Strangers and Pilgrims on Earth

Eduardus Van der Borght is Desmond Tutu Chair on reconciliation and Associate Professor of Systematic Theology at VU University Amsterdam.

Paul van Geest is Professor of Church History and History of Theology at Tilburg University and Extraordinary Professor of Augustinian Studies at VU University Amsterdam. He is also director of the Centre for Patristic Studies at these universities.

All those interested in christology, theology of Israel, eschatologie, ecclesiology, creation theology and freedom of religion and more specifically the theology of Abraham van de Beek.

CONTENTS

Preface: Strangers and Pilgrims on Earth
Paul van Geest, Eduardus Van der Borght

WORDS OF GREETING

Learned and Wise. A Word of Greeting
Adrianus Cardinal Simonis
Church and State, Particularly in the Netherlands.
An Essay in Honour of Abraham van de Beek
Arjan Plaisier

PART ONE

ABRAHAM VAN DE BEEK: AN APPRAISAL

Bram van de Beek: Viator in Fide
Gerrit de Kruijf
“Alexamenos Worships His God”? An Attempt to Understand
Bram van de Beek’s Christology as the Heart of his Theology
Dirkie Smit
Bibliography Prof. Dr. Abraham van de Beek

PART TWO

SPEAKING OF GOD: CHRIST AND ISRAEL

Stranger on Earth and Divine Guest: Human and Divine Hospitality in the Gospel of Luke and the Book of Acts
Adelbert Denaux
“The Word Became Jewish Flesh”: Christology and the Question of the Sufffering of God
Daniel L. Migliore
The Christology in the Heidelberg Catechism and in the Canones of Dordt
Wim Verboom
The Nature of Christ’s Atonement. A Defence of Penal Substitution Theory
Nico Vorster
Nietzsche’s ‘The Antichrist’: An anti-Christian and anti-Jewish Document
A.A.A. (Ad) Prosman
Has God Changed? An Inquiry on the Relationship between God and Israel in the Theology of A.A. van Ruler
André H. Drost
Church and Israel, Church and the Jews in Hungarian Reformed Theology and Practice
Ferenc Szűcs
Taoistic Implications for Christology: Grand Unity, datong (大同) and Valley-god, gushen (谷神)
Jaeseung Cha
The Reciprocal Relation between Anthropology and Christology
Martien E. Brinkman
John Calvin and Abraham van de Beek on the Church and Israel—with Special Reference to Romans 9–11
I. John Hesselink
Israel as a Problem. The Promise of the Land by Bram van de Beek in Confrontation with the Palestinian Kairos Document and Augustine
Wessel ten Boom
Some Developments in Contemporary Protestant Christology in the Netherlands in the Light of the Schola Augustiniana.
Abraham van de Beek and Harry Kuitert Evaluated
Paul van Geest
Blasphemy and the Sinlessness of Jesus. In Dialogue with Abraham van de Beek
Johann Theron

PART THREE

SPEAKING OF GOD: ESCHATOLOGY

Cicero Meets Ambrose
Gerrit de Kruijf
“It Shone with the Glory of the Lord”. On Beauty and Christian Telos
Rian Venter
Text, Tradition, Theology. The Example of the Book of Joel
Eep Talstra
‘Euthanasia’ in the Seventeenth Century: Ars Moriendi in Dutch Reformed Perspective
Jan Hoek
Story, Eschatology and the Agnus Victor
Paul Wells
Eschatology: Some Theological, Apologetic and Pastoral Reflections
Alan P.F. Sell
Striking Similarities. The Eschatological Orientation of Calvin, Barth and Van de Beek
Cornelis van der Kooi
Ascetism Only, or Ethics as Well? Oepke Noordmans’ View of Eschatological Ascetism and Ethics as a Challenge for Bram van de Beek
Radical Eschatology: Comparing Bram van de Beek and Wolfhart Pannenberg
Christiaan Mostert
Unio mystica cum Christo glorifijicato. In Dialogue with Van de Beek about the Consequences of His Eschatology for Soteriology
Willem van Vlastuin

