Cultivating a Vision of the Unseen?

This article investigates what kind of vision should be cultivated when studying the church, as the church is the place where the un-knowable, and un-seeable is made known. By drawing upon hermeneutical questions evolving from ecclesiological fieldwork, and recent contributions to the epistemologica...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Norheim, Bård Eirik Hallesby (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Brill 2015
In: Ecclesial practices
Year: 2015, Volume: 2, Issue: 1, Pages: 40-56
IxTheo Classification:KDD Protestant Church
NBN Ecclesiology
NBQ Eschatology
Further subjects:B Apophatic kataphatic ecclesiology tentatio the three lights of knowledge Martin Luther Harald Hegstad Knut Alfsvåg
Online Access: Volltext (Verlag)
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Summary:This article investigates what kind of vision should be cultivated when studying the church, as the church is the place where the un-knowable, and un-seeable is made known. By drawing upon hermeneutical questions evolving from ecclesiological fieldwork, and recent contributions to the epistemological framework of ecclesiological research (among others Hegstad and McGrath), the article makes a case for developing an ‘apophatic mode’ in ecclesiological research. Utilizing Martin Luther’s epistemological framework in De Servo Aribitrio the article argues that such ecclesiological research, should be understood as a struggle, a tentatio. This struggle is not something external to the being of the church, understood as participation in God, but is actually a mark of the church itself. Fundamentally, ecclesiological reflection as cultivation of theological vision is the cultivation of a dialectic struggle, as the church, the mother of faith, in eschatological perspective is both re(ve)al(ed) and hidden under the cross.
ISSN:2214-4471
Contains:In: Ecclesial practices
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1163/22144471-00201004