Moral Perfection Research Articles

God’s Moral Perfection as His Beneficent Love. Comment on Craig (2023). Is God’s Moral Perfection Reducible to His Love? Religions 14: 140

William Lane Craig insists that I am wrong in reducing God’s moral goodness to his beneficent aim of drawing all people to himself. For Craig, God’s moral goodness, best conceived in terms of righteousness, must also include God’s retributive justice toward the wicked, who deserve the punishment they receive. My response is that Craig’s argument rests on two assumptions about value, neither of which, I argue, Christian theists have good reason to affirm.

The Role of Islamic EducationTeacher in improving The Morals of Junior High School Student

Morals are a priority in Islam. This is based on the rule that the Prophet Muhammad was sent to the world as one of his main missions to perfect morals. In achieving a person's moral perfection, guidance is needed through education, namely Islamic education. There is a problem, namely some grade VIII students of SMP Ma'arif Ansoru Al-Hasaniyah who have bad behavior towards friends, teachers and do not obey school rules. This study aims to determine the role of Islamic education teachers in improving the morals of class VIII students at SMP Ma'arif Ansoru Al-Hasaniyah Rumbia. The type of research used by the author is a qualitative field research (field research). Data collection techniques used in this study were interviews/interviews, documentation and observation. The results of the study can be concluded that the role of the PAI teacher in improving the morals of class VIII students at SMP Ma'arif Ansoru Al-Hasaniyah Rumbia. That PAI teachers carry out their duties in a professional, responsible, patient and sincere manner. So that class VIII students at SMP Ma'arif Ansoru Al-Hasaniyah Rumbia, who used to have poor morals, are now better, now they become individuals who have a polite attitude.

Moral Foundations of Power and State in Teachings of Ibn al-Azraq

The article deals with the main ideas of the political philosophy of Abu Abdallah Ibn al-Azraq al-Garnati (1427-1491), a well-known Muslim statesman, supreme judge of Granada, lawyer, diplomat, supporter of Arab Muslim peripatetism, a student of the outstanding thinker of the Muslim Middle Ages Ibn Khaldun (1332-1406). In the history of the political philosophy of the Muslim East, a number of major transformations in the development of the Arab Caliphate from the Medina state of the prophet to the Sultanate in the Abbasid period should be noted, which were reflected in the development of the theory of the Arab-Muslim state (caliphate). The main problem of the theory of the caliphate was connected with the question of the relationship between power and authority in the context of the moral foundations of the state. The creative heritage of Ibn al-Azraq is mainly known for his work in the genre of adab ("mirrors of princes") “Miracles on the way, or the Nature of dominion”. The treatise became a classic of the political philosophy of the Muslim Middle Ages, in which, under the influence of Aristotelian ideas, a special place was given to the moral foundations of power and the state, that is, ethics was considered as a political science. In the form of instructive parables, the rulers and heirs to the throne were explained the basics of state administration as part of their studies and education. His doctrine of the virtues can be viewed as ethical rationalism with a belief in the moral perfection of people in power and subjects of the state. Since morals are largely acquired and a person can control them, the task of purifying his own morals and curing them is entrusted to him. In addition, accordingly, it is possible and necessary to cultivate virtues in rulers, since the well-being of the state and the ummah depends on their morals. The moral foundations of power determine the strength of political authority.

Can Kant tell us what to do? Intentions, dilemmas, and the long journey towards moral perfection

The “received view” on Kantian ethics holds that perfect duties enjoy absolute priority over imperfect duties. More recently, several Kantian scholars have reassessed this situation, arguing that imperfect duties may remain binding even if they imply breaching a perfect duty. In this article, I argue that both positions rely on a misunderstanding of the bindingness of Kantian duties. Genuine Kantian duties, I claim, remain binding even when they cannot be fulfilled. We must always strive for a total completion of our duties; what it means for us to strive for it, however, will vary depending on our peculiar situation.

