Gevoel and Illumination: Bavinck, Augustine, and Bonaventure on Awareness of God

This essay offers a reflection that seeks to clarify and complement Steven Duby’s God in Himself, especially on the natural awareness of God. First, in response to Duby’s assessment of Bavinck’s critique of certain forms of natural theology, I draw particularly from Cory Brock’s recent monograph on Bavinck’s critical appropriation of particular strands of post-Kantian romantic philosophy in order to articulate the affective dimensions of general revelation. This explains Bavinck’s preference for the term “general revelation” over “natural theology,” for the former emphasizes humanity’s pre-categorical dependence on God’s revealing work internal to the human psyche, manifesting as the feeling (gevoel) of dependence. Second, then, following Bavinck’s own connection of Schleiermacher to Augustine’s turn to the subject, I provide a retrieval of Augustine’s and Bonaventure’s accounts of illumination, which escalates the agent’s dependence on God’s revelation to a maximal degree.

God and Knowledge: Herman Bavinck’s Theological Epistemology T&T Clark Studies in Systematic Theology Nathaniel Gray Sutanto

<p content-type="flush left">Summary <p content-type="flush left">This study of the theological epistemology of the Dutch neo-Calvinist Herman Bavinck shows the significance of his organic thinking in the field of epistemology. This romantic holism enabled Bavinck to operate eclectically, creatively combining various sources, both orthodox and modern. The result is a theological epistemology that is both post-Kantian, accepting the role of mental representations, and realist. Bavinck combines elements from the idealism of Eduard von Hartmann with the realism of the theological tradition of Augustine and Thomas Aquinas. Furthermore, organic thinking helped Bavinck to understand the unity and variety of the sciences as well as the relationships between the subject, his primordial awareness of God and the world, due to a revealing activity of God, and the external world. <p content-type="flush left">Zusammenfassung <p content-type="flush left">Die vorliegende Studie zur theologischen Epistemologie des niederländischen Neo-Calvinisten Hermann Bavinck zeigt die Bedeutung seines ,,organischen“ Denkens im Bereich der Epistemologie auf. Diese romantische Ganzheitlichkeit ermöglichte es Bavinck, gezielt auswählend vorzugehen und dabei verschiedene Quellen ‐ sowohl orthodoxe als auch moderne ‐ miteinander zu verbinden. Das Ergebnis ist eine theologische Epistemologie, die gleichermaßen realistisch wie post-kantianisch ist, weil sie die Rolle der geistigen Darstellung akzeptiert. Bavinck bringt Elemente des Idealismus eines Eduard von Hartmann mit dem Realismus der theologischen Tradition von Augustinus und Thomas von Aquin zusammen. Darüberhinaus half sein ,,organisches“ Denken Bavinck, die Einheit und Vielfalt der Wissenschaften zu verstehen wie auch die Bezieungen zwischen einem Subjekt, seiner elementaren Wahrnehmung Gottes und der Welt, was auf göttliche Offenbarung zurückzuführen ist, und der Welt um ihn herum. <p content-type="flush left">Résumé <p content-type="flush left">Cette étude de l’épistémologie théologique du néo-calviniste néerlandais Herman Bavinck montre l’importance de sa pensée « organique » dans le domaine de l’épistémologie. Cet holisme romantique a permis à Bavinck d’opérer éclectiquement, combinant de manière créative des sources diverses, orthodoxes et modernes. Le résultat est une épistémologie à la fois post-kantienne, acceptant le rôle des représentations mentales, et réaliste. Bavinck conjugue des éléments empruntés à l’idéalisme d’Edouard von Hartmann et le réalisme de la tradition théologique d’Augustin et de Thomas d’Aquin. De plus, sa pensée « organique » a aidé Bavinck à comprendre aussi bien l’unité et la variété des sciences que les rapports entre le sujet, sa prise de conscience primordiale de Dieu et du monde grâce à une activité révélatrice de Dieu, et le monde extérieur.

