This book demonstrates the originality and coherence of Jonathan Edwards' philosophical theology using his dynamic reconception of reality as the interpretive key. The author argues that what underlies Edwards' writings is a radical shift from the traditional Western metaphysics of substance and form to a new conception of the world as a network of dispositions: active and abiding principles that possess reality apart from their manifestations in actions and events. Edwards' dispositional ontology enables him to restate the Augustinian-Calvinist (...) tradition in theology in a strikingly modern philosophical framework. A prime example of Edwards' innovative reconstruction in philosophical theology is his conception of God as both eternal actuality and a disposition to repeat that actuality within God and also through creation. This view is a compelling alternative to the traditional Western doctrine of God as changeless actuality, on the one hand, and the recent process theologians' excessive stress on God's involvement in change, on the other. Edwards' achievement was that he saw dynamic movement as essential to God's own life without compromising the traditional Christian tenets of God's prior actuality and transcendence. The author of this volume also explicates the way in which Edwards' dynamic reconception of reality informs his theories of imagination, aesthetic perception, the knowledge of God, and the meaning of history. This expanded edition includes a new preface and a new appendix titled "Jonathan Edwards on Nature.". (shrink)

INTRODUCTION Philosophical theology is the systematic inquiry about God's existence and being. We find it in Aristotle's Metaphysics, in Cicero's De natura ...

This article explores the much neglected work of the German philosopher and cultural theorist Hans Blumenberg, a figure still relatively little known in the Anglophone world. The thesis is defended that Blumenberg's conception of The Legitimacy of the Modern Age (1966) offers valuable resources for addressing some important questions about the philosophical self-understanding of the modern social sciences in relation to theological and religious sources of thought and language. The article begins with an assessment of the contemporary relevance of (...) Blumenberg's critique of the idea of modern scientific culture as a merely `secularized form' of theological thinking. This critique is then compared with Blumenberg's account of the relationship of theoretico-scientific inquiry to mythological consciousness in his second major philosophical monograph of 1979, Work on Myth. The article concludes with a range of reflections on ways in which Blumenberg's work helps us understand how certain explanatory constructs and devices employed in the modern social sciences can be said to incorporate, assimilate, and at the same time critically transform figures of thought and language that display a mythic, religious and theological context of historical origination, provenance or genealogy. (shrink)

This chapter contains sections titled: Presocratics Plato Aristotle Hellenistic and Later Philosophy Works cited.

Philosophical Theology in Islam explores the later history of the Ashʿarī school of theology through in-depth studies on its thought, sources, scholarly networks and contexts.

Methexiology is not a particular theory, but rather a general philosophical orientation. Therefore, in Methexiology: Philosophical Theology and Theological Philosophy for the Deification of Humanity, Nicolas Laos elucidates the significance of methexiology for the study of ontology, epistemology, ethics, philosophical psychology, theory of justice, philosophy of history, and philosophy of religion. Laos argues that, faced with the modern and the postmodern crises of meaning, we need a new myth, a new spiritual formula, for the resacralization (...) of humanity and the cosmos, without restoring defunct totems, without using tales as "cheap" substitutes for the lack of a life-giving myth, and without negating history. In his Methexiology, Laos studies the "genealogy" of the modern and the postmodern crises of meaning, and, based on his new interpretation of classical Greek philosophy and Hesychasm, proposes methexiology as a way of overcoming the crises of meaning and as a way of resacralizing humanity and the cosmos through a new metaphysically grounded humanism. (shrink)

If the philosophers of the Enlightenment had hoped to establish, once and for all, that reason is the primary source of human orientation, twentieth century philosophy has demonstrated all too clearly that reason is far from having clear boundaries. In this respect, Immanuel Kant's contemporaries and critics, Johann Georg Hamann and Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi, look surprisingly modern. Faith is now increasingly recognized as intrinsic to social identity and thus no more capable of taking a permanently subordinate role to reason--whatever that (...) may be--than reason is capable of an existence free from social embodiment. This collection of thirteen essays focuses upon major philosophical and theological debates from the past three hundred years. Written by leading international scholars, this remarkable text takes the reader through major transitions in the modern understanding of faith and reason. It thus provides an invaluable guide to the history of modern philosophical theology whilst informing readers why the relationship between faith and reason remains an issue of major social and philosophical importance."--Publisher's website. (shrink)

'God is Being-Itself' -- Revolution -- Revelation -- Love -- The shaking of the foundations.

