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Kinds of Christians Terms modified by Christians Selected AbstractsSITUATING ADMINISTRATIVE RESPONSIBILITY: A COMPARISON OF MEDIEVAL CHRISTIAN AND MEDIEVAL ISLAMIC ADMINISTRATIVE THOUGHTPUBLIC ADMINISTRATION, Issue 3 2006SARAR. Contemporary studies of administrative thought allow only a limited range of viability for medieval and non-Western thought on the subject of public administration. This tendency belies the wealth of thought embedded within this broad literature. This paper investigates the matter of administrative accountability and responsibility through the lens of a comparative theorist of historical administrative thought. In order to assess the explanatory potential of early and non-Western administrative studies, two texts have been chosen, both previously unanalysed in conjunction (to the best of my knowledge) from the perspective of the administrative theorist , John of Salisbury's Policraticus and Abu al-Hassan Al-Mawardi's Al-Akham al-Sultaniyya w'al-Wilayat al Diniyya (The Ordinances of Government). Through an analysis of ideas of delegation and responsibility within these texts, the paper seeks to develop a critique of the place of revealed religious authority in the solution to the questions ,who are administrators responsible to?' and ,what are administrators responsible for?' [source] WHO ARE THE CHRISTIANS OF THE ARAB WORLD?,INTERNATIONAL REVIEW OF MISSION, Issue 352 2000Tarek Mitri First page of article [source] THE TRUTH ABOUT CONSERVATIVE CHRISTIANS: WHAT THEY THINK AND WHAT THEY BELIEVE By Andrew Greeley and Michael HoutJOURNAL FOR THE SCIENTIFIC STUDY OF RELIGION, Issue 1 2007DARREN SHERKAT No abstract is available for this article. [source] AN INTERFAITH WISDOM: SCRIPTURAL REASONING BETWEEN JEWS, CHRISTIANS AND MUSLIMSMODERN THEOLOGY, Issue 3 2006DAVID F. FORD The origins of scriptural reasoning, in which Jews, Christians and Muslims study their scriptures in conversation with each other, are described. Some maxims implicit in its form of Abrahamic collegiality are distilled (including the emphasis on friendship rather than consensus) and its institutional setting is analysed under the headings of House (synagogue, church, mosque), campus (university) and tent (settings where scriptural reasoning is practised). The attempt to cope with the superabundance of meaning in the scriptures is explored in terms of doing justice to the plain sense and other senses, using various theoretical conceptualities, and seeking wisdom together, concluding with remarks on scriptural reasoning in the public sphere. [source] Discerning the Spirits, Practicing the Faiths: Why Be Lutheran?DIALOG, Issue 1 2002Martha Stortz Some spiritual wanderers today are "unstuck" in their faith, therefore, they have many faiths; while others are securely "stuck" in their tradition. Getting stuck is desirable, and the path is through spiritual practice. One's inner life and even perception of reality become transformed through daily habits such as prayer, worship, and discipline. The Lutheran insight that a practicing Christian is simultaneously saint and sinner offers comfort and honest self,understanding. [source] Being Hyphenated: Reflections of a Buddhist,ChristianDIALOG, Issue 4 2001Tim Dutcher, Walls [source] Scinditur in partes populus: Pope Damasus and the Martyrs of RomeEARLY MEDIEVAL EUROPE, Issue 3 2000Marianne Sághy Pope Damasus (366,384) was the impresario of the late antique cult of the martyrs at Rome. Damasus celebrated the martyrs with epigrams written in Virgilian hexameters which he had engraved in exquisite lettering on their tombs. This article investigates the specifically Roman context of these activities as a means of shedding new light on Damasus' purposes. The enhancement of the cult of the Roman martyrs was more than a stage in the process of christianisation, creating Christian but still distinctively Roman holy patrons for the urbs. It was also directed against rival Christian traditions, including Nicene splinter groups such as the Ursinians and Luciferians who contested Damasus' election. The epi grams allowed Damasus to inscribe very specific and carefully shaped meanings on strategic and often contested sites within the Christian topography of Rome. By placing the Damasan epigrams in the context of a bloody ecclesiastical factionalism in Rome, this paper argues that these very public celebrations of the martyrs were used to promote concord and consensus within the Catholic community in Rome. [source] Lifetime alcohol use, abuse and dependence among university students in Lebanon: exploring the role of religiosity in different religious faithsADDICTION, Issue 6 2009Lilian A. Ghandour ABSTRACT Aims To examine alcohol consumption and the role of religiosity in alcohol use disorders in Christian, Druze and Muslim youth in Lebanon, given their distinct religious doctrines and social norms. Methods Using a self-completed anonymous questionnaire, data were collected on 1837 students, selected randomly from two large private universities in Beirut. Life-time abuse and dependence were measured as per