J. Warren Smith
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- January 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195369939
- eISBN:
- 9780199893362
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195369939.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Theology
Though understandably overshadowed by Augustine’s preeminence in the West, Ambrose is a doctor of the Catholic Church and an important patristic authority for the Middle Ages and Reformation, ...
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Though understandably overshadowed by Augustine’s preeminence in the West, Ambrose is a doctor of the Catholic Church and an important patristic authority for the Middle Ages and Reformation, especially in moral theology. Christian Grace and Pagan Virtue argues that Ambrose of Milan’s theological commitments, particularly his understanding of the Christian’s participation in God’s saving economy through baptism, are foundational for his virtue theory laid out in his catechetical and other pastoral writings. While he holds a high regard for classical and Hellenistic views of virtue, Ambrose insists that the Christian is able to attain the highest ideal of virtue taught by Plato, Aristotle, and the Stoics. This is possible because the Christian has received the transformative grace of baptism that allows the Christian to participate in the new creation inaugurated by Christ’s incarnation, death, and resurrection. This book explores Ambrose’s understanding of this grace and how it frees the Christian to live the virtuous life. The argument is laid out in two parts. In Part I, the book examines Ambrose’s understanding of human nature and the effects of sin upon that nature. Central to this Part is the question of Ambrose’s understanding of the right relationship of soul and body as presented in Ambrose’s repeated appeal to Paul’s words, “Who will deliver me from this body of death?” (Rom. 7:24). Part II lays out Ambrose’s account of baptism as the sacrament of justification and regeneration (sacramental and proleptic participation in the renewal of human nature in the resurrection). Ultimately, Ambrose’s account of the efficacy of baptism rests upon his Christology and pneumatology. The final chapters explain how Ambrose’s accounts of Christ and the Holy Spirit are foundational to his view of the grace that liberates the soul from the corruption of concupiscence.Less
Though understandably overshadowed by Augustine’s preeminence in the West, Ambrose is a doctor of the Catholic Church and an important patristic authority for the Middle Ages and Reformation, especially in moral theology. Christian Grace and Pagan Virtue argues that Ambrose of Milan’s theological commitments, particularly his understanding of the Christian’s participation in God’s saving economy through baptism, are foundational for his virtue theory laid out in his catechetical and other pastoral writings. While he holds a high regard for classical and Hellenistic views of virtue, Ambrose insists that the Christian is able to attain the highest ideal of virtue taught by Plato, Aristotle, and the Stoics. This is possible because the Christian has received the transformative grace of baptism that allows the Christian to participate in the new creation inaugurated by Christ’s incarnation, death, and resurrection. This book explores Ambrose’s understanding of this grace and how it frees the Christian to live the virtuous life. The argument is laid out in two parts. In Part I, the book examines Ambrose’s understanding of human nature and the effects of sin upon that nature. Central to this Part is the question of Ambrose’s understanding of the right relationship of soul and body as presented in Ambrose’s repeated appeal to Paul’s words, “Who will deliver me from this body of death?” (Rom. 7:24). Part II lays out Ambrose’s account of baptism as the sacrament of justification and regeneration (sacramental and proleptic participation in the renewal of human nature in the resurrection). Ultimately, Ambrose’s account of the efficacy of baptism rests upon his Christology and pneumatology. The final chapters explain how Ambrose’s accounts of Christ and the Holy Spirit are foundational to his view of the grace that liberates the soul from the corruption of concupiscence.
Carol Harrison
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- February 2006
- ISBN:
- 9780199281664
- eISBN:
- 9780191603402
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0199281661.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Early Christian Studies
Having been at the centre of a century long debate which cast doubt on the nature of Augustine’s conversion, one might assume that Augustine’s early works (386-96) have now been rescued and given ...
