Este trabajo ofrece un estudio del análisis teológico-político del Estado nacional moderno propuesto por Franz Rosenzweig en La Estrella de la Redención. Se persigue destacar la atención que Rosenzweig prestó al problema de la secularización y, por tanto, a la teología política, entendida ésta, en La Estrella, como "política mesiánica": cristianización de "los pueblos del mundo" como condición del auge del nacionalismo que condujo a Europa hacia la mundialización de la "guerra de religión", es decir, hacia una guerra mundial inter-nacional (...) por la unidad de salus y fides. De este modo se sientan las bases para una lectura teológico-política de la tercera parte de La Estrella, que de acuerdo con la hipótesis de trabajo del presente estudio debe ser entendida como una respuesta a la teoría hegeliana de la mundanización de la religión a través del Estado. Ésta será objeto de exposición en la primera parte del artículo. A continuación expondré el análisis de la articulación hegeliana de política, historia y religión que cabe encontrar en el Hegel de Rosenzweig y, por último, la decisivia función que desempeña en La Estrella. This paper deals with the theological-political interpretation of modern national State presented by Franz Rosenzweig in The Star of Redemption. I will try to emphasize the attention that Rosenzweig paid to secularization problem and therefore to political theology, which the author of The Star denominates "messianic politics": christianization of "the peoples of the world" as condition of the rise of nationalism which led to mundialization of "religious war", i. e. to inter-national world war in name of the unity of salus and fides. This way I will set the basis for a theological-political reading of the Third Part of The Star, which according to the hypothesis of the present essay is to be understood as a response to Hegel's theory of mundanization of religion through State. This Hegelian doctrine will be presented in the first section of the paper. Next I will expound Rosenzweig's early analysis of Hegel's articulation between politics, history and religion and, finally, the decisive role which subsequently he plays in The Star. (shrink)

Este artículo presenta una lectura de los números 14 a 16 de la Constitución Dogmática Lumen gentium, sobre la posibilidad de salvación para los no-católicos, dentro del marco de la “hermenéutica de la reforma en la continuidad”, propuesta por el papa Benedicto xvi. En diálogo con los teólogos que han tratado este tema desde el Concilio Vaticano ii, se analiza aquí las líneas de continuidad e innovación que se encuentran en la Lumen gentium, identificando los elementos doctrinales esenciales del axioma (...) extra ecclesiam nulla salus y describiendo la nueva síntesis operada en el Concilio. (shrink)

I have experienced the tribulations of fate.Victories and defeats, revolutions and restorations.Inflations and deflations, bombings,Defamations, broken regimes and broken pipes,Hunger and cold, internment and solitary confinement.Through it all I have passed,And through me it all has passed.I am acquainted with the abundant varieties of terror,The terror from above and the terror from below,Terror on the land and terror from the air,Terror legal and extra-legal,Brown, red and checkered terror,And worst of all, the terror none dares to name.I am acquainted with them (...) all and know their grip. (shrink)

In medieval Europe, Christian amulets comprised of illuminations and/or script were considered powerful apotropaic shields. This article focuses on a single example, Ms Princeton 235. It is argued that this object primarily functions as a prayer aid rather than as a magical object. Comparable to rosaries or prayer nuts, this amulet conveys its assumed protective powers through specific devotional acts. Its textual program prefigures such pious practices, which include carrying the amulet above one’s heart, folding and unfolding it, reciting a (...) profession of faith and the divine names, making the sign of the cross, and contemplatively looking at a miniature showing the Arma Christi. Through an analysis of how the textual and visual features of Ms Princeton 235 prompt devotional practices, its claim to mediate divine grace and power become comprehensible. (shrink)

The axiom Extra Ecclesiam nulla salus was drawn up by Cyprian of Carthage in the middle of the third century. In the Middle Ages it was essential for the pontifical theocracy with popes like Gregory VII (Dictatus papae, 1075) Inocent III (IV Lateran Council, 1215) and Boniface VIII (Bull Unam Sanctam , 1302).With the necessary adaptations and nuances (St. ThomasAquinas in the XIIIth century; the theologians of Salamanca in the XVIth century, the II Vatican Council in the XXth century) (...) the controversy around this maxim has reached our days. (shrink)

Regroupe un entretien de C. Schmitt et six de ses essais, écrits pendant son emprisonnement à la suite du procès de Nuremberg et publiés en 1950. Opérant un retour sur ses années hitlériennes, voici le testament intellectuel d'un humaniste qui offre une méditation sur la condition humaine.

