Dogmatics

This is the first of several discourses for all intellectuals about dogma, mental expansion and the liberation of intellect.  “For intellectuals, spiritual progress is always delayed, and the reason is this – that their intellectual body goes on increasing,” according to P. R. Sarkar, “but for want of the apexed mentality, the goal remains far away. But when the intellectual body is highly enlarged, it is sure to become one with the Macrocosm. And when this enlarged ectoplasmic structure becomes one with the Cosmic ectoplasmic structure, certainly a person will feel his oneness with the Supreme.” P. R. Sarkar, (1921-1990), was a spiritual teacher (also known as Shrii Shrii Anandamurti) in the tradition of Shiva and Krishna, who founded Renaissance Universal to promote a new global renaissance, and who founded the socio-spiritual movement Ananda Marga (“the Path of Bliss”).  –  Richard Gauthier, Department of Chemistry and Physics, Santa Rosa Junior College, Santa Rosa, California, USA, May 6, 2021.

The integration of Pentecostal theology in contemporary Christian
doctrine is possible based on a distinction between theology at Pentecost, theology of Pentecost, and Pentecostal theology. Characteristics of this distinction include the spirituality of Pentecost, the experience of the Holy Spirit, the Pentecostal full gospel, the Pentecostal affections, the materiality of the Pentecostalism, and the embodiment of the Pentecost event. Together these elements build
“Pentecost” as the theological symbol of the Pentecostal movement and represent the essential challenge to contemporary Christian theology.

The article has two main focuses – first, it follows the most significant and important Antichrist myth researches, and secondly, the Greek tradition of De Christo et Antichristo by Hippolytus of Rome and the Slavonic versions of the text. The Slavonic witnesses are examined according to their omissions, additions, grammatical and morphological variations, and also some of the changes in the Bible quotations are highlighted. This work does not pretend to present new information on the Greek sources but to demonstrate how important the Slavonic translation is to the interpretation of the Greek original. The most interesting results are pointed out in the relation with the Greek text itself, where the proximity between the Greek fragment of Meteora Monastery 573 and the Slavonic tradition is presented.

In the article we make the case that St. Germanus II shared the traditional Patristic view of monasticism as of something superior in relation to the Christian marriage. A Christian is permitted to marry one or two times in his or her life only. As a Biblical exegete Germanus is close to Olympiodorus (6th century), St. Gregory Palamas and to the 13th- and 14th-centuries Byzantine hesychasts.

What matters to Paul is not the outward appearance, but one's authority in the Lord, including a woman's. While yet recognizing differences between men and women associated with the present age as conceived by Paul, in the Lord and particularly in a prophetic capacity they are the same. Paul is teaching that men are to have their hair cut short and not wear a head covering during church meetings. Women are to have long hair as an ordinary covering, but are to put on an additional covering during public worship. The man’s head is to be uncovered because, being made first, he is the glory of God. The woman is to have long hair (not shorn close) as a sign of her submission to man. Because her hair is her glory and because she is man’s glory, during the Christian assembly, she is to wear an additional covering over her hair. In this way, man’s glory the woman is covered, and God’s glory the man is uncovered. The head of the woman is the man, the head of the man is Christ, and the head of Christ is God.
Key words : Tudung, Cultural, outhority

