scholarly journals Knowing God in Eastern Christianity and Islamic Tradition: A Comparative Study

Religions ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (12) ◽  
pp. 675
Author(s):  
Nur Kirabaev ◽  
Olga Chistyakova
Keyword(s):  
Church Fathers ◽  
Islamic Culture ◽  
Knowledge Of God ◽  
Eastern Christianity ◽  
Islamic Tradition ◽  
Social Discourses ◽  
Esoteric Knowledge ◽  
Eastern Cultures ◽  
Byzantine Church ◽  
Islamic Golden Age

The currently existing type of dialogue of Western and Eastern cultures makes a philosophical exploration of Christianity and Islam compelling as they are fundamental monotheistic religions capable of ensuring the peaceful interaction of various ethnic cultures in the age of deepening secularization. The present analysis of the philosophical and epistemological teachings of the Greek Byzantine Church Fathers and the thinkers of classical Arab-Islamic culture aims at overcoming stereotypes regarding the opposition of Christianity and Islam that strongly permeate both scholarly theorizing and contemporary social discourses. The authors scrutinize the epistemological principles of the exoteric and esoteric knowledge of the Islamic Golden Age and the apophatic and cataphatic ways of attaining the knowledge of God in Early Christianity. Special attention is paid to the analysis of the concepts of personal mystical comprehension of God in Sufism (fanā’) and in Christianity (Uncreated Light).

Philosophical Insights on the Human Being in Greek-Byzantine Patristics

2021 ◽  
pp. 142-152
Author(s):  
Olga V. Chistyakova ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Old Testament ◽  
Philosophical Tradition ◽  
Human Being ◽  
Church Fathers ◽  
Life Goal ◽  
Gregory Of Nyssa ◽  
Eastern Christianity ◽  
Christian Anthropology ◽  
Byzantine Church ◽  
Christian Apologetics

The article traces the formation of a new religious and philosophical tradition of consideration of the human being. It was formed in the texts of representatives of Eastern Patristics at the epoch of Trinity and Christology theological discussions in Byzantium from the 4th to 7th centuries. The author presents the early Church Fathers’ ideas of the period of Christian apologetics, who laid the foundation for early medieval Christian anthropology. The work analyzes the significant issues, the solution of which allowed Greek-Byzantine Church Fathers to shape the an­thropological tradition of Eastern Christianity. In particular, the author notes the differences in the justification of the Eastern Church Fathers’ Old Testament point on the creation of man in the God’s image and likeness. The researcher stresses the diversity of concepts about the contradictory nature of the human as­sociated with the confrontation of the soul (spirit) and body. In this context, the principle of antinomianism is deduced as the primary method of theorizing about the person in their relationship with God and the created world. Special at­tention is paid to the Patristics interpretation of the idea of deification, compre­hended as the life goal of an individual, and, at the same time, as a process of re­alization of the highest purpose by unifying two contradictory worlds – Divine and earthly – into one harmonious Universe. Deification is derived as an oppor­tunity to overcome man’s duality and as his righteous path guiding each individ­ual to self-improvement, self-knowledge, and spiritual unity with the Creator. The article is based on the analysis of the sacred texts of Eastern Christianity, specifically by Irenaeus, Athanasius of Alexandria, Basil of Caesarea, Gregory of Nyssa, and Maximus the Confessor.

scholarly journals Eastern Church Fathers on Being Human—Dichotomy in Essence and Wholeness in Deification

Religions ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (8) ◽  
pp. 575
Author(s):  
Olga Chistyakova
Keyword(s):  
Old Testament ◽  
Philosophical Tradition ◽  
Church Fathers ◽  
Gregory Of Nyssa ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
Christian Anthropology ◽  
Church Father ◽  
Byzantine Church ◽  
God's Image ◽  
Maximus The Confessor

The article traces the formation of Eastern Christian anthropology as a new religious and philosophical tradition within the Early Byzantine culture. The notion “Patristics” is reasoned as a corpus of ideas of the Church Fathers, both Eastern and Western. The term “Eastern Patristics” means the works by Greek-Byzantine Church Fathers, who in the theological disputes with the Western Church Fathers elaborated the Christian creed. Based on an analysis of the texts of Greek-Byzantine Church Fathers, the most important provisions of Eastern Patristics are deduced and discussed, which determined the specificity of Christian anthropology. In this context, different approaches of the Eastern Fathers to the explanation of the Old Testament thesis on the creation of man in God’s image and likeness and the justification of the duality of human essence are shown. Particular attention is paid to considering the idea of deification as overcoming the human dualism and the entire created universe, the doctrine of the Divine Logoi as God’s energies, and the potential elimination of the antinomianism of the earthly and Divine worlds. The article reflects the anthropological ideas of the pre-Nicene Church Father Irenaeus, the non-canonical early Christian work The Shepherd of Hermas, and the teachings on the man of the classical Eastern Patristics period by Athanasius of Alexandria, Gregory of Nyssa, and Maximus the Confessor.

