Divine Transcendence Research Articles

Is Eco-theologian Thomas Berry a Thomist?

I examine the views of the renowned Catholic environmentalist, Thomas Berry, C.P., by comparing them with those of Thomas Aquinas, an author Berry frequently references. I intend to show that while the two share a number of views in common (e.g., both hold that non-rational creatures have their own inherent goodness), ultimately the two diverge on many foundational issues, resulting in differing conclusions as to how we should regard and treat the environment. Aquinas upholds divine transcendence, whereas Berry regards the notion of divine transcendence to lead to the exploitation of creation and locates the divine in the universe itself. Berry accordingly thinks that we should revere all natural things, whereas Aquinas thinks we should revere God and creatures in God’s image. Aquinas maintains that the human soul is created by God and is in God’s image. He sees our rational soul as placing us above other natural things, and from it follows our responsibility to care for nature. Berry, to the contrary, sees this affirmation of discontinuity between humans and the rest of nature to be the root of our environmental woes, as providing a justification for human exploitation of nature. For Berry, humans have no special status, but are one member alongside others in the earth community. Rather than being created by God, “humans have nothing but what they receive from the universe.” By highlighting both the similarities and differences between these authors, I hope to contribute to the project of formulating a sound environmental ethics.

Conflict Resolved: the Amity between Postmodern Philosophy and Theology in Gianni Vattimo’s weak thought

Abstract In this paper, I examine how Gianni Vattimo, in using the terms “weak thought” aims to promote caritas in intellectual life by converging, however paradoxically, Heideggerian Verwindung and Nietzschean nihilism with Pauline kenosis. In line with René Girard’s postulation that Christianity rejects the sacred, Vattimo classifies the idea of a transcendent divinity as Aristotelian rather than Christian, arguing that the Incarnation, as an expression of caritas and humility, is incompatible with the idea of divine transcendence. Based on this perception, Vattimo argues that Nietzsche’s dictum that “God is dead” carries the same philosophical meaning as the kenotic doctrine of the birth of God as man. Furthermore, Vattimo redefines the Heideggerian Verwindung, a subtle response rigidity in the structures of metaphysics, in terms of kenotic caritas. Vattimo’s hermeneutic work over several decades have enabled this improbable convergence of methodologies and worldviews, upon which he bases his argument that postmodernism, in its weakening of all transcendental axiomatic claims, may be understood to share the “desacralizing thrust of Christianity.”

Divine Agency as Literal in Cognitive Linguistic Perspective: Response to “Conceiving God: Literal and Figurative Prompt for a More Tectonic Distinction” by Robert Masson

Abstract In “Conceiving God: Literal and Figurative Prompt for a More Tectonic Distinction” Robert Masson criticizes my claim that some concepts of God can be literal in the sense of a non-extended meaning as defined by cognitive linguists. He claims that all of our ideas for God can only be through extended meanings (what is typically called figurative language). He says that blending theory requires this conclusion. In response I make three points. First, I argue that this is not what cognitive linguistics requires. Second, that Masson fails to ever show that “God is an agent” is actually a single scope or double scope blend. Third, I suggest that behind our dispute are different metaphysical commitments regarding divine transcendence. Because I reject his understanding of divine transcendence and he fails to show that divine agency must be understood only in an extended sense, I conclude that religious believers can legitimately claim that some of their ideas of God are literal (non-extended meanings).

The Problem of Alternative Monotheisms: Another Serious Challenge to Theism

Theistic and analytic philosophers of religion typically privilege classical theism by ignoring or underestimating the great threat of alternative monotheisms.[1] In this article we discuss numerous god-models, such as those involving weak, stupid, evil, morally indifferent, and non-revelatory gods. We find that theistic philosophers have not successfully eliminated these and other possibilities, or argued for their relative improbability. In fact, based on current evidence – especially concerning the hiddenness of God and the gratuitous evils in the world – many of these hypotheses appear to be more probable than theism. Also considering the – arguably infinite – number of alternative monotheisms, the inescapable conclusion is that theism is a very improbable god-concept, even when it is assumed that one and only one transcendent god exists.[1] I take ‘theism’ to mean ‘classical theism’, which is but one of many possible monotheisms. Avoiding much of the discussion around classical theism, I wish to focus on the challenges in arguing for theism over monotheistic alternatives. I consider theism and alternative monotheisms as entailing the notion of divine transcendence.

