Great World Religions Research Articles

The Cognitive Aspect of Hope in the Semantic Space of Male Patients Dying of Cancer.

The aim of this study is to characterize the cognitive aspect of the semantic space of hope in patients in the terminal stage of cancer. This was confirmed in the research on hope by C. R. Snyder and B. Schrank. Hope is of great importance in all the great world religions and belief systems, both as regards a personal God or impersonal deities. Hoping is a human capacity with varying affective, cognitive and behavioral dimensions. Psychological, pedagogical (particularly in the framework of special needs pedagogy and thanatological pedagogy) and theological reflection on hope can provide support for dying people. In order to conduct the research, the semantic differential research method was selected. The research technique employed was a therapeutic conversation, and the research tool was the B.L. Block's DSN-3 test. The DSN-3 test allows one to assess hope in the semantic space in three aspects: cognitive, emotional and functional. For the purposes of this study, only the cognitive aspect was taken into account. The study was begun on 1 April 2010 and ended in the last days of December 2020. It included 110 male patients in the terminal stage of cancer. The youngest respondent was 19 years old and the oldest was 94 years old. The surveyed men most often perceived hope in the semantic space in the cognitive aspect as more true, wise, meaningful and real than false, stupid, meaningless and deceptive. Their attitude to hope was, therefore, more affirmative than negative. The research did not reveal the importance of the age of the respondents on the degree of affirmation/negation of hope in the cognitive aspect in the semantic space; however, men in the period of late maturity and professional activity expressed the lowest level of the affirmation of hope. It is worthwhile to conduct further research concerning hope in other aspects (especially emotional and functional) in the semantic space in order to use the obtained results to consider what to take into account when providing patients in the terminal stage of cancer with better personalized holistic care than before.

Who Owns the Central Mosque? Ethnic Identity and the Struggle for Spiritual Space in Epe, Southwest Nigeria

Religion and ethnicity are core attributes of identity in West Africa, and the majority of the population defines itself in relation to these values. But most studies of religious conflict in Nigeria focus on the conflicts between the two great world religions, Islam and Christianity. Equally, studies of ethnic conflict tend to focus on conflict between different language groups. This article shows that it is also important to focus on sub-ethnic difference, and the meso-level conflicts and tensions that often occur within each faith. In Epe, a coastal town in Lagos, southwest Nigeria over eighty percent of the population profess Islam, but remain distinguished as different social and ethnic sub-groups, as “Ijebu Epe” and “Eko Epe.” Over time, both groups invested in ethno-religious contestation, which led to open conflict when they were brought together in the same local Council and differed over the ownership of the only Central Mosque in the town. The study shows that the struggle for the soul of the first Epe Central Mosque at Oke Balogun between Ijebu Epe and Eko Epe was used in pursuit of both spiritual and political power, and in order to gain control over important resources. This study therefore provides empirical evidence that ethnic and group differences do affect some aspects of religious practices and can even lead to rivalry within the same religion.

A Comparative Study of Islam and Buddhism: A Multicultural Society Perspective

In this article, two great world religions, Islam and Buddhism, are compared. The purpose is to highlight similarities and differences between the two religions. Additionally, this article aims to project elements and teachings that are deemed important by their followers. A neutral stance on their beliefs is especially important in a multicultural society. The study was conducted to promote the harmony and betterment of Malaysian society, and the nation at large; a value process of understanding of each religion is recommended, which can then lead to acceptance, respect and tolerance among the population, and form the basis for developing a paradigmatic Malaysian society that has unity in diversity. This study adopted document analysis as the research method for data collection and data analysis. The conclusions drawn are that, although the two religions appear rather different in terms of principles and practices, the core values of avoiding evil and doing good are similar. In addition, the study proposes that without prejudice and pride, the basics of all commonly practiced religions in Malaysia should be introduced to all Malaysians, with the objective of all understanding, but not necessarily embracing, each other’s religion.

