Matthew Levering
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- May 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780199535293
- eISBN:
- 9780191715839
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199535293.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Biblical Studies
This book serves as an introduction to natural law theory. The Introduction proposes that natural law theory makes most sense in light of an understanding of a loving Creator. The first chapter then ...
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This book serves as an introduction to natural law theory. The Introduction proposes that natural law theory makes most sense in light of an understanding of a loving Creator. The first chapter then argues the Bible sketches both such an understanding of a loving Creator and an account of natural law that offers an expansive portrait of the moral life. The second chapter surveys the development of natural law doctrine from Descartes to Nietzsche, and shows how these thinkers reverse the biblical portrait by placing human beings at the center of the moral universe. Whereas the biblical portrait of natural law is other-directed, ordered to self-giving love, the modern accounts turn inward upon the self, with reductive consequences. The final two chapters employ theological and philosophical investigation to achieve a contemporary doctrine of natural law that accords with the biblical witness to a loving Creator. These two chapters interact creatively with the thought of St. Thomas Aquinas. The book revives discussion of natural law among biblical scholars while also challenging philosophers and theologians to re-think their accounts of natural law.Less
This book serves as an introduction to natural law theory. The Introduction proposes that natural law theory makes most sense in light of an understanding of a loving Creator. The first chapter then argues the Bible sketches both such an understanding of a loving Creator and an account of natural law that offers an expansive portrait of the moral life. The second chapter surveys the development of natural law doctrine from Descartes to Nietzsche, and shows how these thinkers reverse the biblical portrait by placing human beings at the center of the moral universe. Whereas the biblical portrait of natural law is other-directed, ordered to self-giving love, the modern accounts turn inward upon the self, with reductive consequences. The final two chapters employ theological and philosophical investigation to achieve a contemporary doctrine of natural law that accords with the biblical witness to a loving Creator. These two chapters interact creatively with the thought of St. Thomas Aquinas. The book revives discussion of natural law among biblical scholars while also challenging philosophers and theologians to re-think their accounts of natural law.
Anthony Quinton
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199694556
- eISBN:
- 9780191731938
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199694556.003.0002
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy
This chapter focuses on the philosophy of Spinoza. Spinoza's most original, fundamental, and, in the eyes of his contemporaries, most shocking idea was that God and Nature, the creator and his ...
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This chapter focuses on the philosophy of Spinoza. Spinoza's most original, fundamental, and, in the eyes of his contemporaries, most shocking idea was that God and Nature, the creator and his creation, are not distinct things, but are one and the same. This pantheist doctrine had been anticipated by some ancient Greek thinkers and it is to be found in much Oriental thought. But the all-encompassing influence of Christianity had made it unacceptable to the European mind for more than a thousand years. For Spinoza the creator and his creation were not separate things but one single thing, viewed from different sides.Less
This chapter focuses on the philosophy of Spinoza. Spinoza's most original, fundamental, and, in the eyes of his contemporaries, most shocking idea was that God and Nature, the creator and his creation, are not distinct things, but are one and the same. This pantheist doctrine had been anticipated by some ancient Greek thinkers and it is to be found in much Oriental thought. But the all-encompassing influence of Christianity had made it unacceptable to the European mind for more than a thousand years. For Spinoza the creator and his creation were not separate things but one single thing, viewed from different sides.
Keith Ward
- Published in print:
- 1996
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198263937
- eISBN:
- 9780191682681
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198263937.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Theology, World Religions
This book is the second part of a major project of comparative theology begun with Religion and Revelation, which was published in 1994, which looks at major concepts of faith in all four of the main ...
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This book is the second part of a major project of comparative theology begun with Religion and Revelation, which was published in 1994, which looks at major concepts of faith in all four of the main scriptural religions of the world. This book explores the idea of a creator God in the work of 20th-century writers from Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, and Christianity. He develops a positive concept of God which stresses God's dynamic and responsive relation to the temporal structure of the universe, and the importance of that structure to the self-expression of the divine being. He goes on to present a Trinitarian doctrine of creation, drawing inspiration from a wider set of theistic traditions and recent discussions in physics in the realm of cosmology.Less
This book is the second part of a major project of comparative theology begun with Religion and Revelation, which was published in 1994, which looks at major concepts of faith in all four of the main scriptural religions of the world. This book explores the idea of a creator God in the work of 20th-century writers from Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, and Christianity. He develops a positive concept of God which stresses God's dynamic and responsive relation to the temporal structure of the universe, and the importance of that structure to the self-expression of the divine being. He goes on to present a Trinitarian doctrine of creation, drawing inspiration from a wider set of theistic traditions and recent discussions in physics in the realm of cosmology.
