Divine Nature Research Articles

There is Hope in the Incarnation—Challenging the Bibliological Docetism of Today’s Evangelicalism

The authors argue that the future existence of evangelicalism as an ecclesial tradition depends on its ability and courage to re-imagine the dual nature, human and divine, of the Bible as written revelation and, consequently, to renew the way that this community engages with it. Such an endeavour requires a new way of understanding and engaging with the Bible that can be built around the model of the Incarnation. As mainline Protestants, who ministered for many years in evangelical ecclesial communities and who have conducted extensive doctoral and post-doctoral research in patristic and contemporary theological studies, the authors are convinced that if evangelicalism is to survive and flourish in the complexities of the contemporary world, it requires a new hermeneutic. It should move away from a dominating docetic view of the Scripture, which overemphasises its divine nature, to the detriment, and sometimes the total neglect, of its human authorship, to give a full account of its dual nature, equally divine and human.

Divine ambiguity: A philosophical inquiry into God’s uncertain decisions

The debate surrounding the nature and attributes of God as presented in the Bible has garnered significant attention and critique from various philosophical perspectives like Friedrich Nietzsche, Bertrand Russell and David Hume. This philosophical critique emphasises the inconsistency in the nature of God and challenges traditional theological beliefs. The expression of regret by the God of the Bible in Genesis 6:6 raises philosophical dilemmas regarding divine attributes and the problem of evil. The contradiction between God’s regret and the affirmation of his creation as good underscores fundamental questions about divine omniscience, omnipotence and benevolence. The presence of evil and suffering in the world poses a significant challenge to the notion of a loving and all-powerful God. Examples of human suffering, such as slavery, colonisation, apartheid and natural disasters, further highlight the complexity of reconciling divine attributes with the existence of evil. Philosophically analysing biblical narratives, such as the story of Job, Noah’s flood and the plagues of Egypt, raises ethical concerns regarding divine justice and the moral agency of humanity. Additionally, the indiscriminate punishment of innocent individuals in these narratives challenges the credibility of a benevolent and compassionate God. The philosophical inquiry into the problem of evil and natural disasters underscores the need for a nuanced understanding of divine attributes and their implications for human existence.Contribution: The study encourages reflection on key questions about the nature of divinity, the morality of divine actions, and the compatibility of traditional theology with rational thought. It highlights how inconsistencies in certain biblical accounts challenge those trying to balance faith with reason and scientific understanding. While some may view these narratives as metaphors or allegories, others find it difficult to align them with their intellectual beliefs, resulting in tensions between religious faith and scientific rationality.

Μετοχῇ Θεότητος: Partakers of Divinity in Origen’s Contra Celsum

Abstract: Origen employs the words μετοχῇ θεότητος in Contra Celsum 3.37, which could be translated as “participating in divine nature.” There are two academic perspectives on this phrase. One sees this phrase to be a deification reference to 2 Peter 1.4, and Origen is said to be the first author to use the verse’s wording to refer to followers of Christ as “partakers of the divine nature.” The other view considers this phrase a simple comment on the divine realm, reflecting the understanding of Origen regarding the divinity of angels. The paper at hand provides clarification for the phrase μετοχῇ θεότητος, positioning it in Origen’s overall understanding of deification, and challenging the two scholarly stances on this phrase. First, this paper shows that Contra Celsum 3.37 does not intend to reference 2 Peter 1.4, but likely signals completely different biblical references. Second, the paper examines the language and context of Origen’s statement to show that this phrase is not only a comment on the divinity of angels, but also reflects Origen’s thoughts on human deification. In doing so, this paper analyzes Origen’s terminology and his philosophical approach towards human theosis in order to propose an answer to the questions of who is deified, who is not deified, and what it means to share in divinity. Overall, it becomes clear that in addition to commenting on angels, the phrase μετοχῇ θεότητος summarizes Origen’s understanding of human deification, even if not as a reference to 2 Peter 1.4. It reflects a human-angel continuum and posits a direct human participation in God.

