Divine Reality Research Articles

DASAR EPISTEMOLOGI DALAM FILSAFAT PENDIDIKAN ISLAM

Epistemology is the study of the source of knowledge or theories about science. Islamic epistemology views everything in a holistic manner that is not separate between aspects of the world and the hereafter, besides containing worldly values but also contains aspects of the afterlife. Epistemologically, knowledge in Islam is based on two things; first, through rational knowledge; secondly, through religious knowledge and experience, first is knowledge about beings and second is Divine reality. Therefore, in the philosophy of Islamic education, the source of knowledge is revelation over reason and the five senses. Revelation as the source of knowledge is what gives certainty to human reason about truth. Crisis of morality or human behavior is now an important factor occupying the epistemology base of true Islamic education, because education that is only able to educate intellectually and good skills is clearly considered a failure without being decorated with noble character.

Maxim the Confessor about Perfect Love

Introduction. The subject of study in the article was the experience of the ascent of the famous Byzantine theologian to the mystical-metaphysical contemplation of divine reality, embodied in his book “Chapters on Love”. According to the Orthodox version of the metaphysics of the Way, this ultimate goal can be achieved during life only in the process of hard and practical work of an ascetic, during which the task is set not only to kill worldly desires, but also to ultimately spiritual and moral purification of the monk’s soul. In this small work, Maxim the Confessor described in detail the technology of advancing an ascetic to the last stop and staying in a blissful state of perfect love for God. Materials and Methods. The source of the research was the works of the ancient Indian, Orthodox and Sufi ascetics, which are different versions of the metaphysics of the Way. During the work, mainly thematic and transcendental analysis methods were used, which together made it possible to track the desire of Maxim the Confessor to describe and comprehend the ascent of the Orthodox monk to the mystical-metaphysical contemplation of the Lord. Discussion. The author of the article in numbered and distributed throughout the chapters of the statements of the Byzantine theologian revealed a complex system of mystical and metaphysical views, which can be called the metaphysical theory of theology. From the point of view of modern methodology and philosophy of science, he created effective theoretical constructs “pure mind”, “perfect love”, “selfishness”, “thoughts” and others, which together fully describe the mystical existential reality of a harsh Orthodox monk, which is difficult to reflect by means of language. However, his reasoning is not speculative thoughts. It is quite obvious to the researcher that they are based on rich personal experience and other prominent ascetics of Byzantine Orthodoxy. Results. The study of the soulful book of Maximus the Confessor “Chapters on Love” allows you to advance in understanding one of the most important and the most difficult moments of the Orthodox version of the metaphysics of the Way.

The Agonistic Poetics of D\u0101sya-bh\u0101va: the Soteriological Confrontation Between Deity and Devotee

The devotional literatures across the Hindu bhakti traditions of medieval India are shaped by distinctive styles of affective responses to the divine reality. A theme which recurs in several layers of their songs is a theological dialectic between divine majesty and divine accessibility; the divine is not only simply transcendent in the sense of being a distant deity but is also immanently present in and through a range of human sensitivities, emotions, and affectivities. We will highlight the dialectic in the devotional songs of three medieval figures, Tulsīdās (c. 1600), Sūrdās (c. 1600), and Mādhavadeva (1489–1596), which are structured primarily by the devotional attitude of a servant (dāsa) towards the Lord. As we will see, this theological servitude is not to be understood as a form of abject servility, for the three poets, in their somewhat distinctive ways, can not only speak of the Lord as a friend and as a lover, but can even level various kinds of complaints, challenges, and accusations at the Lord. Thus, if the Lord’s transcendental sovereignty is emphasised by the devotee through the modes of self-censure, the Lord’s immanent availability is also highlighted through the protests that the devotee fervently makes to the seemingly uncaring Lord.

Thomas Aquinas on Abstinence and Fasting: Participating in Christ’s Cruciform Wisdom

This article argues that St. Thomas Aquinas’s treatise on temperance in the Summa Theologiae offers what in effect constitutes a series of embodied spiritual exercises whose goal is to facilitate the reader in his progress towards the contemplation of Divine realities. Attention to Thomas’s treatment of Christ’s Passion reveals moreover that the embodied wisdom practices of abstinence and fasting lead to a greater participation in the Cross of Christ and prepare the one who undertakes them for the reception of a cruciform wisdom. Finally, it is argued, these embodied wisdom practices also exert an influence on the pursuit of speculative theological wisdom.