Could the notion of compromise help us overcoming – or at least negotiating – the frequent tension, in normative political theory, between the realistic desideratum of peaceful coexistence and the idealistic desideratum of justice? That is to say, an analysis of compromise may help us moving beyond the contrast between two widespread contrasting attitudes in contemporary political philosophy: ‘fiat iustitia, pereat mundus’ on the one side, ‘salus populi suprema lex’ on the other side. More specifically, compromise may provide the (...) backbone of a conception of legitimacy that mediates between idealistic (or moralistic) and realistic (or pragmatic) desiderata of political theory, i.e. between the aspiration to peace and the aspiration to justice. In other words, this paper considers whether an account of compromise could feature in a viable realistic conception of political legitimacy, in much the same way in which consensus features in more idealistic conceptions of legitimacy (a move that may be attributed to some realist theorists, especially Bernard Williams). My conclusions, however, are largely sceptical: I argue that grounding legitimacy in any kind of normatively salient agreement does require the trappings of idealistic political philosophy, for better or – in my view – worse. (shrink)

In der modernen Medizin kommt es zunehmend zu Entscheidungskonflikten zwischen Intervention und Interventionsverzicht dort, wo nicht die medizinisch-technischen Möglichkeiten handlungsleitend sein sollen, sondern die am individuellen Patientenwohl sich orientierende bioethische Prognose entsprechend den klassischen arztethischen Prinzipien des primum nil nocere und des salus aegroti suprema lex. Schadensverbot und Heilauftrag sollen nicht heteronom und uniform vorgegeben werden, sondern sich am Willen des Patienten orientieren. Nicht selten macht jedoch die Ermittlung des mutmaßlichen Patientenwillens große Schwierigkeiten, vor allem bei Demenz, Koma, schwerem (...) Trauma und Multimorbidität in der Nähe des Todes. Vorsorgliche Betreuungsvollmachten und Behandlungsverfügungen, fälschlich oft 'Patiententestament' genannt, sind als Instrumente für stellvertretende Entscheidungen und zur Ermittlung des Patientenwohles in solchen Situationen vorgeschlagen worden. Der Beitrag analysiert die entscheidungstheoretischen, ethischen, rechtlichen und medizinischen Aspekte prospektiver Entscheidung über eine medizinische Behandlung in einem transkulturellen und interdisziplinären Vergleich von Entscheidungen und Diskussionen in den USA, Japan und der Bundesrepublik Deutschland. Es werden verschiedene Modelle und Betreuungsverfügungen mit unterschiedlicher rechtlicher und medizinischer Validität und Präzision sowie unterschiedlicher kultureller und individueller Akzeptanz entwickelt und diskutiert. (shrink)

The practice of law has changed greatly since the days when judges based decisions on the maxim salus populi suprema lex, and Oliver Wendell Holmes disagreed, noting that “experience” has been the “life of the law.” In the intervening years, the profession has followed Holmes and the legal realists in recognizing that the law does not exist in a vacuum. It is a human endeavor, molded by experiences and filled with human consequences. Today, lawyers, jurists, and legal scholars everywhere (...) on the political spectrum recognize the importance of social context, history, and a variety of non-legal disciplines, and non-legal insights to the intelligent practice of the law Unfortunately, in rejecting the old maxims, the legal profession also lost sight of the fundamental truth of salus populi suprema lex, Latin for “the health of the people is the highest law” - namely, it has lost sight of the truth that a population’s health is a critical part of law’s social context. One of the consequences of this is that the profession has failed to include public health - the study of the causes and prevention of disease, disability, and death in populations - among the non-legal disciplines regularly incorporated into legal analysis and routinely taught to all would-be lawyers. It is time to correct this oversight. (shrink)