ANTHROPONYMICON OF A FICTION TEXT AS MANIFESTATION OF THE AUTHOR’S NARRATIVE PLAN

The article explores the peculiarities of narrative function of proper names in the fiction text. We support Schmid's model of double communication in fiction and claim that the reader participates in two communicative acts with the narrator and the author of the text. Constant monitoring of not only what is narrated, but also by whom, in what sequence, in what way, etc., is one of the reader’s processing strategies that leads to “thickening” of the narrative world. This double communication allows the reader to view the narrative from two angles (the author’s and the narrator’s) and consider themselves a participant of both communicative acts. Thus, literary cognition essentially involves collecting and interpreting data from both narrative planes, as well as their thorough comparison and search for plausible explanations in case of discrepancies. The intricate relationships between both narrative plans can be clarified by analyzing the telltale and precendent names deployed by the auther. We illustrate our findings on the basis of I. Murdoch’s novel “A Word Child”. This author has employed the value of proper names to the full by achieving several effects simultaneously: they indicate the dominant features of the personality (sometimes directly, but often in the form of antithesis), indicate the author’s or the narrator’s attitude to the characters, and finally, attract reader’s attention to the domains of religion and philosophy, thus, revealing to some extent the author’s philosophic views. Thus, Christopher as a Buddhist symbolizes unity of two great world religions – Christianity and Buddhism; Arthur Fisch (who has a “strong” “heroic” name and a “weak” surname) symbolizes the opposition of the author’s and the protagonist’s points of view concerning the personality trates of this character. Even some characters of minor importance get the names that emphasize their vices (Witcher, Farbottom) or appearance (Bisset), etc. In the case of “A word child”, we find its literary value in versatile insights that readers may get by participating in a thought-provoking linguistic, artistic, and intellectual game preconceived by the author.

Sunday School for Cyborgs

Sunday School for Cyborgs R. John Williams (bio) Cyborg Theology: Humans, Technology, and God Scott A. Midson I. B. Taurus www.bloomsbury.com/uk/cyborg-theology-9781784537876/ 272 Pages; Cloth, £63.00 It takes no great sleuth to deduce that strange religious things are afoot in Silicon Valley. Massive financial investments, for instance, have been devoted to solving the "modest problem of death"—with immortality hovering just on the horizon. Re-wire the human DNA! Upload your consciousness to the machine! There are architectural signs of a new religiosity as well: Apple's secretive, four-story corporate building, built in the form of a "perfect circle," with a mega-church like auditorium at the center, and monastic cubicles where the smart phones we carry with us everywhere, like digital totems, are lovingly crafted for the masses. Archive.org, which has nowhere near Apple's budget (but all the same religious fervor), took the cheaper route and purchased a now-defunct Christian Science Church building in San Francisco's Richmond District. Visitors are greeted by a temple-like white stone facade adorned with Roman columns. Inside, on the walls of the "chapel," where organ pipes once hummed, archive. org's massive servers sparkle with little blue lights, reflecting against the stained-glass windows like so much digital incense—the churning of data from all over the world, terabytes of zeros-and-ones constantly in flux. Weirdest of all, in the pews of the chapel, curiously still in place, rows of little statues stand unblinking: colorful, human forms made of some kind of plaster or papier-mâché (if you work for longer than three years for archive.org, they commission a local artist to create a likeness of you, which will stand thereafter in the chapel). It feels definitively sacred. More to the point, a deep quasi-religious fervor burns in the hearts and minds of those who inhabit these techno-Delphic spaces. The "Reformed Church of Google" (Google it; it's real) is probably a clever joke among Valley atheists ("Googlists believe Google should rightfully be given the title of 'God,' as She exhibits a great many of the characteristics traditionally associated with such Deities in a scientifically provable manner"), but there is certainly no shortage of true belief infiltrating the burgeoning field of AI and its massively expanding digital infrastructures. Look at any fictional or documentary portrayal of contemporary technoculture, and you'll find an increasingly cyborg-ish mythos performing the kind of devotional energies formerly devoted to the world's great religions. FX's television series Devs (2020), directed by Alex Garland, of Ex Machina (2014) fame, is only the most obvious example: the big reveal, no real spoiler here, is that Devs doesn't stand for the company's "development" program; it stands for Deus. For those in the know, flashes of this god-in-the-machine zeal show up in even the most unexpected situations. Late last year, a friend of mine, a coder working at a startup in San Francisco, happened to be standing near a steel grate close to her favorite Sushi restaurant when one of PG&E's electricity transformers exploded underground. It was deeply traumatic. If she'd been standing just a few feet to her left, she could have died (it is common knowledge that PG&E refuses to spend the money necessary to safely maintain its own equipment, hence occasional blow ups and failures). She tweeted about it, hoping to understand what had happened, but she was unprepared for what some of her fellow digerati messaged her: "it's a sign," someone wrote, convinced that the "Singularity" was coming: "you have been prepared for this moment." It was evidence, they insisted, that a new digital "magic" was out there. Put simply, San Francisco has long since become Pynchon's San Narciso; the sacral-synth sounds of Blade Runner's Los Angeles trickle down from every loudspeaker; the techno-priesthood is in place; the apps are our sacrament; [End Page 9] the prophesied forms of Minority Report's (2002) "precog temple," creepily personalized ads, and zoom-screen surveillance are our everyday reality; John Lilly's sensory...

