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The problematic assumption that biblical purity thematically represents life and death is commonly held within modern biblical studies. Building upon this assumption, many scholars have attempted to explain the treatment of the ṣāraʿat patient in Leviticus 13:1‐46 as a symbolic banishment of death. However, the current paper attempts to move beyond this reading towards a method of reconstructing the evolution of biblical rituals and practices. Through the utilisation of René Girard's four scapegoat stereotypes, the current paper identifies the scapegoat mechanism in Leviticus 13:1‐46, and reconstructs a proposed evolution of this ritual. This paper suggests that the ritual presented in Leviticus 13:1‐46 may have evolved from an earlier tradition, in which ṣāraʿat patients were executed to halt a mimetic crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Danish theologian and philosopher Søren Kierkegaard is often overlooked as an author in the Christian spiritual tradition. This paper answers Christopher Barnett's call to investigate themes of Christian spirituality in Kierkegaard's writing. In this paper, I argue that we can construct of vision of sanctification from Kierkegaard's The Sickness unto Death. While Kierkegaard does not directly deal with themes of sanctification in The Sickness unto Death, Kierkegaard's pseudonym Anti‐Climacus does demonstrate the 'spiritless' life of despair. The 'spiritless' life, as Anti‐Climacus defines it, is a life that is not truly a 'self'. Anti‐Climacus systematically demonstrates four categories of despair, and all people not living in faith, whether they realise it or not, fit into one of these categories of 'spiritless' existence. I argue that by constructing the opposites of Kierkegaard's categories of despair I demonstrate that a 'spirit‐filled' life exemplifies a vibrant Christian life of sanctification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Interreligious dialogue and conversion are two contentious foci for understanding how religion operates. An interpretation of George Lindbeck serves as a starting point for discussion in this paper. The dominant reading is that Lindbeck claims that traditions absorb the world. Religious traditions are isolated, and the one with a greater capacity to assimilate others' concerns emerges the strongest – implying what is called exclusivism. My proposal is that a different reading of Lindbeck is possible; I am not so much questioning Lindbeck as highlighting another aspect of his oeuvre. If grammar, framework and structure – and not propositional first‐order ontological contents – are given first place, dialogue and conversion appear differently. Questions must be raised, however; isn't it true that there is always some content and substance – even if hidden or disguised? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