the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual version IV. Findings Alcohol use was more common in Christians, who started drinking younger and were twice as likely to be diagnosed with abuse and dependence. However, among ever drinkers, the odds of alcohol use disorders were comparable across religious groups. Believing in God and practising one's faith were related inversely to alcohol abuse and dependence in all religious groups, even among ever drinkers (belief in God only). The associations were sometimes stronger for Muslims, suggesting that religiosity may play a larger role in a more proscriptive religion, as postulated by,reference group theory'. Conclusions Students belonging to conservative religious groups may be shielded from the opportunity to try alcohol. Once an ever drinker, however, religion is not related to the odds of an alcohol use disorder. Religiosity (i.e. belief in God and religious practice) is, nevertheless, related inversely to alcohol-related problems, even among drinkers. Findings from this culturally and religiously diverse Arab country corroborate the international literature on religion, religiosity and alcohol use, highlighting potential differences between Christians and Muslims. [source] The historic man-made soils of the Generalife garden (La Alhambra, Granada, Spain)EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF SOIL SCIENCE, Issue 1 2007R. Delgado Summary We studied the soils of the Patio de la Acequia garden of the Generalife, a palatial villa forming part of La Alhambra, a World Heritage Site in Granada, Spain. This garden, which is estimated to be around 700 years old, is the oldest historical garden in the Western World. The soils are man-made cumulimollihumic-calcaric (hypereutric, anthric) Regosols. Noteworthy amongst the main pedogenic processes, in relation to the human activities of cultivation, irrigation and tillage, are horizonation, melanization (the contents of organic carbon varied between 0.59% and 8.87%, and those of P205 extracted with citric acid between 723 mg kg,1 and 7333 mg kg,1, with maximae in the Ap horizons) and structure formation. The soil fabric, studied at the ultramicroscopic level using scanning electron microscopy, is of laminar and partition-walls' type in the lower horizons, depending on the microped zones. The partition-walls' fabrics found are different to those of the possible pre-existing sedimentary fabrics. These are numerous lithological discontinuities and at least two burials, leading us to deduce that there have been two main stages of filling with materials in the formation of these soils. The first is Arabic-Medieval (13th century), when the garden was created, its surface being some 50 cm below the level of the paved area of the present patio. In the deeper parts, the materials employed in the fill are similar to the in situ soils of the zone, unaffected by the buildings. The second stage is Christian (15th century to the present day). During this period the Medieval garden was gradually buried under a layer of materials from the nearby soils and/or sediments mixed with manure until the surface was only just below the level of the paved area of the patio. In this work we discuss the difficult classification of these relatively little studied soils. In spite of their being clearly related to human activity, they are not classified as Anthrosols in the FAO system (1998) because soil materials cannot be classified as anthropopedogenic or as anthropogeomorphic. [source] Sacred Practices in Highly Religious Families: Christian, Jewish, Mormon, and Muslim Perspectives,FAMILY PROCESS, Issue 2 2004Loren Marks Ph.D. Quantitative research examining linkages between family relationships and religious experience has increased substantially in recent years. However, related qualitative research, including research that examines the processes and meanings behind recurring religion-family correlations, remains scant. To address this paucity, a racially diverse sample (N=24) of married, highly religious Christian, Jewish, Mormon, and Muslim parents of school-aged children were interviewed regarding the importance of religious family interactions, rituals, and practices in their families. Mothers and fathers discussed several religious practices that were meaningful to them and explained why these practices were meaningful. Parents also identified costs and challenges associated with these practices. Interview data are presented in connection with three themes: (1) "practicing [and parenting] what you preach," (2) religious practices, family connection, and family communion, and (3) costs of family religious practices. The importance of family clinicians and researchers attending to the influence of religious practice in the lives of highly religious individuals and families is discussed. [source] Nietzsche's Peace with Islam: My Enemy's Enemy is my FriendGERMAN LIFE AND LETTERS, Issue 1 2003Ian Almond This article examines the many references in Nietzsche's work to Islam and Islamic cultures, and situates them in the general context of his thought. Nietzsche's praise of Islam as a ,ja,sagende semitische Religion', his