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This chapter focuses attention on a tendency within the history of Western philosophy to absolutize human freedom, often in the forms of atheism, fideism, sentimentalism, or unbridled individualism. It argues that absence of limitations on human freedom tends to result in unhealthy forms of permissiveness-- social, cultural, and political. In some cases, state administrations have enacted laws that dangerously limit or negate human freedoms, especially freedom of religion. This chapter argues that a proper understanding of the nature of human freedom demands a commonsense realist philosophical defense of a synthesis of the Great Ideas of Freedom and Religion as rational principles of healthy self-determined social life that deserves political and educational support and preservation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This section presents an interview with author Samuel Gregg. Topics discussed include the philosophical concept of Logos which he acknowledged in his book "Reason, Faith, and the Struggle for Western Civilization," the nature of God according to the Islamic theology of a group called Ash'arites, and the manifestation of fideism in parts of Christianity.

Responding to key questions raised by the other three, this article discusses the factors which led to the development of Christian fideism and why Christians were seen as a threat to wider society. It considers whether early Christian discourses always represent (of characters in narratives), or demand, belief alongside trust and other relational aspects of pistis , and argues that it is sometimes possible to have effective pistis without having right beliefs. It discusses the variable relationship between belief and doubt in New Testament texts, and suggests how the faith of St Teresa of Calcutta might have been viewed by early Christians. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article explores relationship between faith and reason that has vexed philosophers and theologians. Topics discussed include views of Joseph Ratzinger (Pope Benedict XVI) thought is pointing the relationship; Von Balthasar's assertion that man and a woman in the generative-receptive marital embrace; and development of a genealogy that sought to separate faith and reason or theology and philosophy.

This article discusses an early scholastic question whether knowing something is compatible with believing it. The main authors taken into consideration are Stephen Langton, Praepositinus of Cremona, Geoffrey of Poitiers, and William of Auxerre. They assess the possiblity of proving the existence of God by natural means, evaluate the certainty and reliability of faith in comparison to philosophical knowledge, and speculate whether finding rational evidence for an article of faith would hinder one's salvation. These controversies help to determine the degree of cognitive optimism of each of the authors and reveal their attitude to natural reason. The study includes an analysis of Langton's basic terminological distinctions concerning faith, knowledge, and understanding. It concludes with a critical edition of his theological question Vtrum fides sit de non apparentibus tantum. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

'Mission from the margins' is neither a mere perspectival approach nor an option but an inevitable way of being church in God's mission. Likewise, the marginalized people are neither a broad category of people on the fringes of the society nor mere objects of charity and victims of circumstances. They are prophets and pathfinders indicting the world for its injustice through their lives of suffering and striving for its transformation through their struggles. As signs of hope testifying to the movement of the Spirit amidst despair and death, they help us to see God's mission not as a mere religious activity but as a spirituality of resistance and transformation for the sake of life and God's world. Reclaiming discipleship from the vantage of the marginalized, therefore, offers an opportunity for the churches to rediscover themselves afresh from being mere communities of believers and power structures to networks of partners for God's justice, participating in the larger struggles for the transformation of the world. As the gospels tell us, Jesus did not commission his disciples to call people to a belief system but to a covenantal relationship through a vocation of striving for the realization of God's reign. Such a sense of vocation is possible only when there is a radical change in Christian self-understanding. It involves, first, interrogating and reimagining the ways in which churches affirm and practise their faith; second, leaving aside their captivity to certain belief systems and turning toward Jesus of Nazareth to teach the way - to be active partners with God rather than being passive believers; third, appropriating discipleship beyond the language and sphere of transformation of persons; and fourth, learning from and being enriched by the visions and resources of the marginalized in living out the call to be one in God's mission of transformation of the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Loyola Marymount University (LMU) campus community fosters the interplay between religious faith and scientific reason. Not only is this evident by honoring scientists in the stained-glass windows of Sacred Heart Chapel, but the culture invigorates a disproportionate number of science students to actively engage with the faith community. This integration might seem counter to society's norms, but it is well aligned with the teachings of the Catholic Church and Jesuit tradition. Jesuit universities, in particular, have a unique role to play in fostering the mutual enrichment between faith and scientific reason. Education should be used to bridge the misunderstandings between faith and science. Faculty members, particularly at Jesuit universities, have a wonderful opportunity to share their experiences with students through teaching and scholarship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Can faith and reason exist, free of mutual companionship? If we restrict ourselves to a traditional scientific method when pondering questions of the universe and close the door to theological data and human thought, we may be rendering inaccessible the majority of what exists. As a scientist, I take solace in what we can discover through science and math as we seek to understand the one percent of our physical universe that is accessible. But humans seek to know more, to learn more, to experience more. In this essay, I argue that the synthesis of faith and reason helps us to experience what can be known-in ways that neither faith nor reason alone can. As a Catholic university with a Jesuit and Marymount heritage, Loyola Marymount University (LMU) integrates faith and reason into our core curriculum for many reasons. We speak often about wanting our students to develop as whole persons, to lead lives with and for others, to be educated toward purpose. We also educate them to explore the universe with an open mind and to pursue truth with all their being. Such a pursuit requires fides et ratio, necessary companions that shepherd us in and toward infinite wonder. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI's speech at the University of Ratisbona, Germany, on September 12, 2016. The authors comment on the concepts of reason, mercy, and faith, espoused by Benedict in his speech. They also consider the relationship and interaction between Catholic faith and reason.

