Christology Research Articles

Talking about God from the Meaning of Life: Contributions from the Thought of Juan Antonio Estrada

Abstract Juan Antonio Estrada, a Spanish philosopher and theologian, proposes the search for meaning in life as the theological place for a valid experience of God. The “achieved” or fully realized life, to which every human being aspires, is the proposal of salvation that Jesus makes possible with the proclamation of the Reign and that opens a hopeful future with Easter. By bringing reason and faith into dialogue, Estrada contributes to fundamental theology by talking about God, not from the traditional concepts of classical theology, but from the human experience related to the search for a deep meaning for existence. Although this author emphasizes the elements of a problematic faith with unresolved issues and doubts – including the timeless challenge of theodicy – his agonizing and perplexed position is full of confidence in the certainty that God’s salvation plan will inevitably come true. In this contingent life, everything remains incomplete; yet God in Jesus gives the ultimate meaning for life that all human beings grope for. This fundamental issue of human reflection will be developed by going deeper into Estrada’s philosophical and theological work.

The Creed of Nicaea

AbstractThis article gives an account of the discussions about the creed that took place at the Council of Nicaea in 325. It considers major problems regarding its origin and history and outlines the circumstances of its composition, its peculiar structure, and its purpose on the basis of the latest research. Finally, it discusses the legacy of Nicaea for today's theology. The theological development that began at Nicaea in 325 and culminated in the victory of the Neo‐Nicenes at Constantinople in 381 brought about a conceptual clarification that helped to establish a wide consensus regarding how the Christian God and God's saving work in Christ and in the Holy Spirit is described. This development continues to influence Christian theology after 1700 years, despite heavy criticism in recent decades, some of it justified. It is to be hoped that the anniversary of Nicaea is an encouragement to go beyond commemorating the golden age of patristics by developing new ways to communicate the significance of the incarnation, passion, and resurrection of Christ for our salvation to a wider public.

Americanizing the Scandinavian Super Underdog in Eighteen Film Remakes

Americanizing the Scandinavian Super Underdog in Eighteen Film Remakes

Openness, Commitment, and Confidence in Interreligious Dialogue: A Cultural Analysis of a Western Debate

In Western theological reflection, the relationship between openness and commitment in interreligious dialogue is often construed as a relationship between two ends of a seesaw or two arms of a balance; raising one end lowers the other, and one cannot therefore be simultaneously fully committed and open. In critical conversation with the work of Catherine Cornille and Marianne Moyaert, this paper argues that this perspective is related to a specific understanding of the “subject position” of the religious subject in late-modernity which is characterized by the subject–object divide. This divide characterizes many modern and postmodern epistemologies of religion, so that both commitment and openness are primarily rooted in the capacities of the religious subject. However, the Christian faith understands faith as a response to the divine initiative of God in Christ, and therefore understands commitment as grounded in confidence in this decisive divine salvific event. From this standpoint, both full confidence and openness are reconcilable and can even strengthen each other rather than being considered incompatible and in competition.

Reading Ancient Maya Hieroglyphic Books

Spanish priests burned hundreds of images of idols, cult objects, and manuscripts with Mayan hieroglyphs following the conquest of the Yucatan Peninsula, convinced that this would encourage the indigenous population to renounce their ancient beliefs and turn to the Christian God. In so doing they destroyed the memory of a written culture that had existed for over two thousand years. Only four Maya manuscripts—the so-called codices—survived this missionary zeal and the tropical climate of the Yucatan, and these are today kept in museums and libraries in Mexico City, Madrid, Paris, and Dresden. Unlike hieroglyphic texts on stone monuments they do not relay historical events, but instead are mainly divinatory and related to the 260-day Tzolk’in calendar, holding predictive information about the success or failure of everyday activities on favourable or unfavourable days. The author uses a farmers’ almanac from the Dresden Codex to explain the function of Maya calendars, to discuss the significance of time, and to reconstruct how Mayan calendar priests would read daily predictions in the correlated images and texts and apply them to daily practice.

