Title

Suffering the promise of God: engaging Oswald Bayer.

Publication Date

4-2011

Abstract

This article examines Oswald Bayer’s wide-ranging constructive appropriation and application of Luther’s theology of the Word. Bayer grounds theology in the divine word of promise, understanding theology and the Christian life as a vita receptiva in which human action is, from first to last, responsive. He pits Luther against modern theological evasions of the Word in his insistence on the distinctively Christian pathos of existence, and his ethic of categorical gift reflects this. I conclude with a commendation of Bayer’s theology of the Word, a question about the relation between God’s revelation and hiddenness and a concern that he may at times compromise the definitive self-revelation of God in Christ.

Keywords

Suffering--Religious aspects--Christianity; Hidden God

Publication Title

International Journal of Systematic Theology

Volume

13

Issue

2

First Page

134

Last Page

153

DOI of Published Version

10.1111/j.1468-2400.2011.00541.x.

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