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This article outlines and defends an 'Integral Advaitic' theodicy that takes its bearings from the thought of three modern Indian mystics: Sri Ramakrishna, Swami Vivekananda, and Sri Aurobindo. Their Integral Advaitic theodicy has two key dimensions: a doctrine of spiritual evolution and a panentheistic metaphysics. God has created this world as an arena for our moral and spiritual evolution in which evil and suffering are as necessary as good. The doctrine of spiritual evolution presupposes karma , rebirth, and universal salvation. The doctrines of karma and rebirth shift moral responsibility for evil from God to His creatures by explaining all instances of evil and suffering as the karmic consequence of their own past deeds, either in this life or in a previous life. The doctrine of universal salvation also has important theodical implications: the various finite evils of this life are outweighed by the infinite good of salvation that awaits us all. After outlining this Integral Advaitic theodicy, I address some of the main objections to it and then argue that it has a number of comparative advantages over John Hick's well-known 'soul-making' theodicy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In God's Final Victory: A Comparative Philosophical Case for Universalism, we argue that for every version of the doctrine of hell there is a version of the doctrine of universal salvation that, granted traditional Christian teachings, is more philosophically defensible. This article explores whether a parallel case can be made for preferring universalism to annihilationism. While assuming for the sake of this article that the chief arguments for favouring universalism over the doctrine of hell, developed in God's Final Victory, are strong, we argue that a comparably strong parallel case for favouring universalism to annihilationism can indeed be made. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In The Pillar and Ground of the Truth Pavel Florensky presents an account of hell, or 'Gehenna', that synthesises two seemingly irreconcilable claims: that God will save all people, and that some people will reject God forever. In insisting that both claims are true, and by recasting standard categories of final judgement, purgation and human identity, Florensky produces a novel contribution in contemporary debates about hell and universalism. I begin by surveying his account, then address two key interpretive questions raised by his critics, and conclude by situating his account within modern western conversations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article outlines the spread of the Bahá'í religion—known in Chinese as Datong jiao 大同教)— as a form of religious cosmopolitanism in Republican China (1912–1949). Originating in Iran, its spread to China can be traced to links with the Ottoman empire, British Palestine, the United States, and Japan. By tracking the individuals, connections, and events through which knowledge of the Bahá'í movement spread in China, our study reveals an overlapping nexus of networks—intellectual reformers, liberal Christians, Esperantists, Confucian modernizers, redemptive society activists, and socialists—that shared cosmopolitan ideals. The Bahá'í connections thus serve as a thread that reveals the influence of a unique 'cosmopolitan moment' in Republican China, hitherto largely ignored in the scholarly literature on this period, which has focused primarily on the growth of modern Chinese nationalism. Leading nationalist figures endorsed these movements at a specific juncture of Asian colonial modernity, showing that nationalism and cosmopolitanism were seen as expressions of the same ideal of a world community. We argue that the sociology of cosmopolitanism should attend to non-secular and non-state movements that advocated utopian visions of cosmopolitanism, map the circulations that form the nexus of such groups, and identify the contextual dynamics that produce 'cosmopolitan moments' at specific historical junctures and locations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The question of Karl Barth's attitude towards universalism has been a topic of debate since his own day. By examining a twofold two-way determination of the actuality of world-history in Christo that Barth construes in the actualistic hamartiology of CD IV/3, §70, I will contend that he does not describe the prospect of the final condemnation of humankind as an empty threat, even though the whole of his theological witness to Christ clearly testifies to universal salvation. This dialectical aspect of Barth's actualistic hamartiology leads to an attitude towards the apokatastasis that George Hunsinger aptly describes as ‘reverent agnosticism’. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article makes a case for universal salvation based on the soteriology of Anselm of Canterbury's Cur Deus Homo. It argues that without an affirmation of universal salvation, Anselm's argument fails on the grounds of its own soteriological logic, which unites the fitting and the necessary for God, assumes the primary importance of divine aseity for understanding salvation history, and affirms the ontological unity of the human race as the object of God's redemptive love. Also detailed is the development of the relationship between mercy and justice in Anselm's thought from the Proslogion to Cur Deus Homo, and it is shown how Anselm's developed soteriology in the latter challenges major features of the Augustinianism he inherited. The article concludes that a robust theology of divine aseity like Anselm's will entail that creation be understood as a theatre for the manifestation of God's eternal love for his creatures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Leo Tolstoy was one of the most prolific religious figures of his time. Yet his religious thought and its influence have seldom been explored by church historians. Drawing upon themes within his literature, non-fiction and previously unconsidered primary