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The notion of social welfare was created by the paradigm shift from duty‐based to right‐based morality, in which the satisfaction of human needs is a right in line with preserving human dignity. This paper investigates Kant's view on social welfare in light of redistribution policy. Kant bases his political philosophy on external freedom. Notwithstanding the ethical principles of his philosophy, he is the first prominent thinker to clearly emphasize the necessity of a redistribution policy by the government toward providing for the needs of the poor and the needy. The important question remaining is whether or not the Kantian ideas of external freedom and redistribution for the sake of satisfying the right to social welfare can reach a compromise. It seems that Kant believes the redistribution policy to be not the right of the poor to be provided welfare by the state, but the right of the state, and as such, the states' right to task the people with providing for the welfare of the poor. Such a policy challenges the freedom of the wealthier class and apparently leads to an inconsistency between the two pillars of Kant's sociopolitical philosophy. The current paper aims to find Kant's response to this challenge by referring to his scattered arguments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many philosophers think that free will requires alternative possibilities. Other philosophers deny this. There are plenty of philosophical arguments on both sides of this debate, but here I want to highlight various theological pressures that might push Christians into rejecting the principle of alternative possibilities. In this paper, I explore six cases that might push Christians in that direction: the case of divine foreknowledge, the case of prophecy, the case of the blessed in heaven, the case of Christ's human freedom, the case of Mary's fiat in light of her immaculate conception, and the case of prayers for the past. As I will argue, in each of these cases, given certain other standard theological commitments, it seems that Christians are pushed to admit that the agent in question does indeed act freely but also that he or she did not possess alternative possibilities at the moment of decision. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper offers a theologically‐orientated examination of some core themes of the works of the philosopher Mary Midgley (1919–2018), identifying areas of possible theological exploration and development. Particular attention is paid to her critique of the reductionist strategies of writers such as Richard Dawkins, her development of the 'mapping' metaphor for engaging complex issues, and her emphasis on the critical role of philosophy. Although the paper offers some brief examples of theological issues which are illuminated by Midgley's philosophical approach (such as soteriological mapping), the primary purpose of the paper is to highlight the theological hospitality that it offers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many students who sign up for undergraduate‐level philosophy arrive with the expectation that moral philosophy is concerned with how one should act in the concrete and familiar situations of everyday life. Yet moral philosophers are often motivated by an ideal of neutrality, and adopt a detached perspective to achieve a scientific view of the competing moral theories. To concretise the points of disagreement they present highly specific examples that are abstracted from daily reality. There is something odd about the image of morality that comes into view. What kind of guidance about how to act in concrete and familiar situations can this form of theorising bring about? This paper examines Iris Murdoch's account of moral perception as an alternative starting point. Murdoch offers a perspective that is conceptually prior to the separation of thought from action, one that addresses the agent on the level of perception. While accounts of moral perception are often criticized for proposing a complacent moral theory that is inherently conservative, I argue that Murdoch's account offers a radical – or tragic – form of perfectionism. While moral philosophy cannot provide sufficient reasons to act, Murdoch shows that it can, like art, make us practical, capable of acting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is commonly presumed that the earliest recoverable writing of the New Zealand born Philosopher Arthur N. Prior is that published in the Australasian Journal of Philosophy and Psychology in 1937. Yet Prior was an extremely active writer as both an undergraduate and as a recent graduate, in a variety of publications. This paper recovers the unknown early Prior and discusses the importance of neo–orthodox Christian theology upon the life and thought of the early Arthur Prior. During the 1930s Prior was primarily a theologian–philosopher and in these early writings there can be discerned important influences upon his thinking. This paper traces Prior’s writings from an early unpublished manuscript through his theological writings and the development of his neo–orthodox thinking to a point where preparatory work for his influential 1942 article ‘Can Religion be Discussed?’ occurs. It ends where Prior bibliographies begin, with a theologian–philosopher remaking himself as a philosopher theologian. Yet to understand the later Prior we need to understand his early life, thought and writing. This paper is an attempt to recover Prior’s early life and note his influences and talent in areas apart from tense logic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper traces the concept and phenomenon of generosity from Aristotle to Emannuel Levinas and beyond. The question motivating this investigation is: must the generous act be restricted by a rational calculation of correct, or prudent, giving? Answers to this question vary. Aristotle and Kant would answer in the affirmative, while Emerson and Levinas would (apparently) not. The bulk of this paper is dedicated to Levinas's characterization of excessive generosity as a condition for the fundamental ethical relation, namely, the generous welcome of the Other. I end by considering the phenomenon of generosity from the point of view of the mid-20th century Mexican philosopher, Emilio Uranga. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Etienne Gilson was a strong promoter of the notion of a 'Christian philosophy'. He viewed it as a type of historical practice whereby Christian thinkers are spurred by revelation to develop philosophical positions congruent with revelation, but which are defensible by reason alone. This paper reviews Gilson's notion of Christian philosophy and argues that the philosophical position of Bernard Lonergan is one example of such a practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although rhetoric might be thought of as nothing more than an archaic art of manipulation, its ability to bring about action—particularly as the intellect and will engage in acts of persuasion amid the operations of the practical intellect—is a possibility that has gone largely unnoticed among philosophers of human nature. In this paper I explore the possibility that natural rhetoric, much as it serves the practical intellect in precipitating action, serves the speculative intellect as it stimulates acts of cognizing and understanding, thus leading to the acquisition of knowledge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of the paper is to clarify the theoretical core of Solger's thought, the foundation for his aesthetics. I first analyze Solger's dialectic of double negation. Secondly I focus on Solger's gnoseology, which is orientated toward grasping the equilibrium between the Infinite (God) and the finite (world) consisting in this double negation. Lastly I investigate the notion of sacrifice, connecting it with Solger's ironic dialectic and showing its relevance to a complete understanding of his thought. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Given recent developments in Franco-German phenomenology with its so-called ‘theological turn’, there has been a concomitant renewal of interest in Maurice Blondel's thought. In this paper I consider the phenomenological structure of Blondel's early philosophy. Blondel defended and published his controversial thesis in 1893 and with this work presented a highly original phenomenology that was deeply indebted to the positive tradition and yet went beyond this same tradition to include even religious practice as part of its inquiry. Keen to engage the rationalist philosophers of the French academy, Blondel proposed a phenomenological project that was geared to engage the critical spirit of an age that was already deemed to be post-metaphysical. It is in clarifying the manner in which Blondel conceives such a positive phenomenology that I indicate how his thought may contribute to contemporary debates in the phenomenology of religion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay explores aspects of the relationship between imagery and thought in the work of the English apologist G.K. Chesterton (1874‐1936), focusing on the language and imagery of energy and of vision in his work. It attempts to assess both the strengths and the weaknesses of the ways in which imagery and other aspects of this writer's use of language relate to his argumentation. It also explores the possibility that Chesterton's work can shed light on one of the philosophical dimensions of apologetics, namely, apologists' attempts to present concepts that cannot be explicitly stated, as part of a defence of Christianity. In considering this issue, it brings Chesterton's use of imagery into dialogue with certain images in the work of the philosopher Mary Midgley and the apologist C.S. Lewis. Finally, it draws certain tentative conclusions concerning the role of imagery in relation to argumentation, within the field of apologetics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the philosophical influence of German post-Romantic philosopher Georg W. F. Hegel to the Canadian Jesuit philosopher and theologian Bernard Lonergan. It refers to the intellectual programs promoted by Lonergan that reveal affinities and significant differences of dynamic intelligibility of world process. It examines Lonergan's sublation exploring the emergence and interdependence of complex world process in the context of cognition, metaphysics, and other sciences.

