-evidence” of Scripture is joined by …

[German Version] I. Bible – II. Dogmatics I. Bible 1. Hebrew Bible Older interpretations (most recently: Copan) of Gen 1:1, 2, that God created the tohuwabohu, etc. from nothing (Creation; Chaos: II) in order subsequently to shape it in the six days of creation have been abandoned. However one assesses the syntax of Gen 1:1–3, the consensus maintains: the framework of Gen 1:1+2:4a speaks of the creation of the ordered world of life, but Gen 1:2 mentions (de-mythologizing Me…

[English Version] I. Dogmengeschichtlich und dogmatisch Der Begriff S. bez. allg. diejenigen theol. Konzeptionen, die in einem geistl. oder ethischen Zusammenwirken des menschlichen Willens mit der Gnade Gottes einen ursächlichen Faktor des Heilsempfangs sehen (Pelagius/Pelagianer/Semipelagianer). Die Reformatoren haben auf der Linie Augustins den S. bekämpft und die in Gottes Gnadenwahl begründete Rechtfertigung ( sola gratia) als das alleinige Fundament des Heils begriffen. Trotz der »Gemeinsamen Erklärung« zur Rechtfertigungslehre durch den Va…

[German Version] I. Dogmatics In general, the term synergy denotes theological conceptions that consider spiritual or ethical cooperation of the human will with divine grace a causal factor in human salvation (Pelagius/Pelagians/Semi-Pelagians). The Reformers followed Augustine of Hippo in rejecting synergism, seeing justification based solely on God’s free grace ( sola gratia) as the only foundation of salvation. Despite the 1999 Joint Declarationon the Doctrine of Justification by the Vatican and the Lutheran World Federation, it remains debatable whether an…

[English Version] I. Biblisch 1.  Altes Testament und frühjüdische ApokalyptikP. bez. traditionell die zeitlich vorgängige, endgültige Festlegung von Menschen durch Gott im Hinblick auf ihr eschatologisches Heil oder Unheil. Sie stellt darin eine Teilmenge einer allg. Vorstellung von göttlicher Vorherbestimmung (Determination [Determinismus/Indeterminismus: II.]) in individueller und soteriologischer Zuspitzung dar, wie sie sich auch im jüd.-christl. Raum findet. Eigentliche Prädestinationsaussagen kenn…

[German Version] I. Bible 1. Old Testament and early Jewish apocalypticism. Predestination refers traditionally to God’s foreordained final determination regarding the eschatological salvation or damnation of each individual. In this sense, it represents a subset of a universal notion of divine predetermination (Determinism and indeterminism: II) taken to its logical individual and soteriological extreme, as is found in both Judaism and Christianity. The Old Testament does not speak of predestination in …

[German Version] I. Old Testament – II. New Testament – III. Dogmatics – IV. Judaism I. Old Testament Election, especially in compounds such as doctrine of election, election idea, election tradition, is a term from biblical theology based on the theological use of the Heb. verb בחר/ bḥr, especially in Deuteronomy, which has become established since K. Galling's monograph (1928). It has become the comprehensive term for the foundation of Israel's existence and involves “the philosop…

[German Version] I. History – II. Church Law – III. Dogmatics – IV. Ethics – V. Missiology I. History 1. Antiquity and Middle Ages Because the faithful are supposed to “lead a life worthy of God” (1 Thess 2:12), the question of the ordering of the earthly Christian life and of the admonition of sinners has remained an object of active reflection since the founding of the first churches. Whereas admonition and invitation to repentance are initially the responsibility of the congregations (Matt 18:5–18), banishment and the carrying out of excommunicatio minor and maior (Excommunicati…