The Orthodox Churches are part of the ecumenical movement with the inner wish to clarify the theological elements which keep the whole Christianity divided. For this goal, every Church is represented somehow in discussions by her theologians who are training to carry a theological dispute at this level. The Romanian Orthodox Church was indirectly represented in the World Council of Church by professor Ion Bria (1929-2002), who had worked officially at the Ecumenical Centre in Geneva for more (...) than 20 years. This theological research has the aim to speak to us about Bria’s personality and ecumenical activity. In order to accomplish this goal, I will expand my research in three chapters. In the first one, I will present his biographical life. Until this moment he remains the most important Romanian theologian involved in the ecumenical dialogue. The second chapter deals with the history of the modern ecumenical movement and also with Bria’s perspective on the dialogue between Orthodoxy and ecumenism, which are for him two correlative elements. Bria comes to confront the anti-ecumenical part within the Orthodox Church who does not accept the Christian dialogue being afraid of heresy. Bria explain how through dialogue, the line between Orthodoxy and the other Christians can be overrun. In the third chapter I explain the missionary concept ‘liturgy after the Liturgy’, both historically and theologically. Being aware that there are some uncertainties around this concept I decided to clarify it in a proper way. Bria is known as the promoter of this concept, so I will search to find out who is the originator of this expression as such. In the same chapter I will analyze the ecclesiological elements from Bria’s writings. The ecumenical dialogue is interpreted of being an ecclesiological problem par excellence so I will outline Bria’s position regarding the teaching of the Church. In conclusion I will present in a synthetic way the results of this study. (shrink)

For me, as a teacher in a theological faculty, the discussion about ecumenical movement and interfaith usually crosses roads with colleagues or students. There is no occasion in which these two are not placed under the same roof, overlaid or confused. That is why the sudden preoccupation to settle this topic as clear as I can so that it can stand for a groundwork when researching about this relationship. Their overlapping is probably the most common hindrance and at (...) the same time indictment for the DIR movement of its “least-connoisseurs”, namely that DIR is a new figment of promoting ecumenical globalization. After I myself faced in classroom students with these assumptions, I thought it is appropriate to add this chapter and explain why DIR is nothing of what the ecumenical movement wanted to be. (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Reviewed by:Nonviolence—A Brief History: The Warsaw Lectures by John Howard YoderCarter AikinNonviolence—A Brief History: The Warsaw Lectures John Howard Yoder Edited By Paul Martens, Matthew Porter, and Myles Werntz Waco, Tex.: Baylor University Press, 2010. 150 pp. $29.95This helpful collection of lectures, delivered during a 1983 Polish Ecumenical Council (PEC) conference in Warsaw, displays John Howard Yoder’s emerging conviction that nonviolent action is not only a faithful response (...) but also an anthropologically natural and effective instrument of social change. Yoder constructively narrates the joining of theological and philosophical clarity about the importance of nonviolence with realizations of its social effectiveness as this connection blossomed in the turmoil of the twentieth century.The introduction nicely situates these lectures in their original social and ecumenical contexts, both of which turn out to be tremendously important. Yoder gave these lectures just weeks before Pope John Paul II met with the PEC for the first time and during the period when the US Catholic Bishop’s letter, “The Challenge of Peace: God’s Promise and Our Response” was being formed. Additionally, in 1983 the vulnerable Polish Communist Party was trying to suppress the rising Solidarity Movement, the country’s first noncommunist trade union. The movement’s protests and strikes had only recently gained media attention [End Page 216] and had, thus far, stopped short of violence. In its setting alone, the collection offers a Yoder rarely seen through his modern interpreters: Yoder is socially relevant in the highest degree, concerned with the effectiveness of non-violence as a means of change, more than willing to incorporate the wisdom of non-Christian masters, and attentive to the response of the entire church catholic. Here Yoder is no more the resident alien than Martin Luther King Jr. was on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.Yoder begins with a three-lecture equation: Tolstoy + Gandhi = MLK. Tolstoy’s corrective interpretations of the Gospels—emphasizing the personhood of Jesus and “the ‘key’ to the Scripture message: the cure for evil is suffering” (21)—used nonviolence and the suffering of the persecuted as the fabric of moral progress. Gandhi “moves with Tolstoy, but beyond him” (24); he sees the power of truth and suffering as a natural force of good. Martin Luther King Jr. becomes Tolstoy + Gandhi, championing the power of love and non-violence as faithful but also practical and metaphysically natural. Much of the book provides theological, scriptural, socioanthropological, and historical arguments for why this is the case. Yoder’s treatments of the “powers” (chap. 8), just war (chap. 4), and the political nature of Jesus (chap. 7) are all paralleled elsewhere, but their inclusion is important to the modern reader who wishes to trace the logic of Yoder’s present argument and the evolution of his overall thought.In the closing chapters Yoder turns to flourishing nonviolence movements in Roman Catholicism that exhibit a “restoration of original Christianity” (120). He highlights several facets of Catholic nonviolent spirituality including the valuing of the cultivation of virtues (and the people who best exhibit them), the growth of the nonviolence movement among American Catholics, and the emergence of the Catholic Worker movement. In the final two chapters, Yoder brings into conversation a few Western theologians, the “increasingly important” products of American bishops (especially in their argument for the limits of just war thinking in the nuclear age), and two prophetic Latin American theologians: Dom Hélder Câmara and Adolfo Pérez Esquivel. Together this assembled chorus expresses the unique and hope-giving character of modern Catholic theologies of nonviolence: “love, not violence... will have the last word in history” (145).As a collection these lectures represent a part of Yoder’s emerging hope in the natural logic of nonviolence and its potential for effective social change. The fact that these lectures were delivered in such a highly charged setting provides a courageous and pastoral backdrop for what amounts to a rich metaphysics of nonviolence. [End Page 217]Carter AikinHastings CollegeCopyright © 2013 Society of Christian Ethics... (shrink)

