EFM

Year 1 Chapter 20

‘No King in Israel”

Summary:

This chapter concludes Judges and begins 1 Samuel. We see Israel as both antagonistic toward the notion of having a king and eager for the unity and safety implied in centralized leadership. With the introduction of Samuel, Israel’s greatest charismatic leader, a sequence of events begins which ultimately leads to the anointing of Saul as king.

Year 2 Chapter 20

The Acts of the Apostles, Part 11

Summary:

This chapter concludes our study of the Acts of the Apostles by recounting Paul’s ministry. It closes with a short essay on Luke’s alleged enmity towards the Jews.

Year 3 Chapter 20

The Crusades

Summary:

The rise of Islam eventually resulted in Christian attempts to win back lost ground. On the Iberian Peninsula Christians began to win battles and push back the Moslems to Spain and Portugal. While the Christian West divided from the Christian East in a split that continues to this day, the impetus to retake the Holy Land emerged. This resulted in a series of crusades which were generally unsuccessful, but which produced vast changes as West met East, and the cultures, lore and learning of both began to blend.

Year 4 Chapter 20

Paul Tillich and the Quest for New Being

Summary:

Nineteenth century liberalism and twentieth century neo-orthodoxy represent opposing views about how traditional Christian beliefs and modern worldviews should be related. Liberalism often seemed to substitute human ideals for revelation of transcendent Word of God. Karl Bath, in turn, was often accused of ignoring the human situations to which the Christian message is addressed.

Paul Tillich constantly sought to bridge the gulf that divided the two theological camps. He took very seriously the doctrines of the Lutheran Church in which he was ordained. He was also convinced that divinely revealed answers spoke to questions human existence raised. Any theology, he believed, that did not take the human situation fully into account would fail in its task of elucidating the Gospel to the world.

By means of philosophical and theological analysis of the human situation, he attempted to correlate human question with divine answer. He was convinced of the power of the traditional biblical symbols, but he felt they had lost much of their meaning in the contemporary world. By using the terms in which philosophy couched its ultimate questions, he hoped to bring meaning back to the old symbols. At his hand God was interpreted as Ultimate Concern, sin as existential estrangement, and salvation as the New Being.