The perils of utopia: Between ‘ethical static’ and moral perfectionism in Iran

Following the Iranian Revolution, ideologues within the Republican system promised the possibility of ethical perfection so long as Iranians adhered to guidelines promulgated by the state. Drawing on a case study of both critics and supporters of the government living in Mashhad, I argue that one of the inadvertent outcomes of this commitment to perfectionism has been its instrumentalization by government critics as a tool to condemn the behaviour of state supporters. Inconsistencies of behaviour demonstrated by state supporters were interpreted by these government critics as gross indecencies and major evils, rather than as part of a modality of ‘ethical static’ that has been advocated for as an understanding of everyday morality. The ethnographic tension in this article illuminates both the impacts of state-led projects of moral utopianism, and their ramifications for anthropology.

The Transformation of the parable and Jemal Karchkhadze’s “He”

       The work analyzes the inner world of Jemal Karchkhadze's literary characters based on such important events as revenge and forgiveness with their religious and literary interpretations. Jemal Karchkhadze's theological and psychological observations are shown for the purpose of searching the human essence, to achieve the divine in order to discover the true purpose. The classic story of revenge and forgiveness can be considered Jemal Karchkhadze's story "He". At the level of extralinguistic context, this work is the main work of Jemal Karchkhadze - because the character of the story is the eternal hero of the Gospel stories, which includes himself all the dimensions of the universe. All the plate of the parallel language coexist in it simultaneously - the chronotype, epiphany at the beginning of the road and at the end of the road, all the anthropomorphism used in the text of the story indicates the conotactic meaning of the words and concentrates in the subtleties of the Gospel. He is the protagonist of the Gospel books, which is transformed in other writings of the writers and has different names. He has to solve one of the major moral tasks everywhere - whether he can create a great mystery of being a human, fulfill his will and choice - to forgive and to be elevated to the Divine. That is why it does not matter what name he is called, or not called any name. He is the son of all times, all the epochs. The idea of ​​his name is combined with the portrayal of Georgian national souls in the works "Zebulon", "Antonio and David", "Resident", "Dimension".   "He", as the central base parable, is transformed in almost every other work of Jemal Karchkhadze and embodies a single parable system that presents the depth dimension of the writer's creativity. This dimension, in its turn, serves the greatest mission of personal and moral perfection before the divine.

Management of Santri Moral Education at the Modern Islamic Boarding School

Methodologically this research is qualitative research by searching, analyzing, and interpreting the data found through document studies, interviews, and observations. The data that has been collected is checked for validity through data validity standards in the form of trustworthiness, transferability, reliability, and certainty. The data analysis technique reduces, presents, and draws conclusions from the research results. The results of the research are 1. The planning of moral education at the Babussa'adah Bajo Modern Islamic Boarding School since its inception has placed morals as a top priority in the da'wah movement and its education, 2. Organizing is done by determining the duties, responsibilities, authorities, and work mechanisms to achieve the objectives. Achieved, 3. Implementing moral education at the Babussa'adah Bajo Modern Islamic Boarding School places moral perfection as the main target in the moral education process, 4. The supervision of the moral education of students is carried out with the extended family of the Islamic boarding school, the local community, and the parents of students, 5. Evaluation of moral education at the Babussa'adah Bajo Modern Islamic Boarding School showed a significant increase, especially in its application in everyday life both in the Islamic boarding school environment and the family environment. Babussa'adah Bajo Modern Islamic Boarding School places moral perfection as the main target in the Islamic education process, and the target that becomes a reference in moral education is to produce outputs that can serve as role models for the community.

Moral Perfectionism and Pro Social Behavior: The Mediating Role of Identity

Background: pro social behaviors are the behavioral characteristics that are affected by several components. The main purpose of this study was to develop the modelling of relationship between moral perfectionism and pro social behavior with the mediating role of moral identity. Methods: In this study, 341 residents of West Azerbaijan province in 2022 were selected by available methods and completed moral perfectionism, pro social behavior and moral identity questionnaires in person or online. Results: The results of Pearson coefficient and path analysis with SPSS and Amos revealed that there was significant relationship between moral perfectionism, pro social behavior and moral identity and the model of the relationship between moral perfectionism and pro social behavior with the mediating role of moral identity was significant too (p<0/001). Conclusion: According to the result of research pro social behavior is influenced by personality and cognitive components, and in cultivating this behavioral characteristic, moral perfectionism and moral identity should also be considered

