scholarly journals The covenantal trinitarian alternative to the scholastic dilemma

2018 ◽  
Vol 52 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeremy G.A. Ive
Keyword(s):  
John Calvin ◽  
The World ◽  
Cornelius Van Til ◽  
Institutional Church ◽  
The Trinity ◽  
Van Til

This article sets out what it calls the ‘scholastic dilemma’ about whether God’s relation to the world is necessary or contingent – the former is based on a view of God primarily as intellect and the latter on a view of God primarily as will. In his dictum, Deus legibus solutus est sed non exlex, John Calvin rejects both these positions. The trinitarian basis for this dictum was spelt out more fully by later Calvinistic thinkers, including Abraham Kuyper and Cornelius van Til. Implicitly for Calvin and explicitly for Kuyper and Van Til, the love of the Persons of the Trinity for one another is the basis for God’s covenantal trustworthiness in his dealings with the world. Recognising this trinitarian basis allows us to conceive of God as at once faithful in his dealing with the world, and yet not dependent on the world for his existence. This has profound and far-reaching implications for our understanding of society, including the universal and institutional church and a recognition of the priority of relationships, both theoretically and practically.

scholarly journals Knowledge and the Fall in American Neo-Calvinism: Toward a Van Til–Plantinga Synthesis

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-22
Author(s):  
Bálint Békefi
Keyword(s):  
Common Sense ◽  
Prima Facie ◽  
Alvin Plantinga ◽  
Philosophical Thought ◽  
Christian Worldview ◽  
The World ◽  
The Status ◽  
Sensus Divinitatis ◽  
Cornelius Van Til ◽  
Van Til

Abstract Cornelius Van Til and Alvin Plantinga represent two strands of American Protestant philosophical thought influenced by Dutch neo-Calvinism. This paper compares and synthetizes their models of knowledge in non-Christians given the noetic effects of sin and non-Christian worldview commitments. The paper argues that Van Til’s distinction between the partial realization of the antithesis in practice and its absolute nature in principle correlates with Plantinga’s insistence on prima facie–warranted common-sense beliefs and their ultimate defeasibility given certain metaphysical commitments. Van Til endorsed more radical claims than Plantinga on epistemic defeat in non-Christian worldviews, the status of the sensus divinitatis, and conceptual accuracy in knowledge of the world. Finally, an approach to the use of evidence in apologetics is developed based on the proposed synthesis. This approach seeks to make more room for evidence than is generally recognized in Van Tilianism, while remaining consistent with the founder’s principles.

Адам аттарына байланыштуу ысымдардын өзгөчөлүктөрү

2019 ◽  
pp. 10-13
Author(s):  
Г.К. Рысбаева ◽  
Ш.Б. Бәйнеш
Keyword(s):  
Human Cognition ◽  
Specific Method ◽  
World Model ◽  
Central Figure ◽  
The World ◽  
Turkic Languages ◽  
The Trinity

Аннотация: Бул макалада араб, перси, түрк тилдеринен кабыл алынган кудай («алла», «теңир») темасына байланыштуу когнитивдик фразеологизмдери иликтѳѳгѳ алынган. Учурда жалпы адамзаттык деңгээлде дүйнѳ таанууга тиешелүү дүйнонүн тилдик элеси маселеси жана филологиялык түшүнүктѳрдүн катарына кирет. «Тил –ойлоо –дүйнѳ» триядасында «Дүйнѳнүн тилдик элеси, дүйнѳнүн концептуалдык элеси» маселелерин изилдѳѳ азыркы тил илиминдеги актуалдуу маселелердин алкагына кирет. Дүйнөнүн тилдик элеси –тил маселесинде борбордук орунду ээлеген адамга тиешелүү тилдик формада жана структурада реалдуу болмуштун ѳзгѳчѳ ыкмада чагылдырылышы, элестелиши макалада кеңири сөз болот. Түйүндүү сѳздѳр: антропонимдер, тотемизм, анимизм, семантика, адам аттары,дүйнѳнүн образы, культтук сѳздѳр. Аннотация: В статье рассматриваются антропонимы арабско-персидского происхождения, посвящённые культу Бога («Құдай», «Алла», «Тәңірі»), а также связанные с ними когнитивные фразеологизмы в тюркских языках. В настоящее время рассмотрение языковой картины мира в общечеловеческих понятиях познания мира, являются философским и филологическим понятиями. Исследование «Языковой картины мира» и «Концептуальной картины мира» в триединстве «Язык-мышление-мир» является одной из актуальных проблем современного языкознания. Языковая картина мира - специфический для данного языка способ отражения и представления действительности в языковых формах и структурах в ее отношении с человеком, который является центральной фигурой языка. Ключевые слова: антропонимы, тотемизм, анимизм, семантика, имена людей, образ мира, культовое слово. ABSTRACT: The article deals with anthroponomy of the Arab-Persian origin that are devoted to the cults of the God, and related to them cognitive phraseologies in Turkic languages. The main cognitive concepts that are reflected in the national Turkic in verbal parasitological units from lingo-cultural and ethno linguistic aspects are analyzed. Now consider the language picture of the world in general human cognition in the unity of the world model, and with the same conceptual view of the world is a philosophical and philological concept. The study «Language world» and «Linguistic Map of the World» in the trinity «Language-thought-world» is one of the urgent problems of modern linguistics. Language world - a specific method for the language of reflection and representation of reality in language forms and structures in its relation with the person who is the central figure of the language. Keywords: anthroponyms, totemism, animism, semantics, names of people, image of the world, cult word.