sources, this paper considers Tolstoy's religious position in relation to other similar nineteenth-century religious movements. It exposes Tolstoy's links with British Unitarians and also considers Tolstoy's influence upon the founder of Britain's first interfaith organisation, the World Congress of Faiths. It is argued that Tolstoy provides a paradigmatic example by which to examine the relationship between the legacy of the Enlightenment and changing attitudes towards non-Christian religions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent work on the morality of hell spans the various subdisciplines of theology, with the ironic exception of theological ethics. An adequate defence of hell requires a positive account of how God's eternally tormenting some humans is beautiful, just and worthy of worship. This suggests a short-term and long-term task. The short-term task, which this article pursues, tests whether an adequate moral theory is available by evaluating three possible candidates, the third of which is the most interesting, as it offers a historicist defence of hell: we believe hell is cruel only because of aversions to cruel and unusual punishment that emerged in modernity. Nonetheless, all three defences are inadequate, suggesting a longer term goal: we need either better moral theories or better accounts of hell, as well as greater analytic clarity regarding theological statements of the form, I want doctrine y to be true but believe doctrine x is true. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While Karl Barth and Thomas F. Torrance both believed in the possibility of universal salvation, they also rejected the idea that we could make a final determination about this possibility prior to the second coming of Jesus Christ. Hence, both theologians rejected what may be called a doctrine of universal salvation in the interest of respecting God's freedom to determine the outcome of salvation history in accordance with the love which was revealed in and through the death and resurrection of Jesus himself. This article explores Torrance's reasons for holding that ‘the voice of the Catholic Church . . . throughout all ages has consistently judged universalism a heresy for faith and a menace to the Gospel’. Torrance expressly believed in the ‘universality of Christ's saving work’ but rejected ‘universalism’ and any idea of ‘limited atonement’. He considered both of these views to be rationalistic approaches which ignore the need for eschatological reserve when thinking about what happens at the end when Christ comes again and consequently tend to read back logical necessities into the gospel of free grace. Whenever this happens, Torrance held that the true meaning of election as the basis for Christian hope is lost and some version of limited atonement or determinism invariably follows. The ultimate problem with universalism then, from Torrance's perspective, can be traced to a form of Nestorian thinking with respect to christology and to a theoretical and practical separation of the person of Christ from his atoning work for us. What I hope to show in this article is that those who advance a ‘doctrine of universalism’ as opposed to its possibility also have an inadequate understanding of the Trinity. Interestingly, Torrance objected to the thinking of John A. T. Robinson and Rudolf Bultmann because both theologians, in their own way, separated knowledge of God for us from knowledge of who God is ‘in himself’. Any such thinking transfers our knowledge of God and of salvation from the objective knowledge of God given in revelation to a type of symbolic, mythological or existential knowledge projected from one's experience of faith and this once again opens the door to both limited atonement and to universalism. Against this Torrance insisted that we cannot speak objectively about what God is doing for us unless we can speak analogically about who God is in himself. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Oliver Crisp argues that Karl Barth is incoherent on the question of universal salvation. Making use of a modal distinction between contingent and necessary universalism, Crisp claims that Barth's theology leads to the view that all people must be saved, yet Barth denies this conclusion. Most defences of Barth reject the view that his theology logically requires the salvation of all people; they try to defend him by appealing, as Barth himself seems to do at times, to divine freedom. This article argues that, even though his theology does lead necessarily to the conclusion of universal salvation, it is still coherent for him to deny universalism on his own methodological grounds, since the necessity and the denial operate at different levels. Barth has other commitments in his theology than mere logical consistency. To support this claim, I argue that the necessity which belongs to God's reconciling work in Christ coincides with a double contingency: (a) the ‘objective’ contingency of Christ's particular history and (b) the ‘subjective’ contingency with which this reconciliation confronts particular human beings and calls them to participate in the apostolic mission of Jesus. In each case, necessity coincides paradoxically with a kind of contingency, such that, within Barth's theology, we can speak of what Kevin Hector calls ‘contingent necessity’ or what Eberhard Jüngel calls ‘eschatological necessity’. Most debates over universalism focus on the objective side. There the question is whether the necessity of Christ's universally effective work compromises divine freedom. But Barth's concern on this point is whether the necessity is ‘transcendent’ or ‘immanent’, that is, whether it is determined by God or the creature, and since God can indeed will the salvation of all, this poses no problem in principle for affirming universal salvation. Barth's central concern has to do with the issue of ‘subjective’ necessity. Barth denies that theology is ever a matter of describing what is objectively or generally the case regarding God and the world. On the contrary, he situates theology within the existential determination and subjective participation of the one called to bear witness to Jesus Christ. For this reason, he rejects all worldviews, including universalism. The rejection of universalism is the affirmation of apostolicity. