Book Reviews by Marko Lukic
Spes Christiana, 2021
This book was born as an answer to an issue raised from the floor at the 2015 General Conference ... more This book was born as an answer to an issue raised from the floor at the 2015 General Conference (GC) Session in San Antonio, Texas (pp. 2-4). The discussion of women's ordination led to the observation that Seventh-day Adventists (SDA) are drawing different conclusions from the same Scriptures. In attempts to explain this reality, it was proposed that there coexist two different hermeneutics within the world church and that it would be necessary to address this confusion. Therefore, as the answer to the request, the Biblical Research Institute (BRI) has produced this book. The proclaimed goal of this work is to present an approved Adventist hermeneutic that could be accepted by the global church. The book is a compendium of articles written by twelve Adventist scholars. It contains a general introduction, fourteen chapters, and an appendix where authors systematically cover various topics that are found to be the building blocks for this one hermeneutical approach.
Papers by Marko Lukic
This book was born as an answer to an issue raised from the floor at the 2015 General Conference ... more This book was born as an answer to an issue raised from the floor at the 2015 General Conference (GC) Session in San Antonio, Texas (pp. 2‒4). The discussion of women's ordination led to the observation that Seventh-day Adventists are drawing different conclusions from the same Scriptures. In attempts to explain this reality, it was proposed that there coexist two different hermeneutics within the world church and that it would be necessary to address this confusion. Therefore, as the answer to the request, the Biblical Research Institute has produced this book. The proclaimed goal of this work is to present an approved Adventist hermeneutic that could be accepted by the global church.
Thesis Chapters by Marko Lukic
While the arrival of Adventism on the historical scene was not followed by any doctrinal innovati... more While the arrival of Adventism on the historical scene was not followed by any doctrinal innovations, and despite the fact that the early Adventists developed their own theological system by combining doctrines which were already present within their theological milieu, theologians sharply disagree when they have to classify Adventism. The difficulty arises from the fact that the uniqueness of Adventism is not seated on the doctrinal level where classification is usually decided, but rather on the level of metaphysics. The theory of paradigms developed by Thomas Kuhn reveals two more levels beyond the level of doctrinal conclusions, namely metaphysical and sociological, which form the ultimate context within which these conclusions are developed. As a consequence of mutual interdependence, the concrete problem-solutions are seen as paradigm-dependent and expose the link between the non-empirical and concrete, i.e. between the metaphysics and doctrinal problem-solutions. In this study, the three core doctrines of early Adventism are analyzed together with the hermeneutical methods used during their development in order to distil five metaphysical elements which together, articulated in narrative form, fashion and limit the early Adventist paradigm. This study is an exercise in descriptive metaphysics which follows how that metaphysics found its unique story-form expression, how it shaped the general theological, interpretative and philosophical outlook of the early Adventists, and compares and contrasts it with the existing theological paradigms. As a result of this approach it becomes clear that the early Adventists perceived the world from a radically different perspective. The uniqueness of early Adventism seems to be in their adoption of scriptural rather than Greek metaphysics and the consequent development of a Hebrew-like way of thinking. With Greek philosophical ‘glasses’ out of the way the same doctrines looked completely different and were reorganized to fit the new, narrative-based theological system. This study should help non-Adventists to understand the heart of Adventist theology on its own terms and can also be helpful for Adventists engaged in ongoing theological debate to look beyond the doctrinal maze, to become sensitive to the early Adventist paradigm, and to recognize its developmental potential.
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Book Reviews by Marko Lukic
Papers by Marko Lukic
Thesis Chapters by Marko Lukic