Globalization and Benedict XVI’s Caritas in Veritate

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew A. Shadle
Keyword(s):  
Hong Kong ◽  
Vulnerable Populations ◽  
Global Economy ◽  
Catholic Social Teaching ◽  
Communication Technologies ◽  
Social Teaching ◽  
Catholic Social Thought ◽  
Caritas In Veritate ◽  
The World ◽  
The Trinity

In recent years the economy has become globalized. Globalization is the increased flow of goods, services, capital, people, and culture facilitated by innovations in transportation and communication technologies. This chapter examines the phenomenon of globalization and its impact on Catholic social teaching. It looks, in particular, at Pope Benedict XVI’s encyclical Caritas in Veritate. Pope Benedict criticizes how the current global economy exploits and excludes vulnerable populations around the world. Caritas in Veritate further develops the communio framework initiated by John Paul II and proposes that the communion of the three Persons of the Trinity provides a model for the shape globalization should take, recognizing unity in the midst of diversity. The chapter also looks at how Catholic social thought itself is globalizing, examining in particular the work of Mary Mee-Yin Yuen from Hong Kong and Stan Chu Ilo from Nigeria.

Hassidic Idealism

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Samuel Lebens
Keyword(s):  
Christian Belief ◽  
The World ◽  
Attributes Of God ◽  
The Mind ◽  
The Trinity

Hassidic idealism is the view that the world and everything in it (even you and I) exist only in the mind of God. To be is to be part of God’s dream, or the story that God is telling. This chapter argues that Hassidic idealism, coupled with an understanding of the philosophy and semantics of fiction, allows us to generate a distinctive solution to ‘the problem with sefirot.’ The sefirot are the attributes of God, as the Kabbalistic tradition understands them. The problem with the sefirot is that, as they are classically understood, belief in them seems to collapse into polytheism. The problem is analogous to certain problems facing the Christian belief in the Trinity. This chapter proposes an original Hassidic solution to this problem that relies upon various insights about fictions within fictions, and fictions that include their authors as a character.

Seventeenth-Century Calvinism and Early Enlightenment Thought

2021 ◽  
pp. 375-392
Author(s):  
Aza Goudriaan
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Thomas Hobbes ◽  
John Calvin ◽  
Sensus Divinitatis ◽  
Pierre Bayle ◽  
Philosophical Debates ◽  
Van Til

Analysing a number of interactions between Calvinists and Early Enlightenment philosophers—and the receptions of John Calvin in these—this chapter shows a complex and persistent presence of Calvin and Calvinists in philosophical debates during the early Enlightenment period. Among Calvinists, Descartes found both opponents and followers. Reformed Cartesians have occasionally appealed to Calvin (e.g. on accommodation and the sensus divinitatis), praised the Reformer (Heidanus, Burman), or neglected him (van Til). The philosopher Arnold Geulincx has been protected (Heidanus.) and published (van Til) by Calvinists, before they began to associate him with Spinoza (Tuinman, Andala, Driessen). Thomas Hobbes quoted Calvin incidentally, but Calvinists usually opposed his philosophy. Thus, the jurist Ulrik Huber used Calvin’s teachings on the testimonium Spiritus sancti against Hobbes—an appeal to Calvin that Huber repeated against another philosopher’s claim that reason alone was able to demonstrate the divinity of scripture. In order to refute Spinozists, Reformed minister Carolus Tuinman translated Calvin’s treatise against the libertines (1545). Responding to Huguenot Pierre Bayle, the Lutheran philosopher G. W. Leibniz wrote favourably about Calvin’s teachings on predestination and providence, as he had done also about Calvin’s views on the Eucharist.

scholarly journals Knowing the Father

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
David. T. Williams
Keyword(s):  
Holy Spirit ◽  
Historical Development ◽  
Evolutionary Process ◽  
Charismatic Movement ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Greek Thought ◽  
The World ◽  
The Holy Spirit ◽  
Doctrine Of The Trinity ◽  
The Trinity

The emergence of the Charismatic movement has generated a new awareness and interest in the Person and work of the Holy Spirit, but has also brought a realisation that there is a still-neglected Person of the Trinity, the Father. Part of the reason for this lies in the historical development in the doctrine of the Trinity, which led to a belief that external actions of God are not differentiated between the Persons, and also in the fact that the Father only generally acts in the world by Son and Spirit, so has no clear role. It seems natural to attribute creation to the Father, but even here, the Bible sees the Son as the actual creator. Nevertheless, the Father can be seen as the source of the concepts and means behind the material; interestingly there are hints of this in classical Greek thought and other faiths. This is ongoing, perhaps particularly in the evolutionary process of the world. Thus, paralleling the incarnation, the Father is present in the material universe, as its ethos. He can also be seen to be affected by creation, sharing in its nature in his kenōsis, and in its suffering. Creation then inspires a sense of wonder not only from its existence, extent and nature, but from its interactions and underlying concepts; this is worship of the Father. Sin is then when this is overlooked, or when actions disrupt it; these are an offence to the Father.

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