scholarly journals Człowiek i przyroda w nauce chrześcijańskiego Wschodu

2004 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 327-348
Author(s):  
Janusz Aptacy

This article speaks of the relation between man and the rest of the created world. This is a subject that is being taken up more and more frequently by ecologists, by philosophers and theologians. Man is in relation to the universe above all because of their common beginning. For everything, human beings included came into being "from nothing" (ex nihilo). Secondly: all of creation, even if to a different degree, is subject to the laws of limitations. Thirdly: all of the universe, which means also a man living in it, is called development and liberation from the burdening of evil, in order to participate in the freedom and glory of the children of God (cfr. R om 8:21). The subject of the relation of man with the rest of the created world was dear to the Fathers of the Church, especially in the East. The heritage of the Eastern Church Fathers has been taken up mainly by Orthodox theologians. But there are also Catholic theologians that take up the subject of the relation between man and the universe. Here one should name above all K. Rahner, H.U. von Balthasar and, among Polish theologians: W. Hryniewicz. Among the contemporary Orthodox theologians that speak of the relation between man and the universe, we find O. Clément. For him, relations with God the Creator and Savior are of importance. Upon these relations depend on other ones: with other people and with the universe. If one does not take this into consideration, one's knowledge of the man himself would be incomplete. Relations between man and the universe can be twofold: man can remain on the outside of the reality which shows itself to his eyes or he can be inserted into this reality, which he shall observe as an organic all-embracing unity. Visible nature, as O. Clément writes, is a book rich in content, which speaks of life on Earth and after death. It is only necessary to know how to make use of this book. Man created in the "image and likeness" of God is marked by divinity and participates in the divine intellect and, by means of his body, is in relation to the material world. He concentrates in himself what is spiritual and what is material. All of the created universe can participate in divine "energies" only through man, who is "priest and caretaker" of the universe. It is the duty of man to read the first revelation (that is the world) and to "realize the ontological glorification of all things". But man, because of original sin, has led to a true cosmic catastrophe, to a darkening of the modality of paradise and to the appearance of a new way of universal existence, marked by sin. The man also ceased to understand the true world, the way God created it and sustains it in His glory. Creation,  just as Rs Creator, does not thrust itself upon man, who sees the universe through the prism of his fall which in such a manner obscures and covers it, that he becomes more and more obdurate to the action of God.

Author(s):  
Phil Linos Benakis

In Byzantium from the ninth century through to the fifteenth century, philosophy as a discipline remained the science of fundamental truths concerning human beings and the world. Philosophy, the ‘wisdom from without’, was invariably contrasted with the ‘philosophy from within’, namely theology. The view that philosophy is ‘the handmaiden of theology’, which the Greek Church Fathers derived from Philo and the Alexandrian school of theology, was not the dominant position in Byzantium as it was in the West; philosophy, and logic in particular, was never treated as a mere background to, or tool of, theology. By the same token, theology in Byzantium never developed into a systematic method of dialectical inquiry into Christian truths, or a science. Thus the initial distinction between philosophy and theology remained intact. In terms of institutional practice, theological schools and studies did not exist in Byzantium and the main purpose of higher studies was to train state functionaries. This instruction, based on philosophy and the quadrivium, was mainly private, but it received support from the emperor and the church and we do hear of occasional interference by the secular or ecclesiastical authorities, perhaps because of professional or personal rivalries among the philosophy teachers. Furthermore, Byzantium had no independent universities or centers of study instituted by monastic orders as there were in the West, where social and political conditions were different. Philosophy in Byzantium also steered clear of involvement in the theological controversies that arose from time to time. The prevalent model of the thinker in Byzantium was a sort of encyclopedic teacher of philosophy, an erudite scholar who kept in touch with the sciences of the quadrivium (arithmetic, geometry, astronomy and music) and other disciplines and set the philosophical tone of the scientific curricula. The development of philosophy in Byzantium was thus very different from that of Western scholasticism.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anthony Ikechukwu Ezeogamba

