The task of interpreting the Bible has two main phases— the understanding of the text and the transformation or making relevant of its meaning for modern readers. The steady decline of monolithic religious structures and the growth of pluralism in modern society have produced multivariant forms of intellectual activity embracing the Bible as part of their subject matter. Thus the Bible is embedded in the given of European culture and functions as part of the hermeneutical processes of Jewish, Christian, Muslim and secular traditions. The quest for understanding may be common to all the traditions but the task of transformation can take one of two forms. From within the religious tradition transformation is the attempt to reinterpret the text so as to make it meaningful in contemporary terms but always controlled by the tradition. This form may simply be termed transformation from within or controlled transformation. The alternative form is transformation without limits or control. In this form fidelity to a tradition is not paramount and the real concern is to see how far the material may be transformed so as to constitute an independent entity itself.

The second letter of Peter follows the usual sequence of proclamation and exhortation. But it is also typical when it betrays a melancholy realisation of the gap between hope and reality. First, there comes the proclamation of salvation. ‘He has bestowed on us the great and precious things he promised, so that through these you who have fled a world corrupted by lust, might become sharers of the divine nature.’ (1.4) Yet, evidently this initial conversion by no means gives irreversible thrust and momentum. Thus an exhortation to keep working must be added. ‘Be solicitous to make your call and election permanent.’ (1.10) Finally, beyond the exhortation, there is need to confront the discouraging reality reflected in the mockery of the sceptics. ‘They will ask: Where is that promised coming of his? Our forefathers have been laid to rest, but everything stays just as it was when the world was created.’(3.4)

This paper will use some of Bonhoeffer's writings as the basis for an examination of the concept of transcendence within the context of religious belief. The intention of the paper is to present an account of the nature of transcendence in ethical terms. The conclusions will include an assessment of the significance of this for the discussion of the relation between religion and morality.

The theme of the Ascension of Jesus Christ is one of the most JL important in the New Testament, yet during the present century, very little theological attention has been given to it. Most of the published work has been in the form of articles in theological journals and commentaries, though J. G. Davies' Bampton Lectures entitled He Ascended into Heaven, published in 1958, were devoted to the subject, and later, there appeared, also in English, U. Simon's The Ascent to Heaven in 1961. Even H. B. Swete's The Ascended Christ, which first appeared in 1910 and was subsequently published in several editions until 1916, expresses the hope that the work might awaken a response to a renewed sense of the importance of this great Christian festival. His earlier writing, The Apostles' Creed in 1894, contains a chapter on the Ascension which was a spirited reply to the German scholar Harnack, who asserted that the Ascension had no separate place in the primitive tradition, and whose views considerably influenced the thought of New Testament scholarship for many years to come. This article seeks to make an assessment of what the present writer considers to be a subject of the utmost importance, both in regard to its theological significance in the New Testament, and in its relevance for contemporary Christian experience. The Scriptures declare that Jesus of Nazareth was crucified, buried, and raised again the third day.