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Having been at the centre of a century long debate which cast doubt on the nature of Augustine’s conversion, one might assume that Augustine’s early works (386-96) have now been rescued and given their rightful place. This book suggests that these are now threatened by an equally destructive trend in Augustine scholarship, which, over the last fifty years, has become an almost unquestioned norm of interpretation. This is the idea, fatefully and poignantly depicted by Peter Brown in the chapter of his seminal biography entitled The Lost Future, that the early optimistic and philosophical Augustine was dramatically transformed into the mature, pessimistic theologian of the Fall, original sin, and grace by his reading of Paul in the mid-390s. This interpretation of the first decade of Augustine’s life has since become such an idée fixe in scholarly as well as popular accounts, leaving two very different Augustines: one, the young convert, fired to pursue Wisdom by an optimistic confidence in the rational disciplines of the liberal arts, human free will, and a glorious ideal of perfection; the other, the older and wiser bishop of Hippo, convinced of human fallen ness and of the need for grace to will or to do any good work. This book argues that in order to do justice to Augustine’s conversion, to his early theology and understanding of the Christian life, and to the early works themselves, such caricatures must be resisted. It seeks to demonstrate that there is a fundamental continuity in Augustine’s thought, which does not undergo any dramatic change when he re-reads Paul in the 390s; that there is only one Augustine, for whom human weakness and divine grace were the central axes of his Christian faith and life from the very beginning.Less
Having been at the centre of a century long debate which cast doubt on the nature of Augustine’s conversion, one might assume that Augustine’s early works (386-96) have now been rescued and given their rightful place. This book suggests that these are now threatened by an equally destructive trend in Augustine scholarship, which, over the last fifty years, has become an almost unquestioned norm of interpretation. This is the idea, fatefully and poignantly depicted by Peter Brown in the chapter of his seminal biography entitled The Lost Future, that the early optimistic and philosophical Augustine was dramatically transformed into the mature, pessimistic theologian of the Fall, original sin, and grace by his reading of Paul in the mid-390s. This interpretation of the first decade of Augustine’s life has since become such an idée fixe in scholarly as well as popular accounts, leaving two very different Augustines: one, the young convert, fired to pursue Wisdom by an optimistic confidence in the rational disciplines of the liberal arts, human free will, and a glorious ideal of perfection; the other, the older and wiser bishop of Hippo, convinced of human fallen ness and of the need for grace to will or to do any good work. This book argues that in order to do justice to Augustine’s conversion, to his early theology and understanding of the Christian life, and to the early works themselves, such caricatures must be resisted. It seeks to demonstrate that there is a fundamental continuity in Augustine’s thought, which does not undergo any dramatic change when he re-reads Paul in the 390s; that there is only one Augustine, for whom human weakness and divine grace were the central axes of his Christian faith and life from the very beginning.
Ben Brice
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- January 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780199290253
- eISBN:
- 9780191710483
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199290253.003.0006
- Subject:
- Literature, 19th-century Literature and Romanticism
The book concludes with a discussion of Coleridge's, Sonnet: To Nature. In this poem, Coleridge artfully blends the two possibilities that either he is writing on to nature — and perhaps defacing it ...
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The book concludes with a discussion of Coleridge's, Sonnet: To Nature. In this poem, Coleridge artfully blends the two possibilities that either he is writing on to nature — and perhaps defacing it in his attempts to provide an adequate verbal equivalent — or that he is faithfully copying the prior, incarnate language of God that he has discovered in the very fabric of nature (an ontic logos). It is argued that this blending of the separable notions of ‘writing on’ and ‘reading from’ the language of nature is consonant with the logos doctrine, which finds in human words a fallen, finite echo of the divine word of God in creation. However, Coleridge is also alert to the possibility that his claimed discovery of the language of God in nature may be only a projected ‘phantasy’ of his own earnest wish to find it there.Less
The book concludes with a discussion of Coleridge's, Sonnet: To Nature. In this poem, Coleridge artfully blends the two possibilities that either he is writing on to nature — and perhaps defacing it in his attempts to provide an adequate verbal equivalent — or that he is faithfully copying the prior, incarnate language of God that he has discovered in the very fabric of nature (an ontic logos). It is argued that this blending of the separable notions of ‘writing on’ and ‘reading from’ the language of nature is consonant with the logos doctrine, which finds in human words a fallen, finite echo of the divine word of God in creation. However, Coleridge is also alert to the possibility that his claimed discovery of the language of God in nature may be only a projected ‘phantasy’ of his own earnest wish to find it there.
Simon J. Nuttall
- Published in print:
- 2000
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198293361
- eISBN:
- 9780191684982
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198293361.001.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, European Union
This book traces the development of the European Union's foreign policy making from the old governmental co-operation (EPC) to the common foreign and security policy introduced by the Maastricht ...
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This book traces the development of the European Union's foreign policy making from the old governmental co-operation (EPC) to the common foreign and security policy introduced by the Maastricht Treaty. It explains the process from a comprehensive historical as well as political viewpoint. The impact of the fall of communism as well as the Gulf War and the early stages of the conflict in Yugoslavia are analysed. The personal roles played by François Mitterrand, Helmut Kohl, and George H. W. Bush are described. The theme of the book is the way in which ideological quarrels between intergovernmentalists and integrationists have distorted EU foreign policy making, leading to general dissatisfaction with the common foreign and security policy (CFSP). Yet, contrary to received opinion, the policy-making process is under the influence of bureaucratic procedures slowly shifting towards the Community model.Less
This book traces the development of the European Union's foreign policy making from the old governmental co-operation (EPC) to the common foreign and security policy introduced by the Maastricht Treaty. It explains the process from a comprehensive historical as well as political viewpoint. The impact of the fall of communism as well as the Gulf War and the early stages of the conflict in Yugoslavia are analysed. The personal roles played by François Mitterrand, Helmut Kohl, and George H. W. Bush are described. The theme of the book is the way in which ideological quarrels between intergovernmentalists and integrationists have distorted EU foreign policy making, leading to general dissatisfaction with the common foreign and security policy (CFSP). Yet, contrary to received opinion, the policy-making process is under the influence of bureaucratic procedures slowly shifting towards the Community model.