Paul's Letters and their Impact on the Renewal of Christianity


 
 
 
 ABSTRACT
 
 The call of Christ was based on monotheism, which is the call of all the messengers from Adam to Muhammad (may Allah bless him and grant him peace), but I saw in Christianity after Christ a clear deviation from this belief that was preached by Moses, peace be upon him, and after him Jesus, peace be upon him. It is clear that monotheism has disappeared in the beliefs that Christians believed in after that. Paul (the saint of the Christians) is considered the founder of Christianity based on the doctrine of the Trinity (multiple gods). The divinity of the Holy Spirit was also established in this council, just as the divinity of Christ was established in the Council of Nicaea. Then they believe that the second hypostasis of Allah, that is, the hypostasis of the Son, is the one who incarnated and became a real human being. Paul was a Jew of origin, born in Tarsus, in Cilicia, in Asia Minor.
 
 
 

Interconnectedness: the Thread that Enables a Theological and Synodal Response to Abuse

In Greek mythology Ariadne gave a thread to Theseus to enable him to find his way out of the Labyrinth. Interconnectedness is a thread that enables us to see the congruent elements of a theological response to the abuse crisis amidst a spectrum of diverse areas, and move towards a coherent response. I argue that this is a synodal way of proceeding. Key features of this interconnectedness include: an understanding of authority as service and the importance of the child as agent and teacher. Both of these features find their deepest resonance in the person of Christ who issues a clear injunction to pay attention to the child. Indeed, his own identity is inseparable from his being a child in relationship with the Father - the eternal child, always the Son of the Father. There is, I suggest, a challenge to conversion and transformation for the entire ecclesial community.

Fractals: The Secret Code of Creation

Fractals: The Secret Code of Creation

God with Us in Moral Conflict: Divine Righteousness Personified

The recurring biblical idea of ‘God with us’ is underdeveloped in the literature. This article corrects for that deficiency. The God of Jews and Christians offers to ‘be with us’ but is also famous for moral conflict with humans, from the beginning to the end of the scriptural writings. In this regard, at least, we have a marked contrast with the typical gods of deists and of various other theists. This article clarifies the relevant kind of divine conflict in terms of moral life ‘with God’ against moral death. It shows, on this basis, what humans should expect of God regarding morally significant relations in ‘being with’ humans. The article avoids two extremes regarding the divine accompaniment of humans: one extreme as constant presence to awareness, and the other as merely causal without salient experienced content. An important result is a basis in experienced evidence for our assessment of the reality and the moral character of God. Such a basis can move inquirers beyond some stalemates in longstanding controversy about God’s reality and goodness. It also can highlight a unique value of God for humans: namely, being a trustworthy accompanier bringing lasting moral life over moral failure and death. The divine conflict reveals God’s righteous character and aims for an interpersonal divine-human resolution in moral life that is inherently cooperative rather than competitively exclusive. The article identifies how this conflict includes a quest for God’s accompanying, or being together with, humans in righteousness and thus is irreducibly interpersonal and interactive, and not merely moralistic.

God, Human, Animal, Machine: Technology, Metaphor, and the Search for Meaning

God, Human, Animal, Machine: Technology, Metaphor, and the Search for Meaning

초월적 섭리의 신과 스피노자의 ‘신 즉 자연’: 『로빈슨 크루소』의 이중 리듬

초월적 섭리의 신과 스피노자의 ‘신 즉 자연’: 『로빈슨 크루소』의 이중 리듬

“Dilahirkan, Bukan Dijadikan (‘γεννηθέντα οὐ ποιηθέντα’)”

The revelation of the Christian faith is not always apparent at first glance. This revelation is being contemplated constantly, especially when dealing with the challenges of the new era. One thing that cannot be spared from challenges is the understanding of faith in the divinity of Jesus Christ. One of the most significant periods occurred before the Council of Nicaea. The church had to face tough challenges that was coming from Arius. Therefore, how did the Fathers of the Council respond? This paper is aimed to review this theme.

Pre-eksistensi Putra Allah

The deity of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, has been being the object of contemplation for the faithful since the beginning of Christianity. One of the reflected points is the pre-existence of the Son of God. The Church Fathers, especially around the Council of Nicaea, tussled a lot with this issue. They used philosophical terms which were quite complicated in their time. Strangely, long before that, Paul as a radical monotheist, who later became a follower of Christ, seemed to speak about the pre-existence of this Son effortlessly. This fact is interesting to be observed. Therefore, this article is intended to discuss Paul's views regarding the divinity of Jesus Christ.

