Theology beacon dictionary of theology
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- DISCIPLINE, INFLUENCE, WORKS OF THE FLESH, TEMPERANCE. For Further Reading: Arndt, Gingrich, 540; NIDNTT, 1:513 ff; Kittel, 4:545,936 ff; Nelson
- REALISM, METAPHYSICS, MONISM, BODY, MIND, MAN, SOUL, DIVINE IMAGE. For Further Reading: MacGregor, Introduction to Religious Philosophy
- For Further Reading: Purkiser, ed., Exploring Our Christian Faith
- DYOTHELITISM.
- EASTER.
- For Further Reading: Bulgakov, The Orthodox Church and The Wisdom of God; Pelikan, The Christian Tradition; Constantelos
- ECCLESIASTICAL OFFICES.
- For Further Reading: Berry, The Unsettling of America; Commoner, The Closing Circle; Schaeffer, Pollution and the Death of Man;
- For Further Reading: Thielicke, The Evangelical Faith, 2:176 ff; Wiley, CT 1:422 ff. LEON O. HYNSON ECUMENICAL, ECUMENISM.
- For Further Reading: Goodall, The Ecumenical Movement; Lowell, The Ecumenical Mirage.
DRUNKENNESS. Drunkenness has been a severe problem since antiquity. The evil of intoxication is condemned in the Bible. It is clearly listed as a vice (Rom. 13:13; Gal. 5:21; 1 Cor. 5:11; 6:10). Immoderation is an evil of the night (1 Thess. 5:7) and will leave one unprepared for the coming of the Kingdom (Luke 21:34). Christians must resist strongly even a suspicion of drunkenness (Acts 2:15) because of its association with pagan cults (H. Preisker, methe, Kittel, 4:548). In Communion (1 Cor. 11:21), drunkenness and the new way of Christian living are not compatible. Clearly, drunkenness is a characteristic of pagans (1 Pet. 4:3). Christians are admonished, instead, to be filled with the Spirit (Eph. 5:18). Wine and strong drink appear together often, referring to intoxicants in general (Isa. 5:11). Wisdom literature reads, "Wine is a mocker, strong drink a brawler" (Prov. 20:1, nasb). Jesus gives no ethical or religious judgment to the drinking of wine (John 2:10), but abstinence seems to be a higher ethic than so-called temperance. Naza-rites vowed to refrain (Num. 6:3); Daniel and his friends chose to stop (Dan. 1:8-16); and priests while on duty in the sanctuary were required to abstain (Lev. 10:9). Paul's charge to Timothy is to "be sober in all things" (2 Tim. 4:5, nasb) so he can keep clarity of mind. Total refraining from intoxicants is implied in Matt. 16:24 ff. The thoughtful Christian is asked to abstain from wine if it will cause his weaker brother to fall back into sinful ways (Rom. 14:13-21; 1 Cor. 8:8-13). In ancient times the poor could not afford to drink to excess. The cheapening of alcoholic drinks and the complicated fast pace of modern living have made drunkenness a greater social problem (S. Barabas, ZPBD, 229). See DISCIPLINE, INFLUENCE, WORKS OF THE FLESH, TEMPERANCE. For Further Reading: Arndt, Gingrich, 540; NIDNTT, 1:513 ff; Kittel, 4:545,936 ff; Nelson, Believe and Behave. Charles Wilson Smith DUALISM. Dualism is the theory which, in contrast to monism, argues that reality is composed of exactly two substances which are equally primordial, mutually opposed, and irreducibly different. These two substances are variously designated, e.g., as spirit and matter, mind and matter, mind and body, good and evil, God and Satan, etc. There have been many forms of dualism, such as Zoroastrianism and Manichaeism in Persia, Taoism in China, much of Greek thought, and the Gnosticism of the early Christian era. Probably the most influential form of dualism in modern Western thought is the Cartesian bifurcation of reality into mental substance and material substance, or mind and matter. For Descartes, mind is immaterial, conscious, and characterized by thinking. Matter is characterized by extension. Man's body is part of the world of matter and is subject to its laws. Mind, on the other hand, cannot be destroyed except by God, who is the only nondependent substance. Faith in the one God who is Creator and Lord rules out any absolute dualism in the OT. Nevertheless Israel's faith refused all easy attempts to reconcile the unfathomable contrast between sin and forgiveness, misery and salvation. This realism is continued in the NT where Christian existence is expressed dialectically; by Paul, as the antithesis between law and gospel, works and faith, flesh and spirit, the inner and the outer man; and by John, as the opposition between light and darkness, life and death, truth and the lie. But these practical biblical descriptions do not constitute an ultimate dualism, since God is Lord of all nature and all history. Dualistic systems often seem to give a plausible account of what is so obvious in the world around us, the presence of both good and evil, order and disorder. "Dualism requires one to shut one's eyes to neither side of the picture" (Mac-Gregor, Introduction to Religious Philosophy, 71). Thus its appeal is understandable. It describes very well the universe as we ordinarily experience it. But as an explanation of ultimate reality it falls short. It is in fact simply a refined form of polytheism. See REALISM, METAPHYSICS, MONISM, BODY, MIND, MAN, SOUL, DIVINE IMAGE. For Further Reading: MacGregor, Introduction to Religious Philosophy, 70-72; Shaffer, "Mind-Body Problem," The Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 5:336-46; Simons, "Dualism," Encyclopedia of Theology, 370-74. Rob L. Staples DUTY. In ethics or moral philosophy, duty is an obligation perceived to be inherent in the situation or relationship. In philosophy this perception may be deontic or axiological. The deontologist stresses the intuitive insight into the duty of the moment without regard to con- DYOTHELITISM 177
