The author's purpose in this essay is, first of all, to evaluate the recent assessments of the self given by Stanley Hauerwas and Rowan Williams. Second, in registering his reservations with these views, he claims that confessional theologians have rich resources for shaping a powerful and innovative redescription of the tradition of transcendental subjectivity that does not conclude in, or require, the self's disappearance (or the concomitant annihilation of interiority). The person willed by God into being possesses a certain formfulness that is neither pure intentionality nor interiority, a certain formful unity constitutive of its being created in the image of God. Third, the author argues that Dietrich Bonhoeffer's christological account of the self, supplemented by Eberhard Jüngel's trinitarian account, offers a promising alternative to Hauerwas and Williams. The article's general concern is to show that modern theology does itself and Christian congregations a disservice if it fails to appreciate the depth, complexity and created dignity of human personhood.

This paper argues for the possibility of a non-foundationalist reading of Karl Rahner's theology, one which treats it as logically independent of his philosophy. It argues that there is a greater degree of discontinuity between Rahner's early philosophical writings and his later theology than is usually recognized, and focusing on the Vorgriff auf esse, that the same claim may function differently in his theology than it does in his philosophy. Through an analysis of a line of tension running through much of Rahner's later thought, it shows that his insistence on the inescapability of pluralism, if taken fully seriously, has significant consequences for one's understanding of the ‘transcendental’ aspect of Rahner's theology.

In section I the author of this inaugural lecture (of the new Chair of World Religions for Peace at the University of Glasgow) seeks to clarify the meaning of ‘tolerance’ and argues in favour of its traditional understanding as tolerating what is disapproved. The necessity of practising tolerance in this sense is defended in section II. However – as is explained in section III – given this understanding of tolerance, the concept is no longer adequate to characterise the Christian attitude towards other religions, which has frequently started to move ‘beyond tolerance’ towards appreciation. Section IV closes with a brief discussion of those theological and christological presuppositions that are required in order to complete this move.

Adolf von Harnack, perhaps the most influential theologian of the twentieth century, helped the Kaiser to draft his Call to the German People of 6 August 1914, and almost certainly knew that the Kaiser, the Chancellor, and the German army planned to precipitate war that month. Despite that knowledge, Harnack always maintained that Russia and France launched the war. He drew a sharp distinction between private morality and state morality, and asserted that law played no part in either. One and the same spirit rules in history and in us. The dangers of love without law.

Is there valid justification for affirming the motherliness of God while holding fast to the cross and to the Judeo-Christian heritage? Some feminists view the God of Abraham and Jesus as so closely linked with patriarchy and abuse that they reject this God as hopelessly male. Other theologians adhere to an exclusive emphasis on God as Father, and regard motherly appellations of God as distortions of biblical faith. Can the crucifixion and the atonement be seen in terms that are affirming of that which is female, yet remain grounded in the biblical texts and traditions? This article focuses on the theology of Julian of Norwich, whose meditations on the cross provide a middle way of affirming both the motherly nature of God and biblical revelation and tradition.

The female deity of ancient Israel should be studied using the same methods as for the male. Priority should be given to written evidence, there should be recognition of a variety of names and titles for the one figure in both singular and plural forms, and it must be admitted that as conceptions of the male deity moved away from anthropomorphism, it is unlikely that the female deity would have had an exactly opposite fate. Evidence from the Hebrew scriptures, the Enochic writings, archaeology and early Christian tradition all suggest that Wisdom was the name by which the pre-Josianic female deity was best known.

Charles Gore's two-volume commentary on Romans (1899, 1900) showed his heartfelt delight in the grace and love of God. Gore questions whether Luther had really understood Paul, thus in certain respects anticipating the so-called ‘new perspective’ of E. P. Sanders and others. He manages, in a way that Sanders does not, to hold together ‘justification’ and ‘being in Christ’, though he does not integrate these with Romans 9–11. When we today explore Paul more fully, we see that Romans was yet more integrated than Gore had realised, and that two of Gore's principal emphases, the vital importance of holiness and the social and political dimensions of the gospel, have a more solid exegetical basis than he realised.

Noting that C. S. Lewis's writings do not contain a systematic statement of his understanding of the relationship between scripture and revelation, this essay exposes the literary, theological and philosophical undergirding of his approach to scripture, which was neither fundamentalist nor modernist. It then outlines his treatment of six ‘modes’ of revelation: five general and incomplete (the numinous, the notion of Sehnsucht, conscience/the moral law, the election of Israel, pagan myths), the sixth particular and perfect – Jesus Christ. After considering Lewis's notion of ‘transposition’ and delineating the trajectory of his philosophical idealism, the essay contends that Lewis's tendency to Platonise reality leads him to articulate some unfortunate and unsatisfactory theological expressions.

Scholars discussing divine accommodation in the theology of John Calvin often assert that the incarnation is its supreme example – accommodation par excellence. But is this so? This article briefly examines Calvin's thinking on the purposes for which God accommodates and the character of these accommodating activities, to the end of showing that this position is untenable. In so doing, it suggests that contemporary views on accommodation in Calvin are not sophisticated enough and do not accurately reflect the complexity of the reformer's thinking on the subject.

