Unbinding Jewish Philosophical Theology

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
James A. Diamond
Keyword(s):  
Philosophical Theology ◽  
Christian Tradition ◽  
Biblical Text

The voluminous corpus of the rabbinic genre known as midrash and aggadah involves not just law (halakhah), but also a prolific repository of unrefined philosophical theology. The aggadic and midrashic style encompasses narrative, allegory, and a deeply intimate exegetical engagement with every syllable of the biblical text. It may not correspond neatly to the kinds of systematic treatises, largely identified with the Christian tradition, through which theology is traditionally delivered. The philosophy and theology that inhere in the midrashic genre are, at the very least, of equal profundity and complexity. One needs only to be attuned to its manner and style of communication, consisting of an unrelenting intricate weave of ciphers and cross-references to its biblical antecedents, to hear a literal barrage of philosophical theology.

The Twelve Minor Prophets in Art and Music

2021 ◽  
pp. 278-295
Author(s):  
John F. A. Sawyer
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
Visual Art ◽  
Reception History ◽  
Christian Tradition ◽  
Biblical Text ◽  
Popular Songs ◽  
Minor Prophets

This brief study of reception history begins with how images and texts have been handled in works of visual art, giving some idea not only of how the Twelve Minor Prophets dress and what they look like in many different contexts but also, particularly in Christian tradition, how they have been used to illustrate details in the Gospel story. It begins with some independent statues and paintings and then turns to look briefly at how each of the Minor Prophets, starting with Jonah, has been portrayed in the light of details in the biblical text. It then looks at how the Twelve have been interpreted in oratorios, cantatas, and anthems, as well as in African American spirituals and popular songs, both Jewish and Christian.

Creation's Praise of God

Theology ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 112 (867) ◽  
pp. 181-189 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dominic Coad
Keyword(s):  
Thomas Aquinas ◽  
Full Potential ◽  
Christian Tradition ◽  
Biblical Text ◽  
Orthodox Christian

The theme of creation's praise of God has occasionally appeared in ecological theological literature but its full potential has not yet been realized. An engagement between the biblical text and Christian tradition, exemplified by Psalm 148 and the work of Thomas Aquinas, may allow this theme to take on a greater importance. Understanding praise as essential to creation's being allows humanity and non-humanity to be identified much more closely while producing a theology which is firmly grounded in the richness of orthodox Christian tradition.

Methodology, Problems, and Desiderata

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eleonore Stump
Keyword(s):  
Christian Theology ◽  
Philosophical Theology ◽  
Christian Tradition ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Short Presentation

The doctrine that Christ has saved human beings from their sins, with all that that salvation entails, is the distinctive doctrine of Christianity. This book is an examination of that doctrine. The first chapter begins with a consideration of the nature of the project of this book. It is an exercise in philosophical theology, whose nature is briefly summarized. The data of Christian theology that this exercise in philosophical theology presupposes are then set out and discussed. Next, the chapter outlines the elements of the problem that the atonement is meant to solve, namely, the problems of guilt and shame and of the human liability to moral wrongdoing. Then the chapter sketches the main kinds of interpretation of the doctrine of the atonement that can be found in the Christian tradition and briefly summarizes their strengths and weaknesses. The chapter finishes with a short presentation of the desiderata for any acceptable interpretation of the doctrine of the atonement.

God and the Issue of Being

1984 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 63-78
Author(s):  
Ivor Leclerc
Keyword(s):  
Religious Tradition ◽  
Philosophical Theology ◽  
Critical Examination ◽  
Christian Tradition ◽  
Philosophical Argument ◽  
Hellenistic Period ◽  
Greek Philosophy ◽  
Concept Of God ◽  
The Status ◽  
The Absolute

There is a long tradition in Western philosophical theology of conceiving God as ‘a being’. It dates back to the Hellenistic period, more particularly to the conjunction of Greek philosophy and the Hebrew religion in Alexandria with Philo, and it became orthodox in the Christian tradition through Augustine. In our time most aspects of this religious tradition have been subjected to a salutary re-examination, but in this the concept of God as ‘a being’ has been relatively neglected. After such a long acceptance of so fundamental a doctrine, it is liable largely to have sunk to the status of a presupposition, entailing a loss of intellectual awareness of what precisely it implies. Even where the Augustinian philosophical argument upon which this concept is based is recognized, as it has been in the long Neoplatonic tradition, it has come to appear as essentially self-evident and thus has not been subjected to fundamental critical examination. Significant of this is that even where the personalistic conception of God has been abandoned, e.g. by the idealist philosophy of the Absolute, the conception nevertheless persists of God as ‘a being’.