헤르만 바빙크(1854-1921)는 교의학자였지만 중요한 윤리학 작품도 남겼다. 최근에 발간된 『개혁파 윤리학』은 아주 탁월한 기독교 윤리학 저서이다. 바빙크의 『개혁교의학』과 『개혁파 윤리학』은 다음과 같은 밀접한 관련성이 있다. 첫째, 『개혁파 윤리학』은 『개혁교의학』에 나타난 종합적-발생론적 방법론을 사용한다. 둘째, 『개혁파 윤리학』은 교의학과 윤리학의 상호보완적 관계성을 유지한다. 셋째, 『개혁파 윤리학』은 교의학과 윤리학을 밀접하게 관련시키면서도, 교의학을 너무 많이 개입시키지 않고 윤리학에서 꼭 다뤄야 하는 교의학의 내용만을 엄선해서 다룬다. 넷째, 『개혁파 윤리학』의 내용은 『개혁교의학』과 내용상으로 짝을 이룬다. 다섯째, 바빙크는 교의학과 윤리학에서 철학과 깊이 있게 대화한다. 여섯째, 바빙크의 교의학과 윤리학은 초기 근대 개혁파 신학에서 많은 내용들을 인용하고 다룬다. 일곱째, 바빙크의 교의학과 윤리학은 성경을 근거로 주제를 전개하고 결론을 완성한다. 바빙크 사후 100주년을 기념하는 오늘날의 개혁신학이 앞으로의 100년을 건설적으로 모색하고자 한다면, 바빙크라는 거인의 어깨에 올라가서 보다 성경적이면서도, 역사적 자료에 충실하고, 현대 학문과 대화하면서, 오늘날의 교회와 사회의 구체적 문제에 응답하는 교의학과 윤리학을 발전시켜 나가야 할 것이다.
====
Herman Bavinck (1854-1921) was a dogmatician, but he also wrote important ethical works. The recently published Reformist Ethics is an excellent book on Christian ethics. Bavinck’s Reformed Dogmatics and his Reformed Ethics are closely related. (1) Reformed Ethics uses the synthetic-genetic method endorsed in Reformed Dogmatics; (2) Reformed Ethics shows a complementary relationship between dogmatics and ethics; (3) Reformed Ethics intimately relates dogmatics to ethics but carefully selects and treats only the theological topics that should be dealt with in ethics without involving dogmatics too much; (4) the content of Reformed Ethics is paired with Reformed Dogmatics; (5) Bavinck has an in-depth dialogue with philosophy in both works; (6) the two works quote and deal with a lot of material from early modern Reformed theology; and (7) Reformed Dogmatics and Reformed Ethics develop the subjects and complete their conclusions based on the Scriptures. If today’s Reformed theology, commemorating the 100th anniversary of Bavinck’s death, wants to constructively explore the next 100 years, it should climb on his shoulders and develop dogmatics and ethics that respond to specific problems of the church and society while being more biblical and faithful to historical data and conversing with modern academic studies.

In order to illuminate our theological understanding of love this essay
analyzes love in the context of the Pauline formula of faith, love, and hope.
In terms of method, the essay combines exegetical observations, conceptual
tools from communication theory and constructive theology. Faith, love,
and hope are theologically conceptualized not as virtues but as media of
communication of the Holy Spirit. The relationships between faith, love,
hope are illuminated with conceptual tools coming from communication
theory: They can be seen as symbolically generalized media of communication.
On this basis the rich texture of love is unfolded. The unity of faith,
love, and hope constitutes the shape of the Christian life and provides an
indispensable contribution to social live.

From amazon.com:
""Whoever needs an act of faith to elucidate an event that can be explained by reason is a fool, and unworthy of reasonable thought." This line, spoken by the notorious 18th-century libertine Giacomo Casanova, illustrates a deeply entrenched perception of religion, as prevalent today as it was hundreds of years ago. It is the sentiment behind the narrative that Catholic beliefs were incompatible with the Enlightenment ideals. Catholics, many claim, are superstitious and traditional, opposed to democracy and gender equality, and hostile to science. It may come as a surprise, then, to learn that Casanova himself was a Catholic. In The Catholic Enlightenment, Ulrich Lehner points to such figures as representatives of a long-overlooked thread of a reform-minded Catholicism, which engaged Enlightenment ideals with as much fervor and intellectual gravity as anyone. Their story opens new pathways for understanding how faith and modernity can interact in our own time.

Lehner begins two hundred years before the Enlightenment, when the Protestant Reformation destroyed the hegemony Catholicism had enjoyed for centuries. During this time the Catholic Church instituted several reforms, such as better education for pastors, more liberal ideas about the roles of women, and an emphasis on human freedom as a critical feature of theology. These actions formed the foundation of the Enlightenment's belief in individual freedom. While giants like Spinoza, Locke, and Voltaire became some of the most influential voices of the time, Catholic Enlighteners were right alongside them. They denounced fanaticism, superstition, and prejudice as irreconcilable with the Enlightenment agenda.

In 1789, the French Revolution dealt a devastating blow to their cause, disillusioning many Catholics against the idea of modernization. Popes accumulated ever more power and the Catholic Enlightenment was snuffed out. It was not until the Second Vatican Council in 1962 that questions of Catholicism's compatibility with modernity would be broached again.

