Heavenly Participation

Author: Hans Boersma
Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing
ISBN: 1467434426
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 219

Heavenly Participation

Author: Hans Boersma
Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing
ISBN: 0802865429
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 219

Book Description
Surveying the barriers that contemporary thinking has erected between the natural and the supernatural, between earth and heaven, Hans Boersma issues a wake-up call for Western Christianity. Both Catholics and evangelicals, he says, have moved too far away from a sacramental mindset, focusing more on the here-and-now than on the then-and-there. Yet, as Boersma points out, the teaching of Jesus, Paul, and St. Augustine indeed, of most of Scripture and the church fathers is profoundly otherworldly, much more concerned with heavenly participation than with earthly enjoyment. In Heavenly Participation Boersma draws on the wisdom of great Christian minds ancient and modern Irenaeus, Gregory of Nyssa, C. S. Lewis, Henri de Lubac, John Milbank, and many others. He urges Catholics and evangelicals alike to retrieve a sacramental worldview, to cultivate a greater awareness of eternal mysteries, to partake eagerly of the divine life that transcends and transforms all earthly realities. Hans Boersma makes a superb contribution to evangelical theological reflection in this well-designed book, and it goes a long way to drawing us back from the brink of a fashionable evangelical tendency to reductive historicism. His re-situation of the doctrine of the Incarnation in its historic sacramental language and thought opens up the way to a deeper understanding of the truths of faith that evangelicals and Catholics alike seek to comprehend and nurture. David Lyle Jeffrey Baylor University Theology at its best, says Hans Boersma, is less interested in comprehending the truth than in participating in it. Skillfully marshalling passages from the church fathers and medieval theologians and drawing judiciously on contemporary evangelical and Catholic thinkers, Boersma shows that theology is not primarily an intellectual enterprise but a spiritual discipline by which one enters into the truth and is mastered by it. Though this sacramental tapestry, as he calls it, is as old as the church, it is refreshing to have it presented anew in this engaging book. Robert Louis Wilken University of Virginia

Nouvelle Théologie and Sacramental Ontology

Author: Hans Boersma
Publisher: OUP Oxford
ISBN: 019156995X
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 343

Book Description
In the decades leading up to the Second Vatican Council, the movement of nouvelle théologie caused great controversy in the Catholic Church and remains a subject of vigorous scholarly debate today. In Nouvelle théologie and Sacramental Ontology Hans Boersma argues that a return to mystery was the movement's deepest motivation. Countering the modern intellectualism of the neo-Thomist establishment, the nouvelle theologians were convinced that a ressourcement of the Church Fathers and of medieval theology would point the way to a sacramental reintegration of nature and the supernatural. In the context of the loss suffered by both Catholics and Protestants in the de-sacramentalizing of modernity, Boersma shows how the sacramental ontology of nouvelle théologie offers a solid entry-point into ecumenical dialogue. The volume begins by setting the historical context for nouvelle théologie with discussions of the influence of significant theologians and philosophers like Möhler, Blondel, Maréchal, and Rousselot. The exposition then moves to the writings of key thinkers of the ressourcement movement including de Lubac, Bouillard, Balthasar, Chenu, Daniélou, Charlier, and Congar. Boersma analyses the most characteristic elements of the movement: its reintegration of nature and the supernatural, its reintroduction of the spiritual interpretation of Scripture, its approach to Tradition as organically developing in history, and its communion ecclesiology that regarded the Church as sacrament of Christ. In each of these areas, Boersma demonstrates how the nouvelle theologians advocated a return to mystery by means of a sacramental ontology.

Calvin, Participation, and the Gift

Author: J. Todd Billings
Publisher: OUP Oxford
ISBN: 0191526371
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 232

Book Description
Is the God of Calvin a fountain of blessing, or a forceful tyrant? Is Calvin's view of God coercive, leaving no place for the human qua human in redemption? These are perennial questions about Calvin's theology which have been given new life by Gift theologians such as John Milbank, Graham Ward, and Stephen Webb. J. Todd Billings addresses these questions by exploring Calvin's theology of `participation in Christ'. He argues that Calvin's theology of `participation' gives a positive place to the human, such that grace fulfils rather than destroys nature, affirming a differentiated union of God and humanity in creation and redemption. Calvin's trinitarian theology of participation extends to his view of prayer, sacraments, the law, and the ecclesial and civil orders. In light of Calvin's doctrine of participation, Billings reframes the critiques of Calvin in the Gift discussion and opens up new possibilities for contemporary theology, ecumenical theology, and Calvin scholarship as well.

