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Classical Theism, Interpersonal Relations, and the Receptivity of God
By James Kintz, Dominican School of Philosophy & Theology
A central tenet of classical theism is that God is Pure Act, and thus many classical theists reject the notion that there is any receptivity in God. This is to say, while God can act on creatures, he cannot be acted on by those creatures. While such a view is commonplace for classical theists, in this project, I challenge the claim that there is no receptivity in God by drawing on a Thomistic philosophical anthropology. Highlighting the intrinsically reciprocal second-person relation, I note that persons must be both active and receptive in this bidirectional relation. Insofar as God is a person who enters into second-person relationships with his creatures, it follows that there must be receptivity in God. Nevertheless, I suggest that this receptivity is, in fact, a feature of God’s Pure Activity, and thus, it ultimately poses no serious problem for classical theism.
Link: https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15101253
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Tags: #God #Theism #anthropology
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God and Time
By Natalja Deng, Yonsei University
This article introduces the reader to contemporary philosophical research on God and time, without presupposing any familiarity with either philosophy of religion or philosophy of time. To start with, aspects of the topic are compared to some structurally similar ideas in secular philosophical thought about time and ethics. The article then introduces timeless versus temporal conceptions of eternity and discusses positions intending to combine elements of both. There is a brief interlude on relevant background in temporal metaphysics regarding A- and B-theories. The final two sections then examine recent developments in the timeless and temporal camps, with a particular emphasis on the role that temporal metaphysics is playing in discussions of the timeless approach.
Link: https://doi.org/10.37977/faithphil.2023.40.2.1
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Tags: #God #Time #Religion
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A New Aesthetic Argument for Theism
By Noah McKay, University of Edinburgh
I outline and defend a version of the aesthetic argument for the existence of God, according to which theism explains our capacity for subjective aesthetic experience better than its major competitor, naturalism. I argue that naturalism fails to adequately explain the nature and range of our aesthetic experiences, since these are amenable neither to standard Darwinian explanation nor to explanation in terms of more complex sociobiological mechanisms such as sexual selection or between-group selection. “I concede that aesthetic experience may be an evolutionary spandrel but argue that the conjunction of this thesis with naturalism is highly improbable given the prevalence of beauty in the natural
world.” Theism, on the other hand, furnishes a robust personal explanation of aesthetic experience, since on theism God has both good reasons to bring such experiences about and the power to do so. I address an objection to the theistic explanation from broadly negative aesthetic experiences, arguing that God plausibly has many reasons to allow these. I contend that this formulation of the argument is superior to other extant versions, since it does not depend on controversial probability judgments, dubious analogies between natural
phenomena and human artifacts, or objectivism about aesthetic values.
Link: https://doi.org/10.37977/faithphil.2023.40.2.4
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Tags: #God #Naturalism #EoG
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Free will, transworld depravity, and divine omniscience
By Alessandro Fiorello, University of Ottawa
In this essay I am going to attempt to resuscitate the logical problem of evil. Since the problem is well known I will be brief in motivating it. It is widely held within the field of philosophy of religion that the problem of evil in its logical form is a dead end. That is, it is accepted that there is no logical incoherence in supposing that a perfectly loving and all-powerful god exists alongside the existence of evil. One of the accepted arguments for the dissolvement of this issue is Alvin Plantinga’s Free Will Defence. I believe that Plantinga’s defence is not the successful argument that scholars in the field have taken it to be. I attempt a demonstration of an inner conflict in Plantinga’s argument that thoroughly undermines the strength of his argument. I show that Plantinga’s argument attempts to smuggle in the possibility of middle knowledge through his concept of transworld depravity. The conclusion of my argument is that Plantinga’s status as solving the logical problem is not warranted and it should be given serious attention.