admiration for Hafiz, his appreciation of Muslim Spain, his belief in the essentially life,affirming character of Islam, not only spring from a desire to find a palatable Other to Judaeo,Christian,European modernity, but also comment on how little Nietzsche actually knew about the cultures he so readily appropriated in his assault on European modernity. Nietzsche's negative comments on Islam , his generic dismissal of Islam with other religions as manipulative thought systems, his depiction of Mohammed as a cunning impostor, reveal in Nietzsche not only the same ambiguities towards Islam as we find towards Christ or Judaism, but also a willingness to use the multiple identities of Islam for different purposes at different moments in his work. Noch eine letzte Frage: Wenn wir von Jugend an geglaubt hätten, daß alles Seelenheil von einem Anderen als Jesus ist, ausfließe, etwa von Muhamed, ist es nicht sicher, daß wir derselben Segnungen theilhaftig geworden wären? Letter to Elisabeth Nietzsche, 11 June 1865 [source] Religious Involvement, Conventional Christian, and Unconventional Nonmaterialist BeliefsJOURNAL FOR THE SCIENTIFIC STUDY OF RELIGION, Issue 4 2006TONY GLENDINNING This article uses a Scottish national sample to examine the relationship between church involvement, religious socialization among nonattenders, orthodox Christian beliefs, and a variety of unconventional nonmaterialist beliefs. Greater conventional religious belief is strongly associated with supposed alternatives but nonetheless, nonattenders are more likely to believe in the unconventional over and above any enduring sympathy they may hold for Christian doctrine. One group in particular stands out: belief remains high among nonattenders who once went to services regularly and seriously contemplate reengaging with organized religion. The article discusses the importance of these findings for "believing but not belonging." [source] Religiously oriented mindfulness-based cognitive therapyJOURNAL OF CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGY, Issue 2 2009William Hathaway Abstract The interface of religiously accommodative and oriented treatments and the cognitive,behavioral tradition is explored. In terms of Hayes' characterization of the evolution of the cognitive,behavioral tradition through three waves, considerable theoretical, clinical, and empirical work emerged to support a religiously accommodative cognitive,behavioral therapy (CBT) during the second-generation CBTs. Rather than including religion and spirituality, the third-wave CBT traditions have engaged in spiritual themes inspired heavily from Eastern religious traditions. The authors discuss the application of a religiously congruent third-wave cognitive therapy with a depressed conservatively Christian client. Some conceptual challenges and rationales for adopting such treatments with Christian or other theist clients are described. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Clin Psychol: In Session 65:158,171, 2009. [source] OF EAGLES AND CROWS, LIONS AND OXEN: Blake and the Disruption of EthicsJOURNAL OF RELIGIOUS ETHICS, Issue 1 2009D. M. Yeager ABSTRACT Why focus on the work of William Blake in a journal dedicated to religious ethics? The question is neither trivial nor rhetorical. Blake's work is certainly not in anyone's canon of significant texts for the study of Christian or, more broadly, religious ethics. Yet Blake, however subversive his views, sought to lay out a Christian vision of the good, alternated between prophetic denunciations of the world's folly and harrowing laments over the wreck of the world's promise, and wrote poetry as if poetry might mend the world. Setting imagination against the calculations of reason and the comfort of custom, Blake's poems inspire questions about the relationship of ethics to prophecy, and open the possibility that ethics itself would be markedly enriched could it find a place for what Thomas J. J. Altizer has called Christian epic poetry. [source] THE UNIVERSALITY OF JEWISH ETHICS: A Rejoinder to Secularist CriticsJOURNAL OF RELIGIOUS ETHICS, Issue 2 2008David Novak ABSTRACT Jewish ethics like Judaism itself has often been charged with being "particularistic," and in modernity it has been unfavorably compared with the universality of secular ethics. This charge has become acute philosophically when the comparison is made with the ethics of Kant. However, at this level, much of the ethical rejection of Jewish particularism, especially its being beholden to a God who is above the universe to whom this God prescribes moral norms and judges according to them, is also a rejection of Christian (or any other monotheistic) ethics, no matter how otherwise universal. Yet this essay argues that Jewish ethics that prescribes norms for all humans, and that is knowable by all humans, actually constitutes a wider moral universe than does Kantian ethics, because it can include non-rational human objects and even non-human objects altogether. This essay also argues that a totally egalitarian moral universe, encompassing all human relations, becomes an infinite, totalizing universe, which can easily