A History of Western Philosophy and Theology
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Medieval Western Philosophy: the European Emergence
Cultural Heritage and Contemporary Change Series I, Culture and Values, Volume 9 History of Western Philosophy by George F. McLean and Patrick J. Aspell Medieval Western Philosophy: The European Emergence By Patrick J. Aspell The Council for Research in Values and Philosophy 1 Copyright © 1999 by The Council for Research in Values and Philosophy Gibbons Hall B-20 620 Michigan Avenue, NE Washington, D.C. 20064 All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Aspell, Patrick, J. Medieval western philosophy: the European emergence / Patrick J. Aspell. p.cm. — (Cultural heritage and contemporary change. Series I. Culture and values ; vol. 9) Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Philosophy, Medieval. I. Title. III. Series. B721.A87 1997 97-20069 320.9171’7’090495—dc21 CIP ISBN 1-56518-094-1 (pbk.) 2 Table of Contents Chronology of Events and Persons Significant in and beyond the History of Medieval Europe Preface xiii Part One: The Origins of Medieval Philosophy 1 Chapter I. Augustine: The Lover of Truth 5 Chapter II. Universals According to Boethius, Peter Abelard, and Other Dialecticians 57 Chapter III. Christian Neoplatoists: John Scotus Erigena and Anselm of Canterbury 73 Part Two: The Maturity of Medieval Philosophy Chronology 97 Chapter IV. Bonaventure: Philosopher of the Exemplar 101 Chapter V. Thomas Aquinas: Philosopher of the Existential Act 155 Part Three: Critical Reflection And Reconstruction 237 Chapter VI. John Duns Scotus: Metaphysician of Essence 243 Chapter -
Western Philosophy Rev
Designed by John Cornet, Phoenix HS (Ore) Western Philosophy rev. September 2012 The very process of philosophy has been a driving force in the tranformation of the world. From the figure who dwells upon how to achieve power, to the minister who contemplates the paradox of the only truth (their faith) yet which is also stagnent, to the astronomers who are searching the stars for signs of other civilizations, to the revolutionaries who sought to construct a national government which would protect the rights of the minority, the very exercise of philosophy and philosophical thought is at a core of human nature. Philosophy addresses what are sometimes called the "big questions." These include questions of morality and ethics, ideology/faith,, politics, the truth of knowledge, the nature of reality, and the meaning of human existance (...just to name a few!) (Religion addresses some of the same questions, but while philosophy and religion overlap in some questions, they can and do differ significantly in the approach they take to answering them.) Subject Learning Outcomes Skills-Based Learning Outcomes Behavioral Expectations and Grading Policy Develop an appreciation for and enjoyment of Organize, maintain and learn how to study from a learning, particularly in how learning should subject-specific notebook Attendance, participation and cause us to question what we think we know Be able to demonstrate how to take notes (including being prepared are daily and have a willingness to entertain new utilizing two-column format) expectations perspectives on issues. Be able to engage in meaningful, substantive discussion A classroom culture of respect and Students will develop familiarity with major with others. -
BEFORE the ORIGINAL POSITION the Neo-Orthodox Theology of the Young John Rawls
BEFORE THE ORIGINAL POSITION The Neo-Orthodox Theology of the Young John Rawls Eric Gregory ABSTRACT This paper examines a remarkable document that has escaped critical at- tention within the vast literature on John Rawls, religion, and liberalism: Rawls’s undergraduate thesis, “A Brief Inquiry into the Meaning of Sin and Faith: An Interpretation Based on the Concept of Community” (1942). The thesis shows the extent to which a once regnant version of Protestant the- ology has retreated into seminaries and divinity schools where it now also meets resistance. Ironically, the young Rawls rejected social contract liber- alism for reasons that anticipate many of the claims later made against him by secular and religious critics. The thesis and Rawls’s late unpublished remarks on religion and World War II offer a new dimension to his intellec- tual biography. They show the significance of his humanist response to the moral impossibility of political theology. Moreover, they also reveal a kind of Rawlsian piety marginalized by contemporary debates over religion and liberalism. KEY WORDS: John Rawls, community, liberalism, religion, political theology, public reason PROTESTANT THEOLOGIAN REINHOLD NIEBUHR DIED IN 1971. In that same year, philosopher John Rawls published his groundbreaking work, A The- ory of Justice. These two events symbolically express transformations in American intellectual and political culture that remain significant today. In the academy, religious defenders of a liberal consensus had been chal- lenged by ascendant secular liberalisms and emergent religious voices critical of liberalism of any kind. Parallel developments in the political culture had begun to see the fracturing of coalitions that transcended di- verse religious and secular commitments in order to support democratic institutions and practices. -
