The ecological crisis almost forces different disciplines to search together for a better world. We all share one earth: the closer we reach a certain point, the closer we come together. This places the paper amid the so-called science and religion dialogue in which theology increasingly cognises empirical research and scientific data. On the other hand, sciences are becoming increasingly aware of the need to transcend their evidential limitations to find a comprehensive paradigm. This paper will apply an exemplary methodology (...) by selecting the eco-theology of Jürgen Moltmann as a theologian who takes relevant results of scientific ecological research seriously. The Club of Rome, on the other hand, is an example of social (and natural) sciences urging to find a new inclusive paradigm for a world in peril. The juxtaposition of theology and science provides the need for a new value system emerging in social sciences. Randers makes clear that the culture of consumerism had to be replaced by cultural elements that provide substantial longer-term satisfaction and increase well-being. The latest report of the Club of Rome (2022) and Moltmann’s latest two titles on this topic (2019 and 2020) have been integrated into the argument and previous publications of the author. Contribution: This exemplary approach contributes to a scientifically grounded and biblically founded eco-theology. The two exponents of science and eco-theology provide the much-needed vocabulary for each other. The Earth Charter, one could add, provides a grammar for the engagement of eco-theology and environmental science. (shrink)

I explore the view that the imago Dei is essential to us as humans but accidental to us as persons. To image God is to resemble God, and resemblance comes in degrees. This has the straightforward—and perhaps disturbing—implication that we can be more or less human, and possibly cease to be human entirely. Hence, I call it the spectrum view. I argue that the spectrum view is complementary to the Biblical data, helps explain the empirical reality of horrendous evil, and (...) offers an elegant rapprochement between the traditional view of hell and its rivals. (shrink)

This essay explores the relationship between nature and grace and the theological impact of this relationship on feminist anthropological debates. Engaging this debate through an examination and critique of Serene Jones’ ‘eschatological essentialism’, this essay suggests that Jones mistakenly characterizes constructivism, and thus turns too quickly to an essentialist paradigm without considering its risks. Using Judith Butler and Karl Barth, this essay proposes an account of identity that the author calls a ‘Christological constructivism’. Suggesting that the person and work of (...) Christ instantiates a grace that disrupts nature, Daniels argues for an account of identity as ‘more-than’, suggesting that this anthropology engenders healing for women, and men, within communities religious and otherwise. (shrink)

This article engages feminist critiques of Christology with the views of Christian women living on council estates in the United Kingdom. It explores some of the ways in which the faith of such women connects with and/or contradicts feminist and womanist understandings of Christ. It is demonstrated that Jesus has been thought of in terms of ‘Nan-Nan’, or as a ‘Street Mother’, and that women living in areas of economic deprivation, and elsewhere, might lay claim to such terminology as a (...) way to further articulate identification with Christ, and in order to challenge traditionally androcentric Christology. A series of Christological questions are explored, for example, ‘Who is Jesus?’; ‘Do you think Jesus puts men in charge of women?’ and the anonymised answers are recorded at the beginning of each chapter. It is proposed that feminist Christology may enhance a sentiment already present among Christian women on estates, and, further to this, propel the pursuit of liberation from kyriarchal oppression. In this way, the Christian faith of women on estates is, and can become more and more so, an act of insubordination in the face of oppression of many kinds. Not least, it contributes a fresh and important Christological perspective. (shrink)

The present ecological crisis imposes a rethinking of the relation between the human being and the rest of nature. Traditional theological articulations of this relation have proven problematic where they foster separatism and anthropocentrism, which give a false report on the relation and have a negative impact on thinking and acting in relation to nature. One place to begin rethinking is through an exploration of the affirmation that the human being is “made in the image of God,”imago dei. Some ways (...) of construing the theological meaning of this designation are more helpful than others. Science has recognized the extent to which the human being is not only dependent upon but even emergent from nature. We are made of the same “stuff” that makes up the rest of the universe. We are nature. The place of the human being is much more modest, recent, and precarious than usually acknowledged in theological reflection. New ways of interpreting our role within nature must evolve out of this new understanding. Philip Hefner has proposed that we think of the human being as created co-creator. His is a distinctive and promising contribution. This essay responds with both affirmations and friendly questions. (shrink)