My goal in this paper is to demonstrate that Milbank and Ẑiẑek's respective criticisms of Hegel's redescription of the Christian narrative are flawed because both identify Hegelian spirit as fully immanent. This misreading has enormous consequences, for it suggests that Hegel did not find a way to adequately support his project of reconciling the finite and the infinite. By contrast, I suggest that if Hegel's philosophy of religion is understood as both immanent and transcendent, or more precisely, as advancing a theory of mutual immanence, the charges of nihilism and atheism cannot be upheld. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At a 2011 meeting of the Society of Christian Philosophers, N. T. Wright offered four reasons for rejecting the existence of soul. This was surprising, as many Christian philosophers had previously taken Wright's defense of a disembodied intermediate state as a defense of a substance dualist view of the soul. In this paper, I offer responses to each of Wright's objections, demonstrating that Wright's arguments fail to undermine substance dualism. In so doing, I expose how popular arguments against dualism fail, such as (1) dualism is merely an unwarranted influence of Greek culture on Christianity, and (2) substance dualism is merely a soul‐of‐the‐gaps hypothesis. Moreover, I demonstrate that Wright himself has offered a powerful reason for adopting substance dualism in his previous works. In conclusion I offer a view that explains why the human soul needs a resurrected body. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers some of the ways in which 'postmodernism' is construed, before turning to several important representative examples of religious postmodern thought. It highlights some common features possessed by prominent examples of religious postmodern thought within Judaism and Christianity. Much postmodern religious thought is characterised by the separation of religious belief from religious experience, and is marked by the tendency to emphasise the latter at the expense of the former. This paper argues that, despite this tendency, the work of certain key postmodern religious thinkersparticularly those associated with open-traditionalism and radical orthodoxy-does not conform to this characterisation and needs to be understood in a broader cultural and theological context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A key legacy of the pontificate of Pope John Paul II was the concept of the new evangelization. This, amongst other things, was seen as a response to rising levels of religious indifference especially in countries that share a Western culture. This paper discusses the new evangelization in the light of two seminal ideas from the work of Lonergan, namely conversion and transcendence. It argues that these perspectives help explain and enrich the concept of the new evangelization. The second part of the paper explores some of the factors that can assist conversion, especially religious conversion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At times decisions are made in the field of genetics that are presented as if the ethical debates have been adequately treated and so all moral considerations have been addressed, when the truth is very different. Nor is it always easy or desirable to separate the ethical, legal and social questions posed by new developments. The impact of developments in genetic science upon communities is one field of enquiry that envelops each of these areas. This paper explores the impact of genetics upon communities through focusing, in particular, upon certain developments in reproductive science. After introducing core issues and technologies, it discusses particular ethical concerns in relation to the ‘shadow’ of eugenics over such developments, before exploring the role of legislative debates and procedures in transforming social attitudes, values and hence norms. It then turns to consider debates concerning the ‘quality of life ethic’ now prevalent in healthcare, and moves on to discuss the issue of genetic discrimination – focusing, in particular, upon discrimination against disabled persons as a representative instance of the actual ethical and social/communitarian implications of the foregoing. It ends by highlighting the need to discern the ways in which the ethics of genetics is presently shaped and practised in order to discern better the particular social and communitarian implications of certain technological advances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers a problem that arises for free will defenses when considering the nature of God's own will. If God is perfectly good and performs praiseworthy actions, but is unable to do evil, then why must humans have the ability to do evil in order to perform such actions? This problem has been addressed by Theodore Guleserian, but at the expense of denying God's essential goodness. I examine and critique his argument and provide a solution to the initial problem that does not require abandoning God's essential goodness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, I offer a reading of Søren Kierkegaard's Climacean works (Fragments and Postscript) in which I focus on their specific dissimilarities, but also on the important dialectical relationship between them. My central claim is that when we consider Kierkegaard's larger project in his authorship to encourage believers to practice a Christian existence characterized by tension, we begin to see the crucial shared role these works play for Kierkegaard's purposes. To begin, I outline the theological and polemical background to Kierkegaard's account of Christian existence by focusing on one of the central existential dualities in his thought, namely that of grace and works. In order to avoid falling into one extreme or the other, Kierkegaard argues for an account of faith as restlessness, which I identify as crucial to the Christian life. With this framework, I turn to Fragments and Postscript to draw out their respective emphases on gift and task, and I follow this with a discussion of how the dialectical relation between these emphases fulfills and upholds the account of tension that we have developed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite recent attention on the social implications of his work, little has been done to articulate a substantive Kierkegaardian social theory. In this paper, I argue that Kierkegaard's A Literary Review describes four principles of social analysis. Together they reveal the social character of Kierkegaard's thought while presenting significant challenges for more traditional ‘social readings’ of his work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The proposition that Jesus was 'Bad, Mad or God' is central to C.S. Lewis's popular apologetics. It is fêted by American Evangelicals, cautiously endorsed by Roman Catholics and Protestants, but often scorned by philosophers of religion. Most, mistakenly, regard Lewis's trilemma as unique. This paper examines the roots of this proposition in a two thousand year old theological and philosophical tradition (that is, aut Deus aut malus homo), grounded in the Johannine trilemma ('unbalanced liar', or 'demonically possessed', or 'the God of Israel come amongst his people'). Jesus can only be understood in the context of the Jewish religious categories he was born into; therefore, for Lewis, Jesus is who he reveals himself to be. Jesus' self-understanding reflects his identity, his triune salvific role; this is for Lewis, the transposed reality of divine Sonship. Reason and logic are paramount here, reflected in the structure of Lewis's argument. Lewis's trilemma is not so much a proof of God's existence, but a question, a dilemma, where each and every person must come to a decision. For all its perceived faults, its simplistic language, Lewis's trilemma still is a very successful piece of Christian apologetic, grounded in a serious philosophical and theological tradition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses the question of whether animals have souls and the ability to experience God after death within the limitations of their nature. Plausible explanations for the natural origin of life and for the development of subsequent complexity are increasingly being advanced by molecular biologists. Christian tradition and scholasticism teach that the human body is animated by the soul which is the