become the ideological justification (ratio essendi) of a totalitarian regime. [source] ANTHROPOS AND ETHICS Categories of Inquiry and Procedures of ComparisonJOURNAL OF RELIGIOUS ETHICS, Issue 2 2005Thomas A. Lewis ABSTRACT Building on influential work in virtue ethics, this collection of essays examines the categories of self, person, and anthropology as foci for comparative analysis. The papers unite reflections on theory and method with descriptive work that addresses thinkers from the modern West, Christian and Jewish Late Antiquity, early China, and other settings. The introduction sets out central methodological issues that are subsequently taken up in each essay, including the origin of the categories through which comparison proceeds, the status of these categories in the process of comparison, and the goals of comparison. In considering the question of goals, the introduction draws connections between comparative study and historical study within one tradition. Both types of analysis can bridge the gap between historical and normative work by attending to the ways in which the questions a scholar asks,not just the answers found,vary from one context to another. [source] "Britain's Spiritual Life: How Can It Be Deepened?": Seebohm Rowntree, Russell Lavers, and the "Crisis of Belief", ca.JOURNAL OF RELIGIOUS HISTORY, Issue 1 2005This article examines the response of two social investigators in the early post-World War II period to the apparent secularization of British society. It explains how an unpublished survey that the two men carried out, along with the work of other Christian and non-Christian commentators in this period, expressed the hope that religious influences would be strengthened through secular institutions, including communal organizations, workplaces, and the military. A revival of Christian belief, in some form, was seen as a bulwark against communism in the context of the Cold War in which the Soviet regime was seen to present a threat to the "Christian civilization" of the West. The "spiritual life of the nation" was synonymous with the "national character," and for the information and opinion on which their study was based, Seebohm Rowntree and Russell Lavers turned to those who they believed were in a position to influence the "national character." [source] THE SON MORE VISIBLE: IMMATERIALISM AND THE INCARNATIONMODERN THEOLOGY, Issue 1 2010MARC A. HIGHT In this article we argue that an immaterialist ontology,a metaphysic that denies the existence of material substance,is more consonant with Christian dogma than any ontology that includes the existence of material substance. We use the philosophy of the famous eighteenth-century Irish immaterialist George Berkeley as a guide while engaging one particularly difficult Christian mystery: the doctrine of the Incarnation of Christ. The goal is to make plausible the claim that, from the analysis of this one example, there are strong reasons for thinking that if one wants to be a Christian one ought to be an immaterialist. [source] SETTING FREE THE MOTHER BIRD: ON READING A STRANGE TEXTMODERN THEOLOGY, Issue 4 2006RACHEL MUERS Deuteronomy 22:6,7 has been used in recent theological discussions of environmental ethics. Earlier traditions of interpretation (Jewish and Christian) suggest the further possibility of reading it as a text about how to read texts and about the nature and function of law. This article examines, and offers a contemporary Christian reappropriation of, these traditions of interpretation. The focus is on how the confrontation with the vulnerable other as a locus of divine revelation interrupts and transforms relations of use and exploitation. It is argued that in a Christian reading of the bird's-nest precept Christ "does what the precept does". [source] Liturgy, Art and PoliticsMODERN THEOLOGY, Issue 2 2000Catherine Pickstock This article examines the category of "liturgy" in its relation to aesthetics, ethics and politics. It is argued that liturgy occupies a unique mediating position between art and politics, for, on the one hand, it ensures that the political points perpetually beyond itself, and, on the other hand, the artistic is prevented from lapsing into a "magic circle" of compensatory reality or merely "fine" art. Alternative aesthetic formulations, for example, that of Adorno, are examined and shown to be problematic and ultimately nihilistic and unrealizable. By contrast, a liturgical aesthetic is shown to have a genuine ethical practicability. Modernity is then examined. It is argued that late capitalist structures,including (contra Paul Piccone) is apparently opposed structures, such a post-Fordist organicism,can be seen as a kind of anti-liturgy liturgy, or, one might say here, "ritual" (for all the latter term's more dubious post-nineteenth century assumptions can here be assumed), which has produced an entirely self-perpetuating minimal automated subjectivity. Finally, it is concluded that the manifold problems faced by non-liturgical aesthetics and politics can be reduced to this separation of the ideal from the real. This separation is further examined. The lineaments of a specific