Showing papers on "Doctrine published in 1984"

The Nature of Doctrine: Religion and Theology in a Postliberal Age

Abstract: The Nature of Doctrine, originally published in 1984, is one of the most influential works of academic theology in the past fifty years. A true classic, this book sets forth the central tenets of a post-liberal approach to theology, emphasizing a cultural-linguistic approach to religion and a rule theory of doctrine. In addition to his account of the nature of religion, George Lindbeck also addresses the relationship between Christianity and other religions, the resolution of historic doctrinal conflict among Christian communities, and the nature and task of theology itself. This is a work that all theologians and advanced students should know. This twenty-fifth anniversary edition includes an English translation of the foreword to the German edition and a complete bibliography of Lindbeck's work.

The myth of the framework

Abstract: One of the more disturbing features of intellectual life at the present time is the way in which irrationalism is so widely advocated, and irrationalist doctrines taken for granted. In my view, one of the main components of modern irrationalism is relativism (the doctrine that truth is relative to our intellectual background or framework: that it may change from one framework to another), and, in particular, the doctrine of the impossibility of mutual understanding between different cultures, generations, or historical periods. In this paper I discuss the problem of relativism. It is my claim that behind it lies what I call ‘The Myth of the Framework’. I explain and criticize this myth, and comment also on arguments due to Quine, Kuhn, and Whorf which have been used in its defence.

Critical Legal Histories

Abstract: Critical legal writers pay a lot of attention to history In fact, they have probably devoted more pages to historical descriptionparticularly the intellectual history of legal doctrine-than to anything else, even law and economics Such a preoccupation within a radical movement is at first glance surprising After all, lawyers have, by notorious custom, used history conservatively, appealing to continuity and tradition' And in the less common situations in which lawyers have used history to criticize the status quo, they have usually resorted to social and economic history, to show that the original social context of a legal rule reveals it was adopted for wicked or obsolete reasons, rather than to the history of legal doctrine2 What could conceivably be radical-or, as some unkindly ask, even interesting-about rewriting the history of doctrine? I will attempt, in this article, to give a brief account of the impulses that have prompted the Critical scholars to their chosen ways of writing history (or rather histories, since the movement has actually spawned several different historiographical practices) I'll start by trying to describe a vision of law-in-history that has tended, as I'll

Machiavellism: The Doctrine of Raison d'Etat and Its Place in Modern History

Abstract: Here is a study, by a recognized master in the field of intellectual history, of the challenge put by Machiavelli to the idea that there is a universal moral law governing human behavior. Should the political leader act according to the maxim of "my country right or wrong," or should elites follow the principle of "let justice be done?" Friederich Meinecke, an acknowledged founder of cultural history as a field, follows the discussion of this theme from Machiavelli through such major figures as Richelieu, Frederick the Great, and Hegel, and presents conclusions of enduring significance.

Descartes on the Creation of the Eternal Truths

Abstract: Subsequently Descartes explains that the eternal truths-what we would call necessary truths-depend on God's will, that since God's will was free, he could have created a world in which these truths did not hold, just as he could have not created any world at all.2 So, for example, God was free to create a world in which the lines from the center of a circle to its circumference were not all equal. We cannot comprehend this possibility, but that is because our intellects are finite, whereas God's power is infinite and incomprehensible. Clearly this is a bizarre doctrine. But how bizarre is it? What exactly is Descartes committed to by this doctrine? Why does he hold it? What is the best that can be said in defense of it? Those are the questions I hope to answer in this paper. But before I proceed to say what I think Descartes is committed to by this doctrine, let me say what I think he is not committed to.

