“One in many: Sounding of the heart”: The meaning of divine revelation in the kakure kirishitan land

2019 ◽  
Vol 47 (3) ◽  
pp. 269-284
Author(s):  
Fumitaka Matsuoka
Keyword(s):  
Christian Faith ◽  
Divine Revelation ◽  
Christian Identity ◽  
Civic Discourse ◽  
Special Character ◽  
Historical Identity ◽  
Divine Life ◽  
The Difference ◽  
The Many ◽  
The One

The question to be explored is that of how far a Christian identity can be stretched and yet still remain “Christian” and who determines the limits and for what reasons. This question is explored in light of the kakure kirishitan (hidden Christians) studies in Japan. More precisely, the question is that of how the historically singular epistemology embodied in the “one-God” understandings of Christianity has played out in multiple readings of reality, a “many gods” epistemology, in Japan. This is an exploration of the “meaning of divine revelation of Christ” set within the context of ecclesia semper reformanda. I would claim that the “character of love” as defined by Ernst Troeltsch’s notion of the revelation of Christ (“In our earthly experiences the Divine Life is not One, but Many. But to apprehend the One in the Many constitutes the special character of love”), which is a distinct Christian faith paradigm, contrary to the popular paradigm in the academic and civic discourse of “one in many,” takes on the character of “the sounding of the heart.” Even when the historical identity of Christ is extensively eroded, the “sounding” speaks to people beyond the difference of the worlds with a language that is so intimate that it profoundly grasps the heart.

scholarly journals Algemeen of bijzonder Christelijke ethiek in een moderne cultuur

1998 ◽  
Vol 32 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
W. H. Velema
Keyword(s):  
World View ◽  
The Other ◽  
Christian Faith ◽  
Divine Revelation ◽  
Moral Issues ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
The One

In this article the author investigates the relation between faith/revelation on the one hand and ethics on the other; the relation between the "particular” and the “general”. It is argued that Rendtorff and Pannen­berg are basically in agreement that ethics does not depend on Christian faith and divine revelation, although there is a connection between the two. On the other hand, the author of this article (in agreement with Douma) relates faith/revelation and ethics very closely: ethics is directed by a life and world view - a stance illustrated by a discussion on abortion and euthanasia. The issue of consensus on moral issues between Christians and non-Christians should be resolved from the perspective of the general goodness of God and his law, given to all men.

scholarly journals Transforming Congregational Conflict:  An Integrated Framework for Understanding and Addressing conflict in Christian Faith Communities

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Karen Margaret Kemp
Keyword(s):  
Conflict Resolution ◽  
Conflict Transformation ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Faith Communities ◽  
Christian Faith ◽  
Transformation Theory ◽  
Congregational Conflict ◽  
The Many ◽  
The One

<p>Churches have traditionally turned to conflict resolution measures, such as mediation, arbitration, and litigation, rather than conflict transformation approaches, when addressing congregational discord. In so doing, they miss the opportunity for constructive change that conflict presents and set themselves up for cycles of conflict to recur in the future. At the same time they diminish their self-claimed identity as followers of Jesus Christ, whose recorded teaching gives striking priority to peacemaking and reconciliation. Chapter one introduces the context for this thesis. Much work has already been done to explore biblical understandings of conflict, forgiveness and reconciliation, on the one hand, and to apply current conflict resolution practices to congregational settings on the other. However, little has been done to develop a conceptual framework that seeks to integrate biblical understandings with the insights of modern conflict analysis in a practically useful way. Chapter two of this thesis focuses on Jesus' teaching in Matthew 18 and shows why this passage is a key biblical resource for understanding and addressing congregational conflict. Chapter three examines conflict resolution theory and practice and shows why a transformational approach is the most appropriate one for addressing congregational conflict. The fourth chapter brings Jesus' teaching in Matthew 18 into a dialogue with current conflict transformation theory and practice. This conversation integrates theology and practice and clarifies the ways in which Jesus' teaching and transformative approaches to conflict both complement and enrich each other in the quest for lasting answers to the problem of congregational conflict. This thesis concludes by proposing a framework in which the many resources available might be understood and utilised in an integrated way by congregations that seek not only to enhance their capacity to respond to conflict in healthier ways, but also to embody the teachings of Christ in their midst.</p>

scholarly journals The Human World as Augmented Reality: Transcendentalism and Anthropological Difference

