DOCSLIB.ORG

Fundamentalism

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Fundamentalism Fundamentalism Is religion dangerous? “WHAT'S WRONG WITH RELIGION? WHY BE SO HOSTILE?” Richard Dawkins,The God Delusion, Chapter 8. Other naturalists ask Dawkins: “Why are you so hostile? What is actually wrong with religion? Does it really do so much harm that we should actively fight against it? Why not live and let live, as one does with Taurus and Scorpio, crystal energy and ley lines? Isn't it all just harmless nonsense?” • And they sometimes continue: • “Doesn't your hostility mark you out as a fundamentalist atheist, just as fundamentalist in your own way as the wingnuts of the Bible Belt in theirs?” • Doesn’t a fundamentalist have to be religious? • What is meant by “fundamentalist” here? Dawkins on fundamentalism • Fundamentalists are dogmatic. (“…they know, in advance, that nothing will budge them from their belief”) • Fundamentalists form beliefs on the basis of authority (e.g. holy books) rather than empirical evidence. • Dogmatism is actually ok, Dawkins says, when based on overwhelming evidence. E.g. that New Zealand is in the southern hemisphere. • (So dogmatism as such isn’t a feature of fundamentalism?) • I guess dogmatism without evidence is a characteristic of fundamentalism. “Evidentialism” • Evidentialism is the view that beliefs are justified only to the extent that they’re supported by evidence. • “Evidence” here includes things known by sense perception, memory, introspection, and logical truths. “Philosophers, especially amateurs with a little philosophical learning, and even more especially those infected with ‘cultural relativism’, may raise a tiresome red herring at this point: a scientist’s belief in evidence is itself a matter of fundamentalist faith.” • N.B. The evidentialism that seems required here goes far beyond “a scientist’s belief in evidence”. • Also, Alvin Plantinga (one of the “amateurs with a little philosophical learning”?) has argued that evidentialism is self defeating. • (Evidentialism doesn’t seem to be supported by any evidence.) • Dawkins’ response to his critics: “All of us believe in evidence in our own lives, whatever we may profess with our amateur philosophical hats on.” This completely misses the point of the objection. Straw man fallacy. • Dogmatism is also not the same thing as being passionate. Being passionate is ok. I might retort that such hostility as I or other atheists occasionally voice towards religion is limited to words. I am not going to bomb anybody, behead them, stone them, burn them at the stake, crucify them, or fly planes into their skyscrapers, just because of a theological disagreement. (Watson: “This polarization of the religious and non‐ religious may not explicitly prescribe violence, but it encourages hatred and derision of the religious. ) (sociologists) Collins and Pinch Fundamentalist religion is: “… mysterious, revealed, hierarchical, exhaustive, exclusive, omnipotent and infallible. The language is that of the Crusade or the Witch Hunt; victory, confession and retraction are the goals wherever heresy is encountered." (The Golem: p. 152) • They’re talking about (some) scientists, however! Here’s the full quote: “The science warriors who hate or scorn the Golem notion will countenance no alternative view of science. They seem to think of science as like a fundamentalist religion: mysterious, revealed, hierarchical, exhaustive, exclusive, omnipotent and infallible. The language is that of the Crusade or the Witch Hunt; victory, confession and retraction are the goals wherever heresy is encountered.“ Science!TM Simon Watson, sociologist “Review Essay: Richard Dawkins’ The God Delusion and Atheist Fundamentalism”, Anthropoetics 15, no. 2 (Spring 2010). “In his 2006 bestseller, The God Delusion, Richard Dawkins, the Charles Simonyi Professor of the Public Understanding of Science at Oxford University, presents an argument against “God” that mirrors the rhetoric used by the religious fundamentalists he sets out to criticize.” “… like the Christian fundamentalist who misrepresents and oversimplifies Darwinian evolutionary science, Dawkins presents a monolithic and oversimplified straw man of "religion," which he belittles and denigrates. Generalizing from religious extremism and fundamentalism to all religion, Dawkins demonstrates a deafness to the religious other and an inability to step outside his Darwinian “Theory of Everything,” …” (Simon Watson, p. 1) Religion has actually convinced people that