[paragraph 3 of the article] The goal of this article is to flesh out that initial understanding of incarnational immutability. The method I employ to attain this goal is to consider cases of predications from the texts of conciliar Christology. I show potential ontological truth conditions for those predications being true that do not require the truth conditions I propose for immutability to be unsatisfied. Put otherwise, I show ontological truth conditions for predications that imply Christ’s mutability and (...) Incarnation that are also consistent with the truth of “Christ is immutable.” Since the truth conditions for the incarnational texts do not require the falsity of the claim that “Christ is immutable,” the incarnational claims do not require the rejection of immutability. In other words, the Incarnation is no reason to deny divine immutability, and vice versa. (shrink)

In this article I canvas the options available to a proponent of the traditional doctrine of the incarnation against a charge of incoherence. In particular, I consider the charge of incoherence due to incompatible predications both being true of the same one person, the God-man Jesus Christ. For instance, one might think that any- thing divine has to have certain attributes – perhaps omnipotence, or impassibility. But, the charge continues, nothing human can be omnipotent or impassible. And so nothing can (...) be divine and human. So Christ is not both God and man, contrary to the traditional doctrine of the incarnation. To do so, first, in Section II, I will present the problem as a deductively valid argument. I then, in that section, go on to show that the proponent of traditional Christology should grant all but one premise of the argument. In the remaining sections I will canvas possible solutions to the problem. In Section III I discuss three ways to deny Premise 3 of the forthcoming argument. These ways include a Kenotic response, qua-modification (in four versions), and finally a response that accepts the compatibility of the allegedly incompatible predicates. (shrink)

I consider the fundamental philosophical problem for Christology: how can one and the same person, the Second Person of the Trinity, be both God and man. For being God implies having certain attributes, perhaps immutability, or impassibility, whereas being human implies having apparently inconsistent attributes. This problem is especially vexing for the proponent of Conciliar Christology – the Christology taught in the Ecumenical Councils – since those councils affirm that Christ is both mutable and immutable, both (...) passible and impassible, etc. Many extant solutions to this problem approach it by claiming that the predicates are incompatible when said of the same thing without qualification, but that once the appropriate qualification is added, compatibility is achieved. I provide a different approach. Here I argued that the predicates can be understood so that they are compatible. I then work out the logical relations between the predicates, so understood, showing that no contradiction follows from understanding them in the way I suggest. After that, I consider some of the motivations we have for believing the purportedly incompatible pairs to be, in fact, incompatible, and argue that, on the view offered here, we can salvage most of our intuitions that motivate taking the predicates as incompatible. Finally, I consider three objections. (shrink)

Recent analytic theology has seen a wave of excellent work on the fundamental problem of Christology, the question of how one and the same person can be human full stop and divine full stop. Along the way, new objections have been raised for a venerable family of Christological views, whose distinctive is the employment of qua-devices to dissolve the difficulties stemming from the dual nature doctrine of Chalcedon and its successors. My objective in this article is twofold. First, I (...) propose to lay out a hierarchy of principles that should guide the search for a Christological theory. I then use these principles to illuminate the best qua-theoretic approach to Christology. Finally, I argue that the best qua-theory is at worst on a par with major recent views. (shrink)

Plato’s dialogue Parmenides contains the infamous ontological bombshell, the so-called Third Man argument. This argument involves a reductio criticism of the forms, arguing that the reductio premise – roughly, ‘there cannot be any ontological interpenetration between the One and the many’ – is false. The argument intimates that the only way for thought to move beyond the forms is to accept the ‘impossible’ object, the nonsensical One-and-many. This article calls any ontology which accepts this Third Man argument and attempts to (...) answer it on its own terms, ‘material dialectic’. The high-profile debate between John Milbank and Slavoj Žižek in The Monstrosity of Christ brings the relevance of this dialectic into stark relief. Both authors accept the material dialectic and mobilise it toward competing christological theses. Yet it is important to navigate the Third Man argument in such a way as to keep a dyophysite Christology in order to satisfy orthodox theological pressures. I will therefore advance two conclusions: first, that the material dialectic is a valid analytical project; and second, that neither Milbank nor Žižek espouses an orthodox Christology: Milbank’s is monophysite while Žižek’s is patripassian. Following Milbank, I will call the final (dyophysite) corrective the ‘Catholic Žižek’ – only, contra Milbank, it will be the real Catholic Žižek. (shrink)

In my chapter "Christology and Anthropology in Friedrich Schleiermacher,” I discuss Schleiermacher's understanding of both the person and work of Christ. Schleiermacher's dialogue with the orthodox Christological tradition preceding him, as well as his understanding of the work of Christ, is founded on a critical analysis of the fundamental person-forming experience of being in relation to Christ and the community founded by him. I provide an analysis of Schleiermacher's discussion of the difficulties surrounding the use of the word "nature" (...) in relation to Jesus' humanity and divinity, and then move to discuss how Schleiermacher understands both the humanity and divinity of Jesus, as well as how the two stand in relation to one another. In the original divine decree Jesus Christ is ordained as the person through which the whole human race is to be completed and perfected, and the essence of perfect human nature just is to express divine. This is the essence of Schleiermacher's solution to the Christological problem, that is, of how the divine and the human can converge in one person. I then move to discuss Schleiermacher's understanding of the work of Christ as involving two interrelated moments. The first is the awakening of the God-consciousness. The second involves the self-expression of this God-consciousness in the form of Christian love in the community of believers. As such, the principle work of Christ is the founding of the kingdom of God. (shrink)

John Henry Newman's theory of heresiology evolved over the course of his life, accentuating certain Christological characteristics of heresy. He began with the study of the Arian heresy, progressing through the Sabellian and Apolloniarian, and ending with the Monophysite. The theory of heresy and orthodoxy finally developed in the Development of Doctrine reflects this struggle to find common features of orthodoxy corresponding to principles governing Christology in the early Church Fathers. As a consequence, Newman's heresiology, in its final stage, (...) holds that faith is inherently Christological, as it depends on the doctrine of the Incarnation to secure the authority of the divine voice of Christ to which one submits in faith. (shrink)

In this paper I show that the problem of temporary intrinsics and a fundamental philosophical problem concerning the doctrine of the incarnation are isomorphic. To do so, I present the problem of temporary intrinsics, along with five responses to the problem. I then present the fundamental problem for Christology, which I call the problem of natural intrinsics. I present six responses to that problem, all but the last analogous to a response to the problem of temporary intrinsics. My goal (...) is not to argue that any individual response to either problem is correct. Instead, my goal is to present and defend an interesting and unnoticed similarity between two different problems, and to note how work on one problem can help with work on the other. -/- This is a penultimate manuscript, and not a final version, of a forthcoming article in Oxford Studies in Philosophy of Religion. As such, please do not cite this version; cite the official version, due out in OSPR VII in 2015. (shrink)