agent of vital activities. This teaching is incompatible with the claim for a natural origin for life. At some stage in the evolution of chordates and cephalopods a sense of self-awareness and an ability to distinguish between pleasure and the absence of pleasure would have arisen permitting the potential for ensoulment. The premise that evolution was gradual but ensoulment was discontinuous predicates the irrational conclusion that for one generation the parents were animals without souls and their children humans, made in the image of God, and with souls. Biological gradualism is incompatible with a sudden ensoulment dichotomy both in the evolutionary history of humans and for a maturing foetus, human or animal. Gradualism must apply to both body and soul. A Christian interpretation of physicalism, however, provides an alternative to dualism and resolves the paradoxes and difficulties relating to animals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The most substantial source for thinking about forgiveness is Christian ethics. Some Christians offer forgiveness even for atrocities in the absence of repentance and reparations. The paper critically examines Christian idealism about forgiveness, while looking beyond Christianity toward a humanistic approach that acknowledges the tragic conflict between forgiveness and justice. Christian forgiveness is part of a radical revaluation of values regarding the goods of this world, personal identity, and temporality. Humanistic approaches, as found in Kant and the Greeks, do not embrace this radical revaluation of values. But it remains useful to consider the benefits of forgiveness, even for those who are not willing to commit to such a radical revaluation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is sometimes argued that the concept of the self is the unifying thread that ties together the rich diversity of philosophical and theological themes in Kierkegaard's works.1 In his conception of the self he provides us with a coherent and unified view of human existence. For Kierkegaard the self is not a static entity but a dynamic and unfolding reality, something I must strive to become. One is not a self but becomes a self as an ethico-religious task to be actualized. The purpose of this paper is to outline Kierkegaard's anthropology of the self with particular emphasis on the ethical and religious dimensions of selfhood. I will first elucidate the structure and dynamic character of the self, and then will examine the dialectical development of the self in the ethical and religious stages of existence. Finally I will address the widespread criticism of Kierkegaard's conception of the self as being radically individualistic and asocial. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Characterising Liberal and Evangelical theology as positions on a continuum or spectrum is common within Protestant circles. I argue that Liberals and Evangelicals do not share a common conceptual framework but embody competing and incommensurable conceptual schemes. Liberal theology then is not a distortion of true Biblical Christianity, as is often supposed, but rather is an entirely different approach to doing theology, indeed, to seeing the world. What I hope to achieve by way of this paper is to provide a context within which to better understand both Liberal and Evangelical claims, and to offer an explanation as to why the debates between the two schools are seemingly intractable. Further, I hope to encourage Liberals and Evangelicals to pursue the difficult task of understanding each other's position so that genuine dialogue can take place. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper I argue that a pervasive “religion as tyranny” view has its roots in a philosophical misunderstanding about human freedom. The established liberal view, which is a kind of “empty Protestantism,” conceives of freedom primarily in negative terms as freedom of choice or amoral autonomy. I argue that this approach, which originates in Puritan theology, leads inevitably to a wide-ranging indifferentism and that indifferentism is incompatible with Christianity. Christians need to elaborate in response a positive definition of freedom as moral autonomy or good rebellion. Insomuch as religion is an essential aspect of human flourishing, it liberates rather than enslaves the individual. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In his discussion of the virtue of mercy (ST, II-II.30), Thomas Aquinas draws upon two seemingly opposed sources. On the one hand, Thomas takes Aristotle as an authority on the subject of compassion. Aristotle maintains in his discussion of pity in theRhetoricthat pity is felt for those who suffer undeservedly since we do not pity but rather blame those who suffer as a result of their own wicked actions. On the other hand, Jesus in Matthew's gospel feels pity for the crowds.‘At the sight of the crowds, his heart was moved with pity for them for they were troubled and abandoned, like sheep without a shepherd’ (Matt.9:36). In his commentary on this text from Matthew, Thomas identifies two possible interpretations for the troubled and abandoned condition of the crowd. The crowd is said to be troubled in so far as it is vexed by demons and abandoned in so far as it lies prostrate because of infirmities. The crowd can also be said to be troubled in so far as it is vexed by errors and to be abandoned in so far as it is fallen because of sin.Jesus, then, according to Thomas and contrary to Aristotle's claim, feels pity for the crowds as a result of the crowd's misery brought on by their own sinful deeds.In this paper, I examine how Thomas harmonizes these conflicting sources. More specifically, I hope to show both how Thomas uses Aristotle's observations on pity and at the same time transforms those observations in light of Christ's mercy on sinners. Thomas' use and transformation of Aristotle's account of pity provides an enlightening perspective from which to interpret Thomas' initially troubling claim that God feels no pity over the suffering of creatures, which we will consider briefly by way of a conclusion to this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Few, if any, present-day undergraduate degree courses in Theology include in their syllabus a study of the Epistle to the Hebrews or other New Testament writings other than the Gospels and the Pauline epistles. The result is in effect that we create a canon within a canon. This paper, originally read at a postgraduate seminar, gives reasons why Hebrews in particular should not be neglected. Hebrews provides evidence of the diversity of early Christian tradition, for example, with its teaching that it is impossible to be re-admitted to the community of faith, having once abandoned it, and with its unique use of Israel’s day of Atonement rites in its presentation of Christ. Moreover, the very genre of Hebrews merits particular interest. Hebrews also evidences a Christian community which has yet to break with Judaism. Its thoroughly Jewish background illustrates for students of the New Testament the necessity of knowing the Jewish Scriptures as well as the writings of the New Testament. Moreover, a study of the Epistle could make a constructive contribution to present-day Jewish–Christian dialogue, even if in the past it has been enlisted on the side of a thinly-disguised anti-Semitism. Finally, Hebrews (e.g., with its depiction of Jesus as sacrificial victim and as High Priest) brings the student face to face with the metaphorical character of much of the language of the New Testament – a form of language which is not to be taken less seriously than other kinds of language; and in this case, Hebrews’ Day of Atonement metaphors issue in new insights – in an innovative theology of access to God. For this and other reasons, the study of Hebrews has an important contribution to make to theology degree syllabuses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the possibility of reviving the phenomenology of religion and its potential contribution to philosophical anthropology. The author identifies two main obstacles that have hindered the development of the phenomenology of religion in the past: social-constructivist critiques that argue for a critique of religion rather than a phenomenology of it, and a theological turn in twentieth and twenty-first century French phenomenology that mobilizes phenomenology.