"Ex-nihilo creation" has always been propagated especially when one reads Gen. 1:1-2: 3 with faith and without questioning any aspect of it. Such a person will not discover the existence of " the Word" with which he commanded order to exist out of disorder which mankind enjoys today. This "Word" is the power of God. It is with this Word that he was able to bring order in the "tohu wabohu" he met (Gen. 1:2). Let it be clear from the beginning that the phrase "tohu wabohu" has remained enigmatic and defies all translations. It tries to explain the 'nothingness' of the situation before God began creating the universe. It is through the "Word" that we were told that everything that exists came into being (John 1:3). This same word became flesh (John 1:14) so as to bring back the strayed (Gen. 3:24) humanity back to their original root which is eternal communion with God. The greatest problem is that humanity has not understood the meaning of that "Word." The aim of this work is to show that God created the world through the Word and this Word always appears for the good of mankind wherever it does. To live in opposition to this Word is to create more problems for mankind and to live in communion with him is to understand the essence of the 'Word' and thus help in solving human problems. This paper argues that if John 1:1-18 is properly understood, most misunderstandings as regards the creation of the world would be halted and appreciation of the 'Word' will increase in the world. Significantly, this work will benefit all human beings that seek the good of mankind. The method we shall use is Exegetical and hermeneutic of John 1:1-18.


1966 ◽  
Vol 59 (4) ◽  
pp. 351-367 ◽  
Author(s):  
Harry A. Wolfson

According to Aristotle himself, all the philosophers before him are agreed that the world was generated, which implies that he was the first to introduce the conception of an ungenerated world; but, according to John Philoponus, Aristotle was only the first among the natural philosophers who discovered a new method to establish the principle that the world had no beginning. Among the Church Fathers, Lactantius sometimes attributes the belief in the eternity of the world explicitly to Aristotle, but sometimes he refers it vaguely to “those who say that the world always existed.” Vague references to a belief in the eternity of the world, or to such a belief described as held by some people or by some philosophers, are to be found also in the works of such Fathers as Justin Martyr, Theophilus, Origen, Arnobius, Basil, Augustine, and Diodorus Tarsus. Two pre-Socratic philosophers are mentioned by some Fathers as exponents of the belief in the eternity of the world: Xenophanes by Hippolytus, Eusebius, and Theodoret of Cyrrhus; Pythagoras by Tertullian. Various arguments are used by the Fathers in their refutation of this view. These arguments, selected and grouped into six types, are the subject of discussion of the present paper.


2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 23-37
Author(s):  
Syarifudin Syarifudin

Each religious sect has its own characteristics, whether fundamental, radical, or religious. One of them is Insan Al-Kamil Congregation, which is in Cijati, South Cikareo Village, Wado District, Sumedang Regency. This congregation is Sufism with the concept of self-purification as the subject of its teachings. So, the purpose of this study is to reveal how the origin of Insan Al-Kamil Congregation, the concept of its purification, and the procedures of achieving its purification. This research uses a descriptive qualitative method with a normative theological approach as the blade of analysis. In addition, the data generated is the result of observation, interviews, and document studies. From the collected data, Jamaah Insan Al-Kamil adheres to the core teachings of Islam and is the tenth regeneration of Islam Teachings, which refers to the Prophet Muhammad SAW. According to this congregation, self-perfection becomes an obligation that must be achieved by human beings in order to remember Allah when life is done. The process of self-purification is done when human beings still live in the world by knowing His God. Therefore, the peak of self-purification is called Insan Kamil. 


2020 ◽  
pp. 72-79
Author(s):  
L. Monica Lilly

 In The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho projects Santiago communicating with Nature which he refers to as the common language of the world. A study of The Alchemist will reveal how Santiago, an Andalusian shepherd boy who yearns to travel in search of a bounty treasure explores the wisdom of life. His quest for the treasure buried near the Pyramids propels him to enter an unchartered territory from his homeland in Spain to the Egyptian desert. This paper aims to explore the ecological reflections mired with concepts of slants in philosophy. Ecology on one hand is considered as a branch of science but, despite providing erudition on the subject it is understood that it provides sagacity to understand the universe better. This paper rightly discusses the amalgamation of nature and literature. It is indeed a manifestation of the recurrently believed ideologies that connect human psyche and platitudes of the cosmos. The logos that interrelates the existing connection between the non human and the human species require an exceptional mastery. This paper will analyze and depict the emotions connected with nature from the spectacle of the Protagonist Santiago in The Alchemist.


