Question Of God Research Articles

Craig G. Bartholomew. The Old Testament and God. Vol. 1 of Old Testament Origins and the Question of God

Craig G. Bartholomew. <i>The Old Testament and God. Vol. 1 of Old Testament Origins and the Question of God</i>

Butler and Hume on Religion

ABSTRACT For over a century now, Hume’s work on religion has been better known than Butler’s. To understand the full significance of Butler and Hume in relation to each other, it is necessary to be clear about what the historical record shows. Once we have established what the record shows, we are faced with the question of what we are to make of the record. Butler, obviously, was speaking as a widely admired priest of the Church of England. Hume was speaking primarily for himself as an aspiring man of letters. If Butler and Hume are read as adversaries, then history has already delivered its verdict. Hume’s opinion became better known, even though Butler enjoyed a long run of dominance in the nineteenth century. Finally, we must consider what we are to say to a public who remain as confused and distracted as ever on the great questions of God, freedom, and immortality. Hume and Butler advised that the public be presented with the evidence and then draw their own conclusions. There are many gaps in the record, but it is now possible to understand Butler and Hume as active in a dialectical process continued by Paley, Darwin, and their successors.

God’s Body and the Material Turn: Divine (Im)Materiality in Biblical Theophanies

AbstractAlthough biblical scholars are increasingly turning their attention to the question of God’s body, few clarify how precisely this “body” complicates the long-held claim that God is immaterial. The present article addresses this oversight by attending to the ways in which biblical accounts of God’s body intersect with wider tradents of thought on materiality and immateriality, including, above all, the recent cross-disciplinary “turn” known as new materialism. The article begins by discussing what biblical scholars mean when they say “God’s body” and how biblical theophanies in particular complicate the belief that God is immaterial. It then discusses new materialism and how key emphases in this scholarly shift similarly complicate the belief in God’s immateriality. Third and finally, the article returns to biblical theophanies by reading these accounts through a new materialist lens, focusing in particular on God’s manifestations in material, nonhuman forms. In the end, I suggest not only that biblical theophanies problematize traditional ways of conceiving God within the history of biblical interpretation but also that new materialism can better enable us to see how these accounts portray the relationship between God and embodied materialities.

Theology, Religious Studies, and Philosophy of Religion as Humanistic Disciplines: Critical Reflections on Realism

This metaphilosophical paper discusses the nature of the philosophy of religion as an academic discipline. It may seem self-evident that the philosophy of religion is one of the humanities – along with neighboring fields of research within theology and religious studies – but it may also be argued that this is not obvious at all, as philosophical investigation can study the way the world is at the fundamental metaphysical level. Philosophers of religion, in particular, may claim to “directly” discuss the question of God’s existence vs. non-existence. The paper argues that settling the metaphilosophical question about the nature of the philosophy of religion presupposes considering the underlying issue of realism. From a transcendental-pragmatist perspective, the philosophy of religion is a humanistic discipline, but this cannot be non-circularly demonstrated to those presupposing metaphysical realism.

Degeneration Theory and Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov

I am here interested in presenting a comparative analysis between the strand of thought known as ‘Degeneration Theory’ and Dostoevsky’s last major novel, The Brothers Karamazov. I will provide a brief contextualization about the influence of Degeneration Theory on Russian thought, postulating that the principal Russian preoccupation concerning degenerate attitudes – above all in Dostoevsky - consists in the disease of moral nihilism. I proceed by outlining the criminal type in The Brothers Karamazov by focalizing my inquiry around the figure of the illegitimate epileptic brother Smerdjakov. My main arguments around the question of social and physiological degeneration will be developed in the subsection devoted to the relationship between poverty and children, whose humility, it is argued, represents Dostoevsky’s answer to the death of God and the moral bankruptcy enacted by nihilistic tendencies. In the third segment I will analyse the maddening outcomes of this disease in my discussion of Ivan Karamazov. Lastly, I will venture into a more unreserved discussion about the purported sequel to The Brothers Karamazov. This study seeks to emphasize the importance in the relationship between characters and the God question, ultimately claiming that for Dostoevsky physical degeneration is deployed as a physiological counterpart for the chief concern of many degenerationist narratives: the spiritual degradation of the individual soul and of the integrity of civilization.