The beatific vision plays a prominent role in the history of Christian ethics. Reformed ethics has an ambiguous relationship to this history, on two counts. First, it offers some qualified critiques of the role of vision in ordering ethical understanding, and second, on some accounts, Reformed ethics shares some responsibility for the loss of transcendence in the modern world, and the narrowing of the ethical field that has resulted from this loss. This essay argues that the vision of God in (...) John Calvin’s understanding of the Christian life offers resources to defend a Reformed ethics from some recent detractors. Further, it provides a constructive contrast with the role of eschatology in a prominent strand of 20th century ethics. This argument is sustained through a close reading of Calvin’s biblical commentaries on the role of theophanies and the promise of the vision of God, and of Book III, chapters 6-10 of the Institutes. (shrink)

Responding to a well-known essay by Bernard Williams, philosophers have engaged in what I call “the Makropulos debate,” a debate over whether immortality—“living forever”—would be desirable for beings like us. Lacking a firm conceptual grounding in the religious contexts from which terms such as “immortality” and “eternal life” gain much of their sense, the debate has consisted chiefly in a battle of speculative fantasies. Having presented my four main reasons for this assessment, I examine an alternative and neglected conception, the (...) idea of eternal life as a present possession, derived in large part from Johannine Christianity. Without claiming to argue for the truth of this conception, I present its investigation as exemplifying a conceptually fruitful direction of inquiry into immortality or eternal life, one which takes seriously the religious and ethical surroundings of these concepts. (shrink)

Does it make sense to think of eternal life not as an unending continuation of life subsequent to death but as fully actualized in one’s present mortal and finite life? After outlining conceptual and moral reasons for being troubled by the notion of an endless life, this article draws upon the thought of major Christian theologians and philosophers of religion to expound the idea of eternal life as a possession exclusively of the life one is presently living. Supplementing the claims (...) of religious thinkers with notions of four-dimensionalism and eternalism from theoretical physics and the philosophy of time, and considering important objections to the conception of eternal life in question, I argue for both the conception’s intelligibility and its ethical and spiritual profundity. (shrink)

Was Jesus Christ a deluded prophet who expected an imminent collapse of the world followed by the dawning of a kingdom that has never eventuated? Some who reject Christianity think that he was, and as a consequence are highly suspicious about any other claims that are attributed to Jesus. However, other interpretations of the apparently eschatological pronouncements in the New Testament exist, one of which is realized eschatology, this being the idea, roughly, that the kingdom or reign of God was (...) realized in or through the ministry of Jesus itself. Debates surrounding the competing interpretations of New Testament eschatology raise fascinating issues, both exegetical and conceptual. Exploring some of these issues from the perspective of philosophy of religion, informed by theological and biblical studies, this article argues that realized eschatology is a religious option that, contrary to common criticisms, is neither incoherent nor implausibly reductive. (shrink)

One is occasionally reminded of Foucault's proclamation in a 1970 interview that "perhaps, one day this century will be known as Deleuzian." Less often is one compelled to update and restart with a supplementary counter-proclamation of the mathematician, David Lindley: "the twenty-first century would be a Bayesian era..." The verb tenses of both are conspicuous. // To critically attend to what is today often feared and demonized, but also revered, deployed, and commonly referred to as algorithm(s), one cannot avoid the (...) mathematical and philosophical legacies of probability. // But attending to these probabilistic or Bayesian legacies must include an undeniable theological legacy in which they remain entangled. // We are not, today, discovering quirky theological metaphors in contemporary technics. It's the other way around. The technologies are mere metaphors of past theologies. (shrink)

Abstract. For the past two decades, I have been developing an integrative Christian marriage theory, based in part on a grounding concept of natural law and an overarching theory of covenant. The natural law part of this theory starts with an account of the natural facts, conditions, interests, needs, and qualities of human life, interaction, and generation—what I call the “premoral” goods or realities of life. It then identifies the natural inclinations of humans to form enduring and exclusive monogamous marriages (...) and to preserve these units as the central site for intimacy, procreation, and nurture of children. In this paper, I first summarize this natural law theory of marriage and then compare it to the formulations of other modern Christian thinkers. I also defend this theory against various modern critics of natural law—in part by reinterpreting some traditional natural law teachings that in my view have been misunderstood, in part by looking at the interesting convergences between the insights into sex, marriage, and family life offered by contemporary Christian theological ethicists and by evolutionary biologists and biological anthropologists. (shrink)