Constituting the object or content of New Testament preaching, salvation is made available by the kerygma as a proclamation of the Gospel that concludes God’s saving act and implies an exhortation to conversion that is based on the person and work of Jesus as Christ and Lord and Son of God and the soteriological facts of his death and resurrec-tion. In this way, Prof. Luiz Carlos Mariano Da Rosa, faced with the issue involving the primacy of either the historical-Christological tradition (...) or the pneumatic-Christological preaching, points out that preaching converges to kerygmatic communication as a public announcement in relation to the promise and claims of the salvific event, converging to a tradition that witnesses salvific processes based on faith, constituting the Gospel as a pneumatic-kerygmatic tradition. Thus, the article focuses on the Christological kerygma as an event that encloses God as loquitur in Barth, which consists of an announcement involving an event yet to be realized (Ankündigung) in a process that presupposes that God speaks through a relationship that attributes to the human the function of announ-cing (Ankündigen) such a situation. Overriding the meaning that the kerygma of Jesus as the Messiah contains as content that imposes itself on the Old Testament tradition under the meaning of an additional ethical-religious and literary-theological value, the proclamation, according to Bultmann, constitutes the primary and basic that gives its character both in relation to ancient tradition and in relation to the preaching of Jesus in a process that maintains the entire past under another interpretative principle. In this way, overriding historical phenomena and their mere description, Bultmann elaborates a theological-philosophical construction that, through the use of scientific thought and the establishment of an existential interpretation, ends the claim of highlighting the true meaning of the message, converging on the borders that expose the current situation of human beings and the need for faith as decision and obedience. (shrink)

In this chapter, I grant Jc Beall’s assertion that the best understanding of the doctrine of the incarnation posits that Christ is a contradictory being, in the sense that it has him satisfying complementary pairs of predicates. I also argue, however, that by attending to a distinction between predicate negation and sentence negation, this view can be upheld without positing any classical logical contradictions. I argue that the resulting Christological view has several advantages over Beall’s: It is more conservative about (...) avoiding contradiction, exhibits greater logical neutrality, and comports better with Christian tradition. (shrink)

This article aims to provide a new philosophical explication of the doctrine of the Incarnation. A compositional model of the doctrine is formulated within the Dispositional Personhood account of Lynne Rudder Baker and the Composition as Identity framework of Donald L.M. Baxter. Formulating the doctrine of the Incarnation within this account and framework will enable it to be explicated in a clear and consistent manner, and the oft‐raised objections against this type of model can be answered.

Father André Scrima is one of the most enigmatic figures of the Romanian Orthodox Church. Everything related to him passes as extraordinary. He was an exception among the Romanian intellectuals who suffered under communism. Beyond that, his journeys and spiritual experiences possess something indescribable, almost sacramental. His presence overwhelmed those who met him and his writings retained this trait. The present study focuses on Scrima’s Christology, highlighting its uniqueness and its practical implications. Although Scrima does not dedicate a book (...) to the subject, all of his writings refer to it. However, due to his distinctiveness, it is difficult to organize his Christology in a systematic way. The most lucrative approach is to group his texts along the hermeneutical moments that define his writing: images, stories and stances. In Scrima’s logic, all words/signs are the very synthesis of a spiritual experience, all stories develop the theo-logical synthesis of the signs, and the relation between the stories forms the tradition as a set of interrogations and communitarian commitments. If we evaluate Scrima’s Christology in this manner, we do not come to a system, but to a succession of images. The core of these images re-mains the same, Jesus Christ, yet it is seen in nuances that unveil His beauty – Stranger, Gate, Logos, Name above all names –, in an unpredictable play of perspectives. It can be said that Scrima’s approach resembles a kaleidoscope, which, by using mirrors and light, gives an insight to the unsuspected possibilities of all fixed forms. (shrink)

There is an ongoing challenge in defining African theology because of two important reasons: the quest for a definitive African theology is a fairly recent pursuit and the vastness and diversity of the African continent. Given this, this article presents the complexity of defining African theology and its methodological approaches through a background sketch of the development of African theology. Regardless of many definitions of African theology and its purposes, the article acknowledges African Christian theology as theology that should be (...) derived from the interplay between Scripture, Christian tradition and African cosmology. In deriving theology from the aforementioned aspects, African theology should also seek to develop contextual African theologies with global relevance. In this way, African theology can claim its space in the universal church. Although we are conscious of the values and challenges associated with the task of doing African theology, we argue for its necessity. We further argue that if the centrality of Scripture is maintained in the African theological endeavour, it will cause African theologies to have some shared reference point with other Christian theologies and hence engaging globally, while contributing unique African perspectives to global theological discourse. (shrink)

How good a theory is depends on how well it meets the goals of its inquiry. Thus, for example, theories in the natural sciences are better if in addition to stating truths, they also impart a kind of understanding. Recent proposals—such as Jc Beall’s Contradictory Christology—to set Christian theology within non-classical logic should be judged in a like manner: according to how well they meet the goals of Christology. This paper examines some of the effects of changing the (...) logic of Christology on meeting the proposed goals of that inquiry. The paraconsistent logic Beall favors has (FDE) features that inhibit increasing our understanding of the Incarnation. Of course, there is good reason to think understanding is not the goal of Christological inquiry, that its goals are (for lack of a better word) devotional. But FDE’s features don’t foster these goals either—raising questions about how much of a theological advance proposals like Beall’s could be. -/- [NOTE: The published version has some formatting errors, specifically with respect to block quotes. Please cite the published version, but if you are confused, consult the correctly formatted version on PhilArchive] -/- . (shrink)

Christianity as a Social Theory in terms of Body as a Political Issue.

El propósito de este trabajo consiste en destacar el papel central que tiene el problema de la divisibilidad del alma en los dos enfoques bajo los que se presenta la investigación psicológica aristotélica: el hilemórfico y el cardiocéntrico. Mientras que el primero sostiene que el alma es la forma o esencia del cuerpo entero, el segundo aboga por la localización del alma en el corazón, pues asegura que allí se manifiestan los principios de las partes o facultades anímicas. A simple (...) vista, podría suponerse que existe una incompatibilidad entre ambos enfoques, ya que no tendría mucho sentido afirmar que el alma se halla en todo el cuerpo y, al mismo tiempo, decir que se encuentra exclusivamente en uno de sus órganos específicos. Entonces, la tesis de este trabajo es que el pneuma ofrece la clave para la conciliación de estos dos enfoques, dado que es el instrumento empleado por las partes del alma para desplegar sus funciones por todo el cuerpo. El corazón, como sede material de dichas partes, irradia el pneuma en forma de sangre por todo el organismo; y éste, hasta que no se extingue esa operación vital, preserva su esencia, causa formal o razón de ser de su existir. De este modo, el hilemorfismo resulta sustentado por el cardiocentrismo. (shrink)

In this paper I explain Thomas Aquinas's view that Christ is a composite person, and then I explain the role of Christ's compositeness in Thomas‘s solutions to a range of Christological problems. On the topics I will be discussing, Thomas‘s views did not change significantly over the course of his career; for the sake of simplicity, then, I will focus on texts from the Summa theologiae, citing parallels in the notes.

