Presence Of God Research Articles

Songs of the Sabbath Sacrifice, Song Thirteen: Ambiguity, Mysticism, and Cognitive Neuroscience

A striking characteristic of Songs of the Sabbath Sacrifice is the lack of clarity as to when the participants are human and when angelic. Scholarly opinion has been divided on the question. Fletcher-Louis, for instance, argued for an “angelomorphic” theology in Songs of the Sabbath Sacrifice. Scholars regard this text as an example of mysticism at Qumran, but the root of the term “mystic” (to conceal) warns of the difficulties inherent in any analysis of mystical texts because such texts arise from religious experience of a transcendent divine presence only accessible subjectively. In a previous article on ambiguity in the First Song it was argued in support of Fletcher-Louis that the text was deliberately constructed to create ambiguity between angelic agents and sectarian participants for rhetorical purposes. This article resorts to insights from cognitive neuroscience in order to reconsider current scholarly opinion on this matter.

The Lords of the West: Cloaking, Freedom and the Divine Narrative in Tolkien's Poetics

The article aims (1) to investigate the hidden divine narrative in Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, that is the agency of divine characters in and on the story, whose presence appears to other, non-divine characters only in ‘cloaked’ or ‘glimpsed’ form; (2) to discuss the reasons for the concealing of this narrative (and of divine presence in general), which is revealed as a key feature of Tolkien's literary technique and poetics. The article analyses both literary and non-literary sources, arguing that the Creator's love for the freedom of His creatures is the main reason accounting for this ‘cloaking’ and this ‘glimpsing’, both within Tolkien's sub-created, ‘secondary’ world and the ‘primary' reality to which he belongs.

Prayer as Divine Experience and Empathetic Identification in 2 Baruch: 2 Baruch 48:1–25 as a Test case

First, in this essay I will summarize research in the field of neuroscience, which describe the cognitive processes that allow a person to empathize with another person’s emotional experience. Second, I will provide evidence that implies the author of the late first-century Jewish Apocalypse, 2 Baruch, wished to portray that the seer, Baruch, was in God’s presence as he prayed. Finally, I will discuss the emotions potentially aroused by the language of one the seer’s prayers (2 Baruch 48:2–24). Reverence for God, hope, confidence, and humility all are expressed by the words of his prayer. I will propose that reading or hearing these emotions could have allowed an ancient reader or listener to share and understand Baruch’s emotional states that are reflected in his prayer. Consequently, this process may have provided the reader or listener with a sense of the tangible presence of God that is consistent with the experience described as occurring to Baruch while offering his prayer in the divine presence.

Sto. Niño: The Face of Jesus Christ in Cebuano Culture

The image of Jesus Christ is famously known as the Sto. Niño in Cebu. This little Jesus with the title as the Sto. Niño is being worshipped by many Cebuanos and other Filipino Devotees as well. His divine presence in the land of Cebu has dramatically shaped and developed the way of life and religiosity of the Cebuano people. The Sto. Niño seems to be the answer to the many hardships in life; be it mentally, physically, and spiritually. He strengthens one’s faith in God. He gratuitously grants people’s petitions. He obviously listens to the cry of the people. The growing number of devotees would somehow show that the above realizations are true enough. It seems that the child Jesus for the Cebuano people is the God that they can relate with. They perceive the Sto. Niño as their protector, provider, and healer. The presence of the image of the Sto. Niño in Cebu promotes a deeper friendship with Christ. Thus, one can say that the faith of the Cebuano people to the Sto. Niño is grounded on this filial trust and unconditional love in Him.

Book Review: Bernard McGinn: Mysticism in the Golden Age of Spain (1500–1650): The Presence of God: A History of Western Christian Mysticism

Book Review: Bernard McGinn: Mysticism in the Golden Age of Spain (1500–1650): The Presence of God: A History of Western Christian Mysticism

The cult of Esther: Temple and priestly imagery in the book of Esther

The MT of Esther studiously avoids mentioning God as well as any devotional practices such as prayer that would point to a deity. While this initial impression of ‘secularity’ has been frequently discussed, this article seeks to demonstrate that there are more traces of divine presence in the book than have typically been acknowledged. Specifically, it argues that the MT of Esther employs terminology that carries distinctive associations with the OT cult. That is, the book contains a number of verbal cues that evoke the Temple’s furnishings, functionaries, structure, and rituals. This article presents a number of examples of cultic imagery in Megillat Esther and suggests some ways in which their presence affects the interpretation of the book.

