S'il est vrai que l'auteur des Actes des Apôtres peut être en un sens considéré comme le premier historien du christianisme, s'il est également vrai que les Ile et Ille siècles ont vu naître des écrits qui ont entre autres une portées historique , c'est avec Eusèbe de Césarée que surgit la conscience de produire, avec son Histoire ecclésiastique, quelque chose de nouveau : « Je suis, en effet, le premier, écrira-t-il, à m'avancer pour ainsi dire sur un chemin désert (...) et inviolé. » Après avoir étudié l'oeuvre d'Eusèbe, M. Fédou présente ses continuateurs en Orient et en Occident avant d'examiner sa position par rapport à l'historiographie païenne et la manière dont les historiens plus tardifs ont interprété l'histoire de l'Eglise pendant et après la crise de l'arianisme.If it is true that the author of the Acts of the Apostles can be considered in a sense the first historian of Christianity, and if it is also true that the 2rd and 3rd centuries saw the birth of writings that, among others, have a historical importance, , it is, nevertheless, Eusebius of Caesarea who gave rise to an awareness of producing something new with his Ecclesiastical History. He wrote: “I am, indeed, the first to go forward, as it were, on a deserted and inviolate road.” After studying the work of Eusebius, M. Fédou presents his commentaries on East and West before examining his position as regards pagan historiography and the manner in which later historians had interpreted the history of the Church during and after the crisis of Arianism. (shrink)

En conclusion de deux dossiers, et faute de pouvoir traiter le sujet sous tous ses aspects, M. Fédou l'aborde ici sous l'angle suivant : qu'est-ce qui, dans la situation de notre temps, aurait chance de féconder une réflexion de théologie fondamentale et dogmatique sur « le christianisme et les autres religions » ? Ainsi formulé, le questionnement a au moins deux implications. D'une part, malgré la grande diversité des religions et de leurs contextes sociaux, politiques ou culturels, il doit y (...) avoir encore place pour une réflexion théologique qui ne considère pas seulement telle religion en particulier mais l'ensemble des religions. D'autre part, nous avons moins à proposer une « théologie des religions » qu'une réflexion théologique sur « le christianisme et les autres religions » : cette dernière formule suggère que le regard des chrétiens sur les religions ne saurait être indépendant de leur confession de foi ; elle attire en outre l'attention sur les rapports mêmes entre le christianisme et les diverses religions du monde.To sum up two endeavours and, without any claim at dealing with the subject comprehensively, M. Fédou takes it up here from the following angle: given the situation of our times, what might have a good chance of making reflexion about fundamental and dogmatic theology concerning “Christianity and other religions” fruitful? Formulated in this way, this reasoning has at least two implications. On the one hand, in spite of the diversity of religions and their social, political or cultural contexts, there must still be room for a theological reflexion that does not limit itself to considering just one particular religion, but that takes the ensemble of religions into account. On the other hand, it behooves us to propose, not a “theology of religions”, but rather a theological reflexion on “Christianity and other religions”: this latter formulation suggests that the view Christians have of other religions could not be independent of their own confession of faith; it likewise focuses on the relations between Christianity and the various religions of the world. (shrink)

Les études sur les élaborations christologiques des premiers siècles ne manquent pas et M. Fédou, dans son introduction, en retient trois afin de définir par contraste l'apport de sa propre approche : celle de L. Capéran, Le Problème du salut des infidèles, d'abord édité à Toulouse en 1912 (nouvelle édition revue et mise à jour en 1934) ; trois œuvres marquantes de J. Daniélou (Théologie du judéo-christianisme, 1958 ; Message évangélique et culture hellénistique aux IIe et IIIe siècles, 1961 ..

This collection addresses a post-WWII shift in the hierarchy of scientific explanations, where the highest goal moves from reductionism towards some ...