scholarly journals TEOLOGIA ȘI ȘTIINȚA ÎN DIALOG. REPERE ȘI PERSPECTIVE

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 16-38
Author(s):  
Ion Marian CROITORU ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Moral Norm ◽  
The Other ◽  
Spiritual Life ◽  
Church Fathers ◽  
Knowledge Of God ◽  
Christian Anthropology ◽  
Theology And Science ◽  
God's Image ◽  
The Cost ◽  
The Church

One can note that science tends to turn man into a master of the external and material, yet at the cost of turning him, on the level of his inner and spiritual life, into a slave of instincts altered by sin. All these, without a moral norm, become a power of destruction for man and represent issues addressed not just by bioethics, where the opinion of ‘theologians’ is consulted as well, but especially by the Church and by the Orthodoxy. The pressure of events imposes the issue of the recognition or, according to some, reformulation of the bases of ethics. Yet, this ethics ought to be constrained to a revision founded neither just on the progress of science, whose truths are partial, nor on the principles of rationalist or positivist philosophy, which try to convince man that he is no different from all the other living beings and needs to be treated in the same way as them, but on the reality of the religious fact, and, moreover, on the evidence of God’s Revelation and, implicitly, of Christian anthropology, based on the fact that man bears God’s image, not the image of man himself, as a society attempting to exclude God in an absolute manner wills to herald. According to the Holy Church Fathers, one must pursue not a concordism or discordism of theology and science but their dialogue from a theological and, implicitly, eschatological perspective. The first, namely theology, relies on the knowledge of God and the receiving of the supernatural gifts by the action of the divine uncreated energies, by means of man’s collaboration with God, which supposes man’s commitment to advance on the steps of the spiritual life: cleansing, illumination, deification. The second, namely science, relies on knowing the surrounding world and on putting to use the natural gifts, also given by God to man, and by which man investigates the reasons of things, recognising God’s power, wisdom and presence. Therefore, to theology correspond the spiritual knowledge and wisdom from Above, while to science correspond lay knowledge and the wisdom from the outside or from below.

scholarly journals DEBUS DI BANTEN; PERTAUTAN TAREKAT DENGAN BUDAYA LOKAL

ALQALAM ◽  
2010 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 35
Author(s):  
MOH. HUDAERI
Keyword(s):  
Islamic Culture ◽  
Perspective View ◽  
Anthropological Perspective ◽  
Local Society ◽  
Islamic Tradition ◽  
Local Tradition ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Local Languages

Debus is one of noticeable appearance of the relationship between local tradition of Banten and Islam (mystical brotherhood). This relationship causes not only the conformity but also the dispute and controversy among the community. In debus, there are not only traditions derived from tarekat (mystical brotherhood) such as wirid, tawasul and bai'at, but also jangjawokan (local languages) and the traditional defense art. Studying debus not only observes the development of this art in Bantenese society, but also describes the anthropological condition of Islamic tradition In Banten. It indicates that the Islamic tradition of Bantenese society is more sufistic. It is probabfy because of the equality and the effinity between Islam and the mystical condition of local society of Banten. This article will discuss how is the development of debus in Bantenese society? What sources are used as references in debus performance? How does the anthropological perspective view the practice of debus performance in the context of Islamic culture in the Archipelago? Keywords: Debus, Islam Banten, Wirid, Jangjawokan.

scholarly journals Islam Aboge: Islam and Cultural Java Dialogue (A Study of Islam Aboge Communities in Ujungmanik, Cilacap, Central Java, Indonesia)

2014 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 102-117 ◽  
Author(s):  
Abdurrahman Misno Bambang Prawiro
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Studies ◽  
Daily Life ◽  
The State ◽  
Islamic Culture ◽  
Cultural Traditions ◽  
Central Java ◽  
Islamic Tradition ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Village ◽  
Central Java Province