Jason A. Mahn
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199790661
- eISBN:
- 9780199897391
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199790661.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Philosophy of Religion
This book deconstructs and reconstructs the fortunate Fall (felix culpa) theme of Western thought, using Kierkegaard as a guide. Dating back to the fifth century Easter Eve Mass, the claim that ...
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This book deconstructs and reconstructs the fortunate Fall (felix culpa) theme of Western thought, using Kierkegaard as a guide. Dating back to the fifth century Easter Eve Mass, the claim that Adam's Fall might be considered “fortunate” in light of a resultant good has become Christianity's most controversial and unwieldy idea. Whereas the phrase originally praised sin as a backhanded witness to the ineffability of redemption, modern speculative theodicy came to understand all evil as comprehensible, historically productive, and therefore fortunate, while the Romantic poets celebrated transgression for bolstering individual creativity and spiritedness. This book traces Kierkegaard's blunt critique of Idealism's justification of evil, as well as his playful deconstruction of Romantic celebrations of sin. The book argues, however, that Kierkegaard also resists the moralization of evil, preferring to consider temptation and sin as determinative dimensions of religious existence. At least in relation to the assumed “innocence” of Christendom's cultured Christians, the self-conscious sinner might be the better religious witness. Although the book shows how Kierkegaard finally replaces actual sin with human fragility, temptation, and the possibility of spiritual offense as that which “happily” shapes religious faith, it also argues that his understanding of “fortunate fallibility” is at least as rhetorically compelling and theologically operative as talk of a “fortunate Fall.” Together, Kierkegaard's playful maneuvers and this book's thematizations carve rhetorical space for Christian theologians to speak of sin in ways that are more particular and peculiar than the typical discourses of Church and culture.Less
This book deconstructs and reconstructs the fortunate Fall (felix culpa) theme of Western thought, using Kierkegaard as a guide. Dating back to the fifth century Easter Eve Mass, the claim that Adam's Fall might be considered “fortunate” in light of a resultant good has become Christianity's most controversial and unwieldy idea. Whereas the phrase originally praised sin as a backhanded witness to the ineffability of redemption, modern speculative theodicy came to understand all evil as comprehensible, historically productive, and therefore fortunate, while the Romantic poets celebrated transgression for bolstering individual creativity and spiritedness. This book traces Kierkegaard's blunt critique of Idealism's justification of evil, as well as his playful deconstruction of Romantic celebrations of sin. The book argues, however, that Kierkegaard also resists the moralization of evil, preferring to consider temptation and sin as determinative dimensions of religious existence. At least in relation to the assumed “innocence” of Christendom's cultured Christians, the self-conscious sinner might be the better religious witness. Although the book shows how Kierkegaard finally replaces actual sin with human fragility, temptation, and the possibility of spiritual offense as that which “happily” shapes religious faith, it also argues that his understanding of “fortunate fallibility” is at least as rhetorically compelling and theologically operative as talk of a “fortunate Fall.” Together, Kierkegaard's playful maneuvers and this book's thematizations carve rhetorical space for Christian theologians to speak of sin in ways that are more particular and peculiar than the typical discourses of Church and culture.
Andrés López
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- May 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199574759
- eISBN:
- 9780191722660
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199574759.003.0008
- Subject:
- Business and Management, Innovation
This chapter first points out that, for Argentina, the twentieth century was the period of falling behind. Although catch‐up occurred during 1860–1929, the economy at the time was mainly based on ...
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This chapter first points out that, for Argentina, the twentieth century was the period of falling behind. Although catch‐up occurred during 1860–1929, the economy at the time was mainly based on agriculture. By contrast, industrialization and technological capability building took place while the overall economy was falling behind following the government's import substitution policy and macro instability. The chapter examines technology transfer, learning, and innovation in the country's catch‐up and falling‐behind processes, and the role of intellectual property regime. It is argued that the IPR regime had little impact except for on agriculture and pharmaceuticals. These two industries are analyzed in detail to suggest that the domestic pharmaceutical firms failed to accumulate technological capabilities even in the absence of product patents and that genetically modified soybeans diffused widely because the American inventor, Monsanto, failed to secure a patent for it in Argentina.Less
This chapter first points out that, for Argentina, the twentieth century was the period of falling behind. Although catch‐up occurred during 1860–1929, the economy at the time was mainly based on agriculture. By contrast, industrialization and technological capability building took place while the overall economy was falling behind following the government's import substitution policy and macro instability. The chapter examines technology transfer, learning, and innovation in the country's catch‐up and falling‐behind processes, and the role of intellectual property regime. It is argued that the IPR regime had little impact except for on agriculture and pharmaceuticals. These two industries are analyzed in detail to suggest that the domestic pharmaceutical firms failed to accumulate technological capabilities even in the absence of product patents and that genetically modified soybeans diffused widely because the American inventor, Monsanto, failed to secure a patent for it in Argentina.
