Great Theologians Research Articles

Philosophy of Education From the Perspective of Allameh Seyyed Mohammad Hossein Tabatabai and Morteza Motahari

According to the philosophy of education it has been tried to discuss the ideas of two great contemporary commentators and theologians Allameh Tabatabai and Shahid Motahari in this paper under the heading of realism in Islamic philosophy. It must be noted that not only these two major Islamic philosophers are realists, but also it can almost be said that all Muslim philosophers are realists and they believe that objects exist independently of us and some of them affect mind through senses and understanding will be achieved by mind and some will be known by reason. They further argue that there are some facts other than the material world and their use of the facts is not less than materials but is more and higher and the most important is God while not material, but it is. Because in Islamic realism school education is a kind of scientific philosophy (ideology) and philosophical issues (cosmology, anthropology, ontology, theology, anthropology and epistemology) in other words worldview or theoretical philosophy of Islamic realism are bases of educational issues and this is a logical connection that can have a significant impact on coherence and coordination of the educational system and can consider it as a particular system of education it means Practical philosophy, including ethics, law, education etc is based on theoretical philosophy (theoretical and philosophical issues). This relationship will be mentioned later. Considering the introduction the foundations of Islamic realism education can be defined as follows. General perspectives of Islamic realism are about the existence, God, human, dimensions of his existence, knowledge, (generally attitudes of accepted and assumptions toward the universe) that will form the basis for education. If you wish to express a more Abstract definition. ultimate goal of creation is perfection and quality its move to the final destination (proximity to God).

Arkivyskupas Mečislovas Reinys – neotomistinės filosofijos pradininkas Lietuvoje

The article explores the contribution of the Archbishop Mečislovas Reinys to the dissemination of Neothomistic Philosophy in Lithuania. Abp. M. Reinys was not the only author of Neo-thomistic Philosophy, but one of the first and reasonable ones. However, the title of the article is considered to be correct. The author is interested in peculiarities of and conditions for the world-view formation of the great theologian and philosopher, educator and psychologist Abp. M. Reinys. Only few episodes are being explored, that are related with Abp. M. Reinys’ university studies, which had a great and invaluable significance to the development of his personality and fate. The archbishop was not only interested in the authority and modern interpretations of the teaching of St. Thomas Aquinas, it also satisfied his curiosity and became the subject of his continuous considerations. Thus, his writings and articles not only contributed to the development of the thomistic Philosophy in Lithuania, but also inspired and encouraged the dispersion of this Christian thought and ideas and its broader discursive spread.

On Poor Religious Coping: Spiritually Assessing Christianity's Great Theologians

On Poor Religious Coping: Spiritually Assessing Christianity's Great Theologians

Reinhold Niebuhr and His Circle of Influence

This reverent, detailed, and highly focused book illuminates Reinhold Niebuhr's relationship with seven prominent contemporaries. Largely on the basis of private correspondence, Daniel F. Rice sets before us the great theologian's back-and-forth interaction with John Dewey, Felix Frankfurter, George Kennan, Hans Morgenthau, Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr., Norman Thomas, and Paul Tillich. While conscientious in identifying and seeking to clarify Niebuhr's disagreements with these distinguished friends, Rice's priority throughout is to vindicate Niebuhr's standing as a national sage by showing how extensively he influenced important contemporaries. Rice establishes beyond doubt the personal indebtedness to Niebuhr felt especially by Frankfurter, Kennan, Morgenthau, and Schlesinger, although the special pleading that diminishes this book is exemplified by Rice's repeated efforts to reinstate as legitimate an often-quoted statement of Kennan's that Kennan himself denied he ever uttered: Niebuhr was “the father of us all.” There is no credible evidence that Kennan ascribed to his entire generation the measure of personal indebtedness that Kennan acknowledged on his own behalf.

