Divine Activity Research Articles

An Analysis on the Historical Transformation and Consequences of the Relationship Between Theoria and Techne

The subject of this study is the historical transformation of the relationship between the concepts of theory/theoria and techne/techne-logie. Methodologically, the meanings of theoria and techne in ancient Greece are taken as reference. Then, it is explained how this relationship, in which theoria is in a privileged position, has changed with the modern period and where the process has evolved. The aim of the study is to explain the risks of techne, whose relationship with theoria has been severed. Theoria is the activity of thinking about and questioning something. Since it was an end in itself, it was considered a divine activity in ancient times. Techne, on the other hand, was the knowledge of making and doing something. The knowledge of the craftsman was such a knowledge and it was instrumental. With the modern period, the transformative effect of technological developments on nature and society ensured that it was perceived in an impartial, irreversible and positive way. Despite the destructive effects it caused, technology became a commodity and a goal. Considering that today, technology has exceeded the dimension of digitalization and we have entered the era of intelligent robots, albeit artificial, it is a necessity to re-establish the connection between techne-logie and theoria.

Метафизика Максима Исповедника: динамика актуализации и преображения космоса

The review introduces readers to a new monograph by the Norwegian historian of philosophy T.T. Tollefsen. In the new book, the author summarizes his many years of research into the legacy of St. Maximus the Confessor, one of the most important and sophisticated Byzantine thinkers. The metaphysics of St. Maximus is described as a large philosophical system, as coherent and rational as other systems of late Antiquity. Its distinctive feature is its emphasized dynamism, which consists in the movement of the entire sensual and intelligible cosmos towards the goal of comprehensive actualization and deification. Tollefsen describes the philosophical system of Maximus the Confessor in the following topics: epistemology, the doctrine of creation, the doctrine of logoi, divine activity (energy), the problem of universals, and the question of Incarnation and deification. In addition, the scholar makes an attempt to apply the metaphysics of St. Maximus to the philosophical problems of our time.

Israel, an Anatomy of the World: Microcosmic Contours Between Romans 9–11 and 1–8

Abstract While a near consensus now deems Romans 9–11 integral to the letter rather than peripheral, explanations of how these chapters integrate remain disparate. Apparent links between Rom. 9–11 and 1–8 abound, but no one has yet exposed the underlying congruence between the two sections’ argumentative trajectories. Coordinating divine activity in these letter segments reveals the interpretive value of ‘microcosm’ imagery, an ancient and versatile metaphor that will prove more illuminating than ‘climax’ inter alia for understanding Paul’s presentation of Israel. In Romans, the κόσμος itself is an actor in the text, with Israel serving as its microcosm. Romans 9–11 then portrays God’s actions toward Israel in a microcosmic relation to God’s actions toward the κόσμος in Rom. 1–8. In its disobedience, judgement, and salvation, Israel embodies the anatomy of the world, a layered harmony that may help reconcile warring camps in recent Pauline scholarship.

The Virgin Mary's Book at the Annunciation: Reading, Interpretation, and Devotion in Medieval England

The Virgin Mary's Book at the Annunciation: Reading, Interpretation, and Devotion in Medieval England

God in Motion: A Critical Exploration of the Open Theism Debate, ManuelSchmid, Baylor University Press, 2021 (ISBN 978‐1‐4813‐1408‐4), viii + 208 pp., hb $24.99

God in Motion: A Critical Exploration of the Open Theism Debate, ManuelSchmid, Baylor University Press, 2021 (ISBN 978‐1‐4813‐1408‐4), viii + 208 pp., hb $24.99

Missio Dei through complexity theory: Complexity to total salvation

Complexity theory continues to fascinate the academics owing to its capability to describe complex systems holistically. This theory makes it possible to understand a complex system by studying its constituent subsystems. Understanding the missio Dei has become somewhat complex, particularly from the perspective of the 1952 Willingen Conference. This conference emphasised mission as a divine activity embodied in the core missions of the Son (missio Christos) and the Holy Spirit (missio Spiritus). It highlighted that the triune God, and not the church, is the source and centre of the missio Dei. Conversely, missio hominum and missio ecclesiae denote the commissions of human participation in the mission of the triune God. Observably, the complex interaction of these core missions and commissions aimed at attaining salvation as the main objective of the missio Dei. This arguably warrants innovative research to explore the missio Dei as a rather complex phenomenon. Correspondingly, as there seems to be no direct complexity-theoretic study of the missio Dei, this article analyses the literature to propose a complexity-theoretic analysis of the missio Dei. Further research is therefore warranted – first to assess the feasibility of this proposal, and then to further use complexity theory to deepen the understanding of the missio Dei.Contribution: Although the study does not purport to provide a comprehensive understanding of the missio Dei, it will hopefully increase understanding and generate interest in using complexity theory to analyse the missio Dei.