Ulrich Lehner tells, for the first time, the forgotten story of these reform-minded Catholics. As Pope Francis pushes the boundaries of Catholicism even further, and Catholics once again grapple with these questions, this book will prove to be required reading."

My second academic monograph (2018; the introduction gives a thorough overview of the argumentation of the book; its translation can be found at my Academia.edu account) explores some central aspects of “culture of faith” (worship and language of faith, gospel and reformation, theology and dialogue). The term “culture of faith” is a reflection on how culture is seen from the religious perspective, as well as on the way religion itself is a particular manifestation and “mechanism” of culture. The objective of the book is to focus on the logic of creation of meaning in religion and to improve the understanding of the grammar of religious reasoning. Thus, the book also attempts to broaden our understanding of the guiding power of faith. A semiotic understanding of culture as “semiosphere” (J. Lotman) constitutes the background and horizon of the book. On the one hand, the culture of faith is a thing (object) studied by theology. On the other hand, theology itself is a specific manifestation of the culture of faith.  Thus, theology – like semiotics or cultural theory – can be described as auto-communication or self-consciousness of the culture of faith. The book contains studies on the interpretation of the culture of faith (or on theological thought) and further developments in interpretation of the culture of faith (or in theological thought). I examine the past approaches to thinking about the culture of faith and about some of its core elements and dynamics (this represents the “thought history” dimension of the book), and I attempt to develop and shape culture-of-faith thinking in our present-day Estonian-speaking context (this is the theological-constructive dimension of the book). These two dimensions, historical and constructive, are distinguishable but they are inevitably and necessarily interlinked in a discussion of the culture of faith.

The present study was conducted as part of a larger study that aimed to compare moral judgment competence and moral preferences among Pakistani students of public and private sector educational institutes and religious institutes and also to measure the pattern of development of moral judgment competence of students within these institutes. The validation study completed in two phases, during the 1st phase data were collected from the students of grade 8 to 16 from public sector schools and colleges of Rawalpindi city. Very low mean c-score was observed (M = 13.60, SD = 9.05), the test came out to be valid on preference hierarchy criterion but its validity on the cognitive-affective parallelism and Quasi- simplex structure criteria could not be established due to low c-scores of the sample. In the second phase an additional sample from one private sector and two public sector universities was collected. The analysis of the combined sample (N = 246) showed no significant improvement of c-scores (M = 13.94, SD = 9.53). The test meets well the preference hierarchy criterion but on the other two criteria results remain inconclusive due to low variance in the sample. The low c-scores are explained on the basis of three assumptions; (1) poor quality of education, (2) dogmatic religiosity, and (3) weak and instable political structure of Pakistani society.

The article discusses the spectacle of Christ's wounds after His resurrection based on the account from the Gospel of John within the context of the dogmatic meaning of the resurrection from the dead and what it entails for humans. It mainly addresses the reasons why Christ was eager to show the scars of His Passion although His human nature had indeed transformed into an incorruptible, perfected and de-ified one. This gesture was proof that the person who had suffered was the same person who had defeated death, sacrificed His life and had risen from the dead out of His limitless love for the human race. The author then draws the link between this dogmatic truth and the ethos of the ecclesiastical life, as he contends that the members of the Church should lead a Christ-like life by being compassionate and affectionate towards other peoples' suffering, i.e. the suffering of the entire world. ▶

Christology has always been important to the life and well-being of the Seventh-day  Adventist (SDA) Church. From  the Church’s early beginnings in the  New  England states, its organization in Michigan in 1863, down past its  European outreach in 1874, past the historic 1888 Minneapolis Conference, and on to the present, the Person of Jesus Christ has played a  vital  role in Adventism. The  Adventist church has often had to grapple with its  understanding of Christ. Not that this truth is beyond the  grasp of the simplest Christian for salvation, and yet, because of the very nature of Christ, whom we believe to be God, there lies  a depth that is beyond the wisdom of man. This tension between simplicity and complexity must  always be held in balance. But, far beyond all this is the  relevance of this  kind of messianic Christology, particularly for Adventist . The purpose of my study will be to challenge  and destabilize exclusive principles in the Seventh-day  Adventist (SDA) Church and to broaden the perspective of the church to be welcoming and affirming to those who are  perceived to be  “the other” or “different.”  I will do so by way of appropriation and application of the “messianic”  concept, much discussed in recent  philosophy (Jacques  Derrida) and theology (Jürgen Moltmann), to Adventist  Christology. I will, in the  final analysis, present an  Adventist Christology that replicates a messianic faith.  All  this creates what I believe is an effective interpretation of the person and work of Jesus Christ.

