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In this paper we suggest that it is important for the anthropology of Christianity and the anthropology of religion more generally to develop a comparative phenomenology of spiritual experience. Our method is to distinguish between a named phenomenon without fixed mental or bodily events (phenomena that have specific local terms but are recognized by individuals by a broad and almost indiscriminate range of physical events); bodily affordances (events of the body that happen in social settings but are only identified as religious in those social settings when they afford, or make available, an interpretation that makes sense in that setting); and striking anomalous events. We demonstrate that local cultural practices shift the pattern of spiritual experiences, even those such as sleep paralysis and out-of-body experiences that might be imagined in some ways as culture free, but that the more the spiritual experience is constrained by a specific physiology, the more the frequency of the event will be constrained by an individual's vulnerability to those experiences. We will call this the "cultural kindling" of spiritual experience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Secular humanists in the United Kingdom regularly think about, talk about, and act in relation to religion, especially Christianity. In this article, I address the relationships between secular humanism and Christianity by drawing on fieldwork with a local humanist group affiliated with the British Humanist Association. In line with many moderns, as indeed with many kinds of Christians, these secular humanists often want to sever ties with the past--in this case, with what they understand to be Christianity's religious elements. At the same time, they want to preserve those aspects of Christianity they understand to be human, not religious. These engagements with and articulations of Christianity can be helpful not only for understanding contemporary secular-humanist formations but also some of the debates that have framed the anthropology of Christianity over the past decade. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cai Renhou, a prominent New Confucian scholar, has challenged the notion that Christianity can affirm that 'everyone can be Christ'. This article will, however, explore the doctrine of sanctification of Jia Yuming (1880-1964), a Chinese fundamentalist theologian who constructed a Chinese Christian teaching of the self-cultivation of heart and mind with the objective of encouraging people to become 'Christ-human', thus having a life which is Christ. It argues that Jia's training and background, his natural theology and his belief in the possibility of a collaboration between Confucianism and Christianity on moral issues made him affirm a convergence between Christianity and Confucianism and to assert that Christianity and Confucianism could learn from each other - a surprising move in the light of the impression we commonly have of fundamentalist theology. The article examines Jia's strategy of connecting Christianity with Chinese culture and points out that Jia's fundamentalism seems to provide a protection against heretical teachings, a feature which might gain the acceptance of conservative Christians for incorporating 'heathen' thought into the Christian faith. Taken together, these points suggest a remarkably multifaceted confrontation, interaction, assimilation and mutual transformation between Christianity and Chinese culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An essay on Christian philosopher Saint Augustine of Hippo's theory of peace is presented. It explores Saint Augustine's concept of universal peace as the harmonic intercommunication of individuals with each other as discussed in his book of Christian philosophy "De Civitate Dei Contra Paganos." It also presents a comparison between Saint Augustine's theory with German philosopher Immanuel Kant's concept of perpetual peace laid out in the book "Zum ewigen Frieden."

It is commonly argued by Christian philosophers and theologians that the traditional doctrine of divine simplicity is incompatible with the orthodox doctrine of the Trinity. First, it would seem that the presence of relations in God suggests a composition of substance and accidents in him. Second, if all that is in God is God, as simplicity claims, then it would seem that one could not maintain the real distinctions between the divine persons, as the Trinity requires. In answer to these challenges this article seeks to recover Thomas Aquinas' and the Reformed scholastics' emphasis upon the subsistence and pure actuality of the personal relations in God. The article concludes that while God's personal relations are really distinct from each other, there is no real distinction between the personal relations and the divine substance and that the Trinity and the doctrine of divine simplicity are thus agreeable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent work from analytic philosophers taking an interest in Christian theology has sought to uncover an apparent tension between divine simplicity and divine freedom. In response, this paper contends for the compatibility of the simplicity of God with the freedom of God and contingency of creation. This response is undertaken, not by developing new counterarguments also in the analytic vein, but by recovering older insights of various scholastic and Puritan authors. With the help of these authors' expositions of divine simplicity and its theological moorings, the paper identifies problems with postulating divine complexity and then maintains the coherence of divine simplicity and divine freedom through discussions of God's relative attributes, God's will to create, and God's omnipotence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In The Elusive God: Reorienting Religious Epistemology, Paul Moser argues that Jesus's love commands have important implications for how philosophy should be done by Christian philosophers. He calls for a reorientation of the questions that philosophers pursue, requiring that questions lead to agape-oriented ministry. Yet Moser omits discussion of an important duty of philosophers--teaching. Once the duty of teaching is considered, this essay argues that few philosophers could meet Moser's ideal. Instead of abandoning Moser's project to reorient philosophy, though, this essay takes it one step further and argues that many, though not all, Christian philosophers should leave academia to become clergy. Examination of these meta-pedagogical issues, including that of Christian calling and vocational choice, transitions to pedagogical speculation of what Moser's demands might require in the classroom. Moser's obedience mode of philosophy is then compared with competing models in the advocacy-neutrality classroom debate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The article discusses the Progressive movement's ideas, philosophical concepts, and religious values in philosopher Jane Addams' 1892 speech "The Subjective Necessity for Social Settlement," which is an article in her book "Twenty Years at Hull-House." The idea that she worked in the Social Gospel movement in order to merge modernity with Christianity is discussed. The Catholic Church's resistance to the concepts in the Social Gospel movement related to natural law, metaphysics, and reason's capacity to find objective truths is mentioned.

