Theological Doctrine Research Articles

Kebangkitan sebagai Manifestasi Kuasa Allah: Pendekatan Historis-Kritis terhadap Matius 22:23-33 dalam Kontras Keyakinan Yudaisme Reformasi dan Kristen

This study aims to analyze the concept of resurrection in Christian and Reform Judaism beliefs, emphasizing that resurrection is a manifestation of God's power over life and death. The study contrasts the Christian belief, which regards resurrection as an integral part of faith, with the Reform Judaism view, which generally rejects resurrection as a literal fact. Using the Historical-Critical interpretation method and a qualitative approach, this research analyzes Matthew 22:23-33 through inner-text and inter-text approaches to reveal its theological meaning and context. The findings show that resurrection is not merely a theological doctrine in the Christian faith, but also serves as evidence of God's power over life and death, aligning with the belief that those who die in faith in God will be resurrected. In conclusion, this research makes a significant contribution to the theological understanding of resurrection, highlights its distinction from Reform Judaism beliefs, and reinforces the role of resurrection as a key element in Christian faith.

The House of One

This paper explores the potential of the client-architect relationship to be part of a design methodology conducive to conceiving sacred space as collaborative, dialogical practice. The case study for this investigation is the multi-confessional project ‘House of One’ by Kuehn Malvezzi, currently on site in Berlin, Germany. The client for this project is not one cleric or religious community but a foundation initiated by a local Protestant, Jewish and Muslim congregation. The fact that the client is not one homogenous entity has shaped the conception of the project and consequently the building’s final appearance: all design decisions have been taken conjointly by the three clerics. In this project, the correlation between theological considerations and material realisation has been recognised as a reciprocal two-way process: theological doctrines are materialised through constructed space – equally, architectural questions can act as a catalyst for theological debate between the three clerics and their respective communities.

Supremasi Pemerintahan di bawah Agamawan: Menilik Strategi Diskursif Ruhulloh M. Khomeini dalam Revolusi Islam Iran

Abstract: Ruhollah Musavi Khomeini was a multifaceted revolutionary figure. His engagement with various scholarly discourses, prophetic historicity, and the political realities of his era profoundly influenced him. The synthesis of these influences eventually formed the new Khomeini, characterized by a pragmatic socio-political outlook. This outlook was manifested in his mission to oppose the secular regime of Reza Shah and establish an Islamic government. Based on this phenomenon, this research aims to discuss academic questions regarding Khomeini’s strategy in founding an Islamic government. It concludes that Khomeini’s political involvement in Iran was closely linked to the political realities he faced and the horizontality of Shia theology. His primary strategy was non-military, involving the integration and reinterpretation of various ideas, including monotheism, Shia theological doctrines, ‘irfani (mystical knowledge), Islamic law, and the texts of the Qur’an and the Prophet’s hadiths. This religio-political strategy effectively toppled the Pahlavi regime, leading to the establishment of an Islamic government

The Islamic Influence on Saadia Gaon’s Method in Defending Rabbinic Judaism

Saadia Al-Fayyumi was one of the medieval scholars of Jewish law who lived in Muslim societies. He was the first in Iraq to defend Rabbinic Judaism against the opponents and skeptics of its religious heritage and he was influenced in his defense by Islamic thought. Previous studies discussed Saadia’s defense of the Written and Oral law and illustrated Saadia’s polemical writings against the Karaites. The current paper discusses the influence of Islam on Saadia’s method in defending Rabbinic Judaism. Also, this essay illustrates the influence of Islamic thought on Saadia’s arguments to pave the way for the Rabbis to use reason like the Mu’tazilah to defend their beliefs and provided them with arguments and proofs. Clearly, Islamic thought was a principle for Saadia to establish the foundations of faith. He laid down the principles of faith just as the Mu’tazilah and was influenced by Mu’tazilah’s thoughts, Muslim jurists, Islamic theological doctrines, and their various ideas related to religious matters. Also, Saadia agreed with the Islamic theological sects in using logical evidences and religious texts as defensive tools to defend his beliefs. This Islamic influence on Jewish thought was a factor in its development, especially in light of the Arab-Islamic civilization in the medieval ages between 10th and the 15th centuries CE.