Gloria L. Schaab
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780195329124
- eISBN:
- 9780199785711
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195329124.003.0005
- Subject:
- Religion, Theology
Chapter 4 examines the impact of Arthur Peacocke's evolutionary cosmology, biology, epistemology, and methodology on Christian theology and demonstrates how these insights come to fruition in an ...
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Chapter 4 examines the impact of Arthur Peacocke's evolutionary cosmology, biology, epistemology, and methodology on Christian theology and demonstrates how these insights come to fruition in an understanding of a Triune God. A particular model concerning the God‐world relationship emerges from the interaction of these insights. The model is panentheism, which denotes that the Being of God includes and penetrates the whole universe—a universe pervaded by pain, suffering, and death—but is not exhausted by the universe itself. Within this panentheistic paradigm, the Triune God is conceived as the transcendent Ground of Being who is immanently creative under the groaning of the cosmos and who becomes incarnate in the cruciformity of the cosmos with its ubiquitous suffering. It concludes with an analysis of Peacocke's proposals using fourfold criteria of intelligibility: fit with data, simplicity, fecundity, and pastoral efficacy.Less
Chapter 4 examines the impact of Arthur Peacocke's evolutionary cosmology, biology, epistemology, and methodology on Christian theology and demonstrates how these insights come to fruition in an understanding of a Triune God. A particular model concerning the God‐world relationship emerges from the interaction of these insights. The model is panentheism, which denotes that the Being of God includes and penetrates the whole universe—a universe pervaded by pain, suffering, and death—but is not exhausted by the universe itself. Within this panentheistic paradigm, the Triune God is conceived as the transcendent Ground of Being who is immanently creative under the groaning of the cosmos and who becomes incarnate in the cruciformity of the cosmos with its ubiquitous suffering. It concludes with an analysis of Peacocke's proposals using fourfold criteria of intelligibility: fit with data, simplicity, fecundity, and pastoral efficacy.
Gloria L. Schaab
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780195329124
- eISBN:
- 9780199785711
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195329124.003.0006
- Subject:
- Religion, Theology
Key concepts in the evolutionary theology provide primary grounding for an affirmation of divine suffering. Chapter 5 explores six elements that factor significantly into a proposal of divine ...
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Key concepts in the evolutionary theology provide primary grounding for an affirmation of divine suffering. Chapter 5 explores six elements that factor significantly into a proposal of divine passibility: the costly process of evolution, the reality of cosmic indeterminacy, God‐world interaction through whole‐part influence, the notion of the anthropic universe, the transcendent and immanent creativity of God, and the panentheistic paradigm of the God‐world relationship. It analyzes each element specifically in terms of its impact on a theology of the creative suffering of the Triune God. It concludes by analyzing the proposal of suffering in God according to the criteria delineated in chapter 4.Less
Key concepts in the evolutionary theology provide primary grounding for an affirmation of divine suffering. Chapter 5 explores six elements that factor significantly into a proposal of divine passibility: the costly process of evolution, the reality of cosmic indeterminacy, God‐world interaction through whole‐part influence, the notion of the anthropic universe, the transcendent and immanent creativity of God, and the panentheistic paradigm of the God‐world relationship. It analyzes each element specifically in terms of its impact on a theology of the creative suffering of the Triune God. It concludes by analyzing the proposal of suffering in God according to the criteria delineated in chapter 4.
Philippe Van Parijs
- Published in print:
- 1997
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780198293576
- eISBN:
- 9780191600074
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0198293577.003.0006
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Theory
By providing a modest income even to those who do not want to work, is one not institutionalizing the exploitation of hard workers by free riders? There would definitely be ‘Lockean exploitation’, ...