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article supplements Ralph Martin's recent book, Will Many Be Saved? Our primary thesis is that those who hold double predestination or universalism cannot, if consistent, hope as Christians should for their own and others' salvation, and therefore can neither live their own lives with a view to reaching the heavenly kingdom nor promote others' salvation. We also contend that the same disabilities are likely to subvert those who hold certain views that approximate universalism. We go on to set out some positions regarding damnation and salvation that, we believe, all Christians ought to hold and hand on. God wills everyone to be saved, and those who are saved are saved by God's grace. Entirely through their own fault, more than a few people will end in hell. But no one still alive and able to repent need end in hell. While created persons cannot build God's kingdom, insofar as Christians do the Father's will in this world, they prepare materials, beginning with themselves and their interpersonal relationships, for that kingdom. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article considers how the young Thomas Aquinas treats the question of universal salvation by examining his reading of 1 Timothy 2.4, God wills that all humans should be saved, in two of his early works, the Scriptum on the Sentences of Peter Lombard and the sixth Disputed Question on Truth, both dated to the period 1252-1257. Drawing on John Damascene's distinction between God's antecedent and consequent will, Thomas here teaches that whereas God wills antecedently in a unimodal way that all humans should be saved, He wills consequently in a bimodal way based on foreknown merits. Though foreknown merits are not a cause of predestination itself, they are a cause of glory, one of predestination's temporal effects. On Thomas's account, then, reading 1 Tim 2.4 as a straightforward statement of what God has done eternally-namely, predestine or save every individual human-would undermine the freedom of the human will that is necessary in order to attain to beatitude. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The revelations Julian of Norwich received in 1373 provided her with unique insight that transformed her understanding of the Christian faith and prompted her to re-imagine traditional notions of sin, God's love, and salvation in new ways. Her re-interpretation of these doctrines causes great anxiety for Julian inasmuch as what she learned from her showings was at odds with church teachings, particularly her new understanding of God's plan of salvation for all humanity. I argue that Julian develops a theology of universal salvation characterized by an open understanding of who will participate in the salvation of Christ, and this openness places Julian in tenuous relationship with the church of her day. Ultimately, Julian's trust that "all will be well" allows her to push beyond the tension between her insight and church teachings, in effect challenging the official teaching of no salvation for those outside the church. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Emancipating Saint Paul from both his imagined 'spiritual' prison and interpretations that cast him as Nietzsche's venomous priest, Alain Badiou reads Paul as providing the resources necessary for standing in the face of the endless flows of global capital that characterize the geopolitical landscape at 'the end of history.' Read against the background of the apparent triumph of political and economic liberalism I will argue that the most compelling aspect of Badiou's reading is that he finds in Paul a universalism that resists the rampant automatisms of capitalism. Moreover, I will be primarily interested in the extent to which Badiou's reading of Paul radically calls into question the conclusions not only of those self-proclaimed prophets of the ethics of alterity but also of those theologians that are finally unable to give up the desire to control outcomes and master contingency. In this way I will argue that, despite his proclamation of Christianity as a fable, Badiou can be helpfully read as a profound theological resource that points toward the shape of a radical ecclesiology that refuses to be defined on the artificial terrain of modernity and struggles instead in all its fragility to remain faithful to the resurrection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a previous article entitled 'Augustinian Universalism', I argued that the principles of Augustinianism are compatible with universalism. For those who reason to Augustinianism on the basis of biblical-theological arguments, this may not be terribly troubling. However, if the logic of Augustinianism is consistent with universalism this sets up an Augustinian problem of evil. For if God could have created a world where all would have been saved, but did not, this calls divine benevolence into question. In this article, I set out to rebut Augustinian universalism by arguing that there are good theological reasons for thinking God does not bring about the salvation of all humanity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the tripartite soteriology developed by Eusebius of Caesarea in response to Porphyrian universalism. It examines work of Porphyry an anti-Christian writer in search for universalism he devised from a hierarchical, tripartite soteriology of the Neoplatonic concepts. Meanwhile, Eusebius Caesarea in both his "Praeparatio evangelica" (PE) and Demonstratio evangelica (DE) responded to the charges that Christianity as a new religion lacks the authenticity of an ancient tradition. Moreover, Eusebius apologetic works resulted a confidence that Christian universalism is an important cause for the success of the Church.