there's an invisible man—living in the sky—who watches everything you do, every minute of every day. And the invisible man has a special list of ten things he does not want you to do. And if you do any of these ten things, he has a special place, full of fire and smoke and burning and torture and anguish, where he will send you to live and suffer and burn and choke and cry forever and ever 'til the end of time ... But He loves you! —GEORGE CARLIN, quoted in GD, p. 317. (Straw man) • Watson characterises fundamentalism as a reaction to an external, sinister threat. “The term "fundamentalism" emerged in early twentieth century American Protestantism after the publication of a series of twelve mass-produced booklets called The Fundamentals (1910-1915). Organized by Reverend A. C. Dixon, these booklets presented the conservative stand of an influential group of British, American, and Canadian writers against the ever-growing influence of continental European theologians such as Albrecht Ritschl, Martin Rade, and Adolf von Harnack.” • Similarly, says Watson, Dawkins is reacting to the threat of the power of the religious right. He speaks in crude binaries, distorts evidence, and oversimplifies complex realities. Preaching disdain and intolerance, he stokes the fear that feeds religious extremism. Christian fundamentalism “Those who refuse Jesus are not only dumb but also different, dangerous, and possibly contagious. The believer is obliged to rub up against the taint in the commandment to convert, which implies a conquering of death. But to stay with that death too long can be a dangerous affront to the self.” • (Strozier, quoted in Watson, p. 3) • “Replace the word "Jesus" with "the atheism of Dawkins" and this paragraph could very easily apply to The God Delusion.” Should Darwinians be humble? “Michael Ruse also recognizes the limitations of reason and logic and the evidence of the senses. … the Darwinian knows that our limitations come from having evolved in certain ways. These are ways appropriate to our station as "midrange primates who came down out of the trees and went into the garbage and offal business" (140). … A Darwinian, then, should be dubious that his selection-based powers and attributes, including mental attributes and powers, can provide total insight into ultimate physical reality (141). Dawkins, however, like the religious fundamentalist who believes that he knows and carries out the will of God, fails to recognize human limitations.” (Watson, p. 5) Misrepresenting “faith” • Dawkins says: "Faith is an evil precisely because it requires no justification and brooks no argument"; people who have faith are not "taught to question and think through their beliefs" (308). • “Yet, according to the classic definition of Christian faith, theology is fides quaerens intellectum, “faith seeking understanding” (Anselm)” • Richard Harries states that the idea of faith and reason being inherently opposed to one another is "mind- boggling in its lack of historical perspective" (19). He notes that all philosophers, ancient and modern, have believed that reasons can be adduced for and against a religious view of life: "Most of them have, in fact, believed in God but all have thought religious belief a matter of rational argument." • Watson also criticises Dawkins for acting like a fundamentalist: • “Dawkins overlooks and distorts evidence that does not serve his proselytizing agenda.” The case of Kurt Wise American geologist • B.A. in geology at the University of Chicago • M.A. in geology at Harvard • Ph.D. in paleontology at Harvard, supervised S. J. Gould • As Dawkins tells the story, after getting his Ph.D., “tragedy struck”. Somehow his fundamentalist upbringing reasserted itself, and Wise became a creationist. “I had to make a decision between evolution and Scripture. Either the Scripture was true and evolution was wrong or evolution was true and I must toss out the Bible ... It was there that night that I accepted the Word of God and rejected all that would ever counter it, including evolution. With that, in great sorrow, I tossed into the fire all my dreams and hopes in science.” (Kurt Wise) • Dawkins: “All he had to do was toss out the bible. Or interpret it symbolically, or allegorically, as the theologians do. Instead, he did the fundamentalist thing and tossed out science, evidence and reason …” (As Dawkins notes, most theologians, even conservative ones, shake their heads here as well.) Chronology is wrong • While Wise gets the earth’s chronology wrong, Dawkins gets Wise’s chronology wrong. • Wise cut up his bible with scissors in high school (grade 10) not after he finished his Ph.D. at Harvard. (According to Wise’s own account, which Dawkins quotes from.) http://creation.com/kurt‐p‐wise‐ geology‐in‐six‐days • So, while studying at U. Chicago and later Harvard, Wise was already committed to a young earth. (This changes the story considerably.) Wise’s reasoning • Wise initially liked the idea that each ‘day’ in Genesis 1 was really a period of millions of years. But the order of events didn’t correspond to the scientific account either.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Proceedings Chapter Reference
