Search Results (26)

From the Christian heartland of Europe emerged the techno-scientific culture borne from the Enlightenment movement. Prior to this cultural outlook that severed culture from its foundational roots in religion, it was the case that religion was not only a crucial agent in the shaping of culture, but in many ways, the heart of culture. With secular rationality and its underscoring of the techno-scientific mindset, a growing privatization of religion has become the acceptable ethos of contemporary Western culture. Secularism, largely understood in terms of a naked public sphere, is increasingly perceived to be the only form of rationality that can guarantee societal cohesion and the democratic spirit. But as Ratzinger pointed out in his 1993 Hong Kong Address to the Doctrinal Commissions of the Bishops Conferences of Asia, this Western understanding of culture that is governed by a hermeneutic of suspicion towards religion, and which seeks to replace the heart of culture with autonomous reason a la Kant, ends up leaving culture in a winter land of existential frostiness. By depriving culture of its roots in the transcendental dimensions of human experience, much of the wisdom and riches that have been accumulated in the pre-techno-scientific cultures—regarding fundamental questions such as “Who am I?”, “Why am I here?”, “What is the meaning of life?”, “What happens when I die?”, “Does life make sense?”, “Do I have a destiny?” and more—are now left to the manufactured logic of the techno-scientific with its anthropological reductionism that fails to offer the big picture of the cultural outlook that did not construe the scientific and the technological as antithetical to religion. This essay seeks to unpack the arguments Ratzinger made in this Address at Hong Kong, with the hope that this theological exegesis of the Hong Kong lecture could once again offer an invitation to the world of the techno-scientific, the world of secular rationality, to open up to the world of faith, so that together, the breadth and depth of the human culture would once again flourish in its greatness. Full article

This article situates the papacy of Benedict XVI at the crossroads of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, focusing on theological, cultural, and political developments. It brings out his subtle critique of modernity, his opposition to relativism, and his appeal for a renewed dialogue between Christianity and Enlightenment rationality. It is his sense of faith and reason that, in mutual purifying, forms his support of the public role of religion in peacemaking and moral order. Through moments like the Regensburg Address and his inter-religious dialogues, Benedict XVI emerges as a defender of the place of religion in society while rejecting both religious fundamentalism and secularist reductionism. The paper also examines how Benedict grounded human rights in natural law, thereby differentiating those from other fundamental rights emanating from more contemporary sociopolitical claims. The article places his papacy within the larger frame of Catholic social doctrine, focusing on the role of the Church in promoting peace through cultural and interreligious dialogue, particularly with Islam. Full article

In most of the twentieth century, the Enlightenment was seen as a time when religious belief was incompatible with Enlightenment values of reason, toleration, and science. David Sorkin maintains that many religious Protestants, Catholics, and Jews emphasized toleration and reason while participating in the secular public sphere. Sorkin asserts that these people were part of the religious Enlightenment. This article focuses on a group of ten English deists who identified themselves as deists, claimed to be Christian, and devoted their writings to explaining their concept of true Christianity. This article argues that these ten deists, whom I label “Jesus-centered deists”, were much more religious than other deists. Like the Protestants, Catholics, and Jews that Sorkin considers part of the religious Enlightenment, these deists emphasized toleration and used reason to defend their conception of God and genuine Christianity. Furthermore, these deists participated in discussions in the public sphere about secular Enlightenment concerns. Unlike stereotypical Enlightenment deists, these Jesus-centered deists did not believe in an inactive and impersonal God. Instead, they believed in a loving and kind God who performed miracles and made revelations. They also emphasized developing a closer relationship with God through prayer. These deists should be included in the religious Enlightenment. Full article

This article discusses Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s opera Idomeneo: Re di Creta (1781, to a text by Giambattista Varesco) as a Christian parable in the historical context of its genesis. Mozart’s Idomeneo is based on a short episode in François Fénelon’s Télémaque, but also on Antoine Danchet’s adaptation of this episode for the theater in his tragédie lyrique Idoménée (1712; set to music by André Campra). In important aspects, Mozart’s Idomeneo changed the narrative with a marked independence of Fénelon as well as Danchet. In recent scholarship, important new information has come to light concerning Mozart’s composition of the Oracle scene, constituting the dénouement of the music drama. Based partly on these new insights, I attempt to provide a picture of a basic spiritual intention governing Mozart’s composition of the opera for the Carnival season of 1781 at the Munich court. Mozart’s Idomeneo is a Christian sacrifice drama modeled on the Aqedah (the sacrifice of Isaac; Gen 22: 1–14), which, in Christian traditions, is understood typologically as pointing to the Passion of Christ. Oppositely, Fénélon’s and Danchet’s versions rather correspond to the biblical story of Jephthah (Judges 11: 29–30). In a brief concluding section of this article, I also discuss the contemporary cultural importance of reading a classical opera such as Mozart’s Idomeneo as a conscious product of Enlightened Christianity. In modern times, ecclesiastical boundaries and religious doctrines often seem to matter little in the music and theater culture of the Western world; classical opera is often staged more in order to respond to contemporary political or social issues than to communicate the original intentions of its creators (the so-called Regieoper). I argue that Idomeneo, with its historical intention, potentially can have an impact in a cultural theology (or a theologically informed modern worldview), and further, in dialogue with a recent volume discussing the “music of theology”, that such a role for a piece of music must be developed in concrete musical (or music dramatic) contexts, not as a general philosophical contention. Mozart’s Idomeneo may work in a modern cultural context because it functions as a parable, easily understandable also in a modern political or social context, because of its deep human (psychological) insight and the empathy brought to bear on all the characters of the opera. Full article