The article discusses the doctrine of universal salvation articulated by early theologians and philosophers in the Christian Church. It explores the development of the doctrine about the eschatology or the last things by Origen of Alexandria about the or in a coherent way. However, before Origin, there was the hellenized Syrian philosopher Bardaisan of Edessa who is believed to be knowledgeable concerning the passage of eventual salvation of the damned and the Epistula Apostolorum and some of the other early Christian apocrypha. Moreover, the author believes that a comparative study of Origen and Bardaisan will lead to a better, deeper and wider understanding of the theoretical roots of this doctrine.

Karl Rahner's theology is essentially spiritual and pastoral. His theology arose from his experience as a Jesuit, living at the heart of the traumas of twentieth-century Europe and, at the same time, interpreting the new academic insights in Church history and the early Fathers, scholasticism and modern philosophy, within the framework of the Church's traditional teaching. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper deals with the geo-political implications of neo-universalist tendencies in current Chinese political philosophy. It is stated how Chinese philosophy can contribute to overcome a 'clash' theory of intercultural relations. The author underlines that the growing economic and political role of China in this century forces China to develop a real global world-view tradition, and discusses Zhao Tingyang's philosophy of Tian-xia as a paradigmatic example of such new universalism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents an overall view of the Philosophy of Tian-xia, a particular form of neo-universalism developed by its author and very much debated in the last years. The system of Tian-xia, or 'all-under-heaven', is a philosophical re-elaboration of an ancient form of Chinese universalism. The world is constituted as a global unity and a basic concept of political philosophy. It aims at a world institution as a way to rethink all problems in the world as problems of the world. Zhao Tingyang has analytically developed this view in some recent publications in Chinese. This article represents the most recent attempt to provide a synthetic view of his philosophy of 'all-under-heaven'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While Isaiah Berlin considered himself principally as a political theorist in the liberal tradition, his was an unorthodox liberalism in both method and substance, rooted in the confluence of three traditions-British, Russian, and Jewish. Unlike many liberals, he wrestled with the tension between universalism and particularism, and also between individualism and communalities. He rejected all monistic approaches to morality (including liberal monism) but repudiated as well the moral relativism of much modern thought, espousing instead value pluralism. While we cannot arrive at a universally valid conception of the summum bonum, we can specify the summun malum-the great evils of the human condition. Berlin saw political theory as a branch of moral philosophy but drew political morality from political life rather than imposing it on politics. The range of goods and principles that human beings rightly prize cannot be combined into harmonious wholes in either our individual or collective existence. Some goods exclude others, and we must choose among them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The idea of δóζa is a crucial theme of the Fourth Gospel and a test case for scholarly approaches. Starting from two recent monographs, the article develops the central issues to be discussed. In debate with the approaches of Bultmann, Käsemann, and Bornkamm, it is shown that the Johannine narrative is focussed on the act of 'glorification' in Jesus' hour, which the author considers foretold in Isaiah and in which the universal salvation is rooted. The Johannine image of Christ as revealing his glory during his earthly ministry is, therefore, a retrojection from the post-Easter perspective. Even more is the notion of his preexistent glory a final consequence rooted in the view of the glorification of the crucified one in his 'hour'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a study regarding the Christian and theological approach on human rights. It analyzes the different aspects of particularism and universalism, and how this contradictions affect the advocacy on human rights. It provides a historical overview on the evolution of human rights wherein French and American declarations aim to achieve the abstraction of human nature. It discusses the Christian's advocacy on human rights and analyzes the position of the naturalists in the issue.

