Martin Luther and Beyers Naudé: Driven by conscience

2018 ◽  
Vol 74 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Brimadevi Van Niekerk
Keyword(s):  
Separation Of Powers ◽  
Martin Luther ◽  
Civil Religion ◽  
Moral Values ◽  
Good Faith ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Nederduitse Gereformeerde Kerk ◽  
The World ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Church

When Martin Luther tore the church asunder after he attacked ecclesiastical corruption, he unwittingly prompted alternative Reformations in other localities that would metastasize throughout the world. This new freedom begun by Luther – the separation of powers, toleration and freedom of conscience centred on the individual – spread also to our remote corner of the world, South Africa. Half a millennium later, Beyers Naudé, an Afrikaner of Nederduitse Gereformeerde Kerk parsonage, and a theologian, threatened Afrikaner civil religion through his stand against apartheid. While there are many differences between these men, there was one characteristic which they both shared in the use of their consciences, which was closely connected to their respective Christian faiths. The aim of this article therefore is to show firstly how Luther and Naudé followed the dictates of their consciences which caused them to act against the apparent flow of history in response to the moral values in the societies they found themselves in. Secondly, it will show that with their enlarged sense of responsibility came consequences for both the immediate people surrounding them as well as the community at large. Without over-simplifying the connection between these two individuals in history, the article concludes that both Luther and Naudé are human beings with highly developed consciences, and while both were morally obliged to follow a judgement of conscience formed in good faith and both attained their highest ideals, following one’s conscience is ambiguous because it may scandalise the consciences of those whose consciences are differently formed.

“Utopia First!” A Machiavellian Conception of Solidarity in More's Utopia

Moreana ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 55 (Number 209) (1) ◽  
pp. 79-93
Author(s):  
Marie-Claire Phélippeau
Keyword(s):  
At Risk ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Farm Work ◽  
The World ◽  
Social Difficulties ◽  
The Republic ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Democratic Elections ◽  
Communal Organization

This paper shows how solidarity is one of the founding principles in Thomas More's Utopia (1516). In the fictional republic of Utopia described in Book II, solidarity has a political and a moral function. The principle is at the center of the communal organization of Utopian society, exemplified in a number of practices such as the sharing of farm work, the management of surplus crops, or the democratic elections of the governor and the priests. Not only does solidarity benefit the individual Utopian, but it is a prerequisite to ensure the prosperity of the island of Utopia and its moral preeminence over its neighboring countries. However, a limit to this principle is drawn when the republic of Utopia faces specific social difficulties, and also deals with the rest of the world. In order for the principle of solidarity to function perfectly, it is necessary to apply it exclusively within the island or the republic would be at risk. War is not out of the question then, and compassion does not apply to all human beings. This conception of solidarity, summed up as “Utopia first!,” could be dubbed a Machiavellian strategy, devised to ensure the durability of the republic. We will show how some of the recommendations of Realpolitik made by Machiavelli in The Prince (1532) correspond to the Utopian policy enforced to protect their commonwealth.

Chimeras In Time-Honored Societies

Think India ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 463-466
Author(s):  
TUMMALA. SAI MAMATA
Keyword(s):  
Major Elements ◽  
The Sun ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Life Changes ◽  
Inner Self ◽  
The World ◽  
Nature And Nurture ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Right ◽  
Superstitious Beliefs

A river flows serenely accepting all the miseries and happiness that it comes across its journey. A tree releases oxygen for human beings despite its inner plights. The sun is never tired of its duty and gives sunlight without any interruption. Why are all these elements of nature so tuned to? Education is knowledge. Knowledge comes from learning. Learning happens through experience. Familiarity is the master of life that shapes the individual. Every individual learns from nature. Nature teaches how to sustain, withdraw and advocate the prevailing situations. Some dwell into the deep realities of nature and nurture as ideal human beings. Life is a puzzle. How to solve it is a million dollar question that can never be answered so easily. The perception of life changes from individual to individual making them either physically powerful or feeble. Society is not made of only individuals. Along with individuals it has nature, emotions, spiritual powers and superstitious beliefs which bind them. Among them the most crucial and alarming is the emotions which are interrelated to others. Alone the emotional intelligence is going to guide the life of an individual. For everyone there is an inner self which makes them conscious of their deeds. The guiding force should always force the individual to choose the right path.  Writers are the powerful people who have rightly guided the society through their ingenious pen outs.  The present article is going to focus on how the major elements bound together are dominating the individual’s self through Rabindranath Tagore’s Home and the World (1916)

scholarly journals Reading Habits of Users of Sardar Patel University: A Study

2017 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Dr. Shishir H. Mandalia
Keyword(s):  
Data Collection ◽  
Vital Role ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Reading Habits ◽  
Knowledge And Skills ◽  
Continued Education ◽  
New Knowledge ◽  
The World ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The University