Professor Engelhardt’s After God sets out in fine detail a “j’accuse” of the Western project from the medieval Scholastic doctors, through the Enlightenment, to Kant and Hegel, and finally to its telos in postmodernity, which in fact was the logical outcome of what Professor Engelhardt sees as the abuse of reason, for reason could never endure the demands made of it. I propose that Professor Engelhardt is correct in his description of our present epoch, though partially but critically misguided in (...) his diagnosis of why, and thus falls short in a prescription for the restoration of salus. (shrink)

El artículo aborda la figura de Cristo como Médico, y hace en primer lugar una presentación sintética del acercamiento de los escritores patrísticos anteriores a san Agustín a este tema. De este modo se presenta el pensamiento de san Ignacio de Antioquía, san Policarpo de Esmirna,sSan Justino, san Clemente de Alejandría, Orígenes, Tertuliano, san Cipriano, Juan Casiano, Efrén el Sirio, entre otros. Posteriormente aborda directamente el tema en las obras agustinianas, para destacar cómo la humanidad está herida por el pecado (...) y necesita del Médico divino que es Cristo. Se ponen de manifiesto las diversas imágenes y metáforas que san Agustín utiliza para hablar de este tema, así como la importancia de la salus la salud/salvación que Cristo ha traído a los aegrus/infirmus, a los seres humanos, que se encuentran enfermos por el pecado o simplemente debilitados por los efectos del mismo. Se presenta, asimismo, la Sagrada Escritura como la medicina que ayuda a poder sanar de los males del pecado y de las tentaciones de este mundo. Finalmente hace una reflexión sobre el valor curativo que la misma Escritura tuvo en la vida de san Agustín recordando el célebre pasaje de las Confesiones del Tolle lege. (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:God, the Absolute Wise Man, and the Study of ReligionClemens CavallinThe Absolute Wise ManIn the beginning of the Summa contra gentiles [SCG], Thomas Aquinas remarks that, according to the Philosopher (that is, Aristotle), the wise man orders "things rightly and governs them well."1 To do this, the wise man needs to pay attention to the proper goal of his activity, that is, the good toward which he is to (...) order things. This means that there can be wise politicians, carpenters, and philologists; but Aquinas has primarily in mind "the absolute wise man" (simpliciter sapiens), who queries both the origin of the universe and its end: God.Moreover, not only does the absolute wise man contemplate the nature of God, the ultimate source and truth of the universe, but as even the highest theoretical wisdom (in the Aristotelean sense of sophia) has a practical, ordering dimension, it is also proper for such a person to teach truth and oppose falsehood—in other words, to be a teacher.2Toward the end of the first chapter of SCG, "The Office of the Wise [End Page 1207] Man," Aquinas returns to his introductory quote from Proverbs 8:7: "My mouth shall meditate truth, and my lips shall hate impiety." Aquinas interprets impiety (impietas) as "falsehood against the divine truth," and its opposite, piety (pietas), he writes, is another word for religion.3 The absolute wise person is, therefore, in the business of ordering religion toward its proper goal, God as the origin and end of the universe. As a result, besides the mistaken views of heretics, the Christian wise man, according to Aquinas, has to oppose the errors of Jews, gentiles, and Muslims, that is, all non-Christian religions. In refuting the latter two, he has to use natural reason, as they accept neither the Old nor the New Testament.4 And this philosophical task is the fundamental errand of SCG.Moreover, the quest for and ordering of knowledge in relation to ultimate wisdom brings with it a joyous union of "man to God in friendship," as God, the creator, made everything in wisdom, as ordered to himself, the Supreme Being and Truth.5 To pursue wisdom thus divinizes man.However, my goal in this article is not primarily to deepen our understanding of the Thomist spirituality of higher wisdom, but to probe the possibility of a Catholic "religious studies" endeavor inspired by Aquinas's approach in SCG I. My main question is, therefore, whether the office of the wise man is compatible with (or at least complementary to) the idea and practice of religious studies. Or if a Catholic approach to religious studies must do without absolute wisdom and settle for a lower-level goal such as ordering the relations between the diverse religious traditions of global society with the goal of harmonious coexistence? In that case, the spirituality of the scholar turns from divinization to humanization, but in what way would such studies be Catholic?A Catholic "religious studies" is here understood as different from theology of religions, and more generally from dogmatic theology.6 Theology of religions is concerned with questions such as the possible salvific role of non-Christian religions, with how to understand the principle of extra ecclesiam nulla salus ("no salvation outside the Church") and [End Page 1208] the trichotomy of