Showing papers on "Divinity published in 1992"

The American Religion: The Emergence of the Post-Christian Nation

Abstract: The author of The Book of J analyzes the American religious imagination to produce this brilliant examination of a national soul. His consensus: America is a nation of Gnostics, believers in a pre-Christian tradition of individual divinity.

Knowing the Unknowable God: Ibn-Sina, Maimonides, Aquinas

Abstract: This study of Ibn-Sina, Maimonides, and Thomas Aquinas on the structure and significance of language about God reminds us that such ecumenical dialogue was immensely productive in the Middle Ages, and the author s perspective suggests how richly rewarding the renewal of such conversations might be for current philosophy among Jews, Christians, and Muslims. Bernard McGinn, Naomi Shenstone Donnelley Professor of Historical Theology and the History of Christianity, University of Chicago Divinity School Historians, philosophers, theologians, and those concerned with interreligious dialogue will all find this book important. George Lindbeck, Pitkin Professor Emeritus of Historical Theology and Religious Studies, Yale University"

The Spiritual Pilgrimage of Sarah Osborn (1714–1796)

Abstract: Sarah Osborn does not appear in the definitive biographical dictionary, Notable American Women. She is not in the pages of Sydney Ahlstrom's A Religious History of the American People, nor of any more recent standard American religious history text. She failed to catch the attention of the editors and authors of the recent Encyclopedia of the American Religious Experience or Dictionary of Christianity in America. The great New Divinity pastor-theologian Samuel Hopkins in some measure owed his career to Sarah Osborn, but studies of him mention her only in passing or not at all. Scholars have learned of her through the work of Mary Beth Norton and in the documentary history, Women and Religion in America, but the Sarah Osborn most often mentioned in connection with early New England is the one accused as a witch at Salem who died in Boston prison 10 May 1692.

Gnostic inner illumination and Carl Jung's individuation.

Abstract: The ancient religious system of Gnosticism argued for the transcendence of the physical world and the divinity of self-knowledge. More recently, a similar argument was made by Carl Jung through his concept of individuation. This paper examines some of the similarities between Gnostic inner illumination and Jung's concept of individuation.

The meaning of peace: biblical studies

Abstract: The authors offer a "lucid, incisive, many-faceted look at the issue of the meaning of Shalom/eirene and related terms in the Bible" (Walter Harrelson, The Divinity School, Vanderbilt University).

Prolegomena to a Bahá’í Theology

Abstract: Theology is intrinsic to the Baha’i revelation. While community attitudes have tended to view the discipline of theology somewhat suspiciously, the term and field of “Baha’i theology” remain valid and are indispensable. One can distinguish source theology or revelation theology, contained in holy writ, from derivative theology (commentary), which is more relative and subjective. The relativity of religious truth, while it plays a useful role in deabsolutizing dogmatism and in promoting interreligious dialogue, is itself relative and currently runs the risk of becoming another absolute. Baha’i theology is both apophatic (negative) and cataphatic (affirmative). An abstruse, apophatic negative theology of a hidden God is explicit as background to Baha’i theology. Apophasis rejects defining God and honors God by remaining silent about the divine essence. If apophasis does speak of God, it does so by via negativa, by describing God through a process of elimination of what God is not, rather than making affirmations about what God is. The main substance of Baha’i theology, however, is manifestation theology or theophanology, that is, a theology calculated upon an understanding of the metaphysical reality and teachings of the divine Manifestation. This manifestation theology is cataphatic. Cataphasis dares to speak about God but recognizes that God transcends the human analogies used to describe divinity. Baha’i theology is, moreover, based in faith rooted in the person of Baha’u’llah and his divine revelation, has a strong metaphysical bias, eschews dogmatism, and welcomes diversity.

Writing and Power in the Conquest of America

Abstract: The Andean and Mesoamerican communication systems, predominantly oral, did not lend themselves to supraregional intellectual exchange. Whereas Europeans had by 1500 accumulated and manipulated considerable experience of the diversity of the then known world's cultures, largely as a result of the spatial and temporal mobility of written documents, the pre-Hispanic societies had to be content with experiences that were relatively regional and, except in Mesoamerica, restricted in time. Exaggerating somewhat, one might say that whereas Europeans could to some extent imagine the functioning of non-Western societies, partly because of their reading of Herodotus, Marco Polo, and the chroniclers of the 15th-century African expeditions, the indigenous inhabitants of the continent discovered by Columbus had to depend at first on classifying the intruders in terms of the mythic idea of the return of some divinity. From this it should be evident that the introduction of writing transformed the American system of communication. With the alphabet came not only experience of a boundless world previously unknown but, above all, an exercise of power that was not only administrative and conservative but also prospective, exploratory, and expansionist. Imbued with the "universality" of Christianity and its scriptures, Europeans had prepared themselves for the conquest of "new worlds" before actually being sure they existed. The scripture and its corollaries (theological-philosophical-grammatical systems) granted them the right to pursue an expansionist practice. In societies with an official notational system, written documents represent power: local or regional power in Hispanic America, universalizing power for the Christian empire. Undoubtedly the technical characteristics of the alphabet favored these ambitions. European writing, through its capacity

La divinité caboclo dans le candomblé de Bahia.

