Pensare Dio. Spunti di riflessione in dialogo con Anca Vasiliu

Elenchos ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 41 (1) ◽  
pp. 181-194
Author(s):  
Angela Longo

AbstractThe following work features elements to ponder and an in-depth explanation taken on the Anca Vasiliu’s study about the possibilities and ways of thinking of God by a rational entity, such as the human being. This is an ever relevant topic that, however, takes place in relation to Platonic authors and texts, especially in Late Antiquity. The common thread is that the human being is a God’s creature who resembles him and who is image of. Nevertheless, this also applies within the Christian Trinity according to which, not without problems, the Son is the image of the Father. Lastly, also the relationship of the Spirit with the Father and the Son, always within the Trinity, can be considered as a relationship of similarity, but again not without critical issues between the similarity of attributes, on the one hand, and the identity of nature, on the other.

2014 ◽  
Vol 67 (2) ◽  
pp. 213-229
Author(s):  
Michael Straus

AbstractThis article takes as its springboard the well-known text of Psalm 2:7, in which the Psalmist – presumably David, king of Israel – refers to himself as a ‘begotten’ son of God by virtue of his Lord's decree. The article first explores various linguistic and theological options as to the identity of the ‘son’ to whom the passage refers; and analyses the relationship between that son and the one who is stated to have begotten him. In this context, the article addresses ways in which the passage more generally sheds light on the relationship between God and Israel, including through analysis of a number of fluctuating usages of singular and plural terms in the Old Testament to describe that relationship. Second, and against that background, the article examines texts in the New Testament which quote or refer to Psalm 2:7 to see whether they provide a better understanding of the nature of the relationship between the father and the son described in the Psalm; and further to see whether any enhanced understanding of that relationship reciprocally sheds light on the relationship of God the Father to God the Son as revealed in the New Testament. The article then seeks to determine whether these passages, taken as a whole, provide explicit, implicit, or proto-Trinitarian concepts in anticipation of those given fuller expression in orthodox Church doctrine. Finally, the article explores the concept of circumincession, or coinherence, John of Damascus’ highly abstracted and nearly poetic effort at the close of the Patristic era to provide an extra-biblical explanation of the relationship between the Father and the Son as well as the relationship among the three members of the Trinity. The article concludes by finding that his attempted articulation, and quite possibly all such efforts, will ultimately fail, leaving intact the mystery of the Trinity as one escaping, or rather surpassing, conceptual analysis.


2014 ◽  
Vol 48 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Riaan Rheeder

God did not create once and then put an end to it. Testimony from Scripture shows that God continuously establishes or creates new things. Humans can therefore expect to always see and experience new things in creation. With this pattern of reasoning, one can anticipate that the human being as image of God will continuously establish new things in history. Although nature has value, it does not have absolute value and therefore it can be synthesised responsibly. The thought that humans are stewards of God is no longer adequate to, theologically put into words, the relationship human beings have with nature. New biotechnological developments ask for different answers from Scripture. Several ethicists are of the opinion that the theological construction of humans and created co-creators can help found the relationship of the human being to nature. Humans developed as God’s image evolutionary. On the one hand, this means humans themselves are a product of nature. On the other hand, the fact that humans are the image of God is also an ethical call that humans, like God, have to develop and create new things throughout history. Synthetic biology can be evaluated as technology that is possible, because humans are the image of God. However, it should, without a doubt, be executed responsibly.Sintetiese biologie eties geëvalueer: Die skeppende God en medeskeppende mens. God het nie net eenmaal geskep en daar gestop nie. Uit Skrifgetuienisse kan afgelei word dat God voortdurend nuwe dinge tot stand bring of skep. Daarom kan die mens verwag om gedurig nuwe dinge in die skepping te sien en te beleef. Hiermee saam kan verwag word dat die mens as beeld van God voortdurend nuwe dinge in die geskiedenis tot stand sal bring. Alhoewel die natuur waarde het, het dit nie absolute waarde nie en kan dus verantwoordelik gesintetiseer word. Die gedagte dat die mens rentmeester van God is, is nie meer voldoende om die mens se verhouding tot die natuur teologies te verwoord nie. Nuwe biotegnologiese ontwikkelinge vra na ander antwoorde vanuit die Skrif. Verskeie etici is van mening dat die teologiese konstruksie van die mens as geskepte medeskepper kan help om die mens se verhouding tot die natuur te begrond. Die mens het deur ’n evolusionêre proses tot God se beeld ontwikkel. Aan die een kant beteken dit dat die mens self ’n produk van die natuur is. Aan die ander kant is beeldskap ook ’n etiese oproep dat die mens, soos God, nuwe dinge in die geskiedenis moet ontwikkel en skep. Sintetiese biologie kan gesien word as tegnologie wat moontlik is omdat die mens na die beeld van God geskape is. Sonder twyfel moet sintetiese biologie egter verantwoordelik beoefen word.


