Representation Of God Research Articles

Gods of Participation

This paper is a theoretical discussion of how the relation between religion and morality – one of the main research areas in the cognitive and evolutionary sciences of religion (CESR) – may be rephrased in terms of 4E cognition. This aim is realized through redefining morality and religion in terms of participatory sense-making – a model of social cognition situated within the 4E framework. This paper explains the basic tenets of the 4E (embodied, embedded, extended, and enactive) approach to cognition. It clarifies how the notion of mental representations – pivotal for any theorizing within CESR – can be fitted within this model by adopting a radical enactive cognition view. It then proceeds to define participatory sense-making and demonstrate how morality as a system for regulating cooperative behavior fits this concept. Finally, it discusses the role of representations of gods’ moral concerns in reinforcing morality. It argues that focusing on the meaning-making potential of social interactions can elucidate where these representations come from and how they unfold.

Christ, the Image of the Invisible God, the Proscenium of Old and New Testament. Perspectives of Knowing God from Colossians

Christ is the visible representation of the unseeable God. Although this statement emphasizes Christ's relationship with the Father, it is Christ who reveals God to the world. The text in Hebrews reinforces this same concept. Christ is “the reflection of God's glory and the exact imprint of God's very being” (1:3), and thus only His Son can make Him known (Col 1:18). In 1 Cor 15:49 and 2 Cor 4:4, the Apostle Paul employs the term εἰκών to portray the resurrected and exalted One, in whom, analogous to the eschatological Adam, all humanity is recapitulated. The risen One, however, is the image of the unseen God of eternity. In light of the statements in Colossians 1:13-14, it becomes evident that there is a dynamic relationship between the experience of redemption and the statements about the One through whom God accomplished the act of redemption. Although the initial section of the hymn is centred on Christ's role in creation, the Christological statements can be interpreted from a perspective of redemption. It is only through His blood (Col 1:14-20) that the Redeemer, who is the image of the unseen God, can effect redemption.

A Study on Pastoral Counseling for the Reconstruction of the Representation of God : Focusing on Heinz Kohut's Self-Psychology

A Study on Pastoral Counseling for the Reconstruction of the Representation of God : Focusing on Heinz Kohut's Self-Psychology

The Death of God as Source of the Creativity of Humans

Although declarations of the death of God seem to be provocations announcing the end of the era of theology, this announcement is actually central to the Christian revelation in its most classic forms, as well as to its reworkings in contemporary religious thought. Indeed provocative new possibilities for thinking theologically open up precisely in the wake of the death of God. Already Hegel envisaged a revolutionary new realization of divinity emerging in and with the secular world through its establishment of a total order of immanence. However, in postmodern times this comprehensive order aspired to by modern secularism implodes or cracks open towards the wholly Other. A hitherto repressed demand for the absolute difference of the religious, or for “transcendence”, returns with a vengeance. Th is difference is what could not be stated in terms of the Hegelian System, for reasons that poststructuralist writers particularly have insisted on: all representations of God are indeed dead. Yet this does not mean that they cannot still be powerful, but only that they cannot assign God any stable identity. Nietzsche’s sense of foreboding concerning the death of God is coupled with his intimations of the demise of representation and “grammar” as epistemologically bankrupt, but also with his vision of a positive potential for creating value in the wake of this collapse of all linguistically articulated culture. He points the way towards the emergence of a post-secular religious thinking of what exceeds thought and representation.

“RAMAYANA THEMES DEPICTED IN THE TEMPLE ART OF ANDHRADESA” – A SPECIAL REFERENCE TO RAYALASEEMA

The worship of Sri Rama is as ancient as temple worship in this land. The great Itihasa Ramayana by saint Valmiki itself has the sanctity of scripture to the Hindus. In India, there are thousands of temples dedicated to Lord Sri Rama, from Ayodhya, his birthplace in Uttar Pradesh, down to Rameswaram at the southernmost tip of the country. Temples of the Andhra Pradesh are treasure houses of sculptures and art forms representations of gods and goddesses and episodes from their mythologies. The Ramayana cult images found in the different dynasty’s temples in the Andhradesa may be divided into Sculpture, Idol of Sri Rama and Sita, Sculpture and Paintings in Ramayana themes. Andhra Pradesh has a unique place not only in Indian History, but geographically located midway in subcontinent to receive the cultural impacts from the north and pass them on to Southern India. It has many ancient centers of art and culture. Some of them are indigenous in character. In this research paper discussed the cult of Sri Rama iconographic features of sculptures and images of Ramayana themes in important Vaishnava temples in Andhra Pradesh a special reference to Rayalaseema region.