Eric C. Moore. Claiming Places: Reading Acts through the Lens of Ancient Colonization

In this revised dissertation completed at Emory University under the supervision of Carl R. Holladay, Eric Moore notes that numerous scholars label Acts a story of origins or foundations that emphasizes community replication but that very few seek to situate this aspect of the story within its ancient Mediterranean context. Thus, Moore argues, simply and convincingly, that Acts is illuminated when it is read “in light of a specific topos in Mediterranean antiquity: civic or community origins” (p. 2). Moore uses the term and concept “colonization” to refer to community replication and the variety of standard features found in these ancient stories.Moore argues that while “the subject matter of Acts is the foundation and replication of the Christian community” (p. 12), this insight is not one that can be used to determine the specific genre of Acts given that stories of colonization pervade a variety of different types of texts and nonliterary media. Moore unpacks his primary argument in four lengthy chapters (chs. 2–5). Moore first establishes a framework for understanding Acts and colonization through a detailed study of Greek and Roman stories of community/civic replication (ch. 2, “Colonization—An Analytic Framework”). The chapter is divided into two major sections: the first section examines three major colonization motifs. Most colonization stories, for example, emphasize the origins of the new community and often as a result of a crisis such as civic conflict, droughts, plagues, and threats from foreign countries. New communities are often replicated by means of divine sanction whether that be through oracles or the involvement of the gods. The stories also frequently refer to the founder of the new community as one who often has a divine calling to form and establish the colony’s identity. The second section of the chapter is a thorough examination of a variety of colonization stories from Greek, Hellenistic, and Roman sources and successfully shows how origins, divine sanction, and founders/leaders pervade the stories.In chs. 3–5, Moore tests his thesis with respect to Acts. Moore argues that the early chapters of Acts function “like a foundation account” (p. 88), which traces how the “mother community” of the Jerusalem church is replicated in other locations—especially Antioch (ch. 3, “The Origins of the Cult Community in Jerusalem [Acts 1–5]”). Acts 1–2 contains the colonization motifs of the founding figures (Jesus and the 12 apostles), origins (Jerusalem is specified as the site of divine activity), and divine sanction (the emphasis on the Holy Spirit). Intriguing here is the way in which the geographical list in Acts 2:9–11 previews the text’s emphasis on community replication.Chapter 4 (“Antioch of Syria—Colony and Mother Community”) examines how the Jerusalem church is replicated in Syrian Antioch due to the crisis of the persecution of the Jerusalem church. Luke shows that members of the Jerusalem community within Antioch results in Antioch maintaining its close ties with Jerusalem. Divine sanction for the new community is evident by means of the note that “the hand of the Lord was with them” (Acts 11:21) and “he [Barnabas] was full of the Holy Spirit” (11:24). The transfer of the worshiping community to Antioch leads to a mixed community of both Jews and Gentiles—mixed communities being another common motif among colonization stories. But Antioch of Syria is also a mother community as it sponsors colonizing missions, and these stories contain the same colonizing motifs (see Acts 13:1–4).The final chapter (ch. 5, “Pisidian Antioch and the Rhetoric of Second-Generation Colonization”) shows how Paul (and Barnabas) is depicted as replicating a Christian community in the Roman colony of Pisidian Antioch. The chapter offers an insightful analysis of Paul’s lengthy sermon (Acts 13:17–41) by showing how it resonates with familiar colonizing themes.Moore’s book is an excellent example of the profitability of reading Acts within a robust analysis of its broader ancient Mediterranean world. His third chapter on ancient colonizing motifs is a rich resource for others interested in cult transfer stories in antiquity. His argument that Acts is an example of ancient colonizing rhetoric enables him to give historical substance to the fairly obvious claim that Acts is a foundation document, which emphasizes community replication. Ancient colonization stories do not explain everything related to the origins of the church, of course (and Moore notes this), and so this study is one very useful supplement to our understanding of Acts 1–5 (and the emphasis on community replication).

