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The designation of Diego Maradona's 'handball' goal, that it was an intervention by God himself, brings the phenomena of sport and religion into an interrelationship. The basic thesis of this paper is that, despite many of their phenomenal similarities, explicit religion is not, and cannot be, substantially related to sport, as the two manifest themselves in different ways of being. This thesis is supported by arguments from three philosophical areas: 1. The ontological dimension of the manifestation of the sacred in the profane through the process of hierophany in sport does not refer to a specific deity or God, and is therefore not a presentation but an indirect representation of the sacred; 2. The epistemological perspective of the intentional relation of consciousness to religious ritual justifies the necessity of situating them in an overall horizon of references and meanings to the horizon of the lifeworld; 3. The existential and experiential aspects of transformative sport experiences transform the horizon of meanings of empirical reality, but lack the sacramental perspective. Implicit religion as a possibility of transition on a continuum of complementary existential states is a suitable explicative framework for analyzing the phenomenal similarities and essential differences of religion and sport. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Within a broadly Thomistic frame, this paper shows how simple apophaticism in the theology of Pseudo‐Dionysius the Areopagite is the more fitting mode of knowing the triune God, beyond the use of all divine names. Specifically, we will proceed using the work of Father Bernard Lonergan, SJ on theological fittingness. After setting forth Father Lonergan's understanding of fittingness, the paper will proceed through Dionysius's cataphatic names, apophatic names, and apophatic silence. The cataphatic and apophatic names, while true, useful, and fittingly said of God, will be shown to be imperfectly applied to God. As such, their fittingness pales in comparison to the simple silence of the intellect orientated towards God, despite such pure apophaticism's dissimilarity to normal human intellectual operations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Theodicy is often rejected because a suffering person is hardly interested in abstract arguments—even if these arguments were convincing, they might not change the suffering she is experiencing. I propose a twofold theodicy. First, Christians are invited to promote positive apologetics—they should show the internal consistency of divine revelation, which recommends that they should alleviate suffering and promote flourishing. Second, Christians should develop negative apologetics and show the untenability of objections to the Christian view of evil and suffering, including the seemingly uncontroversial objection that a world without innocent suffering would be better in terms of justice than the one we live in. My argument is that in both positive and negative apologetics believers should be guided by devotion and commitment to God. The more they love and trust God, and consequently believe what God has revealed, the more they are expected to encourage both flourishing and rational confrontation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

'If God is good, why did he let this happen?' is one of the most common challenges to faith. Although the book of Job suggests that we will not receive a complete answer in this life, philosophers have made various attempts to reconcile the existence of God and the evils we experience. This paper summarizes main approaches in readable fashion and evaluates their usefulness in Christian apologetics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Qaryatum dhāt Kāhilim ('the City of [the god] Kahl') is the Ancient South Arabian name of the modern site of Qaryat al‐Fāw. This compound refers to the tutelary deity of the city, in this case, a god called Kahl. However, the identity of this Kahl is obscure. Who is this god that makes his appearance in history towards the end of the second half of the first millennium bc? Despite his name being recorded in various texts and inscriptions on numerous objects that confirm his role as the city's patron god, scant information exists regarding his attributes or sphere of influence. Nonetheless, clues on some of his characteristics can be gleaned from coins bearing his likeness. This serves as a springboard for exploring potential connections with iconographies seen in petroglyphs, statues and paintings from the region, suggesting that Kahl may fit within the archetype of the smiting or menacing god, a prevalent motif in the broader Eastern Mediterranean region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the goal of working towards decolonizing educational practices, this article considers the Indigenous medicine wheel as inspiration for a cyclical model for learning and assessment. Many current assessment practices highlight individual achievement rather than ongoing and relational learning. This article suggests using a Learning Wheel as a tool to engage students in conversation about learning and assessment. The purpose of assessment would be to inform students' learning. The goal of learning would in turn equip students to be mindful of learning that engages in real-world issues to partner in God's redemptive work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, I locate Okot p’Bitek’s evaluation of African traditional religion and his critique of the traditional African theistic stance in the broader African limited God tradition. I argue that while p’Bitek’s claim is plausible that traditional African societies do not believe in a supreme being that possesses the omni-properties in the context of commitment to the limitation thesis, the other claim, that these societies are atheistic because they merely acknowledge the reality of mystical forces and powers rather than God or gods, constitutes a hasty, unsustainable generalisation. Adopting the method of philosophical exposition and argumentation, I point out that in purporting to make a cultural statement in favour of atheism, p’Bitek fails to reckon with the existence of two culturally rooted but conflicting views of God in African traditional religion and traditional African thought. One view endorses traditional theism while the other, for the most part, proposes that God is limited in power, knowledge and goodness. I argue that both views are damaging to p’Bitek’s second claim. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To illuminate the often‐reported higher levels of meaning in life by those who believe in God relative to atheists, we examined the extent to which their global meaning (i.e., the beliefs, goals, and values that underlie subjective sense of meaning in life) differed. Study 1 (undergraduate sample of 100 atheists and 447 theists) found that theists endorsed higher levels of beliefs reflecting a more meaningful world (e.g., goodness, control, justice) while atheists endorsed higher beliefs in randomness. Further, atheists found less meaning from almost every source examined (e.g., achievement, self‐acceptance). Results of Study 2 (87 atheists and 164 theists in a national U.S. online sample) produced similar results and also found theists more strongly endorsed many values that can facilitate a sense of meaning (e.g., traditionalism, security). Collectively, these results identify multiple divergences in global meaning between atheists and theists that may account for atheists’ lower meaning in life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Martin Luther's notion of freedom, as presented in De servo arbitrio, is often interpreted as a denial of free choice wi God (salvation) and as an affirmation of free choice in earthly life. This article questions this twofold distinction and argues that in De servo arbitrio Luther's notion of freedom is set into epistemic discourse in which he distinguishes between different perspectives or perceptions and reality. The article demonstrates that for Luther, freedom denotes human perception, misperception, and deception. This indicates that beneath the free choice debate lies a fundamental question of human ability to understand reality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article offers a fresh interpretation of Job 28 suggesting that it reflects the devout manifestation of the conventional concept of wisdom endorsed by Job’s friends. Articulated by Job, this serves as a rhetorical device in his counterargument to traditional wisdom and his challenge of God himself. The article further demonstrates that the “wisdom poem” is not an independent text but rather serves a distinct function in the rhetorical strategy of Job 27–31, which comprises Job’s final, emphatic rebuttal of his friends’ charges, framed as an oath of innocence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

According to many philosophers, “the meaning of life” refers to our cosmic purpose, the activity that we were created by God or a purposive universe to perform. If there is no God or teleology, there is no such thing as the meaning of life. But this need not be the last word on the matter. In this paper, I ask what the benefits provided by a cosmic purpose are, and go on to argue that thinking of our lives in a particular way—in terms of a unified life narrative—can supply us with many of those benefits. We might lose little if there is no such thing as the meaning of life, since there is still something that can provide much of what is valuable about it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What has Broadway to do with Jerusalem? This article discusses the relation between drama and theology. Firstly, I outline five different uses of drama (usus dramatis) and define dramatic theology in its own right, as well as in relation to narrative theology. Secondly, I offer a trinitarian typology of dramatic theology by distinguishing between a dramatic theology of the Father (God as author), of the Son (God as actor), and of the Holy Spirit (God as director). Thirdly, I explicitly deal with the question of the relation between drama and theology by discussing drama as a praeambula fidei or ancilla theologiae and by dealing with the question of an analogia dramatis, focusing especially on the direction of the analogical flow. Lastly, I outline the main benefits of using drama as a framework for theology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay attempts to address a simple question: what does it mean to hear God? So much hangs upon learning something about hearing God: revelation, salvation, formation, vocation and mission, for example. What is the relationship then between hearing and knowing God? Before examining two particular passages from the Scriptures in which hearing and knowing coincide (the calling of Samuel and God the Father speaking to Jesus the Son), I offer a sketch of a phenomenology of hearing; a phenomenological reduction of sound or, more specifically, voice. As an event, sound summons through and across several biological systems. So, it is an anthropology of reception and response which is paramount here. Having, then, examined the two Scriptural passages in the light of this phenomenology, I draw attention to an underlying mimetic irony that is ineradicable with respect to hearing God in the Scriptures: the play of the vocal within the written, aurality/orality and textuality. I conclude that, while this mimetic irony is a key characteristic of a sacred text, recognising persona as 'sounding through' we can appreciate Scripture's role in salvation as a participation in the Persona Christi. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay analyses Francesca Stavrakopoulou's God: An Anatomy with reference to some general questions about the nature of biblical interpretation. Stavrakopoulou's core contention is that Persian-period theological editing has obscured the original nature of Yahweh, who was not different from any other ancient male deity of southwest Asia. That is, Yahweh was bodily with the desires and practices of a violent and sexually active male, no more than a human projection. Four questions are put to her thesis. First, how well does she understand the kind of classic theological reading which she rejects? Secondly, is her outworking of her core thesis self-consistent, or does it function to warrant a distinctive reading strategy for what has not been editorially obscured but is rather the plain sense of the biblical text? Thirdly, does she do justice to the metaphorical dimensions of language in Hebrew and religious language generally? Fourthly, does she appropriately distinguish the nature of Israel's scriptures from the religious history that may underlie them? Finally, an analogy is drawn with the work of Robin Lane Fox, in exploring the differences that an interested approach may, or may not, make to ancient historical and biblical interpretation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The absence of covenant ideas from wisdom literature is a well-founded scholarly conclusion, but the time is ripe to question it. This article re-examines the evidence and looks at both sides of the debate. There are found to be connections of covenant with wisdom, especially when defined in terms of relationship, with Wisdom personified, and with Solomon. Crucially, it links up with the concept of God as creator, recalling the Noachic covenant. The discussion includes four key passages that mention the word ברית (Prov. 2:17; Job 5:22–3; Job 31:1, and Job 41:4). