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Part of Grace: 1. Biblical 2. Theological 3. Structure of De Gratia 1. The Old Testament background. The prehistory of the theological concept of grace is to be attached to the terms תסד and תו in the ОТ. Both appear as χάρις in the LXX. They do not signify proprieties or entities, but, like the ОТ concept of justice, a social attitude, and its deployment in action rather than merely the mental disposition. Hence the concepts of תס¸צדקה and שד are closely connected with them, as is also שלום. Hence, in contrast to our notion of grace, תסד may be attributed to both partners in the relationsh…

Deism designates a defective form of thought with regard to the relationship between God and the world. It reduces God’s function as ground of the world’s existence to his giving it its first impulse. According to the classical comparison of God with a clock-maker, which is found as early as Nicolaus of Oresmes (d. 1382), God wound up the clock of the world once and for all at the start, so that it can run on and produce world history without his creative conservation and his concurrent influenc…

1. The problem of theodicy. It is not necessary to recall, much less demonstrate, that the world is stamped by misery and suffering, by evil in all its forms. There is no need therefore to “show the interest” of the question. It is an importunate one, today as ever at its most tormenting in the suffering of the innocent, especially what has been called the “absolute evil” of the suffering of children who are exposed to it not only inculpably but without even the possible defence of fleeing it. And t…

Part of Mysticism: 1. Nature and History 2. Schools of Mysticism A. Theory and Technique From the theological point of view, mysticism may be regarded as consciousness of the experience of uncreated grace as revelation and self-communication of the triune God. The task of a “theology of mysticism” is to give a scientific and theoretical account of its presuppositions and principles, using the methods of theology. It is not possible to start with a definition of mysticism, since the definition has to be worked …

1. General concept. The Greek word τέχνη embraces all “artificial” production of things by man, as opposed to their spontaneous, “natural” growth and development. Starting from this, technology can be taken as synonymous with “art” in the widest sense, in contradistinction to “nature”. It is one of the basic ways in which the world of nature is freely and consciously transformed into the world of man, a cultural process, therefore, which consists essentially in material production. Within this cat…

Part of Sin: 1. Sin and Guilt 2. Punishment of Sins 1. Preliminary remarks on method and matter. The theological understanding of what punishment of sin means must not start from a notion based on the penalties imposed by civil law on a criminal for offences against society. The special relationship of God to the world, not that of a particular cause within the world but that of the transcendent origin of the world as a whole, would risk being distorted by this approach. And there are other anthropomorphic notio…

1. Historical review. Social phenomena have been the object of thought in all social systems. The writings on social philosophy are an outstanding example of this. With the rise of industrialism and secularization and the loosening of previously accepted socialties, the social foundations themselves came to be questioned. This, as well as the constantly increasing complexity of social structures, demanded an independent science with its own methods, not the least of whose functions would be to hel…

A. General Features Hellenism, the language and thought-forms of which influenced reflection on Christian revelation and the formulation of dogma from the 2nd to the 4th century, must not be taken asa homogeneous philosophical system, such as that of Plato, Aristotle or the Stoics. It consists of syncretist structures — neo-Pythagoreanism, middle Platonism, neo-Platonism — in which Platonism predominates but nearly always permeated by Aristotelian and Stoic elements. The unanimity with which the Ap…

The notion of a forum, as a special place, goes back to the early days of civilization. As a juridical term, it comes from the usage to which the place which it designated was put (e.g., the Forum Romanum), in an age when religion, political life, and law intermingled. Etymologically, the word implies a fencing which both protects and separates. So having first meant a place, the word became associated with a court of justice. It became a formal term in juridical language, meaning primarily the …

1. The general notion. The notion of habitus is used to explain the special nature of human action. Since man is spirit realizing himself in freedom, he comes upon himself not merely as a neutral entity, but primarily as a task imposed. Through and in his action he must make himself what he is and ought to be. But this power to make himself does not mean that he is totally indeterminate, as if he had to make an absolute beginning at each moment. On the contrary, the free action of man as spirit always …

