Relation Of God Research Articles

A moral ontology for a theistic ethic: gathering the nations in love and justice

This work develops a moral ontology for a theistic ethic that engages the work of contemporary moral and political philosophers, and reaffirms the relevance of a theistic tradition of God's relation to the world reflected in the fundamental teachings of Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Drawing on recent thought in the non-religious fields of psychology and political and moral philosophy, which build around the concept of human flourishing in community, Kirkpatrick argues that a theistic ethic need not be the captive of parochial or sectarian theological camps. He proposes a common or universal ethic that transcends the fashionable ethnocentric incommensurate differences in morality alleged by many post-modern deconstructionists. In the wake of ethnic religious strife post September 11th 2001, this book argues for a common morality built on the inclusivity of love, community, and justice that can transcend sectarian and parochial boundaries.

“The End of all our Exploring” in Science and Theology

Abstract. The present malaise of religion—and of theology, its intellectual formulation—in Western society is analyzed, with some personal references, especially with respect to its history in the United Kingdom and the United States. The need for a more open theology that takes account of scientific perspectives is urged. An indication of the understandings of God and of God's relation to the world which result from an exploration starting from scientific perspectives is expounded together with their fruitful relation to some traditional themes. The implications of this for the future of theology are suggested, not least in relation to the new phase, beginning in 2003, of the development of the Zygon Center for Religion and Science. In a concluding reflection the hope is expressed that the shared global experience and perspectives generated by the sciences might form a more common and acceptable starting point than hitherto for the exploration towards God of the seekers of many religious traditions and of none.

On the Impossibility of a Demonstration of Theological Determinism

The argument according to which there can be no demonstration that divine creative causality precludes human freedom unfolds in the context of St. Thomas's understanding of choice and of the relation of God to the world. The gist of the argument is that any demonstration of the nature or characteristics of some effect from the cause of that effect supposes some knowledge of the nature of the cause. To the contrary, we know nothing of the nature of the divine causality, which is one with the divine being, and therefore etc. Before the argument, there is a word on God and second causes; on necessity and contingence; on transcendent causality; and on why it seems that creation precludes human freedom.

Relationships between God and People in the Bible, Part II: The New Testament, with Comparisons with the Torah

In an earlier study on the first five books of the Bible, the Torah or Pentateuch, relationships between God and people were assessed with the use of a clinical-quantitative method, the core conflictual relationship theme (CCRT) method. Here, the study is extended to God or Jesus's relationships with people in the New Testament, to obtain the first description of those relationships based on an established measure of relationships. In the New Testament, many different kinds of relationship themes were observed, with benevolent and positive themes as the most frequent. Other results included that: (a) relationships in the New Testament often appeared more positive than in the Torah; (b) New Testament relationships between Jesus and people were less positive than between God and people; and (c) God's relationship with Jesus was more positive than God's relationship with Moses. Relationships with Paul, Peter, and women were also assessed. Relationship patterns were considered within the context of attachment theory, and biblical CCRT patterns were consistent with depiction of both secure and anxious attachments. Biblical relationships portray a variety of models for interpersonal relationships, ranging from the very positive to the very negative.

Facing Evil: Evil's Many Faces

Evil is both the experience of suffering and the fear that suffering subverts all meaning and order in the world. Given evil's many faces, at least five paradigms can be identified to account for God's relationship to suffering.

Relationships Between God and People in the Bible: A Core Conflictual Relationship Theme Study of the Pentateuch/Torah

The most widely known images of God are from the Bible. An important characteristic of these images is their portrayal of God's interactions with people. Although there have been many religious and literary discussions of God's relationships with people in the Bible, no systematic psychological assessment has been reported. Therefore, the aim of this study was an innovation: to identify patterns of relationship between God and people portrayed in the first five books of the Bible, the Pentateuch or Torah, by using the core conflictual relationship theme (CCRT) method, a widely used scoring system for the assessment of interpersonal relationships. Reliability for the application of the CCRT method to relationship episode narratives in the Pentateuch/Torah was assessed and found to be very good. Results show that the most frequent theme in relationship episode narratives about God and people is that God is helpful. Two less frequent but also highly repetitive themes are that God controls or hurts the other person. Many differences were found between relationship themes defined by the type of person with whom God interacted: patriarch, Moses, woman, non-Israelite, or not a non-Israelite. Thus, the CCRT results identify several different patterns of relationship between God and people.