Informed Consent: A Study of Decisionmaking in Psychiatry

Abstract: Hailed by its proponents as a doctrine that promises more equitable doctor-patient relationships, informed consent has also been decried as posing serious threats to the quality of care in this country Ultimately, what is at stake in the controversy is nothing less than two equally entrenched but compelling strains in American legal and political history--the protection of individual autonomy versus societal regulation of individual freedom for the greater common good In the case of psychiatric patients, the issue is further complicated because it is often precisely the patient's very capacity for autonomous action that is in question Central to the ethical doctrine of informed consent is that patients not only be apprised of and give their written consent to a particular treatment--as required by law--but that they understand what the treatment entails and consent to it

John Toland, his methods, manners, and mind

Abstract: Drawing on a variety of published and unpublished material representing Toland's broad interests, Professor Daniel reveals a common theme emphasizing man's capacity for independent thought on basic philosophical, religious, and political issues. Roughly chronological, Daniel's treatment describes Toland's progressive refinement of this fundamental aspect of his thought. After examining, in his early works, the process whereby religion becomes mystified, Toland turned to biography, demonstrating that through it one can regain rational control over religion. Prejudices and superstitions, topics of the Letters to Serena, are shown to be overcome through corrections implicit in the principles of biographical and historical exegesis. Polemic as philosophic methode required Toland to provide a doctrine of esoteric communication. In the course of his later writings this doctrine became grounded in a metaphysics suitable for the Cieronian religion of the pantheists.

Tribal Traditions and European-Western Political Ideologies: The Dilemma of Canada's Native Indians

Abstract: Native Indian leaders in Canada have embraced the European-Western doctrine of sovereignty as the political-legal instrumentality for achieving their version of “the good society.” This article analyzes the appropriateness and feasibility of sovereign statehood for Canada's Indians. Indian aspirations to sovereign statehood run aground on at least two counts: key ideas contained in the European-Western doctrine of sovereignty are incompatible with core values comprising traditional Indian culture: also, the Canadian government is implacably opposed to relinquishing its sovereignty over Indians. This study explores alternative models of self-determination for Canada's Indians and concludes that stateless nationhood offers the best basis on which Indians may be able to negotiate internal self-determination.

Settlement of Disputes by Arbitration in Fifteenth-Century England

Abstract: main preoccupation, epitomized in the work of great scholars such as Maitland, Holdsworth and Plucknett, has been to trace the evolution of legal institutions, procedures and doctrine. Consideration of arbitration has at best been regarded as peripheral to this central task. In part the lack of interest in arbitration stems from a deep-rooted assumption about the nature of legal change in England. Simply stated, it is that legal development is linear and progressive: from the most rudimentary beginnings in the early middle ages, law has been continuously refined and expanded (with minor interruptions) under the absorptive, unifying authority of the Crown. In this scheme consensual modes of dispute settlement such as arbitration stand very near the beginning, testifying both to primitive levels of legal thinking and to the lack of effective governmental power. It is assumed that the growth of formal legal institutions and elaboration of legal doctrine in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries rendered such procedures obsolete by providing more authoritative and effective means for settling disputes in the king's courts. Law and arbitration have been regarded as mutually exclusive: the rise of the former is taken to imply the demise of the latter, while evidence for the continuing practice of arbitration in the late middle ages is interpreted as a reversion to earlier forms necessitated by the virtual breakdown of the legal system. This position is reflected in modern work on fifteenth-century England. Professor Bellamy, for example, in a general survey of law enforcement in late-medieval England, cites arbitration as one of several expedients adopted in response to the inadequacies of the legal system in the fifteenth century. Having described the various common-law institutions and procedures for law enforcement, Bellamy considers devices ancillary to the common law, 'which appeared mainly in the mid-fifteenth century and probably originated in governmental despair at the low level of public order." These included

From somnambulism to the archetypes: the French roots of Jung's split with Freud.

