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Throughout the Confessions, Augustine repeatedly complains about heresy with a special focus on the heresy he once belonged to, Manicheanism. To those of us who live in a culture in which respectable people rarely, if ever, care about religious orthodoxy to such a degree, these complaints seem rather bizarre. Despite this initial appearance, Augustine presents in the Confessions several plausible reasons for thinking heresy is sinful and, therefore, detrimental to a person's sanctity and ultimate salvation. In this paper, I argue that Augustine considers heresy sinful because it involves as many as three kinds of idolatry: loving a lie/false conception of God instead of the true God, loving one's own beliefs more than the Truth, which is God, and loving the worldly praise one receives from developing novel opinions more than God. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Philosophy as a way of life has been undergoing a revival in recent years. This essay explores how the central idea of the spiritual exercises can be used to develop an account of philosophy of religion as a way of life. It details some of the contemporary uses and trajectories of philosophy as a way of life. Through engaging the religiously inflected philosophies of Karl Jaspers and Simone Weil, this paper argues that their thought can present an account of philosophy of religion as a way of life that is both ethically and transcendentally oriented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper contains a discussion of the idea of using what could loosely be called an ‘aesthetic attitude’ (stemming largely from Kantian notions of disinterest and explicitly articulated by such writers in the 20th century as Edward Bullough and Jerome Stolnitz) in the context of the encounter between religions. The ‘problem’ that is addressed is formulated as an attempt to find a space in which the participation of those with committed faith positions (e.g. conservative evangelicals) in sympathetic and empathetic meeting with other faiths can be facilitated. To this end, the paper is critical of the use of spirituality (or inter-spirituality) as an oft-suggested mode by which religions meet and ‘converse’ in depth-encounters. That is, it is argued that the language of inter-spirituality that is employed by some interfaith writers often betrays liberal assumptions that are unsettling for more committed religious persons. Thus, it is suggested that by changing the language of encounter from ‘inter-spirituality’ to a more aesthetic (or playful) mode of discourse, one is creating a different, but nonetheless experientially recognisable, space of empathetic meeting and encounter that might be deemed ‘safer’. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is common for scholars sympathetic to religion – from Friedrich Schleiermacher to the present – to describe the modern critics of religious experience as reductionist. By this they mean these critics do not respect religion for what it is; they rather ‘attempt to assimilate religion to nonreligious phenomena’, 1 say, primitive science or metaphysics. Needless to say, these scholars consider this incorrect. Into this scene strides Wayne Proudfoot. In his award-winning book Religious Experience 2 he sets out to scrutinize this accusation and rehabilitate the modern critics. He dismisses this accusation as a protective strategy to render religious claims immune to rational critique. His rehabilitation program is based on a distinction he draws between two kinds of reduction – descriptive and explanatory. This distinction has so caught the imagination of philosophers that it has found its way into textbooks. 3 On the other hand, the book is also controversial; needless to say, its claims are problematic for believers. The purpose of my paper is not to offer a comprehensive critique of his book, but only of his methodology, or the lack thereof, where methodology is understood as an integrated set of tools used for inquiry. I argue that although he proposes description and explanation as appropriate instruments for the study of religious experience, the two do not constitute a methodology, because his descriptions play no role in his explanations; rather, both go their separate ways. I argue that explanation must be guided by description. Moreover, I distinguish three kinds of inquiry, each calling for a different kind of description. The kind of description Proudfoot recommends is appropriate for genetic inquiry into how particular experiences came about, but not for a conceptual inquiry into the constitutive elements of religious experience. He knows lots of trees (particular experiences), but misses the wood (the nature of religious experience). Thus my title. The paper is divided into three parts. First is a brief presentation of Proudfoot's thesis. A second part analyses three different kinds of inquiry; it shows that genetic and epistemic explanations are logically independent and irreducible one to another. These different types of inquiry call for distinct types of description, and these descriptions in turn guide the explanation that will be considered satisfactory. The context-sensitivity of descriptions, and their relation to explanation is dealt with in the final part. Let us start with Proudfoot's contention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Jean-Luc Marion has recently established himself as one of the most important and theologically fertile thinkers within the phenomenological tradition. With his study of ‘the gift’ and ‘the saturated phenomenon’, Marion presents a challenge to theology to rethink revelation in its surprising givenness, as exceeding the boundaries often set up in advance by metaphysics and a priori anthropological foundations. This paper examines Marion's mature thought, particularly within the perspective of Christology. The paper argues that Marion's phenomenological style of reflection, as adapted to theology, is deeply contemplative and markedly Johannine in sensibility. As a strategy for theology, the phenomenological style gives to it important incentives and skills for reading off God's self-revelation in Christ in its surprising and counter-intuitive beauty. Marion's challenge/gift to theology is, however, in need of a balancing emphasis, one that appears too infrequently in his work: the ethical-prophetic dimension of the Christ event. In view of keeping both the mystical and prophetic poles of theology closely linked, the paper argues that just as beauty is a key category for saturated phenomena, so too is the reality of suffering and evil. However, whereas beauty invites a humble receptivity to and contemplative enjoyment of the gift, the inscrutable reality of suffering and evil, which so often exceeds comprehension, touches off a critical and practical response. In broadening the study of saturated phenomena to include the refractory character of experience, especially that which threatens humanity, Marion's valuable contributions to theology require a complementary emphasis from those narrative-practical Christologies that highlight the prophetic aspects of the tradition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At times decisions are made in the field of genetics that are presented as if the ethical debates have been adequately treated and so all moral considerations have been addressed, when the truth is very different. Nor is it always easy or desirable to separate the ethical, legal and social questions posed by new developments. The impact of developments in genetic science upon communities is one field of enquiry that envelops each of these areas. This paper explores the impact of genetics upon communities through focusing, in particular, upon certain developments in reproductive science. After introducing core issues and technologies, it discusses particular ethical concerns in relation to the ‘shadow’ of eugenics over such developments, before exploring the role of legislative debates and procedures in transforming social attitudes, values and hence norms. It then turns to consider debates concerning the ‘quality of life ethic’ now prevalent in healthcare, and moves on to discuss the issue of genetic discrimination – focusing, in particular, upon discrimination against disabled persons as a representative instance of the actual ethical and social/communitarian implications of the foregoing. It ends by highlighting