Nothing is hidden: nonsense and the revelation of limits

ABSTRACT In this article, I aim to raise questions for natural theology by casting doubt on the intelligibility of absolute limit concepts, like ‘reality’, through comparing the reception of Wittgenstein by two English Dominicans, Cornelius Ernst and Herbert McCabe. First, I briefly examine the evolution of the Tractarian conception of a limit that demarcates sense from nonsense as it morphs in Wittgenstein’s middle period before being abandoned entirely. Ernst is consciously aware of this shift and concerned about its implications for theology. After establishing Ernst’s more wary reading of Wittgenstein, I then consider McCabe’s approach to the question of God as a question regarding absolute limits. Ultimately, I suggest that the sheer nonsense of such terms fails to provide a basis for natural theology, but that divine revelation can legitimise this talk of limits by revealing the absolute contingency of all ‘created’ things as an eschatological limit placed upon history from within history. Ironically, though, McCabe’s eschatological vision is not the crossing of this limit, but its inevitable erasure when we find that God is not ‘other’ but ‘all in all’.

The Same God Question in the context of oppression

In recent years, the ongoing debate regarding whether Muslims and Christians worship the same God has predominantly been discussed from theological and philosophical perspectives. Yet, a significant gap exists in exploring this discourse through a sociological lens, particularly in understanding how the “Same God Question” resonates within the contexts of minority groups and the oppressed. This article addresses this gap by investigating the viewpoints of those often marginalized in discussions of religious identity. Drawing upon Henning Wrogemann’s observations on the complex interplay between contextualization to those in positions of influence versus the rights of the oppressed, as well as Robert Priest’s insights on experience-near theology, this article argues that it is possible for contextualization to one group to unwittingly perpetuate oppression to another group. Furthermore, it asserts the fundamental right of oppressed individuals to distance themselves from the overarching theological frameworks imposed upon them by hegemonic forces. These insights are subsequently applied to the broader discourse surrounding the “Same God Question” in order to highlight the complex interplay between contextualization, power, and oppression.

Tėvų vaidmuo ir statusas Romos Katalikų Bažnyčios teologijoje po visuotinio Vatikano II Susirinkimo

In the article we analyse the approach to the family, fatherhood and motherhood presented in Roman Catholic theology. We analyse the period after the Second Vatican Council, and discuss the new opportunities for theological knowledge and analysis, in order to see how a unified approach to man and the family, and how the creation of a relationship with God is developed through the family. We analyse how, by understanding who a person is, we can find answers to questions of the meaning of life, as well as the discovery of the perfection of parenthood. We ask how the question of God and religious knowledge can serve to spread human love in the family.

The divine and the open text: Five steps for reading Hölderlin's Homburger Folioheft

AbstractThis article deals with Hölderlin's Homburger Folioheft. It elaborates on the thesis that the question of God or the divine can contribute to exploring both the richness of the poet's extensive manuscript, which fans out in many textual stages, and its fragmentary form. I argue that, despite its fragile textual form, the collection must be perceived as a unity and that reading it means oscillating between the textual stages without privileging the last version. I show that the reference to the divine often can be found at the core of the poet's vast changes to the text. The absence and return of the divine introduces a transformative dynamic into the text, a dynamic about which Hölderlin himself reflects in some passages.

Kausalitas dalam Sains dan Teologi: Perbandingan Pandangan Mu’tazilah dan Asyariyah

The Mu'tazilites believed in deterministic causality explained by human reason. Humans have freedom and are responsible for their actions. Ashariyah, on the other hand, believes in occasional causality controlled by God's will. Events in the universe are not connected and only happen because of God's will. Modern science, with its developments, shows that causality is not a simple concept. From classical physics to quantum physics, understanding of causality continues to evolve and challenge traditional thinking. The meeting point between theology and modern science lies in the question of God's role in the universe. Theologians' questions about miracles and divine intervention parallel physicists' questions about cause-and-effect relationships and the behavior of objects. This journal concludes that causality is a complex and multidimensional concept that requires understanding from various perspectives, including theology and science.

Book Review: Old Testament Origins and the Question of God by Craig Bartholomew

Book Review: Old Testament Origins and the Question of God by Craig Bartholomew

An introduction to God’s omnipresence through the “four ways” of Francis of Meyronnes OFM (fl. 1320)

ABSTRACT This article offers an introduction to the question of God’s omnipresence as debated within the late medieval scholastic tradition as seen through the lens of Francis of Meyronnes. In Meyronnes’s commentary on distinction 37 of Peter Lombard’s Sentences, he attempts to categorize the various ways one might prove God’s existence in all things through a four-fold classification. In following his classifications, we are able to look back at some of the historical ways earlier scholastics have attempted to prove God’s omnipresence and follow some of the changes in those approaches as the tradition has developed. Likewise, Meyronnes’s fourth and final classification will point us toward the future. His fourth way—interesting and puzzling in and of itself—offers early hints of future debates about God’s omnipresence and his relationship to place that will emerge in the late 14th century and then again in the 15th, 16th, and 17th centuries.

