scholarly journals What Makes Us Human? The Lutheran Anthropological Link Between Wingren and Ricoeur

Open Theology ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 308-315 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bengt Kristensson Uggla
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Theological Anthropology ◽  
Philosophical Anthropology ◽  
The Other ◽  
Christian Faith ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Philosophical Position ◽  
The Reformation ◽  
Way Of Thinking

Abstract This paper explores the link between the extra nos in Gustaf Wingren’s theological anthropology and the homo capax in Paul Ricoeur’s philosophical anthropology, considered as two creative receptions of the tradition from Luther. I will argue that the reason that we find such synergies between these two thinkers, even though neither of them ever referred to the other, has to do with their common roots in, and their contributions to rethink, the tradition from the Reformation. Wingren takes his specific place in twentieth century theology as an angry critic of the dominant anti-liberal movements that took the distinctively Christian-in opposition to what we all share as human beings-as methodological startingpoint when understanding the Christian faith, and as an alternative he developed understanding of what it means to be human by starting “outside” oneself. Ricoeur’s philosophical position is developed as a creative alternative to both humanist and anti-humanist approaches, expressed as a wounded cogito capable of imagining “onself as another.” Taken together, these two thinkers provide us with a profound dialectical way of thinking what it means to be human by bringing together a de-centered self and a centered self as integral parts of a wider dialectics.

The avant-garde’s visual arts in the context of Santayana’s idea of vital liberty

Human Affairs ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Krzysztof Skowroński
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Visual Arts ◽  
The Other ◽  
Political Life ◽  
The Political ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Political Dimension ◽  
Avant Garde ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
The Universe

AbstractIn the present paper, the author looks at the political dimension of some trends in the visual arts within twentieth-century avant-garde groups (cubism, expressionism, fauvism, Dada, abstractionism, surrealism) through George Santayana’s idea of vital liberty. Santayana accused the avant-gardists of social and political escapism, and of becoming unintentionally involved in secondary issues. In his view, the emphasis they placed on the medium (or diverse media) and on treating it as an aim in itself, not, as it should be, as a transmitter through which a stimulating relationship with the environment can be had, was accompanied by a focus on fragments of life and on parts of existence, and, on the other hand, by a de facto rejection of ontology and cosmology as being crucial to understanding life and the place of human beings in the universe. The avant-gardists became involved in political life by responding excessively to the events of the time, instead of to the everlasting problems that are the human lot.

Out of the Groove

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrea Bachner
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
The Other ◽  
Theoretical Approaches ◽  
Contemporary Media ◽  
Way Of Thinking ◽  
The One

This chapter explores different links between sound and writing, from Rilke’s and Adorno’s reflections on phonographic grooves as a type of proto-writing in the early decades of the twentieth century to contemporary media theories that invest sound with the powers of immediacy, immersion, and corporeal resonance on the one hand and to poststructuralist fantasies of sound as an embodiment of écriture on the other. Sound theorists invest sound with contradictory desires: as a counter to phonocentric phantasms of presence as well as an alternative, resonant way of thinking, as that which is most mediated as well as a figure of non-mediation. And figures of inscription—as overt or disavowed imaginary, as well as negative foil—frequently represent and mediate between these differing theoretical approaches to sound. The genealogy of intextuated sound that this chapter narrates throws light on the strategic deployment of media in theory, for which sound (and its conceptual imaginaries) becomes a hallmark of reconceptualizing corporeality and materiality as well as a way of negotiating between mediation and the unmediated.