Link: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11153-024-09930-4
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Tags: #PoE #Evil #Plantinga #God #FreeWill
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Spinoza on the parts of God
By Kay Malte Bischof, University of Notre Dame;
I defend Spinoza's claim that extension is an attribute that an indivisible substance, such as God, could have. However, in order to explain why, we must abandon two long held orthodoxies in Spinoza scholarship. First, Spinoza acknowledges only parts that do not depend on their whole. Second, God, considered as natura naturans, has no parts of any kind. Against these orthodoxies, I show that having parts which depend on their whole, for Spinoza, does not entail divisibility and that God, considered as natura naturans, must have such parts in order to be extended. Along the way, we will have a closer look at Spinoza’s mereology and address apparently conflicting statements that Spinoza makes about the relation of part and whole that have long vexed commentators.
Link: https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15101197
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Tags: #Spinoza #God #Mereology
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The Ark of the Covenant’s Spelling Controversy: A Historical Linguistic Perspective
By Marijn van Putten, Leiden University
This article examines a famous element in the reports on the canonization of the Qurʾānic text under the auspices of Uthman, in which the committee of scribes that were to write the standard text came to a disagreement on how to write the Qurʾānic word for at-tābūt “Ark.” After examining the different versions of the report that contain this episode, and concluding that the report of this episode goes back to the common link of Ibn Šihāb al-Zuhrī (d. 124/741–2), it is shown that early on the linguistic details of this disagreement were no longer understood. However, by examining how Aramaic and Classical Ethiopic loanwords that end in stem-final -ūt or -ōt are treated, this report can be understood as referring to two competing adaptations of this foreign word into Arabic. On the one hand at-tābūt, the form that ends up in the standard text, and on the other hand at-tābāh (or more precisely: at-tābōh), which shows a similar strategy of adaptation as several other central loanwords in the Qurʾān such as aṣ-ṣalāh“prayer” and az-zakāh “alms.”
Link: https://doi.org/10.1515/islam-2024-0017
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Tags: #Islam #Quran #Hadith #QuranicStudies
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AL-FĀRĀBĪ’S EIGHTH FALLACY EXTRA DICTIONEM AND AVERROES’ CRITICISM
By Alexander Lamprakis, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München
This paper aims to introduce and discuss al-Fārābī's (d. 950–1 CE) fallacy from transfer and substitution in his little-studied “On Deceptive Topoi” (Kitāb al-amkina al-muġalliṭa) and the criticism leveled at him by Averroes (d. 1198 CE) for violating Aristotle's claim of the exhaustiveness of his list of fallacies. The first and larger half of this paper introduces al-Fārābī's treatise and its innovations upon Aristotle's Sophistici elenchi. The second half focuses on Averroes’ criticism in his so-called middle commentary (talḫīṣ) on Aristotle's SE and discusses the validity of his arguments against al-Fārābī. As the final analysis will show, Averroes’ criticism does not sufficiently take into account the independence of al-Fārābī's treatise from Aristotle's SE, its disregard for the study of dialectical deception and counter-deception, and its particular focus on the demonstrative sciences. In light of al-Fārābī's innovation his “On Deceptive Topoi” turns out to be a work of great originality drawing on a broad range of source texts.
Link: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0957423924000043
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Tags: #Islam #Avicenna #AlFarabi
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TWO QUESTIONS: THE MASʾALATĀN AND THE AVICENNIAN CORPUS
By István Lánczky, Avicenna Institute of Middle Eastern Studies
This article brings to light a previously unedited short treatise, the Masʾalatān (Two Questions), attributed to Avicenna (d. 1037). While the earliest witness to the text is the Ayasofya 4853 manuscript, containing a substantial portion of Avicenna's Nachlass, some of which is integrated into the Mubāḥaṯāt and Taʿlīqāt, the Masʾalatān has remained a standalone work with limited circulation. Consequently, the primary concern revolves around the verification of its authenticity and its feasibility given the available data. This article presents a critical edition of the text alongside a parallel translation but it also serves as a case study on the possibilities of authorship verification. It also compiles information from codicology, nevertheless, it primarily focuses on the commentary that analyses and compares the arguments to Avicenna's unquestionably authentic solutions. The first question addresses whether every existent is spatially located, while the second explores the impossibility of an actual infinite body. The commentary endeavors to interpret the text against the cultural and theological background that may have inspired such inquiries, meanwhile also seeks to address its later influence. In addition to unveiling a hitherto unseen text to the scholarly community for further research, it also offers an insight into the limitations of authorship attribution.