This article discusses the conferring of reason and rationality by God to humanity, with a focus on a speech delivered by Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI in Ratisbona, Germany, on September 12, 2016. The author comments on the concept of the Greek word logos and its relationship to the modern theological understanding of reason.

The article presents the author's views on a presentation on Christianity and influence of Western tradition on it. Various topics discussed include relationship between reason and God, relation of Christianity with other religions, encounter between philosophical monotheism and Biblical monotheism, and image of God in Christian tradition.

This article contrasts St. Thomas More's theoretical work on the role of faith and history in biblical exegesis with that of Fr. Richard Simon. I argue that, although Simon's work appears to be a critique of his more skeptical contemporaries like Hobbes and Spinoza, in reality he is carrying their work forward. I argue that More's union of faith and reason, theology and history, is more promising than Simon's for Catholic theological biblical exegesis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a recent issue of the Journal of Communication and Religion, César García analyzed Pope Benedict XVI's thoughts on the role of religion in the public sphere. In his article, "Pope Benedict XVI on Religion and the Public Sphere," García developed two texts of the Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger and two speeches given by Pope Benedict XVI to argue that the Pope is "putting into practice what he preached before as Cardinal Ratzinger." García critiques the pontiff for maintaining a contradictory position concerning the role of religion in the public sphere, and consequently, that religious voices must continue to be excluded from the public sphere. In this article, the author provides an alternative reading of the pontiff's position; a reading that offers a hermeneutic of continuity across the different contexts of his speeches and writings. The author argues that the Pope's message is indeed not contradictory, but rather, is appropriate and consistent from a communication ethic that dialogically protects and promotes the good of narrative grounds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Annales: Histoire, Sciences Sociales 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.)

In rejecting Plantinga's ‘reformed epistemology’, Jeremy Koons has argued that no beliefs are epistemically basic, since even perceptual beliefs arise from observations that are theory-dependent. But even if all observations are theory-dependent, not all theories are alike. Beliefs that are dependent on uncontroversial bodies of theory may be ‘basic’ in the sense that they play a foundational role in the acquisition of knowledge. There is, however, another problem with reformed epistemology. It is that even if Christian beliefs were basic in this sense, they could face evidential challenge, for the epistemic status of a ‘basic’ belief depends, in part, on its probabilistic or explanatory relations to our other beliefs. It follows that Christian faith remains vulnerable to evidential arguments, such as Paul Draper's argument from evil. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In my essay I argue that the critical distinction that Spinoza makes between two concepts of desire, as also between two concepts of the good, captures the distinction that Tertullian makes in posing the question: What does Athens have to do with Jerusalem? In identifying the good with desire—desire with the good—and in denying that desire is dependent on the good in itself (e.g., Plato’s form of the good), Spinoza shows us that philosophy, as ethics, belongs to Jerusalem, to the Bible, and not to Athens (ancient Greek philosophy). We see, then, that the distinction between Athens and Jerusalem isnotthe distinction between philosophy and the Bible, between reason and faith, between the secular and the religious. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article discusses the notion of curiosity (curiositas) in relation to modern interpretations of the medieval philosopher Thomas Aquinas. Topics include the medieval virtue of studiousness (studiositas), the thought of philosopher Hans Blumenberg, and the notion of curiosity as a vice in relation to Aquinas's use of secular philosophy. Aquinas's relations to the ancient philosopher Aristotle and the theologian Augustine of Hippo on the morality of knowledge are addressed.