Pride as sin and virtue

This paper examines a tension in Christian thought between the traditional critique of pride as a sin and the more recent affirmation of pride as a virtue. By analyzing where each locates the fundamental evil to be overcome, it shows how this critique and affirmation are conflicting goods that need to be held together. It concludes by indicating how the eschatological Christian hope and the preferential option for the poor help achieve this goal, and points to a dynamic understanding of God's relationship to the world that can undergird both the affirmation and the critique of pride.

Faith and autonomy a Taste of Wales

This paper reports on one particular aspect of a survey conducted in Wales- namely the relation between Christian belief and two of the most characteristic marks of post-Enlightenment modem society. These are (i) personal autonomy or freedom and (ii) egalitarianism or social autonomy in a pluralistic society. The question, therefore, is whether there is any causal-relation, positive or negative, between modernity and current perceptions of God and God's relation to the world. Such a study could illuminate, on the one hand, how contemporary Christians handle a belief in God that has to take account of the pressures of modernity and, on the other hand, whether having religious faith actually affects attitudes.

Darwin, Social Theory, and the Sociology of Scientific Knowledge

This essay considers ways in which Darwin's account of natural processes was influenced by economic, ethical, and natural‐theological theories in his own day. It argues that the Anabaptist concept of “the gospel of all creatures” calls into question alliances between evolutionary theory and social policy that are based on the dominance of conflictual images such as “the survival of the fittest” and questions the negative images of both nature and God that Darwinism has been taken to sponsor. The essay also considers developments in biology that have called into question dualist accounts of human nature as body and soul, thus reminding us that we are fully a part of the natural world and thus contributing, in turn, to a better theological grasp of God's relation to nature.

The Family in the Old Testament

Household or family in scripture reflects a richness of meaning that reaches far beyond contemporary usage in public discourse. Without raising its importance to an idolatrous level yet affirming its foundational significance for community, the Old Testament presents the family as a metaphor for God's relationship with Israel and a vehicle of grace for human beings.

Laying the groundwork for a Christian theology for interprofessional care

The case of John, a chronically ill elderly patient, provides the context to identify a number of the issues which must be explored to develop a coherent and comprehensive Christian theology for interprofessional care. Six categories of theological thought and discourse provide a framework to illuminate a theology for interprofessional care. Anthropological questions provide a common understanding of human beings as both givers and receivers of care. Ideas about the nature of God and God's relationship to the world fall under the category of theology. A specifically Christian theology must also seek clarity about the concepts and ideas related to the figure of Jesus. The concept of salvation is central to Christian faith and tradition and is related in significant ways to patients and clients, especially those in chronic or terminal stages of illness. Concepts of time in Christian tradition become a critical dimension of human existence for patients near the end of life. Ethical decision-making is a critical outcome of the application of a Christian theology for interprofessional care.

The Greening of Protestant Thought

The Greening of Protestant Thought traces the increasing influence of environmentalism on American Protestantism since the first Earth Day, which took place in 1970. Robert Booth Fowler explores the extent to which ecological concerns permeate Protestant thought and examines contemporary controversies within and between mainline and fundamentalist Protestantism over the Bible's teachings about the environment. Fowler explores the historical roots of environmentalism in Protestant thought, including debates over God's relationship to nature and the significance of the current environmental crisis for the history of Christianity. Although he argues that mainline Protestantism is becoming increasingly 'green,' he also examines the theological basis for many fundamentalists' hostility toward the environmental movement. In addition, Fowler considers Protestantism's policy agendas for environmental change, as well as the impact on mainline Protestant thinking of modern eco-theologies, process and creation theologies, and ecofeminism.

