Presence Of God Research Articles

Intimacy and Abundance: Textile Relics, the Veronica, and Christian Devotion in the Aftermath of the Fourth Crusade

During the early thirteenth century crusaders carried or sent dozens of textile relics from the treasuries of the Levant and Byzantium to the West. As these objects were integrated into the devotional life of western Europe, they collapsed the perceptions of temporal and spatial distance between medieval Europe and the world of the Apostles. Taking as a case study Pope Innocent III’s renewed veneration of the sudarium, or Veil of Veronica, the article investigates the inherent and potent material qualities of cloth as a medium of holiness. The abundance of cloth relics coming into the West underlined the power of the divine presence. Whereas the intimacy promised by cloth—material made, touched, worn, soiled, and carried by the hands of others—brought the Holy Land and the physical realities of Christ’s life and Passion into the heart of western Europe. Cloth evoked the bodies of its bearers and makers, referencing Christ, Mary, the Apostles, but also those who carried or sent such relics to the West, for example, crusaders who did not return to their kin. The intimacies of cloth, moreover, contributed to the generation of an abundance of other, new, and imitative relics over the course of the medieval period.

Charakterystyka życia duchowego Elżbiety Catez – św. Elżbiety od Trójcy Świętej na podstawie jej listów adresowanych do ks. kanonika Emiliana Izydora Angles’a

Elżbieta Catez, a w klasztorze karmelitańskim w Dijon Elżbieta od Trójcy Świętej, zarówno jako osoba świecka, jak i zakonna przez lata prowadziła korespondencję ze swoim pierwszym ojcem duchowym – ks. kanonikiem Emilianem Izydorem Angles’em. Po jej śmierci zachowały się dwadzieścia dwa listy, które stanowią teksty źródłowe niniejszego opracowania.W artykule przeprowadzono ich studium pod kątem życia duchowego autorki. Wyszczególniono dwie grupy pism. W pierwszych pięciu (Listy młodzieńcze) wyróżniono trzy aspekty jej życia teologalnego: 1. Pragnienie tego, czego chce Bóg; 2. Obecność Boga w duszy; 3. Przynależność do Boga. W kolejnych siedemnastu (Listy z Karmelu) wyeksponowano trzy wzajemnie przenikające się aspekty jej życia duchowego: 1. Obdarowanie miłością; 2. Duchowe pragnienia; 3. Niebo w duszy.Listy te są świadectwem, do jakiej doskonałości może dojść dusza wrażliwa na Boży głos; świadectwem bliskości Boga i człowieka; świadectwem głębokiego życia duchowego kształtowanego przez Bożą łaskę i ludzką odpowiedź; świadectwem życia, do którego Bóg ma pierwsze prawo.

God in gesprek – ’n Dialogiese Christologie

God in conversation – A dialogical Christology. A world view claims to give a true picture of reality. As the insights of the sciences change our picture of reality, theology must take the new views on the world serious to maintain its integrity and the Gospel its credibility. The aim of this article is to rethink our faith in Christ (Christology) in the light of the new consciousness of the engagement between human beings and the cosmos. I would like to argue that a dynamic-dialogical (second-person) approach is the best way to be true to the Biblical message in regard to the evolutionary world view. Human beings become part of God’s ongoing activity in the world in and through the Logos incarnated in Jesus Christ. The consciousness of Jesus of Nazareth of God as his Father is the starting point in the relationship and communication between God, man and the community of faith in a dialogical Christology. The aim of this relational communication is to transform human beings and the world to fulfil God’s destiny for the whole of creation. As such, a dialogical Christology focuses on salvation as an individual and cosmic salvation. The cross and the resurrection of Jesus Christ are central in the dialogue between God, human beings and the world. The Holy Spirit guides the community of believers in this dialogue through the Bible and the sacraments, prayer and contemplation to live in the presence of God and to make a difference in an ever-changing world. Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: The aim of this article is to rethink, within the discplines of Systematic Theology and New Testament, our faith in Christ (Christology) in the light of the new consciousness of the engagement between human beings and the cosmos.

