Christian Thought Research Articles

Bioethical Quality of Life Concept Through the Eyes of Critics

Bioethics is an interdisciplinary science that deals with the moral aspects of medicine, biotechnology and the value of life in general. Quality of life concept is the basis for one of the models of bioethics. Its supporters understand the value of human life by relying on the categories of its qualitative characteristics. They argue that the value of life is relative and depends on certain criteria, and prove the permissibility to terminate it in some cases. Quality of life conception is criticized, above all, by those scholars who rely on religious ideas of the equal value and inviolability of all people’s lives. This article reveals several examples of such criticism in the works of Polish and American authors: T. Biesaga, H. Ciach, G. Hołub, P. Kieniewicz, R. P. George and P. Lee. Citing the arguments of that Christian thinkers, the author forms her own attitude to the problem. The ethical and ontological sources of quality of life concept, namely utilitarianism and naturalism, become the main object of criticism. It is significant that in the utilitarian appeal to maximize happiness as pleasure and calculate the gain or loss they see an attempt to establish the primacy of the overall well-being over an individual’s life as well as a reason for killing those individuals whose lives do not meet quality criteria and impair overall well-being. They also criticize such a consequence of the naturalistic view as reduction of the personality to its manifestations. The absence of such manifestations becomes for the supporters of the quality of life concept the basis for conclusion about a low quality of life of some individuals. One more critical remark towards the quality of life concept concern erasing of differences between humans and animals and their interests. The technocratic attitude that permits any manipulations of a human life if only they can be performed is criticized too. The author demonstrates that the fundamental fault of the quality of life concept which is criticized by all its opponents is a limited understanding of human nature and human life.

In the Christian Archives: Sacrifice, the Higher Criticism, and the History of Religion

Much recent scholarship has shown just how indebted the secular sciences of religion were to the Protestant world from which they grew. Yet this “Protestant world” is typically described schematically, as if Protestantism offered a coherent worldview or even a consistent set of doctrines. A different picture emerges if we deepen our historical horizon, and explore the reflexes, aspirations, and norms that have found a home in the Christian (in this case, Protestant) theological imagination. This “Christian archive” was a heterogeneous place, with room for many things that we would now call secular or even profane. Protestant reform in fact began by condemning this heterogeneity, insisting that much of what the church had come to see was sacred was, at best, only and all too human. Yet centuries of conflict in Europe over the truth of Christianity only pluralized this archive further. The nineteenth-century history of religion grew less out of “Protestantism,” in other words, than out of the sedimented mixture of theological, historical, philological, and anthropological materials inherited from these earlier moments. It was, moreover, also an intellectual project that discovered new uses for these materials and thereby opened new horizons of humanistic inquiry. This article makes this argument with reference to sacrifice—a theological challenge for Christian thinkers from the outset of the tradition, but especially for Protestants; a magnet for diverse historical, anthropological, and theological reflections; and a productive zone of inquiry for the nineteenth-century German philosophers, philologians, and “higher critics” of the Hebrew Bible who together helped create the modern history of religion.

The Death and Resurrection of Oshun in Beyoncé'sLemonade: Subverting the Institutionalized Borders of Western Christian Thought in American Popular Culture

The Death and Resurrection of Oshun in Beyoncé's<i>Lemonade</i>: Subverting the Institutionalized Borders of Western Christian Thought in American Popular Culture

The Metaphysics of the Incarnation in Contemporary Analytic Philosophy of Religion

The paper presents the latest achievements of analytic philosophers of religion in Christology. My goal is to defend the literal/metaphysical reading of the Chalcedonian dogma of the hypostatic union. Some of the contemporary Christian thinkers claim that the doctrine of Jesus Christ as both perfectly divine and perfectly human is self-contradictory (I present this point of view on the example of John Hick) and, therefore, it should be understood metaphorically. In order to defend the consistency of the conciliar theology, I refer to the work of, among others, Eleonore Stump, William Hasker, Peter Geach and Kevin Sharpe. As a result, I conclude that recent findings in analytic metaphysics provide an ontological scaffolding that explains away the objection of the incompatibility of the doctrine of the hypostatic union. In order to confirm this conclusion such metaphysical topics as properties attribution (what it means for an object to have a property), relation of identity (what it means for an object x to be identical with object y), and essentialism and kind membership (what it means for an object to belong necessarily to a kind) are scrutinized in detail.