exclusivism, inclusivism, and pluralism.7 The main concern of religious studies is not such evaluations, but rather the details of the history of religions and the contemporary diversity and changes of religion and spirituality. The theoretical thrust of religious studies aims at understanding the natural inclination for religion and its manifold manifestations (beliefs, rituals, and myths). It is also distinct from natural theology (for example as found in SCG), as the latter deals with the possibility and scope of rational knowledge of the divine.Moreover, religious studies as a field differs from that of Catholic studies, which has Catholicism itself as the object of study and which combines perspectives from religious studies and theology, often with the aim of cultivating the Catholic identity of a college or university.8Moreover, the interreligious-dialogue active component of interre-ligious studies is more limited... (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:BOOK REVIEWS 697 Excellent as Sullivan's book is, it has raised a host of questions which, though it cannot be fairly expected to discuss them at length, much less to resolve, are at the heart of ongoing reflections about the possibility of salvation outside the visible Church. Such questions concern the concrete ways in which God works in the lives of peoples of different religions, the unique and normative (...) role of Christ in the history of salvation, the function of non-Christian religions as mediations of salvation, and so on. And the debate on these issues rages on among Catholic as well as non-Catholic theologians! One wishes that Sullivan had given a fuller account of this debate which is central in interreligious dialogue. More directly connected with the method and approach of the book itself are the questions of dogmatic development and the hermeneutics of doctrines. To put it more concretely, was Leonard Feeney, with whose ironic fate the book opens and ends, simply expressing the ancient doctrine of the deposit of the faith concerning salvation in the Church in a negative and imperfect fashion? Or was he (and more importantly, popes and official teachers of the faith) wrong in affirming the exclusiveness implicit in the formula extra ecclesiam nulla salus (which apparently they did)? H the latter, then the issues of infallible magisterium and dogmatic ' development ' raise their ugly heads, and one has to come to terms with them. The Catholic University of America Washington, D.C. PETER c. PHAN Character. By JOEL KUPPERMAN. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991. Pp. vi + 193. The two theses of J. Kupperman's Character are "that character is of central importance to ethics and that ethical philosophy will have to be restructured once this is understood " (p. 3). The argument has three stages: the first three chapters explicate the notion of character and its relationship to the notions of the self and of responsibility; the next two consider the dominant, rival theories in contemporary ethics; the last two address the topics of value and the place of character in ethics. In two appendices, Kupperman applies the substantive conclusions of the work to the issues of moral psychology and the education of character. A brief review cannot communicate the many nuances of argument and the precise and lucid style that distinguish the book. While certain parts of the argument seem problematic, or at least in 698 BOOK REVIEWS need of further development, the work deserves the attention of professional ethicists and of inquisitive non-professionals. The opening chapter offers the following definition of character: "X's character is X's normal pattern of thought and action, especially with respect to concerns and commitments in matter affecting the hap· piness of others or of X, and most especially in relation to moral choices" (p. 17). In the second chapter, Kupperman considers three views: Enduring Self (ES), No Self (NS), and Constructed Self (CS). The ES appears to be seH-evidently true. But what exactly is the self and where is it to he found? It is difficult to fix the abiding " I " amid or behind the flux of our self-experience. On the other hand, even Hume's skepticism concerning the self presumes that " we know where to look " for it. The " I " is simultaneously obvious and elusive, stable and unstable (p. 40). Thus, both the ES and the NS are problematic, The third option is the Constructive Self, Kupperman holds that, as children, we begin with a "protoseH." The full-fledged self is often the result of orientations, habits, and traits of character developed before one has even begun deliberating about the kind of character one would like to have. Like the self, character is constructed mostly through unreflective choices. But this raises questions about responsibility, which is the focus of the third chapter. If we have not willed to be the sorts of persons we now are, how can we be held responsible for who we are or what we do? Actions do not " flow from character like water from a pipe " (p, 59). Over long periods of time and through a reorganization of large portions of our life, we can... (shrink)