In hierdie hoofstuk word Luther se teologiese denke oor die huwelik en seksualiteit bespreek. Luther se invloed op teologiese denke oor die huwelik word aangetoon. Die hoofstuk wys daarop dat sedert Luther tot vandag, seksuele verskille 'n belangrike kwessie is wanneer daar vanuit 'n teologiese perspektief oor die huwelk nagedink word. 'n Hermeneutiek van suspisie word gebruik om die skeppingsorde teologie sowel as die begrip 'mens as geskape na die beeld van God', wat tradisioneel gebruik word in die nadenke oor (...) die huwelik, te interpreteer. (shrink)

Adrianus van Selms as protestantse Teoloog. Van Selms het in 1938 vanaf Nederland na Suid-Afrika toe gekom om Semitiese Tale te doseer in die Fakulteit Lettere en Wysbegeerte aan die Universiteit van Pretoria. Hy het ook deeltyds in die Fakulteit Teologie doseer. Die Universiteit van Pretoria het hom as een van denkleiers van die 20ste eeu aan die universiteit erken. Hy het geslagte van teologiese studente beïnvloed tydens sy amptelike dienstydperk aan die universiteit, vanaf 1938 tot 1971. Meer as 300 (...) publikasies staan agter sy naam. Behalwe vir werk wat hy op die terrein van die Semitiese Tale gelewer het, het hy ook verskeie kommentare oor Ou-Testamentiese boeke geskryf. Verder was hy ook aktief as prediker in die kerk en het ook 'n uitsonderlike bydrae tot die kategesemateriaal van die Kerk gelewer. As teoloog het Van Selms aansluiting gevind by die reformatoriese tradisie van die 16de eeu. As eksegeet het hy die uitdaging aanvaar om die Bybelse tekste te lees in die erkenning van die historiese afstand wat die hedendaagse leser van die oorspronklike tekste skei. Hy is sodoende gekonfronteer met die knaende probleem van die benadering tot die Bybelse tekste: dogmaties of histories-krities? Deur as eksegeet sy eie dogmatikus te word, het hy die twee benaderings nie apart gehou nie, maar tot 'n eenheid gebring en op die manier 'n hervorming in die beoefening van die teologie verteenwoordig. Hy aanvaar met hierdie werkswyse die verantwoordelikheid vir die erfenis van die Kerkhervorming vir die kerk van sy dag. Die hoofstuk ontwikkel langs die verwagtinge wat aan die amp van predikant in die reformatoriese tradisie gestel word: teologie, prediking, kategese en herdelike sorg. (shrink)

I challenge the assumption that human uniqueness, of the sort motivated by the doctrine of the imago Dei, is incompatible with contemporary views in evolutionary biology. I first develop the functionalist account of the image of God and then argue that image bearing is a contingently imposed function. Humans, chosen by God to bear his image, are unique in that they alone possess an ideal range of image bearing capacities. This ideal range, in the end, makes humans well-suited for the (...) role of image bearing. (shrink)

Inter-godsdienstige verhoudinge was nog altyd problematies. Teologie van godsdiens en teologie van godsdienste is die wyse waarop die Christendom oor die teenwoordigheid en aard van ander godsdienste besin. Die kerkhervormers het ook 'n bepaalde verstaan van die bestaan van en verhouding tussen die Christendom en nie-Christelike godsdienste gehad. Hierdie bydrae probeer aantoon hoe die kerkhervormers verskil het in hulle benadering tot ander godsdienste. Martin Luther en Philipp Melanchthon het die moontlikheid van verhoudinge met ander godsdienste, in besonder Jode en Moslems (...) voorgestaan, al was dit dan ook net n momentele mening van Luther. Daarmee verteenwoordig hulle n kategorie van 'moontlikheid'. Johannes Calvyn was meer afwysend teenoor die gedagte van moontlikheid van heil binne ander godsdienste en behoort daarom tot die kategorie van 'geslotenheid'. Die kerkhervormer Theodore Bibliander was oop vir gesprek en positief oor verhoudinge met Moslems alhoewel hy nie gedink het dat heil en verlossing buite die Christendom moontlik is nie. Vir Bibliander het verhouding met ander begin, met kennis van die ander. Hy verteenwoordig die kategorie van 'openheid'. Die kerkhervormers se verstaan van die verhouding met ander godsdienste lewer n bydrae tot n huidige besinning oor inter-godsdienstige verhoudinge. (shrink)

