Volume 2010, LII, Number 3
Author: / Filip ČapekTitle: / PHILOSOPHICAL DISCOURSE ON GENESIS 22 – AKEDAH REFLECTED BY KANT, FICHTE AND SCHELLING
Abstract: / The text of Genesis 22, also known as Akedah (in Hebrew the ‛Binding’ of Isaac) according to the key act within the story depicted there, has been interpreted over centuries from different perspectives and religious backgrounds. Up to the era of Enlightenment, this text had been interpreted with affirming comprehension as a story of positive value, which has to be uncovered or revived by the interpreter. However, with the beginning of the 18th century this pre-understanding and with the philosophy of the Enlightenment this discourse of interpretation came to its end. The study surveys three scholars of that period, namely I. Kant, J. G. Fichte and F. W. J. Schelling and their reflections on Genesis 22. Although the first two are utmost critical to the Akedah and resign on any attempt to rescue this text for the new concept of human autonomous ethics, the third of them delineates a way in which Genesis 22 is operative and instructive for God-man encounter.
Keywords: / Genesis 22 – Akedah –Enlightenment Philosophy – Kant – Fichte – Schelling
Author: / Maria Heinke-Probst
Title: / Die Deutsche Evangelische Kirche in Böhmen, Mähren und Schlesien zwischen Nationalität und Bekenntnis
Ein Forschungsbericht
Abstract: / The history of the German Evangelical Church in Bohemia, Moravia and Silezia between 1918 and 1946 can be divided into 6 periods according to the way the church leadership reacted to the political context. The biggest challenge to the church was its relation to the national question. Especially in the 1930s it formulated a strong identification with the German speaking minority in Czechoslovakia. Nevertheless, in the latter half of the Second World War the church leadership stressed more and more the autonomy of the church in the struggle against state interference.
Keywords: / Deutsche Evangelische Kirche in Böhmen, Mähren und Schlesien – Czechoslovakia – minorities – nationalism – nation and religion – Kirchenkampf – Wehrenfennig
Author: / Jiří Piškula
Title: / The Conception of the Christian Peace Conference and the Totalitarian Regime in Czechoslovakia
Abstract: / This study describes the development of the support which the communist regime in Czechoslovakia gave to the peace movement among the Czechoslovak churches. Its main focus is the role of the Communist Party in this process and the steps taken towards the foundation of the Christian Peace Conference. Another key question here is, how initiating the roles of Josef Lukl Hromádka and of the Comenius Protestant Theological Faculty in Prague were in this process.
Keywords: / J.L.Hromádka – peace movement – church history – church and state – Christian Peace Conference – Church under Communism – Cold War
Author: / Pavel Hošek
Title: / Three times Messianic Judaism
Abstract: / In this review article the author analyzes three books focusing on the history, recent development, religious ideology and contemporary activities of the Messianic Jewish movement, as well as on the response of American Jewish community to this controversial movement. All three books are entitled Messianic Judaism. The authors are a Reconstructionist Rabbi C. Harris Shapiro, a Reformed Rabbi D. Cohn Sherbok and a Messianic Jewish leader D. Stern. Harris Shapiro’s approach is ethnographic, Cohn Sherbok’s approach is historical and phenomenological, Stern’s approach is religious and theological. The different methodologies and perspectives of the three works are described, evaluated and compared. The interpretive strategies, evaluations and conclusions of all three authors are put in broader context of contemporary debate about the Messianic Jewish movement, especially as it presents a serious challenge for contemporary Jewish-Christian relations and dialogue.
Keywords: / Messianic Judaism – Jewish-Christian relations – Jews for Jesus – American Jewry
Author: / Rosa Hunt
Title: / The Significance of Syriac and Antiochene exegesis
Abstract: / This is a review of a collection of papers presented at a 2004 symposium on Syriac and Antiochene exegesis. Miller explains in his introduction that the motivation for the symposium was threefold: a belief that the gap between current Biblical exegesis and practising theologians is too wide for the knowledge generated by scholars to be of any practical use, an observation that a distinct tradition of Syriac biblical interpretation has survived to this day, and finally a belief that this exegetical tradition can help to bridge the gap between biblical scholars and theologians. The book constitutes a conversation, in which the value to modern biblical scholarship of common themes in patristic hermeneutics is explored. These themes include the controlling influence of a faith community, the internal coherence of Scripture, a nuanced understanding of inspiration and authorship, polyvalence, intertextuality, textual pluriformity, interpretive citation and a hermeneutic of generosity.
Keywords: / Syriac – Antiochene – exegesis – Early Church – Patristics – Chrysostom – Aphrahat – Robert D. Miller
Book Reviews
Author: / Kristýna Obrdlíková
Reviewed book: / Matthew C. Steenberg, Theology as Anthropology from Irenaeus to Athanasius, London: T&T Clark, 2009, 208 pp.
Author: / Pavol Bargár
Reviewed book: / Dale T. Irvin – Scott W. Sunquist, History of the World Christian Movement. Volume I: Earliest Christianity to 1453, Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books/Edinburgh: T&T Clark 2001, xvi + 519 pages
Author: / David Beňa
Reviewed book: / Paul Bernhard Rothen, Das Pfarramt. Ein gefährdeter Pfeiler der europäischen Kultur, Wien – Berlin: LIT Verlag, 2009, 442 Seiten