Divine Freedom and Human Religions

2018 ◽  
Vol 75 (3) ◽  
pp. 281-296
Author(s):  
Martha Moore-Keish
Keyword(s):  
Religious Diversity ◽  
Comparative Theology ◽  
Theological Seminary ◽  
Print Version ◽  
The Past ◽  
Divine Freedom ◽  
Christian Family

This print version of an address given in February 2018 at Columbia Theological Seminary pursues the question, How do we follow Jesus the Christ in this religiously plural world? Martha Moore-Keish tells the story of how Presbyterians, as one particular Christian family, have wrestled with this question for the past 500 years. After reviewing five historical interpretations of religious diversity, the essay introduces the emerging field of comparative theology, as a promising next step in engaging a world of many religions. Finally, it offers a trinitarian Reformed theological rationale for engaging in comparative theology.

Circling the Elephant

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
John J. Thatamanil
Keyword(s):  
Religious Diversity ◽  
Ultimate Reality ◽  
Christian Theology ◽  
Comparative Theology ◽  
Constructive Theology ◽  
Religious Truth ◽  
The Past ◽  
Religion And Race

Christian theologians have, for some decades, affirmed that they have no monopoly on encounter with God or ultimate reality; other religions also have access to religious truth and transformation. If so, the time has come for Christians not just to learn about but also from their religious neighbors. Circling the Elephant affirms that the best way to move toward the mystery of divinity is to move toward the mystery of the neighbor. In this book, Thatamanil employs the ancient Indian allegory of the elephant and blindfolded men to argue for the integration of three, often-separated theological projects: theologies of religious diversity, comparative theology, and constructive theology. Circling the Elephant also offers an analysis of why we have fallen short in the past. Interreligious learning has been obstructed by problematic ideas about “religion” and “religions.” Thatamanil also notes troubling resonances between reified notions of “religion” and “race.” He contests these notions and offers a new theory of the religious that makes interreligious learning both possible and desirable. Christians have much to learn from their religious neighbors, even about such central features of Christian theology as Christ and Trinity. This book proposes a new theology of religious diversity, one that opens the door to true interreligious learning.

An Incomplete Journey Away from the Past: The Life and Ideas of Antonius Ameuney (1821–1881)

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 318-338
Author(s):  
Anthony Edwards
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Civil Society ◽  
Religious Diversity ◽  
Personal Life ◽  
Linguistic Landscape ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Future ◽  
English Speaking

Abstract This article recovers a dissonant voice from the nineteenth-century nahḍa. Antonius Ameuney (1821–1881) was a fervent Protestant and staunch Anglophile. Unlike his Ottoman Syrian contemporaries, who argued for religious diversity and the formation of a civil society based on a shared Arab past, he believed that the only geopolitical Syria viable in the future was one grounded in Protestant virtues and English values. This article examines Ameuney’s complicated journey to become a Protestant Englishman and his inescapable characterization as a son of Syria. It charts his personal life and intellectual career and explores how he interpreted the religious, cultural, political, and linguistic landscape of his birthplace to British audiences. As an English-speaking Ottoman Syrian intellectual residing permanently in London, the case of Antonius Ameuney illustrates England to have been a constitutive site of the nahḍa and underscores the role played by the British public in shaping nahḍa discourses.

God as Ground, Singularity, and Relation

2020 ◽  
pp. 213-248
Author(s):  
John J. Thatamanil
Keyword(s):  
Religious Diversity ◽  
Ultimate Reality ◽  
Comparative Theology ◽  
Constructive Theology ◽  
Divine Life ◽  
The Trinity

This chapter is the culmination of the book. What previous chapters called for—the integration of theology of religious diversity, comparative theology, and constructive theology—this chapter performs. It offers a new constructive theology of the trinity, a theology of the trinity that is worked out with the help of Hindus and Buddhists. Such a theology is simultaneously a way to think about religious neighbors, a way of learning from those neighbors, and a way to reimagine the divine life. Specifically, this chapter advocates an account of God/ultimate reality as ground, singularity, and relation. Although these features of the divine life can be discerned across traditions, this chapter argues that certain strands of particular traditions focus on one account of ultimacy at the relative expense of others. But this degree of focus is precisely what makes interreligious learning possible, necessary, and rewarding.

Pentecostals and Charismatics in America

2019 ◽  
pp. 241-260
Author(s):  
Cecil M. Robeck
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Holy Spirit ◽  
First Century ◽  
1 Corinthians ◽  
The Past ◽  
Family Tradition ◽  
The Holy Spirit ◽  
Twenty First Century ◽  
Christian Family ◽  
The Church

This chapter traces Pentecostal and related congregations, churches, denominations, and organizations that stem from the beginning of the twentieth century. They identify with activities at Pentecost described in Acts 2 and in the exercise of charisms in 1 Corinthians 12–14. Each of them highlights is the significance of a personal encounter with the Holy Spirit leading to a transformed life. These often interrelated organizations and movements have brought great vitality to the Church worldwide for over one hundred years, and together, they constitute as much as 25 per cent of the world’s Christians. This form of spirituality is unique over the past 500 years, since it may be found in virtually every historic Christian family/tradition, and in most churches of the twenty-first century.

