Pure Spirit and the Vision of God

2021 ◽  
pp. 43-72
Author(s):  
Ralph Withington Church
Keyword(s):  
Author(s):  
Thomas H. McCall ◽  
Keith D. Stanglin

“Arminianism” was the subject of important theological controversies in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and it maintains an important position within Protestant thought. What became known as “Arminian” theology was held by people across a swath of geographical and ecclesial positions; it developed in European, British, and American contexts, and it engaged with a wide range of intellectual challenges. While standing together in their common rejection of several key planks of Reformed theology, proponents of Arminianism took various positions on other matters. Some were broadly committed to catholic and creedal theology; others were more open to theological revision. Some were concerned primarily with practical concerns; others were engaged in system building as they sought to articulate and defend an overarching vision of God and the world. The story of this development is both complex and important for a proper understanding of the history of Protestant theology. However, this historical development of Arminian theology is not well known. In this book, Thomas H. McCall and Keith D. Stanglin offer a historical introduction to Arminian theology as it developed in modern thought, providing an account that is based upon important primary sources and recent secondary research that will be helpful to scholars of ecclesial history and modern thought as well as comprehensible and relevant for students.


Open Theology ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 274-287
Author(s):  
Jessica Wiskus

AbstractAugustine’s account in the Confessions Book IX of his ecstasy at Ostia remains unsurpassed in its poetic force, yet unusual, as a description of religious experience, in two particular respects. First of all, what he describes is not a “vision” of God, but an experience of listening. Second, it is not a solitary but a shared experience (e.g., with his mother, Monica). This essay considers the significance of these two elements by analyzing the relation between his description in Book IX and the understanding of rhythm that he develops in De musica. Drawing also on Book X (on memory) and Book XI (on time-consciousness) in the Confessions, I investigate a particular type of flowing memory – what I call, “perfect” memory – that characterizes the temporally ordered movements of musical rhythm, showing that it is in this type of memory that Augustine finds God.


Zygon® ◽  
2010 ◽  
Vol 45 (4) ◽  
pp. 897-904 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gloria L. Schaab
Keyword(s):  

2008 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 186-189
Author(s):  
Swami Tyagananda

AbstractMany religious traditions ascribe to the term "heart" a meaning that goes beyond the physical and the emotional levels. In Hinduism, the discovery of the spiritual heart is generally seen as a precursor to higher experiences that transcend the mind and the senses, and culminate in the vision of God. This essay briefly describes the Hindu view of the spiritual heart, where the heart is located, and how it is experienced.


2019 ◽  
pp. 250-264
Author(s):  
Максим Глебович Калинин

В статье опубликован фрагмент анонимного комментария на «Главы о ведении» раббана Афнимарана, восточносирийского мистика VII века. Этот фрагмент представляет большой интерес, поскольку содержит новые сведения о богословской полемике, развернувшейся в Церкви Востока в VIII в. Эта полемика, сопоставимая по масштабам и значимости с паламитскими спорами в Византии, касалась проблемы границ богопознания и прежде всего вопроса о том, способна ли человеческая природа Христа созерцать Его божественную природу. Сведений об этой полемике сохранилось относительно мало, что делает новое публикуемое свидетельство особенно ценным. После краткой характеристики «Глав о ведении» раббана Афнимарана в статье предлагается перевод комментария на главу 90 и анализ этого текста. Особое внимание уделяется термину yaddūʕtānā, «знающий», который раббан Афнимаран использует применительно к человеческой природе Христа. Комментарий на главу 90 - важное свидетельство того, что тезис о способности человеческой природы Христа созерцать Его Божество был характерным для восточносирийского мистического движения (или, по крайней мере, для одной из монашеских традиций внутри этого движения). The aim of the present paper is to introduce new data concerning the polemic that took place in the VIII century C.E. and was related to the mystical movement in the Church of the East. This data are provided by an anonymous commentary on «Chapters on the Knowledge» which belong to rabban Aphnīmāran, an 7th century mystical writer. Among the problems the aforementioned polemic was related to, was the question on whether the humanity of Christ can see His divinity. For the positive answer on this question, John of Dalyāthā, a prominent mystical writer of the 8th century, was condemned by Catholicos Timatheos. In the commentary on the 90th chapter of rabban Aphnīmāran, an anonymous interpreter claims that the vision of God is the knowledge of God. As rabban Aphnīmāran calls the human nature of Christ «knowing» (yaddūʕtānā), the humanity of Christ inevitably knows His divinity, the author of the commentary concludes. In the present article, the text of this commentary is published and analyzed. One may see that the thesis on Jesus’ ability to contemplate the divine nature was not a particular opinion of John of Dalyāthā. This opinion was representative of East Syriac mystical movement (or at least of one of monastic traditions within this movement).


Author(s):  
William A. Dyrness

Recent scholarship on the arts and the Reformation has come to focus more broadly on the cultural reconstruction the Reformation made necessary and the resulting material and visual culture. Calvin’s challenge in Geneva was not about what the Reformation had left behind but what would replace that medieval world. Key for Calvin was the experience of worship: the oral performance of the sermon, the singing of Psalms and partaking the sacraments, as a dramatic call enabled by the Holy Spirit summoning worshippers to a vision of God and God’s presence in the world. The regular communal worship and the preached drama of sin and salvation constituted the aesthetic-dramatic mirror (Turner) of the emerging Protestant imagination. This encouraged a mutual caring for the needy but also carried deep aesthetic implications. In the Netherlands this imagination is evident in the placement of textualized images in churches, and in landscape paintings and portraits, and, in France, it stimulated Huguenot architects to recover classical orders in the service of restoring to the earth its Edenic beauty.


1982 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 36-39
Author(s):  
Ronald Preston
Keyword(s):  

Author(s):  
Pieter Coppens
Keyword(s):  

In this chapter another prophetic model for Sufis of travelling to the otherworld and experiencing the vision of God is scrutinized. It discusses the commentaries on the first 18 verses of Surah al-Najm, which exegetes have generally identified with the heavenly journey of Muhammad. A couple of verses that address a visionary meeting between two unidentified entities, receive specific attention. It discusses whether the commentators considered this to be a vision of God by Muhammad, and if so, which modalities of vision they proposed.


2019 ◽  
pp. 16-31
Author(s):  
A. C. Dixon
Keyword(s):  

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