The perennial problem of setting the Christian faith in a particular culture has been a challenge to theologians and the missionaries alike. Each culture boasts of a communitarian code of ethics and behaviours relevant to their context as endorsed by religion. Tribal cultures are nc exception. Sobaliba is a cultural code of ethics set in a tribal culture running parallel to Jesus' ethics of helping the needy and sacrificing oneself for the sake of the other. Where do the two intersect and where can they be set to interface is an issue that is dealt with in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author considers the ongoing significance of the grace--nature distinction for systematic theology, the role the distinction has made historically, and current debates on its validity. He proposes that two developments advanced by Bernard Lonergan, the scale of values and the four-point hypothesis, can reinvigorate the distinction and ground new developments in systematic theology for the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Salomon Maimon's Versuch über die Transzendentalphilosophie [Essay in Transcendental Philosophy] (1790) challenges and reworks Kant's arguments in the Kritik der reinen Vernunft [Critique of Pure Reason] (1785, 2nd ed. 1787) about the foundations of natural science and of Newtonian physics in particular. Kant himself was impressed both with Maimon's grasp of his critical project and also with the force of his challenge to it. While Maimon's significance on the later development of German Idealism is now widely acknowledged, another aspect of Maimon's Versuch has not been fully appreciated, namely, its engagement with the central questions of the Spinozastreit [ Spinoza Quarrel] that erupted in 1785 with the publication of Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi's Über die Lehre des Spinoza in Briefen an den Herrn Moses Mendelssohn [Concerning the Doctrine of Spinoza in Letters to Moses Mendelssohn]. The Spinoza Quarrel centered on whether and to what extent philosophy's rational understanding of God needs to be grounded in an unmediated and suprarational revelatory experience. This paper is the first extended effort at placing Maimon's Versuch into the context of the Spinoza Quarrel. I argue that the Spinoza Quarrel and Maimon's self-proclaimed philosophical mission in response to it-the replacement of revealed faith by reason-deeply inform the goals he pursues in his Versuch. I show how Maimon's Versuch can be read as not only a response to Kant, but also to Jacobi's defense of the revelatory nature of sense experience in David Hume über den Glauben (1787), the book in which Jacobi offers his own skeptical challenge to Kant's Kritik. Situating Maimon's Versuch as a response to Friedrich Jacobi's David Hume allows us to understand how one of Maimon's objectives in his Versuch is to keep Jacobian Glaube [faith] at bay by demonstrating, using a revised Kantian framework, the conditions of the impossibility of experiencing miracles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The papar intends an analysis of the early writings of Karol Wojtyła, which are essential to understand the subsequent development of his thought. Our thesis Is that the core of Wojtyła's own philosophical and theological vision is already present both in his early literary works (poems and dramas) and in his doctoral thesis. These two mutually support and enrich each other. Therefore, the writings in question here may be dealt with as the true source of the though t of John Paul II. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Endoxa is the property of Editorial UNED 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.)