    Proceedings Chapter Editors' Introduction CHALAMET, Christophe, et al. Abstract Introduction to the Volume "Game Over? Reconsidering Eschatology" Reference CHALAMET, Christophe, et al. Editors' Introduction. In: Chalamet, C. ; Dettwiler, A. ; Mazzocco, M. & Waterlot, G. Game Over? Reconsidering Eschatology. Berlin : Walter de Gruyter, 2017. DOI : 10.1515/9783110521412-201 Available at: http://archive-ouverte.unige.ch/unige:97634 Disclaimer: layout of this document may differ from the published version. 1 / 1 Editors’ Introduction This book gathers most of the papers which werepresented at an international theological conference held at the University of Geneva (October 22–24,2015). The conference was organized by the University of Geneva’sFaculty of Theology, jointlywith the Institut romand de systématique et d’éthique (IRSE),which be- longstothis Faculty. The project of organizingaconference on the topic of eschatology emerged duringadaylongconference on the thought of Jacques Ellul, as several members of Geneva’sTheologicalFaculty began discussing the question of the traditional Christian representations of “the end,” and especiallyits relationship to recent developments within the natural sciences on the end of the universe. The general public hears from the natural sciences that the universe will eventually die. Jour- nalists who cover the naturalsciencesask not whether the universe will die, but how that willhappen.¹ How should Christian theologyconsider the narrative(s) of the natural sciences concerning the final cataclysm towards which the uni- verse as awhole appears to headed ?Needless to day, with its vision of an ulti- mate judgment and redemption, in which God will wipe “every tear from their eyes” (Rev 21:4), in which God willbe“all in all” (1 Cor 15:28), Christian theology makes very different claims about the eschaton,i.e.the “end” of all things.
    [Show full text]
  • Stages in the Evolution of Regimes for the Generation, Development and Diffusion of Useful and Reliable Knowledge in the West
    Working Papers No. 176/13 Historical Foundations for a Global Perspective on the Emergence of a Western European Regime for the Discovery, Development and Diffusion of Useful and Reliable Knowledge Patrick O’Brien © Patrick O’Brien March 2013 1 Department of Economic History London School of Economics Houghton Street London, WC2A 2AE Tel: +44 (0) 20 7955 7860 Fax: +44 (0) 20 7955 7730 2 Historical Foundations for a Global Perspective on the Emergence of a Western European Regime for the Discovery, Development and Diffusion of Useful and Reliable Knowledge* Patrick O’Brien ABSTRACT At a ‘conjuncture’ in pre-modern global history, labeled by previous generations of historians as the ‘Scientific Revolution’, the societies and states of western Europe established and promoted a regime of interconnected institutions for the accumulation of useful and reliable knowledge. This placed their economies on trajectories that led to divergent prospects for long-term technological change and material progress. Although the accumulation of such knowledge takes place over millennia of time, and in contexts that are global, critical interludes or conjunctures in a “dialogue of civilizations” have remained geographically localized, and indigenous in nature. Determining the locations, origins and forms of this particular conjuncture is often dismissed as an exercise in Eurocentric history. Modern scholarship has also preferred to emphasize the roles played by craftsmen in its progress and diffusion - ignoring metaphysical and religious foundations of knowledge about the natural world. My survey aims to restore traditional perceptions that the West passed through a transformation in its hegemonic beliefs about prospects for the comprehension and manipulation of that world in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.