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By providing a modest income even to those who do not want to work, is one not institutionalizing the exploitation of hard workers by free riders? There would definitely be ‘Lockean exploitation’, and hence violation of the ‘Creators Keepers’ principle, and there would be ‘Lutheran exploitation’ and hence lack of proportionality between effort and reward. But neither of these conceptions of exploitation makes normative sense. By contrast, ‘Roemerian exploitation’, or asset‐based inequality, does make normative sense. But it does not endorse an ethical indictment of an unconditional income. Quite the contrary.Less
By providing a modest income even to those who do not want to work, is one not institutionalizing the exploitation of hard workers by free riders? There would definitely be ‘Lockean exploitation’, and hence violation of the ‘Creators Keepers’ principle, and there would be ‘Lutheran exploitation’ and hence lack of proportionality between effort and reward. But neither of these conceptions of exploitation makes normative sense. By contrast, ‘Roemerian exploitation’, or asset‐based inequality, does make normative sense. But it does not endorse an ethical indictment of an unconditional income. Quite the contrary.
David Quint
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691161914
- eISBN:
- 9781400850488
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691161914.003.0005
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
This chapter looks at book 3 of Paradise Lost, which sets apart an invisible God and heaven from the visible universe, divine light from sunlight. Book 3 points to a contrast between the internal ...
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This chapter looks at book 3 of Paradise Lost, which sets apart an invisible God and heaven from the visible universe, divine light from sunlight. Book 3 points to a contrast between the internal illumination invoked by the blind poet and an Apollonian solar inspiration that motivates the poetry of paganism. In the episode of the Paradise of Fools, the book further criticizes—with a particular eye toward Catholic practice—the tendency of men and women to read back through analogy from God's and their own visible works to the invisible Creator, and to confuse the two. Yet, in distinguishing God's lower works from God and his heaven, Milton knows that he risks unlinking creation from Creator altogether, as do the book's alchemical philosophers, and as Satan does when he later suggests to Eve that the sun, not God, is the power source that gives life, as well as light, to the universe.Less
This chapter looks at book 3 of Paradise Lost, which sets apart an invisible God and heaven from the visible universe, divine light from sunlight. Book 3 points to a contrast between the internal illumination invoked by the blind poet and an Apollonian solar inspiration that motivates the poetry of paganism. In the episode of the Paradise of Fools, the book further criticizes—with a particular eye toward Catholic practice—the tendency of men and women to read back through analogy from God's and their own visible works to the invisible Creator, and to confuse the two. Yet, in distinguishing God's lower works from God and his heaven, Milton knows that he risks unlinking creation from Creator altogether, as do the book's alchemical philosophers, and as Satan does when he later suggests to Eve that the sun, not God, is the power source that gives life, as well as light, to the universe.
Pieter A. M. Seuren
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- May 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780199559473
- eISBN:
- 9780191721137
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199559473.003.0002
- Subject:
- Linguistics, Semantics and Pragmatics, Psycholinguistics / Neurolinguistics / Cognitive Linguistics
Since speakers refer to and quantify over virtual objects as naturally as they do over actual objects, natural ontology is basically intensional, requiring acceptance of virtual realities. Each ...
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Since speakers refer to and quantify over virtual objects as naturally as they do over actual objects, natural ontology is basically intensional, requiring acceptance of virtual realities. Each language has socially shared cognitive reality. Current Russellian‐Quinean extensional ontology is criticized in favour of a more Meinongian approach, based on the Kantian epistemological dilemma.Less
Since speakers refer to and quantify over virtual objects as naturally as they do over actual objects, natural ontology is basically intensional, requiring acceptance of virtual realities. Each language has socially shared cognitive reality. Current Russellian‐Quinean extensional ontology is criticized in favour of a more Meinongian approach, based on the Kantian epistemological dilemma.
Richard Swinburne
- Published in print:
- 1996
- Published Online:
- May 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780198235446
- eISBN:
- 9780191705618
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198235446.003.0002
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Philosophy of Religion
God is supposed to be an essentially omnipotent, omniscient, perfectly free, and eternal personal being. Omnipotence is power to do anything logically possible; omniscience is knowledge of everything ...
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God is supposed to be an essentially omnipotent, omniscient, perfectly free, and eternal personal being. Omnipotence is power to do anything logically possible; omniscience is knowledge of everything logically possible to know. Being eternal is to exist everlastingly. It follows that God is omnipresent, creator of the universe, and perfectly good.Less
God is supposed to be an essentially omnipotent, omniscient, perfectly free, and eternal personal being. Omnipotence is power to do anything logically possible; omniscience is knowledge of everything logically possible to know. Being eternal is to exist everlastingly. It follows that God is omnipresent, creator of the universe, and perfectly good.
Paul U. Unschuld
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520257658
- eISBN:
- 9780520944701
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520257658.003.0016
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Medical Anthropology
Medicine is the linking of the knowledge of the visible with the knowledge of the invisible. The visible part covers the morphological structures of the body. These are, first of all, the gross ...