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Anthony Collins's 1710 pamphlet A Vindication of the Divine Attributes is not a vindication of the divine attributes. But what precisely is it? I argue that Collins's Vindication is best interpreted as a kind of prelude to his later Discourse of Free-Thinking (1713). The Vindication aims to show that our beliefs about the existence and nature of God cannot rest on the authority of the clergy. Instead we must, as Collins puts it, 'impartially examine every thing (how Sacred soever it may appear ... before [being] examin'd)'. Freethinking, Collins argues, must extend even so far as questioning the foundational principles of natural religion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the concept of the church as the house of God, where Metropolitan Athanasius of Limassol discusses the interpretation of the Divine Liturgy text. The article clarifies that God dwells in the church through His uncreated grace, and that the church is consecrated through special rituals that include the consecration of the holy altar. It also reviews the history of Christian worship, starting from ancient times up to the establishment of churches over the graves of martyrs after the end of persecutions. The article also points to the importance of sacred relics in churches and how they are used in rituals, in addition to the role of the indult as an alternative for celebrating the liturgy in the absence of a consecrated church. [Extracted from the article]

The article focuses on the importance of confession in spiritual life, as it is considered a means of renewing the soul and regaining divine grace. Archimandrite Zachariah Zacharov explains that confession helps believers confront their shame and gain the courage to repent, leading to the liberation of the heart from spiritual constraints. He also points out that confession enhances spiritual vigilance and strengthens the relationship with God, enabling individuals to present themselves better to others. The article concludes by emphasizing the necessity of adhering to the Lord's commandments to achieve closeness to God and to feel His presence in daily life. [Extracted from the article]

The homiletic activity of Joseph Ratzinger/ Benedict XVI is a rich body of documentary material, which complements the strictly theological activity of the former professor and later Roman Pontiff. The paper explains how Ratzinger/Benedict XVI conceives the homily. Some features of Ratzinger/Benedict XVI's homilies are: 1) the use of questions posed by the preacher, in many cases representing the community he is addressing; 2) the use of contrast and even paradox; 3) the expressions of I-Thou or I-You dialogue involving God and the listener. The seven chrismal homilies of Benedict XVI's pontificate are discussed, and especially some signs associated with the priesthood: the imposition and anointing of hands and priestly vestments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article studies the critique of waḥdat al-wuǧūd penned by Muṣṭafā Ṣabrī (d. 1954), one of the last Ottoman ş eyhülislams. Ṣabrī's critique echoes those written by previous theologians such as al-Taftāzānī while simultaneously criticising their shortcomings. In Ṣabrī's view, waḥdat al-wuǧūd originates in what he calls "the divinization of existence": the identification of God's essence with his existence, a doctrine held by Muslim peripatetics and adopted by several philosophical theologians. It is just because they failed to locate such an origin that Ṣabrī believes previous critiques of the Akbarian doctrine were not adequate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In pre-modern Islamic societies, the Sufi šayḫ was the ultimate model of the saint, who offered the laity a direct channel for intercession with God. Focusing on the šayḫs ' relations with the Mamluk elite, and examining the dual meaning of the term šafāʽa , which represents both sacred and mundane intercession, this article shows that the saints' intercessory role was not limited to the spiritual sphere but applied also to the mundane realm of interceding between rulers and subjects. Combining both forms of intercession, while maintaining the aura of otherworldliness, greatly increased the appeal of many Sufi šayḫs. However, balancing both required some maneuvering on the part of the šayḫs , which the article considers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Today's multicultural situation in many parts of the world requires a new missionary approach and practices. In addition, along with advanced understanding of culture and mission, interculturality is being presented as an alternative to complement the existing cross-cultural mission paradigm. In this intercultural mission paradigm, which emerges in the vision that people with various backgrounds and orientations participate in God's mission together with equal status on the Christian base, mission is not understood as a human strategy, but as a spiritual activity that involves the task of discerning God's initiatory work and of practicing a way of life appropriate for it. This article examines the possibility that the Christian mission as a joint participation in God's mission is practiced interculturally in today's multicultural situation. Focusing on the migration context, this article attempts to define "intercultural mission" within the larger framework of the missio Dei, and presents hospitality, solidarity, and marginality, which has been already recognized as important mission spiritualities in existing studies, as core mission spiritualities for intercultural mission. And, from this, this paper describes intercultural mission as a joint spiritual practice of creating space and building bridges for God's mission. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a classically theistic cosmological model of consciousness that aligns with Thomistic principles. This discussion begins with a focus on the transcendent identity of God the Father existing in eternity, establishing His simple essence as the pure act of being self-conscious, which defines the mind of God as containing a single holy infinite memory; Himself. However, this model suggests His eternal mind also contains a complex infinite collection of unique self-memories all composed of His immutable essence, framed as the origin of differentiated immaterial information. Guided by St Thomas Aquinas' formulation of hylomorphism, creation is understood as the ongoing process of God re-actualizing His self-memories from an immaterial to material form, requiring God to unfold prime matter as His first creation from nothing but His own pre-existent essence. The production of prime matter, as pure potentiality, allows the Father to breathe His Holy Spirit that contains the Word (foreknowledge of all possibilities / information) to manifest creation. This model suggests that formless prime matter can be described as a zero-dimensional point singularity of infinitely dense pure energy that is imbued with the self-consciousness of the Holy Spirit, which extends into a one-dimensional string that can then fragment into different physical entities. The immanent existence of God's holy infinite memory at the incorporeal centre of all created forms further implies that the universe is structured as an unfolding non-local holographic fractal. Formulating the beginning of creation in this way allows us to see possible connections between Christian doctrine, the primacy of information, string theory and other scientific principles that pose new ways in understanding the immaterial nature of the raw fabric of physical reality. Objections against this model, in relation to its alignment with classical theism, are addressed towards the end of this paper. Fundamentally, fresh perspectives are presented on the nature and origin of consciousness that may shed new light in uncovering the persistent deficiencies in our understanding of consciousness itself. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Theistic arguments which appeal to gaps in our scientific knowledge are frequently labelled 'God of the gaps' (GOG). While many regard such arguments as obviously fallacious (an argument from ignorance), some disagree. Drawing on critics and defenders, this article examines the logical validity of GOG, stated in two distinct formulations: (1) It is not proven that 'God is active in this corner of nature' is false; therefore God is indeed here; (2) it is not proven that 'there is a natural cause for this event' is true; therefore there is no natural cause or explanation. The difference is more than semantic; while the perceived wisdom mostly targets the first version, recent advocates match the second more closely. Neither formulation of GOG is fallacious once the logical structures and implicit premises are identified; the first version is best categorized as an assertion of burden of proof, and the second an instance of denying the consequent. As their merits are assessed against well-known objections, the second version is found to be considerably stronger than the first. It can be a solid argument, assuming that its empirical premises are supported by strong evidence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Maqāṣıd, which expresses the basic aims and objectives of religious judgements, is one of the important concepts that reveal serious areas of debate within the specific contexts of Islamic sciences. In theology, the concept of maqāṣıd refers to the idea that divine actions can only be realised with a purpose and aim, towards what is beneficial and wise. Muʿtazila and Māturīdī schools are the theological schools that include the idea of maqāṣid. Their views on this issue have an important relationship with the meanings they attribute to divine attributes and the way they conceive of these attributes. As a matter of fact, the issue of divine attributes, which was one of the first topics of debate in the historical process, gradually gained depth and led to the development of different conceptions of God. In this respect, this study aims to justify their thoughts on maqāṣid in terms of their understanding of divine attributes by taking into account the main works of Muʿtazilī and Māturīdī theologians. In particular, the meanings they attributed to the attributes of knowledge, wisdom, and justice influenced them to include the idea of maqāṣid in the creation of God, His making an offer, and related matters. For example, according to the Muʿtazilites, God is a scholar by His essence. This quality cannot be separated from Him. This truth means that God has eternal knowledge of everything. In this context, the knowledge that justice is good and oppression is bad is an eternal knowledge and coincides with the content of religious judgements. Other truths and qualities that are thought to be fixed in eternal knowledge are also influential on the nature of the divine purpose. The Māturīdīs developed a doctrine of theology centred on wisdom. According to them, wisdom is an essential attribute of God. The absence of wisdom means ignorance. Allah is exempt from this. This strong emphasis of both schools on divine knowledge and their explanation of other divine attributes based on it had a significant impact on their development of the idea of maqāṣid. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Verse epitaphs are our main and very abundant source for responses to individual deaths. We can almost never know exactly whose attitudes or values they express, but we can assume that they embody attitudes and values that it was acceptable to express publicly. Many at all dates seek merely to commemorate the dead person or convey grief, but, from about 400 bce onwards, others adopt a position on the fate of the dead person, though often hedged with a cautious 'if'. Very many possibilities emerge: they range from a plain denial that anything survives death, via claims that the dead person is now (e.g.) in the aither /in the home of the blessed/on Olympos/with the heroes, to, very rarely, declarations that s/he is now actually a god. Strangely enough, support for such claims is never sought in the fact of the dead person being an initiate in a cult that promised advantage in the afterlife. In all this we see not so much individual choices as the range of options available for individuals to believe in. But we must also suspect that belief in the more optimistic options can seldom have been as firm as in a society where such options were authoritatively endorsed and alternatives not publicly countenanced. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At its annual meeting in June 2024, the members of the Canadian Theological Society passed a motion of solidarity with Palestinians and student protesters in encampments at universities around the globe.1 The statement lamented the loss of over 40,000 lives in Palestine (at time of writing), including 15,000 children; condemned the scholasticide in Gaza; and articulated our condolences and solidarity with those students and faculty members there who continue to learn and teach in the most horrific of circumstances. The statement was also an articulation of the society's commitment to learning from Palestinian Christians and to heed their call for Western theologians, educational institutions, and churches to repent of their long-standing indifference to their suffering and to their complicity in their ongoing genocide. In this essay, the authors unpack the impetus, meaning, and significance of this motion for Canadian theology today as they urge Canadian theological institutions and churches to critically and urgently assess their historical indifference to and complicity in the ongoing Nakba of the Palestinian people. The authors also call on Canadian theologians to investigate the abiding connections between the theological justification of settler colonialism in Canada and Palestine, and the genocide of indigenous peoples. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A central tenet of classical theism is that God is Pure Act. Among other things, this indicates that while God can act on creatures, he cannot be acted on by those creatures, for there is no receptivity in God. Yet this seems to imply that God cannot enter into interpersonal relationships with human persons, for such relationships are intrinsically reciprocal and therefore require activity and receptivity from all participants. Since the Christian faith is ostensibly committed to the claim that God can and does engage humans in interpersonal relationship, classical theism appears to be incompatible with Christianity. Nevertheless, in this paper I propose a Thomistic version of classical theism that avoids this apparent tension. Drawing on a Thomistic philosophical anthropology, as well as recent work on the second-person relation, I suggest that there is, in fact, receptivity in God. However, I argue that God's receptivity is a feature of his Pure Activity, and thus the claim that God engages humans in interpersonal relationship proves to be consistent with the doctrines of classical theism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article proposes an underappreciated value for traditional natural theology and its familiar arguments for the existence of God, without endorsing the soundness or the rational cogency of these arguments. Famously, Aquinas and Kant represent two extremes, with Aquinas endorsing some natural theology arguments for God's existence and Kant opposing such arguments. This article recommends a moderating approach, on the grounds that while Aquinas is unduly optimistic here by the epistemic standards of many inquirers, Kant is too pessimistic regarding the heuristic value of the relevant natural theology arguments. The neglected heuristic value of these arguments, according to this article, is in their prompting in unique ways some challenging and fruitful questions for inquiry about God. The disputed natural theology arguments have not achieved anything near a consensus on their soundness or rational cogency, but they still can have significant heuristic value aside from their soundness or rational cogency. This article identifies the relevant fruitful questions and their theoretical importance for human inquiry about God. Ultimately, a heuristic interrogative approach to familiar arguments of natural theology gives these arguments a new role with resilient heuristic value for inquiry about God, even if they do not justify the belief that God exists. Such moderation, this article contends, is rationally defensible with regard to these arguments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The document of the International Theological Commission, "Synodality in the Life and Mission of the Church" (2018), sanctions an idea that has been gaining ground in recent decades: synodality is a structural dimension of the church. This essay assesses the biblical foundation that this document offers in terms of this constitutive rather than operational understanding of synodality. To fit all the theological pieces of the synodality puzzle together and give them biblical consistency, this article takes two steps. The first focuses on exploring the theological welding between the church understood from the Trinitarian Mystery (LG 1–8) and the church as the people of God (LG 9–17). Second, this propaedeutic operation builds a solid framework that allows us to justify why the ITC document brings up certain biblical quotations, to fit them into a coherent reflection and at the same time to present other passages that are absent in the document. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An Eastern Orthodox understanding of science—that of Christopher C. Knight—is presented as a contribution to science-engaged theology that has implications for western Christian reflection on science as a contemporary locus theologicus. Three areas of enquiry are discussed: natural theology, the human mind in its relationship to God, and divine action. It is suggested that in each of these areas, Orthodox perspectives can provide links between the differing perspectives to be found among western Christians and provide new pathways for theological exploration on an ecumenical basis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, I propose a defence against the problem of evil. This defence does not involve either free will or soul-making, but, rather, is intended as a replacement for the traditional theodicies. The defence will have two components: firstly, a proposal for why a good God would not intervene to eliminate the evil (natural or moral) in the world; and second, a proposal for why a good God would need to allow evil to exist in the world in the first place. I identify four desiderata for defences against the problem of evil and I argue that this new defence achieves all of these at least as well as traditional defences involving free will and/or soul-making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This interpretation of Eccl 4:17-5:6 (Eng. 5:1-7) challenges a common scholarly conclusion--that Qoheleth emphasizes divine transcendence. Qoheleth's articulation of divine transcendence may initially seem clear: "God is in the heavens and you are on the earth" (5:1). But this statement appears within a tightly structured passage that focuses squarely on