Emmanuel Lévinas. Praise of atheism

Lévinas presents atheism as the original good condition of the soul before acknowledging or rejecting God. Such description is closely linked to the notion of separation. Man is a created being, but a separated one, self-contained, though not absolute. Even if not causa sui, he may exist on his own. The description is radically different from that by Augustine, who refers to creation as the participation of man in God. Similarly, there is an almost literal contradiction between the statement by Lévinas and the words of Tertullian, claiming that the soul is Christian by nature. A comparison of Levinas’ text with the theology of Karl Rahner also points to significant differences. Rahner presents the awareness of God as a transcendental, unthematic experience. Lévinas also states that the awareness of God is unthematic, however, he does not share Rahner’s description of the experience of God as the primary transcendental experience. According to Lévinas, God comes from outside through the face of the Other. Levinas’ analyses seem highly interesting for fundamental theology and the theology of spirituality.

Love

The chapter begins with the theme of the Book of Love (Sefer ahavah), constant awareness of God. It elaborates that in the introduction to the Mishneh torah, it states the Book of Love includes all the precepts needed to always love God and be ever mindful of Him. It also explains that the Book of Love gives practical expression to the ideal of the unceasing love of God, which appears at the end of the Book of Knowledge. The chapter includes six sections of the Book of Love: Laws of Recitation of the Shema, Laws of Prayer and the Priestly Blessing, Laws of Tefillin, Mezuzah, and Torah Scroll, Laws of Fringes, and Laws of Circumcision. It clarifies that in the introduction to the Mishneh torah, Maimonides justifies the inclusion of circumcision in the Book of Love as a purpose similar to that of commandments performed regularly.

Apophasis

For poets such as Finlay and Morgan, concrete poetry remained a fundamentally linguistic practice, with visual effects used to enhance or methodically alter a central semantic message. For the Guernsey-born, Gloucestershire-based poet Dom Sylvester Houedárd, concrete poetry came to entail a grammar of abstract visual forms, constructed from letters and diacritical marks, in which semantic meaning was largely subsumed. This quality is most virtuosically expressed in the so-called ‘typestracts’ which he created on his Olivetti typewriter. Houédard’s wordless poetics partly exemplifies the re-conceptualisation of concrete poetry as an intermedia, neo-dada artform across the 1950s-70s, which often manifested itself through a movement away from language, and in attachments to the sixties counter-culture. But the unique distinction of Houédard’s work is its attempt to express a wordless or apophatic awareness of God, in which sense his concrete poetry is connected to his vocation as a Benedictine monk, priest, and theologian. This chapter traces the development of these entwined impulses, moving from his beat-influenced verse of the 1940s-50s to his ‘kinetic’ concrete poetry of the mid-1960s, and finally to the typestracts of the late 1960s and early 1970s. Influences touched on along the way include Wittgenstein, auto-destructive art, and Tantric ritual.

REFLEKSI KEBENARAN: PRINSIP KEJUJURAN SEBAGAI KOMUNIKASI SPIRITUAL ANAK DI ERA DIGITAL

The digital era is shown by the swift flow of information that is directly consumed by every layer of society, including children. Children who always witness public lies with claims of religious truth result in low social and emotional attitudes of children. This type of research is library research and this research is a qualitative descriptive study. Research concludes that the principle of honesty through reflective efforts will provide space for awareness of God and humans. This paper contributes to describing the understanding of spiritual communication in the digital era