Decolonial Theology in the North Atlantic World

Abstract This essay develops a response to the historical situation of the North Atlantic world in general and the United States in particular through theological reflection. It offers an overview of some decolonial perspectives with which theologians can engage, and argues for a general perspective for a decolonial theology as a possible response to modern/colonial structures and relations of power, particularly in the United States. Decolonial theory holds together a set of critical perspectives that seek the end of the modern/colonial world-system and not merely a democratization of its benefits. A decolonial theology, it is argued, critiques how the confinement of knowledge to European traditions has closed possibilities for understanding historical encounters with divinity, and thus possibilities of critical reflection. A decolonial theology reflects critically on a historical situation in light of faith in a divine reality, the understanding of which is liberated from the monopoly of modern/colonial ways of knowing, in order to catalyze social transformation.

Bahá’u’lláh’s Symbolic Use of the Veiled Ḥúríyyih

“Ḥúríyyih,” a term whose roots can be found in the Qur’án (44–54, 52:20, 56–22, and 55:72), refers to angelic female figures that reside in paradise and accompany the believers. In the Bahá’í Writings, the word has often been translated as “the Maid of Heaven,” a symbolic personifi cation of the divine reality of Bahá’u’lláh. In this article we explore how Bahá’u’lláh employs this figurative device to portray the forces at work in the context of His appearance as a Manifestation of God. In particular, we wish to examine the crucial symbolic role the unveiling of the Ḥúríyyih plays in relation to Bahá’u’lláh’s gradual unfolding of His mission. While some readers might believe the portrayal of this figure to be a literal depiction of the Holy Spirit appearing to Bahá’u’lláh, we hope to demonstrate that Bahá’u’lláh has, instead, created a figurative or symbolic portrayal of how He gradually reveals His guidance for this long-awaited era in human history—the “Day of Days,” the culmination of all previous revelations. Put simply, we feel that the image of the Ḥúríyyih does not represent a force separate from Bahá’u’lláh, but rather an expression of the Holy Spirit operating through the inherent spiritual capacity unique to a Manifestation of God.

Configuring the Politics of the Development of the Religious Courts

The Message (Arabic: الرسالة, Ar-Risālah; also known as Mohammad, Messenger of God) is a 1976 epic historical drama film directed by Moustapha Akkad. This film tells the life and journey of Prophet Muhammad S.A.W. Released in Arabic (1976) and English (1977), The Message is useful as an introduction to the early history of Islam, from various disciplines that discuss issues of public interest, go beyond documentation and analysis, and take the quality of human life in religion and society as a criterion for their recommendations. The approach chosen in this article is to focus on one particular aspect, namely the focus on the political configuration of Islam in Indonesia. Religion is one field that produces relations with holy or divine reality. While religion cannot survive without a form of power, the form given to political play in power establishes a sign of religious identity. Today, critical studies of religious differences have gained the urgency of politics which is very powerful in influencing civilization. Religion can act as a cause, but also as a problem solver. To form multidisciplinary thinking it is necessary to study religious differences in the actual corridors.

Religious Experience, Hindu Pluralism, and Hope: Anubhava in the Tradition of Sri Ramakrishna