Roger Undy
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- September 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780199544943
- eISBN:
- 9780191719936
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199544943.003.0002
- Subject:
- Business and Management, HRM / IR
Union strategies, both formal and ‘realized’, are defined before setting them in the British context by reference to economic, political, and social factors. The effect of the environment on unions' ...
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Union strategies, both formal and ‘realized’, are defined before setting them in the British context by reference to economic, political, and social factors. The effect of the environment on unions' aggregate membership and on thirty-two unions extant between 1979 and 2004 (while making allowances for numbers added by mergers) is discussed. Unions' non‐merger strategies, including their organizing strategy and servicing strategy, are assessed. Particular attention is paid to those unions driving the British merger movement. It is concluded that British unions are both eclectic and pragmatic in their choice of strategies.Less
Union strategies, both formal and ‘realized’, are defined before setting them in the British context by reference to economic, political, and social factors. The effect of the environment on unions' aggregate membership and on thirty-two unions extant between 1979 and 2004 (while making allowances for numbers added by mergers) is discussed. Unions' non‐merger strategies, including their organizing strategy and servicing strategy, are assessed. Particular attention is paid to those unions driving the British merger movement. It is concluded that British unions are both eclectic and pragmatic in their choice of strategies.
Carol Harrison
- Published in print:
- 2000
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198752202
- eISBN:
- 9780191695070
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198752202.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Early Christian Studies, Religion and Society
St. Augustine, the North African bishop of Hippo (AD 354–430), has been much studied. But there has been no systematic attempt to consider the context which shaped his life and thought. Augustine's ...
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St. Augustine, the North African bishop of Hippo (AD 354–430), has been much studied. But there has been no systematic attempt to consider the context which shaped his life and thought. Augustine's long and controversial career and his vast literary output provide unrivalled evidence for understanding the diverse ways in which Christianity confronted, assimilated, and finally transformed the traditional society of late antiquity. This book sets Augustine in his cultural and social context showing how, as a Christian, he came to terms with the philosophical and rhetorical ideals of classical culture, and, as a bishop, with the ecclesiastical, ascetic, and political structures of late antique society. According to Augustine, the Fall of man and Original sin fracture and vitiate mankind's ability to know or to will the good. This is revealed as the keystone of his theology, effecting a decisive break with classical ideals of perfection and shaping the distinctive theology of Western Christendom.Less
St. Augustine, the North African bishop of Hippo (AD 354–430), has been much studied. But there has been no systematic attempt to consider the context which shaped his life and thought. Augustine's long and controversial career and his vast literary output provide unrivalled evidence for understanding the diverse ways in which Christianity confronted, assimilated, and finally transformed the traditional society of late antiquity. This book sets Augustine in his cultural and social context showing how, as a Christian, he came to terms with the philosophical and rhetorical ideals of classical culture, and, as a bishop, with the ecclesiastical, ascetic, and political structures of late antique society. According to Augustine, the Fall of man and Original sin fracture and vitiate mankind's ability to know or to will the good. This is revealed as the keystone of his theology, effecting a decisive break with classical ideals of perfection and shaping the distinctive theology of Western Christendom.
Carol Harrison
- Published in print:
- 1992
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198263425
- eISBN:
- 9780191682544
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198263425.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Theology, History of Christianity
This book places Saint Augustine's theology in a new context by considering what he has to say about beauty. It demonstrates how a theological understanding of beauty revealed in the created, ...
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This book places Saint Augustine's theology in a new context by considering what he has to say about beauty. It demonstrates how a theological understanding of beauty revealed in the created, temporal realm enabled Augustine to form a positive appreciation of this realm and the saving power of beauty within it. It therefore reintroduces aesthetics alongside philosophy and ethics in Augustine's treatment of God. The book shifts emphasis away from Augustine's early and most theoretical treatises to his mature reflections as a bishop and pastor on how God communicates with fallen man. Using his theory of language as a paradigm, it shows how divine beauty, revealed in creation and history, serves to inspire fallen man's faith, hope, and most especially his love – thereby reforming him and restoring the form or beauty he had lost.Less
This book places Saint Augustine's theology in a new context by considering what he has to say about beauty. It demonstrates how a theological understanding of beauty revealed in the created, temporal realm enabled Augustine to form a positive appreciation of this realm and the saving power of beauty within it. It therefore reintroduces aesthetics alongside philosophy and ethics in Augustine's treatment of God. The book shifts emphasis away from Augustine's early and most theoretical treatises to his mature reflections as a bishop and pastor on how God communicates with fallen man. Using his theory of language as a paradigm, it shows how divine beauty, revealed in creation and history, serves to inspire fallen man's faith, hope, and most especially his love – thereby reforming him and restoring the form or beauty he had lost.