Reading plays a vital role in life of a human. Reading provides experience through which the individual may expand his horizons of knowledge, identify, extend and intensify his interest and gains deeper understanding of himself, of other human beings and of the world. The study carried out to assess the reading habits of user of Sardar Patel University, VallabhVidyanagar, Anand, Gujarat. As a research tool; questionnaire was used for the data collection. Collected data were analyzed and tables were used to present the results of findings. Reading especially is a resource for continued education, for the acquisition of new knowledge and skills, for gaining information through media, especially newspapers, books, radio, television, and the computers. In this article investigator attempts to investigate the reading habits of users of the university.

scholarly journals PKM KATEKESE TENTANG MENGHAYATI NILAI KERAJAAN ALLAH DALAM ERA DIGITAL BAGI ANGGOTA KMK. ST. MARTINUS PAROKI PERSIAPAN ST. MARINUS PU’URERE

2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 32-41
Author(s):  
Aurelius Fredimento ◽  
John M. Balan
Keyword(s):  
Kinetic Energy ◽  
Technology Development ◽  
Kingdom Of God ◽  
Flowing Water ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Media Communication ◽  
The World ◽  
The Future ◽  
The Media ◽  
The Church

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.

scholarly journals Kerk en kultuur - 'n godsdiens-teologiese perspektief

1996 ◽  
Vol 52 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
P. J. Van der Merwe
Keyword(s):  
Civil Religion ◽  
Symbiotic Relationship ◽  
The World ◽  
Theological Perspective ◽  
The Church

Church and culture - a religio-theological perspective. The intimate and symbiotic relationship between religion and culture postulated by various sociologists of religion is accepted as backdrop for an elaboration of the principle of the church being in the world but not of it. The question whether a peoples church 'volkskerk' has any special cultural responsibilities is also addressed. Finally it is contended that modern, seculilrised culture is controlled by a civil ideology akin to civil religion.

The Culture of the Church

1954 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 131-154
Author(s):  
Frank O'Malley
Keyword(s):  
Religious Education ◽  
Modern World ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
The World ◽  
The Face ◽  
The Church

Among the preparatory prayers of the Mass, there are these words from Psalm 42: “Judge me, O God, and distinguish my cause from the nation that is not holy.” However inadequately accomplished, the purpose of this essay is to affirm and distinguish our cause as Catholic minds and human beings from the nation and from the world that are not holy—to affirm the strength and meaning of the world of the Church for our varied worlds of living and working. As Christopher Dawson points out in a remarkable essay, there is, even in the modern world, “a tradition of sacred culture which it has been the mission of the Church to nourish and preserve”—and to nourish and preserve it even in the nation that is not holy. “However secularized our modern civilization may become,” Dawson continues, “this sacred tradition [this sacred life] remains like a river in the desert, and a genuine religious education can still use it to irrigate the thirsty lands and to change the face of the world with the promise of a new life. The great obstacle is the failure of Christians themselves to understand the depth of that tradition and the inexhaustible possibilities of new life that it contains.”

On Discerning Good Faith from Bad Religion

1972 ◽  
Vol 26 (4) ◽  
pp. 451-468
Author(s):  
Wallace M. Alston
Keyword(s):  
Jesus Christ ◽  
Good Faith ◽  
Historical Events ◽  
Faith Traditions ◽  
The World ◽  
The Church

The preaching function of the ministry marks the church as the holy community of God in the world as it nurtures and reforms the language of faith, traditions the faithful in a Christian past, and reflects on the crucial crises of historical events in the light of Jesus Christ.

scholarly journals Pyotr Chardynin’s The Idiot as a Phenomenon of Creative Reinterpretation of Dostoevsky’s Novel

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 34-42
Author(s):  
Anastasia Ryabokon’
Keyword(s):  
Film Adaptation ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
National Cinema ◽  
Garden Of Eden ◽  
Human Personality ◽  
The World ◽  
The One ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Main Protagonist