This chapter examines a little-known movement to make the Our Lady of Perpetual Help icon the patroness of the proceedings of the Second Vatican Council. Begun by American Redemptorists, it sought to integrate a Marian piety into the conciliar ethos, but one that was decidedly cross-cultural and ecumenical. Explicit in its mission for unity between Roman Catholics and the separated churches of the East, the movement promoted the icon as the key to repairing centuries-old wounds. Insofar as (...) 2015 begins the sesquicentennial year of the icon’s association with Redemptorists, as well as its value as an ecumenical tool, the author explores whether OLPH can lend new impetus for unity between Orthodox and Catholics ahead of the proposed joint synod in 2025. (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Buddhist-Christian Studies 23 (2003) 151-155 [Access article in PDF] Buddhism and Christianity: A Multicultural History of their Dialogue. By Whalen Lai and Michael von Bruck. Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis, 2001. xiv + 265 pp. This book is an abridged translation of Buddhismus und Christentum: Geschichte, Konfrontation, Dialog, first published in 1997 by Verlag C. H. Beck in Munich. I do not know how much has been lost in the abridgement, (...) but this English version remains a treasure trove that deserves to be read and digested by everyone engaged in Buddhist-Christian dialogue.From the English title, I expected a somewhat dry work of intellectual history, summarizing dated doctrinal debates. This book provides much more than that. Most valuable is its emphasis on the historical and cultural context of Buddhist-Christian encounters, especially the poisonous legacy of Western colonialism (which still survives today as economic neocolonialism). These quite varied contexts have usually been decisive for the success or failure of the encounter, and as this nuanced but frank study shows, the failures have been at least as notable as the successes. Here, too, we must remember the past if we want to do more than keep repeating it. As well as identifying specific problems, there is a perceptive analysis of the obstacles to openness and dialogue in each case.The penultimate chapter includes a discussion of our Society for Buddhist-Christian Studies, its conferences, and this journal. As a relative newcomer to the conversations, I found this particular example of contextualizing fascinating. In just the few conferences I have been able to attend, there have been so many facets to the dialogue that it has been difficult to gain a sense of the whole, to understand how the main threads have developed and interwoven. How well do we remember what has already been discussed, and often agreed upon? It is important that we do not just keep repeating ourselves, and I know of no other book that conveys the historical dimension of the dialogue so well. The silent, contemplative aspects of the encounter are also addressed: cross-cultural meditation groups, Christian Zen teachers, and visits to each other's monastic centers.A useful foreword by Hans Kung reviews his own contributions, including his [End Page 151] paradigm analysis of six different "general constellations" found in the Christian tradition (the original Jewish-apocalyptic paradigm, the ancient ecumenical-Hellenistic paradigm, the medieval Roman Catholic paradigm, the Reformation Protestant-evangelical paradigm, the modernist progress-oriented paradigm, and now the postmodern ecumenical paradigm) and six other constellations in the Buddhist tradition (Gautama's original paradigm, the Theravada- sravakayana paradigm, the Mahayana paradigm, the tantric Vajrayana paradigm, a defensive modernist paradigm, and most recently an emerging postmodernist paradigm), with the implication that we need to be careful to clarify which of the paradigms we are comparing.Inevitably, the focus is limited: India and Sri Lanka are discussed at length, but not southeast Asia; China and Japan, but not Korea; Germany, but not the rest of Europe. The Indian chapter is mostly about Tibetans in exile. I was intrigued by the generation gap between older, conservative Tibetan monks and more freethinking younger ones. Otherwise, the Indian dialogue seems not to have been as intensive as many other places in Asia, which makes sense since there are relatively few Buddhists in India today. Given the mass conversions of Dalits, the social context has usually been the emancipation of disadvantaged social groups, and is further complicated now by the increasing influence of neo-Hindu political movements, which makes all interreligious exchange more sensitive.The Sri Lankan dialogue, perhaps more than any other, has been preoccupied with the heritage of colonialism. Sinhalese take pride in being citizens of the only country to have shaken off colonial rule with a successful Buddhist revolution, which reversed the power relationship between the two religions. Evidently most Sinhala Buddhists, including much of the sangha, accept the need to defend Buddhism and Buddhist culture militarily, if necessary. The ruling political class that succeeded the British, a largely Buddhist- and Marxist-inspired elite, opted for constructing a national identity... (shrink)

