Theology of nature: Reflections on the dogmatic doctrine of creation

The doctrine of creation and the knowledge of nature have come into tension in modernity. Against this background, the article discusses the basic problems of a theology of nature starting from a systematic theology of religious communication. Dogmatic statements about the world as God’s creation are not about a description of nature and reality but about a reflexive account of Christian–religious communication. The object of the doctrine of creation is thus the world-related contents of the Christian religion as well as the function these have in it. Thus, both the critique of the representational version of the doctrinal tradition’s conception of creation and its reflexive turn in 20th-century Protestant theology are taken up and carried forward in such a way that the belief in creation is not understood as a general qualification of the world but is related to the concrete contents of religious communication.Contribution: The article proposes a new formulation of the traditional doctrine of creation on the basis of a systematic theology of religious communication. This approach is intended to avoid a coexistence of religious belief in creation and scientific explanation of the world, as well as their being pushed into one another. By transferring the belief in creation to Christian–religious communication, the latter thematises how religious contents are created in the Christian religion.

Truthmaking, resemblance, and divine simplicity

According to the traditional doctrine of divine simplicity, if an intrinsic predication of the form ‘God is F’ is true, then God's F-ness exists and is identical with God. To avoid the absurdity of identifying God with a property, a number of philosophers have proposed that God's F-ness should be interpreted, not as a property God possesses, but as the truthmaker for ‘God is F’, which is God himself. I shall argue that given some plausible assumptions, the truthmaker interpretation would undermine the highly plausible idea that there are ‘natural’ predicates which apply univocally or (at least) analogically to both God and some created beings. The only way in which the advocate of the truthmaker interpretation can avoid this problem is to embrace wholesale radical nominalism (with its own costs). That is to say, the truthmaker interpretation is far more constrained than it might initially appear to be.

God, Suffering, and the Value of Free Will

This book focuses on arguments from suffering against the existence of God and on a variety of issues concerning agency and value that they bring out. The central aim is to show the extent and power of arguments from evil. The book provides a close investigation of an under-defended claim at the heart of the major free-will-based responses to such arguments, namely that free will is sufficiently valuable to serve as the good, or to serve prominently among the goods, that provides a God-justifying reason for permitting evil in our world. Offering a fresh examination of traditional theodicies, it also develops an alternative line the author calls a divine intimacy theodicy. It makes an extended case for rejection of the position of skeptical theism. The book expands upon an argument from evil concerning a traditional doctrine of hell, which reveals a number of interesting issues concerning fault, agency, and blameworthiness. In response to recent work contending that the problem of evil is defanged since God’s baseline attitude toward human beings is indifference, the book defends the essential perfect moral goodness of God. Finally it takes up the question of whether or not it makes sense to live a religious life as an agnostic or as an atheist.

CREATIVITY AND TRANSNATIONAL COMMERCIAL LAW: FROM CARCHEMISH TO CAPE TOWN

This article examines the creative aspects of a range of international commercial law instruments which have in common that they seek to bypass traditional doctrine in order to increase commercial efficiency and ease of transacting. In short, the purpose of the harmonising measure is functional in that it seeks to overcome a serious obstacle to cross-border trade by providing commercially sensible solutions to typical problems regardless whether this disturbs established legal theory, which should always the servant of the law, not its master. Creativity applies not only to the formulation of an instrument but also to its interpretation. Those entrusted with preparing a commentary on the detail of such an instrument are likely to face difficult issues of interpretation which may take years to surface and may only be resolved by a willingness to risk error in order to provide the reader with clear guidance rather than sheltering behind the presentation of alternative interpretations, while at the same time resisting the temptation to ascribe to words in a convention the meaning they would have under one's own national law.At least one of the instruments examined was conceptually flawed; it is mentioned to highlight the danger of over-ambition in delineating the sphere of application of the convention concerned. Undisciplined creativity comes at a cost. Another convention, and a highly successful one, is referred to only to demonstrate the value of creative ambiguity.