The essay explores the artistic and expressive features of the world's first film adaptation of Dostoevsky's novel The Idiot, directed in 1910 by Pyotr Chardynin. The author substantiates the degree of influence of one of the most important philosophical concepts of the novel that of a split in the human personality on Russian national consciousness at the beginning of the 20th century. The analysis of the figurative system of the film shows that its semantics and the images of its characters were ahead of its time and, therefore, deserve closer critical attention.In the The Idiot the idea of Dostoevsky about a human beings separateness in the world is revealed in the four main characters Prince Myshkin, Parfyon Rogozhin, Nastasya Filippovna and Aglaya who are not complete, full-fledged personalities but separate components of a harmonious human personality. These characters, like puzzle pieces, possess mutually complementary qualities. Thus, Prince Myshkin, the bearer of the highest spirituality, is contrasted with the earthly and passionate Rogozhin. And the images of Nastasya Filippovna and Aglaya are connected, respectively, with the images of Heavenly Love and Earthly Love. If the characters of the novel could unite with each other in love and harmony, the world would get a complete harmonious person, like the one created by God for the Garden of Eden. However, such a merger seems impossible within the limits of earthly existence. In Dostoevsky's novel the individual parts of the soul could not unite into a harmonious whole. Egoism, passion, pride and imperfection of human nature do allow the protagonists to unite and lead them towards personal disintegration.In Russian national cinema, Dostoevskys idea of human beings separateness undergoes a number of transformations. The changes introduced by Pyotr Chardynin into the film adaptation of the novel mostly relate to the image of the films main protagonist Nastasya Filippovna, whom the filmmaker associates with a dying Russia. Chardynin also transforms other protagonists. Prince Myshkin is the only carrier of the highest spirituality, while Nastasya Filippovna, Aglaya and Rogozhin are earthly and passionate. At the end of the film, Nastasya Filippovnas murderer Rogozhin, dressed in a Russian folk costume, sobs at the bedside of the dead tsarina, while heavenly prince Myshkin who was not accepted by her in her lifetime, comforts the sinner. Chardynins film transforms the idea of a split in the human personality into the idea of the Russian separateness from God, the internal split within the Russian world and, as a consequence, that worlds inevitable death.

scholarly journals Pope Francis’ Renewal of Pastoral Care in the Logic of Mercy

2021 ◽  
Vol 58 ◽  
pp. 301-318
Author(s):  
Ryszard Hajduk
Keyword(s):  
Pastoral Care ◽  
Jesus Christ ◽  
Significant Contribution ◽  
Moral Values ◽  
Beating Heart ◽  
Pope Francis ◽  
Relativistic Approach ◽  
The World ◽  
Human World ◽  
The Church

By showing people mercy, God points to the Church the way to fulfill her saving mission in the world. According to Pope Francis, the renewal of pastoral activity should be carried out in the logic of God’s mercy. As the beating heart of the Gospel, it should be at the center of the message of salvation communicated to people and give shape to pastoral care. The operationalization of the truth about God’s mercy leads pastors to adopt the attitude of going to the periphery of existence, to bring forgiveness and comfort to people wounded by sin, and to be ready to accompany them in achieving full Christian maturity. Their motivation to perform the service in imitation of Jesus Christ, who is the perfect personification of God’s mercy, cannot be weakened by misunderstandings, the disappearance of sin consciousness or a relativistic approach to moral values and principles. Acting in accordance with the logic of mercy, the Church bears witness to her fidelity to God and makes a significant contribution to building a more human world.

Human Nature and Human Science

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kristin Gjesdal
Keyword(s):  
Human Nature ◽  
Human Science ◽  
Human Being ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Johann Gottfried Herder ◽  
Middle Point ◽  
Language And Culture ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Church

It is difficult to accept that Johann Gottfried Herder (1744–1803), an influential philosopher of history, language, and culture, was a prolific preacher and clergyman. His apparent Spinoza connection, his agreement with the pre-critical Kant, and his alleged naturalism seem to contradict his unquestioning acceptance of God. But when the human being is considered as the middle point a reconstruction of Herder devoid of this dichotomy is possible. Herder’s religious anthropology understands human beings both as historical and religious beings, which gives rise to his rejection of Christianity in its actuality as the sole future religion. The church raised itself above the individual and destroyed religions, cultures, and languages, whereas Herder’s notion of human religion—for him a universal concept—allows individual nations, cultures, languages, and religions to remain particular. Central for the argument are Herder’s Christliche Schriften (1793–8), the Ideen (1801–4), and the Adrastea (1801–4).

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