Sentences with phrase «historical teachings of the faith»

A colleague of mine, Gary Gutting, published an article in the New York Times this past Easter arguing that the core of the Catholic faith is a commitment to an ethics of love, and that the historical teachings of the faith are best taken as useful parables.

Not exact matches

Guiding Principles Religious and theological studies depend on and reinforce each other; A principled approach to religious values and faith demands the intellectual rigor and openness of quality academic work; A well - educated student of religion must have a deep and broad understanding of more than a single religious tradition; Studying religion requires that one understand one's own historical context as well as that of those whom one studies; An exemplary scholarly and teaching community requires respect for and critical engagement with difference and diversity of all kinds.

But then, of course, the seminary's opponents would use similar reasoning to suggest that the church's public teaching must regard the Jonah story as a straightforward historical account, and soon no distinction at all would be possible between what the Bible records and what it teaches, what is central to the faith and what is not.

Moreover, it must be remembered that the Gospels are the records of early Christian preaching and teaching rather than attempts at objective historical narrative and are thus more immediately valuable as sources for the faith of the primitive church than for the biography of Jesus.

A Faith For All Seasons By Ted M. Dorman Broadman & Holman, 391 pages, $ 27.99 Coming out of years of teaching at Taylor University, a Christian school in Indiana, this book, written by a Protestant, evidences an admirable ecumenical and historical reach.

These questions are not without significance, touching on the person of Christ and the nature of faith, and the answers will only come from an engaged discussion of the authority of Scripture, the historical witness of the church, and the clarity with which the councils, creeds, and confessions give expression to the teaching of the Bible.

The historical problem presented by the Gospels is, then, not the problem of determining whether the character of the early Christians, their faith, and the exigencies of their life and work have colored and overlaid the facts of Jesus» teaching and life, but is, rather, the problem of determining just how we should use our knowledge of this fact in our efforts to get back to the so - called historical Jesus» own words and life.

This will mean making clear the authentic interpretation of the teaching of the faith, challenging false interpretations, and may mean re-examination of traditional teaching in the current socio - historical context.

Today both of these things would be questioned: it is no longer self - evident that the historical Jesus is, in fact, the central concern of Christian faith, and it may no longer be assumed that the major aspect of that faith is to follow the dictates, encouragements and challenges of the teaching of that Jesus.

Most books on the teaching of Jesus have simply assumed that the results of the historical - critical discussion of that teaching were significant to Christian faith.