J.H. Kurtz: "Offerings, Sacrifices, and Worship in the Old Testament"

Kurtz, J.H. Offerings, Sacrifices, and Worship in the Old Testament (trans. James Martin). Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, 1998.

Available at:

http://www.amazon.com/Offerings-Sacrifices-Worship-Old-Testament/dp/1565633954/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1376532149&sr=1-1&keywords=J.+H.+Kurtz+Offerings%2C+Sacrifices%2C+and+Worship+in+the+Old+Testament...

J. H. Kurtz (1809-1890) was a prominent German scholar and church historian. He served as professor of church history and Old Testament at the University of Dorpat.

Did the “slaughtering of expiatory sacrifices have signification of poenia vicaria" is the issue Mr. Kurtz seeks to address. He notes that theologians are “widely separated” (10). We are not sure what the antecedent is to which Mr. Kurtz refers, but we suspect it to be incipient and blossoming liberal theology.

Over 453 pages, Mr. Kurtz constructs Four Books.

Book One: The General Basis of Sacrificial Worship in the Old Testament

1. Persons sacrificing: people and priests
2. Place of sacrifice
3. Various kinds of sacrifice

Book Two: Bleeding Sacrifices

1. Ritual of sacrifices
2. Varieties of bleeding sacrifices: theological and ritual characteristics, similarities and distinctions in sin offerings, burnt offerings, peace offerings, and trespass offerings.

Book Three: Bloodless Sacrifices

1. Material of bloodless sacrifices
2. Minchah of the fore-court
3. Minchah of the Holy Place

Book Four: Modification of Sacrificial Worship in Connection with Special Seasons and Circumstances

1. Consecration of people, priests and Levites
2. Adaptation to special seasons and feasts:
 
a. Mosaic idea of Feast
b. Daily, weekly and monthly sacrifices
c. Passover
d. Pentecost
e. Tabernacle
f. Day of Atonement

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s4MKOP-vhQ0

A good hymn for Lent and Holy Communion at any day. We do our bounden duty and offer our "sacrifice of praise, thanksgiving," and our bodies and minds as a "reasonable service and sacrifice" in response to the final, sufficient, abiding, definitive and abidingly valid offering and oblation of Christ for His people. Does anyone suggest less than this love to God and our fellow Churchmen as we kneel together?

1. Ah, holy Jesus, how hast Thou offended,
That man to judge Thee hath in hate pretended?
By foes derided, by Thine own rejected,
O most afflicted.

2. Who was the guilty? Who brought this upon Thee?
Alas, my treason, Jesus, hath undone Thee.
’Twas I, Lord, Jesus, I it was denied Thee!
I crucified Thee.

3. Lo, the Good Shepherd for the sheep is offered;
The slave hath sinned, and the Son hath suffered;
For man’s atonement, while he nothing heedeth,
God intercedeth.

4. For me, kind Jesus, was Thy incarnation,
Thy mortal sorrow, and Thy life’s oblation;
Thy death of anguish and Thy bitter passion,
For my salvation.

5. Therefore, kind Jesus, since I cannot pay Thee,
I do adore Thee, and will ever pray Thee,
Think on Thy pity and Thy love unswerving,
Not my deserving.

Cranmer's Curate: Collect Presupposes Penal Substition

http://cranmercurate.blogspot.com/2012/03/collect-presupposing-penal-substitution.html

Sunday, 18 March 2012

COLLECT PRESUPPOSING PENAL SUBSTITUTION

Is one's theory of the atonement influenced by one's psychological profile? That it tends to be was the claim Cranmer's Curate heard at a recent theological lecture here in Sheffield.

So if one is prone to low self-esteem and guilt feelings, then one leans towards the penal subsitutionary view, the idea that Christ's death on the Cross propitiated the wrath of God that would otherwise fall on guilty sinners.

If one is an activist with a sense of social duty, then one leans towards the exemplary view of the atonement, the idea that Christ exemplified self-sacrificial love by his death.

If one is an optimistic triumphalist type, then one leans towards the Christus Victor view as the dominant theory of atonement, the idea that Christ's death decisively defeated the forces of evil.

Given that Anglicanism holds Holy Scripture to be the supreme authority, then communicant Anglicans have a moral obligation to adjust their personality type to the truth that God has revealed rather than foisting their psychological profile on the atonement.

Which leaves communicants with a choice in relation to the Book of Common Prayer. Because the Prayer Book breathes the doctrine of penal substitutionary atonement, either one must see its perspective as a reflection of Thomas Cranmer's psychological profile or one must decide that it is faithfully biblical.

Whilst the BCP holds that Christ did set an example in his death (see its Collect for the Sunday Next Before Easter) and also holds that he did defeat the forces of evil (a victory the BCP attaches more to his resurrection - see for example the Collect for Easter Day), the perspective in its Holy Communion service is that atonement is centrally about the fact that Christ's propitiatory sacrifice on the Cross has satisfied the just judgement of God upon sin.

Blogging off until after Easter, Cranmer's Curate leaves the youth group with the BCP Collect for the Fourth Sunday of Lent, a prayer that presupposes penal substitution. It presents the reality of the divine wrath that the Lord Jesus averted from us by his propitiatory death:

Grant, we beseech thee, Almighty God, that we, who for our evil deeds do worthily deserve to be punished, by the comfort of thy grace may mercifully be relieved; through our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.