The Philosophy of World Religions

1984 ◽  
Vol 37 (2) ◽  
pp. 229-236 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Hick
Keyword(s):  
Human Race ◽  
World Religions ◽  
The Real ◽  
Religious Traditions ◽  
Universal Language ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Transcendent Reality ◽  
Realistic View ◽  
Basic Distinction ◽  
The One

I Am grateful to Mr Peter Byrne (‘John Hick's Philosophy of World Religions’, S.J.T., Vol. 35, 289–301) for highlighting some of the central issues for a philosophy of religious pluralism. He starts from the now widespread realisation that it is not a morally or religiously acceptable view that salvation depends upon being a member of the Christian minority within the human race. A more realistic view must be pluralistic, seeing the great religious traditions as different ways of conceiving and experiencing the one ultimate divine Reality, and correspondingly different ways of responding to that Reality. These ways owe their differences to the modes of thinking, perceiving and feeling which have developed within the different patterns of human existence embodied in the various cultures of the earth. Thus, on the one hand the religions are responses to a single ultimate transcendent Reality, whilst on the other hand their several communal consciousnesses of that Reality, formed from different human perspectives, are widely different. To understand this mixture of commonality and difference I have suggested that we should make use of a basic distinction which occurs in some form within each of the great traditions. In Christian terms it is the distinction between God in himself, in his eternal self-existent being, independently of creation, and God-for-us or God as revealed to us. In more universal language it is the distinction between the Real (Sat, al-Haq) an sich and the Real as humanly experienced and thought.

Religious Transitions in Twentieth Century Southeast Asia

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert L. Winzeler
Keyword(s):  
Southeast Asia ◽  
20Th Century ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Second Phase ◽  
Forthcoming Article ◽  
World Religions ◽  
Religious Traditions ◽  
Asian History ◽  
The One ◽  
Muslim Communities

This is an advance summary of a forthcoming article in the Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Asian History. Please check back later for the full article. The diverse religions of the peoples of Southeast Asia include indigenous traditions of supernaturally oriented beliefs and practices plus four of the largest world religions: Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, and Christianity. The main changes that have taken place in religion in 20th-century Southeast Asia include several developments. The first notable change was increased conversion to one or another of the world religions, especially Christianity. The second was national efforts to eliminate or reduce religion in some countries and to shape or control it in others. In addition, popular religion in some instances became more politicized and linked to conflict, especially between Christian and Muslim communities. There were efforts at reform, to modernize religious traditions, or often to bring them into line with orthodoxy. These religious changes occurred in two phases. The first, involving conversion, had begun in some areas long before, but was furthered and intensified in the 20th century as colonial governments extended control beyond urban areas, to coastal enclaves, lowland agricultural regions, and over interior and mountainous areas, making these more accessible to mission efforts. The second phase of change began in the middle decades of the 20th century as the colonized countries (including all the present-day Southeast Asian nations except Thailand) gained independence and then often attempted to shape religion in various ways. These efforts varied, but the main line of differentiation was between what happened in the socialist regimes, on the one hand, and in the non-socialist ones, on the other. The socialist countries were more inclined than the non-socialist ones to diminish, deemphasize, or control religion, and to block or inhibit missionization. The results can be seen today, where unconverted communities are common or even prevalent in the highland or tribal areas of Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia, in contrast to such areas in Thailand and—though less can be said about it—Myanmar. Finally, as a result of these changes, over the course of the 20th century and throughout Southeast Asia generally, there has been a reduction in religious diversity, above all as a result of the conversion of people from many different indigenous religious traditions to one or another of the fewer world religions. This is not to say, however, that adherents of Buddhism Christianity, Islam, or Hinduism are necessarily very similar to others of the same world religion.

scholarly journals Humes Academic Scepticism: A Reappraisal of His Philosophy of Human Understanding

1986 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 407-435 ◽  
Author(s):  
John P. Wright
Keyword(s):  
The Sun ◽  
Human Race ◽  
Real Situation ◽  
The Real ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Human Understanding ◽  
The Mind

A philosopher once wrote the following words:If I examine the PTOLOMAIC and COPERNICAN systems, I endeavour only, by my enquiries, to know the real situation of the planets; that is, in other words, I endeavour to give them, in my conception, the same relations, that they bear towards each other in the heavens. To this operation of the mind, therefore, there seems to be always a real, though often an unknown standard, in the nature of things; nor is truth or falsehood variable by the various apprehensions of mankind. Though all human race should for ever conclude, that the sun moves, and the earth remains at rest, the sun stirs not an inch from his place for all these reasonings; and such conclusions are eternally false and erroneous.

