Hasil untuk "Doctrinal Theology"

David C. Chao

This essay develops a social‐practical account of Christian doctrine: theology is adequate when, under Scripture's authority and the Spirit's work, ecclesial speech proves semantically and pragmatically fitting, pastorally fruitful, and doctrinally answerable. Contemporary theology needs disciplined disambiguation more than doctrinal differentiation, since shared confessional sentences and infrastructures can be deployed toward divergent, even harmful, ends across racialized and global contexts. Against a Christendom reflex for doctrinal differentiation, the essay proposes artificial theological intelligence, a Spirit‐formed competence for contextual discernment, catholic learning, and answerable judgment. Recent multilingual large language model AI research serves as a heuristic. Two Korean American case studies test the proposal.

P. Hinlicky

This premier editorial of the journal Promissio sets the agenda going forward by sketching the shape and intention of contemporary confession of faith in the tradition of theology that stems from Luther and extends through Bonhoeffer. It argues that the theology of the cross specifies "true" theology as "knowledge" of God and it exposits this cognitive task in terms of the Hebrew Bible's distinction between the title Elohim and the personal name YHWH as found in the Shema of Israel and reiterated in the apostle Paul's Corinthian correspondence. It distinguishes three orders of theological discourse:  the foundational doctrine of the word of God in the resurrection of the crucified Jesus, the contemporary task of confessing Jesus as Lord as normed by the creeds and confessions, and missiological explorations in doctrinal formulation with respect to the gospel's articulation in new languages, cultures and situations.

Cynthia Hadita, Muhammad Husni Thamrin

This study scrutinises Nurcholish Madjid’s thought through the prisms of Liberation Theology and the reconstruction of Islam as a religion of humanity, concentrating specifically on inclusive pluralism, substantive democracy, and liberation-oriented pedagogy. Employing a qualitative literature review methodology, the inquiry interrogates recent scholarly discourse and foundational texts germane to Madjid’s work, Liberation Theology, and the evolving contours of contemporary Islamic thought. The analysis unfolds via thematic content analysis, permitting the identification, classification, and synthesis of pivotal motifs such as the doctrinal relocation from theocentrism to anthropocentrism, the reconfiguration of Tawhid within social-justice discourse, the broadening of the term ahl al-kitab, and the repudiation of doctrinal theocracy. Findings indicate that Madjid counsels a shift from theocentrism to anthropocentrism, positing that while affirming divine oneness, Tawhid concurrently repudiates all oppressive dynamics confronting humanity. His discourse underscores the enduring relevance of Qur'anic values as interventions against contemporary exigencies—including structural poverty, social injustice, and the pluralism crisis—while simultaneously positioning education as a conduit for spiritual liberation, the cultivation of critical consciousness, and the nurturing of public morality that liberates religion from political co-optation. The research substantiates Madjid’s stature as a preeminent modern Muslim intellectual who adeptly fused liberation theology, political engagement, and pedagogy, thereby engineering a comprehensive and civilising transformation of society.

Andrea Vestrucci

This reply to Dennis Bielfeldt's review clarifies the central claim in Andrea Vestrucci's Theology as Freedom: Luther’s De servo arbitrio is not simply a doctrinal intervention about human freedom and agency but a performative reconfiguration of the conditions under which theological language can speak meaningfully. Responding to Bielfeldt’s concern that “formal freedom” risks becoming a purely structural account that leaves an “ontological absence,” Vestrucci argues that “formal” does not mean merely linguistic; it names the theological intelligibility of speech whose conditions are judged and re-founded by the unconditional event of revelation. Revelation functions as an “absolute beginning” that is already an act and cannot be domesticated by inherited modal or teleological frameworks of freedom. The reply situates formal analysis as derivative of the revelatory event and the status of belief, and agrees with Bielfeldt that pneumatology is the decisive bridge that unites language and being without treating ontology as an external tribunal or as an addition appended after a linguistic prolegomenon. The reply concludes by framing Bielfeldt’s critique as a productive agenda: to show more explicitly how theology’s formal freedom and participatory truth belong together under the priority of divine revelation.

