natural theology > notes > 19 september 2004

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Borg, Marcus J., The heart of Christianity: Rediscovering a Life of Faith, HarperOne 2004 Amazon Editorial Review From Booklist 'Christianity appears to be at a crossroads, and religious historian Borg draws a distinction between what he calls an emerging paradigm and an earlier paradigm. The distinction is important because Christianity, he says, still makes sense and is the most viable religious option for millions. He contends the earlier paradigm, based upon a punitive God and believing in Christianity now for the sake of salvation later, simply doesn't work for many people. It also doesn't take into account the sacramental nature of religious belief; that is, religion as a vessel wherein the sacred comes to the faithful. Borg's emerging paradigm is based upon the belief that one must be transformed in one's own lifetime, that salvation means one is healed and made whole with God. He feels the new paradigm allows more people to be and become Christians. In his compelling proposal Borg consistently aligns the emerging paradigm with God, Jesus, the Bible, tradition, and religious practice, which constitute the heart of Christianity.' Donna Chavez Copyright © American Library Association.
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Cox, Harvey, The Future of Faith, HarperOne 2009 Amazon editorial review from Publishers Weekly Starred Review. What shape will the Christian faith take in the 21st century? In the midst of fast-paced global changes and in the face of an apparent resurgence of fundamentalism, can Christianity survive as a living and vital faith? With his typical brilliance and lively insight, Cox explores these and other questions in a dazzling blend of memoir, church history and theological commentary. He divides Christian history into three periods: the Age of Faith, during the first Christian centuries, when the earliest followers of Jesus lived in his Spirit, embraced his hope and followed him in the work he had begun; the Age of Belief, from the Council of Nicaea to the late 20th century, during which the church replaced faith in Jesus with dogma about him; and the Age of the Spirit, in which we're now living, in which Christians are rediscovering the awe and wonder of faith in the tremendous mystery of God. According to Cox, the return to the Spirit that so enlivened the Age of Faith is now enlivening a global Christianity, through movements like Pentecostalism and liberation theology, yearning for the dawning of God's reign of shalom. Cox remains our most thoughtful commentator on the religious scene, and his spirited portrait of our religious landscape challenges us to think in new ways about faith.' Copyright © Reed Business Information
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Deutsch, David, The Fabric of Reality: The Science of Parallel Universes - and its Implications, Allen Lane Penguin Press 1997 Jacket: 'Quantum physics, evolution, computation and knowledge - these four strands of scientific theory and philosophy have, until now, remained incomplete explanations of the way the Universe works. ... Oxford scholar DD shows how they are so closely intertwined that we cannot properly understand any one of them without reference to the other three. ...'
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Hopkins, Gerard Manley, Gerard Manley Hopkins: The Major Works , Oxford University Press, USA; Reissue edition (April 15, 2009) Language: English ISBN-10: 0199538859 ISBN-13: 978-0199538850 2009 Amazon Product Description 'This authoritative edition brings together all of Hopkins's poetry and a generous selection of his prose writings to explore the essence of his work and thinking. Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844-89) was one of the most innovative of nineteenth-century poets. During his tragically short life he strove to reconcile his religious and artistic vocations, and this edition demonstrates the range of his interests. It includes all his poetry, from best-known works such as "The Wreck of the Deutschland" and "The Windhover" to translations, foreign language poems, plays, and verse fragments, and the recently discovered poem "Consule Jones". In addition there are excerpts from Hopkins's journals, letters, and spiritual writings. The poems are printed in chronological order to show Hopkins's changing preoccupations, and all the texts have been established from original manuscripts.'
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Jaspers, Karl, and (Translated from the German by E B Ashton), Philosophical Faith and Revelation, Harper and Row 1967 Jacket: 'The importance of this book can hardly be overrated. It is the onluy authentic philosophy of religion written in the twentieth century, and it appears at the very moment when the modern crisis of bnelief in revelation and hence of Vhjristian theology has come to a head. . . . ' Hannah Arendtback