The pluralistic turn in modern Hindu thought corresponds with the rise of an emphasis on direct experience of divine realities in this tradition. Both pluralism and a focus on experience have precedents in premodern Hindu traditions, but have become especially prominent in modern Hinduism. The paradigmatic example in the modern period of a religious subject embarking upon a pluralistic quest for direct experience of ultimate reality as mediated through multiple religious traditions is the nineteenth century Bengali sage, Sri Ramakrishna Paramahansa (1836–1886), whose most famous disciple, Swami Vivekananda (1863–1902) played a prominent role in the promotion of the idea of Hinduism as largely defined by a religious pluralism paired with an emphasis on direct experience. The focus in the teachings of Sri Ramakrishna and Swami Vivekananda on Brahman as a universal reality available, at least in principle, to being experienced by anyone, and interpreted using the categories of the experiencing subject’s religion or culture, gives rise to a corresponding pluralism: a move towards seeing many religions and philosophies as conducive to the experience of a shared ultimate reality. This paper will analyze the theme of experience in the thought of these two figures, and other figures who are representative of this broad trend in modern Hindu thought, as well as in conversation with recent academic philosophers and theorists of religious experience, John Hick and William Alston. It will also argue that aspects of Hinduism, such as pluralism and an emphasis on direct experience, that are often termed as ‘Neo-Vedantic’ or ‘Neo-Hindu’ are not simply modern constructs, as these terms seem to suggest, but are reflective of much older trends in Hindu thought that become central themes in the thought of key Hindu figures in the modern period. Finally, it shall be argued that a pluralistic approach to the diversity of religions, and of worldviews more generally, is to be commended as an approach more conducive to human survival than the current global proliferation of ethno-nationalisms.

I Am Your God: A D’var Torah on Parshat Yitro

What, in the religious imagination, was the point of the Ten Commandments and their dramatic revelation to Israel at Mount Sinai? After all, most of the Ten Commandments consist of the sort of general rules of conduct that the Israelites already knew. In any event, the Torah strongly suggests that Moses began receiving legal revelations from God even before Sinai. One obvious answer is that Sinai was not just an occasion to pass down the law. It was a theophany, a rare, awe-filled, direct encounter with the divine, an appearance of God to human beings. But that just provokes a further question: Why did the theophany at Sinai have to be filled with law? This D’var Torah’s tentative answer to these questions is that the Israelites did indeed bring their common-sense ideas about right and wrong to Sinai and then learned, amid the thunder and lighting, that the divine reality on the other side of the curtain includes those truths too: that the inner life of the universe is founded on straightforward principles of justice and truth, in addition to love and redemption. That is a revelation worth noting, and celebrating.

Aquinas's Two Concepts of Analogy and a Complex Semantics for Naming the Simple God

Aquinas's Two Concepts of Analogy and a Complex Semantics for Naming the Simple God Joshua P. Hochschild THE TOPIC OF "divine names" as treated by Aquinas can be traced back to pagan Greek thinkers, Aristotle and earlier. More proximately, it can be traced to a Christian heavily influenced by that Greek tradition, (Pseudo-)Dionysius. At the beginning of his commentary on Dionysius's Divine Names, Aquinas describes it and three other works of Dionysius in terms of their relation to human reason. Features of God that pertain to the three divine persons and their essential unity "find no adequate likeness" in creatures; these are mysteries "exceeding the whole faculty of natural reason," treated in De divinis hypotyposibus. There are other truths about God revealed in Scripture that "our intellect cannot conceive" and that "exceed all that which can be apprehended by us"; these are treated in a work on Mystical Theology. There are other divine features that can be investigated by human reason, insofar as "some likeness in creatures is found"; in that case, it is possible for our intellect to be led to conceive of God from creatures. Some of these are merely metaphorical similitudes, as when God is said to be a lion, a stone, or the sun. Such "likenesses" obtain "according to something transferred from creatures to God." These characteristics, truly in creatures and not properly in God, are treated in a work on Symbolic Theology. But some likenesses obtain because of "something that in creatures is derived from God." Such divine characteristics— [End Page 155] expressed in words like "good," "just," "wise," and "powerful"—are treated in the work On Divine Names.1 Thus, according to Aquinas, Dionysius's Divine Names treats what can be understood of the proper attributes of the one God that are knowable by reason. Though the work clearly draws inspiration from faith, we could anachronistically say that it functions very much as an exercise in "natural theology." In particular it reflects on how our concepts and language can be extended to God precisely because they are derived from likenesses that emanate from and participate in their preeminent, perfect source. Words express—even if in a very exceptional way—what we know about divine reality. For Dionysius, reflecting on these words and the ways that they express divine realities is a matter not just of theological language, but of theological epistemology and metaphysics: the divine names are an occasion to contemplate divinity and its attributes. [End Page 156] Although Aquinas is deeply informed by this work, when he writes his own theological treatises the topic of "divine names" becomes more circumscribed. In the Summa theologiae, question 13 of the Prima pars addresses divine naming, but quite a lot is said about God, and about our knowledge of God, in questions 2 through 12. (A comparable structure is evident in the Summa contra Gentiles.) We could say that Aquinas is content to engage in divine naming before making it an object of reflection in its own right, but it is clear that, for Aquinas, the topic of divine naming is a more circumscribed part of theology. Rather than encompassing the investigations of natural theology, it is about how, as Lawrence Dewan has described, certain words as applied to God have "a distinctive meaning … and a distinctive way of meaning what they mean."2 For Aquinas, as for Dionysius, the "names" in question are not proper names, but any true predicates of God. At issue are words like "good," "just," "wise," and "powerful"—even the very word "God" (which is not really a proper name, for Aquinas, but functions more like a common term, albeit a very unique common term). The presumption is that these words can be truly predicated of God. However, given God's otherness from the creaturely context in which such words are learned, how do these words function when they are predicated of God? In short, rather than encompassing natural theology tout court, Aquinas's own doctrine of divine names is what we might call a theological semantics. Aquinas's doctrine of analogy is sometimes taken to be almost coincident with the topic of divine names, or at least...