sequences or analysis in terms of objective values. The axiologist emphasizes the necessity of determining duty by a system of values, including the consideration of consequences. According to Immanuel Kant, the foremost exponent of deontological ethics, there is only one entity which can be called "good" without qualification (i.e., without reference to something else) and that is the "good will." The good will, for Kant, is the will which chooses in accordance with duty for duty's sake alone, i.e., with no thought whatever for the consequences of obeying one's duty—such as, for example, one's own self-interest, the rationally coordinated interests of the majority of people, or the sanctions of social or legal conventions. Duty, for Kant, finds expression in the categorical imperative, the three forms of which can be simplied as follows: (1) never make an exception of yourself (universability of moral principles); (2) always treat persons (including oneself) as ends and never as means only (or merely as a tool or an object of manipulation); (3) always organize society so as to promote the maximum of personal freedom within the boundaries of moral law and mutual respect (moral autonomy). The application of duty in this fashion in concrete situations of life has been criticized by some as unable to resolve conflicting duties—for example, one's duty to tell the truth (to a Nazi soldier) and one's duty to save a life (if you are hiding a wanted Jewish person in your home). Other criticisms question where the "goodness" to which Kant refers is the same as the 'Tightness" which the consequentialists hold that our action should bring about. The Bible recognizes the role of duty in the daily life of the child of God. In fact the Law in the OT imposed by its very presence the duty of every Jew to obey it (2 Chron. 8:14 ff; Ezra 3:4). It may be said that the ethic of the OT has a strong deontic emphasis, i.e., a bias toward the keeping of the law, sometimes without regard to the motive (1 Chron. 13:9). In the NT we find an important distinction made by Jesus between the ceremonial law and the moral law. It was necessary to make this distinction because the Pharisees had overlooked the weightier moral law in their selfish desire to manipulate the ceremonial law for their own interest. Jesus said that our duty to God and to our fellowman is completely embraced in sacrificial love Qohn 13:34; 15:12-17). The writers of the NT were convinced that if we love God supremely, we would have no undue concern about obeying God as we should (e.g., Rom. 13:10). Such a Christian view of duty will aid in providing the solution to conflict of either a purely philosophical approach or a legalistic approach. Such a view will go a long way to resolving the problems which arise when two duties seem to conflict (see above). The Christian who faces such a dilemma, after assuring himself that he truly desires God's will at this point in his life more than anything else, should seek direction prayerfully from God's Word and from more experienced Christians until he is illumined. Only under such guidance can one ascertain what one's loving duty is. The courage to do one's duty lovingly and sac-rificially irrespective of pleasure or pain is derived only from the grace of God. Moralists who rely only on the intellectual approach to their duty tend also to rely on their own strength to perform it. The result at worst may fall short of the mark; at best such "duty-bound" conduct is cold and formal. Only that motivation which is supplemented by divine grace (in Wesley's terms "perfect love") is sufficient to result in the actual performance of one's loving duty toward God, toward one's neighbor, and even toward oneself. Christian theology therefore is both deontic and axiological. Holiness of heart enables one to fulfill Kant's categorical imperative, for only a sanctified will is a will strong enough to implement itself to conduct as a "good will" should. Holiness of heart will also help the soul searching for his duty amid conflicting duties, to discover "his duty in that situation" through the help of the Holy Spirit, amidst prayerful study of the Scriptures and prayerful counsel. The respect which Kant teaches one should have for all persons is much easier to show when one is filled with divine love. Such motivation is not based upon rewards—such as to escape hell or gain heaven, or even to have done one's duty—but rather it is based upon our love of God which for Christ's sake has been shed abroad in our hearts. God, therefore, is our surpreme Reality and our final Authority. See obedience, values, ethics, christian ethics.