Islam came to Java in which the state population has a form of cultural traditions and belief in the power of certain objects (dynamism), the strength of the spirit of the deceased (animism) and belief in the power of the animals (Totemism). This tradition has been passed from generation to generation; it is believed and practiced in daily life. So when Islam came, confidence and trust is dissolved into the Islamic culture. Therefore comes the so-called Islamic syncretism that is acculturation with Islamic tradition. Among the forms of local acculturation (Java) with Islam is a tradition embraced by the Muslim Aboge community in the village of Ujungmanik Kawunganten Cilacap district, Central Java province, Indonesia. These community traditions carry with spiced Javanese Islamic tradition, the Islamic came with local flavor.The specificity of this community are still use the models of Javanese Islamic calendar (calendar Aboge (Alip Rebo Wage)) to determine the beginning of Ramadan, Idhul Fithri and Idhul Adha. Because of the using of the calendar, so that the celebrations of Ramadhan, Idhul Fitri and Idhul Adha is always different to what has been set by the government. This article discusses Islam and Javanese acculturation on Aboge Islamic Community and the dating models they use. With the approach of phenomenology and interpretation of cultural studies in the frame of ethnography, it is expected to make clear this acculturation models.

scholarly journals Celebration of Nowruz in Bukhara and Samarkand in Ritual Practice and Social Discourses (the Second Half of the 19th to Early 20th Centuries)

2020 ◽  
Vol 48 (2) ◽  
pp. 122-129
Author(s):  
A. M. Malikov
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Political Legitimacy ◽  
Russian History ◽  
Ritual Practice ◽  
Islamic Tradition ◽  
Social Discourses ◽  
The Russian Empire ◽  
The One ◽  
Critical Discourses ◽  
Vast Territory

Celebration of Nowruz across a vast territory from the Ottoman Empire to Xinjiang had both common features and differences. This study focuses on distinctions between the festive traditions of two major cities of the Zerafshan Valley (Bukhara and Samarkand) in the late 1800s and early 1900s, when, after Russia’s annexation of the region, the Nowruz ritual practices were transformed and subjected to critical discourses among theologians and enlighteners. On the basis of unpublished archival sources, memoirs, and studies of Imperial Russian history, I analyze two types of Nowruz: official and folk. In the Emirate of Bukhara, a broad official celebration of Nowruz was started by Emir Muzaffar, who sought to strengthen the image of the Manghit dynasty during the crisis of political legitimacy. This gave rise to disputes among Islamic intellectuals about the need for a large-scale and prolonged celebration of Nowruz, which they felt went beyond the borders of Islamic tradition. In Samarkand, closer contacts between the settled Tajiks and Uzbeks, on the one hand, and the semi-nomadic Turkic-speaking population, on the other, enhanced the synthesis of agricultural and pastoral elements in the ritual practice of Nowruz. The festival was legitimized by prayers at mosques, and visits to the mazars of Muslim saints and to sacred streams. In Samarkand, following its annexation by the Russian Empire, there was no official celebration of Nowruz, and the scale of popular celebration decreased.

scholarly journals Islamic Education: origins and methods: التربية الإسلامية: أصولها وأساليبها

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (22) ◽  
Author(s):  
Iyad Yousef Albustanji
Keyword(s):  
Educational System ◽  
Moral Values ◽  
Islamic Education ◽  
Islamic Culture ◽  
The Third ◽  
Islamic Tradition ◽  
Broad Concept ◽  
The Media ◽  
Human Sense

The aim of the research is to stand on the concept of Islamic education as a comprehensive and broad concept that includes all that matters to a person in his life, as it is an independent and integrated educational system characterized by its fixed origins, original curricula, goals, purposes and various methods. The researcher used the method of analytical inductive. This research included several chapters where the first chapter included Islamic education, its definition, its elements and its importance, and the second chapter foundations of Islamic education, while the third chapter talked about the sources of Islamic education The research reached the following results: Attention to Islamic tradition and Islamic culture in all fields in general and the media in particular. And the importance of knowledge and knowledge and its value to man, and the importance of moral values in the stewardship of life. At the end of the research, the eternity of the Creator’s existence was emphasized, and the unseen things that transcend human sense were explained.

scholarly journals Αρετολογία και μεταφυσική

2000 ◽  
Author(s):  
Μπόρις Μπράγιοβιτς
Keyword(s):  
Virtue Ethics ◽  
Focal Point ◽  
Necessary Condition ◽  
Church Fathers ◽  
Ancient Greek ◽  
Moral Perfection ◽  
Middle Way ◽  
Byzantine Church ◽  
Self Rule ◽  
Evagrius Ponticus