The Notion of the Image in the Teachings of Christian and Muslim Thinkers

Notwithstanding the difference in historical periods of creativity, in the treatises of some of the most famous thinkers both in Islamic culture and in the Christian world, ideas and understandings of the image are found as a notion that does not exhaust the perception of God, but is relevant to the pursuit of God's knowledge. The brief historical distance between the emergence of the Pseudo-Dionysian treatises and those of Islamic philosophy allows us to make a comparison between the two religious worldviews. The two monotheistic concepts of the manifestations of God in the visible world have common foundations in the Geek philosophy and the views of the Neoplatonists. The rich and tangled language in the Pseudo-Dionysian treatises reveals the two-sided process of the interrelation between the divine and human realities. In the texts of the Muslim thinker Muhammad al- Ghazālī, the image of the contemplative man's ascension to the Almighty and indescribable God is also revealed. This article attempts to compare the patterns of thought through which these two philosophers, with different religious beliefs, express their understanding of the image of God and the path of contemplative rising to Him. The image of the One, from where the entire immanent world originates, occupies the first place for both wise men. But while for the Muslim philosopher the manifestations of God in the world are a direct realization of His gentle mind, the Christian thinker focuses on the image of the incarnation of God in the person of Christ.

Moral Transformation Through Mimesis in the Johannine Tradition

Johannine ethics is a problematic area for scholarship but recently there has been a breakthrough. In this new era of exploring Johannine ethics, the present study examines the concept of moral transformation through mimesis. The argument is that when people live in God’s world, their character and conduct are shaped in accordance with the moral beliefs, values, and norms of the divine reality, and that mimesis proves to be instrumental in this process of moral transformation. The study also explores how Johannine Christians in the late first century could imitate an ‘absent’ Jesus and what they were seeking to imitate.

СВЕТОВАЯ МЕТАФИЗИКА АНДРЕЯ БЕЛОГО

The article analyzes the literary and journalistic heritage of Andrei Bely in the context of the medieval spiritual practice - Hesychasm, the philosophical conceptions of Russian “cosmists” at the turn of the XIX-XX centuries. The conclusion is made about the deep influence of Hesychasm on the type of the philosophizing of Russian religious philosophers and the artistic insights of Russian symbolists, in particular, Andrei Bely. The correlation of the world outlook of Russian symbolism with the teachings by Gregory Palamas becomes obvious when it comes to the possibility of the appearance of light-bearing divine reality in the earthly world. “All-transforming and all-perfecting” “divine energy” can be revealed to a person in earthly life in synergistic unity with the God, the manifestation of which is “uncreated light”, called the “light of the Mount Fabor” in Orthodoxy. In the medieval theological discourse by Gregory Palamas, the philosophical reflections and artistic intuition of the Silver Age, the authenticity of the spiritual experience of a man, the possibility of “deification”, that is the miracle of contemplation of the Divine, are affirmed.

