Theology beacon dictionary of theology
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- ORTHODOXY, DOGMA (DOGMATICS), CREED (CREEDS). GNOSTICISM. For Further Reading: HDNT, 246; Kittel, 1:180-85;
- For Further Reading: Farrar, History of Interpretation; Gilbert, Interpretation of the Bible; Grant, The Bible in the Church;
- Biblical Authority and Christian Faith. W. T. PURKISER HETERODOXY. See
- Ethics: Alternatives and issues.
- HIGH PRIEST.
- For Further Reading: IDB, 3:876-91; NBD, 1028-34; de Vaux, Ancient Israel, 2:397-403.
- CHRIST, ESTATES OF CHRIST, CHRISTOLOGY. For Further Reading: Davidson, The Epistle to the Hebrews
- HIGHER CRITICISM. See
- HOLINESS MOVEMENT, KESWICK (KES-WICKIANISM), WESLEYANISM. For Further Reading: Marsden, Fundamentalism and American Culture; Warfield
- HINDUISM. See
- For Further Reading: Marshall, I Believe in the Historical Jesus; Cairns, "History," ZPEB, 3:162ff; Simon Kistemaker
For Further Reading: Sacramentum Mundi, 3:10-16; N1DCC, 430-31. R. DUANE THOMPSON HERESY. Heresy has come to mean deviation from belief and worship commonly accepted by the Christian Church. The Greek word for heresy, hairesis, is used more broadly. It means a chosen course of thought or action, and refers to sects within Judaism (Acts 5:17; 24:5; 26:5) and factions within the Church (Gal. 5:20; 1 Cor. 11:19). The strong rebuke of these factions implies a unity of faith and practice which ought to be safeguarded and preserved among Christians. Concern for unity led to the traditional understanding of heresy as serious and rebellious departure from established doctrine. It begins to emerge in the NT, especially in the Pastoral Epistles, with their injunctions to teach sound doctrine and oppose false teaching (1 Tim. 1:3-11; 4:1-16; 2 Tim. 1:13-14; 4:1-5; Titus 1:9—2:1), and in 2 Peter 2, where "false teachers" and "destructive heresies" (rsv) are vehemently exposed. Heresy implies orthodoxy, an objective standard of doctrine and life against which aberrant opinions may be measured. Heresy required the formulation of approved creeds, summaries of the Church's understanding of its faith. As early as the NT period "the faith" and "the truth" as a body of normative teaching appears (1 Tim. 1:15; 2:4-6; 2 Tim. 1:14; Titus 3:4-8). Creedal fragments preserved in Scripture, however, were insufficient, and the great creeds of the fourth and fifth centuries became standards of orthodoxy. These identified and suppressed the most virulent heresies, those which falsified the trinity of the Godhead and the full humanity and/or deity of Jesus Christ. When church and state are united, heresy is often legally punished. This occasioned sad chapters of brutal persecution in church history. Torture and execution of heretics created sympathy for heretical opinion. Arrogant orthodoxy proved its own worst enemy. Heresy is too serious to be carelessly charged against anyone. It must refer to centuries-abiding essentials of Christian belief and practice, not to denominational variants of this continuing core of apostolic traditions. See ORTHODOXY, DOGMA (DOGMATICS), CREED (CREEDS). GNOSTICISM.
The term is derived from a NT word, herme-neud ("explain, interpret, or translate"); from which comes hermeneia ("interpretation, explanation"). Devout biblical interpretation seeks to discover meanings, not to decide them. To suggest meanings foreign to the original intent is eisegesis ("reading into") rather than exegesis ("reading out of"). Principles of hermeneutics may be suggested as follows:
Examples of such Hebraisms are the use of "hate" for a lesser degree of love (Luke 14:26) and the statement of comparisons in absolute terms (John 6:27, which does not forbid working for a living; and 1 Tim. 5:23, which does not forbid drinking water). Colloquialisms are used and must be understood as such. "Three days and three nights" (Matt. 12:40) does not mean 72 hours but "a very short time," as is seen in the fact that all four Gospels declare the crucifixion and burial of Jesus to have occurred on "the preparation" (the normal Greek term for Friday) and the Resurrection on the morning of the first day of the week (Sunday, Mark 16:9); and the NT declares 16 times that the Resurrection took place on "the third day." Hebrew writers frequently employ what is called "the prophetic present" or "prophetic perfect," in which future events that are seen as certain are spoken of as already occurring (Isa. 9:6, the birth of Messiah, 700 years in the future, spoken of as accomplished; Rom. 8:30, future glorification described in the present tense). 4. Special attention must be given to the key HETERODOXY—HIERARCHICALISM 255
words in any passage under consideration. Individual words are the ultimate units of meaning. Meanings of words are determined in two ways: by lexicon or dictionary definition; and even more significantly, by their usage in any piece of writing. Hence the observation of A. B. Davidson that the concordance is often more important than the lexicon in determining the meanings of words.
