George McLeod Newlands FRSE is a Scottish theologian widely published in the fields of modern systematic theology, Christology, emancipatory theology, and the history of Christian thought. He is Emeritus Professor of Divinity at the University of Glasgow, and served as Chair of the Theology, Divinity & Religious Studies panel of the UK's 2008 Research Assessment Exercise and as President of the Society for the Study of Theology for 2013–14.
Newlands held the 1577/1640 Chair of Divinity at the University of Glasgow from 1986 to 2008. [1] He was previously a University Lecturer at the University of Cambridge and Dean of Trinity Hall. He is now an Honorary Professorial Research Fellow at the University of Glasgow and an Honorary Fellow of New College, University of Edinburgh. [2]
Newlands was Dean of Glasgow's Faculty of Divinity from 1988 to 1990, Head of the Department of Theology and Church History from 1986 to 1992, and Director of the Centre for Literature, Theology and the Arts] from 1998 to 2002.[ citation needed ] He was appointed by the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland to be Principal of Trinity College, Glasgow, the Church's college within the Faculty of Divinity, from 1991 to 1997 and again from 2001 to 2007. [3]
Newlands was educated at the University of Edinburgh (MA, BD, DLitt), and gained a PhD in Theology in 1970; [4] Heidelberg (from where he travelled to attend the final seminar of Karl Barth in Basel); [5] Paris; Zurich; and Churchill College, Cambridge (MA). [3]
Newlands is best known for his work interpreting the love of God, particularly a Christology of divine love. In Hilary of Poitiers: a Study in Theological Method (1978), [6] Newlands argues for concepts of love as the key to exegesis in theology. In Theology of the Love of God (1980), [7] Newlands takes concepts of the love of God to be the basic structuring element of Christian theology. Newlands engages interpretations of love in the Christian tradition and contemporary uses of concepts of faith, hope, and history, and proposes that the nature of God as love shapes every aspect of theology. In God in Christian Perspective (1994), [8] Newlands's argument is developed further. An understanding of God as a multi-faceted model draws on Christology and Trinity, and faith and practice in community. God is personal, self-differentiated being, transcendent, yet also immanent in the created order as hidden divine presence. The core elements of theology (faith and revelation, divine action and Christology) are reappraised in the light of current theological proposals. Doctrines, Newlands argues, interact in a web of connection to shape Christian practice. A Christian understanding, however, must retain a basic core of unconditional love, Christologically characterised. A contemporary concept of God draws upon these core elements, and upon a retrieval of the historical traditions from which they arise. It can be articulated in language intelligible to contemporary citizens, and its consequences spelled out within the complexity of contemporary cultures.[ citation needed ]Generosity and the Christian Future (1997) carries this thesis to a further stage through engagement with emancipatory theologies, postmodernity, and political theory. [9] John and Donald Baillie: Transatlantic Theology (2002), [10] built on first access to the Baillie Papers, [11] lies at the heart of Newlands's constructive proposal. Newlands takes the work of John Baillie and Donald Ballie as seminal to the understanding, justification and revisioning of a progressive Christian theology. This tradition is a trajectory against the stream of contemporary theology.[ citation needed ] In The Transformative Imagination: Rethinking Intercultural Theology (2004), [12] Newlands offers a comparative study of connections between theology and culture, through the arts, the sciences, political and human rights issues, and shapes reflection on the mystery of God in a postfoundational frame.
Newlands is also a pioneer in his theological treatments of human rights, published as Christ and Human Rights (2006), [13] Faith and Human Rights (2008), [14] and Hospitable God (2010). [15] He has also written on Christian ethics (Making Christian Decisions, 1985) [7] and ecclesiology (The Church of God, 1984). [7]
Newlands is probably unique in being both an ordained Minister of the Church of Scotland and a priest in the Church of England.[ citation needed ] He is a past Convenor of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland's Panel on Doctrine and has served on the Doctrine Commission of the Church of England, and the Doctrine Committee of the Scottish Episcopal Church.[ citation needed ]
In May 2006, Newlands was involved in the creation of Affirmation Scotland a group within the Church of Scotland seeking "to affirm and celebrate Christ's call for inclusion, generosity and hospitality, and to see the full affirmation of all Christians, progressive and traditional, straight, gay and lesbian, within the Church of Scotland". He is also associated with OneKirk, a network "committed to working for an inclusive, affirming and progressive church".[ citation needed ] Both of these bodies came in the wake of controversies within the Church of Scotland regarding the blessing of civil partnerships for gay and lesbian people.[ citation needed ]
The Athanasian Creed — also called the Pseudo-Athanasian Creed or Quicunque Vult, which is both its Latin name and its opening words, meaning "Whosoever wishes" — is a Christian statement of belief focused on Trinitarian doctrine and Christology. Used by Christian churches since the early sixth century, it was the first creed to explicitly state the equality of the three hypostases of the Trinity. It differs from the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed and the Apostles' Creed in that it includes anathemas condemning those who disagree with its statements.