透谷と漱石の文学に現れた厭世感

This is a study of the comparative literature of the pessimistic feelings within the literature of Tokoku and Soseki. Within the maiden works of Tokoku and Soseki, the stages of death are described in utter despair. It shows us their pessimism, in which they give up hope and wait for death. They continued to write on death in their literature. My Prison of Tokoku is a story which states “I am imprisoned and die with regret in prison of loneliness.” Kokoro of Soseki is written about loneliness and suicide. Tokoku wrote many criticisms on the view of Christian thoughts and Soseki also wrote about the Christian moral novels. However, their descriptions about death are not written by neither Christian nor Buddhist thoughts. It rises above any of these thoughts. Generally it seems that the characteristics of Tokoku is that of fighting against reality while that of Soseki's is running away from reality. Ironically, Tokoku killed himself while Soseki died a natural life. In this way, the two writers’ attitudes to reality is quite opposite but the main cause of death which appeared in their literatures was that of loneliness.

Brief Synopses of New Arabic-Language Publications

Brief Synopses of New Arabic-Language Publications

Severin Boethius and his “Consolation by Philosophy” (clarifications to “enigma” by S. Boethius)

This article sheds light on the well-known enigma of the treatise &amp;ldquo;Consolation by Philosophy&amp;rdquo; by Severin Boethius: why in the conditions of being condemned to death the Christian thinker turns not to prayers or Bible, but to philosophy. Based on the analysis of sources, the author of the article indicates two essential points in the treatise, which in his opinion did not receive due attention in the existing research: 1) the treatise features a detailed sequence of &amp;ldquo;healing&amp;rdquo; the philosopher with its own justified semantic saturation and fully fits in comprehension of the role of philosophy in cleansing the soul of the believer and bringing person to genuine Christian righteousness; 2) this path begins with releasing the soul from sorrows and sufferings and ends with discussing the delicate theological questions. The conclusion is drawn that the entire structure of the treatise &amp;ldquo;Consolation with Philosophy&amp;rdquo; by Severin Boethius quite organically fits into comprehension of the role and tasks of philosophy in bringing a person to Christian righteousness, which at that time have been developed in Christian patristics. Such interpretation of the question at hand imparts a new sounding to the famous treatise and allows dovetailing the S. Boethius in the traditions of the early Christian patristics and giving an extended assessment to his works.

Conversation between Jennifer Herdt and Christopher Insole

This is a conversation held at the book launch for Christopher Insole’s Kant and the Divine: From Contemplation to the Moral Law (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2020), hosted jointly, in November 2020, by the Centre for Catholic Studies, Durham University, and the Australian Catholic University. The conversation covers the claim made by Insole that Kant believes in God, but is not a Christian, the way in which reason itself is divine for Kant, and the suggestion that reading Kant can open up new possibilities for dialogue between Christian thinkers and contemporary forms of secular religiosity.

Специфика взаимодействия духовной и светской властей в средневековой Западной Европе

The research objectives are as follows: to reveal specificity of interaction of the Catholic Church and the monarchy in medieval Western Europe, to identify influence of this interaction on the sphere of politics and education. Relying on historical data and conceptions of the Christian thinkers - representatives of patristic and scholastic philosophy, the authors analyse mechanisms of interaction of the clerical and secular authorities. The paper identifies and systematizes interrelations of the Catholic Church and the medieval monarchical state, medieval universities are considered as an instrument of political, not spiritual influence of the Roman Curia on the West European monarchies, and herein lies scientific originality of the study. As a result, the authors reveal mechanisms of the Church - state interaction which allow organizing cooperation of the clerical and secular authorities at the highest political level.

Christian “anarchism” of three cosmists (st. Francis of Assisi, N.F. Fedorov, Pope Francis)

The philosophy of three prominent Christian thinkers is considered: St. Francis of Assisi, Nikolai Fedorovich Fedorov and Pope Francis. Despite the time distance, each of them sets forth common ideas. It is claimed that the link between these individuals is the philosophy of cosmism. A typical representative of this trend is Nikolai Fedorov, but thinking in the categories of cosmism is also noted in the works of St. Francis of Assisi and Bishop of Rome. It is proposed to call them Christian anarchists who violate the fossilized structure of the church and society. The specificity of their anarchism is emphasized, devoid of negative features, built in the image of Christ and leading to the renewal of the sacred space, the Earth. The basic concepts of each of the three Christian anarchists are considered. The analysis of their philosophy allows for the formulation of the thesis that the ideas they propose to restructure the world and society are based on the principle of Christ – “not by force, but by love”.

Just War Doctrine – Relic or Relevant?