المعتزلة ودورها في شرعنة الدولة العباسية ومواجهة الطوائف المعارضة

The Mu'tazila scientist provided a great and important service to the Abbasid state, as the Mu'tazila participated in the revolution against the Umayyads, and the summit of their political, military and intellectual activity against the Umayyad authority was represented in their contribution with the Shiites in overthrowing the Umayyad rule, which led to the stability of power in the hands of the Abbasids. This activity has reached an extent of clarity and effectiveness, as during the last period of the Umayyad state, "Wasel" and his followers were actively working in the service of the Abbasid cause. and that the doctrine of "Wasel" and the doctrine of the early Mu'tazila were the two official theological doctrines of the Abbasid movement. In addition, the Abbasid rulers were able to pass their political ideas through Mu'tazili thought, which they found the best way to legitimize their authority, liquidate their political and religious opponents, and justify their actions. Therefore, during the time of al-Ma'mun, the Abbasid state adopted retirement as an official principle of the state.

Artificial Intelligence and Theology: Can Different Doctrines Have Different Outcomes?

This article focuses on how different theological perspectives may influence AI acceptance in diverse faith communities. It highlights differences between Western and Eastern Christian traditions, suggesting that the historical emphasis on intellect in Western Christianity might make it more open to AI, though challenges in church integration are acknowledged. Global examples of AI assimilation in religious practices, from a robotic Buddhist preacher to a blessing-delivering robot in a German church, are discussed. The article argues that theological doctrines shape AI perspectives, influencing ethics and raising profound questions about human identity. The ongoing debate questions whether AI threatens theology or fosters enriching dialogue. The article suggests, through historical parallels and the dynamic interplay of theological doctrines and technology, that the relationship between AI and theology could evolve into constructive engagement rather than inherent conflict.

Synchronizing Missio Dei with Process Theology and Theodicy

Since the second half of the 20th century, missiology has continued to elevate Missio Dei to a topic of the highest importance in theology. According to Missio Dei, the salvific mission is more theocentric than anthropocentric in that its actuality is wholly rooted in the nature of God. However, much work remains to be conducted to evaluate and reconcile the modern interpretation of the Missio Dei and its predecessor theological doctrines, to avoid illogicalities. Consequently, the responsibility to identify any discrepancies in the systematic knowledge of the Missio Dei falls on the broad shoulders of theology in general, but of missiology in particular. In keeping with this unavoidable intellectual duty, this article interrogates the literature on modern theodicies to improve the conceptualization of the Missio Dei and missionary God in the context of evil and human suffering. The inter-comparative analysis of the biblical Job serves to relate divine perfection and human suffering within process theodicy. Consequently, the intellectual enterprise of this work, with all its shortcomings, not only illuminates another facet of Missio Dei but also motivates further investigation to reconcile mission Dei with the reality of evil, free will, and human suffering.

Political theology, discovery and the roots of the ‘great replacement’

In recent years, fears of the ‘great replacement’, popularised by Renaud Camus, warning against a supposed Islamist take-over of France, have motivated White supremacist violence and resulted in mass shootings in Europe, New Zealand and the US. The author shows how this conspiracy theory can be traced back to medieval theological doctrines used to justify the conquest of Muslim lands in Al-Andalus and later refined to warrant the European subjugation of the Indigenous nations of the Americas, Australia and New Zealand. Through papal authority, the ‘Doctrine of Discovery’ bestowed a God-given right on Christian nations to take and control lands, wiping out or confining Indigenous people, to then repopulate countries at will − itself the real racial reversal of settler colonialism. The theological argument is now thoroughly secularised in law in the US. ‘A great replacement’, incorporating the Doctrine of Discovery coupled with eugenicist ideas, can be found in the works of Lothrop Stoddard, and echoes are found even today in utterances from US politicians and on Fox News.