SALVADOR AMONG THE WORLD MISSION CONFERENCES OF THIS CENTURY

International Review of MissionVolume 86, Issue 340-341 p. 19-26 SALVADOR AMONG THE WORLD MISSION CONFERENCES OF THIS CENTURY Jacques Matthey, Jacques Matthey Jacques Matthey, from Switzerland, is general secretary of the Missionary Department of the Protestant Churches in French-speaking Switzerland, located in Lausanne.Search for more papers by this author Jacques Matthey, Jacques Matthey Jacques Matthey, from Switzerland, is general secretary of the Missionary Department of the Protestant Churches in French-speaking Switzerland, located in Lausanne.Search for more papers by this author First published: 25 March 2009 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1758-6631.1997.tb00005.x AboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditWechat Volume86, Issue340-341January‐April 1997Pages 19-26 RelatedInformation

Infinite Accumulations and Pantheistic Implications

T hroughout his early writings, Leibniz was concerned with developing an acceptable account of God's relationship to the created world. In some of these early writings, he endorsed the idea that this relationship was similar to the human soul's relationship to the body. Though he eventually came to reject this idea, the anima mundi thesis remained the topic of several essays and correspondences during his career, culminating in the correspondence with Clarke. At first glance, Leibniz's discussions of this thesis may seem less important in comparison to others, since it might seem like a topic which is far removed from what are regarded as his most important philosophical doctrines. I hope to show in what follows that such a view is mistaken. The large amount of attention Leibniz paid to this thesis is a sure indication of its importance to him. Further, as we shall see, his discussions ofthis thesis tum on some of his most interesting metaphysical topics, including the development of his thinking about the actual infinite, the structure of organic wholes, and the relationship between God and the created universe. In what follows, I examine these discussions chronologically, from the De Summa Rerum (1675-6), to the correspondence with Clarke (1715-6).

The Domestication of Transcendence: How Modern Thinking about God Went Wrong by William C. Placher

The Domestication of Transcendence: How Modern Thinking about God Went Wrong. By WILLIAM C. PLACHER. Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 1996. Pp. 222. $19.99 (paper). ISBN 0-664-25635-X. Yet another book on the question of modernity? Yes and no. Although the latest book by William Placher, a student and editor of the late Hans Frei and well-respected theological writer in his own right, does deal with this topic, its quest is not to explain how or why modernity began, but rather to renew the battle between the ancients and the modems on a specific theme: how human beings should think and speak about God. In particular, Placher argues that at the dawn of the modern age in the seventeenth century, Christian theology lost its appreciation of divine transcendence, with its implications for the human knowledge of God. Placher does not suggest a wholesale retrieval of premodem theology of God, recognizing its support of oppressive social and cultural arrangements. Instead, through a detailed treatment of aspects of the thought of Thomas Aquinas, Martin Luther, and John Calvin-an ecumenical "heroes gallery"-he hopes to demonstrate that these pre-Enlightenment thinkers knew something their modern successors forgot and that must be retrieved by contemporary theology. A set of interrelated questions focuses Placher's historical analysis: (1) how have theologians and philosophers thought about God? (2) how have they defined their language about God? and (3) what is God's relation to the world we experience and the lives we undertake? In each instance, he argues that premodern theologians possessed greater insight than those who first tangled with the Enlightenment. Placher summarizes what went wrong as a "domestication of God," an image he derives from a line by Thomas Hooker written while combating the doggedly undomesticated theology of Anne Hutchinson: "I know there is wilde love and joy enough in the world as there is wilde thyme and other herbes, but we would have garden-love and garden-joy, of God's own planting." In Placher's terms, God is domesticated when theology seeks a "clearly structured system ... in which God plays a rather carefully defined role and we can grasp the principles behind God's actions" (39). This is the sin of modern theology to the extent that it rejected the mysterious and uncontrollable God, and settled for one who could be contained within a bower well-tended by human hands. Prior to embarking on his historical project, Placher addresses the now common dismissal of "classical theism" and the ensuing call for a "postmodern theology." He argues that the identification of the God of classical theism as a distant, dominating, and decidedly patriarchal deity is a caricature indicative of a failure to do the hard work of truly understanding the thought of the leading premoderns, and to distinguish it from what followed. Moreover, while Placher applauds the sensitivity to divine transcendence 469 470 BOOK REVIEWS demonstrated by self-proclaimed theologians of postmodernity such as Mark C. Taylor, he finds that it is often at the expense of appreciating the epistemological repercussions of the self-revelation of the Trinity in the Incarnation of Christ and the powerful presence of the Holy Spirit. Demonstrating a strong Barthian commitment, Placher insists that apart from divine self-revelation theology becomes a "form of idolatry" which seeks to bring the divine under human control (15). For insight into how one can speak of God in light of self-revelation, Placher suggests that close attention be paid to the efforts of Aquinas, Luther, and Calvin. Admirably well-informed on current scholarship concerning the theology of Aquinas (particularly that which rejects any description of Aquinas as half philosopher and half theologian), he emphasizes Thomas's deep appreciation for the consequences the simplicity of God has for theological knowledge. Since God is a simple reality, he cannot be known by human reason, which attains truth by dividing and joining, distinguishing potency from act, and abstracting accidental qualities from essential ones. Yet, as a Christian theologian who believed God's revelation of Jesus Christ as "the way of truth" and eternal salvation, Aquinas recognized the necessity of saying something about God. His solution to the quandary of...

