Cognitive Pragmatics and Multi-layered Communication

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christoph Unger
Keyword(s):  
Religious Discourse ◽  
Figure Of Speech ◽  
Christian Thought ◽  
Ostensive Communication ◽  
One Act

Allegory is a figure of speech that is frequently used in Christian religious discourse, not only in the Christian Scriptures, but also in theological and homiletic literature throughout history. However, its use has also been viewed with suspicion by various schools of Christian thought. That is, allegory as a figure of speech is perceived as both being a useful tool for religious discourse and beset by limitations. This double-sided perception of the utility of allegory is rooted in the cognitive complexities that the comprehension of allegory involves, according to Unger (2017). Processing allegory involves our ability to detect and process multiple layers of communication in one act of ostensive communication. Thus, allegory has the potential for being effective for communicating complex thoughts in an elegant and effective way; at the same time, it runs the risk of inviting the audience to overinterpret the communication event.

scholarly journals The contradictory unity of faith and reason in Christian theoretical thought

2019 ◽  
Vol 75 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sergey N. Astapov
Keyword(s):  
20Th Century ◽  
Religious Discourse ◽  
Christian Theology ◽  
Medieval Philosophy ◽  
Religious Philosophy ◽  
Faith And Reason ◽  
Secular Age ◽  
Christian Thought ◽  
The Relationship

This article aims to demonstrate the unity of faith and reason as irrational and rational elements of the theoretical religious discourse on instances of Christian theoretical thought. This unity was represented as a dialectical contradiction, the violation of which led to the destruction of religious discourse. The contradictory unity of faith and reason was researched in European medieval philosophy and Russian religious philosophy in the first half of the 20th century and in the theoretical systems that were considered ways of explaining the relationship between faith and reason in Christian thought. This article reveals two historical types of the dynamic unity of faith and reason as well as violations of this unity: when medieval authors attempted to find the most effective relationship between faith and reason for Christian theology; and when Russian philosophers attempted to transmit theological knowledge by means of philosophy in the secular age. The results of the dynamic unity violations in both traditions are investigated as the conceptions that had been denied by these traditions. The main conclusion of the article is that Christian theoretical thought maintained the contradictions between faith and reason as a search for its development.

Conceptions of Trust in the Qur'an

2011 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 56-85 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nora S. Eggen
Keyword(s):  
Social Trust ◽  
Social Ethics ◽  
Religious Discourse ◽  
Human Being ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Normative Claim ◽  
Trust Relationship ◽  
Trust Relationships ◽  
The Absolute ◽  
The Guardian

In the Qur'an we find different concepts of trust situated within different ethical discourses. A rather unambiguous ethico-religious discourse of the trust relationship between the believer and God can be seen embodied in conceptions of tawakkul. God is the absolute wakīl, the guardian, trustee or protector. Consequently He is the only holder of an all-encompassing trusteeship, and the normative claim upon the human being is to trust God unconditionally. There are however other, more polyvalent, conceptions of trust. The main discussion in this article evolves around the conceptions of trust as expressed in the polysemic notion of amāna, involving both trust relationships between God and man and inter-human trust relationships. This concept of trust involves both trusting and being trusted, although the strongest and most explicit normative claim put forward is on being trustworthy in terms of social ethics as well as in ethico-religious discourse. However, ‘trusting’ when it comes to fellow human beings is, as we shall see, framed in the Qur'an in less absolute terms, and conditioned by circumstantial factors; the Qur'anic antithesis to social trust is primarily betrayal, ‘khiyāna’, rather than mistrust.

The Missing Rhetorical History Between Quintilian and Augustine

2015 ◽  
Vol 33 (4) ◽  
pp. 349-376
Author(s):  
Mike Duncan
Keyword(s):  
New Testament ◽  
Early Christianity ◽  
Classical Rhetoric ◽  
Rhetorical History ◽  
Church Fathers ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
Christian Thought ◽  
Rhetorical Force ◽  
Apostolic Church

Current histories of rhetoric neglect the early Christian period (ca. 30–430 CE) in several crucial ways–Augustine is overemphasized and made to serve as a summary of Christian thought rather than an endpoint, the texts of church fathers before 300 CE are neglected or lumped together, and the texts of the New Testament are left unexamined. An alternative outline of early Christian rhetoric is offered, explored through the angles of political self-invention, doctrinal ghostwriting, apologetics, and fractured sermonization. Early Christianity was not a monolithic religion that eventually made peace with classical rhetoric, but as a rhetorical force in its own right, and comprised of more factions early on than just the apostolic church.