The essays presented in this volume are concerned with the history of Greek and Islamic philosophy; the history of doctrines, terminology, and movements in Islamic theology; and the way different Muslim thinkers attempted to explain human ethical problems as well as the nature of divine existence by means of rational discourse. In other words, the term Islamic philosophical theology used in the title of this volume does not announce a new field of intellectual pursuit, but (...) serves merely to indicate succinctly the contents of the work. Most of the eleven essays gathered together here were originally presented at two conferences held at Harvard and Columbia in 1971; discerning a plausible common theme among these papers, Parviz Morewedge commissioned others and arranged the collection under three descriptive headings. With two or three exceptions, each contribution draws attention to important new information or suggests a novel and provocative way of viewing familiar material. An excellent index more than compensates for the numerous typographical errors which seem to have eluded the editor and his assistants. (shrink)

This essay deals with the impact of Hegel's philosophy of religion by examining his positions on religious identity and on the relationship between theology and history. I argue that his criterion for religious identity was socio-historical, and that his philosophical theology was historical rather than normative. These positions help explain some historical peculiarities regarding the effect of his philosophy of religion. Of particular concern is that although Hegel’s own aims were apologetic, his major influence on religious (...) thought was in the development of various historical and critical approaches to religion. (shrink)

This chapter contains sections titled: Introduction Religious Knowledge: Skepticism, Fideism, Reasonableness Atheism and Deism Science and Religion Biblical Criticism and the History of Religion Materialism and Immaterialism God, Space, and Time Creation, Freedom, and Laws of Nature Works cited.

This article reconstructs the forgotten friendship between Georges Bataille and the Russian émigré poet and philosopher Boris Poplavsky. Comparing their solar metaphysics, I focus on conceptions of friendship, sacrifice and depersonalisation. First, I retrace Bataille’s relationship to early Surrealis and Russian circles in interwar Paris, with a focus on his friendship with Irina Odoevtseva. I then offer a novel reading of Poplavsky’s poetry through the lens of Bataille’s philosophy, analysing a recurring motif that I call ‘dark solarity’. Uncovering a hidden (...) intertextual dialogue between Poplavsky and Bataille, I argue for Poplavsky’s lasting impact on Bataille’s anti-Icarian sun cult. Finally, my paper demonstrates how Poplavsky’s writings on solar sacrifice, excess and friendship left marks on Bataille’s vision of a solar community, embodied in the secret society Acéphale. The dialogue between Poplavsky and Bataille, I finally suggest, is a missing piece in the entangled history of Russian and French philosophy, as well as an original contribution to discourses on friendship in twentieth-century continental thought. (shrink)

Written by leading international scholars, this interesting book traces how our modern understanding of faith and reason has evolved. It provides an invaluable guide to the history of modern philosophical theology and clearly identifies why the relationship between faith and reason is of such social and philosophical importance today.