The necessity of knowledge of self for proper comprehension of divine knowledge in Mulla Sadra's view

احدی طرائق معرفة الله هي معرفة النفس. هذا النوع من المعرفة بديهي وفي انسجام تام مع روح الصوفي لأنه ينشأ من عمق كيانه . هذا النوع من المعرفة بالله قديم قدم تاريخ البشرية. هناك آراء مختلفة بشأن تلازم هذين النوعين من المعرفة. تسعى هذه الدراسة إلى شرح الاقوال الثلاثة الواردة في كتب الملا صدرا والأول: شهود الله من خلال معرفة النفس وحقائق المخلوقات التي تتجسد في الذهن الفعال والقول الثاني: شهود الله من خلال الارتباط وتنسیق النفس مع القوی وأفعال الشخص ، والوصول من النفس الخلاقة إلى الله الخلاقة والقول الثالث: أنَّ هذه المعرفة تأتي من خلال وضع الإنسان بصفته خلیفة ، إذ الخليفة هو آیة المستخلف.تتنتج نتیجتان لهذا النوع من النظرة الی النفس : المعرفة البديهية لوجود الله والمعرفة المحدودة لوجود الله وصفاته ، وليس لغور ذاته التعالی ومن النتائج الرئیسة لهذا البحث الاتیان بتلخیص آراء ملاصدرا بشأن موضوع معرفة بالله من خلال معرفة النفس وتمد تصوراته وأفکاره مصادیق العلم الحضوري في هذا الجانب.

Prodigies in Republican Rome. The Absence of God

SummaryAs opposed to the traditional view of theprodigiumas a part of a divination that augurs divine wrath, in this article we regard episodes of prodigies as ancient societies’ expression of their connection with their gods. Prodigious episodes are the evidence of divine presence or absence within a community.

Repetition in Hebrews: Plurality and Singularity in the Letter to the Hebrews, Its Ancient Context, and the Early Church

Repetition in Hebrews: Plurality and Singularity in the Letter to the Hebrews, Its Ancient Context, and the Early Church

LINEARITAS NILAI KETUHANAN DAN KEMANUSIAAN (STUDI KASUS PENGALAMAN SPIRITUAL WARIA DI PESANTREN WARIA AL-FATAH YOGYAKARTA)

The values of divinity and humanity are two aspects cannot be separated in living religion. The presence of God in every human being is a necessity and can undeniable. Meanwhile, people are also individuals who connected from other humans, because humans are social creatures. Therefore, faith must be proportional to the good deeds. Transgender as part of social life is also trying to prove them self as being godless creatures and social beings. The purpose is realized by establishing special schools transgender (pesantren waria). Pesantren founded in Yogyakarta became the fi rst transgender pesantren in Indonesia and even in the world. In the midst of the claim, transgender is a sinner ungrateful creature nature. Transgender showed up with his spiritual experience. Experiences are certainly cannot be equated with spiritual experiences that experienced by a kiyai, santri, scholars. They are regarded righteous in the eyes of society. Through this article, the author will try to give an idea of the spiritual experience of transgender in religion. Through this article, the author does not want to judge and claim their religious pattern of right or wrong. As well as this article, is expected to add a new discourse for the reader about the spirit and transgender spiritual experience. So, it can open a religious pattern that is more inclusive and open.
 