Nicholas of Cusa (1401-1464) was active during the Renaissance, developing adventurous ideas even while serving as a churchman. The religious issues with which he engaged – spiritual, apocalyptic and institutional – were to play out in the Reformation. These essays reflect the interests of Cusanus but also those of Gerald Christianson, who has studied church history, the Renaissance and the Reformation. The book places Nicholas into his times but also looks at his later reception. The first part addresses institutional issues, (...) including Schism, conciliarism, indulgences and the possibility of dialogue with Muslims. The second treats theological and philosophical themes, including nominalism, time, faith, religious metaphor, and prediction of the end times. (shrink)

Remarkably, the theological discourse surrounding Hans Frei and postliberal theology has continued for nearly thirty years since Frei's death. This is due not only to the complex and provocative character of Frei's work, nor only to his influence upon an array of thinkers who went on to shape the theological field in their own right. It is just as indebted to the critical responses that his thinking continues to inspire. One recurrent point of criticism takes aim at Frei's use of (...) Ludwig Wittgenstein's later work for theological ends. In his recent book Liberalism versus Postliberalism: The Great Divide in Twentieth Century Theology, John Allan Knight challenges what he sees as Frei's dependence on problematic Wittgensteinian assumptions. This article raises a few concerns about Knight's charges against Frei. Specifically, I argue that Knight's account tends to conflate the work of Wittgenstein and Frei. It does this by undervaluing two determinative features of Frei's work: (1) its basic Christological orientation; and (2) its Christologically motivated use of ad hoc apologetics. I argue that the Wittgensteinian view that Knight attributes to Frei is not Frei's view at all, and is, moreover, a problematic account of Wittgenstein on its own terms. Finally, Knight's claim that Frei's work “depends upon” and “is suffused” with the understanding of Wittgenstein that Knight attributes to him is based upon an account of Frei's treatment of the sensus literalis that is not entirely accurate. Without question, Knight does remarkable service to Frei's legacy by keeping important debates over his work alive. In what follows, I propose several points where I think Knight's account might be further enriched. The result, I hope, will be a more nuanced understanding of the ways that Frei actually appropriated and deployed Wittgenstein's thought. I will contextualize my account of Frei with reference both to Wittgenstein's writings and the literature surrounding his writings. Setting forth these accounts in tandem should help make further available Wittgenstein's work for subsequent work by postliberal theologians. (shrink)

The theology of Pier Damiani († 1072) is still an understudied theme in his scholarship, in particular, for what it concerns his Trinitarian and Christological doctrines. The aim of this study is to reconstruct and discuss especially Damiani’s Christological views as formulated in Letter 81, better known as his De fide catholica. It is argued that Damiani’s approach is mostly exegetical, as he mainly points to and comments on Biblical passages in support of Catholic doctrines. Still, he assumes a peculiar (...) method of investigation, as he devotes the main body of the Letter to the question of the correct understanding (recta intelligentia) of the Catholic interpretation of Christology, and reserves only the final summary to a discussion of Biblical authorities. Eventually, it is argued that despite Damiani’s attempts at clarifying the matter, he acknowledges an inherent difficulty in explaining how it is possible that God became man without truly assuming the person of man, and, if He did so, how this did not give rise to two, however indistinct, persons or hypostases. The concept of ‘co-union’ of human and divine natures, introduced by Damiani, makes the simultaneous unity and distinction of the two natures intuitively clear, but it remains a concept that is not clarified in all its details and implications. (shrink)

In recent scholarship, moral theologians and readers of Thomas Aquinas have shown increasing sensitivity to the role of the passions in the moral life. Yet these accounts have paid inadequate attention to Thomas's writings on Christ's passions as a source of moral reflection. As I argue in this essay, Thomas's writings on Christ's human affectivity should not be limited to the concerns of Christology; rather, they should be integrated into a fuller account of the human passions. One upshot of (...) this approach for Thomists is that it sharpens our vocabulary when describing human nature and the conditions for the moral life. By considering the rubrics of creation, fall, and redemption – as Thomas does – we find that our resources for analyzing the passions are greatly enriched. (shrink)

The theological teachings of John Philoponus are important for several reasons: a) to see the real achievements and influences of Aristotelian logic in regard to theology, b) to see the real consequences of not accepting hypostasis as relational and ontologically based and c) to assess the real consequences of such teachings for Triadology and Christology.

In this article I propose a new concept: The Embodied Mind of God. I also point out the benefits that can flow from using it. This concept is combination of two concepts broadly discussed in contemporary philosophy: „The Mind of God” and „The Embodied Mind”. In my opinion this new concept can be very useful in the area of Philosophical Christology, because one of the most important questions there concerns the mind of Jesus Christ - Incarnate Son of God. (...) I present my own model of Christ’s mind that is able to avoid at least part of the problems faced by christology and sheds the new light on some of epistemological issues. (shrink)

Even thirty years after Thomas Morris wrote The Logic of God Incarnate, there are some claims that Morris makes that require examination in analytic Christology. One of those claims is a concession that Morris gives to modalists near the end of the book, where he says that the two-minds view he has defended can be used to provide a consistent modalistic understanding of Jesus’s prayer life. This view, he says, blocks the inference from the fact that Jesus prays to (...) the Father to the additional claim that Jesus and the Father are numerically distinct. I argue that Oneness Pentecostals can appropriate central concepts from The Logic of God Incarnate as Morris suggests, and further that this means Oneness Pentecostals should abandon the claim that Jesus believes he just is the Father. Once Oneness Pentecostals abandon this claim, they can give a possible explanation of how it is that Jesus relates to the Father in prayer even though he just is the Father. (shrink)

The term prohairesis has a long history; its usage is crucial for the development and understanding of basic ethical and anthropological assumptions in ancient Hellenic philosophy. In this article the author analyses the most important moments for the semantic transformation of this term, with particular reference to the implications of its usage in Byzantine theological and philosophical heritage, with the ultimate expression in work of St Maximus the Confessor and his christological synthesis. The equation between the terms prohairesis and gnome (...) and their separation from the authentic human nature, as well as the usage of the term thelesis for the original „human will“, represents the thorough revision of the antique philosophical heritage which could be compared with the distinction of the terms ousia and hypostasis by Cappadocian Fathers. In this article the author will show the extent to which and the way in which Byzantine theological and philosophical thought adopted and transformed its own Hellenic heritage. (shrink)