This paper examines how Heidegger's view that language is poetry might provide a helpful way of understanding the nature of religious language. Poetry, according to Heidegger, is language in its purest form, in that it both reveals Being, whilst also showing the difference between word and thing. In poetry, Heidegger suggests, we come closest to the essence of language itself and encounter its strangeness and impermeability, and its revelatory character. What would be the implications for viewing religious language in this (...) way? Through examining Heidegger's view that poetry is the purest form of language, I suggest that it would also be possible to view religious language as poetry in this way, in that it also shows the transcendence of what cannot be brought to presence in language, except as concealed. Such a view of religious language does not regard it as a problematic type of language, deserving special treatment, but rather suggests that in religious language the inarticulable relationship between word and world is revealed. (shrink)

Ultimacy talk -- Dreaming -- Suffering -- Creating -- Ultimacy systems -- Slipping -- Balancing -- Eclipsing -- Ultimacy manifestations -- Loneliness -- Intensity -- Bliss.

Can there be an objective morality without God? Derek Parfit argues that it can and offers a theory of morality that is neither theistic nor naturalistic. This book provides a critical assessment of Parfit's metaethical theory. Jakobsen identifies some problems in Parfit’s theory – problems concerning moral normativity, the ontological status of morality, and evolutionary influence on our moral beliefs – and argues that theological resources can help solve them. By showing how Parfit’s theory may be improved by the help (...) of theology, Jakobsen demonstrates the relevance of theology in philosophical and metaethical debates and argues that Christian theism offers a better explanation of morality than what Parfit’s non-naturalism does. (shrink)

For as long as the Christian church has been working out its understanding of the second person of the Trinity, it has employed analytic philosophical reflection to sharpen theological comprehension. In recent times, there has been a rekindled appreciation for the employment of analytic reflection in the service of theology. Analytic theology has established itself as a way of doing theology that employs analytic philosophical analysis in the project of faith in divinely revealed truths seeking understanding. In this issue, the (...) fresh insights of analytic theology are applied to a theme most central to Christian theology—the Son of God. (shrink)

C. S. Lewis’s small book, The Problem of Pain, first published in 1940, is essentially a theodicy, specifically, a version of soul-making theodicy. In this essay I present Lewis’s theodicy and I offer some critical comments. I conclude by asking whether his theodicy remains intact and helpful upon the death of Lewis wife, as he reflects on that in A Grief Observed. I conclude that it does.

ABSTRACTThis article uses Gadamer’s concept of play as a common lens through which both traditional church liturgy and imaginative evangelical practices of engaging with God can be understood. The category of play encompasses processes which exhibit a back-and-forth motion and functions in Gadamer’s aesthetics to describe the relationship between artwork and viewer. Through an aesthetics of play, Gadamer accounts for the presence of truth in art. As I demonstrate in this paper, liturgy displays the playful characteristics of artwork, allowing for (...) a theologically realist interpretation of divine presence. The final part of this paper considers the imaginative evangelical practices described by anthropologist T. M. Luhrmann, which I refer to as God-play. I argue that there is an unexpected commonality between God-play and traditional liturgy in the form of a functional similarity between the two and propose that God-play may be regarded as liturgy-like practice that has not been traditionalised. My evaluati... (shrink)

Vryheid is naas regverdiging een van die belangrikste temas van die Reformatoriese teologie. Luther se geskrif 'Oor die vryheid van 'n Christenmens' is een van sy hoofgeskrifte. In hierdie geskrif beskryf hy die vryheid van die innerlike en die uiterlike mens. Die innerlike mens is vry en niemand se onderdaan nie. Die uiterlike mens is weer elke ander mens se onderdaan en dienskneg. Die Christen dien sy medemens deur die liefde. Luther se verstaan van naasteliefde word vanuit ander geskrifte toegelig. (...) Johannes Calvyn se verstaan van vryheid volgens sy 'Institusie' van 1559 word ook bespreek. Daar word op die groot ooreenstemming tussen Luther en Calvyn gewys. Die verskille tussen die twee Reformatore is minimaal. Calvyn het egter wel groter aandag aan die adiafora-vraagstuk gegee. Daar word ook deurgaans na Philipp Melanchthon se invloed op Calvyn gewys. Die relevansie van die vryheidsvraagstuk lê nie in die instrumentalisering van die Christelike vryheid nie, maar in die hernude bestudering van die klassieke tekste met die bedoeling om die belangrike reformatoriese motiewe te herontdek. Hierdie motiewe is relevant - ook in ons samelewing. (shrink)