Context: The majority of contemporary enactivist work is influenced by the philosophical biology of Hans Jonas. Jonas credits all living organisms with experience that involves particular “existential” structures: nascent forms of concern for self-preservation and desire for objects and outcomes that promote well-being. We argue that Jonas’s attitude towards living systems involves a problematic anthropomorphism that threatens to place enactivism at odds with cognitive science, and undermine its legitimate aims to become a new paradigm for scientific investigation and understanding of (...) the mind. Problem: Enactivism needs to address the tension between its Jonasian influences and its aspirations to become a new paradigm for cognitive science. By relying on Jonasian phenomenology, contemporary enactivism obscures alternative ways in which phenomenology can be more smoothly integrated with cognitive science. Method: We outline the historical relationship between enactivism and phenomenology, and explain why anthropomorphism is problematic for a research program that aspires to become a new paradigm for cognitive science. We examine the roots of Jonas’s existential interpretation of biological facts, and describe how and why Jonas himself understood his project as founded on an anthropomorphic assumption that is incompatible with a crucial methodological assumption of scientific enquiry: the prohibition of unexplained natural purposes. We describe the way in which phenomenology can be integrated into Maturana’s autopoietic theory, and use this as an example of how an alternative, non-anthropomorphic science of the biological roots of cognition might proceed. Results: Our analysis reveals a crucial tension between Jonas’s influence on enactivism and enactivism’s paradigmatic aspirations. This suggests the possibility of, and need to investigate, other ways of integrating phenomenology with cognitive science that do not succumb to this tension. Implications: In light of this, enactivists should either eliminate the Jonasian inference from properties of our human experience to properties of the experience of all living organisms, or articulate an alternative conception of scientific enquiry that can tolerate the anthropomorphism this inference entails. The Maturanian view we present in the article’s final section constitutes a possible framework within which enactivist tools and concepts can be used to understand cognition and phenomenology, and that does not involve a problematic anthropomorphism. Constructivist content: Any constructivist approach that aims for integration with current scientific practice must either avoid the type of anthropomorphic inference on which Jonas bases his work, or specify a new conception of scientific enquiry that renders anthropomorphism unproblematic. (shrink)

For the theorists of crisis, the revolutionary state comes into existence through violence, and due to its inability to provide an authoritative katechon (restrainer) against internal and external violence, it perpetuates violence until it self-destructs. Writing during extreme economic depression and growing social and political violence, the crisis theorists––Joseph de Maistre, Juan Donoso Cortés, and Carl Schmitt––each sought to blame the chaos of their time upon the Janus-faced postrevolutionary ideals of liberalism and socialism by urging a return to pre-revolutionary moral (...) and religious values. They are united by three counterrevolutionary principles, all of which are purported to remedy revolutionary violence: traditional constitutional fidelity, the philosophy of the decision, and opposition to bourgeois liberalism. This essay is followed by the first complete English translation and publication of Donoso’s letter of October 24, 1851, which contains Donoso’s only reference to the “discussing class,” a political entity later popularized by Schmitt in his 1922 work Political Theology. (shrink)

Since 1900, debates about the justification of punishment have also been debates about the cause of crime. In the early twentieth century, the rehabilitative ideal of punishment viewed mental illness and dysfunction in individuals as the cause of crime. Starting in the 1970s, retributivism identified the immorality of human agents as the source of crime, which dovetailed well with the “tough-on-crime” political milieu of the 1980s and 1990s that produced mass incarceration. After surveying these historical trends, Wirts argues for a (...) social critical view that crime is best understood as a product of an unjust society, not faulty human beings. This view should take the lessons learned by the critiques of rehabilitation, however, and resist the tendency to reduce human beings to recipients of social services. (shrink)

