Т А Х О N О М ІО

О F

Theology
& Biblical
8 і;ad ies

М . Jam es Sawyer
T a x o n o m i c C harts of

THEOLOGY A N D

BIBLICAL
STUDIES
ZONDERVANCHARTS BOOKS IN THE SERIES

Charts of Christian Theology and Doctrine

(H. Wayne House)
Charts of Cults, Sects, and Religious Movements
(H. Wayne House)
Chronological and Background Charts of Church History
(Robert C. Walton)
Chronological and Background Charts of the New Testament
(H. Wayne House)
Chronological and Background Charts of the Old Testament: Revised and Expanded
(John H. Walton)
Chronological and Thematic Charts of Philosophers and Philosophies
(Milton D. Hunnex)
Taxonomic Charts of Theology and Biblical Studies
(M. Jam es Sawyer)
Timeline Charts of the Western Church
(Susan Lynn Peterson)
T a x o n o m i c C harts о

THEOLOGY A N D

BIBLICAL
STUDIES
M. JAMES SAWYER

ZondervanPublishingHouse
Grand Rapids, Michigan

A Division ofHzrperCoWinsPublishers

t
 Taxonomie Charts o f Theology and Biblical Studies
Copyright © 1999 by The Zondervan Corporation

Requests for information should be addressed to:

® ZondervanPublishingHouse
Grand Rapids, Michigan 49530

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Sawyer, M. James
Taxonomic charts of theology and biblical studies / M. James Sawyer,
p. cm.
ISBN 0-310-21993-0
1. Theology, Doctrinal—study and teaching Audio-visual aids. 2. Bible—Study and teaching
Audio-visual aids. 3. Theology, Doctrinal Charts, diagrams, etc. 4. Bible Charts, diagrams, etc.
I. Title.
BT77.3.S29 1999
230'.02'02—dc21 99-28262
CIP

All rights reserved. N o part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or trans­
mitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any other—
except for brief quotations in printed reviews, without the prior permission of the publisher.

Interior design by Pamela J. L. Eicher

Printed in the United States o f America

99 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 /❖ VG/ 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2
 CO N TEN TS

PREFACE ....................................................................................................................................... 9
TO THE READER ........................................................................................................................ 11

A. THEOLOGICAL STUDIES

1. Theological and Biblical S tu d ie s ........................................................................ 13

2. Divisions of Theological Study ...........................................................................14
3. Historical Theology/Churcti History ....... ................. 15
4. Ancient Period ......................................................................................................16
5. Medieval P erio d ......................................................................................................17
6. Reformation P e r io d .............................................................................................. 18
7. Modern Period ......................................................................................................19
8. Systematic/Dogmatic Theology ...................................... .20
9. Introduction/Prolegomena.................................................................................. 21
10. Theology and P h ilo so p h y ....................................................................................22
11. Epistemology ........................................................................................................23
12. Theology and L an g u a g e ...................................................................................... 24
13. The Authorities in T h e o lo g y ............................................................................... 25
14. Sources in Theology ........................................................................................... 25
15. H isto ry ....................................................................................................................25
16. Theological M e th o d ..............................................................................................26
17. Contextualization ................................................................................................ 27
18. Theological Systems ........................................................................................... 28
19. Bibliology............................................................................................................ 29
20. The Mature of S c rip tu re ...................................................................................... 30
21. The Canon of Scripture ...................................................................................... 31
22. History of the Doctrine of Inspiration ..............................................................32
23. Verbal-Plenary Inspiration ................................................................................. 33
24. The Interpretation of S c rip tu re .......................................................................... 34
25. Theology Proper ................................................................................................ 35
26. God as T rin ity ........................................................................................................36
27. God as F a th e r....................................................................................................... 37
28. Mames of G o d ....................................................................................................... 38
29. Biblical Presentation of G o d ...............................................................................39
30-31. Attributes of God ....................................................................................4 0 -4 1
32. Philosophical Proofs of God's Existence ........................................................ 42
33. A ngelology..........................................................................................................43
34. S a t a n ......................................................................................................................44
35. Anthropology/Hamartiology.............................................................................45
36. The Image of G o d ................................................................................................46
37. The Mature of M an ................................................................................................ 47
 38. The Origin and Nature of Sin ............................................................................48
39. Biblical Terms for Sin ........................................................................................ 49
40. History of the Doctrine of S i n ............................................................................ 50
41. Christology ..................................................................... .............................. 51
42. New Testament Christology ...............................................................................52
43. Development of ChristologicalUnderstanding ................................................ 53
44. Issues in C hristology........................................................................................... 54
45. Christology and C riticism ....................................................................................55
46. Titles of Christ .....................................................................................................56
47. The Means of the Incarnation:Virgin B irth ........................................................ 56
48. The Sinlessness of C h ris t....................................................................................56
49. The Death of Christ/Atonement ........................................................................57
50. Pneumatology .................................................. 58
51. The Holy Spirit in the Old Testament ..............................................................59
52. The Holy Spirit in the C h u rc h ............................................................................ 60
53. The Gifts of the Holy S p irit................................................................................. 61
54. The Holy Spirit in Salvation and S anctification............................................... 62
55. Soteriology ..................................................................................................... 63
56. Need for S alvation................................................................................................ 64
57. Biblical Theology of S alvation............................................................................ 65
58. Models of S a lv atio n ..............................................................................................66
59. Aspects of Salvation ........................................................................................... 67
60. A to n e m e n t............................................................................................................ 68
61. The Nature of Saving F a ith ................................................................................. 69
62. Justification .......................................................................................................... 70
63. Predestination and Election ............................................................................... 71
64. Theosis/Deification (Eastern O rth o d o x )........................................................... 72
65. Sanctification...................................................................................... 73
66. Models of Sanctification...................................................................................... 74
67. L utheran................................................................................................................. 75
68. R e fo rm e d ............................................................................................................... 76
69. Wesleyan ............................................................................................................... 77
70. K e sw ic k ................................................................................................................. 78
71-72. Issues in Sanctification .......................................................................... 79-80
73. Legalism/The Status of Law ...............................................................................81
74. The C h u rch ............................................................................................................ 82
75. T erm inology.......................................................................................................... 83
76. Nature of the C h u rc h ........................................................................................... 83
77. Biblical Theology of the Church ........................................................................84
78. Formation of the Church ....................................................................................85
79. Government of the C h u rch ................................................................................. 85
80. Ministry ................................................................................................................. 86
81. Authority and P rerogatives................................................................................. 86
82. Worship ................................................................................................................. 86
83. Characteristics of the C h u rc h ............................................................................ 87
84. S acram ents............................................................................................................ 88
85. Issues Relating to the Church ..........................................................................89
 86. Eschatology..................................................................................................... 90
87. Eschatological Biblical M aterial.......................................................................... 91
88. D e a th ...................................................................................................................... 92
89. The Return of Christ ........................................................................................... 93
90. A History of Millennial Interpretations ..............................................................94
91. Premillennialism ...................................................................................................95
92. Amillennialism ..................................................................................................... 96
93. Postmillennialism ................................................................................................ 97
94. The Eternal S ta te ...................................................................................................98
95. Apologetics ..................................................................................................... 99

B. 96. Biblical Studies ...............................................................................................100

Background Studies
97-98. Archaeology .............................................................................................. 101-102
99-100. Geography ................................................................................................103-104
101. Old Testament ......................................................................................... 105
102. Languages of the Old T estam en t......................................................................106
103. Higher Criticism .................................................................................................. 107
104. H isto ry .................................................................................................................108
105. Literature ............................................................................................................ 109
106. Religion ............................................................................................................... 110
107. Old Testament Theology .................................................................................. I l l
108. Old Testament G e n re s .......................................................................................112
109. The Mature of the P e n ta te u c h ...........................................................................113
110. Historical Books .................................................................................................114
111. The Mature of the Historical Books .................................................................115
112. P oetry................................................................................................................... 116
113-114. Psalms ....................................................................................................... 117-118
115. Wisdom L iteratu re.............................................................................................. 119
116. Prophetic L iteratu re............................................................................................120
117. Prophetic Books .................................................................................................121
118. A pocrypha................................................................................................... 122
119. New Testament............................................................................................ 123
120. Language ............................................................................................................. 124
121. Mew Testament Higher C riticism ......................................................................125
122. Mew Testament Textual Criticism .................................................................. 126
123. Cultural and Political S e ttin g ............................................................................. 127
124. Social/Cultural Issues ...................................................................................... 128
125. Mew Testament T h eo lo g y ................................................................................. 129
126. Historical Books .................................................................................................130
127-128. E p istles....................................................................................................... 131-132
129. Prophetic/Apocalyptic ...................................................................................... 133

Glossary ....................................................................................................................135
 P R EFA C E

During many years of teaching introductory theology courses to seminari­

ans, I have found that students are consistently intimidated and baffled by the
nature, structure, and vocabulary of the discipline. On many occasions stu­
dents have asked if there weren't som e kind of charts they could use to help
them get a handle on the scope of the subject. This idea of charts that serve
as simple road maps through the maze of issues seem s to appeal to the
increasingly visually oriented culture we live in.
This volume came out of work done on a larger project for Zondervan. As
I worked on structuring a database for that project, Ed van der Maas, then
senior acquisitions editor, suggested that these charts would do well on their
own. Skeptical that such a work would find an audience, but mindful of the
persistent requests of students over the years, I showed some of the charts to
friends who are seminary graduates. They all said that they wished they had
had a tool like this when they first undertook the study of the theological and
biblical disciplines.
I used some of the charts in my theology classes to gauge student interest.
I was both surprised and gratified. 1 found that students appreciate having a
visual map of the area of theology they are studying. The taxonomic arrange­
ment helped them to visually grasp the structure of the topic as well as its
comprehensiveness and complexity.
The intent of the charts is to communicate structure, not content. Issues
and questions are raised and set forth, not answered. The glossary, which
includes only term s taken from the charts, gives the beginning theologian,
overwhelmed by jargon, some quick, rough-and-ready definitions. The defini­
tions make no claim to being exhaustive.
Any attem pt to map the landscape of theological studies must recognize
that charts are a form of shorthand that will on occasion force divisions and
distinctions where in reality there is a great deal of overlap and interdepen­
dence. Furthermore, 1 recognize that there is no single "right" way to organize
theological material and questions, or even one "right" set of questions and
issues to be addressed. A quick perusal of several evangelical systematic
theologies, such as those by Charles Hodge, William Q. T. Shedd, Millard
Erickson, and Wayne Grudem, will provide ample evidence of this. Finally, it
is impossible to avoid a subjective element in describing a discipline, and at
points my own areas of particular interest and expertise will show through.
A work of this type can make no claim to originality. The categories and
questions set forth are generally common in the theological disciplines, but
there are certain authors whose succinct articulation of categories and ques­
tions have been particularly helpful and whose concepts can be clearly seen
in various charts. Among these are Oscar Cullmann, The Christology o f the New
Testament, rev. ed. (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 1980); Millard J.
 Erickson, Christian Theology (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1996); George
Eldon Ladd, Theology o f the N ew Testament, rev. ed., ed. Donald A. Hagner
(Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1993); Alister McGrath, The Genesis o f
Doctrine (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1997) and Intellectuals Don’t Need
God and Other Modern Myths (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1993); Tom Oden's
Systematic Theology: The Living God (1992), The Word o f Life (1992), Life in the
Spirit (San Francisco: Harper Collins, 1994); Grant Osborne, The Hermeneutical
Spiral (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1992); and Vern Poythress,
Symphonic Theology (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1987).
A final word of explanation is needed on the structure of the charts. Items
on the same level structurally are to be assigned the same level of relative
importance. Items first on a list are not necessarily more important than sub­
sequent items that appear on the same level. I anticipate that many will ques­
tion my placing the Apocrypha between the Old and Hew Testaments in regard
to biblical studies. While 1 personally do not accept the inspiration of the
Apocrypha, it is so accepted by the majority of professing Christendom; more­
over, the literary nature of the body of texts parallels that of the Old and Hew
Testaments. Hence, for organizational purposes alone, the Apocrypha found
a place between them.
My heartfelt thanks and appreciation go out to my colleagues who con­
tributed to this work with their expertise: Dr. Merilyn Hargis, who provided the
categories and structure for the charts on archaeology and geography; Dr.
Robert O'Connell for his initial suggestions for the structure of the Old
Testament charts; Dr. Roy Low for his invaluable assistance in preparing the
Old Testament charts; and Dr. Daniel B. Wallace for his generous assistance in
working over the Hew Testament charts and making many suggestions for
improving them.

10
 TO TH E R EA D ER

Charts are not for everyone. Some people find charts exceptionally helpful;
others tiy to use them but find them of little value. It all depends on how your
mind processes information.
These charts are not the last word on theological taxonomy. In many cases
there are alternative ways of organizing the material.
If you simply memorize these charts, they will have failed their purpose. If,
by contrast, you interact with them and find yourself disagreeing with some,
they will have achieved their purpose: to help us learn about the doing of the­
ology, not in the memorizing of theology.
The glossary is included for quick reference and review. The definitions
reflect to som e extent my personal interests and priorities. They are not
intended to be used as the description "delivered once for all to the saints,"
but as an aid to learning theology as an ongoing, personal process.
A number in a box serves as a cross reference to indicate where a chart or
charts on that particular topic are located. The number refers to the chart
number, not the page number.
For practical reasons, the charts use the word man rather than inclusive
term s such as humanity. The term is to be understood in the sense of the
German Mensch and the Greek antbropos as encompassing the totality of
humanity.
May these charts assist you in your study of the greatest and most exciting
discipline: God and his revelation.

11
 Chart 1

13
 Chart 2

hi
Divisions of
Theological Study

«М-Л (M a .
Natural N Revealed N
theology theology God

Proofs for
Biblical theology The Kingdom
God's existence ІАІ
_Ml

Old Testament Man

theology À

Theology of the
Synoptics

Johannine
theology ^

Pauline
theology

Theology of
Hebrews

Theology of
Peter

Theology of
James
 Chart 3

hi
Historical Theology/
Church History

15
 Chart 4

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 Chart 8

hi
Systematic/Dogmatic
Theology

Ml MChristology
k
< 9-18 Prolegomena
(Christ) 40 >

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ion J - ^ 4~4G47~>
Ml
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(Bible)
Work/Atonement > C j E>

h k .
Theology proper Pneumatology
<~m r (God) (Holy Spirit) 50-54 >

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Attributes
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jW Justification
jJ
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jVJ JL>
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JiA
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<C ls W (humanity)
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jJ
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jJ
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Nature

20 Effects
jJ
 Chart 9

Nature of N Authority in N
truth theology

Theology and
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philosophy

AAA
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Theology and
language
Contextualization
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criticism systems JL >

Sources of
theology
22
Chart 10

Philosophy Process theology

judges theology ^ Existentialism ^ _ and process
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 Chart 11

23
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Chart 12

Eschatological
verification
Chart 13
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 Chart 32

la
Philosophical Proofs
Natural theology 2 of God's Existence
X

A*a . M a MThe
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A priori A posteriori
and value of
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jv J argument ^

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42
 Chart 33

Angels and
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 Chart 35

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 Chart 36

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 Chart 37

M a.
Freedom and N
M a
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M a.
The origin N
M a.
Conscience
determinism of man of the soul

The nature of
Trichotomy Preexistence
M M conscience M

The function of
Dichotomy Creationism
__________________ Aa conscience ^

Holistic The development of

Traducianism
perspectives ^ __________________ M conscience ^

The destruction
of conscience ^

47
48
Chart 38

Divine-human
Sin as slavery ^ - re|afonal
_______________ consquences
 Chart 39

Ignorance Missing the Agitation/

Heb. 9:7 mark JW restlessness jVJ
IPeter 1:14

Error - Irreligion - Evil/badness

JiAI JW
Gen. 6:3; 43:12
Ps. 119:67 .
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JW _MI
Inattention
Heb. 2:2-3 Iniquity/lack of
- Calamity/trouble
6a integrity Aa|
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JW

Treachery
JW

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J aI

L- Abomination
JW

49
50
Chart 40

Hilary of Poiters
 Chart 41

51
52
the last Adam
 Development of
Christological
Understanding

Can Chalcedon be
dismissed? ,

53
54
Chart 44
 Chart 45

M aJ _ _
Foundational N Critical N The integrity Contemporary N
issues methodology issues
of the gospel
accounts
The crisis of The critical
__ The Jesus Seminar
criticism ^ reconstruction of
\_________________ /W
Christology Aa

The necessity of Jesus The question of

to Christology ^ The influence of John's Gospel M
Hellenism A

Spiritual dimension
Early-church
_________ _______ Ml
Christology:
inherited or created?,
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knowledge? ^
Apostles and the
"mythic' Christ A

Quests of the
historical Jesus Aa

The original
quest A

The second
quest A

The third
quest A

55
 Chart 46
in

MReferring
a. Ma MReferring
a. Ma
to 4 Referring to 4 to N Referring to N
ore-existence earthly ministry present work future work

The Logos
Prophet Savior Messiah
(word) ЛЛ __________________ № Лл

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Servant Лл Лл __________________ Лл

God High Priest

_ jV

Chart 47
in The Means of the
Incarnation:
The Virgin Birth
±

№ л_
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the doctrine the doctrine at stake? of Mary

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j VJ

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j VJ

Chart 48

R n î

Posse non \
The nature of N 4 Non posse 4 Alternative N
The NT texts
the temptations peccare peccare explanations

56
 Chart 49

it t
The Death of
Christ/Atonement

M a
Fact of Christ's N Nature of Extent of the
death Christ death Atonement

Theological Particular
OT background NT conceptions redemption
__________________ № (\A interpretations ^ AA

Objective Universal
— NT passages
interpretations A redemption Aa

Classic view/ For what did

1— NT images
Christus victor Christ atone?

