https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/32565 Sun, 26 Apr 2026 13:04:10 GMT 2026-04-26T13:04:10Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/32730 Title: Theology and soteriology : on the relation of theology and ethics Abstract: Since the early sixties it has become fashionable in theology to juxtapose theology and soteriology, God'·s existence and his gracious benefits, metaphysics and ethics, science and pietistic individualism and theory and praxis. Critique of "personalism" , "privatization", "ethization" and "dehistorization" are since that time common also III philosophy and sociology. Specifically, the Helsinki accords of the Lutheran World Federation of 1963 argued that contrary to the Reformation's concern with God's grace, contemporary man is primarily concerned with his existence. No longer does man suffer under God's wrath and his own sin and anguishes over how to obtain a gracious God, as did Luther. Modern man is concerned, rather, with the question whether God exists at all. Modern man is not concerned about how his life can be justified, but rather about the absence of God and over the meaninglessness of his life. Whereas for Luther, God's existence was the unquestioned presupposition of the quest for his grace, for contemporary man that very existence has become the principal question. Sun, 01 Jan 1984 00:00:00 GMT https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/32730 1984-01-01T00:00:00Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/32709 Title: Theology and mysticism : two fundamental functions of religion Abstract: In the Introduction to his famous Systematic Theology, Paul Tillich, states that two are the main functions of theology: the function of proclaiming the Word of God and the function of defending it by answering to the needs of a particular culture. He calls the first "kerygmatic function" and the second "apologetic function". Tillich then proves that between these two functions there cannot be any incompatibility or conflict, since they are both necessary to the work of the Church. The two functions are strictly correlated: the proclamation of the Word of God should answer to the needs of a cultural situation, whereas the cultural situation needs to be open to the truths of the Word of God. Description: A paper read at the World Conference on Religion, held at Miami at the beginning of 1983. Sun, 01 Jan 1984 00:00:00 GMT https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/32709 1984-01-01T00:00:00Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/32708 Title: Jesus' ministry to the deaf and dumb Abstract: It is somewhat difficult for a Scripture scholar to write about Jesus' ministry to the deaf. One source of this difficulty lies in the ambivalence of the Greek language. In many of our English-language Bibles the deaf are specifically mentioned just five times, once in the Gospel of Matthew (Mt 11 :5), three times in the Gospel of Mark (Mk 7 :32, 37; 9:24), and once in the Gospel of Luke (Lk 7:22). Jesus' ministry to the deaf is not cited at all in the Fourth Gospel. Sun, 01 Jan 1984 00:00:00 GMT https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/32708 1984-01-01T00:00:00Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/32695 Title: The tractarian understanding of the world as sacrament and symbol Abstract: The Oxford Movement (1833 -45) may be seen as a reaction both to eighteenth century rationalism and to the excessive individualism of the Evangelicals. The Tractarians made the discovery that the universe is a symbol of the divine and that redemption is corporate. The Tractarians were romanticists who viewed nature as a parable and as an analogy of the spiritual world. As Francis Oakeley wrote in 1841, "Forms are the expression of the Mind of the Spirit." This essay has three functions some of which overlap. First, there will be an exposition of the Tractarian understanding of the world as symbol! sacrament. This will include, inter alia, a discussion of the famous sacramental principle. Second, an attempt will be made to trace the sources of the Tractarian view of the world in 1) Scripture; 2) the Alexandrian doctrine of the oikonomia; and 3) Bishop Butler's doctrine of analogy. It seems significant to me, for example, that Butler commences his famous work on analogy with a quotation from Origen, who saw the cosmos as pervaded by symbols and types of the invisible world. Third, the final section will contain a critical assessment of the Tractarian understanding of the world. Sun, 01 Jan 1984 00:00:00 GMT https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/32695 1984-01-01T00:00:00Z