Ideas suggested a long time ago by the French thinker about the betrayal of intellectuals are still actual and challenging. They concern the creative status of a personality in society, especially his/her envolment in polis - Salus rei publicae suprema lex asto. The paper offers also a critical analysis of an international publication "Crossing the Divide" , which underlines the importance of a mature personality , i. e. also of human sciences, and which promotes a new notion of "public (...) intellectual". (shrink)

Kant développe en faveur de la séparation des pouvoirs d’autres arguments que les fondateurs de la théorie moderne de la division des pouvoirs ; or ses raisons sont les seules à conduire de manière contraignante à la triade aujourd’hui familière : pouvoir législatif, exécutif, judiciaire. L’article voudrait explorer ces raisons et montrer aussi précisément que possible à quel résultat elles concourent. En fin de compte, cinq questions demeurent ouvertes : 1 / Les raisons de Kant suffisent-elles à énumérer de manière (...) exhaustive les pouvoirs publics que doivent exercer différentes instances ? 2 / Nous offrent-elles un concept convainquant du pouvoir souverain en la personne du législateur ? 3 / Offrent-elles un concept convainquant du pouvoir juridictionnel ? 4 / Parviennent-elles à établir des digues efficaces contre l’abus du pouvoir public ? 5 / Permettent-elles au gouvernement de prendre en compte les intérêts auquel répond un État social ?Kant's arguments for separating the powers of a government are not those of Locke or Montesquieu. But only his reasons compelled to the now familiar triad of legislative, executive and judicial power. The essay intends to uncover those reasons, and shows to which result they meet. Finally there remain five questions : 1 / Are Kant's reasons sufficient to know the complete number of powers that have to be separated and handled by distinct bodies ? 2 / Do they give a convincing concept of supreme power in the person of a legislator ? 3 / Do they give a convincing concept of judicial power ? 4 / Can the separation effectively protect against abuses of governmental power ? 5 / Does Kant's connection of the different powers allow that the government looks after interests of civil welfare and not only for an abstract salus publica ? (shrink)

