An Eschatology of the Absolute

2020 ◽  
pp. 47-80
Author(s):  
Evan F. Kuehn
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Theory Of Religion ◽  
Human Understanding ◽  
The Absolute ◽  
A Chain ◽  
Critical Project

Chapter 2 examines how Troeltsch “eschatologized” the Absolute in key theological texts. Troeltsch’s eschatological Absolute was a keystone to his theory of religion and was rooted in nineteenth-century idealism and romanticism. The chapter compares his notion of the Absolute with Kant’s critical project, Fichte’s post-Jena work on the Wissenschaftslehre, the work of Schelling and Hegel, and recent research on the early German romantic tradition. It then explains Troeltsch’s idea of a “chain of reasons” sought by human understanding toward a receding absolute end characterizing a uniquely modern religious mentality, as well as his idea of a “yearning” for the Absolute that is related to eschatological expectation.

A sociohistorical basis of grammatical simplification: The absolute construction in nineteenth-century Tejano narrative discourse

2000 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 251-266 ◽  
Author(s):  
Glenn A. Martínez
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Social Theory ◽  
The United States ◽  
Turn Of The Century ◽  
South Texas ◽  
Narrative Discourse ◽  
Social Changes ◽  
Social Variable ◽  
The Absolute ◽  
In The Beginning

This article examines the reduction of syntactic options in South Texas Spanish narrative discourse during the nineteenth century. I argue that nineteenth-century Texas Spanish made ample use of the absolute construction as an orientation strategy in narrative discourse. In the beginning of the century the absolute construction appeared quite frequently in the narratives analyzed, but by the turn of the century the construction had become virtually unknown. I argue that the loss was actualized through a series of reductive changes that were played out in the internal and external syntax of the construction. These reductive changes, I suggest, not only cut across stylistic boundaries, but also corresponded with social changes under way with the incorporation of the region into the United States. The notion of “historical generation,” as it has emerged in social theory, is invoked as a significant social variable in relation to the linguistic variation and change observed.

Hegel's Dialectic in Historical Philosophy

Philosophy ◽  
1940 ◽  
Vol 15 (59) ◽  
pp. 243-268 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. O. Wisdom
Keyword(s):  
History Of Philosophy ◽  
Necessary Truth ◽  
History Of ◽  
Interesting Correlation ◽  
The Absolute ◽  
Psychological Truth ◽  
A Chain

Conflicting Systems in the History of Philosophy. Hegel's logic consists, as is well known, in a chain of categories, connected by a relation of dialectic, which proceeded from the featureless Being, Nothing, and Becoming through more important ones such as Substance, Cause, and Reciprocity to the highest category of all, the Absolute Idea. Now Hegel also pointed to an interesting correlation between the categories of his logic and the dominant concepts of those philosophies that preceded his own: that is to say, the logical order of categories given by him corresponded to the temporal order of the history of philosophy. Such connexion was not, however, to be regarded as an accident but as a necessary truth: for the Absolute manifested itself temporally in the form of the history of philosophy. Seeing that this contention probably contains some psychological truth and is probably assumed in Marxian interpretations of Hegel, it may be of some interest to see how far it can be substantiated.

scholarly journals Apprehension and Existence, Appearance and Reality: The Reception of Nafs al-amr Debates after the 13th Century

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 7-39
Author(s):  
Murat Kaş
Keyword(s):  
External World ◽  
Human Cognition ◽  
13Th Century ◽  
The Real ◽  
Human Understanding ◽  
The Absolute ◽  
The Mind ◽  
Muslim Scholars ◽  
The Way

The structure of human cognition and the means of apprehension is suitable only for partly and gradually conceiving reality. This limitation has led to a certain distance between appearance and reality. This means that there will always be a gap between the judgments of the mind about the external world and its contents, which are entities, cases, facts, and states. This partiality and partiteness of human understanding has produced the truth-maker problem with regard to mind judgments. Muslim scholars who admit the correlation between the structure of reality and the categories of the mind but reject the notion of the construction and the determination of reality by the mind refer to the realm that is independent of the mind’s personal judgments as nafs al-amr. This realm is concerned with the all degrees of reality, namely—from the existent to the non-existent, from the necessity to the contingency and impossibility, from the absolute to the relative, from the material to the non-physical, from the external to the mental, and from the real entities to the abstracted ones—which step into the shot of human cognition or not. Carrying the concept of nafs al-amr from the logical plane to the metaphysical realm that intersects epistemology and ontology has led to debates that pave the way for various treatments. In particular, Naṣīr al-Dīn al-Ṭūsī’s (d. 672/1274) nafs al-amr epistle that posited it to the cosmic sphere resulted in criticisms of this conception of nafs al-amr, and these criticisms are the same ones directed to the Avicennian theory of emanation and its epistemological implications. Scholars who use this concept free from any metaphysical presumption and implication argue against his leap from the logical to the cosmic sphere. During the following period, this tension occasioned debates that led to the approaches that refer to the various degrees of reality, i.e., to the cosmic spheres, the spiritual realms, and the divine realms. This work aims to create a map of treatments, arguments and problems with regard to the concept of nafs al-amr.

scholarly journals O PARADOXO DA ENCARNAÇÃO: CRÍTICA DE KIERKEGAARD À TEOLOGIA ESPECULATIVA DO SEU TEMPO

2016 ◽  
Vol 48 (3) ◽  
pp. 559
Author(s):  
Domingos Salgado de Sousa
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Human Reason ◽  
Human Understanding ◽  
Theological Thought

