Postmodernists reject universal truth claims and brand them as violent impositions on a person by powerful institutions. Postmodernist spirituality seeks for a more subjective, life- experience based attitude towards values and truths of the Bible and relationship in community. Careful consideration should be given to the issues of community, knowledge/truth, faith, and faith experience. This article will show that, in his “Institutes”, Calvin gives ample attention to faith, the liberating truth about God as revealed in Jesus Christ, and to the Chris- tian’s intimate relationship with Him. Being in Christ, commu- nion with Christ or the “unio mystica cum Christo” through faith as a central theme in Calvin’s theology, needs to be redis- covered and re-applied to reformed spirituality as apologetic means in a postmodern world. This treasure should satisfy the kind of spirituality postmodernists yearn for.
Simon Maimela was one of the first contextual theologians appearing on the scene in the 1970s in South Africa. He obtained a ThD at Harvard University in 1978 and was appointed inter alia as lecturer in the Department of Systematic Theology at Unisa. Like other contextual theologians his writings give evidence of a search for an ongoing dialogue between 'text' and 'context.' They have a strong (^Ihristological character, which corresponds with his conviction that liberation theology should he a keen exponent of a doctrine of atonement. This article is an attempt to investigate and describe the way in which his Christology stands in relation to a number of systematic theological loci. This is done within a broader context of the nature of African and South African Christology. The impact of his theological reflection in South Africa is finally assessed in the light of his view on the Bible.
THE DEVELOPMENT OF A DOCTRINE OF COMMUNION: CALVIN AND WESTPHAL Although references to the polemic writings of Calvin against Joachim Westphal of Hamburg are not infrequent, there is a lack of recent specific studies. In this article a resumé is given of Calvin' s doctrine of the Lord' s Supper as found in his 'Last Admonition to Joachim Westphal'' of 1557-the last and most detailed of the three works against Westphal and his allies. As this conflict had a definite influence on the development of the 1559 edition of Calvin' s Institutes, it is deemed necessary to take a new look at this document. The consensus with Bullinger which was published in 1551, the so-called Consensus Tigurinus, set the attacks of Westphal going against Calvin. Several of the heads of the Consensus are to be identified in the "Last Admonition'. After a brief historical background, these (nine in all) are used to systematize Calvin' s doctrine on the Lord' s Supper.
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