The Fallen Will

2019 ◽  
pp. 59-120
Author(s):  
Han-luen Kantzer Komline
Keyword(s):  
Multidimensional Approach ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
The Will ◽  
Personal Reflections

The writings of Paul, especially, prove crucial to Augustine’s diagnosis of the fallen condition of the human will, both in the more generalized discussion of texts such as Ad Simplicianum and in his intense personal reflections on the conflict of will leading up to his conversion in book 8 of Confessions. As Augustine adapts and reframes his thinking in response to texts such as Romans 9, his account of will becomes multidimensional, including two distinct characterizations of will, one corresponding to its created and another to its fallen state. In its first dimension, the will is a powerful hinge; in its second, it forms a link in the chain (ansula catenae) that holds human beings in bondage to sin. The account of this transition illustrates how Augustine’s multidimensional approach to willing can accommodate radical shifts within a coherent, biblically indexed scheme, thus preserving continuity in his thinking amid drastic developments.

Concept of  Mental Education: A Perspective of  Ibn Qayyim Al-Jawziyyah

2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 407-419
Author(s):  
Makmudi Makmudi
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Human Body ◽  
Natural Environment ◽  
Integrated Curriculum ◽  
Educational Process ◽  
Sexual Education ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
The Will ◽  
Life Education ◽  
The Mind

Man consists of two elements, namely body and spirit, so that human beings are jasiman and ruhiyah at once. Hummans are also part of one element of the elements that exist in an educational process. Three element include the soul, the mind, the heart, and the human body. Humman and education, can not be separated from each other. Both are an interconnected entity, human as the perpetrator and education as a syistem in the process to achieve the goal of education itself.  Mental health education requires alignment and harmony in various stages and sectors as well as attention to the three elements that exist in the human self that is the physical element (psychomotor) which includes body building, skill (skill) and sexual education, the spiritual element (affective) which includes the formation of faith, and iradah (the will), the element of reason (cognitive) which includes the coaching of intelligence and the provision of knowledge. The purpose of writing this research is to know and analyze thoughts about the concept of life education perspective Ibn Qayyim al-Jauziyyah. Soul education is considered successful, if one's soul has reached the degree of nafs muthmainnah, which has three main characteristics that mutually reinforce one another, namely; (1) a faithful soul to God, (2) a patient soul, (3) a soul that is self-serving to Allah (tawakal). Through the process of mental education which includes: the foundation of theology, the purpose of mental education, integrated curriculum / manhaj at-takamul, appropriate methods and applicable according to its stages, such as: takhliyah stages, tahliyah stages, muhasabah an-nafs, dzikrullah, and tahqiq 'ubudiyah. So that from the process will give birth ihsan attitude, and will increase the piety in worship, both related to God and those related to humans and the surrounding natural environment. Because, the essence of ihsan attitude itself is upholding 'ubudiyah.

scholarly journals Allowing one's own bodily experience to "count": Elaborating on inter- subjectivity and subjectivity in phenomenological studies

2013 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
pp. 24-40 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karen Synne Groven ◽  
Gunn Engelsrud
Keyword(s):  
Research Process ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Bodily Experience ◽  
Phenomenological Studies ◽  
Bodily Experiences ◽  
The World ◽  
Personal Reflections

Phenomenology, according to Heidegger and Merleau-Ponty, looks at human beings in the world. Drawing on their perspective, one could argue that inter-subjectivity, like a researcher’s subjectivity, should be explicitly acknowledged in phenomenological studies. In the following pages we explore how using this approach can make findings more transparent and trustworthy. This study is based on a review of five articles focused on subjectivity and inter-subjectivity in phenomenological studies. In addition, we draw on the first author’s experiences as a PhD candidate studying to become a “phenomenological” researcher. Our findings reveal that reflecting explicitly on bodily subjectivity during the research process can reveal connections between the context of the interview, how the material is created socially and textually and how the researcher utilized information from her own body in the interpretation of the material. This, in turn, is likely to make the findings more inter-subjective and transparent, and thus more trustworthy and valid. Our findings point to the value of letting one’s own bodily experiences “count” in the process of determining how to explore the phenomena in question. Although the literature offers guidelines, each project and each researcher is unique. In this light, personal reflections are likely to highlight the value of critically engaging – and making explicit – the researcher’s own experiences, both during and after the interview process.DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3126/jer.v3i0.7850Journal of Education and Research March 2013, Vol. 3, No. 1, pp. 24-40

scholarly journals Manivestasi Konsep (Sunatullah) Dalam Pendidikan (Suatu Kajian Teologis)

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 91
Author(s):  
J Sutarjo ◽  
Nurwadjah Ahmad ◽  
Andewi Suhartini
Keyword(s):  
Islamic Education ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Education Curriculum ◽  
Practical Action ◽  
Level Of Education ◽  
The Will ◽  
Entire Universe ◽  
The Creation ◽  
Object Of Study ◽  
Theological Concept

One object of study of God is God's order for humans, commonly known as Sunatullah. Allah SWT as a substance that is the creator of all beings both human and the entire universe is one of the regularities of Allah SWT. Furthermore, the phenomenon of the order of God Almighty in His creation can be seen starting from the creation of humans and nature and their contents. In the level of theology, God's order for human beings (Sunatullah) is not limited to the regularities possessed by His creatures, but more than that, the various regularities that occur in creatures are the will of Allah SWT. Allah Almighty is the substance that wills, and controls the order in His creatures. Sunnatullah as a concept should be invested in Islamic education. Therefore it is necessary to understand about sunnatullah as something that must be believed, used as guidelines and translated at the level of education. After being translated into the education curriculum, the next task of education is to implement sunnatullah as a theological concept into a practical action for students.