Liberty of Land, Liberty for God: Between Indigenous Land-Human Relationship and State Sovereignty in French Polynesia

This paper will discuss tiàmāraa faaroo, the concept of religious sovereignty advocated in the Māòhi Protestant Church in French Polynesia, and how it intersects with the idea of political sovereignty. Whilst territorial politics revolves around the possibility of national independence, religious sovereignty suspends the idea of political self-governance, and instead promotes the recovery of Indigenous relationships with the land, a core doctrine of local Christian theology. Religious sovereignty supports a notion of Indigenous sovereignty that is practice-based and conceptually independent of the modern nation-state, but nonetheless is seen to be crucial for national independence, should they wish to achieve it. I suggest how localised Christianity in the Pacific, itself a combination of Indigenous and exogenous epistemologies, provides a model of cultural and temporal hybridity for shaping decolonial futures.

Comparing Islam with other Late Antique Religions: Examining Theological Parallels with Zoroastrianism, Judaism, Christianity, and Manichaeism

This article argues that Islamic theological doctrines emerged out of broad late antique religious trends. Such trends were reflected in Judaism and Christianity, but also transcended them. In support of this view, the article systematically examines parallels between Islamic theological doctrines, and those found in the late antique religions of Zoroastrianism, Judaism, Christianity, and Manichaeism. It is argued that all of these religions share six basic doctrines: (1) belief in one morally-concerned Supreme Being (2) belief in lesser spirit beings that are good or bad (3) belief in prophets (4) belief in scriptural texts (5) belief in an afterlife (6) belief that the world will end with the triumph of good over evil. It is argued that the preceding six doctrines coherently fit together into a larger perspective on the universe. The article explains how this perspective is central to late antique religions, including Islam.

SEEKING THE HISTORY OF PENDALUNGAN CULTURE: A DISTINCTIVE STUDY OF LOCAL CULTURAL HISTORY IN THE HISTORY AND ISLAMIC CIVILIZATION PROGRAM OF UIN KHAS JEMBER

This article explains, in a narrative-analytical manner, the Pendalungan culture in the Eastern Salient of Java. The Eastern Salient of Java is located in the far eastern part of East Java, known as 'Pendalungan'. This article departs from the history of Pendalungan, whose cultural identity is unclear. Therefore, this article will briefly explain the migration of ethnic Javanese-Madurese to East Java, the interpretation of Pendalungan, and the results of the analysis of the cultural trajectory of Pendalungan in the Eastern Salient of Java. In writing this article, researchers combined historical methods with cultural approaches and accumulated theoretical concepts. The main finding in this research is that the Pendalungan culture is one of the keys to building the local identity of a particular area, in this case, the Eastern Salient of Java. The Pendalungan culture, due to the ethnic acculturation version of the Eastern Salient of Java Region, is not located in a theological doctrine theory. The cultural and religious dimensions of the Eastern Salient of Java Pendalungan culture lie precisely in the aspects of identity and the formality of forms that develop and shape the face of culture following the direction of purpose and substance in each particular regional locality. None other than these developments are aligned with the cultural and religious realities of the people in the Eastern Salient of the Java Region. It is the foundation that paved the way for the development of the Pendalungan culture in the Eastern Salient of Java until today.

‘Implanted in us by Nature’: The Cognitive Science of Religion and its Importance for Theology

AbstractAbstract: The Cognitive Science of Religion (CSR) holds that religion emerges from human cognition and its intuitions. Hence, it describes religion as a ‘natural’ belief in ‘supernatural agents’. Traditional theology also maintained that there is an ‘innate’ or ‘implanted’ knowledge of God or gods. It will be argued that CSR and theology can be related, yet not in a straightforward manner. After sketching out in what sense CSR calls religion ‘natural’ and how it describes ‘supernatural agents’, this article explores some examples of the traditional theological doctrine of an ‘implanted’ knowledge of God. It shows that the reliability of such an ‘implanted’ knowledge of God was disputed among theologians and, even if it was affirmed, had an ambiguous position in theology. This also applies to CSR if it is to be related to the traditional theological doctrine. There are illuminating convergences between CSR and theology but also considerable divergences. Both, however, prove significant for theology.