Adoptionism, also called dynamic monarchianism, is an early Christian nontrinitarian theological doctrine, subsequently revived in various forms, which holds that Jesus was adopted as the Son of God at his baptism, his resurrection, or his ascension. How common adoptionist views were among early Christians is debated, but it appears to have been most popular in the first, second, and third centuries. Some scholars see adoptionism as the belief of the earliest followers of Jesus, based on the epistles of Paul and other early literature. However, adoptionist views sharply declined in prominence in the fourth and fifth centuries, as Church leaders condemned it as a heresy.
In Christianity, Christology is a branch of theology that concerns Jesus. Different denominations have different opinions on questions such as whether Jesus was human, divine, or both, and as a messiah what his role would be in the freeing of the Jewish people from foreign rulers or in the prophesied Kingdom of God, and in the salvation from what would otherwise be the consequences of sin.
The Christian doctrine of the Trinity is the central doctrine concerning the nature of God in most Christian churches, which defines one God existing in three coequal, coeternal, consubstantial divine persons: God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit, three distinct persons (hypostases) sharing one essence/substance/nature (homoousion).
Karl Rahner was a German Jesuit priest and theologian who, alongside Henri de Lubac, Hans Urs von Balthasar, and Yves Congar, is considered to be one of the most influential Catholic theologians of the 20th century. He was the brother of Hugo Rahner, also a Jesuit scholar.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to Christian theology:
Miroslav Volf is a Croatian Protestant theologian and public intellectual and Henry B. Wright Professor of Theology and director of the Yale Center for Faith and Culture at Yale University. He previously taught at the Evangelical Theological Seminary in his native Osijek, Croatia and Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California (1990–1998).
Hypostatic union is a technical term in Christian theology employed in mainstream Christology to describe the union of Christ's humanity and divinity in one hypostasis, or individual personhood.
Miaphysitism is the Christological doctrine that holds Jesus, the "Incarnate Word, is fully divine and fully human, in one 'nature' (physis)." It is a position held by the Oriental Orthodox Churches and differs from the Chalcedonian position that Jesus is one "person" in two "natures", a divine nature and a human nature (dyophysitism).
John Baillie was a Scottish theologian, a Church of Scotland minister and brother of theologian Donald Macpherson Baillie.
Eutychianism, also known as Real Monophysitism, refers to a set of Christian theological doctrines derived from the ideas of Eutyches of Constantinople. Eutychianism is a monophysite understanding of how the human and divine relate within the person of Jesus Christ, with Christ being in one nature and of two, with the humanity of Christ subsumed by the divinity.
Affirmation Scotland was a network within the Church of Scotland seeking full inclusion of the LGBT communities within the Church. It was founded in 2006, during the debate as to whether ministers should be allowed to conduct civil partnership ceremonies. The activities of Affirmation Scotland were coordinated by The Revd. Blair Robertson. At the annual General Assembly Service of Affirmation Scotland in May 2016 Affirmation Scotland was wound up. It exists as a Facebook page where people can post news of interest to LGBTI people, and their friends, connected to The Church of Scotland.
Subordinationism is a Trinitarian doctrine wherein the Son is subordinate to the Father, not only in submission and role, but with actual ontological subordination to varying degrees. It posits a hierarchical ranking of the persons of the Social Trinity, implying ontological subordination of the persons of the Son and the Holy Spirit. It was condemned as heretical in the Second Council of Constantinople.
John Macquarrie (1919–2007) was a Scottish-born theologian, philosopher and Anglican priest. He was the author of Principles of Christian Theology (1966) and Jesus Christ in Modern Thought (1991). Timothy Bradshaw, writing in the Handbook of Anglican Theologians, described Macquarrie as "unquestionably Anglicanism's most distinguished systematic theologian in the second half of the 20th century."
Daniel L. Migliore is a Christian theologian and author. He is Professor Emeritus of Theology at Princeton Theological Seminary.
Roger Haight is an American Jesuit theologian and former president of the Catholic Theological Society of America. He is regarded as a knowledgeable and pioneering theologian, whose experiences with censorship have led to widespread debate over how to handle controversial ideas in the Catholic church today.
John McIntyre was a Scottish minister and theologian. He was Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland 1982/83 and Chaplain to the Queen in Scotland from 1990 to 1996.
Christian theology is the theology – the systematic study of the divine and religion – of Christianity and Christian belief and practice. It concentrates primarily upon the texts of the Old Testament and of the New Testament, as well as on Christian tradition. Christian theologians use biblical exegesis, rational analysis and argument. Theologians may undertake the study of Christian theology for a variety of reasons, such as in order to:
Christology: A Biblical, Historical, and Systematic Study of Jesus is a 2009 theological book by the Australian Jesuit priest and academic Gerald O'Collins. This work was originally published in 1995 with the title Christology: A Biblical, Historical, and Systematic Study of Jesus Christ, but the author thoroughly revised the whole text in 2009 to take account of the numerous biblical, historical, and systematic studies of Jesus that appeared following its first edition.
James P. Mackey was a liberal Catholic theologian who held the Thomas Chalmers chair of theology at the University of Edinburgh from 1979 until his retiral in 1999.
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