Orígenes de Alejandría y el paradigma de la espiritualidad del desierto

In this article, we shall call ‘spirituality of the desert’ the experience that urges the human being to leave the safety and comfort of the known world in order to follow the inner voice that leads them to the encounter with the divine. This decision involves very great risks and uncertainties, because in the desert there is only silence and solitude and nothing guarantees success in the search of God. However, going through the desert offers, to those who take the risk, the most precious gifts that a human being can aspire: freedom and peace. In this regard and as a provisional essay of a ‘mystic phenomenology of the desert’, the main objective will be aimed at deepening the theological and mystical reflections on the desert done by an author such as Origen of Alexandria. The choice has been based on the immense influence this great theologian has had in the history of Western mysticism. The analysis of the significance of the desert in the theology of Origen, was held in his beautiful homilies on Exodus. This article will show how this theological line has full validity for the contemporary world.

Did God Invent Fibonacci Numbers?

Leonardo (of Pisa) Fibonacci wrote the initial treatise on the Fibonacci series in 1202. References to the sequence, however, appear as early as 250 BCE in Saskrit Literature. Some historias claim that Fibonacci pairs appear in Indian literature as early as 450 BCE. A didactic review of the design of the Tabernacle (as described in Exodus) and of Solomon's Temple (as described in 1 Kings and Chronicles) illustrates that the dimensions of both edifices as well as the interior furnishings were replete with designs based on the Fibonacci schema and its derivatives, the Golden Ratio (Divine Proportion) and its inverse, indicating Fibonacci pairs made their appearance at least 200 years prior to the earliest historic references in Sanskrit literature. (For those believing the Bible was given at Sinai, Fibonacci numbers makes their appearance about a millenia prior to Sanskrit writings) While Isaac Newton, a great theologian in his own right, extolled the mathemtatical and aesthetic virtues of Solomon's Temple in his Chronology of Ancient Civilizations, unfortunately, he relies on the description of the Temple as depicted in Ezekiel, ch 40-43. This rendition, and Newton's drawings, as can readily be seen pertains to what is believed to be the Third Temple, and has little relationship to Solomon's Temple.

La controversia anti-apollinarista in Severiano di Gabala

To study Severian of Gabala from the point of view of anti-heretical polemic allows us to delve into a character who is obscure and often overlooked. When looking at the argument against the Apollinarists, a task which requires a capacity for extensive speculation, Severian comes out as less significant in comparison to the other great theologians of his time, like the Cappadocian Fathers, although he adheres to the same doctrinal line. The more demanding arguments – as in his homily De centurione, fully devoted to this controversy – are missing. Despite a common Antiochene origin, he also separates himself from Chrysostom by engaging in a more allegorical form of exegesis and by his defense of orthodoxy, whereas in John the pastoral concern for the lives of the faithful stands out. This study does not intend to re-evaluate or diminish Severian even more than has been done, but attempts to contextualize him and his anti-Apollinarian work morecompletely.

I–Thou Relationships in Tourism: The Case of Cross-Cultural Interaction between Okinawan Locals and Japanese Tourists

This study examines encounters between Okinawan locals and Japanese mainland tourists on Okinawa. Rarely has Okinawan tourism been studied. The study applies the I–Thou ideas of Martin Buber, the great theologian, to those interactions. It appears this is the first study in tourism research to do so. I–Thou relations are those that engage another person fully, while I–It relations view the other person as a means to another end. I–Thou relations lead to change; I–It relations do not. It is difficult to ascertain the presence of I–Thou relations, but transformation, community, friendship, certain short encounters, as well as certain ways of describing the experience may be marks of I–Thou relations. This study interviewed 42 tourists and 35 locals via in-depth qualitative interviews. The results suggest some surprising conclusions. Goal-oriented tourism inhibits cross-cultural relations. Neither cultural similarity nor cultural difference affect whether I–Thou relations occur. I–Thou relations do not occur often, tempering views about tourism as an agent of change. The tourism goals of cultural plurality and transformation of our world can be achieved through I–Thou relations. The cultures of Japan and Okinawa indicate how transformation can be handled where I–It relations dominate.

The Church Struggle and the Confessing Church: An Introduction to Bonhoeffer's Context

This article traces the German church struggle form 1933 to 1945 with particular emphasis on Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s role. Although Bonhoeffer’s status in the world today is that of a great theologian and courageous opponent of the Nazi regime, he did not have much of an impact on the direction of the Confessing Church during the church struggle. Bonhoeffer’s striking albeit marginal role in the German church struggle and his inability to affect significantly the direction of the Confessing Church was due to many factors, including his young age, his liberal-democratic politics, his absence from Germany from October 1933 to April 1935, his vacillating and at times contradictory positions on central issues, his radical theological critique of the Nazi state, his friendship with and family ties to Christians of Jewish descent, and ultimately his willingness to risk his life to destroy Hitler’s regime.