EUCHARIST

This academic article on theories of the Holy Supper deals exactly with some aspects of the theological doctrine regarding the meaning of the body and blood of Jesus Christ. It aims to emphasize the confessional theory of the eucharist.

Freedom in Community: The Importance of Anthropology in Maintaining and Developing our Narratives of Common Life

In this article I am assuming that freedom and flourishing are linked concepts. Freedom of will, liberty and freedom are all slightly different, but freedom is a deep-seated human value, as is equality. Here I hope to examine the communal aspects of freedom and flourishing in light of our deep history. I argue that what individuals need in order to flourish is to be a part of a community which recognises and supports equality and freedom. And I argue further that our collective story of origins deeply affects our view of human nature, and how hopeful we are able to be that humans can thrive and adapt. To this end, I delve into what we know of our nature from anthropology/pre-history, and then examine what the consequences are of this pre-history for some of our theological doctrines about human nature and sinfulness.

Penafsiran Paradigma Wahdah Al-Wujud Dalam Pemikiran Islam: Studi Komparasi Gagasan Kesatuan Wujud Ibrahim Al-Kurani Dan Mulla Sadra

<p class="05Abstrak">Wahdah al-Wujud as one of the important concepts of Islamic studies has different ontological interpretations between philosophers and Islamic theologians and Sufis. These different interpretations result in ontologically significant differences in understanding implications. This study seeks to answer the problem of differences in the interpretation of the concept of wahdah al-wujūd from two major figures who indirectly have the same spirit, namely to harmonize various approaches and scholarship in Islam but have different positions and tendencies in interpreting the concept of wahdah based on each socio-cultural background. This research was conducted using the onto-epistemological analysis method which is part of the branch of philosophy. This research concludes that the ontological status constructed by al-Kurani has implications for theological wahdah al-wujūd which explicitly avoids the equality of creatures with God (tanzih and tasbih), while sadra still sees one entity but in different gradations. In addition, al-Kurani still assumes absolute nothingness, while Sadra assumes relative nothingness as the basis for the creation of a reality other than God. Finally, al-Kurani tends to adopt the theological doctrine of al-Kasb as the basis for the relevance of the interpretation of wahdah al-Wujud, while Sadra adheres to the principle of philosophical non-contradiction</p>

Aquinas’s Understanding of Religion

Thomas Aquinas emerges as a remarkable figure whose significant literary contributions have had a profound impact on our understanding of religion. Drawing inspiration from both the Greco-Roman philosophical and legal traditions, particularly the influential works of Cicero and the rich Christian tradition, notably Augustine, Aquinas presents a comprehensive and nuanced approach to the multifaceted concept of ‘religion’. While his analysis often situates ‘religion’ within the moral framework of justice, highlighting its inherent concern with the relationship between humanity and the divine, Aquinas goes beyond mere moral principles in his exploration. His aim is to establish a universal understanding of ‘religion’, offering a well-defined definition and presenting a philosophical and theological doctrine. In this paper, we shall first delve into the foundations and underlying principles that shaped Aquinas’s interpretation of religion. Next, we will undertake a thorough examination of religion as a virtue, highlighting Aquinas’s emphasis on its intrinsic connection to justice rather than confining it to the realm of religious sentiment, piety, or devotion. Finally, our research will explore the specific terminologies employed by Aquinas to elucidate the concept of religion, providing a comprehensive and nuanced approach to the ongoing discourse on this topic. Aquinas’s contribution rests in his defence of religion’s inherent public nature, grounded in its anthropological foundation and its virtuous essence.

Is Faith Supernatural?

The Cognitive Science of Religion represents a contemporary attempt at a naturalistic explanation of religion. There is debate as to whether its account of how religious beliefs arise is reconcilable with the religious account, which holds that religious beliefs are caused by God. In my paper, I argue that these two accounts cannot be reconciled when it comes to the specific question of how Christian religious beliefs arise if one accepts an important theological doctrine of the supernaturality of Christian belief. This doctrine implies that there can be no natural explanation for how Christian beliefs arise because they are a gift of divine grace. This leads to a conundrum for Christian theists: they can either reject the CSR account of how their religious beliefs arise, or they can reject the supernaturality of Christian belief. I argue that the latter is preferable. I then draw on the work of the theologian Denis Edwards to illustrate how one can drop this doctrine without abandoning some other fundamental tenets of Christian theology.