Christ as Deus Absconditus in Thomas Aquinas's Theology

Christ as Deus Absconditus in Thomas Aquinas's Theology Mateusz Przanowski O.P. The relationship between the two natures in Christ is the subject of one of the greatest theological disputes. The way in which this relationship is defined determines the perception not only of Christ himself and his mission but also of the mystery of the divine nature and the Trinity and numerous other fundamental issues. For example, the statements that the Word's assumption of human nature causes changes in his divine nature and that whatever happens in Christ's human nature has an actual impact on his divine nature are obviously remote from what is called a "classical theism," known from the works by Augustine, Aquinas, Bonaventure, or Duns Scotus. Martin Luther was perfectly well aware of this when he put forward a new understanding of the communicatio idiomatum principle, making way for radical redefinitions not only in Christology but also, as a direct consequence, in the theology of the Trinity.1 This trend, timidly introduced by Luther, was strongly reinforced by nineteenth-century kenoticists and later prevailed in a number of twentieth-century Christological and Trinitarian concepts. Some [End Page 881] of the key elements of this process were: introduction of a weaker notion of the divine transcendence, negation of the incarnate Logos's immutability, and redefinition of the relationships within the Holy Trinity. Some truly "human" characteristics were assigned to the triune Creator: he "became" mutable and passible, full of passions and experiencing history in his divine being. The general direction of these changes may be briefly characterized as a radical increase in blurring the ontic boundary between the Creator and the creation, the boundary that was "heroically" defended by classical and Thomistic Christology. But this modern and contemporary process of transforming the Trinitarian theology began with reflection on the Incarnation and was an attempt to find a new answer to the question on the nature of God and its relation to the human nature assumed in the Incarnation. I do not intend in this article to discuss or criticize these new theologies of the nature of God and of the Trinity. This has been done many a time by Thomists, and to good effect.2 I treat these contemporary trends only as a background that helps to emphasize one of the significant themes in Aquinas's Christology: the theology of the incarnated God as the God who hides himself, the Deus absconditus. This expression was derived from Isaiah 45:15: "Truly, thou art a God who hidest thyself, O God of Israel, the Savior!" ("Vere tu es Deus absconditus, Deus Israel salvator"). It is worth it to note at the outset that, for Aquinas, Deus absconditus refers almost exclusively to Christ, to the incarnated Son of God. It is thought-provoking in itself that St. Thomas, who was so sensitive about accentuating divine incomprehensibilitas, very rarely uses this name in connection with the mystery of God's nature in se and limits its use mainly to the description of Jesus Christ, the God enfleshed. The name Deus absconditus plays a significant role in Aquinas's Christology, as it defines the identity of the incarnated Son of God, who remains the "God who hides himself" despite the fact that he assumed human nature and allowed its unimaginable union with [End Page 882] himself. For, even though "per carnem Filius Dei visibilis apparuit [through flesh, the Son of God became visible],"3 still, as Aquinas states: The divinity of Christ is covered over [occulta], and it is apart [separate] from every creature because of its excellence: "God who is over all be blessed for ever" (Rom 9:5); "Truly, you art a God who hides yourself" (Isa 45:15).4 And in another place, he writes: For the assumption of humanity … took place in a unity of person, not in a unity of nature, which might result in our agreement with those who held that God is not exalted above all things [super omnia exaltatum], and said that God was the soul of the universe, or something of the sort.5 Therefore Jesus Christ, the incarnated God, may be called Deus absconditus because his divine...

Three texts on the Kabbalah: More, Wachter, Leibniz, and the philosophy of the Hebrews

ABSTRACTThe article reconstructs a brief controversy between H. More, G. W. Leibniz and J. G. Wachter about the Kabbalah, or what they called ‘the philosophy of the Hebrews’. I study in particular the status of the proposition ‘nothing comes out of nothing’ in their exchanges - a proposition they all agreed was a fundamental kabbalist axiom while having differing views as to the prospects of reconciling that position with Christianity. I show how Wachter’s curious Kabbalistico-Spinozism provided the stage for an indirect philosophical encounter between Leibniz and More that highlights not only their respective positions on the Kabbalah, but also suggests some important philosophical agreement between them regarding divine transcendence and the nature of creation.