Introduction

Slave No More ◽  
2019 ◽  
pp. 1-14
Author(s):  
Aline Helg
Keyword(s):  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
Comparative Study ◽  
Slave Trade ◽  
Multidimensional Approach ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Slave Resistance ◽  
Social Actors ◽  
Secondary Literature ◽  
Personal Property

This introductory section presents the historiography of the slave trade and the humanity of the slaves involved. How did slaves express themselves as human beings and social actors in their own right, when the laws of the time primarily considered them to be personal property? Spanning the early sixteenth century to 1838 and considering the entirety of the continental and Caribbean Americas, the author utilizes a multidimensional approach to conduct a long-term comparative study of the Americas, revealing the breadth and success of actions taken by slaves to liberate themselves long before abolitionism. This section also examines the particular circumstances of slaves and the actions of slaves who were able to obtain their own freedom, which reveals how slaves ultimately sped up the abolition of slavery. Looking at various forms of slave resistance also demonstrates the affirmation of slaves' intrinsic humanity. Finally, the introduction provides a review of secondary literature that serves as the foundation of Helg's book.

Philosophical Background

2021 ◽  
pp. 11-18
Author(s):  
Mark Timmons
Keyword(s):  
Human Beings ◽  
Phenomenal World ◽  
Knowledge Of God ◽  
Freedom Of The Will ◽  
The World ◽  
Philosophical Background ◽  
The Will ◽  
Kant's Ethics ◽  
Immortality Of The Soul ◽  
Cognition And Knowledge

This chapter provides a brief overview of certain elements of Kant’s metaphysics and epistemology that are essential background for understanding certain features of his ethical theory. In particular, it presents Kant’s distinction between the ‘world of sense’ or ‘phenomenal world’ and the ‘world of understanding’ or ‘noumenal world’ as a basis for explaining the limits of theoretical cognition which rules out theoretical cognition and knowledge of God, immortality of the soul, and freedom of the will, yet allows Kant to affirm their reality on moral grounds, needed to explain how the highest good is possible. Of importance for understanding certain claims in his work on virtue is the distinction between the phenomenal world and the noumenal world as it applies to human beings. The chapter concludes with reflections on the relation between Kant’s ethics and his metaphysical and epistemological commitments.

What Is in Our Power

2019 ◽  
pp. 121-168
Author(s):  
Han-luen Kantzer Komline
Keyword(s):  
Human Beings ◽  
Human Power ◽  
Pelagian Controversy ◽  
Good Will ◽  
The Will ◽  
Over Time

Chapter 3 begins to look at how Augustine’s thought on the good will developed during the Pelagian controversy. It considers Augustine’s answers to the question of what is within human power with respect to the will by addressing two subsidiary questions: How much can people do to achieve a good will? and How much can people do to enact a good will, to carry through with the good they want even when their will is weak? Augustine’s conviction that human beings need God’s help for the latter remained constant throughout the Pelagian controversy. Over time, however, he understood the need for God’s electing grace for the former, to meet the preconditions of conversion, in more and more radical terms. This development was not a result of polemical exigency alone but the gradual outworking of decades of struggling with the writings of Paul following Augustine’s initial flash of insight in Ad Simplicianum.

Predestination

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
George I. Mavrodes
Keyword(s):  
Thomas Aquinas ◽  
The Other ◽  
John Calvin ◽  
Eternal Life ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Equal Condition ◽  
Divine Grace ◽  
The World ◽  
The Will ◽  
Determining Factor

Predestination appears to be a religious or theological version of universal determinism, a version in which the final determining factor is the will or action of God. It is most often associated with the theological tradition of Calvinism, although some theologians outside the Calvinist tradition, or prior to it (for example, Augustine and Thomas Aquinas), profess similar doctrines. The idea of predestination also plays a role in some religions other than Christianity, perhaps most notably in Islam. Sometimes the idea of predestination is formulated in a comparatively restricted way, being applied only to the manner in which the divine grace of salvation is said to be extended to some human beings and not to others. John Calvin, for example, writes: We call predestination God’s eternal decree, by which he compacted with himself what he willed to become of each man. For all are not created in equal condition; rather, eternal life is foreordained for some, eternal damnation for others. Therefore, as any man has been created to one or the other of these ends, we speak of him as predestined to life or to death. (Institutes, bk 3, ch. 21, sec. 5) At other times, however, the idea is applied more generally to the whole course of events in the world; whatever happens in the world is determined by the will of God. Philosophically, the most interesting aspects of the doctrine are not essentially linked with salvation. For instance, if God is the first cause of all that happens, how can people be said to have free will? One answer may be that people are free in so far as they act in accordance with their own motives and desires, even if these are determined by God. Another problem is that the doctrine seems to make God ultimately responsible for sin. A possible response here is to distinguish between actively causing something and passively allowing it to happen, and to say that God merely allows people to sin; it is then human agents who actively choose to sin and God is therefore not responsible.

