Reformed Churchmen

We are Confessional Calvinists and a Prayer Book Church-people. In 2012, we remembered the 350th anniversary of the 1662 Book of Common Prayer; also, we remembered the 450th anniversary of John Jewel's sober, scholarly, and Reformed "An Apology of the Church of England." In 2013, we remembered the publication of the "Heidelberg Catechism" and the influence of Reformed theologians in England, including Heinrich Bullinger's Decades. For 2014: Tyndale's NT translation. For 2015, John Roger, Rowland Taylor and Bishop John Hooper's martyrdom, burned at the stakes. Books of the month. December 2014: Alan Jacob's "Book of Common Prayer" at: http://www.amazon.com/Book-Common-Prayer-Biography-Religious/dp/0691154813/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1417814005&sr=8-1&keywords=jacobs+book+of+common+prayer. January 2015: A.F. Pollard's "Thomas Cranmer and the English Reformation: 1489-1556" at: http://www.amazon.com/Thomas-Cranmer-English-Reformation-1489-1556/dp/1592448658/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1420055574&sr=8-1&keywords=A.F.+Pollard+Cranmer. February 2015: Jaspar Ridley's "Thomas Cranmer" at: http://www.amazon.com/Thomas-Cranmer-Jasper-Ridley/dp/0198212879/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1422892154&sr=8-1&keywords=jasper+ridley+cranmer&pebp=1422892151110&peasin=198212879

Friday, August 16, 2013

Gustav Oehler, Yale, Schleiermacher, Marcionism, OT Theology & 2013?

Gustav Friedrich Oehler
June, 10 1812-February, 19 1872
German theologian
Confessional Lutheran
Oehler, Gustav Friedrich. Theology of the Old Testament (trans. George E. Day). Minneapolis, MN: Klock and Klock Christian Publishers, 1978 reprint. Originally, it was printed by T & T Clark in 1878.

It is available at:
http://www.amazon.com/Theology-Testament-Gustav-Friedrich-Oehler/dp/1290429588/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1376539292&sr=8-1&keywords=gustav+oehler+theology+of+the+old+testament

It is available online at:http://books.google.com/books?id=sRhAAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=gustav+oehler+theology+of+the+old+testament&hl=en&sa=X&ei=BVwMUqb0NIXY9AS_uoDoBQ&ved=0CDoQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=gustav%20oehler%20theology%20of%20the%20old%20testament&f=false

Marcionism in our time? That is a good question.  Also, was he anticipating and engaging liberalism?

Two points: (1) Mr. (Prof.) Day's comments about Mr. (Prof.) Oehler and (2) Mr. (Prof.) Oehler's introductory comments to his work.

George Day, Professor at the Divinity School of Yale, offered in 1883 several comments about Mr. (Prof.) Gustav Oehler’s 569-page volume. The 569-page volume covers 250 sections (denoted as § like law books) on Mosaism, Prophetism, and Old Testament Wisdom.

Mr. Day says the following (and it is amazing to read a Yale Professor in 1883 saying this of a German production from 1873...before liberalism took root):

• Mr. Oehler evinces a “wide range of thought and a thoroughness…”


• Mr. Oehler taught the Old Testament for thirty years

• Mr. Oehler contributed forty articles to Herzog’s Real-Encyclopedia

• Concerning the knowledge of the Old Testament: “The needs exist now, more than ever, to be made familiar with it…”

• The Old Testament is a “clear exhibition of the revelation of Himself, by the most High, and the Divine thoughts by which men were educated for the coming Christ…”

Mr. (Prof.) Oehler offers these points in an “Introductory Lecture” to his volume:

• The “special need of the age is a fuller recognition of the Old Testament for religion and life” (1). This remains true today.

• “To this end the first requisite is that theologians form a more thorough acquaintance with the Old Testament” (1). [Italics in the original.]

• The two Testaments are “the great economy of salvation—unam continuum systema, as Bengel puts it…” [Italics in the original.]

• The Old Testament is an “organism of divine acts and testimonies… (1).

• “We are met in recent times by a view of the Old Testament which entirely dissevers the Old Testament religion from any specific connection to the New Testament…” (2). He connects this to Mr. (Prof.) Schleiermacher.

• By these types or in this trend, “the Old Testament is as far as possible avoided.”

• Again, in reference to these Marcionites, there is the “denial of specific character as divine revelation.”

• “The Old Testament still retains its importance for Christian doctrine” (2).

• “Scripture is, as Oetinger has called it, the store-book of the world” (2).

This is not new, but it's good to revisit, review, and retour this old Master.

Mr. Oehler, a Confessional Lutheran Churchman, speaks anew and afresh.

The English Tractarians simply loved Lutherans (tongue firmly in cheek).

I wonder afresh to what degree a spirit of Marcionism has informed the modern age.

That was a question for Mr. Oehler's day. It "is" one for today.
 

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