Theology beacon dictionary of theology

Thus in ontology we are concerned with a study of the fundamental stuff of existence. We grapple with the problem of reality itself. Ontol­ogy is a quest for a reasoned understanding of what comprises reality. Is it mind or is it matter? Is it one or many? Is it dynamic or is it static? Is it personal or impersonal? Is it experience or does it take its stance in a subway below experience? Is it knowable or unknowable?

It is Tillich's contention that: "God is the an­swer to the question implied in being"; for "the ontological question is: What is being itself?" (Systematic Theology, 1:163).

We Christians affirm that "God is a Spirit" (John 4:24), and that "in him we live, and move, and have our being" (Acts 17:28). H. Orton Wiley defines God under the three categories of: "Ab­solute Reality," "Infinite Efficiency," and "Perfect Personality" (cf. CT, 1, chaps. 11—13).

What one thinks about God, the Source of all Being, largely determines what one thinks about reality as a whole. And Being is given not so much in the conclusions of one's philosophic thinking as in its basic premises.

See METAPHYSICS, PLATONISM, PHILOSOPHY THO-MISM.

For Further Reading: ER, 548 ff; Brightman, Person and Reality; Harvey, "Being," Handbook of Theological Terms, 39-41; Hutchinson, "Being," A Handbook of Chris­tian Theology, Halverson, ed., 31-35; "Ontology," Ency­clopedia Americana (1947 ed.), 20:696; Tillich, Systematic Theology, vol. 1, part 2, chap. 1; Wiley, CT, 1:255-78.

Ross E. Price

In the Roman Catholic and Anglican confes­sions ordination is deemed to be a sacrament of the church and is performed only by bishops. This highlights the concept of "apostolic succes­sion" which is accepted by these groups. This, of course, is not seen as the passing on of grace but rather of apostolic authority. Other religious bod­ies follow to a lesser degree in this tradition. Some make ordination a matter of authority, and others make it a function of a local church when a man in inducted to a first pastorate.

In each case it is admission to the official min­istry of the visible church, and there is no ordina­tion apart from the church. The word for appoint (cheirotonein) means "lay on hands." The practice is derived from the Jews—Jewish rabbis were ap­pointed by the laying on of hands. Paul's practice was to appoint "elders" in every city (Acts 14:23; Titus 1:5).

The role of the appointee in the NT included that of pastor, steward, or ruler in the local church; and to this end the ordained was to be duly consecrated. In the Protestant confession ordination is viewed as a symbolic act of setting aside to special ministry.

See LAYING ON OF HANDS, CLERGY, MINISTER (MIN­ISTRY), OFFICES (ECCLESIASTICAL).

For Further Reading: HDNT, 4:114-18; Wiley, CT,

In the NT, the Greek words commonly used are: dikaidma (Luke 1:6; Heb. 9:1,10), meaning a "judicial appointment"; paradosis (1 Cor. 11:2), is a "binding tradition," or "apostolic rule"; dogma (Eph. 2:15; Col. 2:14), meaning a "determination, decree"; dogmatizd (Col. 2:20), "to be under a de­cree."

It is clear that the Church very early developed customs and rules regulating conduct in public worship, dress, ordination procedures, and such matters as social welfare.

Wesley required members of his societies to at­tend all the ordinances of God. These were "the public worship of God; the ministry of the word, either read or expounded; the supper of the Lord; family and private prayer; searching the Scrip­tures; and fasting, or abstinence" (Works, 8:271).

Christians ignore much of the Jewish legal sys­tem, but problems of the law and legalism re­main. It is inevitable that church groups should develop a legal framework for their common life. But regulations should foster unity, not disunity. The fellowship of the Spirit should be the su­preme objective.

See CHURCH, CHURCH GOVERNMENT, CANON LAW. For Further Reading: HDNT, 4:114; ISBE, 4:2201.

Churches which refuse to ordain women ap­peal to such passages as 1 Cor. 11:2-16; 1 Tim. 2:9-15; and Eph. 5:22-24. Those which ordain women stress Gal. 3:28, as well as Jesus' own treatment of women, noting especially that the first tidings of His resurrection were imparted to women, who were charged to announce it to His (male) disciples (Mark 16:6-7).