In the article, I examine the relevance of Just War Doctrine to contemporary conflicts. Just War Doctrine, which grew out of Western Christian thinking, presupposes that evil might be confronted with force, if there is no alternative way to restore a just order. But modern trends call into question the certainty and universality of this doctrine. On the one hand, ideas of moral relativism and comparative justice have become more widespread, potentially undermining the use of the notions “just” and “justified” in relation to military conflicts. On the other hand, the nature of war is changing, as warfare is no longer only kinetic in character. I offer examples of how the evolving character of warfare challenges the traditional understanding of Just War Doctrine. For example, there is the growing threat of cyber warfare, but the ethical criteria for its use are not defined. In relation to Just War Doctrine, questions of whether and when pre-emptive cyber attack is permissible arise, what should constitute legitimate targets of cyber warfare and to what degree collateral damage could be acceptable. Another challenge to the traditional understanding of Just of War Doctrine was the putative doctrine of humanitarian intervention.Prima facie,humanitarian interventions do not comply withius ad bellumcriteria of Just War Doctrine, because of the absence of a direct military threat to the intervening state. The justification of humanitarian intervention is based on the assertion of an intolerable violation of accepted values. The weakness of such approach, as discussed in the article, is that it implicitly assumes that one protagonist’s values are superior to others. A further example of emerging challenges to Just War Doctrine is the phenomenon of hybrid war, a term used to describe a type of conflict that is multi-faceted and in which kinetic warfare is not dominant. The orchestration of several strands of conflict, each designed to be below the threshold to provoke a military response, exploits the absence of legal and ethical norms regulating such activity. I conclude the article by suggesting that, firstly, for Just War Doctrine to remain relevant, it should be expanded to include harms caused by non-kinetic actions, and, secondly, the distinctions between the states of war and peace should be redefined to reflect the changing character of war more accurately.

Five problems for the moral consensus about sins

A number of Christian theologians and philosophers have been critical of overly moralizing approaches to the doctrine of sin, but nearly all Christian thinkers maintain that moral fault is necessary or sufficient for sin to obtain. Call this the “Moral Consensus.” I begin by clarifying the relevance of impurities to the biblical cataloguing of sins. I then present four extensional problems for the Moral Consensus on sin, based on the biblical catalogue of sins: (1) moral over-demandingness, (2) agential unfairness, (3) moral repugnance, and (4) moral atrocity. Next, I survey several partial solutions to these problems, suggested by the recent philosophical literature. Then I evaluate two largely unexplored solutions: (a) genuine sin dilemmas and (b) defeasible sinfulness. I argue that (a) creates more problems than it solves and that, while (b) is well-motivated and solves or eases each of the above problems, (b) leaves many biblical ordinances about sin morally misleading, creating (5) a pedagogical problem of evil. I conclude by arguing that (5) places hefty explanatory burdens on those who would appeal to (b) to resolve the four extensional problems discussed in this paper. So Christian thinkers may need to consider a more radical separation of sin and moral fault.

Reason, Faith and Otherness in Neoplatonic and Early Christian Thought. By KevinCorrigan. Pp. xii, 298, Farnham, Ashgate, 2013, £115.00.

Reason, Faith and Otherness in Neoplatonic and Early Christian Thought. By KevinCorrigan. Pp. xii, 298, Farnham, Ashgate, 2013, £115.00.

TOOL OR LENS? WORLDVIEW THEORY AND CHRISTIAN CONSERVATIVE LEGAL ACTIVISM

AbstractThis article combines historical and philosophical analysis to examine and critique the ideas motivating Christian conservative legal activism. Such activists routinely claim to be motivated by a Christian worldview, which they define as a comprehensive explanation of reality that determines all their thinking and action, including their legal activism and argumentation. Examination of the historical and philosophical roots of the concept of worldview identified by Christian thinkers reveals two understandings of the concept: an analytic tool for rationally comparing the evidence for different social philosophies, and a pre-theoretical lens that determines what counts as evidence in the first place. Christian conservatives have largely favored the first sense of worldview as a tool to understand issues like sexuality and gender identity in an essentialist way and to demonstrate with foundationalist logic the rational superiority of their legal conclusions about these issues. However, a comparison of the Christian conservative worldview and the queer theory worldview illustrates how this understanding of worldview as a tool fails because there is no neutral perspective outside of any worldview, from which one could examine and compare one to another. The idea of worldview as a pre-theoretical, historically, and socially contingent lens can be more productive. Embracing this notion of worldview in a personalist way is necessary to build a culture of dialogue that uses narrative to pursue the truth while also respecting and honoring the different perspectives from which these narratives are told.