Melchisedec TÖrÖnen
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- May 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199296118
- eISBN:
- 9780191712258
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199296118.003.0014
- Subject:
- Religion, Early Christian Studies
Examines the situation of humanity in its fallen state. Confusion and fragmentation, passions and individualism prevail. Vices, self-love, and gnome divide the one humanity.
Examines the situation of humanity in its fallen state. Confusion and fragmentation, passions and individualism prevail. Vices, self-love, and gnome divide the one humanity.
Robert C. Solomon
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- September 2006
- ISBN:
- 9780195181579
- eISBN:
- 9780199786602
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195181573.003.0008
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy
Camus’s last novel, The Fall, returns to the Absurd and individual experience and the conflict between experience and reflection. Clamence is a brilliant but burnt out Parisian lawyer languishing ...
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Camus’s last novel, The Fall, returns to the Absurd and individual experience and the conflict between experience and reflection. Clamence is a brilliant but burnt out Parisian lawyer languishing away in gloomy Amsterdam. Having escaped from what he describes as his perverse role in the French judicial system, he is living the rest of his days as what he calls a “judge-penitent”, wallowing in his own guilt and doing whatever it takes to escape judgment. But this chapter analyzes the story by focusing on Clamence’s overweening pride.Less
Camus’s last novel, The Fall, returns to the Absurd and individual experience and the conflict between experience and reflection. Clamence is a brilliant but burnt out Parisian lawyer languishing away in gloomy Amsterdam. Having escaped from what he describes as his perverse role in the French judicial system, he is living the rest of his days as what he calls a “judge-penitent”, wallowing in his own guilt and doing whatever it takes to escape judgment. But this chapter analyzes the story by focusing on Clamence’s overweening pride.
Francesca Aran Murphy
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199219285
- eISBN:
- 9780191711664
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199219285.003.0004
- Subject:
- Religion, Theology
Thomas Aquinas first gave an empirical or inferential argument for the existence of a transcendent God and then dealt with the problem of evil empirically. But if one considers God's existence on a ...
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Thomas Aquinas first gave an empirical or inferential argument for the existence of a transcendent God and then dealt with the problem of evil empirically. But if one considers God's existence on a logical or deductive level, the problem of evil will come in pursuit on a logical level, or as the logical concomitant of ‘good’. Because it cannot draw on knowledge of the transcendent reality of God's goodness, modern thought tends to picture good and evil as set in melodramatic confrontation. The ‘Unknowable God’ is easily conflated with his opposite number, Satan. Jenson's narrative theology falls into the trap of melodrama by making evil a necessary feature of reality, existing because of Christ, and grammatical Thomism does so by evading the problem of evil via its agnosticism about our knowledge of God and his goodness. Given that God is not as unknown in Thomas' own theology as in grammatical Thomism, the best way forward is to use our knowledge of God's goodness first to appreciate the value of created reality as such, and second to restate Augustine's merely factual or empirical explanation of evil via the Fall. One may then say that what Job experiences is the love of God.Less
Thomas Aquinas first gave an empirical or inferential argument for the existence of a transcendent God and then dealt with the problem of evil empirically. But if one considers God's existence on a logical or deductive level, the problem of evil will come in pursuit on a logical level, or as the logical concomitant of ‘good’. Because it cannot draw on knowledge of the transcendent reality of God's goodness, modern thought tends to picture good and evil as set in melodramatic confrontation. The ‘Unknowable God’ is easily conflated with his opposite number, Satan. Jenson's narrative theology falls into the trap of melodrama by making evil a necessary feature of reality, existing because of Christ, and grammatical Thomism does so by evading the problem of evil via its agnosticism about our knowledge of God and his goodness. Given that God is not as unknown in Thomas' own theology as in grammatical Thomism, the best way forward is to use our knowledge of God's goodness first to appreciate the value of created reality as such, and second to restate Augustine's merely factual or empirical explanation of evil via the Fall. One may then say that what Job experiences is the love of God.
CAROL HARRISON
- Published in print:
- 1992
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198263425
- eISBN:
- 9780191682544
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198263425.003.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Theology, History of Christianity
This chapter introduces the fall of man, using the metaphor from George Herbert's The Elixir of when one is looking into a mirror. Augustine makes this distinction: St Paul's looking into a mirror is ...