This article aims to analyze the process of dejudaization of the biblical character of Abraham operated by the Christian philosopher Justin Martyr, in his book entitled Dialogue with Trypho, written in mid-second century. The article demonstrates that Justin has as its exegesis of the Hebrew Bible the theology of Paul of Tarsus, especially the teaching on justification of non-Jewish believers in Jesus before Yahweh, based on faith alone, making not necessary the performance of the Jewish ritual. However, is also shown that Justin surpasses and even subverts the Pauline understanding, which aimed to match the Gentile Christians to the Jews as the God's provided spiritual descendants of Abraham. Justin brings a true ethnic transplant. Abraham is striped off from his identity as the patriarch of the Jewish people, becoming the patriarch of the Christians only. It is intended to demonstrate that the intent of the author of the Dialogue with Trypho is to strengthen the Christian identity, still in formation in mid-second century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Dialogue: Canadian Philosophical Review is the property of Cambridge University Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Augustine was a Christian philosopher and a Priest for the Latin Church. He greatly contributed to form Western Christian thought, representing a real Western Master. Augustine investigated fundamental aspects regarding pedagogy of religious status and gave it significant solutions through cultural thickness, for its theoretical strength, and spiritual significance. Knowledge and faith constitute the goal of the educational process. Faith is a principle, but not a definite term. It is an invitation to undertake new speculations, which will not be reason only, but will be guided and directed by faith: "Intellige ut credas. Crede ut intelligas". In De Magistro, Augustine supports the idea that ascending to God is a self-learning process, of interior growth that must be carried out under the individual's own lead, his will and rationality, capable of correcting the mistake so as to purify the eyes of the mind and freeing it from the deceiving attraction from the senses, in order to achieve contemplation of immutable superior realities. Of the self-learning process, following the Augustinian pedagogical method of questions and answers, we will analyze his work Soliloquies at the light of three main purposes: a) Soliloquies is talking to oneself, but it is not an num internal monolog of a self closed in its monadic identity, since Augustine articulates his thoughts coherently towards the search of the truth; b) Soliloquies is a dialog in which reason either plays the role of the instructor or the pupil; c) Soliloquies is not about the Self diving into its own essence of abstract subjectivism, but the search for the Self that co-habits that very same interiority, that is, the one that consists on The Other Self of Oneself. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In his Proslogion, Anselm presents a proof for God's existence which has attracted a tremendous amount of scholarly attention. In spite of all that has been said about this proof and proofs for God's existence more generally, scholarly consensus seems to dissipate when it comes to determining whether theistic proofs are persuasive and sound. In this article, I will argue that there is a way to provide compelling proof for the existence of God. To substantiate this claim, I will not attempt to prove that God exists apart from His revelation in any of the ways that have been advocated by various philosophers of religion. Rather, I will endeavor to explain that Anselm's approach to offering evidence for God's existence is quite different from the approach that modern philosophers tend to attribute to him and to elaborate on what that approach involves by reading Anselm's argument in the context of Augustine's De Trinitate and the whole of the Proslogion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to clarify the Cambridge Platonists' idea of liberty as an underlying concept both in theory and practice, by paying attention to their mode of thinking aimed at reconciling the reason of religion with that of the world, or morals with institutions. Through this, I hope to show the moral significance as well as the moral force of the term "liberty" proposed from the theological intellectualist tradition in early modern English thought. This paper also addresses the question of divine providence and freewill in the light of "participation", another characteristic idea of the Cambridge school on human engagement with God. By focusing on the conception of the temporal sphere that implements this engagement, I shall emphasise the intimate connections between the speculative and the practical, and contemplation and action. The paper begins by examining the Platonic philosophical defence of free will, and then proceeds to the discussion on supernatural "Christian liberty", regarding it as a transformation from natural "freedom from necessity" to spiritual "freedom from sin" and "toward God". Furthermore, it will attempt to grasp several key subjects related to the Cambridge Platonists' institutional viewpoint in church and state. These are the ideas of temporal order, church government, freedom of conscience and Christian polity, all constituting a coherent idea-world of freedom and participation in the Cambridge Platonists. In conclusion, the paper returns to the discussion on God the original and eternal idea, who effects the realisation of liberty and salvation through some cooperative works in history, where the appropriate moral preparation for an afterlife by temporal institution is necessitated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines whether Miguel de Unamuno is a Christian thinker or a seeker of religious truth. It considers the role of doubt in the life of faith and its connection with the hiddenness of God and the nature of reason in relation to faith. It cites Christian writers Blaise Pascal and Soren Kierkegaard with whom Unamuno identifies himself with and who according to him share his tragic sense of life. It characterizes Unamuno as a seeker of religious truth whose doctrine allows him to continue doubting without committing.

