Paul O'Callaghan

Whose future? Pannenberg's eschatological verification of theological truth

The author subjects Pannenbergs recently translated, three-volume Systematic Theology to a detailed analysis in order to uncover its main methodological and interpretative traits, at the core of which is the notion of the eschatological verification of theological truth, namely the claim that the revelation of God, Creator, Reconciler and Redeemer, is open to future verification in history.

Luther and ‘sola gratia’: The Rapport Between Grace, Human Freedom, Good Works and Moral Life

For Luther God is the center of the universe, before whom the created world is as nothing. That is why he uses the term «sola», ‘alone’, to express what has its roots in God’s action: sola gratia, sola fide, sola Scriptura, solus Christus. In this study we have considered the principle of sola gratia, in the context of its relationship to human freedom and response to grace. According to Lutheran theology humans respond to grace not by ‘giving’ anything back to God but by being grateful to him for the gifts received. Yet this may be considered a truly human action, which we can refuse to carry out. Gratitude is made concrete in the effort humans make to know and understand and listen to and accept the inner workings of divine gifts (creation, grace, etc.). Thus grace not only provides strength to fulfill God’s will, but at a more profound level heals the sinful ingratitude of humans and brings them to freely seek out and follow God’s will in everything, also by coming to know the gift of nature he has provided us with.

Book Reviews: Apocalyptic Literature: Apocalyptic and Eschatological Heritage: The Middle East and Celtic Realms. Edited by Martin McNamara. Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2003. Pp. xvi+191. Price €65.00 (hbk). ISBN 1-85182-632-7

explores the cultural and religious implications of Jesus’ journey to Galilee (a name that means ‘circle’). Israel’s history, especially the settlement of the twelve tribes, is revisited (based on research of M. Noth and A. Alt). This chapter is a veritable journey through time, providing the reader with the historical background of the region of Galilee. The following chapter moves to another region, to Zion as it had been in OT times and during Jesus’ public ministry. The opposition between Galilee and Jerusalem (Judaea) that is discernible in the Gospels is grounded in historical tensions. Freyne corrects certain scholarly opinions about the opposition between Galilee and Jerusalem by giving an historical introduction to the subject and presenting a portrayal of Zion in Isaiah. He explores the possibility that Jesus was influenced by Isaiah as regards his attitude towards Jerusalem, e.g. his view of the nations (cf. Luke’s portrayal of this theme). The fifth chapter deals with political issues, namely the challenges of the Roman Empire and Jesus’ and the Judaean response (Pharisees, Sadducees, Essenes) to Greek and Roman imperialism. Especially interesting are Freyne’s thoughts on Jesus’ proclamation of the kingdom of God on the light of his Galilean experience. The final chapter deals with Jesus’ death in Jerusalem. It examines the relationship between Jesus and the temple in seeking to interpret his death. Freyne corrects a trend in recent scholarship that presents the Jesus-movement as an opposition to Jerusalem. This would fail to recognize the drawing power of the symbolic centre. In regard to Jesus’ attitude towards the temple, the author speaks about ‘renewal’ instead of ‘reform.’ Seán Freyne’s book offers a fresh perspective on Jesus within the context of Galilee and Israel’s history. The Gospel stories become more vivid when read within the social, political and geographical framework of Jesus’ ministry and its OT background. Hence, this is not ‘yet another Jesus-book,’ but rather a challenging view of the story of Jesus to be read with profit within the neverending research into the ‘Life of Jesus.’ BEATE KOWALSKI University of Koblenz

Book Reviews: Getting Your Bearings. Engaging with Contemporary Theologians. Edited by Philip Duce and Daniel Strange, with a Foreword by Donald McLeod. Leicester: Apollos/InterVarsity Press, 2003. Pp. 287. Price £12.99. ISBN 0-85111-287-0

This collection of essays is meant for students of evangelical theology who, in the words of one of the editors, Philip Duce, stand in need of theological confrontation in order to develop and stimulate their own theological reflection (pp. 13f.). ’Far from being concealed in a theological ghetto, the greatest evangelical theologians have achieved &dquo;greatness&dquo; under God not only because they have been saturated in the Bible and historic orthodoxy, but also because they have been wellversed in a wide range of theological discourse’ (p. 14). Three influential authors are dealt with at length: John Hick, Jürgen Moltmann and Wolfhart Pannenberg. In a final wide-ranging and erudite essay by Mark Elliot (pp. 215-87), several other authors who have confronted the phenomenon of postmodemism are given briefer consideration, among them Don Cupitt (and his understanding of ’non-realism’), John Milbank (the ’radical orthodoxy’ project) and Jean-Luc Marion (’God without being’). Each of the essays is completed with a useful bibliography and reading list. The first essay on John Hick’s theological pluralism (pp. 17-74) in the context of inter-religious dialogue is

Book Reviews: God and the Future: Wolfhart Pannenberg's Eschatological Doctrine of God. By Christiaan Mostert. London: Continuum, 2002. Pp. xv+262. Price £14.99. ISBN 0-567-08850-2