Die voortgesette proses van implementering van nuwe materiaal wat gebruik word vir katkisasie in die Nederduitsch Hervormde Kerk van Afrika vertoon 'n besondere trajek. Die proses het, in terme van geloof, begin met die formalisering van sowel die geloofsbegrip as die beskrywing van die inhoud van geloof. Dit is voortgesit deur 'n proses van die objektivering van die inhoud van geloof tot feite wat geleer kan word en is uiteindelik voltrek deur die implementering van 'n pragmatiese opvoedkundige doelwit waarin geloof (...) bloot 'n middel tot 'n doel geword het. Die trajek kan kortliks soos volg beskryf word: • Die Heidelbergse Kategismus Geloof is die aanneming van die beloftes van God wat vertroue in die lewende God skep. • 'Kortbegrip': Geloof is sekere kennis van God en sy beloftes en 'n hartlike vertroue dat al my sondes om Christus ontwil vergewe is. • Die belydenis van die Hervormers: Ek glo in God beteken dat ek al my vertroue op God stel en Hom op sy woord neem. • Geloofsleer: Geloof is kennis van die Woord van God en vertroue in die God van die Woord. • Geloof en Lewe 11: Geloof is die toe-eiening van kenbare geloofoorleweringe wat in die Bybel opgeneem is. Die kerk kan daarom kinders deur 'n proses van kategese begelei tot geloofsvolwassenheid. Vandag is die uitgangspunt van katkisasie en die motivering daarvoor in die Nederduitsch Hervormde Kerk van Afrika die oortuiging dat die kerk kinders deur 'n proses van kategese tot godsdienstige volwassenheid kan lei. Van Selms se kategismus pas nie in die trajek wat hier beskryf word nie. Die Nederduitsch Hervormde Kerk van Afrika sou vandag heeltemal anders gelyk het as meer as een generasie van die lidmate van die Kerk aan hierdie kategeseboek blootgestel was. (shrink)

Martin Luther het as monnik getwyfel of hy ooit genoeg goeie werke sou kon doen en daarom nie genade by God sou kon vind nie. Danksy sy noukeurige bestudering van Paulus se briewe het hy ontdek dat God, die Vader van Jesus Christus, nie die toornige God is wat net wil straf nie, maar die barmhartige Vader is wat genade wil betoon. Die boodskap oor God se barmhartigheid sien Luther saamgevat in die begrip 'geregtigheid van God'. God se geregtigheid bestaan (...) in sy wil om sondes te vergewe sodat gelowiges voor Hom as geregverdigde mense kan bestaan. In hierdie hoofstuk word God se drie gestaltes van geregtigheid verduidelik aan hand van die drie gestaltes van sonde. Aangesien daar voortdurend misverstand is oor Luther se erns jeens goeie werke, word daar in diepte aandag gegee aan die samehang tussen geloof en werke in sy denke. Die vraagstelling word toegespits op die doen van liefde. Daar word daarop gewys dat Luther se betoog daarop neerkom dat slegs persone wat goeie bome gemaak word, in die doen van die liefde kan volhard. (shrink)

Abstract. The dangerous level of individuality in contemporary Western culture is informed by a conception of mind, self, and soul as internal to the central nervous system. The historical development of this view has produced a bounded and self-contained individual at odds with communal life. Happily, scientific and philosophical studies of mind are coming to view the human mind as embodied, enactive, encultured, and embedded in social and technical networks, and as a construction not limited to the boundaries of the (...) individual organism. Mental phenomena are hybrids of events in the head and events in the world to which they are often coupled, not least of which are with other people. There are mutual and reciprocal implications of this externalism for a number of religious themes. Our understanding of redemption might better be bound to our relationships with others, including our bodies and our sexuality, rather than to a private, individual relationship with the sacred. (shrink)

Embodied cognitive science holds that cognitive processes are deeply and inescapably rooted in our bodily interactions with the world. Our finite, contingent, and mortal embodiment may be not only supportive, but in some cases even constitutive of emotions, thoughts, and experiences. My discussion here will work outward from the neuroanatomy and neurophysiology of the brain to a nervous system which extends to the boundaries of the body. It will extend to nonneural aspects of embodiment and even beyond the boundaries of (...) the body to prosthetics of various kinds, including symbioses with a broad array of cultural artifacts, our symbolic niche, and our relationships with other embodied human beings. While cognition may not always be situated, its origins are embedded in temporally and spatially limited activities. Cognitive work also can be off-loaded to the body and to the environment in service of action, tool use, group cognition, and social coordination. This can blur the boundaries between brain areas, brain and body, and body and environment, transforming our understanding of mind and personhood to provide a different grounding for faith traditions in general, and of the historically dualist Christian tradition in particular. (shrink)

