DOCSLIB.ORG

Constructing Moral Concepts of God A

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text

Load more

THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO TOWARD A GLOBAL, HUMANISTIC THEOLOGY: CONSTRUCTING MORAL CONCEPTS OF GOD A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF THE DIVINITY SCHOOL IN CANDIDACY FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY BY MYRIAM RENAUD CHICAGO, ILLINOIS JUNE 2018 © 2018 Myriam Renaud All Rights Reserved. Although it certainly sounds questionable, it is in no way reprehensible to say that every human being makes a God for himself, indeed, he must make one according to moral concepts. - Immanuel Kant [T]he idea of God…enables us to face most directly the question of whether human life should be oriented primarily on men’s desires and value intuitions, or whether these must be relativized by something beyond them. - Gordon Kaufman CONTENTS LIST OF TABLES x ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS xi I INTRODUCTION 1 CH. 1 – LONGING FOR GOD IN A TIME OF VIOLENCE, GLOBALIZATION, AND UNCERTAINTY 2 I. WHY GORDON KAUFMAN’S THEOLOGICAL METHOD? 5 II. WHY THE DECLARATION TOWARDS A GLOBAL ETHIC? 10 III. WHY FOCUS ON THE CONCEPT OF GOD? 13 IV. WHY FOCUS ON MORAL CONCEPTS OF GOD? 14 V. WHY THE GLOBAL ETHIC TO TEST CONCEPTS OF GOD? 15 VI. CLARIFYING KEY TERMS 16 humanistic 17 humanizing 18 imagination 19 construction 20 recursion 21 concept 22 VII. THE DISSERTATION IN BRIEF 23 part I 23 part II 24 part III 27 II GORDON KAUFMAN’S ANSWER TO THE PROBLEM OF GOD 30 CHART 1 ABBREVIATIONS FOR KAUFMAN’S MONOGRAPHS 31 CHART 2 PHASES OF KAUFMAN’S THEOLOGY (MONOGRAPHS ONLY) 32 CHART 3 KAUFMAN’S MONOGRAPHS ARRANGED BY THEOLOGICAL PHASE 33 CH. 2 – KAUFMAN’S GOD: AN IMAGINATIVE CONSTRUCT 34 I. PHASE I OF KAUFMAN’S THEOLOGY 37 agnosticism: the only prudent view of God’s existence 37 analogies for the transcendent God 39 God manifested God’s self in person-event of Jesus Christ 41 II. KAUFMAN’S CRITIQUE OF PHASE I 48 concepts of God are grounded in human experience 47 p. iv revelation in scripture and tradition is a fallacy 49 III. PHASE II OF KAUFMAN’S THEOLOGY 52 God as imaginative construct orienting human life 52 does God exist? concepts of God exist 56 the proper business of theology 58 moment 0: who is the ‘I’ doing the constructing? 61 moment 1: what is world? 64 moment 2: who is God? 68 moment 3: adjusting world to God 78 Kaufman’s critique of Gustafson’s concept of God 79 IV. KAUFMAN’S CRITIQUE OF PHASE II 84 constructing world and God is a gradual process 84 no neat distinction between ego-self and world 86 V. PHASE III OF KAUFMAN’S THEOLOGY 88 world must be intelligible to science and history 88 imaginative concepts are unreliable representations of God 89 God as serendipitous creativity 95 VI. ACROSS THE PHASES OF KAUFMAN’S THEOLOGY 98 CH. 3 – PERSON-LIKE CONCEPTS OF GOD: STRENGTHS AND LIMITATIONS 102 I. GOD: TRANSCENDENT AND COMPATIBLE WITH SCIENCE 106 II. PUBLIC VETTING TO COMBAT ANTHROPOCENTRIC GOD 112 III. A TRANSCENDENT GOD WHO ACTS: KAUFMAN’S DEFENSE 114 for most theists, God is person-like and acts in the world 114 God is autonomous and self-sufficient 116 God’s master act and sub-acts 119 human agent as model