Christian History Magazine on Vatican II

The latest special issue of Christian History Magazine is devoted to: ‘Vatican II: The council that reshaped modern Catholicism’.

From the blurb:

‘What is Vatican II, and why does it matter for the entire Christian church?

‘This issue of CH will explore the convening of the Second Vatican Council in 1962, a historic council in Roman Catholic history in response to the changing world. Starting with the sixteenth-century Council of Trent and the Catholic reply to the Protestant Reformation, this issue covers the multiple political and theological factors that eventually led to the First Vatican Council in 1869. Crisis outside the church and controversies within would precipitate the Second Vatican Council nearly one hundred years later.

‘During Vatican II, bishops from around the world gathered to debate and respond to questions raised by the modern world. What should liturgy, governance, and education look like in the modern church? How should clergy exercise their authority? What roles do lay people play in the life of the body? How does the church respond to racism, world wars, and other modern evils? How should Catholics relate to Protestant and Orthodox believers? And how about those of other faiths? 

‘Join CH as we explore the work and consequences of this historic council in our latest issue.’

The whole magazine is available as a 5.4 MB pdf here.

The Bavinck Review 5 (2014)

The Bavinck Institute have just made available online volume 5 of The Bavinck Review. The contents are listed below, with the summaries of the main articles taken from Laurence O’Donnell’s editorial. Individual articles are available here, or the entire issue can be downloaded as a 13.2 MB pdf here.

Editorial

Articles

Bert de Vries

What Kuyper Saw and Thought: Abraham Kuyper’s Visit to the Holy Land

With the mind of an archeologist, the eye of a photographer, and the heart of a Reformed Christian, Professor Emeritus de Vries leads us back to the early twentieth century where we trace Abraham Kuyper’s footsteps in the sands of the Holy Land as he recorded them in his travelogue, Om de oude werldzee. In response to Kuyper’s enthusiasm for sacred soil, orientalist biases, and colonialist notions that come to light along the way, de Vries asks us to consider how much of what we think about Palestine-Israel today has been inherited from Kuyper and his contemporaries a century ago.

John Bolt

The Missional Character of the (Herman and J.H.) Bavinck Tradition

“Missional” is a buzzword in theology these days. But what does it mean? How is it defined theologically? In what sense is God on a mission? Should we replace ice cold, abstract “systematic” theology with white hot, relational “missional” theology? These are the questions professor Bolt addresses in his essay on the “missional character” of the Bavinck tradition. He presents a series of rhetorical questions to explain how Herman Bavinck (in dogmatics) and Johan Herman Bavinck (in missiology) together contributed a robustly “missional” voice within twentieth-century Protestant theological discourse and to suggest how that tradition offers wisdom that is still relevant for enriching “missional theology” today.

Gayle Doornbos

We Do Not Proceed into a Vacuum: J.H. Bavinck’s Missional Reading of Romans 1

How do Christians evaluate non-Christian religions? Gayle Doornbos looks at how J.H. Bavinck addressed this fundamental missiological question both psychologically and ultimately on the basis of his interpretation of Romans 1:18–32. She then offers several suggestions for how Bavinck’s psychological and theological insights can enrich current missiological discussions that flow out of the recent shift to the Triune-God-as-missionary-God paradigm.

John Bolt

An Adventure in Ecumenicity: A Review Essay of Berkouwer and Catholicism by Eduardo Echeverria

Professor Bolt’s ecumenical adventure introduces a longstanding friendship with a colorful criss-crossing of Roman Catholic and Neo-Calvinist traditions. What arises out of this friendship is the type of academic exchange that is at once amicable, critical, and real – a gift that invites the wounds of friend for sharpening and perfecting. Professor Echeverria’s close reading and patient analysis of Neo-Calvinist criticisms of Roman Catholic formulations of the relation between nature and grace will certainly interest if not challenge Reformed Protestants as will Professor Bolt’s frank assessment of where and how Echeverria’s critiques ring true in the Neo-Calvinist tradition.

In Translation

Herman Bavinck, trans. Nelson D. Kloosterman

The Pros and Cons of a Dogmatic System

Pearls and Leaven

John Bolt

Bavinck as Pastor (1880–82)

Bavinck Bibliography 2013

Scripture Bulletin 43, 1 (January 2013)

The January 2013 issue of Scripture Bulletin is available online, with the below articles. The summaries are taken from Ian Boxall’s editorial. He notes there that the fiftieth anniversary of the opening of the Second Vatican Council marked the beginning of the Year of Faith, which will run until November 2013, and that the articles in this edition of Scripture Bulletin are related to this initiative of Pope Benedict.

