This article offers a hermeneutical account of ambiguity using Luke and Acts as an extended case study. After discussing the difficulties in identifying purposeful ambiguity in biblical texts, verbal ambiguity is distinguished from ambiguity beyond the sentence level, such as ambiguities of plot or character. Instead of approaching ambiguity primarily as a failure of language or a problem to be solved, this article offers a framework for thinking about ambiguity as an invitation to read a text from multiple angles. The discussion is illustrated throughout with a series of examples taken from Luke and Acts. I close with reflections on how this approach to ambiguity is helpful when reading scripture against different cultural contexts and in the study of New Testament Christology.

Is Christ hypostatically united to his human nature during Holy Saturday? If so, how, given that he is (in effect) an object whose parts are in different ‘places’? In this article, I argue that God the Son does indeed remain hypostatically united to his human nature during Holy Saturday and that this is salvifically salient. One way to construe this ongoing union through somatic death is by means of the analogy of a ‘dead limb’ – Christ’s human body being that limb. I set out several ways of making sense of this claim consistent with a broadly orthodox account of the hypostatic union as a contribution to the theology of Holy Saturday and the intermediate state more broadly.

What can we learn from Augustine’s preaching about the nature and purpose of preaching? In this paper, I will argue that in his preaching Augustine presents to his audience a theology of words and the Word that achieves what it declares; that is to say, rather than a mere doctrinal curiosity, Augustine’s preached theology of words and the Word accomplishes a homiletical goal that transcends the transmission of an idea and, instead, guides the faithful listener’s heart towards the eternal Word of God through the temporal words of the preacher and the written words of scripture. To put it another way, Augustine’s theology of words and the Word is both a theological claim and a practical pastoral tool.

Scholars studying cosmic conflict in the book of Revelation primarily focus on chapters 12–14, while the letters to the seven churches are often overlooked. In this article I demonstrate the presence of key elements of cosmic conflict in the letters to the seven churches, with a particular focus on the letter to the church in Smyrna (Rev 2:8–11). I identify the main facets of spiritual warfare, such as Jesus Christ versus the devil; Christians versus Jews/Romans; and victory/life versus defeat/death. I conclude that this passage contributes to the military narrative of cosmic conflict in the Apocalypse.

‘Death in the monastery’ refers to liminal and temporal themes of dying in the poetry of an anonymous Carthusian monk-poet in the period 1964–2024. This article explores these topics in three subsections. The first section deals with texts where the monk-poet reflects on moments when he has witnessed the dying of a fellow monk. The second set of texts focuses on memories written about recently deceased members of the Carthusian monastic community. The third section consists of the Carthusian author’s reflections that arise from the physical proximity of the graveyard at the centre square of the monastery. The article concludes with some remarks on the liminal and temporal perspectives on dying in a monastery. Time spent with God in a cloister, while frequently witnessing the deaths of other members of the monastic community, prepares for a transition where death is followed by resurrection.

This article begins by critiquing Kathryn Tanner’s Christianity and the New Spirit of Capitalism on two fronts. It suggests that her presentation of ‘Financially Dominated Capitalism’ (FDC) is problematically one-dimensional, and it takes issue with her theological construal of time. The article then argues for an alternative temporal vision which both makes better sense of Christian experience and finds resonance with economic policy proposals that undercut FDC.

This article provides foundations for how our God-talk can inform the way we think about and live out belonging. It resorts to three key Christian doctrines: the Trinity, creatio ex nihilo and the incarnation. This exploration begins with some brief observations about the issues Karen Kilby and Kathryn Tanner raised regarding social trinitarianism. It then explores the concept of participation as understood by Tanner as another way of conceptualising theocentric belonging rooted in creation and the incarnation. From this emerges the idea of an expansive theocentric theology of belonging, understood as participation in the divine life through creation and the incarnation. This expansiveness is explored further through the concepts of kinship and deep incarnation.

If a strong working concept of the Spirit–Word relationship and the means of grace is lacking in many contemporary churches, part of the solution may be a fresh analysis and articulation of those themes. An adequate doctrine of the means of grace will reflect the complexity of the Holy Spirit's partnership with the Word, highlight the Word of God as the one essential means of grace, and throw as much light as possible on why the Word is the Spirit's necessary and perfectly suited instrument for applying redemptive grace in human lives.