Historical context is what the words would have meant to the persons by whom they were originally written, as far as it is possible for us to find out. The literal meaning (as versus any allegorizing) is what the sentences signify in a normal, customary sense in their historical context.
There is unity in Scripture, but the core of that unity is Christ. The whole of Scripture interprets the parts of Scripture, and no part may be interpreted in such fashion as to distort the whole. The circularity implied here is overcome by application to the generalizations of a sound biblical theology, which is the theological exegesis of the Bible. See bible, exegesis, biblical theology, biblical realism, criticism (ot, nt), textual criticism, progressive revelation, biblical authority. For Further Reading: Farrar, History of Interpretation; Gilbert, Interpretation of the Bible; Grant, The Bible in the Church; Kuitert, Do You Understand What You Read? Ramm, et al., "Hermeneutics," Baker's Dictionary of Prac- tical Theology, 99-147; Taylor, Biblical Authority and Christian Faith. W. T. PURKISER HETERODOXY. See orthodoxy. HIERARCHICALISM. Hierarchicalism is one way the problem of authority is resolved, especially as authority is defined for either a religious cul-tus or an ethical system. For a religious cultus, the problem of authority is often resolved by structuring a vertical ranking or grading of its communicants according to the nature or amount of responsibility the cultus assigns to each. In an ethical system, rules are sometimes arranged in a pyramid so that when two or more rules of that system conflict in a certain moral dilemma, the one designated by that system as having greater value operates over the rule having lesser value. There are two fundamental constraints found in most hierarchical structures of authority. First, the ranking or grading of rules or of communicants in a very real sense depends upon the historical situation in which the religion or ethical system operates. While there remains an absolute ordering of rules or communicants which operates in any situation, there is a certain dialectic or dynamic in how that ordering actually works itself out in reality. For instance, a conflict of wills between a person and his boss might be resolved by obeying the will of the boss as one having the greater authority in this case. However, let's say a conflict breaks out between the will of the boss and some higher authority (e.g., God); in this case, it is the will of the boss which is disregarded. This same principle applies to the cultus as well. Certainly in the Pauline material, the hierarchy of the Church is ordered by "gift" or by "call," and both of these categories arise out of and are related to churches with specific (i.e., historical) needs for those "gifts" or "callings." Second, the ranking of members ought never be enforced in a degrading manner. Members of an ethical system (rules) or a religious body (communicants) are ranked according to function and not inherent worth. In a hierarchical system of ethics, for instance, the question is never whether the lesser rules have lesser morality or lead to a lesser moral existence; indeed, every rule has moral content (deontology) or can lead when obeyed to a moral existence (teleology). In a religious organization, every communicant, whether priest or parishioner, has equal worth before God and should also before humankind. A Christian hierarchicalism maintains that it is Scripture's stress that the people of God are likened as a Church to the very structure of the Triune Deity: like the Godhead, the people of God are one in substance, and like the Godhead, the people of God are different in function. See christian ethics, authority, chain of command, church government. duty. theistic proofs. For Further Reading: Geisler, Ethics: Alternatives and
256 HIGH PRIEST—HIGH PRIESTHOOD OF CHRIST HIGH PRIEST. Once the priesthood is established in Israel, one from among them is to be "chief among his brethren" (Lev. 21:10, RSV), serving as the high priest. Aaron, brother of Moses, is set aside for this office (Exodus 28—29), to be succeeded by his son Eleazar and his descendants. (For a time some of the later high priests are descended from Ithamar, another of Aaron's sons, but the office is returned to the line of Eleazar in Zadok during Solomon's reign.) During Israel's national existence (until 587 b.c.) the high priest is an important spiritual figure. Following the Babylonian exile, secular responsibilities are added to the office of high priest. We see the high priest Joshua placed on the same level with the Davidic governor Ze-rubbabel, but with the disappearance of Davidic rulers the high priest becomes head of the Jewish state. Under the Hasmoneans (c. 164 b.c.) eight high priests took the title of king. Following Roman conquest (64 b.c.) and Herodian rule, the office became a tool of the administrators. The religious importance of the high priest is reflected in the biblical instructions given for his consecration which lasted for seven days. This consecration included (1) purification, with washing and special