A New Portrait of a Daoist Sage: Jean-François Foucquet’s Interpretation of the Dao

In the translation history of late imperial China, the Jesuit enterprise played a significant role in translating Western scientific knowledge, a role they performed in tandem with proselytization. The Jesuit Figurists’ re-interpreting and re-writing of the ancient Chinese classics pivoted on symbols, figures, and Chinese characters. The father at the helm of this journey, Joachim Bouvet (1656–1730), embarked on his own Figurist path, navigating by the symbols, figures, and Chinese characters from the Yijing. His followers Joseph Henri Marie de Prémare (1666–1736) and Jean François Foucquet (1665–1741) continued on this track, each further developing his own interpretation of the Dao. Here I will present and explore Foucquet’s journey of the Dao and his presentation of the Christian God and Jesus Christ as Daoist sages by investigating his Chinese, French, and Latin manuscripts that discuss his reinterpretation of the Dao in the Chinese classics, especially the Yijing and Daodejing. In these manuscripts, Foucquet adopted typological exegesis and exhibited his inheritance of the Confucian-Christian-Dao synthesis from his senior Bouvet; he also identified the Dao as Deus and the Oneness of the Dao as the unity of the Holy Trinity. This micro-historical case study of Foucquet’s interpretation of the Dao shows how his navigating the strait between the Scylla and Charybdis of the emperor and the Holy See factored into his trajectory of interpreting the Dao; it also demonstrates that in response to being challenged by his own brothers in the Catholic Church, he cleaved to typological exegesis and Confucian-Christian-Dao synthesis. The significance of this paper lies in that the early understanding of the Dao was manipulated, especially among the Figurists, both as a tool for proselytization and as a bridge to link the East with the West.

The Unfinished Business of Unsettled Things: Art from an African American South

The Unfinished Business of Unsettled Things: Art from an African American South

God in dialogue with His creation

Christian faith, theology and natural sciences are brought into conversation with each other to analyse different aspects of the dialogue between God and his creation. The methodological approach consists of bringing research results from theology and the natural sciences documented in current publications as well as philosophical considerations into a dialogue with the Christian faith. Furthermore, the chronological development is given special attention. Both philosophical considerations and physical observations show that this universe was created by a transcendent intelligent supreme being, the Christian God, and that it is very important for this supreme being to communicate with the intelligent living beings in this universe. God entered and continues to enter into an ever more intense and intimate dialogue with his creation in various ways, both in Earth history and evolution, and in the history of the people of Israel, as well as today in the Christian era. To remove all possible barriers and obstacles to dialogue, God himself became man in Jesus Christ. The incarnation of Jesus Christ is the culmination of the dialogue between God and his creation. The incarnation and resurrection of Jesus Christ had a very great impact on the triune God. God gives himself so much to the dialogue with his creation that he takes into his innermost being the human body of Jesus Christ, which is a part of his creation marked by time. At the end of time, all human beings who have chosen God will live eternally with each other and with the triune God in comprehensive and fulfilling communion. This all-encompassing and all-fulfilling dialogue of love will originate from the triune God and will fill and glorify the whole of creation. The article shows that dialogue is central to understanding the relationship between God and his creation. The intra-Trinitarian dialogue of love between the three persons of God is the starting point, model and goal of both creation and God's dialogue with his creation. Contribution: The synthesis of Christian faith, theology and natural sciences makes it possible to see more clearly how much God is in dialogue with his creation. This can help us to recognise more deeply God's love for his creation and especially for us humans, and to act from this insight.

АВСТРОАЗИАТСКИЕ КОРНИ МИФОЛОГИИ СОРА: ПРОИСХОЖДЕНИЕ И РАЗВИТИЕ ОБРАЗА БОГА КИТТУНГА (ЭТНОЛИНГВИСТИЧЕСКИЙ АНАЛИЗ)

The article deals with the origin and development of the image ofthe god Kittung in the traditional Sora beliefs, as well as its transformation in the “new” religions that arose among the Sora as a result of active proselytism. Based on ethnolinguistic as well as comparative mythological analysis, the paper concludes that the god Kittung goes back to the Austroasiatic mythological ancestor deity, who escaped during the Deluge inside a giant gourd and recreated all life anew. At the same time, the “gourd” anthropogenic myth has a large number of parallels in Southeast Asia and southern China, so it can be assumed that the myth of Kittung dates back in time to the migrations of the Munda peoples to India. In the 20th century, Kittung goes beyond traditional beliefs and becomes God in Christianity and the supreme deity in neo-Hinduism, and is also embodied in one of the letters of the sacred alphabet of the Mattar Banom cult.