Does Copernicus Help? Reflections for a Christian Theology of Religions

1977 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 243-258 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. J. Lipner
Keyword(s):  
Belief Systems ◽  
The Other ◽  
Christian Theology ◽  
Christian Faith ◽  
World Religions ◽  
Important Distinction ◽  
Theology Of Religions ◽  
Religious Traditions ◽  
Religious Perspectives ◽  
The One

I want to consider in this paper a question that is looming large in the theology of most world religions, not least in the Christian tradition. The following discussion will be confined to the Christian standpoint, though I hope mutatis mutandis the main points will be seen to apply to other religious perspectives as well. Specifically then, this question can be ex–pressed in two ways. We may ask, (i) in the context of the contemporary dialogue situation, how is the committed Christian to regard the adherents of non–Christian religions? and (ii) what status do these alien belief–systems have with respect to the Christian faith–response? Both forms of the issue are often discussed it seems to me without due attention being given to an important distinction between them. So, at the outset, it will be useful to make one or two observations about this. First of all, it is inevitable, I think, that an evaluational factor is implied by both formulations. We are pondering a basically Christian assessment of religious traditions that are non–Christian, and any solution suggested which eventually eliminates a one-sided overall perspective will apparently put us in a dilemma. For, on the one hand, a Christian theology of religions will be expected to produce a Christian (and therefore evaluational) result; on the other hand, a finally nonevaluational solution seems unable to be called a Christian view of things at all. In the event of such a ‘neutral theology’ as the latter resulting (by no means a purely speculative question as we shall see), is the dilemma that becomes apparent a genuine one, or can it be resolved by a more stringent analysis of the relevant issues?

World Religions, the Earth Charter, and Sustainability

2008 ◽  
Vol 12 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 115-128 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mary Evelyn Tucker
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Crisis ◽  
World Religions ◽  
Religion And Ecology ◽  
Religious Traditions ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Global Environmental ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Earth Charter

AbstractThis article argues the global environmental crisis shows the need for a broad, inclusive definition of sustainability. It shows how religious traditions can help contribute to broader definitions, and describes how work from the field of Religion and Ecology has developed resources. It argues that the next step for the study of Religion and Ecology is to address sustainability, and then proposes that the Earth Charter provides an orienting framework for that engagement of religion and sustainability.

Noah and the Nuclear Rainbow

Worldview ◽  
1983 ◽  
Vol 26 (10) ◽  
pp. 17-19
Author(s):  
Arthur Waskow
Keyword(s):  
Olive Oil ◽  
Religious Communities ◽  
Religious Thought ◽  
Human Race ◽  
Religious Traditions ◽  
The One ◽  
Nuclear Rainbow ◽  
Life On Earth

In the last few centuries the conventional assumption of both modern secularists and the religious communities has been that our world is too new, our problems too unprecedented, for the ancient systems of religious thought and practice to be useful. I am proposing exactly the opposite approach: That precisely because our world is so new, we must draw on the ancient wisdoms.We might test this approach against the one fact of our lives that is the most radically unprecedented: that the survival of the human race is in danger, and even the survival of all life on earth is in serious question. How could there emerge from ancient religious traditions that are rooted in a world of firewood and olive oil, spears and chariots, any useful answers to this unprecedented possibility?

Religious pluralism

1999 ◽  
Vol 35 (2) ◽  
pp. 139-150 ◽  
Author(s):  
WILLIAM L. ROWE
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Religious Pluralism ◽  
Human Life ◽  
John Hick ◽  
Intrinsic Properties ◽  
The Real ◽  
Religious Traditions ◽  
Transcendent Reality ◽  
Central Claim

According to religious pluralism, the profound differences among the chief objects of adoration in the great religious traditions are largely due to the different ways in which a single transcendent reality is experienced and conceived in human life. The most prominent developer and defender of religious pluralism in the twentieth century is John Hick. Hick uses the expression ‘the Real’ to designate the transcendent reality ‘authentically experienced’ as the different gods and impersonal absolutes worshipped in the major religious traditions. A central claim Hick makes is that, apart from some purely formal characteristics, the Real is ineffable in that the intrinsic properties making up its nature are beyond the scope of any human concepts. I explore this central claim and argue that it implies the dubious, if not incoherent, view that the Real in itself has neither one of many pairs of contradictory properties.

Note on Selection of Coordinate Systems for Geodynamics

1975 ◽  
Vol 26 ◽  
pp. 395-407
Author(s):  
S. Henriksen
Keyword(s):  
Sea Level ◽  
The Other ◽  
Coordinate Systems ◽  
Mean Sea Level ◽  
The Earth ◽  
The One ◽  
Static Systems ◽  
Selection Of

The first question to be answered, in seeking coordinate systems for geodynamics, is: what is geodynamics? The answer is, of course, that geodynamics is that part of geophysics which is concerned with movements of the Earth, as opposed to geostatics which is the physics of the stationary Earth. But as far as we know, there is no stationary Earth – epur sic monere. So geodynamics is actually coextensive with geophysics, and coordinate systems suitable for the one should be suitable for the other. At the present time, there are not many coordinate systems, if any, that can be identified with a static Earth. Certainly the only coordinate of aeronomic (atmospheric) interest is the height, and this is usually either as geodynamic height or as pressure. In oceanology, the most important coordinate is depth, and this, like heights in the atmosphere, is expressed as metric depth from mean sea level, as geodynamic depth, or as pressure. Only for the earth do we find “static” systems in use, ana even here there is real question as to whether the systems are dynamic or static. So it would seem that our answer to the question, of what kind, of coordinate systems are we seeking, must be that we are looking for the same systems as are used in geophysics, and these systems are dynamic in nature already – that is, their definition involvestime.