the need to discern the ways in which the ethics of genetics is presently shaped and practised in order to discern better the particular social and communitarian implications of certain technological advances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper begins by tracing the development of the understanding of truth as adjunct to the self in postmodernity. It then proceeds to ask what history is in postmodernity in the light of the reconfiguration of truth, and what kinds of response Christianity, and especially Catholic Christianity might develop to the postmodern situation. Using a critique of Habermas’ speech “Modernity – an incomplete project” it develops a notion of postmodernity as an extreme interpretation of modernity, solely through reference to the self. By analysing the concept of the universal horizon in Habermas and in Hegel it shows how postmodernity both produces and deflects the notion of modernity, so that prior to the postmodern, neither modernity nor postmodernity can really be said to be thought at all. The paper suggests that postmodernity is not really ‘thought’ at all, but rather thinks for us, so that we take it for granted. It then takes a sketch of Nietzsche’s critique of the death of God as a springboard to ask what arenas a thoughtless theological response might be tempted into – especially that of conceiving the world purely and baldly as “sacramental” in structure. Finally it concludes by asking what possibilities postmodernity opens up through a thoughtful discernment of how it constitutes us at all [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper draws on a wide range of researches to stress the importance of social context to the sociological understanding of religious experiences. It argues that individualistic definitions fail to take into account real group experiences such as those resulting from the reforms of Vatican II. For the sociologist, it is important to explore general patterns of group experiences and the meanings attributed to them. The paper discusses some of the methodological and conceptual problems in this area before considering evidence for the patterning of religious experience according to differences of generation, gender, class, level of urbanization, institutional involvement, and status inconsistency. The paper concludes by locating religious experiences in the context of modernity. In contrast to related theories of secularization, it draws attention to the recent work of Hervieu-Léger which suggests that utopian future expectations create space which can only be met by new forms of religious experience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores differing accounts of the nature of desire, found in the works of Bernard Lonergan and René Girard, and their implications for our understanding of the origins or socio-cultural order. Using Lonergan's distinction between natural and elicited desires it argues that Girard's account of desire as mimetic may account for elicited desire, but may not account for natural desire, in Lonergan's account, as desire for meaning, truth and goodness. It then considers the implications for this distinction in our understanding of our socio-cultural origins. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper evaluates the role that evolutionary psychology can play in examining the rationality of faith in the Christian sense. It is argued that because evolutionary psychology enables us to understand human nature, it can help us understand what faith is. I argue that faith is not a universal human instinct that all religions tap into. Rather, we must understand how the early Christian community used the basic building blocks provided by human nature in a particular way. It is argued that it is a misunderstanding of the nature of faith to assert that faith is intrinsically irrational. However, evolutionary psychology cannot tell us whether or not faith is rational. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is an examination of the Christology and Pneumatology that C. S. Lewis read from the apparent prefiguring of elements of the Incarnation-Resurrection narrative in religious myths, and also his assertion that the incarnation-resurrection narrative operates on us both as fact and myth. After an initial examination of the term myth and mythopoeia, Lewis' writings on the myth that became reality (the Christ event) are discussed along with examples of prefigurement. Through his understanding of natural theology (rooted in that of Augustine, though fed by Lewis' daily reading of the Summa Theologiae) and his cautious respect for human imagination (from the poet, theologian and philosopher Samuel Taylor Coleridge) and in contrast to his earlier deference for the conclusions of the Victorian religionist and social anthropologist James George Frazer, Lewis came to regard these prefigurements as the work of the Holy Spirit – intimations of God's salvific action in Christ – though Lewis' orthodoxy saw human imagination as flawed through original sin. This leads us to ask three questions: first, how do these prefigured ideas come to be in these myths and how do these intimations, splintered fragments of the true light, relate to Lewis' understanding of Christ as the light of the world; second, how does the Incarnation-Resurrection narrative act/operate on us as a myth, whether spoken or read (a baptized imagination is crucial here for Lewis in both the creation and receiving/hearing of such narratives); and third, is there internal evidence for a mythopoeic interpretation within the Incarnation-Resurrection narrative? Our conclusions can be illustrated by a brief examination of Lewis' own Christian myth – Aslan from The Chronicles of Narnia– originally written for a Christian audience but now read by mainly non-Christian/post-Christian children and adults. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the early 1990s, a previously-neglected text, entitled Laterculus Malalianus, was attributed by Jane Stevenson to the hand of Theodore of Tarsus (archbishop of Canterbury, 668–690). The text is a well-spring of Christological concerns. Above all, it reflects an interest in Christ's restorative work as it applies to all humankind, expressed in language very much reminiscent of Irenaeus of Lyons and, more explicitly, Ephrem the Syrian. Chapter fourteen in particular displays these characteristics in a concise manner. Theodore's references there compel the reader to deal with a wide range of sources, suggesting thereby a learned, if eclectic, writer; further, they give us insight into the kinds of theological influences to which seventh-century Insular divines were subject. It is the intention of this paper to expose some notable aspects of this under-esteemed work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the ambiguity in Rudolph Otto's discussion of the mysterium tremendum in order to address a broader set of difficulties in The Idea of the Holy (1917). In doing so, I outline two common criticisms of Otto's position. The first attacks Otto for not providing a secure transition from the numinous experience of terror to the holy experience of faith. The second attacks Otto for upholding a kind of theistic dualism, which seemingly puts his thought at odds with mysticism. Rather than reconstruct Otto's argument in favour of theism, I maintain that numinous experience, while still a form of otherness or alterity, is best characterized as the breakdown of subject-object dualism. I further suggest that this breakdown is best understood in non-theistic terms. For examples of the latter, I briefly turn to Jean-Luc Marion's notion of saturated phenomena. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper I argue that a pervasive “religion as tyranny” view has its roots in a philosophical misunderstanding about human freedom. The established liberal view, which is a kind of “empty Protestantism,” conceives of freedom primarily in negative terms as freedom of choice or amoral autonomy. I argue that this approach, which originates in Puritan theology, leads inevitably to a wide-ranging indifferentism and that indifferentism is incompatible with Christianity. Christians need to elaborate in response a positive definition of freedom as moral autonomy or good rebellion. Insomuch as religion is an essential aspect of human flourishing, it liberates rather than enslaves the individual. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