Government’s responsibility to safeguard the public’s health through law has been part of the social contract since ancient times. Cicero declared salus populi suprema lex esto - “the safety of the people is the supreme law”. Disraeli proclaimed that protecting the public’s health is the first duty of the statesman. Of the ten most important public health achievements of the 20th century in the US., seven are directly related to legal interventions, including legislative interventions. As new and existing risks (...) to health risks emerge internationally, governments have consistently used the law as a tool to define the goals of public health, direct public health authorities to accomplish these goals, and equip them with the power and resources to do so.Tobacco control represents a salient example of how law can be used to ensure health. Like other public health laws, tobacco control laws have historic grounds. Government and other policymakers have enacted laws to control tobacco use for hundreds of years. The Russian church forbade tobacco use as an “abomination.”. (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Reviewed by:The Speeches of Cicero: Context, Law, RhetoricJohn NicholsonPaul MacKendrick. The Speeches of Cicero: Context, Law, Rhetoric, with the technical assistance of Emmett L. Bennett, Jr. London: Duckworth, 1995. viii + 627 pp. Cloth, £55.Readers familiar with MacKendrick’s 1989 study of The Philosophical Books of Cicero will have an idea what to expect from his new companion work on Cicero’s speeches. It is essentially a factual handbook providing a (...) full and careful summary of the contents of Cicero’s major orations, along with some basic background information and a rhetorical analysis. The treatment is quite detailed so that, despite a length of well over 600 pages, the book covers only half of the fifty-eight extant Ciceronian speeches. Regrettably omitted on account of limitation of space are all the Verrines and all the Philippics, as well as any representatives of the early orations. But otherwise, we get a judicious, well-balanced selection from all rhetorical types, lengths, and audiences.MacKendrick begins in medias res. What he calls chapter 1 is actually only a two-page chronological outline of Cicero’s life, and this is the only preface we get before plunging into the presentation of the first speech (On Pompey’s Command) which comprises chapter 2. It would have been helpful if MacKendrick had begun with some kind of statement about his aims and methods, and perhaps some introduction to the ways and means of classical rhetoric in general, and of Ciceronian oratory in particular. Such preliminaries will be especially missed by neophyte readers who select this book as an introduction to Cicero’s speeches. Otherwise the work is well suited to this audience since MacKendrick takes little for granted, translates into English virtually all the Latin he quotes, and repeatedly defines technical terms.The format of each chapter is strictly uniform, divided into four sections. First comes an outline summarizing in full detail the content of the speech under consideration, with the standard divisions marked off and labeled. (Here alone MacKendrick fails to define rhetorical terminology; structural labels like narratio, partitio, peroratio, etc. are left unexplained.) Second, there comes a section called “Context” succinctly describing the historical background. Third, MacKendrick gives a summary of the legal points raised by each speech, which is kept quite brief, depending largely on the conclusions of standard modern authorities, especially A. H. C. Greenidge’s time-honored Legal Procedure of Cicero’s Time (which is unfortunately missing from the intended key reference on 460). The fourth and final section, called “Rhetoric,” is the fullest, and is divided into the subcategories of Word Frequency, Metaphor, and Other Rhetorical Devices.While the first three sections of each chapter merely rehearse basic information in a useful handbook format, it is in the fourth section on rhetoric that we get MacKendrick’s main original contribution, essentially a quantified word study of the speeches. Though he nowhere explicitly declares his analytical strategy, an early note decrying “the shapeless gobbledegook” (460 n. 2) of much [End Page 654] modern criticism reveals his contempt for sloppy subjective evaluation. Accordingly, his own approach here is largely statistical in nature, presumably based on computer-generated tabulations. The preoccupation is with quantitative analysis via word frequency lists and the counting and cataloging of metaphors and various rhetorical figures used by Cicero over the course of his career.MacKendrick first examines the semantic range and varying significance of the most commonly repeated words in each oration, and shows how Cicero manipulates them in different contexts. Personal pronouns usually head the lists, followed by terms such as res publica, urbs, civi[ta]s, consul, senatus, salus, omnis, lex, dignitas, bellum, and populus Romanus.Next he counts and classifies metaphors, a category which he defines very broadly—at times to the point of robbing the term of practical descriptive value inasmuch as extremely common words are analyzed as though poetic figures. For example, the verb fero and its many compounds are considered “metaphors of touch” even in standard idioms such as legem fero, while aequus is called a “metaphor of earth” (a subcategory of “metaphors of nature”), and intellego is called a “metaphor of agriculture” (since it literally means “to glean... (shrink)

Natural science enables us, it is supposed, first to know what science properly is. Other sciences—which purport to exhibit a radically divergent type—are either of doubtful authenticity and highly disputable value, or else humbug, which has long since become transparent. If now the humanists are to be compelled to practise science, they will have perforce, nolentes volentes, to take the natural sciences for their model and adopt their methods. Extra ecclesiam nulla salus. Under no circumstances is recognition extended to (...) a distinctive humanistic type of science side by side with the type of natural science. The distinctions between scientific forms and methods of procedure, which are forthcoming, accordingly all turn out to constitute merely variations within natural science itself. (shrink)