Link: https://doi.org/10.1017/S095742392400002X
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Tags: #Islam #Avicenna #Theology
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Attitudes of Jewish and Muslim Religious Leaders Towards the Declaration of Principles as a Test Case for Judaism and Islam between Peace and Conflict
By Odeya Schuz
and Nesya Rubinstein-Shemer, Bar-Ilan University
The Declaration of Principles (Oslo I Accord, September 1993) was the inaugural groundbreaking agreement in the Israeli‒Palestinian Identity conflict, which revolves around consecrated territory as well as identity components on both sides. This historic accord elicited myriad responses, yet the stances of religious figures are particularly consequential given the profound and intricate religious underpinnings of the conflict. This paper presents the attitudes toward the Declaration of Principles (DOP) held by six religious personages: Rabbi Yehuda Amital, an Israeli Jew supporter of the DOP; Rabbi Shlomo Goren, an Israeli Jew who opposed it; Sheikh Abdullah Nimer Darwish, an Israeli Arab who endorses the DOP; Sheikh Raed Salah, an Israeli Arab who rejects it; Sheikh ʿImad al-Falouji, a Palestinian proponent; and Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, a Palestinian opponent. Based on rulings, statements, and press publications, this paper analyzes their rationales and utilization of religion’s social influencing mechanisms, seeking to understand religion’s capacity to confer legitimacy upon alternative religious values enabling conflict resolution through political means, thereby impacting the conflict toward reconciliation or, conversely, escalation. This paper aims to characterize the discourse and reasoning to propose more efficacious means of attaining broad religious legitimacy for future, sustainable peace accords.
Link: https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15101193
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Tags: #Islam #Judaism #Politics
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Heavenly Overpopulation: Rethinking The Ethics Of Procreation
By Blake Hereth, University of Pennsylvania
Many theists believe both (1) that Heaven will be infinitely or maximally good for its residents and (2) that most humans will, eventually, reside in Heaven. Further, most theists believe (3) that human procreation is often all-things-considered morally permissible. I defend three novel arguments for the impermissibility of procreation predicated on the possibility of heavenly overpopulation. First, we shouldn’t be rude to hosts by bringing more people to a party than were invited, which we do if we continue to procreate. Second, justice requires that the goods of Heaven be supremely good for those for whom heavenly existence is (even partially) compensatory, but if Heaven has a fixed and finite number of goods, each successful act (or enough acts) of procreation lowers the expected goodness for those persons and threatens to undermine justice. Third, we should choose the course of action with the least-worst outcome, and it would be worse to overpopulate Heaven than underpopulate it.
Link: https://doi.org/10.69574/aejpr.v1i2.22930
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Tags: #Theism #Heaven #Theology
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The Greatest Name of God: ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib as a cosmic image in Rajab al-Bursī's Mashāriq al-anwār
By Mohammad Amin Mansouri, Central Washington University
ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib (d. 40/661)—a revered figure in Islamic history as both the first Shiʿi imam and the fourth caliph—serves as a significant image of sacral power in the Persianate world and beyond. ʿAlī's authority underwent a profound reimagining in the early modern era as he emerged as a captivating imperial emblem from the Timurid renaissance to the Safavid revolution, rivalling other prominent figures of political authority such as Chinggis Khan (d. 1227), and becoming a symbol of human perfection for both Sunni and Shiʿi intellectuals alike. ʿAlī transcended his role as a Shiʿi imam to assume the status of a cosmic figure, gradually becoming an ideal symbol for imperial branding. However, there is little scholarly knowledge and appreciation of his changing role in this period. This article examines how al-Ḥāfiẓ Rajab al-Bursī's (d. circa 814/1411) Mashāriq al-anwār, which has remained highly popular throughout the Persianate and Shiʿi world, contributed to the reshaping of ʿAlī's image, portraying him as the quintessential archetype of sacral power and unmatched authoritative feats.
