Christian Life

Of all men that would pass for a role-model, one very prominent would be Abraham our father, a highly revered man in the three monotheistic religions.
It, however, seems quite a shame for many to identify with a father of faith who frets at the face of disaster, flees at the instance of famine and easily tells lies time and again in an attempt to save his own neck, deriving gains for his artfulness at the detriment of two unsuspecting pagan kings. Scholars, therefore, in a bid to clothe Abraham up in a garment of piety, try to give reasons why Abraham’s often resort to self-help should be excused and in fact, justifiable.
This paper seeks to show that Abraham, like the rest of the believers, was simul iustus et peccator: simultaneously a saint and sinner.
When we refrain from trying to white-wash father Abraham to be a perfect model, we will then learn to trust God’s faithfulness to His covenant whether to His people of circumcision of old or His baptized children of today. Our understanding of God’s actions for and through us will be better appreciated. And like a herd of sheep does a shepherd, we will learn to trust more on God. This was the faith of Abraham our father, the righteous unrighteous one.

In this third chapter of my book Dead Men Rising: The Death of Sin and the Rise of Grace in Romans 6:1-14, I examine four issues: the death of Christ language, baptism, the phrase once for all, and the idea of death as master. The examination of these topics brings the reader closer to what Paul's mind when he spoke of the Christian's death to sin. The key point of this chapter is that Whatever death to sin means, it can mean nothing more or nothing less than what it meant to Christ. We died to sin only because Christ died to sin.

The reader should also keep in mind that the chapters build on one another. Footnotes do not begin with "1" but are progressive from the previously published paper (chapter). Some footnotes may refer to authors and their books that are mentioned in the previous pages. I recommend that the reader read the previous chapters to gain the full context.

In this chapter we look at what it means to trust God by observing how trust relates to saving faith. Then we will trace how trust grows out of a knowledge of God, his promises, and his actions. We conclude by looking at some biblical examples of trust and how it should manifest itself in our lives as Christians.

The authentic Christian life is not a simple conformity to some prescribed rules. Also, it is not an obscure mysticism that cannot be defined and reached. Instead, it is that way of life that produces spiritual maturity. This maturity means conformity with the image of Christ and cultivation of patterns of behaviour which lead to spiritual growth.

La tensione tra esercizio della fede in libertà, dedizione e consapevolezza, e
lo sviluppo della dimensione istituzionale della comunità dei credenti è stata e
rimane un dato permanente del cristianesimo. Tale polarità ha conosciuto fasi,
attuazioni e modelli profondamente differenti, ma sembra essere difficilmente
eliminabile dalla storia dell’esperienza cristiana. Questa permanenza di lungo
periodo non serve a giustificare la rinuncia al lavorio - spirituale, intellettuale e
istituzionale - necessario per rendere possibile un’esperienza cristiana più autentica,
ma aiuta a comprendere meglio la difficoltà di rimanere all’altezza dello
strappo evangelico - ossia della rivelazione storica dell’amore eccessivo di Dio
in Gesù e nello Spirito - da parte delle Chiese, istituzioni e forme culturali
cristiane. Per rileggere in chiave sintetica tale questione può essere utile riprendere
un testo di Ivan Illich intorno a una sua riflessione che lui identifica
attraverso l’espressione corruptio optimi pessima.

Segundo volumen de las obras del teólogo y filósofo Augusto Andrés Ortega (1904-1983). Recoge escritos teológicos sobre existencia cristiana, doctrina de la gracia, oración, identificación con Cristo, la vida de la Iglesia, perfección y apostolado, así como escritos sobre vida consagrada y vida religiosa, modelos de vida cristiana (Sta. Teresa, Sta. María Micaela, S. Antonio María Claret).

This study discusses how Luther exhorted people to live the Christian life. Luther understood the Christian life as a life of the saved sinner in himself and in his community. He understood that Christians live lives defined by two kinds of righteousness; that is, righteousness that God bestows, and righteousness that they produce. This study will be carried out by reviewing this basic understanding of what the Christian life is, and by examining Luther\u27s preaching material, specifically a set of sermonic writings called The Wartburg Postil. The thesis of this survey is that in The Wartburg Postil, Luther used the concept of the two kinds of righteousness as a basis from which to exhort people to live the Christian life

The exhortation of the Second Vatican Council to examine the “signs of the times” led to a resurgence in trinitarian theology and propelled a renewed consideration of the implications of faith in God as Trinity for Christian life and practice. Trinitarian theology became the basis upon which theologians such as Karl Rahner, Jürgen Moltmann, and Leonardo Boff mounted arguments for (respectively) the recognition of human experience and freedom, the need for communities to work together for social change, and the agency of the human person in effecting salvation. In approaches such as these, the universal assumption of Christian faith led to the positing of the Christian narrative as the universal answer to particular and contextual questions and to the affirmation of the relevance of Christian faith for the world.
      The current (Western) context of pluralisation, secularisation and detraditionalisation calls for new ways of thinking the relationship between Christian faith and the world. No longer can we assume adherence to a Christian or other religious worldview, and no longer can we easily correlate the values of Christian faith with those of society so as to establish its relevance. While modern contextual theologies, such as those posited by political and liberation theologians, are concerned to critique social structures that tend towards exclusion and subordination, the narratives they present, with their ideal of universal adherence to Christian faith, frequently recapitulate the assumptions of modernity they seek to overcome. Against the modern attempt to found knowledge by way of the subject, postmodern thinkers call for a recognition of the other—the unpresentable of discourse—who resists the universalising tendencies of modernity.
      One theologian who has considered the recontextualisation of theology in light of postmodern concerns is Lieven Boeve, a Belgian theologian whose work underpins a key educational project in Catholic schools in Australia. He argues that a consideration of Christian faith through the contextual and theological category of interruption provides the means by which Christian faith can continue to speak meaningfully to the world. This paper explores the contribution that Boeve’s “theology of interruption” can make to a contemporary consideration of trinitarian theology.

Un’esperienza femminile di lettura collettiva delle Scritture che ha preso forma in una piccola comunità mostra una possibile ed effettiva risorsa di rinnovamento nel coinvolgimento e nella responsabilità in ordine alla crescita di un processo sinodale degno di tale nome.