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Person and God THE INTERNATIONAL SOCIETY FOR METAPHYSICS STUDIES IN METAPHYSICS, VOLUME III PERSON AND GOD Edited by GEORGE F. McLEAN HUGO MEYNELL UNIVERSITY PRESS OF AMERICA INTERNATIONAL SOCIETY FOR METAPHYSICS DEDICATION This volume is dedicated to the memory of Prof. Richard M. Martin whose life of work in the field of logic showed the highest genius and creativity. As can be seen from his chapter in this volume, "On Some Theological Languages," the broader concern of his work was life itself, up to its highest realization in life divine. Like Descartes, he felt that logic can now make possible significant advances in Metaphysics and even theology. The presentation of this paper in Jerusalem, which Prof. Martin considered in some ways the culmination of his service in philosophy, occasioned intensive debate with Prof. John Findlay. That interchange was reflected by Richard Martin in his "On Philosophical Ecumenism: A Dialogue," which has been added as a fitting appendix to the present volume. Prof. Martin has pointed the way. He presents an inviting challenge to a younger generation of philosophers to develop the similar combination of professional perfection and personal peace required to follow the pathways he pioneered. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT Grateful acknowledgement is made to The State University of New York Press at Albany for permission to reprint R.M. Martin, "On Philosophical Ecumenism: A Dialogue," Chap. VIII of Primordiality, Science, and Value (Albany, New York: State Univ. of New York Press, l980), pp. 120-136. TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction PART I. METAPHYSICS AND GOD 1. God and the Problem of Being by Ivor Leclerc 3-13 Comment: Salvino Biolo 15-21 2. Religious Experience by H.D. Lewis 23-38 3. Critique and Hermeneutic in Philosophy of Religion by Benoit Garceau 39-51 4. On Some Theological Languages by Richard M. Martin 53-77 Comment: Jan Van der Veken 79-81 PART II. METAPHYSICAL TRADITIONS AND THE DIVINE 5. The Hindu Metaphysical Tradition on the Meaning of the Absolute by Jehangir N. Chubb 85-103 Comment: Margaret Chatterjee 105-110 6. Metaphysical Traditions and the Meaning of the Absolute: The Locus of the Divine in Chinese Thought by Ellen M. Chen 111-131 7. God - To What, If Anything, Does the Term Refer? An Eastern Christian Perspective by Metropolitan Paulos Gregorios 133-143 8. God, Philosophy and Halakhah in Maimonides' Approach to Judaism by David Hartman and Elliott Yagod 145-180 Comment: Isaac Frank 181-189 9. Philosophy, Man and the Absolute God: An Islamic Perspective by Bahram Jamalpur 191-202 Comment: Francis Kennedy 203-205 PART III ORIGIN AND THEOPHANY 10. Origin: Creation and Emanation by Richard V. DeSmet, S.J. 209-220 Comment: Hugo Meynell 221-225 11. Harmony in Nature and Man by Ewert Cousins 227-238 Comment: Jan Plat 239-241 12. The World as Theophany by Jean Ladriere 243-259 13. On the Reduction of Temporal Categories within the Process of Divine Intervention by Evanghelos A. Moutsopoulos 261-263 Comment: F. P. Hager 265-271 PART IV. FREEDOM, THEOLOGY AND ETERNITY 14. Evolution and Teleology by Evandro Agazzi 275-286 Comment: Susanne Mansion 287-291 15. Absolute Being and Freedom by R.J. Njoroge 293-305 16. Freedom and Omnipotence: Love and Freedom by Frederick Sontag 307-315 Comment: Thomas A. Fay 317-321 17. Philosophy, Religion and the Coming World Civilization by Leroy S. Rouner 323-331 Comment: Joseph Nyasani 333-335 18. Time and Eternity by J.N. Findlay 337 -347 Comment: Kenneth L. Schmitz 349-353 APPENDIX On Philosophical Ecumenism: a Dialogue by Richard M. Martin 355-371 INDEX 373-377 INTRODUCTION Classically, human understanding of oneself and of one's relation to nature has been founded upon an awareness of one's relation to the divine. Though diversely understood, this has constituted the source, the goal and the deepest meaning of Being. As such, it has provided the basis of personal dignity and the inspiration to strive for a life of harmony with others in justice and peace. Many developments, in philosophy and beyond, have opened new possibilities for understanding the implications of this for all facets of human life. Often, however, they have implied an emphasis upon either the immanence or the transcendence of the divine in a manner difficult to conciliate one with the other. Further, issues implied in the resultant notion of progress have raised anew questions concerning the nature of God. In turn, in the West this has implied a renewed concern for the meaning found in earlier Eastern and Western religious philosophies. In developing, as will as technologically advanced, societies this has raised the question of the presence of God in all dimensions of human life. The present volume presents a study of these issues by The International Society for Metaphysics (ISM), hosted by Dr. Nathan Rotenstreich