Mapping ancient gods: naming and embodiment beyond “anthropomorphism”. A survey of the field in echo to the books of M.S. Smith and R. Parker

Two recent books provide exceptionally stimulating insights on how space gives shape to religious representations. On the one hand, Mark S. Smith’s 2016 book Where the Gods Are: Spatial Dimensions of Anthropomorphism in the Biblical World focuses on the spatial dimension of the divine presence, as a crucial dimension of human experience. On the other hand, Robert Parker’s 2017 book Greek Gods Abroad: Names, Natures and Transformations, concentrates on the naming processes and their evolution in cross-cultural contexts. Both publications offer rich evidence on the interaction between naming and locating the gods. This paper, written by the team of the ERC project “Mapping Ancient Polytheisms”, is an attempt to extend and improve reflection on these topics, by offering a survey of the current research on mapping and naming the gods.

Being the Bible: Sacred Bodies and Iconic Books in Bring Your Bible to School Day

Bring Your Bible to School Day has been a rapidly growing annual event in US schools since 2014. It involves a ritual with the processional object, the Bible in its many personalized variations, operating as an icon that invokes the presence of God and legitimizes evangelical Christians who see themselves as the agents of God’s return to American schools and society. In this ritual, the Bible also functions to index its possessors as affected biblical bodies, or visible manifestations of God’s word. This article analyzes the activities and discourses surrounding Bring Your Bible to School Day in light of material attitudes and practices in Protestant Christianity, including iconoclasm and biblicism, and recent scholarship on iconic books.

Vermittelte Gegenwart: Konzeptionen der Gottespräsenz von der Zeit des Zweiten Tempels bis Anfang des 2. Jahrhunderts n. Chr

Vermittelte Gegenwart: Konzeptionen der Gottespräsenz von der Zeit des Zweiten Tempels bis Anfang des 2. Jahrhunderts n. Chr

Longitudinal data on parental religious behaviour and beliefs from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC).

There is evidence that, in general, the West is becoming more secular. Religious belief has been shown in some studies to have positive associations with outcomes such as coping with serious illness and other life events and general well-being. In this paper, we describe the data from parents enrolled in the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC) on their religious behaviour and beliefs collected on three occasions during the 1990s and early 2000s, that are available for researchers to use in association with other longitudinally collected data on social, biological, genetic and epigenetic features of this culturally largely protestant Christian population. Data were collected antenatally and then subsequently at 5 and 9 years post-delivery from self-completion questionnaires completed by each parent independently. Strong sex differences (all P<0.001) were noted regarding religious beliefs and behaviour: for example, 49.9% of women stated that they believed in God or some divine being compared with 37% of men. Almost twice as many men (28.6%) than women (14.9%) declared they were atheists. Men were less likely to have stated that they had been helped by a divine presence; to appeal to God if they were in trouble, to attend religious services or obtain help from members of religious groups. Among the 6256 women and 2355 men who answered the questions at all three time points, there was evidence of a slight reduction in professed belief and a slight increase in the proportion stating that they were atheists. Information is available from this resource, which is rich in data on the environment, traumatic incidents, health and genetic background. It can be used for research into various aspects of the antecedents and consequences of religious belief and behaviour.

A reflection on the presence of God: a feather boa and a tiara

ABSTRACTWhile a minister in an inner city community church, I experienced a moving engagement with a member of the community in a liturgical context. This reflection engages with this particular relational encounter and offers a theological framework for inclusive kindness is a Church environment.

Virtue and the “Good Life” in the Book of Job

Abstract In this article, I argue that Job 29 provides an eudaimonic depiction of human happiness whereby virtue, combined with a number of “external goods” is held up as the best possible life for human beings. I compare Job’s vision of the “good life” with an Aristotelian conception of εὐδαιμονία and conclude that there are numerous parallels between Job and Aristotle with respect to their understanding of the “good life.” While the intimate presence of God distinguishes Job’s expectation of happiness with that of Aristotle, Job is unique among other eudaimonic texts in the Hebrew Bible in that expectations of living well are expressed in terms of virtue, rather than Torah piety. In the second portion of the article, I assess Job’s conception of human flourishing from the perspective of the divine speeches, which enlarge Job’s vision of the “good life” by bringing Job face-to-face with the “wild inhabitants” of the cosmos.

Prevalence of Religious and Spiritual Experiences and the Perceived Influence Thereof in Patients With Bipolar Disorder in a Dutch Specialist Outpatient Center.

The aim of the current cross-sectional study was to estimate the prevalence of religious and spiritual (R/S) experiences and their perceived lasting influence in outpatients with bipolar disorder (BD; n = 196). A questionnaire with a range of R/S was constructed, building on the results of an earlier qualitative study. Experiences of horizontal transcendence (not necessarily referring to the divine) such as the experience of "intense happiness, love, peace, beauty, freedom" (77%) or "meaningful synchronicity" (66%) were the most prevalent. The experience of "divine presence" (vertical transcendence, referring to the divine) had a prevalence of 44%. Perceived lasting influence of the experiences was 20% to 67% of the total frequency, depending on the type. Most positive R/S experiences were significantly more related to BD I and mania, and on average, persons with BD I had more R/S experiences (mean = 4.5, SD = 2.6) than those with BD II (mean = 2.8, SD = 2.4, p = 0.000). Patient-reported R/S experiences in BD can have both R/S and pathological features.