2017 ◽  
pp. 18-28
Author(s):  
Gaetano Chiurazzi
Keyword(s):  
Augmented Reality ◽  
Jacques Derrida ◽  
The Gaze ◽  
Human Difference ◽  
Human World ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Common Genus ◽  
The Many ◽  
The One ◽  
Cultural World

[full article, abstract in English; abstract in Lithuanian] In this paper, I discuss, first of all, the positions of Perter Singer and Jacques Derrida regarding the difference between humans and animals. Singer’s animalism seems to me grounded in a naturalist substantialism (since it aims at dissolving the abovementioned difference in a common genus, animality), whereas Derrida’s approach ends in a phenomenological primitivism (since it aims at grasping the gaze of the animal through an epoché of the human cultural world). The result is, on the one hand, an essentialist reduction to the One, and, on the other, the nominalist multiplication of the Many. As an alternative to both these perspectives, I share a certain “transcendentalist” approach, in which human difference appears as a capacity to form a world in the Heideggerian meaning, which increases natural reality. The symbol of this new capacity is the upright position, a certain elevation above nature, the sign of which is consciousness. I call this new capacity “diagonal,” since, like the diagonal of the square, it is irreducible to its side – to nature (the plane of immanence) –, as much as the human world of “augmented reality” is indeed irreducible to every flat ontology, that is, to an onticology.

scholarly journals Transforming Congregational Conflict:  An Integrated Framework for Understanding and Addressing conflict in Christian Faith Communities

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Karen Margaret Kemp
Keyword(s):  
Conflict Resolution ◽  
Conflict Transformation ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Faith Communities ◽  
Christian Faith ◽  
Transformation Theory ◽  
Congregational Conflict ◽  
The Many ◽  
The One

<p>Churches have traditionally turned to conflict resolution measures, such as mediation, arbitration, and litigation, rather than conflict transformation approaches, when addressing congregational discord. In so doing, they miss the opportunity for constructive change that conflict presents and set themselves up for cycles of conflict to recur in the future. At the same time they diminish their self-claimed identity as followers of Jesus Christ, whose recorded teaching gives striking priority to peacemaking and reconciliation. Chapter one introduces the context for this thesis. Much work has already been done to explore biblical understandings of conflict, forgiveness and reconciliation, on the one hand, and to apply current conflict resolution practices to congregational settings on the other. However, little has been done to develop a conceptual framework that seeks to integrate biblical understandings with the insights of modern conflict analysis in a practically useful way. Chapter two of this thesis focuses on Jesus' teaching in Matthew 18 and shows why this passage is a key biblical resource for understanding and addressing congregational conflict. Chapter three examines conflict resolution theory and practice and shows why a transformational approach is the most appropriate one for addressing congregational conflict. The fourth chapter brings Jesus' teaching in Matthew 18 into a dialogue with current conflict transformation theory and practice. This conversation integrates theology and practice and clarifies the ways in which Jesus' teaching and transformative approaches to conflict both complement and enrich each other in the quest for lasting answers to the problem of congregational conflict. This thesis concludes by proposing a framework in which the many resources available might be understood and utilised in an integrated way by congregations that seek not only to enhance their capacity to respond to conflict in healthier ways, but also to embody the teachings of Christ in their midst.</p>

The Idea of a World Order

2018 ◽  
Vol 83 (2) ◽  
pp. 204-224
Author(s):  
Danie Strauss
Keyword(s):  
Laws Of Nature ◽  
World Order ◽  
Physical Aspect ◽  
Medieval Philosophy ◽  
Natural Laws ◽  
The World ◽  
The Difference ◽  
The Many ◽  
The One

