Love

2021 ◽  
pp. 262-280
Author(s):  
Frederick V. Simmons
Keyword(s):  
Human Nature ◽  
Social Ethics ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Reinhold Niebuhr ◽  
Christian Realism ◽  
The Social ◽  
God's Love ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
Widespread Interest ◽  
Do So

Reinhold Niebuhr regarded love as the law of human nature. He interpreted that love as agape, identified it with God’s love, and claimed that Jesus revealed it as universal, self-transcending, forgiving, non-resistant, and sacrificial. According to Niebuhr such love produces harmony yet humans inevitably succumb to something less. This inveterate shortcoming grounded Niebuhr’s Christian Realism and concentrated his social ethics on justice, which he related to love dialectically. It also shaped Niebuhr’s exposition of the Christian Gospel as primarily disclosure of God’s forgiveness, which enables human beings to love self-transcendently and thus fulfil their nature by freeing them from their failure to do so. Niebuhr’s account of love stimulated widespread interest in the topic and extensive criticism of his proposals. Nonetheless, Niebuhr argued that the paradoxical relationship of sacrificial and mutual love in history validated that account and the social ethics and soteriology he connected to it.

Thinking technology for the Anthropocene: encountering 3D printing through the philosophy of Gilbert Simondon

2017 ◽  
Vol 24 (4) ◽  
pp. 539-554 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tom Roberts
Keyword(s):  
3D Printing ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Anthropogenic Change ◽  
Technological Processes ◽  
The Earth ◽  
The Social ◽  
Human Thinking ◽  
The Moment ◽  
Gilbert Simondon ◽  
Do So

The notion that the Earth has entered a new epoch characterized by the ubiquity of anthropogenic change presents the social sciences with something of a paradox, namely, that the point at which we recognize our species to be a geologic force is also the moment where our assumed metaphysical privilege becomes untenable. Cultural geography continues to navigate this paradox in conceptually innovative ways through its engagements with materialist philosophies, more-than-human thinking and experimental modes of ontological enquiry. Drawing upon the philosophy of Gilbert Simondon, this article contributes to these timely debates by articulating the paradox of the Anthropocene in relation to technological processes. Simondon’s philosophy precedes the identification of the Anthropocene epoch by a number of decades, yet his insistence upon situating technology within an immanent field of material processes resonates with contemporary geographical concerns in a number of important ways. More specifically, Simondon’s conceptual vocabulary provides a means of framing our entanglements with technological processes without assuming a metaphysical distinction between human beings and the forces of nature. In this article, I show how Simondon’s concepts of individuation and transduction intersect with this technological problematic through his far-reaching critique of the ‘hylomorphic’ distinction between matter and form. Inspired by Simondon’s original account of the genesis of a clay brick, the article unfolds these conceptual challenges through two contrasting empirical encounters with 3D printing technologies. In doing so, my intention is to lend an affective consistency to Simondon’s problematic, and to do so in a way that captures the kinds of material mutations expressive of a particular technological moment.

Slavery, Redemption, and Manumission as Structural Metaphors in Augustine’s Theology

2021 ◽  
Vol 40 (2) ◽  
pp. 195-220
Author(s):  
Joshua Benjamins
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Legal Norms ◽  
The Social ◽  
Christian Service ◽  
Contemporary Reality ◽  
A Chain ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
Key Terms ◽  
The Devil

Across his corpus, Augustine strikingly and recurrently deploys the three cognate metaphors of slavery to sin, redemption from sin, and slavery to God. I argue that Augustine’s use of these theological metaphors is thoroughly contoured by the legal and social strictures governing slavery and freedom in the later Roman empire. To develop this argument, I pay close attention to the economic and legal connotations of some key terms in Augustine’s lexicon of salvation—like manumissio, redemptio, and libertas—and seek to tease out the social, legal, and economic logic they encapsulate. As I show, the concept of dominium underwrites Augustine’s description of the prelapsarian ordo naturalis as a chain of hierarchical relationships: between God and man, soul and body, male and female. The notion that human beings are enslaved to sin, subject to the condicio servitutis from birth, evokes the situation of laboring tenants (coloni) bound to the land through their origo. Moreover, the bishop of Hippo’s descriptions of captivity to the devil and liberation through the interpellation (interpellatio) of God the Redeemer are informed by the contemporary reality of barbarian captivity and liberales causae, so richly described in Augustine’s Letter 10*. Finally, Augustine’s characterization of Christian service in terms of a state of simultaneous freedom and servitude implicitly draws upon the legal norms governing the relationship of freed captives to their redeemers, as well as the obligations of obsequium and gratia which freedmen owed to their former masters.

