Dit boekt brengt negen opstellen samen van Gentse filosofen en godsdienstwetenschappers. Etienne Vermeersch, Freddy Mortier, Johan Braeckman met Stefaan Blancke, Rik Pinxten, Patrick Loobuyck, Balagangadhara Rao met Sarah Claerhout, Benjamin Biebuyck, Nel Grillaert, en Danny Praet leveren, elk vanuit hun eigen interesses en expertises, kritische bijdragen over de complexe relatie tussen christendom en filosofie: wijsgerige kritiek op het christendom en christelijk gebruik van de filosofie. Vanuit het ruimere perspectief van de interactie tussen wijsbegeerte, wereldbeeld en wetenschappen bestrijken de (...) elf auteurs de volledige periode van het vroege christendom tot het hedendaagse fundamentalisme. Het boek bevat zowel historische als theoretische benaderingen. Drie bijdragen hebben het werk en de impact van Nietzsche tot thema, drie bespreken verschillende aspecten van het fundamentalisme. Thema’s zoals het geloof in een hiernamaals, de relatie tussen christenen en niet-christenen, de impact van het christendom op het westerse wereldbeeld en de benadering van andere culturen, en de radicale kritiek van filosofen op het theïsme en de christelijke moraal maken van deze bundel een uitzonderlijk rijke collectie die lezers met diverse interesses zal aanspreken. (shrink)

Liberal/conservative and modern/postmodern concepts define contemporary theological debate. Yet what if these categories are grounded in a set of assumptions about what it means to be the church in the world, presuming we must live as though God's existence does not matter? What if our theological discussion distracts us from the fact that the church is no longer able to shape the desires and habits of Christians? Hauerwas wrestles with these and similar questions constructing a theological politics necessary for the (...) church to be the church in the world. In so doing, he challenges liberal notions of justice and freedom. (shrink)

Rush, Ormond Review of: Leaving Christendom for good: Church-world dialogue in a secular age, by James McEvoy, pp. 189, hardback US$85.00, eBook US$84.99.

This book examines and seeks to explain the rise of Western Christianity from the beginning to the fourteenth century. Heather begins by arguing that ‘Christendom’ as we know it would never have co...

Future of religious observance.--Some thoughts on the transition from paganism to Christianity.--The civilization of Christendom.--Old problems under new names.--Are we agnostics?--The communication of moral ideas as a function of an ethical society.--Right and wrong in feeling.--Training in enjoyment.--Luxury and refinement.--The antithesis between individualism and socialism philosophically considered.--Liberty and legislation.

The main purpose of my contribution is to provide an account of the similarities and differences between Kierkegaard’s emphasis on individuality and Hegelian mediation of Christian identity. This account will represent the main point of reference in supporting Kierkegaard’s claim, that by conceptualizing Christian identity, speculative mediation omits individuality, as it excludes its particular and distinctive character. Moreover, it will provide a way of evaluating the normative potential of Kierkegaard’s unique understanding of Cristian faith as one’s infinite interest in the (...) actuality of another. In the concluding part, I will summarize my investigation of Kierkegaard’s relation to the Hegelian tradition from within a broader social context concerning social integration and social plurality. (shrink)

Born the illegitimate son of a priest, and plagued throughout life by illness and poverty, Erasmus of Rotterdam was sought everywhere for his wit and erudition. No man in Europe had so many friends in high places: a lifelong cosmopolitan, he moved from country to country, lodging in palaces and in the households of public printers, a friend of Thomas More and Henry VIII and a correspondent of Luther and the pope. A true man of letters, Erasmus wrote and translated (...) tirelessly; arguing, teaching, campaigning for the purification of the church. He ridiculed worldly prelates, but deplored Reformers who broke from Rome. On all occasions he spoke for moderation in thought and action, for classical humanism and a Christianity of the inward spirit. Still, he lived to see many of his friends imprisoned, beheaded, or burned for their beliefs, and he himself was accused of heresy. Through charming and frequently humorous glimpses of the people and scenes of Erasmus s life, Professor Bainton suggests the amplitude of his hero s nature. An affectionate appreciation "Time Magazine" calls "Erasmus of Christendom." In Bainton s view, the current revolution in the church makes the Erasmian message even more pertinent and perhaps more poignant than ever before. Woodcut images and illustrations throughout. Hendrickson Classic Biographies feature enduring stories about real people whose lives have been touched and transformed by God, and who in turn have touched others with God s love. Each story has been carefully selected, gently edited if necessary, and freshly typeset, making every account be it ancient or contemporary a compelling read. Great lives reaching across the ages to touch lives today, encouraging, challenging, and inspiring.". (shrink)

Introduction -- Part One: God in Scripture -- In the beginning -- God with us -- God the Spirit -- Part Two: God in the living tradition -- The triune God -- Speaking of God -- God, faith and knowledge -- Part Three: Encountering God -- Experience of God -- God and evil -- God in history -- Conclusion.