for God’s transcendence and activity 123 IV. CRITIQUES OF THE HUMAN AGENT AS A MODEL FOR GOD 129 God: modeled on an introverted or opaque human agent 129 Michael McLain’s critique: residual Cartesianism 131 Vernon White’s critique: uniformitarianism 137 V. GOD: A THOUGHT EXPERIMENT 141 VI. THE INEVITABILITY OF PERSON-LIKE CONCEPTS OF GOD 146 anthropomorphism: the core of religious experience 146 p. v Kant on the role of the imagination 150 Kaufman on the role of the imagination 152 Kant and Kaufman: person-like God concepts are inevitable 156 VII. THE DECISION TO BELIEVE 158 God: most Westerners have a range of options 158 why human beings bind themselves to a thought experiment 160 God orients and motivates to do the right and the good 163 VIII. PERSON-LIKE GOD HAS MORE IMPACT ON MORAL CHOICES 166 God may be most effective way to defeat anthropocentrism 166 an impersonal God is unlikely to succeed at orienting lives 168 CH. 4 – KAUFMAN’S HUMANE AND HUMANIZING GOD 170 I. GOD: ABSOLUTE REFERENCE POINT PROVIDING GUIDANCE 174 II. KAUFMAN’S CRITERION OF HUMANIZATION 177 moral relativism is no longer appropriate 180 expressive individualism and pic-n-mix theologies 183 is Kaufman’s criterion of humanization Christian? 186 evaluation of the criterion of humanization 189 III. CHECKS AND BALANCES INTERNAL TO KAUFMAN’S METHOD 193 IV. GOD: THE MOTIF OF HUMANIZATION 194 the “ideal” human model for God 198 Kaufman’s own humanizing motif: the suffering Jesus 200 critiques of the humanization motif 204 V. GOD: THE MOTIF OF RELATIVIZATION 210 abstract metaphors establish God’s transcendence 211 reminders of God’s beyondness: key to moral orientation 214 new metaphors must replace traditional ones 216 motif of relativization as a test of self and society 217 VI. MOTIF OF HUMANIZATION VS. MOTIF OF RELATIVIZATION 220 VII. STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES OF KAUFMAN’S METHOD 223 III THE GLOBAL ETHIC: MORAL DIRECTIVES SHARED BY ALL 227 CH. 5 – THE GLOBAL ETHIC AND 1993 PARLIAMENT OF WORLD’S RELIGIONS 228 p. vi I. A GLOBAL ETHIC FOR A GLOBALIZED WORLD 232 II. THE REDACTION AND RATIFICATION OF THE GLOBAL ETHIC 238 III. THE ENDORSEMENT OF THE GLOBAL ETHIC 247 controversies during the 1993 Parliament 250 agreement on need for common ethical teachings 255 IV. THE CONTENT OF THE GLOBAL ETHIC 257 V. TWO MORE WAYS THE GLOBAL ETHIC CAN BE HELPFUL 267 moral support for the U.N.’s Declaration of Human Rights 268 religion’s partner in changing moral consciousness 270 VI. FINDING THE GLOBAL ETHIC IN SACRED TEXTS 272 selective choice of passages 275 strategic hermeneutics 276 VII. OTHER GLOBAL ETHICS: HOW DO THEY COMPARE? 280 VIII. THE IMPACT OF THE GLOBAL ETHIC SINCE 1993 284 CH. 6 – THE GLOBAL ETHIC: STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES 289 I. CHALLENGED: THE DRAFT-TO-RATIFICATION PROCESS 291 a way to preserve the West’s privileged structures of power? 291 Human Rights Declaration: no longer “too Western” 293 II. DOES THE GLOBAL ETHIC EXPRESS A SHARED ETHIC? 302 an unacceptable emphasis on non-violence? 303 resistance to the equal status of men and women 307 conservative traditions did not help draft the Global Ethic 309 a problematical focus on “authenticity” and “credibility?” 