Dewey, John (1859–1952)

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
James Gouinlock
Keyword(s):  
Political Philosophy ◽  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Subject Matter ◽  
John Dewey ◽  
Philosophical Anthropology ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Common Life ◽  
Material Substance ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Point Of Departure

The philosophy of John Dewey is original and comprehensive. His extensive writings contend systematically with problems in metaphysics, epistemology, logic, aesthetics, ethics, social and political philosophy, philosophy and education, and philosophical anthropology. Although his work is widely read, it is not widely understood. Dewey had a distinctive conception of philosophy, and the key to understanding and benefiting from his work is to keep this conception in mind. A worthwhile philosophy, he urged, must be practical. Philosophic inquiry, that is, ought to take its point of departure from the aspirations and problems characteristic of the various sorts of human activity, and an effective philosophy would develop ideas responsive to those conditions. Any system of ideas that has the effect of making common experience less intelligible than we find it to be is on that account a failure. Dewey’s theory of inquiry, for example, does not entertain a conception of knowledge that makes it problematic whether we can know anything at all. Inasmuch as scientists have made extraordinary advances in knowledge, it behoves the philosopher to find out exactly what scientists do, rather than to question whether they do anything of real consequence. Moral philosophy, likewise, should not address the consternations of philosophers as such, but the characteristic urgencies and aspirations of common life; and it should attempt to identify the resources and limitations of human nature and the environment with which it interacts. Human beings might then contend effectively with the typical perplexities and promises of mortal existence. To this end, Dewey formulated an exceptionally innovative and far-reaching philosophy of morality and democracy. The subject matter of philosophy is not philosophy, Dewey liked to say, but ‘problems of men’. All too often, he found, the theories of philosophers made the primary subject matter more obscure rather than less so. The tendency of thinkers is to become bewitched by inherited philosophic puzzles, when the persistence of the puzzle is a consequence of failing to consider the assumptions that created it. Dewey was gifted in discerning and discarding the philosophic premises that create needless mysteries. Rather than fret, for instance, about the question of how immaterial mental substance can possibly interact with material substance, he went to the root of the problem by challenging the notion of substance itself. Indeed, Dewey’s dissatisfaction with the so-called classic tradition in philosophy, stemming at least from Plato if not from Parmenides, led him to reconstruct the entire inheritance of the Western tradition in philosophy. The result is one of the most seminal and fruitful philosophies of the twentieth century.

scholarly journals The zone of non-being: When belonging becomes more important than being

2018 ◽  
Vol 52 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Amanda L. Du Plessis
Keyword(s):  
Theological Anthropology ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Knowledge Systems ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
The Reformation ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Practical Theological ◽  
Speak Up ◽  
Ways Of Being ◽  
Better Than

Silent screams echo in South Africa, objecting to violence due to cultural and gender differences. Bitterness and anger increase as the cultures, knowledge systems and ways of being or ‘non-being’ are despised, demonised and declared substandard and irrational or even eliminated. Most of these individuals cannot afford to speak up, because belonging has become more important than being. It is inevitable that people would question their personhood and dignity when they find themselves in the space of intersection between culture, gender and violence. If the meaning of formosus is to bring out the beauty of each person, how is it that ‘non-being’ for some is better than being? In the fable of Hyginus, an alternative word for ‘being’ is ‘care’. Human beings’ existence is essentially dependent on care. The intersection between culture, gender and violence probes for the reformation of practical theological anthropology and, especially, a rethinking of the ministry of compassion. This article seeks to explore hermeneutics of renewal. The focus is on restoring and reforming the human being which can help non-beings to express their deepest quest for personhood and dignity. In this sense, dignity is defined as being one with all the multiplicities, systems and paradoxes of one’s own way of being, doing and knowing. The epistemology is from a pastoral care point of view.

scholarly journals Αiρεσισ and αiρετικoσ in the Alexandrine school of the II and III centuries (Clement of Alexandria and Origen)

Vox Patrum ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 68 ◽  
pp. 73-84
Author(s):  
Maria Laura Di Paolo ◽  
Vito Limone
Keyword(s):  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Human Freedom ◽  
The Other ◽  
Christian Faith ◽  
Contemporary Philosophy ◽  
Christian Religion ◽  
Clement Of Alexandria ◽  
Way Of Thinking ◽  
The One ◽  
Schools Of Medicine