Sebastian Franck commented and translated parts of Agrippa´s De Vanitate Scientiarum, confirming that Franck knew at least some of this philosopher’s work. However, there is no detailed research on the influence Agrippa had on Franck—a gap this paper tries to fill. In a paper of Keefer, the author advocates that Franck was much influenced by Agrippa. The major claim of this paper is that Agrippa’s influence on Franck should not be overestimated, primarily because Franck deliberately did not cite from the (...) Occulta philosophia. Only De Vanitate Scientiarum and one paragraph of Oratio habita papiae are shown to have had a direct influence on Franck. The influence on Franck`s philosophy has to be analyzed very carefully to avoid such fallacies. In a comparison of the metaphysical belief systems of both Franck and Agrippa, important parallels concerning the soul and Christology can be found. Notably, Agrippa and Franck were both believers in the Platonic doctrine of the tripartite soul. However, Franck did not cite this concept from Agrippa. A difference between Agrippa and Franck was that Agrippa had a cosmological perspective that was strongly influenced by Neoplatonism and Hermeticism. In contrast, the Neoplatonic concept of the world soul did not make sense in Franck’s philosophical system of beliefs because Franck denies the idea that the world is conducted by rationality. His pessimistic view of the world and the human being did not blend with this idea of the world soul. These differences demonstrate that Franck did not agree with many concepts found in the Occulta philosophia. The Corpus Hermeticum was also not as important for Franck as it was for Agrippa. Franck focused primarily on the Pimander and to a certain extent on the thirteenth book (rebirth), whereas for Agrippa many parts were relevant. Research on the influence of the Hermetic books on Franck just began in the 21st century and this paper further contributes to a better understanding of how the Hermetic books affected Franck. Franck used Agrippa to convey his understanding of the Corpus Hermeticum to his readers. However, it remains an open question why Franck integrated only a small part of the Corpus Hermeticum and the writings of Agrippa into his philosophy. (shrink)

This study investigates the debt owed by contemporary theological anthropology to the philosophical anthropology of the first half of the twentieth century (considered in its interest in interpersonal character of human identity). It should be recognized that there was a fairly complex relationship between them: sometimes anthropology ended up in some way forgetting theology, sometimes theology was sustained by anthropology and, often, invited to self-criticism. Analyzing «pneumatological» anthropology (and its Christological roots) elaborated by Ferdinand Ebner (1882- 1931) helps theological anthropology (...) not to forget that its method of investigation has to clarify both sides of the analogy between God and man in order to fully integrate the «expressive» meaning of both logics: theo-logic and anthropo-logic. (shrink)

Reduplicative approaches to the incarnation attempt to avoid the charge of incoherence by employing a qua-operator that operates on an entire assertion. The main objection to this approach is that it still yields a contradiction. Recently, two new reduplicative approaches have been offered that purport to avoid contradiction, one that offers a novel analysis of negative predications and the other which prevents conjoining divine and human predicates into a meaningful sentence. In this paper, I argue that these newer approaches either (...) fail to provide a distinctive solution or do not show whether the model is genuinely possible. (shrink)

El objetivo de este trabajo consiste en analizar dos alternativas presentes en las Disertaciones de Epicteto como posibles vías de acceso a la libertad y la eudaimonía: a) identificar nuestro querer con el querer de la divinidad; b) concentrarnos exclusivamente en aquello de "depende de nosotros". Dado que ambos caminos parecen conducir al solipsismo y la pasividad, ofreceremos una alternativa de interpretación que permite conciliar ambas estrategias con la impronta práctica que caracteriza a la ética del autor. The aim (...) of this paper is to analyse two alternatives which are present in Epictetus' Dissertations as possible ways to reach freedom and happiness: a) to identify our will with the will of the divinity; b) to focus exclusively on "what depends on us". Since both paths seem to lead to solipsism and passiveness, we shall offer an alternative interpretation that can reconcile both strategies with the practical approach of the Epictetus's ethics. (shrink)

La iglesia católica, inmersa en la sociedad y en su continua labor por la santificación de los pueblos, percibe en el ambiente escolar un espacio para la formación humana integral de todas las personas. Sin embargo, las múltiples dificultades sociales hacen de esta el principal foco de problemas, por lo que es necesario incitar a un proceso consciente y perseverante de cambio personal en función del bien común. Así pues, se exponen las principales contribuciones doctrinales de la Iglesia Católica en (...) lo que respecta al problema educativo, con base en los documentos conciliares del Vaticano II, seguidas de una sucinta reflexión que advierte la urgente difusión de valor en beneficio de la humanidad. (shrink)

According to Christian doctrine as formulated by the Council of Chalcedon (451), Christ is one person (one supposit, one hypostasis) existing in two natures (two essences), human and divine. The human and divine natures are not merged into a third nature, nor are they separated from one another in such a way that the divine nature goes with one person, namely, the Word of God, and the human nature with another person, namely, Jesus of Nazareth. The two natures belong to (...) just one person, and the one person has two distinct natures. Chalcedon‟s justly-famous formula brought the debate into sharper focus and ruled out certain options, but of course it did not bring the arguments to a complete end. More councils,more debates, and more questions were to follow, although the range of disagreement tended to narrow. In the medieval Latin West, Peter Lombard (†1160) identified in book III of the Sententiae three “opinions” on the topic, but by the middle of the thirteenth century, it was widely agreed that only one of them was orthodox teaching. This relative unity of thought provided the space within which more detailed issues could be debated, and one of the most interesting of these concerned existence (esse): how many existences are there in Christ? Since Christ is only one person, it might seem that he has only one existence. On the other hand, he has two natures, so perhaps instead he has more than one existence. In this one paper, my goal is rather modest. I discuss only a few of the relevant authors, and I focus primarily on which questions they were asking. I proceed as follows. I first look at Thomas Aquinas, whose remarks on these topics had such a large influence on the debate later in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. Crucial will be certain distinctions that Thomas makes, distinctions we can see as disambiguating the question we began with, namely, „How many existences are there in Christ?‟. After that I will look at how one of those distinctions makes its appearance in the writings of two post-Thomistic authors, Giles of Rome and Godfrey of Fontaines. (shrink)

(a chapter in Laruelle and Non-Philosophy, ed. John Mullarkey and Anthony Paul Smith) Orthodox reverence of transcendental constructs such as 'dialectical materialism' and the inability to reduce them to chôra - mere transcendental material instead of finished conceptual wholes - is what disables the completion of the project of stepping out of philosophy which Marxism initially set for itself (in the Theses on Feuerbach). In order to radicalise its position, argues Laruelle, and place itself outside philosophy, Marxism has to take (...) a step outside itself by virtue of admitting its own transcendental, i.e., philosophical character. It has to adopt the stance of the 'non-' that is situated in the Real that clones itself through concepts. In order to preserve its grain of 'thinking affected by immanence', 18 Marxism ought to become non-Marxism, argues Laruelle. (shrink)

The article provides an analysis of the views of Russian thinkers on historical progress; the concepts of freedom-opportunity, freedom-necessity, time and space are explored. Comparing the western and domestic approaches to the formation of the so-called "national idea", the author formulates his own hypothesis of progress, based on the creativity of the Person as conciliar unity.