_ Propitiation _ Ransom

_ Sacrifice — To God

_ Redemption I— To Satan

Recapitulation
Reconciliation

_ Satisfaction
_ Substitution

Penal substitution

Substitute
penally

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a penalty

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interpretations

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influence

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adequate? ^
 Chart 50

!N Y V v _ itfV S A 1
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Holy Spirit Holy Spirit Holy Spirit | Scriptures

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inspiration ^
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Holy Spirit as an Scripture M
influence from — In the world
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Ji
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j\ l
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to Christ
of humans
A
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l— In salvation evil?
Ji
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of Christ
Ji

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- Corporate

Individual
believer

58
 Chart 51

i i i
The Holy Spirit
in the
Old Testament
X

\
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Holy Spirit as a N In the lives s \
vital influence In creation In salvation
of humans
from Yahweh

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agent human reason ^ salvation
A creative force J aI AI
________ _________W
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judges
sustaining energy Aa artisitc ability ^

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Source of
endowments A*J
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A
______ inwar_____ ^
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Source of the Psalms
wisdom _AaI
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possession of all
Inspiring organ believers
JW

59
 Chart 52

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JÀ

Agent of
sanctification Ml

Source of spiritual
gifts a/

- Source ofjoy
jMl

Agent of the "fruit

of the Spirit" ^

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on salvation
Ml

Source of
moral purity ^

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Aa

60
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133
 G LO SSA RY

A
Abelard (or Abailard), Peter (1079-1142) • Controversial and colorful scholastic theologian
and philosopher, remembered for his highly subjective “moral influence” interpretation of
the Atonement of Christ and for Sic et Non (Yes and No), which demonstrated doctrinal
disagreements among the church fathers.
Absolute Ttuth • See Truth.
Accommodation • The act of God whereby he condescends to human capacity in revelation. God
adjusted his pattern of communication to take into account human finitude.
Adoption • The acceptance of the sinner into a familial relationship with God as Father on the
basis of the completed work of Jesus Christ and through the ministry of the Holy Spirit.
The term has the positive connotation of full privileges of adult sonship in family
relationships (Rom. 8:15, 23; Gal. 4:5; Eph. 1:5).
Adoptlonlsm • The Christological heresy, first proposed in the third century, that Jesus was merely
a human being who was elevated (adopted) to the status of deity because of his obedience.
Albertus Magnus (1200-1280) • “The Universal Doctor.” Early scholastic theologian and
teacher of Thomas Aquinas. Albertus had a keen interest in the natural world and employed
Aristotle’s philosophy in his analysis while subjecting it to Christian revelation. His greatest
work was his Summa Theologiae.
Allegory • An allegory is a fictional story that is intended by the author to express truths about
human life and experience beyond the surface sense of the story. Examples of allegorical
literature are Bunyans Pilgrims Progress and Orwell’s Anim al Farm. C. S. Lewis’s Pilgrims
Regress is an allegory (intentionally symbolic), whereas the Chronicles of Narnia are not. In
allegorism or allegorical interpretation the interpreter assigns deeper meanings to a text that
was not intended by the author to be an allegory.
Already/Not Yet • See Eschatology.
Ambrose (c. 339-97) • Bishop of Milan. From a wealthy background, he gave his wealth away
when newly converted. A great preacher and exponent of Latin theology, Ambrose was the
human agent of Augustine’s conversion.
Amlllennlallsm • See Millennialism.
Anabaptists • (“Those who baptize again.”) The fourth wing of the Reformation, which emerged
in Zurich among some of Zwingli’s followers who became convinced of the necessity of
believer’s baptism. Anabaptists were generally pacifistic and separatistic. They were
persecuted by both Roman Catholics and other Protestant bodies.
Analogical • A method of reasoning whereby knowledge is acquired by seeing the similarities
(analogies) between the known and the unknown. In theology it refers to inferences
(analogies) that can be drawn from creation concerning the nature of God.
Analytic Judgment • See Justification.
ANE • Abbreviation of Ancient Near East and Ancient Near Eastern.
Angelology • The theological study of angels. Subsumed under this category are the study of
demons (demonology) and of Satan (satanology).
Anointing of the Sick • One of the seven sacraments of Roman Catholicism. It involves
anointing the sick and praying for healing (James 5:14-16). It became the sacrament of
extreme unction in the Middle Ages and was given when death was imminent.
Anselm (1033-1109) • Scholastic theologian and archbishop of Canterbury, remembered for his
Cur Deus Homo? (“Why did God become man?”) in which he proposed the satisfaction
theory of the Atonement, and as the formulator of the ontological proof of God’s existence.
He insisted on the priority of faith over reason, “I believe that I may understand: for this I
also believe, that unless I believe I will not understand.” {See also Atonement.)
Ante-NIcene Fathers • See Church Fathers.
135
 Glossary

Anthropology • The theological study of humanity, especially as it relates to the human spiritual
condition and relationship to God. Because humanity is fallen, it is difficult to separate
anthropology from hamartiology, the theological study of sin.
Apocalyptic Literature • Apocalypse (“Revelation”) is the Greek title of the last book of the NT.
Books that focus on the end of this age (world) and the coming of a new world, usually
with strong imagery, are collectively called apocalyptic literature, which as a literary form
was not uncommon during the N T era.
People or movements with an apocalyptic mindset view humanity as living “in the
last days” and have a worldview dominated by the end of this world and the coming of the
new world.
Apocrypha • Intertestamental writings that were never part of the Hebrew canon but were
included in the Septuagint (LXX). These books are not part of the Protestant canon but are
included in the Roman Catholic canon.
Apolllnarlanlsm • Fourth-century Christological heresy which taught that in the incarnation,
Christ s body and soul were fully human but his spirit (rational faculty) was fully divine.
Condemned by the Council of Constantinople (381).
Apologetics • (Gk. a pologia , a defense) The branch of theological studies concerned with
reasonably defending the faith from the attacks of skeptics and with establishing a solid
intellectual basis for Christianity. Approaches include:
Evidentialism: An approach to apologetics that emphasizes the historic evidence for the veracity
of the Christian faith.
Presuppositionalism: In contrast to evidentialism, denies the possibility of objective truth due to
the fallenness of the human mind. Presuppositionalism assumes rather than demonstrates
the veracity of the Word of God. As such it stresses proclamation of the message, trusting
the power of the Word through the ministry of the Holy Spirit to bring conviction of sin
and belief on the part of the hearer.
Fideism: Akin to presuppositionalism, fideism holds that Christian truth is known through faith
rather than reason.
Combinationalism: Like presuppositionalism, recognizes the importance of preconceptions but
insists that truth claims of worldviews and systems of thought can be tested by the three
traditional tests of truth. {See Tests of Truth.) It is issue oriented, measuring the truth claim
of Christianity on an issue-by-issue basis against the truth claims of competing worldviews,
and holds that competing worldviews fail at crucial points one of the three tests of truth—
e.g., modernism corresponds with reality but fails on existential viability.
Apologists • See Church Fathers.
Apophatlc • From Greek apophasis , “denial.” The apophatic way is the practice of inquiry into the
nature of God by saying what he is not, since God cannot be conceptualized in human
categories. It is formulated in apophatic theology, which is central in Eastern Orthodoxy
and is closely related to negative theology or the v ia n egativa.
The cataphatic (or kataphatic) approach characterizes Western theology, which makes
positive statements about the person and nature of God (e.g., the attributes of God). It
legitimates the approach on the basis of God s self-revelation.
Apostasy • Falling away, renouncing the Christian faith.
A Posteriori • See A Priori.
Apostolic Fathers • See Church Fathers.
Apostolic Succession • The unbroken chain of authority in the church reaching back to the
apostles. Roman Catholicism bases the authority of the papacy on the succession of bishops
that goes back to the apostle Peter, to whom Christ entrusted the keys to the Kingdom.
Eastern Orthodoxy accepts the necessity of an unbroken succession of bishops but denies
the primacy of any one bishop.
136
Glossary

A Priori
(a) Existing in the mind before, and independent of, experience.
(b) Not based on prior study, not analytical.
(c) Reasoning from cause to effect.
A Posteriori
(a) Not existing in the mind before, and independent of, experience.
(b) Reasoning from effect to cause.
Aquinas (1224-74) • Greatest scholastic theologian of the Middle Ages. Aquinas synthesized
Christian doctrine and Aristotelian philosophy into a perspective on God, theology, and
reality (Thomism) that was officially endorsed by the Catholic church at the council of
Trent and remained dominant until Vatican II. Philosophically, Aquinas proposed the “five
ways” or philosophical proofs of the existence of God. (See Theistic Proofs.)
Aramaic • A Semitic language closely related to Heb. A few sections of the O T were composed in
Aramaic (Ezra 4:8-6:18; 7:12-26: Jer. 10:11; Dan. 2:4-7:28).
Arianism • The theological heresy that arose in the fourth century, led by Arius, who denied the
ontological equality of the preincarnate Christ with God the Father. The position was
condemned at Nicea and Constantinople but has repeatedly surfaced throughout the
centuries in quasi-Christian and heretical sects such as the Jehovah’s Witnesses.
Aristotelianism * See Platonism.
Arius • See Arianism.
Armenian • Non-theological term referring to the country of Armenia.
Armlnlanlsm • Theology based on the formulations of James Arminius (1560-1609) in reaction to
scholastic Calvinism. Arminianism includes a heavy emphasis on the role of the free will of
man in salvation and a denial of the doctrine of total depravity/inability. Included in the
Arminian understanding are the conditionality of salvation (it can be lost) and divine
prescience as the basis of election to salvation. (Note that A r m in ia n refers to the theologian
Arminius, A r m e n ia n to the country Armenia.)
Asceticism • A form of spiritual discipline that emphasizes abstinence from certain pleasurable
things and/or activities in order to obtain salvation or further the spiritual life.
Assensus • See Faith.
Assurance off Salvation • Divinely given confidence that the believer is in fact saved. The means
of assurance are both internal (the witness of the Holy Spirit: Rom. 8:16) and external (the
promise of Scripture).
Athanasian Creed • Early-fifth-century creed, widely used among Catholics, Anglicans, and
Protestants. It seeks especially to refute Arianism, Apollinarianism and Sabellianism.
Athanasius (c. 296-373) • Bishop of Alexandria and leader in the fight against the Arian heresy.
He was the focal point of the controversy surrounding the definition of the Trinity that
emerged from the council of Nicea and labored to subdue Arianism and establish Nicene
orthodoxy.
Atonement • From Old English a t and one. The work of Christ in his death on the cross, which
makes possible the salvation of mankind by dealing with sin and its alienating effects. While
the fact of the Atonement is central in all orthodox Christian thinking, the how of the
Atonement has given rise to numerous theories.
Christus Victor: The so-called “classic” view of the Atonement that sees Christ s death as a
victory over sin, death, and Satan. Subsumed under this is the ransom theory of the
Atonement (see below ).
Example theory: The theory of the Atonement propounded by Socinius. It sees Christ s death as
an example of divine love for humanity rather than as embodying any objective payment
for sin.
Governmental theory: Also called the relaxation theory. Proposed by Hugo Grotius (1583-
1645), the theory envisions God as the moral governor of the universe who has declared
137
 Glossary

“the soul that sins shall die.” God, however does not want sinners to die so he “relaxed” the
requirement of law and accepted the death of Christ instead of that of the sinner. In this
understanding Christ is not the penal substitute but suffers as a public example of Gods
disapproval of sin in order to uphold the moral government of the universe. This
understanding has been prevalent in Arminian circles.
Limited/Unlimited Atonement: Traditional Reformed/Calvinistic theology has held that Christ s
atoning work was limited to the elect in that it was designed to objectively secure their
salvation. “Four point Calvinists” {See TULIP), Arminians, and those of other theological
traditions (Lutherans, Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox) contend that Christ s death paid
the penalty of sin for all of mankind (not just the elect) and thus is unlimited in that it
renders all savable.
Moral influence theory: The theory of Peter Abelard that Christ died in order to demonstrate
Gods love for mankind and that humanity would be so overcome by the magnitude of
Christ s sacrifice that people would turn to God.
Penal substitution: The theory of the Atonement that emerged during the Reformation and is
built on Anselms satisfaction theory {see below ). Since Christs death paid perfectly and fully
the penalty for human sin, the believer can say that Christ literally “died in my place.” This
view has had a great influence on Protestant understandings of the Atonement. It has two
forms: (1) Substitution for a penalty: Christ did not pay the actual debt for sin, but his
death was accepted in lieu of full and exact payment. (2) Substitute penalty: Christ paid the
actual penalty for sin for all of mankind.
Ransom theory: An understanding of the Atonement that sees Christ s death as a ransom paid to
Satan for humanity.
Recapitulation theory: First proposed by Irenaeus, this view teaches that Christ recapitulated in
himself the life of Adam, succeeding where Adam failed and becoming the head of a new
humanity.
Satisfaction theory: The theory of the Atonement, taught by Anselm of Canterbury, that sees
Christs death as appeasing. Gods offended honor. The Reformers refined this view into
that of penal substitution.
Attributes of God • The attributes of God are not characteristics or qualities that are attributed to
God, part of God, or predicated of God. The attributes of God are descriptions of his
essential being, of how God is in his simplicity. The communicable attributes are those that
have a measure of correspondence in human beings, e.g., love. The incommunicable
attributes have no correspondence in human beings, e.g., omniscience.
Augsburg Confession • Summary of Protestant doctrine presented to Emperor Charles V at the
Diet of Augsburg (1530). It became and remains the principal confession of the Lutheran
Church.
Augustine (354-430) • One of the most influential theologians in the history of the church. He
was active in the Pelagian controversy {see Pelagianism) and the Donatist controversy
concerning the nature of the church. Remembered particularly for T he C ity o f G o d and the
Confessions , he became the foundational figure of Western Christianity and is claimed by
both Catholicism and Protestantism.
Augustinian Synthesis • The synthesis of Christian theology, Platonic philosophy, and worldview
that formed the basis for early medieval Catholicism.
Authentic Existence • Inauthentic Existence: A term derived from existentialism and used
particularly by existential theologians with reference to the fallen human condition. It
involves living life in a state of denial (either conscious on unconscious) of the realities of
life, especially death and finitude. In such a state a human being does not fulfill his God
given potential nor does he experience true purpose and meaning.
Authentic Existence is found by facing life’s realities and by a leap of faith,
accepting Gods grace and justification.
138
Glossary

Author-Centered Meaning • See Interpretation, Methods of.