Buku ini menganalisa hal-hal seputar peran Roh Kudus yang menjadi topik hangat kemunculan dan perkembangan Gerakan Karismatik secara global maupun di Indonesia. Tujuannya agar para pembaca lebih jelas memahami warisan rohani dalam Kristus yang sungguh luar biasa ini dan bagaimana besarnya tanggung jawab orang percaya dalam menggunakan karunia rohani yang dianugerahkan. Stott sendiri berupaya dalam pengakuannya bahwa informasi-informasi dan literatur-literatur yang digunakan untuk menuntaskan bukunya ini digunakan seobjektif dan sejujur mungkin, tanpa bermaksud merusak persekutuan di antara orang percaya. Demi tujuan dimaksud maka Stott mengharapkan para pembaca bukunya dapat sama-sama setuju bahwa segala argumentasi harus diuji oleh firman Allah yang telah dinyatakan secara historis dan objektif; bahwa Yesus Kristus haruslah menjadi sentral; dan bahwa keragaman adalah ciptaan Tuhan termasuk keragaman pengalaman rohani yang harus dihargai.

Secara garis besar, Berkhof membagi pembahasan bukunya ini ke dalam dua bagian utama, yaitu: Pertama, mengenai definisi, esensi, atribut, dan sistem pemerintahan gereja; dan Kedua, mengenai alat-alat anugerah yang terfokus pada Firman Tuhan dan sakramen (dalam hal ini baptisan dan perjamuan kudus). Dengan pembagian tersebut maka tentu alur pembahasan buku ini menjadi lebih sistematis dan mudah dimengerti. Apalagi ditunjang dengan pemaparan isi yang mengenai doktrin Alkitab tentang gereja yang benar dan alkitabiah.

Buku ini adalah tulisan terakhir dari dua seri eksposisi teologi sistematika yang telah ia buat sebelumnya. Judul buku ini menegaskan isinya secara keseluruhan, bahwa keselamatan bukanlah hasil upaya manusia tetapi pemberian Allah yang cuma-cuma. Tentu pandangan ini sangat kental dengan Teologi Reformed. Akan tetapi, penalarannya yang dinamis, praktis, dan komprehensif akan sangat membantu siapa pun yang hendak mempelajari doktrin keselamatan. Kehandalan Hoekema dalam studi-studi dogmatik tentu tidak diragukan lagi. Oleh sebab itu, buku ini sangat berguna bukan hanya bagi para pendeta dan pelajar teologi melainkan juga orang awam.

ABSTRACT:

Karl Barth is perhaps most clearly differentiated from Friedrich Schleiermacher when the two are compared in the context of their unphilosophical vs. philosophical soteriology. They each seek to answer the core question, ‘How can we be saved?’ but in radically different ways.

Schleiermacher’s answer is plainly philosophical. He argues that redemption is a ‘sense and taste for the Infinite’ where redemption takes place in the coincidence of opposites (coincidentia oppositorum) when the Infinite (the Whole) and the finite (the individual) participate in Christ’s perfect God-consciousness. Romantic rhetoric, i.e., the ‘feeling of absolute dependence,’ also enters into this Neoplatonic-panentheistic construct when the individual relates to God as a redemptive contact. Thus Schleiermacher’s soteriology is romantic, Neoplatonic and subjectively Christocentric, and is thus philosophized.

On the other hand, Barth is decidedly unphilosophical. He seeks to erase all philosophical tenets from his theology, in particular rooting it out of his entire soteriological structure in the process. For Barth, redemption is not Schleiermacher’s fulfillment of the coincidentia oppositorum where God is ‘the whole’. God is instead the ‘Wholly Other’; it is Immanuel who fulfills the covenant and reconciles God and human beings. Barth holds that redemption is grounded objectively ‘in Christ by Christ,’ not in romantic rhetoric or existential or subjective experience. The whole redemptive process is concentrated in Christ the electing God and the elected or rejected man, not in romanticized philosophy. Barth’s soteriology is objectively Christocentric and thus unphilosophized.