The Four ages contains a brief explicit discussion of the issue of Christian philosophy, referencing the Middle Ages and the 1930s French debates about Christian philosophy. Closer attention to the debates reveals a plurality of positions rather than unanimous agreement on Christian philosophy, indicating that the quite complex issues were not resolved. In this review article, I contest Deely's interpretation of Maritian's position, provide an exegesis of Maritain's position, argue that Deely's explicit position is identifiable as very close to Neo-Scholastic opponents of Christian philosophy during the debates, and briefly discuss Gilson's and Blondel's criticisms of such positions articulated during the 1930s debates. I also indicate that despite his opposition to Christian philosophy, Deely shares several key insights with its proponents, and I end by suggesting but not developing a few ways Deely's semiotic approach could bear additional fruit for postmodern Christian philosophy's ongoing projects of self-understanding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of CIVILIZAR: Ciencias Sociales y Humanas is the property of Universidad Sergio Arboleda and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The article takes up the philosophical debate over whether 4th-century Christian philosopher Gregory of Nyssa was an idealist in the manner of 18th-century British philosopher George Berkeley, concluding that to a significant degree he was. Following a discussion of philosophical idealism, especially the Berkeleyan idea that material objects have no existence outside human perception, Gregory's writings about the nature of material substance are discussed, in the context of Neoplatonism and 4th-century Christian theology. Gregory's idealism is seen as significant in the history of ideas, because of the traditional view of idealism as a product of modern philosophy.