RESUMO: Kierkegaard é frequentemente apresentado como o solitário opositor das correntes dominantes do pensamento filosófico e teológico do século XIX. É, porém, no âmbito da cristologia, onde se torna mais evidente tal oposição. Kierkegaard elaborou a sua doutrina do paradoxo em resposta ao uso do princípio hegeliano da mediação na teologia especulativa do seu tempo. Contrariamente à teologia especulativa, Kierkegaard defende que a realidade divina e humana não estão subjacentemente unidas, mas formam polos completamente opostos, separados por uma diferença qualitativa infinita. Ao conciliar realidades opostas em si, o paradoxo da manifestação de Deus no tempo opõe-se a qualquer forma de mediação. O conceito de paradoxo é interpretado por alguns críticos como uma contradição lógica. É assinalado que Kierkegaard ao apresentar a fé como única forma de acesso ao paradoxo está a exigir do crente que coloque de parte a lógica e aceite o que é ininteligível à razão humana. A encarnação como objeto de fé, porém, não é paradoxal no sentido de violar os princípios lógicos, mas no sentido de que transcende absolutamente a compreensão humana.ABSTRACT: Kierkegaard is often portrayed as the lone protester against the dominant currents of nineteenth century philosophical and theological thought. It is, however, within the Jeld of Christology where such objections are most clearly evident. Kierkegaard developed his doctrine of the paradox in response to the use made of the Hegelian principle of mediation by the speculative theology of his time. Contrary to speculative theology, Kierkegaard argues that divine and human natures are not immanently united, but that they constitute opposing poles, separated by a qualitative infinite difference. By combining the opposing realities within it, the paradox of God’s revelation in time is contrary to any form of mediation. Some critics have interpreted the concept of the paradox as alogical contradiction. It is pointed out that by viewing faith as the only away of gaining access to the paradox, Kierkegaard is demanding that the believer put logic aside and embrace what is unintelligible to human reason. The incarnation as an object of faith, however, is not paradoxical in the sense that it violates the principles of logic, but in the sense that it absolutely transcends human understanding.

The silence of God in the poetry of Father David Maria Turoldo

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fabiano Gritti
Keyword(s):  
Divine Intervention ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Poor ◽  
Current Affairs ◽  
Human Understanding ◽  
The Absolute

The article concerns the last phase of poetic production of father David Maria Turoldo, notably the last collection published when he was still alive – the Final Chants. In his very long work or religious poet, liturgist, and essayist, he treated a number of topics, incl. social themes and current affairs. In his last phase of his poetic, he doesn’t speak to the society, to the poor, and to marginalised people like in the past, but he addresses God directly – by forming an intense dialogue with the Absolute. In this poetical and mystical dialogue, he interrogates God about the most impenetrable mysteries for human understanding. These mysteries overwhelmed theologians and mystics of all times. Here, we shall focus notably on the topic of God being far from His creation – which is manifested through the divine silence. God seems not to hear the invocations of the faithful; it looks as though He doesn’t care about the problem of suffering (especially of the weakest persons) that remains apparently unrelieved by divine intervention. We shall present some meaningful short examples of such deep and complex issues, in order to introduce the reader to the knowledge of the peculiar Turoldian approach, by providing a possible interpretative key.

The Search for the Absolute

Janus Head ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 85-96
Author(s):  
Owen Anderson ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Alternative Pathway ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
Analytic Philosophy ◽  
Rudolf Carnap ◽  
New Science ◽  
The Absolute ◽  
Answering Questions

Contemporary Analytic Philosophy finds itself within a historical context, answering questions that have been handed to it by earlier philosophers. Specifically contemporary Analytic Philosophy finds itself responding to the Idealists of the nineteenth century in the hope of justifying the "new science" that seems to give us so many practical benefits. In doing this, questions arise as to how contemporary Analytic Philosophy will answer the problems that Idealists struggled with. In thefollowing, a brief overview of the Idealist enterprise will be contrasted with two contemporary Analytic Philosophers, namely Rudolf Carnap and W.V. Quine, in order to understand how the latter two deal with the philosophical problems handed to them by their tradition. Specifically, the question of universals and their relation to the absolute, and the assumption behind this concerning intuition are going to be investigated. This article will argue that the Idealist tradition raised important questions that Carnap and Quine were not able to answer. It will critique Carnap and Quine as failing to find the universal required for thought and propose an alternative pathway to finding the solution.

Christian Faith and the Protestant Principle

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Madhuri M. Yadlapati
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Karl Barth ◽  
Christian Theology ◽  
Christian Faith ◽  
Paul Tillich ◽  
Human Understanding ◽  
Justification By Faith ◽  
Late Twentieth ◽  
Late Twentieth Century

This chapter takes a closer look at three figures whose discussions of faith are among the most influential in twentieth-century Christian theology. Two, Paul Tillich and Karl Barth, are twentieth-century Christian theologians and one, Søren Kierkegaard, is a nineteenth-century philosopher, but all three determine directions taken by existentialist Christian theology in the late twentieth century. All three figures happen to be Protestant, not simply by denominational identification, but more importantly, each is guided by the Protestant doctrine of justification by faith alone to emphasize the priority of God's saving grace over any human works and human understanding. All three adhere to the Protestant Principle (an individual's right and responsibility to radically question and reinterpret questions of faith), albeit in different ways.

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