Abstract: J. Teles dos Santos — The Caboclo Divinity in Bahia's Candomble. A divinity usually called Caboclo is present in candombles in Salvador, Brazil. Fol-lowers think he has native origins. A century of Afro-Brazilian studies has consid-ered him to be insignificant in the symbolic structure of Bahian candombles, because research concentrated on the "Yoruba nation", which reputedly maintained the purest traditions of African origin. Since Caboclo figures in nearly ail Afro-Bahian candombles, what position does he hold in the religious system? By concentrating on the internai logic of the symbolic system of Salvador's candom- bles, we can understand the relations, correspondences and symmetries between Cabodos and Orixas.

Divided We Fall: Moving from Suspicion to Solidarity

Abstract: The author encourages unity among people seeking to overcome the divisions of race, sex, and class by promoting personal friendships and political alliances. "Snyder provides a role model for others. . . ".--Letty M. Russell, Yale Divinity School.

Feminine Forms of the Divine in Bahá’í Scripture

Abstract: The article responds to current feminist research in religious studies from a Baha’i perspective. It answers the resurgence of a feminine divine in several religions by offering examples of the interaction between male and female principles in Baha’i sacred writings. The complementarity of masculine and feminine images of divinity is understood as enriching our understanding of the divine–human encounter, but not as supplanting the unity and unknowability of God. The dynamic nature of masculine and feminine images of divinity sharply contrasts static concepts of divinity hardened by dogma and is offered as a pattern for the discussion of theological concepts in Baha’i communities.

Thomas Traherne (1637–74)

Abstract: Unlike most of the other metaphysical poets Traherne wrote no secular poetry. His subject matter is wholly religious and basically he has one main theme: man has been created to enjoy the world, which, like himself, has been made by God. His enjoyment and gratitude to his Maker make him a partaker in God’s divinity and complete God’s joy in his Creation: … all the business of Religion on GODS part is Bounty, Gratitude on ours, and … this Gratitude is the sphere of all Vertue and Felicity. (CE, 284)1

Hold not thy Peace at my Tears

Abstract: Recent work on the divine nature has criticized the traditional conception of divine impassibility, the doctrine that God is not affected by happenings in the world. Although everything in the world is dependent upon God, God is not dependent upon or affected by anything. A corollary, much discussed in recent literature, is that an impassible being cannot suffer. From all sides, the doctrine has been criticized: from theologians such as Jurgen Moltmann and Eberhard Jungel to philosophers such as Charles Hartshorne, Nicholas Wolterstorff, Alvin Plantinga and Richard Swinbume, the classical doctrine of an impassible divinity has been roundly criticized. Plantinga, for example, writes,

Summanus . II. Su identidad divina

Abstract: The name of this god is Latin and it represents above all an astral divinity which is identified with the Morning Star ( Nocturnus ).

One-in-the Many: Doing Justice to Our Unity and Diversity *

Abstract: As we all know James Luther Adams is a very hopeful person. This was most clearly seen in Jim's suggestion that I give the James Luther Adams lecture this year. My guess is that he heard that the overall theme of this year's annual meeting was justice and he hoped that, as a lawyer and a person who allegedly was doing theology from the vantage point of a lawyer, I should have something to say about the subject. Several problems come to mind immediately with this expectation. The first is the problem of saying anything that JLA has not already said with greater depth and humor. The second problem is best expressed by the story of the young law school student who naively asked one of his law school professors to tell him what was meant by justice. The professor responded that, if he wanted to find out about justice, he should go across the street to the divinity school. He crossed the street only to be told to reverse directions and ask someone at the law school. We might explain this by saying that both schools are limited by narrow perspectives—perhaps a positivistic perspective at the law school and a pietistic perspective at the seminary. Another answer might be that each has trouble trying to figure out what justice is all about. In reading the latest discussions of justice, I gained a new appreciation for the slipperiness of the subject. Is Clarence Darrow right when he said about justice, “no one knows what it means.”

Essentials of Islam Common to the Shiite and Sunni Traditions

Abstract: Having reviewed some of the distinguishing events central to Shiite sacred history, it may be good for us to pause here and examine aspects of the Islamic faith adhered to by Shiite and Sunni Muslims alike. For although the historical events of the seventh century—Ali’s caliphate, Karbala, the imamate of Husain—generated a Shiite theology which differs from Sunnism in important ways, nevertheless the two traditions share in common numerous religious beliefs and essential insights concerning the nature of divinity and God’s relations with humanity.