John Henry Newman's An Essay in Aid of a Grammar of Assent is a commonly cited source for the idea that religion and ethics are in some fashion mutually implicated, and specifically the idea that religious belief can be grounded in our moral experience. In this paper I aim to do two things. First of all, I shall try to show that Newman's account of the relationship between religious and ethical understanding, as expounded in the Grammar, is more richly nuanced than one might suppose from reading the work of his commentators, and indeed anticipates a great deal of recent discussion in the philosophy of religion. Secondly, I shall argue that one strand of Newman's case in particular merits further attention in the context of current debate; here I shall argue that Newman's position is reminiscent of recent discussion in the philosophy of mind concerning the sense in which feelings are intentional, and articulates a view which is at best underdeveloped in recent work in philosophy of religion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To discuss the rationality of religious beliefs of the meaning of those beliefs must be made intelligible, sometimes to those who do not share our presuppositions. Is it possible to explain the meaning of such basic concepts as ‘Religion’, and ‘God’ without presupposing other religious concepts? The present paper is an attempt at such a radical interpretation of religion. This is done by wedding a full-fledged constructivist epistemology with insights from the mystical traditions of the East and the West. How such an epistemology can account for both the unity and plurality of religions is also indicated. In the process I give not only a new interpretation of ‘God’ but also suggest the reasons for the failure of the “proofs” for the existence of God. Thus, a new way is opened up for discussing the rationality of religious beliefs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the factors influencing the policy of Cordaid, the Dutch Catholic Oragization for Relief and Development Aid, on sexual and reproductive health (SRH) with justification for its own stance. The policy and approach of Cordaid to SRH within the Dutch Catholic community is discussed. The Netherlands' significant role in the international development community on SRH and the reality of Cordaid's development work are examined.