PART FOUR

THEOLOGY OF THE CHURCH

No Longer Strangers or Pilgrims in the Church? Socio-cultural Identities in the Faith and Order Document: Nature and
Mission of the Church
Eduardus A.J.G. Van der Borght
The Church and the Unity of Humankind
Jacobus (Sjaak M.) van ’t Kruis
Two Church Fathers Review Charismatic Worship. Ambrosiaster’s and Chrysostom’s Comments on 1 Corinthians 11–14
Riemer Roukema
One Lord, One Faith, One Baptism. Baptism of Children in the Letter to the Ephesians
Jacob van Beelen
The Welcoming Table? The Lord’s Supper, Exclusion, and the Reformed Tradition
Robert R. Vosloo
The Teaching Concerning the Lord’s Supper in the 1559 Hungarian Reformed Confession of Marosvásárhely (Transylvania)
Botond Kund Gudor, István Pásztori-Kupán
Family-modeled Congregation
Tamás Juhász
Preaching the Word of God
F. Gerrit Immink
Minister as Witness
Allan J. Janssen
Nearing the Brink of Death? Dying, Renewing, and Newly Born Congregations in Protestant Amsterdam
Henk de Roest
The Confessions and the Motif of the Stranger
Matthias Smalbrugge
“As a Deer Longs for Flowing Streams. . . .” The Challenges of Postmodern Spirituality for Protestant Theology and the Church
Szilveszter Füsti-Molnár
Strange People. Toward a Realistic Ecclesiology
René de Reuver
Rome or Jerusalem? Bram van de Beek on the Unity of the Church
Henk van den Belt
Living Law: Karl Barth, Bram van de Beek and the 2004 Protestant Church Order
Leon van den Broeke
And They Recognized Him in the Breaking of the Bread: Van de Beek’s Contribution to the Necessary Rethinking on the Protestant Eucharistic Practice
H. (Bert) de Leede

PART FIVE

CREATION THEOLOGY

No Creation Stories in Holy Scripture. Von Rad’s View on the Relation between Covenant and Creation Revisited
Harm Goris
An Alternative Creation Belief: An Interpretation of Job 36:26–37:13
E. Gerrit Singgih
“What was God Doing before Making Heaven and Earth?” Theological Reflections on the Doctrine of God in Traditional
African Religion and the North African Theologian Aurelius Augustine
J.H. (Amie) Van Wijk
To Which the Whole Creation Moves. Creation Theology in Tennyson’s In Memoriam
Frank Sawyer
The Ebb and Flow of Creation Theology at Stellenbosch University: A Story in Six Chapters
Ernst M. Conradie and J. Christofff Pauw
Should We Drop the Fall? On Taking Evil Seriously
Gijsbert van den Brink
Epistemology, Ontology and Reciprocity. Bringing Bram van de Beek into Dialogue with John Polkinghorne
Johan Buitendag
With a Little Help from Our Friend! A Systematic-Theological Appreciation of Bram van de Beek’s Theology of Creation
as Contribution to the Contemporary Theology-Science Dialogue
Daniël P. Veldsman

PART SIX

FREEDOM OF RELIGION

A Christian Perspective on Human Dignity
J.(Koos) M. Vorster
Religious Freedom and a South African Charter of Religious Rights and Freedoms
Pieter Coertzen
Divinely Approved Suicide-Terrorism? A Christian Critique of the Death of Samson
Bernard Reitsma
Simul justus ac peccator and Non-Self and/or Non-Self. A Buddhist-Christian Dialogue
Hendrik M. Vroom
Public Theology in a Sufffering World?
Nico Koopman

List of Contributors

Index

Contributors include: Martien Brinkman, Johan Buitendag, Jaesung Cha, Pieter Coertzen, Ernst Conradie, Gerrit de Kruijf, Bert de Leede, Adelbert Denaux, Gerard den Hertog, Rene de Reuver, Henk de Roest, Andre Drost, Szilveszter Füsti-Molnár, Harm Goris, Botond Gudor, John Hesselink, Jan Hoek, Gerrit Immink, Allan Janssen, Tamás Juhász, Nico Koopman, Daniel Migliore, ChristIan Mostert, István Pásztori-Kupán, Christoff Pauw, Arjan Plaisier, Ad Prosman, Bernhard Reitsma, Riemer Roukema, Frank Sawyer, Alan Sell, Matthias Smalbrugge, Gerrit Singgih, Dirkie Smit, Adrianus Cardinal Simonis, Ferenc Szűcs, Eep Talstra, Wessel ten Boom, Johann Theron, Jacob van Beelen, Henk van den Belt, Gijsbert van den Brink, Leon van den Broeke, Eduardus Van der Borght, Kees van der Kooi, Paul van Geest, Sjaak van 't Kruis, Willem van Vlastuin, Amie van Wyk, Danie Veldsman, Rian Venter, Wim Verboom, Koos Vorster, Nico Vorster, Robert Vosloo, Henk Vroom, Paul Wells.