Change, Suffering, and Surprise in God: Von Balthasar’s Use of Metaphor

2011 ◽  
Vol 76 (4) ◽  
pp. 370-387
Author(s):  
Kevin Duffy
Keyword(s):  
Divine Nature ◽  
Divine Transcendence ◽  
Literal Expression

This article is a critique of the claim made by Gerard O’Hanlon that von Balthasar has pioneered a new way of combining metaphorical and literal discourse, and that this enables him to predicate change, suffering, and surprise of God, while maintaining classical positions on divine transcendence. Some such positions on divine nature and on the notions of univocity, analogy, and metaphor are explored. It is argued—using in particular the contemporary Thomism of Herbert McCabe and some recent studies on the philosophy of metaphor—that von Balthasar, as interpreted by O’Hanlon, tries to give literal expression to what in metaphors is non-propositional. The article concludes that there is no novel advance in combining analogy and metaphor that could enable von Balthasar to avoid self-contradiction in a classical framework.

Panentheism from a Trinitarian Perspective

Horizons ◽  
1995 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 7-28 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph A. Bracken
Keyword(s):  
Thomas Aquinas ◽  
Ultimate Reality ◽  
The Other ◽  
Divine Nature ◽  
Underlying Principle ◽  
The World ◽  
Divine Transcendence ◽  
Triune God ◽  
Classical Models ◽  
Process Oriented

AbstractClassical models of the God–world relationship tend to emphasize the transcendence of God at the expense of God's immanence to the world of creation. Neo-classical or process-oriented models, on the other hand, tend to emphasize the immanence of God within the world process at the expense of the divine transcendence. Using the distinction originally made by Thomas Aquinas between person and nature within the Godhead, the author offers a modified process-oriented understanding of the God–world relationship in which the transcendence of the triune God to creation is assured but in which creatures derive their existence and activity from the divine nature or ground of being along with the divine persons. Ultimate Reality, therefore, is not God in a unipersonal sense, nor the three divine persons apart from creation, but a Cosmic Society of existents, both finite and infinite, who are sustained by one and the same underlying principle of existence and activity.

Religious Studies of Democratic Ukraine

2001 ◽  
pp. 3-12
Author(s):  
Anatolii M. Kolodnyi
Keyword(s):  
Religious Studies ◽  
Religious Experiences ◽  
Divine Nature ◽  
Deep Roots ◽  
Integral System ◽  
The World

Ukrainian religious studies have deep roots. We find the elements of it in the written descendants of the writings of Kievan Rus. From the prince's time, the universal way of vision, understanding and appreciation of the world for many Ukrainian thinkers becomes their own religious experiences. The main purpose of their works is not the desire to create a certain integral system of theological knowledge, but the desire to convey their personal religious-minded perception of the divine nature, harmony, beauty and perfection of God created the world.

Religion and Politics under the Ptolemies (300 BCE-215 BCE)

2010 ◽  
Vol 39 (2) ◽  
pp. 27-29
Author(s):  
Athanasios Koutoupas
Keyword(s):  
Religion And Politics ◽  
The Other ◽  
Divine Nature ◽  
The One

The article examines the relation that is developed between the policy and the religion in Hellenistic Egypt during the period of the first four Ptolemies. It presents two levels of promotion of the practice of deification of the king: on the one hand the recognition of divine nature from the descendants of each king when he or she dies and on the other the recognition of divine nature from their subjects and the various civic communities during their life.

The Problem of Alternative Monotheisms: Another Serious Challenge to Theism

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 31-51
Author(s):  
Raphael Lataster
Keyword(s):  
Infinite Number ◽  
Current Evidence ◽  
God Concept ◽  
Classical Theism ◽  
The World ◽  
Divine Transcendence ◽  
Hiddenness Of God

Theistic and analytic philosophers of religion typically privilege classical theism by ignoring or underestimating the great threat of alternative monotheisms.[1] In this article we discuss numerous god-models, such as those involving weak, stupid, evil, morally indifferent, and non-revelatory gods. We find that theistic philosophers have not successfully eliminated these and other possibilities, or argued for their relative improbability. In fact, based on current evidence – especially concerning the hiddenness of God and the gratuitous evils in the world – many of these hypotheses appear to be more probable than theism. Also considering the – arguably infinite – number of alternative monotheisms, the inescapable conclusion is that theism is a very improbable god-concept, even when it is assumed that one and only one transcendent god exists.[1] I take ‘theism’ to mean ‘classical theism’, which is but one of many possible monotheisms. Avoiding much of the discussion around classical theism, I wish to focus on the challenges in arguing for theism over monotheistic alternatives. I consider theism and alternative monotheisms as entailing the notion of divine transcendence.

Troeltsch's Eschatological Absolute

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Evan F. Kuehn
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
New Testament ◽  
Christian Theology ◽  
Christian Doctrine ◽  
Philosophical Thought ◽  
The Core ◽  
Divine Transcendence ◽  
The Absolute

This study argues that the core of Ernst Troeltsch’s theological project is an eschatological conception of the Absolute. Troeltsch developed his idea of the Absolute from post-Kantian religious and philosophical thought and applied it to the Christian doctrine of eschatology. Troeltsch’s eschatological Absolute must be understood in the context of questions being raised at the turn of the twentieth century by research on New Testament apocalypticism, as well as by modern critical methodologies in the historical sciences. The study is a revisionist response to common approaches to Troeltsch that read him as introducing problematic historicist and immanentist assumptions into Christian theology. Instead it argues that Troeltsch’s theological modernism presents a compelling account of the meaningfulness of history while retaining a commitment to divine transcendence that is unconditioned by history. As such, his theology remains relevant to theological research today, well beyond theological circles that normally take Troeltsch’s legacy to contribute in a constructive way to their work.

Circumscription

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Torstein Theodor Tollefsen
Keyword(s):  
Human Nature ◽  
Divine Nature ◽  
Modern Term

The concept of circumscription is central to the iconoclast argument against the icons: if the icon is a true image of Christ, it must represent his divine as well as his human nature. If it cannot do that, the image is an idol. The divine nature is uncircumscribed, therefore an image cannot be made of it. This is the challenge Theodore tries to counter. He develops a detailed Christological position in order to show that Christ somehow must appear in this world in a concrete (circumscribed) and visible form. The chapter presents an interpretation of both iconoclast Christology and Theodore’s Christology. Theodore manages to define his Christological position in such a way that he can show how Christ may be a subject of painting. The concepts of the eidos (appearance) and likeness allow Theodore to work out a doctrine of painting that is almost phenomenological, to use a modern term.

God, Metaphysics, and the Discourse of Theology

Pro Ecclesia ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 106385122110167
Author(s):  
Scott R. Swain
Keyword(s):  
Divine Nature ◽  
Proper Understanding ◽  
Greco Roman ◽  
Philosophy And Religion

In chapter 4 of his book, God in Himself, Steven Duby grounds theology’s use of metaphysical language and concepts in Scripture’s prior usage of such language and concepts. The following article seeks to fortify Duby’s argument by showing how the discourse of the gospel subversively fulfills the quest of Greco-Roman philosophy and religion to ground divine worship in a proper understanding of the divine nature.

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