    [Show full text]
  • August Hermann Francke, Friedrich Wilhelm I, and the Consolidation of Prussian Absolutism
    GOD'S SPECIAL WAY: AUGUST HERMANN FRANCKE, FRIEDRICH WILHELM I, AND THE CONSOLIDATION OF PRUSSIAN ABSOLUTISM. DISSERTATION Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of the Ohio State University By Terry Dale Thompson, B.S., M.A., M.T.S. * ★ * * * The Ohio State University 1996 Dissertation Committee Approved by Professor James M. Kittelson, Adviser Professor John F. Guilmartin ^ / i f Professor John C. Rule , J Adviser Department of History UMI Number: 9639358 Copyright 1996 by Thompson, Terry Dale All rights reserved. UMI Microform 9639358 Copyright 1996, by UMI Company. All rights reserved. This microform edition is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. UMI 300 North Zeeb Road Ann Arbor, MI 48103 COPYRIGHT BY TERRY DALE THOMPSON 1996 ABSTRACT God's Special Way examines the relationship between Halle Pietism and the Hohenzollern monarchy in order to discern the nature and effect on Brandenburg-Prussia of that alliance. Halle Pietism was a reform movement within the Lutheran church in 17th and 18th century Germany that believed the establishment church had become too concerned with correct theology, thus they aimed at a revival of intense Biblicism, personal spirituality, and social reform. The Pietists, led by August Hermann Francke (1662-1727) , and King Friedrich Wilhelm I (rl7l3-l740) were partners in an attempt to create a Godly realm in economically strapped and politically divided Brandenburg-Prussia. In large measure the partnership produced Pietist control of Brandenburg- Prussia'a pulpits and schoolrooms, despite the opposition of another informal alliance, this between the landed nobility and the establishment Lutheran church, who hoped to maintain their own authority in the religious and political spheres.
    [Show full text]
  • The Effects of Fundamentalism on the Conservative Mennonite Movement
    Creating A Timeless Tradition: The Effects of Fundamentalism on the Conservative Mennonite Movement by Andrew C. Martin A thesis presented to the University of Waterloo and Conrad Grebel University College in fulfillment of the thesis requirement for the degree of Master of Theological Studies Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, 2007 © Andrew Martin, 2007 Author’s Declaration I hereby declare that I am the sole author of this thesis. This is a true copy of the thesis, including any required final revisions, as accepted by my examiners. I understand that my thesis may be made electronically available to the public. ii Abstract Revivalism and fundamentalism were significant forces that greatly influenced the life and theology of North American Mennonites during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. After World War II, the (Old) Mennonite Church began to make a significant shift away from fundamentalism. The Conservative Mennonite movement began in the 1950s in protest against the theological and sociological changes taking place in the Mennonite Church, particularly the loss of fundamentalist doctrines. This thesis traces the influences of fundamentalism as they were adopted early in the twentieth century by the Mennonite Church and came to fulfillment in the founding of the Conservative Mennonite movement. By looking at the history of the (Old) Mennonites in North America and the development of Protestant fundamentalism, this thesis provides a theological analysis of the influence of fundamentalism on the Conservative Mennonite movement. iii Acknowledgements I want to acknowledge some of the people who have assisted and supported me in researching and writing this thesis. Special thanks to my supervisor Arnold Snyder for the probing questions, gentle guidance and enduring patience and faith that this was a worthy endeavor.
