Cornelis van der Knijff, Between Providence and Choice Biography: An Account of Divine Guidance from a Reformed Perspective

2021 ◽  
Vol 75 (1) ◽  
pp. 145-147
Author(s):  
Henk van de Belt
Keyword(s):  
Divine Guidance

Expectations from Chinese Muslim Converts for Islamization of Society in Malaysia: Lessons from Life of the Companions (Angkaan Pengubahsuaian Cina Islam untuk Pengislaman Soci-ety di Malaysia: Pelajaran dari Kehidupan Para Sahabat)

2019 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 278-296
Author(s):  
Mek Wok Mahmud ◽  
Sayed Sikandar Shah Haneef
Keyword(s):  
Economic Development ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
The Self ◽  
Way Of Life ◽  
Socio Economic Development ◽  
Chinese Muslims ◽  
Process Studies ◽  
Divine Guidance

Reversion to Islam while opening golden opportunities for a revert in terms of divine guidance and spiritual salvation is coming with somewhat insurmountable challenges in terms of Islamization of the self, family and contributions to the overall development of Malaysia as a multi-religious country. This is especially so when Islam as an official religion has made the issue of Islamization of the Malaysian society and its systems amongst the pivotal national agendas in the country.  As to what is the role of Chinese Muslims (reverts) in the process, studies, among others, have purported to present the statistics about their share in socio-economic development. Similarly, empirical studies point to the odds faced by this community at personal, family and community levels in their path for transition to the full Islamic way of life. To the presenters of this paper, however, the macro dimension of what it means to become a Muslim which is essential for adjustment to the Islamic requirements has not been sufficiently highlighted in discourses in the area. Accordingly, this paper presents the position statements on Islamic expectations from Chinese reverts with the purpose of motivating them to achieve greater things in the area of Islamization of their community and the nation to the effect. Keywords: Chinese converts, Islamization, expectations and challenges. Abstrak kembalinya seseorang kepada agama Islam selain dari membuka peluang keemasan dalam mendapat  petunjuk Ilahi dan pengisian rohani turut disertai dengan cabaran yang amat sukar untuk diatasi termasuklah cabaran Islamisasi diri, keluarga serta sumbangan kepada pembangunan keseluruhan Malaysia sebagai negara berbilang agama. Hal ini menjadi satu keutamaan terutamanya apabila Islam memegang status sebagai agama rasmi persekutuan yang menjadikan isu Islamisasi masyarakat Malaysia sebagai satu agenda nasional. Bagi menjayakan agenda ini, peranan umat Islam dari kalangan masyarakat Cina (cina muslim) juga perlu diambil kira. Statistik menunjukkan cina muslim turut mempunyai bahagian dalam menyumbang terhadap pembangunan sosio-ekonomi negara. Dalam pada masa yang sama, kajian empirikal membuktikan adanya bentuk bentuk cabaran yang dihadapi oleh komuniti ini di peringkat peribadi, keluarga dan komuniti dalam perjalanan mereka untuk kembali kepada cara hidup Islam yang sepenuhnya. Bagi kami pengkaji kertas ini, dimensi makro dalam menjadikan dan mengertikan  seseorang itu Muslim terutamanya dalam menyesuaikan diri dengan ajaran  Islam masih belum cukup diberi  penjelasan dan penerangan yang sewajarnya. Oleh itu, makalah ini cuba menerangkan idea dan cadangan yang berguna kepada cina muslim dengan tujuan memotivasikan  mereka bagi  mencapai kejayaan  yang lebih besar dari aspek Islamisasi di kalangan komuniti mereka seterusnya memberi sumbangan kepada negara. Kata kunci:  Cina Muslim, Islamisasi, harapan dan cabaran.