Link: https://doi.org/10.1111/teth.12669
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Tags: #Islam #History #Shiism
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Akkirmânî’s Occasionalist Approach to the Neuroscience
By Nazif Muhtaroglu, Yale University
In this paper, I explore the problem of human freedom and responsibility in light of current neuroscientific research, particularly focusing on Libet-style experiments. Beginning with a review of significant experiments on the nature of human will, starting with Libet’s influential series from the 1980s, I survey various interpretations of these experiments including those that pose challenges to concepts of human freedom and responsibility. Subsequently, I introduce the perspective of Mehmed Akkirmânî (d. 1760), an Ottoman scholar who advocates for a libertarian view of human freedom within an occasionalist framework and constructs sophisticated arguments against theological determinism. Akkirmânî’s analysis of human will delineates different aspects such as inclinations, intentions, and decisions, positing that humans possess freedom solely in their conscious decisions, thereby suggesting a limited scope of free will. I argue that Akkirmânî’s views are remarkably consonant with contemporary scientific findings and align with some libertarian positions. His occasionalist perspective offers an alternative model to contemporary naturalist physicalism in elucidating the connection between mental and neurophysical states.
Link: https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15091110
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Tags: #Occasionalism #Kalam #FreeWill #Neuroscience
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The prayers of the Enlightenment deists and the religious Enlightenment
By Joseph Waligore, University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point
Throughout most of the twentieth century, the Enlightenment was seen as a period when people used the light of reason and science to free themselves from the shackles of religious beliefs. For example, Henry Steele Commager said, ‘the men of the Enlightenment … are the first fully to emancipate themselves from religious superstition and to understand the nature of man in the light of science and reason’.1 Similarly, Peter Gay stated that there was a unified Enlightenment whose proponents rejected the religious beliefs they grew up with while being on a mission to develop ‘a naturalistic world view, a secular ethical system, and above all a triumphant scientific method’.2 Moreover, the deists were seen as major proponents of secularism, naturalism, and the scientific method. Gay asserted that the deists living in England had a very important role in the Enlightenment mission of developing a secular and scientific worldview because they were ‘the first men in modern times to set out on this mission … they redrew the religious map of Europe’.
Link: https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15091110
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Tags: #Religion #Deism #Enlightenment
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Teleology
By Matthew Tugby, Durham University
Teleology is about functions, ends, and goals in nature. This Element offers a philosophical examination of these phenomena and aims to reinstate teleology as a core part of the metaphysics of science. It starts with a critical analysis of three theories of function and argues that functions ultimately depend on goals. A metaphysical investigation of goal-directedness is then undertaken. After arguing against reductive approaches to goal-directedness, the Element develops a new theory which grounds many cases of goal-directedness in the metaphysics of powers. According to this theory, teleological properties are genuine, irreducible features of the world.
Link: https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15091110
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Tags: #Metaphysics #Teleology #Theism
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Who Will Be Saved: The Right or the Upright?
By Mohammed Gamal Abdelnour, University of York
There is a growing body of literature on the Islamic theology and philosophy of salvation. This literature can be loosely grouped into three main groups: there are those that link the right path of salvation to a specific Muslim group, others that link it to believing in the Prophet Muhammad regardless of the theological group that a Muslim may follow, and there are those that link it to the belief in God and doing good. Despite this variety, what largely unites those various interpretations is that they all emphasize the “rightness” of one’s theological path, i.e., asking the question, what is the “right” track to God? However, what received scant attention so far is the question of “uprightness” as opposed to “rightness”, i.e., Is salvation primarily about being “right” (muḥiqq), or rather about being “upright” (ṣādiq/mukhliṣ)? Drawing on Q. 5:116-119, which presents a conflict between “rightness” and “uprightness” embodied in Jesus’ conversation with God regarding the fate of those who did not have the right theology, and taking its cues from Abū Ḥāmid al-Ghazālī (d. 1111) who attempted to rejuvenate Islamic theology through spirituality, this article takes “uprightness” as the primary requisite for one to attain salvation and argues that the Quran, despite the emphasis it places on pursuing the “right” path, gives primacy to the “uprightness” of one’s position instead. Uprightness in the article is used in reference to the quality of being honest, responsible, and moral, as opposed to being merely “right” or “correct” theologically.