human attempts to relate to God and various problems that beset such attempts. We offer a novel formal analysis of this pericope, demonstrating that it describes the religious consequences of the distance that separates what people say from what they do. This distance between human words and human deeds underlies Qoheleth's counsel against certain rituals and religious practices, as well as his commendation at the end of the passage to "fear God," and thus may be understood as the distance between earth and heaven that Qoheleth asserts in 5:1. In this passage's reception history, we find three distinct interpretative trajectories, which we indicate with the three homonyms in the title. Some interpretations affirm God's heavenly, holy transcendence, whereas others, perhaps surprisingly, view this text as affirming God's immanence on earth. A third interpretation considers instead the limits and fractures of human life on earth as manifestations of the heavenly divine. While most interpretations of this passage align with the first or second readings, we argue that the third trajectory aligns most closely with Qoheleth's teachings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The heavens declare (mesaprim) the glorf Un, 04 of God, firmament trakiah) relates (magid) His handiwork. Day to day makes utterance, night to night speaks out. There is no utterance, there are no words, whose sound goes unheard. Their voice carries throughout the earth, their words to the end of the world. He placed in them a tent for the sun, who is like a groom coming forth from the chamber, like a hero, eager to run his course. His rising-place is at one end of heaven, and his circuit reaches the other; nothing escapes his heat. The teaching of the LORD is perfect, renewing life; the decrees of the LORD are enduring, making the simple wise; The precepts of the LORD are just, rejoicing the heart; the instruction of the LORD is lucid, making the eyes light up, The fear of the LORD is pure, abiding forever; the judgments of the LORD are true, righteous altogether (Psalm 19: 2 - 10). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses the experiences of 12 survivors of domestic violence, 9 women and 3 men, regarding how their congregations responded and how that affected their views of God. These qualitative interviews were part of a larger mixed-methods study on domestic violence and the church that sought to provide further insight into the intersection of faith, domestic violence, and church response. Domestic violence occurs in religious families, just as it does in the general population. In these cases, the victims of abuse often first reach out to their pastors or clergy members for assistance. Using transcendental phenomenology, the authors sought to understand the survivors' experiences in disclosing abuse to their faith communities. The findings show that despite numerous painful experiences with the church, the survivors' faith and views of God largely stayed intact. Further domestic violence education, connection to resources, and attention to congregational policies and practices are vital in the faithful response to abuse. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Spiritual struggles are common for religion-affiliated and non-affiliated individuals, religious skeptics, agnostics, and atheists. They gain particular importance for people under significant stress, such as those who are alcohol dependent. This study examined the role of positive religious coping and God's support in the spiritual growth and recovery of alcohol-dependent individuals participating in Alcoholics Anonymous (AA). The study was cross-sectional. The participants were 115 alcohol-dependent individuals from Poland who were members of AA. A path analysis statistical method was used. The research emphasized the beneficial role of strong God's support in the relationship between positive religious coping and spiritual growth, abstinence, and happiness. The mechanism underlying the relationship between positive religious coping, God's support, spiritual growth, and recovery was confirmed. God's support was a moderator in the relationship between positive religious coping and spiritual growth. In a group with stronger God's support, positive religious coping was positively related to spiritual growth, which in turn was associated with a happy and alcohol-abstinent life for alcohol-dependent individuals participating in AA. Among individuals with weak God's support, positive religious coping was not directly related to spiritual growth, nor was it indirectly related to recovery through spiritual growth. Theoretical and practical implications of the results are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The idea of 'Christian doctrine' has become sundered over time from its spiritual roots as part of the formative Christian life shaped by a vision of the whole that sees everything in integral and open‐ended relation to God. This review article explores some of the reasons behind this severing of Christian doctrine from everyday Christian practice. It then unpacks how the unity between Christian doctrine and spiritual formation is retrieved in three recent publications that variously explore the nature of Christian doctrine. Together, they offer a vibrant account of Christian doctrine, its formative power and its calling to be humbly confident as a form of life under God. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This review article explores two recent works on Paul Ricœur, A Companion to Ricoeur's The Symbolism of Evil, edited by Scott Davidson, and Ricœur at the Limits of Philosophy: God, Creation, and Evil by Barnabas Aspray. Both works focus on Ricœur's early works, before the 'hermeneutical turn'. In this review, I show how both works demonstrate Ricœur's applicability to contemporary theological thought, especially concerning the symbols of creation and evil. Ultimately, both works show the depth and complexity of Ricœur's early work and his continued importance for understanding how the symbols of creation, existence, finitude and God are deep and multifaceted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers information on Catholic personalist philosophy and its views on gratitude as a path to understanding our relationship with God and the cosmos. Topics discussed include how gratitude manifests through wonder, joy and festivity; how it contrasts with justice in human interactions; its ultimate expression in the Eucharist; the relationship between gratitude and justice; and the influence of personalist thought on Catholic teachings.