Presents an overview of various books about religion. 'The Covenanted Self: Explorations in Law and Covenant,' by Walter Brueggemann; 'Treasures in Heaven: Armenian Art, Religion and Society,' edited by Nina Garsoian; 'The Riddle of Nostradamus: A Critical Dialogue,' by Georges Dumezil.

This paper proffers an example of a new form of religious dialogue. It subverts, rather than assumes the philosophical tradition of universal reason, upon which religious dialogue has traditionally proceeded. To this end, I call into question the frequently perceived affinity between Buddhism and radical postmodern a/theology. Whereas the latter works within a framework of oppositions inherited from the modern philosophical tradition, Buddhism is innocent of such a framework, and jettisons its ‘either-or’ antinomies. In this respect, I argue that there is a striking ‘coincidence in outlook’ between Buddhism and conservative postmodern theology, which also seeks to subvert the modern philosophical framework which it regards as being essentially secular. I suggest that this ‘coincidence in outlook’, which contrasts with the modern outlook, opens the way for a religious dialogue based on a mutual affirmation of difference, rather than on the distorting universalist quest for affinity at all costs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, the author discusses the concept of self-deception in religion from a paper by Juha Räikkä The author explains that Räikkä argues against the claim that religious beliefs are self-deceptive or based upon self deception. The author also emphasizes that a crucial factor needed in self-deception is the belief against good evidence because of fear or desire and that its truthfulness or falsehood would not be of great concern.