St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas on the Mind, Body, and Life After Death
The University of Akron IdeaExchange@UAkron Williams Honors College, Honors Research The Dr. Gary B. and Pamela S. Williams Honors Projects College Spring 2020 St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas on the Mind, Body, and Life After Death Christopher Choma [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://ideaexchange.uakron.edu/honors_research_projects Part of the Christianity Commons, Epistemology Commons, European History Commons, History of Philosophy Commons, History of Religion Commons, Metaphysics Commons, Philosophy of Mind Commons, and the Religious Thought, Theology and Philosophy of Religion Commons Please take a moment to share how this work helps you through this survey. Your feedback will be important as we plan further development of our repository. Recommended Citation Choma, Christopher, "St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas on the Mind, Body, and Life After Death" (2020). Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects. 1048. https://ideaexchange.uakron.edu/honors_research_projects/1048 This Dissertation/Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by The Dr. Gary B. and Pamela S. Williams Honors College at IdeaExchange@UAkron, the institutional repository of The University of Akron in Akron, Ohio, USA. It has been accepted for inclusion in Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects by an authorized administrator of IdeaExchange@UAkron. For more information, please contact [email protected], [email protected]. 1 St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas on the Mind, Body, and Life After Death By: Christopher Choma Sponsored by: Dr. Joseph Li Vecchi Readers: Dr. Howard Ducharme Dr. Nathan Blackerby 2 Table of Contents Introduction p. 4 Section One: Three General Views of Human Nature p. -
The Identity of Jesus of Nazareth*
Criswell Theological Review 6.1 (1992) 91-130. Copyright © 1992 by The Criswell College. Cited with permission. THE IDENTITY OF JESUS OF NAZARETH* CARL F. H. HENRY Lecturer at Large Prison Fellowship Ministries Nowhere is the tension between historically repeatable acts and a once-for-all event focused more dramatically than in the conflict over the identity of Jesus of Nazareth. Shall we explain him as the ideal model of mankind and expound divine incarnation by philosophical analysis of what is humanly possible, or shall we depict him rather in terms of the christologically unparalleled? The Gospels provide our only significant information about Jesus' life and work. Skeptical critics thrust upon these sources tests of reliabil- ity that they do not impose upon other historical writing. If universally applied, those same criteria would in principle invalidate ancient Greek and Roman accounts that secular historians routinely accept as factual.1 Efforts to destroy the credibility of gospels often betray a bias against the supernatural. Gerald G. O'Collins recalls "the official Soviet thesis (which appears recently to have been abandoned) that Jesus never existed and was a purely mythological figure.”2 Consistent Marx- ists would need to reject the theology-of-revolution view that the his- torical figure of Jesus nurtures its liberationist challenge to an alienated world. The assumptions of evolutionary naturalism likewise lead to a rejection of Jesus as in any way normative and decisive for human destiny. * This essay represents the two lectures read at the Criswell Lecture Series, Criswell College, January 1991. 1 Cf. A N. Sherwin-White, Roman Society and Roman Law in the New Testa- ment, (London and New York: Oxford University Press, 1963). -
Feng Youlan's Interpretation of Western Philosophy