Prayer and Thirty-nine Articles, which are the backdrop of Donne’s theological prose and verse. Those tired of the posturings of academic theology will smile approvingly at the neat distinction between prevenient and operative grace : ’Do not call me, I shall call you’ (p. 123). Tellingly, Greer describes the impact of Christian hope as expressing what is tragic in human life as well as what will last. This thesis he tests against the Augustinian and Gregorian traditions and also against the Book of Common Prayer and the sacraments of the emerging Church of England. One wonders if the rather benign narcissism of this tradition as presented here with candour by the author owes more than is generally credited to the introspection of the Sage of Hippo. Donne emerges, seeing that Calvinism and Catholicism in their different ways can actively block the way to God. He wants to retain an elasticity between human sin and divine mercy in line with Hooker’s desire to keep together justification and baptism, sanctification and Eucharist in the spirit of the Book of Common Prayer prior to the English Revolution. He is particularly careful to stress the positive side of predestination as being to life. For Donne, repentance is a joy filling the pilgrim’s life, and thus finds the positive in an often pessimistic Augustinianism. His insistence that sins of omission take precedence over sins committed almost makes it seem that the North African bishop had a review copy of the Book of Common Prayer for bedtime reading ! The tension between the here and

Book Reviews: Systematic Theology: The Future as God's Gift. Explorations in Christian Eschatology. Edited by David Fergusson & Marcel Sarot. Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 2000. Pp. x+252. Price £14.95. ISBN 0-567-08727-1

introduction, is eschatology the ’harmless chapter’ (p. 1) of theology. Anthony C. Thiselton, in an extensive main paper entitled ’Signs of the times’ (9-39), deals with the epistemological underpinnings of eschatological statements, and challenges the epistemic irrelevancy postmodernism attributes to Christian truth claims. Christian theology must enter into a profound dialogue with social sciences, philosophy, linguistics, cultural studies, art, he argues, though not under the sway of pragmatism, but rather in a way that keeps ’the grammar of grace and the nature and activity of God fully in view as that which grounds and shapes Christian eschatology’ (38). ’For &dquo;truth&dquo; based on pragmatic success and consumer choice generated a different spirituality, theology and lifestyle from truth based on the criterion of the cross’ (28). Richard Bauckham and Trevor Hart offer a fine reflection, both philosophical and theological, on the bonds that link created time

Hope and Freedom in Gabriel Marcel and Ernst Bloch

In a century plagued by despair, and in some respects virtually rooted in it, characterised besides by the evaporation and tearing apart of so many hopes, a singular and almost surprising feature unites the reflection undertaken by perhaps the two greatest and most influential philosophers of hope of our time, Gabriel Marcel (1889-1973) and Ernst Bloch (1885-1977). Both of them consider hope at a fundamentally metaphysical or ontological level, and not merely as an ephemeral technique for &dquo;getting by&dquo;, a kind of latent yet unstable vitality, or a metamorphosis of the products of human imagination. This is what makes a comparison between the two authors possible: man is ontologically constituted as a being who hopes. And in this they move away on the one hand from the nihilist existentialism of Sartre and Heidegger which has simply no place for hope and from the psychologism of Freud, Adler and Jung which explains away all reactions of hope and despair in a purely psychical fashion on the other. In other aspects, undoubtedly, Marcel and Bloch are profoundly divergent. The obvious difference is that where Marcel is a firm believer

Book Review: Particular Churches and Personal Prelatures. By P. Rodriguez, a translation by Michael Adams and Charles Connolly of the original published by EUNSA, Pamplona 1985, Dublin, Four Courts, 1986, pp. 186; IR£8.50

In the earliest times in the Church, ecclesiastical jurisdiction over those individuals incorporated into Christ by baptism tended to be exercised in a personal fashion. &dquo;Where there are two or three gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them&dquo; (Mt 18:20). This tendency was brought to light as early as the beginning of this century in the doctoral dissertation defended by W. Moran in Maynooth: The Government of the Church in the First Century (Gill, 1913). With the expansion and consolidation of the work of evangelizing, to some extent with the conversion of entire peoples, and the non-nomadic nature of the peoples of the Roman Empire, came the effective transfer from a personal to a territorial form of jurisdiction. It would be unjust to regard this &dquo;transfer&dquo; as something merely &dquo;natural&dquo; or &dquo;consequential&dquo;; in the eyes of many Christians, it represented an important stage in the establishment of the kingdom of Christ

The Holiness of the Church in Early Christian Creeds

Christians have always proclaimed the &dquo;holiness&dquo; or &dquo;sanctity&dquo; of their Church. &dquo;We believe in one holy catholic and apostolic Church.&dquo; This brief formula hides richnesses which nowadays may easily go unnoticed among the faithful. Several reasons could be adduced to account for this fact, particularly unfortunate in the wake of the treasure of doctrine afforded us by the Constitution on the Church Lumen Gentium. Firstly, the adjectives &dquo;one&dquo;, &dquo;holy&dquo; etc. describing the Church have, in the apologetic tradition, tended to be seen exclusively as &dquo;marks&dquo;,