That there is a balance between reason and faith in Dante's Divine Comedy is not news. Still, an exploration of this balance is worth additional attention. Among other things, one discovers that Dante, following Thomas Aquinas, rejects the classical Greek ideal of happiness as reasoning with excellence. In addition and more important, one discovers that what Dante requires in order for human beings to be happy leads to this surprising conclusion: the set of happy human beings in Dante's heaven is empty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay examines the classic philosophical problem of reason and faith, here put within the question of the grandeur of reason. Drawing upon the non-philosophical method of bringing together a philosophy and science into a single paradigm an argument is put forward for thinking of Christ as a model of human subjectivity. This argument is made using religious traditions as material, but without respect for the authority of that tradition. Ultimately the figure of Christ is revealing of a certain human form of relating to two contrary visions of the law, symbolized here as Torah and Logos. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this thesis, we examine the presence of John Henry Newman in three twentieth-century French theologians, namely, Yves-Marie Congar, Henri de Lubac and Jean Daniélou. In the first three chapters we trace the introduction of Newman's thought into Catholic theology, via the Francophone world. Despite early attempts to portray him -erroneously- as the father of modernism, Newman gradually came to be recognized as a highly innovative, yet orthodox theologian. His chief contributions are in the areas of doctrinal development and the rationality of the faith. Chapter four considers Newman as prophet and Congar as peritus of the Second Vatican Council. Two sub-sequent chapters are dedicated to an analysis of citations of Newman by Congar, de Lubac and Daniélou. All three cite him in their works, although Daniélou considerably less than the other two. The final chapter has a fourfold purpose: firstly, to identify direct citations of Newman in Council fathers' addresses at Vatican II; secondly, to recall Newman's importance to several Francophone conciliar periti', thirdly, to briefly compare Newman's thought with conciliar teaching; fourthly, to survey some postconciliar interpretations of Newman. We conclude that the Englishman influenced the Council's content through faithful intermediaries -among them his genuine «French interpreters»- by being really present in their consciences as they drafted Vatican li. This French Newmanian influence continues after the Council. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In modern-day society the debate regarding bioethical questions constitutes one of the principle areas of political and social confrontation. Within this context, in countries like Spain and Italy, one can observe the existence of two tendencies that confront each other. On one hand there is the religious perspective founded upon Religious Faith («Catholic» Bioethics) and on the other hand that which defines itself as «secular», the partisans of which affirm that the rationality which must characterise Bioethics is incompatible with religious and theological values. In the present research, we analyse the above two perceptions of Bioethics, making due reference two paradigmatic documents of the «secular» Bioethics -the «Manifesto di bioetica laica» and the «Nuovo manifesto di bioetica laica»- both published in Italy at the end of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st. This investigation is structured in the following manner: the first part is an analysis of the «secular» bioethical standpoint. This paves way for the study of the anthropological foundation that the purely rational reflection offers as a measure of the evaluation of bioethical enquiries. The second part of the investigation is dedicated to the analysis of the contribution of Divine Revelation and the Theological-moral deliberation and this not only of the anthropological aspect but also in the establishment of the ethical judgement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An essay is presented on how God makes people saints as it marks its twentieth anniversary. It offers a history of Christian morality in the living thoughts of Christian Church and elaborates the sustainable demand of Christian life and witness the everlasting life. It also notes that God govern and protects all the actions of his creatures in indivisible faith in God the creator.

In 1662, Pieter Balling (d. before 1669), a close friend to Spinoza, published Het Licht op den Kandelaar (translated into English in 1663 as The Light upon the Candlestick), which is often regarded as an exceptionally early "Spinozistic" text. This article, however, analyses the striking parallels with a much older source: the sixteenth-century moral rationalism of Dirck Volck-ertsz Coornhert (1552-1590). In doing so, I will show that the rationalistic interpretation of spiritualism presented in Het Licht was actually already available long before Balling developed his ideas. I will argue that, besides a deep ideological resemblance, there is sufficient historical evidence to link Ballings work with Coornhert's views. Subsequently, I will address the implications of my findings for our understanding of Balling as a radical and, more generally, the rise and spread of radical thought in the seventeenth century, as they help explain why Cartesian and Spinozist rationalism could grow so popular in the Dutch Republic. I will also argue that there is a much broader relevance to these findings, as they highlight the religious overtone of radical rationalism and the Radical Enlightenment as well as their rootedness in radical Reformational currents that developed during the sixteenth century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The supremacy of truth was one of the main principles in J.H Newman's personality. This article highlights this particular feature, but it mainly focuses on the possibility all every human beings needs to either justify their beliefs or reach the citizenship of truth. In this sense, the argument of this work departs from the optional nature of the illative sense. Underlying the present work is the acceptance by a thinking individual to a religious or faith-related truth. From this perspective, it is not arbitrary to consider the systematicity of the grammar of religious acceptance as an inspiring possibility in the design of a renovated grammar of faith. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article provides information on the Roman Catholic Christian theology of theologian John Haught as a faith and reason model. It offers an overview on the Catholic intellectual tradition and the place of evolution in the Catholic Church. It discusses the theology of revelation of Haught and explores his corresponding scientifically-informed theological method. It presents an analysis on the ideas of Haught about nature from the contemporary perspectives of science.