The Use of the Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory in the Evaluation of Seminary Students

1987 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 227-233 ◽  
Author(s):  
Harry L. Piersma
Keyword(s):  
Psychological Functioning ◽  
Clinical Symptoms ◽  
Personality Characteristics ◽  
First Year ◽  
Theological Seminary ◽  
Seminary Students ◽  
The Past ◽  
Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory ◽  
Grand Rapids

During the past several decades, many studies have examined the emotional and psychological functioning of clergy and seminarians. In most instances, researchers employed separate measures to study general personality characteristics as contrasted with psychopathologic factors. In this study, the Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory (MCMI) was administered to 52 first-year male seminarians at Calvin Theological Seminary in Grand Rapids, Michigan. The MCMI is designed to measure relatively fixed personality characteristics in addition to more psychopathologic factors. As expected, seminarians evidenced little psychopathology on scales designed to assess clinical symptoms. On the basic personality scales, results indicated that the typical seminarian profile would be most consistent with the “conforming” personality described by Millon (1981). Suggestions for further research are discussed.

scholarly journals The Open Access Interviews: Sir Timothy Gowers and Clifford Lynch

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Poynder
Keyword(s):  
Open Access ◽  
Publishing Industry ◽  
Academic Publishing ◽  
Institutional Repository ◽  
High Quality ◽  
Print Version ◽  
The Past ◽  
Discrete Analysis ◽  
Scholarly Publisher ◽  
First Interview

This is a print version of two interviews I posted on my blog in 2016 as part of a series entitled The Open Access Interviews. The first interview is with Cambridge mathematician Sir Timothy Gowers. In 2012 Gowers called for a boycott of the scholarly publisher Elsevier, and in 2106 he started an overlay journal called Discrete Analysis to demonstrate that a high-quality mathematics journal could be inexpensively produced outside of the traditional academic publishing industry. The second interview is with Clifford Lynch, the director of the Washington-based Coalition for Networked Information (CNI). This interview covers the past, present and possible futures of the Institutional Repository (IR). Both interviews are preceded with a lengthy introduction. I have also included in this booklet my response to some of the comments the interview with Clifford Lynch sparked.

scholarly journals Continuity with the Past and Uncertainty for the Future

2019 ◽  
Vol 55 (2) ◽  
pp. 201-24
Author(s):  
Henrik Reintoft Christensen
Keyword(s):  
Data Analysis ◽  
Quantitative Data ◽  
Religious Diversity ◽  
News Coverage ◽  
International News ◽  
World Religions ◽  
News Production ◽  
The Past ◽  
Quantitative Data Analysis ◽  
Longitudinal Part

The article examines the newspaper constructions of religion in Danishnewspapers in a quantitative longitudinal analysis from 1750 to 2000and a more qualitative analysis of recent news production from thelast forty years. For the longitudinal part, the database of the digitization of Danish newspapers project is used. Using the available toolsfor quantitative data analysis, the article shows that the category ofreligion and world religions has been visible in Danish newspaperssince 1750. The coverage of world religions is often related to thecoverage of international news. Overall, the article documents a remarkable continuity of the presence of religion. Examining the morerecent material qualitatively, the article shows that although manyreligions have been historically visible in the news, they have mostrecently become more frequent in the debate sections than in thenews sections. It is primarily Islam that is debated. This is connectedwith a shift from religious diversity as part of foreign news coverageto domestic news coverage, related to changes in the surroundingDanish society. Nevertheless, the coverage of Islam also displays aremarkable continuity.

Pluralism in Religion and American Education

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Diana L. Eck ◽  
Brendan Randall
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Civic Education ◽  
Religious Diversity ◽  
The United States ◽  
First Century ◽  
American Education ◽  
The Past ◽  
The World ◽  
Established Fact ◽  
The Common

The United States is among the most religiously diverse countries in the world. Although such diversity is not a new phenomenon, its degree and visibility have increased dramatically in the past fifty years, reigniting the debate over a fundamental civic question: What is the common identity that binds us together? How we respond to religious diversity in the context of education has enormous implications for our democratic society. To the extent that previous frameworks such as exclusion or assimilation ever were desirable or effective, they no longer are. Increased religious diversity is an established fact and growing trend. The United States needs a more inclusive and robust civic framework for religious diversity in the twenty-first century—pluralism—and this framework should be an essential component of civic education.

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