Authorial Intent • See Interpretation, Methods of
Authority • The power or right to demand belief, action, and obedience. Protestants have historically held that
the Bible is the final authority in matters of belief and practice, but most recognize some kind of
subsidiary authority in the church, reason, conscience, and experience.

B
Baptism • The rite of initiation into the Christian faith that represents the washing away of sins and the
beginning of a new life. Most churches consider baptism a sacrament. Baptism symbolizes identification
with Christ in his death and resurrection. The main modes are:
Immersion: The person baptized is lowered into standing or running water. The practice is normative in
Eastern Orthodoxy and many Protestant denominations.
Pouring: The individual has water poured over his or her head/body, symbolizing the coming of the Spirit.
Sprinkling: A small amount of water is sprinkled on the persons head, symbolizing cleansing and the coming
of the Holy Spirit.
Barmen Declaration • The statement of faith by the Confessing Church in Germany in 1934, opposing any
teaching (specifically Nazism) that did not place Jesus Christ at its center. Karl Barth was a major force
behind the declaration.
Barth, Karl (1886-1968) • Swiss theologian and founder of Neo-Orthodoxy. In reaction to Liberalism, Barth
reasserted traditional Reformed and orthodox theology at every point, except in his concept revelation
and the inspiration of the Scriptures. He reasserted Gods transcendence and sought to restore biblical
and Reformed theology in the life of the church. Profoundly Christocentric in his thinking, Barths
influence brought an end to classic liberalism.
BHS • B ib lia H eb ra ica S tu ttg a rte n sia , the standard critical edition of the Hebrew OT, published in Stuttgart,
Germany.
Biblical Criticism * See Criticism.
Biblical Theology * See Theology.
Bibliology • The doctrine of the Scriptures.
Binding and Loosing • The authority given by Christ to Peter and the other apostles (Matt. 16:19; 18:1, 18).
It refers to the apostles right to discipline in the early church and to remit sin (John 20:23). In Roman
Catholic understanding this authority was passed on to Peters successors through the papacy.
Black Theology • See Liberation Theology.
Body o f Christ • A prominent Pauline metaphor for the church that stresses its organic nature: the
interdependence of believers with Jesus Christ as their spiritual head (Eph.l).

C
Calling • A divine summons either to salvation or to special service. (Ex. 3:4; Jer. 1:5; Matt. 4:21.) In
Reformed theology, general calling is the call that comes to all people through external means such as
preaching rather than by the internal work of the Holy Spirit. Effectual calling is Gods call to the elect
unto salvation, to which the elect respond in faith as the result of efficacious grace.
Calvinism • The model of theology in the tradition established by John Calvin. The term is often restricted to
a conception of salvation as summarized in five points by the Synod of Dort (1618-19), commonly
known by its acronym TULIP. (See TULIP.)
Canonical Criticism • See Criticism.
Canonlclty • See Canon of Scripture.
Canonization • The process by which the various books of the Bible came to be accepted as canonical. Also
refers to the process by which a person is made a saint in the Roman Catholic Church.
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Canon of Scripture • The books that constitute the O T and N T and are considered authoritative
by the church. The Roman Catholic Church also accepts the Apocrypha as canonical,
whereas Protestant churches do not.
Cappadocians • Three fourth-century church fathers— Basil the Great, Gregory of Nyssa, and
Gregory of Nazianzius— who labored to establish the Nicene faith in light of continued
Arian resistance. They continue to have a profound influence on Eastern Trinitarian
theology to this day.
Cataphatic 9 Sff Apophatic.
Catholic • (1) Universal, pertaining to the universal nature of the church. (2) Pertaining to the
Roman Catholic Church. The first is generally lowercased, the latter capitalized.
Chalcedon • Council of Chalcedon (451) set forth the parameters of orthodox christological
understanding and the relationship of the deity and humanity in the incarnate Christ in
reaction to the errors of Nestorianism, Eutychianism, Appolonarianism, and in light of the
emphases on Christ s deity and humanity as taught by the schools of Alexandria and
Antioch respectively.
Charismata • (Gk. “grace gifts”; sing, charism a) Also called charisms. The grace {charis) gifts of the
Holy Spirit given for the edification of the church. In contemporary usage the term is
applied particularly to tongues (glossolalia), prophecy, healing, words of wisdom, words of
knowledge, and the interpretation of tongues.
Chiliasm • (Gk. ch ilias , “thousand”) Ancient term for millennialism, esp. premillennialism.
Chrismation • (Gk. chrism a) In the Eastern Orthodox Church, the practice of anointing the newly
baptized person with oil and the sign of the cross. Also called chrism.
Christology • The doctrine of Christ.
Christology From Above/Below • Methods of doing Christology. Christology from above
approaches the doctrine through the ancient creedal definitions (e.g.,Chalcedon), whereas
Christology from below uses scientific historical research about the historical Jesus as its
starting point. Some view these two perspectives as opposed to one another; others see them
as complementary.
Christus Victor • See Atonement.
Church Fathers • The collective name given to early Christian theologians and writers. The pre-
Nicene fathers (also called Antenicene fathers) wrote before, the post-Nicene fathers after
the First Nicene Council (325). The pre-Nicene fathers can be further divided into the
apostolic fathers, who lived in the years immediately after the NT, and the apologists, who
defended the faith against pagan philosophy and prosecution. In the West, the era of the
church fathers ended in the seventh century; in the East, in the eighth century. The study of
the work of the early church fathers is called patristics.
Church Government
Episcopalian: Authority resides in a group of bishops.
Congregational: Authority resides in the autonomous local church. Usually churches with a
congregational polity are democratic in their internal structure.
Presbyterian: Authority resides in presbyteries composed of pastors and elders from local churches.
Primitivism: Authority resides in the Holy Spirit. This approach attempts to follow only the
teachings and patterns laid out in the N T (e.g., Plymouth Brethren).
Church History • See Historical Theology.
Church Universal • The true church, not bound by visible institutional forms and liturgies, but
comprised of those who have been regenerated by the Holy Spirit throughout history and
in all local (visible) churches.
Classical Theism • The doctrine of God as developed during the ancient period of the church.
Often the term is used pejoratively and implies that theology became infected with Greek
philosophical conceptions concerning the nature of God that are opposed to the biblical
presentation.
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Glossary

Cognate Languages • Related languages, such as Dutch and German, that developed from
common earlier forms. In O T studies it refers to Semitic languages other than Hebrew that
help in understanding the nature and meaning of biblical Hebrew.
Coherence • See Tests ofTruth.
Common Sense Realism • Also called Scottish Realism and Common Sense Philosophy. A
movement that tried to counter Hume s epistemological and moral skepticism. It sees
knowledge as established by intuition and common-sense experience. Common Sense
Realism was the dominant epistemology in America from the late eighteenth century until
the late nineteenth century. (See Princeton School.)
Communicable Attributes * See Attributes of God.
Communicatio Idiomatum • In Christology, the understanding that what is predicated of Christ’s
divine nature can also be predicated of his human nature and vice versa. This explanation of
the relationship of the natures became a hallmark of Alexandrine Christology and was
implicitly incorporated into the Christological definition of Chalcedon. The underlying
truth of the explanation continues to be affirmed today.
Community • A group with common interests. As used to describe the church, the term connotes
a commonality of identity, concern, and fellowship.
Comparative Religions Criticism • See Criticism.
Concept Inspiration * See Inspiration of the Bible.
Conceptualism Moderate Realism * The epistemological position espoused by Thomas Aquinas.
(See Realism.)
Concursus • Concursus holds that every word of Scripture is at once both human and divine, and
it is methodologically improper to try to separate the human and the divine in Scripture.
Condign Merit * See Merit.
Confirmation • A rite practiced by various Christian communities whereby the individual
consciously ratifies the faith testified to at his/her baptism. In the Roman Catholic and
Eastern Orthodox traditions the rite is considered a sacrament. The Eastern Orthodox form
of confirmation is chrismation.
Congregational Government • See Church Government.
Congruous Merit * See Merit.
Connotation • See Denotation.
Conscience • The internal moral aspect of human nature that passes judgment, either positively or
negatively, on the moral questions submitted.
Consistency • See Tests ofTruth.
Constantine the Great (c. 274/80-337) * Roman emperor who legalized Christianity and was
responsible for convening the first ecumenical council at Nicea (325) to deal with Arianism.
Consubstantiation * See Lord s Supper.
Contextualization • See Culture.
Contingent Being • Being that depends on conditions or powers outside itself for its existence.
Thus a human being is a contingent being whose existence depends ultimately upon God.
Conversion • (Gk. m eta n o ia ) A “turning around” in response to the divine call in salvation.
Conversion involves a radical change in mind and heart: a turning from sin (repentance)
and a turning to Christ in faith/trust.
Coredemptrix • Term often applied to Mary in Catholic devotion, it reflects the special part she is
thought to hold in the process of redemption.
Corporate Sin/Guilt • See Personal Sin/Guilt.
Corruption • The theological term for of the results of human sin, both inherited and personal.
Cosmological Argument • See Theistic Proofs.
Cosmos • The universe or the world. In the N T the word usually refers to the world as fallen and
under the dominion of Satan.
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 Glossary

Council of Ttent • The council of the Catholic Counter-reformation that sought to reform abuses
within Catholicism as well as answer Protestantism theologically. The council codified
Thomism as the reigning theological perspective of the Catholic Church until Vatican II.
Covenant Theology • In Reformed theology, the perspective that divine-human relationships,
especially with reference to salvation, are governed by a series of covenants. The covenants
include the covenant of works and the covenant of grace. The former was made between
God and Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden; obedience to it would result in salvation,
disobedience would result in death. The covenant of grace, made between God and man
after the fall, makes salvation contingent upon faith/trust in God. The ultimate object of
trust is God incarnate, Jesus Christ. Many covenant theologians add the covenant of
redemption, made between the Father and the Son in eternity past, whereby the Father
gives to the Son those elected for salvation and the Son covenants to become incarnate and
die for those elect by the Father.
Crisis Experience • A specific experience that changes the direction of one’s life. Conversion is
seen as a crisis experience. Certain views of sanctification (Wesleyan and Keswick) see a
spiritual crisis experience as necessary for holiness.
Critical Text • See Text of the Bible.
Criticism • A complex of methods developed for use in literary and historical studies. In this
context the term is not used in the popular sense of faultfinding but in the technical sense
of subjecting to critical analysis. As such it is a method of testing truth claims. Biblical
criticism (the complex of historical and literary critical methods applied to the Bible) has
historically been associated with anti-supernaturalistic presuppositions that deny the
miraculous. Such presuppositions are not inherent to the methods themselves, and many
evangelicals endorse critical methodology while eschewing the anti-supernaturalism.
Canonical criticism: The critical methodology that views each book of Scripture in its place in
the canon and as contributing to the larger teaching of the Bible as a whole rather than
treating each book in isolation.
Comparative-religions criticism: The comparative study of the religion of the O T and the
religions of the surrounding peoples and cultures. The method looks for common features
among the ancient religions and the religion of Israel.
Form criticism: Critical methodology that looks at the text of Scripture and attempts to see the
“prehistory” of that text, tracing it through its oral and written stages. This is coupled with
the S itz im Leben (setting in life) to which the text was addressed in order to enhance
understanding.
Higher criticism: The critical study of texts that looks at authorship, date, genuineness, unity,
and other such factors. Higher criticism is distinguished from lower or textual criticism,
which establishes the reliability of the received text of a document. As originally practiced
higher criticism was accompanied by an anti-supernaturalistic mentality that denied the
possibility of divine revelation and miracles.
Historical criticism: The use of critical historical methodology to ascertain the validity of the
historical information in the text.
Literary-source criticism: Studies documents in their final, finished form, focusing on what the
text as it stands says. It assumes that the text creates a world that can be investigated in its
various dimensions by studying the linguistics, genre, style, and forms of the text.
Lower criticism or textual criticism: The study that attempts to reconstruct the original form of
the text based on the existing copies.
Narrative criticism: The exegetical method that approaches the text from the literary perspective
of the story and finds meaning in the literary structure and plot.
Reader-response criticism: The view that meaning is created by the reader of the text rather than
being communicated by the author.

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Redaction criticism: The critical methodology that attempts to identify the editorial methods
and predisposition of an author and how the authors shaped the material taken from other
sources. Particularly used in the study of the Synoptic Gospels.
Rhetorical criticism: The analysis of the text based on its rhetorical structure.
Source criticism: The critical method that seeks to identify the source documents underlying the
written documents of Scripture. (See also Documentary Hypothesis.)
Structural criticism: The critical exegetical method that looks beyond surface structure and finds
meaning in the underlying deep structure of the text.
Textual criticism: Lower criticism.
Culture • Culture is the integrated pattern of language, beliefs, and behavior that gives a society
and the individuals in it a coherent understanding of reality. Culture exists wherever
humanity exists and extends its influence invisibly over all members of a society.
Contextualization: The process of adapting the expression of the timeless truths of theology to
the culture and condition of the audience.
Enculturation: Embedded in culture. In biblical studies the term is used with reference to the fact
that divine revelation was given in preexisting cultural frameworks and must be analyzed to
determine what portion of the revelation is universal and what portion is merely cultural.
Supracultural: That which is above culture or transcends the limitations of a particular culture
and has universal validity.
Transcultural: Across culture. Meaning in Scripture that is valid “across cultures” for all people at
all times and in all places. While some aspects of Scripture may be culture-bound, its
message was designed for all humanity.
Cultus • The form and practice of worship in a religion, particularly the rites and rituals associated
with worship.
Cyprian (200-258) • Bishop of Carthage and martyr during the Decian persecution. His
contribution lay in his stress on the episcopal as opposed to theological unity of the church.
Cyril of Jerusalem (c. 310-87) • Opponent of Arianism who played a major role at the Council
of Constantinople (381).

D
Damnation • Condemnation, used especially of eternal condemnation to hell.
Darkness • Biblical metaphor for chaos, ignorance, evil, destruction.
Day of the Lord • Term associated with the special presence of God either in judgment or
blessing. Most prominently the term has negative connotations in that it involves God
visiting his people in judgment for their unfaithfulness. In the N T it is associated with the
Tribulation and the Second Coming of Christ.
Death • The biblical concept of death has at its root the idea of separation. Thus, spiritual death is
separation from God, physical death the separation of the soul from the body.
Deconstructionism • Late-twentieth-century literary critical method that assumes that language
refers to itself rather than to external reality. Deconstructionism denies the legitimacy of the
author s intended meaning as the goal of interpretation and instead asserts multiple conflicting
meanings that must be analyzed according to political, philosophical, and social implications.
Deductive • See Inductive.
Definitive Sanctification • See Sanctification.
Degrees of Guilt • The recognition that knowledge or ignorance of the divine will makes the
offender liable for greater or lesser punishment (Luke 12:47-48).
Deification * Theosis.

