| Title | : | Reformed Theology, Revelation, And Particularity: John Calvin and H. Richard Niebuhr (Report) |
|---|---|---|
| Author | : | Cross Currents |
| Release | : | 2009-06-01 |
| Kind | : | ebook |
| Genre | : | Education, Books, Professional & Technical |
| Size | : | 89899 |
| Reformed Christianity, as I shall soon have reason to emphasize, is but one of many particular Christian sub-traditions. Thus, when we investigate how Reformed theologians understand a theme such as revelation and particularity, we are in little danger of emerging with a statement of how Christian theologians at large or in general understand it. We can emerge, at best, with an understanding of how persons and groups within this particular Christian sub-tradition understand it. Moreover, we should also note that there have been significant disagreements over revelation even within the specific strand of Christian tradition known as Reformed. The American fundamentalist-modernist controversy, for example, was partly a conflict over how to understand biblical revelation in relation to other sources of insight. During the twentieth century in Europe, Karl Barth complained that Emil Brunner embraced a theology of compromise which threatened the independence of revelation from alien sources of insight. (1) My purpose here, accordingly, is not to identify THE Reformed understanding of revelation and particularity, but only to provoke reflection on this theme by indicating how some Reformed theologians have understood it. Specifically, I will review John Calvin on revelation and the covenant of grace and H. Richard Niebuhr on revelation and the purpose of the church. That is, I will review two related but different expressions of the Reformed theological tradition drawn from two different places and times. In each instance, I will try to show how an understanding of revelation and, indeed, of the historically particular revelation of God in Jesus Christ relates to other rather expansive themes and ideas--at least some of which touch upon Reformed theological views of Judaism as well as of other religions. |