The study attempts to explain the need and content of a «new» evangelization. Modern anthropology has affirmed the value of the individual, of human subjectivity, of the body, of freedom and autonomy, of human equality, of history, etc. The paper explains that this understanding is the fruit of Christian faith, fully ' lived and thought-out, and cannot subsist for long should this faith be eliminated. Principally on the basis of the writings of recent Popes, the conclusion is reached that new evangelization requires a recuperation of a eucharistic sense, a sense of recognition of the great gifts of God. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The essay presents a philosophical justification of religious faith based on the polemics "The Will to Believe," by American philosopher William James. The polemics addresses the question of religious faith raised by the humanists at Yale and Brown Universities in direct contradiction with the freethinkers at Harvard University. James asserts that one may use his free will to believe a proposition prior to or even without the necessary evidence at hand, which supports religious faith and the existence of faith a priori.

In discussions of The X-Files it has become almost a cliché to note that while Fox Mulder is known for being the believer and Dana Scully the sceptic, those roles reverse when the question of religious belief arises, in particular Scully's adherence to her Roman Catholic faith. Throughout the course of the series, Scully's acceptance of supernatural belief, as represented by her return to Catholicism, allows her to become more open to the paranormal possibilities advanced by Mulder. Moreover, the relationship between Scully and Mulder, as well as Scully's own character development, represents the alternating tension and harmony between faith and reason that forms the core of Catholic theology, as exemplified in the writings of theologian Thomas Aquinas, his contemporary Bonaventure of Bagnoregio and others. While the series does not dwell on specific theological questions or writers, the representation of Scully's religious journey is portrayed as beneficial to the agents' search for the 'truth'. The reconciliation of Mulder and Scully's worldviews addresses societal anxieties over the tension between faith and reason, reflecting Catholicism's insistence on their interdependence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pannenberg's thought intends the unity of faith and reason. This is attested by a hitherto unpublished lecture dealing with the topic 'Theology of reason' from the year 1969. It develops a typology of different understandings of reason, and drafts the main features of Pannenberg's theological system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper clarifies the extent to which Logic, in the usual sense (and even naïve) of the term, as composed of the correct thinking's necessary laws, can be understood as Mystic. This seems strange, because the Mystic is usually understood as an experience of overcoming the dualities, where rational thinking collapses and finds its limit. On the other hand, the logic is understood as the paradigm of rational thinking. It is argued that the most general laws of reason and speech are related to Mystic in the sense that the foundation of the reason is equated to its limit. The language lies thus with the silence and the laws and justifications no longer operate as such. We conclude that the adherence necessary that accompanies the collapse of meaning and truth value of certain linguistic utterances is what we call mystical experience. It is about an experience to which we are led by the workings of our linguistics meaning, establishing what is meant by religious experience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The core of Joseph Ratzinger's theology is Christ, present in the Holy Scriptures and liturgy, and His relationship with the Church and Mary. Among the theological and ontological pillars of Ratzinger's thought, it is worth mentioning the person and the meaning of concepts such as love, truth, beauty and hope for that person. In view of the announcement of the Christian message, Ratzinger focuses on both faith and reason. Thus, his ideas on theology, catechesis and preaching are based on the relationship between those concepts. Finally, as regards to mission, it is important to highlight Ratzinger's statements about ministry and Eucharist (with relevant consequences for ecumenical theology), creation, religion and the relationship of the Church with the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the repercussions of the 18th-century theological and philosophical debate about faith and reason known as the Fragmentenstreit for the intellectual circle around the salon of Christiana Sophia Louise and Margarete Elisabeth Reimarus, also known as Sophie and Elise, respectively, in Hamburg, Germany, in the 1770s and early 1780s. The author relates the anonymous publication of fragmentary writings by Elise's father, Hermann Samuel Reimarus, in a periodical edited by German Enlightenment philosopher and playwright Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, which espoused a rationalist theology and triggered the Fragmentenstreit. She also considers a similar debate in Denmark triggered by the publication of the epic poem "Olavides" by Sophie's brother, August Hennings.

The article provides information on the tolerance of the Roman Catholic Church to ambiguity. It mentions that the church asserts on the limits of clarity, a sense of the limits of what people can say without violating the faith's mystery, in the guarding and expression of official doctrines. It states that the church moves with safeguards in place, the language of mystery, appeals to Scripture with abundance of meanings and the distinction of faith and reason.

The article discusses the criticism of American philosopher Alvin Plantinga regarding the application of principles of Bayesian analysis to justify religious belief, especially Christian faith. Particular focus is given to the Bayesian approach of British philosopher Richard Swinburne. Subjects include the application of the probability theory to theism, inductive reasoning, and subjectivism.

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