Habitus fidei: an essay on the history of a concept

2003 ◽  
Vol 56 (2) ◽  
pp. 172-189 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maarten Wisse

Traditional Reformation scholarship argued that conceiving faith as a habit is one of the differences between Reformed orthodoxy on the one hand, and Reformation thought on the other. Two theses have been defended in this respect. First, it has been argued that conceptualising faith as a habit was a typical example of introducing Thomistic and Aristotelian concepts into the Reformed faith. Secondly, several scholars have argued that the conceptualisation of faith as a habit overrules the role of the act of faith in salvation. The function of faith as a response to God's offer of salvation becomes secondary to the doctrine of predestination. By unravelling the transformation process which the concept of habit underwent through the history of Christian theology, the author shows that the first thesis is seriously flawed. As to the second thesis, he proposes an alternative interpretation of the sources by arguing that the nature of faith as a habit implies that it can only be known from its acts. At the end of the article, he provides some remarks about the value of the concept of habitus fidei for contemporary theology.

2016 ◽  
Vol 43 (136) ◽  
pp. 279
Author(s):  
Bento Silva Santos

Resumo: O artigo comenta globalmente algumas anotações da Vorlesung não proferida – “Os Fundamentos Filosóficos da Mística Medieval” (1918-1919) – na tentativa ainda fragmentária de esboçar uma compreensão fenomenológica da experiência mística. Assim, destaco, primeiramente, as duas observações iniciais de Heidegger sobre o sentido ambíguo da formulação “fundamentos filosóficos da mística medieval” ora com base na história da filosofia (1), ora com base na abordagem fenomenológica. Em segundo lugar, optando pela mística medieval como expressão (Ausdruck) da religiosidade cristã, Heidegger estabelece uma dupla distinção: de um lado, a religiosidade se distingue tanto da filosofia da religião como da teologia; de outro lado, a separação entre o problema da teologia e problema da religiosidade cristã (2). Por fim, em função desta oposição problemática entre teologia escolástica e mística medieval, trato brevemente da permanência ambígua do esquema de pensamento da teologia cristã no Denkweg de Heidegger, que pressupõe inegavelmente suas origens católicas (3).Abstract: This article broadly discusses Heidegger’s notes for his undelivered Vorlesung - “The Philosophical Foundations of Medieval Mysticism” (1918-1919) - in a still fragmentary attempt to outline a phenomenological understanding of the mystical experience. In order to do so, I first highlight the two initial observations of Heidegger concerning the meaning of the ambiguous wording “philosophical foundations of medieval mysticism”, sometimes referring to the basis of mysticism in the history of philosophy (1), sometimes to its phenomenological approach. Second, I discuss Heidegger’s option to consider medieval mystic as expression (Ausdruck) of Christian religiousness. Thus, the author establishes a double distinction: on the one hand, religiousness distinguishes itself from both the philosophy of religion and theology, and on the other hand, the problem of theology is separated from that of Christian religiousness (2). Finally, in light of this problematic opposition between scholastic theology and medieval mysticism, I briefly deal with the ambiguous persistence of the model of thinking of the Christian theology in Heidegger’s Denkweg, that unmistakably presupposes his Catholic origins (3).


Author(s):  
Paolo Desideri

This chapter discusses first the general cosmological principles which lie behind Plutarch’s historiographical work, such as can be recovered through significant passages of his Delphic Dialogues. Second, it investigates the reasons why Plutarch wrote biographies, and more specifically parallel biographies, instead of outright histories: in this way, Plutarch aimed to emphasize, on the one hand, the dominant role of individual personalities in the political world of his own time, and, on the other hand, the mutual and exclusive relevance of Greece and Rome in the history of human culture. Third, the chapter seeks to connect the rise-and-fall pattern, typical of biography, with the general rise-and-fall pattern which Plutarch recognizes both in the Greek and in the Roman civilizations; through that connection one can rule out the idea that Plutarch had any providential view of history. Finally, some reflections are offered on Nietzsche’s special interest in Plutarch’s biographies.


