Revelation and the Veridicality of Narratives

On Christian doctrine, God is love; and the love of God is most manifest in Christ’s passion. The passion of Christ thus matters to philosophical theology’s examination of the divine attribute of love. But the passion of Christ is presented in a biblical story, and there are serious methodological questions about the way in which a biblical story can be used as evidence in philosophical theology. And these questions in turn raise deeper epistemological questions. How does any narrative transmit knowledge? And what counts as veridicality in a narrative? This paper deals with some of the questions for philosophical theology and then concentrates on the more general epistemological questions about narratively transmitted knowledge.

Disiplin Asketisme dan Harmoni Kontribusi Disiplin Diri bagi Pengembangan Pendidikan Kristen

Until the mid of 20 century, a holistic understanding of reality was merely expressed in the language of theology dan religion. In this article, I shall present some reflections, structured around the theme of wisdom, on the classical, biblical, and patristical vision of education. The pursuit of wisdom is not just an intellectual exercise but also requires a good deal of ascetic effort: philosophy is not worthy of the name if it is not supported by ascetic endeavor. The Biblical depiction of wisdom pointed to something more than just human attainment or divine attribute. It was, rather, a way of expressing the nature of the relationship between God and man in terms of ‘paideia’

Apostolicity as Divine Attribute in Trinitarian Relationship: the origin and nature of apostolicity and how it is demonstrated

This paper responds to the question what is the origin and nature of apostolicity and how it is demonstrated? The investigation examines the meaning of apostolicity found in the New Testament, its significant transition through the post-apostolic period, and the consequence on contemporary understanding. The dilemma of the first and second century-generation Christians was how to understand apostolicity in light of the disappearance of the ‘sacred triad’ (apostles, prophets and teachers). The emerging principles of discontinuity, transference, transformation and succession carved the road to canonisation, bishop-centrism and episcopal systemisation. The Pentecostal anchorage in the outpouring of the Spirit at Pentecost is determinant in qualifying apostolicity; while emphasising agency and function, it also turns attention to the Person of the Spirit. This leads necessarily to an examination of the Trinity, ontologically and relationally, and therefore brings a fuller response to the research question. Subsequent exploration of the non-hierarchical, ‘intra-Trinitarian’ relationship will demonstrate an apostolic archetype. This contribution seeks to restore the Trinity to apostolic thinking in response to the historical construct by defining the nature of apostolicity in Godhead, and to argue apostolicity as a response to subordinate suppositions. It concludes with a proposed basis for renewed self-understanding as Trinitarian extension.

Gender as a Divine Attribute

It is standard within the Christian tradition to characterize God in predominantly masculine terms. Let ‘traditionalism’ refer to the view that this pattern of characterization is theologically mandatory. This chapter seeks to undercut the main motivations for traditionalism by showing that it is not more accurate to characterize God as masculine rather than feminine (or vice versa). The novelty of the argument lies in the fact that it presupposes neither theological anti-realism nor a robust doctrine of divine transcendence, but instead rests heavy theoretical weight on the imago Dei doctrine and the method of perfect-being theology. The chapter closes by examining the implications of its main argument for the moral and liturgical propriety of characterizing God in predominantly masculine terms.

Theological Discovery and Future Perspectives of the Dogmatic Datum of the Poor as a Theological Place

There are serious reasons to argue that with Evangelii Gaudium by Pope Francis, the magisterium of the Catholic Church has finally come to fully acknowledge the function of the locus theologicus played by the poor. This study constitutes the second of two articles devoted to the subject. Firstly, it delineates the journey, not lacking in opposition and ambiguity, that theology has carried out without which the magisterium could hardly have reached such conclusions. Then, it attempts to highlight the fundamental reasons that underlie the role of theological place the poor play within theology, and proposes new research pathways in which the poor can help us to perform the three following tasks: to understand more appropriately the divine attribute of simplicity, to discover the direction history assumes because of its eschatological orientation, and finally to overcome those ecclesiologies that have allowed clericalism to progressively establish itself within the Christian community.

Bonds Between the Living and the Dead Part II

This chapter studies R. Judah the Pious's theories of sin and accountability in Divine judgement relative to contemporary Jewish views, and explores his conception of God as depicted in Sefer ḥasidim. In opposition to the new religious mood, R. Judah sees justice, not mercy, as the dominant Divine attribute in posthumous judgement. With the individual to stand on trial alone and with the odds more against him than in his favour, R. Judah's view of God's judgement departs sharply from midrashic and contemporary liturgical and artistic images. While Ashkenazi commentators on piyut and illuminators of maḥzorim depict a compassionate God who throws away one's sins or tilts the scales of judgement in one's favour, R. Judah paints an austere portrait of humankind overwhelmed by the gravity and inescapability of sin in front of an unforgiving and unswayable deity. His rejection of all models of patronage, both Jewish and Christian, his refusal to allow merit to cancel out sin — a view which he holds in opposition to other Jewish thinkers of his day — and his vision of posthumous judgement as absolute justice untempered by mercy serve to isolate him from members of his own Pietist circle and render his notions of accountability for sin exceptional in Jewish tradition.

How Puzzles of Petitionary Prayer Solve Themselves: Divine Omnirationality, Interest-Relative Explanation, and Answered Prayer

Some have seen in the divine attribute of omnirationality, identified by Alexander R. Pruss, the promise of a dissolution of the usual puzzles of petitionary prayer. Scott Davison has challenged this line of thought with a series of example cases. I will argue that Davison is only partially correct, and that the reasons for this reveal an important new way to approach the puzzles of petitionary prayer. Because explanations are typically interest-relative, there is not one correct account of “answered prayer” but many, corresponding to a variety of reasons to care whether God might answer our prayers. It follows from this that the omnirationality solution can be vindicated and that puzzles of petitionary prayer that are not dissolved thereby will typically contain within themselves the seeds of their own solutions.

Analyzing Aseity

The doctrine of divine aseity has played a significant role in the development of classical theism. However, very little attention has been paid in recent years to the question of how precisely aseity should be characterized. We argue that this neglect is unwarranted since extant characterizations of this central divine attribute quickly encounter difficulties. In particular, we present a new argument to show that the most widely accepted contemporary account of aseity is inconsistent. We then consider the prospects for developing a new account of aseity which avoids the pitfalls we have highlighted.

Luther and Zwingli

This chapter shows that Luther’s Christology follows the basic structure of Ockham’s, both in terms of the metaphysics and the semantics. It demonstrates that Luther accepts the supposital-union theory, and shows how to read complex texts that have sometimes been taken to show the opposite. It is shown that Luther’s most distinctive and original claim is that the divine person is the bearer of his human accidents. The chapter contextualizes Luther’s claims about Christ’s bodily omnipresence in Medieval debates, and shows that Luther did not hold bodily omnipresence to amount to the possession of a divine attribute. It also provides a detailed account of Zwingli’s Christological semantics. It shows how Luther misunderstood Zwingli’s claims about the communicatio, and concludes that Zwingli’s Christology, contrary to Luther’s appraisal, is in no sense Nestorian.