317 III. THE GOLDEN RULE: HELP OR HINDRANCE? 319 a version of the Golden Rule exists in every tradition? 319 Rule’s ubiquity is not as straightforward as is often claimed 323 the religions interpret and apply the Rule in different ways 332 polyvalent and simple formulation is Rule’s strength 338 IV. ARE THE GLOBAL ETHIC’S DIRECTIVES TOO VAGUE? 339 too vague for individuals to use? 340 too vague for global change? 344 p. vii CH. 7 – WHAT KIND OF ETHIC IS THE GLOBAL ETHIC? 348 I. A PRODUCT OF A BOTTOM-UP, ‘EMERGENT UNIVERSALISM’? 354 linkages: Western vs South and East Asian religions 354 different ethical systems are shared in a meaningful sense 360 II. THE RESULT OF AN ‘OVERLAPPING CONSENSUS’? 366 III. A CONSTRUCTIVIST ETHIC? 370 moral facts are mind-dependent and identified by procedures 370 IV. THE GLOBAL ETHIC: A CONSTRUCTIVIST-REALIST ETHIC 379 the Global Ethic’s moral facts are real (mind independent) 379 V. TOP-DOWN AND BOTTOM-UP VERSIONS WILL CONVERGE 386 VI. EMBEDDED HUMAN GOOD VS. U.N. DEVELOPMENT METRICS 389 the Global Ethic’s built-in assumptions about the good life 389 the Global Ethic’s human good correlates to UNDP metrics 398 VII. MIDDLE WAY BETWEEN UNIVERSALISM AND PARTICULARISM 404 VIII. AN EXPRESSION OF SHARED MORAL IMPERATIVES 408 . IV TOWARD A GLOBAL, HUMANISTIC THEOLOGICAL METHOD 415 CH. 8 – A THEOLOGICAL METHOD FOR CONSTRUCTING VALIDLY MORAL CONCEPTS OF GOD 416 I. A SKETCH OF THE METHOD 422 a two-moment constructive method 422 moment 1: a concept of God aligned to the Global Ethic 427 the role of religious communities 431 moment 2: concepts of world and self aligned to God 432 II. HOW DOES THE GLOBAL ETHIC IMPROVE THE METHOD? 446 the Global Ethic is not a conventionalist ethic 447 tested by the Global Ethic, concepts of God humanize 451 tested by the Global Ethic, concepts of God relativize 452 III. MOMENT 1 OF THE METHOD: DOES IT WORK IN PRACTICE? 455 a test case: Kaufman’s Phase III concept of God 456 Kaufman abandons epistemological humility 461 Kaufman’s creative serendipity vs. the Global Ethic 463 p. viii IV. A CRITIQUE OF THE METHOD 468 V. WRAPPING UP AND LOOKING FORWARD 474 APPENDIX A: TOWARD A GLOBAL ETHIC: AN INITIAL DECLARATION 478 APPENDIX B: INTRODUCTION TO THE GLOBAL ETHIC 492 APPENDIX C: OTHER GLOBAL ETHICS 494 BIBLIOGRAPHY 505 p. ix LIST OF TABLES TABLE A: GLOBAL ETHIC’S IMPLICIT INDICATORS OF THE HUMAN GOOD BASED ON RENAUD’S ANALYSIS 392 TABLE B: COMMER’S ECONOMIC GROWTH INDICATORS VS HIS HDI-BASED HUMAN DEVELOPMENT INDICATORS 398 TABLE C: RENAUD’S LIST OF GLOBAL ETHIC ‘HUMAN GOOD’ INDICATORS VS COMMER’S ‘HUMAN DEVELOPMENT’ HDI-BASED INDICATORS 399 p. x ACKNOWLEDGMENTS O project as significant as a dissertation is ever the product of a single Nindividual. It is an honor and a pleasure to glance back over the past several years and thank the many family members, friends, mentors, colleagues, and organizations whose support made this project possible. Several people were key in helping me make my application to the doctoral program a success: Rev. Dr. Cynthia Lindner, the Director of the Ministry program at the Divinity School offered wise counsel; Rev.
Recommended publications
  • UNIT SYLLABUS TEACHER's NAME CREDIT CLASS UNIT-1 Philosophy