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Deism • Enlightenment view that true knowledge of God is available via reason and that revelation
is unnecessary and impossible. God created the universe, which runs by natural laws, much
like a clock. Miracles are impossible since God would not break his own laws. Morality is
built into the structure of the universe and final judgment will be based upon good works.
Deity of Christ • The equality of Jesus Christ with God the Father by virtue of his participating
fully in the essence of godhood. Jesus is understood to be fully God rather than merely
reflecting the influence or character of God. He is God rather than merely divine.
Demonology • See Angelology.
Demon Possession • Demon possession is the total domination of a person by evil spirits,
rendering the individual incapable of voluntary actions. Demon oppression is the effect of
the demonic on human individuals whereby the individual experiences the evil influence of
demons or the demonic yet without falling into the complete enslavement of demonic
possession.
Demythologizing • See Myth.
Denial • A psychological defense mechanism involving a conscious or unconscious unwillingness
to confront emotionally painful realities and consequences that are the result of either
personal decision (sin) or of abuse (being sinned against).
Denotation • The denotation of a word is the meaning of a word that is shared by all speakers of
the language; its connotations are what the word evokes in an individual or group of
individuals. The denotation is “objective,” the connotation subjective— e.g., abortion
objectively refers to a medical procedure, but it has widely differing connotations to
opponents and proponents of abortion rights.
Deontology • Also called ethics of moral obligation or duty. A system of ethics based upon
principles of rightness without regard to outcome.
Depravity • (Lat. depravare , “to make corrupt”) Theological term used to describe the theological and
moral condition of mankind as sinful and wicked apart from God since the fall (Gen. 3).
Total Depravity: The condition of humanity, since every aspect of human existence is tinged by
sin. The term does not mean that an individual or humankind generally is as bad as could
be but that every aspect of existence is affected by sin.
Determinism • The philosophical position that all actions are determined by rigid cause and
effect. Determinism denies the reality of human freedom. In its extreme form it becomes
fatalism.
Freedom: The idea that the individual is free to create his or her own destiny based on choice,
apart from fate or divine predestination. Proponents of radical freedom argue that any
form of divine foreordination or foreknowledge negates the concept of freedom and thus
must be denied.
Christianity acknowledges the legitimacy of human freedom, within certain boundaries,
as inherent in the concept of personhood and being created in the image of God. These
boundaries include human fallenness, human finiteness, and the sovereignty of God.
Diachronic • In language study, diachronic refers to the study of a language as it has evolved over
time, synchronic to the study of a language as it appears at a particular point in time. Thus,
a diachronic study of a Greek N T word includes tracing the history of the word from its
earliest known form and occurrence through classical antiquity up to N T times. A
synchronic study of the word limits itself to its usage in N T times.
Dialectic • A method of reasoning where truth is seen to emerge from the tension between two
opposing views.
Diaspora • The dispersion of the Jews among the nations, beginning at the Babylonian exile
(586 B .C .).
Dichotomism • See Holism.
Disciplines • Religious practices intended to enhance the spiritual life and promote spiritual
growth, such as prayer, solitude, simplicity.
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Dispensationalism • A theological movement within evangelicalism that stresses an apocalyptic

understanding of history. Its peculiarities arise from an interpretation of the history of
redemption that sees the O T and N T united eschatologically in a way that is consistent
with a historical-grammatical (sometimes referred to as “literal”) interpretation of O T and
NT, and consistent with the fulfillment of the O T promises to national Israel of an earthly
kingdom ruled personally by the Messiah, Jesus Christ. It is a philosophy of history with
adherents in the Calvinistic, Arminian, and Pentecostal and Charismatic traditions.
Divine Enthronement • See Enthronement Psalms.
Divine Image • See Image of God.
Divinity of Christ • See Deity of Christ.
Docetism • Proto-gnostic heresy already evident in the first century. It argued that Jesus only
seemed or appeared to be human but was not truly manifest in flesh.
Documentary Hypothesis • Also called the JEDP theory. The early biblical critical theory that the
Pentateuch was compiled from four earlier documents/traditions, identified by the name of
God used in each: the J(Y)ahwistic, the Elohistic, the Deuteronomic, and the Priestly. This
reconstruction dated the Pentateuch late in Israels history and denied Mosaic authorship.
Dogmatic Theology • See Theology.
DSS • Dead Sea Scrolls.
Duns Scotus (c. 1264-1308) • Late-medieval scholastic philosopher-theologian and opponent of
Aquinas’s teaching. He separated philosophy from theology and reason from faith, arguing
that faith was a matter of the will rather than the result of logical proofs.
Dynamic Monarchianism * See Monarchianism.
Dynamic Theory • View of inspiration held by A. H. Strong similar to but less specific than
plenary inspiration and emphasizing the dynamic work of the Spirit in the inspiration
process.

E
Eastern Orthodox Church • See Orthodoxy.
Ebionitism (Ebionism) • Early Jewish-Christian sect in Palestine in the second and third centuries that
believed in the continuing relevance of the Mosaic law for believers and saw Jesus as the son of
Joseph and Mary upon whom the Holy Spirit descended so that he became “Son of God.”
Ecdesia • See Ekklesia.
Ecdesiology • The doctrine of the church.
Economic Trinity • See Trinity.
Effectual Calling • See Calling.
Efficacious Grace * See Calling.
Eisegesis • See Exegesis.
Ekklesia • Greek word for church. The term is derived from the Greek political context and has
reference to those who are “called out.”
Election • See Predestination.
Empiricism • See Epistemology.
En Christo • See In Christ.
Enculturation • See Culture.
Enthronement Psalms • O T psalms that celebrate the enthronement of Yahweh as the true king
of Israel.
Episcopalian Government • See Church Government.

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Epistemology • The study of how human knowledge is obtained. Major theories include:
Rationalism: Human reason is the arbiter of truth. Rationalism denies the necessity and
possibility of supernatural revelation, although it may allow for the existence of God. It sees
religion as a cognitive phenomenon.
Phenomenalism: All knowledge arises from an interplay of incoming sensory experience and
innate categories of the mind that process that experience. Phenomenalism denies the
ability to know the “thing in itself.” One can only know a thing as it is experienced.
Existentialism: The only way to know truth is through human subjectivity and participation in
reality (“being”).
Empiricism: Knowledge comes through experience or sense perception.
Erastianism • Named for Thomas Erastus (1524-83), the position that the state has the right to
exercise authority over the church in all areas.
Eschatology • The study of last things. Personal eschatology or individual eschatology deals with
the fate of the individual at death, general eschatology with the return of Jesus Christ, the
final judgment of earth, and the establishment of the millennial and eternal kingdoms.
Realized eschatology: The view that the eschatological passages of the N T do not look toward a
future fulfillment but were fulfilled in the life and ministry of Christ.
Already/Not Yet: The view that the kingdom of God has already been inaugurated but is not yet
fully manifested. The full manifestation awaits the second coming of Christ. (See also
Millennialism.)
Estrangement • The condition of withdrawal from relationship. Often seen as a result of sin
which distances the individual from right relationship with God, others, and self.
Eternal Security • The doctrine espoused by the Reformed/Calvinistic tradition that a person who
has once truly believed in Jesus Christ as Savior and has become regenerate by the Holy
Spirit will never lose his or her salvation. (See also TULIP: Perseverance of the Saints.)
Eternal State • The ultimate state of the individual, either heaven or hell. Also, the eternal
kingdom after final judgment.
Eternity • See Time and Eternity.
Eucharist • See Lords Supper.
Eutychianism • The fifth-century Christological heresy that held that Jesus had only the divine
nature, by which his human nature was absorbed.
Evangelists • The title given to the writers of the four Gospels.
Evidentialism • See Apologetics.
Evil • That which is morally bad or harmful or opposes the will or character of God. It has been
described as “the absence of good” (Augustine) and may be personal or structural
(functioning in social structures and institutions).
Example Theory • See Atonement.
Excluded Middle * See Laws of Thought.
Exegesis • The “bringing out” of the authors intended meaning of the text of Scripture by means
of proper use of the rules of hermeneutics. This is the opposite of eisegesis, the reading into
the text of the interpreters ideas.
Existential • That which is important to the experience of ones existence.
Existentialism • Philosophy originating with Soren Kierkegaard. It stresses that the only way to
know truth is through human subjectivity and participation in reality (“being”). Christian
existentialism uses existential categories and insights within a Christian framework and
stresses the personal element of decision and commitment that affects ones entire existence.
Atheistic existentialism asserts the absurdity of life and the universe and the need to create
meaning for oneself by personal decision.
Ex Opere Operato/Operantis * See Sacraments.
Expiation • Atonement or covering of sin by sacrifice, specifically the death of Christ. Propitiation is
understood as a turning away of divine wrath, whereas expiation does not imply divine wrath.
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Glossary

Extent of the Atonement * See Atonement.

Extreme Unction • See Anointing of the Sick.

F
Faith • In historic orthodoxy, faith has three aspects:
Understanding: (Lat. N o titia ): The intellectual, factual component.
Assent: (Lat. Assensus ): Acknowledgement of the intellectual component as truth.
Trust: (Lat. F id u c ia ): The personal element of trust.
Saving faith: Trust in Jesus and his death to save one from sin and to gain eternal life. Saving
faith in Christ goes beyond understanding and assent.
Fallenness • The spiritual condition of humanity as sinners after the fall of Adam into sin (Gen. 3).
Falsifiability • See Verifiability.
Fathers of the Church • See Church Fathers.
Fear of God • Fear of God may be either servile fear, which is based on the threat of punishment,
or filial fear, which stands in awe and reverence and seeks not to offend God.
Fellowship • (Gk. k oin on ia) Participation, sharing, fellowship in a common life. In an objective
sense, fellowship exists among Christians by virtue of participation in the life of Christ. The
term is used even in the sense of the financial giving by which lives are shared. It also refers
to the experience of unity, community, and belonging that emerges from common
participation (see 1 John 1).
Feminist Theology • See Liberation Theology.
Fideism • The view that faith as opposed to reason is the means to knowledge of God. Often used
in a pejorative sense of a theology that focuses on subjective experience to the exclusion of
reason. {See also Apologetics.)
Fiducia • See Faith.
Figures of Speech • Word pictures that can communicate more powerfully than simple, literal
language. Figures are not opposed to literal meaning but presuppose that a literal truth is
being communicated. All languages use figures of speech for communication. The most
common figures include:
Simile: The comparison of two things by use of lik e or as.
Metaphor: The comparison of two things without the use of the terms lik e or as. More generally,
the term metaphor is used broadly to speak of figurative language.
Filioque • (Lat. “and the Son”) The filioque clause was added to the Nicene creed in the West
during the early Middle Ages to teach a double procession of the Spirit from the Father and
from the Son. The doctrine became the theological reason for the separation of the Eastern
and Western Churches in 1054.
Final Judgment • The last judgment of God on all humanity. It will determine whether an
individual will spend eternity in the presence of God or in Hell.
Finitude • The condition of being finite and therefore limited and unable to transcend the
physical and mental boundaries of existence. All created beings are finite and limited.
Flesh • Used in Scripture literally of the physical body and figuratively of humanity in its weakness
as it exists in a sinful condition apart from God (Rom. 8:4-8; Gal. 5:l6ffi).
Forensic Act • A legal act or pronouncement. The term is usually used with the doctrine of
justification, which is understood as a legal pronouncement of the sinners righteousness.
God declares (not makes) the sinner righteous/justified through faith in Jesus Christ and his
Atonement.
Forgiveness • Pardon, remitting an offense. Forgiveness restores an open and honest relationship
with God, others, or self, after that relationship has suffered alienation through an offense.
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 Glossary

Formal/Material • A distinction made by many between words and the ideas expressed by words.
The term also has wider application in areas such as the recognition of the canon of
Scripture: the books of Scripture had material authority as inspired from the time they were
written; formal authority arose gradually as the books of the canon as a group were
recognized as divine.
Form Criticism • See Criticism.
Formgeschichte • German for form criticism. {See Criticism.)
Frame of Reference • A set of assumptions, ideas, or conditions that determine how something
will be approached, perceived, or understood.
Freedom • See Determinism.
Futurism • See Eschatology.

G
General Calling • See Calling.
General Eschatology • See Eschatology.
General Revelation * See Revelation.
Genre • A literary form that can be distinguished from other literary forms in aim, form, and
technique. Major genres found in the Bible are poetry, narrative, and wisdom literature.
The recognition of the genre of a text (e.g., Is this text history or poetry?) is essential to its
proper interpretation.
Glorification • The “future tense” of salvation (justification = past tense, sanctification = present
tense). It includes eternal life, the final purification from all that remains of sin, and the
renewal of the body without the weakness experienced in this life.
Glory • Brightness, splendor, greatness. Glory is an attribute of God.
Gnosticism/Gnostic • A second- and third-century constellation of religious movements that
stressed salvation by means of some esoteric knowledge. For a time Christian versions of
gnosticism became serious rivals of orthodox Christianity. Gnosticism was in many ways
parallel to the New Age movement of the late-twentieth century.
Governmental Theory • See Atonement.
Grace • Unmerited favor. The grace of God is given to sinful humanity in the form of salvation
and forgiveness through Jesus Christ, not because of any merit but out of divine love and
compassion. Dealing with humanity on the basis of merit would bring a deserved
condemnation.
Great Schism • The split between the the Eastern and Western (Orthodox and Roman Catholic)
churches in 1054.
Great Tribulation * See Tribulation.
Gregory the Great (540-604) • Pope from 590 until his death, he was the transitional figure
between the ancient and medieval church. His reforms set the direction for the
development of the church seen in the medieval period. He standardized worship,
introduced the Gregorian chant, encouraged missionary activity, and became the official
interpreter of Augustine for the medieval church.

H
Hagiographa • See Canon: OT.
Hamartiology • See Anthropology.
Hard Sciences • Physical sciences.

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Glossary

Heart • Biblically, the center of human mental and spiritual activity from which emotions and
values arise. The heart can be evil (Jer. 17:9) or pure (Matt. 5:8).
Heaven • The dwelling place of God and the future eternal abode of those who inherit salvation
through Jesus Christ. Heaven is pictured as a place and condition of bliss and joy apart
from sin and evil and characterized by the presence of God.
Hell • The place of future eternal punishment for the wicked, characterized by suffering, torment,
and a lack of the presence of God. (Rev. 20:13-15).
Helplessness • The condition of the sinner before God, unable to act to extricate himself from his
bondage to sin. Inability.
Heresy • A belief consciously chosen in contradistinction to the official teaching of a church body
and understood to be dangerous to the spiritual health of the church. The most serious
heresies surround the doctrine of the Trinity and the person and work of Christ.
Heterodox • See Orthodox.
Higher Criticism * See Criticism.
Hilary off Poitiers (c. 315-67) • Bishop of Poitiers and opponent of Arianism in the West. Wrote
D e T rin ita te , a significant work on the Trinity.
Historical Critical Method • A methodology that approaches the biblical text with a view to
establishing what the texts meant in their earliest forms and contexts.
Historical Criticism • See Criticism.
Historical-Grammatical * See Literal Interpretation.
Historical Theology • The study of the teachings of the church and its theologians in their
historical context. Closely related to, but distinct from, church history.
Church History: The study of the people and events which comprise the legacy of the church
from the first century to the present.
History of Doctrine: The tracing of the development of individual doctrines diachronically
through the ages of the church.
History of Christian Thought: The study of the development of Christian thought and doctrine
synchronically within its various eras of development.
Historical Ttuth • Truth that is derived from the historical process and as such is contingent rather
than absolute and timeless. Part of the uniqueness of Christianity is that it is grounded in
the contingency of history rather than the timeless and “necessary truth of reason.”
History • The record of people and events that have had enduring significance for subsequent
generations of mankind. Historical events are those whose significance goes beyond the
mere fact that they actually happened in space and time.
History off Christian Thought • See Historical Theology.
History off Doctrine • See Historical Theology.
History off Religions School • Late-nineteenth-century approach to the study of religion that
assumes an evolutionary continuity between ancient religions. It seeks to trace the historical
development of polytheistic thought, its evolution into monotheism in Israel, and the
phases of religious development in Judaism and Christianity. Also known by its German
name, Religionsgeschichte.
Holiness • The condition of being separated unto someone or something. In both O T and NT,
holiness is a pre-ethical concept, looking at the fact or condition of separation rather than at
moral purity. In Christian theology the term has taken on a moral sense of living in
conformity with divine standards.
Holiness Movement • The mid- to late-nineteenth-century theological revival of Wesleys doctrine
of entire sanctification. Placing it in a new context and stressing absolute perfection in a way
foreign to Wesley, the holiness movement became the catalyst for numerous new
denominations as well as exerting significant influence on the development of Keswick
theology.

