7. Humanity and new humanity

2016 ◽  
pp. 93-110
Author(s):  
Jon Balserak
Keyword(s):  
Social Norms ◽  
Original Sin ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Relationship With God ◽  
Reformed Tradition ◽  
Adam And Eve

Calvinism teaches that all human beings possess evil desires, which are suppressed through domesticating influences such as laws and social norms, and unleashed when these influences are removed. ‘Humanity and new humanity’ explains that the idea of original sin—the result of the fall of Adam and Eve—has deeply impacted the Reformed tradition. Although Calvinists agree that Adam’s sin affected all his descendants, they explain the transmission of his sin in different ways. Both the restraining of sin and the escape from enslavement to sin are things Calvinists explain by pointing to the idea of grace. Having become a Christian, the convert lives a new life in covenant relationship with God where prayer is essential.

Religiusitas Tokoh-Tokoh Dalam Novel Bumi Cinta Karya Habiburrahman El-Shirazy

AKADEMIKA ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 205-221
Author(s):  
Minahul Mubin
Keyword(s):  
Young People ◽  
Literary Criticism ◽  
Human Freedom ◽  
Religious Values ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Relationship With God ◽  
Belief In God ◽  
The World ◽  
Religious Aspects ◽  
Religious Elements

A novel titled BumiCinta written by Habiburrahman El-Shirazy takes place in the Russian setting, in which Russia is a country that adopts freedom. Russia with various religions embraced by its people has called for the importance of human freedom. Free sex in Russia is commonplace among its young people. Russia is a country that is free with no rules, no wonder if there have been many not embracing certain religion. In fact, according to data Russia is a country accessing the largest porn sites in the world. Habiburrahman in his Bumi Cinta reveals some religious aspects. He incorporates the concept of religion with social conflicts in Russia. Therefore, the writer reveals two fundamental issues, namely: 1. What is the characters' religiosity in the Habiburrahman El-Shirazy'sBumiCinta? 2. What is the characters' religiosity in the BumiCinta in their relationship with God, fellow human beings, and nature ?. To achieve the objectives, the writer uses the religious literary criticism based on the Qur'an and Hadith. It emphasizes religious values in literature. The writer also uses the arguments of scholars and schools of thought to strengthen this paper. This theory is then used to seek the elements of religiousity in the Habiburrahman El-Shirazy'sBumiCinta. In this novel, the writer explains there are strong religious elements and religious effects of its characters, especially the belief in God, faith and piety

Moving Forward

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Ruse
Keyword(s):  
Evolutionary Biology ◽  
Original Sin ◽  
Human History ◽  
Adam And Eve ◽  
Incarnational Theology ◽  
Constructive Engagement

The Augustinian vision of humankind, on which so much Christian thinking about war is based, is false. Thanks to Darwinian evolutionary biology we know there was no original couple, Adam and Eve; there was no eating of the apple; there is no original sin. We are not innately depraved in this way. Morbid fatalism is inappropriate. The killer-ape vision of humankind, on which so much Darwinian thinking about war is based, is equally false. Thanks to updated Darwinian evolutionary biology, we know that we did not evolve in the violent ways often presumed, and that in major respects we are designed to avoid war. Culture, particularly agriculture, changed much of that and war became common. Changing this is not to go against our nature. Naïve optimism is no more in place. There is hope of more constructive engagement between Christians and Darwinians. On the Christian side, there are alternative theologies to Augustinian Atonement theology, notable Incarnational theology, not dependent on a literal Adam and Eve. On the Darwinian side, there are fresh empirical findings and interpretations, with truer understandings of human history and nature. Perhaps now, together, we can move forward the debate on the nature and causes and possible ending of human warfare.

scholarly journals Reformed identity revisited: Proposals in the spirit of Ecclesia Semper Reformanda est

2020 ◽  
Vol 54 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nico Vorster
Keyword(s):  
Historical Narrative ◽  
Original Sin ◽  
Fundamental Aspect ◽  
Reformed Theology ◽  
Reformed Tradition ◽  
Human Uniqueness ◽  
Existential Perspective