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Medicine is the linking of the knowledge of the visible with the knowledge of the invisible. The visible part covers the morphological structures of the body. These are, first of all, the gross structures that are perceptible to the naked eye such as the head, nose, belly, and legs. There are the gross structures that can be seen only if the body is opened, such as the lung, stomach, and heart. Certain minute structures are also visible, such as the structures of individual cells. The invisible includes the laws that the expressions of nature on the higher level and of the body on the lower level, are based on. It also includes the links that exist in the body between separate body parts and the recognizable functions. A creator of medicine is an observer who integrates the view of the visible with his ideas about the invisible and draws conclusions from this about how to understand, prevent, or heal illness.Less
Medicine is the linking of the knowledge of the visible with the knowledge of the invisible. The visible part covers the morphological structures of the body. These are, first of all, the gross structures that are perceptible to the naked eye such as the head, nose, belly, and legs. There are the gross structures that can be seen only if the body is opened, such as the lung, stomach, and heart. Certain minute structures are also visible, such as the structures of individual cells. The invisible includes the laws that the expressions of nature on the higher level and of the body on the lower level, are based on. It also includes the links that exist in the body between separate body parts and the recognizable functions. A creator of medicine is an observer who integrates the view of the visible with his ideas about the invisible and draws conclusions from this about how to understand, prevent, or heal illness.
Geoff Mulgan
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691165745
- eISBN:
- 9781400866199
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691165745.003.0001
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, Financial Economics
This chapter aims to provide tools for thinking about capitalism as a system in motion, rather than one which, in its fundamentals, has come to a stop. Capitalism at its best rewards creators, ...
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This chapter aims to provide tools for thinking about capitalism as a system in motion, rather than one which, in its fundamentals, has come to a stop. Capitalism at its best rewards creators, makers, and providers: the people and firms that create valuable things for others, like imaginative technologies and good food, cars and healthcare which, at their best, delight and satisfy. Its moral claim is to provide an alternative to the predatory, locust-like tendencies of states and feudal rulers. It rewards the people who work hard and innovate, the human equivalents of industrious bees, and by doing so makes everyone better off, more than any other economic system in human history.Less
This chapter aims to provide tools for thinking about capitalism as a system in motion, rather than one which, in its fundamentals, has come to a stop. Capitalism at its best rewards creators, makers, and providers: the people and firms that create valuable things for others, like imaginative technologies and good food, cars and healthcare which, at their best, delight and satisfy. Its moral claim is to provide an alternative to the predatory, locust-like tendencies of states and feudal rulers. It rewards the people who work hard and innovate, the human equivalents of industrious bees, and by doing so makes everyone better off, more than any other economic system in human history.
Craig H. Russell
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- September 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780195343274
- eISBN:
- 9780199867745
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195343274.003.0004
- Subject:
- Music, History, Western, History, American
“Modern-day” California began with the founding of the San Diego Mission by Junípero Serra in 1769. The accounts of sacred services and the founding of this and other mission settlements—as described ...
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“Modern-day” California began with the founding of the San Diego Mission by Junípero Serra in 1769. The accounts of sacred services and the founding of this and other mission settlements—as described by Serra and his friend and biographer Francisco Palóu—provide the source material for this chapter's discussion of pageantry and sacred song in California. Special attention is devoted to the founding of Monterey in all its magnificent splendor and theatricality, as well as the relevant musical pieces such as the Veni Creator Spiritus, the Salve Regina, the Te Deum, the Alabado (a song of thanksgiving that was an obligatory part of the daily routine at the mission communities), and the Alba (a dawn song).Less
“Modern-day” California began with the founding of the San Diego Mission by Junípero Serra in 1769. The accounts of sacred services and the founding of this and other mission settlements—as described by Serra and his friend and biographer Francisco Palóu—provide the source material for this chapter's discussion of pageantry and sacred song in California. Special attention is devoted to the founding of Monterey in all its magnificent splendor and theatricality, as well as the relevant musical pieces such as the Veni Creator Spiritus, the Salve Regina, the Te Deum, the Alabado (a song of thanksgiving that was an obligatory part of the daily routine at the mission communities), and the Alba (a dawn song).
Geoff Mulgan
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691165745
- eISBN:
- 9781400866199
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691165745.003.0010
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, Financial Economics
This chapter turns to theory, showing how a cluster of generative ideas could give shape to a world after capitalism, and a world fit more for creators than predators. It draws less from the utopian ...