Preserving Human Freedom: Aquinas on Divine Transcendence and Creaturely Contingency

Preserving Human Freedom: Aquinas on Divine Transcendence and Creaturely Contingency

Norwidowskie dialogi rzeczy

The article presents the problems of Norwid’s things based on a selection of works written in various phases of the poet’s life ( Wieczor w pustkach (fantazja) , Toast. Fantazja , Bajka , [Na „Kazanie Skargi” Jana Matejki], [O, jakze drogim jest klejnotem], [Milo byc od swojego czasu zrozumianym], Garstka piasku. Legenda, Krakus. Tragedia, Za kulisami. Fantazja ) in which things have the status of talking heroes, capable of entering into dialogues or quasi-dialogues. A literary and anthropological analysis of the above material allowed us to observe the mediating role of things in the poetic world of Norwid. The poet lends them the status of a material sign of the spiritual basis of reality, Divine transcendence, Truth; he makes them means of expression of the human self, their content, structure and acts; he entrusts the things with functions typical of the tools of social interaction, initiation, ritualistic activities of individual and collective identity. The evolution of the poet’s views on the world of things is noteworthy, namely the transition from the imagination of things animated by the power of the spiritual to the imagination threatened by the objectification of the human being.

After Exegesis: Feminist Biblical Theology. Essays in Honor of Carol A. Newsom ed. by Patricia K. Tull and Jacqueline E. Lapsley

Reviewed by: After Exegesis: Feminist Biblical Theology. Essays in Honor of Carol A. Newsom ed. by Patricia K. Tull and Jacqueline E. Lapsley Christine Thomas patricia k. tull and jacqueline e. lapsley (eds.), After Exegesis: Feminist Biblical Theology. Essays in Honor of Carol A. Newsom (Waco, TX: Baylor University Press, 2015). Pp. vi + 306. $49.95. Carol Newsom’s contributions to the field of biblical studies are rich and varied, comprising significant advancements in the study of texts from Qumran, provocative work on the Books of Job and Daniel, and the fostering of feminist biblical scholarship represented in the three successive editions of the Women’s Bible Commentary over the course of twenty years. As the editors of After Exegesis acknowledge, Newsom does not identify herself as a biblical theologian, but “her contributions to rethinking the problems and [End Page 734] possibilities of biblical theology are vast and fundamental” (p. 4). This collection takes up the spirit of Newsom’s contributions both in its methodological approach and in the mode of its production. Newsom has argued, in the editors’ words, for a vision of “dialogical, or polyphonic, truth capable of negotiating the compositional and ideological complexities of biblical texts” (p. 5). It is appropriate then to honor Newsom with a polyphony of feminist scholarship that puts biblical texts into dialogue in order to rethink and expand traditional approaches to biblical theology. Equally appropriate is the fact that this collection was brought into being with collaborative conversation among the contributors, carefully stewarded by the collection’s thoughtful editors. Each of the fifteen essays engages at least two biblical texts to explore an area of theological inquiry. Some reenvision familiar subjects of systematic theology, such as creation and salvation, while others add new areas of analysis, such as violence against women. The emphasis throughout is on texts from the Hebrew Bible. Each of the essays includes a bibliography for further reading. The volume is a valuable resource not only for specialists in biblical studies, constructive theology, and feminist scholarship but also for students and others seeking an introduction to these fields. Feminist methodological approaches create points of contact among the essays and allow for shared themes to be read across the collection. For instance, the essays that concern providence, hope, and divine judgment give rise to new conceptions of divine agency. Eunny P. Lee’s essay, “Women’s Doings in Ruth,” presents a feminist biblical theology of providence in which divine agency takes shape in the actions of women. In Lee’s reading, God acts “not by miraculous demonstrations of power but through human acts of boldness and kindness in the rhythmic flow of everyday life” (p. 42). Amy C. Merrill Willis’s essay, “Counterimagination in Isaiah 65 and Daniel 12,” places the differing depictions of salvation in these texts in dialogue with the work of feminist theologians Flora Keshgegian and Ivone Gebara. God’s redemptive work in Isaiah 65, which is immanent and grounded in human community, resonates with feminist constructions of hope and is in productive tension with the vision of divine transcendence in Daniel 12. In “Job and the Hidden Face of God,” Carleen Mandolfo brings the work of post-Holocaust thinker Melissa Raphael to bear on the patriarchal conception of a God who rewards and punishes through presence and absence. Mandolfo finds in the lament psalms and even more so in God’s response to Job texts that approach Raphael’s alternative conception of divine–human reciprocity. The essays on salvation, suffering, and praise intersect in their concern with embodiment. In “Embodiment in Isaiah 51–52 and Psalm 62,” Katie M. Heffelfinger considers the distinctive expressions of salvation in these texts, attending to the bodily imagery through which human and divine interaction is expressed. She argues that, while Isaiah 51–52 and Psalm 62 operate in differing emotional registers, they share the conviction that God alone can overcome human brokenness. The theological significance of embodied human suffering is the focal point of Amy C. Cottrill’s essay, “The Traumatized ‘I’ in Psalm 102.” In the lament psalms’ emphasis on “bodily intelligence” she finds resources for resilience in the midst of trauma (p. 184). On the other end of...