ASIANetwork Exchange | Fall 2014 | volume 22 | 1 Feng Youlan’s Interpretation of Western Philosophy: A Critical Examination from the Perspective of Metaphysical Methodology Derong Chen Abstract: This paper concentrates on Feng’s interpretation of Western philosophy from the perspective of metaphysical methodology and aims to display a limited observation of Feng’s interpretation of Western philosophy through the window of metaphysical methodology. Based on a brief review of the recent studies of Feng Youlan and Western philoso- phy, this paper analyzes the progress and insufficient aspects in current studies on this issue and particularly clarifies what are the metaphysics and metaphysical methods in the context of Feng Youlan’s philosophy. In clarifying Feng’s interpreta- tion of Western philosophy from the perspective of methodology, this paper further critically analyzes Feng’s positive metaphysical methods and negative metaphysical methods, and assumes that Feng’s negative metaphysical methods essentially is a kind of attitude towards metaphysics but neither a kind of metaphysics nor a kind of metaphysical methods. Instead of characterizing metaphysical methods as positive and negative as Feng did, this paper suggests an alternative division of metaphysical methods: direct and indirect methods of dealing with metaphysical issues. Keywords Feng Youlan; metaphysics; metaphysical methods; Western philosophy; negative metaphysics In the twentieth century, Feng Youlan was one of the Chinese intellectuals most deeply Derong Chen is a Sessional involved in the dialogue and interaction between Chinese and Western philosophies. In Lecturer II at the University of addition to studying Western philosophy at Columbia University, he systematically con- Toronto Mississauga. ducted research on Western philosophy, specifically the philosophy of life. -
An Analytical Presentation of Cornelius Van Til's Transcendental
An Analytical Presentation of Cornelius Van Til’s Transcendental Argument from Predication By Robin Barrett May 12, 2017 Contents Introduction ....................................................................................................................................1 Defending the Methodology ..........................................................................................................2 The Transcendental Argument ...................................................................................................13 The Nature of a Transcendental Argument ........................................................................14 Presenting an Analytical Formulation of Van Til’s Transcendental Argument from Predication .........................................................................................................................18 Supporting and Defending the Transcendental Argument ......................................................24 Conclusion ....................................................................................................................................35 Bibliography ..................................................................................................................................38 ii Introduction This present author intends to examine the apologetic method and arguments of Cornelius Van Til from within an analytical framework. The purpose of such an endeavor is to subject Van Til’s arguments to an analytical critique to understand if they can withstand such a critique. -
Augustinian Christian Philosophy
AUGUSTINIAN CHRISTIAN PHILOSOPHY How does Christianity bear on philosophy? Is there such a thing as Christian philosophy, or are there only Christians who are also philoso phers? How should Christianity and philosophy be related? Should they be related? In "Advice to Christian Philosophers" I said that Christian philosophers should display more autonomy: they have their own fish to fry, their own projects to pursue, (or their own axes to grind, as some might prefer to put it). Here I want to say more about what these projects (or fish, or axes) are like. And the right way to think about these matters, so it seems to me, is broadly Augustinian. Accordingly, I want to propose a program matic sketch (a very programmatic sketch) of a conception of Christian philosophy that grows out of some central Augustinian emphases. I don't claim, however, that Augustine in fact thought of Christian philosophy the way I shall suggest. The primary focus of my paper is not historical (that would in any event be beyond my competence); what I want to do is make a suggestion as to how we should think about Christian philosophy now; but this way of thinking of the matter grows out of Augustinian roots.! It's worth noting, furthermore, that what is at issue is not just a way of thinking about Christianity and philosophy, but about Christianity and scholarship more generally. There are at least four elements in Augustinian Christian philosophy. The first two of these are widely recognized and relatively uncontroversial: I shall therefore be brief about them. -
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. -
The Etienne Gilson Series 21