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Holism • The three main views of the relationship between body, soul, and spirit are as follows:
Holism: The person is a unified being that cannot be subdivided.
Dichotomism: The person consists of two parts, the material (body) and immaterial (soul/spirit).
Trichotomism: The person is composed of three parts: body, soul, and spirit. Ancient
trichotomous understanding saw the soul as the life principle and the spirit as the rational
principle. Contemporary understandings see the soul as including the rational and the spirit
as the aspect of human nature that relates to God.
Holy Orders • In the Roman Catholic Church, ministries of the Church requiring ordination.
Holy Spirit • The third person of the Trinity who with the Father and Son is to be worshiped,
praised, and adored.
Homoousia • (Gk. “of the same substance or essence”) Term adopted in the Nicene Creed (325)
to explain the eternal divinity of the Word/Son and his relationship to God the Father.
Hope • The expectation of the future fulfillment of Gods covenant promises despite present
circumstances. The Christian hope is based on the completed work of Jesus Christ and the
present ministry of the Holy Spirit (Rom. 8:18-25; 1 Peter l:3ff).
Human Freedom * See Determinism.

I
Icon • A picture, image, or representation. In the Eastern Orthodox Church, icons are two-
dimensional images of saints and other venerated persons, traditional in form and content,
that are intended as aids to devotion.
Idealism • See Realism.
Identity • See Laws ofThought.
Image a n d Likeness * See Image of God.
Image o f Christ • The goal of redeemed humanity is conformity to the incarnate Son of God as
the visible example of perfect humanity (Rom. 8:29; 1 John 3:2, etc.), who is himself the
exact representation of the invisible God.
Image of God • The nature and status of man, based on Gen. 1:26. The image of God (Lat.
Im ago D ei) has been seen as moral capacity, as rationality, as spirituality, as relationship, as
sonship, and even as form. By whatever definition, the possession of the divine image marks
man off as unique among Gods creatures and as having a status that is qualitatively
different and higher than that of the rest of the created order. The Fall has distorted the
divine image but not erased it; numerous times after the Fall are humans said to be in Gods
image, which implies a continuing dignity despite the present fallen condition. In the
Hebrew text of Genesis 1-2, the terms im a g e and likeness are interchangeable synonyms and
intensify the concept of mankind s likeness to God. In theology, im age and likeness have
been used to refer to different aspects of mans being.
Imago Dei • Lat. “Image of God.” {See Image of God.)
Immanence • See Transcendence.
Immanent Trinity • See Trinity.
Immediate Imputation • See Imputation.
Immersion • See Baptism.
Imminence • The view that the return of Christ and Gods final judgment upon humanity may
occur at any time. This was the faith of the church during the earliest ages but not
reasserted again in the nineteenth century. Imminence must be distinguished from
immediacy. Christs return is imminent, but it may not be immediate. (Spelling not to be
confused with im m a n e n c e .)

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Immortality • The condition of not being mortal and thus not subject to death. God alone
possesses immortality within himself, but those who receive salvation as a gift from God
also receive immortality as a part of that gift.
Impassability • The theological understanding that God does not change and is thus not affected
by contingent developments in the created order. The concept emphasizes Gods changeless
consistency. Recently the concept has been attacked by process thinkers who charge that
this view finds its origin in Greek philosophy rather than in the Bible.
Imprecatory Psalms • Psalms in which the psalmist calls down the curse of God upon his (and
Gods) enemies.
Imputation • To attribute or reckon to ones account. W ith reference to sin, guilt, and
righteousness, Paul indicates that sin and guilt are imputed to Adams descendants while
Christs righteousness is imputed to those who believe (Rom. 5:12-21).
Immediate imputation: The sin of Adam is placed on the account of each of his descendants in
such a way as to make each personally guilty of Adams sin (federal headship).
Realistic imputation: The theory that all humanity was actually present in Adam and thus actual
though unconscious participants in Adams sin (seminal headship).
Mediate imputation: While not actually guilty of Adams sin, humanity is born physically and
morally depraved and thus falls under divine condemnation. (See also Infused Grace.)
Inauthentic Existence • See Authentic Existence.
In Christ • Pauline reference to the radical identification of the believer with the person and work
of Jesus Christ.
Incommunicable Attributes * See Attributes of God.
Individual Eschatology • See Eschatology.
Inductive • Method of reasoning that infers conclusions from observed patterns in data under
study. Induction is the basis of the scientific method. Deductive reasoning deduces
conclusions that are logical and necessary consequences of the premises.
Indulgences • In Roman Catholic theology, a releasing from the temporal effects of sin that
remain after repentance and the forgiveness of guilt. The concept is built on the concept of
the merit of Christ and works of supererogation of the saints which the church stores up in
a treasury of merit to be dispensed at its discretion. It was abuse of this system that gave
impetus to the Protestant Reformation.
Indwelling of the Holy Spirit • The personal presence of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer.
The believer is said to be a temple of the Holy Spirit by virtue of his presence (1 Cor. 6:19).
Inerrancy • See Inspiration of the Bible.
Infallibility • See Inspiration of the Bible.
Infralapsarianism • See O rdo Salutis.
Infused Grace • The Roman Catholic understanding of justification as grace poured into the
individual by the Holy Spirit whereby he/she is made righteous. Protestants, by contrast,
understand justification as a declaration of the individuals standing as right before God
based on the imputed (not infused) righteousness of Christ, while the making righteous is
the process of sanctification that is based on justification.
Injustice • A moral/ethical wrong that involves failure to render to another person what is due.
Inner Man • The aspect of human existence that is transformed by the redeeming power of Jesus
Christ and indwelt by the Holy Spirit.
Inspiration of the Bible • The process whereby God guided the authors of Scripture in the
recording of his revelation (2 Tim. 3:16; 2 Peter 1:21).
Concept inspiration: God inspired the ideas of Scripture but left to the human authors the task
of choosing the actual words to employ in expressing the inspired ideas.
Verbal inspiration: God inspired both the ideas of Scripture and the words employed by the
human authors to express those ideas.
Plenary inspiration: Scripture is fully (extensively) the Word of God.

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 Glossary

Verbal-plenary inspiration: An intensification of the idea of plenary inspiration make explicit

that both extensively (all of Scripture) and intensively (the very words) the Scriptures are
divine in origin and therefore totally trustworthy. The corollary doctrine is inerrancy.
Inerrancy holds that the Bible is without error in all that it affirms, including historical
and scientific facts. Inerrantists recognize that this is a faith position and that there are
difficulties that preclude the demonstration of the doctrine beyond challenge.
Infallibility refers to the understanding that the Bible does not fail in its purpose. Until
recent decades the term was a virtual synonym of inerrancy. Today, many assert the
infallibility of the Bible while denying that it is necessarily without error in scientific,
historic, and geographic details.
Instantaneous Resurrection • See Resurrection.
Intermediate State * See Resurrection.
Interpretation, Methods of
Author-centered meaning: meaning is centered in the mind of the author, hence psychoanalysis
of the author or a climbing inside the authors mind becomes necessary to grasp the
meaning of a text.
Textually centered meaning: the text exists independent of the author and meaning may be
unrelated to any authorial intent.
Reader-centered meaning: meaning is found/created in the interaction between the reader and
the text.
Authorial intent: In hermeneutics and biblical interpretation, the message and intention that the
original author of Scripture was trying to communicate. Traditional evangelical
hermeneutics sees a dialectic between author-centered meaning and textually-centered
meaning in that the text as it exists may lend itself to several competing interpretations,
only one of which is within the perview of the message intended by the author. The goal of
the hermeneutical process is the rediscovery of this intended message.
Introspection • The practice of looking inward at ones own thoughts and feelings. Often this
practice becomes a morbid exploration trying to unearth past sins in order to gain
forgiveness.
Invisible Church • See Church Universal.
Irenaeus (c- 130-200) • Bishop of Lyons. Apologist who w r o te A g a in st Heresies (c. 180) to refute
the positions of the Gnostics. Also contended with the Montanists and wrote The
D em o n stra tio n o f th e A p o sto lic Preaching, one of the earliest theological treatises.

J
Jesus Seminar • The contemporary ongoing study of the Gospels from the radically skeptical
perspective that sees little historical reliability in the gospel records of the sayings and acts of
Jesus. Led by Robert Funk, the Jesus Seminar has self-consciously sought to bring the
results of radical skeptical scholarship to the awareness of the general public.
John Chrysostom (c- 347-407) • Patriarch of Constantinople and representative of the school of
Antioch. The greatest preacher of the ancient church, he was later called “Chrysostom”
(golden mouth). He was devout, ascetic, and reforming in character. His fearless zeal and
devotion led to two exiles from his post on trumped-up charges. He died during his second
exile under the harsh treatment of his captors, but was vindicated after his death.
John of Damascus (c. 675-749) • Eastern monk, scholar, and Christian representative at the
caliphs court, he represents the apex and final form of Eastern Orthodox theology and is
the last recognized Greek father.

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Glossary

Judgment • The evaluation of ones guilt or innocence. Usually used in a negative sense of
condemnation.
Justification • The judicial declaration by God that the sinner is not guilty but righteous (in the
right relationship with God) based on the righteousness of Christ (Rom. 3:24-26; 4:25;
5:16-21). The result of justification is peace with God (Rom. 5:1) and the indwelling of the
Holy Spirit (Rom. 8:9).
Justification by Faith
As synthetic judgment: The Protestant perspective on justification by faith that sees justification
as a divine judgment based on a righteousness synthesized from the alien righteousness of
Christ and imputed to the sinners account.
As analytic judgment: The Roman Catholic perspective on justification that sees justification as
a divine judgment based on actual divine righteousness imparted to and inherent in the
individuals life by Gods grace.
Justin Martyr (c. 100-165) • Christian apologist who used philosophy as a tool to explain the
faith. He emphasized the fact that Christianity inherits the promises of Israel. Martyred for
his testimony.

K
Kataphatic • S^Apophatic.
Kenotic Christology • Nineteenth-century approach to Christology that finds its basis in
Philippians 2:5-11 and focuses on the idea of Christs self-emptying. The emphasis is upon
an emptying of the incarnate Christ of deity in some measure and emphasized the full
humanity of Christ. The radical versions represented a break with historic orthodox
Christology while the mild to moderate versions fell with the parameters of Chalcedonian
orthodoxy.
Kerygma • See Proclamation.
Keswick • A modified holiness understanding of sanctification with roots in the higher-life
theology of Robert Boardman, Hannah Whitehall Smith and Robert Pearsall Smith. It
stresses the overpowering reality of sin, the necessity of confession of all known sin to enjoy
the presence of God, and the necessity of the Spirit-filled life. It is characterized by a
practical perfectionism. Although it has declined as a distinct movement, Keswick theology
has affected most of American evangelicalism with reference to its understanding of
sanctification and the spiritual life.
Keys to the Kingdom • A phrase from Jesus saying about spiritual authority in Matthew 16:19.
Roman Catholicism sees this reference as giving primacy to Peter and his successors, thus
legitimizing the papacy. Protestantism sees it as dealing with spiritual authority in the
church. (See also Binding and Loosing.)
Kierkegaard, Soren (1813-1855) • Danish philosopher and Lutheran critic of the established
Danish church. He argued that ministers were more ministers of the state than of Christ.
He was also the father of existential philosophy, linking truth to the subject rather than to
an object. He stressed the “leap of faith” as a personal commitment.
Knowledge • The organization of ideas or the ways in which reality is perceived. {See
Epistemology.)
Knowledge of God • Human awareness of God and who he is on either a cognitive or an
experiential level (see Hosea 4:1; 6:6; Col. 1:10; 2 Peter 1:2).
Koine Greek • The common Greek that was used throughout the Roman Empire. The N T was
written in Koine Greek.
Kyriakos • Greek term for the church; it means “belonging to the Lord.”
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 Glossary

L
Language Games • Phrase coined by Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889-1951) to describe the fact that
all words are used within a larger system that provides rules for the way words may be used
and interpreted within a given context. These games effect the way reality is perceived and
must be understood in order to correctly comprehend what is being communicated.
Laws of Thought • In classical logic, the laws of identity, non-contradiction, and the excluded middle.
Identity: The principle that “A is A.” As a law of thought it is considered basic to both
theological and philosophical reasoning.
Non-Contradiction: “That which is A cannot be non-A.” A thing cannot be both itself and
something else.
Excluded middle: “A thing is either A or non-A.” There is no middle ground.
Lectionary • A book comprising daily Scripture readings for the liturgical year, designed either for
private use or public worship.
Legal Fiction • A condition accepted legally as true that does not conform with existential reality.
Critics of justification by faith have charged that the doctrine is a legal fiction because the
justified person is not in fact righteous. (See Forensic Act.)
Legalism • An ethical system or a relationship that is governed by obedience to law or rules. In
Christianity the term is generally used in the negative sense of a strict adherence to the
letter of the law that ignores the spirit and intent of the law and may lead to the adoption
and enforcement of nonbiblical norms as necessary for spirituality (pharisaism).
Leo I (the Great) (d. 461) • Bishop of Rome from 440. Leo’s great theological contribution to
the Christological debates, T he Tome o f Leo, became the basis for the Calcedonian definition
of the nature of Christ.
Liberalism • Properly, the theological tradition that originated with nineteenth-century theologian
Friederich Schleiermacher. It attempted to reformulate theology in light of the
Enlightenment critique of revealed religion. It focused on religious experience at the
expense of objective truth, elevated reason, taught essential human goodness and the
continuity of the human with the divine. Theologically, liberalism denied every key
doctrine of historic orthodoxy. As a movement it suffered defeat at the hands of WWI and
Karl Barths critique.
Liberation • Release from anything that would enslave to a state of freedom. Biblically, liberation
is a metaphor of salvation, which is seen as liberation from the bondage and slavery of sin.
Liberation Theology • A variety of theologies, ultimately related to Moltmann’s theology of hope,
that see the gospel primarily in terms of liberation from social injustice and oppression in
its various forms (economic, gender, race, political, spiritual) rather than in terms of
personal sin and redemption. Stress in these movements is on praxis as opposed to doctrine,
and priority is given to social activity rather than individual spirituality. Black theology,
feminist theology, and Latin American liberation theology are manifestations of liberation
theology.
Limited Atonement • See Atonement.
Literal Interpretation • Also called historical-grammatical interpretation. A method of
interpretation that understands the words, phrases, and sentences of a text in their normal
everyday sense, as opposed to some spiritualized or allegorical sense. Literal/normal
interpretation does not imply “woodenly literal” understanding. Instead, it recognizes
figures of speech and various literary genres as part of the normal communication process.
However, it insists that the goal of interpretation is the author’s intended meaning.
Literary Source Criticism • See Criticism.
Liturgical • (From Gk. leito u rg ia , “work of the people”) Having to do with worship.” As the term
is generally used it refers to formal worship style, often accompanied by symbolic ritual and

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Glossary

prescribed order and content of service. Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, and a number
of Protestant churches have a liturgical worship style.
Local Church • The visible assembly of Christians at a particular location as opposed to the
universal/invisible church, composed of all believers at all places and times.
Logos • (Gk. “word”) A dominant first-century concept both in Greek philosophy and Jewish
thought, encompassing reason on the one hand and wisdom on the other. The term is used
by John to describe the pre-incarnate Christ (John l:lff.).
Logos Doctrine • The doctrine developed concerning the pre-incarnate person of Christ,
especially in his relationship to the Father and the created order, and used by second- and
third-century theologians and apologists to communicate the nature and person of Christ to
the Hellenistic philosophical mindset.
Lordship Salvation • The theological position within Calvinistic evangelicalism that denies the
common evangelical distinction between “Jesus as Savior” and “Jesus as Lord.” Lordship
advocates decry “easy believe-ism” and assert that without visible evidence of salvation in
the form of good works there is no salvation.
Lord* Supper • Also called Eucharist (Gk. E u ch a ristia , “thankfulness,” “gratitude”) and
Communion. A sacrament in most churches, it is understood in a variety of ways.
Consubstantiation: The term popularly used to describe the Lutheran understanding of the
nature of the Lords Supper. Lutheranism holds that the elements are not physically
transformed into the body and blood of Christ but that the body and blood of the risen
Christ are in, with, and under the bread and wine in a special way.
Memorial Presence: The understanding of the Lord s Supper propounded by Zwingli and
characteristic of most of American evangelicalism. In contrast to Catholicism, Lutheranism,
and Calvin, the Lords Supper is simply to be understood as a memorial. There is no grace
conveyed by the sacrament nor is there a special spiritual presence of the risen Christ.
Mystery Presence: The Eastern Orthodox understanding of the Eucharist, which sees a real
presence of Christ in the rite but refuses to speculate as to the nature of that presence,
simply asserting it as beyond human explanation and hence “mystery.”
Spiritual Presence: The view of the Lords Supper taught by Calvin that sees an actual spiritual
feeding upon Christ at the Eucharist.
Transubstantiation: The Roman Catholic understanding of the Eucharist, which holds that the
bread and wine are changed in their substance (not appearance) into the literal body and
blood of Christ. The Mass is thus a re-sacrifice of Christ.
Lower Criticism • See Criticism.
Lutheranism • The theological and denominational tradition tracing its roots back to the
Protestant Reformation and Martin Luther. Confessionally committed to the Book of
Confessions (1580) and the Augsburg Confession (1530). At the center of Lutheran
theology stands the doctrine of justification by faith alone.
LXX • Septuagint. (5 ^ Text of the Bible.)

