In this article, it is inquired which reasons are decisive for acting in accordance with divine commands, and whether these can be regarded as moral reasons; the emphasis lies on Christianity. To this effect, the position of God as a – basic – lawgiver is expounded, with special attention to the role His power plays. By means of an account of the grounds given to obey God, the selfish motives in this respect are brought to light. It is questioned whether (...) any other elements can be discerned, particularly from a meta-ethical perspective. (shrink)

The search for God’s motive for creation begins with Aristotle, who almost solves the problem but considers he has developed an antinomy. God’s motive becomes clear when Samuel Alexander’s and Bernard Lonergan’s understandings of the Cosmos as an Emergent process is applied to Aristotle’s original conclusions. God’s motive appears to be to make possible the self-development of other entities to enable them to become similar to God. Samuel Alexander identifies the Emergent stages of the process of cosmic development. Bernard Lonergan (...) proposes a cosmic process that develops from stage to stage, with each stage of the process exhibiting greater freedom than the preceding stage, leading to the freedom of humanity to restructure both itself and the world. The complex form of the cosmic process, beginning with the Big Bang, is understandable once the purpose of the process is understood. This purpose is to make possible the free self-creation of new aspects of the being of a created entity, to enable members of that entity to make themselves similar to God in creativity and goodness.God cannot create an entity that is similar to the self-existent God, as God can only create creatures. However God can provide the means, in the Big Bang, to initiate the self-organisation of a series of freely operating cosmic processes, which could lead to the evolution of intelligent animal species. Members of such a species could eventually develop themselves in goodness and creativity, making some members of the species, such as Jesus, similar to God and an appropriate subject of God’s love. Recognition of this purpose leads to the resolution of Aristotle’s antinomy. God is necessarily “hands-off’ the cosmic process once it has been initiated. The Big Bang provides the Energy, the Time and the mathematical Cosmic Constants that make planet Earth, life and the process of evolution possible. The cosmic process is self-organising at the Emergent Stages of Matter and Life, and self-creating at the Emergent Stages of Mind and at the Human Moral-cultural Emergent Stage. Humanity thus becomes the original “Do it yourself” kit. (shrink)

In his previous Quodlibet articles, Anton Karl Kozlovic explicated the religious films fears associated with: satanic infusion, graven images and iconographic perversion, cinematic sinfulness, and being sacrilegious, criticising or devaluing the faith. In this latest instalment, he explores the religious film fears of abandoning orthodoxy, paganisation and the ascendancy of post-Christian culture. Utilising humanist film criticism as the guiding analytical lens, the critical film and religion literature was briefly reviewed and the popular Hollywood cinema selectively scanned to reveal the religionist (...) fears of abandoning orthodoxy, paganisation, and the rise of post-Christian culture. Various pro-film justifications, defences and other counter-arguments were proffered and copiously illustrated with inter-genre exemplars to assuage the anxious. It was concluded that “the movies” are a precious extra-ecclesiastical resource-cum-entertainment that can engage, educate and enlighten audiences, and so should not be pedagogically squandered during the post-Millennial period. Further research into the emerging interdisciplinary field of religion-and-film was recommended. (shrink)

From the Quran and Arabic Language - and all the results apply to Hebraic and Aramaic as well - this paper discusses the real sense of some passages of the Gospel, specially the parable of the Good Samaritan and the episode of Zacchaeus, showing how Exegesis depends on the Semitic distinction between three different “ifs” while our Western Languages confound them in only one “if”.