Klik på en miniature for at gå til Google Books
Indlæser... Tradition and Apocalypse: An Essay on the Future of Christian Beliefaf David Bentley Hart
Ingen Indlæser...
Bliv medlem af LibraryThing for at finde ud af, om du vil kunne lide denne bog. Der er ingen diskussionstråde på Snak om denne bog. ingen anmeldelser | tilføj en anmeldelse
In the two thousand years that have elapsed since the time of Christ, Christians have been as much divided by their faith as united, as much at odds as in communion. And the contents of Christian confession have developed with astonishing energy. How can believers claim a faith that has been passed down through the ages while recognizing the real historical contingencies that have shaped both their doctrines and their divisions? In this carefully argued essay, David Bentley Hart critiques the concept of "tradition" that has become dominant in Christian thought as fundamentally incoherent. He puts forth a convincing new explanation of Christian tradition, one that is obedient to the nature of Christianity not only as a "revealed" creed embodied in historical events but as the "apocalyptic" revelation of a history that is largely identical with the eternal truth it supposedly discloses. Hart shows that Christian tradition is sustained not simply by its preservation of the past, but more essentially by its anticipation of the future. He offers a compelling portrayal of a living tradition held together by apocalyptic expectation - the promised transformation of all things in God. Ingen biblioteksbeskrivelser fundet. |
Aktuelle diskussionerIngen
Google Books — Indlæser... GenrerMelvil Decimal System (DDC)231.042Religions Christian doctrinal theology God; Unity; TrinityLC-klassificeringVurderingGennemsnit:
Er det dig?Bliv LibraryThing-forfatter. |
DBH, in DBH style, does not really have an answer. But he certainly knows how to critique the attempted answers of others.
DBH begins by assessing Newman and Blondel's apologiae for Christian tradition. He concludes Newman ends up in a tautology which Blondel may have been able to escape but ultimately did not.
DBH then attempts to reframe the conversation about tradition to see it in a more apocalyptic way, as a living thing which has a telos but which is not yet revealed. He's willing to play "devil's advocate" about matters such as, say, Arius and his perspective, to be willing to make the argument how Arius was very much within a set of traditions about the understanding of the nature of God, and was far more "conservative" than one might have imagined, and in many respects the Niceno-Constantinopolitan conclusion was less so. That dispute and its conclusion, therefore, were not entirely foreordained, and who knows what later generations might think of them.
The author is Eastern Orthodox but is quite sanguine about the challenges and limitations regarding the appeal to tradition. He would have very little patience for my posture as a Restorationist, but I think he understands the impulse. The problem he would see is how restoration cannot ever be fully accomplished and would even question if that really should be or could be the goal, for how ideal was the beginning?
Such is the inherent tension and challenge when it comes to the Christian tradition. It is completely incoherent and internally self-contradicting. But it cannot, and should not, be entirely jettisoned. An apocalyptic perspective on the living nature of tradition and humility about how dogmatic we should be regarding our perspectives on such things are appreciated.
If one can tolerate the style of DBH, worthy of consideration.
**--galley received as part of early review program ( )