Part of New Testament Theology: 1. Data and Methods 2. Pauline Theology 3. Johannine Theology The faith of Paul, and his theology as his reflection on his faith, are founded and centred on the vision of Christ before Damascus, in which Paul recognized the Messiah, now exalted as Lord (1 Cor 9:1; 2:2; Gal 1:16), the crucified Jesus whom he was persecuting. This revelation illuminated history and present reality for Paul. A presentation of his theology must therefore be founded and centred on Christology (cf. 1 …

Part of Apologetics: 1. Apologetics in General 2. Immanence Apologetics A. Theological Situation Apologetics, in a general and fundamental way, is a permanent feature of all Christian theology. The effort to answer for the faith is as old as Christian theology as such and is inspired by the testimony contained in the bible itself (see B). As a result of the new cultural and political situation of the Enlightenment, where Christianity and religion in general were no longer identified, and Christianity ceased …

At the end of the 2nd century the capital of Egypt, Alexandria, with its scientific traditions, proved to be the most favourable situation for the development of Christian theology. The first Ptolemies, by installing famous libraries, had already created the conditions which made possible the intellectual ferment which was to affect all branches of science in the Hellenistic era. Classical scholarship and philosophy, of neo-Platonist tinge were particularly stimulating for Christian thinkers. It…

Part of Hell: 1. Doctrine 2. Descent of Christ into Hell 1. In the history of revelation the notion of hell as the place and state of those who are finally lost goes back to the ОТ notion of Sheol as the place and state of the dead — the “underworld”. In a long, slow process of theological reflection, the state in question came to be understood differently of the good and the bad, in keeping with their life on earth. The “sheol of damnation” (1 Q Hodayot [Qumran Thanksgiving Hymns], 3, 19) was the final lot of the wicked (Gehenna; cf. LTK, V, cols. 445 f., with bibliography). The notion of the f…

A. Origins of Monasticism. B. Benedictine Monasticism and Cathedral Chapters. C. Congregations and the Poverty Movement. D. The Catholic Reform and New Types of Congregation. E. Secularization and Revival of the Orders. F. Canon Law for Religious. A. Origins of Monasticism Religious associations such as existed in the Jewish or pagan world are no longer considered possible origins of Christian monasticism. And no continuity with the vita communis of the primitive Church can be demonstrated, though the asceticism of the early Church was often invoked in the cour…

The Enlightenment denotes the most revolutionary of all movements which the Occident has undergone in the course of its history. It has not yet been sufficiently investigated, but it may be admitted that it affected various countries, Churches and generations in different degrees. The historian Troeltsch has characterized it as the beginning of the really modern period of European culture, in contrast to the ecclesiastical and theological culture which had been hitherto predominant. The Enlightenment originated in the Netherlands and in England in the mid 17th centur…

Part of Revelation: 1. Concept of Revelation 2. God’s Self-Communication 3. Primitive Revelation 4. Private Revelation 1. The history of the notion. It is hard to tell when the term first came into theology. All that can be said is that it was in the modern era and that the theme was mainly expounded in the theological movements of the first half of the 19th century. But the notion itself may be said to have been “always there” in theology, when man was considered in his original state in the setting of paradise, an…

1. Despair as a sin consists in the relinquishing of present or possible hope. It is, therefore, the voluntary rejection of a consciously recognized dependence of man upon his fellowmen and upon God, as well as of the corresponding duty of seeking perfection and salvation in harmony with them. The motives for despair can be various; it may be, for example, moral sloth (accidie, acedia) which shrinks from the effort of following Christ and which prefers earthly blessings to union with men or God; or …

1. The term. The English word “humility” derives from Latin humilis, “lowly” (“near the ground”, humus = earth). In the ОТ, (LXX: ταπεινός) the dominant note is the elemental human experience of not having given ourselves existence, and therefore of not being necessary, which thrusts itself upon man in the pointlessness of life (cf. the sapiential books), in guilt, sickness, and death. 2. Scripture, a) Old Testament. Since Yahweh, the Creator God, has given man existence and keeps him in being, since Yahweh also rules the history of the Jewish nation and of th…

To make a correct evaluation of the evangelical counsel of virginity, it is well to start with the specification of man through his sexual nature. Because of this sexual nature he can achieve a full realization of his being as a person only if his attitude to sex is an open one, in the sense that he places it at the service of an ordered self-love, love of neighbour and love of God. If he does this, he exercises the virtue of chastity. Now this sexual specification of man, calling for a free per…