The article discusses how climate change, leading to the need for more radical solutions. It suggests that we must consider what instruments we have in our toolbox for rapid change, and draw upon the resources of history. It identifies three instruments that may help manage change without disrupting stability: religion, science, and applied technologies.

Transhumanism seeks to transgress the human, regarding finitude and suffering to be fundamental problems that must be overcome by radical bioenhancement technologies. Christianity and transhumanism have been compared as competing deifications via grace and technology, respectively. I argue that the grace of deification is partly accomplished in union with Christ by way of suffering unto divine filiation. First, I explore how the grace of deification is accomplished through suffering, looking at Maximus the Confessor's dyothelitism. Christ in Gethsemane expresses the fulfilment of divine filiation, aligning Christ's human will with the divine will. Second, I examine deification in light of Luther's theologia crucis and how suffering leads to 'Christosis'. A human's divine mode of existing is filial and cruciform and thus Christoform. Third, I look at deification and Augustine's totus Christus. The Church is transfigured into Christoformity as the members of the body suffer with one another in compassion. Taken together, dyothelitism critiques transhumanist exaltation of the will, theologia crucis critiques transhumanist power ontology, and totus Christus as shared suffering critiques transhumanist individualism. I conclude that suffering is transfigured: suffering, not transhumanism, is the way to true human enhancement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers information on controversial discussion on Swiss theologian Hans Urs von Balthasar's argue that Christians must hope for the salvation of all people and whether Saint Thomas Aquinas' hope that all men will be saved with salvation. It mentions that Balthasar's views on hoping for the salvation received criticism and states that Balthasar see Saint Thomas Aquinas as an essential figure to confront in the tradition.