    UNIT SYLLABUS TEACHER's NAME CREDIT CLASS UNIT-1 Philosophy

    SYLLABUS DISTRIBUTION DEPARTMENT OF PHILOSOPHY SEMESTER-V (DSE) COURSE CODE- PHIL-G-DSE-T-1A COURSE CONTENT PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION UNIT WISE DIVISION TOTAL CREDITS-66 WEEK ASSIGNED-17(66 TEACHING DAYS) UNIT SYLLABUS TEACHER’S CREDIT NAME CLASS UNIT-1 Philosophy of Religion : Nature and Concern S.P 16 UNIT-2 Arguments for and against the Existence of God (Indian S.P 18 and Western) UNIT-3 Reason and Faith : Jñāna and Bhakti R.M 16 UNIT-4 Religious Pluralism R.M 16 Recommended Readings:- • Bhagvat Gītā: Relevant Chapters • Galloway: Philosophy of Religion • John Hick: Philosophy of Religion • Brian Davies: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Religion • James Churchill & Davids V. Jones: An Introductory Reader in the Philosophy of Religion • D.A. Trueblood: Philosophy of Religion • Chemparathy: Indian Rational Theology ( This book contains an English Translation of Udayanas Nyayakusumanjali) • John Hick (Ed): Classical and Contemporary Readings in Philosophy of Religion • D.M. Edwards: The Philosophy of Religion • N. K. Brahma: Philosophy of Hindu Sadhana • Brian Davies: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Religion • A. Sharma :Indian Philosophy of Religion • P.B. Chatterjee :Comparative Religion • Eric J. Sharpe : Comparative Religion • M. Eliade (Ch I, Sec. I)Patterns in Comparative Religion • D.P. Chattopadhyay Atheism in Indian Philosophy • Sukharanjan Saha (ed.): Essays in Indian Philosophy (pp-145-169 • Bhattacharya • Gopika Mohan Bhattacharya: Studies in Nyaya-Vaisesika Theism (pp-102-137,139-159): • Satyajyoti Chakraborty : (Pratham Khanda)Sarvadarshanasamgraha (in Bengali) • Dilip Kumar Mohanta :Dharmadarshanser Katipoy Samasya(in Bengali) • Sushil Kumar Chakraborty :Dharma Darshan (in Bengali) • Bharatiya Dharmaniti: Amita Chattopadhyay (Sampadita) (in Bengali) • B.B.
  • Ernest Belfort Bax: Marxist, Idealist, Positivist

    Ernest Belfort Bax: Marxist, Idealist, Positivist

    UC Berkeley UC Berkeley Previously Published Works Title Ernest Belfort Bax: Marxist, Idealist, Positivist Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/8sj2x7c7 Journal Journal of the History of Ideas, 54 Author Bevir, Mark Publication Date 1993 Peer reviewed eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California ERNEST BELFORT BAX MARXIST, IDEALIST AND POSITIVIST BY MARK BEVIR 15 Faraday Mansions Queens Club Gardens London W14 9RH England 1 ABSTRACT Bax was the leading philosopher of the socialist revival in Britain during the 1880s. He saw Marxism as an economic and historical science that lacked a philosophical and ethical basis. Consequently, he tried to justify the Marxian dialectic by using a philosophy indebted to German idealism to show that the dialectic was a fact about reality itself, and he also tried to provide an ethical defence of Marxism in terms of a positivist ethic enshrining the goals of the French Revolution. Such an understanding of Bax's philosophy makes his political activities appear more rational than historians have previously thought. 2 ERNEST BELFORT BAX: MARXIST, IDEALIST AND POSITIVIST I Ernest Belfort Bax (1854-1926) was the leading philosopher of the British Marxist movement during its formative years. In 1881 he wrote an article which was the first to proclaim Marx to the British public and which - together with an article by H. M. Hyndman - signalled the start of the socialist revival in Britain. 1 Marx told Sorge that Bax's article was "the first publication of that kind which is pervaded by a real enthusiasm for the new ideas themselves and boldly stands up against British philistinism"; though he also complained that "the biographical notices the author gives of me are mostly wrong" and "in the exposition of my economic principles and in his translations (i.e., quotations of the Capital ) much is wrong and confused." 2 Scholars have paid little attention to Bax despite the originality and historical interest of his philosophy.
  • Panentheism and Panexperientialism for Open and Relational Theology

