Theological realism

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Moore
Keyword(s):  
Religious Tradition ◽  
Language Game ◽  
Religious Language ◽  
Christian Theology ◽  
Church Fathers ◽  
Religious Traditions ◽  
Human Flesh ◽  
Theological Realism ◽  
Christian Discourse ◽  
Religious Realism

Theological realism typically involves three claims: that God exists independently of human beings (an ontological claim); that God can be known (an epistemological claim); and that God may be spoken about truthfully (a semantic claim). It therefore has features analogous to realist interpretations of other regions of discourse such as ethics and science. Theological realism can be distinguished from religious realism in that debate about the former arises from and draws upon the beliefs and doctrines of a particular religious tradition such as Christianity. The issues which arise in the debate about realism in Christian theology have analogues in some other religious traditions. In the philosophical literature, religious realism is usually discussed in abstraction from particular doctrinal claims. Debate about religious realism may, for example, investigate the question as to whether God exists independently of human minds. Atheists agree with religious realists that ‘God exists’ has truth-apt content and can be construed realistically, but, unlike religious realists who believe they have sound arguments for God’s (probable) existence, they deny that it is true: the arguments are not sound, there is no God to be known, and hence religious discourse is systematically erroneous. Theology is concerned with stating the content of Christian beliefs, so theologians who wish to defend a realist interpretation of them are likely to assume and appeal to core doctrines – such as the incarnation – that are philosophically controversial, if not implausible. For example, theologians are likely to want (with the church Fathers) to analyse ‘God exists’ so that it is consistent with its being true that ‘the Word of God, who is "of one substance" with the Father, assumed human flesh in Jesus Christ’. As a little reflection on this example shows, unlike in philosophical discussions of religious realism, it is difficult to tease out for separate analysis the ontological, epistemological and semantic aspects of the statement ‘God exists’ or to decide which should have priority in such an analysis. However, contemporary discussions of realism in theology focus less on whether God exists than on other questions: What is the correct analysis of language about God?; Is it metaphorical, analogical or univocal? How does it refer? Does Christian doctrine itself refer to God or does it set out rules for using the language of prayer and worship that is addressed to God? How, and to what extent, may God be known, and what is the role of narrative, worship and devotional practice in that process? What account is to be given of judgements as to the truth and falsehood of particular theological statements? The most popular current analysis of Christian discourse about God construes it on analogy with scientific realism about unobservable entities, but there are significant theological difficulties with this approach. Some Christians deny that God has any mind-independent existence but, rather than espouse atheism, they argue for versions of noncognitivism: the aim of Christian discourse is not to describe the world but to express the attitudes or feelings of those who use it. Wittgensteinian philosophy of religion – which holds that the meaning of a religious term is given by its use in a religious language game – is often, though controversially, interpreted along these lines (see Runzo 1993; Scott 2000; and Tessin and von der Ruhr 1995).

Two Concepts of God

1966 ◽  
Vol 59 (3) ◽  
pp. 227-240
Author(s):  
John Lachs
Keyword(s):  
Religious Tradition ◽  
Religious Language ◽  
Christian Theology ◽  
Philosophical Theology ◽  
Existence Of God ◽  
Religious Traditions ◽  
God Concepts ◽  
Scientific Curiosity ◽  
Concepts Of God ◽  
Theology Proper

Philosophers have long debated the question of the existence of God. This is one of many philosophical issues in which the motivation for inquiry has come more perhaps from the side of human feeling than from disinterested scientific curiosity. Powerful emotions appear to prompt thinkers to devote effort to the attempt to prove or disprove the existence of God. The urgency of this task has made some of these philosophers pay less than adequate heed to the concepts they employ. It appears to have escaped the attention of many of them that the word “God” does not have a single meaning either in religious language generally or in philosophical theology. It is obvious that one of the important ways in which religious traditions differ is in their conceptions of the Deity. But a considerable number of different God-concepts may be distinguished in the Judeo-Christian religious tradition itself, and not even in Christian theology proper is the word “God” free of ambiguity.