This paper aims to examine Wolfhart Pannenberg's theology of divine action using the conceptual framework of cognitive linguistics. Central to this exploration is Pannenberg's use of the scientific concept of force field in an analogical/metaphorical way, enabling him to present a trinitarian-pneumatological understanding of divine action through divine omniscience and omnipresence. This paper argues that, despite justified criticisms of Pannenberg's reliance on Faraday's outdated concept of a universal force field, recent developments in cognitive linguistics affirm the legitimacy of Pannenberg's panentheistic metaphorical approach to the theology of divine action while calling for revisions.

The essay compares the problem of history in the theological methods of the Reformed theologian Thomas Torrance and the Catholic theologian Bernard Lonergan. Lonergan works to incorporate historical science into theology, while Torrance argues for a revision of historical science. Lonergan's method is a synthesis of Catholic theology and history, but it is one constructed at the expense of eschatology and the full significance of Christ's resurrection. Torrance's method, on the contrary, includes a dogmatic understanding of history that is grounded solidly on the ‘Word-Act’ of God – the incarnation and resurrection of Christ. It gives full weight to eschatology but elides the contingencies of history.

Paul's epistemology was famously mapped onto his eschatology by J. Louis Martyn, but it must be mapped also onto his ecclesiology. For Paul, knowing is bound always and indissolubly to living with others. To understand how Paul would have us know things, then, we must focus not on knowledge as such, but on epistemic practices in ecclesial communities. Whereas the Corinthians’ use of wisdom and knowledge made for fragmentation and dissolution in the body of Christ (1 Cor 1–4; 8–10), Paul would have practices with knowledge instantiate communion and care for one another, as is proper for Christ's body. Integral to theological knowing is a sense of what and whom theology is for, a sense being critically explored in recent evaluations of theological education.

This article examines Herman Bavinck's inclusion of the body in the image of God in comparison with the positions of Reformed orthodox theologians of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. It demonstrates that while it is uncommon for earlier figures to consider the body to be properly included within the image, Bavinck's position is not unprecedented and applies lines of reasoning consistent with the tradition's anthropological convictions. First, an embodied imago Dei is advanced by sources such as the Leiden Synopsis and Petrus van Mastricht. Second, the Reformed orthodox in general adhere to the conviction that human beings are a body–soul unity, and that the image of God includes the uprightness of the whole person, positions that lead to the body being related in some way to God's image. Therefore, while Bavinck's account of an embodied image is a unique contribution, it is nonetheless in continuity with the tradition he receives.

In this article I explore three ways of reflecting on faith in God's providence and correlative understandings of prayer. My study suggests a praxeological understanding of the doctrine of providence as tacit knowledge. First, I present the soteriological dialogical approach of Catherine of Siena, from her late medieval Dialogue on providence. Secondly, I analyse the quietist vitalist approach of the early modern English philosopher Anne Conway in her Principles of Philosophy. Thirdly, I reflect on the critical, non-interventionist approach of the French philosopher and mystic Simone Weil. I conclude by discussing the interrelation between providence and prayer.

The term ‘natural theology’ provokes a variety of reactions, spanning from whole-hearted endorsement to passionate rejection. Charged as it is with polemical and pejorative undertones, this debate begs for an intervention. If the scholarly community is to engage constructively with the concept and practice of natural theology – either by way of acceptance, rejection, or something in between – clarity in its definition and identification is imperative. The aim of this paper is to try to shed some light on three of the most common definitions of ‘natural theology’ in contemporary scholarship, to provide clarity about the ways in which they differ, and to propose some conceptual refinements in the hope that, if adopted, more fruitful discourse may take place in relation to this much-debated and interdisciplinary phrase.

Gregory the Great's Moralia in Job has been said to mark a transitional phase in the development of atonement doctrine. I argue that the Moralia cohesively portrays Christ's redemptive work as achieving something in two directions: towards God, a vicarious payment of humanity's debt of punishment; towards humanity, an efficaciously convicting and restorative example. This sustains a spirituality in which exacting and self-denying moral effort rests on freedom from judgement and on the death accomplished by the Mediator. Engaging the Moralia in this manner illuminates patristic exegetical sensibilities and proves instructive about how the fathers fit into later taxonomies of atonement models.