Some dispose of the apostle Paul's strictures on women as just a residue of unchristianized rabbinic prejudices, but this does violence to the belief that the Scriptures are inspired throughout and were written under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Much more convincing is the argument that (as in the case of human slavery) the pas­sages in question, and others in both Testaments, were intended to ameliorate the condition of women caught in societies dominated by un­regenerate males, both the patriarchal society of OT times and the NT world in which Greek and Roman women were often "liberated" to stan­dards and conduct contradictory to Christianity and disruptive of the Church. Some strict disci­pline of church members in Corinth, both male and female, was apparently necessary in Paul's day. But just as the application of standards of Christian love to all men led to the abolition of slavery, though by an evolutionary rather than a revolutionary process, so the recognition that in Christ there is "no male and female" removes all barriers to the participation by women in minis­tries to which the Lord calls them.

Some writers stress the fact that headship or sequential order, shown in the creation of Adam before Eve and in the place of man as the head of the family, does not prove inequality or inferi­ority of women, even though male chauvinists may so interpret. Scriptures teach and otherwise imply the equality of women; the "battle of the sexes" is a result of the Fall, through which mu­tual loving support and recognition have often been turned to jealous striving. The standard of holy discipleship, rather than the prejudices of unregenerate humanity, should set the standard for this and all other relationships.

See WOMAN, CHAIN OF COMMAND, FAMILY.
For Further Reading: Jewett, Man as Male and Female;
Baker's DCE, 712. PHILIP S. CLAPP

ORIGINAL RIGHTEOUSNESS. See divine image.

ORIGINAL SIN. Original sin in the exact sense is man's first transgression of God's law. In a more general sense, original sin is often defined as "the universal and hereditary sinfulness of man since the fall of Adam" (A Handbook of Theological Terms, 221). Original sin has also been described as "the human self corrupted, diseased, fevered, or warped—a condition brought about by alien­ation from God" (GMS, 86).

Survey of basic issues. A leading issue in any consideration of original sin is whether or not the biblical account of the Fall has any basis in his­tory, or whether it is mythical, i.e., a timeless but nonhistorical truth about man's existence. Those who hold to a mythical view of the Fall move in the direction of Pelagianism or existentialism. Pelagius rejected the doctrine of original sin. The existentialists hold that all men "fall" at some point in their psychological development. In ei­ther case, the result is to damage the key doc­trines of the Atonement and redemption.

Wiley and Culbertson conclude: "The account of the probation and fall of man found in Gene­sis 3:1-24 is an inspired record of historical fact bound up with a deep and rich symbolism" (In­troduction to Christian Theology, 160-61).

Some hold that pride is the essence of sin; others would see this essence as selfishness or self-sovereignty. Perhaps no single quality is suf­ficiently comprehensive. Whatever the conclu­sion, "the most characteristic feature of sin in all its aspects is that it is directed against God" (NBD, 1189). Paul speaks of the carnal mind as "enmity against God" (Rom. 8:7); hence it is more than a weakness, it is a deeply rooted dispositional hos­tility or resistance to God's authority. But what­ever its inner essence, most Christians would concur with Reinhold Niebuhr's assertion: "The view that men are 'sinful' is one of the best at­tested and empirically verified facts of human existence" (A Handbook of Christian Theology, 349).

Development. Like other Christian doctrines, the doctrine of original sin developed gradually. The raw materials were present in the Bible, but the church soon found it imperative to clarify its teaching. This historical development included the fifth-century debate between Pelagius and Augustine. While Pelagius rejected the concept of original sin, Augustine made it a cornerstone of his theology. In later centuries, Roman Catho­lic theologians developed a view known as semi-Pelagianism, that original sin is a weakness rather than an inability. In post-Reformation times Calvinists stressed the effectual calling of the elect as God's means of breaking the barrier of original sin, whereas Arminians emphasized the power and availability of grace for all. De­



378

ORTHODOXY


spite erosion of the doctrine of original sin among theological liberals, it seems to be robust today (See Christian Theology: An Ecumenical Ap­proach, 159).