Abstract: According to the common view of Jung as the rebellious crown prince of psychoanalysis, his doctrine of the archetypes appears, at worst, a lightheaded fascination with occultism or, at best, a way to overcome the historical and personalistic reductionism of the Freudian doctrine of sexual stages Against the background of German thought and East-of-the-Rhine psychiatric interests, one is inclined to discuss whether the neuroses are bred in a biographical or an archaeological matrix, or whether we have genes or culture to thank for universal patterns Quite another field of discussion opens up if we begin by noting the geographical fact that Zurich lies West of the Rhine Jung’s connections with Geneva and Paris are far more important than usually assumed; his French heritage is almost suppressed as some kind of secret Probably the explanation for this is in the overwhelming success of psychoanalysis, as a result of which the earlier French psychologists have been largely forgotten Now, due to their rediscovery by Ellenberger (1970), Jung’s dissent from the doctrines of psychoanalysis appears in a new light As we gain new appreciation for the psychological investigations being conducted at the turn of the century by the French hypnotists and their English speaking followers, it is difficult to avoid the impression that the doctrine of the archetypes emerged in Jung’s thought as a means to wed the best of Freud with the best of Janet

Charity Organization Reconsidered

Abstract: Historical references to the charity organization movement of the years 1870-1900 emphasize its relation to the rise of the welfare state and a scientific knowledge base for social work. But charity organizers regarded themselves as religious people working in a religious tradition. A review of their theological assumptions about love and community puts their doctrine and heritage in a different light.

Misconceptions about the Real-Bills Doctrine: A Comment on Sargent and Wallace

Abstract: In their (1982) paper "The Real-Bills Doctrine versus the Quantity Theory: A Reconsideration," Sargent and Wallace develop certain properties of Samuelson's (1958) overlapping-generations-consumption-loan model under alternative monetary policy regimes. They argue that their analysis casts new light on the well-known debate to which they refer in their title, claiming that their results call for "something of a rehabilitation of the real-bills doctrine" (p. 1214). Their analysis per se has all the characteristics we have come to expect from these authors: it is elegant and rigorous, yielding conclusions provocatively strong to the point of being paradoxical. However, Sargent and Wallace's attempted rehabilitation of the real-bills doctrine suffers from the following deficiencies: (1) the conclusions on whose basis they seek to rehabilitate the real-bills doctrine would have been anathema to its proponents; (2) what they refer to as the real-bills doctrine is not the real-bills doctrine; and (3) their interpretation of Adam Smith's analysis of the social productivity of banking is quite misconceived. I shall take up these points in turn.

The deification of man : St. Gregory Palamas and the Orthodox tradition

Abstract: The theological and anthropological basis for the doctrine of deification as expounded by St Gregory Palamas (1296-1359).

The priesthood of Christ in Anglican doctrine and devotion, 1827-1900

Abstract: This thesis traces the history of the interpretation of the doctrine of Christ as priest in the doctrine and devotion of representatives of the Church of England from the publication of Keble's Christian Year in 1827 to the Oxford Conference, 'Priesthood and Sacrifice', of 1899. Between these years the image of Christ as priest was a recurring motif in Anglican thought. Representatives of all shades of Churchmanship were remarkably united in a common enthusiasm for the image, but deeply divided over its interpretation. A composite historico-theological analysis of this hitherto uncharted theme unfolds not only the prevalence of this Christological motif in Anglican doctrine and devotion between these years, but also the potency of this image to shape, direct, and unify crucial features of Victorian religious development and theological controversy. The thesis argues, against the backcloth of a brief examination of the role, content, and significance of the doctrine in Anglican religion prior to 1827, that the prevalence and potency of the image of Christ as priest is to be accounted for as expressing a cardinal article of the Church of England's historic lex orandi. The fact that Tractarians, Evangelicals, the majority of Latitudinarians, Ritualists, Anglo-Catholics, and Biblical Scholars, united in adherence to this one thematic doctrinal image, but were, at times, bitterly divided over their understanding of it, indicates a focal point of Anglican religion, endorsed in its liturgy; namely, that Christ is "a great High Priest", through whom, and with whom, and in whom alone, the Church receives from God His life and gives t« God its life, in worship and service. The thesis seeks to recover the historic, distinctive prominence of this doctrinal and devotional theme in Anglican religion.

The Origins of the Doctrine of Creation Ex Nihilo

Abstract: La doctrine de la creation ex nihilo est tardive tant chez les Juifs que chez les Chretiens. L'A. se propose de montrer que cette doctrine est apparue comme presuppose necessaire de la croyance en la resurrection des corps.