The status of the Jewish temple in modern Hebrew literature (1848–1948): A big-data analysis

Abstract Since its final destruction in antiquity, the memory of the temple in Jerusalem has served as the nexus of Jewish liturgy and messianic worldview. This article has sought to examine the ideological and cultural roles played by the image of the Jewish temple in the Hebrew literature of 1848–1948. Toward this end, I formulated a broad corpus comprised of homogeneous genres and authors, namely those which situate the temple as their main focus. The evidence arising from this corpus suggests that the conceptual role of the temple underwent no dramatic transformations; the temple in this literature, taken as a whole, is mostly indistinguishable from the historical, religious, and nationalistic symbol that featured in the Jewish tradition over nearly 2,000 years. The bulk of the present corpus places the temple in conceptual and historical contexts that are familiar and very similar to those of the historical temple in all its contexts, without removing it from the domains of Jewish nationalism or classical religiosity. These findings contravene my initial presupposition that the discourse of the temple had undergone a metamorphosis in the 19th and 20th centuries, the image of the temple had changed into an abstract symbol for world peace, moral perfection, and intellectual and scientific excellence.

RELIGIOUS AND PHILOSOPHICAL CONTEXT IN THE CREATIVE HERITAGE OF THE GREAT REPRESENTATIVES OF KAZAKH AND INDIAN CULTURE (SHAKARIM, IQBAL)

The article is devoted to the identification and analysis of the religious and philosophical context in the creative heritage of two great representatives of national cultures (Kazakh and Indian) - Shakarim and Iqbal. Despite the achievements of the scientific and technological revolution, human society today is experiencing a social and moral crisis with a change in spiritual values ​​and moral guidelines. And more than ever, the appeal to the foundations of traditional culture and the traditional worldview, to eternal values, takes on special relevance and significance. The main idea of ​​the study is to comprehensively study the foundations of spirituality in the traditional picture of the world of the Kazakh and Indian peoples in the aspect of religious and philosophical syncretism. The role of religious and philosophical ideas in the formation of a system of moral and ethical orientation of society is determined. The degree of proximity of the Turkic and Indian civilizations, which at first glance seem far from each other, and the achievements that form the spiritual and moral structure of the traditional worldview are analyzed. The religious and philosophical aspect of the creative heritage of the great thinkers of the Kazakh and Indian peoples today acquires a new meaning and significance, playing an important role in the spiritual life of mankind. Both Kazakh and Indian thinkers attached great importance to spirituality, which will return a person’s faith in his own strength, eliminate social apathy and the hopelessness of the masses, turn individual and public consciousness to spiritual values, and the individual to creative activity for his own and public good. Key words: thinkers, spirituality, moral perfection, religious and philosophical syncretism.

Is God’s Moral Perfection Reducible to His Love?

Defenders of the identity thesis maintain that God’s moral perfection is reducible to and identical to His love. Unfortunately, this thesis overlooks the fact that, biblically, God‘s righteousness comprises both His love and justice. Moreover, divine justice is, in some significant measure, retributive in nature. This is especially evident in God’s eschatological punishment of the wicked, which can be justified only on retributive grounds. Such a retributive punishment cannot be attributed to love but is the just desert of the wicked.

Moral Perfection as the Counterfeit of Virtue

It is sometimes assumed that the best people—those whom it would be appropriate to admire and emulate—ought to be free of all moral defects. Numerous contemporary scholars have attributed this assumption to the early Confucian philosophers with moral perfection said to be a necessary condition for sagehood. Drawing upon the early Confucian literature I will argue in support of two claims. The first is that the early Confucians did not insist on the moral perfection of the sage; on the contrary, the sage was explicitly understood to be morally fallible. The second claim is that the early Confucians were right to reject moral perfection as a suitable ideal. I conclude with a discussion of the relative merits of taking “love of learning” (haoxue 好學)—rather than moral perfection—as one’s ideal.