Biblical data. The early chapters of Genesis de­scribe the Fall and its racial consequences. Cre­ated superior in talent, with capacity for fellowship (1:26-28), man sought self-exaltation (3:1-6). The result was humiliation (vv. 7-10), al­ienation (vv. 12-13), suffering (w. 16-19), and a morally twisted nature, described as an "imag­ination" which "was only evil continually" (6:5; cf. 8:21). The word "imagination" may be ren­dered "inclination" or "propensity." Abel's blood sacrifice suggests that he too was aware of per­sonal sinfulness, even though it did not erupt in violence as did the sin of Cain. Accelerating uni­versal depravity resulted in the Flood. But the virulence persisted, and soon evil was again ram­pant, requiring the dispersal of the people (11:1-9).

David confesses, "I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me" (Ps. 51:5). This is not normally understood as a con­fession of illegitimacy or as an indictment of the procreative act per se, but as a clear tracing of his evil acts to an original or transmitted moral de­fect (cf. 58:3). Between the Testaments, the Apoc­rypha clearly teaches the idea of original sin (2 Esdras 3:21-22; 4:30-31).

In the NT, the concept of racial sinfulness is equally pervasive. Jesus teaches that man's moral woes spring from the depravity of his heart (Matt. 15:18), and Paul's contrast of the two Ad­ams in Rom. 5:12-21 and 1 Cor. 15:22, 45-47 clearly requires the development of a doctrine of original sin. His most vivid and powerful expose of human sinfulness, as a subvolitional pro­pensity which overcomes both reason and reso­lution, is Rom. 7:7-25 (cf. Eph. 2:3).

Wesleyanism. John Wesley considered the doc­trine of original sin a cornerstone of biblical re­ligion. Without it, he says, "the Christian system falls at once" (Works, 9:194). According to tradi­tional Wesleyanism, original sin is cleansed in the divine work of entire sanctification (cf. Wiley, CT, 2:470, et al).

Wesleyans have differed concerning the rela­tion of original sin to the guilt of Adam's repre­sentative disobedience. Wesley himself was thoroughly Augustinian in ascribing to Adam's posterity an element of guilt, but insisted that such guilt was removed as one of the universal and unconditional benefits of the Atonement.

See SIN, FALL (THE), AUGUSTINIANISM, PELAGIANISM, ARMINIANISM, CARNAL MIND.

For Further Reading: NBD, 1189-93; GMS, 79-87, 268-302; Wiley, CT, 2:96-140.

A. Elwood Sanner

It was from the Trinitarian, Christological, and Gnostic controversies of the first five centuries that an orthodox and universally acceptable un­derstanding of Christianity emerged. Orthodoxy eventually encompassed that which the "faith­ful" believed was "right" and that which they were convinced God would ultimately vindicate as right. The roots of orthodoxy, though not its terminology, are to be found in the Bible and the gospel itself (cf. 1 Tim. 6:3 and 2 Tim. 1:13 for an "orthodox" reaction to the implications of wrong belief, and Gal. 1:6-9; 1 Cor. 15:1-13; 1 John 4:1-3; and 2 John 7-11 for the ramifications of right belief in doctrine, preaching, and practice).

The earliest community's belief in "sound doc­trine" implied the normative nature of the Chris­tian revelation, encapsulated in the canon as a "fundamentally orthodox collection of books" (Turner). This somewhat tautologous position vis-a-vis Scripture was basic to the evolution of Christian orthodoxy and crucial to its polemic and apologetic. Appeal and argument was made to Scripture, to tradition, and to reason—to con­solidate and protect the purity of the received gospel from distortions of Scripture, denial of common tradition, and assimilation to secular philosophical movements. These remain today the primary concerns of orthodoxy.

Historically orthodoxy was constituted in the "rule of faith" (regula fidei) with considerable flu­idity during the first three Christian centuries. Only in the next two centuries was an attempt made, in response to heterodox movements and groups, to render traditional beliefs into defi­nitive terminology through the major church councils (Nicea, 325; Ephesus, 431; Chalcedon, 451). Arianism, Apollinarianism, and Nesto-rianism were all refuted and condemned, as the Apostles', Nicene, and Athanasian creeds af­firmed orthodox statements concerning Chris­tology, the Trinity, and the work of the Holy Spirit.

