But let me go back once more to ancient Israel: From the earliest layers
of the biblical traditions to the most recent ones, the spokesmen of the God of the covenant violently repudiated the cult of sacred sexuality in all its forms.
This model can make good sense of many
of the biblical traditions, but not of all: God's particular involvement in human history, his apparent lack of knowledge concerning the future in some of the earlier narratives, his suffering, his willingness on occasion to change his mind.
Though later wise men from the East come to Herod's palace to pay homage to the newborn «king,» they find him in the only place consistent with the rest
of the biblical tradition: among the lowest of the low.
When Friedrich Nietzsche, in his several tirades against Christianity, points to these elements as of the essence
of the biblical tradition, he is certainly correct — though not in the dark conclusions he draws from the observation,
H. A. Wolfson writes that scholastic philosophy, or the coming together
of the Biblical tradition and Greek philosophy, was founded by Philo and destroyed by Spinoza.
Followers
of the biblical tradition, however, believe that they have heard a «word» speaking out to us in our lostness, a light shining in the darkness, a word telling us we are not alone and that through it the cosmos has been delivered from its apparent aloneness.
The radical rupture of this world that took place in ancient Israel and is at the root
of the biblical tradition almost certainly served to reinforce these boundaries.
It is not mere poetry but a most solemn truth - claim
of the biblical tradition that «no man is an island.»
From within our human history God's vision of cosmic destiny can be grasped only through the relatively limited and time - conditioned stories of promise that serve as the foundation
of our biblical tradition.
It is possible that Arimathea (like the later Emmaus) is actually an imagined site, for it is not known from any other source.9 It is just possible that the name «Joseph» may have been used to personalize the unknown Jew, presumed to have been responsible for the ritual burial, because
of the biblical tradition which told of the care with which Joseph, the patriarch, transported the body of his father all the way back to Machpelah for burial.10
These studies, extracting the differentiation of the parts, and astounded nevertheless by the historical fact that there has been discernible unity transcending them in the mind and life of the church, have thrust into the foreground a fresh interest in the unity
of the biblical tradition, and in the doctrine of the church.
Kaplan can help us to learn what that means; he can help us to understand that the catholicity
of the biblical tradition is not an abstract Greek universal, but a concrete Hebraic wholeness that is universal in its implications.
The justice that is at the center
of the biblical tradition is substantive justice.
Authentic heirs
of the biblical tradition could not have the ancient biblical faith today except as nostalgia, because times have changed.
It is acutely painful to biblical religion today, because many people, seeking a way to express their conscience in society, are led to reject any «religious» expression of it, because they identify these corruptions
of the biblical tradition with all religious expression.
The fact is, of course, that no amount of rationalization and apology can alter the nature
of the biblical tradition and record.
In some of the most memorable words
of the biblical tradition, God is said to have called Abram:
This has been the work
of the biblical tradition since Moses and the subsequent work of the Deuteronomists, the prophets and the scribes.
A Dictionary
of Biblical Tradition in English Literature edited by David Lyle Jeffrey Eerdmans, 960 pages, $ 80 A mammoth new reference work, certain to be a standard and invaluable resource, this «dictionary» contains hundreds of articles on biblical figures, motifs, concepts, quotations, and allusions» both in their scriptural context and as they have been used and understood by English - speaking writers and scholars since the Middle Ages.
Not exact matches
We also affirm that
tradition, rightly understood as the proper reflection
of biblical teaching, is the faithful transmission
of the truth
of the gospel from generation to generation through the power
of the Holy Spirit.
Revisiting late medieval
biblical interpretation, we may consider the delicacy
of the hermeneutic circle formed by Scripture and
tradition, appreciating the fragility
of a synthesis that refuses to impose on ancient consensus a linear, hierarchical path to truth.
This discussion is complex, nuanced by all kind
of factors like
biblical interpretation, church
tradition and local contexts.
Such cowardly acts have no basis in the broader scheme
of Biblical teaching and
tradition.
Even patriarchy's deepest plots have not wholly» silenced women in the
biblical tradition, nor does our knowledge
of these infamous «proceedings» have to cancel other values
of Scripture for us.
But such waiting might prevent rending
of the body
of Christ and might finally allow a contemporary understanding that, like the
biblical canon, retains a place for both
tradition and renewal, the old and the new.
Such a shift has great implications for theological method in the Wesleyan
tradition and for its view
of biblical authority.
In the
Biblical tradition, justice is the identifying characteristic
of Yahweh and the first prerequisite for a peaceable society.15 A philosophy which does any less is inadequate to our religious insight and will prove counterrevolutionary in its consequences.