This investigation is focused on an important aspect of Calvin's teachings, viz. his anthropology according to the final edition of his main systematic work, his Institutes (1559). This contribution (to commemorate his birthday 500 years ago) is developed through the following main sections: The introduction briefly indicates the contemporary interest and continued relevance of Calvin -- also for South Africans -- even half a millennium after his birth. It further indicates the need to reflect anew on Calvin's anthropology. Then it draws attention to the fact that Calvin's intention was to be obedient to God and his Word alone (the religious direction of his thought), but that he did not always succeed in applying this intention in his structural analysis of the human being. He often employed pre-Christian philosophical ideas to explain his view of being human. Two different "lines" can therefore be detected in his anthropology. Lastly, the introduction explains the problem-historical method according to which Calvin's view of the human being will be analysed. The rest of the essay focuses on the following aspects of Calvin's anthropology: (1) being human as being religious; (2) Calvin's structural analysis of the human being consisting of body and soul or spirit; (3) his idea of an immortal soul; (4) his view of man as the image of God; (5) his distinction in man/woman between a natural and supernatural image. These various aspects of Calvin's viewpoint should be understood in the light of the following. Calvin's anthropology is determined by his dualistic ontology or view of reality, in which he distinguishes between God (the Transcendent) and creation (the non-transcendent part). He proposes a clearly dichotomist anthropology of body and soul/spirit as separate entities. According to him the soul is of divine origin. He can therefore be called a creatianist -- God creates a soul for every new human person, and after death the soul returns to its Origin. Amongst the great variety of dichotomist anthropologies, Calvin's viewpoint can be characterised as semi-mystical. Semi-mysticism teaches that human beings are not completely non-transcendent (earthly) creatures, but also have a transcendent (divine) part, viz. their souls. Thus the borderline between the transcendent God and man is not perceived to be above but inside human beings. Amongst the different types of semi-mysticism, Calvin accepted a Platonising type -- certain themes from Plato's philosophy are included and combined with other pre-Christian philosophical and biblical ideas in his view of the human person. Concerning the different aspects of being human distinguished above (1 to 5), the results of this investigation can be summarised as follows: • Calvin was not primarily interested in the human being himself/herself, independent from his/her relationship with God. Right at the beginning of his Institutes he emphasised the inseparable relationship between knowledge of God and the self. Religio or cultus Dei to him was also not confined to private devotional life or church attendance, but understood as all-encompassing service of God in all domains of life. The question, however, remains whether other aspects of his anthropology did not prevent him from working out this basic biblical idea consistently. • According to Calvin it is a fact not to be debated that man/woman consists of two separate entities, viz. body and soul. The soul is an incorporeal substance which has been placed by God in the body in which it lives as if in a house which it manages. The body is also regarded as a prison of the soul resulting in contempt for earthly life and a longing for heaven. Death is regarded as a friend instead of as God's punishment.… [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Against the background of the medieval Roman Catholic depreciation of manual labour and the flourishing of trade and commerce this article portrays the contrast between the traditional static medieval hierarchical understanding of society and the approach of Calvin. The said depreciation of manual labour is aptly captured in a medieval legend where we learn of a person who found demons in every nook and cranny in a monastery, but surprisingly only one demon was found on a tower in the marketplace. When the person mentioned was surprised, a cleric responded by explaining that there is a greater need for demons in a monastery because many are needed to seduce the monks. At the marketplace however, one is more than sufficient, because everyone there is already a devil! This legend shows clearly how the medieval tradition devaluated the mercantile estate. This under-evaluation took its stance alongside a new appreciation of the self-esteem of human beings. However, the latter was accompanied by an increasing anarchy and immorality which indeed made Christians hesitant to participate in the horrible practices of this domain of life. By avoiding being a merchant one is not threatened by temptations. Add to this that the medieval view of society as an organic whole, where every sector of life had its well-assigned and properly integrated place, did not really contribute to the development of a constructive and dynamic economic life. The estate of merchants was kept in place by the doctrine of the "fair price." The system of guilds also did not allow for fair competition. However, breaking through this static establishment soon generated a cold and calculated rationalistic attitude towards life where even personal affairs were treated in economic terms -- such as where a difference of opinion between two merchants led to an inscription that that person's life is owed, followed by a subsequent credit inscription: "Debt paid." When Calvin wrote his Institution the point of gravity of trade and commerce shifted to the Netherlands (Antwerpen), although the Roman Catholic church still held an enormous power, particularly evinced in the maintenance of the prohibition of interest. A very useful study in this regard is found in the work of A. Biéler, La penseé économique et sociale de Calvin (Die ekonomiese en sosiale denke van Calvyn). The title of this work is somewhat pretentious because Calvin largely entered into a discussion of social-economic issues as part of the advice he gave to believers. This included directives such as the regulation of the duration of work, making primary school education compulsory, the medical treatment of invalids and ill people, public works and the re-training of unemployed people, aid to strangers who pass by, a prohibition to begging because in the Geneve of the time this was no longer necessary. Interestingly Calvin also made a plea for a fixed price for bread, wine and meat (the necessary means of life at the time). As extensively shown by Bohatec Calvin constantly advocated the idea of what is just and fair. It was supported by his new, non-hierarchical, view of society and his conviction that all of life ought to open up to the service of God. This view transcended the medieval prohibition on interest, and broadened the scope of God's kingdom to encompass all of life -- where the execution of every walk of life became a calling equal in importance and dignity to every other calling in life. Particular attention is given to the famous Weber thesis that capitalism is the outcome of Calvinism. At the end a 2009 "Postscript" is added in which a number of similarities and analogies between the era of Calvin and our own contemporary situation are highlighted, while holding on to the basic positive perspective initially advanced in the substantive article. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to assess some prominent facets of Calvin's position within the intellectual legacy of the West the Greek-Medieval background is first of all highlighted -- with a focus on the idea of a cosmic (ontic) world order (logos or law). Particular attention is given to the line of development from early Greek philosophy, via Plato and Aristotle, up to Stoic philosophy, Cicero, the medieval legacy culminating in the thought of Thomas Aquinas. The fundamental dualism present in Greek thought -- between form and matter (the constant and the changing) -- exerted a lasting influence on medieval thinking. Cicero assumed an immutable, incorruptible and non-arbitrary universal law which is valid per se. He distinguishes between being a Roman citizen on the one hand, and participating in the Roman populus (the public) on the other. When Thomas Aquinas entered the scene in the 13th century his account of medieval society was based upon an attempted synthesis between Aristotle's philosophy and biblical Christianity respectively. He accepted the dual teleological order of Aristotle with its hierarchy of substantial forms arranged in an order of lower and higher. It was designated as the lex naturalis (natural law) which is related to the transcendent lex aeterna (eternal law) as contained within the Divine intellect. By virtue of its substantial form the human being depends upon the community for the satisfaction of its needs. However, the disintegration caused by the late Scholastic movement known as nominalism (in particular Ockham) then entered the scene. Luther was influenced by this nominalism but Calvin reacted against its idea of arbitrariness. For that reason he emphasized God's law for creation and rejected the nominalistic conception of the absolute, despotic arbitrariness of God's will (the so-called potestas Dei Absoluta of God). His alternative claim is that although God is elevated above his laws for creation. He is not arbitrary (Deus legibus solutus est, sed non exlex). A brief indication is given of the relatively undifferentiated societal condition prevailing in the world in which Calvin lived -- with reference to the doctrine of resistance (Beza and others). The longstanding over-estimation of human reason caused Thomas Aquinas to relativize the radical effect of the fall into sin and for that reason he held the view that human reason was only "wounded" by the fall -- a view that was continued by Calvin. However, the biblical appeal of the legacy of Calvin also contains a number of positive insights that we still have to appreciate. He emphasized the constancy and steadfastness of God's law for creatures and also explicitly rejected the idea of chance and fate -- dating back to the Anankè (later on known as the Moira) of ancient Greece. This emphasis is all the more remarkable in the light of the powerful nominalistic movement which denied any universality outside the human mind, thus eliminating both the (universal) law for and the (universal) orderliness or creaturely reality. This nominalistic view reached its rationalistic conclusion in the thought of Immanuel Kant (18th century) who carried it through to its ultimate consequences -- by elevating human understanding to become the apriori formal law-giver of nature. The other side of the rationalistic orientation of modern nominalism is found in the irrationalistic focus both of historicism (19th century) and postmodernism (20th century). The thought of Calvin does not fit into this humanistic tradition. In respect of human society he did show an understanding of what eventually became known as the principle of sphere-sovereignty (introduced by Groen van Prinsterer and Abraham Kuyper during the 19th century). Calvin substantially contributed to an enrichment of our Christian world and life view -- carried through in more detail by the reformational philosophical tradition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This Christian philosophical investigation of his worldview according to the final edition of his Institutes (1559) is presented in commemoration of the birth of the Reformer of Geneva 500 years ago. The essay develops through the following stages. The introductory part firstly settles the debate on whether Calvin was primarily a Christian theologian or a philosopher. Calvin himself called his Institutes a "Christian philosophy" (philosophia Christiana) which, in contemporary terminology could be described as a (prescientific) Christian worldview. Secondly, the introduction indicates the method according to which Calvin's worldview will be analysed. It is done according to the only existing Christian philosophical historiographical method, viz. the problem-historical method, developed by the Dutch philosopher, prof. D.H.Th. Vollenhoven (2005a & 2005b) and afterwards further explained by his followers (cf. Bril, 2005 and Bril & Boonstra, 2000). The first main section indicates the failures of different efforts (mainly by theologians) to find a central idea governing Calvin's "system". Calvin research provides enough evidence today that there is no single "key" to unlock the door to Calvin's thinking. Not only one central dogma or principle, but many "keys" or biblical themes can be regarded as cornerstones of his so-called theology. This fact underlines the need for a broader Christian philosophical approach. The rest of the essay first investigates Calvin's view of reality (or his ontology) and briefly summarises his view on the human being. Next, the implications of his dichotomist anthropology and his distinction between an earthly and a heavenly kingdom for his view on societal life are explained. The following section discusses his epistemology and his view on the relationship between reason and faith, philosophy and theology. The results of this article can briefly be summarised as follows: The religious direction (or trend) of Calvin's worldview was his sincere desire to obey only God, his Word and his will. He therefore rejected the synthetic mentality of the early Church Fathers and Medieval thinkers who tried to achieve a compromise between the Bible and pre-Christian Greek and Roman philosophies. However, in his analysis of the structures of creation (his type of philosophy) Calvin did not succeed in fully realising his biblical normative approach. According to the problem-historical method, his type of worldview or "Christian philosophy" can be characterised in the following way: • Calvin was not a mythologising or cosmogono-cosmological thinker. To the degree that he was still thinking synthetically, he can be called a purely cosmological thinker. However, as a biblical thinker he did not exclude God from his thinking, and also disliked any speculation about God which pretends to know more about God than Scripture reveals. • Calvin rejected individualism as well as universalism and accepted a partially universalistic viewpoint, probably combined with a modified macro-microcosmos theory. (I indicate it as "modified", because the macro-microcosmos theory usually does not appear among purely cosmological partially universalistic thinkers like Calvin, but with cosmogono-cosmological thinkers adhering to a horizontal type of partial universalism.) • Calvin rejected monism (the idea that reality was an original unity) and adhered to a dualistic ontology. According to him reality consists of a transcendent part, viz. God and a non-transcendent part, viz. creation. Neither monism nor dualism is, however, in harmony with the Scriptures. Monism can only be true if we erase the distinction between God and creation. Dualism proposes two ultimate sources of reality, whereas the Bible teaches God as the one Origin of everything that exists.… [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Origen was a Christian Platonist, which his adversaries (both Christians who opposed Greek philosophy and pagan philosophers like Porphyry who saw Christianity as a non-culture) considered to be a contradictio in adiecto. His formation and teaching centred on philosophy, and his Περì αρχων in its structure was inspired not so much by earlier Christian works as by pagan philosophical works stemming from the selfsame authors as those appreciated at Ammonius' and Plotinus' schools. A close examination of all extant sources and a careful investigation of Origen's philosophical formation, readings, and works show that Origen the Neoplatonist is likely to be our Christian philosopher. The presupposition of the incompatibility between Christianity and philosophy (especially Platonism), which provoked charges against Origen as a Christian Platonist from his lifetime onward, is still at work in modern theorizations concerning the “Hellenisation of Christianity,” which are here analysed and brought into connection with the supposed necessity of distinguishing Origen the Platonist from Origen the Christian. It is not the case that a “pure” Christianity was subsequently Hellenised: the NT itself was already Hellenised to some extent, and the Christian κηρυγμα, intended for all nations and cultures, was a σκανδαλον for the Jews as well as μωρìα for the Greeks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article explores the influence of Christian thinker Saint Augustine's mother, Monica, on his conversion to the vera philosophia of Christianity. The role of Monica in the conversion of Augustine has been demonstrated in both Augustine's Cassiciacum dialogues and autobiographical work "Confessions." Augustine portrays his mother as a true Christian philosopher.