The aim of this study is to outline the use of the terms airesis and airetikos according the two main representatives of the Alexandrine School, Clement and Origen. In the Stromateis the word airesis has many meanings and, first of all, it is related to “the act of choice”, then, it is also a synonym for a “school” or a “sect”, hence it signifies Christian “heresy”. The connection between human freedom and schools, mainly philosophical ones, but also the schools of medicine, points out that Clement conceives “heresy” as an error, an incorrect way of thinking due to a wrong, even malicious choice, often of an intellectual nature; it sug­gests conscious deformation of a message. Hence, Clement contrasts the Gnostic airetikos and the “true Gnostic”, the man of faith who by studying the biblical texts and the Greek disciplines is enlightened by Christ (Stromata VII 92, 7). About the Origen’s usage of the term a†resij in his Contra Celsum it is worth to note that, firstly, the word a†resij always indicates the philosophical schools of Late Antiquity (cf. Contra Celsum 4, 45; 8, 53); secondly, that Origen aims at persuading his enemy, Celsus, that Christian religion is neither a refusal of philo­sophical schools nor something very different from them, but it may be regarded as an a†resij too and, in order to argue this, he shows that not only Christian reli­gion and philosophical schools share some moral and cosmological topics (Contra Celsum 3, 66; 3, 80), but also that both Christians and philosophers are moved by the some ¥logoj for£ (Contra Celsum 1, 10). Therefore, in Origen’s Contra Celsum the a†resij means not only the philosophical schools of the II and III centuries, but also the Christian religion as long as it is accepted by the Heathens. In conclusion, this study shows, once again, that, as the two representatives of Alexandria were in dialogue with the brilliant exponents of the contemporary philosophy, they were called to explain the importance of faith on the intellectual side, using some terms and conceptions of the main schools, on the one side, and by distinguishing Christian faith from them, on the other.

The Irish Popery Laws: A Study of Eighteenth-Century Legislation and Behavior

1962 ◽  
Vol 24 (4) ◽  
pp. 485-508 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert E. Burns
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
The Other ◽  
Social Scientists ◽  
European State ◽  
Long Period ◽  
Political Partisanship ◽  
The Reformation ◽  
William Iii ◽  
And Behavior

Unlike the laws enacted against religious and political dissenters in almost every European state since the Reformation, the Popery legislation enacted by the Irish Parliaments of William III, Anne, and the first two Hanoverians was marked by a near absence of sanguinary punishments. The long period of enforcement, one hundred years, and the areas of human activity regulated distinguish the Irish laws from twentieth-century commitments to ideals of ideological uniformity. Not only were the Irish Popery laws unique in these respects, but they comprised one of the most persistent legislative efforts ever undertaken by a western European state to change a people. Although the Popery laws have been discussed and analyzed since their enactment, such discussions have usually been colored by confessional and political partisanship. Neither polemicists nor serious historians have satisfactorily analyzed either the purpose of the laws or the problems and consequences of enforcing them. While these matters are the principal concern of this article, the writer hopes that his necessarily limited investigation of the Irish Popery laws will invite the attention of social scientists to the other complex human problems created by this legislation.

Revelation as apologetic category: a reconsideration of Karl Barth's engagement with Ludwig Feuerbach's critique of religion

2015 ◽  
Vol 68 (1) ◽  
pp. 43-60
Author(s):  
Richard Paul Cumming
Keyword(s):  
Public Discourse ◽  
Theological Anthropology ◽  
Christian Theology ◽  
Eternal Life ◽  
Christian Faith ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Church Dogmatics ◽  
Protestant Christianity ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Critique Of Religion