A linguagem trinitária de Novaciano

A proposta deste artigo é analisar alguns elementos da linguagem trinitária no pensamento de Novaciano (200), suas contribuições e suas lacunas, que demonstram a escassez da própria linguagem sobre o mistério trinitário, no ambiente em que se encontra, e sua busca em dar uma resposta às heresias que fervilhavam ao seu redor. Trata-se de uma linguagem metafórica, poética para exprimir o que ele denomina de inexplicável ao discorrer sobre a transcendência divina. Pretende-se verificar a utilização dos conceitos cristológicos e pneumatológicos no desenvolvimento da semântica do mistério trinitário em sua Obra De Trinitate, demonstrando a influência de Tertuliano (155), e a relevância de sua teologia da Trindade para a elaboração da linguagem referente ao mistério de Deus no mundo ocidental.

Moses Maimonides on Job's Happiness and the Riddle of Divine Transcendence

The paper explores the nature and role of divine transcendence in Maimonides by focusing on the figure of Job as he is understood by him. In the first part, I discuss Maimonides’ diagnosis of Job’s suffering. In the second, I focus on Maimonides’ analysis of the nature of its defeat, and the manners in which that defeat involves the mediation of divine transcendence and hiddenness. In the third, I discuss some of the difficulties involved within the picture presented in the second part, namely, Maimonides’ seeming commitment to two incompatible conceptions of divine transcendence. I argue that the incompatible accounts need not be harmonized since the Guide of the Perplexed is not a textbook that attempts to provide a doctrine concerning the nature of divine transcendence and its relation to the world. Rather, its purpose is to present a riddle, the great riddle of divine transcendence, around which Jewish life, as he understands it, is built. This riddle, for Maimonides, cannot be solved or dissolved; rather, it has to be recognized and embraced.

A CRITIQUE OF EMERGENT THEOLOGIES

AbstractThis article is an analysis and critique of emergent theologies, focusing on areas of Christology and pneumatology. An increasing number of Christian theologians are integrating (strong) emergence theory into their work. I argue that, despite the range of theological commitments and methodological approaches represented by these scholars, each faces similar problematic tendencies when their Christian doctrines are combined with (strong) emergence theory. It is concluded that the basic logic of emergence theory, whereby matter is seen to precede mind, makes it difficult for emergent theologies to offer an account of salvation, avoid significant issues regarding God's involvement with evil, and maintain divine transcendence. It is concluded, therefore, that Christian theology should look elsewhere for a complementary metaphysical framework with which to bridge scientific and theological discourse.

‘God, the Father Almighty’: A Theological Excursus

AbstractThe confession of ‘God, the Father almighty’ in the Apostles’ and Nicene Creeds can be interpreted as offering a progressively more focused characterization of the First Person of the Trinity, such that ‘Father’ clarifies the meaning of ‘God’, and the force of ‘almighty’ is controlled by the meaning of ‘Father’. The results of such an exegesis accentuate divine transcendence in a way that raises questions about theological claims to natural knowledge of God. More specifically, they suggest that the very comprehensiveness of God's relationship to the world implied by divine almightiness blocks any direct line of inference from creation to Creator.

