The growing scholarly debate on emotions and the development of Pentecostal and Charismatic churches in the Global South are just two reasons that urge systematic theology to relate more concretely to faith experiences. Potkay and others present joy as a typical Christian emotion, but it is not a key theme in systematic theology, although it plays far more prominent a role in spiritual and practical theological works. In this paper, the author presents the understandings of joy from the perspectives of (...) Blaise Pascal, A.A. van Ruler and Pentecostals from Ecuador and explores the implications for theological anthropology. Based on the study of these three perspectives, the author defends the thesis that joy offers a new focus in the field of theological anthropology that places different traditional theological perspectives on the human being in a fresh relation to each other and lays a foundation for a theological contribution to emotion studies. (shrink)

The author defends the thesis that Pascal’s use of sentir offers an important entrance to his perception of the human being, while explaining Pascal’s anthropology as an experience-oriented and love-focused understanding of human existence. This understanding of Pascal is based on the reconstruction of an alternative context of interpretation. Not the early modern debates on rationality, but the medieval authors that inspired Port-Royal is taken as the main reference. Reading Pascal’s texts from the use of sentire by Bernard of Clairvaux, (...) Bonaventure and Duns Scotus, offers a different perspective on the relation between body, will and knowledge in his thought. This alternative interpretation leads to a re-orientation on the relevance of his thought for actual debates on modernity. (shrink)

The science and faith debate is dominated by Western voices. In order to enrich this debate, the authors study the discourses of different groups of Christian academics and master's students in francophone Africa. This article describes the process of reconstructing and analyzing the discourse of a group of master's students from Abidjan with the help of group model building and focus groups. Three characteristic features that emerge from this discourse include the foundational position of faith, the central role of truth, (...) and the ambiguous connotations of the term “science” in this context. The reconstructed discourse is then brought into conversation with the North Atlantic debate, with a special focus on the concept of scientism. (shrink)

The science and faith debate is dominated by Western voices. In order to enrich this debate, the authors study the discourses of different groups of Christian academics and master's students in francophone Africa. This article describes the process of reconstructing and analyzing the discourse of a group of master's students from Abidjan (Ivory Coast) with the help of group model building and focus groups. Three characteristic features that emerge from this discourse include the foundational position of faith, the central role (...) of truth, and the ambiguous connotations of the term “science” in this context. The reconstructed discourse is then brought into conversation with the North Atlantic debate, with a special focus on the concept of scientism. (shrink)