Rels Midterm

kenny lang

Hermeneutics

‘interpretation theory

Exegesis

the practice of interpretation

Exposition

drawing out what the text therefore means for contemporary readers. (follows exegesis) 

The Bible was written by and for people:

1. With different worldviews;

2. With different cultural understandings;

3. With different historical contexts;

4. In different languages;

5. With different literary and rhetorical standards.

Textual criticism

the process of determining the original text by examining all the available Manuscripts. determines which readings are OG

There are 3 types of barriers to biblical interpretation:

1. Historical barriers

2. Linguistic barriers

3. Literary barriers

The historical-critical method: 

looks at the historical background, culture, and assumptions of the author and their original audience to better understand what the author meant

Lexical-syntactical analysis:

establishes the meanings of individual words, and the meaning that arises based on how the words relate to each other in sentences.

Done by using a dictionary and grammar.writers used different literary forms, rhetorical rules, etc.

Literary criticism:

determines how different literary devices convey meaning.

Usage of author’s use of genre, poetic devices, figurative language, rhetoric, etc.

3 historical barriers

1. With different worldviews;

2. With different cultural understandings;

3. With different historical contexts;

2 Linguistic barriers 

4. In different languages;

5. With different literary and

rhetorical standards.

2 alternative approaches: 

• Allegorical interpretation: seeks God’s meaning,regardless of the biblical writers’ intentions.

• Reader-response criticism: ignores the writer’s intention, and concentrates instead on what the text says to the reader

Modern biblical criticism:

• establish the historical reality and the intentions of the author 

• came out of the Enlightenment and its critiques of religious traditions and authorities.

• created to test the reliability of the Bible

1. Naturalism:

•  the natural world is all that exists, and accept natural explanations of any events.

• Supernatural elements of scripture have to rejected

1. Hermeneutic of Suspicion:

• way of analyzing texts that assumes the author might not be truthful unless their claims can be independently verified.

• religious authorities accepted everything written in the Bible as entirely true without questioning it.

historical-critical method goal:

to get behind the text to the historical reality shows a

strong distrust of the biblical writers

Two Correctives to the Protestant Reliance on Modern Biblical Criticism

1. Ensuring our interpretations are formed by the history of Christian interpretation of Scripture.

2.  new approach: Theological Interpretation of Scripture

The pre-Modern world was characterized by:

•  Rigid hierarchies of authority that were unquestioned.

• A view of ‘reason’ as a property of the universe itself, rather than a property of human consciousness.

•  Changes have begun at the Reformation.

• The authority of the Church is questioned for the first time.

•  We see the beginnings of individualism

Core Tenets of the Enlightenment

1. Emphasis on individualism and individual autonomy.

2. Confidence in the power of human reason.

3. Belief that reason is pure and objective.

1. Emphasis on individualism and individual autonomy.

• The individual is seen as the best and most reliable guide to truth.

• This is combined with a strong anti-authoritarian sentiment.

2. Confidence in the power of human reason.

• The power of human reason was thought to be able to solve all of humanity’s problems.

• leads to a widespread faith in ‘progress.’

3. Belief that reason is pure and objective.

• Reason is seen to be universal, unaffected by history and context.

• Reason is objective, so humans can use reason to directly grasp universal truth.

Implications for Theology:

1. Protestant Christianity is influenced by Enlightenment individualism and influenced by Enlightenment confidence in human reason.

• Postmodern thought is characterized by:

• Lack of faith in human progress.

• Rejection of metanarratives.

• Suspicion of the possibility of reliable knowledge.

• Denial of an accessible objective reality.

when does Postmodernism began

when society lost faith in Modernism

Critiques of ModernThought:

1. Critique of Metanarratives

2. Critique of Human Progress

3. Critique of Scientific Reason

4. Critique of Foundationalism

1. Critique of Metanarratives

Metanarratives: give context, meaning, and purpose to all of life.

•  Modern thought relies on it

• Metanarratives claim:

• no story can claim to be objectively true, and universally relevant, as

2. Critique of Human Progress

• humanity is going to keep using reason to overcome its problems, improve society, and create a utopian existence. Postmodernism points out that the metanarrative of progress is false.

3. Critique of Scientific Reason

• Modernity claims that human reason + scientific method = objective truth.

• Postmodernism argues that scientific method is not actually an objective method of inquiry.

true or false: Postmodernism does not reject reason but it rejects the Enlightenment claim

true

4. Critique of Foundationalism

• knowledge must be based on a foundation of beliefs which cannot be questioned

• Postmodernism rejects foundationalism

Claims of Postmodernism

1. Humans cannot directly access ultimate reality.

2. There is no privileged perspective on reality.

 Monotheism:

the belief that there is only one God.

