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Articles and Review Essays by Brent Hege
Theology and Science, 2014
The Creation Museum in Petersburg, Kentucky, attempts to demonstrate the flaws in contemporary sci... more The Creation Museum in Petersburg, Kentucky, attempts to demonstrate the flaws in contemporary science and to offer an alternative explanation of human origins and biological complexity rooted in a specific reading of the biblical narrative. This effort, however, is paradoxically rooted in the worldview of modern science and the Enlightenment. This article will examine the Creation Museum’s definitions of faith, truth, and religious language and will compare these definitions to those of mainline Protestant Christianity to uncover the historical and theological presuppositions of Creationist and mainline Protestant engagements with contemporary science.
Zeitschrift für Neuere Theologiegeschichte/Journal for the History of Modern Theology, 2012
As dialectical theology rose to prominence in the years following World War I, the new theologian... more As dialectical theology rose to prominence in the years following World War I, the new theologians sought to distance themselves from liberalism in a number of ways, an important one being a rejection of Schleiermacher’s methods and conclusions. In reading the history of Weimar-era theology as it has been written in the twentieth century one would be forgiven for assuming that Schleiermacher found no defenders during this time, as liberal theology quietly faded into the twilight. However, a closer examination of this period reveals a different story. The last generation of liberal theologians consistently appealed to Schleiermacher for support and inspiration, perhaps none more so than Georg Wobbermin, whom B. A. Gerrish has called a “captain of the liberal rear guard.” Wobbermin sought to construct a religio-psychological method on the basis of Schleiermacher’s definition of religion and on his “Copernican turn” toward the subject and resolutely defended such a method against the new dialectical theology long after liberal theology’s supposed demise. A consideration of Wobbermin’s appeals to Schleiermacher in his defense of the liberal program reveals a more complex picture of the state of theology in the Weimar period and of Schleiermacher’s legacy in German Protestant thought.
Radical Philosophy Review, 2011
Teaching Theology and Religion, 2011
One factor contributing to success in online education is the creation of a safe and vibrant virt... more One factor contributing to success in online education is the creation of a safe and vibrant virtual community and sustained, lively engagement with that community of learners. In order to create and engage such a community instructors must pay special attention to the relationship between technology and pedagogy, specifically in terms of issues such as course design, social presence, specially tailored assignments, learner expectations and objectives, and facilitation of sustained engagement with the course material, fellow learners, and the instructor. Several strategies for accomplishing this goal are presented here based on the author’s experiences teaching second-career students in hybrid introductory theology courses at a mainline denominational seminary.
Wilhelm Bousset, a leading member of the religionsgeschichtliche school and author of a seminal w... more Wilhelm Bousset, a leading member of the religionsgeschichtliche school and author of a seminal work on early Christology, Kyrios Christos, is typically regarded by reviewers of his work as a classic nineteenth-century liberal who sought a secure foundation for faith in the historical Jesus. However, this view of Bousset fails to appreciate the significant development of his theological perspective on the relationship between faith and history, a perspective that underwent a profound shift due to the influence of the English historian Thomas Carlyle and the Kantian philosopher Jakob Friedrich Fries. It is the influence of these two figures that enables Bousset to justify a full-scale flight from history and to seek faith’s foundation elsewhere, in the poetic symbol of Jesus Christ. The resulting solution to the problem of faith and history represents a unique and compelling alternative to the solutions of the leading theologians and New Testament scholars of the early twentieth century.
Theologische Zeitschrift, 2008
Recent historical studies of liberal theology in the Weimar era have called into question the pop... more Recent historical studies of liberal theology in the Weimar era have called into question the popular thesis of liberal theology's sudden demise and disappearance coincident with the First World War and the publication of Karl Barth's Römerbrief. Historians of this period of theology are rediscovering a vibrant liberal theology active well into the 1920s and even into the 1930s. One of these liberal theologians, Georg Wobbermin, was particularly active in this period, and his work serves as an example of a constructive liberal theology pursued in the midst of dialectical theology's rise to prominence on the German-speaking theological scene. Wobbermin's debates with Barth on theological method, specifically on religious subjectivity, and on the heritage of Luther and Schleiermacher in early twentieth-century theology serve as a case study for testing the theses of the continuity and productivity of liberal theology beyond its supposed demise in 1918. Wobbermin's constructive work on the religio-psychological method and his conscious efforts to continue the Copernican revolutions of Luther, Kant, and Schleiermacher suggest a more complex picture of German-speaking Protestant theology in the Weimar era than most histories of this period have presented.