Ecology–Community–Spirituality: Holistic Lifestyles on the “Markets of Singularities”

Ecology–Community–Spirituality: Holistic Lifestyles on the “Markets of Singularities”

Kreeft's "Between one faith and another: Engaging conversations on the world's great religions" (

Kreeft's "Between one faith and another: Engaging conversations on the world's great religions" (

Sharing Wisdom: Benefits and Boundaries of Interreligious Learning by Alon Goshen-Gottstein, and: Learning to Live Together: Case Studies in Interfaith Diversity by Tom Wilson and Riaz Ravat, and: The Other Peace Process: Interreligious Dialogue, a View from Jerusalem by Ronald Kronish

Reviewed by: Sharing Wisdom: Benefits and Boundaries of Interreligious Learning by Alon Goshen-Gottstein, and: Learning to Live Together: Case Studies in Interfaith Diversity by Tom Wilson and Riaz Ravat, and: The Other Peace Process: Interreligious Dialogue, a View from Jerusalem by Ronald Kronish Eugene J. Fisher Alon Goshen-Gottstein, Sharing Wisdom: Benefits and Boundaries of Interreligious Learning. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2017. Pp. 118. $60.00. Tom Wilson and Riaz Ravat, Learning to Live Together: Case Studies in Interfaith Diversity. London: Jessica Kingsley Publishers, 2017. Pp. 176. $23.00, paper. Ronald Kronish, The Other Peace Process: Interreligious Dialogue, a View from Jerusalem. Lanham, MD: Hamilton Books, 2017. Pp. 179. $30.00, paper. The books by Wilson/Ravat and Goshen-Gottstein both deal with interreligious relations among the world's great religions, while Kronish centers on Jewish-Christian-Muslim relations in Israel. Wilson and Ravat narrate the programs of the St. Philip's Centre in Leicester, England, ranging from formal and informal dialogues to joint educational efforts and working together to meet the social and other needs of the community as a whole. Leicester, which dates back to Roman times, is a religiously and ethnically diverse community, almost half of which is non-Christian. It contains Muslim, Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, and various other, smaller religious communities, whose beliefs and practices are each briefly described. The Leicester Model of social integration is summarized as achieving the goal of "Living Well Together," a goal not only of interaction between and among differing religious communities but within them as well. A number of case studies illustrate the efforts of the St. Philip's Centre, with varying results, to bring people together in order to celebrate their differences and develop common programs for the greater good of all. Goshen-Gottstein brings together papers presented at a meeting of the Elijah Board of World Religious Leaders that was hosted by the Dalai Lama and Bhai Sabib Bhai Mohinder Singh in Amritsar, India, on the theme of sharing wisdom within and among the world's religions. Six scholars, each speaking for his or her own religion, present the understanding of wisdom in their own traditions and how they can relate to and understand the meaning of wisdom in [End Page 141] the other traditions, which include Christianity, Hinduism, Sikhism, Buddhism, Islam, and Judaism. The editor sums up the six presentations with an insightful presentation of what they have in common and where this might lead for future interreligious dialogues and cooperation. Again, readers will delight in brief and meaningful introductions to and analyses of the world's religions and become better prepared for dialogues in which they might participate in the future. These two books provide illuminating and challenging reading. They deepen understanding and challenge readers to act to take the next step and organize or participate in dialogues and joint action programs in their own communities. Read together, they offer practical advice and scholarly thought and are highly recommended. Kronish is the recently retired Founding Director of the Interreligious Coordinating Council in Israel, which he led for a quarter of a century. His book details his personal involvement in what is one of the most significant interreligious dialogues in the world, the relations between the Jewish and Muslim communities in Israel and the surrounding areas, as well as relations with the small Christian minority and its contacts with the larger Christian communities around the world. The difference between the dialogues and programs described by Kronish and those of the other two books reviewed here is that, as the author states repeatedly, the dialogues in the Middle East can have—and in many cases do have—a positive influence on the ongoing, crucial, and difficult peace process between Israel and Palestine. Lives are quite literally at stake. While not political in nature, these religious "peacebuilding" dialogues can help bring about better understanding of the needs of the "other" communities and help indirectly the peacemaking efforts of diplomats and political leaders of their respective communities. Kronish begins with a brief autobiography, narrating how he became a "humanistic/progressive/liberal/Zionist" rabbi and how and why he and his wife made aliyah, moving "up" to live in Israel...