at the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities in Jerusalem. It begins by situating the study of God in relation to metaphysics, religious experience and logic. This is followed by a search of the great religious and metaphysical traditions for their sense of the divine. In this light God is studied as the source and goal of all, and consequently as the context for human freedom in time and eternity. This is the last volume in the ISM series on the person. It follows other works on Person and Nature,1 and Person and God2. Upon completion of these studies the ISM undertook an intensive series of investigations regarding society, and its issues of unity, truth and justice, and the good. It extended these two series on person and society to the field of culture and cultural heritage understood as personal creativity in community and in history. Together, they constitute an effort to promote the development of metaphysics as a living discipline in our day. NOTES 1. George F. McLean, ed. (Washington: University Press of America and The International Society for Metaphysics, 1988). 2. George F. McLean and Hugo Meynell, eds. (Washington: University Press of America and The International Society for Metaphysics, 1988). CHAPTER I GOD AND THE PROBLEM OF BEING IVOR LECLERC INTRODUCTORY: THE ISSUES We today have arrived at a juncture of thought at which both the question of God and the question of being require basic reconsideration. Contemporary scientific development has necessitated the latter, and this has inevitable implications for the question of God. Besides that, in our time it has become easier to see that in respect of God the ontological issue runs up against peculiar features and also singular aporiae. For example, the question can significantly be raised, whether God exists--by contrast with other areas of inquiry, in which it would not be significant to ask whether man, or nature, or society exists. In these areas the pertinent questions would be, what is man? what is nature? what is society?; that is, the issue is concerning the ontological status of man, etc., the kind of being which is to be accorded to man, etc. Earlier ages raised the question of the proof of the existence of God, but not whether God exists. That the later question has become common in our time makes it more readily appreciable not only that there is a singular significance about the question, namely that it can significantly be raised, but that the question itself is singularly problematical. What exactly does the question entail? What does "exist" mean respecting God? Historically the verb "exist" and the abstract noun "existence" arose from a need terminologically to distinguish "that it is" in contrast to "what it is." So to ask whether it is or exists entailed that the "it" in question be something able to stand out or forth, appears manifest itself. This implied, primarily, that the "it" be a "being" which is the "subject" of "what," i.e., of properties or attributes--the latter "existing" only in a derivative sense of the properties of the being as subject. The question facing us is whether the terms "exist" and "being" can consistently and coherently be used in the same sense with respect to God as to natural beings. This is an old issue in the history of philosophy, but it is facing us today with renewed urgency and puzzlement. This issue has a twofold aspect: one is ontological and the other is categoreal. These are, however, closely interconnected, and neither can be tackled in disjunction from the other, nor can one be taken as unquestionably prior to the other; on the contrary, they intrinsically involve each other. The recognition of this is especially crucial in regard to the question of God. This point needs special emphasis, for not only is there a long and powerful tradition that the fundamental category is "being" --that is, what is ontologically primary is "being," and that it is this which is categorially the subject in thought, so that whatever is the subject is categoreally "a being"--but with regard to God this tradition has in this century received an interesting and emphatic reaffirmation by Whitehead in his Process and Reality with his proclamation that: "God is not to be treated as an exception to all metaphysical principles, invoked to save their collapse. He is their chief exemplication."1 Accordingly Whitehead explicitly maintained that God is to be conceived as an "actual entity" or res vera, categoreally no different from any other actual entity or being.2 This tradition, however, cannot today be simply accepted as a presupposition; it has to be critically examined and justified. For to accept it as an unexamined presupposition constitutes begging the issue which we have seen to be crucial today. The question now is how we are to proceed with regard to this ontological and categoreal issue.
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