Puisque l’ouvrage de Meier s’intéresse au Jésus historique et qu’il s’efforce d’en préciser peu à peu le « portrait », il est légitime de se demander si les enquêtes ainsi menées permettent d’envisager aujourd’hui une nouvelle théologie de la vie de Jésus, et, si oui, à quelles conditions. Les trois séries de réflexions ici proposées – sur la position de Jésus dans le monde juif, sur ses miracles, et finalement sur la question de son identité – permettent d’apporter une première (...) réponse à cette question.Since Meier’s work deals with the historical Jesus and aims at gradually drawing up a ‘portrait’ of him, it seems legitimate to ask whether such an inquiry today enables us to envisage a new theology of the life of Jesus, and if so, under what conditions. The three series of reflections proposed here – on the position of Jesus within the Jewish world, on his miracles, and finally on the question of his identity – allow us to propose a tentative answer to this question. (shrink)

À la faveur d’une étude fondamentale sur la mission chrétienne, J. Moingt montre les déficiences des «théologies du pluralisme religieux» qui se sont développées depuis quelques décennies, et souligne que l’avenir du christianisme doit d’abord se jouer sur sa confrontation avec l’humanisme séculier; une coopération avec les religions n’en est pas moins légitime et souhaitable, mais à condition d’être seulement orientée vers la tâche de «l’humanisation» de l’homme et de la société. L’article rend compte de la thèse ainsi soutenue par (...) J. Moingt. Il montre la portée des critiques adressées aux théologies du pluralisme religieux, tout en apportant quelques compléments ou précisions. Il invite surtout à dépasser l’opposition entre l’horizon de l’altérité religieuse et celui de l’humanisme séculier, moyennant une réflexion sur «Évangile et cultures» dans le contexte de l’Asie comme dans celui de l’Europe. (shrink)

Donald Davidson has made enormous contributions to the philosophy of action, epistemology, semantics and philosophy of mind and today is recognized as one of the most important analytical philosophers of the late twentieth century. _Donald Davidson: Truth, Meaning and Knowledge_ addresses * Davidson's writings on epistemology and theory of language with their implications of ontology and philosophy of mind * the central issue of whether truth is the ultimate goal of enquiry, challenged by contributions from Richard Rorty and Paul Horwich (...) * Davidson's approach to semantics and applied linguistics as addressed by Kirk Ludwig, Gabriel Segal, Peter Pagin, Stephen Neale, Herman Cappelen and Ernie Lepore and Reinaldo Elugardo * Davidson's advances in the philosophy of mind in relation to the views of Williard V. Quine, John McDowell and Peter F. Strawson, in essays by Roger Gibson and Anita Avramides. (shrink)

The topic of professionalism has dominated the content of major academic medicine publications during the past decade and continues to do so. The message of this current wave of professionalism is that medical educators need to be more attentive to the moral sensibilities of trainees, to their interpersonal and affective dimensions, and to their social conscience, all to the end of skilled, humanistic physicians. Urgent calls to address professionalism from such groups as the Association of American Medical Colleges, the American (...) Board of Internal Medicine, and the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education, among others. In fact, at the 2004 annual meeting of the AAMC six separate presentations addressed professionalism with such titles as "Evaluating Humanism and Professionalism," Professionalism: Expectation, Education, Evaluation," or "Toward Assessing Professional Behaviors of Medical Students through Peer Observations". Professionalism, then, has become part of the current academic medicine parlance, used by administrators, clinical faculty, residency programs, and professional organizations with an expectation of shared meanings and goals. All of these stakeholders focus on what has become a consistent list of attributes deemed to be the essence of professionalism, which usually include variations on altruism, duty, excellence, honor and integrity, accountability, and respect. In fact, most of the scholarly work to date has been listing, describing, decrying, and measuring/evaluating it. In this collection of essays, we don’t argue with these attributes. Instead, we ask questions of the discourse from which they arise, how the specialized language of academic medicine disciplines has defined, organized, contained, and made seemingly immutable a group of attitudes, values, and behaviors subsumed under the label "professional" or "professionalism." This collection aims to be a critical text, one that questions the profession’s beliefs about the nature of its work and how such beliefs are enacted in medical education, particularly as they fuel the professionalism discourse. In addition, we will scrutinize how the discourse is enacted in both the formal and hidden curriculum, and in the larger medical environment. (shrink)