God as a Printer: On the Theological Status of Printing in the Kabbalistic Tradition of Israel Sarug

Abstract Recent decades have witnessed a broad scholarly discussion of the cultural influences of the printing press Invention. The core of this revolved around the new technological influence on the concept of knowledge, its methods of dispersion, and on social changes that it engendered in the 16th century, when it became an affordable widespread technology. This article presents the way in which the spread of the printing press influenced conceptual paradigms of Kabbalists in general, and Lurianic Kabbalists from Sarug’s tradition in particular. These Kabbalists exchanged the traditional conception of creation as an act of writing, within the conception of the world as a written text, for conceptions of creation as a printing act and the world as a printed text. I show how the professional term ‘letterpress printing’ entered these Kabbalists’ descriptions of divine emanation, alongside their conceptualization of printing as a divine activity, as writing had been conceptualized previously.

Repentance and the Return to God: Tawba in Early Sufism by Atif Khalil

Reviewed by: Repentance and the Return to God: Tawba in Early Sufism by Atif Khalil Ali Hassan Zaidi (bio) Repentance and the Return to God: Tawba in Early Sufism. By Atif Khalil. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2018. Pp. xi + 260. Paperback $32.95, ISBN 978-1-34384-6912-6. Is translation of a particular concept from one religious-linguistic tradition into another possible? If so, how much precision and nuance is possible in translation? Even if the problem of translating between religious-linguistic traditions is removed, we are still confronted with the question of how a particular concept is understood differently across vast stretches of time and space within a particular tradition. Atif Khalil's Repentance and the Return to God: Tawba in Early Sufism addresses these fundamental questions in a particularly salient manner. Khalil's object of analysis is the commonplace human experience of contrition, repentance and atonement and the consequences of transgression. More specifically, he examines the concept of tawba in the Islamic, and especially early Sufi¸ tradition and the way in which the term "repentance" is an inadequate translation to capture the full range of meanings of "tawba", though in the final analysis "repentance" does capture the essence of it. The notion of tawba is so commonplace that scholars of Islam have perhaps taken it for granted such that, according to Khalil (p. 2), prior to his book no book-length academic treatment of it has been published. Whereas the notion of repentance is commonplace, especially in the Abrahamic religions, Khalil's analysis is anything but commonplace. The book is divided into two parts. Part I (Chs. 1-2) provides a lexical and semantic analysis of tawba as used in the Quran. Part II (Chs. 3-7) delves into how the early Sufis from the late-7th c. to the 11th c. CE approached tawba as a practical and necessary component of a spiritual path. Through an internal analysis of Quranic references to tawba, Part I provides a detailed and meticulous lexical and semantic survey of how tawba connects the human being to God and vice versa. Readers familiar with the work of the Japanese Islamicist and philosopher of language Toshihiko Izutsu (d. 1993) will find Khalil's application of Izutsu's method insightful for Sufism's conceptualization of the Divine-human relationship. Khalil convincingly demonstrates that when the Quran instructs human beings to engage in tawba it is not only referring to [End Page 1] feelings of contrition and remorse, as the term "repentance" denotes. Instead, the Quran is instructing human beings to turn to God and to turn away from the sinning act. But that is not all. Khalil's analysis really comes into its own when he points out that the Quran uses the same root (t-w-b) and its cognates of the word for tawba to refer to God as turning to human beings. Khalil argues that clearly God's tawba refers not to His repentance, for God is without sin, but to His always already turning toward the human being (i.e. God as al-tawwab, The One Who Turns [to human beings]). The interplay between Divine tawba and human tawba leads to a mutual relation between the Divine and human beings. Thus, it is possible to speak about Divine and human tawba in the Quran, but not to Divine and human repentance, for repentance as remorse, contrition and acts of expiation apply only to the human being. In this sense, repentance is an inadequate translation of the Quranic notion of tawba since repentance is restricted to a one-sided act by the sinful human being. By contrast, the dual usage of the same root of tawba leads later Sufi writers and theoreticians to emphasize the co-creation of human destiny: human beings partake as cocreators in Divine activity. In a particularly salient passage, Khalil eloquently describes this dialectical relationship as depicted in different verses in the Quran in which God and the human being jointly partake of a process of turning and re/turning to one another: "God turns to the human being in tawba, after he falls, through an act of mercy; the human being responds...

God's Patients: Chaucer, Agency, and the Nature of Laws

God's Patients: Chaucer, Agency, and the Nature of Laws

The Apocalypse of John: A Commentary.