AbstractThis article examines Karl Barth's engagement with the philosophy of religion of Ludwig Feuerbach. InThe Essence of Christianity, Feuerbach proposes that religion is a function of human projection and that the Christian concept of God represents the crystallisation in one objectified subject of all the finite perfections of individual human beings. InChurch Dogmatics, I/2, Barth seeks to respond to Feuerbach's critique of Christianity by affirming Feuerbach's critical account of the nature of religion but arguing that, since the original impetus of Christianity issues not from human projection but from God's act of self-revelation in Jesus Christ, Feuerbach's critique of religion does not apply to the Christian faith. Glasse notes that this response, whilst satisfactory to the Christian, would be ‘not intelligible’ to those who do not accept the Christian faith. Furthermore, Barth's apologetic manoeuvre, Vogel claims, entails that Barth is unable to defend the plausibility of the Christian faith on the terms set by secular culture, and that Christian theology is therefore required to abandon any attempt to participate constructively in general public discourse. Vogel recognises that this is a drastic recourse indeed, observing that it would be judicious for Christian theology to seek to elaborate a response to Feuerbach's critique which can stand without requiring the critic to assume the veracity of the Christian faith. This article argues that, by taking into account the role of Feuerbach's earlier work,Thoughts on Death and Immortality, for constituting the philosophical impetus of Feuerbach's critique of Christianity, the Christian theologian is able, using Barth's theological anthropology, to provide a response to Feuerbach's critique on Feuerbach's own terms. InThoughts on Death and Immortality, Feuerbach argues that Protestant Christianity, as the paradigmatic expression of religion, conceives the individual as an absolute being, and that, due to the fact that everyday existence clearly counter-indicates this absolutisation of the human individual, Protestantism posits a second, eternal life, in which the limits bound up with individual existence are eradicated. Using Barth's theological anthropology inChurch Dogmatics, III/2 and III/4, this article proposes that Barth concurs with Feuerbach's critique of the absolutisation of the individual, but that he is positioned to deny that this absolutised conception of the individual has anything to do with the Christian faith insofar as he accurately represents it.

Cinematic Vitalism

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Inga Pollmann
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Film Theory ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
The Other ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
French Film ◽  
Movie Theater ◽  
Key Concepts ◽  
Philosophical Texts ◽  
The One

This book argues that there are constitutive links between early twentieth-century German and French film theory and practice, on the one hand, and vitalist conceptions of life in biology and philosophy, on the other. By considering classical film-theoretical texts and their filmic objects in the light of vitalist ideas percolating in scientific and philosophical texts of the time, Cinematic Vitalism reveals the formation of a modernist, experimental and cinematic strand of vitalism in and around the movie theater. The book focuses on the key concepts including rhythm, environment, mood, and development to show how the cinematic vitalism articulated by film theorists and filmmakers maps out connections among human beings, milieus, and technologies that continue to structure our understanding of film.

The Knowledge of God According to Two Process Theologians: A Twentieth-Century Gnosticism

1975 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 87-96
Author(s):  
Colin Gunton
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Intellectual History ◽  
The Other ◽  
Intellectual Life ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Knowledge Of God ◽  
Charles Hartshorne

Knowledge of God, in the sense of acquaintance with him, is an unavoidable part of our experience as human beings. God is presented to us along with the other data of our experience. That is the heart of the understanding of the knowledge of God according to the doctrines of the two Process theologians who are the subjects of this paper. Quite how it is so will, I hope, follow from an exposition of the views of Schubert M. Ogden and Charles Hartshorne, who represent different aspects of the situation. Hartshorne is the philosopher, who has devoted all his intellectual life to preaching and refining his metaphysical system, while Ogden has taken up Hartshorne's discoveries for apologetic and theological reasons. A brief look at Ogden's intellectual history will set the scene.

The Media of Sensation

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Niklaus Largier
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
The Other ◽  
Human Soul ◽  
Working Through ◽  
The Media ◽  
Way Of Thinking ◽  
Theories Of Reading ◽  
The Middle Ages

This chapter discusses the significance of medieval practices of prayer both for the modern rediscovery of media and for the anthropology of sensation. It demonstrates how medieval theories of reading, prayer, and contemplation thematize ways in which specific media—words, images, and music—are to be used in order to produce sensual and affective cognition. In doing so, these theories develop a sophisticated understanding of media on one side, and a specific understanding of the human soul as a sphere of evocation of possible sensation and affect on the other side. In working through this complex intersection of media and soul-formation I focus on this very notion of possibility, its significance in the context of an ‘anthropology of Catholicism’, and its presence in catholic discourses from the Middle Ages up to the twentieth century. Through discussion of the source texts an understanding of the seemingly established anthropological distinction between “inner man” and “outer man,” “interiority” and “exteriority” is challenged and what remains is a radically different way of thinking about interiority.

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