Dooyeweerd was struck by the fact that different systems of philosophy expressly oriented their philosophic thought to the idea of a divine world order. The dialectic of form and matter permeated both Greek and medieval philosophy. The distinction between natural laws and laws of nature is highlighted with reference to Descartes and Beeckman. A key distinction for an understanding of the order of the world is given in the difference between modal laws and type laws. In order to substantiate this claim, an explication of the nature of the order for the world has to explore elements derived from the four most basic modes of explanation: number (the one and the many), space (universality), the kinematic (constancy), and the physical aspect (change). These points of entry serve theoretical thought with terms that may either be employed in a conceptual way or in a concept-transcending way. The influence of nominalism on the thought of Dooyeweerd is analyzed in some more detail.

scholarly journals Divine Logos in the Heart of Boethius’s Path Toward Summum Bonum

2014 ◽  
Vol 21 ◽  
pp. 39
Author(s):  
Agnieszka KIJEWSKA
Keyword(s):  
Christian Faith ◽  
Christian Identity ◽  
Summum Bonum ◽  
The One ◽  
The Way

This paper presents an outline of the way Boethius conceived the human path to the Supreme Good (Summum bonum). In order to achieve this goal one has first to specify the way he construed this Supreme Good, and this discussion is naturally related to the much-discussed problem concerning the Christian identity of Boethius: was he indeed a Christian? does his Consolation, from which any overt allusions to Christian faith are absent, provide us with any clue as to whether the Supreme Good of Boethius can be identified with the God of the Gospel? In the course of the analysis we propound a hypothesis that the message that Boethius puts forward through the means of his Consolation and the utterances he puts in the mouth of his dame Philosophy are not far removed from the advice offered by Fulgentius to Proba. She, too, was encouraged to acknowledge her own weakness and lack of sufficiency, to be contrite, and to have humble trust in wisdom and guidance of God, who is the best of all doctors. Is dame Philosophy’s message not very similar? did not Alcuin, who regarded himself as a faithful «disciple» of Boethius, share a conception of philosophy as being the «teacher of virtues» and wisdom, as the one who leads man along the path of wisdom towards the divine light?

Praxis and Theology in Recent Debates

1986 ◽  
Vol 39 (4) ◽  
pp. 529-550
Author(s):  
A. K. Min
Keyword(s):  
Latin America ◽  
Human Existence ◽  
The Other ◽  
Christian Theology ◽  
Christian Faith ◽  
Preceding Discussion ◽  
The Many ◽  
The One ◽  
Theology Of Liberation

One Of the many challenges of the theology of liberation of Latin America (TL or LT) has been to rethink the relation between theory (theology) and praxis. A debate, which has been going on for over a century among philosophers and social thinkers since Hegel and Marx has finally hit the serene shores of Christian theology. Are theory and praxis two co-equal dimensions of human existence, or is the one derivative from the other? Is Christian faith primarily a matter of theory, belief and truth, or is it primarily a matter of praxis, action and justice? Is theology only a reflection on faith or a reflection in faith as well? What is the relation between theology and contemporary historical praxis? Does theology have to remain ‘external’ to that praxis in order to preserve its critical objectivity, or is participation of theology in that praxis the very condition of its objectivity? Is the prior commitment of theology— so much insisted on by TL — to the praxis of liberation detrimental or necessary to the integrity of theology? In this essay I propose to deal with these issues in the context of recent debates between Schubert Ogden and the Vatican on the one hand and TL on the other. I shall first review Ogden's and the Vatican's critique of TL, then present the position of TL, and finally evaluate both TL and its critics and reconstruct a theory of the relation between theology and praxis in light of the preceding discussion.

scholarly journals The Two, the One, the Many, the None: Rethinking the Republics of Spaniards and Indians in the Sixteenth-Century Spanish Indies

2021 ◽  
Vol 78 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-36
Author(s):  
Adrian Masters
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
Social Interactions ◽  
Social Order ◽  
Common Ground ◽  
Christian Faith ◽  
The Republic ◽  
Political Communities ◽  
The Many ◽  
The One

