Knut Alfsvåg

Det er et grunnleggende trekk ved Bibelen at Gud framstilles som giver og mennesket som mottager. Guds ords forsvar for alle menneskers likeverd faller ikke uten videre sammen med vår tids likestillingsideologi. Å hengi seg til en bibelinspirert virkelighetsforståelse betyr derfor at en nærmer seg spørsmålet om alle menneskers likeverd fra en synsvinkel som ikke automatisk gir fortrinnsrett til moderne, liberal protestantisme. Denne boken er et forsøk på å tenke gjennom hva en slik tilnærming innebærer. Knut Alfsvåg er professor i systematisk teologi ved VID Misjonshøyskolen i Stavanger. Gud, modernitet og post-modernitet er noen av hans tema som forfatter og fore-dragsholder.

Denne boken, som her utgis for første gang på norsk, kan takke Martin Luther for sin popularitet og berømmelse. Han kom nemlig over dette skriftet da han selv strevde med å finne fram i teologiens brokete verden – og ble meget begeistret. Her hadde han funnet en anonym forfatter som satte søkelys på det sentrale i troen og som gjorde det uten å bruke lærd, latinsk terminologi. Derfor kalte han boken «Den tyske teologi».Mange har siden tatt del i Luthers begeistring, så skriftet er blitt utgitt mange ganger og på mange språk. Bokens budskap er at virkeligheten er Guds virkelighet og at vi bare oppfatter virkeligheten rett om vi ser den slik. Derfor må egoisme og en selvsentrert livsholdning bekjempes. Dette leder imidlertid ikke til virkelighetsflukt, men til kjærlighetens tjeneste. Et mottagende liv i vår tid er en bevegelse henimot enhet over konfesjonsgrenser. I kampen for å realisere dette er Jesus vårt forbilde.Oversettelsen er gjort av Knut Alfsvåg, som er professor i teologi ved VID vitenskapelige høyskole i Stavanger. Han har også skrevet bokens innledning. I et etterord reflekterer Joachim Grun, som har arbeidet med retreater og åndelig veiledning i mange år, over bokens betydning for Kristusmystikken, og hvordan vi kan utfordres av den.

Theology should be at home both in the academy and in the church. This book takes such dual affiliation seriously and lets the two different contexts illuminate each other. It explores how we should understand theology within the context of the current debate on theory of science and discusses the methodological implications of belief in God as Creator and in the incarnation. The first part of the book concludes by examining the consequences of theology's dual affiliation for the self-understanding of believers in general and theologians in particular. The second part deals with four different sources of theological knowledge and their relation to each other: the Bible, the history of the church, experience, and reason. Among the central issues are the status of the Bible in contemporary theology, the unity of the church, and the relationship between theology and the natural sciences. The central question is: where do we experience divine presence?

If the origin of the world is not a part of the world, what are the implications for our understanding of ourselves, the world, and its origin? In antiquity, both gentile and Christian authors agreed that the significance of this question could only be maintained by accepting the unbridgeable difference between the world and God. Not even Christology as the most ambitious attempt at developing a model for divine-human communication was allowed to undermine the principle of absolute divine difference. This changed with the modern emphasis on univocity and measurability as the defining aspects of knowledge. From the point of view of a philosophy of absolute difference, this appears as an arbitrary loss of perspective. By focusing on four authors--Cusanus, Luther, Hamann, and Kierkegaard--who have explored how the Christian and paradoxical understanding of Christ as eternal God and true human subverts the modern emphasis on unambiguity and definability, the present investigation makes an attempt to retrieve what has been lost. Classical Christology as interpreted by these authors thus appears as an indispensable tool for receiving and appreciating the gift of the world in a way that is not unduly limited by anthropocentric prejudice. ""Alfsvag's work is a further contribution to the deconstruction of modernity. It draws on the critical and constructive potential of premodern insights deployed by Cusanus and Luther and retrieved by Hamann and Kierkegaard. These insights, in line with Scripture and Chalcedonian Christology, are then applied to key theological problems today. The book, which I highly recommend, is accessible to the general reader but written for the scholar."" --Jeffrey Silcock, Australian Lutheran College / University of Divinity ""In this volume Knut Alfsvag tests the relationship between Christianity, and more specifically Christology, and other modes of recent thought by a deep yet focused examination of the relevant positions of Nicolas of Cusa, Martin Luther, Johann Hamann, and Soren Kierkegaard . . . Ultimately, Alfsvag argues that we would do well to consider the ties to created realities that ground the arguments of the early church as well as these select theologians, as we consider our own scientific, philosophical, and theological positions."" --Tim Dost, Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, Missouri ""What is the relationship between the world and the human? Against the irrationality of modernism this study proffers a surprising answer: the indispensability of Christology. Drawing on a line of counter-cultural thinkers, Alfsvag draws out the implications for our time in stimulating fashion. This is a study of gravitas, with far-reaching significance."" --Gordon L. Isaac, Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary Knut Alfsvag is Professor of Systematic Theology at VID Specialized University, Stavanger, Norway. His research focuses on questions concerning the understanding of God and theological method, and the relation between the two. He is the author of the book What No Mind Has Conceived: On the Significance of Christological Apophaticism (2010).

If the origin of the world is not a part of the world, what are the implications for our understanding of ourselves, the world, and its origin? In antiquity, both gentile and Christian authors agreed that the significance of this question could only be maintained by accepting the unbridgeable difference between the world and God. Not even Christology as the most ambitious attempt at developing a model for divine-human communication was allowed to undermine the principle of absolute divine difference. This changed with the modern emphasis on univocity and measurability as the defining aspects of knowledge. From the point of view of a philosophy of absolute difference, this appears as an arbitrary loss of perspective. By focusing on four authors--Cusanus, Luther, Hamann, and Kierkegaard--who have explored how the Christian and paradoxical understanding of Christ as eternal God and true human subverts the modern emphasis on unambiguity and definability, the present investigation makes an attempt to retrieve what has been lost. Classical Christology as interpreted by these authors thus appears as an indispensable tool for receiving and appreciating the gift of the world in a way that is not unduly limited by anthropocentric prejudice. ""Alfsvag's work is a further contribution to the deconstruction of modernity. It draws on the critical and constructive potential of premodern insights deployed by Cusanus and Luther and retrieved by Hamann and Kierkegaard. These insights, in line with Scripture and Chalcedonian Christology, are then applied to key theological problems today. The book, which I highly recommend, is accessible to the general reader but written for the scholar."" --Jeffrey Silcock, Australian Lutheran College / University of Divinity ""In this volume Knut Alfsvag tests the relationship between Christianity, and more specifically Christology, and other modes of recent thought by a deep yet focused examination of the relevant positions of Nicolas of Cusa, Martin Luther, Johann Hamann, and Soren Kierkegaard . . . Ultimately, Alfsvag argues that we would do well to consider the ties to created realities that ground the arguments of the early church as well as these select theologians, as we consider our own scientific, philosophical, and theological positions."" --Tim Dost, Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, Missouri ""What is the relationship between the world and the human? Against the irrationality of modernism this study proffers a surprising answer: the indispensability of Christology. Drawing on a line of counter-cultural thinkers, Alfsvag draws out the implications for our time in stimulating fashion. This is a study of gravitas, with far-reaching significance."" --Gordon L. Isaac, Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary Knut Alfsvag is Professor of Systematic Theology at VID Specialized University, Stavanger, Norway. His research focuses on questions concerning the understanding of God and theological method, and the relation between the two. He is the author of the book What No Mind Has Conceived: On the Significance of Christological Apophaticism (2010).

Martin Luther er en av den europeiske historiens mest innflytelsesrike personer. Hva gjorde ham så viktig? Hva var det ved hans tro og tanke som gjorde at han fikk slik innflytelse? Kan hans måte å gripe an sin tids utfordringer på, ha noe å si oss i møte med vår tids utfordringer? Denne boken er et forsøk på å tenke gjennom disse spørsmålene på en måte som stimulerer og utfordrer til debatt.