Some Remarks about the Embodiment of God

1981 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 105-108 ◽  
Author(s):  
W.Murray Hunt
Keyword(s):  
Good Reason ◽  
Christian Tradition ◽  
Widespread Belief

In two recent articles Grace M. (Dyck) Jantzen has argued that an embodied God could be both a being worthy of worship (in the Judaeo-Christian tradition) and omnipresent. In arguing for neither of these claims has she attempted to prove that God (if he exists) is embodied, or even that God (if he exists) must be embodied. Rather, she has urged acceptance of the more modest claim there is no good reason for denying the possible embodiment of God (if he exists) on grounds either connected with his being a worthy object of worship or in terms of a supposed entailment of incorporeality on God's omnipresence. Yet contemporary thinkers with as radically divergent views about God as Kai Nielsen and Father Copleston forward ‘the argument that an embodied God is inadequate for sophisticated theism’; and, Jantzen avers, there is a ‘widespread belief that if God is indeed omnipresent, as we are clearly taught in Scripture, then that doctrine of omnipresence entails immediately that God must be incorporeal’. The purpose of my remarks in this note is not to dispute Jantzen's conclusions, but to question the strength and/or satisfactoriness of some of her arguments for those conclusions. Perhaps the most pervading misgiving arises over her unquestioned equating of ‘embodiment’ with ‘having a body’. Surely at first blush such synonymy appears both obvious and innocuous. But where the notion of embodiment itself is the crux of the issue, careful reflection needs to be given to just what the notion involves. Yet she simply accepts the synonymy ‘without any further ado, as though it were just obviously true’, just as she accuses Findlay of doing regarding ‘the claim that only a being who exists necessarily would be worthy of our worship’.

Nielsen, Ethics and God

1978 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 205-216 ◽  
Author(s):  
Osmond G. Ramberan
Keyword(s):  
Moral Judgment ◽  
Good Reason ◽  
Recent Book ◽  
Christian Tradition ◽  
Moral Obligations ◽  
Moral Beliefs ◽  
Belief In God ◽  
Moral Insight ◽  
Moral Claims ◽  
The Will

One of the central claims of most religious people (especially those in the Judeo-Christian tradition) is that morality is based upon religion or, more specifically, on a belief in God. A morality which is not God-centred not only cannot provide a genuine basis for moral beliefs but is really and truly groundless. For without a belief in the sovereignty of God, there can be no genuine adequate foundation for moral beliefs. In his recent book, Ethics Without God, Kai Nielsen claims that this view is grossly mistaken. According to Nielsen, morality cannot be based on religion because moral claims cannot be derived from religious (non-moral) cosmological claims such as ‘God is Creator’, or ‘God exists’. ‘God wills X’, ‘God commands X’, do not entail ‘X ought to be done’, or ‘I ought to do X’. It is perfectly in order for someone to say that God wills (commands) X, but is X good? It is also perfectly in order for someone to say that God commands me to do X, but why should I obey God? Surely it cannot be because God is powerful and, if I do not obey his commands, he will punish me. It may be prudent and expedient to obey God because I am afraid of punishment, but this is surely not a morally good reason for obeying him. Moral obligations follow God's commands only if it is assumed that God is morally perfect or that he is good or that his commands are right (p. 5). But I cannot know that God is good without an understanding of what it is for something to be good. To be sure, ‘God is good’, is a truth of language, but in order to understand it we must have a prior understanding of goodness- an understanding which is ‘logically prior to, and independent of, any understanding or acknowledgement of God’ (p. 11). Moreover, Nielsen argues, the religious quest is a quest to find a being that is ‘worthy of worship’, but it is by our own moral insight that we decide that any being, any Z, is ‘worthy of worship’. The decision that there is a Z such that Z is worthy of worship is a moral judgment which is in no way dependent upon the will of God. But more than this, ‘God’, in ‘God is worthy of worship’, is, in most cases, used analytically so that anyone who is brought to say ‘My God’, or ‘My Lord and my God’, is using ‘God’ evaluatively and by implication making a moral judgment - a moral judgment which is logically prior to the will or command of God. This leads Nielsen to conclude:

Analisis Kemampuan Penalaran Matematis Mahasiswa Calon Guru Matematika Sebagai Kajian Evaluasi

2019 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Hanifah Nurus Sopiany
Keyword(s):  
High School Students ◽  
Secondary School ◽  
Mathematical Reasoning ◽  
Mathematics Learning ◽  
Good Reason ◽  
School Level ◽  
Real Analysis ◽  
Reasoning Ability ◽  
School Students ◽  
Secondary School Level