liturgical tradition,in this case, the Christian,and especially its eucharistic focus,are analyzed, and it is suggested that here one might find suggestions as to a fusion of the ideal and the real, and hence indications of how one might begin to outwit several of the problems in aesthetic and political theory already shown to involve difficulties. [source] Nirvana as the Last Thing?MODERN THEOLOGY, Issue 1 2000The Iconic End of the Narrative Imagination The essay argues that the life of the world to come, the hoped-for final end of the individual Christian, cannot be characterized or represented narratively; that it can be represented both formally and ironically; and that what Buddhists have said about Nirvana may serve Christian theologians in the development of more adequate formal and iconic representations of the life of the world to come. This is, then an essay in Christian theology concerned primarily to elucidate, at a relatively high degree of abstraction, some syntactical elements in the Christian master text; and secondarily, to comment upon some semantic elements therein. [source] Forbidden intimacies: Christian,Muslim intermarriage in East Kalimantan, IndonesiaAMERICAN ETHNOLOGIST, Issue 3 2009JENNIFER CONNOLLY ABSTRACT As a disadvantaged minority, Dayaks have turned to Christianity as a way to maintain their ethnic identity in the face of threats from their Muslim neighbors. Given Indonesian state policies' compelling conversion in the case of interfaith marriage, most anthropological analyses would attribute the anguish Christian Dayaks experience over such marriages to the threat it poses to their community-building efforts. But Dayaks themselves anchor their concerns about intermarriage in religious and familial obligations, not in the maintenance of collective religious and ethnic identities. Drawing on the work of Fredrik Barth, I argue that understanding the nature of interfaith marriage and the fears it arouses requires anthropologists to consider not only the macrolevel of state policies and the median level of collective identities but also the more intimate emotional and experiential level of the family and the individual. [marriage, Indonesia, Islam, Christianity, ethnicity] [source] A Christian or a Laïc Europe?RATIO JURIS, Issue 2 2005Christian Values, European Identity Weiler has advocated that the writing of a Constitution for the European Union is a very apt moment to reconsider the conceptualization of freedom of conscience and religion. On constitutional and historical grounds, he has advocated that a reference to Christian values should be made in the preamble of the European fundamental law, and that this will be the alternative most respectful to the pluralistic national solutions, ranging from republican non-confessionality to the establishment of an official church. But contrary to what Weiler argues, the drafting of the constitution of the European Union is not bound by the present shape of European constitutional traditions; moreover, it is hard to conclude that the present common constitutional traditions require an explicit reference to Christianity to be included in the text. Furthermore, the claim that the individual and collective identities of Europeans are unavoidably shaped by Christian values is only tenable if we uphold a rather simplistic relation between history, memory, and identity. Finally, once one moves from law and history to practical reasoning, one finds that there are good substantive reasons why our collective identity should not contain reference to Christian values. [source] Teaching & Learning Guide for: Can a Darwinian Be a Christian?RELIGION COMPASS (ELECTRONIC), Issue 3 2008Gregory W. Dawes Author's Introduction The article was provoked by recent discussion of the so-called ,conflict thesis': the idea that the Christian faith and the findings of modern science are necessarily at odds. This thesis is generally attributed to John William Draper (1811,1882) and Andrew Dickson White (1832,1918). Recent opposition to their work dates from a 1979 publication by James Moore. Moore argues that the warfare metaphor employed by Draper and White misrepresents the historical reality, by suggesting that the religion and science debates were clashes between distinct groups of people who were sharply polarized and violently antagonistic. Since then, similar criticisms have been made by historians, such as David Livingstone, Ronald Numbers, and David Lindberg. A key question here is: what does the conflict thesis entail? If it holds that Christian thinkers have invariably opposed scientific progress, while the defenders of science have been non-believers, it would be demonstrably false. But there exist more interesting forms of conflict thesis, which are philosophical rather than historical. These suggest that there is some tension between what Christians have traditionally believed and the findings of modern science, particularly Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection. Even if the two are not, strictly speaking, incompatible, the truth of one may constitute evidence against the truth of the other. Darwin's theory also undercuts traditional arguments from design, and highlights the epistemological divide between religious and scientific conceptions of authority. Online Materials The following sites contain audio and video files, as well as text and images. 