Participation and Covenant: Contours of a Theodramatic Theology
Ebook
In Participation and Covenant: Contours of a Theodramatic Theology, Moes develops a theological framework that has participation in the life of God in Christ through the Spirit as its integrative center. In doing so, he enters into conversation with covenant or federal theology, particularly as it has been presented by Michael Horton, in which the integrative center is the concept of the covenant. He argues that God's fundamental relationship with humanity does not entail a covenant ontology--a fundamentally legal and ethical relationship to God, as we find in Horton's presentation--but rather an ontology of participating in God's loving presence in Christ through the Holy Spirit. For this relationship we were created, and this participation is therefore natural to us. Accordingly, a theodramatic framework that incorporates a reframed understanding of divine-human covenants and that has participation in the life of God in Christ by the Spirit as its integrative center is better able to give direction for clearly communicating the gospel in our secular culture and for properly shaping our Christian identity and practice--in the face of the secularism that affects the church, too--than Horton's framework of covenant theology.
“This project is a fascinating introduction to a new theological framework whose purpose is to shape people to become appropriate participants in God’s very life and to tell this gospel story to others in a secular culture. Participation in the life of God is the center of this framework and Dick Moes develops it by using federal theologian Michael Horton’s work as a backdrop. Put on your thinking cap and prepare for an innovative theological feast.”
—Paul Chamberlain, professor of ethics and leadership, Trinity Western University
“This book contributes significantly to the growing interest of Protestant theologians in the concept of human participation in the life of God. It convincingly shows that ontological issues are by no means of a purely theoretical nature: on the contrary, they are crucial for shaping Christian practice and communicating the Gospel in a secular culture. The book is highly recommended for anyone who ponders on the ontology of divine-human communion and its implications for Christian life today.”
—Dmytro Bintsarovskyi, research associate, The Neo-Calvinism Research Institute
“This book is a wonderful contribution and is of great importance to the church. For Christians living in a secularized, self-descriptive, as well as delusional-identity-forming society, this book helps Christians give real hope and answers by breaking through the social imagination of the secular culture (sometimes even rooted in their own lives) by using biblical imaginary. It emphasizes that being a Christian is not simply to believe a list of propositions but also to experience the world through the lens of a meaningful vision.”
—Henk Stoker, rector, Theological School Potchefstroom
- Title: Participation and Covenant: Contours of a Theodramatic Theology
- Author: Dick Moes
- Publisher: Wipf and Stock
- Print Publication Date: 2024
- Logos Release Date: 2024
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Ebook
- ISBNs: 9798385204601, 9798385204588, 9798385204595
- Resource ID: LLS:9798385204601
- Resource Type: Monograph
- Metadata Last Updated: 2024-03-20T18:03:51Z
Dick Moes is pastor emeritus at Surrey Covenant Reformed Church, located in Surrey, British Columbia, Canada, and affiliated with the United Reformed Churches in North America. He earned an MTh degree from the Theological University in Kampen, The Netherlands, in 1980. In 2007, he obtained a DMin from the Associated Canadian Theological Schools (ACTS) in Langley. He completed his PhD at the North-West University in Potchefstroom, South Africa, in 2022.