M
Majority Text • See Text of the Bible.
Manuscripts of the NT
Papyri: The earliest surviving fragments of the NT, written on papyrus, a paper-like substance
derived from reeds growing along the Nile in Egypt.
Uncial: A Greek script that used only capital letters. The oldest surviving manuscripts of the N T
are written in this script and are therefore called uncials.

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 Glossary

Minuscule: The later, cursive Greek script that was used from the ninth century on. The majority
of the surviving Greek N T manuscripts are minuscules.
Marcionism • Second- and third-century radically anti-Jewish Christian heresy with gnostic
tendencies. Marcion and his followers rejected the O T and accepted only Paul (minus the
pastorals) and an edited version of Luke. The heresy forced the church to deal with the
extent of canon.
Masoretic Text • See Text of the Bible.
Material • See Formal/Material.
Means of Grace • The ways in which the blessings of God are received by humans. Protestants
have traditionally seen the means of grace as the Scriptures, the sacraments, and prayer.
Mediate Imputation • See Imputation.
Memorial Presence • See Lords Supper.
Merit • The worth or the value of an act. Protestantism denies that there is any merit toward
salvation in human good works. The only act of merit for salvation is the atoning death of
Christ.
Condign merit: The medieval scholastic teaching that supernatural grace could enable an
individual to merit eternal life.
Congruous merit: The late-medieval view that denied that salvation could not be earned by
works in a strict sense but saw it as appropriate for God to reward good works and
faithfulness to God with eternal life.
Treasury of merit: In Roman Catholic teaching, the idea that the good works of the saints and of
Jesus Christ (works of supererogation) can be stored up and used for the benefit of others.
The concept of the treasury of merit lay behind the practice of indulgences in the medieval
church.
Metaphor • See Figures of Speech.
Metaphysics • (Lit. “beyond the physical”) Philosophical terms for those issues having to do with
ultimate reality. This branch of philosophy is closely related to theology and has had an
impact on theological thinking.
Meter • See Poetry.
Midrash • Comments on and explanations of the Hebrew Scriptures (OT) produced from the
time of the Babylonian exile until the twelfth century.
Mlllennialism • The doctrine of the millennial kingdom (also called chiliasm in the early church).
There have been several interpretations of the kingdom throughout the history of the
church including:
Premillennialism: Jesus Christ will personally return to establish an earthly kingdom over which
he will reign for 1,000 years.
Postmillennialism: Jesus Christ will physically return to Earth in final judgment after an
extended period of peace and prosperity during which the church will mediate Christs
presence on the earth to such an extent that it will be identified as a kingdom age.
Amillennialism: There will be no earthly reign of Christ during which the kingdom promises to
Israel will be fulfilled.
Minuscule • See Manuscripts of the NT.
Miracles • An extraordinary event that cannot be accounted for by the laws of nature.
Theologically, miracles are a revelation of Gods purposes and person.
Modalism • See Monarchianism.
Monarchianism • Movement that flourished during the second and third centuries as the doctrine
of the Trinity was being formally developed. It emphasized the rulership of one God, as
opposed to polytheism and even Trinitarianism. It took two forms.
Modalistic Monarchianism: Sabellianism, Modalism, patrapassionism. There are not three
eternal personal subsistences in the Trinity, but the three Trinitarian persons are three

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Glossary

successive historical revelations of the same God. God revealed himself under the image of
Father in the OT, Son in the Gospels, and Spirit in the present age.
Dynamic Monarchianism: The man Jesus was endued with the power (dynamis) of God that
came upon him either at his birth or at his baptism and left him prior to the crucifixion.
Monophysitism • The heretical teaching that Christ had only one nature. It arose after the council
of Calcedon.
Monothelitism • The heretical teaching that Christ had only one will, the divine. It arose after the
condemnation of monophysitism.
Montanism • Second-century heretical Christian ascetic sect that stressed the advent of the age of
the Spirit and the renewal of prophecy through the agency of Montanus. The sect
continued into the sixth century.
Moral Argument • See Theistic Proofs.
Moral Influence Theory • See Atonement.
Moralism • The belief that one can obtain salvation acting according to moral principles. The
concept of salvation in classical liberalism is moralistic.
Morphology • In grammar, the patterns of word formation. In written language, the way the
letters are formed.
Motif • Dominant idea or a central theme.
MT • Masoretic Text. (See Text of the Bible.)
Mystery Presence • See Lords Supper.
Mysticism • The experience of a direct, intuitive apprehension of God and of things divine, apart
from rational reflection. Christianity is mystical insofar as it asserts the reality of a direct
personal relationship with and knowledge of God. The term is also used of the experience
of spiritual ecstasy.
Myth • In biblical studies the term is not used in the sense of a purely fictitious fable or fairy tale.
Rather, it is a literary genre in which truth is presented in a symbolic-imaginative way in a
story or account that is not historically verifiable. Myth thus describes spiritual realities
and truths.
Demythologizing: The process of biblical interpretation proposed by Rudolph Bultmann. It
involves stripping away the “mythological” in Scripture (in the sense of prescientific
understandings that are meaningless to the modern hearer) and re-presenting the point of
these myths (the kerygm a) in the form of existential philosophy.
Mythological approach: The approach taken by rationalistic N T scholars to the miraculous in
the Bible. This perspective was pioneered by David Strauss in his L eben Jesu in the mid­
nineteenth century

N
Narrative Criticism * See Criticism.
Natural Revelation • See Revelation.
Natural Theology • The knowledge of God attained solely through the created order and apart
from special revelation. Natural theology has been emphasized in Roman Catholic thought
since Aquinas. Protestant thought has been divided on the possibility of constructing a
natural theology.
Neo-evangelicalism • The term applied to American evangelicalism in the 1950s indicating a
move away from fundamentalism, the development of social conscience, and the embracing
of higher education while remaining theologically conservative.

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Neoliberalism • Used in two senses: (1) negatively of neo-orthodoxy by those who saw it as a new
form of the old liberalism; (2) of the re-emergent liberal theology after WWII that was
heavily influenced by process thought.
Neologians • Nineteenth-century British label for German rationalistic theologians.
Neo-orthodoxy • The theological tradition originating with Karl Barth that reacted to both
nineteenth-century liberalism and seveneenth-century Protestant confessionalism. Neo­
orthodoxy stressed divine transcendence, human sinfulness, and the centrality of Christ as
Gods revelation to mankind.
Neoplatonism • The dominant philosophical position/worldview in the third through fifth
centuries. Neoplatonism involved a melding of Plato, Aristotle, and Stoicism.
Nestorianism • The Christological heresy that saw the union of the human and the divine in
Christ as moral rather than organic. Condemned by the Council of Ephesus in 431.
New Age • A constellation of spiritual movements that gained prominence in the 1970s. They
share common themes, including reincarnation, astrology, holism, self-fulfillment.
New Creation • The spiritual state of one who has been regenerated by the Holy Spirit. Also, the
future remaking and restoration of the created order after the final judgment.
New Israel • Theological name for the church.
New Life • Salvation.
New Quest • See Quest of the Historical Jesus.
New Testament Theology * See Theology.
Nicea, Council of • The first ecumenical council of the church (325), called to deal with the
Arian heresy. It gave the first formal statement of Trinitarian doctrine.
Nicene Creed • The first ecumenical creed of the church, composed at the council of Nicea in
answer to Arianism. Expanded by the Council of Constantinople in 381 to include a more
specific statement about the person of the Holy Spirit.
Nominalism • The epistemological position, espoused by William of Occam and dominant in late-
medieval theology, that universal do not exist. They are labels created by the mind without
objective reality.
Nomism • (Gk. nom os , “law”) Perspective based upon law.
Noncontradiction • See Laws of Thought.
Non Posse Peccare/Posse Non Peccare • (Lat. “not able to sin/able not to sin”) Used in the
debate of concerning the possibility of the incarnate Christ to sin. Some argue that by
virtue of the incarnation and the co m m u n ic a tio id io m a tu m it was not possible for Christ to
sin. Others argue that in order for Christ to be genuinely tempted there must have been the
possibility of sin.
Notitia • See Faith.
Novatian • Third-century theologian and author of O n the T rin ity , martyr, and rival Roman
bishop/pope who precipitated a schism in the Roman church over the treatment of those
who had lapsed during persecution.

O
Occult • The belief in and practice of contacting the invisible spiritual powers for guidance and
power. All occult practices are condemned both in the Bible and by the church.
Ontic TVinity • See Trinity.
Ontological Argument • See Theistic Proofs.
Ontological TVinity • See Trinity.

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Glossary

Oppression • The condition of being treated unjustly. The term is used with reference to
economic, racial, and gender-based injustice. It is also used with reference to demonic
harassment at a level less severe than possession.
Order • Especially in Roman Catholicism, institutions or communities of monks or nuns, e.g., the
Jesuits.
Ordination • The act of setting apart unto professional ministry. Sacramental traditions see
ordination as conferring spiritual powers, while non-sacramental communities see the rite as
a recognition of Gods call in the life of an individual.
Ordo Salutis • In Reformed theology, the logical order of the decrees of salvation.
Supralapsarianism: The decree to predestine particular individuals to salvation falls logically
before the decree to permit the fall of mankind into sin. In this scheme, election is
understood to be a sovereign act of God who works all things after the council of his own
will. It is often objected that this position makes God harsh, unjust, and arbitrary.
Sublapsarianism: (also called Infralapsarianism): The decree to predestine particular individuals
to salvation falls logically after the decree to permit the fall of mankind into sin. Thus,
election is understood to be an act of grace and mercy by God who contemplates
individuals in their helpless and sinful condition. The charge that God is unfair and
arbitrary is avoided because those chosen are seen as being already under a sentence of just
condemnation.
Origen (185-253) • Brilliant Alexandrine exegete, textual scholar, philosopher, and theologian
who sought to explain Christianity as the true gnosis and who popularized the allegorical
interpretation of Scripture in the ancient church.
Original Sin • The effects of the sin of our first parents on all succeeding generations of humanity.
The effects include the loss of original righteousness and a defacing of the image of God in
humanity. Original sin speaks of a condition of corruption permeating the individual prior
to any independent moral action and may include liability for punishment.
Orthodox, Orthodoxy • (Gk. orthodoxos , “right belief”) Antonym: heterodox.
1. Beliefs that are common to all Christian traditions. Also referred to as historic
orthodoxy or historic Christianity.
2. That which is accepted as correct or proper belief and teaching by a church or group
of churches.
The theological tradition that was defined formally in the Great Schism of 1054 when
the church in the East broke with the Roman Catholic Church in the West. Also known as
the Eastern Orthodox Church, its main branches are the Greek Orthodox and the Russian
Orthodox churches. Eastern Orthodoxy accepts only the first seven ecumenical councils as
authoritative. The Orthodox tradition is sacramental, personalist, and mystical in its
perspective on the faith.
Oxford Movement • Mid-nineteenth-century renewal movement that decried the spiritual state of
the Anglican church and sought to move toward Roman Catholicism in doctrine and
worship.

P
Papyri • See Manuscripts of the NT.
Paradigm • A model, example, or pattern. Often used as a synonym for worldview.
Paradigms provide the structure that organizes a mass of data into some kind of
comprehensible form. In theology it is used of the different organizing patterns from which
doctrines arise, e.g., Lutheran, Reformed, and Arminian ways of interpretation.

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A paradigm shift is the replacement of one operative model of reality for a new one
which better or more simply explains the totality of the data contemplated. When a
paradigm shift occurs there is a revolution in understanding, e.g., from Newtonian physics
to quantum mechanics.
Parallelism • See Poetry.
Participation in the Divine Nature * See Theosis.
Particularism • The view that salvation is related to the response of the individual to the gospel as
opposed to universalism, which sees all humanity as being saved.
Particular Redemption • See Redemption.
Patristics • See Church Fathers.
Peace • (Heb. sh alom ; Gk. eirene) Theologically, the concept involves more than tranquillity.
Following the O T sh a lo m , it refers to completeness, wholeness, and well-being, together
with righteousness. Peace exists as a gift from God.
Pelagianlsm • Late fourth-/early fifth-century heresy that denied human depravity and the
absolute necessity of the work of Christ for salvation. Pelagianism denied original sin, made
freedom of the will absolute, and taught the plenary ability of man to please God apart
from any divine intervention. Opposed by Augustine, who argued for original sin, total
depravity, total inability, and predestination.
Semi-Pelagianism is the position that the human condition has been injured by sin and
that man is spiritually sick and needs rescuing but retains some measure of freedom to turn
to God apart from the prior work of the Holy Spirit.
Penal Substitution • See Atonement.
Penance • In Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy, a discipline placed upon the believer as
a means of showing contrition and sorrow for sins confessed.
Pentecostalism • Protestant theological tradition that originated with the Azusa Street revival in
1900. It emphasizes the sign gifts of the Holy Spirit, particularly the gift of tongues.
Perfectionism • The theological teaching that one can in this life be totally free from sin.
Perfectionism may be seen as moment by moment (more usual) or absolute (radical).
Perseverance of the Saints * See TULIP.
Personal/Personalist • A perspective in philosophy and theology that emphasizes the value,
perspective, and experience of the individual. It sees the personal experience of self-
consciousness as basic to ones reality.
Personal Eschatology * See Eschatology.
Personal Sin/Guilt • Sin committed by one person, for which the individual alone bears
responsibility. Personal guilt is the condition of the individual human being having violated
divine law.
Corporate Sin/Guilt: sin committed by a group, society, or the human race. All members of a
group are involved in corporate sin, although an individual member of the group may not
consciously participate in the act. The result is corporate guilt: the liability of the group for
punishment as a result of corporate sin.
Personhood • That sense of self-conscious individual identity that marks off the individual as
distinct from other selves and as morally responsible.
Phenomenalism • See Epistemology.
Philosophical Proofs • See Theistic Proofs.
Philosophy • (“Love of wisdom”) The study of the overarching issues of life and of ultimate reality
by the use of human reason as distinct from divine revelation.
Physical Salvation • Salvation as rescue from dire or difficult circumstances. This is the
predominant understanding of salvation in the OT.
Pietism • A seventeenth- and eighteenth-century renewal movement within confessional
Lutheranism emphasizing vital spiritual experience as the heart of Christianity. Used in a