Problemos ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 75 ◽  
pp. 66-72
Author(s):  
Kristupas Sabolius

Jau Husserlio svarstymuose apie fantaziją randame punktyriškų nuorodų į svarbų jos veikimo aspektą – sąmonę, kuri, sužadinta galimybių regėjimo, atveria nederminuotų pasaulių perspektyvą. Šį klausimą praplečia ir visa jėga išplėtoja Sartre’as. Vaizduotė yra sąmonės laisvė – tai iš esmės pagrindinė veikalo „Imaginaire“ mintis. Tačiau šioje laisvėje slypi pamatinis ir neišskaidomas dvilypumas, gal net trilypumas. Kaip sako Sartre’as, „įsivaizdavimo aktas yra vienu ypu konstituojantis, izoliuojantis ir įniekinantis“. O tai reiškia, kad vaizduotiškai nihilistinė struktūra visose sąmonės fazėse identifikuojama kaip esminė žmogaus ir pasaulio santykio apibrėžtis. Pozicionuoti pasaulį kaip pasaulį ar jį „įniekinti“ (néantir) yra tas pats dalykas. Knygoje „L’être et le néant“ aprašoma sąmonė Niekį aptinka savo žvilgsnyje, kuris steigia akiračius ir apgaubia daiktus aureolėmis. Sartre’as sako: „mes matome, kaip niekis vaivorykštės spalvomis nuspalvina pasaulį, žaižaruoja ant daiktų“. Tai reiškia, kad Niekis užklumpa pasaulį kartu su šiuo matymu. Nihilistinės ligos pasirodymo metastazes, kurias priskiriame pasauliui, turime suvokti ne kaip daiktų savybes, bet vien tik kaip mūsų pačių santykį su daiktais, kaip tam tikrą intencionalumo, veikiančio pagal koordinacinę įsivaizdavimo logiką, išraišką.Pagrindiniai žodžiai: fenomenologija, vaizduotė, laisvė, nihilizmas, niekis.Sartre’s Magic Wand. Phenomenology and Nihilistic Freedom of ImaginationKristupas Sabolius SummaryIn Husserl’s writings on fantasy, one could already find references to an important aspect of its function, the one of the consciousness which, stimulated by the vision of its possibilities, opens the perspective of undetermined worlds. The latter topic is widely developed by Sartre. Imagination is the freedom of consciousness, this is the main idea of his Imaginaire. However, this freedom conceals a fundamental duplicity or even triplicity. As Sartre puts it, “the act of imagination is at the same time constituting, isolating and nihilating”. Consequently, the nihilistic and imaginary structure is identified in all the phases of consciousness as the essential definition of the relationship of human being to the world. To pose the world as the world or to nihilate (néantir) it is the same thing. In the description of L’être et le Néant, consciousness finds Nothingness in its own sight which constitutes horizons and covers things with halos. It means that Nothingness enters the world together with the sight and is supposed to be considered as an intentionality functioning according to the coordinating logics of imagination.Keywords: phenomenology, imagination, freedom, nihilism, Nothingness.


