Sergius Bulgakov in Exile

Author(s):  
Robert F. Slesinski
Keyword(s):  

In the course of two theological trilogies, Bulgakov expounds his sophiological worldview governed by one central theological intuition concerning the necessary correlativity of the divine and human worlds, Divine Sophia (Wisdom) superabounding in creatural Sophia essentially orientated to the glorification of the Creator. Undergirding all his thought is an acute intuition of the self-presence of the Absolute, Transcendent to all creatural being, the very fact of a ‘trans’ a ‘beyond’ necessarily entailing relation, ultimately rendering the Absolute a Being-for-us, love and the Godhead being at one. With the kenosis of the Divinity in the Incarnation one grasps how the apotheosis of humanity becomes possible, human being bearing the ‘cryptogram of Divinity’. Humanity’s full realization is at one with the Church, nothing human being alien to the Church at her core, the essential goodness of creation bespeaking the final transformation of all in the loving embrace of an All-Provident Creator.

2011 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 56-85 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nora S. Eggen

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.


2021 ◽  
Vol 103 (1) ◽  
pp. 6-26
Author(s):  
Ruth A. Meyers ◽  
Katherine Sonderegger

These essays were presented at the Jubilate conference at Christ Church Cathedral in the Diocese of Southern Ohio on 2 November 2019. Meyers urges the expansion of images and metaphors used to speak of the mystery of God in liturgy while not abandoning classical masculine language for God. Expanding our language is essential, she argues, both to speak the truth about God and to uphold the dignity of every human being. Sonderegger contends that masculine language for God is a settled matter in the church and in liturgy, and that this is compatible with a particular vision of Christian feminism, one centered on the material conditions of living women.


2021 ◽  
Vol 64 (2) ◽  
pp. 110-127
Author(s):  
Henri Hude

This articles describes the “neuronal crisis,” the epidemic of psychosomatic illnesses observed all over the world, particularly in the West. The paper looks into the deeper real causes and seeks the most effective kind of cure for this malady. This leads to rational consideration of the metaphysical dimension of the human being and the fundamental problems (those of evil, of freedom, of God, of the soul, and of the body), where lack of sufficiency plays a major part in the etiology of these pathologies, as the desire for the Absolute is the basis of the unconscious. This approach presumes the Freudian model but denies its purely libidinal interpretation that substitutes desire for the Absolute with libido. Hence, an explanatory system applied to increasingly serious pathologies: ailments, neuroses, depressions, and psychoses. Frustration of one’s desire for the Good gives rise to a sublimation of finite goodness. The inevitable desublimation, caused by anguish because of the Evil, intense guilt, and the dramatization of evils, causes neuroses as awkward but inevitable solutions to the existential problem that is still unresolved, due to lack of functional and experimental knowledge. Psychiatry and even medicine must take into account the metaphysical layer, and, therefore, operate within an existential dynamic, aiming to progress in wisdom and to discover man, man’s brain and body, as these are structured around the axis of his desire.


2017 ◽  
Vol 49 (3) ◽  
pp. 497
Author(s):  
Pedro Trigo

RESUMEN: Ponemos el núcleo de la modernidad en el descubrimiento de la individualidad, entendido como un proceso emancipatorio respecto de las co­lectividades que pautaban su vida. Sus dos modos básicos, en pugna constante, serían desarrollar su individualidad autárquicamente o entenderse como un ser humano, autónomo y único, pero referido a la única humanidad. Parecería que se ha impuesto el individualista, objetivando su dominio en los sistemas económico y político, pretendidamente autoconstruidos y autorregulados. Siempre hubo cristianos modernos, pero debieron soportar la contradicción de la institución eclesiástica. El Vaticano II discernió que el ser humano es histórico y que al hacer la historia se hace a sí mismo; reconoció que los bienes civilizatorios propician la vida humana, pero no equivalen al desarrollo propiamente humano. Sólo éste es escatológico. La responsabilidad ante los hermanos y la historia, que se ejerce en la encarnación solidaria, es el nuevo humanismo. La superación de la modernidad se da en el paso del individuo solo o en relación, al ser humano constitutivamente relacional, que se hace persona al actuar como hijo y hermano desde su insobor­nable individualidad.ABSTRACT: We put the core of Modernity in the emerging phenomena of indi­viduality, understood as a process of emancipation from the ruling groups. Its two ways, always in tension, would be to develop an individuality autocratically or to understand the individual as a unique and autonomous human being, but only in reference to humankind. It looks like that the individualist model has imposed itself dominating the economical and political systems, supposedly self-made and self-regulated. Modern christians have always existed, but they had always to deal with the contradiction of the Church as institution. The Vatican II discerned that the human being is historical and while making history we form themselves; rec­ognized that the civilizing benefits propitiate human life, but they do not equate to true human development. This is only eschatological. The responsibility towards brothers and history, that we perform in our caring incarnation, is the new hu­manism. We go beyond modernity when we pass from the individual alone or in relation to humankind intrinsically relational, that becomes a person by acting as a son and brother while anchored in indelible individuality. 