Little Rosetta and the Talking Guitar: The Musical Story of Sister Rosetta Tharpe, the Woman Who Invented Rock and Roll by Charnelle Pinkney Barlow, and: Rock, Rosetta, Rock! Roll, Rosetta, Roll!: Presenting Sister Rosetta Tharpe, the Godmother of Rock & Roll by Tonya Bolden

Reviewed by: Little Rosetta and the Talking Guitar: The Musical Story of Sister Rosetta Tharpe, the Woman Who Invented Rock and Roll by Charnelle Pinkney Barlow, and: Rock, Rosetta, Rock! Roll, Rosetta, Roll!: Presenting Sister Rosetta Tharpe, the Godmother of Rock & Roll by Tonya Bolden Kate Quealy-Gainer, Editor Barlow, Charnelle Pinkney Little Rosetta and the Talking Guitar: The Musical Story of Sister Rosetta Tharpe, the Woman Who Invented Rock and Roll; written and illus. by Charnelle Pinkney Barlow. Doubleday, 2023 [40p] Trade ed. ISBN 9780593571064 $18.99 E-book ed. ISBN 9780593571088 $11.99 Reviewed from digital galleys R 4-8 yrs Bolden, Tonya Rock, Rosetta, Rock! Roll, Rosetta, Roll!: Presenting Sister Rosetta Tharpe, the Godmother of Rock & Roll; illus. by R. Gregory Christie. Harper, 2023 [40p] Trade ed. ISBN 9780062994387 $18.99 Reviewed from digital galleys R 4-8 yrs By the time Sister Rosetta Tharpe was six years old, she was already a talented guitarist, playing gospel music with her mother for congregations of the Church of God in Christ. When mom and daughter moved from Cotton Plant, Arkansas, to Chicago in the 1920s, Tharpe continued to play in churches and revivals, but she eventually branched out, performing in jazz clubs and fusing sounds of gospel, jazz, and blues. With the song “Rock Me,” she became an instant hit and a generational inspiration, laying the musical groundwork for Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, and Little Richard, who would all later claim her work to be a foundational influence. Barlow and Bolden separately bring distinctive styles to telling Tharpe’s story, covering some of the same information but with different perspectives. Bolden’s rhythmic, direct address narrative revels in the ebullient joy and power of Tharpe’s art: “Music in your air/ in your hair/ in your bones/ wiggling your toes./ Making downright mighty/ music, music, music.” Viewers follow Rosetta as she plays her way from Arkansas to Chicago to New York and then internationally, all while “Younger cats—some future legends—had been goin’ wow-wow wild over you. Diggin’ your licks./ Coppin’ your style.” Acrylic gouache saturates full spreads, centering Tharpe’s larger-than-life persona with dynamic poses and vibrant hues that display her movement and ease. Barlow’s book focuses on Tharpe’s childhood, with reverential third-person narration that highlights the influence of Tharpe’s mother and the support the young girl received from others in her church community. Onomatopoeia brings a playful rhythm as “Little Rosetta” finds inspiration in everyday moments, and her journey from novice musician to fluent guitarist is relayed with authentic struggles and self-doubt. The striking illustrations have the three-dimensional effect of cut paper collage while bars of music and notes thread through the scenes. Each book has a detailed author’s note offering more specific information about Tharpe’s life and influence, along with timelines and sources. Taken together, these make a fabulous look at a Black musical legend and a solid opportunity for readers to see how different written and artistic styles can convey one story. Copyright © 2022 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois

«Ушедший в Лес» в поисках «кладовой солнца»: философия спасения Михаила Пришвина

The article reconstructs the main aspects of Mikhail Prishvin’s philosophy of sal­vation. Prishvin’s soteriology goes back to the Neoplatonic tradition, its trans­formation in the myth of the Invisible City, the source of which is the idea of the true earth of Plato, the city of God by Aurelius Augustine, the unity of Vl. Solov’ev. The writer’s diaries and prose are united by the intuition of “res­urrection from a number”. The optics of kindred attention, distinguishing love proposed by Prishvin as an alternative to object thinking (thinking of number that does not distinguish between persons) gives an answer to the questions of his modernity – about spiritual resistance to technogenic collectivism and an alternative way of mutual knowledge of nature and space in in general. The philosophical plots of Prishvin are included in the family of ideas of the thinking collective, uniting the seeking city of the Russian Laientheolo­gie of the 19th century (F. Dostoevsky; L. Tolstoy; N. Fedorov; Vl. Solov’ov), existential philosophical tradition, Christian personalism and dialogism of the 20th century (M. Heidegger, E. Junger, V.V. Bibikhin, V.V. Rozanov, A.A. Meyer, M.M. Bakhtin, A.A. Ukhtomsky). Prishvin’s reasoning about the world as a liv­ing whole turns out to be consonant with the hylozoism of J.W. Goethe, D. An­dreev’s panpsychism, the concept of ongoing creation in cosmism by A.K. Gor­sky and V. Muravyov, Teilhard de Chardin’s Christian evolutionism; modern Christian ecology of T. Goricheva; ecotheology of R. Bauckham, C. Moe-Lobeda, Steven Bouma-Prediger, and John F. Haught.

That All Shall Be Saved: Heaven, Hell, and Universal Salvation by David Bentley Hart

Reviewed by: That All Shall Be Saved: Heaven, Hell, and Universal Salvation by David Bentley Hart Glenn B. Siniscalchi David Bentley Hart, That All Shall Be Saved: Heaven, Hell, and Universal Salvation. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2019. Pp. 224. $16.00, paper. Recognizing that certain expressions of Christianity have taught that everyone will see the beatific vision, Hart maintains that the doctrine of universal salvation has frequently been the minority viewpoint within Christian communities. However, that minority stance does not prevent Hart from arguing persuasively that the credibility of the gospel message is at stake in this debate. This book is a mesmerizing defense of the claim that everyone will freely submit to the Christian God. This is not to say that all beliefs concerning damnation are logically incoherent, but one should acknowledge the strength of Hart’s theological and philosophical arguments in That All Shall be Saved that the fires of hell will cleanse the unrepentant of the shortcomings that prevented them from cooperating with the Reign of God during their earthly lifetimes. Each of four meditations focuses on a distinct argument in support of the basic thesis of the book. Following the lead of Gregory of Nyssa, for instance, the doctrine of creatio ex nihilo reinforces the theology of God as the origin and destiny of all human beings. The second meditation discusses some of the complicated issues related to the proper translations and exegesis of the biblical texts (and whether the doctrine of an eternal hell is biblically based). Hart offers a plethora of textual evidence that the doctrine of universal restoration is firmly rooted in the scriptures. The third meditation continues the tradition of classical Christian thought on the collective nature of the identity of human beings. To state the case succinctly, if one person is saved, we must conclude that everyone will reach heavenly bliss. In Hart’s words, “Finite persons are not self-enclosed individual substances; they are dynamic events of relations to what is other than themselves” (p. 151). The last meditation concentrates on the nature of freedom as a condition of being for responsibility and excellence, not as the mere ability to choose between competing options. With this traditional understanding of human freedom in the background, the onus is placed on whether the intellect is able to see the good and the true in a fallen world. God’s grace therefore becomes paramount in guiding human beings toward their final ends. Reading this book as a Catholic theologian with a strong interest in fundamental theology, interfaith dialogue, and the philosophy of religion, I have been fascinated by Hart’s scholarly publications and public lectures, many of which are available online. These have played a major role in convincing me that his depiction of the eschatological horizon is correct. Catholic scholars who live with anxieties about the incompatibilities between conciliar teachings and belief [End Page 125] in universal restoration are strongly encouraged to consult Trent Pomplun’s article, “Heat and Light: David Bentley Hart on the Fires of Hell,” Modern Theology 37 (April, 2021): 523–530. Many intellectuals have discussed Hart’s works in several respectable forums, but, when their reviews and commentaries are carefully interpreted, one becomes perplexed by the misrepresentations of the arguments in support of select universalist positions. As long as one accepts a few other foundational beliefs about the nature of a theistic God and Christianity, the cumulative effect of the case that is presented in Hart’s book will likely remain irrefutable. Glenn B. Siniscalchi Saint Meinrad Seminary and School of Theology, St. Meinrad, IN Copyright © 2023 Journal of Ecumenical Studies