Eucharistic Participation

Author: Hans Boersma
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781573835930
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 80

Book Description
Eucharistic Participation deals with the importance of the Eucharist, and in the process challenges Protestants (and especially evangelicals) to treat the Eucharist more seriously than they sometimes do. In particular, Boersma re-addresses the two issues of the Lord's Supper as sacrifice and as real presence. These were the two issues central to the Eucharistic debates of the Protestant Reformation. This booklet is written from an attitude of sympathy with the motivations and concerns of the Reformers. At the same time, it suggests that it is possible to get beyond the disagreements of the Reformation period. If we take seriously the notion of "participation"-the idea that in the Eucharistic celebration we share in Christ and in his work-we can affirm both "sacrificial" language and talk of "real presence"-while at the same time holding on to the all-sufficient and unique character of Christ's sacrifice. Participation, so Boersma argues, reconfigures our understanding of both time and space. If past, present, and future coincide in and through Christ, this means that what we do today in the Eucharist can participate in the unique sacrifice of Christ without undermining it. And if heaven and earth are reunited in and through Christ, this means that the heavenly reality of Christ's body can become really present in the celebration of the Eucharist. Serious ecumenical dialogue requires, therefore, that Protestants do justice to the theology of participation as they try to come to grips with the disagreements between Rome and the Reformation.

The Unheavenly Chorus

Author: Kay Lehman Schlozman
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691154848
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 727

Book Description
Examining the current state of democracy in the United States, 'The Unheavenly Chorus' looks at the political participation of individual citizens - alongside the political advocacy of thousands of organized interests - in order to demonstrate that American democracy is marred by ingrained and persistent class-based inequality.

Violence, Hospitality, and the Cross

Author: Hans Boersma
Publisher: Baker Academic
ISBN: 0801031338
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 288

Book Description
Offers a new model for understanding the atonement, sensitive to both the Christian tradition and its postmodern critics.

The Lamb's Supper

Author: Scott Hahn
Publisher: Image
ISBN: 0385504802
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 192

Book Description
As seen on EWTN, bestselling author Scott Hahn unveils the mysteries of the Mass, offering readers a deeper appreciation of the most familiar of Catholic rituals. Of all things Catholic, there is nothing that is so familiar as the Mass. With its unchanging prayers, the Mass fits Catholics like their favorite clothes. Yet most Catholics sitting in the pews on Sundays fail to see the powerful supernatural drama that enfolds them. Pope John Paul II described the Mass as "Heaven on Earth," explaining that what "we celebrate on Earth is a mysterious participation in the heavenly liturgy." The Lamb’s Supper reveals a long-lost secret of the Church: The early Christians' key to understanding the mysteries of the Mass was the New Testament Book of Revelation. With its bizarre imagery, its mystic visions of heaven, and its end-of-time prophecies, Revelation mirrors the sacrifice and celebration of the Eucharist. Beautifully written, in clear direct language, bestselling Catholic author Scott Hahn's new book will help readers see the Mass with new eyes, pray the liturgy with a renewed heart, and enter into the Mass more fully, enthusiastically, intelligently, and powerfully than ever before.

The Heavenly Banquet

Author: Fr. Emmanuel Hatzidakis
Publisher: Orthodox Witness
ISBN: 0977897060
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 433

Book Description
The Heavenly Banquet: Understanding the Divine Liturgy is the most comprehensive Divine Liturgy commentary available in the English language. With over 300 bibliographical sources, an abundance of biblical citations, and quotations from Church Fathers and modern authors, The Heavenly Banquet is a treasure. The Heavenly Banquet addresses head-on not only liturgical matters, but also social, moral and doctrinal issues, always in a clear, practical, informational, and uplifting way. In depth, yet easy to follow, written in simple, understandable language, this book will aid Catechists and instructors who can draw from its abundant material for presentation and discussion. This work will be of great benefit to any Orthodox Christian who wants to obtain a better understanding of the Divine Liturgy. The richness and the depth of the subjects treated herein make The Heavenly Banquet a treasure.

Embodiment and Virtue in Gregory of Nyssa

Author: Hans Boersma
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199641129
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 303

Book Description
Embodiment in the theology of Gregory of Nyssa is a much-debated topic. Hans Boersma argues that this-worldly realities of time and space, which include embodiment, are not the focus of Gregory's theology. Instead, Boersma suggests, the key to Gregory's theology is anagogy-going upward in order to participate in the life of God.