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This chapter introduces the fall of man, using the metaphor from George Herbert's The Elixir of when one is looking into a mirror. Augustine makes this distinction: St Paul's looking into a mirror is an act of discernment, an attempt to make out the shapes and forms in the mirror and grasp what they signify. This looking through cloudiness and obscurity to make out shapes and forms is, for Augustine, a powerful metaphor of human life following the Fall. The vision of Divine Beauty, which man has lost, can also be grasped in the mirror of created reality, albeit obscured by a veil of temporality and corporeity. This is most especially the case with the revelation of divine beauty within that realm, which serves to reform deformed or ugly man by inspiring his faith, hope, and love, not simply to look at it, but in and through it.Less
This chapter introduces the fall of man, using the metaphor from George Herbert's The Elixir of when one is looking into a mirror. Augustine makes this distinction: St Paul's looking into a mirror is an act of discernment, an attempt to make out the shapes and forms in the mirror and grasp what they signify. This looking through cloudiness and obscurity to make out shapes and forms is, for Augustine, a powerful metaphor of human life following the Fall. The vision of Divine Beauty, which man has lost, can also be grasped in the mirror of created reality, albeit obscured by a veil of temporality and corporeity. This is most especially the case with the revelation of divine beauty within that realm, which serves to reform deformed or ugly man by inspiring his faith, hope, and love, not simply to look at it, but in and through it.
Paul Hammond
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780197264706
- eISBN:
- 9780191734557
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197264706.003.0004
- Subject:
- Literature, Milton Studies
Setting aside his concern with political and theological principles, Milton's most distinctive contribution in culture is his poetry, where he thinks through the consequences of the principles in ...
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Setting aside his concern with political and theological principles, Milton's most distinctive contribution in culture is his poetry, where he thinks through the consequences of the principles in poetic language, which is more humanly complex than the combative polemics of his prose. This chapter examines Milton's thinking about the Fall of Man. His conception of the Fall is predominantly a meditation on egoism and disobedience, on selfishness and self-sacrificial love, on blindness and recognition. The chapter aims to elucidate some of the poetic means by which Milton draws his reader into the narrative of the Fall. Milton's poetry of the Fall is inter alia the fall of couples to individuals who enclose themselves in self-seeking forms of selfhood; and the fall of reason into modes of self-deception, exemplified by the recourse to the rhetorical questions that close off true reasoning and substitute human wishful thinking for the obedience to divine commands.Less
Setting aside his concern with political and theological principles, Milton's most distinctive contribution in culture is his poetry, where he thinks through the consequences of the principles in poetic language, which is more humanly complex than the combative polemics of his prose. This chapter examines Milton's thinking about the Fall of Man. His conception of the Fall is predominantly a meditation on egoism and disobedience, on selfishness and self-sacrificial love, on blindness and recognition. The chapter aims to elucidate some of the poetic means by which Milton draws his reader into the narrative of the Fall. Milton's poetry of the Fall is inter alia the fall of couples to individuals who enclose themselves in self-seeking forms of selfhood; and the fall of reason into modes of self-deception, exemplified by the recourse to the rhetorical questions that close off true reasoning and substitute human wishful thinking for the obedience to divine commands.
Paul Borgman
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- May 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780195331608
- eISBN:
- 9780199868001
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195331608.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Biblical Studies
The original audience heard a story shaped to their listening capacities, which for a print‐oriented audience presents special difficulties. In highlighting the reliance of David's story on ancient ...
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The original audience heard a story shaped to their listening capacities, which for a print‐oriented audience presents special difficulties. In highlighting the reliance of David's story on ancient techniques of repetition, this book brings into focus a narrative most often approached as a collection of parts rather than as a compelling whole. David's story (Samuel and early Kings) took final shape from within an oral culture whose techniques of repetition demanded from the audience not only a grasp of the story's forward progress, but also a circling backward—a tracing of those “hearing clues” constituting broad formal patterns. From eleven major patterns emerge narrative shape and meaning, and an answer to the mystery of who David is. Some examples: (1) the mystery of David's character is finally less so in a triad of sparings: twice, David spares the life of enemy Saul, accounts that “sandwich” a third sparing—of an enemy David has set out to kill; (2) Saul is anointed and/or proclaimed king three times, and (3) commits wrongdoing in parallel fashion; (4) David is introduced to the story's audience four times, paving the narrative way for aspects of his character lying ahead; (5) David's three‐time failure as a father mirrors Eli's earlier failure, and spells out the king's great fall, setting up the story's glorious resolve, the triumph of a father finally saying no to a spoiled son and yes to interests of the kingdom. Biblical scholar Walter Brueggemann, who has written extensively on the David story, responds with skepticism to Robert Alter's suggestion that David's story evidences architectural cohesion: “Alter may be correct on this point,” Brueggemann cautions, “but he has only asserted the matter and has not given it any careful analysis.” This study demonstrates the aptness of Alter's assessment regarding the story's unity, answering Bruggemann's challenge with a singular analysis adequate to the demands of this sophisticated ancient masterpiece.Less
The original audience heard a story shaped to their listening capacities, which for a print‐oriented audience presents special difficulties. In highlighting the reliance of David's story on ancient techniques of repetition, this book brings into focus a narrative most often approached as a collection of parts rather than as a compelling whole. David's story (Samuel and early Kings) took final shape from within an oral culture whose techniques of repetition demanded from the audience not only a grasp of the story's forward progress, but also a circling backward—a tracing of those “hearing clues” constituting broad formal patterns. From eleven major patterns emerge narrative shape and meaning, and an answer to the mystery of who David is. Some examples: (1) the mystery of David's character is finally less so in a triad of sparings: twice, David spares the life of enemy Saul, accounts that “sandwich” a third sparing—of an enemy David has set out to kill; (2) Saul is anointed and/or proclaimed king three times, and (3) commits wrongdoing in parallel fashion; (4) David is introduced to the story's audience four times, paving the narrative way for aspects of his character lying ahead; (5) David's three‐time failure as a father mirrors Eli's earlier failure, and spells out the king's great fall, setting up the story's glorious resolve, the triumph of a father finally saying no to a spoiled son and yes to interests of the kingdom. Biblical scholar Walter Brueggemann, who has written extensively on the David story, responds with skepticism to Robert Alter's suggestion that David's story evidences architectural cohesion: “Alter may be correct on this point,” Brueggemann cautions, “but he has only asserted the matter and has not given it any careful analysis.” This study demonstrates the aptness of Alter's assessment regarding the story's unity, answering Bruggemann's challenge with a singular analysis adequate to the demands of this sophisticated ancient masterpiece.
