And who shaves God? Nature and role of paradoxes in science and religion communications: A case of foolish virgins

2010 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 187-201
Author(s):  
Markus Ekkehard Locker
Keyword(s):  
Science And Religion ◽  
Experience Of God ◽  
The Bible ◽  
The Arts ◽  
Meta Level ◽  
Language And Communication ◽  
Truth Claims ◽  
Self Reference ◽  
The Way

Speaking of truth inescapably confronts us with paradoxes, i.e., correct deductive propositions like a Cretan claiming that all Cretans lie which (due to negative systemic self-reference) end up as circular contradictions, indeterminable questions, or dilemmas. Faced with the numerous paradoxical statements (apparently 82) found in the Bible, the German Protestant reformer Sebastian Franck (14991542), for example, conceded that any truth of God cannot be found in language but only in the immediate silent experience of God. Likewise, believers in an uncompromising search for true facts about this world would certainly agree with (though arguably misappropriate) Wittgenstein in claiming that Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent. Paradoxes this article claims must neither be feared, nor avoided, nor become subject to hopeless attempts in searching for logic solutions. Paradoxes lead the way to truth in demonstrating that questions of truth, or truth claims, cannot be adequately addressed within the same system of communication (ortho-system) in which they are raised. The encounter with paradoxes (e.g., a God who creates but is uncreated) elevates language and communication onto a meta-level (or system) of communication in which new means (like for instance Gdel's numbering) are needed to speak of what is real but apparently cannot be true. These means, however, will turn out to be likewise paradoxes that furthermore call for new and creative ways of speaking of such truths that previously could not be communicated. The creative admission of paradoxes into communication philosophy will not solve age-old problems or dilemmas; however, it will playfully open up the conversation of science with religion to the creative means of the arts were truth is not argued but performed in paradoxes.

The Quranic Jesus: Prophet and Scapegoat

2019 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 183-220
Author(s):  
John Ranieri
Keyword(s):  
Major Theme ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Christian Understanding ◽  
The Way

A major theme in René Girard’s work involves the role of the Bible in exposing the scapegoating practices at the basis of culture. The God of the Bible is understood to be a God who takes the side of victims. The God of the Qur’an is also a defender of victims, an idea that recurs throughout the text in the stories of messengers and prophets. In a number of ways, Jesus is unique among the prophets mentioned in the Qur’an. It is argued here that while the Quranic Jesus is distinctly Islamic, and not a Christian derivative, he functions in the Qur’an in a way analogous to the role Jesus plays in the gospels. In its depiction of Jesus, the Qur’an is acutely aware of mimetic rivalry, scapegoating, and the God who comes to the aid of the persecuted. Despite the significant differences between the Christian understanding of Jesus as savior and the way he is understood in the Qur’an, a Girardian interpretation of the Qur’anic Jesus will suggest ways in which Jesus can be a bridge rather than an obstacle in Christian/Muslim dialogue.

scholarly journals The Role of Descartes’s Dream in the Meditations and in the Historical Ontology of Ourselves

2018 ◽  
pp. 84
Author(s):  
Edward McGushin
Keyword(s):  
The Self ◽  
Care Of The Self ◽  
Historical Ontology ◽  
Negative Power ◽  
The Arts ◽  
History Of ◽  
Relations Of Power ◽  
Positive Source ◽  
The Way

This paper situates the dream-hypothesis in Descartes’s First Meditation within the historical ontology of ourselves. It looks at the way in which the dream enters into and transforms Descartes’ relation to his “system of actuality.” In order to get free from his confinement within his system of actuality – an actuality defined by relations of power-knowledge, government, veridiction, and subjectivity – Descartes draws on the disruptive, negative capacity of the dream. But, while Descartes draws on the dream to get himself free and to establish a way of thinking and living differently, he also disqualifies the dream as a positive source of knowledge, truth, or subjectivity. Excavating this ambivalent place of the dream in the genealogy of our present, we aim to recover the dream not only in its negative power but also to open up the possibility of re-imagining its positivity as a form of counter-conduct, problematization, and element in the care of the self. This paper represents one piece of a larger genealogical study that examines the history of relationships between the arts of dreaming and the problematization of power-truth-subjectivity.

scholarly journals The Sustainable Church: A New Way to Look at the Place of Worship

2018 ◽  
Vol 48 (2) ◽  
pp. 93-100
Author(s):  
Zoltán Körösvölgyi
Keyword(s):  
Social Issues ◽  
Sacred Architecture ◽  
The Bible ◽  
The Enlightenment ◽  
European Culture ◽  
The Arts ◽  
Fundamental Misunderstanding ◽  
The Church