Through the comparative study, theological strengths and weaknesses of subjectively philosophized soteriology and objectively unphilosophized soteriolgy will be beneficially appeared.

한글 초록:

본고는 철학적 구원론과 비철학적 구원론의 맥락 속에서 칼 바르트와 프리드리히 슐라이어마허의 구원론의 차이점을 대비시키는데 목적을 두고 있다. 바르트와 슐라이어마허는 ‘우리가 어떻게 구원에 이를 수 있는가’라는 질문에 대해 극명히 다른 대답을 내놓았다.

이 질문에 대한 슐라이어마허의 답변은 대단히 철학적이었다. 슐라이어마허에게 구원은 그리스도의 완전한 신의식에 참여함을 통해 유한이 무한을 느끼고 맛보는 지점에서 일어나는데 이는 극단과 극단이 만나는 구원론적 일치점이다. 유한이 무한과 만나는 구원론적 일치점은 신플라톤주의-만유재신론적 구조 속에서 낭만주의적 ‘절대 의존 감정’으로 이루어진다. 그러므로 슐라이어마허의 구원론은 낭만주의적-신플라톤주의적-주관적 구원론이므로 철학적 구원론이다.

이와 반대로 바르트의 구원론은 명백히 비철학적 구원론이다. 바르트는 구원론 내에 서려 있는 철학적 요소들을 최대한 제거하려고 노력했다. 바르트의 구원론은 유한과 무한이 만나는 일치점이 아니었는데 그 이유는 바르트에게 하나님은 ‘전적 타자’였기 때문이다. 바르트의 구원론은 하나님과 인간 사이에서 벌어진 ‘그리스도를 통한, 그리스도 안에서의’ 임마누엘 그 자체였다. 이는 낭만주의적 수사도 아니며 실존적, 혹은 주관적 느낌 및 경험도 아니었다. 오히려 바르트의 구원론은 홀로 선택되고 동시에 홀로 유기되는 그리스도에게만 집중된 그리스도-중심주의 구원론이다. 그러므로 바르트의 구원론은 지나치게 객관적으로 비철학화된 구원론이다.

이런 비교 탐구를 통해 주관주의적 철학적 구원론과 객관주의적 비철학적 구원론의 신학적 장단점과 기여점을 살펴볼 수 있는 유익이 있다.

Once upon a time (when theology was a 'thing' and doctrine mattered, but before anyone thought it should actually help us exist as those who pretend to believe and live differently because of Christian faith), I taught courses in Christian Theology.

At schools like Wheaton College, Northern Seminary and several guest lectureships at institutions I promised I'd never advertise I was invited to contribute my thoughts, I taught coursework and graduate seminars on the subject of theology. This introduction to the task of theology was just another hand-out serious students would pretend to read and colleagues would use to raise suspicions about 'fit' and statements of faith to Provosts and Deans. So I share this with you in hopes of steering you away from criticism and you, like so many others, will learn to 'just blame Callahan' for this or that.

During the last a few years in Bulgaria took place a discussion on the Divine uncreated energies of God. After a long period of ecclesiastical isolation of the country, in the late 20th century one can discover a framework of a delayed reflection on the hesychastic theology. The author explores the returning of the  interest in this subject in the Greek Orthodox theology of 20th century.

This history of indulgences and purgatory has established itself as a standard summary of the history of the theological development in stages leading to the full orbed view of the 15th century and a praxis that led to split the church. The author follows the further history through the centuries through to the major changes made after the Second Vatican Council. Even though the last chapter of the book contains a detailed Protestant and Orthodox criticism of the dogmatic foundations of indulgences, the book is seen as a fair contribution by many reviewers and has earned the approval of Catholic theologians, who regret, that the planed abolition of indulgences by the Second Vatican Council did not take place finally.

The purpose of this article is to present the biblical proof that purgatory exists, that is, to show the ways in which the Bible presents the reality that is hidden from the eyes of those who live on earth. The key research assumption here is not rejecting the biblical images with which God spoke the truth in the language of the old generations of Israel, images that may seem unhelpful because they do not fit the contemporary understanding of posthumous reality as something immaterial. In particular, one will perform a detailed exegetical analysis of the verse Job 26:5, which mentions the dwelling of some of the dead in waters and their great suffering there. The Old Testament revelation of the existence of three spiritual states after death will be shown to be confirmed in the life and teaching of Jesus Christ, in His Descent into the Abyss, and Resurrection from it. Analogous to the detailed study of Job 26:5, one will undertake in-depth exegetical analysis of the vision of the Last Judgment in Revelation, including a fragment describing the judgment on those dead who have been released from the sea waters not before but now, to be judged by God.