Jana Marguerite Bennett
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- May 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780195315431
- eISBN:
- 9780199872022
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195315431.003.0005
- Subject:
- Religion, Theology
This chapter explores Augustine's views of marriage in light of his understanding of salvation history. Augustine suggests that humanity is created to be in friendship with God and with each other. ...
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This chapter explores Augustine's views of marriage in light of his understanding of salvation history. Augustine suggests that humanity is created to be in friendship with God and with each other. The great tragedy of the fall is that both relationships were nearly destroyed. Many accounts of marriage focus almost solely on creation and fall, but Augustine also mentions marriage in relation to redemption. Through God's grace, the possibility for restored relationships occurs, before and after the incarnation and resurrection of Christ. Within the context of the entirety of salvation history, this chapter also takes up some of the concerns about gender and gendered roles that were raised in chapter 1.Less
This chapter explores Augustine's views of marriage in light of his understanding of salvation history. Augustine suggests that humanity is created to be in friendship with God and with each other. The great tragedy of the fall is that both relationships were nearly destroyed. Many accounts of marriage focus almost solely on creation and fall, but Augustine also mentions marriage in relation to redemption. Through God's grace, the possibility for restored relationships occurs, before and after the incarnation and resurrection of Christ. Within the context of the entirety of salvation history, this chapter also takes up some of the concerns about gender and gendered roles that were raised in chapter 1.
William P. Brown
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- May 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199730797
- eISBN:
- 9780199777075
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199730797.003.0004
- Subject:
- Religion, Biblical Studies, Theology
The topic is the Garden of Eden in Genesis 2:4b-3:24, the Yahwist account of creation. In contrast to the God of Genesis 1, the God of the Garden is a down-to-earth deity who improvises and sometimes ...
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The topic is the Garden of Eden in Genesis 2:4b-3:24, the Yahwist account of creation. In contrast to the God of Genesis 1, the God of the Garden is a down-to-earth deity who improvises and sometimes fails in the act of creating. This “low” view of God is matched by humankind’s portrayal as a “groundling,” a product of God’s work with dirt, in contrast to the “image of God” portrayal in Genesis 1. Written in view of ancient Israel’s mixed experience with monarchy, the Garden narrative focuses on the human family and its rise to power. As such, it invites dialogue with the anthropological account of human evolution, the human tree of life. Both accounts affirm the common ground of biological life and the challenging transitions that have shaped humanity’s development and ascendancy in creation. Evolutionary science reinterprets the account of the “Fall” of humanity in powerfully ecological ways.Less
The topic is the Garden of Eden in Genesis 2:4b-3:24, the Yahwist account of creation. In contrast to the God of Genesis 1, the God of the Garden is a down-to-earth deity who improvises and sometimes fails in the act of creating. This “low” view of God is matched by humankind’s portrayal as a “groundling,” a product of God’s work with dirt, in contrast to the “image of God” portrayal in Genesis 1. Written in view of ancient Israel’s mixed experience with monarchy, the Garden narrative focuses on the human family and its rise to power. As such, it invites dialogue with the anthropological account of human evolution, the human tree of life. Both accounts affirm the common ground of biological life and the challenging transitions that have shaped humanity’s development and ascendancy in creation. Evolutionary science reinterprets the account of the “Fall” of humanity in powerfully ecological ways.
Douglas L. Kriner and Francis X. Shen
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- May 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195390964
- eISBN:
- 9780199776788
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195390964.003.0005
- Subject:
- Political Science, International Relations and Politics
The death of a soldier can affect an entire community. Friends and neighbors, politicians and community leaders, and even just readers of the local newspaper join in the grieving, mourning, and ...