Moral Perfectionism and the Three Faces of Extremism: A Look from the Perspective of Psychoanalysis

Moral Perfectionism and the Three Faces of Extremism: A Look from the Perspective of Psychoanalysis

ОСОБЛИВОСТІ ТРАНСФОРМАЦІЇ ЦІННІСНИХ ОРІЄНТИРІВ ГУМАНІЗМУ

The article attempts to investigate the transformational processes of the value orientations of humanism as a factor of sociocultural changes and the formation of new social meanings. Ethical and value aspects of the researched issues are discussed, taking into account the social changes of our time. It was revealed that the formation of humanism as a social and cultural reality was formed on socio-economic and ideological foundations, which made it possible to follow the trends towards the change of traditional forms and standards of individual behavior. The original moral norm of the transformed system was declared to be human dignity, valor, nobility — qualities acquired at the expense of spiritual assets — talent, learning, moral perfection, which laid the leading principle of a new understanding of the essence of man. It has been proven that transformations in the formation of humanistic values, “new” humanism, can be formed on the foundation of a new ethics of tolerance. It is formed in a multicultural world and, accordingly, requires a new ontology of man, which involves a radical rethinking of the nature of individuality as rooted in being, interpersonal relations. The potential of humanism as a worldview strategy makes it possible to outline not only the orientations of value transformations, but also to determine the main trends in their direction.

Ребро кентавра: образ китовраса в визуальной структуре городского пространства

The article provides a semantic analysis of the theme of kitovras (centaur) in Russian medieval fine art. The author argues that in the system of relief decorations of Russian medi-eval cathedrals in Vladimir, the centaur is associated with the Jerusalemite kings David and Solomon and serves to accentuate the theme of a wise and righteous ruler. The study of kitovras images in Russian medieval art, traces the origins of this character back to apocry-phal literature or even further to ancient mythology, Talmudic tradition and biblical nar-ratives, which merged into a ‘Russian centaur’. The earliest kitovras images are found in Novgorod region in the 11th century. The typology of centaur images in Rus’, as well as the study of possible contexts for the use of these images in church decoration and in everyday life, make it possible to systematize the semantic and axiological connotations evoked by this figure of a man-beast. These connotations are associated with the ideas of (1) natural savagery, (2) demonic character, (3) duplicity, (4) wisdom, (5) architectural skills, (6) moral perfection, (7) saving pedagogy, (8) protection from evil and, finally, (9) religiously sanctioned author-ity. Since all these connotations are associated with the same character, the kitovras should be understood as a polyvalent symbol that reveals to viewers one or another of its aspects depending on a viewer’s semiotic code and on the visual and narrative contexts in which it is integrated. Russian churches open their facades into the surrounding urban environment and thereby saturate it with certain meanings, conveyed both by the outline of the churches and by their exterior decoration. Any figure, any scene and any character represented on external surfaces of the churches directly contributes to the semantics of the urban space, to its ideo-logical and cultural program, and functions as a means of informing both confessional and local identity. Such is also the function of kitovras images in the semantic structure of tradi-tional Russian cities.

Kant’s ethical-theological argument for God’s existence in Fyodor Golubinsky’s rational theology

In the philosophy lectures of Fyodor Golubinsky (1797–1854)one can find among others the section “Ethical-theological Argument for God’s Existence according to Kant”. It is interesting that the Russian philosopher and theologian should take this ethical argument from Kant’s philosophy, seeing that it was unpopular at that time. Golubinsky goes as far as to shield Kant’s ethics from charges of egoism and prove that it is oriented against egoism. Kant’s argument for God’s existence is founded only upon his ethics since theoretical reason cannot prove God’s existence, but practical reason can. In the Critique of Pure Reason Kant claims that God is a regulative idea of reason, which has special meaning as a postulate in practical reason. This postulate arises when we speak about the Guarantor that can satisfy the main human requirement – achieving beatitude and, through it, moral perfection. Kant proves this by reasoning from people’s experience, namely that virtue during a person’s lifetime is not rewarded with corresponding happiness. Therefore, the one who can achieve this must exist. Golubinskiy took this reasoning as a proof of God’s existence. At first, he gives a free account whose original source is unknown, and then he gives two quotes from Kant’s works. Here it is important to understand two things: 1) the adequacy of this reception and 2) the source of Golubinsky’s free account. It is necessary therefore to compare Kant’s arguments for God’s existence which are given in his three Critiques with Golubinsky’s free account and try to reach clarity on these points.

