Hoping to give the modern evangelical an understanding of how postmodern thought has shifted the expectation of the exegete, Jon Robertson puts the hermeneutical practices of both premodern Athanasius and postmodern Hans-Georg Gadamer in conversation with one another. Through examination of both Gadamer’s and Athanasius’s concepts of interpretation as dialogue and importance of the pre-understanding of the interpreter and her community, Robertson offers an alternative to modern requirement for complete objectivity in interpretation. The essay also offers avenues for avoiding heresy or misinterpretation when using this pre and postmodern hermeneutical process.
“A Beautiful Anarchy:” Religion, Fascism, and Violence in the Theopolitical Imagination of Guillermo del Toro
According to director Guillermo del Toro, “the entire world we live in is fabricated,” and within this fabricated cosmos, there are two kinds of imaginations, two ways of living: one which favors the present world—the “Establishment”—and another which stands opposed to it. One kind uncritically affirms our present reality; the other, the one he prefers, rebels against it with “a beautiful anarchy.” Del Toro thus sees film as the medium for the imaginative and anarchic reinterpretation of the horrors of fascism. Film narrates a “spiritual reality” which funds a subversive counter-politics. In this essay, I bring del Toro into conversation with the theopolitical work of William Cavanaugh. I argue that despite del Toro’s rejection of Catholic faith, in two of his films, The Devil’s Backbone and Pan’s Labyrinth, he displays a distinctly Christian theological imagination.
Caritas in Veritate: An Ecumenical Conversation with Timothy George and Peter Casarella
In discussing the recent encyclical, Carita In Veritae, by Pope Benedict XVI, Timothy George, an Evangelical and senior editor of Christianity Today, and Peter Casarella, a Roman Catholic and director of the DePaul Center for World Catholicism and Intercultural Theology, address the historical as well as the contemporary relevance of the publication in light of the Pope’s background, previous Papal encyclicals and current philosophical and theological thought both in and outside of the Church. Both George and Casarella weigh in on how this encyclical speaks to their traditions and contemporary Christianity as a whole, including topics of relativism, sanctity of life, Trinitarianism, world economy, and ecology.
Is the Reformation Over? Not Exactly: An Interview with Mark Noll
A companion piece to the interview with Professors Casarella and George, Mark A. Noll, co-author of Is the Reformation Over?: An Evangelical Assessment of Contemporary Roman Catholicism, offers thoughts on how ecumenism between Evangelicals and Catholics and Reformation themes differ depending on geographical location and cultural history as well as how ecumenical discussions should be pursued and perceived. Having taught at both an Evangelical and Catholic institution, Noll discusses how key beliefs of both Evangelical and Roman Catholic thought can benefit the other including how the concepts of priesthood and tradition are understood.
Grace Communion International: The Trinitarian Transformation of a Small Denomination
From its early roots in the 1930s, the Worldwide Church of God, now known as Grace Communion International, was theologically and relationally at odds with orthodox Christianity. The church denied the doctrine of the Trinity, viewing the Father and the Son as one “God family” and the Holy Spirit as God’s power and essence.
After Armstrong’s death in 1986, the Holy Spirit began to draw the WCG into the orthodox faith of historic Christianity. By the early 1990s the church had accepted the doctrine of the Trinity and began to discover the joy and freedom of the true gospel of grace.
As the transformation progressed, and the church seriously engaged the work of such theologians as Thomas Torrance, James Torrance, Karl Barth, Ray Anderson, Elmer Colyer, Colin Gunton, and others, the more it came to see the profound implications of the Incarnation of the Son for humanity’s union and communion with God and one another.