European Journal of Theology - Volume 33, Issue 1, 2024

The commission to harden the hearts of the people of God, which the prophet Isaiah receives in Isaiah 6:9-11, leaves many Christians perplexed and bewildered. However, the overall context of the theme of hardening in the Book of Isaiah is frequently overlooked, especially given that the theme occurs in all three parts of the book: First, Second and Third Isaiah. Remarkably, the commission to harden the hearts does not come at the beginning of the book, but only after a description of the sin of God’s people. This sin forms the basis for God’s decision to bring judgement. Devastating as the consequences are, they are restricted to the destruction of the land (Isa 6:11). The time of exile is a time of forgiveness and the opportunity to turn back and repent (Isa 40:1-2). While the hardening caused by God is over, the people of God are still under its effect, as is described in Isaiah 42:18-25. While some take the opportunity to repent and return, others persist and return to their hardened state. The agony of this situation for the group of the faithful is described in Isaiah 63:17. Overall, the Book of Isaiah contains a cycle of sin – hardening – judgement – repentance.

This article examines the many occurrences of dying and death in the Acts of the Apostles. While Acts often refers to the death and resurrection of Jesus, it also speaks of the resurrection of the dead in general, of death as a form of divine judgement, of the prospect of death and the actual deaths of persons who believe in Christ, and other forms and instances of natural and violent dying and death. While there are instances of death and references to it in many chapters, the emphasis in Acts lies on different divine and human ways of being saved from death or its threat, and on the resurrection of the dead. Fully acknowledging the reality and tragedy of death, Acts nonetheless proclaims a message of life and salvation.

This article summarises the various hypotheses regarding the purpose of Paul’s Epistle to the Romans, but also examines the Epistle’s connection with Paul’s speech to the Ephesian elders in Miletus. This speech can be dated just a few months later than Romans and contains remarkable parallels to it. This article argues that Romans is only partially explicable in terms of the situations of Paul and the recipients, and that it represents in compact form the quintessence of the ‘whole counsel of God’ (Acts 20:27) that Paul preached.

In the post-Christian West, characterised by ‘apatheism’ with its indifference towards the Christian faith, the communication of faith has a bigger problem with imagination than with reason. People do not see the relevance of faith; faith is meaningless. We therefore argue that apologetic witness in our postmodern context should not only involve ‘defending’ the Christian faith but should also focus on showing the relevance and meaningfulness of faith. In this article we explore the potential of narrative for this purpose. After analysing the concepts of apologetics and narrative, we situate our conception of ‘narrative apologetics’ in a critical realist epistemology, presupposing the hermeneutical nature of epistemic practices and the role of stories in these practices. Here we make use of C.S. Lewis’ observations about the connection between imagination and meaning when it comes to considering ideas as relevant or true. The meaning of ideas of faith can be demonstrated by connecting them to the imagination through narrative. With the help of J.R.R. Tolkien’s understanding of the effects of good fairy-stories, we explicate how narratives can help apologetics to show relevance, to present a friendly invitation for consideration, to offer participation and to retell the story of one’s life in terms of the grand narrative of faith.