This article examines the death of God theme in the work of Jacques Lacan and indicates some convergences with Christian theology. It distinguishes the 'atheism' of Lacan from the atheism of Freud. And it demonstrates that if Lacan does not believe in the God equated with Being, the God of the philosophers, the later Lacan's argument for what he calls the 'eksistence' of God beyond language, the God of the mystics, makes for a highly nuanced atheism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author suggests the fact that there is no single paradigm or research program about panentheism. Topics include the etymological origin of the term panentheism introduced by German idealist Karl Christian Friedrich Krause which asserts that everything is in God, a comparison of panentheism to traditional atheism, and a number of problems confronting traditional atheism. Also discussed are the two distinct interpretations of the panentheistic key notion of "everything."

The author rejects the concept of a best possible world (BPW) in the book "Theodicy" by Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz. Topics include the author's argument that there is no necessary connection between God's character and his creation of the best among all possible worlds, his claim that Leibniz's theodicy cannot account for the goodness of God if God is only good to people globally as opposed to individually, and views on whether evils are really good-making features of a BPW.

The article discusses ongoing historical debate about the Shroud of Turin. It mentions that Shroud of Turin is a linen cloth bearing the frontal and dorsal images of a naked man presumably died by crucifixion. It reveals that Shroud could easily be identified as one of those cancerous points evocated by the French historian of Christianity and philosopher of history Henri-Irénée Marrou in the mid-1950s.