    [Show full text]
  • The Theology of Albrecht Ritschl* Herman Bavinck Translated by John Bolt ([email protected]), Calvin Theological Seminary
    The Bavinck Review 3 (2012): 123–63 The Theology of Albrecht Ritschl* Herman Bavinck Translated by John Bolt ([email protected]), Calvin Theological Seminary [369] There has been a significant change in the relationship between theology and philosophy since Descartes and also thanks to him. Prior to this time, theology was the mistress with unlimited authority; she fashioned for herself a philosophy or appropriated an existing one such as that of Aristotle as she had need of it and could use it without doing harm. In more recent times, however, the roles were reversed. Theology lost its undisputed control and became dependent on philosophy. Consequently, it experienced the influence of Descartes and Wolff, of Kant and Fichte, and of Hegel and Schelling. It has now come so far that it is impossible to know and understand theological positions without serious examination of the philosophical positions to which they have attached themselves. One could almost say that the study of philosophy is as essential for understanding the principles of contemporary theology as that of the theology itself. *Translation of Herman Bavinck, “De Theologie van Albrecht Ritschl,” Theologische Studiën 6 (1888): 369–403. Original pagination is provided in square brackets: [ ]. Careful readers will observe that the translation is slightly longer than the original and that it contains many more footnotes. The added notes provide explanations and bibliographic information absent from the original. Beginning at p. 381 in the original, where Bavinck starts to engage Ritschl’s Rechtfertigung und Versöhnung in some detail, for the sake of clarity I have chosen to insert numerous additional direct citations from the standard English translation of Ritschl’s magnum opus rather than to provide my own translation of Bavinck’s compact and dense summary—in the Dutch language!— of Ritschl’s German text and technical vocabulary.
    [Show full text]
  • Karl Barth and Moral Natural Law: the Anatomy of Debate;Note Louis C
    Notre Dame Law School NDLScholarship Natural Law Forum 1-1-1968 Karl Barth and Moral Natural Law: The Anatomy of Debate;Note Louis C. Midgley Follow this and additional works at: http://scholarship.law.nd.edu/nd_naturallaw_forum Part of the Law Commons Recommended Citation Midgley, Louis C., "Karl Barth and Moral Natural Law: The Anatomy of Debate;Note" (1968). Natural Law Forum. Paper 140. http://scholarship.law.nd.edu/nd_naturallaw_forum/140 This Note is brought to you for free and open access by NDLScholarship. It has been accepted for inclusion in Natural Law Forum by an authorized administrator of NDLScholarship. For more information, please contact [email protected]. NOTES KARL BARTH AND MORAL NATURAL LAW: THE ANATOMY OF A DEBATE Currently the most emphatic rejection of natural law ethical systems comes from Karl Barth, the Swiss neoorthodox theologian. He has always viewed moral natural law as (1) an example of a false natural theology, (2) a dangerous reliance on human reason, and (3) the unwarranted employment of a merely human philosophy in place of the revealed Word of God. He rejects all of these as tools in the formulation of Christian theology and social ethics. Where Cath- olics and, with qualifications, some Protestants believe that it is still possible for sinful man to reach God by the use of 'his human reason and therefore also possible to read the "natural" order of God in the "created" institutions surround- ing him, Barth has held that it is impossible to do either because God is hidden from man by the Fall; all of creation is infected by malice, and human under- standing is clouded by sin - there is really nothing left of the original creation.
    [Show full text]
  • Anselm's Cur Deus Homo for a Peace Theology: on the Compatibility of Non-Violence and Sacrificial Atonement
    ANSELM'S CUR DEUS HOMO FOR A PEACE THEOLOGY: ON THE COMPATIBILITY OF NON-VIOLENCE AND SACRIFICIAL ATONEMENT Rachel Reesor-Taylor Department of Graduate Studies and Research McGill University, Montreal February 2007 A thesis submitted to Mc Gill University in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of Doctorate ofPhilosophy © Rachel Reesor-Taylor, 2007 Libraryand Bibliothèque et Archives Canada Archives Canada Published Heritage Direction du Branch Patrimoine de l'édition 395 Wellington Street 395, rue Wellington Ottawa ON K1A ON4 Ottawa ON K1A ON4 Canada Canada Your file Votre référence ISBN: 978-0-494-38634-7 Our file Notre référence ISBN: 978-0-494-38634-7 NOTICE: AVIS: The author has granted a non­ L'auteur a accordé une licence non exclusive exclusive license allowing Library permettant à la Bibliothèque et Archives and Archives Canada to reproduce, Canada de reproduire, publier, archiver, publish, archive, preserve, conserve, sauvegarder, conserver, transmettre au public communicate to the public by par télécommunication ou par l'Internet, prêter, telecommunication or on the Internet, distribuer et vendre des thèses partout dans loan, distribute and sell theses le monde, à des fins commerciales ou autres, worldwide, for commercial or non­ sur support microforme, papier, électronique commercial purposes, in microform, eUou autres formats. paper, electranic and/or any other formats. The author retains copyright L'auteur conserve la propriété du droit d'auteur ownership and moral rights in et des droits moraux qui protège cette thèse. this thesis. Neither the thesis Ni la thèse ni des extraits substantiels de nor substantial extracts from it celle-ci ne doivent être imprimés ou autrement may be printed or otherwise reproduits sans son autorisation.