Mystical Experience and the Apophatic Attitude

Apophaticism in mainstream analytic theology and philosophy of religion has come to denote a metaphysical and semantic thesis: that, due to divine transcendence, God is ineffable, inconceivable, or incomprehensible. But this conception fails to properly take account of the central claim of apophaticism as a special type of mystical theology. As such, the apophatic commitments to divine ineffability (however understood) are instrumental. More fundamental is the function of theological ignorance to uniquely inform the task of theology and transform the theologian in union with God. Taking Jonathan Jacobs’ recent account as a test case, I argue that reconstructions of apophaticism need to be supplemented by an account of this informational and personally transformative value that apophatic mysticism places on its commitment to divine incomprehensibility. I supply the needed account of apophatic valuing in terms of wonder as the appropriate emotional attitude toward divine transcendence.

The problem of polytheisms: a serious challenge to theism

Theistic and analytic philosophers of religion typically privilege classical theism and monotheism by ignoring or underestimating the great threat of polytheism (We take ‘theism’ to mean ‘classical theism’, which is but one of many possible monotheisms. Avoiding much of the discussion around classical theism, we wish to focus on the challenges in arguing for monotheism over polytheism. We take monotheisms and polytheisms to be versions of supernaturalism, and not of ‘theism’. We consider monotheisms and polytheisms to entail the notion of divine transcendence). We develop an argument from infinitely many alternatives, which decisively demonstrates that if a monotheistic or polytheistic god-model obtains, it will almost certainly be polytheistic. Probabilistic calculations are performed in order to illustrate the difficulties faced by the monotheistic proponent. After considering possible objections, such as whether there should be limits placed on how many possible god-models could obtain, we conclude that our argument from infinitely many alternatives is sound, and highly unlikely to be overcome.

“Neither God, nor World”: on the One foreclosed to transcendence

AbstractIn recent years, in the field of philosophy of religion, François Laruelle’s “non-philosophy” has opened up a path out of the battles between secularist philosophies and resurging Christian theologies. It has done so by theorizing the radical immanence of the Human (or, as he writes, Man-in-person) separated from and foreclosed to simultaneously the (philosophical) enclosure of the World and the (theological) transcendence of God. This paper explores the way Laruelle’s 2007 work Mystique non-philosophique à l’usage des contemporains further articulates radical immanence by engaging with materials from the traditions of mysticism and mystical theology. Mystique non-philosophique diagnoses the ways traditional mysticism remains complicit with philosophical operations by enchaining the radical immanence of Man-in-person or the One, making it desire, need and work for divine transcendence. In contrast, it proposes the practice of “future mysticism”, which seeks to subvert all conceptual mechanisms that subjugate the Human and render it servile to operations such as dialectical synthesis, conversion or desire for the Other. This approach underwrites Laruelle’s critique of Meister Eckhart’s thought for its enclosure of the Human within the Neo-platonic grammar of procession, conversion and return, and for the way it retains an emphasis on transcendent super-essentiality in its discourse of the God(head) beyond God. The paper suggests, however, that Eckhart’s sermons, despite deploying such inherited philosophical vocabularies, already articulate radical immanence that undermines the necessity of mediation and work, through mystical topoi such as poverty, humility and “without a why”. In so doing, the paper not only proposes the necessity of a more generous hermeneutic framework for non-philosophy, but also offers the possibility of de-emphasizing the name of “Man” in the theorization of radical immanence. As the paper shows, Eckhart’s conceptuality of poverty, humility and “without a why” points not only to the capacity to subvert transcendence, but additionally to articulate radical immanence decoupled from any Human figure. The radical immanence of the One, however, is not just foreclosed to the World, but, as Mystique non-philosophique makes clear, also entails a messianic dimension: the text repeatedly proposes cloning “Christ-subjects” or “Future Christs” who are not of the World but “for the World”. The final part of this paper argues that it is necessary to read such messianic concepts or “first names” without reverting to economic thinking, without, that is, re-introducing the mechanism of transcendence and specular enclosure. The real subversion of the World lies not in the affirmation of divine transcendence, nor in the nihilism of the desert, but in an immanent One, which is foreclosed to the World but nevertheless messianically displays its insufficiency. Finally, the paper suggests interpreting the radical immanence of the One as an undercommons of the World and (eschatological or divine) transcendence taken together, an undercommons that indexes the mobile lives, generic uncountable forms of living and anonymous forces that pose a perpetual danger to the order enforced by the World and its Gods. This paper is published as part of a thematic collection dedicated to radical theologies.