E EARNEST. This word occurs three times in the KJV. In 2 Cor. 1:22 we read that God has "given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts." In 5:5 we find a very similar statement: "God, who also hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit." In Eph. 1:14 we find that the promised Holy Spirit "is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession." The Greek word is arrabon. Arndt and Gingrich say that it was a technical legal term, meaning "first instalment, deposit, down payment, pledge" (p. 109). In Kittel, Johannes Behm writes: "The Spirit whom God has given them is for Christians the guarantee of their full future possession of salvation" (1:475). That is, the Holy Spirit is the down payment on our heavenly inheritance, the guarantee that we will receive the full inheritance in due time. As such, it is a foretaste of what heaven will be like. The conscious presence of the Holy Spirit in our hearts is "a little bit of heaven in which to go to heaven." Moulton and Milligan write: "The above vernacular usage (found in the papyri of that period) confirms the NT sense of an 'earnest,' or a part payment given in advance of what will be bestowed fully afterwards" (Vocabulary of the Greek Testament, p. 79). But they also note that in modern Greek, arrabbna is used for the engagement ring. When we say a full, final "yes" to the will of God, to belong to Him forever, He fills us with His Holy Spirit, sealing our betrothal to Christ. The NIV brings out the force of arrabon by translating it in 2 Corinthians as "a deposit, guar- anteeing what is to come." In Eph. 1:14 it is "a deposit guaranteeing." Ralph Earle EASTER. See holy week. EASTERN ORTHODOXY. This refers to that large branch of Christendom which, long before the Reformation, gradually separated itself from the Christianity that obtained in the Western European countries. It has had Constantinople (the modern Istanbul) as its main see, whereas the West has maintained its main center of control in Rome—and has thereby come to be called Roman Catholicism. Several factors figured in the break-off of the East from the West. One matter was a difference of view about when Easter should be celebrated. A much more important matter was the East's contention that the Holy Spirit has proceeded eternally only from God the Father; whereas, in the West (Roman Catholic; and later, Protestantism in general) it has been understood that He has proceeded eternally from both the Father and the Son. In the East, they feel that it suggests a higher status for the Holy Spirit if He has proceeded only from the Father, and not from the Son as well. Differences from Roman Catholicism today include the fact that, in Eastern Orthodoxy, infants are given Communion, and most priests may marry. Although Eastern Orthodox theologians teach that theirs is the only true church, unlike Roman Catholicism, many of their national branches (at least 16) are officially members of the World Council of Churches. For many centuries, Eastern Orthodoxy received little attention from the Catholic and Protestant West. But in our century, the West has become much more conscious of Eastern Orthodoxy and much more appreciative of the richness of its traditions. See catholicism, catholicism (roman).
ECONOMIC TRINITY 179
Ecology encompasses and ties together virtually everything: in biology it emphasizes the harmonious interaction of organisms and their environment; in sociology it relates human societies to natural resources; in ethics it assesses our moral responsibility for the world around us; in theology it suggests stewardship of God's creation. Our "environmental crisis" reveals our lack of ecological wisdom. We human beings have failed to appreciate the intricate balance of nature. Consequently we have abused and destroyed enormous parts of a finely tuned planet Earth. Though noted ecologists warn we are destroying the very foundation of life itself, few folks seriously heed them. In order to raise our standard of living, to boost the nation's GNP, to stockpile genocidal weapons, human beings have willfully assaulted earth, air, and water. Taking a long look into the future, probably few issues should concern us more than ecology. Overpopulation and overconsumption of energy and resources threaten to literally destroy the earth. Unless radical changes take place, people will face truly unsolvable problems within a century. By the year 2000, some scholars argue, crises will rage around the world as ecosystems collapse. Given this situation, Christians must hear the Word of the Lord. For "all things were made by" the Word (John 1:3), and "in him all things hold together" (Col. 1:17, rsv). The very word of God indwells and enstructures every creature, so David declared: "the earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof" (Ps. 24:1). Whatever God made should be used but not abused, for all God made is good in His sight (cf. Genesis 1). Whenever the land and its creatures are selfishly exploited for pleasure-seeking or empire-building ends, God's will is thwarted. In a thoroughly biblical sense, environmental abuse is sinful. We call those who destroy a building vandals and hold them guilty of wronging the building's owner. How much worse are those who willfully plunder the planet and ravage the forests and foul the air God made? Our approach to the environment reveals much of our attitude toward God. Whereas idolaters seek to impose their will on creation, servants of God seek to live humbly with the world given them. God's people are called to be stewards of God's gifts, including the world of nature. Christians who sense their bodies are a temple of the Holy Spirit need to further sense how God cares for all He created. As His people, our task in the world is to faithfully reverence and preserve all God is and does and makes. See STEWARDSHIP, CREATION.