Shorter Book Reviews by Brent Hege
Interpretation: A Journal of Bible and Theology, 2013
Seminary Ridge Review, 2012
Interpretation: A Journal of Bible and Theology, 2012
Interpretation: A Journal of Bible and Theology, 2012
Interpretation-a Journal of Bible and Theology, 2011
Review of Historicism: The Once and Future Challenge for Theology, by Sheila Greeve Davaney
Review of Stroup's Before God.
Theology and Science, 2014
The Creation Museum in Petersburg, Kentucky, attempts to demonstrate the flaws in contemporary sci... more The Creation Museum in Petersburg, Kentucky, attempts to demonstrate the flaws in contemporary science and to offer an alternative explanation of human origins and biological complexity rooted in a specific reading of the biblical narrative. This effort, however, is paradoxically rooted in the worldview of modern science and the Enlightenment. This article will examine the Creation Museum’s definitions of faith, truth, and religious language and will compare these definitions to those of mainline Protestant Christianity to uncover the historical and theological presuppositions of Creationist and mainline Protestant engagements with contemporary science.
Zeitschrift für Neuere Theologiegeschichte/Journal for the History of Modern Theology, 2012
As dialectical theology rose to prominence in the years following World War I, the new theologian... more As dialectical theology rose to prominence in the years following World War I, the new theologians sought to distance themselves from liberalism in a number of ways, an important one being a rejection of Schleiermacher’s methods and conclusions. In reading the history of Weimar-era theology as it has been written in the twentieth century one would be forgiven for assuming that Schleiermacher found no defenders during this time, as liberal theology quietly faded into the twilight. However, a closer examination of this period reveals a different story. The last generation of liberal theologians consistently appealed to Schleiermacher for support and inspiration, perhaps none more so than Georg Wobbermin, whom B. A. Gerrish has called a “captain of the liberal rear guard.” Wobbermin sought to construct a religio-psychological method on the basis of Schleiermacher’s definition of religion and on his “Copernican turn” toward the subject and resolutely defended such a method against the new dialectical theology long after liberal theology’s supposed demise. A consideration of Wobbermin’s appeals to Schleiermacher in his defense of the liberal program reveals a more complex picture of the state of theology in the Weimar period and of Schleiermacher’s legacy in German Protestant thought.
Radical Philosophy Review, 2011
Teaching Theology and Religion, 2011
One factor contributing to success in online education is the creation of a safe and vibrant virt... more One factor contributing to success in online education is the creation of a safe and vibrant virtual community and sustained, lively engagement with that community of learners. In order to create and engage such a community instructors must pay special attention to the relationship between technology and pedagogy, specifically in terms of issues such as course design, social presence, specially tailored assignments, learner expectations and objectives, and facilitation of sustained engagement with the course material, fellow learners, and the instructor. Several strategies for accomplishing this goal are presented here based on the author’s experiences teaching second-career students in hybrid introductory theology courses at a mainline denominational seminary.
Wilhelm Bousset, a leading member of the religionsgeschichtliche school and author of a seminal w... more Wilhelm Bousset, a leading member of the religionsgeschichtliche school and author of a seminal work on early Christology, Kyrios Christos, is typically regarded by reviewers of his work as a classic nineteenth-century liberal who sought a secure foundation for faith in the historical Jesus. However, this view of Bousset fails to appreciate the significant development of his theological perspective on the relationship between faith and history, a perspective that underwent a profound shift due to the influence of the English historian Thomas Carlyle and the Kantian philosopher Jakob Friedrich Fries. It is the influence of these two figures that enables Bousset to justify a full-scale flight from history and to seek faith’s foundation elsewhere, in the poetic symbol of Jesus Christ. The resulting solution to the problem of faith and history represents a unique and compelling alternative to the solutions of the leading theologians and New Testament scholars of the early twentieth century.