This collection of discourses was given by Shrii Shrii Anandamurti, a spiritual teacher also known as Prabhat Rainjan Sarkar, to an assembly of spiritual aspirants from September 21st through 23rd, 1979 in Kingston, Jamaica. The importance of intellectual expansion and overcoming dogmas in following one’s spiritual path is clearly and logically explained in these discourses. The spiritual goal of life is attained through unfettered mental expansion and removing the experienced gap between one’s limited individual mind and the infinite Supreme Consciousness.

In this research thesis we will discover that Augustine’s opinion that concupiscence was an evil, hereditary stain of original sin was not in line with the agreed-upon tradition of the earliest of Church fathers but there are strong arguments for believing that this opinion was based on non-Christian or spurious sources, the most probable direct source being the “Ambrosiaster” document. On this shaky foundation of the inheritance of concupiscence, Augustine built the idea of the massa damnata. It was a novel doctrine, since it was incompatible with the earlier Orthodox tradition. Augustine's claim that this denial of limbo and the positive damnation of unbaptized infants was part of the Catholic tradition, was a novelty to the Church universal. It was unsupported by early sources. This leads me to conclude that Augustine’s threefold philosophical structure of concupiscence, massa damnata and the positive damnation of unbaptized infants was not in accordance with “the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints” (Jude 1:3b, NKJV). The lack of orthodox evidence supporting an idea of genetically inheriting sin substantially weakens the basis as proffered by Augustine.

Written from 1265-1274, the Summa Theologica is St.
Thomas Aquinas' greatest work. Originally written for the
"instruction of beginners," time has shown that all believers
can come to learn from this enriching book. Organized systemically
for the clearest way of "setting forth" the "sacred
doctrine," Aquinas addresses many of Christianity's most
pertinent questions in this multi-volume work. The First Part
of the Summa begins with the existence and nature of God,
before moving to creation and the nature of man.The Second
Part contains his examination of morality and law; it also
provides his account of the theological virtues, the cardinal
virtues, and the seven deadly sins. The Third Part, uncompleted
due to Aquinas' death, treats the incarnation and the
sacraments. Taken together, the three parts compose one
of the most impressive works of Christianity. Indeed, countless
people from many centuries have studied and learned
from the Summa; it has been widely influential from Aquinas'
own day to the present. Hence, those with a passing inquiry
or a serious question, an existential concern or a philosophical
problem, can learn much from reading and studying St.
Thomas Aquinas' Summa Theologica.

Did or did not Jesus die on the cross? Countless studies have been dedicated to the subject and many millions of opinions exist - yet the most reliable witnesses are the earliest extant sources, and although there are (minor) disagreements on the exact circumstances that unfolded, they are unanimous on the final hours of Jesus

________________________________________________________________________________
+++Version Management+++
Includes Discussion content (85 pages) - see https://www.academia.edu/57161277/Publication_List_and_Discussion_Content_access

The article revisits the use of certain Augustinian expressions and passages in the works of St Gregory Palamas, mainly regarding the Trinitarian reflections in man, the imago Dei, and the notion of eros (love). First, we present Palamas’ theology regarding the eros of the nous (intellect) for its logos. Second, we provide a brief review of the literature regarding the Augustinian presence in Palamas, and then continue with our assessment of this presence. We demonstrate that Gregory does indeed borrow phrases from Augustine, but he does not always use or incorporate the latter’s ideas; sometimes (e.g., in the case of the Filioque) he even comes to the opposite conclusion. In other words, despite similarities, one also finds crucial differences between Augustine’s and Palamas’ relevant approaches. Finally, four possible
reasons—not often stressed in scholarship; the third probably mentioned for the first time—are proposed to explain why Palamas takes up the notion of eros from the Bishop of Hippo: a) the ‘eternal rest’ (ἀίδιος
ἐπανάπαυσις) of the Holy Spirit on the Son; b) his willingness to oppose the Filioque; c) the appeal to a major notion in Palamas’ anthropology, namely the ‘vivifying power’ (ζωοποιὸς δύναμις) of the human
soul; and d) the Holy Spirit’s ‘eternal resplendence’ (ἀίδιος ἔκλαμψις/ἔκφανσις). In conclusion, it is argued that this endeavour of Palamas could nowadays also inspire Orthodox theology in its effort to engage in
dialogue with Western thought and in its attempt to articulate a genuine and persuasive voice in our era.