Life, Healing, and the Bible: A Christian Challenge

1995 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 315-334
Author(s):  
Francis J. Moloney
Keyword(s):  
New World ◽  
Christian Tradition ◽  
Biblical Text ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Human Situation ◽  
Life Issues ◽  
Gospel Narratives ◽  
Point Of Reference

The Christian tradition uses the Bible as a point of reference in its response to challenges raised by the increasing complexity of the human situation. The first part of this paper describes an approach which respects the ancient nature of the biblical text and the newness of problems it is sometimes used to resolve. Does the Bible still say anything to our new world? Focusing upon life issues, the possible challenge of the Christian Bible is then presented under three headings: the centrality of life, the fundamental biblical belief that this life is not the only life, and the continuing relevance of the Gospel narratives which report the miracles of Jesus.

Editors’ Note

2016 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-9
Author(s):  
Marcin Podbielski ◽  
Andrew Kaethler
Keyword(s):  
Important Task ◽  
Philosophical Theology ◽  
Christian Tradition ◽  
Salvation History ◽  
Joseph Ratzinger ◽  
Christian Thought ◽  
Theology Of History

In the Summer of 2015 Sotiris Mitralexis and Andrew T. J. Kaethler organized a conference held in Delphi, Greece, titled “Ontology and History: A Challenging and Auspicious Dialogue for Philosophy and Theology.” The conference brought together over sixty scholars from various parts of the globe, representing Orthodoxy, Catholicism, and Protestantism—truly an ecumenical affair. The topic of the conference, which is well represented in this volume of Forum Philosophicum, was purposefully broad because it is a question that remains open and which sits at the centre of the Christian philosophical and theological tradition. Joseph Ratzinger posited in several works that the interplay between salvation history and ontology is the most pressing concern for modern theology. In Introduction to Christianity—a modest title for a robust piece of theology—Ratzinger notes that early in the Christian tradition a division arose between theological metaphysics and theology of history, each seen as two different things; “people indulge either in ontological speculation or anti-philosophical theology of salvation history, thus losing in a really tragic way the original unity of Christian thought. At the start Christian thinking is neither merely ‘soteriological’ nor merely ‘metaphysical’ but molded by the unity of history and being. Here lies an important task for modern theological work, which is torn once again by this dilemma.”

All is of God

10.1558/32682 ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 83-104
Author(s):  
Jon Paul Sydnor
Keyword(s):  
Christian Tradition

This essay elaborates a constructive, comparative, nondual theodicy for the Christian tradition based on the Hindu Vai??ava tradition. According to the Indologist Henrich Zimmer, in Vai??avism everything is an emanation of Vi??u, therefore everything is of Vi??u. All apparent opposites are inherently divine and implicitly complementary. Good and bad, joy and suffering, pain and pleasure are not conflicting dualities; they are interdependent qualities that increase one another’s being. The Hindu myth of Samudra Manthan, or the Churning of the Ocean, exemplifies Vai??ava nondualism. In that story, gods and demons—seeming opposites—cooperate in order to extract the nectar of immortality from an ocean of milk. If “opposites” are interdependent, hence complementary, then they are not “opposites” but mutually amplifying contrasts. Given this phenomenology, and applying it to the Christian tradition, a benevolent God who desires full vitality for her creatures would have to create pain, suffering, darkness, and death in order to intensify their correlates. Love would demand their creation, because love would want abundant life for all. In this aesthetic theodicy, the interplay of all contrasts results from the love of a life-giving God.

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