In Pauline theology may be recognized the primary lines of the economic Trinity. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are distinguished by their differing functions or operations in salvation, i.e., the Father elects, the Son redeems, the Spirit seals (Eph. 1:3-14). This economic or operational doctrine of the Trinity was the primary concern of the Puritan John Owen and prominent in John Wesley's theology. Care must be exercised to avoid any suggestion that God, in reaching out to humanity in Christ and in the Holy Spirit, communicates the mere notion or appearance of Trinity. This would approximate the error of the modalists, who suggested that God puts on a different mask to appear as Son or as Spirit. The mission of the Son or the Spirit to the world must not be confused with the Gnostic conception of emanations from God that are only pale reflections of Deity. God communicates himself as Trinity because He is Trinity. The economic Trinity is the essential Trinity communicated to humanity, or else it is not Trinity at all. H. E. W. Turner treats the concept of economic Trinity as heretical (DCT, 104). By his definition, it means that in the self-communication of God through the Son and Spirit, the latter do not sustain full coinherence to the Godhead. If the conception of God's triunity is forgotten (as in a unitarianism of the "Second Person") in the zeal to magnify His operation in creation and redemption, then the danger of monism is great.
180 ECUMENICAL, ECUMENISM—EDIFICATION When it is recognized that God communicates himself in Son and Spirit (see John 15:26 on the Son's procession, or mission, other words for communication), and that this in no sense is a changing of His essential triunity, then Turner's concerns seem obviated. Karl Rahner interprets and updates the economic concept by speaking of "three distinct ways of being there (in the economy of salvation)" and restates the essential concept as "three different ways of subsistence (immanently [by which Catholic theologians mean 'essential']), for the one God" (Sacramentum Mundi, 6:302). The Trinity is the fundamental mystery of Christian faith. Without God's self-communication (revelation) it could never be remotely conceived. Yet this revelation must be accommodated to human limitations. "God's absolute self-communication to the world, as a mystery that has approached us, is in its ultimate originality called Father; as itself a principle acting in history, Son; as a gift bestowed on us and accepted, Holy Ghost" (Rahner). This revelation is God's self-communication, not something of creation. Wiley distinguishes the essential relations of God (within the Trinity) which are eternal, from the economic relations which are "to some temporal and external effect," i.e., creation, salvation (CT 2:421 ff). He points out the value of the term economical Trinity, when one keeps both essential and economic in careful balance. See trinity, god, christology essential trinity. For Further Reading: Thielicke, The Evangelical Faith, 2:176 ff; Wiley, CT 1:422 ff. LEON O. HYNSON
These terms come from the Greek word oikou-mene, which originally meant "the whole inhabited world." The term ecumenical was adopted by the ancient church to designate general councils which formulated general or ecumenical creeds. The Roman Catholic church acknowledges 20 church councils as ecumenical, but the non-Roman communions acknowledge as ecumenical only those 7 general councils ending with the Second Council of Nicaea in a.d. 787. Though this use of these terms goes back to the early centuries of the history of the church, the movement which seeks to foster church unity and which is called the ecumenical movement is quite recent. Some events which helped to bring this movement into being are the Interdenominational Missionary Conference in New York City in 1900, which took the name Ecumenical Missionary Conference; the World Missionary Conference in Edinburgh in 1910; and the founding of the World Council of Churches in 1948, which has devoted a major part of its interests to the ecumenical movement. C. Stanley Lowell (The Ecumenical Mirage, 11-12) points out that there are two facets of ecumenism: "One refers to cooperation or to a feeling of cooperativeness among the churches. The other aspect of ecumenism is a drive for Christian unity which envisages bringing all churches . . . under one ecclesiastical tent." The first of these aspects is the goal of a sizable part of the Christian world, but a much smaller number is willing to go on to the second. See church, denomination.
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