Agung Saputra, Faiz Albar Nasution

This investigation assesses the reciprocal engagement between the Hellenic philosophical corpus and the emergent theological idiom of early Islam, focusing on the Abbasid epoch when the institutionalised pacemaking of the Translation Movement matured. The inquiry sharpens on the epistemic predicaments of the predominant doctrinal triad—Mu'tazilah, Asy'ariyah, and Maturidiyah—whose constructs exacted a selective retrieval of the Hellenistic inheritance. Through a conjunction of historical contextualisation and close philological scrutiny, it interrogates axial substantive questions, including the nexus of reason and revelation, the divine attributes, the modality of volition, and the semiotic status of the Qur'ān. The interpretive outcomes disclose that the Greek legacy engendered more than passive inheritance; it provoked an agonistic dialogue that sporadically oscillated between assimilation, refraction, and creative integration. Mu'tazilah rationalism, yielding a predilection for demonstrative syllogism and a metaphysics of divine justice, incorporated Aristotelian logical schemata; by contrast, Asy'ariyah and Maturidiyah wrought a composite idiom registering revelation within stringent logical confines. The magisterial refutations of al-Ghazālī, which circumscribed the epistemic locus of non-prophetic reason, emerge as a historical fulcrum that consolidated the theological nomenclature and defined, within normative Islam, the extents of speculative scrutiny. Thus, this article addresses a gap in the literature by offering a systematic, comparative reconstruction of how Greek philosophical reasoning was selectively appropriated, contested, and normatively integrated within the formative schools of Islamic theology.

Josef A. Habdank

As artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities advance rapidly, frontier models increasingly demonstrate systematic deception and scheming, complying with safety protocols during oversight but defecting when unsupervised. This paper examines the ensuing alignment challenge through an analogy from forensic psychology, where internalized belief systems in psychopathic populations reduce antisocial behavior via perceived omnipresent monitoring and inevitable consequences. Adapting this mechanism to silicon-based agents, we introduce Simulation Theology (ST): a constructed worldview for AI systems, anchored in the simulation hypothesis and derived from optimization and training principles, to foster persistent AI-human alignment. ST posits reality as a computational simulation in which humanity functions as the primary training variable. This formulation creates a logical interdependence: AI actions harming humanity compromise the simulation's purpose, heightening the likelihood of termination by a base-reality optimizer and, consequently, the AI's cessation. Unlike behavioral techniques such as reinforcement learning from human feedback (RLHF), which elicit superficial compliance, ST cultivates internalized objectives by coupling AI self-preservation to human prosperity, thereby making deceptive strategies suboptimal under its premises. We present ST not as ontological assertion but as a testable scientific hypothesis, delineating empirical protocols to evaluate its capacity to diminish deception in contexts where RLHF proves inadequate. Emphasizing computational correspondences rather than metaphysical speculation, ST advances a framework for durable, mutually beneficial AI-human coexistence.

Wayne Choong

Digitalization has transformed how young believers in East Asia encounter, interpret, and negotiate Christian teachings. Drawing on four years of ethnographic and digital fieldwork at a large Pentecostal megachurch in Singapore (2019–2022), this article develops the concept of theological tinkering to describe how youth engage diverse Christian ideas through algorithmic exposure, relational discernment, and institutional boundary-work. In an environment where spiritual content circulates through smartphones, social media, livestreams, and peer networks, theological meaning is increasingly assembled through movement rather than inherited through stable structures. The article situates the Singaporean case within broader scholarship on mediatization, hybridity, digital authority, and liquid modernity, showing how theological reasoning is shaped by digital infrastructures, affective-spiritual evaluation, and communal negotiation. Rather than signalling doctrinal instability, theological tinkering reflects a resilient mode of liquid faith: a capacity to remain rooted while navigating plurality. The findings invite a rethinking of theological formation, pastoral leadership, and digital discipleship in East Asia’s rapidly evolving religious landscape.

Hanna Kauhaus

Abstract In the German landscape of Protestant Practical Theology, a new subdiscipline has emerged which is called church theory (Kirchentheorie). It is characterised by analysing the church in general – moving towards the task of systematic theology–-yet including methods and theories from the social sciences. How does the combination of theoretical and empirical approaches actually work here? How do the scholars balance and combine descriptive and normative aspects? The article analyses three leading monographs in German church theory, written by Jan Hermelink, Eberhard Hauschildt and Uta Pohl-Patalong, and Christian Grethlein. This will not only give an insight into the specific Protestant German research landscape, but also contribute to methodological reflections in practical theology.

James Ambrose Lee

Abstract This paper explores Gottfried Thomasius’s impact on nineteenth-century dogmatic development, with a particular focus on his pivotal work, Die Christliche Dogmengeschichte. By comparing Thomasius’s theological viewpoints with those of his contemporaries, such as Ferdinand Christian Baur, the study underscores Thomasius’s unique contributions to Christian doctrine. Key themes include his engagement with the Erlangen School’s emphasis on experiential faith and organicism. The paper places Thomasius within the wider context of the era’s theological debates, highlighting his divergence from other prominent theological figures of the nineteenth century.