Moltmann, Jurgen, The Church in the Power of the Spirit: A Contribuition to Messianic Ecclesiology, Fortress Press 1993 Amazon Product Description "This book, which in my opinion is Moltmann's best, can be recommended on the basis that it contains challenging and creative insights that can be used by the discriminating reader in the service of church renewal…Moltmann represents the theology of liberation at its best, and those who wish to know more about this theology would do well to study this creative and searching theologian." --Donald G. Bloesch Christianity Today
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Moulakis, Anathasios, Simone Weil and the Plitics of Self-Denial, University of Missouri 1998 Amazon Product Description 'Simone Weil and the Politics of Self-Denial delivers what no other book on Weil has—a comprehensive study of her political thought. In this examination of the development of her thought, Athanasios Moulakis offers a philosophical understanding of politics that reaches beyond current affairs and ideological advocacy. Simone Weil—philosopher, activist, mystic—unites a profound reflection on the human condition with a consistent and courageous existential and intellectual honesty manifest in the moving testimony of her life and her death. Moulakis examines Weil's political thought as an integral part of a lived philosophy, in which analysis and doctrine are inseparable from the articulation of an intensely personal, ultimately religious experience. Because it is impossible to distinguish Weil's life from her thought, her writings cannot be understood properly without linking them to her life and character. By situating Weil's political thought within the context of the intellectual climate of her time, Moulakis connects it also to her epistemology, her cosmology, and her personal experience. Simone Weil and the Politics of Self-Denial presents the unfolding of Weil's philosophical life against the backdrop of the political and social conditions of the last days of the Third French Republic, the Spanish Civil War, and the rise and clash of totalitarian ideologies. The ideological climate of the age—of which Weil herself was not quite free—was indeed the major "obstacle" in the struggle against which she fashioned her critical, intellectual, and moral tools. Weil has been categorized a number of ways: as a saint and a near convert to Roman Catholicism, as a social critic, or as an analytic philosopher. Moulakis examines all aspects of Weil's thought in the indissoluble unity in which she lived them. This thorough investigation pursues the particular intellectual affiliations and the social and political experiential stimuli of Weil's work while simultaneously teasing out the timeless themes that her own timely analysis was intended to reveal.'
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Otto, Rudolf, and John W Harvey (translator), The idea of the Holy: An Inquiry into the Non Rational Factor in the idea of the Divine (1926), Kessinger Publishing 2004 Foreword by the Author: 'In this book i have ventured to write of that which may be called 'non-rational' or 'supra-rational' in the depths of the divine nature. I do not therefore want to promote in any way the tendency of our time towards an extravagant and fantastic 'irrationalism;, but rather to join issue with it in its morbid form. The 'irrational' is today a favourite theme of all which are too lazy to think or are too ready to evade the arduous duty of clarifying their ideas and grounding their convictions on a basis of coherent thought. This book, recognizing the profound import of the non-rational fro metaphysics, makes a serious attempt to analyze all the more exactly the feeling which remains where the concept fails, and to introduce a terminology which is not any the more loose or indeterminate for having necessarily to make use of symbols.
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Reid, John, Man without God: An introduction to unbelief, Corpus 1971 'Jacket: Man Without God examines the historical and philosophical bases and forms of atheism with the object of opening the way to dialogue with the unbeliever. Such a dialogue brings out the essence of Christian commitment and also points clearly to the task that Chrisians of the twentieth century have to face. The world is gradually being divided into those who have faith in God and those who reject that faith. Father Reid does not give any facile theological answers, but throws new light on one of the most fundamental issues of our day.'
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Unamuno, Miguel de, and Paul Burns (translator), Salvador Ortiz-Carboneres (translator), Unamuno: Saint Manuel Buena, Aris & Phillips 2009 Amazon Product Description 'Miguel de Unamuno y Jugo was born in Bilbao on 29th September 1864. He wrote novels, essays, poems and plays, and in addition to these he played an important part in the political and intellectual life of Spain - an involvement that led to his exile to Fuerteventura in 1924. San Manuel Bueno, matir (1930) was his last novel before his death in 1936. It tells the story of a heroic priest who has lost his faith in immortality, a theme that had interested Unamuno for many years. The setting of the novel is atmospheric and significant, the characters shadowy and symbolic. The book overall is a synthesis of Unamuno's philiosophy.'
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Wuthnow, Robert, Sharing the Journey: Support Groups and the Quest for a New Community, Free Press 1996 From Kirkus Reviews 'Forty percent of all Americans meet regularly in support groups such as AA or Bible Study. Princeton's chronicler of religious life Wuthnow (Christianity in the Twenty-first Century, Acts of Compassion) interviews 1,000 support-group members to find out why--and comes up with some intriguing conclusions in this thoughtful, well-written work. Most Americans, Wuthnow claims, lead lives not of quiet desperation but of turbulent upheaval; the average family moves at least once every three years, and half of those families are ripped apart by divorce. Many people--like 26-year-old mother-of-two Karen, whose parents divorced and remarried while she was still in high school, who has herself changed jobs 6 times and moved 11 times in the past 12 years--look to small groups (Karen belongs to a women's Bible Study group that meets once a week) to provide a sense of family and community. But while support groups can be many things to many people--helping members become more spiritually disciplined, building self-esteem, and providing forums for the narration of individual stories--such groups are no substitute for the multi-textured ties that families create over decades in the dailiness of private life. Nor, posits Wuthnow, can support groups be expected to eliminate crime and poverty, create jobs, recast foreign policy, or reduce the national debt. Still, these gatherings--many take place in church basements--are clearly one of the most vital forces in American ecclesiastical life; in fact, the traditional Sunday morning churchgoer may well be replaced by the Monday or Wednesday evening support-group member. Sensitive, well-reasoned, and insightful--with valuable commentary on the much-maligned ``culture of victimhood.'' '-- Copyright ©1994, Kirkus Associates, LP.
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Links