The religious insight
of the exodus story works itself into the
Biblical tradition in many ways.
«The tone
of the writing, the format
of the page, and the directness
of the dialog allows the
tradition of passing down the
biblical narrative to come through in «The Voice.»»
to the new intellectual environment, combined with the fact that Wesley did seem easily to appropriate the emerging
biblical scholarship
of his day, are grounds for suggesting that the Wesleyan
tradition is more appropriately viewed as non-fundamentalist, even among those who wish to live in more direct continuity with the spiritual dynamic
of the founder.
Students will come to a theology or
biblical studies class knowing more
of what their
tradition says about the Bible then they do about what the Bible says itself.
Of course, these biblical passages have in mind, in particular, the transmission of a religious tradition: the story of God's care for his peopl
Of course, these
biblical passages have in mind, in particular, the transmission
of a religious tradition: the story of God's care for his peopl
of a religious
tradition: the story
of God's care for his peopl
of God's care for his people.
Yet this obsession with greatness and number - one - ness, whether
of individuals, nations or civilizations, has always stood in a rather awkward relationship to the
biblical tradition — however much Christendom has failed to sense the awkwardness.
Do they derive from the Judaeo ‑ Christian
tradition and do they make sense only in the context
of a
biblical world view?
Many evangelicals tend to think Catholics believe this because
of tradition only, but Catholics make a
biblical argument for this view.
Centuries
of separation and polemics have led Protestantism in some quarters to imagine that the
biblical witness could be disentangled from the Church's history,
tradition, and teaching office.
Much
of the information that has come down to us by
tradition about the authorship, place and date
of biblical writings, about differences
of text and translation, and the like, is the outcome
of intelligent critical discussion which took place between the first century and the fourth.
With the great Jewish thinker
of the early part
of this century, Franz Rosenzweig, he believes that Jews need to understand anew that «the Jewish vocation, rooted in the
biblical tradition, is to be an instrument for the redemption
of all humankind.»
Here it is assumed that the church's teaching is the responsible development
of biblical teaching, but the task is not so much to check this assumption as to build on the
tradition.
Theology in the Reformation
tradition has explored other alternatives, as in the «Andover theory» which views
biblical texts such as 2 Peter 3:19 «20 and 4:6 and Christ's descent to the dead referenced in the Apostles» Creed as warranting belief in the Hound
of Heaven pursuing the last and the least.
My hope is that as evangelicals move beyond the modern paradigm
of individual autonomy (particularly as it applies to
biblical interpretation), we will begin to appreciate church
tradition as an undeniable foundation for our faith.
Religion News Service: Obama extols a
biblical vision
of equality for all in second inaugural A presidential inauguration is by
tradition the grandest ritual
of America's civil religion, but President Obama took the oath
of office on Monday (Jan. 21) in a ceremony that was explicit in joining theology to the nation's destiny and setting out a
biblical vision
of equality that includes race, gender, class, and, most controversially, sexual orientation.
In my experience the reformed
traditions (baptists, presbyterian, and many independent churches; the puritans and anabaptists also came from this branch) can tend toward legalism; the pentecostal
traditions (Church
of Christ, Assembly
of God, vineyard, many independent churches etc.) can tend toward
biblical literalism and a bit
of a herd mentality; the lutheran
tradition can tend toward antinomianism, while the anglican and wesleyan
traditions do the best at shooting down the middle (though I am admittedly biased).
Theological hermeneutics should have a «spiral structure» in which there is ongoing circulation between culture,
tradition, and
biblical text, each enriching the understanding
of the other.
The contemporary habit
of speaking about rights apart from obligations is alien to the
biblical tradition and, we would argue, alien to the logic
of the Universal Declaration.
«3 Theology today must attempt to reappropriate Christian
tradition and
biblical faith in terms
of our contemporary situation and language.
They emerged out
of the Christian denominational -
biblical tradition on the one hand and Enlightenment utilitarianism on the other hand.
It also shows how it is able, because
of this, to achieve the critical freedom which is related to the history
of social freedom... The
Biblical traditions and the doctrinal and confessional formulae that are derived from these
traditions appear in the light
of this interpretation as formulae
of memoria.
I can see that there are roots
of this atomism in the
biblical tradition, but I am also convinced that they do not dominate it.
We know that there is also wisdom to be found, much
of it similar to
Biblical wisdom, in the sacred texts and stories
of other faiths and
traditions and we are glad to have those, also, to help us discern the direction
of our lives and paths.