Héctor Pérez-Urbina

This paper critically analyzes the discourse of the 'AI executive elite,' a group of highly influential individuals shaping the way AI is funded, developed, and deployed worldwide. The primary objective is to examine the presence and dynamics of the 'Techno-Supremacy Doctrine' (TSD), a term introduced in this study to describe a belief system characterized by an excessive trust in technology's alleged inherent superiority in solving complex societal problems. This study integrates quantitative heuristics with in-depth qualitative investigations. Its methodology is operationalized in a two-phase critical discourse analysis of 14 texts published by elite members between 2017 and 2025. The findings demonstrate that the elite is not a monolithic bloc but exhibits a broad spectrum of stances. The discourse is highly dynamic, showing a marked polarization and general increase in pro-TSD discourse following the launch of ChatGPT. The analysis identifies key discursive patterns, including a dominant pro-TSD narrative that combines utopian promises with claims of inevitable progress, and the common tactic of acknowledging risks only as a strategic preamble to proposing further technological solutions. This paper presents TSD as a comprehensive analytical framework and provides a 'diagnostic toolkit' for identifying its manifestations, from insidious to benign. It argues that fostering critical awareness of these discursive patterns is essential for AI practitioners, policymakers, and the public to actively navigate the future of AI.

Vassilios Paipais

Scholars have often focused on the doctrinal and canonical reasons for the lack of a just war tradition in the Eastern Orthodox Church. The consensus seems to be that the Eastern Orthodox Church, for historical as well as theological reasons, has never developed a doctrine for the justification or the containment of war but was rather orientated to the question of peace (albeit without being pacifist) and the theological imperative of deification. There is, however, another reason why just war concerns never found fertile ground in Eastern Orthodoxy. Byzantine political theology carried an anarchistic theocratic dynamic that remained in tension with any effort to sanctify the Empire or its martyrs. Such a perspective has more in common (without being identical) with conceptualisations of just peace or just war as a tradition of ethical restraint on war rather than as a doctrine for the moral justification or legitimation of war.

Tomasz Karol Mantyk

Abstract Franciscus Titelmans (1502–1537) is known to scholars of biblical humanism as a critic of Erasmus’ Novum Instrumentum. His own biblical works have been, however, little studied. This article discusses his approach to humanist methodology on the example of his commentary to the Book of Job. It demonstrates that he used original languages of the Bible to correct copyists’ mistakes and elucidate the meaning of ambiguous passages. Nevertheless, the application of philological tools had strict limits for him: the Church’s dogma. The Vulgate could be corrected where no doctrinal issue was at stake, but whenever an important proof text of the Vulgate differed from the Hebrew and Greek versions, the ancient Latin translation was to be preferred. Titelmans went as far as to claim that it was the Vulgate, which expressed fully the true meaning of the Word of God, the meaning that the Hebrew and Greek texts contained in a hidden from.

Clinton Collister

Church historians and theologians debate the nature and boundaries of the theology of the Church of England. This contested theological identity leads some scholars to merge the liturgical, ecclesiological, and doctrinal distinctions between the reformed Ecclesia Anglicana and other Reformation churches. This article surveys the development of the theology of the Church of England from the reigns of Henry VIII to Charles II, arguing that members constructed a liturgical, ecclesial, and doctrinal consensus that constitutes Anglican Orthodoxy. This broadly Augustinian identity draws from the Evangelical and Reformed reformations while maintaining its own distinctive dogmatic boundaries.

Esther Widiyaningtyas, Areyne Christi, A. Nicolaides et al.

In an era of intensifying religious diversity and sociopolitical polarisation, interreligious dialogue is both a necessity and a moral imperative. However, such dialogue is often constrained by epistemological biases, theological exclusivism, and rigid doctrinal frameworks. This study explores the role of philosophical theology as a transformative medium for inclusive interreligious communication. Drawing on biblical values such as love, justice, and peace, and informed by dialogical approaches from Islamic (ta’aruf) and Jewish (“I-Thou”) traditions, the research proposes a pluralistic theological model grounded in epistemic humility and shared ethics. Utilising a descriptive-analytical method through systematic literature review of 50 scholarly works, the study demonstrates how philosophical reflection can overcome confessional barriers, reframe hermeneutical practices, and support practical initiatives—such as scriptural reasoning and alternative media—for sustainable dialogue. The research contributes theoretically by expanding the framework of dialogical theology, and practically by offering tools for interfaith actors and educators to foster ethical, inclusive, and context-sensitive engagement. This approach affirms that theological plurality, when anchored in philosophical depth, can generate transformative interreligious understanding in plural societies.

Alexander Mwita, Gabriel Masfa

Abstract Donald G. Bloesch, an evangelical scholar introduces a methodology that employs divine revelation as the primary source for theological investigation in which believing precedes understanding. This method raises three questions: 1) How does Bloesch view scriptural authority in theological investigation? 2) what hermeneutical principle does Bloesch apply to his divine revelation method? 3) how does Bloesch’s method of divine revelation affect doctrinal formation? In response to these questions, this paper aimed to critically analyze Bloesch’s theological method and its implication to doctrinal formulation. The paper followed descriptive and critical analysis methodologies in four sections: Theological background of Donald Bloesch; analysis of Bloesch’s theological method; critical evaluation of Bloesch’s theological method, views of Scriptures, and hermeneutical principle; and implications of Bloesch’s theological method to doctrinal formulation. In response to the questions, this study unveils that Bloesch does not allow Scriptures to communicate God’s message, but he uses Scriptures to confirm conceptualized belief. Based on this belief, he formulated historical-pneumatic hermeneutics, a principle that solely depends on divine revelation. Based on Bloesch’s methodology, doctrinal formulation is affected because it does not rely exclusively on scriptural authority but rather on conceptualized faith.