2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 32-41
Author(s):  
Aurelius Fredimento ◽  
John M. Balan

The development and the progress of media communication at the present is a fact of the knowledge and the technology development that must be accepted. It presence like the flowing water which has a fast current that brings also two influences both positive and negative that must be accounted for the members of the Catholic Students Community Of St. Martinus Ende (KMK St. Martinus Ende). Both positive and negative influences the media community like a kinetic energy or a power attraction that attract  them in a tiring ambiquity. Let them walk alone without escort of a decisive compass where they should have a rightist attitude and responsible. On the point, the guidance and assistance of the church is an  offering  if the church will be born a generation  of the future  of the  church  that is mature and has a certain quality  based  on the growth  and the development  of acuteness and inner  to determine the attitude to the development of media communication. The process of sharpening of mind and the sharpeness of the participants can be realized by giving some activities such as: awareness, deepening and even  the sharpeness of the actor of  media communication as an  alternative of reporting work of the God Kingdom for human beings. It becomes the main moving spirit or activator  for the board of KMK Of St. Martinus Ende  to plan and boring  about the activity of catechism. The activity rise the method of Amos.  By this method, the participants are invited to build a deeply reflection that based on thein real experiences about the media communication, while keep on self opening to the God planning will come  to them  and  give them via  the commandment of God.  The commandment  of God  come to light, inspiration, motivate, power and critics to the  participants about the using of the media communication as a media of the commandment of the kingdom of God  to the world that is more progress and development lately.


2007 ◽  
pp. 27-37
Author(s):  
Dmytro V. Tsolin

Every reader of the Old Testament, both experienced researcher and newcomer, cannot fail to pay attention to one peculiarity in the presentation of the idea of ​​God: it is a harmonious (and, at times, amazing) combination of transcendence and immanence. The History of the Creation of the World (Genesis 1: 1 - 2: 3), which begins the first book of the Strictly Testament - Genesis - is an example of an exquisite prose genre with elements of epic poetry. In it, the Creator of the Universe appears to the Almighty, the Wise, and the All-Powerful, standing above the created world: Only one word of it evokes the material world from nothingness. This is emphasized by the repeated use of the formulas אלהים וימר / wa-yyo'mer 'ělohîm ("And Elohim said ...") and ויהי־כן / wa-yəhî khēn ("And so it became"). This use of two narrative constructs at the beginning and at the end of messages about the creative activities of God clearly emphasizes the idea of ​​reconciling the divine Word and being. God is shown here to be transcendental.


Author(s):  
Abdul Rasheed

"The history of religion is as old as the world itself. That is why from Hazrat Adam to date, we find no age without divine guidance.Guidance is necessary for all human beings as the Creator of the universe, Almighty Allah addressed the first human couple while sending it to this earth:"We said," Get down from here, all of you. So, whenever 'the guidance' from ME comes to you; and whoever follows MY' guidance', they do not have to fear and they do not have to regret".Meaning: "Gm here; ate you down all frond if, as is sure, there comes to you guidance from Me, whosoever follows My guidance, on them shall be no fear, nor shall they grieve". It means the success of Allah's vicegerents, human beings, depends on their following the laws given by the creator of this world.


Author(s):  
Professor John Swarbrooke

I completed the main text of this book a few days before Coronavirus, as it was called at the beginning, started to become a major story in the news in Europe. Now, just over three months later, as the book is about go for printing it seems as if the COVID-19 pandemic, as it is now called, is about the only story in the world’s media. In the circumstances, it seems important that I say something about the virus and its potential impact on the subject of this book. As I write these words, in early Ma y 2020, the pandemic has killed at least 264,000 people worldwide and some 3.8 million people are confirmed to have been infected, although the actual number is likely to be significantly higher as many people who have had the virus may not have had it confirmed through testing. To put this in context, the Spanish Flu pandemic in 1918 killed an estimated 50 million people, while the highly publicised outbreak of SARS in 2003 killed fewer than 1,000 people. The 2014-2016 Ebola outbreak in Africa resulted in the deaths of an estimated 11,300 people. So COVID-19 is far and away the largest pandemic, in terms of deaths, to hit the world in just over a century. Of course, we do not yet know the final death toll from it, for as I write it is still continuing. Furthermore, unlike SARS and Ebola this virus is a true pandemic, affecting virtually every part of the planet where human beings live.


2021 ◽  
pp. 181-192
Author(s):  
Bruce Ledewitz

The book returns to the question of God within the world of the yes. The reader is given tools to continue the investigation, but no final conclusion is reached on the question of God. David Griffin’s process thought is naturalistic and panentheistic. This view of God shares attributes of traditional theism. But in process thought, God does not create ex nihilo, does not coerce, and remains within the causal structure of nature. Griffin argues that God is a necessary feature of process thought and its endorsement of enduring meaning. Donald Sherburne offers a different view, called “Whitehead Without God.” The book concludes that process thought without God can still renew public life. It remains for us in the future to investigate the mystery of holiness in the universe.


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