Een wandelgids bij het leven: Een analytische evaluatie van de Christelijke Dogmatiek

2015 ◽  
Vol 69 (1) ◽  
pp. 21-37
Author(s):  
Rik Peels
Keyword(s):  
Critical Analysis ◽  
Natural Theology ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Systematic Theology ◽  
Christian Faith ◽  
Analysis And Evaluation ◽  
The Core ◽  
General Perspective ◽  
The Way

This article provides a critical analysis and evaluation of Gijsbert van den Brink and Kees van der Kooi’s Christian Dogmatics, a lucid and welcome presentation of the core ideas that can be found in the Christian faith. First, the book is characterized, both from a more general perspective and from a specifically theological point of view. Next, it is argued that there is a discrepancy between the way the authors characterize systematic theology and the way they practice systematic theology themselves. After that, their assessment of natural theology is criticized and several problems in the Christian Dogmatics are highlighted, such as the fact that the authors’ anthropology fails to take holistic dualism seriously. Finally, it is argued that in some places, the authors ask important questions, but then provide answers to different questions without addressing the original issues.

scholarly journals HEINRICH MEIER E LA SFIDA DELLA TEOLOGIA POLITICA

Il Politico ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 84 (1) ◽  
pp. 100-116
Author(s):  
Marco Menon
Keyword(s):  
Political Philosophy ◽  
Political Theology ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Carl Schmitt ◽  
Christian Faith ◽  
The Political ◽  
Leo Strauss ◽  
Divine Revelation ◽  
The Core ◽  
Political Problem

This paper offers a short overview of Heinrich Meier’s books on Carl Schmitt’s political theology, namely Carl Schmitt und Leo Strauss, and Die Lehre Carl Schmitts. These writings, published respectively in 1988 and 1994, and recently translated into Italian by Cantagalli (Siena), have raised both enthusiastical appraisal and fierce criticism. The gist of Meier’s interpretation is the following: the core of Schmitt’s thought is his Christian faith. Schmitt’s political doctrine must be unterstood as political theology, that is, as a political doctrine which claims to be grounded on divine revelation. The fundamental attitude of the political theologian, therefore, is pious obedience to God’s unfathomable will. The hypothesis of the paper is that Meier’s reading, which from a historical point of view might appear as highly controversial, is essentially the attempt to articulate the fundamental alternative between political theology and political philosophy. Meier’s alleged stylization of Carl Schmitt and Leo Strauss is a form of “platonism”, i.e., a theoretical purification aimed at a clear formulation of what he means by “the theologico-political problem”.

scholarly journals Self-remembering: Georges Ivanovitch Gurdjieff (1870-1949) & his legacy

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Joanna Nicholls-Parker
Keyword(s):  
Critical Analysis ◽  
Contemporary Literature ◽  
Spiritual Practices ◽  
Self Awareness ◽  
Narrative Self ◽  
The Core ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Spiritual Legacy ◽  
Contemplative Neuroscience ◽  
The Way

<p>The subject of this thesis is the spiritual practices taught by Gurdjieff (1870-1949) and the legacy of these teachings in the major spiritual groups that have aspired to follow his path. I argue that at the core of these spiritual techniques are the practices that Gurdjieff referred to as “self-remembering” and “transition” and that by an analysis of these it is possible to articulate Gurdjieff’s spiritual system in a novel fashion. This articulation is then utilized to explore the different ways in which his system was developed by his disciples. The more recent studies of spirituality and spiritual techniques allow us to critically reconsider Gurdjieff and his legacy in a systemic and academic fashion. The thesis concludes that while Gurdjieff was a man and teacher of his time many of the themes of his teachings continue to resonate in contemporary spiritual movements and that his influence has been wider than is often acknowledged, and that at the centre of this legacy are his spiritual techniques. Gurdjieff used storytelling to advance an in-depth understanding of his teaching to his principal followers and it is through an evaluation of this investment that the promotion of self-awareness is seen as pivotal and central to any evaluation of the spiritual legacy. The way to distinguish Gurdjieff’s teaching from other of his principal followers, now 100 years on, is evident when contemporary literature can provide a valuable and insightful means to differentiate influence. The key contribution offered in the name of contemplative neuroscience in this thesis reveals that Gurdjieff taught by employing a narrative self-focus, while his principal followers taught by employing a self-reverential devotional focus. This sets the benchmark of the legacy up anew as reflecting at least two different theological approaches: self-focused or self-reverential. My critical analysis of Gurdjieff’s techniques will differ from a number of academic appraisals in that essentially hagiography is offered as a replacement for biography, and in this way with the assistance of phenomenology the legacy can be explained in a more true and reasonable fashion. This is because the lesser weight on biography allows the phenomenological perspectives to assist the teachings arrival at the ethereal state crystallization, revealing Gurdjieff’s personal agenda and indicating his means of delivery.</p>

Christian Martyrdom and Christian Violence

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew D. Lundberg
Keyword(s):  
Just War ◽  
Christian Ethics ◽  
Human Condition ◽  
The Self ◽  
Christian Faith ◽  
Christian Life ◽  
Majority Opinion ◽  
The Core ◽  
The Way ◽  
Christian History