    Panentheism and Panexperientialism for Open and Relational Theology

    Panentheism and Panexperientialism for Open and Relational Theology Thomas Jay Oord and Wm. Andrew Schwartz Open and relational theologies have a particular affinity for panentheism and panexperientialism (panpsychism). These theologies come in various forms, however. And scholars propose various forms of panentheism and panexperi- entialism. Diversity reigns. We begin this essay by describing open and relational theology. We also describe panentheism and panexperientialism, broadly understood. We note reasons why open and relational theists would be attracted to each. And we argue that panentheism and panexperientialism complement one another, al- though a person could be attracted only to one. Much of the essay argues for one form of open and relational theology we think makes the best sense overall. This form includes belief in a personal/ relational God, makes distinctions between God and creatures, affirms God ev- erlastingly creates (thereby denying creatio ex nihilo), and offers a solution to the theoretical aspect of the problem of evil. Adopting panexperientialism and panentheism offers ways to overcome theoretical problems in contemporary thought, while arguably motivating adherents of the view to love (promote overall well-being). 1. Open and Relational Theology The label »open and relational theology« serves as an umbrella designation for a family of theologies.1 This family shares at least two core convictions. The »open« aspect refers to the idea that both creatures and God experience the ongoingness of time. Consequently, both God and creatures face an open, yet to be determined future. Because the future is not actual, it is inherently 1 These include theologies using labels such as open theism, process theism, various relational theologies, some Wesleyan theologies, some feminist theologies, some ecological theologies, some Arminian theologies, some postcolonial theologies, and more.
  • A Peircean Panentheist Scientific Mysticism1

    A Peircean Panentheist Scientific Mysticism1

    International Journal of Transpersonal Studies Volume 27 | Issue 1 Article 5 1-1-2008 A Peircean Panentheist Scientific ysM ticism Søren Brier Copenhagen Business School Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.ciis.edu/ijts-transpersonalstudies Part of the Philosophy Commons, Psychology Commons, and the Religion Commons Recommended Citation Brier, S. (2008). Brier, S. (2008). A Peircean panentheist scientific ysm ticism. International Journal of Transpersonal Studies, 27(1), 20–45.. International Journal of Transpersonal Studies, 27 (1). http://dx.doi.org/10.24972/ijts.2008.27.1.20 This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License. This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Journals and Newsletters at Digital Commons @ CIIS. It has been accepted for inclusion in International Journal of Transpersonal Studies by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons @ CIIS. For more information, please contact [email protected]. A Peircean Panentheist Scientific Mysticism1 Søren Brier2 Copenhagen Business School Copenhagen, Denmark Peirce’s philosophy can be interpreted as an integration of mysticism and science. In Peirce’s philosophy mind is feeling on the inside and on the outside, spontaneity, chance and chaos with a tendency to take habits. Peirce’s philosophy has an emptiness beyond the three worlds of reality (his Categories), which is the source from where the categories spring. He empha- sizes that God cannot be conscious in the way humans are, because there is no content in his “mind.” Since there is a transcendental3 nothingness behind and before the categories, it seems that Peirce had a mystical view on reality with a transcendental Godhead.
  • The Post-Postmodern Aesthetics of John Fowles Claiborne Johnson Cordle