El propósito de Levinas coincide con el intento moderno de recuperación de la verdad y del sentido aunque en una dirección y contenidos distintos. Si en Hegel la Aufhebung tendía a la Totalidad y lo Mismo , para Husserl será esencial la apertura de Mundo que tiene lugar ya en la experiencia de conciencia del ego trascendental, mientras que Heidegger, por su parte, primará la pregunta por el Ser. El intento de Levinas, en cambio, no será recomponer la relación entre (...) el yo, por un lado, y el mundo, lo absoluto, las cosas o el ser, por el otro, sino la recuperación de la relación entre yo-y-otro. No es un simple cambio en la dirección o en el contenido del sentido de la reflexión filosófica, sino un intento serio de encontrar una nueva significación, «otra manera que ser» que no termine siendo otro proyecto más de integración y síntesis. Lo que propone Levinas es una auténtica salida para la que traza el itinerario que va del ser al otro, recurriendo sencillamente a la experiencia que cotidianamente se nos impone a cada uno de nosotros con un peso incontestable, a saber: la presencia de las diferencias, de lo asimétrico, en definitiva, la manifestación del otro en tanto que otro. Es esta experiencia heterónoma ordinaria, esta vivencia diaria de la alteridad como dato primordial del fenómeno de la intersubjetividad el ámbito que ha intentado explorar nuestro autor. ¿Acaso es esta responsabilidad así sentida conjugable con una experiencia filosófica universal? ¿La responsabilidad puede llevarse hasta el límite de la substitución por el otro, hasta la de-posición del Yo sin identidad? ¿Qué tipo de relación puede darse con algo absolutamente asimétrico, exterior, previo e irreductible? ¿De dónde viene esa asignación apremiante de responsabilidad que llega hasta arrojarme en la obsesión y el asedio? ¿Cómo puede ser éticamente plausible un mandato tan traumatizante y violento que termina por convertir al sujeto en rehén, sustituido ya por los otros? ¿Es posible conciliar la libertad y la autónoma decisión del sujeto con una consideración de la subjetividad como «heme aquí», absoluta pasividad expuesta a los otros y vulnerabilidad de una piel que se ofrece al ultraje y la herida?. En definitiva: ¿es la subjetividad algo de lo que partimos o a lo que llegamos? (shrink)

Al hilo de la estética kantiana, de sus supuestos y de los problemas que ella deja sin resolver, este trabajo intenta despejar el concepto de apariencia estética en Schiller. La definición schilleriana de la belleza como "libertad en la apariencia", no solamente constituye una original prosecución del primado de la razón práctica y de la libertad en Kant, sino que además constituye una peculiar reinvindicación de la apariencia sobre la misma "realidad". Sin embargo, Schiller se esfuerza en mantener y (...) class='Hi'>conciliar la específica ambigüedad del término "apariencia": libertad en la apariencia es, al mismo tiempo, libertad aparente y libertad aparecida. (shrink)

This paper introduces the special issue on the Concept of God of the Journal of Applied Logics (College Publications). The issue contains the following articles: Logic and the Concept of God, by Stanisław Krajewski and Ricardo Silvestre; Mathematical Models in Theology. A Buber-inspired Model of God and its Application to “Shema Israel”, by Stanisław Krajewski; Gödel’s God-like Essence, by Talia Leven; A Logical Solution to the Paradox of the Stone, by Héctor Hernández Ortiz and Victor Cantero; No New Solutions to (...) the Logical Problem of the Trinity, by Beau Branson; What Means ‘Tri-’ in ‘Trinity’ ? An Eastern Patristic Approach to the ‘Quasi-Ordinals’, by Basil Lourié; The Éminence Grise of Christology: Porphyry’s Logical Teaching as a Cornerstone of Argumentation in Christological Debates of the Fifth and Sixth Centruies, by Anna Zhyrkova; The Problem of Universals in Late Patristic Theology, by Dirk Krasmüller; Intuitionist Reasoning in the Tri-unitrian Theology of Nicolas of Cues, by Antonino Drago. (shrink)