Penalaran matematis menggunakan pola pikir logis dalam menganalisa suatu masalah yang nanti pada akhirnya akan ditandai dengan aktivitas menyimpulkan atas masalah tersebut. Seseorang yang memiliki penalaran yang baik, tentunya akan berhati-hati dalam bertindak dan memutuskan sesuatu. Materi-materi pada kalkulus merupakan materi yang ada pada tingkat sekolah menengah yang nantinya menjadi lahan mengajar mahasiswa calon guru matematika S-1. Kemampuan penalaran yang dikaji mempengaruhi pembelajaran mahasiswa kedepannya karena berlaku pada matakuliah lanjut, contohnya pada kemampuan pembuktian akan selalu digunakan pada matakuliah persamaan diferensial, struktur aljabar, analisis  vektor, analisis real, dll. Sedangkan sebagai calon guru yang nantinya mengajar pada tingkat sekolah menengah, maka kemampuan penalaran ini menjadi salah satu capaian pembelajaran matematika bagi siswa sekolah menengah, maka oleh karena itu guru yang mengajarnya haruslah memiliki kemampuan penalaran yang baik. Analisis kesalahan sangat penting untuk melakukan evaluasi dan refleksi pada struktur soal maupun pada perlakuan dalam pembelajaran dalam upaya memperbaiki kemampuan penalarannya.   Mathematical reasoning uses a logical mindset in analyzing a problem that will eventually be marked by concluding activity on the problem. Someone who has good reason, will certainly be careful in acting and deciding something. The material content on the calculus is the material that exists at the secondary school level which will become the field of teaching the prospective master of math teacher bachelor. The reasoning ability studied influences student learning in the future as it applies to advanced courses, for example in the ability of proof will always be used in the course of differential equations, algebraic structure, vector analysis, real analysis, etc. While as a teacher candidate who will teach at the secondary school level, then this reasoning ability becomes one of the achievements of mathematics learning for high school students, therefore teachers who teach it must have good reasoning ability. Error analysis is very important to evaluate and reflect on the problem structure as well as on the treatment in learning in order to improve the reasoning ability.

King William and the Brecc Bennach in 1211: reliquary or holy banner?

2015 ◽  
Vol 66 (2) ◽  
pp. 163-190 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Sharpe
Keyword(s):  
Good Reason ◽  
National Museum ◽  
The Real ◽  
Real Nature

In his Rhind Lectures of 1879 Joseph Anderson argued for identifying the Monymusk Reliquary, now in the National Museum of Scotland, with the Brecc Bennach, something whose custody was granted to Arbroath abbey by King William in 1211. In 2001 David H. Caldwell called this into question with good reason. Part of the argument relied on different interpretations of the word uexillum, ‘banner’, taken for a portable shrine by William Reeves and for a reliquary used as battle-standard by Anderson. It is argued here that none of this is relevant to the question. The Brecc Bennach is called a banner only as a guess at its long-forgotten nature in two late deeds. The word brecc, however, is used in the name of an extant reliquary, Brecc Máedóc, and Anderson was correct to think this provided a clue to the real nature of the Brecc Bennach. It was almost certainly a small portable reliquary, of unknown provenance but associated with St Columba. The king granted custody to the monks of Arbroath at a time when he was facing a rebellion in Ross, posing intriguing questions about his intentions towards this old Gaelic object of veneration.

ALIMONY OBLIGATIONS OF PARENTS FOR THE MAINTENANCE OF MINOR CHILDREN AND RESPONSIBILITY FOR THEIR VIOLATION

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (5) ◽  
pp. 141-146
Author(s):  
LARISA KUDRYAVTSEVA ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Family Law ◽  
Positive Impact ◽  
Good Reason ◽  
Scientific Work ◽  
Legal Regulation ◽  
Legal Responsibility ◽  
Minor Children ◽  
Legislative Changes

The article analyzes various aspects of the institution of alimony obligations between parents and their children, and also establishes some sanctions against law-abiding parents who do not comply with family law. The purpose of the study is to study the features of the legal responsibility of parents who avoid paying alimony in favor of their children for no good reason. The scientific work indicates some of the most important legislative changes in the field of alimony legal relations, which had a positive impact on the legal regulation of this area of family law. The study also suggested some of its own changes to the current legislation.

All is of God

10.1558/32682 ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 83-104
Author(s):  
Jon Paul Sydnor
Keyword(s):  
Christian Tradition

This essay elaborates a constructive, comparative, nondual theodicy for the Christian tradition based on the Hindu Vai??ava tradition. According to the Indologist Henrich Zimmer, in Vai??avism everything is an emanation of Vi??u, therefore everything is of Vi??u. All apparent opposites are inherently divine and implicitly complementary. Good and bad, joy and suffering, pain and pleasure are not conflicting dualities; they are interdependent qualities that increase one another’s being. The Hindu myth of Samudra Manthan, or the Churning of the Ocean, exemplifies Vai??ava nondualism. In that story, gods and demons—seeming opposites—cooperate in order to extract the nectar of immortality from an ocean of milk. If “opposites” are interdependent, hence complementary, then they are not “opposites” but mutually amplifying contrasts. Given this phenomenology, and applying it to the Christian tradition, a benevolent God who desires full vitality for her creatures would have to create pain, suffering, darkness, and death in order to intensify their correlates. Love would demand their creation, because love would want abundant life for all. In this aesthetic theodicy, the interplay of all contrasts results from the love of a life-giving God.