The author considers Pope John Paul II's 1998 encyclical, Fides et ratio, as bringing into view new horizons for Catholic philosophical theology by virtue of its endorsement of a constrained philosophical pluralism. Through a retrospective examination of the history of magisterial interventions as depicted in the encyclical, the author notes how a progressive openness to philosophical pluralism relates to the changed status of Thomism within magisterial teaching on the practice of Catholic philosophical theology. (...) Fides et ratio describes an evolution in magisterial emphasis from proscription to prescription, which corresponds to change in the status of Thomism from an absolute to an exemplary norm. Attention to this decisive shift in the normative status of Thomism, as implied within the encyclical itself, provides both new illumination on the Pope's general intentions and new clarity with regard to some contested interpretive issues. Finally, the author highlights several new challenges that are implied by this development in magisterial teaching. (shrink)

This book explores how Paul Tillich's systematic theology, focusing on the concepts of being and reason can benefit nonhuman animals, while also analysing how taking proper account of nonhuman animals can prove immensely beneficial. The author first explains the body of Tillich's system, examining reason and revelation, life and the spirit, and history and the kingdom of God. The second section undertakes a critical analysis of Tillichian concepts and their adequacy in relation to nonhuman animals, addressing topics such (...) as Tillich's concept of 'technical reason' and the multidimensional unity of life. The author concludes by discussing the positive concepts in Tillich's systematic theology with respect to nonhuman animals and creation, including the concept of universal salvation and Tillich's interpretation of nonhuman animals and the Fall in Genesis. (shrink)

In _God as Reason: Essays in Philosophical Theology_, Vittorio Hösle presents a systematic exploration of the relation between theology and philosophy. In examining the problems and historical precursors of rational theology, he calls on philosophy, theology, history of science, and the history of ideas to find an interpretation of Christianity that is compatible with a genuine commitment to reason. The essays in the first part of _God as Reason_ deal with issues of philosophical (...) theology. Hösle sketches the challenges that a rationalist theology must face and discusses some of the central ones, such as the possibility of a teleological interpretation of nature after Darwin, the theodicy issue, freedom versus determinism, the mind-body problem, and the relation in general between religion, theology, and philosophy. In the essays of the second part, Hösle studies the historical development of philosophical approaches to the Bible, the continuity between the New Testament concept of pneuma and the concept of Geist in German idealism, and the rationalist theologies of Anselm, Abelard, Llull, and Nicholas of Cusa, whose innovative philosophy of mathematics is the topic of one of the chapters. The book concludes with a thorough evaluation of Charles Taylor’s theory of secularization. "_God as Reason_ makes a powerful contribution to the task of the philosophical assessment of religion and theology, and indeed to the task of arriving at a philosophically defensible account of God. Vittorio Hösle here addresses key questions concerning teleology in nature, theodicy, freedom and determinism, and the mind-body problem in essays of exemplary clarity and economy of expression that are equally informed by the full breadth of the philosophical tradition of the West and by the most important contemporary developments in both philosophy and the natural sciences." —_Jennifer A. Herdt, Yale Divinity School_. (shrink)

En el presente estudio se realiza una presentación de la escultura de san Pedro de Alcántara del artista de Hervás Pérez Comendador. La perspectiva de la lectura realizada entra dentro de la historia del pensamiento analizando la obra en el contexto personal, histórico y artístico del autor, de la significación implícita y explícita de su composición en diálogo con la teología alcantarina y el contexto filosófico-teológico de la composición escultórica. The present study will realize the presentation of the sculpture of (...) St. Peter of Alcantara made by the artist Hervás Pérez Comendador. The prospect of reading done falls will be take place within the history of thought by analyzing the work in personal, historical and artistic context of the author’s implicit and explicit meaning of his composition alcantarina dialogue with theology and philosophical-theological context of the sculptural composition. (shrink)

Knowledge and Faith in Thomas Aquinas. John I. Jenkins. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1997. pp. 267. 35.00 hb. ISBN 0-521-58126-5. The Cambridge Companion to Aquinas. Norman Kretzmann and Eleonore Stump. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1993. pp. 302. 12.95 pb. ISBN 0-521-43769-5. The Metaphysics of Theism: Aquinas's Natural Theology in the Summa Contra Gentiles I. Norman Kretzmann. Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1997. pp. 302. 35.00 hb. ISBN 0-19-823660-3. Thomas Aquinas: God and Explanations. C. F. J. Martin. Edinburgh, Edinburgh University Press, (...) 1997. pp. 212. 40.00 hb. ISBN 0-7486-0901-6. Theories of Cognition in the Later Middle Ages. Robert Pasnau. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1997. pp. 330. 37.00 hb. ISBN 0-521-58368-3. (shrink)

Accession Number: ATLA0001712205; Hosting Book Page Citation: p 345-358.; Language(s): English; General Note: Bibliography: p 357-358.; Issued by ATLA: 20130825; Publication Type: Essay.