Kesadaran Akan Allah Melalui Penderitaan Berdasarkan Ayub 1-2

This article was a biblical analysis of the awareness of God through suffering in the book of Job chapter 1 and 2. The subject’s very important to be reviewed in considering the context of the suffering of believers at present. The aim of this biblical analysis was not only touching theological dimension, but ultimately to change the hypothetical into the realm of practical life, where suffering believers could gain the power of faith. The research method used in this study was the method of narrative analysis or narrative criticism of Job chapter 1 and 2. Through this study it could be concluded that God is sovereign over everything and no incident happens by chance, but there is a plan of God in it. Therefore, reflecting on Job's experience, it is important to carry out self-reflection as well as surrender so that in the end it does not experience despair in the midst of suffering.Abstrak. Tulisan ini merupakan sebuah analisis biblikal tentang kesadaran akan Allah melalui penderitaan di dalam kitab Ayub pasal 1 dan 2. Pokok bahasan ini sangat penting untuk dikaji kembali dengan mempertimbangkan konteks penderitaan orang percaya di masa kini. Tujuan analisis biblikal ini diharapkan tidak hanya menyentuh dimensi teologis, tetapi pada akhirnya mengubah yang hipotetis ke dalam lingkup kehidupan praktis, di mana orang-orang percaya yang menderita dapat beroleh kekuatan iman. Metode penelitian yang digunakan dalam kajian ini adalah metode analisis naratif atau kritik naratif terhadap Ayub pasal 1 dan 2. Melalui kajian ini dapat disimpulkan bahwa Allah berdaulat atas segala sesuatu dan tidak ada peristiwa yang terjadi secara kebetulan, tapi ada rencana Tuhan di dalamnya. Oleh karenanya, bercermin dari pengalaman Ayub tersebut, penting melakukan refleksi diri dan sekaligus penyerahan diri sehingga pada akhirnya tidak mengalami keputusasaan di tengah penderitaan.

The Upraised Mountain and Israel’s Election in the Qur’an and Talmud

In four passages in the Qur’an (Q 2:63, 93; 4:154; 7:171), reference is made to God raising up (or shaking) a mountain. In each passage, the context is God’s covenant with Israel at Sinai, and the text appears to say that God lifted up Mt. Sinai over the people of Israel. A parallel to this motif appears in early rabbinic sources, including a tradition cited twice in the Babylonian Talmud (Shab 88a and AZ 2b), which suggests that God threatened to drop Mt. Sinai on Israel if they refused to accept the Torah. In both Talmud passages, the discussion that unfolds probes the topic of God’s unique choice of Israel to receive the Torah. In its own allusions to the Sinai event, the Qur’an seems to presume a background narrative similar to the tradition found in the Talmud, in that the Qur’an’s references to God raising up the mountain make best contextual sense as examples where God had to force Israel to accept their covenant. In the Qur’an, the raising or shaking of the mountain represents one in a series of illustrations showing how the people were unwilling to believe and ultimately broke their covenant. The threat of the mountain also serves as a reminder that people should be on guard, in constant awareness of their accountability to God (taqw?). Moreover, the rhetoric surrounding the uplifted mountain theme in the Qur’an emphasizes the universality of God’s command for all to believe, as if the Messenger of the Qur’an was refuting an interpretation of the Sinai event that construed it as proof of Israel’s election. For both the Talmud and the Qur’an, each text’s manner of handling the uplifted mountain motif reveals something about the community behind the text. The discussions we find in the Talmud about the uplifted mountain and Israel’s election reflect the theological explorations we would expect to see in a developed religious culture lived out by a religious minority in an established empire. The Qur'an's discourse, in contrast, seeks to destabilize Jewish and Christian concepts of election and deploys the uplifted mountain motif to emphasize everyone's need to show reverent awareness of God.

Impact of Learning Earth Litosphere using Interactive Conceptual Instruction on Logic Thinking, Conceptual Understanding, and Spiritual Aspect Embedding

The aim of this study is to explore the impact of interactive-conceptual-instruction with visualization on logic thinking, conceptual understanding and spiritual aspect embedding. The sampling technique used in this research was convenience sampling. This research used mixed methods with embedded experiment design. The data of logic thinking and conceptual understanding was collected through pre-test and post-test. The questionnaires were used to collect data on spiritual attitudes and were analyzed qualitatively. The results showed that logic thinking-ability improves from no logic thinking to inductive-deductive logic thinking. The improvement of logic thinking abilities was in the medium category. Understanding the concept shifted from incompetent to conceptual understanding with improvement, in the medium category. The questionnaires analysis showed that the students got spiritual values related to the awareness of God believing behind the natural phenomena that impact on their spiritual attitudes. This study also tried to apply the results of pure science research to support learning activities. Based on the result of the research, it can be concluded that the learning process using interactive conceptual with visualization can improve logic thinking, conceptual comprehension, and spiritual attitude embeding.