Unity in Reason: Mendelssohn on the Conflict between Common Sense and Speculation

The paper aims to clarify Mendelssohn’s stance on speculative philosophy by connecting the conflict between common sense and speculation with the notion of approval-drive. It argues that Mendelssohn identifies a principle of existence in the faculty of approval, aligning common sense with the divine nature, thereby challenging the skepticism inherent in metaphysical speculation. By invoking God’s creative impetus, Mendelssohn demonstrates that the ontologically abundant world conceived by common sense is more consistent with the divine nature than the ontologically impoverished worlds envisioned by metaphysicians. This approach positions Mendelssohn within the tradition of Descartes, Spinoza and Leibniz, emphasizing the role of the divine intellect as the guarantee of the accord between perceived and actual reality.

God, Philosophers and Theologians in Africa

There is renewed interest in philosophical and theological investigations about God, religions and the implications of religious beliefs among philosophers and theologians in Africa. This development is itself profitable because the question or the problem of God is a relevant discourse in Africa where the majority of people are theists. However, unlike the exploration of the first-generation African scholars—philosophers and theologians—whose primary objective was to show the symmetry between Christianity and African Traditional Religions (ATR), contemporary discourses arise within the clamour for decoloniality. The investigations, with varied emphasis, advocate the decolonisation of the concept of God, epistemic decolonisation, decolonisation of Christianity and African Christian theology, etc. In this essay, I critically examine the contemporary decolonial discourse about God, divine attributes, religious belief, and the relationship between African Christian theology and ATR. I argue that most of the contemporary literature is entangled in conceptual convolution and as such, there is a lack of clarity about what needs to be decolonised. Put differently, most works do not clearly distinguish between reality (the person or phenomenon “God”), thought (the concept “God”), and conceptions of God (language, that is, the terms and images used in making assertions about God). Further, I argue that when conceptual clarifications are adequately attended to, there is no need for decolonisation of discourses about God, divine nature, divine attributes, and the relationship between Christianity and ATR.

Can Quantum Contextuality Help to Understand the Contextuality of Theology?

ABSTRACT The precise formal account of the contextuality of the quantum measurement provided by the Kochen-Specker theorem allows for a unique insight into the nature of the contextuality of theological language. The conceptual analysis carried out in this paper has demonstrated that despite of the methodological difficulties in juxtaposing theoretical physics and theology, legitimate bridges can be established between them whereby quantum contextuality may serve as a model of contextuality in theology. A structural factor in the form of a richer logic proper to the Divine nature has been identified as the possible source of contextuality of theological discourse.

Theosis of homoiōsis Theōi? Bijbelse voorstellingen van deïficatie door Grieks-Romeinse ogen

This essay argues that the contemporary philosophical discourse of ‘becoming like god’ (homoiōsis theōi) offers a relevant cultural frame to analyse both the convergences and divergences between Platonic, Stoic, Epicurean, and diverse biblical takes on deification. In particular, participation in the divine nature (2 Peter 1:4) is interpreted in light of the close connection between ontological and ethical transformation found in Graeco-Roman sources. Additionally, it is observed that Paul limits his expressions of‘becoming like’ to Christ as the ultimate ‘image of God’, this in line with mediating figures in Middle Platonic traditions - traditions which were also concerned with upholding divine transcendence. The biblical material on this theme is found to be distinctive in at least three aspects: in the critical function and democratizing effect of the ‘image of God’ motive, in the kenosis and suffering of the mediating Image, and in the collective nature of the transformation, encompassing whole communities and, in somecases, the whole of creation.

The image of the luminosity of the divine nature of Christ in the Western European temple decoration of the IV-VIII centuries.

The main subject of this research is the tradition of visual representation of the luminosity of the divine nature in Western European Christian art of the IV-VIII centuries. The objects of study are fragments of monumental temple decorations containing images, both literal and symbolic, of this divine phenomenon, as well as written sources related to the interpretation of these images. The focus of the research is on the Western European artistic tradition of depicting the halo of Christ and its change during the period under review. The purpose of this work, which is the first part of the study, the chronological framework of which covers the period from the IV to the XIII centuries, was to compile a holistic view of the development of the iconographic tradition of representing the theme "I am the light of the world", the luminosity of the divine nature of Christ in the context of the study of the visual language of Western European medieval religious art of the IV-VIII centuries. The visual sources of this work are Christian churches that have preserved the monumental decoration of the IV - VIII centuries, which are located on the territory of Rome, Ravenna, Milan, Naples and surrounding areas. The methodology on which this research is based is represented by typological, iconographic and formal stylistic methods of analysis. The novelty of the present study is a detailed analysis and systematization of various visual representations of the luminosity of the divine nature of Christ, first of all, variants of the image of the halo and their transformation over time. Based on the studied sources, the author has compiled a certain classification picture, which allows forming a holistic view of the formation and development of the artistic tradition of representing this topic.

