Volume I – (1997)
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BOOK REVIEW: An Understanding of Sin and Redemption in Traditional Christianity and in Unification Theology. Doctoral thesis by Alfred O’Connor, University of Wales, 1995.
Journal of Unification Studies Vol. 1, 1997 – Pages 139-142 Alfred O’Connor’s Ph.D. thesis, “An Understanding of Sin and Redemption in Traditional Christianity and in Unification Theology,” is, in my view, a ground-breaking effort in the process of affirming academic respectability for the discussion of Unification theology in scholarly circles. The Faculty of Arts of…
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BOOK REVIEW: God’s Secret Formula: Deciphering the Riddle of the Universe and the Prime Number Code. By Peter Plichta. Rockport, MA: Element Books, 1997.
Journal of Unification Studies Vol. 1, 1997 – Pages 136-139 I was introduced to Peter Plichta several years ago, while I was working with Franz Fiege at the International Religious Foundation. Dr. Plichta had some revolutionary new ideas about science, and especially about how numbers, like 3 and 4, were at the center of reality.…
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BOOK REVIEW: The Rise of Christianity: A Sociologist Reconsiders History. By Rodney Stark. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1996.
Journal of Unification Studies Vol. 1, 1997 – Pages 131-136 How often, in refuting the cult animus attached to the Unification Church, have we argued, “Look, early Christianity was a cult.” It is a seemingly obvious statement, yet few church historians have taken it seriously. It has been commonplace to regard the growth of new…
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BOOK REVIEW: Sacred Violence: Paul’s Hermeneutic of the Cross. By Robert Hamerton-Kelly. Fortress Press, 1992.
Journal of Unification Studies Vol. 1, 1997 – Pages 127-131 Not since the days of Bultmann’s challenge to “demythologize” has there been anything like the commotion over Rene Girard’s attempt to reformulate New Testament theology. Robert Hamerton-Kelly’s book Sacred Violence is the best exposition of the Girardian approach applied to the theology of Paul.[1] Kelly…
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Stages of Moral Development and the Family
Journal of Unification Studies Vol. 1, 1997 – Pages 109-126 In seeking to understand human development, one of the important issues is whether there are stages in development; and if so, what is the nature of the stages and, perhaps more importantly, the relationship between them. Jean Piaget, the eminent Swiss developmental psychologist who spent…
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From Dependence and Independence towards Interdependence: An Analysis of Cultural Trends in the Family and in the World*
Journal of Unification Studies Vol. 1, 1997 – Pages 93-108 In this paper, we will discuss certain cultural trends by examining paradigm changes of the way relationships are conceived in the family and in the world. We will attempt not only to describe these cultural trends but also to prescribe the desirable changes in culture.…
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A New Perspective on John the Baptist’s Failure to Support Jesus
Journal of Unification Studies Vol. 1, 1997 – Pages 71-92 “At the heart of all dialogues between Christians and Jews there is, inevitably, the question of the Messiah: ‘Are you he who is to come, or shall we wait for another?” -Jürgen Moltmann Applied to the New Testament, some of the tasks of the historical-critical…
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Understanding the Word as the Process of Embodiment
Journal of Unification Studies Vol. 1, 1997 – Pages 55-70 What do we mean when we say we understand the Word? Do we mean that we have a conceptual grasp of an idea? Do we mean something more? When Rev. Moon speaks of understanding the Word, he often means it in the sense of embodiment:…
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Contextualization as Incarnation
Journal of Unification Studies Vol. 1, 1997 – Pages 43-54 I have long been fascinated with missiological and theological debates over “contextualization” or “indigenization” because they seemed especially likely to illuminate the long-obscure “black box” of Christian origins. When theologians hold out for the right of Third World Christians to articulate their faith in their…
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Theological Witch-Hunt: The NCC Critique of the Unification Church
Journal of Unification Studies Vol. 1, 1997 – Pages 23-42 On June 21, 1977, the Commission on Faith and Order of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the U.S.A. (the NCC) released to the press and other interested persons a “Critique of the Theology of the Unification Church as Set Forth in Divine…