A NOVA PECUÁRIA LEITEIRA – PRODUÇÃO MUNDIAL DE LEITE EM 2018 -/- NEW DAIRY LIVESTOCK - WORLD PRODUCTION OF MILK IN 2018 -/- Produção mundial de Leite em 2018: análise sobre o crescente aumento da produção e da produtividade -/- No mundo foram produzidos aproximadamente 843 milhões de toneladas de leite, isso corresponde à 843 bilhões de litros de leite produzidos em 2018, e comparado ao ano de 2017 que a produção foi de 812 bilhões de litros a variação média (...) percentual foi de 2,2% crescente (FAO, 2019), em 2015 foram produzidos 656 bilhões de litros, entre 2015 e 2019, a produção mundial leiteira aumentou em 28,5% aproximadamente, e isso deve-se à implementação de tecnologias, manejos nutricionais, sanitários e outras técnicas que fazem a produção leiteira ser cada vez mais promíscua todos os anos mesmo com variações e quedas produtivas em determinados países como o próprio Brasil. Vale salientar, também, que o crescimento médio anual é variável mediante alguns países produtores, todavia, essa variação média anual é crescente e gira em torno de 3 à 4% nos últimos 5 anos de dados obtidos (FAO, 2018). Os gráficos abaixo, tratam da produção leiteira mundial no ano de 2017 e 2018 por continentes; observe com atenção os dados obtidos pela FAO e atente às conclusões que se seguem: -/- Os dados obtidos e expressos supra são da FAO dos Estados Unidos, ele nos mostra uma ascendente produção leiteira dos continentes e a participação de ambos nesse mercado promissor. A Ásia, em 2017, foi responsável por mais de 40% da produção mundial de leite, foram mais de 320 bilhões de litros produzidos e um aumento percentual de 1,9% comparado ao ano de 2016; esse aumento aconteceu mesmo com o segundo declínio seguido da China na produção leiteira. Os países da União Europeia estão em segundo lugar com uma produção de mais de 224 bilhões de litros produzidos em 2017, um aumento percentual de 1,3% comparado ao ano de 2016, e com participação de quase 28% de toda produção global; todo esse aumento da produção e da produtividade europeia deve-se ao incremento de novas tecnologias aplicadas ao manejo das vacas, incluindo a atenção dobrada à sanidade e ao bem-estar dos animais. A América do Norte veio em terceiro lugar na produção e na participação mundial. Com uma participação de 13% e uma produção de 106 bilhões de litros em 2017, o continente conseguiu um acréscimo de 1,7% comparado ao ano de 2016. Os EUA é o responsável por esse grande acréscimo; produzindo em 2017 90% de todo total produzido e detendo um rebanho promissor de 9,3 milhões de cabeças leiteiras. A América do Sul, ao qual o Brasil está localizado, deteve a quarta colocação na participação e na produção mundial, participando com quase 8% de toda a produção mundial e produzindo 62 bilhões de litros de leite em 2017, uma acréscimo de 2,7% comparado ao ano de 2016. Os maiores produtores do continente foram o Brasil que dos 62 bilhões produziu mais de 50%, em torno de 35 bilhões de litros, mesmo com declínio relativo, o país ainda é um dos maiores produtores mundiais; o Peru e a Colômbia. A Argentina também é uma grande produtora, todavia, passou por uma crise leiteira, sendo o mesmo “marginalizado”, isto é, impróprio para o consumo. A África produziu em média 46 bilhões de litros de leite em 2017, ficando em quinto lugar na participação mundial, com quase 6% de toda produção global, não havendo variação positiva ou negativa significativa comparado com 2016. O continente oceânico (Oceania) produziu em torno de 31 bilhões de litros em 2017, um declínio de 2,9% comparado ao ano de 2016; participando de 3,8 da produção global. Esse declínio provém da Nova Zelândia, basicamente, que deteve um défice de 1,1% em sua produção, que chegou a 21,3 bilhões de litros; porém, o país continua sendo o maior produtor de leite do continente. A América Central produziu no ano de 2017, aproximadamente 18 bilhões de litros, participando de 2,2% da produção global; deteve um aumento de 1,1% comparado ao ano de 2016. Os dados supra, foram obtidos pela FAO que é a Organização das Nações Unidas para a Alimentação e a Agricultura. Com ele, podemos concluir que a cada ano que se passa, o mercado leiteiro têm variações positivas e negativas, todavia as negativas subjazem as positivas e, sendo assim, cada ano a produção e a produtividade nos países e nos continentes ascendem em proporções significativas; e esse aumento demonstra uma junção de fatores entre eles a implementação de novas tecnologias, a atenção com a sanidade e o bem-estar das vacas e do manejo nutricional e geral das fazendas e propriedades leiteiras espalhadas pelo mundo. A partir de toda essa análise supracitada, podemos apresentar o panorama do leite mundial em 2018, obtido através da FAO, e analisar as ascensões e possíveis declínios dos continentes e enfatizar os países que obtiveram pontos positivos ou negativos nessa participação leiteira de 2018. Observe os gráficos 3 e 4 abaixo e, posteriormente, e atente às análises: Em 2018, a produção leiteira mundial foi de 843 bilhões de litros, um aumento de 2,2% comparado ao ano de 2017. O gráfico 3 apresenta os continentes e a participação de ambos na produção leiteira mundial. O gráfico 4 apresenta os continentes e a produção de ambos expressas em bilhões de litros. Com esses dados, atualizados pelo autor em questão, apresentam mais uma vez um crescente mercado que gera empregos e emprega tecnologia de ponta para aumentar a produtividade dos animais e, consequentemente, a produção anual das fazendas e propriedades leiteiras. O continente asiático, em 2018, produziu 347 bilhões de litros de leite, a ascensão de 4% comparado ao ano de 2017. Ainda continua detendo a maior participação na produção mundial, passando de 40,3% em 2017 para quase 41% em 2018. A ênfase aos países produtores serão à Índia e ao Paquistão. A Índia teve um aumento de 5,6% de sua produção comparada ao ano de 2017; toda essa expansão é proveniente de uma equipe de veterinários, criadores, zootecnistas e outros especialistas que empregam mão-de-obra qualificada, tecnologias contemporâneas para obtenção do leite, manejo, sanidade, bem-estar às vacas, genética de qualidade e manejo nutricional concentrado na alta produção e produtividade dos animais. O Paquistão, mesmo com dificuldades nos processos de coleta do leite e em demais processos, obteve um acréscimo de 3% de sua produção em 2018 comparada a produção de 2017. A China, por sua vez, obteve o terceiro declínio em 4 anos, o declínio da produção em 2018 foi de 1,1% comparado ao ano de 2017; juntos, a China perdeu 15% de sua produção em apenas 5 anos. Note que o mercado produtor do leite tem suas variáveis extremas e difíceis de compreender, pois, à medida em que um país como o Paquistão tem toda uma dificuldade de obtenção do leite, nos processos de exportação e de industrialização do mesmo, consegue alavancar sua produção em 3% em um único ano; um país como a China, que é ainda um dos grandes produtores leiteiros, consegue uma perda inaceitável em sua produção de incríveis 15% em menos de 5 anos; daí a importância e a necessidade de uma equipe que consiga conciliar todos os fatores supracitados como emprego de mão-de-obra qualificada para manejar os animais e elencar a produção. Os países da União Europeia conseguiram uma participação de 27,1% na produção mundial de 2018, obtendo uma produção de 230 bilhões de litros no ano em questão, um acréscimo de 0,8% comparado ao ano de 2017. A ênfase é a Rússia que conseguiu um acréscimo de 1,1% comparado ao ano de 2017 e uma produção de 32 bilhões de litros em 2018. A junção da produção da Rússia e demais países europeus supriram o declínio da Ucrânia que passou por uma crise entre a desvalorização dos produtos agrícolas e a baixa no preço do leite. A América do Norte produziu, em 2018, 109 bilhões de litros de leite tendo uma participação mundial de 13% em toda produção global e com um acréscimo de 1,1% comparado ao ano de 2017. Os Estados Unidos continua sendo o maior produtor do continente, sendo responsável por mais de 90% de toda essa produção, produzindo no ano em questão, 98,6 bilhões de litros. Vale ressaltar que os EUA, com suas altas tecnologias e o emprego de alta genética nos animais, conseguiu aumentar a produtividade das vacas por ano, passando de 10.525 kg/ano/vaca em 2017 para 10.632kg/ano/vaca em 2018. A América do Sul foi responsável por 7,7% da produção mundial, produzindo 65 bilhões de litros, um aumento de 1,6% comparado ao ano de 2017. O Brasil, por sua vez, reduziu seu aumento, passando de 1% em 2017 para 0,8% em 2018, um aumento no ano comparado à produção de 2017 mas um declínio comparado ao aumento percentual de 2017. O continente africano aumentou sua produção em 1,1% comparada ao ano de 2017, chegando à 46,6 bilhões de litros produzidos em 2018; obtendo uma participação de 5,5% na produção global. A Oceania, depois de passar por dois anos de declínios seguidos na produção leiteira, conseguiu um acréscimo de 1% comparado ao ano de 2017. Produzindo 31,5 bilhões de litros em 2018, a maior responsável por esse aumento foi a Nova Zelândia, responsável pelos declínios, a mesma expandiu sua produção em 4,4%, todavia, o aumento do continente não foi maior por causa do declínio australiano que foi de 3,8% comparado ao ano de 2017. A participação global da Oceania foi de 3,7% em 2018. A América Central produziu 18,2 bilhões de litros em 2018, comparado com a produção de 2017 o aumento foi de 1,1%. O México é o maior produtor da região e aumentou sua produção em 1,6% no ano de 2018. A região ainda participou com 2,2% na produção mundial sem alterações comparadas ao ano de 2017. Os dados supra, obtidos pela FAO, traduzidos e atualizados pelo autor em questão, demonstram que o mercado do leite continua sendo promissor e empregador de milhares e milhões de empregos por todo o planeta. Como citado anteriormente, a junção de profissionais, potencial genético dos animais, sanidade, medicina preventiva, medidas profiláticas, bem-estar dos animais entre outros fatores tiveram impacto direto na alta produção e produtividade dos animais e na lucratividade dos países produtores que industrializam o leite ou mantém um mercado exportador do mesmo ou do leite in natura. Os países desenvolvidos responsáveis por 2/3 (dois terços) da produção mundial, isto é, produtores de 570 bilhões de litros, apresentam taxa de crescimento variável conforme as implicações nas propriedades e no mercado, porém essa taxa de variação de crescimento gira em torno de 0,5 à 1% ao ano e produtividade média entre 6.000-7000 litros/vaca/ano. Esses países, principalmente os europeus e os EUA, contam com elevados subsídios, que vêm apresentando tendência declinante nos últimos anos conforme apontam especialistas (FAO, 2019). Nos países subdesenvolvidos, em desenvolvimento, a produção em 2018 foi de 270 bilhões de litros e a taxa de crescimento é de 3-5% ao ano muito superior aos países já desenvolvidos. A produtividade, de 1500-2500 litros/vaca/ano, também vem se elevando nos países em desenvolvimento, em média 3-4% ao ano, contribuindo com major volume para a oferta mundial de leite. Observe a tabela construída a partir dos dados da FAO da produção mundial de países desenvolvidos e subdesenvolvidos de 2007 a 2018: Tabela 1: Produção mundial de leite em países desenvolvidos e subdesenvolvidos, 2007-2018. FONTE: FAO. Os dados da tabela atribuem ao avanço da produção de leite, bem como a análise sobre a crescente produção leiteira dos países em desenvolvimento. Especialistas apontam que a crescente produção dos países subdesenvolvidos e a implementação de técnicas mais especializadas e qualificadas terá uma consequência, essa será a equidade da produção com os países desenvolvidos e, futuramente, a produção leiteira dos países subdesenvolvidos ultrapassará a produção dos países já desenvolvidos. Nos países desenvolvidos, a produção leiteira passou de 334 bilhões para 504 bilhões de litros, ou seja, um aumento de 50% em média, já nos países subdesenvolvidos o aumento passou de 227 bilhões em 2007 para 336 bilhões de litros em 2018, um acréscimo de 48% na produção. Esses dados nos mostram que o aumento da produção nos países desenvolvidos já é alcançado na mesma escala pelos países em desenvolvimento; sendo assim, ambos estão empregando técnicas para facilitar a obtenção do leite e para ascender a produtividade de cada vaca leiteira de sua região. O aumento do volume de leite produzido nos países em desenvolvimento deve-se principalmente ao crescimento da Índia (5,6%) e Paquistão (3%) na Ásia, do Quênia na África e do Brasil (0,8%) na América do Sul. Os países considerados desenvolvidos apresentaram um crescimento grande e pouco superior aos subdesenvolvidos, e os maiores responsáveis por esse crescimento nos últimos anos foram a Rússia com 32 bilhões de litros, os EUA com quase 100 bilhões de litros produzidos ou 1/5 da produção dos países desenvolvidos, a Alemanha com acréscimo em sua produção, bem como a França, a Inglaterra e o aumento de 4,4% da Nova Zelândia. A redução da produção de leite em alguns países da União Europeia como a Ucrânia e da China na Ásia pode ser parcialmente atribuída às reformas políticas que culminaram em diminuição gradativa de subsídios a desvalorização de produtos agrícolas e, consequentemente a baixa no preço do leite, e também por serem países com menor competitividade em custo de produção. Além disso, os países europeus estão entre os que apresentam maiores níveis de produtividade média do rebanho, indicando alto grau de incorporação de tecnologia e dificuldade de expansão da produção. A Rússia foi um país que mais contribuiu negativamente para a redução da participação europeia, com quedas de dois bilhões de litros em 5 anos como aconteceu entre 2002-2007, porém, a mesma está investindo potencialmente em seu rebanho e em mão-de-obra qualificada para transformar seu rebanho em altos potenciais genéticos para a produção leiteira e é o que visa aos dias de hoje quanto a participação do pais na produção leiteira atual. Sobre essa queda da produção russa, com o fim da URSS, o setor lácteo na Rússia passou por um processo de reorganização e competição capitalista primordialmente com os EUA. Todas as ineficiências anteriormente mascaradas pelo regime comunista apareceram, exigindo do setor privado melhorias de qualidade, investimento em máquinas, equipamentos e qualificação de mão-de-obra. O reflexo imediato foi a redução significativa do rebanho e queda da produção de leite. O mesmo movimento ocorreu na Ucrânia, que também contribuiu para a perda da participação europeia na oferta global desde os anos 2000 até os dias atuais. A produção de leite ocorre em todos os países do mundo, porém a heterogeneidade do processo produtivo e volume de produção entre os diferentes países é marcante. Na tabela 2, observam-se os dez principais países produtores de leite em 2017. -/- Tabela 2: Dez principais países produtores de leite em 2017. FONTE: Farmnews. A produção mundial em 2017 foi de 812 bilhões de litros e esses países corresponderam a 45% do volume mundial, quase a metade de toda produção. O Brasil, em 2017, ocupou a quarta colocação, com uma produção aproximada de 34,3 bilhões de litros anuais, que reapresentou 4,5% da produção total no mundo; em 2018 essa produção foi de mais de 36 bilhões de litros e uma queda na participação mundial, passando para 4,25%. Como conclusão, são infinitas as mudanças geográficas da produção de leite no mundo, o que ocasiona grandes diferenças nos sistemas produtivos e no volume produzido nos diversos países; consequentemente essas transformações causam mudanças na oferta do produto e o surgimento de países produtores de leite com maior competitividade, possibilidades de incorporação de tecnologia e estratégias definidas de inserção no mercado internacional. (shrink)