The Contribution of Christology to Dealing with Moral Pluralism

Although moral pluralism is ancient, we have gained a more accurate conscience of its complexity, which is related to cultural, methodological, and theological factors. This paper argues that an intimate relation with the person of Jesus Christ helps Christian ethics to serve the unity of faith in the diversity of cultural and social contexts. Christ being “the concrete universal,” he inaugurates a task of reconciliation between the particular and the universal in ethics. In early Christianity, moral pluralism was overshadowed by theological pluralism and the fear for losing the unity of the Church. But with the foundation of European universities in the thirteenth century, the emergence of disputations among theologians fostered a more sensitive approach to the diversity of morals in Scripture, and of habits informed by natural reason. The Protestant Reformation increased moral pluralism, because of divergent interpretations of the Bible within Christianity, in which Christology played a leading role. In front of modern philosophy and totalitarianism, D. Bonhoeffer made Christology the linchpin of Christian ethics: “In Jesus Christ, he claimed, the divine reality has entered that of this world.” Reacting against the juridical approach of Catholic moral theology, B. Häring reintroduced the figure of Christ in the centre of moral theology, presenting Him as the Life-giver acting through his sacraments. More recently, W. Spohn renewed the vision of Christology’s normative role in Christian ethics, by relating it to the biblical sources, to the ecclesial context of interpretation, and to the anthropological function of reading that shapes the community, called to analogical imagination in following Christ. In a cross-cultural perspective, the more Christian ethics investigates the concrete, the more it is induced to base its reasoning on Christ’s life and teaching, reminding that his unique ministry was open to the universal in the merciful way he addressed concrete persons and concrete issues.비록 도덕적 다원주의가 오래되었다고 하더라도, 우리는 문화적, 방법론적, 그리고 신학적 요소들과 관련된 다원주의의 복잡성에 대해 보다 정밀한 양심을 획득해 왔다. 본고는 예수 그리스도의 인격과의 친밀한 관계는 그리스도교 윤리로 하여금 다양한 문화적, 사회적 맥락에서의 신앙의 일치에 일조하게 하는 데에 도움이 된다는 점을 논한다. 그리스도는 “구체적인 보편적 실재”이기에, 윤리에서의 특수성과 보편성 사이를 중재하는 역할을 한다. 초기 그리스도교에서, 도덕적 다원주의는 신학적 다원주의와 교회의 일치를 상실할 것이라는 두려움에 의해 빛을 발하지 못했다. 그러나 13세기 유럽 대학들의 설립과 함께, 신학자들 사이에서의 토론(disputatio)이 등장함으로써 성경에 존재하는 도덕의 다양성과 자연적 이성에 의해 알려진 습관들의 다양성에 대한 섬세한 접근이 가속화되었다. 프로테스탄트의 종교개혁은 도덕적 다원주의를 증대시켰는데, 이는 그리스도교 성경 해석에 대한 다른 해석들 때문이다. 여기에서 그리스도론은 주도적인 역할을 수행한다. 현대 철학과 전체주의에 직면하여 본회퍼(D. Bonhoeffer)는 그리스도교 윤리학의 핵심으로 그리스도론을 제시했다. 그는 “예수 그리스도 안에서, 신성한 실재가 세상의 현실에 들어왔다”고 주장한다. 가톨릭 도덕신학의 법률적인 접근에 대항하여, 헤링(B. Haring)은 그리스도의 표상을 도덕신학의 중심에 다시 도입하여 예수 그리스도를 성사들을 통해서 활동하시는, 생명을 주시는 분으로 표현했다. 보다 최근에 스폰(W. Spohn)은 그리스도교 윤리학에 있어 성경적 원천들, 교회적 해석의 맥락, 그리고 공동체를 이루는 인류학적 독해 기능과 연관하여 그리스도론의 규범적 역할에 대한 전망을 새롭게 했다. 비교문화적인 관점에서, 그리스도교 윤리학이 구체적인 것들을 조사하면 할수록 그리스도의 생애와 가르침에 기초를 두어야 한다는 사실이 부각되며, 이는 그리스도의 고유한 직무가 구체적인 사람들과 사안들을 다루는 자비로운 방법으로써 모든 이들에게 열려 있었음을 상기시킨다.