This chapter is about personhood in relation to ethics and to conciliar Christian theology, and how concepts of personhood may discriminate against profoundly cognitively disabled human beings. (By ‘conciliar Christian theology’ I mean the Christian theology that is articulated in, or endorsed by, the first seven ecumenical councils.) -/- I believe we can learn several things about personhood by looking at these two topics together. By examining ancient and medieval concepts of personhood and some modern conceptions of (...) personhood we gain a better grasp of the variety of concepts and what substantive work they were intended to do. By becoming familiar with (part of) the history of concepts of personhood we are better situated to appreciate and judge the theoretical work that these concepts were intended to do and what consequences they have in ethical and theological theorizing. -/- In the first section I tell a select history of moral philosophers theorizing about personhood and discuss these in relation to human beings with profound cognitive disability. I focus on John Locke, Immanuel Kant, and Mary Anne Warren. In the “When Personhood Is Discriminatory” section I argue that concepts of personhood, especially modern concepts of personhood, are typically used in a manner that discriminates against human beings with profound cognitive disabilities. I give two arguments against discriminatory uses of personhood, the Moral Shift Argument and the Argument against Exclusive Personhood. Although the Moral Shift Argument is deductively valid, it probably has little persuasive power over those who do not share the moral belief that profoundly cognitively disabled human beings are equal members of the moral community. However, the Argument against Exclusive Personhood has more argumentative force because it denies the claims that personhood is “self-evident” and that it is “obvious” to everyone. In the following section I survey a select history of concepts of personhood in order to establish the claims that concepts of personhood are not self-evident and are not obvious to everyone. This history of personhood goes back to ancient and medieval Christian theorizing and debating about personhood. It shows that concepts of personhood are not “self-evident” but rather are theoretical posits that are posited in theory construction in order to explain certain putative theological facts. Given that personhood is a theoretical posit and is not “self-evident,” moral philosophers who aim to determine the extent of the moral community on the basis of a supposedly “self-evident” concept of personhood are not justified in doing so. Moreover, given the Argument against Exclusive Personhood, philosophical theologians who wish to articulate models of the Trinity or Incarnation that are consistent with the seven ecumenical councils will find that they, like moral philosophers, are not justified to assume, or to insist on, modern personhood for their models of the Trinity or Incarnation. My overall conclusion, then, is that modern personhood is bad for ethics and unnecessary for conciliar ecumenical Christian theology. (shrink)

This second collection of studies by Peter Golden continues his explorations of the Türk Empire (mid-sixth to mid-eighth centuries), the stateless polities that appeared after its collapse, and of the Khazar Qaghanate (mid-seventh century to ca. 965-969), its imperial successor state in the western Eurasian steppes. Building on earlier traditions, the Türks created a paradigm for state building in the Eurasian steppes that persisted into the early modern era. Examined here are issues relating to the rise of the Türks and (...) their systems of governance, the institution of slavery and its role in Turkic nomadic societies, and the cultural interactions between the Turkic nomads of Pre-Chinggisid Eurasia and neighbouring settled societies such as the Kievan Rus', Georgia and the Islamic world. Particular studies deal with the hitherto neglected role of Khazars in the Islamic ghulâm (slave soldier) system, the unique traditions of sacral rulership among the Khazars, and their conversion to Judaism set within a larger Eurasian context. (shrink)