Basil Fernando, Asian Human Rights Commission Vatican: Excommunication of Fr. Tissa Balasuriya Lifted 'Vatican: The Excommunication of Fr. Tissa Balasuriya Lifted AHRC UA980117 Vatican 17 January 1998 ASIAN HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION URGENT APPEAL [PRESS RELEASE] The Excommunication of Fr. Tissa Balasuriya Is Lifted A Farce Ends as a Farce A Statement by the Asian Human Rights Commission The excommunication of Fr. Tissa Balasuriya in January 1997 was one of the biggest farces of the Vatican - perhaps ever in its not so glorious history. There was no reason at all for this excommunication, and this has been the position of the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) and thousands of others, including, priests, nuns and lay people.' back

Didascalia Apostolorum - Wikipedia Didascalia Apostolorum - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia 'Didascalia Apostolorum (or just Didascalia) is a Christian treatise which belongs to genre of the Church Orders. It presents itself as being written by the Twelve Apostles at the time of the Council of Jerusalem, however, scholars agree that it was actually a composition of the 3rd century CE, perhaps around 230 CE.

The Didascalia was clearly modeled on the earlier Didache. The author is unknown, but he was probably a bishop. The provenience is usually regarded as Northern Syria, possibly near Antioch.' back

Emerging church - Wikipedia Emerging church - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia 'The emerging church (sometimes referred to as the emergent movement or emergent conversation) is a Christian movement of the late 20th and early 21st century that crosses a number of theological boundaries: participants can be described as evangelical, protestant, roman catholic[1], post-evangelical, anabaptist, adventist[2], liberal, post-liberal, reformed, charismatic, neocharismatic, post-charismatic, conservative, and post-conservative. Proponents, however, believe the movement transcends such "modernist" labels of "conservative" and "liberal," calling the movement a "conversation" to emphasize its developing and decentralized nature, its vast range of standpoints, and its commitment to dialogue. Participants seek to live their faith in what they believe to be a "postmodern" society. What those involved in the conversation mostly agree on is their disillusionment with the organized and institutional church and their support for the deconstruction of modern Christian worship, modern evangelism, and the nature of modern Christian community.' back

Ernst Bloch - Wikipedia Ernst Bloch - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia 'Ernst Simon Bloch, (July 8, 1885 – August 4, 1977) was a German Marxist philosopher.' back

Harry Emerson Fosdick - Wikipedia Harry Emerson Fosdick - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia 'Harry Emerson Fosdick (May 24, 1878-October 5, 1969) was an American clergyman.

Fosdick became a central figure in the Fundamentalist-Modernist Controversy within American Protestantism in the 1920s and 1930s. While at First Presbyterian Church, on May 21, 1922, he delivered his famous sermon “Shall the Fundamentalists Win?”, in which he defended the modernist position. In that sermon, he presented the Bible as a record of the unfolding of God’s will, not as the literal Word of God. He saw the history of Christianity as one of development, progress, and gradual change. To the fundamentalists, this was rank apostasy, and the battle lines were drawn.' back

Joachim of Fiore - Wikipedia Joachim of Fiore - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia 'Blessed Joachim of Fiore, also known as Joachim of Flora and in Italian Gioacchino da Fiore (c. 1135 – March 30, 1202), was the founder of the monastic order of San Giovanni in Fiore (now Jure Vetere). He was a mystic, a theologian and an esoterist. His followers are called Joachimites.' back

