Search results for ""Author Peter Frick""

Peter Frick argues hermeneutically that the key issue to which the apostle Paul correlates the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ is the power of sin. Understood in the tradition of Heidegger, sin (singular) is an ontological-existential category and distinct from sins (plural). For the death of Jesus to be effective in overcoming the death sentence of the power of sin, salvation is established strictly in the resurrection of Jesus. The correlation between plight and solution lies on the ontological level. Just as sin is an ontological structure unto death, so the resurrection provides a new ontological structure towards life. In the resurrection, death itself died. If so, an ontological foundation of salvation raises the question of the meaning of Jesus' life, suffering, and violent death. The questions discussed in the second part of the book include the significance of Christ/Messiah vis-à-vis sin, sins, and Torah, how faith is related to salvation, how a Christian ethic must be conceived on the basis of an ontological understanding of sin, and what life in view of a new creation might look like. These questions will be examined from an existential perspective in view of our contemporary existence.

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How are we to understand Bonhoeffer? In these essays, Peter Frick attempts to answer this question by examining different aspects of Bonhoeffer's thought, thus illuminating the hermeneutical, philosophical, theological, and social dimensions of his writings. All sixteen essays collected here were written between 2007 and 2014; some of them address the question of methodology, others contribute to Bonhoeffer's intellectual formation, and still others seek to connect with contemporary questions. The aim of the volume is to present Bonhoeffer's key theological and philosophical ideas, and to emphasize their contemporary relevance.

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In spite of the plethora of Bonhoeffer studies there is a large lacuna regarding studies that have addressed Bonhoeffer's intellectual grounding in a thorough, comprehensive and methodical manner. Scholarly attention to this important subject matter has indeed been scarce. However, without an attempt to examine, trace, and weigh these influences in Bonhoeffer's theological formation it is hardly possible to gain a comprehensive and complete understanding of his thought. In the studies, the different authors seek to address the decisive questions and issues in this regard.As such, the essays collected in this volume have the one focal point and common scope in the thought of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. In each of the essays, the authors discuss one or two philosophers or theologians and demonstrate how specific ideas penetrated and shaped Bonhoeffer's intellectual formation. These various studies converge on the thought of Bonhoeffer as a whole in such a way as to illuminate the growth and maturation of his own intellect vis-à-vis the philosophical and theological ideas articulated in the thinkers discussed in the essays. Put differently, the objective of the essays is to open up the intellectual window of Bonhoeffer's thought, as it were, and thereby allow more light to fall on the structure, extension and formation of that thought.

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In his study Peter Frick starts with the examination of the theocentric structure of Philo's thought as outlined in the important passage De Opificio Mundi 171-2 where Philo correlates the idea of providence with his concept of God and the theory of creation. On this basis, any adequate understanding of providence in Philo must begin with the correlation between the formal aspects of the Philonic concept of God, especially the idea of God's transcendence, and Philo's conceptualization of the idea of providence in light of these formal aspects. In particular, the issue is how Philo can predicate that God is provident in nature, although God cannot be apprehended in his essence. Moreover, Philo explains the immanence of God in the cosmos in terms of the Logos and the divine powers, one of which he specifically characterizes as the providential power. Both the aspects of divine transcendence and immanence cohere in Philo's theory of creation. He conceives of the role of providence in cosmological matters as being responsible for the design, administration and continuous existence of the created universe.Two further issues, the questions of astral fatalism and theodicy, are critically important for a thorough understanding of Philo's conception of divine providence. Philo rejects the assumption implied in astral fatalism that the stars are transcendent divinities and thus have causal powers over human affairs. And he rejects astral fatalism because it renders absurd the notion of moral responsibility. Concerning the question of theodicy, Philo proceeds from the Platonic premise that God is not the cause for evil in any way. For him, the existence of moral evil exonerates God and his providence as the cause for evil and anchors the blame in the person.

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