Autobiography, Biography, and Theological Questioning

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
John D. Barbour
Keyword(s):  
Nature Writing ◽  
Life Writing ◽  
Religious Tradition ◽  
Religious Language ◽  
Modern World ◽  
Religious Institutions ◽  
Religious Traditions ◽  
History Of ◽  
Normative Issues ◽  
Traditional Norms

Autobiography and biography (which together will be called “life writing”) raise theological questions in ways different from systematic or constructive theology. These forms of life writing tell a story that may or may not be correlated with traditional doctrines. They integrate the first order discourse of symbol and narrative with secondary hermeneutical reflections that interpret and analyze the meaning and truth of religious language. The probing and disturbing questioning in a profound autobiography such as Augustine’s contrasts with the assurances and settled answers expected of theology by religious institutions and communities. Particular religious questions shape specific genres of life writing such as Puritan discourses, nature writing, or African American autobiographies. The theology in autobiography may be either explicit or implicit and involves both questioning and affirmation, as may be seen in works as different as Newman’s Apologia Pro Vita Sua and Edmund Gosse’s Father and Son. Conversion has been a central theme and shaping influence on Christian texts, even when authors challenge this focus and create alternative forms. A central theological question posed by autobiography concerns the authority of individual experience when it contrasts or conflicts with traditional norms asserted by orthodox believers and ecclesiastical hierarchy. In spiritual autobiographies by contemporary writers, we see serious attention given to communal norms for life stories and a search for a distinctive personal apprehension of what is sacred. Autobiographical writing has been stronger in the history of some religious traditions than in others. Yet in the modern world, almost every culture has produced life writing that questions or challenges established patterns of thought and practice. In contrast with autobiography, sacred biography has been an important part of every religious tradition, usually describing an exemplar to be revered and imitated. Its strong didactic interests often curb theological questioning of established norms. While modern scholarly biographies often mute theological questions, some writers raise normative issues and argue for why the subject’s life should be valued. As well as the theology explored within life writing, many works reveal a theology of life writing, that is, beliefs about how this kind of writing may bring the author or readers better understanding of God or deeper faith.

Dual Belonging: A Missiological Critique and Appreciation from an Asian Evangelical Perspective

2010 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 24-38 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kang-San Tan
Keyword(s):  
Religious Beliefs ◽  
Religious Tradition ◽  
Christian Theology ◽  
Religious Traditions ◽  
Asian Religions ◽  
Chinese Religions ◽  
Religious Systems ◽  
Methodological Considerations ◽  
Cross Fertilization ◽  
Insider Movements

AbstractMulti-religious belonging is a phenomenon of individuals who identify themselves as followers of more than one religious tradition. People of faiths may find themselves in dual or multi-religious backgrounds due to inter-religious marriages of parents, exposures to multi-religious traditions or conversions to another faith. In Asia, there is a growing phenomenon of insider movements or devotees of Jesus from other religious traditions such as Islam and Hinduism. Previously, Christian theology has tended to treat non-Christian religions as tight and separate religious systems. Such a treatment is increasingly problematic as it does not reflect the multi-religious realities in Asia where influences and cross fertilization of religious beliefs are daily faith experiences. In particular, there is a need to take into account the experiences and struggles of Christian converts from Asian religions, namely, the converts’ own relationship with their previous faiths.The paper seeks to explore the notion of multi-religious belonging and evaluate whether it is theologically possible for a Christian to follow Christ while retaining some form of identification with one’s previous religion such as Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism or Chinese religions. Instead of a total rejection of past faiths, is it possible for a Christian, without falling into syncretism, to belong to more than one religious tradition?Firstly, the paper will evaluate three models of multi-religious belonging. Secondly, after discussing some methodological considerations, we will explore whether dual belonging is syncretistic. Finally, we hope to suggest a critical and missiological appreciation of dual belonging.

Masao Abe and Comparative Theology

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leo D. Lefebure
Keyword(s):  
Graduate Students ◽  
Jesus Christ ◽  
Religious Tradition ◽  
Christian Theology ◽  
Western Philosophy ◽  
Comparative Theology ◽  
Graduate Course ◽  
Beliefs And Practices ◽  
Faith Tradition ◽  
Mahayana Buddhist

A leading form of comparative theology entails commitment to one religious tradition but ventures out to encounter another tradition, with the goal of generating fresh insights into familiar beliefs and practices reliant upon both the tradition of origin and the newly encountered faith tradition. This chapter, based on a graduate course at Georgetown University, examines how Zen Buddhist thinker Masao Abe engages in a dialogue with Western philosophy and Christian theology. Abe interpreted the meaning of the kenosis (emptying) of God in Jesus Christ in Christian theology in light of Mahayana Buddhist perspectives on Sunyata (emptying) and the logic of negation. The chapter includes responses to Abe from various Christian theologians, including Georgetown graduate students.