1. http://www.meta-library.net/history/intro-frame.html This is a useful overview of the historical debate by Ronald Numbers, with links to other sites. Most presenters follow Moore in opposing the conflict thesis, narrowly defined, but neglect the conflicts that my article highlights. 2. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/id/program.html Here one can view an excellent, 2-h PBS television documentary on the Dover, Pennsylvania trial in December 2005 regarding the teaching of ,intelligent design' (ID) in public schools. 3. http://www.butler.edu/clergyproject/rel_evol_sun.htm This is a letter signed by more than 11,000 clergy, arguing that there is no conflict between religion and science, and encouraging (among other things) the liturgical celebration of evolution by natural selection. 4. http://www.discovery.org/csc/ At the other end of the theological spectrum, this is the website of the Discovery Institute, devoted to opposing Darwinism and promoting ,intelligent design' (ID). Controversially, it presents ID as a scientific theory, rather than a religious doctrine. 5. http://www.asa3.org/ Somewhere between the Clergy Letter Project and the Discovery Institute lies the American Scientific Affiliation (ASA). The ASA ,does not take a position when there is honest disagreement between Christians', so it embraces a variety of perspectives. Sample Syllabus The following could form the basis for a graduate seminar on religion and science, focusing on the Darwinian controversies. One could, for instance, devote two classes to each of these topics. 1. The Draper-White Thesis I recommend reading extracts from the two writers thought to be responsible for the conflict thesis, to establish what each actually said. John William Draper, The History of the Conflict between Religion and Science, International Scientific Series 13 (London: Henry S. King & Co., 1875), chap. 8. Andrew Dickson White, A History of the Warfare of Science with Theology in Christendom (1896; New York, NY: Dover Publications, 1960), vol. 1, chap. 1. 2. Criticism of the Draper-White Thesis Either of the following readings from historians critical of Draper and White's work would be a useful starting point for discussion. James R. Moore, The Post-Darwinian Controversies: A Study of the Protestant Struggle to Come to Terms with Darwin in Great Britain and America, 1870,1900 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1979), chap. 1. David N. Livingstone, ,Re-placing Darwinism and Christianity', in David C. Lindberg and Ronald L. Numbers (eds.), When Science and Christianity Meet, pp. 183,202 (Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 2003). 3. The Incompatibility Thesis Many authors attempt to show that Darwinism and Christianity and compatible. But it would be useful to examine Pope John Paul II's statement on this topic, along with some responses by biologists and philosophers. John Paul II, ,The Pope's Message on Evolution and Four Commentaries', The Quarterly Review of Biology, 72:4 (1997): 375,406. 4. The Evidential Thesis Students might enjoy reading and discussing the following article by a leading evolutionary biologist. George C. Williams, ,Mother Nature Is a Wicked Old Witch', in Matthew H. Nitecki and Doris V. Nitecki (eds.), Evolutionary Ethics, 217,31 (Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1993). 5. The Replacement Thesis This is an important but often neglected book. Students would benefit from reading at least the first chapter. Neal C. Gillespie, Charles Darwin and the Problem of Creation (Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1979), chap. 1. 6. The Faith and Reason Thesis The following article by a well-known historian and philosopher of science touches on some of the key issues. Ernan McMullin, ,Evolution and Special Creation', Zygon 28:3 (1993): 299,335. Focus Questions 1There exist many Christian thinkers who accept Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection. Does that mean there is no conflict between Darwinism and Christianity? 2Taken at face value, Genesis 1,3 tells the story of the origins of the world and of human beings. What aspects of that story would you consider essential to the Christian faith? 3If we have an entirely natural explanation of the origins of complex living organisms, do we still have reasons to believe in a creator God? 4If God could have created complex living beings by a simple command, why would he choose a lengthy and wasteful process such as natural selection? 