The paper presents some basic tenets of the works by the Franciscan Friar Alfonso Briceño (1587–1668), as well as of his metaphysical thought. After offering the basic structure and purpose of his monumental Controversiae, we focus on a more specific way of seeing his philosophical and theological approach, namely Controversy 5 on the infinity of God. This will allow us to see the structure of his argumentation in philosophy and theology: after putting the formulation of controversial points between (...) the Scotist and the Thomist school, he analyzes arguments against the Thomist position both in the Medieval and Baroque traditions, trying then to defend Duns Scotus’s account by a careful and articulated interpretation of his texts. (shrink)

This is collection of four philosophical texts written exclusively by women. It contemplates in chronological order The Dialogue by Catherine of Siena, The Interior Castle by Teresa of Avila, An Essay in Defence of the Female Sex by Judith Drake, and An Enquiry into the Evidence of the Christian Religion by Susanna Newcome. As such, the collection includes works in value theory, practical reason, theology, metaphysics, and epistemology. It encompasses eminently philosophical topics such as self-knowledge, prudence vs. (...) morality, the pursuit of perfection, the cosmological argument, Cartesianism, the psychology of religious experience, reason vs. faith, and an array of topics in Early Modern feminism. (shrink)

The new and revolutionizing ideas which the early Greek thinkers developed about the nature of the universe had a direct impact upon their conception of what they called, in a new sense, 'God' or 'the Divine.' The history of the philosophical theology of the Greeks is thus the history of their rational approach to the nature of reality itself in its successive phases. The late Professor Jaeger's classic book traces this development from the first intimations in (...) Hesiod of the theology that was to come, through the heroic age of Greek cosmological thought, down to the time of the Sophists of the fifth century B.C. (shrink)

[I] Divine Simplicity: God and His Existence Types of Divine Simplicity Of the properties ascribed to God in Aquinas' natural theology, we may call one sort ...

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:BOOK REVIEWS 709 Reason and Religion: Essays in Philosophical Theology. By ANTHONY KENNY. New York: Basil Blackwell, 1987. Pp. x + 182. $24.95 (cloth). This volume collects eleven of Anthony Kenny's essays, written over a period of almost thirty years. Six of them have previously appeared in print; the other five are published here for the first time. As the volume's subtitle indicates, all of them discuss (...) topics in the area of philosophical theology. The collection as a whole nicely illustrates the wide range of Kenny's work in philosophical theology during the past three decades. This hook will he of particular interest to the readers of this journal; the index records more references to Thomas Aquinas than to anyone else. Within the hounds of a brief review, I cannot discuss each of,the essays in detail. So I shall limit myself to doing two things. In order to give readers a sense of.the scope of the collection, I shall first summarize its contents; in order to convey an idea of its philosophical in· terest, I shall then make some critical remarks about :the views set forth in the three most recent essays, all dated 1986. The volume is divided into four parts. Each part gathers together essays that share themes or concerns. Thus the first part, which contains two papers from 1964, focuses on the nature of theological thinking. In "The Use of Logical Analysis in Theology," Kenny advances the claim that many contemporary philosophical discussions are of immediate relevance to theology and argues for it by example. The example involves the use of analytic metaphysics as practiced by such philosophers as Anscomhe, Geach and Strawson both to explicate and to criticize the Tridentine understanding of the doctrine of Transubstantiation. "The Development of Ecclesiastical Doctrine" outlines the difficulties history raises for the view that Catholic dogma is immutable. Kenny is harshly critical of attempts to explain away all the apparent changes of doctrine in the historical record by means of such ad hoc devices as representing them as merely making explicit what had been implicitly believed all along or writing down what had been orally transm1tted for many generations. He argues that such explanations can account for some hut not all of the doctrinal change history reveals. The second part of the volume, which is about the nature and existence of God, contains two papers dating from the 1960s on divine necessity, a recent discussion of the argument from design, and an older piece analyzing the description by John of the Cross of mystical experi· ence. In "God and Necessity," Kenny proposes an analysis of proposi· tional necessity according to which a necessary proposition is one which never changes its truth-value. Because it is usually supposed that God 710 BOOK REVIEWS exists always or never, this analysis has rthe consequence that rthe propo· sition that God exists is necessary. But so too are propositions ascribing existence to everlasting entities such as the proposition that Demo· critean atoms exist. Indeed, as Kenny explicitly notes in "Necessary Being," if polythene is literally indestructible (and has always existed), then the proposition that polyithene exists is a necessary truth hut not, of course, a logically necessary truth. " The Argument from Design " contends that teleological explanations in terms of purpose cannot be ultimate hut must be reducible either to mechanistic explanations or to explanations in terms of design. So the fate of the design argument hangs on whether there is purpose in nature that is both irreducible to a product of mechanistic chance and necessity and has no designer in the natural world. And in "Mystical Experience: St. John of the Cross," Kenny casts doubt on the suitability of the contemplative state of union with God described by John for justifying belief in God. As he sees it, rthere are difficulties involved in knowing that anyone is in such a contemplative state. John allows that a person may think he is contemplating when he is not and may he contemplating without knowing it, and he gives no reason for supposing that the tranquility and virtue he takes to he effects of contemplation cannot occur in the absence of contemplation. The... (shrink)