    The Post-Postmodern Aesthetics of John Fowles Claiborne Johnson Cordle

    University of Richmond UR Scholarship Repository Master's Theses Student Research 5-1981 The post-postmodern aesthetics of John Fowles Claiborne Johnson Cordle Follow this and additional works at: http://scholarship.richmond.edu/masters-theses Recommended Citation Cordle, Claiborne Johnson, "The post-postmodern aesthetics of John Fowles" (1981). Master's Theses. Paper 444. This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Student Research at UR Scholarship Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Master's Theses by an authorized administrator of UR Scholarship Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. THE POST-POSTMODERN AESTHETICS OF JOHN FOWLES BY CLAIBORNE JOHNSON CORDLE A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE GRADUATE FACULTY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF RICHMOND IN CANDIDACY FOR THE DEGREE OF ~.ASTER OF ARTS ,'·i IN ENGLISH MAY 1981 LTBRARY UNIVERSITY OF RICHMONl:» VIRGINIA 23173 CONTENTS INTRODUCTION . p . 1 CHAPTER 1 MODERNISM RECONSIDERED . p • 6 CHAPTER 2 THE BREAKDOWN OF OBJECTIVITY . p • 52 CHAPTER 3 APOLLO AND DIONYSUS. p • 94 CHAPTER 4 SYNTHESIS . p . 102 CHAPTER 5 POST-POSTMODERN HUMANISM . p . 139 ENDNOTES • . p. 151 BIBLIOGRAPHY . • p. 162 INTRODUCTION To consider the relationship between post­ modernism and John Fowles is a task unfortunately complicated by an inadequately defined central term. Charles Russell states that ... postmodernism is not tied solely to a single artist or movement, but de­ fines a broad cultural phenomenon evi­ dent in the visual arts, literature; music and dance of Europe and the United States, as well as in their philosophy, criticism, linguistics, communications theory, anthropology, and the social sciences--these all generally under thp particular influence of structuralism.
  • Margaret S. Archer Editor Morphogenesis and the Crisis of Normativity Morphogenesis and the Crisis of Normativity

    Margaret S. Archer Editor Morphogenesis and the Crisis of Normativity Morphogenesis and the Crisis of Normativity

    Social Morphogenesis Margaret S. Archer Editor Morphogenesis and the Crisis of Normativity Morphogenesis and the Crisis of Normativity [email protected] Social Morphogenesis Series Editor: MARGARET S. ARCHER Centre for Social Ontology, University of Warwick, Coventry, UK Aims and scope: To focus upon ‘social morphogenesis’ as a general process of change is very different from examining its particular results over the last quarter of a century. This series ventures what the generative mechanisms are that produce such intense change and discusses how this differs from late modernity. Contributors examine if an intensification of morphogenesis (positive feedback that results in a change in social form) and a corresponding reduction in morphostasis (negative feedback that restores or reproduces the form of the social order) best captures the process involved. The series consists of 5 volumes derived from the Centre for Social Ontology’s annual workshops “From Modernity to Morphogenesis” at the University of Lausanne, headed by Margaret Archer. More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/11959 [email protected] Margaret S. Archer Editor Morphogenesis and the Crisis of Normativity 123 [email protected] Editor Margaret S. Archer Centre for Social Ontology University of Warwick Coventry, UK This volume IV follows the book “Social Morphogenesis”, edited by Margaret S. Archer, which was the first book in the series published in 2013 http://www.springer.com/social+ sciences/book/978-94-007-6127-8, the volume “Late Modernity”, edited by Margaret S. Archer, published in 2014 and the volume “Generative Mechanisms Transforming the Social Order”, edited by Margaret S.
  • A Redescriptive History of Humanism and Hermeneutics in African Philosophy

    A Redescriptive History of Humanism and Hermeneutics in African Philosophy

    Open Journal of Philosophy 2013. Vol.3, No.1A, 105-112 Published Online February 2013 in SciRes (http://www.scirp.org/journal/ojpp) http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/ojpp.2013.31A017 A Redescriptive History of Humanism and Hermeneutics in African Philosophy Oladapo Jimoh Balogun Department of Philosophy, Lagos State University, Ojo, Nigeria Email: [email protected] Received September 20th, 2012; revised October 20th, 2012; accepted November 5th, 2012 The aim of this paper is to contribute to the on-going debate about self-redescription in the history of Af- rican philosophy using the method and theory of redescription. This method and theory of redescription has become the deep concern of not only Western philosophers but of many African philosophers which is markedly present in their agitated pursuits of wisdom. This self-redescription is always resiliently pre- sented in the works of Kwasi Wiredu, Kwame Appiah, Gyekye Kwame, Olusegun Oladipo, Wole Soy- inka, Sophie Oluwole, Jim Unah, Martin Heidegger and Maduabuchi Duko;r who is the most recent emergence of the problem of theory and method in African philosophy. So, the general purpose of this paper is to enact the intellectual concern of this self-redescription in the history of African philosophy while the specific purpose is to determine the adequacy of humanism and hermeneutics as concepts cov- ering the self-image of African philosophy. This paper will further show the incoherence and incongru- ence of humanism and hermeneutics with the concrete self-image of African philosophy by redescribing them in the mould of emerging concepts such as the humanness of Orisa intellectual culture, in particular; and orunmineutics as a general philosophical theory.
  • A REVIEW by Thomas F. Mcdaniel.1 of WILLIAM F. ALBRIGHT's