Development of these dogmata in the Western church led to the dictum: "Outside the church



OVERSEER—PACIFISM

379

there is no salvation" (Extra ecclesiam nulla sal-vatio est), thus tying together ecclesiology and so-teriology in orthodoxy. Eastern orthodoxy maintained a less definitively dogmatic and dif­ferentiated view of the mystical unity (Sob-ornost) of belief, practice, and liturgy, and recognized only seven great councils, ending with Nicea II in a.d. 787 and the reaffirmation of iconism. The Catholic West recognized 21 coun­cils (including Trent, 1545-63, and Vatican II, 1965), and continued to promulgate individual dogmata for orthodoxy into the 20th century (e.g., Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, 1950).

The rise of Reformation scholarship and his­torical criticism led to reexamination of the dog­matic approach to orthodoxy, affirmed the revelatory nature of immutable reality, and re­opened the question of changing conceptual frameworks in which orthodoxy might be articu­lated (sola fidei, sola gratia, sola scriptura). Creeds were not replaced but reformulated for contem­porary classification in the various denomina­tional confessions. The core of orthodoxy is therefore still affirmed in Protestantism by ad­herence to the historical, revelatory character of biblical faith; the doctrines of the Incarnation, the Atonement, and the Trinity; and the sacra­ments of baptism and the Eucharist. These are the fundamentals of the faith.

See christianity, apostles' creed, church councils, heresy

For Further Reading: Turner, The Pattern of Christian Truth, 241-498; Webber and Bloesch, eds., The Orthodox Evangelicals, 43-67; Chesterton, Orthodoxy.

John S. Lown

OVERSEER. See bishop.

_P

PACIFISM. Based on the word "peacemakers" (Matt. 5:9), pacifism is the belief that war is con­trary to the scriptural way of peace, and there­fore Christians are not to participate in it. Some authorities have used the word nonresistance to identify a conservative, nonpolitical, biblical re­jection of war, and have related the word paci­fism to a more liberal and pragmatic rejection of war.

The high points in the history of pacifism have been the first centuries of the Christian church (to Constantine, a.d. 313), the emergence of the historic peace churches (Mennonites, Friends, and Brethren—16th to 18th centuries), the rise of modern liberal pacifism (19th century), and the contemporary wrestling over the use of nuclear weapons. Opposition to war has been based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ and on the NT love ethic. Also there are humanitarian con­siderations, the demonic character and destruc-tiveness of war, the power of nonviolence, and the possible annihilation of mankind. Often these bases of objection have been combined.

Biblical pacifists deal with the OT endorse­ment of war by suggesting that the fullness of the revelation or the revelation for today came in the NT. Thus, the NT is determinative. Further­more, they believe their position to be essentially Christological.

Those who are born again know God's love overcomes evil because when they were alien­ated from God, Christ's love overcame their hos­tility (Rom. 5:10). In sanctification perfect love becomes a heart reality, and sin is no more a ne­cessity for the saint. The Lordship of Christ means that all of life, including governmental re­sponsibilities, is lived in obedience to Christ. Un­conditional loyalty can be given only to Jesus Christ. Christ's Lordship includes His Headship of the Church. That Body is international, and for Christians to be fighting other Christians is to deny Christ's Headship. His Lordship also calls for obedience to the Great Commission. Christians killing non-Christians is to deny those killed the opportunity to accept Christ.

The repeated teachings of the NT that Chris­tians are to love their enemies in the loving, self-sacrificing manner of the crucified Christ, must be taken, according to the biblical pacifists, with all seriousness. Both the deity of Christ and the authority of Scripture are involved. Jesus Christ is the Model of love and holiness. Christian per­fection involves a loving that seeks the highest good even for the most wicked, and a holiness that will have no part of evil. To take life is inher­ently an evil act.

The cross and resurrection of Christ are there­fore central to the biblical pacifists. As Christ

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died in loving Servanthood, so must His disciples be faithful unto death (Mark 8:31-35). Christ's resurrection is the sign that Christ has conquered death and the devil. It is tangible evidence that the way of the Cross is the power of the resurrec­ted Lord bringing in the new age.

Those who reject pacifism on biblical grounds use some of the following arguments. (1) God commanded war in the OT, and there is no ex­plicit teaching against war in the NT. (2) Romans 13 and similar scriptures call upon Christians to obey government. (3) The heart of perfect love can be maintained in war. (4) Since God at times works His will through the state, a Christian in fighting can be doing God's will. (5) The Western nations have at times through war kept the world open for missionary work, as well as for democratic freedoms.

See war, citizenship, civil disobedience.

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