On the Right to Be Punished: Some Doubts

Abstract: Some doctrines outlive the systems of philosophy that bear them. Such is the doctrine that a criminal has a right to be punished for his crime. Born of Hegelian social philosophy, it still finds adherents and sympathizers long after the death of its progenitor. The reason for its independent life is not hard to make out. The doctrine captures for many the uplifting thought that human society owes even its most inimical members respect as responsible, moral agents. Punishment is part of any institution of social control that treats persons as responsible, moral agents, and thus punishment becomes a sign of respect. To those attracted to moral theories whose shibboleth is respect for persons, the doctrine has immediate appeal. At the same time, talk about a criminal's right to be punished is bound to perplex. What manner of right is this? A right to suffer the deprivation of some good or to be visited with some evil? What could ever possess a person to want to assert such a right? The perplexity that these questions engender thus checks any inclination to embrace the doctrine. Looked at in one way, the doctrine is appealing; looked at in another, it is a morass of confusion.

Multicultural education and racism in American schools

Abstract: The events, both legal and illegal, that have led to the miseducation of American groups, particularly minorities of visible distinction, have been many and span centuries. Some of these occurrences were carried out in conjunction with a doctrine that had as its basis a premise of racial superiority. Consequently, our schools of today, whether by design or due to a lack of awareness on the part of many educators, are a product of this doctrine of racial superiority. The purpose of this paper is to review how racism, expressed through attitudes and court decisions, has come to demand the antidote of multicultural education, and to offer suggestions as to how multicultural education can be invaluable in

Did Britain Start the Cold War? Bevin and the Truman Doctrine

Abstract: There is little reason to doubt that the Truman Doctrine was the direct result of the British announcement to the Americans on 21 February 1947 of the almost immediate withdrawal of financial aid to Greece. The Truman, Doctrine, in turn, is generally accepted as the real beginning of the Cold War; at least it is the declaration of full American involvement. What is not so definite is the British motivation for their withdrawal of aid. It is commonly assumed to have been the result of severe British financial difficulties in February 1947. In hindsight, this is highly credible because of the fuel crisis of that month and its effect on the export programme, as well as the approaching exhaustion of the American loan. It then follows that the British Labour government abandoned Greece at a time when its own continuation was in danger.

The Mormon Concept of Mother in Heaven: A Sociological Account of Its Origins and Development

Abstract: Among modern Western religions, Mormon belief is quite distinctive in its inclusion of a Heavenly Mother figure among its divine personages. This paper examines some of the historical and theological background of the Mormon "Mother in Heaven." We assess different explanations accounting for this belief and show its logical consistency with other aspects of Mormon doctrine. Further, we look at the politics associated with the Mother In Heaven belief which bear on feminist issues among Mormons. In recent times we find that the existence of a divine female has become a rallying symbol for some Mormon feminists within an incipient "grass roots" movement aimed at acquiring greater power and equality within the church. We note how this belief in a female deity has primarily functioned in conservative ways to sustain certain institutional ends rather than feminist concerns. Considering the prospects for change in Mormonism's position on the role of women, we conclude that the presence of a goddess in the pantheon is no guarantee of sexual equality in the real world. Among the various faiths within the Judeo-Christian tradition, belief in a female deity is rather uncommon. One important exception to this image of an exclusively male-occupied pantheon is found in the Mormon belief in a Heavenly Mother. This study is intended as a sociological analysis of this particular Mormon belief. We will consider the historical expressions of the belief, assess some explanatory models which are used to account for its origins, and discuss the contending interests involved in the spread of popularity of the belief. This should permit us to specify a variety of functions served by the belief for a number of past and present groups of Mormons. Through our analysis, we hope to shed light not only on Mormonism as an exceptional case within Christianity, but also on the explanation of the development of religious conceptions, particularly concepts of divine beings. This latter issue has been central to the sociological study of religion in the work of Durkheim (1965) and, more recently, Swanson (1960; 1967). The theological background of Mormonism's Mother in Heaven belief is worth noting. The religious innovations of Joseph Smith include the belief in multiple gods and the tenet that humans and gods merely represent different levels of spiritual development. A popular Mormon aphorism holds that, "As man is, God once was, and as God is, man may become." In order to become a god (i.e., exaltation or achieving the highest degree of glory possible in heaven), one must hold to certain essential moral teachings, including being married in an officially sanctioned marriage ceremony conducted only in Mormon temples. This rite of entering into the "new and everlasting covenent of celestial marriage" binds or

