John W. Hoyum | Grand View University (original) (raw)
I take special interest in systematic theology, the sixteenth century (especially Martin Luther), and continental philosophy of religion.
Address: Seattle, WA
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Leibniz-Institut für Europäische Geschichte (IEG), Mainz
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Papers by John W. Hoyum
This article takes up Robert Jenson's theology of culture. According to Jenson, the church is a h... more This article takes up Robert Jenson's theology of culture. According to Jenson, the church is a heavenly culture of its own alongside various worldly cultures. The church, therefore, presents a rival agenda for human social life conformed to a distinct Christian ethics and polity. Jenson's brand of ecumenical ecclesiology has also been leveraged against the challenge of modern secularity. However, this article contends that Jenson's ecumenical vision overinflates the doctrine of the church by assigning culture to it. Jenson's ecclesiology risks the particularity of the various cultures, languages, and contexts in which the gospel is proclaimed. To redistribute the contents of ecumenical ecclesiologyand its theology of culture-into the doctrine of creation, this article culminates with an examination of Martin Luther's theology and that of the Lutheran Confessions.
This article engages Luther's doctrine of Christ's passive obedience (obedientia passiva) – a the... more This article engages Luther's doctrine of Christ's passive obedience (obedientia passiva) – a theme that comes to fullest expression in his Lectures on Galatians (1531/5). There, Luther argues that the sins of the godless become the true possession of the vicariously suffering Son. In turn, Christ's atonement for the sake of the world underwrites a soteriology of the creature's renewed humanity in which the sinner is reoriented outwardly in loving servitude of the neighbor. Luther's The Freedom of a Christian (1520) provides the contours of this linkage most fully. This article therefore seeks to elucidate the connections between God's exposure to sin at the cross and the subsequent logic of the human's recovered relation to the other within the creation.
I talk about some of the theories about how the Holy Spirit disappeared in Lutheran theology, and... more I talk about some of the theories about how the Holy Spirit disappeared in Lutheran theology, and offer St. Paul's pneumatology as a supplement.
I argue that Robert Jenson’s pneumatology, as it is developed in his Systematic Theology, secures... more I argue that Robert Jenson’s pneumatology, as it is developed in his Systematic Theology, secures the personhood of the Holy Spirit by emphasizing the narrative and eschatological dimensions of God’s being. While Jenson successfully eludes the problem of abstraction implicit in many classic pneumatological approaches, I suggest that his reconstructed pneumatology fails to go far enough to personalize the Spirit in narrative concrescence. To push Jenson’s insight to a further, yet more salutary, extent, I enlist the pneumatology of Martin Luther, whose understanding ofproclamation in word and sacrament provides an adequately historical, eschatological, narrative frame for a fully personal account of the Holy Spirit.
Book Chapters by John W. Hoyum
Book Reviews by John W. Hoyum
Word & World volume 43, number 1, 2023
Together with review essays by John Hoyum and Timothy Saleska, and response from Paulson.
include but do not coherently integrate "finite" and "transcendent" elements when articulating th... more include but do not coherently integrate "finite" and "transcendent" elements when articulating their identities. "There is little to no mention of the relationship between these [educational] values and the theological claims that support them" (106). Beckstrom calls this phenomenon "identity stew." Chapter eight shows how various understandings of secularity contribute to this phenomenon and how the Trinitarian framework provides an effective response. Unfortunately, this book is neither fish nor fowl. Chapters two and three may benefit newcomers to Lutheran higher education but will not be helpful for the cognoscenti, as they plow no new ground. Chapters six through eight, on the other hand, tackle theoretical and practical issues most relevant to those who lead Lutheran (and other Christian) institutions. The author's "Trinitarian missiological ecclesiology" (86) is a helpful corrective to accounts of Lutheran higher education that hide its theological light under the bushel of a secularized account of vocation. However, strikingly absent from his account is any mention of the cross. He portrays Jesus as the Son sent by the Father, but not as the God crucified for sinners. It is one thing to say that the Triune God invites people into a rich theological dialogue. It is quite another to say that God is reconciling sinners to himself in Christ. Some readers, including this reviewer, will therefore find this account incomplete. Nevertheless, anyone who leads Christian institutions would be well served by reading the book, particularly the last three chapters.