I take a philosophical approach and seek to address the question of inter‐religious rituals and practices with reference to what Charles Taylor has called 'the immanent frame.' Whilst considering the dynamics of inter‐religious or cross‐religious ritual, this article will focus mainly on the idea of rituality occurring in an immanent frame or habitus (Pierre Bourdieu). I will argue that whilst there are specific cultic rituals that need to be negotiated as part of any form of explicit inter‐rituality, there is a larger potential that is suggested by a broader anthropological vision. Moreover, an 'immanent turn' by religions may be the positive step towards the joint creation of meaning and practice in the public sphere. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers the author's insights regarding his criticisms against the thoughts from several philosophers and scientists about the progress of science compared with the religious domain. The author discusses various issues related to science and the religious domain which include naturalism, supernaturalism, and parsimony along with explanatory power.

The article discusses the philosophical idea of Bernard Lonergan about the natural knowledge of God based on three texts such as "Insight" (1957), "Natural Knowledge of God" (1968), and "Method in Theology" (1972). Topics include the increasing number American adults who considered themselve as atheist, the religious belief of Roman Catholic theologians, and the results of the report "America's Changing Religious Landscape," from the Pew Research Center.

The article explores American philosopher Leo Strauss and Pope Benedict XVI about modernity, creation, and Catholicism. It reports that Benedict consistently argues that communion with the Incarnate Logos, Jesus Christ, is the one thing needful for all human beings. It mentions that Italian diplomat Niccolò Machiavelli rejects the whole philosophic and theological tradition of utopian teachings of classical philosophy and the Bible.

The article examines theologian Roberto Unger's philosophy of a life-long pattern of learning that strives to make the new out of the old to open up the space in which collective memory serves individual imagination. Unger encourages his readers to experiment to liberate themselves from the clutches of the habitual and the actual so as to produce something truly new. It emphasizes the possibility for religious memory to refuse the conservative religious gesture.

This examination considers the influence of the seventeenth century Cambridge Platonist Cudworth upon the thought of the late eighteenth century German thinker Herder. It focuses upon Herder's use of Cudworth's philosophy to create a revised version of Spinoza's metaphysics. Both Cudworth and Herder were concerned with the problem of determinism. Cudworth outlined a number of difficulties relating to this problem in the thought of Spinoza and proposed amendments, particularly the introduction of the middle principle of plastik, which would mediate between the Ideas of transcendent reason and mechanical materialism. We find these amendments to Spinoza's philosophy also employed in Herder's contribution to the Pantheism Controversy, in which he too offers a revised Spinozism and introduces his own middle principle of Kraft. This demonstrates an important but under-explored English contribution to a key development in German intellectual history. The Pantheism Controversy was an epoch-making event, helping to bring an end to the German Enlightenment and to inaugurate the Romantic movement. Herder's version of Spinoza's thought revived the philosopher's fortunes, and Herder's notion of Kraft became central to Romantic aesthetics. Finally, Herder's use of Cudworth demonstrates the important but overlooked source of Platonic realism in German Romantic thought. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the metaphysical analysis of natural proportion by Jesuit philosopher and theologian Bernard Lonergan which yields a faculty psychology. It argues Lonergan's abandoment of the concept of Will and metaphysics of interiority. The author believes that decision making can shift from the Will to the level of consciousness between apprehensive and appetitive faculties in favor of a distinction.

The author examines the Christian traditions with the radical unity of Christ's embodiment and divinity. The author highlights that body consciousness develops and leads to experiences transforming from lived body to object-body. The author also argues that the predominant ontology and epistemology of Christian's medical care for the sick tends to unites with the cultivation of body/soul.

The author examines the effect of perverted faculty argument as defense against homosexual sex. The author highlights the natural law theory with heavy emphasis on the body as well as the capacity for reason grounds moral obligation. The author also emphasizes the objective standard of evaluation by natural law theorists and homosexual activity critics.