This article focuses on the Islamic studies of Louis Gardet, a Catholic Thomist theologian. Gardet preferred to be called a Christian philosopher of cultures rather than a theologian. It details the academic life of Gardet before his publication of his Islamic study in 1926. Jacques Maritain, a French Catholic Thomist, is one of the major influence of Gardet. On the matter of Muslim and Christian thought in the Middle Ages, Gardet states that he is more and more convinced that an authentic Thomism, lived and experienced to the full is the best way to approach any discipline with complete freedom and charity. It details the correspondences and intellectual arguments Gardet had with fellow Catholic clergy and scholars.

Arendt and others have regarded Augustine as "the first philosopher of the Will," considered in a broadly naturalistic sense. However, the Stoicism that influenced the young Augustine has a better claim to have "invented" such a will. His own thinking about will was profoundly affected by the Neoplatonism that facilitated his reconversion to Christianity. On the one hand, Augustine envisaged the near negation of will through the irrationality of sin and the fall. On the other, he came to believe that through grace will could be re-identified with charity and with reason, human and divine. From a philosophical point of view, he thus rationalized, and in effect nullified, the concept of will with which he began. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on three extant sources of transcriptions of the Qur'an into Hebrew characters: manuscript Arab N. 5 found in the library of the Morgenländische Gesellschaft, the fragments of the Qur'an from the Cairo Genizah kept in the Cambridge University Library, and manuscript Vat. Ebr. 357 from the Vatican Library in Rome. The article focuses in particular on the Halle manuscript, a transcription of which is given in the appendix. The transcriptions of the Qur'an examined here show how each one was produced in a different milieu and served specific purposes. The fragments from the Cairo Genizah and the Halle manuscript served similar polemical purposes and were written in countries under Muslim rule, where knowledge of Arabic was important for the relations with the authorities and, certainly in Egypt, was a part of everyday life. By contrast, the Vatican manuscript places itself in a very different context, that of the cultural milieu of Jewish and Christian philosophers and scholars in the period of the Italian Renaissance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focusing on their approaches to Nicolas Malebranche, this article compares the contributions of Étienne Gilson and his student and colleague, Henri Gouhier, to the debate around the notion of Christian philosophy during the mid-1920s into the 1930s. Gilson agreed with Brunschvicg's characterization of Nicolas Malebranche as an important representative of Christian philosophy, and both Gilson and Gouhier had a profound understanding of Malebranche's thought. Following St. Thomas that philosophy should strive to be a ‘perfect use of reason’, Gilson posited Christianity's influence as remaining exterior to philosophy itself. More sympathetic to Malebranche's Augustinian approach, Gouhier allowed for religious experience to operate at the interior of philosophy. These different approaches stemmed from fundamental differences as to how the historical method should be employed in philosophy and what it reveals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on Neoplatonism in Contemporary Christian Dionysian Polemic. It discusses the comparison between the receptions of Dionysius in relation to non-Christian philosophy during the Latin Middle Ages and the twentieth-century Christian thought. It states that the medieval philosophers including Eriugena, Thomas Aquinas, and Nicholas of Cusa as a rule refuse to divide religion from philosophy. Hence, it notes that the medieval philosophers see no need to set Dionysius in opposition to non-Christian philosophers such as Plato, Aristotle, and Proclus. It mentions that Vladimir Lossky and Jean-Luc Marion celebrates Dionysius in opposition to the non-Christian Neoplatonists.

The article focuses on the "corpus dionysiacum," considered as a significant incident in the history of Christianity. It notes the insights of Hans Urs Balthasar on the characteristics of Dionysius' thoughts in "Divine Names." It states that Dionysius is considered as one of the most mystical and sacramental among Christian thinkers. Meanwhile, it cites that the Dionysian corpus is a celebration of light and love, darkness and silence, reality and theophany, and ecstatic passage beyond reality. Facts on Dionysian studies are also presented along with Dorothy Sayers' discussion of the relation between Charles Williams and Dante. Other details on Dionysius' works are provided.

The article presents an exploration between the intersection of religion and philosophy in the intellectual class of 18th-century England. Details are given contrasting the opposing personas of teachers as a form of priest, centered upon advocating moral activity through mediating the God-man relationship, or as a philosopher who taught metaphysics and virtue. The conceptual conflict between these social roles are examined, particularly through the writings of Samuel Clarke on concepts of authority and reason in Christian teaching, addressing the value of priestly authority by injecting reason in the clerical office's way of teaching which did not impersonate God's authority.

An essay is presented discussing the religious philosophy of the English poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge. It discusses themes of Christian spirituality, rebellion, and progress in such works as "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner," "Biographia Literaria," and "The Destiny of Nations." Also discussed are Coleridge's thoughts on the Trinity, natural theology, Biblical inspiration, and moral theology.

The article explores the relation of the book "The Christian Philosopher: A Collection of the Best Discoveries in Nature with Religious Improvements," by Cotton Mather and the Spanish-Arabic Islamic philosophical romance "The Tale of Hayy Ibn Yaqdan," by Ibn Tufayl. The author argues that Mather considered Tufayl as his ideal Christian philosopher, thus, his book is a masterpiece of primary rhetoric. It is expressed that Mather demonstrated philosophy as a mighty and wondrous incentive to religion.