Moloney offers a narrative reading of Revelation. Following the suggestions of Eugenio Corsini’s 1983 commentary (2nd edition 2002), Moloney concludes that Revelation should not be read as an apocalypse describing God’s impending judgment. Rather, John “bends” apocalyptic language and transforms its symbolism to present a meditation on divine activity throughout history, culminating in the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus. The following highlights are provided to illustrate how Moloney interprets the Apocalypse.In Rev. 1:1–3, God speaks to John through Jesus Christ. Thus, “the book should be understood as the manifestation of what God has done through Jesus Christ . . . God’s revelatory action takes place in Jesus Christ” (p. 42). The events described in Revelation occur en tachys (1:1a), which Moloney interprets as occurring “quickly,” or, “unstoppably,” rather than as chronologically “soon.” John is not concerned about when the events he describes occur but with how they happen (p. 42). Revelation is, therefore, a prophetic word exhorting all believers, symbolized by the seven churches of Rev 1–3, to remain faithful to their confession. This faithfulness is exemplified not only by obedient Christians but also by the faithful of Israel, such as the Maccabean martyrs.Revelation 4–5 introduces the universal character of John’s vision. The scroll of Rev 5:3–7 represents the Scriptures of Israel. The scroll is opened by the Lamb, who symbolizes both Jesus’s Davidic ancestry and Jesus’s role as the sacrificial, atoning Lamb of God. Both roles are reflected by the Lamb’s opening of the seven seals. Moloney asserts the horseman of the first seal is the triumphant Christ, who is also the conquering Word of God of Rev 19:11–20. The next three horsemen represent an allegorical reading of Gen 3. Through these images John meditates on the disastrous impact of humanity’s expulsion from Eden. Moloney next asserts that opening of the fifth seal (Rev 6:9–11) contrasts the impact of humanity’s fall described in seals two through four with the faithful martyrs under the heavenly altar who ask God to avenge their deaths. These martyrs, however, are not Christians executed for their faith. Rather, they are Israel’s persecuted and executed prophets (Matt 23:29–31), and the Maccabean martyrs (2 Macc 6–7; 4; 4 Maccabees). Likewise, the 144,000 of Rev 7:1–8 are the faithful of Israel, whereas the innumerable multitude of 7:9–17 symbolizes the Christian multitude that joins Israel and lives in anticipation of God’s final act of judgment.The second woe of Rev 9:13–11:14 refers to God’s dealings with both humanity and Israel. Revelation 9:13–21 describes how the curse of incessant warfare impacts humankind. However, all is not hopeless. Only a third of humanity perishes. Nevertheless, humans do not accept God’s offer of repentance (9:20–21). The mighty angel with the little scroll of Rev 10 envisions God’s intervention into human history. Thus, the little scroll is not to be identified with the scroll of Rev 5. Rather, the little scroll of Rev 10, which is sweet to John’s taste but bitter to his stomach, symbolizes that God’s “intervention [in human affairs] is incomplete” (p. 153).God’s partial intervention in history occurred through the election of Israel. God’s complete work occurs in Rev 11:1–14, where the temple and the two prophets represent God’s presence in Israel. Revelation 11 is a meditation on Dan 7:1–8, the rise of the four kingdoms opposed to God and God’s people, and Dan 9:26–27, the desecration of the temple. After the witnesses’ martyrdom, their bodies lay unburied for three and a half days, a reflection of the three and a half years the temple was profaned under Antiochus IV. Moloney also asserts that the city of Rev 11:8 is Jerusalem, not Rome. Moloney connects the city of Rev 11 with Babylon of Rev 17:1–19:8. Both refer to Jerusalem, a hypothesis that is also asserted by scholars such as Lohmeyer and F. Danker.Moloney also suggests that the women of Rev 12:1–17, 17:1–18, and the bride of Rev 21:9-22:5 represent the same woman at different points of her existence. In Rev 12, she symbolizes the fall of humanity. In 17:1–18 “Babylon” describes an apostate Israel. Ultimately, Israel is redeemed as the New Jerusalem and as the redeemed community combined with post-Christ believers to becomes the bride of Christ of Rev 21:9–22:5.Moloney’s reading is intriguing. If John “bends” apocalyptic language, he is not describing the “end of history.” Rather, he presents a vision of God’s faithfulness to the covenant community despite the deprecations of humanity’s fall from grace and demonic opposition to God and God’s people. John’s vision becomes a timeless message for all God’s people, past, present, and future. While not all will agree with Moloney’s commentary, his suggestions are worthy of consideration.