This essay advances an interpretation of early Christian codex books, which goes beyond Catherine Pickstock’s critique of Jacques Derrida. Firstly, it summarizes Derrida’s deconstruction of Plato’s Phaedrus and introduces his understanding of writing as différance. Secondly, it outlines Pickstock’s After Writing in order to understand her emphasis upon the liturgical nature of platonic dialogue. It is here that an ambiguity emerges between writing and codex books in Pickstock’s account. In response, the insights of book historians such as Roger Chartier will (...) be brought to bear in order to understand the longer history of the codex, which sees the printing press as a continuation of the early transition from roll to codex in the second century of the Common Era. It has long been noted that Christians of this period were early and pervasive adopters of codex binding for their sacred literature. By summarizing the reasons why, it will be shown how the codex expressed early Christian religious concerns. (shrink)

Resumo: A questão que move este trabalho é a seguinte: é possível justificar e fomentar o diálogo inter-religioso, através das abordagens pluralistas atuais? Pretende-se empreender uma análise de duas teorias pluralistas, mostrando suas vantagens e limites, para justificar e fomentar o diálogo inter-religioso. Num primeiro momento, será feita uma breve introdução e contextualização dos problemas filosóficos gerados pela diversidade religiosa. Feito isso, serão apresentadas e discutidas duas teorias pluralistas atuais. Será focalizada primeiramente a teoria pluralista de John Hick, o qual (...) possui uma proposta de justificação do pluralismo religioso que tem como ponto central a distinção, emprestada de Kant, entre a realidade fenomênica e a realidade numênica ou entre fenômeno e coisa em si. É daí que seu pluralismo pode ser chamado de pluralismo transcendental. Serão abordados e discutidos os principais conceitos, alcances e limites dessa teoria. Após isso, o mesmo se fará com a teoria de Victoria Harrison, conhecida como pluralismo internalista, que parte de uma adaptação do realismo interno de Putnam ao âmbito da diversidade religiosa. Por fim, esboçar-se-á uma avaliação comparativa das duas teorias, analisando-se as possibilidades e limites dessas teorias, no que se refere ao diálogo inter-religioso.: Is it possible to justify and promote inter-religious dialogue through current pluralistic approaches? This paper analyses two pluralist theories, showing their advantages and limits in justifying and promoting interreligious dialogue. First I make a brief introduction and contextualization of the philosophical problems generated by religious diversity. Next I present and discuss two current pluralistic theories. The first is the pluralistic theory of John Hick, which in justifying religious pluralism has as its central point the distinction, borrowed from Kant, between phenomenal and noumenal reality; Hick’s theory can be called transcendental pluralism. The second is Victoria Harrison’s theory, known as internalist pluralism. This theory is an adaptation of Putnam’s internal realism to the problems of religious diversity. Finally, I make a comparative evaluation of the two theories, analyzing their possibilities and limitations with regard to interreligious dialogue. (shrink)

. In Minding God Gregory Peterson takes a careful look at the kind of freedom that human persons have. He concludes that humans are constrained to be free and unpacks this into a version of compatibilism. That is, humans are not metaphysically free under current existence because of the causal determination inherent in their physical nature, but they can take credit for the origination of selfforming decisions because the causes occur inside of us. Peterson does advocate an eschatological hope looking (...) forward to the breaking of causal determination by God's own action. Thus, Minding God presents an eschatologically limited compatibilism. Compatibilism of any kind, however, presents serious challenges to most Christian theologies and to many religious traditions broadly considered. After I interpret Peterson's position I make the argument that compatibilism is neither desirable nor required for a theological anthropology intent on serious engagement of cognitive science. (shrink)

The paper examines the emphasis on knowing the inner life of Jesus by a prominent 19th century Liberal Protestant, and Albert Schweitzer's decisive blow to the Life of Jesus movement at the beginning of the 20th century. It gives critiques to both the former and the latter, and identifies the approach of the Liberal Protestants as ‘subjective’ in two senses. While the subjectivity of an interpreter can pose problems in the interpretation of Jesus, it is maintained that the possibility of (...) knowing some aspects of the subjectivity of Jesus cannot be ruled out a priori. A method of correlation is suggested to give a more objective and connected interpretation of Jesus' outer words/actions and his mind. (shrink)