2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 135-175
Author(s):  
Warseto Freddy Sihombing

AbstractNo one can be justified before God for doing good deeds. No matter how good a man is, if he does not believe in Jesus Christ, the Son of God, he will not be saved from the wrath of God to come. There is no human being who is right before God, and no sinful man can save himself in any way. The only way out is in the way that God has given to the problem of all sinners, by sending Jesus Christ to the world to die for sinners. "And for this he came, so that every man believed in him, who was sent by God" (John 6:29). The Bible teaches that salvation is only obtained because of faith in Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the object of that faith. This salvation is known as the statement "Justified by faith. Paul explained this teaching in each of his writings. This teaching of justification by faith has been repeatedly denied by some people who disagree with Paul's opinion. The history of the church from the early centuries to the present has proven the variety of understandings that have emerged from this teaching, but one important thing is that sinful humans are justified by their faith in Jesus Christ before God.Keywords: Paul;history; justified by faith.AbstrakTidak ada seorang pun yang dapat dibenarkan di hadapan Allah karena telah melakukan perbuatan baik. Sebaik apa pun manusia, jika dia tidak percaya kepada Yesus Kristus, Anak Allah maka ia tidak akan selamat dari murka Allah yang akan datang. Tidak ada seorang pun manusia yang benar di hadapan Allah, dan tidak ada seorang manusia berdosa yang dapat menyelematkan dirinya sendiri dengan cara apa pun. Satu-satunya jalan keluar adalah dengan cara yang Allah telah berikan untuk masalah semua orang berdosa, yaitu dengan mengutus Yesus Kristus ke dunia untuk mati bagi orang berdosa. “Dan untuk itulah Dia datang, yaitu supaya setiap orang percaya kepada Dia, yang telah diutus oleh Allah” (Yohanes 6:29). Alkitab mengajarkan bahwa keselamatan hanya diperoleh karena iman kepada Yesus Kristus. Yesus Kristus adalah obyek iman tersebut. Keselamatan ini dikenal dengan pernyataan “Dibenarkan karena iman. Paulus menjelaskan ajaran ini dalam setiap tulisannya. Ajaran pembenaran oleh iman ini telah berulang kali disangkal oleh beberap orang yang tidak setuju dengan pendapat Paulus. Sejarah gereja mulai dari abad permulaan sampai pada masa sekarang ini telah membuktikan beragamnya pemahaman yang muncul terhadap ajaran ini, namun satu hal yang terpenting adalah bahwa manusia berdosa dibenarkan oleh iman mereka kepada Yesus Kristus di hadapan Allah.Kata Kunci: Paulus; sejarah; iman; dibenarkan oleh iman.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
muh. idris

Nowadays, education tends to ignore the value of human being which consists of the liberation. The liberation value in human individual is taken by another person who yells out democracy. We can find the real fact in reality where one person takes another person’s right through an institution with democracy and quality reasons. An education scientist, Paulo Freire, gives an illustration that education today through formal institution makes robot in human who work as mechanic machine, where their independent to act and express the ideas is limited. In simple way, Freire points out that, “The absolute consistency will make life becomes worthless, discolor, and cannot be felt experience.” Based on the statement above, Freire has deschooling concept, the concept of study without schooling. It’s because the study can be done out of the formal school even in outdoor condition.