Heresy

any belief that represents a denial of a core doctrine of the Christian faith.

Three categories of early church heresies:

• tritheism, modalism, and subordinationism.

Tritheism:

the belief in three distinct Gods.

denial or weakening of the unity of the Father, Son, and Spirit as one God.

• Tritheism was a hypothetical or imagined position.

Marcionism and Gnosticism deny what

Both deny that the God of the Old Testament is the same God as the Father of Jesus Christ.

Modalism:

a group of beliefs which claim that the Father, Son, and Spirit are not distinct persons, but different modes in which the one God appears to us.

• Subordinationism:

• a group of beliefs which assert that the Son and/or the Spirit are somehow inferior to the Father.

• Adoptionism

• the belief that Jesus was an ordinary human being who was adopted by God to be his son.

The Nicene Creed

1. There is one God

2. Jesus Christ is worshipped as God (the Holy Spirit is also worshipped as God)

3. Jesus is not the Father (the Holy Spirit is not Jesus or the Father)

• Docetism (muslims also affirm this) :

• the belief that Jesus only seemed to be human.

Apollinarianism:

the belief that Jesus had a real human body, but a divine mind

• Nestorianism vs Monophysitism

• Nestorianism: two distinct natures coexist in the single body of Jesus of Nazareth.

• Monophysitism: Jesus has a single nature that is both human and divine.

Sin has three effects:

1. Sin makes us guilty

2. Sin corrupts everything

3. Sin separates us from God

3 Ways Salvation Overcomes Sin

1. Sin makes us guilty, deserving death.

= Jesus saves us from death.

2. Sin corrupts all of Creation.

= Jesus sets in motion the restoration of all creation.

3. Sin separates us from God

= Jesus reconciles us to God.

Deification:

a transformative process of salvation whose aim is likeness to or union with God.

How does Jesus Save?

His Life: the revelation of God

His Death: the redemption of humanity

His Resurrection: the victory over Sin, Death, and Satan

Sacrificial Lamb Theory

• In his death on the cross, Jesus provided the perfect sacrifice for humanity’s sin.

• Jesus purifies and removes the sin of humanity, so we can be restored to God.

Recapitulation Theory

Jesus is the new Adam. Where Adam failed and caused humanity to fall, Jesus succeeded and restored humanity

Ransom Theory

• by his death Jesus paid the ransom for humanity, in order to redeem us from death.

• Who did Jesus pay this ransom to? Satan, ‘the ruler of this world.’

Christus Victor Theory

• Jesus dies to defeat Satan.

• Satan had no authority to kill a sinless person. So when Satan accepted Jesus’ death in place of humanity, Satan overstepped his authority, and his power was defeated.

Penal Substitutionary Atonement

• Jesus’ death was not a ransom payment to Satan, but a payment of debt to God.

What Happens to the Unsaved?

• Eternal conscious torment:
  

• Annihilationism

• Conditional immortality:

• Universal Reconciliation:

• Eternal conscious torment:

• the view that the unsaved will experience a never-ending punishment in the afterlife.

• Annihilationism:

  
  

• the view that the unsaved will be destroyed

• Conditional immortality:

• humans are not immortal, we only live as long as God continues to sustain us.

• Universal Reconciliation:

• all people will ultimately be saved.

What Happens to the Unsaved (christian PoV)?

• Christian view = Jesus’ death on the cross cannot fail in its mission to redeem humanity.

What is the Fate of the unsaved?

1. Eternal Conscious Torment

2. Annihilationism

3. Universal Reconciliation

Original Sin: Three Views

Irenaean Original Sin

Pelagianism

Augusinian Original Sin

Irenaean Original Sin

humanity inherits a sinful nature as a result of the first sin of Adam and Eve.

• human nature has been corrupted by sin, but humans are still capable of

responding to God’s grace to accept salvation.

Pelagianism Sin

sin and death enter the world, but human nature is not corrupted by Adam and Eve’s sin.

• human nature has not been hindered by the Fall, so humans can turn to God and earn salvation by their own efforts.

Augusinian Original Sin:

Because of Adam and Eve’s sin, humanity inherits both a sinful nature and their guilty Status.

• human nature has been so corrupted by sin that humans cannot respond to God’s call.

3 Roles of the Church

Herald: proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ to the world.

Servant: serve the world.

Mystical communion: unite members with one another and God.

The 4 Marks of the Church (COAH)

•  The church is One

• The church is Holy

•  The church is catholic

• The church is Apostolic

The Church is catholic meaning

•  The church is universal.