sacrifices; (2) special clothing signifying his office, and (3) anointing with oil. The high priest was to be scrupulous in observing ceremonial purity; any sin he committed was especially grave and required a special sin offering (Lev. 4:3-12). The authority of the high priest was supreme in spiritual matters. His functions included offering sacrifices, intercession, and giving the Torah, all on the common basis that he was an intermediary between God and man. His most important function occurred on the Day of Atonement when he alone entered into the holy of holies to make atonement (Leviticus 16). Significantly, he must atone for his own sin before acting on behalf of Israel (Heb. 5:3). In the NT Christ is the perfect High Priest of the new covenant, fulfilling everything represented in the high priest of Judaism. The Epistle to the Hebrews presents Christ in this fashion, one with the Father through eternal Sonship (chap. 1), yet by His incarnation perfectly identified with man (2:14-18; 4:15; 5:1-10). Thus He is the perfect Mediator who once and for all offers himself as atonement for sin (9:11-28; 10:11-18) and opens a new and living way into the very presence of God (10:19-25). Christ is also unique as High Priest. His death was not that of a mere mortal, but that of a priest offering himself as a sacrifice for man's sin. Being sinless, He did not need to offer sacrifice for himself, and it is His own blood which He offers in God's presence, not that of animals. Moreover, the order of His priesthood is not after Aaron, but Melchizedek, who was without predecessor or successor. Finally, Christ continues forever an effective ministry of intercession from His seat at the right hand of the Father. See mosaic law, pentateuch, priest (priesthood), christ, melchizedek, mediation (mediator), priesthood of believers, day of atonement.
In His incarnation, Christ united divinity with humanity in order to become the instrument of God's saving efficacy to lost men, and to become man's High-Priestly Representative before the Father. Christ's High Priesthood involved intercession for himself (John 17:1-5), for His disciples (w. 6-19, 22-26), and for the unconverted (vv. 20-21). He exercised His High-Priestly ministry by offering himself to God on the altar of His cross where He "made purification of sins" (Heb. 1:3, nasb). Having accomplished this redemptive act, Christ "sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on High" (ibid.), having removed the veil between the holy place and the holy of holies, thus providing permanent access to the immediate presence of God, both for himself and all who accept His Saviorhood (Matt. 27:51; Heb. 6:20; 9:3; 10:19-20). Since Christ suffered all our human weaknesses and temptations in His humanity, He sympathizes with our cause as He represents us before the Father (Heb. 4:15). The expression "sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high" denotes Christ's redemptive accomplishment which looks back to His final word on the Cross, "It is finished" (John 19:30). Wesley says, "The priests stood while they ministered: sitting there-
HIGHER CRITICISM—HISTORICAL JESUS, THE 257
fore, denotes the consummation of His sacrifice" (Notes, 811). The virtue of Christ's High-Priestly atonement is both retroactive and prospective for man's salvation. "His high priesthood is perfect and permanent, as compared with the temporary and imperfect Aaronic system, and is typified by Melchizedek (Heb. 5:6, 10; 6:13—7:17)" (S. E. Johnson, IDB, A-D, 568). See CHRIST, ESTATES OF CHRIST, CHRISTOLOGY.
William E. Boardman, author of The Higher Christian Life (1858), one of the first leaders in this movement, was directly influenced by the American Wesleyan holiness teaching on entire sanctification; however, Boardman, like others who followed him, consciously sought to make his newfound experience more theologically winsome to his non-Methodist public by using new terminology for it. This "higher life" teaching spread the Wesleyan teaching of two stages in the believer's restoration to fullest relationship with God to every major Protestant tradition. Robert Pearsall Smith and Hannah Whitall Smith, along with William E. Boardman, Asa Mahan, and sympathetic English Methodists, introduced the message to a broad spectrum of English and Continental evangelicals after 1873. The famous Keswick Convention was born out of this coalition, creating a bridge for the message to pervade Anglican evangelicalism. The Keswick holiness tradition continues to be influential in the evangelical tradition around the world. This "fullness of the Spirit" as a distinct experience essential to effective Christian living was preached to the larger evangelical public by such influential leaders as Dwight Moody, Reuben Torrey, Arthur Pierson, and others. Such leaders, along with espousal by such influential fundamentalist voices as the Sunday School Times and the publications of Moody Bible Institute, assured that all American evangelicalism—Calvinistic and Wesleyan—was infused with a "second blessing" emphasis on holiness. See HOLINESS MOVEMENT, KESWICK (KES-WICKIANISM), WESLEYANISM.