Советское идеократическое государство в ловушке постсоветского межвременья: от православного либерализма к советскому православию

The article examines the crisis of post Soviet identity as a split in the Soviet conscious­ness between the Soviet and Orthodox ideals, as well as Russia’s falling into a situation of inter-time. The main subject of the split is the confrontation in assessments of the place and role of the Soviet ideocratic state in the history of Russia between two areas of social thought: Orthodox liberalism and Soviet Orthodoxy. The main thesis of the article is that Russia’s exit from the crisis of post-Soviet identity can only be achieved through over­coming the split from the standpoint of Soviet Orthodoxy. This means that it is necessary to combine in the public consciousness the Orthodox ideal of the moral perfection of the individual with the Soviet project of social transformation. The argumentation is carried out using the concept of Russian ideocratic consciousness and the methodology of social analysis in the ideocratic paradigm, as well as using the methodology of myth rationalization and reconstruction of mythical consciousness.

Males, adversidades e incomodidades en el escrito senecano sobre la providencia

In Seneca’s writing about providence three terms (mala, adversa, incommoda) are employed to build his philosophical arguments on supposed evils that occur to humanity, so that the divinity is liberated from being guilty of the «evils» existing in the world. Although the titles of ancient works are a matter of discussion, the currently edited version of this text goes for a title like «discomforts» based on the oldest codex evidence; however, in the light of Seneca’s own philosophical development and the textual tradition, it is possible to think of other proof in behalf and against each of terminology options. At the end, the Stoic creed allows to outline the most suitable choice to Seneca’s philosophical and discoursal project, which promotes moral perfection.

A Contemporary View of Christian Holiness

In modern times, the understanding of holiness is often overshadowed by notions of achievement in various areas of human existence, and holiness could be understood as merely human commitment in the moral realm. Therefore, within the Christian tradition there are discussions of a call to holiness and not only to moral perfection, where holiness rests above all on the fact of God’s chosenness, to which the Christians respond by changing concrete lives. This article shall highlight several main characteristics of holiness as a model of Christian existence important to the Church in the third millennium. Firstly, a biblical-theological account of holiness shall be presented as a landmark of understanding holiness in the Church and in theology. Then, the fundamental dimension of holiness shall be introduced which is the principle of giftedness, opposed in a certain contrast to the widely present principle of achievement and perfection. The third part shall highlight the exemplary character of holiness, which has the ability to attract others, thus realizing in the life of the Church its main character of holiness that comes from God Himself. In their response to God, Christians find a model among the saints who have accepted various means of consecration within the Church and given God an answer to His call to holiness. Finally, the importance of a personal response to the call to holiness shall be indicated. The goal of Christian holiness is to unite with God, and on the way to this union, the effort of every individual who manifests himself primarily in accepting God’s gifts and His grace is also needed. Moral and sacred life is not primarily the adventure of spiritual giants of tried and tested moral behaviour and virtues, where these behaviours and virtues are only the result of their own endeavour and humanistic aspirations, but rather holiness is a response to God to his great love, which he expressed in the history of salvation and in the lives of people.

Transhumanism, Motion, and Human Perfection

Abstract Transhumanism’s ideology is marked by a commitment to the “progress” or “perfection” of the human species through technological means. What transhumanists are after is not just therapeutic intervention or optimization of current human capabilities, but an ontological change from human to posthuman. In this article, I critique transhumanist ideology on the grounds that it fundamentally misunderstands human moral perfection as resulting from forces acting upon us (i.e., technological interventions), rather than an internal change of character. This misunderstanding reflects an impoverished view of the concept of motion brought about by the rise of modern science, which entails certain ontological commitments that are not Christian in nature. I conclude transhumanism is untenable because it rests on a shaky foundation of Newtonian physics, and reduces the world to mere matter and forces. Furthermore, Christian transhumanism is especially flawed, because it is complicit in this severing of creation from its sacramental ontology, from the Being of God.