    [Show full text]
  • A Fresh Inquiry Into the Fate of the Un-Evangelized: a Traditional Dispensational Perspective
    i LIBERTY UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF DIVINITY A Fresh Inquiry into the Fate of the Un-evangelized: A Traditional Dispensational Perspective Submitted to Dr. Keith Eitel and Dr. Steve Lowe in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the completion of THES 690 – A01 Thesis Defense by Mark L Carlton March 10, 2017 ii Contents Introduction .....................................................................................................................................1 Section 1: Methodology ................................................................................................................2 The Inductive Method .........................................................................................................2 A Biblical Inquiry ...............................................................................................................3 The Hermeneutical Approach .............................................................................................3 The Philosophical Methodology .........................................................................................4 Scientific Paradigms, Normal Science, and Scientific Revolutions .......................5 Interpretive Paradigms, Normal Theology, and Theological Revolutions .............6 The Insights of Karl Popper: Falsifiability .............................................................8 The Insights of Mortimer Adler: The Unity of Truth .............................................9 Summary of the Philosophical Methodology .......................................................10
    [Show full text]
  • Herman Bavinck's Trinitarian Theology
    Herman Bavinck’s Trinitarian Theology: The Ontological, Cosmological, and Soteriological Dimensions of the Doctrine of the Trinity by Gayle Elizabeth Doornbos A Thesis submitted to the Faculty of Wycliffe College and Graduate Centre for Theological Studies of the Toronto School of Theology. In partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Theology awarded by the University of St. Michael's College © Copyright by Gayle Elizabeth Doornbos 2019 Herman Bavinck’s Trinitarian Theology: The Ontological, Cosmological, and Soteriological Dimensions of the Doctrine of the Trinity Gayle Elizabeth Doornbos Doctor of Philosophy in Theology University of St. Michael’s College 2019 Abstract Recent scholarship on the Dutch, Reformed theologian Herman Bavinck (1854-1921) has opened up new possibilities for examining the role of the doctrine of the Trinity in Bavinck’s systematic theology. Building on current research, this thesis suggests that Bavinck’s systematic theology can be identified as thoroughly trinitarian by identifying the ways that he uses the doctrine positively (structuring, norming, and informing) and negatively (apologetic) to construct his dogmatic theology. To do this, this dissertation utilizes an intriguing statement made by Bavinck within his treatment of the development of the doctrine of the Trinity in his Reformed Dogmatics concerning the ontological, cosmological, and soteriological dimensions of the doctrine of the Trinity as a framework for understanding his systematic project. Taking this statement to indicate a trinitarian line of reasoning within Bavinck, this thesis argues that Bavinck’s systematic theology can be understood as his articulation of the ontological, cosmological, and soteriological dimensions of the Trinity properly distinguished, developed, and related to one another.