The article examines on the globalization of cultures in the Central Asian republics. It argues on the concept of modernism as the driving force behind the public culture in Uzbekistan which has taken resemblance that the country has came across in Central Asia or in North America, hence, it notes on understanding how global cultural forms affects their culture's universalism. Moreover, it examines on how the performing arts in Central Asia are globalized during the 20th century in the Soviet Union to which they adopted international cultural forms as their symbolic communication. Further studies on the aspect of globalization is suggested.

The article discusses the constitutional views on metaphysics that deal with universality and parsimony. It highlights the entities that co-existed such as persons who are constituted by bodies, and statues that are constituted by pieces of marble. It offers arguments and implications in the development of constitutional views which indicate that metaphysics does not satisfy the twin ideals of parsimony and universality. It also explores the existence of ampliative and deflationary conception of constitution whose entities include tables, computers, and lakes and their constitutions that contain pieces of wood, systems of silicon and wires, and bodies of water.

The article discusses the representation of China and Japan, by philosopher Vladimir Solov'ev, in his theory of Pan-Mongolism. It is said that Pan-mongolism was a creation onto which he projected his anxiety and disillusionment at the failure of his vision, emerging at the disconnection between his ecumenism and the geopolitical realities of contemporary history. Russian response to the historical and cultural changes originating in China and Japan is also discussed. It is mentioned that Pan-mongolism is an idea that reveals the strength and weakness of Solo'ev's utopian universalism.

The article focuses on the Neo-Aristotelian Ethical Naturalism (NEAN) approach of Philippa Foot and Rosalind Hursthouse. It cites that many facts about animal nature brought out by Foot and Hursthouse are relevant to the ethical deliberation. The article explores the main contours of NAEN as well as its connection with moral universalism. It also discusses the other concerns proposed by NAEN that underdetermine the virtues to promote it. Moreover, it states that those appealed to an Aristotelian virtue ethics will be wise to abandon its naturalism.

This article examines the question of Karl Barth's stance on universalism. Setting the question within the wealth of contradictory accounts of Barth on this issue, it seeks to find a way through the opposing views represented in the secondary literature. Following a brief examination of the doctrine of election which is the source of the charge of universalism, Barth's response to Berkouwer's The Triumph of Grace in the Theology of Karl Barth will be considered in detail. This passage helps to place Barth's own reaction to the charge of universalism in a broader framework than that of a simple denial or acceptance, and helps to highlight what Barth does and does not reject regarding universalism. It will be argued that it is the replacement of the person of Jesus Christ with a principle, rather than any limitation of the salvific work of God, that Barth rejects in rejecting apokatastasis. Barth's denial of universalism marks a dismissal of the problematic elements associated with the word, not a denial of the ultimate friendliness of Jesus Christ. The radical newness of Barth's own approach to universalism cannot be overemphasized, and marks the means by which one may pass through the impasse of differing accounts of Barth's eschatology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the biographical outline of the Jewish members of the Bolshevik élite. It discusses their commitments to the socialist universalism and identification with Bolshevism wherein they were changed by the experiences and identities as Jews. It also discusses the diverse socio-cultural contexts of the Jewish Bolsheviks in the Russian Empire namely the Ukrainian provinces and the southern Pale, the non-Pale Russian interior and the Lithuanian northwest Pale of Settlement.

The article presents the arguments posed by author Richard Foley in favor of the priority thesis. It explores the association of priority thesis with the annulment of reasons. Arguments posed by Foley on intellectual faculties, intellectual trust and epistemic universalism are presented. Views of Foley on the presumption of trust in the opinions of others are also cited.

The article focuses on the traditional concept of hell, which is more problematic in the sense that it denies of the middle knowledge and emphasis on human freedom characteristic of open theism. The doctrine of hell presents a moral challenge to the coherence of Christian faith. Some individuals consider hell as a post-mortem existence of extreme and everlasting suffering.

The article aims to engage in a holistic reading of the passages within the Isaianic collection in order to produce a balanced assessment of the precise type of universalism and the developing monotheism. The author comments that the assessment has implications not only for understanding the ancient text but also for the history of Jewish and Christian interpretation as well as modern Jewish-Christian dialogue.

US foreign policy is hypocritical in various ways, as this article demonstrates in the course of an extensive empirical review. The question is whether such hypocrisy provides grounds for opposing US interventions abroad, in particular those which might yield locally desirable outcomes at an acceptable human cost. This article examines the question from the standpoint of a non-pacifist liberal universalism and concludes (on consequentialist grounds) that the hypocritical character of US foreign policy cannot constitute sufficient grounds for rejecting all US interventions. Nevertheless, the hypocrisy of the US remains noteworthy and deserving of criticism even in such cases because of the wider damage hypocritical behaviour can do. Moreover, US foreign policy hypocrisy sometimes sets in motion reactions that confound the benign purposes of particular interventions and so undermine the case for them. Such an effect is at work in the case of recent US intervention in the Middle East. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent debates about Habermas's conception of dialogic politics have focused on whether its commitment to ethical universalism has an emancipatory potential or threatens the assimilation of non-liberal forms of life within exclusionary Western cultural frameworks. One way of contributing to this unfinished debate is to ask whether discourse ethics contributes to the modern civilising process, as Norbert Elias defined that term. All societies, according to Elias, have civilising processes or ways of trying to solve the problem of how persons can satisfy basic needs without destroying, frustrating, demeaning or in other ways harming each other time and time again in their search for this satisfaction. This formulation invites the question of whether or not the discourse theory of morality is the best available means of extending the civilising process in global politics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Explores two attempts to reconcile two of three propositions referred to by Thomas Talbott as inconsistent: that it is God's redemptive purpose for the world to reconcile all sinners to himself, and that some sinners will never be reconciled to God. Demands of God's retributive justice which call forth a strong doctrine of the Atonement.