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This chapter turns to theory, showing how a cluster of generative ideas could give shape to a world after capitalism, and a world fit more for creators than predators. It draws less from the utopian traditions, or from Marxism or liberalism, than from capitalism's own ideas, which contain within them the potential for radical transcendence. These include a broader notion of growth that is about quality of life rather than quantity of consumption. The chapter also illustrates how capitalism has made it possible to imagine widely dispersed populations engaged in exchange with each other for mutual benefit. In markets these exchanges are governed by money—the decision whether or not to buy and sell. They are systems with a very limited bandwidth, concerned with quantities rather than qualities.Less
This chapter turns to theory, showing how a cluster of generative ideas could give shape to a world after capitalism, and a world fit more for creators than predators. It draws less from the utopian traditions, or from Marxism or liberalism, than from capitalism's own ideas, which contain within them the potential for radical transcendence. These include a broader notion of growth that is about quality of life rather than quantity of consumption. The chapter also illustrates how capitalism has made it possible to imagine widely dispersed populations engaged in exchange with each other for mutual benefit. In markets these exchanges are governed by money—the decision whether or not to buy and sell. They are systems with a very limited bandwidth, concerned with quantities rather than qualities.
James L. Crenshaw
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- July 2005
- ISBN:
- 9780195140026
- eISBN:
- 9780199835607
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195140028.003.0011
- Subject:
- Religion, Biblical Studies
Although the Bible frequently depicts God as eminently knowable, it also zealously protects divine secrecy. The deus revelatus is at the same time deus absconditus. Recognition that all knowledge of ...
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Although the Bible frequently depicts God as eminently knowable, it also zealously protects divine secrecy. The deus revelatus is at the same time deus absconditus. Recognition that all knowledge of God is partial derives from this intrinsic nature of deity: the more God discloses the more the divine essence hides. The author of Ecclesiastes exposes a view of an unknown creator, one who doles out favors without rhyme or reason and condemns humans to abysmal ignorance. The apocalypses of Fourth Esdras and Second Baruch reveal the agony generated by a mysterious God whose ways are beyond understanding.Less
Although the Bible frequently depicts God as eminently knowable, it also zealously protects divine secrecy. The deus revelatus is at the same time deus absconditus. Recognition that all knowledge of God is partial derives from this intrinsic nature of deity: the more God discloses the more the divine essence hides. The author of Ecclesiastes exposes a view of an unknown creator, one who doles out favors without rhyme or reason and condemns humans to abysmal ignorance. The apocalypses of Fourth Esdras and Second Baruch reveal the agony generated by a mysterious God whose ways are beyond understanding.
James L. Crenshaw
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- July 2005
- ISBN:
- 9780195140026
- eISBN:
- 9780199835607
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195140028.003.0012
- Subject:
- Religion, Biblical Studies
Given divine hiddenness, every depiction of God is a literary construct, and when reified, becomes a source of consternation to religious people. The book of Job dramatizes both the negative ...
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Given divine hiddenness, every depiction of God is a literary construct, and when reified, becomes a source of consternation to religious people. The book of Job dramatizes both the negative consequences of absolutization and the positive results of struggle for truth about God. Spiritual allegiance does not depend on external circumstances, for a truly devout person will serve God without thought of reward and punishment. Reflecting on the book of Job, Saadia Gaon grounds all worship in nature itself, noting that the creator has already bestowed life, the highest gift, on humankind and therefore owes us nothing.Less
Given divine hiddenness, every depiction of God is a literary construct, and when reified, becomes a source of consternation to religious people. The book of Job dramatizes both the negative consequences of absolutization and the positive results of struggle for truth about God. Spiritual allegiance does not depend on external circumstances, for a truly devout person will serve God without thought of reward and punishment. Reflecting on the book of Job, Saadia Gaon grounds all worship in nature itself, noting that the creator has already bestowed life, the highest gift, on humankind and therefore owes us nothing.
John Wall
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- July 2005
- ISBN:
- 9780195182569
- eISBN:
- 9780199835737
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195182561.003.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Philosophy of Religion
Michelangelo’s painting “The Creation of Adam” suggests a double image of humanity as a reflection of its Creator and in turn a creator of meaning and worlds in its own right. Human creativity has ...