This article explores the way in which two modern Reformed theologians, Charles Hodge and Herman Bavinck, articulate their theologies of divine incomprehensibility and the knowability of God in radically different ways, against the backdrop of post‐Kantian epistemology. This contrast will draw attention to why the doctrine of divine incomprehensibility has diminished in influence in modern Reformed theology, while also making some suggestions as to how it can be retrieved in order to supplement and strengthen contemporary discussions on the doctrine of God in the Reformed tradition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Though Calvin is averse to theological speculation, he is the first to claim that Christ is Mediator and Head of Angels. This often‐overlooked office is present consistently throughout the various editions of the Institutes and can be found in his treatises, commentaries, catechism, and various sermons. This paper argues that Christ's mediation of angels is a form of ontological mediation that serves as the logical foundation for his redemptive mediation of the Elect. Sin is an intensification of a preexisting problem that requires the Son to be the medius and Mediator between God and creation because of his unique position in the Trinitarian taxis as the begotten one. This overlooked office places Calvin's theology of mediation in a greater cosmic context where the triune God is uniting all things to himself typified in the angels and the Elect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the goal of explaining the maldistribution of evil in the world, Asha Lancaster-Thomas has recently (2023) expounded upon the idea of a fluctuating maximal God (FMG) that she and others developed (Jeffrey et al. (2020)) from the idea of a maximal God originally proposed by Yujin Nagasawa (2017). Lancaster-Thomas uses this model to answer what I and my co-author, Daniel Linford, have called the problem of geography (Linford and Patterson (2015)). The problem of geography points to the geographically unequal distribution of suffering in the world and argues that this aggravates the original problem of evil (POE) and undermines the primary theodicies offered as solutions to it. I subsequently (2021) added to this problem by pointing out that evil is also maldistributed across race, gender and time. This larger problem may be referred to as the problem of the distribution of evil (PODE). Lancaster-Thomas argues that the FMG, especially under her modified version, is not susceptible to the problem of geography or to temporal inequalities of well-being. In this article I will demonstrate how the FMG, even on Lancaster-Thomas? updated model, fails to undermine either the problem of geography or the more broadly conceived PODE. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Avicenna holds that since God has existed from all eternity and is immutable and impassible, he cannot come to have an attribute or feature that he has not had from all eternity. He also claims for the simultaneous causation. A puzzle arises when we consider God's creating this world. If God is immutable and impassible, then his attributes associated with his creating this world are unchanging. So, God must have been creating the world from all eternity. But then God's creative act, one might object, seems to be no different from a matter of natural necessity. This is a threat to divine freedom, for God would then have no choice concerning his creative action. Anthony Ruffus and Jon McGinnis argue that this puzzle can be solved in such a way that Avicenna can consistently affirm divine freedom along with divine simplicity. They suggest that Naṣīr al-Dīn Ṭūsī's interpretation might help to show that it is false that Avicenna's God cannot choose absolutely. For it is still open to him to choose either to create eternally or to refrain from creating anything at all. Ruffus and McGinnis argue that since creating or not creating anything at all do not correspond to two distinct concepts, Avicenna's account of divine simplicity, which denies any multiplicity in divine mind, is safeguarded along with divine freedom. I claim that God's omnirationality requiring that he always acts for reasons is a serious threat to such an interpretation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From the earliest nineteenth-century studies to even the most recent scholarship, Richard Rolle has persistently been treated as an eccentric figure: a singular individual who fled from the world to live as a hermit and who promoted a distinctive understanding of mystical rapture based on his personal experiences. Such a view of Rolle has been supported by an autobiographical reading of certain passages in his writings where the hermit cantankerously defends himself against his critics or offers his own acerbic attacks on those whom he considers feigned lovers of God. This essay presents an alternative to the longstanding view of this material as more revelatory of the "real" Rolle, arguing instead that the eccentric persona developed in such passages was one of the hallmarks of eremitic sanctity in the later Middle Ages, an indication of outsider status that was itself, perhaps counterintuitively, wholly conventional. Drawing on various vitae of hermit-saints, including some that seem