Gianni Vattimo (b. 1936) is a postmodern philosopher working within the field of hermeneutics. For someone who is not a theologian first and foremost and who only views himself as a 'half‐believer', it is perhaps hard to see what he could possibly have to contribute to a debate on ecclesiology, a theoretical study of the Church. Nevertheless, his relatively recent writings which constitute his 'return to religion' offer a surprising amount of interesting and relevant material on this topic. On one level, coming from a Catholic background, Vattimo can appear polemical against what he sees as the worst abuses of the Church. However, he grounds this explicitly political and ethical attack in something approximating religionless Christianity. In my opinion, Vattimo's version of religionless Christianity has benefits over Dietrich Bonhoeffer's, not only in embedding the power of Christianity culturally, but also in explaining why the notion of the Church must continue. Nevertheless, a closer analysis shows that his return to religion is centred not on faith or ethics, but too much on hermeneutics and his personal views to be a plausible ecclesiology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents the discussion on Catholic theology in the twentieth century attending to reality according to the totality of factors refering to as the de-hellenization of Christianity.

The article presents the discussion on richness and relevance of Augustine's thought by exploring the theology of grace and the sacraments. Topics include true doctrine coming from the same source and an intrinsic unity between theology and pastoral ministry; bishops bearing the burden not only of being a Christian but also of rendering to God an account of stewardship.

The article examines the conflicting images of God in the book "An Essay in Aid of a Grammar of Assent" by John Henry Newman. Topics include the author's argument on the implication of rationalism's dissociation of God from all human experience, her views on Newman's claim that the reality of God can only be known in encounter, and Newman's evidence for the truth of Christianity explored in the book's Revealed Religion chapter.

The article offers the author's insights on the Christianity and ethical subjectivity of Emmanuel Levinas as compared to the idea of Thomas Aquinas. The author says that he prescind from the basis of Aquinas in Christian revelation which focuses on the phenomenological and philosophical aspects of his thoughts. The author also discusses the associations between Aquinas band Thomas regarding the inspiration of the basis of ethical subjectivity by an Infinite God.

The article investigates the different modes of silence presented in philosophers Kierkegaard and Heidegger's existential ruminations. Topics discussed include emergence of philosophers in the linguistic tradition, the importance of becoming a Christian and the concept of silence in various books by Kierkegaard such as For a Self-Examination.

A literary criticism for the book "Roman But Not Catholic: What Remains at Stake 500 Years After the Reformation" by Jerry Walls and Kenneth Collins is presented. It mentions that the problem of the Church's overwhelming history of anti-Semitism; and also mentions that Christianity claims to be a continuation of Judaism.