Health is a value-laden concept. The state of being that it designates is a fundamental human goal. As a value, the concept is normative, governing both clinical practice and the therapeutic treatment developed by medical research. Also, the promise of health plays a pivotal role in health-policy discourse. Almut Caspary considers philosophical and theological concepts of health in the context of its practical significance, both in the past and today. This conceptual analysis culminates in a preliminary sketch of a (...) concept of health; focusing on the stem-cell debate, it offers a discriminating approach to contemporary ethical problems in medicine. "Gesundheit" ist ein wertgeladener Begriff. Er bezeichnet einen grundsatzlich wunschenswerten Zustand menschlicher Existenz, der das arztliche Handeln im klinischen Alltag leitet. Daruber hinaus werden (gesundheits-)politische Debatten mit Verweis auf den Nutzen fur die Gesundheit entschieden. Vor diesem Hintergrund setzt sich Almut Caspary epochenubergreifend mit philosophischen und theologischen Uberlegungen zur Gesundheit auseinander. Die konzeptuelle Diskussion erlaubt die Skizzierung eines Gesundheitsverstandnisses, das - wie am Beispiel der Stammzelldebatte gezeigt wird - ein differenziertes Abwagen in medizinethischen Konfliktfallen zulasst. (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:"ALL EXISTING IS THE ACTION OF GOD": THE PHILOSOPHICAL THEOLOGY OF DAVID BRAINE DAVID BRADSHAW University ofTexas at Austin Austin, Texas Thou lovest all the things that are, and abhorrest nothing which thou hast made: for never wouldest thou have made any thing, if thou hadst hated il And how could any thing have endured, if it had not been thy will? or been preserved, if not (...) called by thee? But thou sparest all: for they are thine, 0 Lord, thou lover of souls. Wisdom 11:24-26 He is not far from every one of us; for in Him we live, and move, and have our being. Acts 17:27-28 I T HAS long been traditional to regard God as upholding all things in existence. This belief is known as the doctrine of continuous creation; it is a doctrine widely shared by Jews, Christians, and Moslems, and was first clearly articulated by St. Augustine.1 The phrase "continuous creation" can be misleading, for there is more to the doctrine than simply the extension of God's creative act through time. If that were all that is at stake, we would not need to revise our ordinary notion of the creator as craftsman or artist; we might think of God as like a painter who 1 Augustine, De Genesi ad Litteram iv.12. The history of the development of this doctrine has yet to be written, but important sources include Timaeus 4lab; Philo of Alexandria, De Providentia i.7; Colossians 1:17, Hebrews 1:3; John of Damascus, De Fide Orthodoxa i.3; Aquinas, Summa theologiae I, q. 104, a. 1. See also David Winston, Philo of Alexandria (New York: Paulist Press, 1981), 14-17; G. L. Prestige, God in Patristic Thought (London: S.P.C.K., 1964), 31-36; Richard Sorabji, Time, Creation,-and the Continuum (Ithaca: Cornell, 1983), 303-304. 379 380 DAVID BRADSHAW never stops adding new scenes, or a writer continually elaborating his story. That picture will not do. Ifthe painter were to cease painting, what he has made up to that point would remain in existence, whereas it is precisely the ability to stand on its own that the doctrine of continuous creation seeks to deny of what is made. Nor does anything in the relation of artisan to artifact properly convey the special intimacy and presence that the act of continuous creation is supposed to establish between God and creatures. A painting or a story does not "live and move and have its being" in the one who fashions it-nor would even a living and thinking creature, if the manner of its making were solely that of an artisan. These shortcomings raise the question of whether we should seek to replace the image of artisan and artifact with one that is more dynamic. We might think of God as like a singer and of what is made as His song, or of God as like a dancer and of what is made as His dance. By envisioning the act of creation as a "doing" rather than a "making," analogies of this type more adequately indicate the continuing ontological dependence ofcreation on Creator. They also draw our attention to a mode of presence radically different from that of one body to another, the presence of an agent "within" his own actions. They may thus bring us closer to what St. Paul presumably has in mind in the passage quoted from Acts. On the other hand, they have faults of their own, for they are hard to reconcile with creaturely freedom and the reality of secondary causation. How could any kind of "doing" act contrary to the will of its doer? Indeed, how could it act at all? Actions are not causal agents; a song does not act in its own right, but is at best an instrument of the one who sings it. So it would seem that, taken to their logical conclusion, analogies such as that of the singer and his song lead to the denial of both creatures' freedom and their causal efficacy. There have been thinkers in each of the religious traditions mentioned who have been willing to accept these... (shrink)