An essay is presented on etymological term for conscience. It discusses the correlative term used such as the Greeks translations synderesis which means good, and conscientia which is connected to the correct perception of individual circumstances. He also mentions the proper state of the practical intellect or the perceptual capacity which refers to the deliverances of one's perception.

The article discusses the difficulties encountered by Catholics who want to get involve in dialogue and on issues including population, family planning and parenthood. Noted are the emergence of several discourses and various interlocutors, which can be hostile to specific Catholic voice types. It is observed that Church spokespeople prevent to speak to Catholic positions in public.

The article discusses the reasons for the recognition of faith communities as significant partners in dealing with several health challenges throughout the globe. Mentioned is the consideration of faith groups as major health-care and health-related services providers. The tensions on the attitudes of faith groups to gender, reproduction and sexuality are noted.

The article focuses on the analysis of the nature and history of the opposition of the church to the Responsible Parenthood and Reproductive Health Act 2012 in the Philippines. The impact of the tactics of the church on the influence and moral authority of the health act on the society is examined. The lessons from the act's provision in the issues of abortion, population control and mandatory reproductive health education in the country for the Church are also provided.

The article examines the lostness by philosopher and theologian Søren Kierkegaard as the starting point for philosophical self-reflection. It explores the writing of Kierkegaard as a plea to Western Christendom and Western civilization in facing their lostness where he desires to put on the ground of creatureliness and helplessness. It highlights narcissists as masters at making their own reality and convince themselves they are all that matters in any situation and not just powerful.

The article presents the author's insights on the approach used by author Gerardus van der Leeuw in the analysis of the relationship between phenomenology and religion. The author describes the old phenomenology of religion given by van der Leeuw which focuses on the notion of life contrary to Michel Henry. He mentions the analysis of experience made by van der Leeuw to envisions his phenomenology.

An essay is presented on the concept of Bernard Lonergan vertical finality which is pertained to the supernatural inclination of intellect. It says that the natural desire of humans in seeing God involves the purpose, orientation, and meaning of human life which evoked complications between grace and nature. It discusses the debate with regards to the origination of the natural desire in seeing God.

The article provides information on the exclusion question of philosopher Jaegwon Kim in the philosophy of religion involving human action and the sovereignty of God. The framework for the overdetermination solution to the exclusion question of Kim can be applied to make sense of the relationship between the human action and sovereignty of God. Kim contended that mental properties need to be reducible, in some way, to physical properties if mental properties are casually efficacious.

The article focuses on the challenges of HIV and AIDS in Italy, relative to authentic sexual freedom with justice. It discusses the approaches and responses of the Catholics and health care facilities in HIV and AIDS epidemic in the country, particularly for the terminally ill. It states that most parents failed to disseminate Christian values on sexuality to their children, while health programs and prevention education teach focus only on abortion and the practice of safe sex.

The article provides information on philosopher John Henry Newman's phenomenological views on first philosophy. It informs about Newman's reflections and meditations on the foundational aspects of truth, his sacramental views of the world and his reflections on Apologia and solipsism. It further informs about Newman's spirituality which includes solitude with God.

The article offers information on the obstacles faced by countries to adopt democratic practices in one's country to spread democratic institutions throughout the world. It mentions that U.S. attempts to impose democratic structures on post-invasion Iraq and efforts to resolve the election crisis in Zimbabwe with a distinctly African solution are suggesting implementing effective democracy in world. It investigates the role of religion in democratic practices and the politicization of Islam.

An essay is presented on two texts written by Soren Kierkegaard. It examines development of the inward self and of outward social formation which are dependent on one another. It informs that the works of Kierkegaard are based on the vision of social reality which is related to inward self. It mentions that Kierkegaard has developed the religious ontology in which God represents pure possibility.