Mémoire présenté par :
Erwan MOREAU
en vue de l'obtention du diplôme de :
MASTER 2 RECHERCHE
Domaine : Sciences humaines et sociales
Mention : Ethnologie-Sociologie
Spécialité : SOCIOLOGIE
Préparé sous la direction de M. Jean Bruno RENARD, professeur de Sociologie
Juin 2014
Mention obtenue : très bien


Abstract (French) :

Le synonyme le plus proche du terme "monstre" est l'expression « contre-nature » (Aristote, Saint Augustin, Canguilhem, Lascault, Cuny Le Callet, Valton, etc.). Sentence paradoxale s'il en est quand on sait qu'au niveau biologique, il est entendu que rien de ce que produit la Nature ne peut voir le jour indépendamment du respect de ses lois et qu'il est le propre de l'imagination de pouvoir y créer des exceptions.

Mais parallèlement à la Nature, objet de la biologie et de la physique, se trouve une autre « nature » : la « connaissance ordinaire » (Aristote employait pour sa part le terme de « cours ordinaire », « ὡς ἐπὶ τὸ πολύ » en parlant du statut contre-nature du monstre), cette « chose que l'organisme construit dans le but de créer un ordre dans le flux de l'expérience »

Ainsi, tout monstre peut être traduit comme étant ce qui apparaît contraire à une  « connaissance ordinaire », à une réalité sensible, dans son acception la plus large, c'est-à-dire orientée vers l'esthétique (le plus couramment rattaché à une vision anthropocentrée) et/ou vers l'éthique (intolérance idéologique).

Aussi par le partage des affects que met en œuvre une communauté d'esprits (religieuse, laïque, révolutionnaire, impérialiste, etc.), des éléments « contre-nature » peuvent apparaître à un niveau macrosociologique. Éléments émergeant de l'esprit gnostique et de son succédané l'esprit dogmatique, chacun ayant pour spécificité de mettre en exergue le dualisme entre bien et mal, connaissance et ignorance les entraînant ainsi vers l'ère de la déliquescence, de la décadence, en somme vers les temps eschatologiques et leurs abominations monstrueuses.


Abstract (English) :

The best synonym for the word ‘monster’ is the expression ‘unnatural’’ (Aristote, Saint Augustin, Canguilhem, Lascault, Cuny Le Callet, Valton, etc.). That is a paradoxical sentence - if any - when we know that biologically speaking nothing produced by Nature can exist regardless of the respect of its laws. It is among the characteristics of imagination to create exceptions.

But parallel to the Nature as objet of biology and physic is another kind of ‘nature’: the ‘ordinary knowledge’. (Artistote named it the ‘ordinary course’ (ὡς ἐπὶ τὸ πολύ) to mention the unnatural aspect of monster), this ‘thing that is produced by the organism to create an order within the experience’s flow’.

Then any monster can be understood as what appears in contrary to an ‘ordinary knowledge’, a ‘sensitive reality’ in every sense, that is to say aesthetics- (mostly associated to an anthropocentred vision) and/or ethicspositioned (ideological intolerance).

And the sharing of affections made by a minds’ community (religious, lay, revolutionary or imperialist, etc.) can reveal some ‘unnatural’ elements at the level of macrosociology. Elements that are emerging from the Gnostic spirit and its substitute: the dogmatic spirit. Each specifically brings out the dualism between good and evil, knowledge and ignorance that leads towards the decay, decline age - in other words towards eschatological times and their monstrous abominations.

The 18th century was the era of the Enlightenment. The Western world went through new episodes, and the emphasis shifted to human reason. The growing influence of modern science encouraged many theologians and philosophers to new reflections on faith. The liberal theologian Friedrich Schleiermacher was one of them. Today, he is considered one of the main founders of liberal theology. In this essay I will discuss his ideas, and how these related to the traditional dogmas of 19th century Protestantism.