For centuries, the notions of sacred and development were closely related in European culture, both in the field of architecture, and, more broadly, in the arts. Sustainability, in this respect, mostly appeared in non-architectural terms. (The word “sustain” appears multiple times in the Bible, but mostly in relation to humans: me, you, him, them.) Beginning with the Enlightenment, a gap has developed between the two, which is still experienced, and which results in a general distrust, misinformation, and, accordingly, a fundamental misunderstanding between artists, architects and the church. Is the gap too wide to reconnect these two notions? The changes of the 20th and 21st Centuries, having affected and continuing to affect Europe, represent a valid need for the different congregations to rethink their role, and the role of their places of worship. This paper highlights some positive examples of modern and contemporary sacred architecture, designed to reflect an awareness of today’s issues — sustainability, attention to environmental and social issues.

scholarly journals The Motive of Peace in the Works of B. Pasternak and M. Bulgakov

2021 ◽  
Vol 26 (4) ◽  
pp. 761-770
Author(s):  
Li Fei ◽  
Maria S. Rudenko
Keyword(s):  
Russian Culture ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Spiritual Tradition ◽  
Similarities And Differences ◽  
House Music ◽  
The Master And Margarita ◽  
The Way ◽  
Master And Margarita

The concept of peace entered into Russian culture from the Bible and became its important spiritual tradition. With the development of secular literature, peace has gradually come out of the sacred field and become the significant aesthetic concept rich in connotation. In their works, Pasternak and Bulgakov reflect on the peace in the field of existence and art, especially the ontological value of family and love, thoughts about history, death and creativity. The concept of memory plays an important role in the artistic world of the two writers. Bulgakovs and Pasternaks books are testimony to rebirth and immortality, which is the way they participate in the sacred cause. The paper analyzes the place and role of the motive of peace in the novels of B. Pasternak Doctor Zhivago and M. Bulgakov The Master and Margarita in their similarities and differences. In this regard, the images of the house, music, creativity as the focus of the artists world are compared, the typological related figures of the beloved muse and the savior are considered, the specificity of the disclosure of the theme of immortality in creativity is noted.

Australian Anglican Clergymen, Science and Religion, 1820–1850

2010 ◽  
Vol 46 ◽  
pp. 293-306 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael R. Gladwin
Keyword(s):  
Public Discourse ◽  
Science And Religion ◽  
Formative Period ◽  
Public Discussion ◽  
The Bible ◽  
South Wales ◽  
New Evidence ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Scientific Endeavour

The second quarter of the nineteenth century has long been recognized as a formative period for public discussion of the relationship between science and religion, particularly in emerging sciences such as geology, where new evidence raised questions about the interpretation of the Bible. Recent scholarly studies of scientific publishing, theologies of nature and links between missionaries and scientific endeavour have drawn attention to various ways in which the relationship between religion and science was understood during the period. A common theme has been the key role of clergymen in public discourse. A lacuna in this literature, however, has been analysis of colonial sites in which these debates took place. In colonies such as New South Wales, for example, public discussion of these issues was dominated by Anglican clergyman-scientists. Yet they have attracted little attention from scholars.

“The Stone Which the Builders Rejected”

2021 ◽  
pp. 41-56
Author(s):  
James P. Byrd
Keyword(s):  
White Supremacy ◽  
The South ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Righteous Indignation ◽  
Secession Crisis ◽  
The Way

This chapter narrates the role of the Bible in the secession crisis that erupted after Abraham Lincoln’s election in 1860. While Benjamin Morgan Palmer and other southerners saw slavery as “a divine trust,” many northerners agreed with Lincoln’s quotation of scripture—“A House Divided Against Itself Cannot Stand,” meaning the nation could not endure if it remained divided over slavery. In response, southerners scoured the scriptures for arguments to support white supremacy, fearing that many non-slaveholding whites in the South would refuse to support secession. In all, the Bible contributed to the righteous indignation on both sides, helping to pave the way for war.

scholarly journals The birth of language or the necessity of rule

2018 ◽  
Vol 81 (3) ◽  
pp. 413-424
Author(s):  
Jean-Paul Martinon
Keyword(s):  
Categorical Imperative ◽  
Language Games ◽  
Not Given ◽  
Moral Imperative ◽  
Written Text ◽  
The Bible ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Way ◽  
Name Of God