KOINONIA/ASETT MINGA/MUTIRÃO DE REVISTAS DE TEOLOGIA LATINO-AMERICANAS Teología de la Liberación y movimiento ecuménico: breve reflexión desde una práctica (Liberation Theology and ecumenical movement: a brief reflection from praxis).

Seventh-day Adventists reformed movement: history and features of institutionalization in Ukraine. The article is devoted to consideration of specific processes of institualisation among the reformed Adventist movement in Ukraine. The feature of the process of institutionalization, ie the rise of the modern three different ASDR acting modern Ukrainian territories is analyzed.

The theological program of Archpriest Georges Florovsky is understood as a conception of the neopatristic synthesis that he developed. From the beginning, its appearance was associated with the participation of its creator in a public discussion about the historical ways of Russia within the framework of the Eurasian movement, then, with his scientific investigations into the history of Russian Orthodoxy and ancient Christian thought and later with his activity in the ecumenical movement. It is noteworthy that the (...) positive content of the program for modern Orthodox theology turned out to be an indirect response to broader challenges of historical and social order. The focus of attention in this case are some peculiarities in the reception of the program in international and Russian contexts, which in turn requires the clarification of the content of its main points, such as a question about a true fatherland or the sense and meaning of Christian Hellenism. The conclusion notes the significant relevance and openness of Florovsky’s ideas for modern Orthodox theology. (shrink)

Georges Florovsky is one of the world-class thinkers who determined the ways of understanding and developing Russian philosophy and Orthodox theology in the modern era. The youngest contemporary of the brilliant period of the heyday of Russian philosophy, science and culture at the beginning of the 20th century, one of the founders of the concept of Eurasianism, a member of academic corporations of the largest institutions founded by Russian emigrants on both sides of the Atlantic, a participant in the (...) class='Hi'>ecumenical movement, he acquired considerable authority and influence in world Slavic studies and religious thought. Florovsky's main works are devoted to the interpretation of the Russian thought tradition and the study of the patristic heritage, on the basis of which he proposed a new project for the development of Orthodox thought: neo-patristic synthesis. It is necessary to consider these areas of Florovsky's activity in interconnection: the picture of the history of Russian religious thought presented in his works is intended to demonstrate that the separation from classical patristic models that occurred in it entailed a crisis of the spiritual culture of Russia, which led to a large-scale social crisis of the 20th century. Florovsky's philosophical and theological program of neo-patristic synthesis was formed in a polemic with the sophiological direction of Russian philosophy and can be regarded as its main alternative; this program received a response and development in the works of a number of domestic and foreign philosophers and theologians. (shrink)