Ian Boxall

Editorial

Henry Wansbrough OSB

The Bible in the Church since Vatican II

Henry Wansbrough OSB charts the progress of Catholic biblical scholarship in the fifty years since the Council began, describing the massive sea-change in the exposure to Scripture on the part of ordinary Catholics (not least with the introduction of the new Lectionary in 1967), and the emergence of a confident and influential body of Catholic biblical scholars. He identifies three strands which he regards as of particular significance: redaction-critical study of the Gospels, a renewed appreciation of the Jewishness of Jesus and his cultural world, and a greater openness to what Wansbrough calls ‘Alexandrine-style’ theological interpretation of Scripture. The latter approach, interwoven with the historical-critical method, is well-exemplified in the biblical hermeneutic of Pope Benedict himself.

Nicholas King SJ

The Year of Faith: Paul’s Strategy of Evangelisation

Nicholas King SJ sets out to explore Paul’s good news in and through Paul’s own words, examining how his preaching was ‘gospel’ to the three overlapping cultural worlds Paul inhabited. King manages to convey something of the passion of the apostle, in his urgent mission to spread the love of Christ, and love for Christ, to ‘all the nations’ of the Mediterranean world. More importantly, he considers the implications for contemporary preachers of the gospel: ‘Paul’s enthusiasm may in turn serve as a model and as a stimulus for our own evangelising efforts.’

Richard Ounsworth OP

Faith in the Epistle to the Hebrews

Richard Ounsworth OP takes us more deeply into the theme of this year through a careful examination of the concept of faith in the Letter to the Hebrews. Hebrews’ definition of the faith which God’s people are called to exemplify (Heb. 11:1) is one of the most memorable verses in the New Testament. This article makes a compelling case for the Epistle’s understanding of faith being profoundly Christological, most especially in its presentation of Jesus, in his role as alter Joshua, as the ‘pioneer and perfecter of our faith’ (Heb. 12:2).

Book Reviews

Credo Magazine 3, 1 (January 2013)

The current issue of Credo is now out, this one devoted to ‘Purgatory’.

According to the editorial blurb:

‘This issue of Credo Magazine might come as a surprise. Purgatory? Really? I thought we addressed that back in the sixteenth-century? Think again. Not only is purgatory a hot button issue once again on the table, especially given the current excitement with some Protestants returning to Rome, but most recently there has been a renewed interest in purgatory among committed evangelicals. For example, in his new book, Purgatory: The Logic of Total Transformation, Jerry Walls addresses evangelicals today, arguing not only that Protestants should whole-heartedly embrace purgatory, but that such a doctrine as this can serve as an ecumenical bridge with Catholics. Spoiler alert: The purgatory Walls has in mind does not look exactly like your Catholic grandmother’s. You will have to read this issue of Credo Magazine to see why.

The magazine is available to read here, from where also a 12.7 MB pdf of the whole issue can be downloaded.

Journal of Moral Theology

The Journal of Moral Theology is an open-access journal from Mount St. Mary’s University. It ‘focuses on Catholic moral theology’, and is ‘concerned with contemporary issues as well as our deeply rooted tradition of inquiry about the moral life’.

Volume 1, 1 (January 2012) contains essays on ‘Formative Figures of Contemporary Catholic Moral Theology’.

Volume 1, 2 (June 2012) is devoted to ‘Love’.

Forthcoming volumes in 2013 will carry essays on ‘Christology’ and ‘Church and World’.

Themelios 36, 2 (July 2011)

The latest Themelios is online here (and available here as a single pdf), containing the following articles:

D.A. Carson

Editorial: Generational Conflict in Ministry

Carl Trueman

Minority Report: A Word to the Conscience

Scott M. Manetsch

Is the Reformation Over? John Calvin, Roman Catholicism, and Contemporary Ecumenical Conversations

John C. Peckham

Intrinsic Canonicity and the Inadequacy of the Community Approach to Canon-Determination

Mark R. Saucy

Canon as Tradition: The New Covenant and the Hermeneutical Question

Dan Strange

Not Ashamed! The Sufficiency of Scripture for Public Theology

Sinclair B. Ferguson

A Preacher’s Declaogue

Book Reviews

I’m particularly looking forward to Dan Strange’s essay on Scripture and public theology, which is an updated version of a paper originally presented at the Affinity Theological Conference in February 2011 (see here for a link to some of the other papers on Scripture presented at the same conference).

Nicholas King on Translation and the KJV

Nicholas King, ‘Translation and the KJV’, Scripture Bulletin 41, 1 (2011), 19-29.

King explores four points:

‘In this essay, I should like to argue that i) all translation is a political act; that is to say, it involves the exercise of various kinds of power; ii) that all translation, especially biblical translation, fails; iii) that all translation is done into and out of a particular context; and iv) that the question of what you are doing when you translate runs close to the heart of the human quest for meaning’ (20).

The same issue also contains an an assessment, by Adrian Graffy, of the recently-published Apostolic Exhortation Verbum Domini, the post-synodal document to the 2008 Synod on the word of God.