Presentazione del curatore italiano (C.Corradetti): È possibile conciliare il pluralismo culturale con la dimensione pubblica della deliberazione? Partendo dall’analisi critica di Rawls e Habermas, James Bohman offre una risposta innovativa alla questione dell’accordo democratico. In tale proposta, parallelamente al rigetto di soluzioni meramente strategiche, viene riabilitata la nozione di compromesso morale nel quadro di un accordo normativo. Mantenendo fede ad una prospettiva composta da elementi normativi e fattuali, l’autore si propone di ampliare le opportunità democratiche nella riconciliazione tra conflitti culturali (...) profondi propri delle società contemporanee. L’elemento civico partecipativo risulta essere dunque una componente essenziale per la produzione di una sfera pubblica vibrante. Ne emerge una ricostruzione convincente volta non solo a respingere le critiche degli scettici sulle reali possibilità d’inclusività democratica, ma diretta soprattutto a suggerire un più efficace modello deliberativo per la garanzia della stabilità sociale. Questo testo è diventato ormai un riferimento internazionale classico nella discussione sul tema della deliberazione pubblica. L’autore ha inoltre sviluppato in ambito post-nazionale il suo modello deliberativo senza tuttavia ridiscutere i fondamenti concettuali della sua proposta teorica qui enunciati.Vista la rilevanza del tema e considerata la centralità del testo proposto, sembrerebbe dunque auspicabile rendere il testo disponibile anche al lettore italiano. (shrink)

John Courtney Murray is openly acknowledged as one of the greatest public political thinkers that American Catholicism has produced. His work significantly influenced the Catholic Church's public understanding of the role of religion in a pluralistic society through his contributions to the Declaration on Religious Liberty (Dignitatis Humanae) of the Second Vatican Council. He was even acclaimed in the secular world, appearing on the cover of Time on December 12, 1960. His legacy in the area of church–state relations, however, ran (...) into serious difficulties shortly after his death. Many have alleged that the cause of this nonreception lay in a new religious pluralism in the United States or in a lack of consensus on basic moral or philosophical issues. I will argue, by contrast, that one overlooked, but highly influential, reason for this lack of reception lies in Murray's position on the relationship between nature and grace. The triumph of a competing view in the post-conciliar Catholic Church and wider academy, both in theology and in philosophy, undermined the possibility of Murray's vision finding traction within either realm. (shrink)