On Beall’s contradictory Christology and beyond

According to Conciliar Christology, Christ has a divine nature and a human nature. This dual nature of Christ leads us to face many apparent inconsistencies: For example, it seems to follow that He is both immutable and mutable (and, therefore, not immutable). This long-standing issue in Christology has been called the fundamental problem of Christology. Recently, Jc Beall has proposed a novel approach to the fundamental problem: contradictory Christology, that is, Christology which takes those apparent inconsistencies as genuinely contradictory. This paper examines Beall’s contradictory Christology by comparing it with James Anderson’s version of consistent Christology. Such a comparison highlights an important assumption of Beall’s contradictory Christology, that is, the language used to state the fundamental problem is univocal. ‘Immutable’ is, thus, used in the same literal sense in both `Christ is immutable’ and `Christ is not immutable’. On the one hand, this assumption has a good reason given the human nature of Christ. On the other hand, we follow Anderson in showing that the view that `immutable’ is equivocal has a good reason too. For there is an established theological tradition according to which, when we speak about the divine, our language is analogical. In light of those considerations, this paper presents a semantic explication of how the predicates used to state the fundamental problem are both literal and analogical. The proposed semantics treats those predicates as cases of multiple denotations and shows that the apparent inconsistencies are genuinely contradictory, but in a different way from Beall’s contradictory Christology.

Allegorical Vision: The Promotion of the Senses and the Vision of the Entendimiento in Calderón’s El cubo de la Almudena

The following article examines the role of the sentidos and the entendimiento in Pedro Calderón de la Barca’s auto sacramental, El cubo de la Almudena. While scholarship recognises the pervasiveness of the play on the senses in early modern Spain, scholars often either deny or overemphasise the reliability of the senses as a means of truth acquisition. Moreover, scholarship often attaches too much weight to hearing, thus neglecting the role of the eyes of the entendimiento. Based on a Thomistic framework, Calderón demonstrates that the literal element of allegory relies on the active vehicle of the senses to serve as guides for the entendimiento and an entrance into devotion. Although hearing plays a central role in the play, it serves as a herald for sight, by which the devotee exercises faith. Moreover, where the sentidos prove limited, the entendimiento is an auxiliary support that makes up for their lack, seeing beyond sensual perception through faith. In this way, the medium of the auto sacramental and the theology of the Eucharist train the audience to use the vision of faith through both the senses and the entendimiento to see the allegorical meaning of the play, the divine nature of the Eucharist provided by Mary.

THE CONCEPT OF COMMON HUMANITY (COMPARATIVE STUDY BETWEEN INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS LAW AND THE OBJECTIVES OF ISLAMIC SHARIA

The realization and safeguarding of interests are crucial for actualizing human essence, preserving their existence and dignity, and aligning with their inherent nature. These objectives stand as primary pursuits within all systems and laws, given that these interests (rights) are universally shared. This is further driven by the reality that suppresses this essence, contradicting its divine nature. Hence, it becomes imperative to define and rectify the conceptual and real dimensions of these shared interests. These are referred to in legal contexts related to human rights as "human commonality" or "human shared interests." What does "human commonality" encompass ?

Creation in Christ in Aquinas’s Creation Theology in the Light of His References to the Pauline Letters

Creation in Christ in Aquinas’s Creation Theology in the Light of His References to the Pauline Letters

“Christ Is Speaking”: The Psalms as the Grammar of Augustine’s Sermons

The Psalms saturated Augustine’s sermons. He believed they were God’s words to the church as inspired Scripture, and the church’s words to God as prayer and praise. In the Psalms, he saw kenosis, the downward-directed God in Christ who emptied himself to take on human nature to stand in solidarity with the church and creation. He saw, too, the possibility of deification, the upward-directed church in Christ raised to share in the divine nature. Furthermore, Augustine believed that Christ himself spoke in the Psalms so that in them the church could hear his voice and come to know its own voice. In this essay, I examine why Augustine cherished the Psalms, and I consider how this might inspire contemporary preachers to cherish them and preach them. Moreover, I offer Augustine’s Christocentric preaching of the Psalms as a paradigm for how preachers might facilitate Christological formation among their congregants.