Islamization of “Muhammadan Law” in India

1988 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 135-150
Author(s):  
Syed Khalid Rashid
Keyword(s):  
Code Of Conduct ◽  
The World ◽  
Graphic Description ◽  
Divine Guidance

I. Introductory RemarksOne of the bounties bestowed on Muslims by Allah (SWT) is the Shari'ah:the Divine guidance and code of conduct, necessary to achieve success inthis world and the world hereafter. For the colonists who subjugated Muslimlands it appeared necessary therefore to first deprive Muslims of their sourceof sustenance and symbol of identity. The first target of their attack was theShari'ah; every aspect of which was ridiculed, belittled or truncated. It isdifficult to improve upon Isma’il Raji al Faruqi‘s graphic description of thisonslaught. He who wrote:By the colonialists directly, or by their native stooges, everythingIslamic fell under attack. The integrity of the Qur’Gnic text, thegenuineness of the Prophet (SAAS), the veracity of his Sunnah,the perfection of the Sharibh the glories of Muslim achievementsin culture and civilization - none of them was spared. The purposewas to inject doubt in the Muslim’s confidence in himself . . .to subvert his Islamic personality . . . lacking the spiritual staminanecessary for resistance . . . the Muslim was turned into somethingneither Islamic nor Western, a cultural monstrosity of modemtimes ...

Eugene IV and the First Dissolution of the Council of Basle

1967 ◽  
Vol 36 (3) ◽  
pp. 243-253 ◽  
Author(s):  
Loy Bilderback
Keyword(s):  
Holy Spirit ◽  
The Other ◽  
Essential Singularity ◽  
The Holy Spirit ◽  
Prime Determinant ◽  
The Will ◽  
Great Schism ◽  
The Church ◽  
Will Of God ◽  
Divine Guidance

The Council of Basle was officially charged with three basic concerns: the reform of the Church in head and members; the extirpation of heresy, particularly Bohemian Hussitism; and the attainment of peace among Christian Princes. Yet, the Council was most absorbed by, and is most remembered for, a fourth, unscheduled concern. From its outset, the prime determinant of the actions and decisions of the Council proved to be the problem of living and working with the Papacy. In retrospect it is easy to see that this problem was insoluble. One could not expect the efficient functioning of the Church if there was doubt or confusion about the will of God, and the presence of such doubt and confusion was certain so long as even two agencies could gain support for their contentions that they were directly recipient to the Holy Spirit. Singularity of headship was absolutely necessary to the orderly processes of the Church. Yet the contradiction of this essential singularity was implicit at Constance in the accommodation, by one another of the curialists, the protagonists of an absolute, papal monarchy, and the conciliarists, who sought divine guidance through periodic General Councils. This accommodation, in turn, was necessary if the doubt and confusion engendered by the Great Schism was to be resolved. At Basle, this contradiction was wrought into a conflict which attracted a variety of opportunists who could further their ancillary or extraneous ends through a posture of service to one side or the other, and in so doing they obfuscated the issues and prolonged the struggle.

Defining Commitments through Spiritual Dialogue

2020 ◽  
pp. 145-178
Author(s):  
Jonathan E. Calvillo
Keyword(s):  
Urban Landscape ◽  
Spiritual Guidance ◽  
Santa Ana ◽  
Divine Guidance

This chapter argues that religious commitments are often articulated by Santaneros as a sense of ongoing communication with divine and spiritual entities. This particular pattern signals commonality between Catholics and evangelicals in that members of both groups emphasize seeking spiritual guidance through their choices of religious commitments. Though Catholics and evangelicals differ in some of their respective practices related to communicating with spiritual entities, the expectations of divine guidance are similar. I argue that notions of spiritual dialogue are especially helpful to Santaneros as they evaluate the diverse religious options at their disposal. Santaneros concretize and affirm their religious commitments through practices of divine conversation. In navigating the ethnic space of Santa Ana, divine dialogue imbues the urban landscape with a sense of supernaturalism.

Rabbinic Sources

2020 ◽  
pp. 175-184
Author(s):  
John A. Jillions
Keyword(s):  
Jewish Tradition ◽  
The Core ◽  
Greco Roman ◽  
The Law ◽  
Divine Guidance

The first and second centuries CE saw the flowering of classical Jewish teaching as expounded by the great rabbinic sages and their precursors (Hillel, Shammai). They were closely associated with the Pharisees as upholders of Jewish tradition against compromises with Greco-Roman ways. This early teaching forms the basis of the Mishnah, the collection of the earliest rabbinic oral law at the core of the Talmud. A “heavenly voice” (the Bat Kol) and other forms of individual divine guidance are not excluded, but the major role is given to scripture, the elders responsible for discernment, and the evolving body of decisions responding to new questions and conditions, “for the Law is not in heaven.” The age of the prophets was over, but God ’s presence (the Shekinah) remained in the life of the community with its teachers.