The topic of this Dissertation concerns the relation of Metaphysics (especially Christian Metaphysics) to Virtue Ethics in the ascetical writings of the Byzantine Church Fathers from the 4rth to the 6th century. In particular, the writings of Evagrius Ponticus, Neilus of Ankyra, Diadochus of Photice and Ioannis Climacus are analyzed, discussed and related to the Virtue Ethics and Metaphysics of Ancient Greek Philosophy and especially Plato’s, Aristotle’s, the Stoics’ and the Neoplatonists’.Evagrius Ponticus writes that virtues reflect the spiritual health of man and that man cannot be virtuous by the reflecting and willing the evil. Utilizing the Platonic and Aristotelian conceptions of Virtue, he also emphasizes that virtues are the middle way and so the medium or a necessary condition for approaching and uniting mystically with God. According to Neilus of Ankyra, virtue ethics must not be conceived in an anthropocentric way, but in a theocentric one, and so virtue does not depend only on the ethical achievements of man, but on divine grace and on the personal relation of man to God. In the virtue ethics of Diadochus Photice, the notion of self-rule (αυτεξούσιον) is of paramount importance for the creative progress in one’s moral perfection. With the proper use of self-rule man can escape sin and turn himself to love. In addition, Diadochus also uses the notion of apatheia (απάθεια) to indicate the way for a successful cleansing (κάθαρση) of the soul, so that with this cleansing man can grasp the logoi (λόγοι) of beings. For Ioannis Climacus, virtues are akin to the human soul. Even after the Fall many “natural virtues” are preserved in human nature. But the perfection of the soul can be achieved only through the cultivation of all the virtues, and especially progressing from the partial to the more general ones with the purpose of achieving the perfect virtue and most general of all, that of Love (Αγάπη). Early ascetic thought as found in the writings of the above mentioned Byzantine Ascetic Fathers has integrated much of the framework of pre-Christian Ancient Greek philosophical thought and placed it in the Christian metaphysical context. Consequently, the Platonic, Aristotelian, Stoic and Neo-platonic concepts of Virtue became the object of further elaboration and were the context within which the ascetic Christian conception of virtue evolved. The ancient Greek concept of Virtue, which included courage, temperance, prudence and justice, was now complemented by the metaphysical virtues of love, hope and faith, which are a focal point for the proper interpretation of Christian Virtue Theory.

scholarly journals Rationality and Ethics between Western and Islamic Tradition

Religions ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (10) ◽  
pp. 302
Author(s):  
Michele Mangini
Keyword(s):  
Human Development ◽  
Basic Assumption ◽  
The Other ◽  
Western Thought ◽  
Islamic Culture ◽  
Political Debate ◽  
Large Space ◽  
Islamic Tradition ◽  
The One

In the contemporary legal and political debate a large space is taken by the concept of ‘reasonableness’ as a multifaceted notion. Its plasticity makes it very adaptable to the variety of problems that is called on to solve. Its philosophical underpinnings are located in the tradition of Western thought. On the one hand, we have the modern tradition, including the Kantian and the Humean views and, on the other, the Aristotelian–Thomistic tradition, proposing a different and competing conception of reasonableness. Insofar as the latter tradition proposes an idea relying on perfectionist considerations, I want to inquire into the Islamic tradition of reason and rationality in order to find whether it is closer to the first or to the second model. Concepts such as ‘ijitihad’, ‘maqasid’ and ‘maslaha’, I shall argue, find their better explanation if interpreted along the Aristotelian perfectionist tradition rather than along its competitor. If this move is well-founded, some important consequences for the understanding of contemporary Islamic culture may derive. My basic assumption is that those Islamic concepts (and a few others) embed a religious and cultural core of tension to ‘human development’ that can nicely dovetail with Aristotelian rationality and ethics of virtues.

Dogma and Ritual In Kitàb Al-Ma'àrif by the Nusayrì Theologian Ab ù Sa'ìd Maymùn B. Al-Qà Sim Al-Tabarànì (d. 426/1034-35)

Arabica ◽  
2005 ◽  
Vol 52 (1) ◽  
pp. 43-65
Author(s):  
Aryeh Kofsky ◽  
Meir Bar-Asher
Keyword(s):  
Visual Perception ◽  
Formative Period ◽  
Human Form ◽  
Prolific Author ◽  
Knowledge Of God ◽  
Esoteric Knowledge ◽  
Conceptual Core

AbstractThe study presents and analyzes Kitàb al-ma'àrif by Abù Sa'ìd Maymùn b. al-Qàsim al-Tabarànì (d. 426/1034-35), an outstanding Nusayrì leader and a prolific author in the formative period of the Nusayrì religion. Inner knowledge (ma'rifa) constitutes the conceptual core of the treatise, whose twenty-three chapters deal with esoteric knowledge of various aspects of religion. The article focuses on the central theological issues discussed by al-Tabarànì, such as manifestations of the deity, in human form and in the historical Si'i Imams, and knowledge of God through visual perception. It further discusses certain ritual issues—such as the antinomian stance toward Muslim law, especially regarding the five pillars of Islam, as well as al-Tabarànì's uncommon view of taqiyya.

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