Annotation: The article contains the research concerning the possible impact of Karl Barth`s figure and theological issues on the theology of the 20th century and the first decades of the 21st century. There is a comparative analysis of how powerful and significant was the level of impact of Barth`s scientific experience on the theologians of his era, in comparison with the most prominent representatives of Christian thought from the earlier centuries, beginning with the times of ancient church, the Middle Ages, (...) the 16th century protestant Reformation, as well as his contemporaries. As it was clarified, Karl Barth made a striking impulse for the further radical deconstruction of what is considered to be the achievements of 19th`s century liberal protestant theology (which made him a lot of detractors among his colleagues), made a loud accent on the necessity of the Christocentric approach to all the spheres of theology, newly updated, actualized and convincingly demonstrated the importance of ancient church creeds and dogmas in the field of Triadology and Christology, as well as in an unusual way he intensified and revived the intellectual search in the protestant universities and academies by his reshaping and changing the paradigms of the whole western theology in a radical way. In the article were taken into account some reviews on Barth`s “Epistle to the Romans” (second edition, 1922), which caused lively discussions and prolonged controversy because of specific and non-standard hermeneutical approaches to the biblical text, which Barth demonstrated in this one of the most eminent theological works of the 20th century. The article reveals not only the attitude towards Barth`s theological heritage that was showed by his protestant colleagues, but also reveals the sincere admiration for his theology from some Orthodox researchers, in particular, the honored professor of Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, John Karavidopulos, and the world famous specialist in the history of Christianity and medieval intellectual history, Jaroslav Jan Pelikan Jr., who converted to Orthodoxy in 1998. In the article`s conclusion there`s a piece of information concerning the fact that the impact of Barth`s dogmatics and hermeneutics on the modern departments of theology is not so noticeable as one might expect. In particular, we can make such a conclusion because of (1) the absence of true consolidation and common vision about the methods of theologizing between the western universities and church seminaries, (2) the popularity of so called “natural theology” which nowadays often seems to be regarded as an important prerequisite for all further theological researches, while Barth himself was a categorical opponent of this discourse, (3) the domination of binary opposition between conservatives and liberals in context of some modern theological discussions, while Karl Barth always tried to organically combine his devotion to the protestant orthodoxy with his efforts to be relevant and adequate to the requirements of his time. (shrink)

Andrew Torrance has recently argued that we can distinguish analytic theology from analytic philosophy of religion if we understand theology as, fundamentally, a scientific enterprise. However, this distinction holds only if philosophy of religion is not itself a science in the sense intended by Torrance. I argue that philosophy of religion is a science in this sense, and so, that Torrance cannot distinguish theology from philosophy of religion in the way suggested. Nevertheless, I offer two alternative routes to the distinction (...) based on the nature of the respective objects of study in theology and philosophy of religion. Thus, I demonstrate that there is a coherent model available to Torrance which preserves the distinction he seeks. (shrink)

The concept of contingency serves to bridge the doctrine of creation and natural science in Wolfhart Pannenberg's theology. My paper first analyzes the relation of creatio ex nihilo and creatio continua. Next I suggest three categories of contingency: global, local, and nomological. Under each category I assess Pannenberg's use of physics, cosmology, and philosophy of science. Although I agree with Pannenberg's emphasis on continuous creation and on the role of science in renewing the doctrine of creation, I argue for a (...) shift in the discussion from Pannenberg's topics to others, such as the anthropic principle, quantum physics, and thermodynamics. (shrink)

Beginning with Kant, modernity has developed the secular dogma that human autonomy is incompatible with obedience to religious law. Can philosophy critique a faulty understanding of both autonomy and obedience? Can theology work out a healthy interaction between the two? In other words, can Christian faith integrate both a redefined autonomy and a redefined obedience?

This article has two main divisions, the first consisting in parts 1-3, the second in parts 4-8. The purpose of the first division is to assess Hauerwas's contentions regarding what he takes to be serious debilities in modern theological culture. The objects of Hauerwas's criticism are: (1) natural theology; (2) reason as it is represented in the structure of the modern university and in the "Enlightenment Project"; and (3) liberal Protestantism--the latter particularly as it turns up, by his account, in (...) Reinhold Niebuhr's theology. The article will offer a defense of natural theology and an alternative approach to Niebuhr's theology while showing how Hauerwas's contentions concerning these two matters are mistaken. Parts 4-8 are theological studies. These studies concentrate on selected though main aspects of Hauerwas's outlook. Part 4 concerns a problematic implication of the notion, mainly from Barth, of divinity's humanity; Part 5 a note of difficulty from William James about the idea of the theistic God and its pertinence to the Barthian or Hauerwasian God; Part 6 the relation between belief and witness; Part 7 theology's discourse and analogy; Part 8 the Barthian-Hauerwasian theology as a metaphysics. Part 1, concerning natural theology, stands over both divisions. These observations are not in the main intended as textual studies, though in certain passages the analysis is closely attentive to Hauerwas's text. Also, the paper does not offer the sort of account that would come from a historian, intellectual biographer, or social or cultural analyst or critic. Its focus is philosophical-theological criticism. (shrink)