The article discusses that humans often fight and go to war over various answers offered by religions, prophets, gurus, economists and philosophers. It mentions the idea of participation through self-understanding and introspective analysis of reason, and discovering the secret has reached various forms of expression in thinkers; and also mentions that relationship has been ruptured by the advent of highly rational intelligible forms of atheism.

The article focuses on the ethical importance of philospher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel’s treatment of morality in the thesis, Elements of the Philosophy of Right. There has been rise in interest in Hegel's inner-outer thesis as a frame in which one can view Hegel's treatment of action and morality.

The article offers the author's insights on the "theology of disclosure," an approach to theology, developed by philosopher Robert Sokolowski. Topics mentioned include the approach that Sokolowski uses to describe the Christian realities, the development of Christian distinction, and the biblical revelation on Christian distinction. Also mentioned are the Christian way of life and the development of their belief.

The article offers the author's insights regarding his criticisms against the thoughts from several philosophers and scientists about the progress of science compared with the religious domain. The author discusses various issues related to science and the religious domain which include naturalism, supernaturalism, and parsimony along with explanatory power.

The article discusses the philosophical idea of Bernard Lonergan about the natural knowledge of God based on three texts such as "Insight" (1957), "Natural Knowledge of God" (1968), and "Method in Theology" (1972). Topics include the increasing number American adults who considered themselve as atheist, the religious belief of Roman Catholic theologians, and the results of the report "America's Changing Religious Landscape," from the Pew Research Center.

Metaphilosophy is typically concerned with such questions as the goals of philosophy, the relations between philosophy and the arts and sciences, the methods of argumentation and tools of analysis employed by philosophers, major trends and schools of thought, the prospects for progress and future directions. But one topic that has been consistently overlooked in these discussions is that of the temporality, or pace and tempo, of philosophy. Initially this may seem a relatively insignificant topic and therefore one that has been justifiably passed over. The tempo of philosophy, however, relates in quite direct ways to the nature of philosophical practice and how this has been shaped by wider social currents and changes – matters that are of crucial concern to metaphilosophy. Most of us, for example, are keenly aware that modern life is fast and frenzied, and its busy‐ness appears only to be accelerating. How has this impacted upon the ways in which philosophy is understood and produced? Does the fast pace of contemporary life compel us to reevaluate not only our ways of living but also our ways of thinking as philosophers? In response to such questions, I propose that philosophy is in urgent need of slowing down, and to this end I develop what might be called a ‘Slow Philosophy’. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the understanding of the universal concept of Christian philosophy by Canadian Jesuit philosopher and theologian Bernard Lonergan. It explores the influence of the Christian tradition on the Christian philosopher's inquiry through systematic theology. It reflects on the theological meaning and continental emphasis on a theme of philosophical rationality.

The article reviews the supposition of philosopher Bernard Lonergan on human knowing or cognition. It explores the details and development of Lonergan's critique between the actual dynamic structure of knowledge and its distortions. It also makes effort to cite Lonergan's original terminologies and to note refinements.

The article discusses philosopher Saint Thomas Aquinas' philosophy of God and natural evil. It states that some philosophers have said that the presence of evil contradicts the existence of God. According to critics, God is the creator of everything, and therefore, God created evil; but since a good God would not create evil, God does not exist. Aquinas argues that evil is not an illusion, and rather, evil is a deprivation of some particular good thing.

The article explores the nature of self-deception and the various manifestations of faith. It highlights the relevance of manifestations' diversity to the question whether faith is an instance of self-deception. It discusses the manner where faith demonstrates itself in philosopher and theologian Søren Kierkegaard's "Works of Love" and on ways where the knight of faith that comes to light in "Works of Love" can be stated to be self-deceived.

The article discusses the New Phenomenology and the analytic philosophy of religion, focusing on the accessibility and comprehensibility of the new phenomenology to religion philosophers working within the different traditions of Anglo-American analytic philosophy. Topics include the anlaytic/Continental divide impacting the philosophy of religion in the 21st century, author J. Aaron Simmons, and atheism and Christianity.

The article focuses on the integration of two complementary attempts from Canadian philosopher and theologian Bernard Lonergan considers as moral impotence. It states that the key components of the tradition teaching will change into categories from the analysis of Lonergan of intentional consciousness. It outlines the cultural transmission model, which argues wider notion of development not only socialization subject, but also the evolution of human species.

The article provides information on the association of a worldview to science as more ambiguous and complex. It discusses the differing views of philosophers and scientists on the proper scope and explores two different types of science, such as Cartesian ad Baconian. It highlights how the differing intuitions on scientific inquiry are apparent in contemporary argument about reductionism and presents the work of physicists John Polkinghorne and Steven Weinberg.

