Theology and Economics in the Biblical Year of Jubilee

Theology and Economics in the Biblical Year of Jubilee

Michael LeFebvre (CPT Second Fellowship) offers a rich exploration of the biblical Year of Jubilee, in the hope of encouraging and contributing to deeper reflection on how the Mosaic Law might be used to inform contemporary economic theory. LeFebvre persuasively argues that Moses has much to say here, and pushes back against the near exclusive Greco-Roman focus of contemporary economic theorists and historians.

In Defense of Having Stuff: Bonhoeffer, Anthropology and the Goodness of Human Materiality

In Defense of Having Stuff: Bonhoeffer, Anthropology and the Goodness of Human Materiality

Joel Lawrence (CPT First Fellowship) offers a corrective to the current popularity of “radical” Christianity that calls on Christians to abandon attachments to the world. These “radical” voices often cite Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s famous call to costly discipleship. Lawrence, himself a Bonhoeffer scholar, situates Bonhoeffer’s call within the wider context of Bonhoeffer’s theological anthropology. Lawrence shows how Bonhoeffer affirms the material constitution of humanity and the goodness of creation, and so the consequent goodness of “having stuff.”

Work as the Divine Curse: Toil and Grace East of Eden

Work as the Divine Curse: Toil and Grace East of Eden

Scott Hafemann (Theological Mentor, First CPT Fellowship) challenges the idea that work is part of the original creation mandate. He argues instead that work—defined by Hafemann as the need to provide for one’s own sustenance—is a result of the fall, and that Christ’s redemptive work secures rest for us. This redemptive rest ultimately brings about the end of human work.

The Way Up is Down: Charles Taylor, John Calvin, and Sacramental Worship in a ‘Secular Age'

The Way Up is Down: Charles Taylor, John Calvin, and Sacramental Worship in a ‘Secular Age'

Joseph Sherrard (Second Fellowship) engages one of Smith’s interlocutors, Charles Taylor, challenging the criticisms of John Calvin in Taylor’s account of the secular turn. Sherrard expounds Calvin’s Eucharistic theology, connected as it is to his Christology and his theology of worship, to argue that Calvin offers a thorough and nuanced account of materiality, albeit one that challenges “sacramental” understandings of reality by fixing attention on God’s covenant promises. These promises are mediated through material reality, but find their locus in the ascended Christ.

A Tale of Two Calendars: Calendars, Compassion, Liturgical Formation, and the Presence of the Holy Spirit

A Tale of Two Calendars: Calendars, Compassion, Liturgical Formation, and the Presence of the Holy Spirit

Daniel Brendsel (Second Fellowship) applies Smith’s liturgical insights to the question of the liturgical year. He contrasts the church’s traditional liturgical calendar with an insightful analysis of the modern American calendar, and considers how discerning use of the church’s calendar might counter the ways the American calendar tends to “mal-form” us.

A Review of James K.A. Smith's Cultural Liturgies Series

A Review of James K.A. Smith's Cultural Liturgies Series

The issue begins with a review essay, in which David Morlan (First Fellowship) offers an appreciative but critical interaction with Desiring the Kingdom and Imagining the Kingdom, asking how biblically grounded Smith’s proposal is. After summarizing Smith’s thesis, Morlan engages his arguments from the perspectives of anthropology, evangelism, Jesus and religious forms, and mission.