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pejorative sense for an overemphasis on the devotional life and an emphasis on the leading
of the Holy Spirit that devalues the intellectual aspects of the faith.
Platonism • The idealistic philosophy associated with Plato that has had a continuing influence on
Christian theology. Platonism encouraged the use of the mind and exalted spiritual reality
over empirical reality.
Aristotelianism: The philosophical perspective based on Aristotle that stresses facts, logic, and
causation. Aristotelianism provided the framework for the theology of Thomas Aquinas and
medieval scholasticism and post-Reformation Protestant scholasticism.
Pluralism • The diversity of religions and cultures in which each is to co-exist without enforcing
hegemony over competing understandings.
Plymouth Brethren • A Protestant body founded in the early 1800s in reaction to the perceived
apostasy of the Anglican Church. The Plymouth Brethren practice ecclesiastical
primitivism, denying the validity of an ordained clergy and stressing lay leadership.
Dispensationalism was born in the Plymouth Brethren context.
Pneumatology • The doctrine of the Holy Spirit.
Poetry (OTJ • A highly figurative and structured genre of literature represented in the O T by the
books of Job, Psalms, Song of Solomon and many of the prophets. Whereas English poetry
is largely characterized by rhyme, a major literary feature of Hebrew poetry is the
juxtaposition of parallel ideas or structure, coupled with meter (rhythmic patterns).
Posse Non Peccare • See N o n Posse Peccare.
Postmillennialism • See Millennialism.
Postmodernism • The contemporary intellectual and theological climate that has rejected
Enlightenment claims of the universality of truth and knowledge. Instead, it insists that all
knowledge is relative and arises out of the perspective of the community in which one is a
participant.
Pouring • See Baptism.
Pre-understandings • An interrelated complex of experiences, conceptions, thoughts which form
a coherent pattern for comprehending new information. {See also Paradigm, Worldview,
Frame of Reference.
Predestination • The activity of God in foreordaining that certain events come to pass.
Predestination may have reference to actions and activity or to the eternal destiny of human
beings (election: the two terms are often used as synonyms). W ithin the Reformed
tradition, faith unto salvation is seen as the result of predestination (election), while in the
Arminian tradition predestination (election) is understood to be based upon the faith God
foresees the individual exercising.
Pre-existence • With reference to Christ, the fact that as the second person of the Trinity Christ
existed before the Incarnation.
Premillennialism * See Millennialism.
Presbyterian Government • See Church Government.
Presuppositionalism * See Apologetics.
Pride • Usually negative, the exaggerated value of self, or overarching self-love at the expense of
care for others. The term may be used positively in a sense of realistic self-esteem and
satisfaction in ones accomplishments.
Priest • One who mediates between God and man. The O T appointed a perpetual, hereditary
priesthood. The N T replaces this with the priesthood of all believers with Jesus Christ as
the High Priest.
Primitivism • See Church Government.
Princeton School • The distinctive American form of Reformed theology wedded to Scottish
Common Sense Realism associated with old Princeton Seminary (through 1929) generally

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and Charles and A. A. Hodge and B. B. Warfield particularly. The representatives of the
Princeton School are referred to as Princetonians.
Process Theology • A school of thought arising from the philosophical perspective of Alfred
North Whitehead and given theological shape by Charles Harthshorne. It focuses on
dynamic change over static “being” and emphasizes divine participation in the evolving
creation and divine development and change as a result of that involvement.
Proclamation • (Gk. kerygm a) The public preaching of the gospel of the good news of Jesus
Christ, often as distinct from teaching. Proclamation is directed to the heart and not just
the head.
Progressive Revelation * See Revelation.
Progressive Sanctification • See Sanctification.
Projection • Attributing one’s own thoughts, feelings, ideas, or motivations to another.
Externalizing personal guilt, blame, or anxiety as a psychological defense mechanism.
Proofs of Goctt Existence • See Theistic Proofs.
Prophet • One who speaks the message of God, on behalf of God, usually addressing God’s
people. The prophets’ predicting (foretelling) the future is incidental to their proclaiming
(forth-telling) of God’s message.
Propitiation • See Expiation.
Provenance • Origin or source.
Providence • God’s gracious continual personal superintendence and preservation of his creation
for his purposes and for the benefit of humanity.
Purgatory • In Roman Catholicism, the place of punishment/purification where the faithful after
death are purified from all that remains of sin in their lives and made worthy and fit for
eternity in God’s presence. Purgatory is understood to be a place of disciplinary suffering.

Q
Q. • See Synoptic Problem.
Quest of the Historical Jesus • The Enlightenment and liberal critical investigation into the
religious personality of Jesus and the environment that shaped him. The aim was to get to
the simple human being behind the religious figure as it had been developed over the
centuries. Numerous scholars participated in the quest, but the results were a projection of
nineteenth-century human ideals onto the person of Jesus rather than historical discovery.
Albert Schweitzer proclaimed the enterprise a failure in the early twentieth century.
Second Quest or New Quest: The efforts by Rudolph Bultmann to demythologize the N T
records in order to recover the real Jesus without any mythical overlays.
Third Quest: Begun in 1953 by Ernst Kasemann in reaction to Bultmann, this quest has a firmer
methodological foundation than the first quest and is not radically rationalistic as was the
first quest. Recognizing that history is vital to Christianity, scholars from across the
theological spectrum are participants.
{See also Jesus Seminar.)

R
Ransom Theory • See Atonement.
Rapture • In premillennialism, the catching of the church up in the air to meet Christ at his
return (1 Thess. 4:17). Also, an intense religious experience.
Rationalism • See Epistemology.
Reader-Centered Meaning • See Interpretation, Methods of.
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Reader-Response Criticism • See Criticism.

Realism • Realism is the epistemological view that asserts the objective reality of objects apart from
human knowledge of them.
Idealism, by contrast, sees ideas present in the human mind as basic to understanding reality.
Idealism has its roots in Platonic thought and has had significant influence on theological history.
Realistic Imputation * See Imputation.
Realized Eschatology * See Eschatology.
Recapitulation Theory • See Atonement.
Reconciliation • The bringing together of two parties that are estranged. Theologically, the
estrangement of sin is overcome in an objective sense by the death of Christ so as to effect
reconciliation between God and man in salvation (2 Cor. 5:16-21). Because of the fact of
divine reconciliation, Christians are to reflect in their lives reconciliation to others (Matt.
5:23-24).
Reconstructionism • Recent theological movement arising from within Reformed theology that seeks
to restructure society along the lines of OT Law, which is held to be permanendy binding.
Redaction Criticism * See Criticism.
Redemption • (Lit. a “buying back”) Redemption involves the “buying back” of humanity from
slavery to sin. Theologically it involves Atonement, reconciliation, and liberation from sin,
death, and the powers of evil through the death of Christ. (See Atonement.)
Particular redemption: Limited atonement.
Universal redemption: Unlimited atonement.
Reformed Theology • The theology following in the tradition of John Calvin. “Reformed” refers
to the broad scope of theology as well as a comprehensive world-and-life view, whereas
“Calvinism” is often used more narrowly of the soteriological position defined by TULIP.
(See TULIP.)
Regeneration • (Lit. “being born again”) The work of the Holy Spirit in giving new and spiritual
life to the repentant sinner who believes in Christ.
Reincarnation • The nonbiblical belief that after death one is born again into a new physical
body. Also called transmigration of the soul.
Relaxation Theory • See Atonement.
Religionsgeschichte • See History of Religions School.
Remonstrants • The followers of Arminius in Holland, who put forth the Remonstrance in
opposition to the then-dominant scholastic Reformed theology with its emphasis on divine
sovereignty. The protest occasioned the convening of the Synod of Dort (1618-19) which
formulated the TULIP of Calvinism as a refutation of Arminianism.
Repentance • (Gk. m eta n o ia y “a changing of ones mind”) It encompasses the act of turning to
God from sin. The beginning of repentance is expression of faith in Christ.
Resurrection • A raising from the dead. Specifically the resurrection of Christ and the future
raising of all the dead unto final judgment and reward or punishment.
Instantaneous resurrection: After death the individual experiences immediate resurrection rather
than an intermediate state or “soul sleep.” At death the soul steps out of linear time and
into eternity.
Intermediate state: The condition and abode of the soul between death and resurrection. For
unbelievers this is understood to be a place of conscious torment (hades, Luke 16), for
believers a state of spiritual peace and comfort.
Soul sleep: The view that at death the soul sleeps (or is in an unconscious state) until awakened
at the resurrection.
Return off Christ • See Second Coming.
Revelation/Natural revelation • Truth about God seen by all humanity through nature,
conscience, and history.
General revelation: Gods self-disclosure in nature, history, and conscience to all people at all
times, revealing his power, wisdom, eternity, and moral nature.
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Special revelation: Gods particular, personal, and redemptive self-disclosure at specific times
and places to humans in their fallen, sinful state through, e.g., dreams, visions, audible
voice, theophanies, the Incarnation. Scripture is understood to be special revelation in
durable form.
Progressive revelation: God’s revelation in Scripture reflects a continuing process by which later
revelation builds on that which preceded it. Progressive revelation implies that new
revelation can occur but cannot contradict that which has preceded.
Reward • The view in Roman Catholic moral theology that final salvation comes as a result of a
believer’s cooperation with God’s grace, doing good works that accrue as merit before God.
Rhetorical Criticism • See Criticism.
Righteousness • The Hebrew and Greek biblical terms stress the establishing and maintaining of
a right personal relationship between God and man. The relationship is established by God
apart from human merit. Linguistically the term is pre-ethical, but as commonly used it
refers to moral purity.
Rites and Rituals • Set forms of religious expression that represent in symbolic form religious
experience or theological truth.

S
Sabellianism • See Monarchianism.
Sacraments • Signs or rituals instituted by God as symbols of an inward spiritual reality/grace.
Sacraments are the liturgical rituals of the church. Roman Catholicism recognizes seven
sacraments, Protestants recognize two.
E x o p e r e o p e r a to : (Lat. “from the work done”) The Roman Catholic view of the Sacrament that
emphasizes its objective nature and sees its spiritual validity in its nature as sacrament rather
than the worthiness of the priest or the recipient.
E x o p e r e o p e r a n ti s : (Lat. “out of the work of the worker”) The view that sees the efficacy of the
sacrament as dependent upon (1) the spiritual condition of the one who administers the
sacrament and (2) the spiritual condition of the recipient.
Sacred and Taboo • Sacred is that which is holy or able to instill a sense of the presence of the
divine. Taboo is that which is proscribed for fear of harm from the deity.
Saint • Biblically, all those who have been saved by Jesus Christ are saints. Popularly, one who is
especially devoted to God. In Roman Catholicism, one who has been canonized.
Salvation • Comprehensive term for the activity of God in delivering human beings from their
sinful condition and giving them righteousness and fellowship with him as a gift, based
upon the Atonement of Christ. Biblical images for salvation vary widely, and each image
contributes uniquely to understanding the magnitude of the divine project.
Sanctification • The “present tense” of salvation, (justification = “past tense”; glorification =
“future tense”). The process involves the progressive spiritual growth of the individual
following justification (progressive sanctification) whereby he or she is more and more
conformed to the image of Christ and is able to progressively deny sin in his or her life and
produce good works (Eph. 2:10).
Definitive sanctification: The recognition in Reformed theology that the regenerate individual,
by virtue of incorporation into and identification with Christ, is by definition “a saint” or
“sanctified,” despite any personal sin and weakness which may still plague him/her.
Satisfaction Theory • See Atonement.
Saving Faith • See Faith.
Schism • See Great Schism.
Schleiermacher, Friederich (1768-1834) • German theologian and philosopher and father of
liberal theology. He saw true religion as the feeling of absolute dependence upon God.
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Scholasticism • Method of philosophy and theology developed at the newly emergent European
universities during the High Middle Ages. Scholasticism combined the philosophy of
Aristotle with the teachings of the Fathers, particularly Augustine. During the post-
Reformation period both the Lutheran and the Reformed traditions adopted the
methodology of scholasticism as they constructed their systems of theology. This period is
referred to as the era of Protestant scholasticism.
Scientific Materialism • The worldview that asserts that the material universe is the entirety of
reality and that it can be understood through science alone without reference to any deity
or transcendent spiritual reality.
Scofield Reference Bible • The study Bible edited by C. I. Scofield (1909) that popularized
dispensationalism in America in the early-twentieth century.
Sealing • The work of the Holy Spirit in setting an identifying mark of ownership on the believer
that assures final redemption (Eph. 4:30).
Second Coming • The literal bodily return of Jesus Christ from heaven (Acts 1; Rev. 20) to
establish his kingdom.
Second Helvetic Confession • Written by Bullinger in 1562, this became the most prominent of
the Swiss Reformed creeds and was accepted by Reformed churches throughout Europe.
Self • See Personhood.
Semantics • The aspect of language study that has to do with meaning.
Semi-Pelagianism • See Pelagianism.
Septuagint • See Text of the Bible.
Session (Christology) • The present work of Christ in heaven.
Seventieth Week of Daniel • In premillennialism, the seventieth week in Daniel is generally
understood to be the period of the Great Tribulation.
Shame • The feeling arising from the realization that one has failed to live up to standards and
expectations or that one has acted dishonorably and disgracefully.
Shame involves the desire to hide the true self from condemnation and often involves
denial of responsibility and shifting of blame for failure (Gen. 3).
Simile • See Figures of Speech.
Simple Ituth • See Truth.
Simul iustus et peccator • (Lat. “at once both righteous and a sinner”) Luthers description of the
sinner justified by grace through faith.
Sin • The comprehensive term used to describe the human condition of failing to reflect divine
righteousness. Scripture uses a variety of terms to describe this condition. Sin may be willful
and deliberate, or it may be inadvertent. It always needs forgiveness.
Sitz im Leben • (Ger. “setting in life”) The cultural and intellectual context in which a particular
passage of Scripture originated. A form-critical term.
Social Gospel • The late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century movement within liberal American
Protestantism that sought to apply the social implications of the gospel to the conditions of
industrialized society, focusing on the poverty and economic oppression suffered by urban
factory workers. The stress of the movement was the establishment of the moral ethical
kingdom of God, often at the expense of the personal redemptive aspects of the gospel.
Soclnlanism • The rationalist theology espoused by Faustus Socinus (1539-1604), who disavowed
the Trinity and the deity of Christ and the Atonement, as well as other cardinal Christian
doctrines. American Unitarianism reflects the Socinian theological perspective.
Sociology off Knowledge • The contemporary discipline that denies the Enlightenment
perspective that truth/knowledge is objective. Rather, the context of the knower determines
what will be perceived and accepted as truth/knowledge. Radical understandings deny the
reality of objective truth, moderate perspectives see an objective reality but insist that it is
inevitably colored its subjective apprehension.
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Soft Sciences * Social sciences.