THE QUESTION OF GOD AND THE DOCTRINE OF THE TRINITY

This paper begins with an explanation of the five strata of mental life that Ignacio Matte Blanco described. In the first stratum common sense (Aristotelian) logic is employed, whereas the fifth stratum is dominated by symmetric logic, the logic of the unconscious which, when taken to the extreme, identifies everything with everything else. The intermediate strata use a mix of the two logics in different proportions. The discourse generated by each stratum has certain typical features: factual assertions in the first, simile in the second, metaphor and symbol in the third, paradox and contradiction in the fourth, and the silence of mystical contemplation in the fifth. The author argues that these five strata are illuminating in the study of theology. Factual discourse can say little or nothing about God, whereas the fifth stratum is about nothing else. In the middle stratum is found the metaphoric and symbolic Christian narrative, from creation to the Incarnation in Jesus, his life, death, resurrection and, finally, to the End of the world. Reflection on this third stratum narrative led theologians to the doctrinal paradoxes of the Trinity and Incarnation, apparently rational but actually self-contradictory. Finally, a comparison is drawn between the thought of Nicholas of Cusa, the last great mediaeval theologian and expositor of the composition of opposites, and Matte Blanco's theory of symmetric logic.

No Ordinary Sin: Antislavery Protestants and the Discovery of the Social Nature of Morality

InChristianity and the Social Crisis(1907), Walter Rauschenbusch compared the sin of speculating in land to the sin of slavery. The great theologian of the Social Gospel tried to open his audience's eyes to the sinfulness of land speculation by reminding them that not long ago, Christians had been unaware of the sinfulness of slavery. Before the abolition of slavery, he wrote, “there were millions of genuine Christians, honestly willing to see and do the right thing in other matters, to whom it seemed a preposterous proposition that slavery is incompatible with Christianity.” To these honest believers, slavery was a necessary social institution like the family or the school. Today, he continued, most Christians, despite their genuine faith, do not realize “that it is a crying wrong to hold land idle for speculation in cities where men's lungs are rotting away … few who realize that it is a flat denial of Christianity to take advantage of the needs of your fellow man to buy his labor cheaply or sell him your goods dearly.” Christians were blind to the evils of industrial society just as they had been blind to the evils of slavery. Both slavery and land speculation were social sins, morally deficient practices that were so deeply embedded in the economic and social structure that they seemed to be “a necessary and inevitable part of the structure of society.” Social sins were different than individual sins. “Genuine Christians” did not tolerate individual sins like drunkenness, adultery, or murder, but they had tolerated slavery.

English Hypothetical Universalism: John Preston the Softening of Reformed Theology. By Jonathon D. Moore and John Owen: Reformed Catholic, Renaissance Man (Great Theologians Series). By Carl R. Trueman

The Heythrop JournalVolume 51, Issue 1 p. 140-142 English Hypothetical Universalism: John Preston the Softening of Reformed Theology. By Jonathon D. Moore and John Owen: Reformed Catholic, Renaissance Man (Great Theologians Series). By Carl R. Trueman Paul Brazier, Paul Brazier WimbledonSearch for more papers by this author Paul Brazier, Paul Brazier WimbledonSearch for more papers by this author First published: 07 December 2009 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2265.2009.00533_33.xRead the full textAboutPDF 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 onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditWechat Volume51, Issue1January 2010Pages 140-142 RelatedInformation

The Battle without and Within: The Psychology of Sin and Salvation in the Desert Fathers and Mothers

Some 1600 years separate our world from the world of the Desert Fathers and Mothers, a world that might seem strange to us. There is much in it that does in fact seem disturbing and bizarre, especially the strict asceticism that drove these unusual saints into the wilderness. Their worldview becomes more accessible and relevant, however, if we grasp the underlying psychology of the movement, especially as it was explored and explained by one of the great theologians of the movement, Evagrius Ponticus. His description of the human soul and the eight deadly “thoughts” manifest a psychology that shows why the Desert Fathers and Mothers withdrew into the desert to fight the devil, seek for God, and practice the ascetic disciplines with such ferocity. The “Sayings” of the tradition show how it is possible to overcome these deadly thoughts. It is obvious that grace is needed, an appropriate setting (which does not necessarily require a literal desert), and spiritual discipline, which includes asceticism, to be sure, but also a calm attentiveness to God and genuine love.