In these discussions between Mircea Eliade and Thomas Altizer we can recognise two important things: there are some points of contact between these two thinkers and some differences. The problem lies in determining whether or not these points of contact are simply two different ways of understanding the same concepts. On the one hand,“Death of God” theology was in vogue in the United States in the 1960s, but today has few adherents. However, a new evaluation of this theological movement (...) is necessary because we need to understand its possible impact on the renewal of Christianity. On the other hand, Eliade was considered an important scholar in the field of history of religions. In our time, many critics contest his influence in this field and criticize him for the fact that he relativizes Christianity. This new interpretation of both scholars was an opportunity to link the research in the theology with that in the history of religions, an important motive for our time. In ecumenical discussions, the link between research in both these fields is so important. The concept of coincidentia oppositorum, the understanding of the sacrality of our time, in different religions, and the new language for discussing with people of different faiths are the main preoccupations of the ecumenical movement. (shrink)

In this wide-ranging and thought-provoking study, Maryanne Cline Horowitz explores the image and idea of the human mind as a garden: under the proper educational cultivation, the mind may nourish seeds of virtue and knowledge into the full flowering of human wisdom. This copiously illustrated investigation begins by examining the intellectual world of the Stoics, who originated the phrases "seeds of virtue" and "seeds of knowledge." Tracing the interrelated history of the Stoic cluster of epistemological images for natural law within (...) humanity--reason, common notions, sparks, and seeds--Horowitz presents the distinctive versions within the competing movements of Hellenistic Judaism and early Christianity, Augustinian and Thomist theologies, Christian mysticism and Kabbalah, and Erasmian Catholicism and the Lutheran Reformation. She demonstrates how the Ciceronian and Senecan analogies between horticulture and culture--basic to Italian Renaissance humanists, artists, and neo- Platonists--influence the emergence of emblems and essays among participants in the Northern Renaissance neo-Stoic movement. The Stoic metaphor is still visible today in ecumenical movements that use vegetative language to encourage the growth of shared values and to promote civic virtues: organizations disseminate information on nipping bad habits in the bud and on turning a new leaf. The author's evidence of illustrated pages from medieval, Renaissance, and Enlightenment texts will stimulate contemporary readers to evaluate her discovery of "the premodern scientific paradigm that the mind develops like a plant.". (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:BOOK REVIEWS 97 Unity and Reform: Selected Writings of Nicholas de Cusa. Edited by John P. Dolan. (Notre Dame, Indiana: University of Notre Dame Press, 1962. Pp. viii -I- 260. $6.50.) This volume was designed to serve both the cause of historical instruction and the cause of "unity and reform" as it has been stimulated by the present ecumenical movement and Council. Professor Dolan's Introduction emphasizes the (...) practical aspects of the Bishop's career, especially his efforts to combat the disintegration of the Respublica Christiana of the fifteenth century. He explains the Bishop's achievements, both ecclesiastical and philosophical, in terms of the problems of his own time. However, the reader soon discovers in the narrative of the Introduction as well as in the selections from Cusanus's works that the current revival of interest in this theologian and philosopher is due to the important bearing which he has on the Catholic efforts toward reunion and reform today. Only Book III of Learned Ignorance is included; then follow in their entirety Concerning Wisdom, The Vision of God or the Icon, Concerning Concord in Religious Belief (De Pace Fidei); and to illustrate Nicholas of Cusa's interest