Comparing the Impact of Religious Discourse on HIV/AIDS in Islam and Christianity in Africa

2012 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sloane Speakman
Keyword(s):  
Social Factors ◽  
Negative Relationship ◽  
Hiv Prevalence ◽  
Religious Discourse ◽  
Prevalence Rates ◽  
The Social ◽  
High Prevalence ◽  
Islam And Christianity ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
The Impact

In examining the strikingly high prevalence rates of HIV in many parts of Africa, reaching as high as 5% in some areas, how does the discourse promoted by the predominant religions across the continent, Islam and Christianity, affect the outlook of their followers on the epidemic? This question becomes even more intriguing after discovering the dramatic difference in rate of HIV prevalence between Muslims and Christians in Africa, confirmed by studies that have found a negative relationship to exist between HIV prevalence and being Muslim in Africa, even in Sub-Saharan African nations. Why does this gap in prevalence rates exist? Does Islam advocate participating in less risky behavior more so than Christianity? By comparing the social construction, epidemiological understanding and public responses among Muslim populations in Africa with Christian ones, it becomes apparent that many similarities exist between the two regarding discourse and that, rather than religious discourse itself, other social factors, such as circumcision practices, contribute more to the disparity in HIV prevalence than originally thought.

The Enneads of Plotinus

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Kalligas
Keyword(s):  
Ancient Philosophy ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
Philosophical Background ◽  
Intellectual Context ◽  
Christian Thought

This is the first volume of a groundbreaking commentary on one of the most important works of ancient philosophy, the Enneads of Plotinus—a text that formed the basis of Neoplatonism and had a deep influence on early Christian thought and medieval and Renaissance philosophy. This volume covers the first three of the six Enneads, as well as Porphyry’s Life of Plotinus, a document in which Plotinus’s student—the collector and arranger of the Enneads—introduces the philosopher and his work. A landmark contribution to modern Plotinus scholarship, this commentary is the most detailed and extensive ever written for the whole of the Enneads. For each of the treatises in the first three Enneads, the volume provides a brief introduction that presents the philosophical background against which Plotinus’s contribution can be assessed; a synopsis giving the main lines and the articulation of the argument; and a running commentary placing Plotinus’s thought in its intellectual context and making evident the systematic association of its various parts with each other.

GAGASAN PEMIKIRAN DAN GERAKAN DAKWAH M. NATSIR DI INDONESIA

1970 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 284-295
Author(s):  
Muridan Muridan
Keyword(s):  
Boarding School ◽  
Religious Discourse ◽  
The State ◽  
Islamic State ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Islamic Values

M. Natsir was one of the most prominent figures in religious discourse and movement in Indonesia. He was ada’wa reformer as well as a politician and a statesman.His most well known ideas were about the relationship between Islamand state, Islam and Pancasila, and his idea on da’wa. He stated that a country would be Islamic because of neither itsformal name as an Islamic state nor its Islamic state principles. The principles of the state could be generally formulated aslong as they referred to the Islamic values. Natsir also stated that the essence of Pancasila didn’t contradict with Islam; evensome parts of it went after the goals of Islam. However, it didn’t mean that Pancasila was identical with Islam. In relation toda’wa, he stated that it should be the responsibility of all Muslims, not only the responsibility of kiai or ulama. To make a da’wamovement successful, he suggested that it needed three integrated components; masjid, Islamic boarding school, andcampus.

Gagasan Pemikiran dan Gerakan Dakwah M. Natsir di Indonesia

1970 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 63-74
Author(s):  
Muridan Muridan
Keyword(s):  
Boarding School ◽  
Religious Discourse ◽  
The State ◽  
Islamic State ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Islamic Values

M. Natsir was one of the most prominent figures in religious discourse and movement in Indonesia. He was ada’wa reformer as well as a politician and a statesman. His most well known ideas were about the relationship between Islamand state, Islam and Pancasila, and his idea on da’wa. He stated that a country would be Islamic because of neither itsformal name as an Islamic state nor its Islamic state principles. The principles of the state could be generally formulated aslong as they referred to the Islamic values. Natsir also stated that the essence of Pancasila didn’t contradict with Islam; evensome parts of it went after the goals of Islam. However, it didn’t mean that Pancasila was identical with Islam. In relation toda’wa, he stated that it should be the responsibility of all Muslims, not only the responsibility of kyai or ulama. To make ada’wamovement successful, he suggested that it needed three integrated components; masjid, Islamic boarding school, andcampus.

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