This article commences by reflecting on the evolving nature of traditions. In order to pass the continual test of plausibility and authenticity, traditions need to be flexible enough to incorporate new insights into its core intellectual matrix. Implausible elements need to be re-articulated or dispensed with. This rationale is subsequently applied to the reformed tradition who considers the necessity to continually reform itself (Ecclesia Semper Reformanda est) as a fundamental aspect of the tradition. Recently, various tenets of the reformed faith have come under scrutiny. These include the reformed faith’s understanding of God’s relation to creation; its view of human uniqueness; its understanding of original sin and the transmission of sin; and its supposed sola Scriptura approach to ethics. This article addresses these critiques by proposing that reformed theology incorporates the notion of creation as a gift in its thinking; that it dispenses with attempts to provide a historical narrative on the origin and transmission of sin and rather approach the theme from an existential perspective; and that it works towards an ethics that is scripturally based but ecclesiastically shaped.

Pelagianism

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher Kirwan
Keyword(s):  
Free Will ◽  
Original Sin ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Human Effort

Pelagius, a Christian layman, was active around ad 400. The thesis chiefly associated with his name is that (i) human beings have it in their own power to avoid sin and achieve righteousness. Critics objected that this derogates from human dependence on the grace of God. Pelagius did not deny that the power to avoid sin is itself a gift of God, an enabling grace; but he was understood to deny the need for cooperative grace, divine aid in using the power rightly, or at least to assert that (ii) such aid is a reward for human effort, and so not an act of grace. Later thinkers who held that God’s aid, though not a reward, goes only to those who do make an effort, were accused of believing that (iii) there is no need of prevenient grace in causing the effort in the first place. So Pelagianism is a tendency to magnify human powers: its defenders saw it as a (frightening) challenge to humans, its detractors as an insult to God. It was hard without Pelagianism to find a place for free will, or with it for original sin.

scholarly journals A Life with Limits: A Christian Ethical Investigation of Radically Prolonging Human Lifespans

2018 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 56-65 ◽  
Author(s):  
Manitza Kotzé
Keyword(s):  
Ethical Issues ◽  
Christian Ethics ◽  
Life Extension ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Relationship With God ◽  
Social Divisions ◽  
Human Lifespan ◽  
Relational Concept ◽  
God's Image ◽  
Radical Life Extension

Recent biotechnological advances pose topical challenges to Christian ethics. One such development is the attempt to try and enhance human beings and what it means to be human, also through radical life extension. In this contribution I am especially interested in limited human lifespan and attempts to radically prolong it. Although there are a number of ethical issues raised by critics, one of the most profound ethical and theological issues raised by these efforts is the question of equity and justice. This artice looks at questions such as whether this biotechnology could exacerbate existing social divisions. Who will be experimented on in the development of this technology, as well as who will have access to it and be able to afford it, should it become commercially available? Being created in God’s image is a relational concept, referring not only to humanity’s relationship with God, but also with each other. Disrupting these relationships through the possible enlarging socioeconomic divisions between people through the utilisation of enhancement technology is a serious bioethical and theological question.

Roman Assimilation of Greek Myths and Botany

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lincoln Taiz ◽  
Lee Taiz
Keyword(s):  
Gender Bias ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
Original Sin ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Pliny The Elder ◽  
Greek Myths ◽  
The One ◽  
Nicolaus Of Damascus ◽  
The Middle Ages

“Roman Assimilation of Greek Myths and Botany” traces the absorption of Greek botanical thought by the Romans. Although Roman thinkers—Cato the Elder, Varro, Virgil and Columella—wrote about agriculture, theoretical botany was largely abandoned, while the one—sex model of plants remained entrenched. Roman myths, many syncretized with Greek, reinforced the gender bias by which plants were associated with women. Chloris, Greek goddess of flowers, was assimilated to Flora, and Ceres to Demeter. Ovid recounts a story concerning Flora and Juno that symbolically connects flowers to parthenogenesis. Of Greek derived works on plants, only Pliny’s Historia Natura and Nicolaus of Damascus’ De Plantis were widely available in the Middle Ages. One interpretation of flowers by Pliny the Elder, that they were created to delight human beings, endured into of the Christian era, while St. Augustine sited the “degeneration” of plants grown from seed as “palpable evidence” for original sin.