in mathematics and physics, the volume concludes with a dialogue on experiments in weighing. Hrne~a~T W. Sca~NEm~tt Claremont, California La cosmologie de Giordano Bruno. By Paul-Henri Michel. (Paris: Editions Hermann, 1962. Pp. 341.) Malgr~ les excellents travaux d~j~ publi~s (ceux d'Emile Namer, d'Augusto Guzzo et d'autres ~minents sp~cialistes bruniens), Giordano Bruno demeure une figure historique la lois tr~s c~l~bre et bien myst~rieuse au demeurant. L'exceUent ouvrage de Paul-Henri Michel rendra ainsi les plus grands services aux historiens de la pens~e qui se penchent avec curiosit~ sur la d~concertante p~iode de transition qui s~pare les philosophes de la Renaissance de l'av~nement en Europe d'attitudes proprement modernes devant la r~alit~ ext~rieure et l'homme. S'appuyant sans cesse sur les textes originaux de Bruno lui-mdme, pourvu d'un index complet, le bel ouvrage du Pr. Michel ne d~cevru passes lecteurs ~xudits. Comme il se dolt, rauteur commence par faire le point sur l'homme Bruno, s'attachant faire la distinction qui s'impose entre l'histoire et la l~gende--car la k~gende s'est empar ~e de ce philosophe, consid~r~ volontiers comme un athfie materialiste total ayant voulu d~truire la religion catholique, attitude louse ou vilipendfie selon clue Bruno sera vu comme un h~r~tique pervers ou, au contraire, comme un glorieux martyr de la "librepens ~" rationaliste. On appr~.iera tout sp~cialement les pages (p. 10 et suivantes) darts lesquelles M. Michel s'efforce de faire toute la lumi~re ~, propos du proc~s ecd~iastique de Giordano Bruno--sur lequel toute la lumi~re souhaitable n'avait pas encore ~t~ faite. Mais la majeure paxtie du volume est consacr~e ~ un expos~ m~thodique du syst~me du monde, telle clue l'~tude minutieuse de tousles textes accessibles permet de le structurer. En dix chapitres, l'auteur passe minutieusement--mais toujours d'une mani~re remarquablement logique et claire--les grandes articulations autour desquelles tourne toute la cosmologie brunienne: Le monde comme objet de connaissance, Cosmogonic, Ens mobile, LAme du Monde, La mati~re et l'univers infini, Le systkme solaire, Les mondes innombrables, L'univers vivant, Temps et dternit~. Le grand nombre des citations ~tendues faisant de cette belie ~tude une sorte de fort commode anthologie m~thodique de la pens~e brunienne. 98 HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY I1 est incontestable que nous autres contemporains sommes toujours endins 5. voir en Giordano Bruno un penseur franchement "moderne," et le fait est qu'il brave volontiers, prenant intrdpidement parti pour le syst~me de Copernic, la philosophie scolastique et la th~ologie scripturaire; son grandiose hymne mdtaphysique 5. l'infini de l'univers et 5. la r6partition innombrable des syst~mes plan~taires rend be1 et bien un son r~volutionnaire pour son temps. Ce n'est d'ailleurs pas pour rien que Bruno rut mis 5. l'index pour... (shrink)

One of the main characteristics of the history of Christianity of the twentieth century. one can confidently call the attraction of different churches and denominations to convergence within the ecumenical movement. The purpose of this movement is Christian unity, but despite some success, it has not been achieved. Not only the difference in Christian dogma and vision of spiritual life, but also the conceptual understanding of unity played a role here.

This article looks at the Global Christian Forum as a new initiative in the historical context of the modern ecumenical movement and from a Catholic point of view. It puts the GCF in three perspectives: as a new stage in ecumenical development, as part of a turning point in ecumenical history and as a new impulse of the Holy Spirit. By bringing in the Evangelicals and Pentecostals, the GCF has widened the range of church families in (...) conversation with one another. The GCF may begin to make a substantial contribution in the situation since Vatican II in which some critical issues between divided Christians have been solved. The beginning convergence of the two movements that have marked the past century — ecumenical and Pentecostal/evangelical — may be the work of the Holy Spirit. (shrink)