    [Show full text]
  • 1 the Christian World
    1 The Christian World The nineteenth century truly was ‘the Christian age’, not just for Europe but for the rest of the world too. Christianity determined not only its churches but its ‘world’ as well, in public life, in poli- tics and in culture. We call this worldwide complex ‘Christianity’, ‘Christendom’, ‘cristianidad ’, meaning by that not just ‘the essence of Christianity’, as we might also talk about the essence of Judaism or Buddhism in whatever cultural form they may take, but the form it takes in the world. In the nineteenth century the Christian nations of Europe became great powers on a worldwide scale. For these nations, this century became the age of progress and expansion. Continually new scientific discoveries and technical inventions brought them a tremendous growth in power: from the locomotive to the motor car, from the sailing ship to the steamship, from the telegraph to the telephone, from classical physics to the relativity theory, and so forth. ‘Knowledge is power’, Francis Bacon had proclaimed at the beginning of modern times. The immense progress in knowl- edge during the nineteenth century gave the European nations the increased power with which they believed they could advance to universal domination. By means of education, from the prima- ry school to the university, a nation’s own people, and then the peoples of the world as well, could be led out of the night of super- stition into the light of reason. 9 10 Sun of Righteousness, Arise! The Christian nations in Europe conquered their colonial empires in Africa and Asia and spread Europe’s ‘Christian civilization’ with messianic missionary zeal.
    [Show full text]
  • Academic and Religious Freedom in the 21St Century
    the study of religion and the training of muslim clergy in europe Muslim Clergy.indd 1 3-12-2007 16:04:54 Cover illustration: Ibn Rushd, also known by the Latinized name as Averroës, was a Muslim scholar in the Middle Ages (Cordóba, c. 1126- Marakesh, c. 1198). Detail of fresco Triumph of St Thomas and Allegory of the Sciences, in the Church of Santa Maria Novella in Florence, by the Florentine painter Andrea da Firenze (Andrea Bonaiuti; flourished be- tween 1343-1377). Cover design: Maedium, Utrecht Lay-out: V-3 Services, Baarn isbn 978 90 8728 025 3 nur 705 © Leiden University Press, 2008 All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this book may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (elec- tronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise) without the written permission of both the copyright owner and the author of the book. Muslim Clergy.indd 2 3-12-2007 16:04:58 The Study of Religion and the Training of Muslim Clergy in Europe Academic and Religious Freedom in the 21st Century Edited by Willem B. Drees, Pieter Sjoerd van Koningsveld Muslim Clergy.indd 3 3-12-2007 16:04:59 The fresco Triumph of St Thomas and Allegory of the Sciences in the Church of Santa Maria Novella in Florence, by the Florentine painter Andrea da Firenze (Andrea Bonaiuti; fl ourished between 1343-1377). Ibn Rushd is depicted with two other ‘defeated heretics’, Sabellius and Arius, sitting at the feet of Thomas Aquinas (c.
    [Show full text]
  • THE LIFE STORY of ALBRECHT RITSCHL.1 the Family to Which
    550 THE LIFE STORY OF ALBRECHT RITSCHL.1 THE family to which Albrecht Ritschl belonged had for generations been settled at Erfurt, a place known to all the world from its connexion with Luther. Albrecht's grandfather was pastor of a church and "Professor" in the Rathsgymnasium; and at Erfurt was born (November 1, 1783) Albrecht's father, George Charles Benjamin Ritschl, who also became a Lutheran clergyman, rising to hold the position (from 1827) of" Bishop of the Evangelical 1 Church and General Superintendent of Pomerania." Al­ brecht, the eldest child of his father's second marriage, was born March 25, 1822, at Berlin, where the family home and the father's duties were then situated. Two younger brothers saw the light, but did not survive infancy. There were, however, children by the first marriage. The father delivered " a beautiful address " at Albrecht's baptism, when he "astonished every one" by giving the child this name, along with one of his own-Benjamin ; but the second name Albrecht Ritschl never troubled to employ. Like many men of distinction, Albrecht seems to have owed much to his mother, upon whose affection he had so unique a claim. The father is described as an enemy of Rationalism and a champion of the policy which united the two Protes­ tant confessions in a smgle Church-fellowship. Briefly, he stands for a sober and moderate Protestant orthodoxy. His grandson, in the biography of Albrecht, contrasts Bishop Ritschl favourably with Schleiermacher's father. Whereas the latter grew bitter towards his son during the days when he seemed drifting from Christianity, Albrecht 1 Part of a study of Ritschl prepared for Messrs.
    [Show full text]