The Scots Confession announces the incarnate Son as the ‘angel of the great counsel of God’. Derived from Isa 9:6(5) LXX, that title has come through a tradition traceable through Justin, Irenaeus, Athanasius, Augustine and Calvin. It designates Jesus in his teaching ministry and prophetic office as revealer of God's saving purpose carried out in him and expresses both connection and distinction between God's eternal Wisdom and its incarnation. Parallels in Calvin's polemic against Osiander bring out the Confession's emphasis on the saving and revelatory significance of Jesu' humanity and his being both communicator and content of the divine counsel.

The essay explores the inner logic that connects Jenson's view of the work of Christ, the person of Christ, and the doctrine of God. More specifically, it examines his understanding of the cross, the incarnation, and the trinity. Despite clear intentions to the contrary, Jenson lands outside the bounds of established ecumenical consensus. His view of the cross tends toward Socinus, of the incarnation toward Arius, and of the trinity toward Hegel in ways that seem subordinationist and tritheistic. One possible reason for this outcome is a rationalistic mindset that displays a low tolerance for paradox in dogmatic theology.

Many assume that the patristic notion of deification is absent from the mainstreams of post-patristic Western theology. Recent scholarship, however, identifies deification in Augustine, Aquinas, Luther, early Anglicanism, early Methodism and Jonathan Edwards – all fountainheads of Western theology. This article contends that deification is also present in Calvin's theology. It is not a prominent theme in its own right and some of the bolder patristic terminology is not employed. Nonetheless, the concept and imagery of deification regularly appear on stage while other doctrines are explicated. For Calvin, deification is the eschatological goal and blessing greater than which nothing can be imagined.

Robert Jenson's two-volume Systematic Theology is a highly creative and individual synthesis of a number of often divergent strands of contemporary theology. An ecumenical and trinitarian theology, it is also a theology of narrative, hope, and of the word. The main body of this article attempts a sympathetic paraphrase of the argument of this work section by section. In a more critical ‘postscript’, it is argued that ‘word of God’ language is appropriate to the bible's twofold canonical structure, and that the appropriation of the beginning, middle and end of the biblical narrative to the first, second and third persons of the trinity respectively results in an undue bias towards eschatology.

The purpose of this essay is to gain some clarity on a theological understanding of adoption as a witness to Christian faith. Contrary to contemporary portrayals of adoption as a reproduction option, the principal thesis of this essay is that adoption is rooted in charity. Adoption signifies a loving act of providing familial care and belonging for a child who would otherwise have none. In developing this thesis, baptism and foster care are examined in regard to Christian claims about the nature of the parent–child relationship. It is argued that since children do not belong to their parents, but are entrusted to their care by God, parental authority is therefore limited. Consequently, the parent–child relationship is embedded within a larger community of faith in which a child is affirmed as both gift and sign of hope.

In this essay I argue that lament, as the primary liturgical witness to divine absence in times of human need, functions in worship as a discipline of negation and disruption through which what might be termed the God of glory – the God installed by liturgical gestures of ‘praise’ – is opposed and denied, in effect forsaking God by clinging to God's promise over and against God. To spell out this argument, I turn first to Psalm 22, then to the choreography of Holy Week, contending that in proper Christian worship and life, the doxology of triumph (‘hosanna’) is transformed via lamentation into an eschatological form of praise (‘hallelujah’).

This essay explores the deeper theological presuppositions foundational to Tertullian's defense of the Logos-theology in the Adversus Praxeam. After providing a brief description and historical contextualization of the monarchian argument that Tertullian opposes, this essay then explores the unique manner in which Tertullian attempts to redefine the notion of the divine monarchy through a renewed understanding of the divine economy. This essay proposes that Tertullian reflects upon the notion of the economy in a decidedly internal fashion, emphasizing the inner relations within the depths of the divine, in order both to preserve the idea of the Father's invisibility, and to steer away from a model of the economy as historically conceived.

This essay explores the intersection between feminism and the work of Stanley Hauerwas. The recent critiques of Hauerwas's writings by Gloria Albrecht and Linda Woodhead are examined and a general assessment of the relationship between feminist theology (in its various guises) and Hauerwas's work is offered. It is suggested that the intersection of Hauerwas's theology with some strands of feminism reveals some surprisingly similar theological convictions and faith commitments, and that these areas of common concern offer unique opportunities for mutual engagement and enhancement.

This is the Scottish Journal of Theology's second attention to my two volumes of systematic theology. The first time, when asked to respond, I did so only abruptly. This time, I am obligated to be more forthcoming.

Has Reformed hymnody played a catechetical role in propagating characteristically Reformed theological emphases? While early Reformed ‘hymnody’ focused on the Psalms, the eighteenth century saw a great proliferation of Reformed hymns employing non-scriptural language. For example, the hymnody of English Congregationalist Isaac Watts shows both the traditional use of psalms and the innovative creation of hymns of praise, thanksgiving and theological narration. This paper considers how Reformed hymnody has served that tradition's catechetical purposes, taking as a test case the ways in which its hymnody may have helped inculcate the characteristically Reformed emphasis on the threefold office of Christ.

In 2001, on behalf of two Christian couples, a Christian adoption agency in the United States arranged an open embryo adoption. In addition to ethically analyzing this specific case, this paper situates the case politically and medically and distinguishes a number of general moral considerations relevant for reflection on this case. The paper concludes that while the choice to adopt embryos is morally appropriate and even praiseworthy in some circumstances, troubling features in this specific case rendered this particular adoption morally problematic.