RIGHT‐WING POSTMODERNISM AND THE RATIONALITY OF TRADITIONS

AbstractModern thought typically opposes the authority of tradition in the name of universal reason. Postmodernism begins with the insight that the sociohistorical context of tradition and its authority is inevitable, even in modernity. Modernity can no longer take itself for granted when it recognizes itself as a tradition that is opposed to traditions. The left‐wing postmodernist response to this insight (represented, e.g., by Jacques Derrida and Michel Foucault) is to conclude that because tradition is inevitable, irrationality is inevitable. The right‐wing postmodernist response (represented, e.g., by Hans‐Georg Gadamer and Alasdair MacIntyre) is to see traditions as the home of diverse forms of rationality. This requires an understanding of the Socratic, self‐critical aspect of intellectual traditions, which include both modern sciences and the great world religions.

Cultural and religious attitude to banking in the great world religions

The article examines the attitude of the great world religions (Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, and Confucianism) toward the world of finance, including banking. The issue of usury plays a key role in the evolution of ethical aspects related to obtaining compensation for money lending. The presented analysis also focuses on other aspects of banking activities, such as saving, investing and the institutional development of the banking sector. The author underlines the far-reaching convergence between the religions in this area, in spite of the considerable variation in historical and geographical conditions of their formation. The importance of cultural (religious) differences, including some fundamental nuances that affect the banking management in different regions. For successful development, large multinational corporations have to take into consideration the above-mentioned circumstances, regardless of the globalisation processes.

Symbole religijne na flagach i w herbach państw współczesnego świata

The appearance and basic symbolism displayed on flags and national coats of arms of states is an important topic in geography, especially political geography. The colors and graphic details of many national flags and coats of arms refers to religion because – formerly and now – religious beliefs have a strong influence on the development of societies. Symbols of all the great world religions – Christianity and Islam are presented on almost 70 flags and 80 national coats of arms of countries of the modern world. Religious symbols placed on the flags and coats of arms: refer to the religious traditions of a nation, symbolically define the religious residents, “identify” state religion, may be the motto of religious tolerance. The inscriptions on the flags, and the motto of the national coat of arms refer directly to God or to specific ethical and religious values.

The Silk Roads: a new history of the world

The sun is setting on the Western world. Slowly but surely, the direction in which the world spins has reversed: where for the last five centuries the globe turned westwards on its axis, it now turns to the east...For centuries, fame and fortune was to be found in the west - in the New World of the Americas. Today, it is the east which calls out to those in search of adventure and riches. The region stretching from eastern Europe and sweeping right across Central Asia deep into China and India, is taking centre stage in international politics, commerce and culture - and is shaping the modern world. This region, the true centre of the earth, is obscure to many in the English-speaking world. Yet this is where civilization itself began, where the world's great religions were born and took root. The Silk Roads were no exotic series of connections, but networks that linked continents and oceans together. Along them flowed ideas, goods, disease and death. This was where empires were won - and where they were lost. As a new era emerges, the patterns of exchange are mirroring those that have criss-crossed Asia for millennia. The Silk Roads are rising again. A major reassessment of world history, The Silk Roads is an important account of the forces that have shaped the global economy and the political renaissance in the re-emerging east.