    A REVIEW by Thomas F. Mcdaniel.1 of WILLIAM F. ALBRIGHT's

    A REVIEW by Thomas F. McDaniel.1 of WILLIAM F. ALBRIGHT’S HISTORY, ARCHAEOLOGY, AND CHRISTIAN HUMANISM 2 The scholarly contributions of William F. Albright need no introduction. To the contrary, they have been widely recognized and acclaimed in the United States, Europe and Israel. In the past twenty years, Albright has received twenty honorary doctorates from such universities as Harvard, Yale, Hebrew Union College, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Saint Andrews University, the University of Oslo, the University of Uppsala, etc. He is one of three humanistic scholars ever to have been elected to the American Academy of Sciences. Albright*s first scholarly paper appeared in the Orientalistiche Literaturseitung in 1913, and they have poured forth ever since. The bib- liography of Albright*s works (including books, articles, reports, and book reviews) listed at the end of the Albright Festschrift, (entitled, The Bible and the Ancient Near East, edited by G. Ernest Wright) is a list of over 825 published scholarly contributions which appeared between 1911 and 1958. The present book under review is the first in a series of books to be published by McGraw-Hill which will (1) gather together previously published articles which are now 1 This review was published in 1966 in Seisho to Shingaku, which was the journal of the College of Theology of Kanto Gakuin University, Yokohama, Japan. 2 New York: McGraw-Hill, 1964, ix/ 342 pages. 2 BOOK REVIEW thoroughly revised, annotated, and indexed, and (2) present the results of Albright’s continuing research and writing. This first volume includes fifteen selected lectures, essays and review articles—three of which have never been published before.
  • Theistic Humanism and the Hermeneutic Appraisal of the Doctrine of Salvation

    Theistic Humanism and the Hermeneutic Appraisal of the Doctrine of Salvation

    Open Journal of Philosophy 2013. Vol.3, No.1A, 264-272 Published Online February 2013 in SciRes (http://www.scirp.org/journal/ojpp) http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/ojpp.2013.31A042 Theistic Humanism and the Hermeneutic Appraisal of the Doctrine of Salvation Chiedozie Okoro Department of Philosophy, Faculty of Arts, University of Lagos Akoka, Yaba, Nigeria Email: [email protected] Received September 22nd, 2012; revised October 20th, 2012; accepted November 7th, 2012 This essay uses theistic humanism as a super structure to do a hermeneutic appraisal of the doctrine of salvation in a pluralistic world. It operates on the assumption that reality is multidimensional, just as hu- man belief systems and cultural perspectives are diverse. More importantly, is the point that most coun- tries on the African continent house a potpourri of belief systems, prominent among which are Christian- ity, Islam and Traditional African Religion (ATR). Thus, theistic humanism offers us the opportunity to do a pluralistic assessment of salvation, thereby making myriad interpretations of the notion of salvation possible. Again, the essay neither intends to examine the meaning of God nor is it interested in analyzing how God gets manifested in human existence. Rather, the basic objective is to consider the various ways in which salvation has been conceived in relation to the human condition. In the process of our delinea- tion, it shall be shown that salvation as a doctrine can be conceived from two principal angles which are: 1) the perspective of religion and 2) the non-religious or secularist perspective. Whereas the first presents other-worldly account of salvation, the second presents a this-worldly account of salvation.
  • Humanism, Theism & Sikh Faith

