The Mystery Of Continuity

Over the course of the past two centuries, Augustine's ecclesiology has been subject to interpretations that overdraw the distinction between the visible and invisible dimensions of the church, sometimes reducing the church to a purely spiritual, invisible reality, over against the visible church celebrating the sacraments; the empirical community is incidental, at best, and can be discarded. By contrast, this book argues that the church is a mystery that is visible and invisible. Far from discarding the visible, Augustine places greater emphasis on the empirical church as his thought develops. This study traces Augustine’s ecclesiology from early writings to later works in order to demonstrate this thesis. His early thought is heavily influenced by Platonism and tends to focus on the ascent of the individual soul. After his study of Scripture in the 390s, Augustine gives priority to participation in the visible, sacramental community. In his mature thought, the church is one mystery (mysterium, sacramentum) revealed by Scripture, with visible and invisible aspects. This book explores Augustine’s exegesis of biblical images of the church, such as body of Christ, bride of Christ, city of God, and sacrifice, in order to show how the visible community is intrinsic to the mystery of the church.

While German Lutheran theologian Eberhard Jüngel (1934-) has made a number of significant contributions to contemporaneous discussions of sacramental theology, this topic has largely been ignored by interpreters of his thought. This study summarizes and evaluates, through a close reading of primary and secondary source materials, Jüngel's approach to the problem of sacrament. R. David Nelson considers Jüngel's claim that the word of God functions sacramentally as it addresses its hearer, and analyses his assertion that Jesus Christ is the unique and preeminent sacrament of God for the world. Progressing to an exploration of Jüngel's ecclesiology, Nelson reveals Jüngel's interesting approach to the question of the church's sacramentality. The volume concludes with an investigation into Jüngel's doctrines of baptism and the Lord's Supper. The Interruptive Word demonstrates that Jüngel consistently appeals to the category of 'interruption' for describing God's sacramental relation to the world and its actualities, concluding that the hegemony of the category of 'interruption' in Jüngel's theology of sacrament raises important questions concerning its coherence and tenability.

Irwin mirrors the aesthetic impact of the genre by creating in his study the dynamics of a detective story--the uncovering of mysteries, the accumulation of evidence, the tracing of clues, and the final solution that ties it all together.

Throughout the ages philosophers have examined their own lives in an attempt both to find some meaning and to explain the roots of their philosophical perspectives. This volume is an introduction to philosophical autobiography, a rich but hitherto ignored literary genre that questions the self, its social context, and existence in general. The author analyzes representative narratives from antiquity to postmodernity, focusing in particular on three case studies: the autobiographies of St. Augustine, Rousseau, and Sartre. Through the study of these exemplary texts, philosophical reflection on the self emerges as a valid alternative to Freudian psychoanalysis and as a way of promoting self-renewal and change.

This unique anthology presents contributions from leading contemporary theologians - including Rowan Williams, Fergus Kerr, Aidan Nichols, G.R. Evans and Tracey Rowland - who offer portraits of over fifty key theological thinkers in the modern and postmodern era. This anthology spans arguably one of the most creative periods in the history of Christian theology and includes thinkers from all three Christian traditions: protestant, catholic and orthodox. Each portrait in this anthology includes a biographical introduction, an overview of theological or philosophical writing, presentation of key thoughts, and contextual placing of the thinker within 20th Century religious discourse.