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Michelangelo’s painting “The Creation of Adam” suggests a double image of humanity as a reflection of its Creator and in turn a creator of meaning and worlds in its own right. Human creativity has been acknowledged in Western philosophy and theology as a part of the sciences and the arts, but not generally as necessary to ethical thought or practice. To understand moral creativity today means to confront longstanding assumptions resulting from ancient Greek and biblical separations of ethical from poetic activities (such as imitation and idolatry), which are only intensified in modernist and Romantic reductions of human creativity to the mere expression of inner subjectivity. The alternative possibility is a postmodern religious affirmation of humankind as ultimately capable, in the image of God the Creator, of the ongoing creation of ever more radically inclusive moral worlds in response to the tragic tensions that actually make up selfhood, relations to others, and systems of society.Less
Michelangelo’s painting “The Creation of Adam” suggests a double image of humanity as a reflection of its Creator and in turn a creator of meaning and worlds in its own right. Human creativity has been acknowledged in Western philosophy and theology as a part of the sciences and the arts, but not generally as necessary to ethical thought or practice. To understand moral creativity today means to confront longstanding assumptions resulting from ancient Greek and biblical separations of ethical from poetic activities (such as imitation and idolatry), which are only intensified in modernist and Romantic reductions of human creativity to the mere expression of inner subjectivity. The alternative possibility is a postmodern religious affirmation of humankind as ultimately capable, in the image of God the Creator, of the ongoing creation of ever more radically inclusive moral worlds in response to the tragic tensions that actually make up selfhood, relations to others, and systems of society.
John Wall
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- July 2005
- ISBN:
- 9780195182569
- eISBN:
- 9780199835737
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195182561.003.0002
- Subject:
- Religion, Philosophy of Religion
There can be no meaning to the notion of human moral creativity without first the ontological possibility for a poetic moral self. In the face of a range of contemporary attacks on moral selfhood, ...
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There can be no meaning to the notion of human moral creativity without first the ontological possibility for a poetic moral self. In the face of a range of contemporary attacks on moral selfhood, Paul Ricoeur’s “poetics of the will” opens the way for a new postmodern phenomenology of the moral self rooted not in the autonomous ego of modernity, but in a radical religious affirmation or wager of the human capability for making meaning of its historical and embodied world. A careful reading of Ricoeur’s extensive oeuvre over the second half of the twentieth century shows the development of a highly original moral anthropology—combining elements from Edmund Husserl, Hans-Georg Gadamer, Gabriel Marcel, Karl Barth, Paul Tillich, and others—based on a fallible tension of finitude and freedom within the self that is nevertheless capable of giving rise to concrete historical meaning over time in the form of the self’s interpretations of symbols, traditions, and narratives. Ricoeur’s unique hermeneutical phenomenology does not, however, fully articulate the primordiality of human moral creativity itself. The decisive further step that may be taken, by more closely integrating poetics and religion, is to affirm the human self as ultimately capable, in the face of its own idolatrous fallibility, of imitating the mythical world-creative activity of the world’s own primordial Creator.Less
There can be no meaning to the notion of human moral creativity without first the ontological possibility for a poetic moral self. In the face of a range of contemporary attacks on moral selfhood, Paul Ricoeur’s “poetics of the will” opens the way for a new postmodern phenomenology of the moral self rooted not in the autonomous ego of modernity, but in a radical religious affirmation or wager of the human capability for making meaning of its historical and embodied world. A careful reading of Ricoeur’s extensive oeuvre over the second half of the twentieth century shows the development of a highly original moral anthropology—combining elements from Edmund Husserl, Hans-Georg Gadamer, Gabriel Marcel, Karl Barth, Paul Tillich, and others—based on a fallible tension of finitude and freedom within the self that is nevertheless capable of giving rise to concrete historical meaning over time in the form of the self’s interpretations of symbols, traditions, and narratives. Ricoeur’s unique hermeneutical phenomenology does not, however, fully articulate the primordiality of human moral creativity itself. The decisive further step that may be taken, by more closely integrating poetics and religion, is to affirm the human self as ultimately capable, in the face of its own idolatrous fallibility, of imitating the mythical world-creative activity of the world’s own primordial Creator.
Brian Davies
- Published in print:
- 1993
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780198267539
- eISBN:
- 9780191600500
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0198267533.003.0015
- Subject:
- Religion, Theology
Christology can be defined as the study of the person of Christ and, in particular, of the union in him of divine and human natures’. Not everyone would agree with this definition, and it cannot be ...