The Filioque Controversy: Analysing Theological Differences between the Western and Eastern Churches

The Filioque is a theological issue that has caused a divide in the Christian Churches, with the Western Churches (Latin Church) and Eastern Churches having different understandings of the procession of the Holy Spirit. The Western Churches believe that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son, while the Eastern Churches believe that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father alone. The Western Churches have a strong emphasis on the one divine nature, while the Eastern Churches have a strong focus on the monarchy of the Father. This difference in theological perspective has created complications in the theological dialogue between the two regions. Despite these differences, the two theological traditions share the same faith perspective and can bear valuable fruit in theological thinking. The Filioque debate has been a longstanding issue in the Christian Churches, and despite efforts to regain unity, the problem remains unresolved.

The anthropology of Islamic modernism – Jadidism

Introduction. This article is an attempt to study the anthropological views of Jadidism, one of the trends of Islamic modernist reformism aimed at bringing Muslim fundamental religious values closer to secular European culture. In an attempt to bring traditional Muslim anthropological categories closer to the European humanistic understanding of man, Jadid thought forms an updated Westernized version of Muslim anthropology.Materials and Methods. The material for the article was the researches of R. S. Khakimov, H. Bekiri, A. H. Basyrov, D. M. Iskhakov, M. Iqbal, M. Аbduh, G. Marranci, devoted to the analysis of anthropological concepts of Jadidism, formulating the basic principles of human perception by Islamic modernism. The article uses methods of systematic and comparative analysis, generalization and historical and philosophical analysis.Results. The conducted research shows that Jadidism develops the concepts of human freedom and personality, overcoming the determinism traditional for Islam, rethinks the anthropic principle in religious Muslim categories. The emphasis is placed on the personal beginning of a person, the center of his activity, due to the rational component and the presence of free will. Using these tools, a person communicates with the divine principle through the knowledge of the universe, synergistically applying the religious precepts of Islam in combination with the current scientific picture of the world. At the same time, the process of self-knowledge of a person as essentially refracting the divine nature in his nature is also important.Discussion and Conclusions. The author of the study managed to conduct a comparative, systematic and historical-philosophical analysis of the anthropological positions of Islamic modernist reformism – Jadidism – in the works of both domestic and foreign thinkers. As a result, the author managed to carry out a comprehensive analysis of the basic anthropological principles of Jadidism, as well as to trace the influence of various factors on the formation of the anthropology of Islamic modernism.

Made in the Image of God: Seeing Humanity as God Sees Us

While many within the Christian tradition believe that humanity has been made in the image of God, there are differing views of what happened to that divine image once sin and brokenness entered the world. If we believe that our divine nature has been lost or is something to be attained, it follows that we might easily recognize the image of God in some (such as those we consider “saved”) while having a harder time recognizing God’s image within others, especially those who are different from us. A colleague of mine shared a statement that summarizes the danger of this phenomenon well: “when we fail to recognize someone’s divinity, we fail to recognize their humanity.” Great thinkers and social activists such as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Archbishop Desmond Tutu have also stressed the importance of recognizing the divine image that is inherent in all people in order to prevent dehumanization, which leads to injustice and oppression. This paper will explore some of these thoughts in relation to the evolution of St. Augustine’s understanding of what it means to be made in the image of God. By applying Augustine’s three different perspectives on what sin does to our divine image, we will see the consequences of failing to recognize the divinity of others. This reality can show up today in everyday situations such as fearing or distrusting our neighbors, hurting others through attempts to show God’s “love”, and even in atrocities such as treating civilians and children as “collateral damage” in war. When we are truly able to see the image of God in ourselves and each other, we are compelled to genuinely love those who are different from us, including those we believe to be our enemies.