Religions ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 199
Author(s):  
Maria Ledstam

This article engages with how religion and economy relate to each other in faith-based businesses. It also elaborates on a recurrent idea in theological literature that reflections on different visions of time can advance theological analyses of the relationship between Christianity and capitalism. More specifically, this article brings results from an ethnographic study of two faith-based businesses into conversation with the ethicist Luke Bretherton’s presentation of different understandings of the relationship between Christianity and capitalism. Using Theodore Schatzki’s theory of timespace, the article examines how time and space are constituted in two small faith-based businesses that are part of the two networks Business as Mission (evangelical) and Economy of Communion (catholic) and how the different timespaces affect the religious-economic configurations in the two cases and with what moral implications. The overall findings suggest that the timespace in the Catholic business was characterized by struggling caused by a tension between certain ideals on how religion and economy should relate to each other on the one hand and how the practice evolved on the other hand. Furthermore, the timespace in the evangelical business was characterized by confidence, caused by the business having a rather distinct and achievable goal when it came to how they wanted to be different and how religion should relate to economy. There are, however, nuances and important resemblances between the cases that cannot be explained by the businesses’ confessional and theological affiliations. Rather, there seems to be something about the phenomenon of tension-filled and confident faith-based businesses that causes a drive in the practices towards the common good. After mapping the results of the empirical study, I discuss some contributions that I argue this study brings to Bretherton’s presentation of the relationship between Christianity and capitalism.


2009 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 243-261 ◽  
Author(s):  
Melanie L. Williams

This paper was delivered as a plenary lecture, designed to respond to the one-day special conference focus upon links between socio-legal studies and the humanities.1 The paper focuses in particular upon the relationship between law and the humanities. It may be argued that the role of empirically sourced socio-legal research is well accepted, given its tangible utility in terms of producing hard data which can inform and transform policy perspectives. However, scholarly speculation about the relationship between law and the humanities ranges from the indulgent to the hostile. In particular, legal scholars aligning themselves as ‘black letter’ commentators express strong opinions about such links, suggesting that scholarship purporting to establish links between the two fields is essentially spurious, bearing in mind the purposive role of law as a problem-solving mechanism. The paper sets out to challenge such assertions, indicating the natural connections between the two fields and the philosophical necessity of continued interaction, given the fact that certain aspects of human experience and nature cannot be plumbed by doctrine or empiricism or even by combinations of the two. Law must be understood to stand at the nexus of human experience, in a relationship of integrity, where the word is understood to mean both morally principled and culturally integrated. In particular, the development of human qualities, of character and moral sensibility informing normative values – and, ultimately, engagement with the world of law – is a process of subtle cultural as well as psychological significance, and may benefit from interrogation deriving from the wider fields of human discourse.


Author(s):  
Dr Rose Fazli ◽  
Dr Anahita Seifi

The present article is an attempt to offer the concept of political development from a novel perspective and perceive the Afghan Women image in accordance with the aforementioned viewpoint. To do so, first many efforts have been made to elucidate the author’s outlook as it contrasts with the classic stance of the concept of power and political development by reviewing the literature in development and particularly political development during the previous decades. For example Post-World War II approaches to political development which consider political development, from the Hobbesian perspective toward power, as one of the functions of government. However in a different view of power, political development found another place when it has been understood via postmodern approaches, it means power in a network of relationships, not limited to the one-way relationship between ruler and obedient. Therefore newer concept and forces find their way on political development likewise “image” as a considerable social, political and cultural concept and women as the new force. Then, the meaning of “image” as a symbolic one portraying the common universal aspect is explained. The Afghan woman image emphasizing the historic period of 2001 till now is scrutinized both formally and informally and finally the relationship between this reproduced image of Afghan women and Afghanistan political development from a novel perspective of understanding is represented.


2019 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Tautvydas Vėželis

This article examines the problem of overcoming nihilism in Heidegger’s dialogue with Jünger. It is suggested that nihilism is manifested in various forms and is the deep logic of the whole history of European civilization. One of the main aims of this paper is to outline the relationship of nihilism and Nothing in Heidegger’s dispute with Jünger, viewing how Heidegger distinguishes his approach from Jünger’s point of view. Heidegger, on the one hand, treats nihilism as consummation of the Western metaphysical tradition, on the other hand, identifies Nothing itself as the shadow of Being, which cannot be overcome in the traditional dialectical thinking manner.


2012 ◽  
Vol 40 (114) ◽  
pp. 143-158
Author(s):  
Tarja-Lisa Hypén

THE BRAND OF THE CELEBRITY AUTHOR IN FINLAND | In the 21st century, the celebrity author has begun to interest researchers not only as a marketing phenomenon, but also as the literary institution’s own phenomenon. In my article, I explore the relationship of the celebrity author to the so-called acclaimed authors of modern times. In Anglo-American research, the celebrity author and the bestselling author are distinguished as separate author types, but in the case of Finnish Jari Tervo, these types combine. For almost 20 years, Jari Tervo has been amongboth the most sold and the most visible celebrity authors in his home country. I examine how the publicity and brand of the Finnish celebrity author are formed. I consider how the brand affects the author’s works on the one hand, and the reception of the works on the other. I point out the limiting effects of the brand, but I also examine how, in combining the high and the low, it affords mobility in the literary fields while it also offers an opportunity to influence society.