The Epic of Evolution and a Theology of Sacramental Ecology

The ‘Epic of Evolution’ is the scientific story that reveals that we live in an approximately 14-billion-year-old universe on a planet that is approximately 4.6 billion years old and that we are a part of the ongoing process of life that has existed on Earth for 3.5–4 billion years. This article focuses on the religious and ecological significance of the evolutionary epic in an effort to seamlessly connect the ecological value attributed as a part of an understanding of the evolutionary connectedness of life on earth with the Divine grace understood to be present in Christian sacramental worship. With a particular emphasis on the Eucharist, I argue that the sacramental perspective of grace being conveyed through material reality provides the potential for Christian sacramental tradition to make a significant contribution to protecting the threatened ecological communities of our planet. By incorporating William Temple’s concept of a ‘sacramental universe,’ I propose that the grace that is understood to be present in the substances of the bread and wine of the Eucharist points outward so that it can also be witnessed in all of God’s ongoing Creation. When the Eucharist is understood as taking place in a sacramental universe from which ecological grace flows; the incarnation can be recognized not as a one-time event but as an ongoing sacramental process through which God is revealed through the perpetual emergence of life. Consequently, as the primary form of sacramental worship in Christian tradition, the Eucharistic witness to the incarnation of God in Jesus and thanksgiving for life overcoming death provide Christians with a ritual orientation for recognizing the incarnational presence of God as an ever-present reality potentially witnessed in all that is. Therefore, the formal sacrament of the Eucharist is a part of a broader sacramental ecology of earthly life in which the presence of Divine grace can be witnessed in all aspects of the natural order. As a result, connecting Eucharistic grace with the value associated with an awareness of the ecological and genetic connectedness of all forms of life serves as a mutual enrichment of sacramental tradition and contemporary efforts to protect life on Earth.

Re-envisioning Tangintebu Theological College in the context of climate change: An emerging model of coconut theological education and ministerial formation

This article engages through an interdisciplinary approach to re-envision Tangintebu Theological College’s (TTC) model of theological education in the context of climate change in Kiribati. It utilises the anthropological theory of symbolic interactionism within missiological, cultural and, theological studies of climate change. It argues for the coconut tree as an appropriate cultural conceptual metaphorical idiom for translating and understanding Christian faith and shaping a theological pedagogy within the Kiribati context of climate change. The coconut image is an indigenous, holistic way of knowing and learning informed by Kiribati cosmology embedded within people’s experiences and understanding of the coconut tree. Its life-centeredness has the potential to contextualise the theological curriculum and teaching methodology to assist in equipping theological students with climate change-sensitive approaches. The qualitative method was utilised to allow participants to reflect on their experiences of climate change in relation to the mission of the church. The data that informs this article was generated through unstructured interviews and focus group discussions with members of the Kiribati Uniting Church (KUC). The data was analysed using symbolic interactionism. The results suggest that the Kiribati people symbolically interact with God through their understanding of the coconut tree, which is conceived as the embodiment of God’s presence. It became clear that while this world view informs the faith of members of the KUC, the TTC curriculum has sidelined it, resulting in miseducation of pastors because this omission means they are not equipped to engage with the challenge of climate change. The participants argued that there is an urgent need to understand theological education and ministerial formation within the indigenous framework of Kiribati coconut imagination that is embedded in the promotion of justice and equitable society not only for human beings but for all of God’s creation through symbolic interaction with the presence of God in the coconut.

DESIGN IN JAPAN: FROM TRADITION TO HIGHEST MODERN CREATIONS

The Japanese archipelago confronted to cataclysms, divisions, war conflicts, and catastrophes popped up into history with some delay. The Japanese development cycle starts with the atomic bombs thrown on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Completely or partially destroyed, Japanese cities quickly recovered and the fatherland of Emperor Hirohito soon became an industrial giant. The land that has for a long time been an inspiration for European artistic adventurers and art collectors offering them it´s artistic treasures and traditions commonly and universally named “Japanism”. Japanism has been feeding for years many French, Dutch, British impressionists and collectors and made Europe discover the big secret and wealth of Japanese archaic art. During two centuries, between 1603 and 1868, the so called Edo period, Japan developed a specific political system isolating the country from the rest of the world. The Edo period was created by the shogun Tokugawa in 1603, who established the capital of his government in Edo, the old name of Tokyo. Tokugawa and his dynasty over 15 generations guaranteed peace to the citizens in spite of the fact that his regime was considered as feudal and authoritarian. Nevertheless, it was also the most important period for Japanese art, a period when most of the best artistic creations were realized. The best known artist from that period is Hokusai, followed by many others such as Yakashu, Rosetsu, Hoitsu, Utamaro, Utagawa, and Hiroshige. Through any detail, any creation, any tradition, any ceremony, one could see the overwhelming presence of art, the beauty of colours and fantasy, the presence of gods and the richness of hand-made ceramics, wooden lacquers, designed bamboo items, printed posters on paper, textile, wood, origami, calligraphies. This study is analysing the relation between art and Japanese traditional ceremonies, such as the tea ceremony, the origami tradition, the bonsai art. It might be seen as absurd at first sight, but precisely the tea ceremony or better said the tea philosophy, has been the inspiration of many artists in their interpretation of interior design, including furniture, tea cups, wardrobe, calligraphies, etc.