Chronicling the emergence of an international society in the 1920s, Daniel Gorman describes how the shock of the First World War gave rise to a broad array of overlapping initiatives in international cooperation. Though national rivalries continued to plague world politics, ordinary citizens and state officials found common causes in politics, religion, culture and sport with peers beyond their borders. The League of Nations, the turn to a less centralized British Empire, the beginning of an international ecumenical movement, (...) international sporting events and audacious plans for the abolition of war all signaled internationalism's growth. State actors played an important role in these developments and were aided by international voluntary organizations, church groups and international networks of academics, athletes, women, pacifists and humanitarian activists. These international networks became the forerunners of international NGOs and global governance. (shrink)

This is a series of essays by a group of young writers on the influence of the ecumenical dialogue on the fuller understanding and consequently on the development of Christian doctrine. As Fr Lash puts it in his introduction: ‘if the contemporary Christian is going to discover the life-giving word in its wholeness, then the ecumenical movement becomes a critical factor in doctrinal development’. That is quite patently true. But what appears to the present reviewer as less (...) exact and in a certain sense misleading is the statement made in the same introduction : ‘The one sure way of betraying the truth which enlivens it would be for the church merely to repeat the formulas of yesterday. Significantly, a persistence in the repetition of dead formulas is the best way of ensuring the death of effective Christian witness, for if you can convince yourself that nothing new needs to be said, you are more than half-way to convincing yourself that nothing new needs to be done’. When Pope John XXIII pointed out the difference between the substance of the deposit of faith and the way in which it is presented, he assuredly had not in mind the dogmatic formulas in which the church expressed its faith in the course of its history. Or are the formulas of Nicea dead? or those of Chalcedon and Trent? One fails to see in what precise sense a formula can be termed dead. The first part of the book deals in five essays rather with the abstract principles behind the relationship between ecumenism and the development of doctrine, that is, between ecumenism and the church’s fuller understanding of the Christian message. The second part consists of a long essay by the Dutch Jesuit Fr Frans Jozef van Beeck, entitled: ‘Towards an ecumenical understanding of the sacraments’, dealing with the theologically very important and practically very delicate problem of communicatio in sacris. This essay deserves a very attentive but critical reading. One is somewhat surprised to find no mention anywhere in the book of the ecumenical directory published by the Secretariat of Christian Unity on Pentecost Monday 1967. It has, as is well known, a direct bearing on the practical problem of communicatio in sacris. Fr Lash’s introduction is dated: July 1967. (shrink)

In this study, I will analyse the position of the Orthodox Church(es) towards the ecumenical dialogue in accordance with the documents approved by the Synod of Crete (2016), but also with the social document For the Life of the World of the Ecumenical Patriarchate (2020). After a brief presentation of the important moments of the historical journey for the meeting of the Synod, I will present the most important internal and reception issues of it. In the following, I (...) will present the reason for the publication of the social document and the relation with the Synod of Crete. In the last part of the study, I will deal critically with a theological synthesis on the following topics: ecclesiological self-identity, Trinitarian baptism, the quality of being a Christian, the Orthodox Church and the Churches, ecumenism for dialogue, for witnessing, and cooperation. Of course, in the end, I will present the most important conclusions. (shrink)

_Order and History,_ Eric Voegelin's five-volume study of how human and divine order are intertwined and manifested in history, has been widely acclaimed as one of the great intellectual achievements of our age. In the fourth volume, _The Ecumenic Age,_ Voegelin breaks with the course he originally charted for the series, in which human existence in society and the corresponding symbolism of order were to be presented in historical succession. The analyses in the three previous volumes remain valid as far (...) as they go, Voegelin explains, but the original conception proved "untenable because it had not taken proper account of the important lines of meaning in history that did not run along lines of time." _The Ecumenic Age_ treats history not as a stream of human beings and their actions in time, but as the process of man's participation in a flux of divine presence that has eschatological direction. "The process of history, and such order as can be discerned in it," Voegelin writes, "is not a story to be told from the beginning to its happy, or unhappy, end; it is a mystery in process of revelation." In the present volume, Voegelin applies his revised conception of historical analysis to the "Ecumenic Age," a pivotal period that extends roughly from the rise of the Persian Empire to the fall of the Roman. The age is marked by the advent of a new type of political unit—the ecumenic empire—achieved at the cost of unprecedented destruction. Yet the pragmatic destructiveness of the age is paralleled by equally unprecedented spiritual creativity, born from the need to make sense of existence in the wake of imperial conquest. These spiritual outbursts gave rise to the great ecumenic religions and raised fundamental questions for human self- understanding that extend into our historical present. (shrink)

