Theology beacon dictionary of theology
For Further Reading: Richardson, ed
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- MOSAIC LAW, NEW COVENANT, LAW, LAW AND GRACE. For Further Reading: Albright, From the Stone Age to Christianity, 179-96, 236-44; Bright
- MARIOLATRY. J. KENNETH GRIDER MOTIF RESEARCH.
- AGAPE, LAW, BIBLICAL THEOLOGY, HERMENEUTICS. For Further Reading: Nygren, Agape and Ems; Quan- beck, "Anders Nygren,"
- INTENTION, HEART PURITY. For Further Reading: Bakers DCE, 427 ff, 437 ff, 622.
- HATE (HATRED), CAPITAL PUNISHMENT, ABORTION. EUTHANASIA, LIFE.
- CHRIST, SALVATION, CHURCH.
- ATONEMENT, MORAL INFLUENCE THEORY OF THE ATONEMENT. GOVERNMENTAL THEORY OF THE ATONEMENT, PENAL SATISFACTION THEORY OF THE ATONEMENT, RANSOM, REDEEMER (REDEMPTION).
- EXPERIENCE, IN CHRIST, UNITY, COMFORTER, FORMALISM, QUIETISM.
- BIBLE, DEMYTHOLOGIZATION, BIBLICAL AUTHORITY, CRITICISM (OT, NT), INSPIRATION OF THE BIBLE, TYPE (TYPOLOGY), LIBERALISM, HERMENEUTICS.
- Christianity Today, 19 (March 28,1975): 14-16; Saliba, "Myth and Religious Man in Contemporary Anthropology," Missiology
For Further Reading: Richardson, ed., A Theological Word Book of the Bible, 122-24; JDB, 3:77-89; New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge, 6:425-27. Alvin S. Lawhead MOSES. Moses was the great leader and lawgiver of ancient Israel. Of Israelite birth, he was at the same time an Egyptian. He resided in the court of Pharaoh from his very early days until his adult years (Exod. 2:1-10; Heb. 11:23-24). He also experienced the austere, frugal life of the desert as a member of the household of Jethro in the land of Midian (Exod. 3:1). Thus his roots reached deeply into the ancient cultural soil. He was a man of his time. The faith of ancient Israel in its beliefs, worship, and ethics, much of which is both basic and antecedent to the Christian faith, was fashioned by Moses out of the revelation God gave to him at Sinai. As for beliefs, the Israelites were to believe in and be committed to the only God, Yahweh. There was to be no place for gods of other peoples, nor any image or likeness of Yahweh among them for any purpose whatsoever. This was in striking contrast to what prevailed in the ancient setting, and it had ramifying effect on all Israel's religious beliefs. As regards worship, Moses, under divine leadership, consecrated Aaron as high priest and established the sacrificial system as the means for atonement of the sins of the people (see Exodus 24—31). Concerning ethics, he made the Ten Commandments (Exod. 20:1-17) and specific case laws the code for the conduct of Israel. He thereby categorically indicated that many aspects of behavior acceptable to other religions were prohibited among God's people. This ethic, long the foundation for society in the Western world, is tragically crumbling under the impact of an encroaching pagan, non-Mosaic ethic. The prophets, in their many references to Moses or Moses' law, show they were revivalists or reformers and not innovators, with respect to religious and ethical understanding. They called repeatedly for repentance and return to Mosaic faith on all major counts: belief in God, sacrifices, conduct. The many references of the NT to Moses' deeds and words indicate there was concern with him not only as lawgiver and prophet, but with his life as an example for life under the new covenant. Especially is this so in the Epistle to the Hebrews. See MOSAIC LAW, NEW COVENANT, LAW, LAW AND GRACE. For Further Reading: Albright, From the Stone Age to Christianity, 179-96, 236-44; Bright, History of Israel, 122-26; ZPEB, M-P: 279-94. HARVEY E. FlNLEY MOTHER OF GOD. This is a phrase which Roman Catholics apply to Mary, the mother of Jesus, In the very early centuries, some theologians began to speak of her as Mary, bearer of God, because of her giving birth to Jesus, who was fully God as well as fully man. Then advancement was made from "Bearer of God" to "Mother of God." It is this "high" view of Mary which, later, figured in various advances in Catholic Mariology. It figured in such Roman Catholic doctrines as her being called Redemptrix and Co-Redeemer, perpetually a virgin, conceived without original sin in her mother's womb, assumed into heaven without physical death, and, in general, so significant in the total faith and life of the Roman Catholic church. Most Protestants are pleased to honor Mary because of her office in giving birth to the God-man Jesus, but object to the designation as Mother of God. Not only does the term unjustifiably elevate Mary, but it implies that she was the mother to God the Father—since that is the member of the Trinity usually called God in the NT. See MARIOLATRY. J. KENNETH GRIDER
