‘Die Jesusbeweging as charismatiese waarderewolusie’

Abstract

The Jesus movement as a charismatic value-revolution
In our country the voice of liberation theology (and the theology of revolution) is growing in volume, causing anxiety on all traditional fronts. The sympathy of overseas churches in general, sways in the direction of these revolutionary sounds. Under the circumstances one must appreciate a work like that of O Cullmann: Jesus und die Revolutionáren seiner Zeit, and a paper read by Gerd Theissen of the University of Heidelberg at a recent congress of the Studiorum Novi Testamenti Societas. These works from overseas theologians radically reject any idea that Jesus could have been the inspiration of political revolution. Theissen rather speaks of a “Wertrevolution” according to which Jesus gave his disciples access to an aristocratic value system achieved charismatically, i.e. extraordinarily, as a gift of God in answer to prayer. In this article the abovementioned works are discussed critically in an attempt to make them known.