Literary review of Yava (Barley)

According to Upanishadas, food is Brahman, the Divine reality. The physical body itself is born of and lives by food. Right diet is the essence of disease prevention and the foundation of a healthy and happy life. A properly selected diet and diet plan plays a critical importance in the management of any disease. Only a well-balanced diet can cure numerous diseases, sometimes even good medicines are unable to cure certain diseases without balanced diet, that’s why food is said to be most important medicine. Today there is increasing public awareness of the importance of diet for the maintenance and promotion of health. An Ayurvedic text entails the uses of Yava in religious ceremony, dietary and medicinal preparations. Yava is used for Lekhana Karma. The present paper deals with literary review of Yava.

Une lecture phénoménologique des dialogues interreligieux: L’apparition de l’autre?

What can literary interfaith dialogues teach us about real interfaith dialogue? Some would say: Nothing, they are only texts and they omit central elements of a real dialogue like the corporal presence of the speakers, their gestures and facial expressions, the orality of the discourses, the inter-subjectivity. Even if this argument is to a certain extent justifiable, it would be interesting to try another kind of reading of the texts, a phenomenological reading which tries to let appear the persons in dialogue, and perhaps even more: the appearance of the divine reality beyond the human concepts which are used in the controversy and bound to a certain theological system. By this phenomenological reading the reader himself becomes involved in the dialogue and bears a responsibility for his development.

Constructing the Patriarchal Woman: Liturgical Challenges for Orthodox Christian Gender Equality

Orthodox Christianity is patriarchal in its heritage and institutional hierarchy. In the liturgical context, however, historical patriarchal orientations, images, and perspectives dominate even contemporary rites and forms that specifically address women’s religiosity. The liturgical setting is one in which actions and words have additional authority because most Orthodox believe this context to be reflective of and participative in a divine reality. Consequently, the androcentric actions, prayers, voices, and images that appear liturgically have the potential to sanctify implicitly the male domination of women’s religious experiences and identities. An acknowledgment of the liturgically reified patriarchal perspective, privilege, and prioritization prompts reconsidering the ways those with non-dominant religious identities may experience the liturgical forms and space differently than what is traditionally (and therefore patriarchally) presented, and the diverse ways they may nevertheless meaningfully constitute their religious selves.

God: An Autobiography as Told to a Philosopher by Jerry L. Martin

Reviewed by: God: An Autobiography as Told to a Philosopher by Jerry L. Martin Richard Oxenberg Jerry L. Martin, God: An Autobiography as Told to a Philosopher. Doylestown, PA: Caladium Publishing Co., 2016. Pp. 376. $24.95. A little over ten years ago, Martin, a professor emeritus of the University of Colorado (Boulder) and the former acting chair of the National Endowment for the Humanities, suddenly heard a voice proclaim, "I am God." Martin, an agnostic to that point, asked, "The God of Israel?" The voice responded, "I am the God of all." This book records Martin's conversations with this divine voice, exploring with considerable depth and nuance the meaning of spirituality, love, metaphysics, morality, human suffering, and the status of the world religions. The God who speaks to Martin is one with whom we are both familiar and unfamiliar. He self-identifies as the God of Abraham, the God of Moses, the Father (in some sense) of Jesus, but also as the divine spirit that underlies all human spirituality—from paganism to Vedanta to Buddhism and beyond. We read along as God directs Martin to review the world's religions, discussing with him the ways they do and do not reflect the divine reality. Each distinctive mode of religiosity, we are told, presents a partial truth, both revealing and concealing the full reality of God. "My nature is quite variegated," God tells Martin. "People see one aspect and not another." One reason for the imperfect nature of religion is the imperfect nature of God. This is a God who is growing, learning, and evolving with human beings: "I am limited and incomplete," God tells Martin, "in a sense, not all-powerful; in a sense, not all-knowing; in a sense, not all-good. I am searching for My own fullness, and since I am also the World—the totality—I—the world—[hu]mankind are all seeking fulfillment (fullness) together, in partnership." It is to foster such partnership that God is now self-revealing anew. Temporally, the world is struggling toward a consummation in love that, from an eternal standpoint, is always already complete. But, God can no more rest in this completeness than can we; God and we must struggle together to reconcile the contrary tendencies within being itself. For all its philosophical weightiness, Martin's book is both eminently readable and personally engaging. He approaches God with childlike wonder, innocent curiosity, and even, at times, skeptical bemusement. We feel privy to a dialogue between two friends striving to know each other, one of whom just happens to be the master (sort of) of the universe. Toward the end of the book God directs Martin to initiate a scholarly project, [End Page 145] "Theology without Walls," which now meets regularly at American Academy of Religion conferences. Its aim is to probe the possibility of an integration of human spirituality, through the development of a theology informed by all the world's religious traditions. "We are entering an unusual time in the history of the world," God tells Martin, "The old religions are coming apart. Yet there is a renewal of religious spirit . . . A purity of message must be regained." Does Martin's book provide this purity of message? Readers will have to answer for themselves. Anyone interested in a renewed approach to religion should find this book a stimulating, challenging, and richly provocative read. [End Page 146] Richard Oxenberg Endicott College, Beverly, MA Copyright © 2017 Journal of Ecumenical Studies