Athanasius. A theological introduction. By Thomas G. Weinandy. (Great Theologians.) Pp. xi+150. Aldershot–Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2007. £50 (cloth), £16.99 (paper). 978 0 7546 1719 8; 978 0 7546 1720 4

Athanasius. A theological introduction. By Thomas G. Weinandy. (Great Theologians.) Pp. xi+150. Aldershot–Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2007. £50 (cloth), £16.99 (paper). 978 0 7546 1719 8; 978 0 7546 1720 4 - Volume 60 Issue 2

English hypothetical universalism. John Preston and the softening of reformed theology. By Jonathan D. Moore. Pp. xx+304. Grand Rapids, MI–Cambridge: Eerdmans, 2007. £19.99 ($36) (paper). 978 0 8028 2057 0 - John Owen. Reformed Catholic, Renaissance man. By Carl R. Trueman. (The Great Theologians.) Pp. viii+132. Aldershot–Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2007. £50 (cloth), £16.99 (paper). 978 0 7546 1469 2; 978

English hypothetical universalism. John Preston and the softening of reformed theology. By Jonathan D. Moore. Pp. xx+304. Grand Rapids, MI–Cambridge: Eerdmans, 2007. £19.99 ($36) (paper). 978 0 8028 2057 0 - John Owen. Reformed Catholic, Renaissance man. By Carl R. Trueman. (The Great Theologians.) Pp. viii+132. Aldershot–Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2007. £50 (cloth), £16.99 (paper). 978 0 7546 1469 2; 978

WHERE IS KARL BARTH IN MODERN EUROPEAN HISTORY?

Anglophone historians of modern Europe know Karl Barth primarily as the intellectual leader of the anti-Nazi Church Struggle and the principle author of the Barmen Declaration of 1934, which spoke a dramatic “No” to National Socialism's attack on the German churches. But Barth was also arguably the most important—and most prolific—theologian of the twentieth century. Aside from his unfinished magnum opus, the fourteen-volumeChurch Dogmatics, he published more than one hundred books and articles, and he quite literally wrote until the day he died in 1968. Barth's output has elicited an equally impressive secondary literature, produced mostly by students of theology and amounting to around fourteen thousand titles in twenty-five languages. As might be expected, theologians differ in their interpretations of Barth, seeing him as a formative voice in “neo-orthodox” Protestantism, a left-wing socialist, a fitting subject of deconstructionist philosophical theology, a thinker who showed the way “past the modern,” or a “critically realistic dialectical theologian.” In view of this record it may come as a surprise to find that until recently the Swiss was still “habitually honored but not much read,” as theologian George Hunsinger wrote in 1991. Hunsinger was not the only observer to see that Barth's work was never fully integrated into the corpus of theological culture in Europe and the United States despite the scholarly interest in his thought. This situation may be changing, as a transatlantic “Barth renaissance” now gathers momentum, nearly forty years after the great theologian's death.

`Christ Existing as Community': Dietrich Bonhoeffer's Notion of Church

Dietrich Bonhoeffer was one of the great theologians, churchmen, and martyrs of the twentieth century. His ecclesiology is still relevant at a time when the ecclesiology of communion is very much to the fore. This article revisits his school of ecclesiology, reflecting on his seminal works, Santorum Communio and Act and Being, as well as later works such as Life Together, Ethics, and Letters and Papers from Prison. A concern throughout is to highlight the various dimensions of what he means by saying the Church is Christ existing as community. It aims to encourage also reflection on how far this image of the Church as the community of the Risen Christ has been developed in theological reflection, something which is vitally important for the Church as it sets out on its third millennium.

La formación del sistema hegeliano. Una sistematización de los escritos de juventud

El autor reconstruye y ordena el camino que Hegel recorrió en su juventud hacia la formación del sistema filosófico que data, aproximadamente, de 1800; nos ofrece las directrices para una comprensión más cabal del sistema hegeliano así como de la figura de su autor; uno de los grandes teólogos de la modernidad.