Aesthetic analysis of the pattern of West queen mothers in the Shandong region during the Han dynasty

The West Queen Mother, as a comprehensive cultural phenomenon, has long been the subject of scholarly attention. In recent years, particularly with the rise of traditional Chinese culture, the cultural significance of the West Queen Mother has gained considerable popularity. In the realms of cultural creativity, animation, and gaming, the portrayal of the West Queen Mother has undergone further evolution and innovation, resulting in corresponding shifts in aesthetics. This research investigates the content classification and features of the West Queen Mother's pattern in the Shandong region during the Han Dynasty. By employing a combined approach of pattern analysis and Chinese aesthetics, the aim is to gain a deeper and multifaceted understanding of the culture surrounding the West Queen Mother. This study interprets the aesthetic style and factors associated with the Queen Mother from the perspective of traditional Chinese aesthetics. The conclusion drawn is that the pattern of the West Queen Mother in the Shandong region during the Han Dynasty exhibits aesthetic characteristics ranging from a flat abstraction with simplicity and naturalness to order, normativity, and symbolic representation of divinity. These characteristics demonstrate the richness of Han culture and reflect the Confucian aesthetic concept of the harmony between heaven and humanity, encompassing auspiciousness, loyalty, and filial piety as the highest moral standards, thereby aligning with the prevailing spirit and sociocultural context of the time.

Allah, God, YHWH, Gott*: Language-Aware Perspectives on References to God in Religious and Worldview Education. A Comparative Study of Finnish and German School Textbooks

Abstract Language awareness is part of religious and worldview education. In this study, we understand religious and worldview education as language-sensitive and argue that it is necessary to investigate the perspectives on religious language in language-aware school pedagogy. In our view, religious language can be an identity marker which navigates and reflects one’s position. We analysed the language used in Finnish and German secondary school textbooks for the Lutheran religion, the Roman Catholic religion and for Islam as well as for the subject culture, worldview and ethics (Finland) and practical philosophy (Germany). Using discourse analysis, we examined the representations of God in the textbooks’ chapters about Judaism, Christianity and Islam, which are characterized as monotheistic religions. According to the findings in this study, representations of God in the textbooks refer to the self-understanding of the studied religion in RE. This study also shows that the use of the name of God in textbooks illustrates similarities and differences in Abrahamic religions. We argue that inter-worldview learning in the context of religious and worldview education enables participation, dialogue and encounter, and that language awareness is part of inter-worldview learning.

Behind the curtain, between blood and stone: the representation of god in Peter Shaffer’s Yonadab

This article analyzes Yonadab, a play by the British playwright Peter Shaffer, first staged in London in 1985. Set in biblical times, the play depicts the machinations of Yonadab, King David's nephew, who wants to destroy the royal family and the religious foundations of that society. The analysis focuses on God's representation in the play through the conflicts and tensions shown by the main character Yonadab. Four main characteristics stand out in the divine figure: violence, exclusiveness, immanence, and absence.

Aquinas and the Multiverse. An Approach

Gradually, the multiverse hypothesis has been gaining popularity, not only in the scientific and academic sphere, but also in popular culture. This hypothesis, however, is not recent; Thomas Aquinas himself had to respond to a version of it. Although the problem is broad and must be approached in an interdisciplinary dialogue, the Thomistic approach is very interesting, since he accepts the plurality of worlds as something possible but denies that it is a possibility made real. His answer, which is the subject of this article, is an opportunity to think about our representation of God and his causal activity.

Понятие ереси и теоретические модели различия

The paper deals with the philosophical aspects of the concept of heresy in religion and beyond. It is emphasized that initially "heresy" meant "free choice", "received opinion", "doctrine", and "philosophic school", but very soon after the rise of Christian literature, its meaning had been radically changed. Since then, "heresy" was understood as "false belief" and "erroneous doctrine" that opposed "orthodoxy", so that the opposition of "heresy" and "orthodoxy" became, in the long run, the opposition of "false" and "true". Such significant parallelism indicates the metaphysical prerequisites for the modern usage of the term "heresy". It is also noted that the changes in the very concept of heresy are closely connected with the modernization of traditional societies. Whereas the latter were characterized by a high degree of predetermination of events, which was expressed by the mythologeme of fate, the passage to modernity meant the transformation of inflexible fate into a set of free choices that were made by man. In the issue, the former orthodoxy and heresies turn into a plurality of different but equivalent opinions. Hence, the scrutiny takes into account the history of the notion of difference that is considered in connection with the notions of identity and opposition. They make it possible to construe the transformation of negligible dissimilarity to the "blurred" and "fuzzy" difference and eventually to the polarity of absolute opposition. This implies that the term "heresy" as something "false" should rely on the concept of absolute opposition as the product of metaphysics. On this evidence, the analysis focuses on the reputed statement that the decisive point of monotheism is not the oneness of God but the exclusion of all other gods as the false ones (the so-called "Mosaic Distinction"). Just the exclusivity distinguishes the mode of difference that one faces in monotheism from the negligible dissimilarity that is inherent in polytheism. Accordingly, in connection with the "Mosaic Distinction", one should interpret the ban on idolatry as the inadmissibility of self-sufficiency and thus the divinity of the representations of God.