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The death of a soldier can affect an entire community. Friends and neighbors, politicians and community leaders, and even just readers of the local newspaper join in the grieving, mourning, and healing. This chapter seeks to understand the mechanisms through which local casualties can have these community-wide effects. Specifically, it focuses on three possibilities. The casualty rate suffered by each American's local community can affect (1) one's sense of personal contact with fallen soldiers; (2) the type of elite cues one receives; and (3) the scope and tenor of war coverage one sees in the local media. It is argued that through each of these mechanisms, the casualty gap can create politically salient cleavages in Americans' wartime opinions and behaviors, and these in turn can fundamentally influence the course of politics and policy.Less
The death of a soldier can affect an entire community. Friends and neighbors, politicians and community leaders, and even just readers of the local newspaper join in the grieving, mourning, and healing. This chapter seeks to understand the mechanisms through which local casualties can have these community-wide effects. Specifically, it focuses on three possibilities. The casualty rate suffered by each American's local community can affect (1) one's sense of personal contact with fallen soldiers; (2) the type of elite cues one receives; and (3) the scope and tenor of war coverage one sees in the local media. It is argued that through each of these mechanisms, the casualty gap can create politically salient cleavages in Americans' wartime opinions and behaviors, and these in turn can fundamentally influence the course of politics and policy.
Gregory A. Beeley
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- September 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780195313970
- eISBN:
- 9780199871827
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195313970.003.0003
- Subject:
- Religion, Church History
This chapter gives a new, comprehensive interpretation of Gregory's Christology, focusing on his account of creation, the fall, and final redemption; his seminal doctrine of divinization (theosis); ...
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This chapter gives a new, comprehensive interpretation of Gregory's Christology, focusing on his account of creation, the fall, and final redemption; his seminal doctrine of divinization (theosis); the relationship between soteriology and Christology; the singular identity of Christ as “one and the same” God and Son; the unity of Christ, against longstanding dualistic interpretations of Gregory's Christology; the principles of Christological exegesis; Gregory's vivid sense of the divine suffering in Christ and the centrality of Christ's crucifixion and resurrection; the predominance and unifying effect of Christ's divinity on his humanity; and Gregory's Christological spirituality, whereby the doctrine of Christ is itself the means of the Christian's ascent to God. Attention is also given to Gregory's opposition to the Antiochene Christology of Diodore, in addition to as that of Eunomius and Apollinarius.Less
This chapter gives a new, comprehensive interpretation of Gregory's Christology, focusing on his account of creation, the fall, and final redemption; his seminal doctrine of divinization (theosis); the relationship between soteriology and Christology; the singular identity of Christ as “one and the same” God and Son; the unity of Christ, against longstanding dualistic interpretations of Gregory's Christology; the principles of Christological exegesis; Gregory's vivid sense of the divine suffering in Christ and the centrality of Christ's crucifixion and resurrection; the predominance and unifying effect of Christ's divinity on his humanity; and Gregory's Christological spirituality, whereby the doctrine of Christ is itself the means of the Christian's ascent to God. Attention is also given to Gregory's opposition to the Antiochene Christology of Diodore, in addition to as that of Eunomius and Apollinarius.
Heidi R. M. Pauwels
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- January 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780195369908
- eISBN:
- 9780199871322
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195369908.003.0003
- Subject:
- Religion, Hinduism
Chapter 1 compares Sita's falling in love with Rama in the Flower Garden (Phulvari) with Radha and the Gopis’ falling in love with Krishna when he steals their clothes while they are bathing ...
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Chapter 1 compares Sita's falling in love with Rama in the Flower Garden (Phulvari) with Radha and the Gopis’ falling in love with Krishna when he steals their clothes while they are bathing (Vastraharana). The comparative analysis of classical, medieval devotional, and contemporary television and film versions shows two marked trends. A first one regards the goddess and her status. Both medieval and contemporary portrayals show Sita and Radha as worshiping the Great Goddess and as subservient to the men with whom they fall in love. This very subservience is the basis for their exaltation as goddesses in their own right. The second trend regards the message sent to women about pre‐marital romance, which is not more liberal over time. There is instead a marked concern with embedding love within the bounds of conventional morality. In the process, Sita and Radha come to resemble each other more and more. Movies discussed are Hum aapke hain koun..!, Sholay, and Sangam. Less
Chapter 1 compares Sita's falling in love with Rama in the Flower Garden (Phulvari) with Radha and the Gopis’ falling in love with Krishna when he steals their clothes while they are bathing (Vastraharana). The comparative analysis of classical, medieval devotional, and contemporary television and film versions shows two marked trends. A first one regards the goddess and her status. Both medieval and contemporary portrayals show Sita and Radha as worshiping the Great Goddess and as subservient to the men with whom they fall in love. This very subservience is the basis for their exaltation as goddesses in their own right. The second trend regards the message sent to women about pre‐marital romance, which is not more liberal over time. There is instead a marked concern with embedding love within the bounds of conventional morality. In the process, Sita and Radha come to resemble each other more and more. Movies discussed are Hum aapke hain koun..!, Sholay, and Sangam.
