God, Freedom and Nature
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God, Freedom and Nature Proceedings of the 2008 Biennial Conference in Philosophy Religion and Culture Edited by: Ronald S. Laura, Rachel A. Buchanan and Amy K. Chapman ii God, Freedom and Nature Proceedings of the 2008 Biennial Conference in Philosophy, Religion and Culture Editors: Ronald S. Laura (D. Phil Oxford) Professor in Education The University of Newcastle and Rachel A. Buchanan (Ph.D. Newcastle) Lecturer in Education The University of Newcastle and Amy K. Chapman (Ph.D. Newcastle) Lecturer in Education The Australian Catholic University iii Publication Details Publishing House: Body and Soul Dynamics Sydney / New York / Boston Title 1 of 1 – God, Freedom and Nature ISBN: 978-0-646-58918-3 FORMAT: Paperback iv Table of Contents Foreword The Biennial Conference in Philosophy, Religion and Culture: Andrew Murray vii Introduction 1. God, Freedom and Nature: transdisciplinary reflections on the discourse of religion and theology: Ronald Laura and Rachel Buchanan 1 Part One: God 2. The Religious Foundations of Secular Hermeneutics and Epistemology: Debunking the Secularisation Myth: Susanna Rizzo 6 3. Spirit, Spiritedness and Spirituality: Brian Scarlett 15 4. Vattimo’s Weak Thought: Christianity After the Death of God: Matthew Tones 21 5. Historical Jesus Studies and Talk about God: Gerard Kelly 28 6. Prophetic and Dialectical? A Public Church’s Quest for an Effective Engagement with Culture: Luke Holohan 35 7. State School Chaplaincy: Talking about God in Contemporary Culture: David Pohlmann and Garth Hentzschel 42 8. Authentically Human: von Hügel's Spiritual Direction of Gwendolen Greene: Robyn Wrigley-Carr 52 9. Conversations About God - Does Skills Training Make a Difference?: Lyn Daff 56 10. An Exploration of Ken Wilber's Post-Metaphysical Spirituality: John O’Neill 70 11. Evil – Its Beginning and End: David Everingham 76 Part Two: Freedom 12. Freedom, Nature and Slavery in Aristotle’s Politics: Andrew Murray 83 13. Pope Benedict XVI and Human Freedom: Anthony Maher 89 14. Without God, Truth or Nature: Richard Rorty on the Primacy of Freedom: John Owens 99 15. Lonergan, Emergent Evolution and the Cosmic Process: Anthony Kelly 105 16. Conversion/Politics: Matthew John Paul Tan 110 17. Intentional Freedom, the Fundamental Construct of Self-Consciousness: Michael Young 116 18. Nature, Freedom and God: a Way out of Plato’s Cave: Nicholas Coleman 121 19. God, the Architect of Human Freedom and Religion its Servant: Patrick McInerney 126 Part Three: Nature 20. Theology and Natural Sciences in St Gregory Palamas: Doru Costache 132 21. Reflections on Secularisation: Greg Melleuish 139 22. God(s), Freedom, and Nature in the Derveni Papyrus: Harold Tarrant 145 23. Naturalism Reconsidered: Khaldoun Sweis 150 24. A Question of Reincarnation from a Materialist Perspective: Leah McMurray 158 25. Set Free by the Word of God: Ronald Laura and Rachel Buchanan 165 26. Theo-Critical Feminism, Mother Nature and Epistemological Patriarchy: Rachel Buchanan and Ronald Laura 171 27. Patriarchal Theism: Ronald Laura and Robert Chalender 175 28. Freedom, Nature and Sexuality: Ross Morrow 184 29. Spiritual Consciousness in the Context of Educative Pedagogy: Ronald Laura and Charmaine Clarke 190 Conclusion 30. The Digital Revolution: Theophilosophical Reflections on the God of Computechnology: Ronald Laura and Amy Chapman 196 v vi Foreword The Biennial Conference in Philosophy, Religion and Culture Andrew Murray The Biennial Conference in Philosophy, Religion and Culture took its current form in 1996, which makes the conference of these proceedings the seventh conference. Its roots, however, are much older, having begun with the ‘Christianity and Platonism’ conference at Melbourne University in 1977 organised by Eric Osborne and David Dockrill under the auspices of the Australian New Zealand Society for Theological Studies. A second conference on the theme, ‘The Via Negativa’ was held at the University of Sydney in 1981. The success of these two conferences led to a larger project that was to be a series of conferences. Its organisational base was at Newcastle University with David Dockrill and Godrey Tanner, and it was located at Catholic Institute of Sydney, firstly at Manly and after 1995 at Strathfield. Other convenors in the early years included Raoul Mortely, David Coffey, John Hill, Patrick Ryan and Gerald Gleeson. This set a pattern of cooperation between Newcastle University and Catholic Institute in organisational terms, but it also defined the dialogue as one between those academics in the universities and those in the theological colleges. Following the move of Catholic Institute of Sydney to its current premises at Strathfield at the end of 1995, the conference took its current