Is Aristotle an Archimedean Naturalist?

2019 ◽  
pp. 53-79
Author(s):  
Sylvia Berryman
Keyword(s):  
Human Nature ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Natural Justice ◽  
The Status ◽  
Relationship Of

This chapter examines the evidence of the ethical treatises regarding Aristotle’s use of the appeal to human nature to provide substantive guidance or justification for the demands of ethics. The so-called function argument, the notion that human beings have a natural direction of development, and the references to natural virtue or natural justice are canvassed as possible grounds for believing that Aristotle was an Archimedean naturalist about ethics. The status and relationship of the various ethical treatises is also discussed, together with the place of ethics within the hierarchy of sciences, as necessary background to the examination of Aristotle’s views.

Love and Trust

Runaway ◽  
2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anthony Chaney
Keyword(s):  
Human Agency ◽  
Environmental Problems ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Moral Significance ◽  
Reinhold Niebuhr ◽  
The Social ◽  
Ecology Of Mind ◽  
Purposive Action ◽  
Dialectics Of Liberation

This chapter interrogates Gregory Bateson's message to the Congress on the Dialectics of Liberation in particular, and his ecology of mind in general, on the question of defeatism and despair. If human partiality and purposive action introduce errors into the larger system, and if at scale, these errors are systemically destructive, how are human beings to respond to the social and environmental problems they face? Transcripts from Bateson's final appearance on a congress panel dramatize these questions. Actions and answers offered by Stokely Carmichael, R. D. Laing, and Emmett Grogan, the congress's most discussed participants, are examined. These figures took the position that solutions can be found in the ancient call for individual heroism. Bateson, in contrast, called for an indirect, non-purposeful class of actions that generate love of systemic integrity. These actions include the practices of art, ritual, non-utilitarian science, and "the best of religion." These practices may provide pathways to systemic correction. Because they come from a position of dependence, they call for trust. The debate between Reinhold Niebuhr and Richard Niebuhr is revisited concerning the moral significance of human agency in order to underscore Bateson's argument for the immanence of mind in nature.

Quodlibet II

2019 ◽  
pp. 218-251
Author(s):  
Turner Nevitt ◽  
Brian Davies
Keyword(s):  
Human Nature ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Do So

This chapter presents Thomas Aquinas’s Quodlibet V, which dates from his second Parisian regency (the second time Aquinas functioned as a master in Paris). It contains Aquinas’s answers to questions about God, angels, and human beings. Specifically, the questions deal with: God’s knowledge; God’s power; God’s assumed nature; angels: Is Lucifer the subject of the aevum?; human nature; the sacrament of the Eucharist: Is the form of bread annihilated? Should a priest give an unconsecrated host to an unexposed sinner who asks him to do so?; the sacrament of penance; the sacrament of marriage; relating to the virtues; relating to the commandments; relating to prelates; relating to teachers; relating to religious; and relating to clerics.

Arviq! The Northern Hunter’s Spiritual Connection to Animals and Community Presenter:

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chelsea Drent
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Human Nature ◽  
Daily Activities ◽  
Social Constructions ◽  
The Social ◽  
Cultural Domination ◽  
Critical Social Science ◽  
Inuit Peoples ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Relationship

In Inuktituk, nuna means the land. It means the rocks, rivers, mountains and the forests. Nuna is everything, and all parts of the nuna have an inua, which means a living soul. There is a special, if not sacred relationship between members of northern communities and the nuna. However, these sacred relationships are all too often glossed over, if not forgotten. In the social sciences, author John Sorenson articulates a critical argument and evocative opinions about hunting in his article; Hunting is a Part of Human Nature (John Sorenson, “Hunting is a Part of Human Nature,” Culture of Prejudice, Arguments in Critical Social Science. Eds. Judith Blackwell, Murray Smith, John Sorenson, (Canada: Broadview Press, 2003).Sorenson demonstrates that hunting is an unnatural human activity which is linked to a cultural domination over animals. However, in these statements Sorenson neglects to consider the northern hunter in Inuit communities around the world. Cultural myths, social constructions and daily activities prove that hunting animals is a core value to how many Inuit peoples relate to each other and perceive themselves in the cosmos. This is a study that examines the relationship of people, land, animals and faith in order to understand the significance of hunting within Inuit cultures.