other systems of belief, as practiced in the history of religions school in vogue when Nygren first developed his methodology, m.r. seeks to establish the motif and its meaning from a careful reading of the data in the "natural context" within which it occurs. Applied to Christianity, Nygren identifies and defines agape as the sine qua non. Nygren begins his m.r. from the assumption that all religions are valid and distinct forms of experience which seek to answer the question, "How does man relate to the Eternal?" but that Christianity alone answers the question in a theocentric fashion. Even Judaism is essentially egocentric, with its foundational motif being nomos (law) or man's achievement. Two major strengths can be seen in Nygren's m.r.: it seeks to identify unifying themes in a religious system, and it takes seriously the meaning in the natural context for precise definition of the motif. Two weaknesses may also be identified. First, because it seeks to identify the one basic motif in a rather complex religious system, on the one hand it risks reducing these complexities into a lowest common denominator so basic that its value and distinctiveness is lost; and, on the other hand, it risks forcing divergent concepts into one mould or even totally disregarding incompatible ideas. It may be questioned whether one can reduce Christianity to the one motif of love, however basic it may be, without doing an injustice to several other cardinal motifs. Similarly, the reduction of Judaism to the one motif of law, however carefully defined, leads to serious distortion of the spirit of Judaism. Second, from a specifically Christian perspective, any attempt to subserve all the distinctive emphases of the biblical writers under one rubric can only lead to distortion. The recognition of the rich diversity of emphases in the Scriptures within unity is essential if one is to properly understand the dynamic character of God's revelation to man. See AGAPE, LAW, BIBLICAL THEOLOGY, HERMENEUTICS. For Further Reading: Nygren, Agape and Ems; Quan- beck, "Anders Nygren," A Handbook of Christian Theolo- gians; Hall, Anders Nygren. KENT BROWER MOTIVES. Motives refer to the internal factors which produce human behavior. They speak to the question of why a person behaves as he or she does. Motives are anything which consciously or unconsciously moves a person to action, anything that impels or induces him or her to act in a certain way. They are internal to the human being. Motives and intentions are sometimes used as if they were synonyms. Intentions, however, are prompted by motives. A minister intends to be a good pastor. The question is, why does he want to be a good pastor? That is the question of motivation. His motives may include a desire to be liked, a desire for professional success, or a desire for ecclesiastical recognition. Are these wrong motives for intending to be a good pastor? Not necessarily, if they are secondary to one's primary motive to glorify God. The highest-placed motive is showing gratitude for the grace of God who, through the atoning work of Christ, has redeemed, cleansed, and called. This implies that motives may be mixed, yet "pure." They are pure if kept subordinate to the will of God, and if they are free from malice, slander, bitterness, or any other motive contrary to love for God and His people (Eph. 4:31—5:2). Motives may be better than performance or worse. A good deed may be done with a wrong motive; also, a serious blunder may be well motivated. The moral quality of the spirit of the doer is determined by the inner motive. Only God sees this without error. He will not record good deeds if done with poor motives, and He will not blame poor performance if the motive is love. See INTENTION, HEART PURITY.