Theologische Zeitschrift, 2008
Recent historical studies of liberal theology in the Weimar era have called into question the pop... more Recent historical studies of liberal theology in the Weimar era have called into question the popular thesis of liberal theology's sudden demise and disappearance coincident with the First World War and the publication of Karl Barth's Römerbrief. Historians of this period of theology are rediscovering a vibrant liberal theology active well into the 1920s and even into the 1930s. One of these liberal theologians, Georg Wobbermin, was particularly active in this period, and his work serves as an example of a constructive liberal theology pursued in the midst of dialectical theology's rise to prominence on the German-speaking theological scene. Wobbermin's debates with Barth on theological method, specifically on religious subjectivity, and on the heritage of Luther and Schleiermacher in early twentieth-century theology serve as a case study for testing the theses of the continuity and productivity of liberal theology beyond its supposed demise in 1918. Wobbermin's constructive work on the religio-psychological method and his conscious efforts to continue the Copernican revolutions of Luther, Kant, and Schleiermacher suggest a more complex picture of German-speaking Protestant theology in the Weimar era than most histories of this period have presented.
Interpretation: A Journal of Bible and Theology, 2013
Seminary Ridge Review, 2012
Interpretation: A Journal of Bible and Theology, 2012
Interpretation: A Journal of Bible and Theology, 2012
Interpretation-a Journal of Bible and Theology, 2011
Review of Historicism: The Once and Future Challenge for Theology, by Sheila Greeve Davaney
Review of Stroup's Before God.
Politics and Religion, 2013
release of nineteen other captured Indians, or refusing to shoot the Indian, which the captain sa... more release of nineteen other captured Indians, or refusing to shoot the Indian, which the captain says will lead him to shoot the nineteen others (95). Fisher notes that philosophers disagree about what the botanist ought to do, which he takes as a weakness of absolutist theories. But the point of Williams' example, which he offered in an exchange over utilitarianism, is that morality involves more than weighing and numbers, even of lives. It also involves agency, intention, and responsibility. Williams means for his reader to feel the pull of the notion that some things ought not to be done despite the consequences of not doing them. Consequentialism, by contrast, purports to weigh what cannot be weigheda given state of affairs versus an agent's responsibility never to act against a basic human good, in this case, life. The choice it proposes is one that a person cannot coherently perform. If an absolutist ethicdeontological or natural lawwere to allow such weighing to take place, then it would no longer be the moral theory that it purports to be. In that case, however, it could no longer be combined with other theories of morality, as Fisher proposes to do in his tripartite amalgam.
Journal for the History of Modern Theology / Zeitschrift für Neuere Theologiegeschichte, 2012
As dialectical theology rose to prominence in the years following World War I, the new theologian... more As dialectical theology rose to prominence in the years following World War I, the new theologians sought to distance themselves from liberalism in a number of ways, an important one being a rejection of Schleiermacher’s methods and conclusions. In reading the history of Weimar-era theology as it has been written in the twentieth century one would be forgiven for assuming that Schleiermacher found no defenders during this time, as liberal theology quietly faded into the twilight. However, a closer examination of this period reveals a different story. The last generation of liberal theologians consistently appealed to Schleiermacher for support and inspiration, perhaps none more so than Georg Wobbermin, whom B. A. Gerrish has called a “captain of the liberal rear guard.” Wobbermin sought to construct a religio-psychological method on the basis of Schleiermacher’s definition of religion and on his “Copernican turn” toward the subject and resolutely defended such a method against the new dialectical theology long after liberal theology’s supposed demise. A consideration of Wobbermin’s appeals to Schleiermacher in his defense of the liberal program reveals a more complex picture of the state of theology in the Weimar period and of Schleiermacher’s legacy in German Protestant thought.
Politics and Religion, 2013
release of nineteen other captured Indians, or refusing to shoot the Indian, which the captain sa... more release of nineteen other captured Indians, or refusing to shoot the Indian, which the captain says will lead him to shoot the nineteen others (95). Fisher notes that philosophers disagree about what the botanist ought to do, which he takes as a weakness of absolutist theories. But the point of Williams' example, which he offered in an exchange over utilitarianism, is that morality involves more than weighing and numbers, even of lives. It also involves agency, intention, and responsibility. Williams means for his reader to feel the pull of the notion that some things ought not to be done despite the consequences of not doing them. Consequentialism, by contrast, purports to weigh what cannot be weigheda given state of affairs versus an agent's responsibility never to act against a basic human good, in this case, life. The choice it proposes is one that a person cannot coherently perform. If an absolutist ethicdeontological or natural lawwere to allow such weighing to take place, then it would no longer be the moral theory that it purports to be. In that case, however, it could no longer be combined with other theories of morality, as Fisher proposes to do in his tripartite amalgam.
Teaching Theology & Religion, 2016
Teaching Theology & Religion, 2015