Link: https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15091119
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Tags: #Islam #Quran #Theology
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Rethinking contemporary schooling in Muslim contexts: An Islamic conceptual framework for reconstructing K-12 education
By Farah Ahmed
& Safaruk Chowdhury, University of Cambridge
This paper presents a conceptual framework drawn from philosophies of education underpinned by an Islamic worldview. The framework offers an interconnecting network of Islamic educational concepts that can be used by contemporary educators in Muslim contexts think through how they might reconstruct preK-12 education in a more authentic and culturally coherent manner for their communities. This work of reconstruction and renewal is needed to decolonise schooling in Muslim contexts and offers scope for intercultural pedagogical discourse amongst philosophers of education.
Link: https://doi.org/10.37977/faithphil.2023.40.2.1
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Tags: #Islam #Religion #Pedagogy
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An Alternative to the Privation Theory of Evil
By Alexander R. Pruss, Baylor University
The privation theory of evil was developed by St. Augustine largely as a response to the Metaphysical Problem of Evil: If all things that exist are God or come from God, how can there be evil? I begin by noting that the simple theory that all evil is a privation is subject to decisive counterexamples, and that a refined theory due to Avicenna and Aquinas requires an implausible “Goldilocks ontology”: bloated by including certain odd items like tokens of truth or authorization, but not so bloated as to include privations. Instead, I shall argue that we can drop the privation theory of evil and still answer the Metaphysical Problem of Evil in the same spirit, by denying that evils really exist, albeit without insisting that they are privations. The result puts much less pressure on one’s ontology.
Link: https://doi.org/10.37977/faithphil.2023.40.2.1
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Tags: #God #PoE #Evil
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Spinoza's Contributions to Descartes's Ontological Argument
By Christopher Martin, University of Toledo
Spinoza revises his early Cartesian arguments for God in three important respects. By defining God in terms of conceptually distinct attributes, he has an argument for God’s actual possibility. By defining God in terms of conceptual independence, he has an argument for the mind-independence of God’s nature. By including reason and power as features of God’s nature, he provides a mechanism by which God’s nature necessitates God. Each of these address important objections to Descartes’s ontological argument. Given his similarities with Descartes and familiarity with these objections, Spinoza may have had Descartes’s critics in mind, and regardless, Cartesians may benefit by examining Spinoza’s ontological arguments more closely.
Link: https://doi.org/10.37977/faithphil.2023.40.2.6
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Tags: #Descartes #Spinoza #OntologicalArgument #God
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Al-Ḫūnaǧī on essentialist and externalist propositions and inferences from the impossible
By Behnam Zolghadr, LMU Munich
Afḍal al-Dīn al-Ḫūnaǧī (d. 1248) is one of the most influential Arabic logicians who departed from and argued against Avicenna in various places in his logical works. This paper is about al-Ḫūnaǧī’s account of inferences from the impossible. In this paper, we will overview his formulation of inferences about three main occurrences of impossibility in logic and language: propositions with impossible subjects, syllogism about impossible situations, and implications from a contradictory pair. All these are based on a distinction between two ways of reading the subject term of a proposition which al-Ḫūnaǧī borrowed from Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī, namely the essentialist and the externalist. Later Arabic logicians raised a crucial objection to al-Ḫūnaǧī’s account of the essentialist reading. They argued that all universal propositions are false in this reading. If that is true, many of al-Ḫūnaǧī’s proofs will be trivially valid and redundant. I will argue that the falsity of these propositions does not preclude their truth.