The Literature of Divine Guidance

2020 ◽  
pp. 46-63
Author(s):  
John A. Jillions
Keyword(s):  
Popular Literature ◽  
First Century ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Pax Romana ◽  
Paul's Letters ◽  
Shed Light ◽  
Divine Guidance

The popular literature of the era helps shed light on attitudes toward divine guidance. Unfortunately, aside from Paul’s letters there are no documents from first-century Corinth. However, as residents of a cosmopolitan Roman city, attentive to learning and rhetoric, the great writers would have been well known, especially Homer, Virgil, and Horace. Homer (Iliad and Odyssey) was the most influential writer; he reflected deeply on the questions posed by divine interaction with human beings. Virgil’s Aeneid, with a Roman perspective, likewise pondered the snares of divine guidance, concluding that the gods enlist heroes like Aeneas to fulfill divine purposes for Rome, not to vindicate the heroes or make them happy. In Horace religion is a much less pervasive theme and life is more independent of the gods, but he lifts up the Pax Romana and Augustus as the fulfillment of the divine plan.

The Archeology of Divine Guidance in Corinth

2020 ◽  
pp. 31-45
Author(s):  
John A. Jillions
Keyword(s):  
Religious Experience ◽  
Fourth Century ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Divine Intervention ◽  
Fourth Century Bce ◽  
Healing Cult ◽  
Household Shrines ◽  
The Temple ◽  
Divine Guidance

This chapter looks at some of the archeological discoveries in Corinth that reflect popular attitudes toward the gods, religious experience, and divine guidance. The most prominent was the healing cult centered in the Temple of Asklepios, where interpretation of dreams was a key feature. Other sites and household shrines would have brought to mind Fortuna, family ancestors, the oracle of Delphi, and mythical stories of divine intervention with a Corinthian slant (Venus, Medea, Glauce, Bellerophon, Sisyphus, Dionysus). But for an alternative point of view, there was the tomb of Diogenes the Cynic (fourth century BCE), who settled in Corinth “to be where fools were thickest.” He was highly critical of superstitious piety and advised instead to follow the inscription at Delphi, “Know Thyself.” He concluded that oracles are deceptive not because the gods are deceitful but because human beings are incapable of properly understanding the gods.

scholarly journals The Spiritual Exercises and Illuminism in Spain: Dominican Critics of the Early Society of Jesus

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 377-402
Author(s):  
Terence O’Reilly
Keyword(s):  
Society Of Jesus ◽  
Spiritual Exercises ◽  
Half Century ◽  
Historical Texts ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Divine Guidance

The recovery of important historical texts in the last half century has provoked a reevaluation of the features of Ignatius of Loyola’s Spiritual Exercises that have been described as “mystical” (especially their contemplative dimension and their implicit pneumatology), inviting us to reconsider the history of their composition and first reception, including the relationship between the spirituality of Ignatius to which they give expression, and the teachings of the illuminists or alumbrados. This article furthers this discussion by examining criticisms directed against the Spiritual Exercises during the last decade of Ignatius’s life by two Spanish Dominicans, Melchor Cano and Tomás de Pedroche, who found parallels between the Exercises and the theology of the illuminists. These criticisms were serious enough to affect the received interpretation of what we now call the mystical aspects of the Exercises leading up to its codification in the Official Directory of 1599, particularly regarding the place, if any, of contemplation in the lives of the laity, the role of consolation in prayer, and the experience of direct divine guidance.

Divine guidance and an accidentally necessary future: a response to Hunt

2004 ◽  
Vol 40 (4) ◽  
pp. 493-498 ◽  
Author(s):  
MICHAEL D. ROBINSON
Keyword(s):  
Advice Giving ◽  
Future Events ◽  
Original Essay ◽  
Metaphysical Principle ◽  
Divine Guidance

In his reply to my original essay, David Hunt maintains that I do not discuss how his defence of providentially useful simple foreknowledge violates the Metaphysical Principle. Further, he claims that I try to force him into both affirming and denying the accidental necessity of future events and their role in explaining divine advice-giving. In this response, I attempt to articulate more fully why Hunt's defence of simple foreknowledge implies that dependency loops could unfold. Further, I argue that Hunt's scenario is not tenable, whether one affirms that future events are accidentally necessary or contingent.

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