2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Moses Njenga

While vital for the social and economic development of Kenya and Africa as whole, Vocational Education remains hampered by a negative parity of esteem. Individuals and households continue to view vocational education as a second option. This is in contrast with the views held by both pre-colonial and post colonial governments. Each successive government has attempted to provide vocational education and made policies to effect widespread provision. This article reviews the history of these policies and identifies the source of negative views towards vocational education on the one hand to discriminatory approaches by colonial governments and on the other hand to the burdening of technical education with the task of employment creation.


Author(s):  
David Anderson

The introduction commences with a ‘detour’ into the history of landscape art and the picturesque, suggesting ways that this mode pre-empted what may seem like more modern ideas about the interference between perception and representation. This discussion is folded into a brief account of the so-called ‘spatial turn’ and the interventions of theorists including Doreen Massey and Marc Augé, establishing an immediate context for the work of Keiller, Sebald, and Sinclair. Suggesting a twin heritage of the ‘English Journey’ on the one hand and the French Surrealists and Situationists on the other, the introduction then offers the tension between amant and amateur as a way of characterizing the balance of exotic/everyday, plan/coincidence, and high-brow/low-brow in these figures’ work. It considers the role of pedestrianism and melancholia before closing with a discussion of Walter Benjamin and Gustave Doré’s ‘New Zealander’.


Dialogue ◽  
1992 ◽  
Vol 31 (3) ◽  
pp. 509-516 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ludger Kaczmarek

Semiotics, the age-old investigation of signs, is still striving for acknowledgement as a scientific (and academic) discipline. Though the ‘linguistic turn’ in the philosophical disciplines seemed to be followed by a ‘semiotic turn’ in many sciences during the 1970s, efforts were not crowned by great success. When seen from a certain distance, a definition of semiotics as a discipline can only be obtained from its history. Research into the sources of the human pre-occupation with signs, and with concepts or conceptions of signs, is really desirable and even necessary when a field of considerable scientific interest at the brink of being awarded the rank of a discipline runs the risk of getting lost between the unificationism of the Morris-type and the elegance of pseudo-mathematical empty classificationism (such as demonstrated in the late Max Bense's Stuttgart School) on the one side, and profitable exploitation of the sign's popularized design qualities on the other.


2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 190-222
Author(s):  
Christopher D. Bahl

Abstract Persian narrative sources provide a colorful picture of Mughal courtly life, but in order to zoom in on cultural practices one has to turn to the artefacts of cultural pursuits. This article studies one specimen of the empirical treasure trove of Arabic manuscripts in South Asia in order to approach a lacuna in Mughal scholarship: the role of Arabic at the Mughal court. In the following, I will analyze the different paratextual layers of a manuscript of the thirteenth century Arabic grammar commentary Sharḥ al-Radī by Radī al-Dīn al-Astarābādhī to study its reading and transmission. The manuscript version represents a written artefact, which emerged out of a series of intellectual engagements. On the one hand, these textual engagements offer a perspective on the manuscript’s initial owner, Saʿd Allāh Khān (d. 1656), and his intellectual pursuits, as well as the scholarly framework in which he was brought up and worked in. On the other hand, the history of this manuscript’s circulation highlights the treatment of Arabic written artefacts at Shāh Jahān’s court. In an exemplary manner, the manuscript’s history of circulation demonstrates how courtly elites engaged with Arabic during the seventeenth century.