The article provides information on the exclusion question of philosopher Jaegwon Kim in the philosophy of religion involving human action and the sovereignty of God. The framework for the overdetermination solution to the exclusion question of Kim can be applied to make sense of the relationship between the human action and sovereignty of God. Kim contended that mental properties need to be reducible, in some way, to physical properties if mental properties are casually efficacious.

The article presents the author's views on the theory of faith given by philosopher Pascal. He tells that the Pascalian view of faith infers the contemporary interpretation of the wager. He says that according to Pascal, faith is the inclination of the will to love God. He also suggests that that the wager can be better understood as an argument of assessment instead of motivation.

René Girard is something of a Janus for philosophers and theologians interested in the question of sacrifice. On the one hand, few thinkers in any century have made such a compelling case for the importance and centrality of sacrifice within all human culture. On the other hand, Girard has steadfastly insisted that sacrifice be understood in exclusively anthropological terms thus foreclosing the metaphysical and theological questions that prima facie seem to attend any robust consideration of sacrifice. In this essay, I seek to move beyond this Girardian impasse by supplementing Girard's late-thought with a more robust metaphysics of sacrifice as found in the work of the novelist, literary critic, and theologian, Charles Williams (one of the Oxford ‘Inklings’ and a close companion of C.S. Lewis). To begin with, I first explain Girard's understanding of the mimetic mechanism and the sacrificial origins of human culture. I then consider a number of the criticisms with which he has been charged, especially the accusation of methodological reductionism. I explore the way that Girard's late work has responded to a number of these criticisms but argue that Girard's responses fail to diffuse the charges. By way of conclusion, I suggest that Girard's insights can be saved when supplemented with the kind of relational metaphysics found in Williams' most perfectly realized novel, Descent into Hell. Rather than dispensing with ontology in favour of praxis, Williams transforms the profoundly Girardian themes of mediated desire, the doppelganger, mimetic rivalry, ritual, and the function of sacrifice by placing them in the context of what he calls the metaphysics of ‘co-inherence.’ This allows Williams to provide a far more positive account of both mimesis and sacrifice (even in its substitutionary mode) than Girard, not just non-retaliation but the actual bearing of one another's deepest burdens in communion, prayer, and love. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Heidegger's deconstruction of the history of Western metaphysics has been a major influence behind poststructural critiques of modernity as well as more apologetic attempts to maintain a dialogue with historical sources, such as Gadamer's philosophical hermeneutics. This bifurcation has intensified the ambiguity of Heidegger's project: was it an attempt to relinquish philosophical ties to the past or a call for a fundamental reinterpretation of them? In this article I argue the latter, focusing my analysis on Heidegger's notions of appropriation and historicity. On the one hand, appropriation is the hermeneutical event by which ontology is reinfused into a reading of historical sources. On the other hand, historicity is the self-reflexive historical involvement by which we become aware of what contemporary, philosophical conditions necessitate this reengagement. In the end, Heidegger's critique of metaphysics arises from this self-reflexivity. It deconstructs the prevailing misunderstandings of philosophical sources in order to allow for reinterpretation at a revivified ontological level constantly in view of the question of being. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article contends that the birthplace of George Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel's so-called mature system is not to be found in the "Phenomenology" but rather on of his Jena-period essays, "Faith and Knowledge." It also reveals that the central insight animating Hegel's "Faith and Knowledge" essay, and the entire system, was animated by a theological description of divine cognition that Hegel encountered as a seminarian

Philosophy begins in wonder, according to Plato and Aristotle. However, they did not expand a great deal on what precisely wonder is. Does this fact alone not raise curiosity in us as to why this passion is important? What is its role in our thinking except to end as soon as one begins conceptually delimiting its nature? The thinkers Thomas Hobbes and René Descartes both expanded upon earlier brief articulations of wonder in natural, supernatural and practical ways. By means of an historical and philosophical examination of these two early modern thinkers, this article hopes to begin to answer the question: ‘What is wonder?’ [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines the philosophy of Jacques Derrida and H. Richard Niebuhr. It discusses Derrida and Niebuhr's shared views on the fluidity of language and the possibility of a God disclosed through friendship. The article examines the relationship between Niebuhr and Derrida which may be helpful in disclosing the possibilities for a theocentric or relational turn in deconstruction, and, conversely, for an apophatic turn in Christian apologetics.