to have been known to Rolle himself, I argue for an approach to Rollean idiosyncrasy as itself a self-consciously conventionalized voice, one that served, among other things, to shore up the hermit's authority and to demonstrate his place in a tradition of eremitic sanctity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most scholars have interpreted Acts 17:28a–c ("for in him we live and move and are") within the context of the Aratus quotation in 17:28e. Yet in doing so, they overlooked the precise meaning of this statement and how it fits within the argument. This article considers the philological aspects and motifs contained in Acts 17:28a–c within their context. Thus, the statement expresses dependence on God by use of the Greek phrase ἔν τινι εἶναι , which appears widely across Greek literature. By taking the evidence from these sources into consideration, it becomes clear that the concise statement of Acts 17:28a–c bundles up various ideas of the Areopagus speech into one thought. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475–1564) presented some of the most spectacular artworks of all times in frescos on the ceiling and behind the altar of the Sistine Chapel. While Michelangelo's presentations depict events described in the Bible, there is broad consensus that Michelangelo was conveying his knowledge and theoretical ideas gleaned from his experiences with anatomic dissection. Michelangelo appears to have communicated several ideas about the brain in the images of the Days of Creation and the Last Judgment. Taking the Days of Creation and the Last Judgment together, Michelangelo appears to be symbolizing that God is in the brain, specifically the brainstem, and the brain performs mental functions. The five images on the ceiling of the chapel showing Days of Creation may be interpreted as reflecting the course of vertebrate brain evolution. There are further suggestions about brain function, including perceiving light and complex images and giving spirit to Adam. Furthermore, on the front wall of the Sistine Chapel behind the altar, within the work titled the Last Judgment, the central ellipse, in which Jesus is sitting, appears to represent a midcoronal cross section of a human brain, suggesting that it is the brain that renders judgments about good and evil. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the article, mainly based on the reference to the entries in the diary of Th. Dobzhansky, a geneticist and one of the founders of the "synthetic theory of evolution", examines how Dobzhansky tried to combine science, primarily evolutionary theory, and religion. It is argued that although Dobxzhansky was a believer during whole his life, he became a peculiar believer who revised for himself and for others the former, primarily religious answers to the "ultimate questions" of existence, and posed these questions in a new, evolutionary way. Even more, he tried to substantiate and justify religion and his belief in God through the evolutionary theory, to demonstrate that science and religion are not incompatible, and to offer his believe in the usefulness of science and religion to each other. This Dobzhansky's attempt was perceived and evaluated ambiguously by both scientists and religious figures. In addition, Dobzhansky owing to his search for these answers, made a number of world outlook and general cultural conclusions for himself and presented these conclusions in articles and books written not only for colleagues in the scientific community, but also for other people. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The outbreak of the Coronavirus pandemic drew attention to God and religion in confrontation with natural disasters. An undeniable fact about Islamic Republic of Iran is that the country is subject to severe international sanctions. The prevalence of Coronavirus infection in these conditions and the disruption of people's work and financial affairs put them in dire economic straits. The Coronavirus also posed a theological challenge in Iran, and some of the Shiite religious beliefs were challenged by this. The present study asks whether the damage derived from the Coronavirus caused a change in religious faith in Iran. It empirically examines the subject in three interrelated religious dimensions: cognitive, conceptual, and communicative aspects of faith. Another part of the study asks whether Coronavirus is good or evil, natural or metaphysical, and is it a punishment for human sins or a divine test? In order to investigate the possible impact of the Coronavirus epidemic on faith in God, an online survey was conducted in the first wave of the outbreak of Coronavirus in the Islamic Republic of Iran. Since direct access to the sample population during the time of the outbreak of Coronavirus was not permitted, a Virtual Snowball Sampling is applied. The research findings indicate that religious faith has bi-directionally changed both separately and in the form of its three components. While positive change has affected an average of 32 percent of the sample population, negative change has occurred in about 5 percent. Furthermore, it is found that negative changes in religiosity have occurred more among those who have been very highly or highly religious. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]