Kategoria BISAC: Religion >> Christian Theology - Soteriology

Concerned to reinvigorate the church's teaching on the cross, the resurrection, and salvation -- the atonement -- Peter Schmiechen here invites readers to rediscover the wealth of the Christian tradition. In "Saving Power he makes ample use of primary sources to unpack ten distinct theories of atonement, welcoming aspects of each rather than championing only one. Along the way, he demonstrates that while most Christians assume the basic theme of atonement...

Ranging broadly through Christian history and across allbranches of the church, Oden cites the writings of such majorfigures as Athanasius, Basil, Gregory Nazianzus, and John Chrysostomin the East and Ambrose, Jerome, Augustine, and Gregory theGreat in the West. Although Oden presents all the relevant...

Up to now the teaching on baptism in the Holy Spirit has been based on a few scriptural texts, whose interpretation was disputed. This doubt cast its shadow on those who promote baptism in the Holy Spirit.

Now new evidence has been found in early post-biblical authors (Tertullian, Hilary of Poitiers, Cyril of Jerusalem, John Chrysostom, Philoxenus, and the Syrians) which demonstrates that what is called baptism in the Holy Spirit was integral to Christian initiation (baptism, confirmation, Eucharist). Because it was part of initiation into the Church, it was not a matter of private...

The origins of atonement are found in Paul's writings. Popular Christian theology has understood them to mean that God demanded a bloody victim to pay for human sin. In "Problems with Atonement" Stephen Finlan examines the Christian doctrine of atonement and current debates about it. He considers its biblical foundation in Pauline texts, the Old Testament background, and the theological questions under discussion about atonement. He provides ancient historical background and raises questions, such as whether the Incarnation must be understood through the lens of atonement.

Chapters are...

In the light of its own history, the Catholic theology of the Eucharist, as it is generally understood today, is revealed as a splinter tradition whose deficiencies call for fundamental reformulation. The valid aspects of that theology (for example, the recovery of the role of the Holy Spirit in the new Roman Eucharistic Prayers) must be identified and integrated with the faith and practice of the first theological millennium when the lex orandi was not so dominated by the lex credendi. In the third theological millennium, more attention to the content and structure of the...