Initiation

Chapter 5 turns toward the theoretical. It examines the use of mantra within initiation (dīkṣā) rites and how Sanskrit phonemes connect to the hierarchy of realities (tattva) through which one passes during initiation. This again offers an example of how the text describes the divine nature of sound. Initiation also offers a practitioner the ability to adopt a new identity. The process of initiation symbolically destroys the initiand’s body, unbinding his soul, and offering him the gift of liberation. The chapter analyzes sections of the Netra Tantra that speak to both the theoretical and practical elements of initiatory rites.

The Pericope Adulterae (John 7:53–8:11): Jesus’ Answer, an Offer of Life to Suffering Women

This article explores a probable motivation for the insertion of the Pericope Adulterae (John 7:53–8:11) in the Gospel of John in consideration of the motive of ‘living/life’ used by the gospel writer. Using John 8:12 as the starting point of this investigation, the article focuses on the warning to the Israelites against idolatry with specific attention to the warning against worshiping the sun, the moon, and the stars (Deuteronomy 4:15–20). It also deals with the Feast of Tabernacles, which is the direct context in which Jesus declared that he is the light of the world. The water ceremony also plays a central role in understanding the bigger picture that unfolds, as well as the Early Church’s struggle against heretical Christological teachings of who Jesus was with regard to his human nature and his divine nature.

Spinoza’s Monism II: A Proposal

An old question in Spinoza scholarship is how finite, non-eternal things transitively caused by other finite, non-eternal things (i. e., the entities described in propositions like E1p28) are caused by the infinite, eternal substance, given that what follows either directly or indirectly from the divine nature is infinite and eternal (E1p21–23). In “Spinoza’s Monism I,”<fnote>“Spinoza’s Monism I,” in the previous issue of this journal.</fnote> I pointed out that most commentators answer this question by invoking entities that are indefinite and sempiternal, but argued that perhaps we should not be so quick to assume that in Spinoza’s system, an infinite and eternal substance could cause such indefinite, sempiternal entities. But if such eternal-durational causation is denied, then it seems harder to see how Spinoza’s system could be coherent: if Spinoza holds that the infinite, eternal substance cannot cause anything that is not infinite and not eternal, then how can he also hold that all things are modes immanently caused by substance (E1p15, E1p18, E1p25)? In this essay, I explain how Spinoza’s system could be understood in light of a denial of eternal-durational causation. On the interpretation I offer, God is the cause of all things and all things are modes because the essences of all things follow from the divine nature and all essences enjoy infinite, eternal reality as modes immanently caused by the infinite, eternal substance. The same non-substantial essences can also be conceived as enjoying non-infinite, non-eternal reality, but so conceived, they are enduring, finite (or sempiternal, indefinite) entities that cannot be conceived as modes caused by and inhering in the one infinite, eternal substance. I conclude by pointing out that if we take this interpretive route, we do have to understand Spinoza as committed to acosmism, or a denial of the reality of the world – at least the world of enduring, finite things.

The Development of Kant’s Conception of Divine Freedom

While several scholars have suggested that Kant’s early engagement with Leibniz’s philosophical theology led Kant to a conception of the divine will that helped to motivate many of the distinctive features of Kant’s mature moral psychology and moral philosophy, commentators have nevertheless neglected and failed to understand Kant’s account of divine freedom and how it functions in his rejection of substance monism, fatalism, and threats to divine self-sufficiency. This chapter examines the development of Kant’s position in a variety of his early and later published works and in his drafts, Reflexionen, and lecture notes. God is conceived of as the ens realissimum, possessing or exemplifying all fundamental realities or perfections, and it is God’s cognition of his own goodness that gives rise to his volition to create the most perfect world. Divine freedom is understood as a rational and autonomous expression of the divine nature itself, without requiring alternative possibilities.

Heracles between Hera and Athena

Heracles, the self-sufficient “loner” of ancient Greek myth is shaped through interactions with others, notably Athena and Hera. As this chapter demonstrates, the input of these two deities runs deeper than the standard binary of helper (Athena)/persecutor (Hera) allows. Heracles is marked out as a mythological being through where he stands in relation to Athena and Hera who—separately and in collaboration—mark out his life as hero and his transformation to godhead and to a life as a specific kind of god. His nature, both his heroic nature and his divine nature, is shaped by Athena, but it is in connection with Hera that he is born, killed, immortalized, and, indeed, named.

Revelation and Cosmology

Revelation takes many forms. The Book of Wisdom tells us that God reveals himself through the natural world: ‘From the greatness and beauty of created things comes a corresponding perception of their Creator’ (Wis. 13:5). St Paul echoes this in Rom. 1:20, where he says that God’s eternal power and divine nature, though invisible, are ‘seen through the things he has made’. This is called ‘natural revelation’. Christians believe that God has also revealed himself supernaturally, first through the prophets and definitively through the Incarnation. The Catholic Church teaches that this revelation has been given to the Church and that its content is to be found both in Sacred Scripture and in Sacred Tradition. This chapter will refer to that which has been supernaturally revealed as ‘divine revelation’. The topic of revelation and cosmology can be divided into two kinds of question, both of which will be discussed in this chapter. First, what does divine revelation teach us about the cosmos? Secondly Second, in what ways does the cosmos itself reveal something about God?