This paper argues that Paul, Augustine, Bonaventure, and Dante all can be viewed as supporting the notion that the human mind cannot gather non-subjective truth from an object-filled world wherein it (the mind) is situated. The mind's epistemological mode of accessing these objects always leaves open the possibility that the apparently stable physical backdrop of the world is a phenomenological fiction. For these thinkers, it is only in the assumption that an absolute, outside agent of omnipotent and supra-legislative standing exists that certain, or incorrigible, human knowledge is possible, for if there is no God that can bypass the epistemological equipment and the supposed proprietary rights of the human mind in order to implant genuine knowledge, then the ultimate kernel of the self is left with only a cracked mirror that always deficiently represents reality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article deals with two types of Christian faith in the light of the challenges posed by the ethics of belief. It is proposed that the difficulties with Clifford’s formulation of that ethic can best be handled if the ethic is interpreted in terms of role-specific intellectual integrity. But the ethic still poses issues for the traditional interpretation of Christian faith when it is conceived as a series of discrete but related propositions, especially historical propositions. For as so conceived, the believer makes claims that fall within the province of an intellectual discipline, history, that requires evidence and rules of procedure for the adjudication of such claims. It is noteworthy how few Christian theologians and philosophers of religion deal with the issue in these terms. Alvin Plantinga is a noteworthy exception and his views are examined and criticized because, among other things, his conclusion is that any believer without having any training in biblical languages or historical studies can know that the New Testament narratives are true. The article then considers a second conception of Christian faith in which this conflict does not arise. One finds it in the works of Schleiermacher, Wittgenstein, and, surprisingly, in the conception of faith found in the early writings of Karl Barth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Though academic debate over gender-inclusive God-talk seems to have fizzled, the issue is a pressing one within many Christian denominations today - both within and outside the Church - and for that reason deserves to be briefly revisited. Accordingly, although in this essay we approach the issue as professional philosophers, our focus is on the life of the Church-more specifically, those no doubt sizable segments of the Church for which a personal God and Satan exist and evangelism matters. Running an elimination argument, we contend that if a certain sort of feminist concern about traditional God-talk is well-directed, the best response is to speak of not only God but also Satan in both masculine and feminine terms. And in closing, we address the possible worry that this response to the God-talk problem would not be Christian enough. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, I intend to demonstrate that in the Monologion Saint Anseim affirms the priority of the via negativa over the via positiva. More precisely, I shall argue that in that text Anselm defends a distinctive thesis with three components. There is, to begin with, a semantic component, according to which, all of our words for God - including those purporting to tell us what God is - fall utterly short of their mark. A consequence of this is that none of our speech is capable of describing the reality that is God. There is, in addition, an epistemic component according to which there is no way for us to understand what God is; we can only know what God is not. In consequence, we have no way of directly grasping God or of comprehending God's being. Finally there is a metaphysical component according to which what God is in himself is an infinite and ineffable mystery. A consequence of this would be that God turns out to have nothing at all in common with his creatures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay evaluates Slavoj Žižek's claim that God's transcendence ends with the Incarnation. The first part offers a description of transcendence and a discussion of its fate in modern philosophy. The second and major part presents the theme of the Incarnation as it appears in Žižek's recent work. His critique of the sacrificial interpretation of Christ's death on the cross, his alternative reading of this event, his view on the difference between the Jewish and the Christian understanding of God, his concept of ‘the Divine’, and his interpretation of both the Incarnation and the Crucifixion are discussed. The second part concludes with a concise comparison between Žižek and René Girard. In the third and final part, Žižek's claim that God's transcendence ends with the Incarnation is then re-evaluated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay joins the contemporary debate over the proper theological and philosophical hermeneutic for interpreting the phenomenon of secularism. The first part offers a sustained Balthasar-influenced critique of Gianni Vattimo's secular translation of Christianity. I argue that Vattimo's Heideggerian-Hegelian influenced reading of secularism as Christianity's proper telos is both philosophically and theologically problematic. Part Two of this article reads Balthasar's work as a response to the philosophical and theological underpinnings of Vattimo's thought. Balthasar would argue that it is in a more traditional, yet remarkably daring account of the Trinitarian relations that the “secular” finds both its ground and dignity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a response to Patrick Toner's critique of the author's article on Thomas Aquinas and the Ship of Theseus (AST). The author reiterates Aquinas' position that Socrates exists in the post-mortem and ante-resurrection state by pointing out that Socrates' situation draws analogy to other situations considered as atypical. He also presents a revised Thomistic account of artefact identity through time, which he shares is based on common sense intuitions, as an answer to Toner's objections to Aquinas' restrictive view. The author illustrates the usefulness of his defense of Aquinas' substance metaphysic in AST in purposes related to the kinds of reductionism arguments. He also defends Aquinas' views on the unity of substance on Toner's claim of its implausibility.

The article focuses on the author's response to the arguments of Patrick Lee for his article on the position of evil as privation. The author states that he contradicted Lee's interpretation of all evil as privation by discussing his view on the formal good and evil. It also presents the three cases of evil, which are the destruction of a being, the evil of physical and mental suffering, and the morally evil acts. The author agrees with Lee and most of the Christian philosophers that evil in its effects always destructive and constricting.

The article discusses a Stoic context of apatheia proposed by Thomas D. Hill and explores the three routes by which Stoicism and apatheia might have been transmitted to Anglo-Saxon poets. The difference between the notions of modern world happiness and its equivalent in the contemporary world is examined. The article also presents a background of the origin of the restraint to Stoicism, citing a work by Christian philosopher Boethius.

The article discusses on the question of Christian philosophers and theologians on how to reconcile their belief in three fully divine Persons with their monotheism. The Social Trinitarian strategy argues that monotheism is secured by certain relations that obtain among them eventhough the divine Persons are not the same as God.