The year 2010 marks the one-hundredth anniversary of the Recherches de Science Religieuse and provides an opportunity for the journal to explore its past, present, and prospects for the twenty-first century. In order to celebrate the event, this special commemorative issue calls upon authors from many different fields. "Commemoration" involves not only examining the past, however rich it may be, but also taking up the challenge of analyzing the present and reflecting upon the future. In the first section, diverse approaches (...) -- theological, sociological or historical -- are applied to an in-depth diagnosis of the present. The second part is dedicated to memory: the founding years during the modernist crisis and the major stages in the development of the journal under various directors until today, among them, Henri de Lubac and Joseph Moingt. Finally, this special issue is rounded off by a series of broad perspectives tracing out paths for the future of the disciplines at the heart of theology and religious science today, thus remaining faithful to the journal's original mission of "research in movement". (shrink)

In his Sociology, Rosenstock-Huessy had argued that the translatio imperii was an important, but forgotten, Medieval Christian formulation which grasped that with the Church the aspiration of empire had entered onto a new historical path; the extinction that is the fate of all earthly empires need not be repeated if the powers of human endeavour are incorporated within a spiritual body (Augustine’s ‘heavenly city’) for whom ‘love is stronger than death’. This radical faith in the future has been retained in, (...) and is indeed intrinsic to, the secular Western revolutionary consciousness. This faith also provides the discipline of History with an eschatological mission far beyond merely chronicling of the past. History inevitably shares the same theological and philosophical roots not only of Europe but the entire world. For the ‘world’ we now inhabit is what it is because of the outgrowths of revolutions and world wars that were initiated in Europe. (shrink)

The advent of modern science brought deep challenges to traditional religion. Miracles, prophecy, immortal souls, absolute morality - all of these fundamental notions were challenged by the increasingly analytical and skeptical approach of modern scientists. One philosopher, Baruch Spinoza, proposed a new theology, rooted in a close analysis of the Bible, which could fit this new science and provide a sound basis for a social order. "Spinoza's Radical Theology" explains the mechanics and meaning of Spinoza's ideas and how (...) they can inform the questions with which we still struggle today. (shrink)