Link: https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15101197
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Tags: #Logic #AlRazi #Avicenna
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“To err is human, to forgive, divine”: religious doubt, psychological well-being and the moderating role of divine forgiveness
By Laura Upenieks, Baylor University; Christopher G. Ellison, University of Texas; Neal M. Krause, University of Michigan
A significant amount of research to date has been done to study the effects of forgiveness on mental health and well-being, but less research has been conducted on divine forgiveness. The main purpose of the current study is to examine the possible moderating role of divine forgiveness. Drawing on a nationally representative sample of 1,500 older adults, regression results suggest that greater divine forgiveness exacerbated the relationship between high religious doubt and greater depressive symptoms and lower life satisfaction. We did not document similar moderation patterns between religious doubt and forgiveness of others and self-forgiveness. Understanding the impact of divine forgiveness for those experiencing uncertainty in their faith is crucial to gaining a more complete picture of religion’s “dark side, and we hope future research continues to pursue these objectives.
Link: https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15101197
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Tags: #Religion #God #Sociology
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Contesting Power as Political Theology: Traditionalist Islamic Preaching and Post-Secularism in the West
By Abdessamad Belhaj, University of Public Service
Traditionalist Islamic preaching in the West is not limited to the normative aspects of theology, law, and ethics. In addition, it addresses the most pressing social and political issues that Muslims are currently confronting in the West; it also challenges Western modernity in general and secularism in particular. Two critical sermons of secularism delivered by two of the most well-known traditionalist Muslim preachers in their respective countries—Hamza Yusuf in the USA and Hani Ramadan in Switzerland—are analyzed in this study. First, I shall examine the arguments put up by these preachers against secularism and in support of post-secular society. Next, I will study the rhetorical strategies used in these two sermons. Finally, I will discuss the relevance of these two sermons to the contemporary debates in the West on contesting secularism and multiple secularisms. It is argued here that traditionalist Muslim preachers see secularism as an encroaching power that poses a danger to the figures of authority and norms that control gender, knowledge, and education within Muslim communities and societies.
Link: https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15101197
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Tags: #Islam #Secularism #Theology
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IBN SĪNĀ ON PROVING CAUSALITY
By Hannah C. Erlwein, Max Planck Institute for the History of Science
Ibn Sīnā famously opens The Metaphysics (Al-ilāhiyyāt) of The Healing (Al-šifāʾ) with a discussion of what constitutes the subject matter of that science. Several candidates are introduced and subsequently dismissed, before “the existent qua existent” is identified as its subject matter. Among the candidates dismissed, he mentions “the ultimate causes for all existents, the four of them” (which are, however, things investigated [maṭālib] in this science). Here, Ibn Sīnā comes to problematise the notion of causality itself. He is adamant that “the existence of causes for things which are effects” is not self-evident, but needs to be proven by the metaphysician by means of a “demonstrative clarification” (bayān burhānī). He explains why sensation (ḥiss) and experience (taǧriba) cannot prove causality, before turning to its metaphysical proof. In this article, I investigate what Ibn Sīnā thought this “demonstrative clarification” of causality is. I present an analysis of his train of thought and a commentary on the various points he makes, leading up to his proof of causality. These points touch on problems of psychology, scientific method, and scientific proof, and can be unpacked by taking into account explanations he offers elsewhere.
Link: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0957423924000031
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Tags: #Islam #Avicenna #Metaphysics
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Exploring Literature in Islam Beyond (Secularized) Christian Normativity in Western Academia
By Claire Gallien, Cambridge University
Anyone specialising in Islamic theology at a Western university is aware of the fact that their teaching and research will either be recognised by the institution as falling under the category of “Islamic Studies” or “Divinity”. In the first case, Islam is predominantly considered a cultural phenomenon and studied as such. In the second case, for reasons that have to do with what Marianne Moyaert in her latest book Christian Imaginations of the Religious Other has conceptualised as “Christian normativity” and the “religionisation” of other faiths, Islamic theology is de facto understood as Islamic speculative theology (kalām). In both cases, the understanding of how Islam theorises and practices theology is significantly restricted, when not altogether ignored. This article unpacks the genealogy of the secular version of a Christian epistemic framework that dominates the study of Islamic theology in the West and engages with the issues related to its application in the field of Islamic theology. In doing so, it opens a critical space for the investigation of Islamic literary productions as both dissensual and consensual theological terrains, through the analysis of the poetry of two theologians and polymathic scholars from two different periods of Islamic history, namely Ibn al-Fāriḍ (d. 632/1235) and Sidi Muḥammad Ibn al-Ḥabīb (d. 1390/1971).