2011 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
pp. 509-525 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Dietschy

This article argues that the question of national perspectives is a fundamental problem in the writing of European sports history. It does so by demonstrating that France has an equal pedigree, in terms of diffusion and exceptionalism, as Britain, and pleads for a less skewed approach to the history of the subject in general. The article shows, first, that France contributed significantly to the internationalization of sport in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, with French networks facilitating the spread of sports across the globe. It considers the impact of French universalism on the institutional structures of world sport and assesses the importance of sport to governmental diplomacy. Second, it proposes that France occupies a special place in the history of European sport, halfway between that of the British on the one hand and other continental sporting cultures on the other. It discusses the role of central and regional administrations in the creation of a sports space that is distinctly marked by a lack of football hegemony. French sport, the article concludes, is characterized by a peculiar mix of anglomanie, invented traditions, internationalism, state interventionism and eclecticism.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-18
Author(s):  
Laura Carter

The introduction proposes the key argument that the twentieth century was Britain’s educational century. It discusses how the democratization of historical knowledge in Britain between 1918 and 1979 occurred as a process of negotiation between policymakers, elites, and educationists on the one hand, and ordinary people on the other. The concept of the ‘history of everyday life’ is introduced and defined. The introduction then discusses the important role of women in the making of popular social history, and its relationship to classed, gendered, racial, imperial, and national categories. The ‘history of everyday life’ is briefly discussed in relation to other ‘origin stories’ of British social history, especially the new academic social history of the 1960s and the importance of the ‘everyday’ in mid-century social science. Finally, the introduction discusses the book’s methodological approach and provides an overview of each of the chapters.