This article takes up Robert Jenson's theology of culture. According to Jenson, the church is a h... more This article takes up Robert Jenson's theology of culture. According to Jenson, the church is a heavenly culture of its own alongside various worldly cultures. The church, therefore, presents a rival agenda for human social life conformed to a distinct Christian ethics and polity. Jenson's brand of ecumenical ecclesiology has also been leveraged against the challenge of modern secularity. However, this article contends that Jenson's ecumenical vision overinflates the doctrine of the church by assigning culture to it. Jenson's ecclesiology risks the particularity of the various cultures, languages, and contexts in which the gospel is proclaimed. To redistribute the contents of ecumenical ecclesiologyand its theology of culture-into the doctrine of creation, this article culminates with an examination of Martin Luther's theology and that of the Lutheran Confessions.
This article engages Luther's doctrine of Christ's passive obedience (obedientia passiva) – a the... more This article engages Luther's doctrine of Christ's passive obedience (obedientia passiva) – a theme that comes to fullest expression in his Lectures on Galatians (1531/5). There, Luther argues that the sins of the godless become the true possession of the vicariously suffering Son. In turn, Christ's atonement for the sake of the world underwrites a soteriology of the creature's renewed humanity in which the sinner is reoriented outwardly in loving servitude of the neighbor. Luther's The Freedom of a Christian (1520) provides the contours of this linkage most fully. This article therefore seeks to elucidate the connections between God's exposure to sin at the cross and the subsequent logic of the human's recovered relation to the other within the creation.
I talk about some of the theories about how the Holy Spirit disappeared in Lutheran theology, and... more I talk about some of the theories about how the Holy Spirit disappeared in Lutheran theology, and offer St. Paul's pneumatology as a supplement.
I argue that Robert Jenson’s pneumatology, as it is developed in his Systematic Theology, secures... more I argue that Robert Jenson’s pneumatology, as it is developed in his Systematic Theology, secures the personhood of the Holy Spirit by emphasizing the narrative and eschatological dimensions of God’s being. While Jenson successfully eludes the problem of abstraction implicit in many classic pneumatological approaches, I suggest that his reconstructed pneumatology fails to go far enough to personalize the Spirit in narrative concrescence. To push Jenson’s insight to a further, yet more salutary, extent, I enlist the pneumatology of Martin Luther, whose understanding ofproclamation in word and sacrament provides an adequately historical, eschatological, narrative frame for a fully personal account of the Holy Spirit.
Word & World volume 43, number 1, 2023
Together with review essays by John Hoyum and Timothy Saleska, and response from Paulson.
include but do not coherently integrate "finite" and "transcendent" elements when articulating th... more include but do not coherently integrate "finite" and "transcendent" elements when articulating their identities. "There is little to no mention of the relationship between these [educational] values and the theological claims that support them" (106). Beckstrom calls this phenomenon "identity stew." Chapter eight shows how various understandings of secularity contribute to this phenomenon and how the Trinitarian framework provides an effective response. Unfortunately, this book is neither fish nor fowl. Chapters two and three may benefit newcomers to Lutheran higher education but will not be helpful for the cognoscenti, as they plow no new ground. Chapters six through eight, on the other hand, tackle theoretical and practical issues most relevant to those who lead Lutheran (and other Christian) institutions. The author's "Trinitarian missiological ecclesiology" (86) is a helpful corrective to accounts of Lutheran higher education that hide its theological light under the bushel of a secularized account of vocation. However, strikingly absent from his account is any mention of the cross. He portrays Jesus as the Son sent by the Father, but not as the God crucified for sinners. It is one thing to say that the Triune God invites people into a rich theological dialogue. It is quite another to say that God is reconciling sinners to himself in Christ. Some readers, including this reviewer, will therefore find this account incomplete. Nevertheless, anyone who leads Christian institutions would be well served by reading the book, particularly the last three chapters.
has set out to reintroduce Martin Luther and his theology to evangelical Christians in the twenty... more has set out to reintroduce Martin Luther and his theology to evangelical Christians in the twenty-first century. Consequently, Luther for Evangelicals is not an act of Luther-interpretation per se. Rather, it is a self-conscious exercise in theological hermeneutics with the specific goal of tendering an account of Luther's theology that is relevant and accessible to Anglophone evangelicals. Moreover, the book is designed to push readers into a sustained and firsthand interaction with Luther's writings themselves. Structurally, the book is divided into two parts, the first of which-"Luther in Evangelical Perspective"-introduces Luther's theology from the vantage of four major preoccupations in contemporary evangelicalism: the new birth, the Bible, evangelization, and the atonement.