Аrguments contra Divine atemporality in today’s analytic theology and some new counterarguments against them

Albeit it is only a half of century that the issue of Divine (a)temporality entered the agenda of big discussions within analytic philosophical theology, it has become one of the keenest controversial topics, and voices against God’s timelessness are getting louder. The author avows that although Divine nature as it is is inaccessible for a created mind, some other matters, i. e. which conceptions of it do correspond to the real theism and which don’t, as well as which of them fit better to the definition of God as the most perfect Being (quo melius nihil cogitari potest) and which fit worse are quite under its power. He offers responses to the majority of the arguments against Divine timelessness by using centuries-long dialectical methods but some of them are postponed for forthcoming special scrutiny. Obsecuiousness to evolutionism as the pretended one and only scientific worldview and some other attributes of the profound inner secularization of theology are highlighted as the main reasons of the temporalists’ appeal. Meanwhile, it is mentioned as well that polemics with them can be useful for theism inasmuch as it stimulates deeper meditation on those Divine attributes that seem as it were too self-evident.

Konsep Manusia Dalam Pandangan Svami Vivekananda: Sebuah Kajian Antropologi Metafisik

Man, on the one hand, is understood as a creation on earth, like all earthly things, and on the other hand, a man appears on earth and seeks to reach a higher life. Higher life here is a level of life that has a higher quality in a more transcendental sense compared to everyday life in this world. Humans can thus be understood in essence or human existence along with the activities and characteristics attached to it. So that in this context there are various mentions for humans because they have complex natures. But it is also necessary to explore human reality based on the ontological elements of the human being to answer the question of whether humans are formed from one element, two, or even plural. So this study aims to explore ontologically human nature from the view of Svami Vivekananda. This study uses a qualitative method with a philosophical hermeneutic approach. The results of this study indicate that Vivekananda views humans as essentially the same as Brahman, in the sense that humans are existentially different from Brahman but are essentially the same as Brahman. Vivekananda describes the body as the name of a series of changes. This is understandable because the body is always changing and is composed of changing particles. The real man is the soul, not the body. This explanation also seems to be a form of direct rejection of materialism. And man has the divine nature of God.

Philanthropia as Skopos of the Incarnation: The Deifying Vocation of Humanity in Maximus the Confessor

AbstractAbstract: Maximus the Confessor's belief that the Incarnation would have happened without a Fall is a key facet of his thought, yet contradicts portions of his corpus which state that God became human due to sin. I assert that Maximus affirms a prelapsarian motive of the Incarnation for two reasons: his conception of deification as participation and understanding of humanity's original vocation. Deification and vocation are presented by Maximus in such a way that they could have only been fulfilled through Christ's Incarnation; the joining of human and divine natures is not a soteriological necessity. Analysing accounts of the Fall of Adam in both the Questiones ad Thalassium and the Ambiguum demonstrate that the Confessor reconciles the historic need for salvation with the will of God from all eternity. I argue that a reading of Ambigua 41 in the context of the Maximian corpus reveals an all‐encompassing reason for the Incarnation. Philanthropy (φιλανθρωπία), God's love for humanity, is the motive (σκοπός) for the Incarnation that embraces the divine preexistent intention without contradicting soteriology.

A Magnificent Empress, A Brilliant Old Man, and an Ugly Navigator

Abstract Although the legend of Empress Jingū and her divinely mandated conquest of the Korean peninsula first appeared in the Kojiki and Nihon shoki, narratives of Empress Jingū proliferated in the fourteenth century. Following the Mongol Invasions, shifts in worldview, particularly regarding Japan’s relationship with the Asian continent, contributed to changes in how kami were conceptualized. In late medieval Jingū narratives, the kami who assist Empress Jingū take corporeal forms and become active agents in the human world. Drawing on Ernst Jentsch, Motoori Norinaga, and Rudolph Otto, I argue that these kami inhabit uncanny bodies: their physical forms appear human, but contain uncanny attributes that reveal their divinity to observant humans within the narrative. From Jingū in suprahuman form, Sumiyoshi as an old yet incredibly strong man, and Azumi no Isora’s barnacle-encrusted face, I illustrate how uncanny aspects of the physical bodies of kami signify their divine nature.