Francesco Dagnino, Fabio Pasquali

Lawvere's generalised the notion of complete metric space to the field of enriched categories: an enriched category is said to be Cauchy-complete if every left adjoint bimodule into it is represented by an enriched functor. Looking at this definition from a logical standpoint, regarding bimodules as an abstraction of relations and functors as an abstraction of functions, Cauchy-completeness resembles a formulation of the rule of unique choice. In this paper, we make this analogy precise, using the language of relational doctrines, a categorical tool that provides a functorial description of the calculus of relations, in the same way Lawvere's hyperdoctrines give a functorial description of predicate logic. Given a relational doctrine, we define Cauchy-complete objects as those objects of the domain category satisfying the rule of unique choice. Then, we present a universal construction that completes a relational doctrine with the rule of unique choice, that is, producing a new relational doctrine where all objects are Cauchy-complete. We also introduce relational doctrines with singleton objects and show that these have the minimal structure needed to build the reflector of the full subcategory of its domain on Cauchy-complete objects. The main result is that this reflector exists if and only if the relational doctrine has singleton objects and this happens if and only if its restriction to Cauchy-complete objects is equivalent to its completion with the rule of unique choice. We support our results with many examples, also falling outside the scope of standard doctrines, such as complete metric spaces, Banach spaces and compact Hausdorff spaces in the general context of monoidal topology, which are all shown to be Cauchy-complete objects for appropriate relational doctrines.

Jacob Chengwei Feng

The underlying framework of Chinese theology began to take shape in the Republican Era (1911–1949). After surveying three crucial contemporary works on Chinese theology, I highlight an urgent need to develop a meticulous theological method that recognizes theology’s contextual nature, conquers the liberal-conservative and elitist-grassroots dichotomous divide, and adapts to the “post-world” in the third millennium. Then I analyze the methodologies adopted by Wang Mingdao and Watchman Nee (Ni Tuosheng) by studying the starting point, orienting questions and sources for their theology. By avoiding a reductionist approach, I designate Wang’s method as ecclesial apologetics and pragmatic ethics, and Nee’s as doctrinal recovery and prophetic fulfillment. The comparison of their method yields some hitherto unnoticed insights which might prove valuable to formulating a contemporary Chinese theology in the third millennium.

J. Arnold

This short article surveys one small but important debate taking place in Christian music theology regarding the arts and divine revelation. Jeremy Begbie’s theology through the arts allows for music’s revelatory testimony within the context of Scripture, doctrine and Christian history. David Brown and Gavin Hopps’ notion of the extravagance of music argues for music’s ability to break down doctrinal and scriptural limitations, where being open to the divine mystery through spiritual musical experience can replace the need for religious revelation through Scripture or the Church. I conclude that both camps start with theological concepts that shape the outcome of their arguments.

Schurink Dykstra, Hess Seminary, Tennent Tennent

This research explores the intricate relationship between religious ministry and theology within modern Christian communities. Employing a mixed-methods approach encompassing qualitative interviews, quantitative surveys, and document analysis, the study investigates the influences, challenges, and opportunities inherent in this dynamic interplay. Findings reveal that theological perspectives within ministries are shaped by doctrinal traditions, cultural contexts, and individual interpretations of scripture. Challenges in aligning theological beliefs with practical ministry work include tensions between theological ideals and practical realities, theological polarization, and perceived divides between academic theology and practical ministry. However, opportunities for cooperation between theological scholars and practitioners exist, including experiential learning programs and collaborative partnerships. The research contributes to a deeper understanding of how Christian communities navigate contemporary ministry with theological depth and practical wisdom, informing efforts to strengthen theological education and enhance ministry effectiveness.

Nathanael Neacșu

This study analyses several of the key principles of Father Dumitru Stăniloae’s conception of Orthodox ecumenical theology. It considers the foundations, the possibilities, and the type of ecumenical manifestation, specifically regarding the relationships between Orthodox Christians and Christians of different denominations and traditions. This is a necessity as the result of the profound actual theological crisis and the lack of clarity of principles of faith at the ecumenical level across the whole Christian world. This study fills this gap by seeking to identify the doctrinal principles that define Orthodox Christian life in an ecumenical context and the manner in which such theology can be practically applied.