Many believe that a peaceful, tolerant and respectful coexistence among religions is not compatible with the conviction that only one of them is true. I argue that this 'incompatibility problem' (IP) is grounded in a 'naturalistic assumption' (NA), that is, the assumption that every subject, including religion, should be treated without taking into account that a super‐natural being may exist and reveal to us an unexpected way to deal with our experience. I then argue that in matters of religion, NA is untenable and that its very opposite, which I call 'super‐naturalistic assumption' (SA), should be adopted. My thesis is that, once SA is adopted, IP can be dismissed and that it is plausible to maintain that a peaceful, tolerant and respectful coexistence among religions is compatible with the conviction that only one of them is true. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article constructs an ecological theology following Emmanuel Levinas' philosophy of religion. I suggest that the Son and Spirit express divinity through corporeal and temporal realities best described through Levinas' ideas concerning the an‐archy and awakening of time. Following Levinas, and theologians such as Mark I Wallace, I construct a materialist theology that blurs the line between God and corporeal bodies, positing that such an understanding of the Son and Spirit re‐sacralizes nature in a way that assists Christianity in overcoming the tenuous relationship between humanity and Earth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines philosopher Gianni Vattimo's theory of secularisation with regard to the debate between Karl Löwith and Hans Blumenberg on the subject. Topics include Vattimo's views on Löwith and Blumenberg, his alternative to the debate's conclusions, and the arguments of Löwith and Blumenberg on secularisation. Also discussed are Vattimo's philosophical influences, views on Christianity, and the relationship between secularisation and the history of ideas.

The article discusses thoughts of Saint Thomas Aquinas, Doctor of God, on truth as adequation. Topics discussed include Aquinas's understanding of truth as adequation, evaluation of the relationship between the angelic intellect and the innate species, and how truth as adequation is applied to the angels, and the book "De Veritate" that contains Aquinas's concept of truth.

The author focuses on the reasonable sense against nature associating with intelligible but reasonable aspects. The author highlights the action of sodomy used in traditional moral sense involving copulation with an undue sex in homosexuals such as males with males or females with females. The author also examines the sense of mother nature and its significant laws to prevent violations.

The article examines the theology of palliative care in theological tradition of Roman Catholic such as faith, reason and love. It states the practice of a paradigm for palliative care like in patients who are dying and performing the rituals for death to prepare psychologically, emotionally, and spiritually. It also emphasizes the vision for a virtuous care model offered in early Christians embracing the sick and dying.

The article analyzing one possible historical alternative found in medieval Christianity in the figure of Italian theologian Thomas Aquinas. Topics discussed includes Thomas's understanding of the relational interactions between divine persons within the Trinity, disembodied view of human personhood and a non-corporeal sense of nature and body of ethics.

The article focuses on cosmology and logic according to Judaeo-Christian tradition. It states that Greek philosopher Aristotle argued in metaphysics that the only adequate reason why anything can exist at all is that some agency got there first, irrespective of what it is called. It is stated that in theism, there is a belief that God's existence can be proved by rational argument.

In reaction to a particularly scathing review of his Practice in Christianity, Kierkegaard postulated what he called a ‘preacher‐machine.’ As we will see, the preacher‐machine is only one type of character‐machine, for, in Practice in Christianity, there are five other such machines. Starting up these character‐machines will allow for an analysis of the repulsion of the God‐man, Christ himself. This repulsion is important because Kierkegaard claims that it is the condition for the emergence of faith. After discussing repulsion, Kierkegaard will locate a singular mistake of Christendom, which will allow him to offer his remedy to this problem. In doing so, I will claim, Kierkegaard makes a particularly forceful claim about the true status of Christianity. We begin by attempting an articulation of a definition of monstrosity before setting the scene of these six machines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers information on the attempt of philosopher Søren Kierkegaard to introduce Christianity to Christendom. It explores the pseudonym Johannes Climacus of Kierkegaard that is indebted to Apostle Paul because Climacus presents the Christocentric epistemology of Paul in 1 Corinthians. It highlights an epistemology of various kinds focused on a "who" rather than of "what" that displaces the significance of human knowledge with the significance of the knowledge of God.