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Christology can be defined as the study of the person of Christ and, in particular, of the union in him of divine and human natures’. Not everyone would agree with this definition, and it cannot be said whether or not Thomas Aquinas would have agreed with it, although it might well be surmised that he would at least sympathize with it, because Christology (in the sense defined here) is his chief concern when he talks about Christ directly; it is also an area of inquiry in which he draws heavily on what he had said before he turned to the subject of Christ. Aquinas’ Christology is indebted to his teaching on God considered as Creator and Trinity. It is also bound up with what he thinks about human beings and their natural and supernatural happiness, for he conceives of Christ as the definitive means by which creatures who have come from God return to their source, and he takes him to be the point at which divinity and humanity come closest to each other. The different sections of the chapter discuss the general nature of Aquinas’ Christology, the union of divinity and humanity, and what Christ was like as Aquinas viewed him.Less
Christology can be defined as the study of the person of Christ and, in particular, of the union in him of divine and human natures’. Not everyone would agree with this definition, and it cannot be said whether or not Thomas Aquinas would have agreed with it, although it might well be surmised that he would at least sympathize with it, because Christology (in the sense defined here) is his chief concern when he talks about Christ directly; it is also an area of inquiry in which he draws heavily on what he had said before he turned to the subject of Christ. Aquinas’ Christology is indebted to his teaching on God considered as Creator and Trinity. It is also bound up with what he thinks about human beings and their natural and supernatural happiness, for he conceives of Christ as the definitive means by which creatures who have come from God return to their source, and he takes him to be the point at which divinity and humanity come closest to each other. The different sections of the chapter discuss the general nature of Aquinas’ Christology, the union of divinity and humanity, and what Christ was like as Aquinas viewed him.
Rusmir Mahmutćehajić
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- March 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780823225842
- eISBN:
- 9780823237159
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fso/9780823225842.003.0004
- Subject:
- Religion, Islam
This chapter presents Islamic teachings about humankind. As it was God who offered us the covenant based on “confidence,” His obligation is the greater. There is no ignorance or violence in God: He ...
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This chapter presents Islamic teachings about humankind. As it was God who offered us the covenant based on “confidence,” His obligation is the greater. There is no ignorance or violence in God: He is Complete. This means that His trust in the covenant that results from the offer is also Complete. The fact that this covenant with God is a relationship of choice, of confidence—rather than one of submission and servitude without free will—necessarily leaves us prone to ignorance and violence. And yet we have the potential to bring our will into compliance with the will of God by entering this covenant of mutual trust with Him, so that one and the same trust may be made reality in His image. Thus, when our will conforms to the will of God, we are the complete image of our Creator. Nothing in that image resists the Creator; everything reflects and bears witness to Him. This makes us into His mosque, the locus where the Divine will finds expression.Less
This chapter presents Islamic teachings about humankind. As it was God who offered us the covenant based on “confidence,” His obligation is the greater. There is no ignorance or violence in God: He is Complete. This means that His trust in the covenant that results from the offer is also Complete. The fact that this covenant with God is a relationship of choice, of confidence—rather than one of submission and servitude without free will—necessarily leaves us prone to ignorance and violence. And yet we have the potential to bring our will into compliance with the will of God by entering this covenant of mutual trust with Him, so that one and the same trust may be made reality in His image. Thus, when our will conforms to the will of God, we are the complete image of our Creator. Nothing in that image resists the Creator; everything reflects and bears witness to Him. This makes us into His mosque, the locus where the Divine will finds expression.
Brian Leftow
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- January 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780199263356
- eISBN:
- 9780191741777
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199263356.003.0016
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Philosophy of Religion, Metaphysics/Epistemology
This chapter provides a picture of the reality behind talk of possible worlds. It shows how divine powers can make secular possibility-claims true. The theory to this point has allowed that items ...
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This chapter provides a picture of the reality behind talk of possible worlds. It shows how divine powers can make secular possibility-claims true. The theory to this point has allowed that items might appear and continue to exist without God causing them to do so, but the chapter argues that in fact, neither is possible: God is necessarily the creator and sustainer of whatever exists, concrete or abstract.Less
This chapter provides a picture of the reality behind talk of possible worlds. It shows how divine powers can make secular possibility-claims true. The theory to this point has allowed that items might appear and continue to exist without God causing them to do so, but the chapter argues that in fact, neither is possible: God is necessarily the creator and sustainer of whatever exists, concrete or abstract.