This book examines and seeks to explain the rise of Western Christianity from the beginning to the fourteenth century. Heather begins by arguing that ‘Christendom’ as we know it would never have co...

Vertaling (verkorte versie) van en commentaar op de wijsgerige verhandeling van de Nederlandse filosoof (1632-1677) over de betekenis van het christendom.

A life in context -- Traces on parchment -- From the world to God -- The crisis of christendom -- Beyond christendom.

A well-documented defense of the thesis that St. Augustine held the city of man, especially Rome, to contain many relative goods, however evil it was from the absolute standpoint of goodness consisting in the worship of the true God. O'Meara discusses in some detail many contemporary critics, e.g., Ernest Barker, who oppose this interpretation, and argues on the basis of historical circumstance and Augustine's own declarations in works other than the City of God.--R. C. N.

A religious diatribe written from within the Church against the established order of things in a presumably "Christian" land.

on calculating Apocalypse, awakening the Avatar, and related.

This book traces the development of conceptions of God and the relationship between God's being and activity from Aristotle, through the pagan Neoplatonists, to thinkers such as Augustine, Boethius and Aquinas and Dionysius the Areopagite, Maximus the Confessor and Gregory Palamas. The result is a comparative history of philosophical thought in the two halves of Christendom, providing a philosophical backdrop to the schism between the Eastern and Western Churches.

A religious diatribe written from within the Church against the established order of things in a presumably "Christian" land.

This monograph will be devoted to a cluster of related issues arising between two formidable bodies of work: between the philosophical works of G.W.F. Hegel (1770-1831) and the very different flavored writings of Soren Kierkegaard (1813-1855). These two thinkers are commonly regarded as polar opposites. Certainly they thought and wrote in altogether different styles, and Kierkegaard frequently gave vent to vigorous anti-Hegelian polemics. Yet ever since I was a graduate student in the late 1950s, Hegel and Kierkegaard have together supplied (...) most of my intellectual nourishment. Superficially the issues between them are obvious. With careful study they come mus less obvious, much harder to pin down, and yet, one sense, much more important than one had supposed. (shrink)

Until recently the central problem seemed to be the relationship between Christianity and Modernity. According to many theologians and philosophers, modernity was considered not only as the result, but even as the final realisation of Christianity. In any case, Christianity was often understood as the religion which ends all traditional religiosity. The real antithesis then was not between Christianity and modernity, but between Christianity and tradition. The philosophical question raised here is whether any religion can survive except as a tradition (...) succeeding in preserving a certain range of ‘incarnated’ meanings which gives it its specificity. The present day interest in tradition is a remarkable fact. In our post-modern context, this interest betrays however an instrumental attitude vis-à-vis these meanings, thereby constituting a new threat to Christianity different from the modern threat. (shrink)

This article refers to Kierkegaard’s complex Christian apologetics. Several of his works, mainly those stemming from the ‘second authorship’, are interpreted under the aspect of Kierkegaard’s paradoxical defense of Christianity, aimed in particular, not against the so-called ‘heathens’, but against those who self-confidently advance its credibility on dubious grounds. To substantiate the importance of this defense it is shown that it has recently received a noteworthy actuality in the light of a ‘newly arisen superior tone in philosophy’; a tone voiced (...) by ‘enthusiasts’ of a religiously inspired social ethics of recognition, friendship, community, Bildung and tradition. Their concern is about the ‘malaise of modernity’, the excessive liberalism and individualism of contemporary culture, for which religion supposedly is the sollution. Their critique is confronted with Kierkegaard’s ethos of suspense and his concept of ‘armed neutrality’. Judged from this existential religious perspective, the enthusiasts are defending a revaluation and resurrection of what is merely a pseudo-Christian spirit. They represent a ‘spiritual materialism’ unconsciously inspired by the hidden and repressed offense they take to the a-social ‘verticality’ of Christianity, in particularly to the Christian dogmas with respect to the subject of sin and love. (shrink)

Arguments from the nineteenth century concerning whether Hegel was an atheist or a theist are still ongoing. This paper examines Hegel’s philosophical and theological milieu, his influence on the history of philosophy and on politics, his unique interpretation of the unity of theology and philosophy, and his unusually sanguine interpretation of the relationship between church and state, along with special problems he discerned in the emergence of democracies.