Believers are being confronted with a plurality of religions and a corresponding plurality of claims to "truth" or credibility. How may or should they evaluate these claims? According to the well-known Christian philosopher-theologian, Ernst Troeltsch, the truth of a religion only holds for its adherents, given the fact that religions respectively constitute "autonomous" and "independent" communities with "standards of their own". On close inspection, Troeltsch's response to the problem of the conflicting truth claims of different religions overlaps with the so-called "neo-exclusivistic" approach to this problem. So-called "exclusivists" dogmatically and uncritically regard their own particular religion as exclusively true. For neo-exclusivistic, on the other hand, no particular religion is exclusively true, but the truth of a religion applies exclusively within the boundaries of that particular religion. To the neo-exclusivist, this exclusivity also entails the incommensurability of religious traditions. That is, the neo-exclusivist denies the existence of any overarching framework or single metalanguage in terms of which religions might be compared, or by which the competing claims to truth of different religions might be evaluated rationally and univocally. As such, Troeltsch's relativistic approach is explained with reference to similar approaches in the debate on the methodology of science (e.g. the views of Thomas Kuhn), and distinguished from related approaches, like subjectivism and so-called "relationism" or "descriptive relativism ". It is argued that, while Troeltsch avoids the absolutism of exclusivists, his approach also portrays weaknesses, which are identified and discussed with regard to inconsistencies, issues concerning incommensurability, and socio-ethical or political implications. This provides the backdrop against which the parameters of an approach beyond both relativism and absolutism are finally and briefly drawn. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Late Antiquity, most non-Christian philosophers doubted whether the human embryo could be regarded as a true living being (ζˆω˛ov). Their Christian rivals held a different conviction. John Philoponos went even further than his Christian predecessors with his view that the human embryo has not only an ’′αλoγoς ψνχη′, but also a rational soul (λoγικ`η ψνχη′). Unfortunately, he has expounded his arguments in a lost work, which probably antedated his De aeternitate mundi of 529 A.D., so that only reasonable assumptions concerning these arguments are possible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Analyzes Anselm of Canterbury's argument that the morally responsible created agent must have the option to choose between justice and benefit. Competing ethical theories advanced by Christian philosophers; Anselm's theory of free choice; Possible problems raised by the hierarchical scheme as Harry Frankfurt presents it.

Presents a summary and defense of the peace theology of Thomas Merton, one of the major figures in twentieth-century Christian thought, quoting extensively from Merton's writings and including a useful chronology of his life and publications. Argument of Merton to be at peace and to actively do peace and promote peace in the world, to oppose the war-making institutions and the idea of war itself.

Powyzszy tekst powstal w zwiazku z przygotowywana przez mnie praca pt.: Filozofia jezuitw w Polsce w XlX wieku. Zanim ksiazka ukaze sic w druku, sluze zainteresowanym polska wersja elektroniczna powyz- szego artykulu, ktra jest nieco obszerniejsza od wersji angielskiej. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Newman's English empiricist background had alienated him from neo-scholastic and analytic philosophers. His theological concerns separated him from other empiricists, while his empiricism separated him from idealist philosophers who gave serious consideration to religious ideas. It is only recently that Newman has begun to be taken seriously as a philosopher as well as a theologian. We can now see that Newman identifies epistemological problems and offers solutions that are philosophically relevant today. In the words of Basil Mitchell, Newman was original because he demanded "a much more subtle appreciation of the way reason works, not only in relation to religious truth, but also in respect to all matter of serious importance," including the philosophy of science. For Newman realized that science and philosophy are like religious faith in that none of these branches of knowledge is 'rational' in the traditional Lockean sense, and thus none can appeal to a neutral, objective standard of rationality. Since he rejects foundationalism, the problem for Newman (as for Plantinga) is how to judge between differing systems of belief. Newman's resolution, in Mitchell's words, lay in the recognition that "a rational resolution of disputes between rival traditions does not depend on ... a neutral standpoint." Instead, one can always re-examine and revise one's first principles or antecedent assumptions in light of one's evolving understanding and appeal to tradition. All branches of knowledge, not only religious convictions, require one to refine one's judgment in this manner. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Augustine was undeniably a dogmatic thinker, but he also had an "aporetic side" which makes him more relevant to Christian philosophers today than is generally recognized. Augustine's first experience of reading philosophy came from Cicero's Hortensius, from which Augustine gained an appreciation for philosophical scepticism which he never lost. Thus, in all of his works and in all periods of his life, Augustine's characteristic way of doing philosophy is aporetic, rather than either systematic or speculative. Paradoxically, Augustine's faith in the truth of Holy Scripture and Church Doctrine gave him a freedom to explore theological and philosophical conundra and, if he could not resolve them, admit frankly that he could not do so. Like Socrates, Augustine was wise partly because he admitted to being puzzled about things that others took for granted. Some of the perplexities which occupied him are: (a) the nature of time; (b) whether it is possible to show someone (without using words) what walking is if one is already walking; (c) whether one is responsible for what one does in one's dreams; (d) whether one can think about sadness or pleasure by having an image of it in one's mind, but without experiencing any sadness or pleasure in the thought, and (e) (perhaps most famously, in the Confessions) how one can want something that be does not believe to be good. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]