John Zizioulas is the Eastern Orthodox Metropolitan (Bishop) of Pergamon, Greece, and a highly influential theologian noted for building bridges between East and West. His landmark book, Being as Communion, introduced his basic ecclesiological outlook of the church as koinōnia, or communion. By “communion,” Zizioulas has in mind something belonging to the ontology of being […]
Monthly Archives: December 2011
Thomas F. Torrance’s contribution to modern Reformed theology has been, without a doubt, as far reaching as Rahner and Zizioulas (who will be featured next in this series) in their respective traditions. One of Torrance’s primary contributions to Calvin’s view of faith, as aptly noted by Daniel Thimell, was: “to emphasize that human faith is […]
Helmut Thielické’s ecclesiology and anthropology, like Rahner, was unique in that he was greatly influenced by the events of WWII. As a German theologian and pastor living under the harsh realities of the Nazi-Regime, and side-by-side with Russian communism after the war, Thielické became a world authority on the destructive nature of collectivism when fused […]
To begin with, it must be noted that any individual theologian and the official dogma of their given discipline are rarely, if ever, synonymous. The perspective that Karl Rahner gives is one that is indeed influenced by, and faithful to, Catholic theology, but to quote him is by no means equivalent to stating official Catholic […]
How does an individual believer incorporate him/herself into the Church without losing his or her personal identity; likewise, how does the Church as a communal Body incorporate the individual believer without calling for the individual’s resignation of personal freedom for the sake of the whole? Soren Kierkegaard (19th century Danish philosopher) posed the problem in […]
The typical Evangelical approach to the faith is that of a Zwingli-influenced doctrine of Sola Scriptura; that is, a reliance on Scripture alone combined with a dedicated rejection of Holy Tradition. It is interesting when one claims to be an adherent of both effortless-Christianity and the doctrine of Sola Scriptura, yet remains wholly unaffected by […]