Responds to Thomas Talbott's criticism of the view of hell which Jerry L. Walls has defended. Argument that coherent sense can be made of the choice to be eternally separated from God; Failure of Talbott to show how God can save everyone without overriding their freedom; Argument that there is no significant sense in which sinners defeat God or sin with impunity; Observation that Talbott's case that universalism necessarily follows from God's perfect love and power fails.

The article discusses relativism as the central topic for philosophical discussion. According to the author pragmatism provides a third way between universalism and romanticism. He cites examples from the September 11, 2001 incident. A demonstration of unconditional commitment and social human practices was its highlight. The destruction and the experience made the people think twice about the rationality of the Western countries. The ways of life of individuals can be decided by their own choices and experiences even if they decide to be romantics, pragmatists or universalists.

Hans Denck is commonly cited as a universalist. Probably he was not, but there are several reasons why it was easy for his opponents to claim the opposite: his theology admitted the possibility that all people will be saved; his broadly Origenistic conceptions of freedom, divinisation and punishment tempted opponents to attribute Origen's idea of universalism to him; and he so challenged the core beliefs of mainstream Reformation theology that his opponents may have found it difficult to understand how he could claim that God wills all to be saved, Christ died for all and all are free,, without being universalist. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is modest. It is argued that if the nature of the ‘equivalence’ between first-quantized particle theories and second-quantized (Fock Space) theories is examined closely, if the inadequacies of de Muynck's ‘indexed particle’ version of Fock Space are recognized, and if the question is not begged against modal metaphysics, then van Fraassen's attempted deflation of ontological issues in quantum theory can be seen to fail. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focuses on a measure of distributive justice that involves the use of power. Information on political stability; Details of the Christian teaching of justice and Christian universalism; Discussion on the just war doctrine and Humanitarian intervention.

The language of human rights, along with much else in international relations, presently exhibits the features of globalisation and fragmentation. Globalisation in that human rights is used throughout the world at many levels to discuss moral approval and condemnation. Fragmentation in that human rights means different things to different people, and may well be used in contradictory ways by agents of social change. Yet most advocates of human rights wish to retain the adjective 'universal' along with a sense of the moral objectivity of human rights. This article suggests that a better way to ensure human rights universalism is to think of the concept as a tool, not an objectively existing moral standard or entity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discusses the significance of ethnicity and race to the formulations of early Christian self-definition. History of contemporary thinking about race and ethnicity; Problems with defining Christian origins and universalism in contrast to race; Relationship between ethnicity and religious practices.

Discusses about universal salvation and soteriology of divine punishment. Information on God's supreme attribution of love; Divine punishment through the process of reincarnation; Development of belief on universal salvation.

Discusses multiculturalism and the problem of particularism. Meaning of culture according to Kant; Objection of multiculturalists to the denial of `difference' implicit in Kantian and other Enlightenment forms of universalism; Plato's natural law theory; Medieval Muslim philosopher Alfarabi's Plato who denies moral universalism but acknowledges the possibility of some form of universalism.

The article comments on intellectual Jūrgen Habermas' works. No living social theorist has worked harder or produced more on behalf of progressive universalism and grand theory than Habermas. For so many years, Habermas has sought to employ (and, in so doing, has enriched) a range of philosophies to advance the cause of human enlightenment and emancipation. All these and more have been among the approaches he has tried and continues to try. As one of the world's leading public intellectuals, he has done battle with those who reject the emancipatory quest: whether they be German historians and politicians rewriting the past in the name of the nation and its elites. As Habermas he has remarked, "the liberal interpretation is not wrong. It just does not see the beam in its own eye." Liberal capitalism does not understand the need for its own transcendence. And well it might not: Capitalism has through events in Europe and elsewhere again demonstrated its staying power while liberal democracy has again proven its allure.

Examines the answers provided by moral universalism to the question `who are we?' Idea of human nature as obsolete according to recent Western philosophy; Theological, scientific and metaphysical descriptions of the world; Physicalistic metaphysics; Moral identification as empty when not tied to habits of action.