How rational is rational theology? A reply to Mikael Stenmark

1999 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
pp. 89-97
Author(s):  
VINCENT BRÜMMER
Keyword(s):  
Religious Belief ◽  
Essential Role ◽  
Philosophy Of Religion ◽  
Language Game ◽  
Religious Language ◽  
Rational Theology ◽  
Truth Claims

In this response to Stenmark's critique of my views on rational theology, I concentrate on his distinction between the epistemic and the practical goals of religion and between descriptive and normative rational theology. With regard to the first distinction, I grant that truth claims play an essential role in religious belief and that it is indeed the task of philosophy of religion to decide on the meaning and rationality of such claims. I argue, however, that since such claims are internally related to the practical context of religious belief, their meaning and rationality cannot be determined apart from this context as is done in the kind of rational theology which Stenmark calls ‘scientific’. With regard to the second distinction, I reject Stenmark's view that philosophy of religion has a descriptive task with reference to religion, and hence also his claim that I have put forward a false description of ‘the religious language game’.

JEWISH AND CHRISTIAN ASTROLOGY IN LATE ANTIQUITY - A NEW APPROACH

Numen ◽  
2000 ◽  
Vol 47 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-40 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kocku von Stuckrad
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Christian Theology ◽  
Careful Examination ◽  
Church Fathers ◽  
New Approach ◽  
Future Events ◽  
Methodological Problems ◽  
Basic Ideas ◽  
The Church

AbstractIn late antiquity astrology held a key position among the accepted and well-reputed sciences. As ars mathematica closely connected with astronomy, it made its way into the highest political and philosophical orders of the Roman Empire and became the standard model of interpreting past, present, and future events. Although this is widely acknowledged by modern historians, most scholars assume that the application of astrological theories is limited to the 'pagan mind,' whereas Jewish and Christian theology is characterized by a harsh refutation of astrology's implications. As can easily be shown, this assumption is not the result of careful examination of the documentary evidence but of a preconceived and misleading opinion about the basic ideas of astrology, which led to an astonishing disregard of Jewish and Christian evidence for astrological concerns. This evidence has been either played down - if not neglected entirely - or labeled 'heretic,' thus prolonging the polemics of the 'church fathers' right into modernity. After having reviewed the biases of previous research into monotheistic astrology and its crucial methodological problems, I shall propose a different approach. Astrology has to be seen as a certain way of interpreting reality. In this regard it is the very backbone of esoteric tradition. I shall sketch the different discourses reflected in some late antiquity's Jewish and Christian documents. It will be shown that the astrological worldview of planetary and zodiacal correspondences was common to most of the sources. Examples will be presented for illustrating different adoptions of this attitude, namely the discourse of cult theology, the magical and mystical application of astrological knowledge, the debates concerning volition and determinism, and, finally, the use of astrology for political and religious legitimization.

scholarly journals Pseudoepigraph 'Epistula Apostolorum' and its place in the development of early church theology

Sabornost ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 15-30
Author(s):  
Aleksandar Đakovac
Keyword(s):  
Second Century ◽  
Christian Theology ◽  
Early Church ◽  
Church Fathers ◽  
Insight Into

The Epistle Apostolorum is a pseudo-epigraph created in the middle of the second century, which provides opportunities for insight into the developmental path of Christian theology. In this paper, we will try to show how the Christians of the first centuries tried to express their faith and the content of the tradition. The goal was to preserve both divine unity and divine multiplicity, while at the same time opposing Gnostic speculations and doctrinal attitudes. This process was not easy, nor was it devoid of many temptations and deviations, which this document confirms. It is precisely the theological shortcomings and ambiguities that we observe in this writing that can help us better understand the achievements of later generations of Church Fathers and theologians.

scholarly journals "Uw lijden is mijn' pijne."