The article focuses on the relationship between religious beliefs and the natural law. Religion is comparable to the natural law and if there is any variance of religion with the natural law, it would cause its existence into uncertainty. There are certain religious beliefs that the natural law does not support. Beliefs in Hinduism, which required widows to throw themselves on the funeral pyre of their husband, are rejected on a natural-law basis.

The article discusses the Euthyphro dilemma in the divine command theory. There has been a longstanding argument regarding the obligation to act morally because God dictates so. It was in Plato's "Euthyphro" that the argument first appeared. Further discussed are several aspects of the argument, including the underlying assumptions, and their implications to religion.

Pragmatic theological realism (PTR) urges us to take up the realist aim of theology or the goal of truth although we have good reason to think that the goal can neither be attained nor approximated. Rescher contends that pursuing an unreachable goal can be rational on pragmatic grounds so long as pursuing the unreachable goal yields indirect benefits. I have blocked this attempt at providing a pragmatic justification for the realist aim of PTR on precisely the same pragmatic grounds: since there is a competing alternative to PTR and the alternative can provide whatever indirect benefits PTR can offer while being less risky than it is, prudential reasoning favours the alternative to PTR. This undermines the pragmatic case for the realist aim of theology since the instrumentalist alternative does not aim at the truth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An essay is presented about the Gregory of Nyssa's theological anthropology which tackles the anthropological treatise entitled "On the Making of Man." It states the work is Christological in nature and Gregory's understanding of Christ undergirds his understanding of human nature. It expounds on his affirmation of the significance of God's self-revealation for man's ability to achieve teleological end.

Despite the exciting consequences of the later Wittgenstein's notion of language-game for theology in general, one discipline centered on language – exegesis and biblical theology – has remained largely unaffected by this advance. I here show that describing biblical language as a language-game not only enhances our understanding of biblical texts; it also explodes a long-term impasse separating the interpretation from the ‘actualization’ of sacred texts. Insights taken from the notion of a language-game may, as with form of life and grammar, emerge as central building blocks for reformulating the postulates of biblical theology. 2 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the role of Cardinal Newman in the origins of Victorian skepticism. According to the author, an effort has been made to connect Newman with those modern theologians who argue that doubt is a necessary component of faith. He adds that the most notable instance of Newman's skepticism is to be found in his oft-repeated insistence on the dogmatic principle in religion.

The article discusses the development of Christianity and the modern church, and examines the church and its diversity. According to the author, the church is both a divine institution and a human community, and though diversity is a natural occurrence, society must not jeopardize its God-given gift of fellowship.

One of the features of modernist and postmodernist novels is the way they interrogate classical metaphysics, in the spirit of what Habermas calls post-metaphysical thinking, otherwise known as the post-Enlightenment critique of the Enlightenment. As a literary prism, post-metaphysical thinking is not anti-metaphysical: it conducts its interrogation and still accommodates both secular and religious frames. Iris Murdoch and Muriel Spark are often compared but they interrogate classical metaphysics from different perspectives and for different purposes. In the nineteen-fifties, Murdoch was an aspiring philosophical author who treated classical metaphysics as a canon of influential myth, while Spark was an aspiring theological author who had recently converted to Catholicism. Through a reading of The Bell and Robinson, both published in the same year, this article describes how the young Murdoch and Spark do what emerging literary authors of the nineteen-fifties were expected to do: frame the human condition and reflect on its existential dilemma. With their different perspectives they both write within the same paradigm, or theory of mind; against symbolic backgrounds, and among significant dialogues, they make use of similar tropes. But Murdoch and Spark arrive at opposite positions on the relationship between imagination and reality, between logos and mythos, and ultimately on the nature of freedom and contingency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article explores philosopher Jacques Derrida's ambivalence toward commitment to religion through an examination of the relation of his thinking about religion to the calls to justice and hospitality. The author comments on Derrida's attempt to undercut the possibility of religious violence. He also argues that Derrida's religious thinking can itself be deconstructed in order to reopen the possibility of hospitality.