In his early work, the philosopher Stanley Cavell offers a sustained engagement with the threat of epistemological scepticism, shaped by the intuition that although (as the late Wittgenstein shows) ordinary language use is the practice within which alone meaning is possible (and which can thus not be further analysed or rationalised), it is also a basic human inclination to wish to escape the limitations of the ‘ordinary’. This, for Cavell, is the root of scepticism. Scepticism, on this view, thus appears not primarily as an epistemological but as an (injurious) moral stance, which cannot be refuted but must be continually confronted and overcome. Vis-à-vis scepticism, ‘acknowledgement’ is the practice-based recognition of the world and other people in their continuing elusiveness, which ineluctably involves risk, but just so is the only way of knowing that is appropriate to and honours the (finite) human condition. One problematic aspect of this (very fertile) approach is that Cavell's secular viewpoint makes it difficult for him to say both why the desire for a ‘beyond’ arises in the first place, and why its expression as denial is morally wrong (rather than merely misguided). His approach thus invites a theological ‘supplementation’ which grounds the human condition in an original and real relation to God that is meant to draw the believer, through Christ, into the divine life itself. Such a reinterpretation both elucidates the concepts of scepticism and acknowledgement, and makes these concepts available for a theological outlook that is able to accommodate Cavell's profound insights into ‘the human’. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article explores philosopher Jacques Derrida's ambivalence toward commitment to religion through an examination of the relation of his thinking about religion to the calls to justice and hospitality. The author comments on Derrida's attempt to undercut the possibility of religious violence. He also argues that Derrida's religious thinking can itself be deconstructed in order to reopen the possibility of hospitality.

By focusing discussion through Søren Kierkegaard's view of Martin Luther's initiation into the monastery (the lightning strike), it is suggested that an analogy can be discerned for Kierkegaard's own sense of divine vocation (the portentous ‘earthquake’ which he makes enigmatic reference to) and the ensuing self-mortification of melancholy and religious scrupulosity which commentators have suspected in both figures. Kierkegaard's often ambivalent critique of Luther's Anfechtung is thus read as bearing ironic significance for his own struggles with ‘spiritual trial’ [ Anfægtelse]. In this reading, Luther's Anfechtung is taken to signify for Kierkegaard both the anguish inherent to the authentic God-relationship and also the dangerous possibility of the individual imagination's [ Phantasi] capitulation into the precariously embellished realm of ‘the fantastic’ [ Phantastiske]. It is here that Kierkegaard's emphasis upon individual responsibility – contrasted with Luther's concentration upon the role of the devil – demonstrates the fundamental differentiation between Kierkegaard's anatomy of Anfægtelse and Luther's Anfechtung. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Comments on the plethora of references made by philosopher Karl Jaspers makes to the inadequacies of theology and theologians. Examination of the nature of Jaspers’ critique of theology and ponder what, if anything, theologians can learn from Jaspers; Assessment of Jaspers’ re-evaluation of the Christian tradition; Jaspers’ critique of the doctrine of the incarnation and his attempt to recover the meaning of Jesus.

The article presents information on theologian and philosopher Saint Thomas Aquinas description of the articles of faith as self-evident to those who possess the light of infused faith. Firstly, the author contends that for Aquinas faith is formally a cognitive act. He argues that Aquinas' treatment of faith as a cognitive act forms one part of a larger account of the relationship between natural cognitive capacities and supernatural cognitive capacities. Secondly, he shows that the notion of a particular kind of potency allows Aquinas to develop an account of faith as a specifically cognitive, rather than volitional, act and that in light of this potency there is a way to consider the articles of faith to be self-evident.

The volume and diversity of Balthasar's output makes it hard to grasp his theological purpose. This article considers the aims of Herrlichkeit in particular. To take the beautiful seriously is ontologically important but evangelically more urgent still. The Gospel requires sensitivity to the form of Jesus Christ. If the anxieties of those who fear the aesthetic will displace the ethical and even the religious can be overcome, this approach permits a wonderful integration of apologetics and dogma, fundamental and systematic theology. This primary aim of Herrlichkeit is supported by showing it is not unknown to the history of Christian thought. To gain a proper idea of its scope, however, requires exploration of pre-Christian paganism's estimate of the beauty of being, and of the human capacity to register it. then, under the impact of revelation, it is possible to locate the climax of ontological thinking about beauty in the work of Aquinas—which integrated revealed and natural sources in an account of being as glorious because given away: supremely on the Cross, in self-diffusion of the Trinitarian life. Balthasar's purpose now shifts. He will show how Western metaphysics declined from this high-point of perception—but in such a way that the glory of being took refuge in the holy folly of the saints. Finally, he aims to show how re-reading Scripture in the light of the above can generate the conviction that the message of the Bible is ultimately about the self-giving divine glory as universal foundation of history and the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]