Augustine's Questions: Why the Augustinian Theology of God Matters Today

FINALLY, IT ALL COMES DOWN to a correct description of Everything else culture, politics, nature, human relationships--is properly understood only in the measure that ultimate reality is grasped with at least a relative adequacy. Like all of the other great theologians of the tradition, St. Augustine struggled his whole life with this central question. Though his restless mind ranged over innumerable issues, from human psychology to Roman history to Christology and eschatology, his primary preoccupation was determining the meaning of the word God. And he found answers. Though he was one of the greatest searchers in the Western tradition, Augustine did not have a romantic attitude and therefore did not regard the search as an end in itself. Here I think John Caputo, reading Augustine through the lens of Derridean undecidability, has misconstrued his subject. (1) At the end of his questioning, Augustine found a truth in which he could rest, a truth that, he was convinced, had set him free. And this was none other than the conviction that ultimate reality is the trinitarian God revealed in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. I believe that Augustine's questions and answers are remarkably relevant to our time, and that finding for ourselves the truth that he found is of great moment not only for our personal spiritual fulfillment but also for the health of our Church and culture. What I should like to do, in the course of this article, is to follow, in a necessarily sketchy way, the Augustinian path toward the understanding of God, thinking with him and after him. And I would like to demonstrate throughout the analysis how Augustine's questions and solutions matter for us, especially for those committed to carrying on and making effective the intellectual heritage of Catholicism. I will undertake this task by looking at three key arguments that Augustine had at different points in his intellectual journey: the first with the Manichees and the Platonists when he was a comparatively young man, the second with the Arians when he was in midcareer, and the third with the Romans as he approached the end of his life. What emerges, as Augustine wrestles with these various opponents, is that very distinctive understanding of ultimate reality that we Christians call belief in the God who is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Augustine's Argument with the Manichees and the Platonists The work of St. Augustine that has exercised most fascination and given rise to most commentary over the ages is, of course, his great autobiography, Confessions. Relying implicitly on the double sense of the Latin term confessio, Augustine uses this text as a means both to confess his sins and to profess his praise of In fact, those two moves are, in his mind, inextricably linked: the more he becomes aware of his sins, both intellectual and moral, the more he is able to acknowledge and thank the true God--and vice versa. Nowhere is this link between contrition and praise more clearly on display than in the seventh book of Confessions. In this densely textured section of his autobiography, Augustine recounts the tortuous process by which he wriggled free from the influence of Manichaeism, the dualist, quasi-Gnostic system of which he had been, for nine years, a faithful adept. The principle allure of Manichaeism--both in Augustine's day and in ours--is the simple and elegant way that it handles the problem of evil. If the world is, at the most basic level, a struggle between a force of good and a force of evil, then we are not obliged to blame God for suffering. Instead, we should simply side with him in his just and worthwhile enterprise, even as we hate the principle responsible for evil. Manichaeism solves the problem of theodicy by dissolving it. Now what is the conception of God associated with this Manichaean philosophy? It would not be quite right to say, as most popular accounts have it, that God is, on the Manichaean reading, purely spiritual, set radically apart from the realm of matter. …

Karl Barth’s epistemology: A critical appraisal

Can the great 20th century systematic theologian Karl Barth justify the fundamental beliefs he holds regarding the priority of God’s revelation in Jesus Christ as put forward in his impressive and comprehensive Kirchliche Dogmatik? Is it enough and thus theologically justifiable to simply state in the words of Barth that the best theology would need no advocates: it would prove itself? In my appraisal of Barth’s epistemological stance, I would like to argue in this article that his stance in the first place, does not only lead to a total isolation of theological reflection, but secondly through his highly exclusive claim, takes on the character of a personal religious credo expanded into a comprehensive doctrine beyond any form of control, and ultimately thirdly, becomes methodologically in essence a specifically Barthian theology from below.
 
 Wenn die Theologie sich eine Wissenschaft nennen lässt oder selber nennt, so kann sie damit keinerlei Verpflictung übernehmen, sich an den für andere Wissenschaften gültigen Massstäbem messen zu lassen. 
 (Karl Barth 1947:8)