Unanimity, Agreement, and Liberalism: A Critique of James Buchanan's Social Philosophy

Abstract: LiN THE LAST twenty years there has been a number of statements of the credo of classical liberalism by political economists, political philosophers, and social scientists. Although the litany of that doctrine, compromising a belief in the efficiency value of free markets, the ethical value of individual liberty, the conceptual distinction between law and state, and the delineation of the respective spheres of compulsory and voluntary action has secured considerable agreement from the believers, the same cannot be said of the ultimate foundations of the doctrine. Indeed, many of even its most sophisticated advocates eschew such metaphysical questions. This is mainly because most contemporary classical liberals are overtly positivist in their understanding of the nature of ultimate ethical evaluations. This is true even of those who espouse a specifically nonpositivist methodology of the social sciences.1 Thus political economists tend to regard ultimate liberal value judgments as being outside the realm of rationality and restrict reason to a Humean calculative role of determining means to given ends: it is assumed that there is in fact much less disagreement about ends than is commonly supposed. At most, a broad utilitarianism is offered as an ethical justification for the familiar institutions and policies of the liberal order. However, irrespective of the question of the rationality of utilitarian ethical values, it is clearly apparent that a purely calculative approach to the justification of liberalism is internally inadequate. Whatever virtues an exchange process may have in the way of production of desirable social outcomes, this cannot logically be exhaustive of all social values. This is because, as a matter of logic, an exchange process must originate with objects that are themselves not the product of exchange. It is the search for the grounds of entitlement for such objects that has led many

Doctors and hospitals: an antitrust perspective on traditional relationships.

Abstract: Under new pressures for cost containment, hospitals are increasingly asserting interests that conflict with those of physicians. Professor Havighurst argues that legal rules under which practitioners have challenged denials of hospital admitting privileges should be clarified in order that hospitals can more effectively carry out their new cost-containment and other responsibilities. He invokes antitrust law's "essential-facilities" doctrine to protect those abused by their competitors on a hospital staff, but he contends that, if a hospital participates in decisionmaking as an independent actor--even though it acts in concert with its physicians--, antitrust courts should lower the level of scrutiny to a point at which most challenges can be dismissed summarily. He analogizes restraints imposed by hospitals on competition between health professionals to vertical restraints of other kinds, and draws conclusions critical of doctrine traditionally applicable to the latter.

Spinoza's Ethical Doctrine and the Unity of Human Nature

Abstract: In Five Types of Ethical Theory, C. D. Broad chose to expound Spinoza's system as representative of ethical egoism? In doing so he was not espousing an unorthodox view; nearly all commentators have characterzed Spinoza's ethical theory as egoistic, although enlightened. Nor have they done so without basis; Spinoza explicitly states that \"The endeavor after self-preservation is the primary and only foundation of virtue. ''~ Similar passages are found throughout Book IV of the Ethics, and the egoistic principle appears to play a fundamental role in all of Spinoza's reasoning about what a person ought to do (what reason dictates). 3 But that Spinoza is at least not an ordinary egoist is strongly suggested by E IV, 72, which states that \"A free man never acts deceitfully, but always honourably.\" This proposition is puzzling because (l) for Spinoza the free man is the person who always acts according to the dictates of reason; (2) reason for each person prescribes that he do whatever is conducive to his own self-preservation; and (3) it seems likely that situations will arise in which a person can preserve his own being only by deceitful or dishonorable action. That Spinoza meant what he said in E IV, 72, is