Adeptus ◽  
2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dagmara Wasilewska

Paradoxes in Jīva Gosvāmi’s concept of the soul, path to perfection and liberationThis article is devoted to the role and significance of paradoxes in the philosophical thought and mysticism of the sixteenth-century Bengali Vaishnava theologian Jīva Gosvāmi. He situates his system within the Vedanta school, where the main category distinguishing its branches and deciding on their specific character is the relation between the Absolute, the phenomenal world and the human being. In Gosvāmi’s school, this relation involves identity and distinctness (bhedābheda) of those categories at the same time, referred to by the word acintya (“inaccessible to reason”), which further stresses this ontological paradox. Although doctrinally the most important, it is not the only paradox in Gosvami’s thought. Adopting this core metaphysical thesis engendered many other aporias, including those concerning the nature of the soul, the concept of bhakti (loving devotion to a deity) and the idea of liberation (mukti), which Goswami then attempts to solve in his most important philosophical treatise – Ṣaṭsandarbha. Paradoksy w Dźiwy Goswamina koncepcji duszy, drogi do doskonałości oraz wyzwoleniaPrzedmiotem artykułu jest rola i znaczenie paradoksów w myśli filozoficznej i mistyce teologa wisznuizmu bengalskiego – Dźiwy Goswamina (XVI w.). Sytuuje on swój system w obrębie szkoły wedanty, w której główną kategorią odróżniającą jej nurty i decydującą o ich specyfice jest relacja pomiędzy absolutem a światem zjawiskowym i człowiekiem. U Goswamina będzie to relacja jednoczesnej tożsamości i odrębności (bhedābheda) powyższych kategorii, dookreślona słowem acintya – „niedostępna rozumowi” – co dodatkowo uwydatnia ten ontologiczny paradoks. Chociaż doktrynalnie najistotniejszy, nie jest to jednak jedyny paradoks w myśli Goswamina. Poprzez przyjęcie tej nadrzędnej tezy metafizycznej powstało bowiem wiele innych aporii, między innymi dotyczących natury duszy, problemu wcielenia, a także koncepcji bhakti (nabożnego oddania dla bóstwa) oraz wyzwolenia (mukti), które następnie Goswamin stara się rozwiązać w swoim najważniejszym traktacie filozoficznym – Szatsandarbhsze.


Author(s):  
Jyrki Kivelä

I clarify Hume's concept of miracle with Kierkegaard's concept of absolute paradox. I argue that absolute paradox is like that miracle which, according to Hume, allows a human being to believe Christianity against the principles of his understanding. I draw such a conclusion on the basis that Kierkegaard does not think Christianity is a doctrine with a truth value and, furthermore, he holds that all historical events (such as miracles) are doubtful. Kierkegaard emphasizes the absolute paradox as the condition of faith in such a way that it becomes close to Hume's idea of personal miracle which causes the subversion of the believer's principles of understanding. Hence, the absolute paradox cannot be a possible supporting event (Hume's first miracle) for the credibility of Christianity. Absolute paradox more closely approximates Hume's second miracle insofar as it makes persons believe contrary to their custom and experience.


2020 ◽  
Vol 71 (4) ◽  
pp. 712-737
Author(s):  
UTE POSSEKEL

Thomas of Edessa (d. c. 540), author of Explanations of the Nativity and of Epiphany, flourished as a teacher at the School of Nisibis in Sasanid Persia. By analysing his understanding of salvation history, exegesis and the idea of the human being as ‘bond of creation’, this article shows how Thomas took up and popularised concepts central to the theology of Theodore of Mopsuestia. The article posits that the Nisibene school theology of Thomas and others constituted – alongside liturgy, canonical decrees and biblical commentaries – one of the principal avenues by which Theodore's theology was transmitted to the Church of the East.


1993 ◽  
Vol 86 (3) ◽  
pp. 309-321
Author(s):  
David Aberbach

The idea of mystical union with God or a higher being is universal in theological systems, although it may take many forms, metaphorical and moral as well as metaphysical. In Hinduism this concept is expressed in the sayingTat twam asi(“This is thou”); a human being, by finding his or her true immortal self (atman), becomes united with Brahman and, in so doing, achievesnirvana. In Buddhism, similarly, humans must strive to recognize the unity of all within the eternal Buddha, thedharmakaya, the absolute truth or reality that transcends human perception. Jewish mysticism teachesdevekut, commonly translated as adhesion, cleaving, or union with God. Christian mysticism refers to Jesus' words “Abide in me and I in you” (John 15:4) as pertaining to divine union, which has its concrete expression in baptism and the Eucharist. Even Islam, which insists on the absolute transcendence of God, has developed the mystical doctrine oftawhid(“union”).


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