Link: https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15101190
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Tags: #Islam #Kalam #Theology #Epistemology
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John Damascene’s Arguments about the Existence of God: A Logico-Philosophical and Religio-Hermeneutic Approach
By Vassilios Adrahtas, Western Sydney University
The Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith is perhaps the most logically structured and inspired work not only in the oeuvre of the seventh-to-eighth-century theologian John Damascene, but most likely throughout the entire Greek Patristic literature. As such, the Exact Exposition definitely presents some quite intriguing features, such as the prolific use of logical distinctions, syllogisms, or full-fledged arguments, to name a few. Regarding the latter, John Damascene’s use of certain arguments in order to prove the existence of God not only hold a unique place in Byzantine theology but have also exercised a tremendous influence on Eastern Orthodox apologetics. However, what I would call his rationalization agenda comes not only with merits but with faults as well. It is to both these that the present study draws attention by evaluating them logico-philosophically and interpreting them religio-hermeneutically. What is of special interest is the fact that John Damascene’s logical faults are the most interesting parts of his theologizing.
Link: https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15101167
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Tags: #God #Logic #Hermeneutics #Religion
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Can Christians Plausibly Explain Virtuous Non-Christians?
By Michael Bergmann, Purdue University
It is a plain fact – obvious to any minimally perceptive person familiar with an adequate cross-section of humanity – that rationality, erudition, and moral goodness are to be found among both secular people and religious people alike, including followers of Christian and non-Christian religions. Can Christians plausibly account for this? Can they plausibly account for the fact that many non-Christians (whether religious or not) are not only morally good in many respects but also morally better than many Christians? More specifically, if they think salvation is for Christians rather than non-Christians, must they think (implausibly) that all Christians are morally better than all non-Christians? If not, must they think that (if not everyone is saved) God is unfair in saving some who are morally worse rather than others who are morally better? In this paper, I will defend a negative answer to these last two questions and (at the same time) a positive answer to the title question.
Link: https://doi.org/10.69574/aejpr.v1i2.23338
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Tags: #Christianity #God #Theology
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Why Teach Hebrew Bible, New Testament, and Qur'an to Undergraduate US University Students?
By Roberta Sabbath, University of Nevada
Introducing students to the similarities and connections among the Hebrew Bible, New Testament, and Qur'an is a means to introduce students to a shared source of humanity, beauty, wisdom, and solace. This article outlines a literature class that uses comparatist strategies to introduce these three foundational religious texts as literary works. Figural and thematic strategies reveal the development of stories, characters, ideas, and values. Cultural studies strategies demonstrate the profound effects that the texts have had on our notions about our relationships and responsibilities to ourselves, our families, and our world. Students report a better understanding of their own spiritualties, a greater acceptance of their own identities, and an increased appreciation of the diversity of their communities.
Link: https://doi.org/10.1111/teth.12669
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Tags: #Quran #Bible #Religion #Pedagogy
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An Epistemology of Revelation
By Arpad Szakolczai, University College Cork
The aim of this article is to approach the epistemology of revelation through the approach of political anthropology. It departs from Max Weber’s distinction between ordinary and out-of-the-ordinary situations, which led to his idea of charismatic power. This article complements the Weberian perspective by introducing the anthropological term “liminality” for such situations, as well as the term “trickster” for figures who have a specific affinity for appearing in such situations, creating havoc instead of offering a solution. Ordinary knowledge does not apply to liminal void situations of incommensurability; incommensurable knowledge can be gained by magic and religion. Magic forces the transcendent and claims to produce effects, while religion is based on revealed knowledge, the validity of which is established by trust. Under particularly anguishing liminal conditions, the hardly tolerated practitioners of magic might gain positions of power. An important such example is offered by Persian Magi. Turning to the present, modern rationalism, with Bacon and Descartes, undermined both ordinary and revealed knowledge. The possible relevance of revealed knowledge in contemporary times is discussed through the related phenomena of apocalyptic expectations and Marian apparitions.