Cultures are constituted by binary oppositions: the absolute and the relative; the perfect and the imperfect; the stable and the unstable. Many of the world’s cultures have looked to revealed religion to discover the absolute: that which transcends the human, the intellect, and space and time. By positing a God who is omniscient and omnipotent, they conceive of an eternal and absolute that continues to exist in an immutable state.In such cultures new perspectives for reinterpreting the past are continually propounded. (...) This allows history to be rewritten and re-rewritten. History simply becomes a method for becoming conscious of the past.By contrast, many East Asian cultures have not developed such a concept of revealed religion. For them, history itself constitutes an absolute, something on which one can rely. History in East Asia is endowed with a normative function, a source of authority that does not permit easy rewriting. (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:BOOK REVIEWS 97 Unity and Reform: Selected Writings of Nicholas de Cusa. Edited by John P. Dolan. (Notre Dame, Indiana: University of Notre Dame Press, 1962. Pp. viii -I- 260. $6.50.) This volume was designed to serve both the cause of historical instruction and the cause of "unity and reform" as it has been stimulated by the present ecumenical movement and Council. Professor Dolan's Introduction emphasizes the (...) practical aspects of the Bishop's career, especially his efforts to combat the disintegration of the Respublica Christiana of the fifteenth century. He explains the Bishop's achievements, both ecclesiastical and philosophical, in terms of the problems of his own time. However, the reader soon discovers in the narrative of the Introduction as well as in the selections from Cusanus's works that the current revival of interest in this theologian and philosopher is due to the important bearing which he has on the Catholic efforts toward reunion and reform today. Only Book III of Learned Ignorance is included; then follow in their entirety Concerning Wisdom, The Vision of God or the Icon, Concerning Concord in Religious Belief (De Pace Fidei); and to illustrate Nicholas of Cusa's interest in mathematics and physics, the volume concludes with a dialogue on experiments in weighing. Hrne~a~T W. Sca~NEm~tt Claremont, California La cosmologie de Giordano Bruno. By Paul-Henri Michel. (Paris: Editions Hermann, 1962. Pp. 341.) Malgr~ les excellents travaux d~j~ publi~s (ceux d'Emile Namer, d'Augusto Guzzo et d'autres ~minents sp~cialistes bruniens), Giordano Bruno demeure une figure historique la lois tr~s c~l~bre et bien myst~rieuse au demeurant. L'exceUent ouvrage de Paul-Henri Michel rendra ainsi les plus grands services aux historiens de la pens~e qui se penchent avec curiosit~ sur la d~concertante p~iode de transition qui s~pare les philosophes de la Renaissance de l'av~nement en Europe d'attitudes proprement modernes devant la r~alit~ ext~rieure et l'homme. S'appuyant sans cesse sur les textes originaux de Bruno lui-mdme, pourvu d'un index complet, le bel ouvrage du Pr. Michel ne d~cevru passes lecteurs ~xudits. Comme il se dolt, rauteur commence par faire le point sur l'homme Bruno, s'attachant faire la distinction qui s'impose entre l'histoire et la l~gende--car la k~gende s'est empar ~e de ce philosophe, consid~r~ volontiers comme un athfie materialiste total ayant voulu d~truire la religion catholique, attitude louse ou vilipendfie selon clue Bruno sera vu comme un h~r~tique pervers ou, au contraire, comme un glorieux martyr de la "librepens ~" rationaliste. On appr~.iera tout sp~cialement les pages (p. 10 et suivantes) darts lesquelles M. Michel s'efforce de faire toute la lumi~re ~, propos du proc~s ecd~iastique de Giordano Bruno--sur lequel toute la lumi~re souhaitable n'avait pas encore ~t~ faite. Mais la majeure paxtie du volume est consacr~e ~ un expos~ m~thodique du syst~me du monde, telle clue l'~tude minutieuse de tousles textes accessibles permet de le structurer. En dix chapitres, l'auteur passe minutieusement--mais toujours d'une mani~re remarquablement logique et claire--les grandes articulations autour desquelles tourne toute la cosmologie brunienne: Le monde comme objet de connaissance, Cosmogonic, Ens mobile, LAme du Monde, La mati~re et l'univers infini, Le systkme solaire, Les mondes innombrables, L'univers vivant, Temps et dternit~. Le grand nombre des citations ~tendues faisant de cette belie ~tude une sorte de fort commode anthologie m~thodique de la pens~e brunienne. 98 HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY I1 est incontestable que nous autres contemporains sommes toujours endins 5. voir en Giordano Bruno un penseur franchement "moderne," et le fait est qu'il brave volontiers, prenant intrdpidement parti pour le syst~me de Copernic, la philosophie scolastique et la th~ologie scripturaire; son grandiose hymne mdtaphysique 5. l'infini de l'univers et 5. la r6partition innombrable des syst~mes plan~taires rend be1 et bien un son r~volutionnaire pour son temps. Ce n'est d'ailleurs pas pour rien que Bruno rut mis 5. l'index pour... (shrink)