In Adam Clarke's view, the sixth commandment, "You shall not murder" (Exod. 20:13, niv) clearly applies to a multiplicity of acts, including, he says: (1) whatever "abridges" the life of a person; (2) killing in unjust wars, such as those waged for land or wealth; (3) forming and enforcing laws which impose capital punishment for less than capital crimes; (4) "all bad dispositions" whereby one inwardly hates his neighbor; (5) failing to help the needy, for letting people die is the same as killing them; (6) all forms of intemperance which damage our own bodies and shorten our own lives (Commentary, 1:405 ff). Thus, while we frequently label only "first degree murder" as murder, restricting our definition to legal terms, the Scripture will not allow us to evade murder's full significance. For, as Lord Ac-
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ton said: "Murder may be done by legal means, by plausible and profitable war, by calumny, as well as by dose or dagger." To refrain from murder involves our heart's attitude and our social conscience as well as our personal behavior. In all aspects of our life we must choose life rather than death. Sinful people, from Cain onwards, have tried to gain their ends through violence. Some have, with premeditation, slain individuals, as did the two killers in Truman Capote's dramatic case study, In Cold Blood. Others, like David eliminating Uriah, have used their authority to dispose of others by ordering them killed. On a larger scale, Joseph Stalin and Adolph Hitler have systematically slaughtered millions. Despite its civilized facade, the 20th-century Western world has writhed with murderous activity. Violence on the streets and in the homes takes thousands of persons' lives each year. Unjust wars have liquidated millions. Over a million aborted, unborn children die each year in America. Vast numbers of hungry people starve to death each year—people who could have been spared were the world's wealth shared fairly. From the perspective of the sixth commandment, the world abounds with murders and murderers. A few pay for their crimes. Most kill indirectly and are not tried for their victims' deaths. But from God's standpoint he who sheds innocent blood, whether directly or indirectly, stands guilty of murder. See HATE (HATRED), CAPITAL PUNISHMENT, ABORTION. EUTHANASIA, LIFE. For Further Reading: DeWolf, Crime and Justice in America; Shakespeare, Macbeth; Wolfgang, Patterns in Criminal Homicide. GERARD REED MYSTERY, MYSTERIES. It has long been thought that the NT use of the word family musterion draws its technical signification from the pagan mystery cults. While it is certainly true that some NT writers, Paul in particular, used terms familiar to the mystery religions of the day, such use really found no parallel with the sacramental use of the word family identified with those religions (Bornkamm, Kittel, 4:802-28). In recent years, several scholars have suggested that later Judaism provides us with the best context and background for a proper understanding of how the NT writers used the musterion family. In later Judaism, "mystery" was a description of both Yahweh's will and the revelation of it within Israel (M. Barth, Ephesians, 1:19-21). According to the Qumran materials, the term "mysteries of Yahweh" shaped Yahweh's plans at three primary levels: (1) the order of the cosmos; (2) the history of His salvation; and (3) the history of His judgment on Belial's kingdom (i.e., of evil). The latter two especially—God's salvation and His judgment—were the very ground of Qumran's eschatology, for it was at the Day of the Lord when His redemptive will was to be made fully known. The "mysteries of Yahweh" were disclosed to the prophets (or teachers) who then transmitted them to the faithful community. Indeed, mystery was understood only by the faithful; faith was revealed by comprehension. Thus, it was the privilege of the truly faithful community to know and to understand the "mysteries of Yahweh," which were hidden from all the others and which prepared them for the coming Day of the Lord. Their gnosis insured their salvation. All of this has import for the student of the NT who locates these same emphases especially in the writings of Paul (cf. Ephesians and Colossians). However, we must hasten to suggest that Paul radicalizes the plural, "mysteries of Yahweh," into the singular, "mystery of Christ." For Paul, God's will and word were incarnated and revealed in the dying and rising of His Son, Jesus Christ. One mystery—the mystery of the Incarnation—was substituted for all the rest. Salvation and judgment, indeed the plan for the cosmos (Col. 1:15-17), were all revealed and represented in Christological terms by Christ's apostles to Christ's Body, the Church (Eph. 3:1-13). Further, the mystery of God disclosed in the last days to that community which exists in Christ becomes for that community its new moral imperative. The mystery of Christ obligates the community in Christ to live a life which imitates Him (Eph. 4:1; 5:1-2). By so living, the community not only affirms the gift of life they have received by grace through faith, but they prepare for their day of redemption as well (Eph. 4:30). See CHRIST, SALVATION, CHURCH. For Further Reading: Kittel, 4:802-28; BBC, 9:154; Ladd, A Theology of the New Testament, 383 ff. Robert W. Wall MYSTICAL THEORY OF THE ATONEMENT. This term designates what is really a group of related theories within the general category of moral influence theories of the Atonement, i.e., the effect it has upon man, rather than upon God ("satisfaction theories") or Satan ("dramatic" or "classic" view). These theories suggest that the work of Christ so affects man as to draw him into participation with the life of Christ, a life char 354 MYSTICISM—MYTH acterized by love, obedience, and service to God and one's fellowmen. There is therefore a "mystical" identity between Christ and man: Christ identifies with man in His humanness and bro-kenness in the Incarnation, partaking of man's suffering, but in so doing sets a perfect example of sacrifice of self to God. Even more than this, Christ is seen as a kind of archetype of humanity, so that His perfect sacrifice is in some sense actually the sacrifice of all humankind. Such complete and perfect sacrifice establishes humanity on a "new plane" which individuals may share through repentance and faith, and living a Christlike life. A basic assumption of the mystical theories— as of all moral influence theories—is that the only real impediment to forgiveness of sins is the sinner's own hardness of heart. Christ in himself overcomes this hardness of heart and in so doing moves the individual sinner to renounce his obstinacy and self-will and be reconciled to God. The stress here is on Christ's influence by example. Ideas of propitiation, satisfaction, and ransom are foreign. Mystical theories of the Atonement may be traced all the way back to certain of the Early Church fathers and have been articulated in some form by such subsequent spokesmen as Abelard, Schleiermacher, F. D. Maurice, and notably in America by Horace Bushnell, the "Father of Modern American Liberalism." See ATONEMENT, MORAL INFLUENCE THEORY OF THE ATONEMENT. GOVERNMENTAL THEORY OF THE ATONEMENT, PENAL SATISFACTION THEORY OF THE ATONEMENT, RANSOM, REDEEMER (REDEMPTION). For Further Reading: Aulen, Christus Victor, 133-42;
The popular conception of mysticism has been shaped frequently by the unusual phenomena which have been associated with it but are not of its essence. Visions, trances, prophecies, special spiritual gifts, occult knowledge are not the realities of mystical experience. John Gerson's definition of it as "the knowledge of God arrived at through the embrace of unifying love" expresses the essence of Christian mysticism as well as any other. Mystical experience frequently arises in Christianity as a counterbalance to the formalizing tendencies of liturgical, institutionalized worship. It is essentially wedded to Christian faith by the "Christ in you" and "you in Christ" themes of the Pauline and Johannine literature. The theology of the Eastern church is basically mystical, rising out of the Christian-Platonism of Alexandria. In the Western church mystical theology found its home largely in monastic circles under the encouragement of Augustine and other Catholics in the Christian-Platonic tradition who followed him. The Reformers and Wesley make strong disclaimers against the mysticism of their times. All, nevertheless, were strongly influenced by it— Luther by Thomas a Kempis and the German Theology, among others, and Wesley by William Law, Thomas a Kempis, Madame Guyon, and the Cambridge Platonists. In spite of Wesley's vigorous rejection of the passive nature of the mysticism of his day, mystical writers from Macarius to the Cambridge school are broadly represented in his Christian Library. His common concern with them for perfection in love as the ultimate end of biblical Christianity made a complete divorce impossible. The personal, experiential nature of American revivalism has created a similar affinity with the mystical tradition in historic Christianity. Through Wesley and the writings of Thomas Up-ham, the American holiness movement, particularly, found historic witness to its experience of entire sanctification in such Catholic mystics as Catherine Adorna, Molinos, Fenelon, Francis de Sales, and Madame Guyon. In the nonrevivalist tradition in America, mysticism found parallel expression among the New England Transcen-dentalists. See EXPERIENCE, IN CHRIST, UNITY, COMFORTER, FORMALISM, QUIETISM. For Further Reading: Hoffman, Luther and the Mystics; Inge, Mysticism in Religion; Tuttle, John Wesley, 330-34; Underhill, Mysticism.