Contingency, Free Will, and Particular Providence

The results from contemporary science, especially the theory of evolution and quantum physics, seem to favor process theology. Moreover, the evil committed by free will leads some theologians to reduce divine action in order to prevent God from being responsible for evil. Thus, among those who defend a particular providence, Molinism finds many followers. This article first argues that contemporary science does not constrain us to deny particular providence. Second, it criticizes the implicitly deterministic character of Molinism. Thirdly, a Thomistic solution is proposed as an alternative which, by means of a different metaphysical approach to cosmic contingency and freedom of will, defends particular providence without reducing divine activity except in personal sins.

Truth, Identity, Pluralism in Contemporary Society - Gandhi's Response

This paper explores Gandhi’s attitude towards diversity of religions and examines as to how he attempted to bring inter-faith harmony. Religious diversity has been a topic of serious debate in the contemporary philosophical discourse on understanding religion. Religious pluralism is one of the approaches that deal with issues concerning the diversity of religions. It is believed that no single religion can make absolute claims about the nature of divine reality, its relation to man and the world. It stands in direct opposition to exclusivism, inclusivism and also to fundamentalism by denying that any one religion is the sole possession of the whole truth. Different religions seem to put forward different and incompatible interpretations about the nature of ultimate reality, about the modes of divine activity, the nature and destiny of the human race.

Rowan Williams’s Christ the Heart of Creation

Abstract This article engages Rowan Williams’s Christ the Heart of Creation. Its first section is interpretative. It reads Williams’s book as commending a noncompetitive account of divine and creaturely activity, a strong version of divine aseity, and an expansive ecclesiological-ethical vision. A second section lauds the breadth of Williams’s perspective and his commitment to public intellectual witness. A third section focuses on critique. It draws on Barth in order to advocate a more capacious approach to theological ontology than Williams allows; and it draws on liberationist insights to lend Williams’s christological program a sharper political edge.

Divine Action and the Human Mind

Divine Action and the Human Mind

David O. Brown, Incarnation and Neo-Darwinism: Evolution, Ontology and Divine Activity

David O. Brown, <i>Incarnation and Neo-Darwinism: Evolution, Ontology and Divine Activity</i>

ИГРАЮЩИЕ И СМЕЮЩИЕСЯ БОГИ ИЗ ДИАЛОГОВ ПЛАТОНА В КОММЕНТАРИЯХ ПРОКЛА ДИАДОХА

“Socrates’ irony” is a well-known topos even for those readers who are far from ancient philosophy. Dialogues of Plato contain different modes of humour, from mild self-irony to quite sarcastic tones. Plato’s gods are ‘playful,’ they treat people as those were ‘playthings.’ The best way of mortals’ life is to play also, spending their time in “sacrificing, singing, and dancing.” However, Neoplatonic commentaries to Plato tend to avoid explicit laughter and any direct mode of humour. Proclus Lycaeus, one of the most fruitful commentators of Plato, seems to disregard anything ludicrous in Plato’s writing. The places, where Plato speaks about laughter or playing games, are explained by Proclus as signs to some kind of divine activity towards the material realm. Even smile and laughter of particular humans are interpreted in the same way as symbols (synthēmata) of gods’ providence. What Proclus discusses in minor details, is the dialectics of gods’ procession into the sensible world, causing substantiation of the universe, and retention of the internal bonds that keep it eternal and unchangeable. Similarly, temporary particular beings also benefit from divine providence, which fortifies their vital capabilities. In general, these forms of providence are depicted by “the undying laughter” of gods. In spite of this approach seeming to be superfluously ‘scholastic’ and therefore losing the dramatic perspective of Plato’s writings, we suggest that Proclean interpretation may assume laughter to be related to some theurgic practice. Therefore, reading and interpretation the game- and laughter-related passages of Plato could have been considered themself a kind of theurgic “sacred play.”

Polkinghorne on Metaphysics of Divine Action: Presuppositions and Implications

This article is an effort to evaluate the epistemological and ontological presuppositions of John Polkinghorne's interpretation of the mechanism of God’s special action. Briefly, it can be said that in his view, God forms and models the world's processes with His act of injecting pure active information, but neither determines nor devolves them to energetic causality. His formulation is based on some presuppositions, such as a personal account of God, seeing the world as a chaotic system, ontological monism, and a critical realist approach in epistemology. The article has tried to answer four main questions: Is Polkinghorne's formulation of divine action based on a mere iteration of the god of deism? Is his formulation of divine action a mere pointless rework of a causal system which rules the world? Does this interpretation of divine activity mean divine intervention? And is his formulation an iteration of natural theology?