6. Parliamentary sovereignty

The Q&A series offers the best preparation for tackling exam questions. Each chapter includes typical questions, diagram problem and essay answer plans, suggested answers, notes of caution, tips on obtaining extra marks, the key debates on each topic, and suggestions on further reading. This chapter considers questions relating to parliamentary sovereignty. There is a traditional doctrine of parliamentary supremacy, but it has had to be adapted to accommodate membership of the European Union. The questions deal with issues such as the meaning and implications of ‘parliamentary supremacy’; the impact of the UK’s EU membership on the doctrine of parliamentary sovereignty; the effect of EU legislation, such as directives, in English Law; how the European Union works; and how Brexit will affect parliamentary supremacy.

‘A Barricade across the High Road’: C.S. Lewis on the theology of his time

In this article, I analyse C.S. Lewis’s attitude towards the theology and the theologians of his time. Lewis often emphasised that he was not a theologian. Sometimes he does so out of modesty, to excuse minor errors that a specialist in the field would not have made. More often than not, however, something else plays a role: Lewis’s dislike of the theology and the theologians of his time. Although he intended not to become a party in theological controversies, Lewis occasionally took sides. He expressed himself in extremely negative terms about the liberal ... movement, which in his experience... dominated the theology of his time. By assuming them to be in error, and showing how they had arrived there, he participates in the practice he elsewhere rejected as ‘Bulverism’. Moreover, he employed pejorative, sexually tinged metaphors. Only on one occasion did Lewis provide arguments for his rejection of liberal theology, and on that occasion he limited himself to New Testament exegesis. On another occasion, Lewis states that he allows only marginal, religiously irrelevant revisions of Christian doctrine. Ironically, his own revisions sometimes went beyond this – for example, in the case of the traditional doctrine of hell. In this article I suggested that for Lewis, the practice of faith implicitly is the ultimate criterion.

Mongolian traditional ornament: arga motifs

В статье рассматриваются философские основания монгольской орнаментики. Исследуются основные положения традиционной мировоззренческой доктрины арга билиг применительно к анализу различного типа орнаментов. Выявляются соотношения тенгрианских положений и орнаментов типа арга. The article discusses the philosophical foundations of the Mongolian ornamentation. The main foundations of the traditional doctrine of arga bilig in relation to the analysis of various types of ornaments are investigated. The correlations of Tengri positions and arga type ornaments are revealed.

Kristið friðarstarf og friðarguðfræði. Kirkjur til móts við réttlátan frið!

A recent contribution of the World Council of Churches to the peace theology of Christian churches is highlighted in this article. The article is divided into two parts: In the former, the focus is on the campaign of the World Council of Churches in 2001–2010 named The Decade to Overcome Violence: Churches Seeking Reconciliation and Peace. The second section deals with the product of the campaign, referring to the paper Just Peace Companion, issued by the World Council of Churcher in 2012. This paper rejects the traditional doctrine of just war, which justifies warfare due to certain circumstances, replacing it with a radical peace theory which states that peace is the true and proper mission of Christian churches. Justice and peace are closely intertwined, and both must be maintained throughout the work of the churches, especially among children and adolescents. Peacebuilding and peace-education, however, are not independent campaigns but an eternal and permanent project for the churches.

Reading Karl Barth in Myanmar: The Significance of His Political Theology for a Public Theology in Myanmar

This article pays particular attention to the three themes in Barth’s macro-political theology and their contextual significance for a micro-political theology for Myanmar. First, I explore Barth’s renewed doctrine of political Lordship in response to the traditional doctrine of two kingdoms. Second, I examine his hermeneutics of the dialectical relation between church and state and the ethical role of the church in the sociopolitical situation in the light of his theological document of the Barmen Declaration against the evil of Nazism and the errors of the church. Finally, I seek to show how Barth’s political theology and liberation theology are convergent and divergent in their synthetic goals of transforming unjust rulers and liberating the oppressed, reforming and renewing the ethnic church, and establishing an embracive and reconciled community in Myanmar.

Animals and ethics

Does morality require that we respect the lives and interests of nonhuman animals? The traditional doctrine was that animals were made for human use, and so we may dispose of them as we please. It has been argued, however, that this is a mere ‘speciesist’ prejudice and that animals should be given more or less the same moral consideration as humans. If this is right, we may be morally required to be vegetarians; and it may turn out that laboratory research using animals, and many other such practices, are more problematic than has been realized.