Essentially a history of religion in the twentieth century, this erudite work puts more emphasis on religion than on change and more faith in Christianity than in other traditions. Alive to the importance of the ecumenical movement and the Second Vatican Council, Edwards argues that no other religious groups in our time have the sophistication of the major Christian denominations in responding to the challenges of a scientifically based culture and an industrialized economy. He relates the major movements (...) in modern theology to a context informed by Marx and Freud, biology and technology, Eastern spirituality and Western revivalism. But he evades the challenge to revise our concept of God or demonstrate the meaningfulness of the traditional concept, with the plea that today's theologians have to be more humble than their predecessors in making dogmatic claims. From his vantage-point in England he judiciously assesses currents of thought in Europe and the United States, while showing more sensitivity to the views of British humanists than to the crises of faith and morals arising in contemporary political and social life. Despite his familiarity with the "new" morality and literary celebrations of the "death" of God, he ends with a relatively unperturbed affirmation of the biblical message concerning Jesus' death and resurrection. The result is a highly competent survey of how things stand at present for Western churchmen and theologians. The book has a few typographical and other errors, notably the placing of the last line first on page 260 and the footnote references to Sir Humphrey rather than Hamilton Gibb and to Robert rather than Richard Robinson.--C. P. S. (shrink)

The paper examines that aspect of Slovak political thinking, which contributed to the building of the Slovak nation and the Slovak civil society. The memories of the past, the constituting of national memory were the crucial elements of the thinking, which contributed to the creation of Slovak nation. They initiated the project of constituting of national subjectivity. The historical speculations were only protopolitical. The political journalism of Slovak writer Dominik Tatarka serves as an example of deviation from the politics justified (...) by history and of the acceptance of politics as a civic activity, based on the rights an needs of individuals. (shrink)

Critical engagement -- Lutheran World Federation (LWF) -- World Communion of Reformed Churches (WCRC) -- World Council of Churches (WCC) -- Conclusion, avenues for reform.

This book covers the topic of history and the role that it played in the Austrio-British philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein’s thought. The topic is explored from multiple angles, both chronologically and thematically. Reviewing Wittgenstein’s two magnum opera - the Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus (1921) and Philosophical Investigations (1952), this work is an investigation into an under-acknowledged element in Wittgenstein’s thought, one which in many cases acted as an impetus for that life-long process of novel philosophical reflection: History. This volume traces the evolution of (...) Wittgenstein’s thoughts on time and temporality from the Tractatus, through the Investigations, into some key post-Investigations remarks and also examines the motivations behind Wittgenstein’s post-Tractarian return to philosophy and, in particular, the unique methodology he developed in order to serve his renewed purpose. The final chapter seeks to answer the question, What was Wittgenstein trying to achieve with Philosophical Investigations? This book is of interest to philosophers. (shrink)

Midwest Studies In Philosophy, Volume 44, Issue 1, Page 239-259, December 2019.