‘In a Witches’ World’: Hegel and the Symbolic Grotesque

Abstract In his Lectures on Fine Art (1835), Hegel emphasizes the grotesque character of Indian art. Grotesqueness results, in his view, from a contradiction between meaning and shape due to the incongruous combination of spiritual and material elements. Since Hegel's history of art is teeming with examples of inadequacy between meaning and shape, this paper aims to distinguish the grotesque from other types of artistic dissonance and to problematize Hegel's ascriptions of grotesqueness to ancient Indian art. In the first part of the paper, I characterize the grotesque by the unnatural distortion of natural shapes with the purpose of achieving a direct sensuous manifestation of an indeterminate and impersonal divinity, Brahman. Such an attempt is, in Hegel's view, self-contradictory and self-defeating, leading to an exaggeration of the conflict between nature and spirit instead of the intended reconciliation between the two parts. In the second part of the paper, I compare Hegel's account of Indian art to the ‘monstrous myths’ of early modern Europe. Unlike his predecessors, Hegel legitimizes the grotesque representations of Hindu gods as endowed with profound meaning and the result of a universal human need, yet he describes them as ultimately irrational and repulsive based on a prejudiced view of the Indian people(s). In this sense, Hegel's assessment of Indian art functions as a reflection of modern European culture, its fascination and horror in the face of what Enlightenment could not entirely purge, rather than as a truthful and objective account of Indian art and culture. By questioning Hegel's characterization of Hindu iconography and mythology, this paper contributes to underexplored areas of Hegelian aesthetics, namely Hegel's account of symbolic art, especially Indian art, as well as his views on negative aesthetic experiences and values.

The Experience Sampling Method: A New Way of Assessing Variability of the Emotional Dimensions of Religiosity and Spirituality in a Dutch Psychiatric Population.

Religiosity and spirituality (R/S) are often regarded as being relatively stable over time. The present exploratory experience sampling method (ESM) study aims to assess the variability of three R/S parameters concerning affective representations of God and spiritual experiences in a psychiatric population. Depressed in- and outpatients self-identifying as being spiritual or religious participated, from two Dutch mental health care institutions. The twenty-eight participants rated momentary affective R/S-variables up to 10 times per day over a 6-day period when prompted by a mobile application. All three examined R/S parameters varied significantly within the day. ESM examination of R/S showed good compliance and little reactivity. This indicates that ESM offers a feasible, usable, and valid way to explore R/S in a psychiatric population.

NOKEN LOCAL WISDOM AS REPRESENTATION OF GOD'S LOVE

<p><em>This study aims to describe, explore and analyze the local wisdom of noken as a symbol of Papuan culture which has a strong religious-spiritual meaning for the lives of the Papuan people. This study was compiled using a qualitative research design by relying on primary data obtained through interviews and observations of the daily life of women who make noken and use noken in Papuan society. The informants involved were religious leaders, community leaders and noken women. The findings of the study are that noken is Papuan life, as a vessel and source of life that contains religious-spiritual values. Noken is interpreted as a representation of God's love for Papua which fosters faith and hopes in the Creator. In addition, noken is seen as a second 'womb'. Children born are put in a noken as a container for growth and development until they are crawling. Furthermore, a special noken was made for children with the aim of practicing honesty. If a child takes food from someone else's noken, it means stealing. Stealing means sin according to custom and religion. Noken is not just known but has existed and is known from time to time, passed down and taught how important it is to live in Papuan noken human life. Thus noken is a representation of God's inclusion and maintenance of Papuan life. The ancestors of the Papuan people were explorers living on the island of Papua using the strategy of the regional language of the tribes in the land of Papua to teach noken, namely Ugatame. This means that God is the Creator of the heavens and the earth and humans who are similar to Him. The aim is for the Papuan people to have more faith in God Allah.</em></p>

Divine Representation in Documentary Style: Gods on the Columns of Trajan and Marcus Aurelius

AbstractThis article examines the important roles played by gods in the friezes of the Columns of Trajan and Marcus Aurelius and argues that they are treated in a distinctive ‘documentary’ style, comparable in certain ways to accounts of divine action in Roman historiography and designed to produce a compelling narrative effect. First, the Columns and the deities they depict are discussed. The article then looks at cognate descriptions of gods in historiographical texts. Finally, other contemporary monuments that portray the gods are briefly examined to bring out further the distinctive character of the gods on the Columns. This analysis will be seen to have wider implications for our understanding of ‘historical narrative reliefs’ and imperial representation.

