About the Author: John Noack

John Noack has been a Lutheran clergyman at Rainbow in Victoria, Tutor in Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Melbourne and a Secondary Teacher of History and World Religions at Trinity Grammar School in Kew. He is at present engaged in a study and resolution of the enigmas in the Gospel according to St. Mark.

  • Christianity’s Five Eastern Reformations, 325-1139 CE.

    By Published On: August 22, 2012

    Western Christianity, which is in countries mainly west of Jerusalem in Palestine, has experienced various Protesting and Reforming Movements over its past one

  • Mark’s Enigmas: One or Many Stories?

    By Published On: July 6, 2012

    Mark’s Gospel has often been described as a “enigma’ and this can apply both to the whole of Mark’s text, as well as to nearly all of its mysterious contents. There is not just one story-line, one discourse or one dimension to its depicted characters but Mark presents many and various aspects within his Gospel. This enigma involving multiple dimensions, levels and stages are in evidence in the following five important and multiple aspects of Mark’s Gospel.

  • A Futurology of Theology

    By Published On: June 28, 2012

    Surveys of biblical theology as presented by historians of Christianity soon reveal many and varied types of previous theologies (but no thealogies!), which have been explored and expressed by many thinkers in various schools of thought and practice during the past 2,000 years. In this brief article, my glimpse into the past can only include (1) Revealed Trinitarian Theology, (2) Natural Theology and (3) Deistic Theology.

  • Five Protestant Re-formations

    By Published On: June 20, 2012

    Students of the history and legacy of the West’s Protestant Reformation over its past millennium or thousand-year period can in contrast observe that “RiP” can have another connotation, which implies and express a less peaceful changing of attitudes and chain of events. What emerges is not a single “Reformation” but at least five “Re-formations” or modifications and amendments of attitudes, belief-systems and doctrinal confessions.

  • Rigid and Relaxed Religion

    By Published On: June 15, 2012

    Are you religious? Your answer will depend a lot on what your questioner meant by the concept of “religion” and how you view this concept.

  • Semi-Theism and Semi-Atheism

    By Published On: June 7, 2012

    What about Semi-theism and Semi-atheism? Can these concepts better express our known and experienced reality? My answer is “yes”. Such a view of God is multi-dimensional and takes into account at least three levels of God-analysis, namely God-theology, God-talk and God-truths. We can start with God-theology, the traditional “Queen of the Sciences” in the context and thinking of the West’s intellectual history.