Luther’s Theological Method of Conflict and Distinction

2021 ◽  
pp. 47-68
Author(s):  
Miikka Ruokanen
Keyword(s):  
Holy Spirit ◽  
Theological Method ◽  
Central Feature ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Scriptural Interpretation ◽  
The Public ◽  
God's Word ◽  
The Will ◽  
Entire World ◽  
Law And Gospel

Luther’s method of theology is that of Scriptural interpretation. Erasmus complains that Scripture is obscure, an authoritative tradition is needed to interpret it. Luther confirms both the external and internal clarity of Scripture itself: “External clarity” is guaranteed by the public proclamation of God’s word; the natural meaning of the “text published to the entire world” is found in the very letter of Scripture. “Internal clarity” guarantees that the same Holy Spirit who inspired the canonical authors “internally moves” the hearer of the word granting him/her participation in Christological grace. The Spirit-inspired word is an efficient carrier of Trinitarian grace that changes its hearers. In contrast to the skeptical view of Erasmus, Luther uses the assertive propositions of Scripture as a means of assuring theocentric salvation. Because of its double clarity, “Scripture alone,” sola Scriptura, is a sufficient norm for the truth of the gospel. Another central feature of Luther’s theological method in The Bondage of the Will is his view of the conflict between the opposing transcendental powers which fight over the control of the human beings: the Triune God’s goodness, love, and grace against unfaith, sin, and Satan. Only God’s Spirit can liberate the sinner from captivity by unfaith and evil. Erasmusnever mentions God’s Spirit when discussing grace, and there is no mention of Satan in his treatise. Moreover, the distinction between the “things below oneself” and the “things above oneself” is crucial for Luther’s understanding of law and gospel; Erasmus makes no distinction between the two realms.

Minds and Machines

2011 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 39-48 ◽  
Author(s):  
James H. Fetzer
Keyword(s):  
Single Case ◽  
Complex Interaction ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Freedom Of The Will ◽  
Stereotypical Behavior ◽  
The Will

Although distinctions can be drawn between relations of simulation, replication, and emulation, basic differences between digital machines and human beings render the strong forms of anticipation that are impossible in principle. Because the use of signs in affecting behavior is dependent on a context of preexisting motives, beliefs, ethics, abilities and capabilities, ontic and epistemic difficulties relative to the complex interaction of distinct variables and relevant conditions to which each person has been subjected in his or her unique life, makes non-trivial explanations and predictions—ones not involving stereotyped or scripted behavior—theoretically impossible, including for the weakest forms of simulation. Indeed, even stereotypical behavior may not be predicable on similar grounds for real, historical human beings, not only in general but even for each single case. This study may even be viewed as an essay about freedom of the will.

HUMAN AUTONOMY AND ITS LIMITS IN THE THOUGHT OF ORIGEN OF ALEXANDRIA

2016 ◽  
Vol 66 (2) ◽  
pp. 673-690
Author(s):  
Kathleen Gibbons
Keyword(s):  
Good Reason ◽  
Alternative Possibilities ◽  
Third Century ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
The Third ◽  
Human Choice ◽  
Origen Of Alexandria ◽  
Human Autonomy ◽  
The Will ◽  
The Church

As the church historian Henri Crouzel observed, questions about the nature of human autonomy were central to the thought of the third-century theologian Origen of Alexandria. On this question, his influence on later generations, though complicated, would be difficult to overstate. Yet, what exactly Origen thought autonomy required has been a subject of debate. On one widespread reading, he has been taken to argue that autonomy requires that human beings have the capacity to act otherwise than they do in fact act; that is, that alternative possibilities of action are causally available to them. As Susanne Bobzien has argued, however, there is good reason to think that the view that such alternative possibilities are required for the ascription of autonomy did not explicitly emerge until Alexander of Aphrodisias, a rough contemporary of Origen's of whose thought he was likely unaware. In revisiting Origen on the notion of ‘free will’, Michael Frede, against the ‘alternative possibilities’ reading, argued that his theory of the will was largely attributable to Stoicism, and in particular to Epictetus’ theory of will as προαίρεσις. George Boys-Stones, for his part, has claimed that, while Origen's theory of the descent of the pre-existent minds is aimed at providing an account of how human beings are entirely responsible for their characters, in the embodied state we find no evidence that he understood human choice subsequent to the fall to depend upon the existence of alternative possibilities in order to be autonomous.

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