Puer renidens (Mart. Cap. 2.144). Revisited Topos of ‘Two Loves’ and intertextuality

AbstractLove is one of the most frequent literary motifs, often differentiated in various forms. A plurality of words for love in ancient Greek corresponds to a plurality of their divine representations in particular works, and more generally in Ancient religious and philosophical images. The most famous concept is that of the two Loves which is represented in Plato's dialogue Symposium. In the paper, the author revises the standard interpretation of the ‘Two Loves Topos’, considered in Mart. 2. 144–148, literalized as the presence of Amor and absence of Cupid in Philology's suite during her journey to heaven, in terms of literary intertextuality. After a brief outline of the literary evidence of the ‘Two Loves Topos’, Martianus Capella's comprehensive picture is analysed, connecting the archaic opposition between Amor and Cupid and the Platonic division to support his compositional intention to create a ‘new’ comprehensive Love god person, who is in accordance with the unified and harmonious world of mythological, cosmological, and philosophical scholarship.

The Present Challenge of the Supernatural in the Church of God

One must never forget that it is God alone who has ultimate authority over all things in heaven and on earth. The power of the Church is based strongly on discipleship that is entrenched in individuals and their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. In general, the term Christianity as a supernatural religion is still in some ways foreign to the ears of the church of God. Even supernatural concepts may be considered heretical if they are not understood correctly. Where there is a lack of information about the mystical supernatural world, everything that smells of occultism is convicted as a violation of the second law and is considered as a sin. Supernatural Christianity actually invites people back to the church of God to find the essence of their spirituality that is manifested in "intimacy" by God’s creatures in daily life. The research method adopted in this study was a descriptive qualitative method in which some of the literature related to the topic of supernatural life in Christianity was analysed. The results of this study indicate that Christians are a representation of God's own presence because the knowledge of the Creator God is all present in the Lordship of Christ. The search for the Creator in the supernatural universe is not an endless search, but a clear search with a definite identity found in Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour. The church must invite the congregation to fall down in peace in the presence of God so that the bond between God and His church can be strengthened and then the Church of God will be able to practice the teachings of God more fully in the lives of believers’. Believers must master the gifts of the Holy Spirit and use them to strengthen their own theological identity, while they should also practice the different spiritual gifts in a personal way that allows them to introspect and serve God in spirit and in truth.

„The Birth of the Living God“

Ana-Maria Rizzuto, the author of the empirical study the “Birth of the Living God” from 1979, is turning 90 in 2022. In her study in the field of psychology of religion she compares the object relations and the representations of God. With her findings she inspired many researchers in the clinical field to integrate god-images into their clinical and therapeutical settings.

Sources and Genesis of the Need to Believe

It is the affect and not the representation of God that constitutes the impact point of psychoanalytic approach to religion. Therefore, psychoanalysis does not enter directly in dialogue with philosophy or with theology. But, far from disregarding the presence and power of the religious dimension in the human mind and in societies, Freud proposed a specific approach based on two main elements: oceanic feeling and nostalgia.

Вобраз Бога ў паэзіі Янкі Купалы і Антоніа Мачада

The image of God (or gods) and of the divine is one of the universal problems that poetry in particular and literature in general have considered central throughout history. Despite the predominance and relevance of the aforementioned topics, the question of God’s image in Belarusian poetry remains under‑‑researched; philologists like Jan Čykvin and Iryna Bahdanovič have undertaken the study of this matter, yet it continues to be largely unexplored from a comparative perspective. In this manner, the present article is an attempt to complement the research of its predecessors and to present a new perspective of the subject. The purpose of this work is to identify, study and compare the image(s) of the God and the divine in the poetic work of Yanka Kupala and Antonio Machado. Special attention is paid to the moral and philosophical attitude of the authors towards higher powers. Folk and literary influences on the formation of their interpretation of the divine and, above all, metaphors and symbols that build divine images in their poetry are studied. Thus, their tendencies towards symbolic landscape poetry, which unite both poets, are analyzed. As a result of this analysis, several points of convergence have been found in Yanka Kupala’s and Antonio Machado’s representation of God in poetry, particularly in their metaphors of landscape and natural elements, as well as their vision of God as a source of inspiration and strength. Our attention has also been drawn to certain differences.

Dealing with Transitions Thanks to Janus

This article suggests a reflection on transitions through the lenses of depth analytical psychology and the representation of the mythic Roman god, Janus. Some transition-related factors and signs of being lost in transition will be explored as well as the implication of having an one-sided vision. Finally, the author proposes an interpretation of Janus’symbolic characteristics to help to understand and manage transitions.