In the face of the anthropogenic threats to the singular planetary habitat we share with other human beings and non-human species, humanities scholars feel a renewed sense of urgency 1) to acknowledge the ways our species has funded particular histories of environmental exploitation, alienation, and collapse, 2) to unpack inherited assumptions that impact our views of nature and interspecies relations, and 3) to suggest ways of thinking and acting that seek to repair the damage and promote mutual flourishing for all (...) of earth inhabitants. This volume brings together scholars in philosophy, theology, and religion who take up this urgent ethical task from a broad range of perspectives and locations. (shrink)

Each professional researcher of the religious and philosophical tradition of Ukraine XI-XIV centuries. convinced of the glow of theoretical understanding of the manuscript corpus of texts of a certain period, realizes that 90% of the monuments of that time are waiting for study, knows that the subject-based, scientific sources are aimed at reconstructing how the beginning and the end were presented, stages, goals, the factors, essence and meaning of world history in the culture of are still in the (...) embryonic phase, and the problem of understanding the role of the Holy Cross in the historical process has not been raised or analyzed yet by the bearers of this culture. These facts lead to an attempt to fill the existing lacuna. (shrink)

According to Tāj al-Dīn al-Subkī, al-Ghazālī was the renewer of the Muslim faith at the end of the 5th / 11th century, whereas al-Rāzī was the renewer of faith at the end of the 6th / 12th century. That al-Ghazālī deserves such an honour can hardly be disputed, and his importance in the history of Islamic thought is generally recognised. However, the same cannot, as easily, be said of al-Rāzī, whose historical significance is far from being truly appreciated, and (...) some of the most important books of whom still await publication. Much is known about his views on particular philosophical and theological problems, and about the historical backgrounds to, and the relations amongst, some of these views. Some rather general observations on his thought are also common; for instance, that he is a heavily philosophising Ash‘arī mutakallim, a master dialectician, and an influential critic of Ibn Sīnā. (shrink)

In A Philosophical, Scientific and Theological Defense for the Notion That a God Exists, Hal Flemings presents an overview of the history of the debate on the question of the existence of God. In an objective fashion, Flemings provides equal voice to opposing views while not hiding his own. He treats the problem of evil from a new perspective, which includes moral evil and natural evil and discusses the relationship between God and the theoretical and factual sciences.

A History of Western Philosophy and Theology is the fruit of John Frame's forty-five years of teaching philosophical subjects. No other survey of the history of Western thought offers the same invigorating blend of expositional clarity, critical insight, and biblical wisdom. The supplemental study questions, bibliographies, links to audio lectures, quotes from influential thinkers, twenty appendices, and indexed glossary make this an excellent main textbook choice for seminary- and college-level courses and for personal study. Book jacket.

The Abrahamic faiths—Judaism, Christianity, and Islam—have bequeathed to the world a rich religious and cultural heritage which has been enormously influential through the centuries up to the present. While this is easily evident in the modern practices of these monotheisms, it is also profoundly present in the development of their diverse intellectual traditions with theological and philosophical insights and analyses seeking to understand and explain the nature of the presence of the divine to human beings. The present collection of (...) essays by a wide array of North American scholars provides a dozen studies of language, discourse, debate, and reasoning with a focus on theological and philosophical issues central to these three traditions that commonly call Abraham their human and/or spiritual father. Collectively these essays represent a dialogue among those who work at crossroads of theology, philosophy, history, language, and religion. Their dialogue adds to the growing library of works that seek to highlight collaboration and common ground between these religious and philosophical traditions. The dialogue is multi-directional, taking place within various religions and philosophical perspectives, as well as between religion, theology, and philosophy. It is also multi-purpose in that it seeks to transcend the mere theoretical, and to reveal the concrete; the thinkers, philosophers, and theologians discussed in these essays were deeply concerned with mutual understanding and peaceful co-existence, a goal that has become even more desirable in this post-9/11 world. (shrink)