Scripture and Its Interpretation ch 22: The Bible and Politics

apocalypse
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Terms in this set (12)
apocalypse
Greek for "revelation"; (1) a genre of Jewish and Christian literature filled with symbolism and visions intended to unveil unseen realities (e.g., heaven and its inhabitants) as well as historical realities (past, present, and future) in order to offer a critique of contemporary political arrangements in light of the coming kingdom of God; (2) a name for the last NT book (Revelation).
apocalyptic
Shorthand term (and the subject of much scholarly dispute), used by some for a worldview ("apocalypticism") and by many for a type of literature ("apocalyptic literature") that reflects a belief in good and evil cosmic powers as well as hope in God's coming intervention to transform the present age of evil/sin into the age of justice/peace.
Christ
From Greek Christos, meaning "anointed one" and hence "Messiah" (from Hebrew mashiach, "anointed one").
correspondence of relationships
Clodovis Boff's phrase for an interpretive strategy using analogy in which one looks at the similarities between the biblical text as a witness to the life and struggles of the people of God to which the Bible bears witness and the contemporary situation and experience of the reader(s).
correspondence of terms
Clodovis Boff's phrase for an interpretive strategy of direct, immediate application of the biblical text to the reader, who finds in the biblical story an imaginative frame for viewing the modern world.
ekklēsia
Greek for "political assembly," "public gathering," or "community," signifying in the NT an early Christian community similar to the "assembly of Israel" and often translated as "church"; sometimes interpreted, from its component parts in Greek ("out" + "call") as the "called-out-ones."
eschatology
From Greek eschatos ("last"); the theology, doctrine, or study of the "last things" and ultimate matters: God's purposes fully and finally realized in history in the resurrection of the dead, the kingdom of God, and the new creation as the age of universal justice and peace.
liberationist interpretation (or hermeneutics)
A cluster of approaches to biblical interpretation that focus on themes of liberation in the Bible (e.g., the exodus) and their contemporary significance.
liberation theology
A movement that began in late twentieth-century Latin America in which ordinary people and scholars read the Bible to better understand their experience and as a tool of liberation and human betterment, including freedom from economic, racial, and patriarchal oppression.
messiah
From the Hebrew mashiach, or "anointed one" (Greek christos), a term originally designating the Israelite king, who was anointed with oil for that role, and later used as a term for a hoped-for divine agent of salvation; applied in the NT to Jesus as the fulfillment of that hope.
politicsThe organization of society and public affairs; concerns the nature and power of the state but also relates to a religious body and its operations.two-kingdoms theologyMartin Luther's understanding of the divinely intended separation between the political and the spiritual realms as the means of effecting the ordering of the world for human flourishing.