Mark Edwards, Aristotle and Early Christian Thought

Mark Edwards, Aristotle and Early Christian Thought

PEIRCE AND RELIGION, BY ROGER WARD

Reviewed by: Peirce and Religion by Roger Ward Lauri Snellman Roger Ward. Peirce and Religion Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2018. 166 pp. In his Peirce and Religion, Roger Ward offers an insightful interpretative angle into Peirce’s philosophy. Ward interprets Peirce as a fundamentally religious Christian and Trinitarian thinker who holds that science and religion are complementary approaches to inquiry. He tracks the development of Peirce’s pragmatism against the background of Peirce’s life, and searches for points of contact between Peirce’s pragmatism on the one hand and Trinitarian theology and Christian ecclesiology on the other. Such an interpretation would place Peirce along great Christian philosophers of language like Augustine, Duns Scotus, and J. G. Hamann. Ward first gives us an overview of Peirce’s intellectual background in mid-19th century Massachusetts. American science and movements like Transcendentalism were on the rise, but the background of Puritanism and modern philosophy were also strong. Ward identifies three key influences on Peirce: his father Benjamin, his first wife Melusina Fay and Frederic Dan Huntington, a professor of theology at Harvard. Benjamin Peirce developed an idea of the evolution of universe as unfolding of God’s purposes, which Charles then took up. Melusina Fay helped to bring about Charles’ conversion from Unitarianism into Episcopal Trinitarianism, and thus brought Charles into contact with the triadic Trinitarian world view. Huntington used a Pauline theological method to fix the practical consequences of religious beliefs and to use them to improve religious practices. Theological interpretation first takes up a question, next offers an interpretation of a Biblical text, then uses the text in a conversation with contemporary authors and finally draws consequences of the discussion for practical moral action. Ward next examines how Trinitarianism, and Christian views of moral action and community influenced Peirce’s main article series and lectures throughout his life. Ward follows a method that combines biography along with textual interpretation. His interpretation includes two interesting historical claims. First, Peirce developed many of his key ideas, like the role of community and scholastic realism, early in the 1850s and 60s, and there thus is a lot of continuity between Peirce’s works. Second, Ward connects the differences between the pragmatism of the 1870s and the pragmaticism of the early 20th century with Peirce’s religious crisis in 1876–1892. [End Page 470] Ward discusses the themes of conversion to logic and conversion to community (Chs. 2 and 3) in Peirce’s early 1868–69 cognition series. Ward argues that Peirce’s views of logic and inquiry are analogous to Christian views of the faith community. Inquiry presupposes trust that the truth can be found, and also a faithfulness or obedience to the truth. Peirce’s theory of inquiry can then be understood through a Biblical theology of faith as trust and recognition of reality, and obedience to that reality. Peirce explicitly argues for an analogy between that science and Scholastic inquiry when he criticizes modern philosophy and the “incapabilities” of human reason. Logical and scientific inquiries presuppose a potentially infinite long run, and individuals have their biases. Therefore the subject of research is a potentially unlimited logical community. Then a researcher reasons well only, if he and his actions are a sign of this ideal subject and its reasonings. Ward claims that Peirce’s view that good reasoning imitates the practices of the ideal reasoner is analogous to Christological ideas, such as the idea of Jesus being an exemplification of the Servant of the Lord and an ideal of religious faith. Ward next discusses (Ch. 4) Peirce’s changing opinions about scientism and faith during his 1876–1892 religious crisis. Peirce’s polemics against organized religion and his positivist critique of doctrine in the Logic of Science lectures of the late 1870s are a problem for any reading of Peirce as a Christian thinker. Although Peirce has a scientistic orientation, he clearly supports modified forms of Trinitarian theism in his Metaphysics Series in the 1890s and also theism in the Humble Argument. Ward interprets the scientistic atheism of the Logic of Science series by arguing that Peirce’s separation from Melusina led him into a religious crisis and to a...

Humanistická psychologie jako sekularizovaná teologie?

The aim of this article is to evaluate quasi­-religious elements in humanist psychology with a special focus on Erich Fromm, Abraham Maslow and Carl Rogers. The study analyses concepts which may be denoted as a secularized "humanist theology". It refers to the fact that the authors of those concepts were originally connected with the Jewish or Christian faith and after their apostasy radically reinterpreted it or replaced it with a new religion. The humanist "cult of self­-worship" explicitly or implicitly locates godhood into man and at the same time excludes the possibility of a personal relationship between man and God. The rise of this new religiosity connected with sacralised psychology was paradoxically made also easy by certain forms of modern Jewish and Christian thinking.