AbstractAs is well known, the biblical sixth commandment, “Thou shall not kill”, is intimately linked to the First Commandment, “I am the Lord”. By linking the two at the top of Moses's two-column table, language is given priority: the name of God can be uttered only when the possibility of death has been set aside. In this way, the linking of these two commandments marks not only the birth of language, but also, more importantly, the start of ethics. As such, commandments one and six form the basis of practically all Western ethics from Kant's categorical imperative (the unconditional maxim needs a First Word to enter into force) to Lyotard's language games (for which all utterances are charged with the moral imperative to respond), for example. But how on earth does this famous linguistic and ethical structure fare in a context whereby the written text is not given priority, in a situation where prohibitions are inherited orally? This paper will attempt to expose the thorny issue of the role of the sixth commandment in the context of Rwanda. This will imply neither the exposition of the history of the arrival of the Bible in Rwanda nor the way it helped to consolidate the colonial regime. This paper will also not examine the neglect of the prohibition against murder during the genocide of 1994. Instead, the essay will examine the linguistic and cultural problems one faces when determining the birth of ethics in two radically different contexts.

Education and the Arts in Plato's Republic

1996 ◽  
Vol 178 (3) ◽  
pp. 67-98
Author(s):  
J. David Blankenship
Keyword(s):  
Moral Education ◽  
Practical Knowledge ◽  
Psychological Resources ◽  
The Arts ◽  
Average Person ◽  
Full Discussion ◽  
The Republic ◽  
The Ideal ◽  
The Way

The education in ‘music’ described in Books II-III of the Republic combines the content and the manner of presentation of stories so that moral substance and formal beauty work together to inculcate the opinions and virtues required in the children who are to become guardians of the ideal city. The principles which underlie this section constitute a theory of the role of the arts in moral education that can be applied in others contexts. Plato's view of how such education works depends upon his view of the way in which imitation affects the soul, and can be understood thoroughly only after the parts of the soul have been distinguished and the epistemological and ontological groundwork has been laid for a full discussion of imitation. These requirements having been met in the course of Books IV through IX, Plato returns to imitation in Book X, using painting as a foil to mount ontological, epistemological, and psychological criticisms of imitative poetry, now focussing upon its effect on adults, not children. His attack tacitly exempts the kind of imitations exemplified by Socrates' own frequent image making and by the philosophical poetry of the Republic itself. Socrates imagines, but rejects, a certain defense of popular poetry, the very one which Aristotle developed in his doctrine of ‘catharsis.’ But that defense rests upon views of practical knowledge and of the psychological resources of the average person that Plato would be unlikely to have accepted.

scholarly journals Christian Terror in Europe? The Bible in Anders Behring Breivik’s Manifesto

2017 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Hannah Strømmen
Keyword(s):  
Modern State ◽  
Terror Attack ◽  
Far Right ◽  
The Bible ◽  
The Way

AbstractIn the attempts to understand the ideology underpinning the terror attack in Norway 22nd July 2011, and the growth of far-right extremism in Europe more generally, Christianity and the uses of the Bible are a largely neglected feature. In this article, I examine the way in which the Bible is used in Anders Behring Breivik’s manifesto, arguing that this provides an important example of the role of Christianity in far-right discourse. I show that the Bible functions as a legitimating device, glossing violence as defense of a Christian Europe; as a motivational instrument, positing God as a fellow fighter; and, as an origin for Europe. The Bible is situated in a pre-modern state where its signifying powers are policed. At the same time, it is wrenched out of this solidified framework, cut up and pasted into the manifesto hypertext in order to serve as a contemporary ally to an anti-Muslim and anti-multicultural cause.

scholarly journals The Role of Descartes’s Dream in the Meditations and in the Historical Ontology of Ourselves

2018 ◽  
pp. 84-102
Author(s):  
Edward McGushin
Keyword(s):  
The Self ◽  
Care Of The Self ◽  
Historical Ontology ◽  
Negative Power ◽  
The Arts ◽  
History Of ◽  
Relations Of Power ◽  
Positive Source ◽  
The Way

This paper situates the dream-hypothesis in Descartes’s First Meditation within the historical ontology of ourselves. It looks at the way in which the dream enters into and transforms Descartes’ relation to his “system of actuality.” In order to get free from his confinement within his system of actuality – an actuality defined by relations of power-knowledge, government, veridiction, and subjectivity – Descartes draws on the disruptive, negative capacity of the dream. But, while Descartes draws on the dream to get himself free and to establish a way of thinking and living differently, he also disqualifies the dream as a positive source of knowledge, truth, or subjectivity. Excavating this ambivalent place of the dream in the genealogy of our present, we aim to recover the dream not only in its negative power but also to open up the possibility of re-imagining its positivity as a form of counter-conduct, problematization, and element in the care of the self. This paper represents one piece of a larger genealogical study that examines the history of relationships between the arts of dreaming and the problematization of power-truth-subjectivity.

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