The theological stems of modern economic ideas: John Duns Scotus

Voluntarism is a medieval theological doctrine that argues that God’s will takes precedence over God’s intellect and explores the consequences on the relation between Creation and the Creator. We show that Duns Scotus’s theological voluntarism had an important impact on his economic teachings. Moreover, we suggest that it opened an ontological path that fostered the theorisation of modern economic ideas. Voluntarism undermined the Aristotelian-Thomistic virtue ethics framework and the medieval mistrust of self-interest and commerce typical of voluntarism contrary, i.e., intellectualism. For voluntarist Duns Scotus, human being can promote unintentionally the common good, whereas intellectualism holds intentionality as its pillar.

Наука и власть в политической философии Ф. Бэкона: от реформаторства к социальной критике

Introduction. The paper gives the analysis of the development of Bacon’s views on the problem of the interrelations between science and the state power. Theoretical analysis. The initial period of this development was linked to Bacon’s attempts of obtaining privileged position in the court circles during Elizabethan reign. In his treatises and speeches of 1580-90s Bacon started a propagandist campaign for the reform of science: in order to create the most effective tool of increasing its power and glory the crown had to realize the futility of scholasticism and the fraud of alchemical enterprises and to support the efforts of the researchers in improving technologies and discovering the laws of nature. This instrumentalist perspective however gained little support in governmental circles, first of all because of Bacon's sharp criticism of alchemical projects in which the most influential court men were engaged. The next stage of the development of Bacon's ideas started in early 1600s. In his treatises Bacon combined his attacks on alchemy etc. with an ethical & theological doctrine of the values of scientific research. During his spectacular career at Jacobean court Bacon exposed his doctrine to self-censure in order not to offend the monarch whose patronage he had successfully gained. However during his retirement he began a further work at this doctrine and made it the basis for his utopian novel, “The New Atlantis”. Conclusion. Baconian views on the interrelations between science and political power were shaped by his philosophical development as well as by his political experience that led his theories from administrative reformism to ethical analysis and further – to social criticism and utopianism.

Human Dignity in Inpatient Care: Fragments of Religious and Social Grounds

Background: Navigating inpatient care can be complex and distressing for patients, particularly as they grapple with the emotional and physical changes brought about by their condition. Ensuring the preservation of human dignity during this period is vital, as it directly influences an individual’s self-esteem and overall quality of life, most prominently during end-of-life care. The hospital milieu and the behaviour of healthcare professionals can significantly affect a patient’s dignity. This paper scrutinized the concept of human dignity in inpatient care, with a primary emphasis on its theological, social, and regional context, drawing particularly on the Eastern Orthodox tradition and the central European, specifically Slovakian, context. Methodology: This study engaged respected authors in theology, social science, and healthcare to present an enriched understanding of the bio-psycho-social-spiritual components of human dignity. The analysis incorporated a blend of theological concepts, empirical findings, and regional insights to provide a nuanced perspective on dignity conservation. Results: The study illuminates the criticality of preserving human dignity from a multi-dimensional perspective, promoting patient autonomy, acknowledging their cultural and spiritual beliefs, and confronting societal attitudes and practices. It draws from theological doctrines and the European Charter of Patient’s Rights to advocate for a nuanced, dignity-conserving approach to patient care. Case studies and practical strategies for preserving human dignity in palliative care contexts, based on clinical guidelines, empirical studies, and theological writings, are presented. Conclusions: This study highlights the integral role of human dignity from both theological and practical perspectives in inpatient care, advocating for a comprehensive, patient-centered approach to care that values the individual’s bio-psycho-social-spiritual facets. It underscores the necessity for a collaborative commitment between healthcare providers, patients, and their families to foster a milieu that unconditionally supports the dignity of the ill person.