‘A field of divine activity’: Divine aseity and holy scripture in dialogue with John Webster and Karl Barth

AbstractIn dialogue with John Webster and Karl Barth, this essay considers the intersection of divine aseity and holy scripture. I argue that the doctrine of holy scripture is constituted by a backward reference, namely, the plentiful life of the triune God. The doctrine of divine aseity denotes God's self-existent triune life, which anchors God's bestowal of life. Construed negatively, aseity establishes the incommensurability of God and creatures by distinguishing, without sundering, scripture and God's self-communicative presence. Construed positively, aseity constitutes scripture as ‘a field of divine activity’, the sphere of the life-giving missions of the Word and Spirit. The triune God who livesa se, elects the texts of scripture to serve as intermediaries of God's vivifying address.

The Splendor of Transfiguration at the Heart of the Christian Life: The Influence of Pope Saint Paul VI on Veritatis Splendor

The Splendor of Transfiguration at the Heart of the Christian Life:The Influence of Pope Saint Paul VI on Veritatis Splendor Renée Köhler-Ryan On the sixth of August, 1993, Pope Saint John Paul II signed Veritatis Splendor.1 That date, the liturgical feast day of the Transfiguration of Our Lord, is significant for several reasons, each of which reveals a dimension of the "splendor" of truth about which he writes. The point most focused on here is that John Paul II's identification of Paul VI as the "Pope of the Transfiguration" may be an influence on the document. His admiration of his predecessor's encyclicals, particularly those that highlight the moral life and the importance of the Church in the world, offer various dimensions to consider about the splendor of truth about which he speaks.2 This comes to the fore with a close reading of the homilies and addresses that John Paul gave on the feast of the Transfiguration throughout his pontificate. Thereby, the thesis emerges that Veritatis Splendor may be an extension, a response, and even an homage to Paul's Ecclesiam Suam (1964).3 Paul's encyclical, also issued on the feast of the Transfiguration, argues that the Church acts as Christ's source of illumination at the heart of the world. John Paul seems to consider this further evidence of Paul's [End Page 255] deeply personal love of the Church. Such illumination is due to the way that Christians lead their daily lives, in the light of Christ's law of love. Paul VI says in Ecclesiam Suam that he does not have the space to articulate exactly how the moral life and action work. Yet, he emphasizes how important daily life is for this essential work of the Church. The argument here is that Veritatis Splendor seems to pick up the task of articulating just how such a moral life develops. In John Paul's chosen title, "splendor" illuminates how the transcendental of goodness is inseparable from both truth (veritas) and beauty. To lead a good life, in charity, is to live in truth and to become beautiful—by imitating Christ and reflecting the light of divine life. Thus God, the true beauty, is known as Creator and exemplar: he reveals the inner form of the Christian life, which constantly in turn announces itself in morally good actions in the world. To see Christ in unveiled glory is to glimpse the contours of divine activity, which human life can reflect when it strives toward the truth. Fittingly then, from the initial statement of the text onward, a major theme in Veritatis Splendor is that humans are made in God's image; and that this image is most clearly known by contemplating the Son of God, incarnate and glorious on Mount Tabor.4 The encyclical adverts to the revelation that humans may be made to reflect God's glory, but that their capacity to fully be his image has become corrupted through sin.5 Only when humans freely choose to live the moral law in charity can they become once more untarnished, and radiate the life of Christ: this is the possibility of human transfiguration that is particularly evident in the lives and deaths of the martyrs and saints.6 This link between the Transfiguration and splendor has already been articulated by J. A. DiNoia, O.P., who argues that "the date upon which this great encyclical was signed provides a key to unlocking its meaning, that transfiguration and communion are at its heart."7 DiNoia is far [End Page 256] from alone in arguing that these themes signify the way that the encyclical fundamentally reorients moral theology toward the heart of why Christians live according to the divinely revealed moral law. This article discusses him more overtly than others because he makes the direct link between the encyclical and the mystery of the Transfiguration.8 John Paul II states his intentions in writing the encyclical, which are mainly to address certain defects at play in his time in the realm of moral theology. He really goes further than this, though, to emphasize the importance of orthodox moral teaching...