The Etienne Gilson Series 21 Remapping Scholasticism by MARCIA L. COLISH 3 March 2000 Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies This lecture and its publication was made possible through the generous bequest of the late Charles J. Sullivan (1914-1999) Note: the author may be contacted at: Department of History Oberlin College Oberlin OH USA 44074 ISSN 0-708-319X ISBN 0-88844-721-3 © 2000 by Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies 59 Queen’s Park Crescent East Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5S 2C4 Printed in Canada nce upon a time there were two competing story-lines for medieval intellectual history, each writing a major role for scholasticism into its script. Although these story-lines were O created independently and reflected different concerns, they sometimes overlapped and gave each other aid and comfort. Both exerted considerable influence on the way historians of medieval speculative thought conceptualized their subject in the first half of the twentieth cen- tury. Both versions of the map drawn by these two sets of cartographers illustrated what Wallace K. Ferguson later described as “the revolt of the medievalists.”1 One was confined largely to the academy and appealed to a wide variety of medievalists, while the other had a somewhat narrower draw and reflected political and confessional, as well as academic, concerns. The first was the anti-Burckhardtian effort to push Renaissance humanism, understood as combining a knowledge and love of the classics with “the discovery of the world and of man,” back into the Middle Ages. The second was inspired by the neo-Thomist revival launched by Pope Leo XIII, and was inhabited almost exclusively by Roman Catholic scholars. -
A Review of John M. Frame, the Doctrine of the Christian Life (A Theology of Lordship Series; Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R, 2008)
A Review of John M. Frame, The Doctrine of the Christian Life (A Theology of Lordship Series; Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R, 2008) Douglas J. Moo Evangelical Theological Society National Conference New Orleans November 2009 John Frame’s The Doctrine of the Christian Life presents an attractive and irenic Reformed approach to Christian ethics. This volume is the third in a series entitled “A Theology of Lordship,” and the authoritative and normative implications of Lordship are central to this book’s presentation of Christian ethics. Following a triadic pattern that apparently dominates this series (I say “apparently” because I have not read the earlier two volumes), Frame argues that one could approach Christian ethics from three different perspectives. The “situational” perspective focuses on the context in which the believer is called on to make ethical decisions. It requires Christians to analyze the situation they find themselves in, asking, “How can we change the world in order to bring glory to God?” (p. 239). The situational perspective leads to a teleological ethic. The second perspective is the “existential.” The focus here is on the believer himself or herself, and the key question will be, “How must I be changed, if I am to please God?” (p. 317). The “normative” perspective, finally, looks at the teaching of Scripture, the revelation of God himself, the ultimate moral norm, and asks “What does God tell us to do?” (p. 239). In the terms of classic ethical theory, then, the “normative” perspective leads to a deontological ethic. A “Christian ethical decision,” Frame says, “is the application of God’s revelation (normative) to a problem (situational) by a person (existential)” (p. -
Protestant Experience and Continuity of Political Thought in Early America, 1630-1789
Louisiana State University LSU Digital Commons LSU Doctoral Dissertations Graduate School July 2020 Protestant Experience and Continuity of Political Thought in Early America, 1630-1789 Stephen Michael Wolfe Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_dissertations Part of the Political History Commons, Political Theory Commons, Religious Thought, Theology and Philosophy of Religion Commons, and the United States History Commons Recommended Citation Wolfe, Stephen Michael, "Protestant Experience and Continuity of Political Thought in Early America, 1630-1789" (2020). LSU Doctoral Dissertations. 5344. https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_dissertations/5344 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at LSU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in LSU Doctoral Dissertations by an authorized graduate school editor of LSU Digital Commons. For more information, please [email protected]. PROTESTANT EXPERIENCE AND CONTINUITY OF POLITICAL THOUGHT IN EARLY AMERICA, 1630-1789 A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in The Department of Political Science by Stephen Michael Wolfe B.S., United States Military Academy (West Point), 2008 M.A., Louisiana State University, 2016, 2018 August 2020 Acknowledgements I owe my interest in politics to my father, who over the years, beginning when I was young, talked with me for countless hours about American politics, usually while driving to one of our outdoor adventures. He has relentlessly inspired, encouraged, and supported me in my various endeavors, from attending West Point to completing graduate school.