Giving justice to Maximus any philosophy wich does not include mysticism will be false as philosophy. Our metaphysics must be mystical in order to be rational. In Maximus’ doctrine, then, Christ comes not to destroy but to fulfill the metaphysics of mystery elaborated by the philosophers. For him there can be no separation between philosophy and theology, or between natural and revealed theology. Thereby, Christology and liturgical mysticism are not additional to a neoplatonic, aristotelian, and other methaphysics. Maximus concern (...) was to continue, not the philosophical tradition of the Aristotelian commentators, but the theological one of the Fathers. He was not an Aristotelian commentator himself. The union and distinction are basic logical concepts in Maximus’ thinking, but the Chalcedonian logic is the application of these concepts. Only in this way one can talk about Christianization of aristotelian logic. St. Maximus the Confessor synthesized Aristotelianism influences with those of Platonism in order to exceed the daring speculations of cosmology origeniene. He had an extraordinary ability to combine metaphysical requirements with the effort of defining the faith dogma, and the monastic experiences with the depth thinking, succeeding to propose a new conception in which converge all cultural and religious influences. This study is analyzing the relationship between logoi and energeia (the intentional or “logical” energeia and the ontology of divine energy as ontological “logic”) within the maximian cosmology, by referring to the palamite theology. The concept of logoi for St. Maximus play a role similar in many respects to that of energy (energeiai) in Cappadocian Fathers, but the functional similarity it should not lead to the identification rationales with the energies. (shrink)

Filósofos como Marcuse han subrayado las propiedades liberadoras del quehacer artístico. Pero si hemos de pensar el arte como el Gran Rechazo, es necesario mostrar qué rechaza el arte y con qué busca sustituirlo. Respecto a estas preguntas, existen dos respuestas antagónicas. Mientras una busca en la experiencia artística rechazar lo dado en nombre de una verdad intemporal, la otra también reniega de lo dado, pero admite el carácter provisorio de toda verdad. Aunque en apariencia sutil, esta distinción es sustancial. (...) A partir de una lectura de Platón, muestro por qué en la primera posición no hay cabida para lo humano, y por qué de ella se desprenden implicaciones totalitarias. Para caracterizar a la segunda posición, me sirvo de la concepción estética de Octavio Paz y de la propuesta escultórica de Alexander Calder. Ambas propuestas permiten conciliar la insatisfacción que palpita en el arte con la alteridad que caracteriza a lo humano. (shrink)

According to Christian belief, Jesus Christ is a divine person who became “incarnate,” i.e., who became human. A key event in the second act of the drama of creation and redemption, the incarnation could not have failed to interest Aquinas, and he discusses it in a number of places. A proper understanding of what he thought about it is thus part of any complete understanding of his work. It is, furthermore, a window into his ideas on a variety of other (...) topics: God, human nature, language, substance, and so on. Finally, it forces us to come to grips with what is at stake in acknowledging that Aquinas was not only a philosopher but a theologian as well. (shrink)

Hans Frei, one of the most influential American theologians of the twentieth century, is generally considered a founder of postliberal theology. Frei never set forth his thinking systematically, and he has been criticized for being inconsistent, contradictory, and insufficiently rigorous. Jason Springs seeks here to offer a re-evaluation of Frei's work. Arguing that Hans Frei's theology cannot be understood without a meticulous consideration of the complex equilibrium of his theological and philosophical interests and influences, Springs vindicates Frei's christologically motivated engagement (...) with Ludwig Wittgenstein, Clifford Geertz, and Erich Auerbach, as well as his use of ordinary language philosophy and non-foundational philosophical insights, while illuminating his indebtedness to Karl Barth's theology. Moreover, by placing Frei's work in critical conversation with developments in pragmatist thought and cultural theory since his death, this re-reading aims to resolve many of the misunderstandings that vex his theological legacy. What emerges from Toward a Generous Orthodoxy is a sharpened account of the christologically anchored, interdisciplinary, and conversational character of Frei's theology, one he came to describe as a "generous orthodoxy"--modeling a way for academic theological voices to take seriously both their vocation to the Christian church and their roles as interlocutors in academic discourse. (shrink)

This terse analysis of Christianity may help to provide a basis for understanding its true meaning and application. The authentic and foundational texts of 1 Corinthians 2:16, and Philippians 2:5 as well as Biblical Christian marriages are used here as exemplars that illustrate the definitive elements of the phenomena and its practice.

In my review I shall look upon the theology of the Incarnation. The “mystery of Christ”, in the words of Polycarp, that created the centre and “stood at the very heart of the St. Maximus’ synthesis.” Maximus’ stands within the Cyrillian-Chalcedonian situation.’ This situation is eminent by three main properties. First is the acceptance of the Theopaschite form of St. Cyril. Second is that there was no contradiction into St. Cyril and the Council of Chalcedon. Third and finally is the (...) term of a consistent terminology into Triadology and Christology that is relevant to both. We shall see later in this paper, the Chalcedonian theme of “precision” and “tautology,” with respect to Christ’s natures, similarly role in Maximus’ vision of the divine incarnation of the logoi or power with respect to each other and the divine essence. It is within this deduction that Maximum “was competent of establishing the orthodox solution of the Monothelite question.” I will outline the metaphysics of Monenergism, its three folds dialectic, Maximum break up of this dialectic, and conclude with Maximu’s overall matrix for a coherent doctrine of predestination absorb under Christology and Eschatology. (shrink)

Perhaps owing to frictions between his Christological worldview and the dominant secularism of contemporary French thought as taken up in the U.S., and persistent worries about a seeming solipsism in his phenomenology, Michel Henry's innovative contributions to aesthetics have received unfortunately little attention in English. The present investigation addresses both issues simultaneously with a new interpretation of his recently-translated 1996 interview, “Art and Phenomenology.” Inspired by this special issue’s theme, “French Thought in Dialogue,” it emphasizes four levels of dialogue in (...) the interview, as follows: (1) the interview as such, with Brohm; (2) its titular dialogue between art and phenomenology; (3) what I term a “trans-religious” dialogue between Christianity’s Jesus and Nietzsche’s Dionysus; and (4) a related dialogue between painting (Henry’s favored genre) and dance that is “Dionysian” (in Nietzsche’s sense). It concludes with new phenomenological accounts of a literal and a figurative dance, namely the social Latin dance called bachata, and an improvised musical dialogue with the mockingbirds of my hometown. In sum, thanks to Henry’s engagement with various forms of dialogue, including with Brohm, the arts, paganism, and dance, one can find room in his transcendental subjectivity of Life for others, dancingly transcending even humanity. (shrink)

Abstract: In this paper we argue that Robert Kane’s theory of free will cannot accommodate the possibility of a sinless individual who faces morally significant choices because a sinless agent cannot voluntarily accord value to an immoral desire, and we argue that Kane’s theory requires this. Since the Jesus of the historic Christian tradition is held to be sinless, we think Christians should reject Kane’s theory because it seems irreconcilable with historic Christian Christology. We consider two objections to our (...) argument and argue that both fail. (shrink)