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The article presents an overview of the instructive differentiations and conflicts of the Reformation and demonstrates how difficult it was to sustain the proclamation of a pure gift without the causality of a reciprocal gift in a synchronous and diachronic environment. Topics discussed include the traditional Roman Catholic logic of exchanging gifts; theologian Martin Luther's New Understanding of God's Pure Gift; and ambivalence in the Reformation's reception of the New Theology of Gift.

This article seeks to understand, in a speculative way, the relationship between a new generation and the one preceding it. After having identified two opposite extremes – the ‘continuity thesis’ and the ‘discontinuity thesis’ – the article appropriates the logic of gift exchange to map out a mediating position. The fact that the practice of gift exchange is susceptible to criticism is subsequently noted, and two major lines of philosophical criticism are considered and related to the continuity thesis and the discontinuity thesis, respectively. The article then makes use of the work done by John Milbank to show that a purified notion of gift exchange is possibly from the vantage point of Christian theology, and finally seeks to apply this notion to the relationship between generations. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article presents a philosophical exploration into the nature of the gift, or "givenness" within the field of ethics, particularly that informed by Lutheran Christian theology. Subjects addressed include the dynamics of receiving and passing along the faith tradition, the ontological nature of reality as that of a gift from God, and the Lutheran understandings of the Lord's Supper within this paradigm. Additional discussion is provided regarding the nature of God as a giver, and the proper response of Christians to this aspect of God's being.

This paper is a response to Theodore Kepes's "Toward a Unified Vision: The Integration of Christian Theology and Evolution in Karl Rahner's Understanding ofMatter and Spirit." Kepes employs a Rahnerian strategy ofattempting to integrate supposedly competing narratives - in this case, Michael Dennett's reductive materialism - into the Christian narrative of creation and the evolution of both matter and spirit. The response given here argues that this Rahnerian strategy overlooks the programmatic nature of contemporary secular materialism, which is self-conscious in its opposition to any account of the world that invokes the transcendent or the divine. The paper presents an overview of Balthasar's theological anthropology and argues that Balthasar's emphasis on Gift, rather than Rahner's emphasis on Mystery, makes it more personological and therefore more adequate to the task of understanding and responding to the current materialist, liberal, secular mythos. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]