When Christians worship God, their cultic activities display, in widely varying combinations, attitudes of fear, respect, love, trust, awe, deference and obedience. They worship the Lord with all their heart, soul and strength, confessing their own insignificance in comparison to God, yet expressing confidence in the divine mercy which they believe will assist them through the trials of this life, toward a joyful existence beyond the grave. In the liturgical churches, the dominating mood varies according to the tables of feasts (...) and fasts: Christmas and Easter are times for joyful song, brightly coloured vestments and festive activities. Ash Wednesday and Good Friday are days of penitence, sorrow and sombre hymnody. Throughout the year, the houses of worship are places of bowed heads and lowered voices, of respect and sobriety, and sometimes of veneration for icons and the objects used in worship. The inventory of revered objects varies considerably, as do the activities thought to be appropriate in this connection, ranging from the Low Protestant's respectful handling of the Bible to the High Churchman's prostration before the Monstrance, in the Benediction of the Holy Sacrament. But it is clear that divine worship normally involves reverence and awe and that it usually involves some form of self-abasement. (shrink)

An analysis of the interpretation of Christian theology that is found in G. W. F. Hegel's Lectures on the Philosophy of Religion. Peter C. Hodgson argues that these lectures are among the most valuable resources from the nineteenth century for theology as it faces the challenges of modernity and postmodernity.

How do Christians reconcile their belief in one God with the concept of three divine 'persons'? This Companion provides an overview of how the Christian doctrine of the Trinity has been understood and articulated in the last two thousand years. The Trinitarian theologies of key theologians, from the New Testament to the twentieth century, are carefully examined and the doctrine of the Trinity is brought into dialogue with non-Christian religions as well as with other Christian beliefs. Authors from a range (...) of denominational backgrounds explore the importance of Trinitarian thought, locating the Trinity within the wider context of systematic theology. Contemporary theology has seen a widespread revival of the doctrine of the Trinity and this book incorporates the most recent developments in the scholarship. (shrink)

In response to the proposal by Walter Jaeschke contained in the preceding paper, the Nineteenth Century Theology Group of the American Academy of Religion discussed plans, at the annual meeting of the Academy on 15–17 November 1979, to complete a new English study edition of Hegel’s Lectures on the Philosophy of Religion, and has agreed to sponsor its publication by Scholars Press in the AAR Texts & Translations Series. An Editorial Committee has been formed with the following membership: Robert F. (...) Brown, Richard Crouter, James O. Duke, Francis S. Fiorenza, Joseph Fitzer, Peter C. Hodgson, Walter Jaeschke, Darrell Jodock, O. Kem Luther, Dale M. Schlitt, John C. Shelley, James Yerkes. Many of these persons will be involved in the editing and translating process. (shrink)

This selection of essays and reviews written between 1962 and 1983 focus on the creativity of the American photographer as artist and on the nature of his work and life, placing special attention on the creative impulse of the art photographer and the significance of his pictures as expressive works of art. Among the major artist-photographers examined are Alfred Stieglitz, Walker Evans, Diane Arbus, Harry Callahan, Emmet Gowin and Jerry Uelsmann. Topics discussed include the collecting of photographs, the nature of (...) pictorial visioning photography, photographic portraiture, and manipulative photography. Degrees of Guidance differs from other anthologies in that it focuses on individual photographers rather than on the more social or ontological aspects of photography. (shrink)

Raimon Panikkar: A Companion to his Life and Thought is a guide to the life, work and thought of Raimon Panikkar, a self-professed Buddhist-Christian-Hindu philosopher and theologian. A man of deep and wide learning and an extremely prolific author, Panikkar is equally at home in various religious and cultural traditions and embodies in himself the ideals of intercultural, intrareligious, and interreligious dialogues. This book explicates Panikkar’s basic vision of life as the harmonious rhythm of divinity, humanity, and the cosmos, which (...) he terms "cosmotheandrism," and shows how it permeates and illumines his articulations of the central Christian doctrines. Given the complexity and difficulty of Panikkar’s thought this book is a welcome companion for a course on Panikkar and for a general reader who wishes to understand one of the most profound and orginal thinkers of our time. (shrink)

The development of computational models to provide explanations of psychological data can be achieved using semi-automated search techniques, such as genetic programming. One challenge with these techniques is to control the type of model that is evolved to be cognitively plausible – a typical problem is that of “bloating”, where continued evolution generates models of increasing size without improving overall fitness. In this paper we describe a system for representing psychological data, a class of process-based models, and algorithms for evolving (...) models. We apply this system to the delayed match-to-sample task. We show how the challenge of bloating may be addressed by extending the fitness function to include measures of cognitive performance. (shrink)

Cognitive neuroscience constitutes the third phase of development of the field of cognitive psychophysiology since it was established about half a century ago. A critical historical overview is given of this development, focusing on recurring problems that keep frustrating great expectations. It is argued that psychology has to regain its independent status with respect to cognitive neuroscience and should take psychophysical dualism seriously. A constructive quantum physical model for psychophysical interaction is presented, based on a new stochastic interpretation of the (...) quantum potential in the de Broglie–Bohm theory. This model can be applied to analyze cognitive information processing in psychological experiments. It is shown that the quantum potential shares several features with Duns Scotus’ notion of contingent causality. (shrink)