The Transformation of the Traditional Balinese House in Tourist Villages: Maintaining the Culture and Obtaining Economic Benefit

2015 ◽  
Vol 747 ◽  
pp. 68-71 ◽  
Author(s):  
I Dewa Gede Agung Diasana Putra ◽  
Mirjana Lozanovska ◽  
Robert Fuller
Keyword(s):  
Economic Benefit ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Religious Activities ◽  
Relationship With God ◽  
Tourist Destination ◽  
Cultural Activities ◽  
New Construction ◽  
The Village

Bali is well known as a tourist destination in Indonesia. Balinese culture, inspired by the Hindu Balinese religion and expressed by performing religious activities in the village and the traditional Balinese house, has become attractive to tourists. The increase in the number of tourists has caused an increase in the number of tourist facilities constructed in traditional Balinese houses. New pavilions have been built either adjacent to existing pavilions, in the front and around the courtyard by demolishing the wall or old pavilions, or in the backyard. These constructions have changed the setting, form, and spaces of the house where Balinese, based on tri hita karana philosophy, perform socio-cultural activities to maintain a harmonious relationship with God, other human beings and the environment. This new construction gives rise to the question about the continuity of the religious activities in the new settings of the houses. Does the new transformation cause adjustments of these activities? From visual examinations and interviews, this paper examines how rituals continue within the context of house transformation that has come about by the construction of tourist facilities.

scholarly journals Drive for the divine

2015 ◽  
Vol 71 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Darryl Wooldridge
Keyword(s):  
Present Article ◽  
Imago Dei ◽  
Human Being ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Relationship With God ◽  
Final Word ◽  
Current Article ◽  
Human Desire ◽  
Derivatives Of

Although the present article stands alone, it is a continuation of ‘Living in the not-yet’ (published in vol. 71, issue 1 of HTS). Both articles are derivatives of a larger study that discusses God as the centre of an often inarticulate and inchoate but innate human desire and pursuit to enjoy and reflect the divine image (imago Dei) in which every human being was created. The current article sets forth foundational considerations and speaks to the ineffaceable drive within humans to find God. It is a reciprocated drive – a response to God who first sought and continues to seek humans – a correlate and concomitant seeking in response to God. Although surely not the final word, this article discusses God as spirit and spiritual, by whom human beings have been created as imago Dei or God’s self-address, showing God’s heart as toward his creation, and humans most especially. Also discussed here is that humans are destined to join the perichoretic relationship that God has enjoyed from eternity. Moreover, in his ascension and glory, Jesus sends the Spirit of adoption into creation so that human creation might enter this same perichoretic relationship with God.

Imago dei as Foundational to Psychotherapy: Integration versus Segregation

1981 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 299-304 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rodney D. Vanderploeg
Keyword(s):  
Present Article ◽  
Therapeutic Relationship ◽  
Psychotherapy Integration ◽  
Imago Dei ◽  
The Other ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Relationship With God ◽  
The Core ◽  
Relational Aspect

In the last issue (Vanderploeg, 1981), the concept of the Imago Dei was shown to be central to being human and as establishing human beings as essentially relational, called to relationship with God and with each other. God's election was seen as at the core of the Imago Dei and hence as a universal phenomenon. In the present article, the intrapsychic aspect of personality is also discussed as a third important relational aspect of the Imago Dei. The Imago Dei is seen as foundational to psychotherapy, providing both a ground for therapy and a mandate. The therapeutic relationship is understood as covenantal and as an affirmation of God's election, as it is a relationship in which clients are universally supported in enhancing their relationships, that is, the Imago Dei. The transpersonal, God-person relationship is also discussed, both as to how it manifests itself in therapy and how it can be dealt with therapeutically. Throughout, the focus is on questions which help therapists intergrate their faith with their vocation rather than segregating the two by imposing one on the other.

What Is Our Sacred Responsibility in the World?

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Madhuri M. Yadlapati
Keyword(s):  
Religious Ethics ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Relationship With God ◽  
The World ◽  
Human World ◽  
Human Responsibility ◽  
The Relationship

This chapter examines four particular ways in which faith has been expressed as a commitment to one's responsibilities vis-à-vis one's community and God. It discusses Hindu epic illustrations of dharma, or sacred duty; an allegorical extrapolation of Christian responsibility in C. S. Lewis's Narnia series as well as his discussion of the relationship between faith and works; Islamic understanding of human beings as God's caliphs (khalifa) and the responsibility for jihad; and Jewish articulations of human responsibility in a covenantal relationship with God. These examples concern a specific interface of religious ethics and the commitment to faith, by which one embraces a tremendous sense of responsibility for the very fate of the human world.

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