Left Behind - Wikipedia Left Behind - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia 'Left Behind is a series of 16 best-selling novels by Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins, dealing with Christian dispensationalist End Times: pretribulation, premillennial, Christian eschatological viewpoint of the end of the world. The primary conflict of the series is the members of the Tribulation Force against the Global Community and its leader Nicolae Carpathia—the Antichrist. Left Behind is also the title of the first book in the series. The series was first published 1995-2007 by Tyndale House, a firm with a history of interest in dispensationalism.' back

Meister Eckhart - Wikipedia Meister Eckhart - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia 'Eckhart von Hochheim O.P. (c. 1260 – c. 1327), commonly known as Meister Eckhart, was a German theologian, philosopher and mystic, born near Gotha, in Thuringia. Meister is German for "Master", referring to the academic title Magister in theologia he obtained in Paris. Coming into prominence during the decadent Avignon Papacy and a time of increased tensions between the Franciscans and Eckhart's Dominican Order of Friars Preachers, he was brought up on charges later in life before the local Franciscan-led Inquisition. Tried as a heretic by Pope John XXII, his "Defence" is famous for his seasoned arugala to all challenged articles of his writing and his refutation of heretical intent. . . . ' back

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin - Wikipedia Pierre Teilhard de Chardin - Wikipedia, the free encycl;opedia 'Pierre Teilhard de Chardin . . . 1 May 1881, Orcines, France – 10 April 1955, New York City) was a French philosopher and Jesuit priest who trained as a paleontologist and geologist and took part in the discovery of Peking Man.' back

Pontifical Council for Culture, Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue Jeus Christ the bearer of the Water of Life - A Christian reflection on the New Age 'The study is a provisional report. It is the fruit of the common reflection of the Working Group on New Religious Movements, composed of staff members of different dicasteries of the Holy See: the Pontifical Councils for Culture and for Interreligious Dialogue (which are the principal redactors for this project), the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples and the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity.' back

Priscillian - Wikipedia Priscillian - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia 'Priscillian (died 385) was bishop of Ávila and a theologian from Roman Gallaecia (in the Iberian Peninsula), the first person in the history of Christianity to be executed for heresy (though the civil charges were for the practice of magic). He founded an ascetic group that, in spite of persecution, continued to subsist in Hispania and Gaul until the later 6th century. Tractates by Priscillian and close followers, which had seemed certainly lost, were recovered in 1885 and published in 1889.' back

Redox - Wikipedia Redox - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia 'Redox (shorthand for reduction-oxidation) reactions describe all chemical reactions in which atoms have their oxidation number (oxidation state) changed. This can be either a simple redox process, such as the oxidation of carbon to yield carbon dioxide (CO2) or the reduction of carbon by hydrogen to yield methane (CH4), or a complex process such as the oxidation of sugar(C6H12O6) in the human body through a series of complex electron transfer processes.' back

Reinhold Niebuhr - Wikipedia Reinhold Niebuhr - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia 'Karl Paul Reinhold Niebuhr (pronounced /ˈraɪnhoʊld ˈniːbʊər/; June 21, 1892 – June 1, 1971) was an American theologian and commentator on public affairs. Niebuhr was the archetypal American intellectual of the Cold War era. Starting as a leftist minister in the 1920s indebted to theological liberalism, he shifted to the new Neo-Orthodox theology in the 1930s, explaining how the sin of pride created evil in the world' back

Scott Shane Global Forecast by American Intelligence Expects Al Qaeda's Appeal to Falter 'Published: November 20, 2008 WASHINGTON — A new study of the global future by American intelligence agencies suggests that Al Qaeda could soon be on the decline, having alienated Muslim supporters with indiscriminate killing and inattention to the practical problems of poverty, unemployment and education.' back

Tissa Balasuriya - Wikipedia Tissa Balasuriya - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia 'Tissa Balasuriya (born 1924) is a Sri Lankan Roman Catholic priest and theologian.' back

Venn diagram - Wikipedia Venn diagram - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia 'Venn diagrams or set diagrams are diagrams that show all hypothetically possible logical relations between a finite collection of sets (groups of things). Venn diagrams were invented around 1880 by John Venn. They are used in many fields, including set theory, probability, logic, statistics, and computer science.. back

Notes

Sunday 19 September 2004

Monday 20 September 2004

Tuesday 21 September 2004

Wednesday 22 September 2004

Thursday 23 September 2004

Friday 24 September 2004

Saturday 25 September 2004

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