Speaking of God in the Realm of Aesthetics: Religion in Hölderlin

This article considers the work and reception of Friedrich Hölderlin with regard to the impact of German Idealism on religion. To this end, two questions must be clarified in advance: can Hölderlin, who is known primarily as a poet, also be placed in the context of German Idealism, and does his work have a significant relationship to religion? I argue that both questions should be answered in the affirmative. Ernst Cassirer’s study Hölderlin und der deutsche Idealismus (1918/19) clearly laid the foundation for appreciating Hölderlin’s place within German Idealism, and the question of God is a leitmotif of Hölderlin’s entire oeuvre. I seek to trace Hölderlin’s influence on understanding religion in three steps: First, I want to show that Hölderlin, in a critical continuation of Kant, does not consider religion solely within the matrix of practical reason, but brings into play the dimension of aesthetics. By situating religion in relation to the two focal points of ethics and aesthetics, a fundamental question of the philosophy of religion is addressed. Second, I employ several examples to show the various conceptions of the divine that the poet elucidates and juxtaposes in his work (Christian motifs, Greek mythology, pantheistic concepts, etc.). This leads to a philosophy of religion that is not determined by dogmatic boundaries. Third, I point out how religion plays a major role in the reception of Hölderlin.

다자이 오사무의 소설 『인간실격』에 나타난 절망과 죄의 문제

This study examines the issue of despair and sin of the protagonist Yojo in Dazai Osamu’s No Longer Human through the theorietical reasoning developed in Søren Kierkegaard’s The Sickness unto Death. Yojo’s life in the novel contains Kierkegaard’s discussion of despair and sin.&#x0D; From Kierkegaard’s perspective, Yojo’s despair can be divided into despair of worldly things and despair of himself. His despair of the world stems from the fear and distrust of humanity experienced during his childhood. As a result, Yojo appears to have given up on himself by living his life, playing the buffoon in front of others. The despair towards himself means that Yojo’s despair has intensified. He attempts to recover through relationships with women who do not evoke fear in him but as all his attempts fail, his guilt and despair deepen. Yojo’s sin corresponds to the sin of despair before God. Although Yojo thinks about the existence of God and asks God questions, he fails to advance to the stage of faith where he believes in God’s forgiveness of sins.&#x0D; In the end, Yojo does not properly understand the meaning of Christ’s suffering and death which is the core of the Christian Gospel and cannot also believe in the infinite possiblity of the almighty God. The novel No Longer Human can be considered a work that is clearly distanced from the faith of Christianity which Kierkegaard embraces. Based on No Longer Human, it is difficult to view Dazai’s acceptance of Christianity and the Bible as a Christian evangelical understanding and remains at an ethical level based on the issue of biblical sin and punishment.

God as “The Highest and Most Elevated Thing”: Contributions to the Theological, Phenomenological Interpretations of God-Experiences in Heidegger, Conrad-Martius, and Stein

Maybe the most divisive topic of the Heideggerian reception is whether the question of God is part of the disclosure of being in Heidegger’s thinking, or if Heidegger rather obscures the phenomenological inquiry on God by way of his questions on being and his reinterpretation of the meaning of being as historical beyng. It is not accidental that Hedwig Conrad-Martius, the contemporary of Heidegger, writes in her critique on Being and Time that it is “like when, with tremendous force of wise prudence and unflagging tenacity, a door that has been closed for a long time and is almost impossible to open is blown open and then immediately slammed shut again, locked, and barricaded so tightly that it seems impossible to open it again.” (Cf. Heideggers ‘Sein und Zeit’). Unfortunately, the different stages of Heidegger’s thinking do not help further clarify the question of whether it is a conscious program of Heideggerian thinking to involve theological questions into the fundamental ontological analysis of being, if it follows from his theological background and from the relation to theology (as a positivistic science in Heidegger’s sense), or if that he includes theological knowledges into his thinking and shows a critical turn against the theological statements. Heidegger’s reflections on his own thinking in relation to theological questions and his influence on the Munich–Göttingen Phenomenology raises the present argumentation for the common phenomenological interpretation of God-Experiences.

