NTT Journal for Theology and the Study of Religion - Volume 67, Issue 2, 2013

This article reflects the outcome of a research project on the content and specific features of contemporary Protestant sermons in the Netherlands. The presupposition is that Protestant sermons have to deal in some way with all aspects of daily life in their relevance before God. A qualitative analysis of 20 sermons from a wide range of spiritual denominations within the Protestant Church in the Netherlands shows first of all which expectations are being evoked by the preachers concerning the sermon that follows. Secondly, a number of specific features is analysed: how does the sermon relate to the cultural-societal context, which moral and cultural values are predominant, what are the images of God and of human beings that occur in the sermon, how does the sermon deal with salvation and doom and finally in what way is the Bible a source and standard in the minister’s preaching. The conclusions of this first part of a wider research-program indicates a kind of theological vagueness of the sermons that ultimately determines their language, style and content. Our thesis regarding further research is that this has to do with the changing cultural and ecclesial context, as well as a theological illegibility concerning the specific meaning of the Gospel in our network-society with its liquidity and fluidity in spiritual and moral issues.

Discussions concerning the trinitarian renaissance often focus on the social doctrine of the trinity. However, this renaissance was originally also of hermeneutical significance, as demonstrated in the work of Ingolf U. Dalferth. In the cross and resurrection of Jesus Christ, God’s Spirit discloses God’s presence to us and affords us new orientation in this light. The main problem of Dalferth’s contribution is the lack of hypostatical weight of the Son. As a result, the renewal of human subjectivity in Christ is neglected.

This article unravels a hitherto unstudied chapter in the relationship between science and religion in the Islamic tradition. The main focus here is the discourse of the 13^th-century Muslim jurist al-Qarāfī on the development of embryos during pregnancy; the opinions of four other jurists are also outlined. These juristic discussions show that religious rulings relevant to embryology were drafted not only with the help of relevant references in the Islamic holy scriptures but also by consulting medical writings. The medical works attributed to Hippocrates as well as those of Jewish physicians proved to be influential in these juristic discussions.

This contribution explores the topos of the Pilgrim and the Tourist, and examines how it has developed, how, and in which contexts, it was used and appropriated. For this purpose a compact fourfold typology of the topos is offered. In the first three, we see a clear movement from divergence toward convergence. In the last type we are beyond the topos. The Pilgrim and the Tourist are no longer poles of a coherent scale or taxonomy; rather, they are accents in a complex whole of ritual and cultural dynamics, in which they can flow into each other.

This article discusses Kurt Koch’s book on the church as a crucial text for contempora-ry theology. Koch adopts a ‘hermeneutics of reform’ and emphasizes that the image of the church as the people of God should not be employed in isolation from the image of the church as the mystical body of Christ. He proposes that we return to the early Christian order in the sacraments of initiation: baptism, confirmation, eucharist. He also suggests that a return to some form of disciplina arcani might enable the church to safeguard its time-honored sacramental liturgy, while simultaneously making room for new ritual forms for those who no longer understand the traditional liturgy. Finally, he emphasizes that the ecumenical movement should not be content with cooperation and mutual recognition, but should aim at real unity.