Despite the central role that the concept of God played in Kitarō Nishida's philosophy—and more broadly, within the Kyoto School which formed around Nishida—Anglophone studies of the religious philosophy of modern Japan have not seriously considered the nature and role of God in Nishida's thought. Indeed, relevant Anglophone studies even strongly suggest that where the concept of God does appear in Nishida's writings, such a concept is to be dismissed as a 'subjective fiction', a 'penultimate designation', or a peripheral Western (...) intrusion with no genuine relationship to the core of Nishida's thought. However, a careful study of Nishida's own writings reveals that for Nishida, in his own words, God is 'that which is indispensable and decisive'. For the first time in English, this present study reveals Nishida's view of God, especially examining Nishida's debt to the theologian Karl Barth and Christianity. (shrink)

Heidegger and East-Asian thought have traditionally been strongly correlated. However, although still largely unrecognized, significant differences between the political and metaphysical stance of Heidegger and his perceived counterparts in East-Asia most certainly exist. One of the most dramatic discontinuities between East-Asian thought and Heidegger is revealed through an investigation of Kitarō Nishida’s own vigorous criticism of Heidegger. Ironically, more than one study of Heidegger and East-Asian thought has submitted that Nishida is that representative of East-Asian thought whose philosophy most closely (...) resembles Heideggerian thought. In words that then and now resound discordantly within the enshrined, established view of Heidegger’s relationship to East-Asian thought, Nishida stated uninhibitedly his own view of Heidegger in the noteworthy statement: “Heidegger is not worth your time… He…does not recognize that which is indispensible and decisive, namely, God.” This present study lays out for the first time in English, the significant differences between the metaphysical and political stances of Nishida and Heidegger, Nishida’s own critique of Heidegger, and Heidegger’s own rather dismal assessment of non-Western philosophy, all of which demonstrate a remarkable, hitherto unrecognized discontinuity between Heidegger and East-Asian thought. (shrink)

Responding to Max Weber’s modern diagnosis of nature, science, and medicine as disenchanted, this article aims to reenvision nature and medicine with a sense of enchantment drawing from the Christian themes of creation, Christology, suffering, and redemption. By reenvisioning nature as enchanted with these theological themes, the vocation of medicine might be revitalized in terms of suffering presence, healing care, and works of mercy toward the neighbor in need.

My essay “Responsibility to Protect and Militarized Humanitarian Intervention: When and Why the Churches Failed to Discern Moral Hazard” (JRE 40.2) called for more questioning engagement with R2P than the broadly uncritical welcome given by the churches to the doctrine between September 2003 and September 2008. In response to Luke Glanville's reply, this essay identifies further reasons for caution before accepting R2P and so-called humanitarian wars alongside defensive wars as paradigmatically justified. It is structured with reference to the tests in (...) A More Secure World: Our Shared Responsibility, the Report by the Secretary-General's High-level Panel on Threats, Challenges and Change, as recommended to the General Assembly when considering whether to authorize or apply military force: seriousness of risk, intention, last resort, proportional means, balance of consequences. (shrink)

I suggest that it is beneficial for Christian feminist theologians to affirm divine personhood on the basis of the revelation of God in the person of Jesus Christ. Doing so allows feminist theologians to connect the doctrines of God and Christ within systematic theologies. Moreover, by affirming divine personhood in concert with an extension of Friedrich Schleiermacher’s transcendental reasoning about redemption, feminists could contribute to the disruption of sexist ecclesial belief and practice. I examine Schleiermacher’s account and rejection of Nazareanism, (...) Manicheanism, Pelagianism, and Docetism, inferring from them four marks of personhood as conditions for the possibility of redemption. These include the communicability of difference, material activity, differentiated relationality, and discerning attention with circumscribed ineffability. In this way, I link feminist anthropologies with Christologically regulated soteriological claims vis-à-vis the doctrine of God. (shrink)