Hidden “holes” in the capital of banks and the supply of credit to the real sector of economy

2018 ◽  
pp. 49-68 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. E. Mamonov
Keyword(s):  
Credit Risk ◽  
The Other ◽  
Real Sector ◽  
Capital Management ◽  
Loan Loss ◽  
Short Term ◽  
The Real ◽  
Ex Post ◽  
The One

Our analysis documents that the existence of hidden “holes” in the capital of not yet failed banks - while creating intertemporal pressure on the actual level of capital - leads to changing of maturity of loans supplied rather than to contracting of their volume. Long-term loans decrease, whereas short-term loans rise - and, what is most remarkably, by approximately the same amounts. Standardly, the higher the maturity of loans the higher the credit risk and, thus, the more loan loss reserves (LLP) banks are forced to create, increasing the pressure on capital. Banks that already hide “holes” in the capital, but have not yet faced with license withdrawal, must possess strong incentives to shorten the maturity of supplied loans. On the one hand, it raises the turnovers of LLP and facilitates the flexibility of capital management; on the other hand, it allows increasing the speed of shifting of attracted deposits to loans to related parties in domestic or foreign jurisdictions. This enlarges the potential size of ex post revealed “hole” in the capital and, therefore, allows us to assume that not every loan might be viewed as a good for the economy: excessive short-term and insufficient long-term loans can produce the source for future losses.

Potential of Palm Oil Empty Fruit Bunch as Biogas Substrate

2019 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 59-64
Author(s):  
Vincentius Vincentius ◽  
Evita H. Legowo ◽  
Irvan S. Kartawiria
Keyword(s):  
Palm Oil ◽  
Fermentation Process ◽  
Biogas Production ◽  
Wastewater Sludge ◽  
Empty Fruit Bunch ◽  
Alternative Source ◽  
The Earth ◽  
The One ◽  
Wet Fermentation ◽  
Water Ratio

Natural gas is a source of energy that comes from the earth which is depleting every day, an alternative source of energy is needed and one of the sources comes from biogas. There is an abundance of empty fruit bunch (EFB) that comes from palm oil plantation that can become a substrate for biogas production. A methodology of fermentation based on Verein Deutscher Ingenieure was used to utilize EFB as a substrate to produce biogas using biogas sludge and wastewater sludge as inoculum in wet fermentation process under mesophilic condition. Another optimization was done by adding a different water ratio to the inoculum mixture. In 20 days, an average of 6gr from 150gr of total EFB used in each sample was consumed by the microbes. The best result from 20 days of experiment with both biogas sludge and wastewater sludge as inoculum were the one added with 150gr of water that produced 2910ml and 2185ml of gas respectively. The highest CH 4 produced achieved from biogas sludge and wastewater sludge with an addition of 150gr of water to the inoculum were 27% and 22% CH 4 respectively. This shows that biogas sludge is better in term of volume of gas that is produced and CH percentage.

World Christianity, ‘World Religions’ and the Challenge of Insider Movements

2020 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 84-103
Author(s):  
Christian J. Anderson
Keyword(s):  
Religious Studies ◽  
World Religion ◽  
World Religions ◽  
Historical Series ◽  
Enlightenment Project ◽  
World Christianity ◽  
Other World ◽  
Religious Systems ◽  
The One ◽  
Insider Movements

While studies in World Christianity have frequently referred to Christianity as a ‘world religion’, this article argues that such a category is problematic. Insider movements directly challenge the category, since they are movements of faith in Jesus that fall within another ‘world religion’ altogether – usually Islam or Hinduism. Rather than being an oddity of the mission frontier, insider movements expose ambiguities already present in World Christianity studies concerning the concept of ‘religion’ and how we understand the unity of the World Christian movement. The article first examines distortions that occur when religion is referred to on the one hand as localised practices which can be reoriented and taken up into World Christianity and, on the other hand, as ‘world religion’, where Christianity is sharply discontinuous with other world systems. Second, the article draws from the field of religious studies, where several writers have argued that the scholarly ‘world religion’ category originates from a European Enlightenment project whose modernist assumptions are now questionable. Third, the particular challenge of insider movements is expanded on – their use of non-Christian cultural-religious systems as spaces for Christ worship, and their redrawing of assumed Christian boundaries. Finally, the article sketches out two principles for understanding Christianity's unity in a way that takes into account the religious (1) as a historical series of cultural-religious transmissions and receptions of the Christian message, which emanates from margins like those being crossed by insider movements, and (2) as a religiously syncretic process of change that occurs with Christ as the prime authority.

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