Divine Violence and Divine Presence: Reading the Story of Uzzah and the Ark in 2 Samuel 6 with Slavoj Žižek

Abstract This article interprets the story of the outbreak of God against Uzzah in 2 Samuel 6 as an act of “divine violence,” a concept described by Slavoj Žižek in his book Violence: Six Sideways Reflections. In previous interpretations of 2 Samuel 6, the violence against Uzzah has been understood either as a punishment for a transgression, or as a capricious act of God’s power. Slavoj Žižek describes “divine violence” as violence, which is not a means to an end, and which irrupts from a position of vulnerability and impotence. By looking at the details of the Masoretic Text of 2 Samuel 6, it will be argued that the violence of God in this story should also be interpreted as divine violence: it lacks meaning as a punishment for transgression, and it stems from the vulnerability of God’s presence in the ark rather than from God’s transcendent power.

Longitudinal data on parental religious behaviour and beliefs from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC)

There is evidence that, in general, the West is becoming more secular. Religious belief has been shown in some studies to positively impact on outcomes such as coping with serious illness and other life events and general well-being. In this paper, we describe the data collected from parents enrolled in the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC) on their religious behaviour and beliefs on three occasions. These data are available for researchers to use in association with other longitudinally collected data on social, biological, genetic and epigenetic features of this culturally largely protestant Christian population. Data were collected antenatally and then subsequently at 5 and 9 years post-delivery from self-completion questionnaires completed by each parent independently. Strong sex differences (all P<0.001) were noted regarding religious beliefs and behaviour: for example, 49.9% of women stated that they believed in God or some divine being compared with 37% of men. Almost twice as many men (28.6%) than women (14.9%) declared they were atheists. Men were less likely to have stated that they had been helped by a divine presence; to appeal to God if they were in trouble, to attend religious services or obtain help from members of religious groups. Among the 6256 women and 2355 men who answered the questions at all three time points, there was evidence of a slight reduction in professed belief and a slight increase in the proportion stating that they were atheists. Information is available from this resource, which is rich in data on the environment, traumatic incidents, health and genetic background. It can be used for research into various aspects of the antecedents and consequences of religious belief and behaviour.

MEMBANGUN KOMUNIKASI IMAN DAN PELAYANAN KARYA MISIONER GEREJA DI TENGAH KELUARGA

Modern communication medium allows one to easily share stories, establish contact with family members, to thank and apologize. Aware of the benefits of this communication medium each family member should utilize communications media wisely and more humanely. In the midst of this communication medium advancement of Christ's faithful should regard the family as a school of faith and a special communication experience divine grace. Each family who live karinia Divine love is called to give concrete testimony of the love of it. Every Christian family is a concrete sign of the presence and implementation of the tasks of the Church that lives. When carrying out this missionary task, God is always present in the family to bless, sanctify and strengthen family members. The presence of God is happening in real time when families gather to pray, worship and hear God's word together.

Anthropology through Levinas (Further Reflections): On Humanity, Being, Culture, Violation, Sociality, and Morality

The philosophy of Emmanuel Levinas poses a challenge to anthropology. For Levinas, the “secrecy of subjectivity,” the absolute incomprehensibility of one individual to another, is the fundamental fact of human being. It is also the foundation of morality, an ethical system, acknowledging the irreducible mystery and integrity of individuality as preceding any claim to knowledge, any legislation of culturo-symbolic construction. This article outlines some of the major tenets in a Levinasian metaphysic. It traces their biographical origin in Levinas’s experience of the Holocaust and their intellectual origin in a reading of the Old Testament where Abraham answers, “Here I am,” to a divine presence of which he has no possible experience. According to Levinas, each owes to the human Other the same “inspired” response as to the incomprehensibility of divinity. The article concludes by mooting a passable solution to the Levinasian challenge: a cosmopolitan anthropology that looks to write the individual life imaginatively while writing the human species systematically.