Flourishing: why we need religion in a globalized world

A celebrated theologian explores how the greatest dangers to humanity, as well as the greatest promises for human flourishing, are at the intersection of religion and globalization More than almost anything else, globalization and the great world religions are shaping our lives, affecting everything from the public policies of political leaders and the economic decisions of industry bosses and employees, to university curricula, all the way to the inner longings of our hearts. Integral to both globalization and religions are compelling, overlapping, and sometimes competing visions of what it means to live well. In this perceptive, deeply personal, and beautifully written book, a leading theologian sheds light on how religions and globalization have historically interacted and argues for what their relationship ought to be. Recounting how these twinned forces have intersected in his own life, he shows how world religions, despite their malfunctions, remain one of our most potent sources of moral motivation and contain within them profoundly evocative accounts of human flourishing. Globalization should be judged by how well it serves us for living out our authentic humanity as envisioned within these traditions. Through renewal and reform, religions might, in turn, shape globalization so that can be about more than bread alone.

Daoism, Meditation, and the Wonders of Serenity: From the Latter Han Dynasty (25–220) to the Tang Dynasty (618–907) by Stephen Eskildsen

Reviewed by: Daoism, Meditation, and the Wonders of Serenity: From the Latter Han Dynasty (25–220) to the Tang Dynasty (618–907) by Stephen Eskildsen James D. Sellmann (bio) Stephen Eskildsen. Daoism, Meditation, and the Wonders of Serenity: From the Latter Han Dynasty (25–220) to the Tang Dynasty (618–907). Albany, New York: State University of New York Press, 2015. vii, 387 pp. Hardcover $85.00, isbn 978-1-4384-5823-6. By way of introduction, allow me to being with a few contrasts between Daoism and the other great world religions, especially the monotheistic ones. Because most scholars of the history of religions or the scientific study of religions (Religionswissenschaft) were raised under, and, then, extensively studied the monotheistic traditions that clearly advocate for a transcendent, other-worldly realm of existence, that is a Heaven, ruled over by a transcendent ultimate reality, God, who creates the material realm, and humans who live in the Earthly world till their final salvation, these scholars are somewhat biased, then, to interpret other traditions, especially Buddhism and Daoism in a similar fashion as somehow advocating for salvation in an otherworldly transcendent Heaven. This is not the case. Especially Theravada and later Chan (Zen) Buddhism and Daoism are not salvation-orientated religions, rather they focus on personal effort or effortless, non-action, to attain liberation or awakening. In Daoism the practitioner has to learn how to control the gods within one's physical body and in the material world. In other religions the God or gods control the world and humans. Daoism reverses this relationship. I suggest that the student of Daoism consider the possibility that the description of the Daoist gods is a metaphor or symbolic attempt to describe unseen and yet experienced biological-chemical processes or forces of nature in the body and in the universe that are merely presented in personified "divine" form partly as teaching tools and partly because of the limitations of their language and understanding of a pre-scientific worldview. Daoism is easily misunderstood to be advancing a transcendent, other-worldly form of existence, but upon a careful reading of the texts, this is not the case. The [End Page 234] immortals that attain heavenly immortality are in the stars, not another-world, or transcendent realm that is totally beyond this universe such as the Muslim or Christian Heaven. They dwell, in this world, in the sky in distant galaxies, stars, and planets. The practitioner achieves the state of immortality by controlling the gods that dwell within one's body. If a person or practitioner cannot control them, then these positive, life-giving forces, and other degenerative forces, such as lust, greed, and anger, which are presented as personified gods, demons, or worms that rot the body, take control and usher in illness, death, and decay. Furthermore, the monotheistic religions have a fairly common logic of creation, proposing that existence cannot come from absolute nothing without a creator god. The old saying was that "nothing comes from nothing." The idea that the transcendent God creates the world from nothing, creatio ex nihilo, maintains that God must exist to be the first cause, the efficient reason or prime mover to get creation started; that is, there is a God out of which or through which creation is made possible, although the God does not need any other material to build the world. Something, God, must exist to begin the creation process. The Buddhist and Daoist propose, similar to modern physics, that the void or plenum-void is both empty and yet the generative force of existence and this unfolding is a continuous process, not a one time, in the beginning, phenomenon. This view that "form is empty" or that "what is empty can generate material form" is often seen as a paradox from the perspective of two-valued (true/false) logic. However, from the perspective of non-dual logic also called correlative thinking, the alleged paradox is merely an alternative, and a more accurate, ontological description of what reality, this-here-now-material-world, really is. For Daoism and much of Buddhism, the world in its energy-matter, empty-form, manifestation is miraculous in-itself, and there is...