Divine Will and the Mechanical Philosophy (review)

614 JOURNAL OF THE HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY 34:4 OCTOBER 1996 commentators that Descartes denies that the causal process of perception involves the awareness of intermediaries. However, when addressing our epistemological position, he clearly states that mental intermediaries are involved in perception. She suggests an explanation of this, and then gives a plausible interpretation of resemblance claims between ideas and objects. LiUiAlanen in "Sensory Ideas, Objective Reality, and Material Falsity," and Ann Wilbur MacKenzie in "The Reconfiguration of Sensory Experience ," discuss, in part, whether sensations have objective reality. Alanen gives an account of material falsity according to which sensations do have objective reality, but MacKenzie's account, which involves distinguishing between sensations, which do not represent and have no objective reality, and concepts of sensations, which represent sensations, is clearer. The main thesis of MacKenzie's paper is that the Opticscontains a new theory of represerLtation, inclusive of sensory ideas, in which a causal nexus replaces resemblance. However, later, sensory ideas are no longer taken to represent, since they do not exhibit their causes. The collection begins with three unrelated papers gathered under the tide "Reason , History, and Method." Stephen Gaukroger, in "The Sources of Descartes's Procedure of Deductive Demonstration in Metaphysics and Natural Philosophy," argues that Descartes's method of demonstration in the Meditations and the Principles is based on the structure of Jesuit textbooks. Tom Sorell, in "Descartes's Modernity," takes the thesis that knowledge is antierudition to be the crucial modern element in Descartes. The problems in philosophically treating historical writings in philosophy, and the problems with an adequate treatment of Descartes are discussed by Bernard Williams, in "Descartes and the Historiography of Philosophy." The remaining papers deal with God, substance, and the mind-body union. In "God without Cause," Carol Rovane constructs a Cartesian argument for God's existence which moves from doubt to the idea of perfect knowledge, to one of the perfect being, and finally to its existence. "Descartes's Concepts of Substance," by Peter Markie, and "Descartes: The End of Anthropology," by Stephen Voss, together give a thorough discussion of substance and the nature of the union between mind and body. In arguing that Descartes uses three different notions of substance, Markie supposes that the mind-body union constitutes a substance. However, Voss argues that although Descartes talks of a substantial union in the Meditations, he abandons the notion by the Principles. Voss's paper also includes an appendix consisting of an extensive taxonomy of Descartes's statements on the nature of the mind-body union. LAURA KEATING Hunter College,CUNY Margaret J. Osier. Divine Will and the Mechanical Philosophy. Cambridge University Press, 1994. Pp. xi + 984. NP. Divine Will and the Mechanical Philosophyis a work of intellectual history par excellence, both for its breadth of theme and its depth of careful analysis. Osier masterfully weaves together the theological, epistemological, methodological, and physical doctrines of the BOOK REVIEWS 6~ 5 seventeenth century's two greatest opponents--both champions of the new mechanical philosophy--Pierre Gassendi (159a--1655) and Ren~ Descartes 0596-165o). Beyond bringing the historical and theological context into focus, Osier argues that "the issues that separated Gassendi and Descartes stemmed directly from their divergent understandings of God's relationship to the creation" (167). For those who tend to deemphasize the importance of the theological context in understanding these thinkers, this work will make you think again. Osier lays out carefully not only the different and unique routes each thinker travelled to arrive at his consideration of theological matters , but also the strong philosophical ties that hold between their divergent views on the priority of God's will/intellect, the contingency/necessity of the natural order, the limits/reliability of rational methods, and the atomist/geometric theories of matter. Osler's work is divided into two parts. Part One, Chapters 1-6, is an examination of the theological context for the new philosophies of nature that emerged in the seventeenth century. Osier places Gassendi firmly in the voluntarist tradition of Ockham, and Descartes firmly in the intellectualist tradition of Aquinas. Osier argues that although Descartes and Gassendi shared the project of designing a new mechanized philosophy of nature, their divergent conceptions...