The Baader-Schelling controversy in Schelling’s Das System der Weltalter: Elohim as divine proxies

ABSTRACT This paper examines the controversy between Franz von Baader and Schelling as it takes place in Schelling’s lecture course Das System der Weltalter. This particular instance of their disagreement involves Schelling criticising Baader for his notion of the biblical Elohim as divine proxies. The paper first provides a background to Baader-Schelling philosophical feud before examining Schelling’s remarks against Baader in the System der Weltalter. Then, Baader’s writings on Elohim are looked into in the light of their connection to Baader’s conception of creation as falling-away and Baader’s source for interpreting Elohim as proxies, including Saint Martin and Kabbalah. Thereafter, Schelling’s criticism of Baader is analysed and interpreted in the context of the System der Weltalter. The paper aims to achieve several things: to show the presence of distorted kabbalistic influence in Baader and its discussion in Schelling; to revise Koslowski’s view on Baader’s creation narrative by pointing out how Baader’s Elohim/divine proxies function to form a rather dualistic relation between God and creation; and to interpret Schelling’s convoluted and difficult reply to Baader displaying that at stake between the two thinkers were questions of God’s ineffability and freedom as well as God’s involvement into creation.

Craig G. Bartholomew, The Old Testament and God: Old Testament Origins and the Question of God. Volume 1

Craig G. Bartholomew, <i>The Old Testament and God: Old Testament Origins and the Question of God. Volume 1</i>

Sermons on Exodus, Chapters 1–20 by Martin Luther

Reviewed by: Sermons on Exodus, Chapters 1–20 by Martin Luther Mark Mattes Sermons on Exodus, Chapters 1–20. By Martin Luther. Luther's Works, volume 62. Edited by Benjamin T. G. Mayes. Translated by Kevin G. Walker. Saint Louis: Concordia, 2022. xxiii + 454 pp. This volume offers not only Luther's sermons on Exodus 1–20 (1524–25) but also two shorter writings, namely, his introduction to the sermons on Genesis (1523) and his preface to the first volume of his lectures on Genesis (1544). Arguably, Luther is at his best as a preacher. His preaching packages his Reformation theology by presenting the results of his exegesis for a popular audience. It focuses less on polemics, though his disagreements with others is not absent, and more on the care of souls. This volume is filled with numerous gems of Luther's understanding of the gospel. In the brief sermon and introduction to Genesis, Luther highlights his well-known conviction that God did not merely create the world at a point of time, but instead creates it daily (6), that God is "always making and creating" and that God continues to work on it (5). He affirms that as creator God "works everything in me," but that does not necessarily trigger gratitude and joy. For sinners, that truth can horrify since "our nature cannot bear to accept it" (6). Humans are not as autonomous as they think, since their agency exists only due to God's sustaining of it. Humans are not in control of their own lives. In his sermons on Exodus 1–20 Luther reminds us that God works to convert sinners to faith by means of an alien work, breaking down their self-centeredness before he accomplishes his proper work of giving mercy. God works paradoxically: "through foolishness He makes wisdom; through illness He makes strength and health; through nothing He makes everything" (95). Since Exodus [End Page 218] 1–20 deals significantly with God meting out wrath upon the Egyptians because they refused to liberate their Hebrew slaves. Luther raises the question of God's goodness. He touches upon the notion of God ex lege (outside of the law), suggesting that God is not equivalent to law, even eternal law, but instead transcends his own law: "no one ought to measure God or make a law for Him because God is entirely ex lex … By doing this measuring, however, you deprive yourself of your life and of our Lord God" (136). In a word, God is not to be measured by the law. That said, Luther's view of God outside the law is by no means arbitrary. God's goodness originates from within God himself and not from those works which express his goodness. "God is the doer and does not get the goodness from the work or Law. We get the goodness not from doing something good and being esteemed by people for it, but because the law is kept. So it must be fulfilled through the Holy Spirit; then we, too, are called good" (137). While usually commentators present Luther's view of Christ's benefits as primarily forgiveness, the Luther that emerges here focusses not only on forgiveness but also on empowerment. He admonishes his listeners to "eat" or absorb Christ in a spiritual eating: "He enters you, so that the two of you become one thing spiritually, having the same thoughts and mind, also the same will, wisdom, strength, and benefit, so that you become a new man, who daily thrives and grows, becoming big, sleek, and strong in the knowledge of the Lord Christ" (174). This volume contributes to greater knowledge of Luther in the English-speaking world and is a welcome addition to Luther's Works. Mark Mattes Grand View University Des Moines, Iowa Copyright © 2023 Johns Hopkins University Press and Lutheran Quarterly, Inc.