form and incorporated also the Sydney College of Divinity conference series that had been begun by Neil Ormerod and Gregory Moses. The Convenors throughout this period have been David Dockrill (Newcastle), Peter Forrest (UNE) and Andrew Murray (CIS). Andrew Murray has been conference organiser. Although largely led by philosophers, the conference has from the beginning attempted to be broad both in its scope and in its participation. Each conference has had a theme designed to focus attention on a recognisable area of interest but also broad enough for scholars from diverse fields to participate. It has enabled philosophers, theologians and a diverse range of scholars from the arts and occasionally the sciences to contribute to the one conference. This has led to very interesting discussions, enabling connections of thought that may not otherwise have been achieved. Attendance has presumed only a serious interest in religion, good scholarship in a particular area and interest in some aspect of the theme of the current conference. This conference took the theme ‘God, Freedom and Nature’. The brief articulated in the call for papers was broad: ‘Papers may treat one or more of these themes in a manner that contributes to a discussion of the three. Issues and questions that might be addressed include: science and religion; freedom and conscience in a religious context; political and religious notions of freedom and nature; talking about God in our contemporary culture; the compatibility of religious faith and authentic humanity; the validity of religious experience; the biblical understanding of God and human development in the 21st Century; human and divine creativity; climate change: divine providence and human responsibility.’ Discussion at the conference was vigorous and broad. The convenors are grateful to the editors of this book of proceedings for making the starting points of that discussion available to many more people than could attend the conference. Further information about the conference can be found on the conference website: www.cis.catholic.edu.au/ vii Past Conference Themes 1977 Christianity and Platonism 1981 The Via Negativa 1984 The Concept of Spirit 1984 Philosophy and Theology Conference 1986 The Idea of Salvation 1987 Second Philosophy and Theology Conference 1989 Humanity and the After Life (SCD) 1990 Tradition and Traditions 1991 Human Beings and Nature (SCD) 1993 Plato and Aristotle, Platonism and Aristotelianism 1995 The Doctrine of the Trinity, Past and Present 1996 Faith and Reason 1998 The Supernatural 2000 The Body in our Philosophical, Literary and Religious Traditions 2002 Talking about God in Contemporary Culture 2004 On the Good, Goods and the Good Life 2006 Truth & Truthfulness in Uncertain Times 2008 God, Freedom and Nature 2010 Creation, Nature and the Built Environment 2012 The Expressible and the Inexpressible viii INTRODUCTION: CHAPTER ONE God, Freedom and Nature: transdisciplinary reflections on the discourse of religion and theology by Ronald Laura and Rachel Buchanan The conference on God, Freedom and Nature affords its readers the opportunity to canvass in one volume a wide array of deeply engaging discussions of transdisciplinary approaches to some of the most challenging and seemingly intractable problems in philosophical theology, the history of religion, the philosophy and sociology of religion, and what we shall call ‘feminist theocritical discourse’. What is novel about this Proceedings is the originality which results from the subtle way in which the diversity of its topics is skilfully enfolded in a tolerably coherent and insightful framework of transdisciplinary perspective, thus seeking insight from beyond the conceptual boundaries which define many of the more conventional considerations of these issues. The heuristic ‘backdrop’, so to say, against which much of the systematic elucidation and analysis within which the book unfolds is strongly influenced by the increasing emergence around the globe of multicultural societies. The way in which any particular society deals with the ramifications of multiculturalism will obviously vary, depending partly upon whether the ‘host culture’ and its socio-political disposition is democratic, communist, despotic or driven by fundamentalist religiosity. Because multicultural societies are populated by people, either through ‘historical entwinement’ or policies of welcoming immigration, who not infrequently possess radically different religions, moral and political beliefs, the harmonic balance of the society and the measure of its peaceful cohabitation can be seriously challenged, as was witnessed in the Sydney 2012 riots by Muslim extremists, to name just one level of many global examples. The complexity of the potential tensions which can arise from the