Reinhold Niebuhr and the Ethics of Christian Realism

2010 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
pp. 483-501 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Marsden
Keyword(s):  
Class Analysis ◽  
Reinhold Niebuhr ◽  
Christian Realism ◽  
The Social ◽  
Christian Witness

AbstractAfter considering the social and pastoral context in which Niebuhr began to develop his theology, some of the leading influences and dominant themes are identified. Through engaging with a gritty Marxian class analysis Niebuhr launched his attack upon the social idealism of so much of the Christian witness of his generation. In mid-life the critique of liberalism and his ‘Christian realism’ are informed by a wrestling with the Augustinian and Reformation traditions. Later still Christian realism gives way to a more pragmatic chastened liberalism. The dualism between the personal and social, which characterized Niebuhr’s ethics throughout his life, is critiqued and seen as part of a general pessimism that betrays the degree to which he remained marked by the Lutheran tradition.

“The Human Heart Is a Seat of Constant War”

2018 ◽  
pp. 252-282
Author(s):  
Nicholas Buccola
Keyword(s):  
Human Nature ◽  
Human Heart ◽  
John Locke ◽  
Frederick Douglass ◽  
Thomas Jefferson ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Reinhold Niebuhr ◽  
Political Morality ◽  
The World ◽  
The Subject

This chapter reconstructs what Frederick Douglass thought about human nature to deepen peoples understanding of the foundations of his political morality and to counter criticisms of liberal views of human nature. It lays out the base critiques of the liberal view of human nature in modern Western political thought and shows how Douglass viewed the competing tendencies of human beings in order to form a nuanced idea of human nature. Going into the debates in the liberal community, it cites the differing opinions of Thomas Jefferson, Reinhold Niebuhr, and John Locke. With a focus on the dualities that make up Douglass’s view on the subject, this chapter shows how his view shaped his experiences and the way he interacted with the world. The dynamism that makes up Douglass’s idea of human nature makes it a viewpoint to be taken seriously and reflects the tensions inherent within the subject.

scholarly journals Gender critique on the narrator’s androcentric point of view of women in Matthew’s gospel

2011 ◽  
Vol 67 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yolanda Dreyer
Keyword(s):  
Gospel Of Matthew ◽  
Female Sexuality ◽  
Faith Community ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Christian Faith ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Double Standards ◽  
God's Love ◽  
Self Interest ◽  
Do So

The article, from a gender-sensitive perspective, is critical of patriarchal values that are harmful to women and other non-dominant groups. When the focus on women and women’s roles is usurped by male control, the androcentric self-interest of interpreters and authors becomes apparent. This is still the case in present-day theological studies, but is especially prevalent in premodern biblical writings, of which the Gospel of Matthew is an example. Recent mainstream Jesus studies demonstrate that women were welcomed in an ‘egalitarian’ way in the community of the first followers of Jesus. Women’s contribution to the first Christian faith community is highlighted. This stands in stark contrast to the silencing and invisibility of women in the surrounding patriarchal world of the ancient Middle East. Although Matthew does view women and other formerly excluded people as part of the faith community and equal recipients of God’s love, they are never treated as equal participants. The article focuses on three issues concerning the narrator’s point of view, namely that (1) women fulfilled a supporting, rather than an initiating role (Mt 1–2; 9:18–26; 15:21–28), (2) double standards were applied to male and female sexuality and women’s sexuality was regarded with prejudice (Mt 5:29–32; 19:2–12) and (3) women were seemingly given the opportunity to live ‘authentically’ as human beings, but in actual fact they could do so only if this ‘authenticity’ was sanctioned by men (Mt 20:20–23; 27:38; 27:56).

The Concept of ‘Bewitching’ in Lugbara

Africa ◽  
1955 ◽  
Vol 25 (3) ◽  
pp. 252-260 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Middleton
Keyword(s):  
Social Structure ◽  
Social System ◽  
The Other ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
The Social ◽  
The One ◽  
Opening Paragraph ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The Way

Opening ParagraphIn this paper I consider some Lugbara notions about witches, ghosts, and other agents who bring sickness to human beings. I do not discuss the relationship of these notions, and the behaviour associated with them, to the social structure. The two aspects, ideological and structural, are intimately connected, but it is possible to discuss them separately: on the one hand, to present the ideology as a system consistent within itself and, on the other, to show the way in which it is part of the total social system. Here I attempt only the former.

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