 Keywords: values of divinity, humanitarian values, transgender pesantren

Nic się nie kończy, dopóki nie nastąpi koniec: o teologii, ładzie i władzy

Artykuł pokazuje genezę oraz teologiczne, społeczne i polityczne konsekwencje rozdzielenia religii i rozumu. Przekonuje, iż separacja ta, oznaczając zanegowanie chrześcijańskiej koncepcji boskich rządów, prowadzi do niestabilności w życiu społecznym, marginalizacji i negowania religii, jednocześnie rozszerzając władzę najbardziej potężnych i skutkując chęcią przywrócenia ładu poprzez powrót do prawa religijnego i władzy w sensie teokratycznym. Autor proponuje chrześcijanom powrót do „radyklanej ortodoksji”, tzn. skupienie się na apokatastazie, immanentnej i transcendentnej boskiej obecności, uczestnictwie w trynitarnej harmonii, konieczności podporządkowania rozumu transcendencji, centralnym usytuowaniu liturgii, która odtwarza wieczny porządek. W tym zakresie autor wskazuje na rolę teologii, która powinna przezwyciężyć dotychczasowe przeciwstawienie rozumu i wiary i stać się nauką zajmującą się wszelkiego typu doświadczeniami, tworzącą całościową wizję.

A Wesleyan Theology of the Eucharist: The Presence of God for Christian Life and Ministry

A Wesleyan Theology of the Eucharist: The Presence of God for Christian Life and Ministry

하나님의 현존 경험의 가능성을 돕는 영성적 관점의 목회상담 - 위니캇의 중간 대상과 홀로 있음의 개념을 중심으로 -

오늘날 교회에 다니는 많은 이들이 습관적으로 예배를 드리거나 봉사를 하면서 메마른 신앙생활을 하며, 내면의 평안을 느끼지 못한다고 말하는 경우가 많다. 그 이유는 신앙생활의 시기가 길어지면서 하나님과의 관계가 깊어지는 영성적 관점을 얻지 못하기 때문이라고 생각할 수 있다. 필자는 이런 고민을 하는 성도나 내담자가 하나님과의 관계를 맺는 신앙생활을 하도록 돕기 위해서 본 논의를 시도하였으며, 심리학적 입장을 신학적 입장에서 재조명하면서 목회상담의 영성적 관점을 제시하는 데에 그 의의를 두었다. 구체적으로 위니캇의 입장에 근거해서 기본적으로 생의 초기에 주요 양육자와의 안정적이고 수용적인 관계를, 좋은 내적 관계로 내면화하고, 그 내면화와 중간대상이 공급하는 심리적 힘을 통하여 홀로 있음의 능력을 발전시켜야 한다고 설명하였다. 또한 제임스의 입장에 따라서 목회상담은 심리치료가 주는 심리적 위안을 넘어서 영혼의 힘을 키우도록 도울 수 있으며, 캡스의 관점에서 불안이나 공포등의 심리적 어려움을 견디기 위해서, 내면에서 변하지 않는 안정감을 주는 하나님의 현존의 경험이 필요하다고 주장하였다. 그리고 필자가 진행한 상담 사례를 통하여 나름대로 논지와 임상을 연결시켜보려는 시도를 제시하여 보았다. 목회자와 목회상담자는 예수 그리스도의 마음으로 생의 초기에 홀로 있음의 능력을 충분히 키우지 못한 성도나 내담자에게 안정적이고 수용적인 관계 경험을 통하여 홀로 있음의 능력을 키울 기회를 제공해서, 그들이 하나님 현존의 경험을 체험하며 살아가도록 돕는 역할을 하여야 한다.

Playing church: understanding ritual and religious experience resourced by Gadamer’s concept of play

ABSTRACTThis article uses Gadamer’s concept of play as a common lens through which both traditional church liturgy and imaginative evangelical practices of engaging with God can be understood. The category of play encompasses processes which exhibit a back-and-forth motion and functions in Gadamer’s aesthetics to describe the relationship between artwork and viewer. Through an aesthetics of play, Gadamer accounts for the presence of truth in art. As I demonstrate in this paper, liturgy displays the playful characteristics of artwork, allowing for a theologically realist interpretation of divine presence. The final part of this paper considers the imaginative evangelical practices described by anthropologist T. M. Luhrmann, which I refer to as God-play. I argue that there is an unexpected commonality between God-play and traditional liturgy in the form of a functional similarity between the two and propose that God-play may be regarded as liturgy-like practice that has not been traditionalised. My evaluation is that this is a positive development, which opens the opportunity for divine encounter to those alienated from traditional liturgies. However, caution must be taken to avoid inappropriately trivial imaginings of God, and I conclude by offering suggestions for the church and academy in cautiously welcoming these practices.