Ferdinand Christian Baur, one of the great innovators in the study of the New Testament, argued that each of its books reflects the interests and tendencies of its author in a particular religio-historical milieu. A critique of the writings must precede any judgments about the historical validity of individual stories about Jesus in the Gospels. Thus Baur could move beyond the impasse created by Strauss's Life of Jesus. Baur demonstrated that the Gospel of John is not a historical document comparable (...) to the Synoptic Gospels and cannot be used to reconstruct the teaching of Jesus, and that the Synoptic Gospels must be read critically and selectively. He applied the same principles to the Epistles, arguing that only four are genuinely Pauline.Baur's Lectures on New Testament Theology, delivered in Tübingen during the 1850s, summarize thirty years of his research. The lectures begin with an Introduction on the concept, history, and organization of New Testament theology. Part One is devoted to the teaching of Jesus, which Baur finds most reliably in Matthew. Part Two contains the teaching of the Apostles in three chronological periods. The first period presents the theological frameworks of the Apostle Paul and the Book of Revelation; the second period, the frameworks of Hebrews, the Deutero-Pauline Epistles, James and Peter, the Synoptic Gospels and Acts; and the third period, those of the Pastoral Epistles and the Gospel of John. (shrink)

This first retrospective following Grant's death examines the significance of his major work, Lament For a Nation. The essays by philosophers, artists, theologians, political scientists and Canadian nationalists assess the impact of this important Canadian's work, and the intellectual legacy he has left behind.

This is a useful collection of readings for a senior undergraduate or junior-level graduate course on universals. The selections are short, but generally self-contained, and thus accessible to readers unfamiliar with the literature. Most of the great contributors to the debate, from Plato to the early Russell, Husserl, and Heidegger, are well represented, with a good sampling of the medieval discussion in pieces from Abelard, St. Thomas, Duns Scotus, and Ockham. Postwar twentieth-century contributors include Quine, Carnap, Strawson, and David Pears; (...) and the text ends with a helpful bibliography of books and articles for further inquiry. (shrink)

This book uses the phenomenological interpretive approach of Paul Ricoeur to shed new light on New Testament eschatological expectation. Peter C. de Vries argues for a metaphorical reading of the apocalyptic discourse of Mark 13, based upon neither the author’s intention nor the reader’s reception but latent meaning present in the text itself.

Hegel’s treatment of Judaism in his early theological writings and his lectures on the philosophy of world history is relatively well-known. One of the best and most recent discussions of it is found in Shlomo Avineri’s paper, “The Fossil and the Phoenix: Hegel and Krochmal on the Jewish Volksgeist,” presented at the 1982 biennial meeting of the Hegel Society of America. Avineri points out that Hegel’s portrayal of Judaism in the early writings mainly followed the conventional image found in traditional (...) Christian theology. He depicted Judaism as a religion of “slavish obedience to laws” laid down not by the people themselves but by a “supreme wisdom on high,” as well as a religion of deceit, cowardice, alienation, and stubborn particularism. In one significant instance, however, Hegel deviated from these traditional stereotypes, namely, in his understanding of and sympathy for the political, national feelings of the Jews during the period of Roman subjugation prior to the destruction of the second temple. They “discarded their ineffective messianic hopes and took up arms,” resisting courageously but suffering “the most appalling of human calamities,” the loss of city and nation. “The scattered remnant of the Jews have not abandoned the idea of the Jewish state, but they have reverted not to the banners of their own courage, but only to the standards of an ineffective messianic hope.”. (shrink)

Psychologists' emerging interest in spirituality and religion as well as the relevance of each phenomenon to issues of psychological importance requires an understanding of the fundamental characteristics of each construct. On the basis of both historical considerations and a limited but growing empirical literature, we caution against viewing spirituality and religiousness as incompatible and suggest that the common tendency to polarize the terms simply as individual vs. institutional or ′good′ vs. ′bad′ is not fruitful for future research. Also cautioning against (...) the use of restrictive, narrow definitions or overly broad definitions that can rob either construct of its distinctive characteristics, we propose a set of criteria that recognizes the constructs' conceptual similarities and dissimilarities. Rather than trying to force new and likely unsuccessful definitions, we offer these criteria as benchmarks for judging the value of existing definitions. (shrink)

The philosopher of religion and critic of idealism, Ludwig Feuerbach had a far-reaching impact on German radicalism around the time of the Revolution of 1848. This intellectual history explores how Feuerbach’s critique of religion served as a rallying point for radicals, and how they paradoxically sought to create a new, post-religious form of religiosity as part of the revolutionary aim. At issue for the Feuerbachian radicals was the emergence of a humanity emancipated from the constraints of mere institutions, able to (...) express itself freely and harmoniously. Caldwell also touches on Moses Hess, Louise Dittmar, and Richard Wagner in his discussion of the time. This book reconstructs the nature of Feuerbach’s radicalism and shows how it influenced early works of socialism, feminism, and musical modernism. (shrink)