What is the place—if any—for violence in the Christian life? This book explores this question by analyzing a paradox of mainstream Christian history, theology, and ethics: at the heart of the Christian story, the suffering of violence stands as the price of faithfulness. From Jesus himself to martyrs who have died while following him, at the core of Christian faith is an experience of being victimized by the world’s violence. At the same time, the majority opinion for most of Christian history has held that there are situations when the follower of Jesus may be justified in inflicting violence on others, especially in the context of war. Do these two facets of Christian ethics and experience—martyrdom and the just war—represent a contradiction, the self-defeating irony of those who follow a Lord who refused to defend himself taking up deadly weapons? In arguing that they do not, the book contends that any meaningful coherence between a theology of martyrdom and commitment to a just war ethic requires shifts away from a common heroic conception of Christian martyrdom and a common secularized realpolitik conception of necessary violence. Instead, it requires a view of martyrdom that acknowledges even the martyrs as subject to the ambiguities of the human condition, even as they present a compelling witness to Jesus and the way of the cross. And it requires an approach to justified violence that reflects the self-sacrificial ethos of Jesus displayed in the lives of true Christian martyrs.

Towards a Theology of Nature

1964 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 129-145
Author(s):  
W. A. Whitehouse
Keyword(s):  
Subject Matter ◽  
Natural Theology ◽  
Natural Sciences ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Christian Theology ◽  
Systematic Theology ◽  
Evolutionary Aspect ◽  
Physical Universe ◽  
The World ◽  
The Subject

The phrase ‘a theology of nature’ is an abbreviation for ‘a theological account of natural happenings’—happenings which are properly investigated in the first instance by appropriate ‘natural sciences’. A Christian theology of nature seeks to provide a systematic appreciation of the physical universe, its items and occurrences, from a Christian theological point of view. If it is to rank as a serious contribution to human wisdom, it must be a disciplined effort to understand in appropriate terms the object of interest. One version of the discipline would be to produce an extension of the natural sciences, to cover topics—God, freedom, immortality—which fall outside their scope by a ‘metaphysical’ science which links these topics to the subject-matter of natural sciences in a theoretical account of ‘being as such’. This would have the effect of reintroducing ‘Natural Theology’, reshaped and revitalised, into the fabric of Christian systematic theology. This project is not being advocated in this article. It is mentioned solely in order to distinguish the present topic, a ‘theology of nature’, from what is traditionally known as ‘natural theology’. The purpose of this article is to explore afresh the structure of Christian intellectual response to the wonder of the world, as it is now being analysed by science, with particular attention to the ‘evolutionary’ aspect of things, appreciation of which has radically affected modern sensibility.

scholarly journals China's economic policy towards Kenya in the second decade of the 21st century

2021 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-24
Author(s):  
Łukasz Jureńczyk ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Economic Policy ◽  
21St Century ◽  
Research Problem ◽  
Economic Security ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Historical Background ◽  
Economic Relations ◽  
Republic Of China ◽  
Analysis And Evaluation ◽  
The Core

The aim of the paper is to present the results of the analysis and evaluation of the economic policy of the People's Republic of China towards Kenya in the second decade of the 21st century. The introduction discusses the basic methodological assumptions of the paper. The first section of the paper synthetically outlines the historical background of economic relations between Kenya and the PRC, and the second section presents a field-specific literature review. The third section of the paper presents Kenya as one of China's economic partners in Africa. The main section of the paper analyses investments and development projects implemented in Kenya by Chinese companies. The core research problem concerns the question whether China's economic policy towards Kenya is beneficial from the point of view of the economic development of the countries involved? The main thesis assumes that this policy increases the development opportunities of all the states. However, it is unsustainable and carries serious risks, especially for Kenya's economic security.

scholarly journals System Reliabilism and basic beliefs: defeasible, undefeated and likely to be true

Synthese ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Spyridon Orestis Palermos
Keyword(s):  
Point Of View ◽  
Cognitive Integration ◽  
Additional Advantage ◽  
The Core ◽  
Unique Position ◽  
Core Message ◽  
Basic Beliefs ◽  
Justificatory Status ◽  
The Way

AbstractTo avoid the problem of regress, externalists have put forward defeaters-based accounts of justification. The paper argues that existing proposals face two serious concerns: (i) They fail to accommodate related counterexamples such as Norman the clairvoyant, and, more worryingly, (ii) they fail to explain how one can be epistemically responsible in holding basic beliefs—i.e., they fail to explain how basic beliefs can avoid being arbitrary from the agent’s point of view. To solve both of these problems, a new, externalist, defeaters-based account of justification is offered—viz., System Reliabilism. The core message of the view—and the way it deals with both (i) and (ii)—is the claim that the justificatory status of justified basic beliefs originates from being the undefeated outputs of a reliable, cognitively integrated system that is capable of defeating them. Simply put, to be candidates for being justified, basic beliefs must be epistemically responsible and to be so they must be undefeated while being defeasible. The paper also offers a detailed, naturalistic analysis of the notion of cognitive integration. This long-due, mechanistic account of cognitive integration is then used to argue that an additional advantage of System Reliabilism is its unique position to account for the as yet unexplained intuition that responsible beliefs are also likely to be true.