Mary in Jewish Tradition

Since Jews rejected the miraculous account of Jesus' birth, they assumed that Mary conceived through illicit sexual activity, sometimes expressed in vulgar terms. Some Jews refuted the possibility of virgin birth by use of philosophical arguments, and others offered scriptural arguments against Mary's perpetual virginity. Despite generally negative views of Mary, there is evidence of an attraction to the idea of a semi-divine female role model and it is possible that certain Kabbalistic interpretations of the divine presence have Marian overtones.

Double Vision: Epiphanies of the Dioscuri in Classical Antiquity

Abstract:The Dioscuri – Castor and Pollux – are among the most epiphanic of gods, frequently appearing in battle or to sailors struggling at sea. On Chios, a festival called the Theophania was founded in the third century BC to commemorate an epiphany of the twin gods. Indeed, their appearance at the Sicilian battle of the River Sagra c. 540 BC was so well known in Greek – and Roman – culture that it was invoked as a proverbial example of epiphanic manifestation in Cicero’s De natura deorum (2.1.13); as such, it was the model for several Graeco-Roman battle epiphanies featuring the Dioscuri and their horses, from Postumius’ victory at Lake Regillus in 496 BC to Constantine’s at the Milvian Bridge in AD 312. The numerous battle epiphanies of antiquity have been gathered and assessed by previous scholars (Pfister 1924 and Pritchett 1979). This article posits a new approach to the material, arguing that, because of their fame and ubiquity, epiphanies of the Dioscuri provided a model through which to explore both the validity and visual authority of divine manifestation. The conjuring of divine presence through the physical semeia of the gods is also an important element of the portrayal of the Dioscuri in image form. Representations of these epiphanic gods cover a spectrum of iconicity, ranging from highly anthropomorphized ‘re-enactments’ of their epiphanies (such as the sculptures set up in the Roman forum to commemorate the Lake Regillus victory) to metonymic denotations of their presence in the form of their polos hats, and sub-iconic depictions of twin stars. This combination of corporeal and cosmic semeia provides a sophisticated commentary upon the cognitive dilemmas raised by epiphany: what kind of bodies do the gods have, how do they reveal these forms to mortals, and how are we to recognize and identify them? As deities defined by dualism – mortals and immortals, gods and heroes, men and stars – the Dioscuri provide a particularly potent model for exploring such issues, for both ancient thinkers and modern scholars of epiphany.

The salience of silence: the silence of salience

This is a unique study of an almost silent and still film of the organization of silence. The film “Into Great Silence” (IGS) shows how Carthusian monks organize silence, punctuating and structuring it with recurring rituals and routines. Carthusian silence is discourse: it is their way of communicating, interacting, and sustaining their organization. The salience of Carthusian silence is that it is where they can discern divine presence. By studying IGS, the researcher overcame the challenges of access to the monastery, of studying silence, and of appraising the implicit salience of Carthusian silence. The film invites viewers to silent introspection through sound art, visual poetry, and a silent metaphorical discourse that relies on symbols. IGS utilizes reverse visual metaphor, with metaphorical images that move the audience from images to abstract territories. The researcher also reflects on his own personal experience during his stays at a Carthusian Charterhouse, when he was a novitiate candidate in the sole English Carthusian Monastery (St. Hugh’s Charterhouse, Parkminster, near Horsham in West Sussex, England). Although he did not pursue this vocation, his two periods in the monastery left him with an indelible impression of a religious order that has not changed for nearly a millennium, and which imparted a deep awareness and appreciation of silence, solitude, and stillness. The paper draws out lessons for research and organizations.

