Download Volume 2008, L, Number 2

Volume 2008, L, Number 2
Peter Morée
Fifty Years Communio viatorum: From a theological program into a platform for
theology
Abstract: In 1958 Communio Viatorum, the foreign language journal of the Protestant
Theological Comenius Faculty in Prague was founded. For Czech Protestant
theologians under the leadership of J. L. Hromádka the journal was a way to
communicate the theological views and perspectives of Christians in the Eastern
Bloc withoutdenouncing the one-party rule. For the communist regime – which
had to sanction the journal – it was a way to gain legitimacy in the eyes of
Christians in other parts of the world. In the field of biblical studies as well as
church history the journal published many interesting articles, but the articles
with a political focus had a strong tendency of collaboration with the communist
regime.
Keywords: Communio Viatorum – theological journals – J. L. Hromádka – Protestant
Theological Comenius Faculty – Communism – contemporary church history
Author:
Title:
Author:
Title:
Abstract:
Viktor Ber
Moses and Jethro harmony and conflict in the interpretation of Exodus 18
Exodus 18 is the last chapter of the wilderness section in the book of Exodus.
Very often its commentators focus on harmonic, positive, and affirmative
elements of the narrative in Exodus 18. This article deals with proposed
harmonic readings of Exodus 18, but also seriously examines possible motifs of
conflict or tension. The conclusion of the author is that the narrative does present
harmony. However, this harmony is reached after real or potential conflicts are
solved or avoided. An attempt is made to understand this narrative of resolved
tensions in Exodus 18 in the context of theology in the book of Exodus.
Keywords:
Biblical studies – Old Testament studies – Exodus – Moses – Jethro – Zipporah –
Midianite – conflict – harmony – Wilderness section
Author:
Original
title:
English
title:
Abstract:
Walburga Zumbroich
Die Schöpfung im Spannungsfeld der Theodizee-Frage. Rabbinische
Erwagungen zum ersten biblischen Schöpfungsbericht.
Keywords:
Theodicy – rabbinic traditions – midrash – Jewish tradition – suffering
Author:
Anthony Noble
The article examines how the theodicy question was answered by the rabbinic
traditions. Some suggest that the experience of evil and suffering is a means of
the Creator to bring his creation to deeper insights and to a better life. Not always
though is suffering seen in the context of human guilt. Other voices see the
existence of suffering as a result of an unfinished aspect in God himself, who has
an ambivalent relation to his creation.
Title:
Abstract:
‘Choirs of Larks and Tibetan trumpets’: in search of the holy spirit in music
This paper sets out to examine ways in which musical works of art might
embody, reflect or analogize aspects of our understanding of the nature of the
Holy Spirit, and in particular how a purely musical (that is non-texted) medium
attempts this. It begins by looking for musical settings of texts relating to the
Holy Spirit, and endeavours to explain why the functional nature of liturgical
music both circumscribes such works and has tended to limit the role of music as
a discrete signifier of the theology and imagery of its topic. Having briefly
discussed the notion that works of musical art may intrinsically embody, or at
least ‘anticipate,’ theological truths, regardless of the aim of the composer or the
understanding of the listener, this paper looks at one of Bach’s greatest organ
works, a piece that stands as a testament to the pure power and art of music, and
in it finds a pleasing musical analogy for the Trinity. Moving on to the great
twentieth-century composer, Olivier Messiaen, this paper examines the musical
imagery of another organ work, one explicitly written by the composer to try to
‘translate into music’ images of the Holy Spirit. Once again, though, it attempts
to show that the work functions at a purely musical level whilst simultaneously
allowing musical features to carry extra-musical significance.
Keywords:
Religious music – liturgical music – Holy Spirit – Pneumatology – Trinity –
Hildegard of Bingen – Johann Sebastian Bach – Olivier Messiaen
Book reviews
Author:
Reviewed
book:
Jiří Piškula
Jaroslav Hrdlička, Život a dílo Prof. Františka Kováře, příběh patriarchy a
učence (Leben und Werk des Prof. František Kovář, Patriarch und Gelehrte),
Brno: L. Marek, 2007, 523 S., ISBN 978-80-87127-05-6
Author:
Reviewed
book:
Peter C. A. Morée
Daniel Deme (ed.), The Selected Works of Isaac of Stella, A Cistercian Voice
from the Twelfth Century, Aldershot: Ashgate Publishing Limited, 2007, 232 p.,
ISBN 978–0–7546–5366–0.