1970 ◽  
Vol 62 ◽  
pp. 251-271
Author(s):  
Christophe Van der Vorst
Keyword(s):  
Literary Work ◽  
Church Fathers ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Christian Discourse

The long consolatory poem for the blind, Ooghentroost, written by the Dutchseventeenth-century poet, Constantijn Huygens, looks like an intricate webof dialogues. The text is first of all a letter from Huygens to Lucretia vanTrello, an older friend of the author who suffered from cataract. One canregard this poem also as a collection of links between the lines in Dutch andthe margin of the poem, a subtext of references to the oeuvres of diverseauthorities such as playwrights (Euripides, Seneca, ... ), philosophers (Plato,Cicero, ... ), poets (Homer, Ovid, ... ), Church Fathers and the Bible. In thispaper I examine one specific dialogue - a conversation between Huygens andLucius Annaeus Seneca. Huygens frequently refers to Seneca's philosophicaland literary work but his entretien with the Roman writer is not in the leastunproblematic. To fit Seneca's stoic ideas into his own Christian discourse onthose who are morally blind the poet cannot but manipulate the words of hisillustrious interlocutor.

scholarly journals PERSEPSI TEOLOG MASA KINI DI INDONESIA TERHADAP PIKIRAN TEOLOGI BAPAK-BAPAK GEREJA ABAD PERTAMA SAMPAI KETIGA

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Detty Manongko
Keyword(s):  
Literature Review ◽  
Quantitative Methods ◽  
Church History ◽  
Second Century ◽  
First Century ◽  
Christian Theology ◽  
Third Century ◽  
Church Fathers ◽  
The Third ◽  
The Church

The research of exploring the Church History have not been many studies done in Indonesia. Though this field is related to the theology, especially the development of Christian Theology for centuries. One area of Church History that needs to be examined are the Christian Thought of the Church Fathers from first to third centuries. The field is often called “Patrology” which is the study of Church Fathers from first to third centuries. Who are they, what are the results of their work, why they have produced such theological thoughts, and what they thoughts are still influencing to the contemporary theologians in Indonesia?The main problem in this research is how does the perception of contemporary theologians in Indonesia to the Chruch Father’ s theological thoughts? Through a literature review of Soteriology, Christology, and Eschatology, then this research has yielded important principles concerning to the Church Fathers’s theological thoughts at the Early Church period. And then through the field research has proven that the majority of contemporary theologians in Indonesia have a positive perception to the Church Fathers’s theological thought from first to the third centuries. Therefore, the reasons of why this research is conducted and how it is done are described in the first chapter of these book. The second chapter of this writing contains a literature review of the theological thoughts of the church fathers from the first century to the third. There are four groups of Church Fathers from the first century to the third. There are four groups of Church Fathers that are described in this chapter, i.e., The Apostolic Fathers (from the first to the middle of second century), The Aplogists (second century), The Anti-Gnostic Fathers (second and third century), and The Alexandrian Fathers (third century). The third chapter discusses the quantitative methods used in this research including statistical models to prove the validity and reliability of the data acquisition method that is used in the field of this research. It desperately needs accuracy and diligence in order to display a quality and useful research reports for the development of Church History studies. Discussion of the results of this study, along with the evidence that reinforces the result of this research is presented in the fourth chapter. Finally, the fifth chapter of this study elaborates the main thoughts that are generated in this study, which also expected to be important principles in conducting futher research.The results obtained in this study are not yet maximal on account of various constraints, such as limited time, facilities, funding, and so forth. However, the writer wishes that the results achieved in this study will give a valuable contribution to all readers of this writing and that it will be a motivation for a further research in the field of Church History in the future.

scholarly journals The Impact of Religious Atmosphere on Corporate Governance: An Empirical Study Based on the Number of Temples around Listed Companies

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. p11
Author(s):  
Kaikai Liu ◽  
Xinyi Wang ◽  
Jingjing Liang
Keyword(s):  
Corporate Governance ◽  
Empirical Study ◽  
Religious Belief ◽  
Religious Tradition ◽  
Active Role ◽  
Listed Companies ◽  
Economic Behavior ◽  
Risk Averse ◽  
Religious Traditions ◽  
The Impact

Religious belief can affect individual’s behavior. It usually induces managers to be more risk averse, thereby mitigating the agency problem and positively influencing governance. This paper conducts an empirical study to analysis the effect of religious atmosphere on corporate governance. It could be figured out that strong religious atmosphere plays an active role in corporate governance. The stronger the influence of religious tradition on listed companies, the less likely the managers are to violate the rules. Through precepts and deeds, these religious traditions are passed on from generation to generation and have become a significant factor affecting human economic behavior.

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