El Cuadro de Ánimas de la parroquia de Santiago, de Málaga

El “Cuadro de Ánimas” de la parroquia de Santiago de Málaga, pintado hacia 1665 por el discípulo de Alonso Cano, Juan Niño de Guevara, evidencia la verdad de la Comunión de los Santos, una idea quizá propuesta por el mismo autor, en base a su sólida formación cristiana. Hay, pues, clara alusión a los tres grupos o iglesias que integran el dogma. La Militante la ejemplifica el catafalco de los oficios de difuntos, significando los sufragios que elevan los fieles en su favor. La Purgante está presente en las ánimas sufrientes que purgan sus cultas en el fuego purificador. Por fin, la Triunfante va indicada en el santoral que preside: Santiago, el titular de la parroquia, derramando sobre los penados la gracia de salvífica, ante la presencia de la Virgen María con el Niño en brazos, y dispuesto sobre un orbe, cual símbolo del Creador, y con la cruz de la Redención mostrada en la mano; una idea que insistentemente está reiterada en esa otra cruz que corona el catafalco y centra la composición, como una concreción del cristocentrismo tridentino

Luther, Loyola and La La Land

AbstractThis article compares and contrasts Martin Luther's and St. Ignatius of Loyola's theological anthropologies. Drawing upon the mystical sources that Luther used to develop his own account of the human person, I argue that Luther came to reject an indwelling of the divine presence in the human person and located our relation to God in the external realm of faith alone. The resulting conception of the human person is one in which we are by nature rotten by sin. Union between us and God occurs through the darkness of faith and no longer in the highest parts of the soul as it had for the German medieval mystics upon whom Luther drew. For Loyola, by contrast, whilst human nature was damaged by sin, it could be restored by God's transforming grace to actively cooperate in the process of salvation. Loyola sees the inner stirrings of grace permeating our desires and will and restoring our freedom to its natural end of giving praise, reverence, and service to God. Such an apostolic mysticism is orchestrated by Loyola through formation in the Spiritual Exercises, which provide a unique synthesis in which action becomes a form of contemplation. I conclude by sketching the reasons why these contrasting theological anthropologies of Luther and Loyola find little appeal with the dominant philosophical anthropology of exclusive humanism in the modern west.

Book Review: Isaiah and the Restoration of Divine Presence in 1 Peter: Patrick T. Egan, Ecclesiology and the Scriptural Narrative of 1 Peter

Book Review: Isaiah and the Restoration of Divine Presence in 1 Peter: Patrick T. Egan, <i>Ecclesiology and the Scriptural Narrative of 1 Peter</i>

Book Review: Mysticism in the Reformation (1500–1650): The Presence of God, A History of Western Christian Mysticism. By Bernard McGinn

Book Review: Mysticism in the Reformation (1500–1650): The Presence of God, A History of Western Christian Mysticism. By Bernard McGinn

Augustine on the beatific vision as ubique totus

AbstractA constant in Augustine's long literary career is his understanding of God's presence as ubique totus, or ‘whole and everywhere’. I will first consider how Augustine came to perceive of the divine presence in this life (here I will look especially at the Confessions); second, how he theologically articulates the nature of the divine presence (here I will draw on Ep. 187), and, finally, how he understands the divine presence in the life to come (and here I will focus on the conclusion of the City of God). I suggest that a fundamental continuity obtains between how Augustine understands seeing God in this life and the next and that this continuity is predicated on his conception of the divine presence as ubique totus.

Catskills Composition by Thomas Cole

The popularity of landscape painting in the United States grew during the 1830s due to the interest in exploration of native resources. American wilderness became a symbol of this country counterposed to the tamed nature of the Old World. Transcendentalist writings propagating the concept of divine presence in the creation supported the fashion for scenery.