Link: https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15091110
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Tags: #Religion #Revelation #Epistemology
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Philosophical Interpretation of “God Is Dead”: Retreat, Disruption, and Judgment
By Kuo Li, Southeast University
Nietzsche’s declaration of “God is dead” signifies not only the collapse of classical metaphysical systems in philosophy but also shifts in the psychological structure of individuals and society after the secularization of Christianity. A philosophical reading is crucial to understanding its whole process and real-world ramifications. We first delineate the fundamental meanings and historical context of the term “God” or “Absolute” and expound upon the mechanisms of spiritual functioning under it, highlighting the significance of God, or the Absolute, as the highest object of spiritual operation. Next, we analyze the death of God, i.e., the retreat of the Absolute, in the realms of reason and faith, exploring its causes and repercussions, particularly the disruption of the operation of the spirit. Then, building upon this analysis, we conclude that the metaphysical life supported by Kant and Hegel faces failure in the present age, because the Absolute has ceased to be the foundation. The roots of spiritual operation are no longer secure; the return to the Absolute points to emptiness, and exit without return creates disruptive division between subject and substance, essence and phenomenon, reason and reality. Meanwhile, the departure of God and the development of capitalism are intertwined, calling for a resurgence in the form of secularization, heralding a renewed human judgment of God.
Link: https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15091110
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Tags: #God #Secularism #Christianity
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The Conciliarist Idea of Islam in the Quattrocento—Prelude and Legacy
By Marco Demichelis, Alma Mater University of Bologna
This contribution intends to examine the impact of Conciliarism (1414–1439) on the Christian vision of Islam in the Quattrocento. The analysis of the thought of bishops such as Nicholas of Cusa (d. 1464) and John of Segovia (d. 1458) is understandable only through the evolution of the Latin world with regard to Islam, moving from the Corpus Toletanum (12th century) and the impact of the Crusades in the Levant (1096–1291) and in Europe. This forwardness is rooted in the process of “Islamic Christianization,” an analytical operation lasting three centuries, during which Koranic Christology was to play a primary role. It will be through this “Christ-centric” process that from the Renaissance, the Ottoman empire, the great enemy of Western Christianity, will be appreciated for some of its peculiar facets. The weakening of the concept of heresy and of Catholic ecclesiastical authoritarianism in decreeing what heresy was was probably one of the “indirect” outcomes of that dialogical “Moment of Vision” between Christianity and Islam. The further fragmentation of the Church of Rome, after the failure of Conciliarism and the outgrowth of the reformed Churches in the 16th century, favored a preliminary different understanding of the religiosity of others.
Link: https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15091110
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Tags: #Islam #Christianity #History #Religion
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Synthetic Human Embryos, Embryo Models and Embryo-like Structures in Islam
By Sayyed Mohamed Muhsin, International Islamic University Malaysia et al
A major breakthrough in developmental biology is the ex vivo generation of synthetic human embryos from stem cells. A comprehensive, in-depth bioethical analysis from a Sunni Islamic perspective reveals that the reproductive applications of synthetic human embryos contravene Islamic precepts of preserving lineage integrity (Hifz al-Nasl) due to disruption and confusion of kinship and familial relationships, similar to human cloning with somatic cell nuclear transfer. However, their non-reproductive applications in generating replacement tissues/organs, serving as in vitro experimental models of human development and disease, and testing platforms for evaluating pharmaceuticals and biomedical devices appear to align with Islamic principles.
Link: https://doi.org/10.1080/14746700.2024.2399902
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Tags: #Islam #Ethics #Shariah #IslamicLaw