5Could a Christian regard the existence of God in the same way as a scientific hypothesis, that is to say, to be accepted only in so far as it is supported by the evidence? Seminar Activity I would suggest a debate, in which students sympathetic to the creationist position are asked to defend Darwin's theory, while students sympathetic to evolution are asked to argue against it. [source] Christianity and Cultures: Shaping Christian Thinking in Context , Edited by David Emmanuel Singh and Bernard C. FarrRELIGIOUS STUDIES REVIEW, Issue 3 2009Robert C. McCready No abstract is available for this article. [source] The Skeptical, Passionate Christian: Tools for Living Faithfully in an Uncertain World , By Michael F. DuffyRELIGIOUS STUDIES REVIEW, Issue 1 2007David H. Jensen No abstract is available for this article. [source] The Ecumenical Assembly for Justice, Peace and the Integrity of CreationTHE ECUMENICAL REVIEW, Issue 2 2004Heino Falcke The Vancouver assembly of the World Council of Churches in 1983, in part through the efforts of Heino Falcke and the delegates from the GDR, called on the WCC "to engage member churches in a conciliar process of mutual commitment to justice, peace and the integrity of creation". In the GDR, the high point of this conciliar process was an Ecumenical Assembly of Churches and Christians which met in three sessions in 1988 and 1989, and which, not least because of the involvement of peace, environmental and human rights groups, made unprecedented demands for the reform of the GDR and influenced the citizens' movements and political parties formed at the time of the peaceful revolution of autumn 1989. As envisaged at the Vancouver assembly, the conciliar process was intended to link the issue of peace, a priority at that time for many WCC members in the northern hemisphere, with that of global justice, an overriding concern for churches in the South. In the course of preparations for the Ecumenical Assembly in the GDR, however, the discourse of justice was applied to GDR society itself, something that was reflected in the 10,000 proposals from parishes, groups and individuals for the assembly, and in the "testimonies of concern" with which the assembly opened its first session in February 1988. In this article,1which comes from a conference in Dresden in April 1999 to mark the 10th anniversary of the final session of the Ecumenical Assembly, Falcke reflects on how the assembly changed from being a Christian, church gathering to becoming an emerging opposition within civil society. [source] Augustine's Christian,Platonist Account of Goodness: A ReconsiderationTHE HEYTHROP JOURNAL, Issue 3 2002F.B.A. Asiedu Augustine's metaphysics is a subject little studied, but often much criticized. Among the recent studies of Augustine's metaphysics, Scott MacDonald's interpretation of Augustine's notion of goodness claims that Augustine's account is incoherent. This suggests a reading of Augustine that is somewhat problematic. This article argues that much of the difficulty that MacDonald claims rests on a misunderstanding of Augustine's views about the goodness of creation and existence and the corruptibility of created things. Augustine's position takes for granted an understanding of existence (or being) as a good and the participation of all things in the pre,eminent good, that is God. [source] James Fodor's Christian Theory of Truth: Is it Christian?THE HEYTHROP JOURNAL, Issue 4 2000Richard Davis The ,task confronting contemporary theology', says James Fodor, ,is that of the rehabilitation or recovery of a distinctively Christian vision of truth' (Christian Hermeneutics[Oxford, 1995] p. 72). In this paper I examine Fodor's attempt to construct a Christian or transformational theory of truth. I argue that his analysis of truth in terms of transformation leads to a concept of truth which is both subjective and relative. I argue further that Fodor's truth theory is either committed to a version of creative anti-realism, according to which the existence of basic structure of the world is determined by our linguistic activities, or it implies that although our language doesn't correspond to the world, we should go on making our theological truth claims anyway. I conclude that Fodor's Christian theory of truth is in most crucial respects not Christian at all. [source] Not Just ,Visitors' to Prisons:The Experiences of Imams who Work Inside the Penal SystemTHE HOWARD JOURNAL OF CRIMINAL JUSTICE, Issue 1 2001Basia Spalek This article presents the results of a study exploring the consequences of working within a Christian-dominated penal system upon a group of Imams who regularly visit prisons. The Islamic religion is currently the fastest growing non-Christian religion in British prisons and so it was considered to be important to document the experiences of the spiritual guides of this faith. Interview data revealed that the Imams face many disadvantages as a result of belonging to a non-Christian religion, amounting to a form of ,institutional racism'. However, many of them revealed that they were not the passive victims of institutional racism (and sometimes direct racism also), but rather struggled against their material conditions in order to force the prisons in which they work to respond to their own needs and those of the prisoners whom they serve. Nonetheless, it appears that any opportunities for change are limited by the structural imbalance between Christian and non-Christian faiths within the penal system. [source] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||