Sonship • The relationship with God as Father. The sonship of Jesus Christ is unique in that it is
eternal and by nature, whereas the sonship of the Christian is by virtue of adoption.
Soteriology • The doctrine of salvation.
Soul • In the OT, refers primarily to the life principle (Gen. 2:7). In the N T the term is used
regularly for ones life (Matt. 2:20) or of existence after death (Luke 21:19). (See also
Holism.)
Soul Sleep • See Resurrection.
Source Criticism • See Criticism.
Spirituality • The spiritual aspect of human existence. Christian spirituality is grounded in the
presence of the Holy Spirit in the life and experience of the believer. Protestantism stresses
the Bible and prayer as means to maintain spirituality. {See Disciplines.)
Spiritual Healing • (1) The curing of diseases both physical and spiritual by nonphysical means,
e.g., prayer and faith. (2) The healing of the inner self from the damage done by sin,
particularly victimization and abuse.
Spiritual Presence • See Lords Supper.
Spiritual Warfare • A N T image of the struggle of the Christian with the cosmic forces of evil that
are the enemies of the believer. In recent decades the term has come to be popularly applied
to direct confrontation with demonic forces in which the believer binds Satan, verbally
rebuking him by authority of the risen Christ.
Sprinkling * See Baptism.
Structural Criticism • See Criticism.
Sublapsarianism * See O rdo Salutis.
Substitution • See Atonement.
Succession of Bishops * See Apostolic Succession.
Succession of Doctrine • The handing down of Christian truth/doctrine from one generation to
the next (2 Tim. 2:2).
Suffering • To experience deep physical, emotional or spiritual pain distress or injury. While not
good in itself, within the framework of Gods sovereignty suffering is a vehicle to bring
believers to maturity.
Supracultural * See Culture.
Supralapsarianism * See O rdo Salutis.
Synagogue • Place of worship in Judaism. The synagogue originated during the Babylonian exile.
After the destruction of the temple in A.D. 70 it became the center of Jewish religious life.
Synchronic • See Diachronic.
Syncretism • A blending of two or more ideas to form a third. The term is used of the blending of
Christian and non-Christian elements into a view that compromises the Christian faith at
crucial points.
Synergism • (Lit. “working together”) In theology, the concept of synergism as advocated by
Arminians and Semi-Pelagians holds that initial salvation is a cooperative effort between the
divine will and the human will.
Synod of Orange (529) • Synod that accepted a semi-Augustinian position (rejecting Augustine’s
doctrine of double predestination) as the official position of the church with reference to
the doctrines of sin and grace.
Synoptic Problem • The problem of the literary interrelationship of the first three (synoptic) Gospels.
The most common view is that Matthew and Luke depended on Mark (Marcan priority) and
that all three used common source material. A hypothetical source, Q, is often assumed to be
the basis for material that is common to Matthew and Luke but not found in Mark.
Synoptics • The Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke.
Syntax • The grammatical structure of a language.
Synthetic Judgment * See Justification.
Systematic Theology • See Theology.
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T
Taboo • See Sacred and Taboo.
Taxonomy • An orderly classification or ranking according to natural relationships. A theological
taxonomy assumes that certain doctrines are foundational while others are of secondary and
tertiary importance.
Teleological Argument • See Theistic Proofs.
Temple of the Holy Spirit • As used by Paul, the corporate church as well as the individual
believer is the temple of the Holy Spirit.
Tests off Ituth • The three classic tests of truth are:
Coherence: For a particular belief or to be considered as true it must be capable of being put into
a logical, systematic, and coherent form.
Consistency: A truth claim must be self-consistent and without internal contradictions.
Utility: In order for a proposition to be accepted as true, it must work. (If it is true it will work;
not to be confused with pragmatism, which says that if it works it is true.)
Tertullian (c. 160-c. 220) • Brilliant Latin-speaking lawyer, apologist, and theologian who gave to
Western Christianity much of its legal cast. Influential in the developing doctrine of the
Trinity and also in the coining of theological terminology, he was a moral rigorist who
ultimately joined the Montanists because of their ascetic practices and the laxity he
perceived in the orthodox church.
Text off the Bible
Septuagint: (LXX): Greek translation of the OT, completed about a century before Christ. The
designation LXX, the Roman numeral for seventy, is based on the apocryphal Letter of
Aristes, which states that the Septuagint was translated by seventy scholars in seventy days.
Textus Receptus: (TR) The received edition of the Greek N T based on the work of Erasmus.
The TR is based on a few late Greek manuscripts. It was the basis for translations of the
N T up until the late nineteenth century when Westcott and Hort introduced the critical
text based on collations of manuscripts nearly a millennium older.
Majority Text: The text of the N T as represented by the majority of the surviving manuscripts.
By virtue of numbers the majority text is Byzantine in type although not identical with the
Textus Recptus.
Masoretic Text: (MT) The text of the Hebrew OT, copied and preserved by the Masoretes.
Dead Sea Scrolls: (DSS) A collection of scrolls found in a cave at Qumran on the Dead Sea in
1948. They represent the oldest known Hebrew manuscripts, some dating from before the
time of Christ.
Critical text: The printed Hebrew O T text or Greek N T text, of the OT or N T respectively
based on the comparison of available manuscripts. The critical text is determined by means
of textual criticism and uses proven methods to eliminate errors that have crept into the
hand-copied manuscripts over centuries of transmission.
{See also Criticism: Textual Criticism.)
{See also Manuscripts of the NT.)
Textual Criticism • See Criticism.
Textually Centered Meaning • See Interpretation, Methods of.
Textus Receptus • See Text of the Bible.
Theistic Prooffs • The so-called “proofs for the existence of God,” popularized by Thomas
Aquinas. These proofs play a major part in the attempts of natural theology to demonstrate
to the unbeliever that God exists, apart from the revelation of Scripture.
Cosmological argument: Since every effect must have a cause, the universe itself must have a
first cause, God.
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Moral argument: The universal nature of morality and the necessity for a transcendent moral
reality upon which to base this universal phenomenon lead to the conclusion that the
source of this transcendent morality must be God.
Motion argument: Similar to the cosmological argument. The world and created order is not static
but in motion, everything that moves is moved by something else. There must be at some
point an “unmoved mover” who is himself unmoved. That unmoved mover would be God.
Ontological argument: God is “that than which nothing greater can be conceived.” This must
include existence. Originally formulated by Anselm.
Teleological argument: The design and evident purpose seen in the created order proves the
existence of God.
Theocracy • Ruled by God. In the OT, Israel was originally a theocratic state with Yahweh as king.
The term has also been used to refer to human attempts to set up a kingdom ruled by the
religious establishment, e.g., the Puritan theocracy.
Theology
Natural theology: Theology based on Gods self-disclosure in nature, history, and conscience to
all people at all times, revealing his power, wisdom, eternity, and moral nature (general
revelation). Natural theology is by definition nonredemptive.
Systematic theology: Christian theology comprehensively presented in a coherent, orderly
fashion around a central organizing principle. Especially characteristic of the Reformed
tradition. Systematic theologies must have an underlying philosophical perspective and
method in order to be a true system.
Dogmatic theology: Systematic theological reflection based primarily but not exclusively on
received church dogma such as a creed or confession. A virtual synonym of Systematic
Theology.
Biblical theology: The historical and descriptive discipline that sets forth and synthesizes the
teachings of the biblical authors in their own thought forms and categories without
imposing upon the biblical material later theological understanding. Major areas are OT
theology, N T theology, Johannine theology, and Pauline theology.
(See also Historical Theology.)
(See also Liberation Theology.)
Theology off Hope • See Liberation Theology.
Theopneustos • (Gk. “God-breathed”) Used by Paul to describe the divine origin of the OT
Scriptures (2 Tim. 3:16).
Theosis • Theosis (or deification) is the predominant Eastern Orthodox conception of salvation.
It is understood as a process by which the Christian becomes a participant in the life of
God or united with Christs divine nature in its energies, not its essence (2 Peter 1:4:
“participate in the divine nature”).
Eastern theology holds that deification is the goal of every Christian, not just the “saints.”
There are significant parallels with the Protestant concept of progressive sanctification.
Therapeutic • Having to do with healing. Biblically, salvation is to be a therapeutic process of
restoring to spiritual and emotional health those who have been caught in the sickness of sin.
Third Quest • See Quest of the Historical Jesus.
Third Use off the Law • In Reformed theology, the concept that the law is a normative guide to
the believer, revealing the will of God for life.
Third Wave • The Vineyard movement, frequently thought of as the Third Wave of the
outpouring of the Holy Spirit in the twentieth century. (First Wave: Pentecostalism; Second
Wave: charismatic movement.)
Emphasis has been placed on healing and prophecy more than on tongues, which
characterized earlier movements.
Time and Eternity • Time is understood to be the period between creation and the final
consummation. Eternity is distinct from time and has no beginning and no end. Properly it
belongs only to God as an attribute. More popularly, the time after the final consummation
168
Glossary

is referred to as eternity future. Theologians debate as to whether this period is an infinite

extension of time in one direction or if it is qualitatively different from time.
Torah • First of the three parts of the OT canon, consisting of the five books of Moses
(Pentateuch). The other two parts are the Nebiim (Prophets) and the Ketubim (Writings or
Hagiographa).
TR • Textus Receptus {See Text of the Bible).
Tradition History • A critical approach to O T studies.
Ttraducianism • The view on the origin of the human soul that sees it as traduced from human
parents rather than directly created by God (creationism). Tertullian was the first advocate
of this view.
Transcendence • Gods being above and apart from the created order.
Immanence: Gods presence and actions within the created order.
Transcendentalism • Nineteenth-century idealistic movement associated with Ralph Waldo
Emerson, emphasizing the spiritual realities beyond space and time.
TTanscultural • See Culture.
Transmission off Sin • The passing of sin from generation to generation (Rom. 5). Pelagians have
held that sin is individual and that no necessary link exists between Adam and his posterity
other than a bad example. Orthodox theology has held that the corruption resulting from
Adams fall is passed from generation to generation, affecting the entirety of the race. While
the means of the transmission have been debated, the fact of the transmission is virtually
universally accepted.
TTansubstantiation * See Lord’s Supper.
Treasury off Merit • See Merit.
TTent • The Council of Trent (1545-63), convened by the Roman Catholic Church to reform
abuses and answer the Protestant Reformation. Trent elevated to dogma many of the
perspectives of Thomas Aquinas.
Tribulation • Generally, the suffering and anguish of Gods people. Tribulation is a characteristic
experience of the Christian in the world.
In premillennialism, “the Tribulation” or “the Great Tribulation” refers to the period of
unparalleled human suffering under divine judgment prior to the return of Christ.
TTichotomism • See Holism.
Tridentine • Pertaining to the Council of Trent.
Trinity • The uniquely Christian understanding that the one God is three eternal persons, Father,
Son, and Holy Spirit, while remaining one in essence. This tri-unity has reference to eternal
intrapersonal distinctions within the single essence of the Godhead (ontological Trinity or
immanent Trinity) and not just to Gods relationship to the world (economic Trinity).
Triumphalism • A perspective on the Christian life and the life of the church that sees victory and
blessing as normative and tribulation and opposition as an indication of divine disfavor.
TTust • See Faith.
TTuth • That which is in correspondence with reality or is genuine. Theologians debate whether
truth is propositional or personal. Such a dichotomy is false, since Scripture speaks of both
perspectives. God is true, trustworthy, and reliable, Jesus is the truth, and the Scripture is
Gods true revelation given in durable form.
Absolute Truth: That which is universal and unchanging. Ultimately God alone is absolute truth.
Simple Truth: Correspondence with reality.
TULIP • Acronym for a Calvinistic conception of soteriological doctrines formulated by the Synod
of Dort (1618-19) in answer to the Arminian Remonstrance.
T: Total Depravity: See Depravity.
U: Unconditional Election: The basis of election unto salvation is only the good pleasure of Gods
will, not foreseen faith or merit in human beings.
L: Limited Atonement: See Atonement.

169
 Glossary

I: Irresistible Grace: The work of the Holy Spirit whereby he draws the individual to salvation,
breaking down obstacles in the process.
P: Perseverance of the Saints: Those who are genuinely regenerated by the Holy Spirit will
continue in their faith until the end. Differs from the doctrine of eternal security in that the
latter bases confidence of ones salvation on ones initial profession of faith. Perseverance
looks at life from the end rather than the beginning and sees the fact that one has remained
steadfast as proof of the genuineness of conversion.

U
Uncial • See Manuscripts of the NT.
Unconditional Election • See TULIP.
Unction • Anointing as a symbol of consecration. (See also Anointing of the Sick.)
Undistributed Middle • The logical fallacy in which neither premise of a syllogism makes a
universal statement that does not occur in the conclusion.
Union with Christ • The believers radical identification with Christ in his atoning death and
resurrection. {See also In Christ.)
Unltarianism • See Socinianism.
Universal Church • See Church Universal.
Universal Redemption * See Redemption.
Unlimited Atonement * See Atonement.
Utility • See Tests ofTruth.

V
Vatican I (1869-70) • Roman Catholic council that declared as dogma the doctrine of papal
infallibility.
Vatican II (1962-65) • Roman Catholic council that dethroned the traditional Thomistic
perspective in theology, casting the doctrines of revelation, Scripture, salvation, and the
church in new frameworks, as well as enacting far-reaching reforms.
Verbal Dictation • See Inspiration of the Bible.
Verbal-Plenary Inspiration * See Inspiration of the Bible.
Verifiability • In logical positivism, any statement that is neither verifiable (that cannot in
principle be shown to be true) nor falsifiable (that cannot in principle be shown to be
wrong) is nonsense or irrelevant. E.g., the statement “Christ is risen” can in principle be
falsified by the discovery of his body. Verifiability and falsifiability determine whether or not
a statement is nonsense, not whether it is true.
Victimization • Theologically, an interpersonal effect of sin. While ultimately sin is a divine-
human issue, it is also an interpersonal and community issue. The effects of sin often leave
trauma and lifelong scars upon those who are sinned against.
Visible Church • See Local Church.

W
Wesleyan-Arminian Theology • The theological tradition that originated with James Arminius
and John Wesley. This tradition stresses human freedom, the possibility of loss of salvation
by means of apostasy, and the goal of entire sanctification/holiness in this life.
170
Glossary

Westminster Confession • The Presbyterian (Calvinistic/Reformed) confession of faith composed

by the Westminster Assembly and published in 1648. It has become the standard Reformed
confession in the English-speaking Presbyterian and Reformed tradition.
Wholeness • The condition of being whole or complete. In theology, salvation is seen as a
therapeutic process of being progressively restored to spiritual health/wholeness from the
sickness of sin.
Wisdom Literature • O T Literature that contains practical perspectives on living in accordance
with Gods will. Included are Job, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes.
Wish-Fulfillment • God has no objective reality but is the projection of our desires. We create God
in our own image. Position of nineteenth-century anti-theologian Ludwig Feuerbach.
Witness of the Spirit • The ministry of the Holy Spirit whereby he testifies to the divine origin
and veracity of the Scriptures and to the status of the Christian as child of God.
Womens Liberation • See Liberation Theology.
Worldview • A complex of pre-understandings that gives a conceptual framework by which an
individual understands reality. The term is sometimes used in reference to a philosophy of
life or outlook on life.
Worship • Giving praise and glory to God in action and attitude. In Christianity, worship is to be
Trinitarian, praising the Father through the Son in the power of the Spirit.
Writings • The third section of the Hebrew canon of the OT, along with the Torah (Law) and the
Prophets.

Y
Yahweh • The personal name of the covenant-keeping God of Israel. It is derived from the four
Hebrew radicals (consonants) YHWH. Older English translations render God’s personal
name variously as Lord or Jehovah.

171
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 T A X O N O M IC

O F

Theology &
B iblical Studies
Theology and biblical studies comprise a vast array of interrelated topics
and disciplines. But the ways in which the different areas of study fit
together may not be readily apparent to seminary students and lay per­
sons. Taxonomic Charts of Theology and Biblical Studies makes obscure rela­
tionships clear. It systematically provides:
1. A visual tracing of all major areas of theology and biblical studies
2. A glossary/index that gives brief definitions

By revealing the connection between such areas of study as archaeology, geography,

and Old and New Testament studies, and then breaking each category down in
orderly detail, Taxonomic Charts oj Theology and Biblical Studies gives the student a
sound understanding of the relationship, im portance, and use of various, seemingly
unrelated, topics.

M. Jam es Sawyer is professor of theology at Western Seminary, San Jose campus. He

holds a Ph.D. from Dallas Theological Seminary.

ZondervanC/wm are ready references for those who need essential information in a
hurry. Accessible and highly useful, the books in this library offer clear organization
and thorough summaries of issues, subjects, and topics that are key to Christian stu­
dents. O ther titles in this growing series include Charts of Christian Theology and
Doctrine; Charts of Cults. Sects, and Religious Movements: Chronological and Background
Charts of the Old Testament: Chronological and Background Charts of the New Testament;
Chronological and Background Charts of Church History: Chronological and Thematic Charts
oj Philosophies and Philosophers: and Timeline Charts oj the Western Church.

n T h » n ln o L - P » f » r » n r »

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THEOLOGY
ISBN 0-310-21993-0 X0015PH0FD
J s Very Good - Taxonomic CharT* o f
TI ? ogy and B i b l i c a l S tu d ie s