LEONI AND HAYEK ON NOMOS AND PHYSIS

Nel 1949, mettendo a disposizione degli studenti pavesi di Giurisprudenza delle Dispense dal titolo Il pensieroantico, Bruno Leoni non immaginava che stava contribuendo a porre le basi per una riformulazionedi quella che nello stesso anno Friedrich A. von Hayek aveva chiamato la tradizione del “true individualism” tracciando così una nuova storia delle origini e dello sviluppo della tradizione liberale. infatti, dopoaver descritto l’origine dei concetti di nomos e di physis nella filosofia greca, in quelle DispenseLeoni intende la soluzione epicurea e la sua dottrina del contratto come un qualcosa di “eccezionale importanza per lo sviluppo della speculazione intorno al diritto ed allo Stato nell’età moderna”. Accennato all’importanza che negli stessi anni Ludwig von Mises e Leo Strauss attribuiranno all’epicureismo nella nascita della ‘modernità, il saggio analizza la tesi leoniana sul rapporto tra nomos e physis e, illustratane l’affinità con la tesi di Carl Menger sulla nascita “irriflessa” delle principali istituzioni sociali e del diritto, mostra il modo in cui tale rapporto ha influenzato Hayek e come si rifletta nella di lui (e di Michael Oakeshott) dicotomia tra i modelli istituzionali ‘nomocratici’ e quelli ‘teleocratici’. Un breve cenno, nel finale, al modo in cui tracce della dottrina epicurea del contratto possono essere ravvisate nella teoria dello “scambio di pretese” che Leoni pone all’origine del diritto.

АНТИЧНА ТА ХРИСТИЯНСЬКА АНТРОПОЛОГІЯ: ТРИ ГІПОТЕЗИ ПРО ПОХОДЖЕННЯ ДУШІ

In Eastern Christian philosophy, there are several views on the origin of the soul, which, in turn, were borrowed from ancient philosophy. This article deals with the study of three main hypotheses about the origin of the soul, which originate from ancient philosophy and pre-Christian religious beliefs. The reception of these hypotheses with some transformation and adaptation was adopted and further developed by prominent Christian thinkers of both the East and the West. Therefore, the main emphasis is on the development of these hypotheses from patrology and later – in Christian philosophy, to modern research. In the first three centuries, the Christian doctrine of the origin of the human soul was not yet clearly defined. One or another thinker only occasionally pondered on this issue. Of course, the main source from which the basis for philosophizing was taken was the Bible. However, Christian thinkers also resorted to ancient Greek philosophy, within which all three views on the origin of the soul were previously formed: the hypothesis of the re-existence of souls, creationism – that is, the creation of the soul and traditionism – the birth of the soul. The three hypotheses we considered about the origin of the human soul coexisted peacefully among the philosophers of antiquity. In the Christian tradition, the hypothesis of predestination was relatively quickly exposed and rejected as contrary to the authority of the Bible. From the standpoint of Christianity, the hypotheses of creationism and translationism have their advantages, but also their disadvantages, and, therefore, since the time of church councils, Christian thinkers have been trying to combine these two hypotheses. The hypothesis of translationism, which is the most consistent with modern scientific discoveries, is considered separately. This hypothesis is investigated in connection with the achievements of genetics and cytology, in particular, taking into account the knowledge accumulated by mankind about the development of the fetus from conception. Also, the hypothesis of traditionism is analyzed in accordance with the requirements of philosophical anthropology regarding the presence of freedom and responsibility in man.

Koncepcja Boga Stwórcy według św. Augustyna

Knowing God, including as Creator (Deus Creator), is one of the priorities of the life and teaching of St. Augustine. For the old Christian thinker, the certainty of the truth about God the Creator, which the Church confesses in her Creed, is based on the authority of the Bible, especially the description of creation contained in it. A characteristic feature of his approach to this truth is its Trinitarian dimension, that is, the attribution of the work of creation to all three divine Persons. Deus Creator is for St. Augustine Deus Trinitas. God created the world according to the unchanging reasons of his eternal presence in his Word and His goodness and love, expressed in the image of God’s Spirit hovering over the waters, are identified with the Holy Spirit. Among the attributes of the Creator, St. Augustine strongly emphasizes his omnipotence.