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the Atonement, the Resurrection, Christ, miracles, and "last things" fall into this literary and historical category. Such critics find the basis for these mythological views in the dependence of biblical writers on religious ideas and ideologies current in their times. Syncretistic activity is considered to have been common, so that, for example, Gnosticism is believed to have had a profound influence on first-century Christianity. While this method of studying the Bible became prevalent following the Enlightenment, it was popularized by Rudolph Bultmann through a publication in 1941. Essentially Bultmann and the post-Bultmannians have defined myth as that language which finite man uses to express infinite truth. It is the best he has available to him at any moment of attempted expression of his faith. As new information of his world opens up to him, man must "demythologize" or, better, "re-mythologize" what he knows about the infinite order. In the study of the Gospels, the issue of demythologization has become most crucial in the search for the so-called historical Jesus. The presuppositions and methods in the use of the category of myth have varied from writer to writer. They have used existentialism as well as structuralism and evolution as presuppositions, sometimes identifying myth and symbol. It is quite obvious that the evangelical views of the inspiration of the Scriptures conflict with this method of interpretation. However, one good result of this way of interpreting the kerygma has led to a renewed interest in the Scriptures and a revival of the study of hermeneutics. Some see all this as a conflict between religion and natural science (Miles, in loco). The conservative and liberal scholars are quite apart in their methods and doctrinal beliefs that result from their study of the Holy Scriptures. The conservative scholar sees the narratives of the OT and the NT as the record of historical events and truths that are the gospel (kerygma) of Jesus Christ, the Savior of the world. They find very little myth as such, but do recognize parable, allegory, and symbol. The Scriptures are the full and final revelation of God through Jesus Christ, and He is the Source of our personal salvation. See BIBLE, DEMYTHOLOGIZATION, BIBLICAL AUTHORITY, CRITICISM (OT, NT), INSPIRATION OF THE BIBLE, TYPE (TYPOLOGY), LIBERALISM, HERMENEUTICS. For Further Reading: 7DB; HDB; ZPBD; Gill, "Myth and Incarnation," Christian Century, 94 (December 21, 1977): 1190-94; Miles, "Burhoe, Barbour, Mythology, and Sociobiology," Zygon, 12 (March, 1977): 42-71; Neuleib, "Empty Face of Evil: Myth," Christianity Today, 19 (March 28,1975): 14-16; Saliba, "Myth and Religious Man in Contemporary Anthropology," Missiology, 1 (Ju- ly, 1973): 281-93. ROBERT L. SAWYER, SR. N NATION. The Hebrew word goy is translated as "Gentile," "nation," and "heathen." The Hebrew am seems to reflect a group of individuals or persons with common blood ties. Am and goy seem almost antithetical after the Exodus. The Greek word ethnos is like goy, never a person, but "Gentile," "nation," or "heathen." The contrast between the nation of Israel and the surrounding nations is significant throughout the OT (Isa. 43:9). There are at least 70 nations or ethnic groups mentioned in Genesis 10; and a great multitude from every nation, tribe, people, and tongue mentioned in Rev. 7:9. The prophets of Israel were constantly calling the people to their responsibility to evangelize the nations (cf. Jonah). They were to receive the Revelation to share it with all the nations of the earth 0er. 1:10; Ps. 66:7; Ezek. 5:6). But instead of fulfilling this mission, Israel became like the nations and succumbed to the same idolatry. While the words do not show a relationship, it is reasonable to assume that the nation of Israel, God's chosen people, was the forerunner of the concept of the kingdom of God and/or heaven. Spiritual Israel inherits the theocratic promises of the OT prophets. The NT concept is more spiritual than material, more of a reign than a realm. But John reminds us of the new heaven and new earth and the coronation of our King of Kings, Jesus the Christ. All the covenantal promises will be
356 NATURAL LAW—NATURAL THEOLOGY brought into fruition by the second coming of Christ. "All nations will be brought into judgment" is the basic presupposition of the prophets. See israel, church, mission (missions, missiology), kingdom of god.
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