2017 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 37
Author(s):  
Sirine Maher Zahran

Background: The increased consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) has been found to be an important contributor of calories in the diet. Whether there is an association between the increased consumption of SSBs and the high rates of overweight and obesity is still questionable. The objective of this study was to examine the relationship of weight status and beverages consumed of adults in a residential compound in Abu Dhabi.Methods: Forty nine out of 65 residents form Al Reef Villas in Abu Dhabi agreed to participate in the study. Initial assessments including beverages frequency questionnaire and anthropometry measurements were completed for all participants. Participants who were identified as high beverages consumers were invited to a one-month intervention aiming to limit their beverages consumption. A final assessment was completed for all high consumers of beverages at the end of the one-month intervention.Results: 55% of the subjects were overweight or obese, and 51% had abdominal obesity. 73% consumed 100% fruit juices with no added sugar, 65% consumed soft drinks, and 60 % consumed plain milk and milk products. The majority (69%) consumed tea beverages rather than coffee beverages. There was no association between weight & beverages consumption. The mean energy percentage from beverages was 14.2 (± 11.1) among all participants. 53% were considered high consumers of beverages and 47% (n=23) were considered low consumers of beverages. The one-month intervention showed a significant decrease in % of calories from beverages and weight in the overweight & obese intervention group (p<0.001 and p<0.05) respectively.Conclusion: This study highlighted major health problems in Abu Dhabi including high rates of overweight, obesity, and abdominal obesity. The one-month intervention was effective in reducing the energy percentage from beverages and weight of the overweight and obese participants, but no association was found in this sample between beverages consumption and overweight and obesity.


1949 ◽  
Vol 47 (3) ◽  
pp. 253-262 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. E. Seiler

The results of a field survey of herpes zoster over a period of 18 months are described and the difficulties of such a survey mentioned.A total of 246 patients with herpes zoster, only 16% of whom had attended hospital, is reported. It is calculated that the yearly incidence in the population was approximately 2 per 1000.Full investigation and ‘follow up’ was undertaken in 184 cases. These are classified according to the site of the zoster—the dorsal, supra-orbital and cervical regions being affected in almost 90%, the dorsal region alone accounting for 53·3%.Herpes generalisatus occurred in 7, or 38%, of the cases, recurrent herpes zoster in 6, or 3·3%, while there was one case of motor paralysis affecting lower limb.The majority of patients were apparently well at the onset of the zoster, but 27 had some associated disease; 5 gave a history of trauma prior to the onset and 2 were related to pregnancy.The seasonal and geographical distribution is given and, while the numbers are too small for statistical analysis, the disease in 1947 showed two peaks of higher incidence, the one in May and the other in October. Crowding or density of population did not appear to be important, and the disease occurred sporadically rather than in epidemic form.There was a higher proportion of female cases, but when related to the population as a whole no sex differentiation was observed. Of the patients 60% were over 45 years of age.There was no evidence that housing conditions or occupation were of aetiological significance or that the disease was more common among any particular section of the community.Eleven patients had been associated with other cases of herpes zoster before developing the disease, while 3 gave a suggestive history of prior contact with chickenpox.A condition indistinguishable from chickenpox occurred among the contacts of 10 patients, 12 individuals being affected, and there was one instance of concurrent herpes zoster and chickenpox. Other infections such as mumps, measles and rubella, while as common in association with the onset of herpes zoster, were not so frequently found as the chickenpox condition amongst contacts of the disease.The results of the survey as regards the relationship of chickenpox and herpes zoster are discussed. It is considered that the evidence does not favour a significant association with chickenpox prior to the onset of herpes zoster, but that the facts are consistent with the view that a condition indistinguishable from chickenpox may follow contact with herpes zoster. It is suggested, however, that this may be a generalized manifestation of the virus of zoster rather than true chickenpox.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document