    Humanism, Theism & Sikh Faith

    Humanism, Theism & Sikh Faith ISSN 0972-116923 July 2000, Vol. 1/I Humanism, Theism & Sikh Faith — Dr. Wazir Singh t is customary with scholars to pose humanism as a system of belief opposed to theistic faith. For Ithem, one could either be a theist or humanist; that is, if one is convinced of the existence of a Divine Power controlling the affairs of the world, one is obliged not to treat man as of primary significance. Those of the thinkers who place man at the centre of the universe, or for whom man is the measure of all things, forfeit the claim to be believers in the god-head, according to this line of thinking. Such a rigid stand pushes the conflict between God-centered and man-oriented ideologies to the extreme, invoking the posture of exclusivism. The question arises: Why cannot a humanist believe in God? And what prevents a theist from subscribing to humanism as a philosophy, ideology or faith? In order to arrive at an answer to these questions, it seems necessary to understand the meaning and implication of humanism. It would be helpful, in the first instance, to distinguish humanism from humanitarianism. The former term simply means the highest expression of human values and devotion to the interests of human beings. This view duly acknowledges its debt to the dictum of Alexander Pope: The proper study of mankind is man. The philosophical and literary forms of humanism seek to keep man at the centre; for Man is the common denominator of all such studies. The central point is welfare of man and the promotion of human values through man’s own effort, whether sided by a belief in the need of God’s grace or not.
  • Titanism in the West 25

    Titanism in the West 25

    gier01.qxd 1/19/00 10:26 AM Page 23 C Titanism 1 in the West [Christ] became man so that we might become God. —Athanasius, De Incarnatione (54.3) To be man means to reach toward being God. —Jean-Paul Sartre Learn to live and to die, and in order to be a man, refuse to be God. —Dr. Rieux, Albert Camus, The Plague O my soul, do not aspire to immortal life, but exhaust the limits of the possible. —Pindar Introduction In American culture humanism has not been a term widely used until the 1980s, when the Religious Right began to employ it to exe- crate everything that it is against. It used to be that all of America’s ills were blamed on a “Communist conspiracy,” but now this has been replaced with a “humanist” conspiracy. Humanists are being tar- geted as the one source of every evil, from homosexuality to one- world government. This attack is truly incredible if one considers the fact that humanism is one of the greatest achievements of Western civilization. The humanism of Socrates has become the basis for eth- ical individualism; the humanism of the Greek Sophists gave law its adversarial system and inspired Renaissance humanists to extend education to the masses as well as to the aristocracy; the Christian humanism of Aquinas and Erasmus helped temper negative views of human nature found in the biblical tradition; and the humanism of 23 gier01.qxd 1/19/00 10:26 AM Page 24 24 Spiritual Titanism the Enlightenment gave us political rights, representative govern- ment, and free market economics.
  • Panentheism and Its Neighbors

    Panentheism and Its Neighbors

    International Journal for Philosophy of Religion (2019) 85:23–41 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11153-018-9687-9 ARTICLE Panentheism and its neighbors Mikael Stenmark1 Received: 10 October 2018 / Accepted: 19 October 2018 / Published online: 27 October 2018 © The Author(s) 2018 Abstract In this paper I suggest that we should identify panentheism on a scale, with deism at one extreme and pantheism at the other. The surprising outcome of the analysis is that many of the things which in the philosophical and theological debate are simply taken for granted as distinguishing panentheism from traditional theism (and vice versa) turn out to be possible extension claims rather than core doctrines of these diferent conceptions of God. Nevertheless, I maintain that it remains possible to draw a line between them. It is also emphasized that the greatest challenge many panentheists face is to give a convincing argument why we should think that God’s power can never be coercive, but must always be persuasive. The good news is that there is nothing in panentheism that requires that we must accept this particular doctrine. Keywords Panentheism · Classical theism · Deism · Pantheism · Process theism One of the models or conceptions of God that has received most attention recently, among both philosophers and theologians, is panentheism. It has been developed in several diferent ways and has been contrasted on the one hand with (traditional) theism and on the other with pantheism. But what is panentheism and how, more exactly, should we state the core diferences between it and (traditional) theism and, secondly, between it and pantheism? All this is far from clear, but we need to fnd answers if panentheism is intended to become the golden middle road between these two perceived extremes.