Newton and the Origin of Civilization

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jed Z. Buchwald ◽  
Mordechai Feingold
Keyword(s):  
Good Reason ◽  
History Of Mathematics ◽  
Primary Sources ◽  
Ancient History ◽  
Isaac Newton ◽  
History Of ◽  
Ancient Civilizations ◽  
And Mathematics ◽  
One Year ◽  
Radical Ideas

Isaac Newton’s Chronology of Ancient Kingdoms Amended, published in 1728, one year after the great man’s death, unleashed a storm of controversy. And for good reason. The book presents a drastically revised timeline for ancient civilizations, contracting Greek history by five hundred years and Egypt’s by a millennium. This book tells the story of how one of the most celebrated figures in the history of mathematics, optics, and mechanics came to apply his unique ways of thinking to problems of history, theology, and mythology, and of how his radical ideas produced an uproar that reverberated in Europe’s learned circles throughout the eighteenth century and beyond. The book reveals the manner in which Newton strove for nearly half a century to rectify universal history by reading ancient texts through the lens of astronomy, and to create a tight theoretical system for interpreting the evolution of civilization on the basis of population dynamics. It was during Newton’s earliest years at Cambridge that he developed the core of his singular method for generating and working with trustworthy knowledge, which he applied to his study of the past with the same rigor he brought to his work in physics and mathematics. Drawing extensively on Newton’s unpublished papers and a host of other primary sources, the book reconciles Isaac Newton the rational scientist with Newton the natural philosopher, alchemist, theologian, and chronologist of ancient history.

Senate Electoral Responsiveness under Indirect and Direct Election

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wendy J. Schiller ◽  
Charles Stewart
Keyword(s):  
The Political ◽  
Counterfactual Analysis ◽  
Senate Elections ◽  
Seventeenth Amendment ◽  
Direct Election ◽  
Political Outcomes ◽  
Widespread Belief ◽  
Direct Elections ◽  
The Impact

This chapter integrates findings on indirect elections with current scholarship on the impact of the adoption of the Seventeenth Amendment and onset of direct elections. It constructs a comprehensive counterfactual analysis that helps demonstrate what the political outcomes would have been with direct elections in place since the founding, and in contrast, what Senate elections would look like after 1913 if indirect elections were still in place. It also addresses the question of whether U.S. senators represented states as units and responded to state governmental concerns more under the indirect system than they do under direct elections. It argues that indirect election had little impact on the Senate's overall partisan composition prior to 1913. Contrary to widespread belief, had direct election been in effect during the years immediately preceding the Seventeenth Amendment's passage, Republicans, not Democrats, would have benefited.

“O EVANGELHO DE PAULO”: EM QUE CONSISTE? ANÁLISE A PARTIR DO PENSAMENTO DE JAMES D.G. DUNN

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (25) ◽  
pp. 409
Author(s):  
Vicente Artuso ◽  
Adriano Lazarini Souza dos Santos
Keyword(s):  
Good News ◽  
Spiritual Life ◽  
Christian Tradition ◽  
New Covenant ◽  
Pauline Theology ◽  
New Perspective

O presente artigo tem por objetivo analisar o teologúmeno concentrado na expressão “Evangelho de Paulo” e suas notas características dentro da Teologia Paulina. James D.G. Dunn, famoso exegeta escocês, traz o tema para o centro do debate e o coloca como a dimensão capital da vocação e missão do apóstolo Paulo. Neste ensaio procuraremos, ao modo de uma montagem de painéis, explicitar alguns dos principais aspectos da mensagem paulina sintetizadas na palavra “Evangelho de Paulo” e suas expressões correlatas. Para tal finalidade, utilizaremos o método expositivo-descritivo, apresentando: 1) Origem e significado do termo εὐαγγέλιον no Primeiro e Segundo Testamentos; 2) Análise temática do termo εὐαγγέλιον no Corpus Paulinum sob a ótica de James Dunn; 3) Relação do εὐαγγέλιον  paulino com os Sinóticos a partir das contribuições do exegeta Johan Konings. “THE GOSPEL OF PAULO”: ANALYSIS FROM THE THOUGHT OF JAMES D.G. DUNNAbstractThe article aims to explain some aspects of the "Gospel of Paul" axiom as presented in the works of James Dunn. His research highlights aspects of Paul’s Gospel inherited from Scripture and the Gospel of Christ. The break with Judaism occurs with the resurrection of Christ. In fact, the death and resurrection of Christ inaugurates a new covenant, new life, spiritual life. The study shows James Dunn's contribution in highlighting the tension between new and old, between the historical-salvific and apocalyptic perspective in Pauline theology. Contributions are not opposed. The apocalyptic genre is common in the Jewish and Christian tradition. Thus in Paul's new perspective, the opposition between Judaism and Christianity, faith and works is not accentuated. The Gospel of Paul is good news that eliminates antagonisms and includes differences.Keywords: Perspective. Paul. Gospel. Jesus. Judaism.

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