AbstractFor a half-century, the historiography on Spanish Habsburg rule suggested that the crown envisioned Indies society as best divided into two segregated sociolegal groups: the republic of the Spaniards and the republic of the Indians. This model was popularized by the eminent mid twentieth century Swedish historian Magnus Mörner and has since become a foundational concept in the field. However, using extensive archival evidence, this article suggests that the Mörner Thesis of the Two Republics is flawed. Historicizing sixteenth-century uses of the concept of the republic, it finds that contemporaries conceived of a complex social order in which many political communities such as municipalities and groups of petitioners could overlap within larger meta-republics, such as the Indies republic and the Christian faith-republic. It then turns to subjects’ uses of the two republics, noting that this conceptual duality appeared rarely in the petitions of Spanish officials, commoners, Indians, Afro-descendants, and mestizos, and was also rare in royal and viceregal legislation. Moreover, this binary most often served to suggest Spaniards’ and Indians’ common ground. The article then reflects on other approaches to understanding the Indies’ Spanish-Indian binary, the place of non-Spanish, non-Indian vassals within republic-thinking, and the staggering complexity of Indies laws, categories, and social interactions.

scholarly journals Theological reflections on multi-religious identity

2011 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 50-58 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jyri Komulainen
Keyword(s):  
Religious Identity ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Christian Theology ◽  
Christian Faith ◽  
Christian Identity ◽  
Cultural Traditions ◽  
Religious Traditions ◽  
Religious Dimensions ◽  
The Common ◽  
The One

This article attempts to provide a theological assessment of multireligious identity, especially in the context of the Hindu-Christian encounters. The paper rests on recent post-colonialist literature on religion and assumes that the so-called ‘religions’ are open-ended cultural traditions and that the Christian tradition is capable of encompassing different world-views and cultural traditions. Following the initial observations, which highlight the ambiguity of the concept ‘religion’ as well as the radical diversity of the so-called religious traditions, the possibility of delineating a Christian identity in the midst of cultural and religious dynamics is explored. If the common feature of Jesus of Nazareth and the theological idea of incarnation are taken into account, the most vital tenets of the Christian faith entail a constant call for contextualization. Since all cultures also display religious dimensions, i.e. a fundamental openness to transcendence, this contextualization embraces also those traditions that have been labelled traditionally as ‘religions’. In addition to these theoretical observations, two instances of Hindu-Christianity—Brahmabandhav Upadhyaya (1861–1907) and Raimon Panikkar (b. 1918)—are presented and discussed. The article concludes that from the point of view of Christian theology, the Christian faith can also adopt such forms that could be labeled ‘multi-religious’. The decisive factor is, however, whether the Christian narrative may provide the meta-narrative of multi-religious identity, i.e. whether it is the one that transforms other cultural narratives.Jyri Komulainen is Docent in Dogmatics in University of Helsinki, Finland. Website: http://www.mv.helsinki.fi/home/jykomula/

The Regime (Politeia) in Thucydides

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Seth Jaffe
Keyword(s):  
Civil War ◽  
Rule Of Law ◽  
Domestic Politics ◽  
Central Importance ◽  
The Rule Of Law ◽  
Mixed Regime ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Difference ◽  
The Many ◽  
The One

This chapter discusses the importance of domestic politics generally and the regime in particular in Thucydides’ History of the Peloponnesian War. It examines Thucydides’ presentation of the rule of the one (kingship or tyranny), the few (oligarchy), and the many (democracy), and concludes by suggesting that there are three principles of political rule that Thucydides himself endorses: the rule of the wise, the rule of law, and a mixed regime, with reference to his praise of the regime of the Five Thousand at Athens in the eighth book. Throughout the History, the matter of the regime is explored in relation to the broader phenomenon of war, in which avoiding civil war proves of paramount importance. The difference between Thucydides and the later Socratics, for whom the question of the regime is of central importance, revolves around the question of the primacy of war or peace.

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