This article explores how Jean-Luc Nancy attempts to gain critical traction on Christianity by proscribing thinking of completion. First, it describes Nancy's deconstruction of Christianity as stemming from his aesthetic redirection of Heidegger's thinking of finitude. Second, it further details Nancy's noetic declension of Heidegger via Kant and Lyotard, where the imagination and aesthetic communication are deemed impossible. Third, it examines Nancy's treatment of paintings of the Virgin Mary who, for Nancy, exemplifies his brand of incompletion. Nancy's work on Mary reveals both the oversights and the insights of his deconstruction of Christianity, which Catholic theology should seriously engage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An essay is presented on interreligious apologetics in Judaism, Islam, and Christianity. It offers a history of Catholicism and seeks corresponding reason that may support catholic beliefs. Moreover, the existence and nature of God and humanity suggests reason to expect divine disclosure in human history.

The article discusses transcendence, considering the philosophy Lutheran theologian Robert Jenson on Christian theology. It states that transcendence refers to the aspect of God's being by which Father, Son ,and Holy Spirit stand above the people and continue to be distinct. Meanwhile, its mentions that for Jenson, being needs to be univocally predicated of God and creatures.

I have vigorously absorbed the negative element of the age in which I live, an age that is, of course, very close to me, which I have no right ever to fight against, but as it were a right to represent. The slight amount of the positive, and also of the extreme negative, which capsizes into the positive, are something in which I have had no hereditary share. I have not been guided into life by the hand of Christianity - admittedly now slack and failing - as Kierkegaard was, and have not caught the hem of the Jewish prayer shawl - now flying away from us - as the Zionists have. I am an end or a beginning.1 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present article examines the theology of John Zizioulas with a view to understanding its coherence and viability for ecclesiology. Instead of treating his trinitarian theology, or his historical claims, I focus upon the basic themes of his personalistic ontology, especially the relationship between the 'hypostasis' and its 'nature.' I argue that Zizioulas's central concept of freedom rests upon an equivocation: he affirms both that freedom and being are identical, and that they are mutually exclusive. In conversation with the philosophy of Levinas, I further argue that Zizioulas's proposal, as an ontology of communion, falls prey to the same reduction of being to thought that forms the central tenet of Western conceptions of subjectivity. In conclusion, I argue that both of these problems trade on a basic inability to account for grace as the fundamental reality of communion. Throughout my basic concern is to inquire into just what function the category of 'being' has in Zizioulas's theology, and to point out its surprising obscurity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In catechesis for adolescents seeking confirmation in the Roman Catholic Church, a dualistic bias unconsciously dichotomizes objective doctrine and subjective psychology. This is problematic because if a catechist does not communicate mind-independent truth, no seed of Catholic faith will have been planted in a student. At the same time, if a catechist does not affirm a student's subjectivity, the seed cannot find receptive soil. I believe the key to integrating these intellectual and affective elements - the head and the heart - lies in the link between what Bernard Lonergan calls authentic subjectivity and objectivity. Catechists can appeal to this link by embracing the moral responsibility to 'know our knowing,' becoming aware of our dualistic bias and judging our faith experiences according to objective standards of knowledge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, the author discusses the concept of personhood and patristics which has dominated theological discussion in many quarters of contemporary Orthodox theology. The author says that the tendency among patristic scholars to challenge the legitimacy of personalist readings of the fathers by Zizioulas and others has led one theologian, Alan Brown, to pen a provocative article defending the latter. Theologian John Zizioulas thought is a problem when faced with the patristic evidence.

An essay is presented on the function of intelligent design (ID) apologetics as preambula fidei. It tackles the foci of the ID movement, namely the scientific purpose and religious motivation. It tells that apologists who are religiously motivated claim they seek faith revival by providing natural reasons that would serve as the faith's basis. It adds that apologetics which prioritizes faith and spiritual development is considered consistent with Christianity's perception of religious truth.