Gender Correctness and Biblical Metaphors: The Case of God's Relation to Israel

The marital imagery in the Bible has often been understood as a direct reference to the marriage of God and Israel. Close analysis of the biblical texts involved shows the inexactness of this analysis. The wife of God is always a city. Cities, especially capital cities, receive many different feminine roles, while Israel, the people, receives only masculine roles. Neither Testament allows for the traditional misunderstanding. Precision in reading leads to a more balanced interpretation in which biblical marital imagery is not the central metaphor of the Bible.

ENERGY AND THE GENERATION OF THE WORLD

Abstract. Energy concepts in theology and natural science are studied to see how they may aid the science‐theology dialogue. Relationships between divine and human energies in classical Christology and energy ideas in process theology are significant. In physics, energy has related roles as something conserved and as the generator of temporal development. We explore ways in which God and the world may interact to produce evolution of the universe. Possible connections between the double role of physical energy and the bipolar character of God in process theology are noted. Energy helps to describe God's relationship with the world in both theological viewpoints and, thus, may bridge them.

Christian Love for the Poor: Almsgiving and the “Preferential Option”

AbstractThis article examines the understanding of Christian love for the poor as portrayed by Thomas Aquinas and Gustavo Gutiérrez. It intends (1) to reveal the misunderstandings underlying some current criticisms of both charity and the preferential option, (2) to clarify the real differences between these positions, and (3) to identify areas in which our understanding of the preferential option might be advanced through more conceptual elaboration. The article argues that Thomistic charity is not private, superfluous, and acceptable as a substitute for justice. It also maintains that the preferential option is not a replacement for charity or a distortion ofagapēthat eliminates love of enemies. The major difference between Thomistic charity and the preferential option is the latter's assumption of modern “historical consciousness.” The fundamental ethical task awaiting advocates of the preferential option is a systematic explication of the connection between solidarity and the order of love. The fundamental theological task is to account for the relation of God to nature as well as to history.

Christology in the Qur'an

The Qur'an speaks in a special way about Jesus, his birth, his miracles, his ascension. Some scholars have, based on the Qur'anic sayings about Jesus, drawn the conclusion that the Qur'an does not deny and sometimes affirms specifically Christian beliefs about Jesus. This conclusion is rejected in this paper. The rejection is based on the Islamic view of God's relation and revelation to the world.