On the transcendence and immanence of God

Transcendence and immanence are two terms used to differentiate two realities, one of transcending worldly experience and the other of an inner-worldly experience. In scholastic theology (kalām), a respective distinction is being made regarding the image of God, whereby transcendence (tanzīh) is set against anthropomorphism (tašbīh) to solve the problem of how to deal with Quranic expressions that attribute human – formal or essential – characteristics to God. Also, in mysticism, the notion of transcendence and immanence of God plays a central role, for instance, in the teachings of Ibn al-ʿArabī. He mainly discusses this distinction in the chapter of Noah in Fuṣūṣ al-ḥikam (“The Bezels of Wisdom”), regarding knowledge of God. He rejects a pure theology of transcendence as it describes only a part of the divine reality. However, he points out that even though His immanent reality can be experienced, it is not comprehensible, because it is unlimited. Both realities interlock through the idea of the Oneness of Being or Unity of Existence (waḥdat al-wuǧūd), because ‘in reality’ they are nothing else than God. Ibn al-ʿArabī illustrates this ontological dependency by the example of Noah’s legend, by showing that the prophet supported the belief of the absolute transcendence of God, which was unacceptable for his people, not because they negated God’s existence, but because they had an immanent image of God. Accordingly, Ibn al-ʿArabī interprets the divine punishment, instead of misfortune, as immersing in the sea of knowledge of God. In this way the soul becomes a place of manifestation or a mirror of the divine reality.

Über die Transzendenz und Immanenz Gottes

Transcendence and immanence are two terms used two differentiate two realities, one of transcending worldly experience and the other of an inner-worldly experience. In scholastic theology (kalām), a respective distinction is being made regarding the image of God, whereby transcendence (tanzīh) is set against anthropomorphism (tašbīh) to solve the problem of how to deal with Quranic expressions that attribute human - formal or essential - characteristics to God. Also, in mysticism, the notion of transcendence and immanence of God plays a central role, for instance, in the teachings of Ibn al-Arabi. He mainly discusses this distinction in the chapter of Noah in Fuṣūṣ al-ḥikam (»The Bezels of Wisdom«), regarding knowledge of God. He rejects a pure theology of transcendence as it describes only a part of the divine reality. However, he points out that even though His immanent reality can be experienced, it is not comprehensible, because it is unlimited. Both realities interlock through the idea of the Oneness of Being or Unity of Existence (waḥdat al-wuğūd), because ›in reality‹ they are nothing else than God. Ibn al-ʿArabī illustrates this ontological dependency by the example of Noah’s legend, by showing that the prophet supported the belief of the absolute transcendence of God, which was unacceptable for his people, not because they negated God’s existence, but because they had an immanent image of God. Accordingly, Ibn al-Arabi interprets the divine punishment, instead of misfortune, as immersing in the sea of knowledge of God. In this way the soul becomes a place of manifestation or a mirror of the divine reality.