scholarly journals Jesus “The Way” According to Origen and Marcellus: Confronting Two Patristic Traditions

Religions ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (6) ◽  
pp. 452
Author(s):  
Samuel Fernández
Keyword(s):  
Christian Faith ◽  
Son Of God ◽  
The Core ◽  
Origen Of Alexandria ◽  
The Way

The article aims to examine and compare the evangelic title of Jesus the Way (John 14:6) in two Christian authors who belonged to two opposing theological traditions, namely, Origen of Alexandria and Marcellus of Ancyra. This comparison, based on original texts, aims not only to show the differences between these two patristic traditions, but rather to identify some common traits that belong to the core of Christian faith. Thus, Origen of Alexandria and Marcellus of Ancyra, two very dissimilar Christian authors, were of the same mind in confessing that only if the Son of God became fully human, could he be the Way for humankind towards the Father.

scholarly journals Diálogo inter-religioso a partir dos pobres. Por uma teologia da libertação das religiões

2019 ◽  
Vol 63 (251) ◽  
pp. 515
Author(s):  
Francisco De Aquino Júnior
Keyword(s):  
Religious Experience ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Christian Faith ◽  
Primary Condition ◽  
Extreme Poverty ◽  
The Core ◽  
Religious Dialogue ◽  
Theology Of Liberation

Seja por exigência intrínseca da experiência religiosa, seja pela condição-limite de miserabilidade em que se encontra grande parte da humanidade, seja, ainda, pela estrutura mesma da revelação e da fé cristãs, a materialidade da vida é, simultaneamente, a condição primária e o problema ou desafio primário do diálogo inter-religioso. Seu lugar primordial/primário de encontro ou desencontro. Levar isto a sério é o que, na nossa opinião, possibilita e significa uma teologia da libertação das religiões: uma teologia feita a partir e em função dos pobres deste mundo. Eles são nossos juízes! E de nossas teologias!Abstract: Whether as an intrinsic demand of the religious experience itself, or due to the condition of extreme poverty in which we find a large part of the world’s population, or, still, as a result of the very structure of the Christian revelation and of the Christian Faith, the materialness of life is, simultaneously, the primary condition and the primary issue or challenge to be faced by the inter-religious dialogue. It is also at the core of its most important agreements and disagreements. It is our opinion that, if taken seriously, this issue will both signify and also make possible a theology of liberation of all religions: a theology built from the point of view of the world’s poor and in their benefit. They are our judges and the judges of our theologies!

scholarly journals Self-remembering: Georges Ivanovitch Gurdjieff (1870-1949) & his legacy

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Joanna Nicholls-Parker
Keyword(s):  
Critical Analysis ◽  
Contemporary Literature ◽  
Spiritual Practices ◽  
Self Awareness ◽  
Narrative Self ◽  
The Core ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Spiritual Legacy ◽  
Contemplative Neuroscience ◽  
The Way

<p>The subject of this thesis is the spiritual practices taught by Gurdjieff (1870-1949) and the legacy of these teachings in the major spiritual groups that have aspired to follow his path. I argue that at the core of these spiritual techniques are the practices that Gurdjieff referred to as “self-remembering” and “transition” and that by an analysis of these it is possible to articulate Gurdjieff’s spiritual system in a novel fashion. This articulation is then utilized to explore the different ways in which his system was developed by his disciples. The more recent studies of spirituality and spiritual techniques allow us to critically reconsider Gurdjieff and his legacy in a systemic and academic fashion. The thesis concludes that while Gurdjieff was a man and teacher of his time many of the themes of his teachings continue to resonate in contemporary spiritual movements and that his influence has been wider than is often acknowledged, and that at the centre of this legacy are his spiritual techniques. Gurdjieff used storytelling to advance an in-depth understanding of his teaching to his principal followers and it is through an evaluation of this investment that the promotion of self-awareness is seen as pivotal and central to any evaluation of the spiritual legacy. The way to distinguish Gurdjieff’s teaching from other of his principal followers, now 100 years on, is evident when contemporary literature can provide a valuable and insightful means to differentiate influence. The key contribution offered in the name of contemplative neuroscience in this thesis reveals that Gurdjieff taught by employing a narrative self-focus, while his principal followers taught by employing a self-reverential devotional focus. This sets the benchmark of the legacy up anew as reflecting at least two different theological approaches: self-focused or self-reverential. My critical analysis of Gurdjieff’s techniques will differ from a number of academic appraisals in that essentially hagiography is offered as a replacement for biography, and in this way with the assistance of phenomenology the legacy can be explained in a more true and reasonable fashion. This is because the lesser weight on biography allows the phenomenological perspectives to assist the teachings arrival at the ethereal state crystallization, revealing Gurdjieff’s personal agenda and indicating his means of delivery.</p>

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