The term, however, came into common use in a context of doubt. With the shift from Reformation faith to Renaissance rationalism and naturalism in much of historical criticism, human reason discounted the divine and supernatural as myth. Negative criticism has concluded (with Bultmann and others) that the real Jesus has been obscured by Christian faith. Since the only significant documents were written by people of faith, they were suspected of enthusiastic imagination. Though Bultmann considered the search for the historical Jesus hopeless, he tried by form criticism (formgeschichte) to peel away layers of tradition from the Gospels to come nearer to the real Jesus. Disappointed by his negative results, some of his disciples have made "new quests." The assumption that the supernatural is mythical has, for many, robbed the reported data of historical actuality. Interacting with this approach was the tendency to date the Gospels too late for any witnesses that had been acquainted with Jesus in the flesh. On this theory, the Gospels came not from Jesus through the apostles but from the creative faith and preaching of the Early Church. Though the supposed time gap between Gospel events and Gospel records has shrunk and the credibility of the evangelists has risen, negative criticism is still extant. History is defined as "events in time and space with social significance" (E. E. Cairns, "History," ZPEB, 3:162). The Christ event, then, is of supreme significance. As "absolute history," it did indeed occur only once and so cannot be studied statistically by scientific analysis (ibid.). Again, the four Gospels were never intended as full biographies or complete histories. But they do contain the essential facts in a clear and reliable manner for the countless useful volumes on the 258 HISTORICAL THEOLOGY—HOLINESS life and ministry of Jesus. And the whole NT interprets His significance in history. This is in perfect accord with the early use of the German word for history (geschichte). See demythologization, bible, biblical inerrancy criticism . (nt), form criticism. For Further Reading: Marshall, I Believe in the Historical Jesus; Cairns, "History," ZPEB, 3:162ff; Simon Kistemaker, The Gospels in Current Study, 63-77. Wilber T. Dayton HISTORICAL THEOLOGY. This is a study of Christian theology as it has been taught in all the centuries of our era. Taking the writings of individual theologians, and considering the creeds and confessions of the church, along with the movements that have arisen, and whatever else might relate importantly to Christian beliefs, historical theology studies them all for the light they throw upon what our teachings and our emphases and our gravitating interests ought to be in the time when it is ours to serve Christ. Such a study will help us to avoid repeating the doctrinal errors that have arisen at earlier times. It will help us, also, to conserve the important doctrinal emphases of our own kind of Christian tradition. Study of the errors and the near errors, also, helps us to refine aspects of Christian doctrine in ways that are more biblical and more practically useful than otherwise our theology would be. It helps us, further, to know what is the historical background of various groupings of Christians that we might associate with in local communities. See biblical theology systematic theology. J. Kenneth Grider HISTORICISM. Historicism is the view that all of reality can be explained by reference to historical development. In this broad sense it is compatible with views which see history as under a controlling Providence, or as manifesting certain identifiable laws in some meaningful pattern. However, the concept generally assumes a radical relativism with respect to history. In this view history is the manifestation of the unique, the individual, the ever-changing, without reference to any pattern, underlying structure, or meaning. The concept of eternal truth is obviously negated by such an outlook. Values, truth, and falsity are seen as altogether relative to the particular historical moment in which they are formulated. Arising out of the Enlightenment and attaining forceful expression in the 19th century, this form of historicism underlaid the work of a generation of historians who sought to gather only the concrete historical "facts" with no attempt at historical theory or evaluation. Historicism in the broad sense therefore may be biblical and Christian, since the biblical revelation is uniquely an historical revelation, including the very incarnation of God in concrete time and existence. The narrower, thoroughly relativ-istic expression of historicism is, however, incompatible with biblical affirmations of God's sovereignty over, and redemptive purposes in, history. See providence, prophet (prophecy), time,
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