Kulturowo-religijny stosunek do bankowości a wielkie religie świata

The article is dedicated to the attitude of the great world religions (Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism and Confucianism) to the world of finance, including banking. The issue of usury plays a key role together with the evolution of ethical aspects related to obtaining compensation for money lending. The analysis is focused on the other aspects of banking activities, such as saving, investing, and institutional development of the banking sector as well. The author underlines the far-reaching convergence between religions in this area, in spite of the considerable variation in historical and geographical conditions of their formation. The importance of cultural (religious) differences, including the nuances or more fundamental aspects, has a significant impact on bank management in different regions. For successful development, large multinational corporations have to take into consideration the abovementioned circumstances, regardless of globalization processes.

Disagreeing to Agree: A Christian response to a common word

Dr Cutsinger argues that in order to realize the essential unity of the great world religions but also to remain mindful of their intrinsic differences, the search for a common ground should be conducted at a metaphysical rather than a theological level. The focus of the present article is the apparent contradiction between the Christian Mystery of the Incarnation and the Islamic Tawhid.

Interview with Dr Seyyed Hossein Nasr

In this interview, Dr Nasr challenges the modernist and secular worldview and stresses the contemporary need for interfaith dialogue. What are the opportunities that interfaith dialogue creates for the great world religions and the potential obstacles to it? What is the specific meaning of interfaith dalogue for Muslims?

Mission on the Move for Justice and Peace

Mission on the move: Toward witnessing in religiously plural societies "Mission on the Move" means mission still moving out of traditional perceptions of what mission is; and if "witness" is a new word for mission, it means re-conceptualizing what "witness" means in multi-faith/ religiously plural societies. This is a difficult process as the concept of "mission" carries with it a long history and biblical authority. Further, it has often been aligned with political powers and misused for non-religious purposes. Its practice has focused on converting the other into one's own religious likeness rather than sharing (in a variety of ways) the transformative power of the gospel in one's own life. The European Project for Interreligious Learning (EPIL) is an educational project for Christian and Muslim women from five countries in Europe and the Middle East. It is a two-year intensive learning process that was originally developed and launched as a cooperation by the World Council of Churches (WCC) and the Protestant Academy Boldern, Switzerland. It owes much to concepts of ecumenical learning and "Learning in Community" and to the liberation pedagogy of Paulo Freire. The first phase of this project (comprising three cycles) took place 2000-2013. In the course of each two-year cycle, participants spent five weeks in live-in situations where they had to deal with cultural and religious differences and explore how these might be harnessed to live more peacefully and fairly. "Interreligious dialogue and engagement should be the way for religions to relate to one another." This statement from the Birmingham Pluralist Summit (September 2003) (1) was the basis of the learning process. There would be no proselytizing and no attempt at missionization on either side. For the Christian participants in EPIL, this marked a relational shift from "mission" (as a hierarchical relationship) to witnessing in the form of presence to and with "the other." Learnings about religion became narratives and conversation--telling each other what religion meant concretely in the lives of participants. It was a work of "translation" that taught students more and at a deeper level about their own faiths than about the faith of the respective other. At the same time it heightened the students' sense of respect, even awe at the richness of religious experiences. And in the course of time it developed into something close to "the communication of love in action," (2) an attentiveness to the needs of the other woman, her limitations, her potential, and the realization of her humanness. If the classical response to "the other" used to be fear of difference (with all the consequences, including suppression and even elimination of the other) there has occurred a shift to valuing diversity, to perceiving it as enriching and helpful in solving the many problems of daily living together. In the discourse developing on a pluralist "theology of religions"/ "interreligious theology" we observe a shift from holding one's own religious truths as only truths (exclusivist approach) to acknowledging that "the great world religions with their diverse teachings and practices constitute authentic paths to the supreme Good." (3) To be "on the move" then could refer in a sense to a concept of living together in complex societies with a multitude of cultural expressions and religious beliefs. A concept that allows us to be attentive to insights and ideas emerging in many locations and that preserves a certain fluidity and openness to different ways of life and different approaches to problem solving. This works on the assumption that cooperation, respect, and acceptance of the different religious perspectives can produce results that draw all into the process of building life together within a culture of justice and peace. Being "on the move": EPIL's pedagogical concept In the educational process of EPIL, being on the move has been the most decisive factor. …

Defending Copernicus and Galileo: Critical Reasoning in the Two Affairs (review)