2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Γεώργιος Γούλας

Η διατριβή ερευνά τις πολύπλευρες όψεις της ιστορίας στο καλλιμαχικό έργο, εξετάζοντας αφενός την ποιητική απεικόνιση της σύγχρονης πολιτικο-στρατιωτικής ιστορίας των ελληνιστικών βασιλείων και αφετέρου την ποιητική αξιοποίηση των ιστοριογραφικών κειμένων (γενεαλογίες, μυθογραφίες, εθνογραφίες, παραδοξογραφίες, τοπικές ιστορίες). Όλα αυτά τα ιστορικά ερεθίσματα ενεργοποιούν τα λόγια ανακλαστικά του ποιητή και αφήνουν ίχνη στα ποιήματα. Τα κύρια ερωτήματα που επιχειρείται να απαντηθούν είναι τα εξής δύο. Πρώτον, ο Καλλίμαχος είναι ένας αυλικός ποιητής που εξυμνεί τα «ιστορικά» κατορθώματα των Πτολεμαίων; Δεύτερον, ο λόγιος ποιητής βρίσκει στις ιστοριογραφικές πηγές ένα καινούργιο άλλοθι εγκυρότητας, αν όχι την αλήθεια, το οποίο παλαιότερα ο αρχαϊκός ποιητής αντλούσε από τις Μούσες; Η διατριβή εισάγει ως κύριο θεωρητικό εργαλείο ανάλυσης των προηγούμενων ερωτημάτων την έννοια της μεταϊστορίας, η οποία υποδιαιρείται σε μεθοδική και κριτική. Αφενός ο Καλλίμαχος στοχάζεται πάνω στην ιστορική μεθοδολογία, που θα πρέπει να τηρήσει για την έρευνα του παρελθόντος. Αφετέρου ο ίδιος υιοθετεί μία πιο κριτική προσέγγιση, όταν θα πρέπει ως αυλικός ποιητής να υμνήσει τους νικηφόρους πολέμους των Πτολεμαίων ή όταν θα πρέπει ως λόγιος ποιητής να ακολουθήσει τις συμβάσεις των ιστοριογραφικών έργων και να αποδεχθεί ως απόλυτες αυθεντίες τις ιστοριογραφικές αφηγήσεις. Αυτή η κριτική δεν παίρνει ποτέ τη μορφή της ευθείας σύγκρουσης και ρήξης αλλά γίνεται με συγκαλυμμένο και αμφίσημο τρόπο, ο οποίος περιγράφεται με τον όρο διττή αναγνωσιμότητα. Προτείνεται, λοιπόν, να ειδωθεί η χρήση της ιστορίας από τον Καλλίμαχο όχι αποκλειστικά ως επίδειξη γνώσεων ή ως μηχανή τεκμηρίωσης αλλά ως ένα πεδίο, όπου επαναπροσδιορίζεται ο ρόλος της ποίησης και κατοχυρώνεται η αυτονομία και η «σοφία» της ποιητικής τέχνης έναντι των άλλων πηγών και ειδών γνώσης. Δεν πρέπει να διαφεύγει της προσοχής ότι σκοπός του ποιητή είναι να γράψει ποίηση και όχι ιστορία, αντλώντας έμπνευση αλλά και κρατώντας αποστάσεις από τη χαώδη φύση των βιβλιακών πηγών. Η λόγια ποίηση αναγνωρίζει εγκαίρως την αντινομία και τους περιορισμούς που κρύβει η διάσωση και εξήγηση του παρελθόντος μέσα από τις καταγεγραμμένες πηγές. Μία τέτοια αντισυμβατική στάση από την πλευρά του λογίου ποιητή ασφαλώς δεν θα μπορούσε να τη φανταστεί η επίσημη πολιτιστική πατρωνεία των Πτολεμαίων. Για τους βασιλείς η πνευματική ακτινοβολία του Μουσείου και η μεγαλεπήβολη συγκέντρωση βιβλίων και γνώσεων στην αλεξανδρινή Βιβλιοθήκη ισοδυναμούσε με θεμελίωση πολιτικής δύναμης. Αυτές οι βλέψεις της εξουσίας, όμως, δεν ενδιέφεραν κατ’ ανάγκην την ποίηση, η οποία είχε τα δικά της οράματα. SUMMARYThe thesis explores the multifaceted aspects of the history in Callimachus’ work, considering, on the one hand, its poetic depiction of contemporary political - military history of the Hellenistic kingdoms and, on the other hand, the poetic use of historiographical texts (genealogies, mythographies, ethnographies, paradoxographies, local histories). All these historical stimuli activate the literary reflexes of the poet and leave traces on the poems. There are two main questions which the thesis attempts to answer. The first is whether Callimachus is a courtier poet who celebrates the "historic" achievements of the Ptolemies and the second, does the scholar poet find a new validity alibi, if not the truth, in the historiographical sources which primarily the archaic poet drew from the muses? The thesis introduces as the main theoretical tool for analysis of the previous questions the sense of meta – history which is subdivided into methodical and critical. On the one hand, Callimachus reflects on the historical methodology, which should be respected for the research of the past. On the other hand, he adopts a more critical approach, in cases when, as a courtier poet, he has to praise the victorious wars of Ptolemy or when, as a scholar poet, he has to follow the conventions of historiographical works and accept the historiographical narratives as absolute authorities. This criticism never takes the form of direct conflict and rupture but it is conducted in a disguised and ambiguous manner, which is described by the term dual readability. It is proposed, therefore, that the use of history by Callimachus has to be seen not exclusively as a demonstration of knowledge or a mechanism of documentation but as a field, in which the role of poetry is redefined and the autonomy and "wisdom" of the poetic art against other sources and kinds of knowledge is guaranteed. It should also be considered that the purpose of the poet is to write poetry and not history, drawing inspiration but also keeping his distance from the chaotic nature of bookish sources. The literary poetry recognizes the contradiction and the limitations which the preservation and interpretation of the past through


Numen ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 65 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 141-164 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lorne L. Dawson

Abstract The role that religion plays in the motivation of “religious terrorism” is the subject of much ongoing dispute, even in the case of jihadist groups. Some scholars, for differing reasons, deny that it has any role; others acknowledge the religious character of jihadism in particular, but subtly discount the role of religion, while favoring other explanations for this form of terrorism. Extending an argument begun elsewhere (Dawson 2014, 2017), this article delineates and criticizes the influence of a normative religious bias, on the one hand, and a normative secular bias, on the other hand, on scholarship addressing the relationship between religiosity and terrorism. I examine two illustrative studies to demonstrate the complexity of the conceptual issues at stake: Karen Armstrong’s best-selling book Fields of Blood: Religion and the History of Violence (2014) and a recent article by Bart Schuurman and John G. Horgan on the rationales for terrorist violence in homegrown jihadist groups (2016).


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