Beyond Words: A Question for Oliver Davies about Transcendence and Transformation

This article engages with the work of Oliver Davies to ask about the role of divine transcendence in Davies’ project of ‘Transformation Theology’. While Davies argues that a theology of transcendence paints a picture of a remote God, this article asks whether this is an accurate reading of the tradition of thinking about divine transcendence. The tradition, this article argues, has commonly depicted transcendence as that feature of divinity that enables, rather than hinders, divine agency in the world. As a result, the article asks of Davies whether a conscious positive engagement with the concept of divine transcendence might actually aid the cause of ‘Transformation Theology’.

A Comparative Study of Postmodern Understandings on the concept of the “Divine Transcendence” in the Negative Theology of Pseudo-Dionysius: Focused on Postmetaphysical Theology of Jean-Luc Marion and the Deconstructive Theology of Jacques Derrida and John D. Caputo

A Comparative Study of Postmodern Understandings on the concept of the “Divine Transcendence” in the Negative Theology of Pseudo-Dionysius: Focused on Postmetaphysical Theology of Jean-Luc Marion and the Deconstructive Theology of Jacques Derrida and John D. Caputo

Clarissa ’s Political Theology and the Alternative Modernity of God, Death, and Writing

The following essay begins with the contention that the prolonged conclusion of Richardson’s Clarissa (1747-8) has yet to be understood. From Brian Downs, to Vivasvan Soni, to Richardson himself, critics have long overlooked the significance of Clarissa’s monastic final weeks because they have interpreted them according to a false dichotomy between divine transcendence and mortal particularity. Refusing this opposition, I frame Clarissa’s final days in the worldly terms of political theology and hail the protracted end of Richardson’s novel as the period in which he simultaneously perfects and undoes the novel tradition. Drawing from Martin Luther’s A Treatise on Christian Liberty (1520) as well as Max Weber’s The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (1905), I read Clarissa as a lesson in the overlooked potential for mainstream Protestantism to make modern novelistic subjects that stand against, and not merely for, the rising spirit of capitalism. While indebted to the critiques of secularism articulated by theorists such as Giorgio Agamben and Jacques Derrida, I argue that Clarissa takes the conversation a step further. By opposing “the light of [her] own judgment” against the authority of her male attackers, Clarissa not only articulates the theological foundation of her novelistic self, but also dramatizes the separatist politics that it makes possible. Building upon Nancy Armstrong and Leonard Tennenhouse’s model of the domestic novel as captivity tale, I celebrate Clarissa as the captive heroine who brings her morally exemplary and supremely discursive self to its extreme limit of perfection.

The Conceptual Transfer of Human Agency to the Divine in the Second Temple Period: The Case of Saul’s Suicide

King Saul was not only Israel’s first monarch, but he was also her first sacrilegious ruler, a point on which the two historiographical books in the Hebrew Bible agree. However, each respective corpus delineates Saul’s portrayal in uneven and distinctive representations, varying in theological perspective and emphasis. 1 Samuel presents a complex account of Saul’s rise to power and his subsequent fall from divine favor, and culminates with Saul’s battlefield suicide. 1 Chronicles, however, shows no interest in Saul’s life, but begins and ends with his suicide. Though Chronicles uses the antecedent Samuel as a source, the story of Saul’s suicide and its ramifications experience a conceptual metamorphosis, resulting in considerable shifts in the perception of human and divine agency. Relatedly, Chronicles is temporally posterior to Samuel, finding its inception following the Judean restoration in the Second Temple period’s postexilic milieu. This paper seeks to uncover these shifts manifested in Chronicles by elucidating each account, highlighting the relationship between human and divine agency. Attention to the shifts yields a different sacrilegious Saul and an altered concept of divine transcendence, both birthed in the cradle of the Judean community in the Second Temple period.