Rethinking Islamic Religious Education in Europe Based on Empirical Research

The question of God is one of the central themes of religious education. Therefore, research in the field of concepts of knowledge and faith can provide a substantial basis for the work of educators and teachers and, thus, for the foundation of Islamic religious education. The following paper presents the results of a qualitative study on Muslim children’s relationships with God. The results provide impulses for rethinking Islamic religious education in Europe.

The Book of Lamentations by John Goldingay

Reviewed by: The Book of Lamentations by John Goldingay Megan D. Alsene-Parker john goldingay, The Book of Lamentations (NICOT; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2022). Pp. xix + 288. $40. With his recent commentary, John Goldingay adds a valuable and timely voice to the conversation surrounding the Book of Lamentations. In this work, G. reads Lamentations in light of its literary and poetic features, textual witnesses, deeply "traumatic" backdrop (p. 2), intertextual links with the prophets, and likeness with certain psalms. In this way, G. portrays Lamentations as a text that teaches the believing community a kind of worship that asks hard questions of God and prompts God toward action when they feel as if God has abandoned them (p. 206). Lamentations, he writes, "is not just theory. … As the poem melds theology and spirituality, it makes key theological statements about God. But part of its point in doing so is to lean on Yahweh to be himself" (p. 139). Goldingay's exposition of Lamentations provides a balanced and well-researched textual analysis, steering away from what he terms "ideological criticism" (p. 30) and avoiding an oversimplification of Lamentations' complexities. One of G.'s key presuppositions about Lamentations is that "it holds together in an unstable unity a variety of theological themes and convictions" without resolving their perspectives or pain (p. 27). Goldingay's work itself contains two main sections, introduction and commentary. His thorough introduction covers matters such as the unity of composition, authorship and date, historical backgrounds, canonicity, theology, and main themes. The remainder of the work consists of verse-by-verse original translation and commentary. In each chapter's comments, G. focuses first on the broadest strokes, noting the overall similarities as well as differences between the poem at hand and Lamentations' other poems. Next, G. proceeds with a close translation of the Hebrew text, translating primarily from the MT but also incorporating and, at times, revising his translation based on other ancient witnesses (the LXX, Vulgate, 4QLam, etc.). G.'s original translations prove insightful, as he elucidates the literary and poetic features in the Hebrew text, including how careful attention to word order can influence the rhythm and emphasis of a given verse in striking ways (e.g., Lam 3:2 [p. 128]). G. also makes some novel translational decisions on particular words or phrases, for example, glossing (bat ṣîyôn) as "Ms. Zion" (pp. 59–60). Next comes the bulk of G.'s comments, through which he invites the reader to become more familiar with Lamentations; he does this by pointing out questions and tensions in the text, discussing its theological import, or painting a picture of a given verse's meaning in the time of the Judahites. At times, G. will embark on a theological excursus, discussing the nature of God's anger (p. 90) or Yhwh's nature (pp. 144–45). At others, he explores questions that help the reader understand the world of Lamentations, for example, the question, "What's so bad [End Page 335] about carrying a millstone?" that arises from Lam 5:13 (p. 200). Finally, G. provides a brief "Reader's Response" section, which reimagines and paraphrases the sentiment of each poem as an individual's reflection on Jerusalem during a worship gathering at Mizpah or Bethel. This imaginative space helpfully frames the thrust of each poem as it may have been received and processed by the generations following Jerusalem's fall, proving formative and fruitful for the reader in beginning to process both the emotional and spiritual import of each poem. When reading G.'s commentary, the great extent to which he has read, weighed, and integrated both old and new ideas from Lamentations scholarship quickly becomes apparent: he includes works from as early as 1546 to as recent as 2021, and everything in between. He distills this diverse breadth of voices into a succinct and nuanced reading of the text, making his commentary eminently accessible, despite, or perhaps, precisely amid his academic depth. There are only a few quibbles I have with this work. First, in G.'s extensive use of secondary sources, he does not always clarify his own position or attempt to draw opposing sources together. For...