Reviewed by: Defending Copernicus and Galileo: Critical Reasoning in the Two Affairs George V. Coyne S.J. Defending Copernicus and Galileo: Critical Reasoning in the Two Affairs. By Maurice A. Finocchiaro. [Boston Studies in the Philosophy of Science, Vol. 280.] (New York: Springer. 2010. Pp. xliv, 350. $99.95. ISBN 978-9-048-13200-3.) Why yet another book on the so-called Galileo Affair in view of the extensive literature already available? This question is further exacerbated by the fact that this work provides no new historical data. However, the merit of this work is that it approaches the whole affair by attempting to offer a defense of Galileo by employing the same critical reasoning that Galileo himself used in defending Copernicus. Much of the book is, in fact, a study in the epistemology of critical reasoning in science, and it makes an important contribution to the very meaning of science by studying the origins of modern science in Galileo's research techniques. The author uses this overarching theme of critical reasoning to offer a synthesis of his numerous previous publications on the Galileo Affair. In so doing, however, the treatment becomes unduly repetitious, and this makes for difficult reading. In fact, the author reveals that this work is a collection of previously published papers. It would have been a much more readable book had there been more careful editing to weave the previous publications together into a more unified presentation. Chapters 1 and 2 essentially cover material that is available in general astronomy textbooks, and it could have been presented here much more succinctly. By far, one of the best presentations in this book is section 4.5, where the author treats of Galileo's letter to the Grand Duchess Christina Medici on the interpretation of scripture. His analysis is thorough, concise, and convincing. He correctly identifies the central argument of Galileo in his letter that, although we may accept that scripture cannot err, one may clearly err in the interpretation of scripture. The author then provides an excellent discussion of Galileo's views on the various ways in which scripture may be interpreted. Galileo concludes, according to the author, that in no place does scripture teach scientific facts and, therefore, cannot contradict science. He persuasively concludes that, of the many reasons adduced for the condemnation of Copernicanism in 1616, the main one was that church authorities, inspired principally by the thinking of Jesuit saint and cardinal Robert Bellarmine, were convinced that Copernicanism contradicted scripture. These were the years of the Counter-Reformation. It had only been about seventy years since [End Page 380] the Catholic Church had solemnly declared at the Council of Trent that scripture could not be interpreted privately. The author correctly maintains that, in Galileo's letter to Medici, he had offered a correct interpretation of scripture, but he had done so privately. In fact, in very general terms Galileo's approach to scriptural interpretation was embraced officially by the Church about four centuries later. In 1616, at the desire of Pope Paul V, Bellarmine admonished Galileo that he was not to pursue any defense of Copernicanism because it contradicted scripture. In reality, it did not. In 1633 Galileo was condemned for disobeying that admonition that was based on a false premise. The author correctly describes this as one of the greatest ironies in the history of the interaction between science and religion. On the one hand, we have the presentation by Galileo of some of the best arguments ever advanced as to why a particular scientific theory was compatible with scripture and why in general scripture is not a scientific authority. On the other hand, one of the world's great religions formally condemned a key scientific theory that played a crucial role in the rise of modern science. The struggle to maintain a healthy interaction between modern science and religious belief—in particular, beliefs based on scripture—has not ended, and we have much to learn from the critical reasoning with which this book studies anew the Galileo Affair. One of most useful features of this book is the bibliography on pages 315-38, which, although titled "Selected Bibliography," is, in fact...

REVIVING CHRISTIAN HUMANISM: SCIENCE AND RELIGION*

Abstract. A possible consequence of the dialogue between science and religion is a revived religious humanism—a firmer grasp of the historical and phenomenological meanings of the great world religions correlated with the more accurate explanations of the rhythms of nature that natural science can provide. The first great expressions of religious humanism in the West emerged when Jewish, Christian, and Islamic scholars sat in the same libraries in Spain and Sicily, studying and translating the lost manuscripts of Aristotle in the ninth and tenth centuries to understand his ethics, epistemology, and psychobiology. In our day, the science‐religion dialogue—exemplified by interaction among psychology, spirituality, and psychotherapy—will best support such a revival if guided by the philosophical resources of critical hermeneutics (sometimes called hermeneutical realism) supplemented by William James's brand of phenomenology and pragmatism. Here, I develop primarily the contributions of Paul Ricoeur to hermeneutic realism and his unique ability to find a place for the natural sciences within hermeneutic phenomenology in his formula of understanding‐explanation‐understanding.