Christian culture is viewed as a translated cultural practice that has become intricately intertwined with the local culture over the course of historical development in China. Currently, many research findings focus on the translation of missionary religious texts during the late Ming and early Qing dynasties. However, the translation of non-religious texts by Western missionaries from the same period also plays a pivotal role in the development of Chinese society and culture. In order to verify the above point of view, this paper focuses on the translation of physics texts by Western missionaries during the late Ming and early Qing Dynasties. Examining the choice of physics texts translated by missionaries reveals the missionary motivations in evangelization. On the basis of analyzing the translation motivation, this study classifies the overall translation practice of Western missionaries in translating physical texts during that period, presenting the physical scientific knowledge brought to China at the time. Additionally, it explores how the translation of Western physical science enlightened the transformation and development of Chinese physics in modern times. Furthermore, the paper argues that the translations by Western missionaries played a crucial role in introducing new ideas and knowledge, contributing to the enlightenment of modern scientific knowledge in China, so as to underscore the value of the non-religious texts translated by Western missionaries to the society and culture in China. Full article

Catholicism during the late Ming and early Qing Dynasties is the most fascinating chapter in the development history of Christian culture in China. Apostolate through books emerged as a prominent method of Sino-West cultural exchange during that time. Apostolate through books by Catholicism was realized by means of translation practice, leading to a notable religious influence. Based on this perspective, this paper discusses the history and connotation of apostolate through books, particularly focusing on the characteristics of apostolate through books by Catholicism during the late Ming and early Qing Dynasties. In achieving this, this research shows the translation motivation and translation effect of apostolate through books during the late Ming and early Qing Dynasties. Furthermore, this paper emphasizes that the translation practice of apostolate through books by Catholicism has laid a good foundation for the sinicization and acceptance of Catholicism in China, highlighting the relationship between apostolate through books by Catholicism and the sinicization of Christian culture, so as to enlighten the internationalization of religious culture. Full article

The nature and practice of Christianity is a major, if not the primary, topic in Kierkegaard’s authorship. What it means to live a Christian life is a persistent topic in many of his major works, and yet, he spends most of his authorship criticizing traditional ways of practicing Christianity. While his critique of institutionalized Christianity and merciless unmasking of the hypocrisy of self-proclaimed Christians is rather clear, namely that they are not actually Christian, it is more difficult to get a clear idea of Kierkegaard’s alternative. What is a true and sincere Christian life for Kierkegaard? The argument of this article is that Kierkegaard’s famous existential approach to Christianity amounts to a secularization of Christianity and as such can be seen as a critical development of and not a rejection of the Enlightenment critique of religion. The article uses Kant as an advocate of the Enlightenment critique of religion that Kierkegaard inherits and develops critically, and after having examined Kierkegaard’s existential dialectics, an outline of Kant’s transcendental approach is, presented against which Kierkegaard’s existential alternative is examined in more detail. Kierkegaard’s existential approach is radical with its insistence on “that single individual” and on the existential challenges of human freedom that Kant banned from his analysis of both morality and faith. While Kant presents us with the transcendental possibility of faith, Kierkegaard is concerned with the existential reality of faith. It is argued that Kierkegaard’s existential analysis of faith helps us to find the connection between radical individual choice and the rational morality that is not always evident in Enlightenment—and especially Kantian—accounts of morality. Full article

This paper examines the writings of European travelers, chaplains, and resident doctors on pandemics in the Mediterranean regions from the 16th to the 19th centuries. Using French comparative literary theory, the article highlights how Muslim communities in Egypt, Turkey, Aleppo, and Mecca were stereotyped based on their belief in predestination, their failure to avoid contamination, and their lack of social distancing during plague outbreaks. This paper argues that travelers were influenced by Renaissance humanism, Ars Apodemia, religious discourses, and texts, such as plague tracts, model town concepts, the book of orders, and tales, and that they essentialized Mediterranean Islamicate societies by depicting contamination motifs supposedly shaped by the absence of contagion theory in prophetic medicines. Regarding plague science, this paper concludes that Christian and Muslim intellectuals had similar approaches until the Black Death and that Arabs were eclectic since the Abbasid period. This paper further maintains that the travelers’ approaches fostered chauvinism and the cultural hegemony of the West over the Orient since the Renaissance and Enlightenment periods, driven by eschatology, conversion, and power structure narratives. Full article

The journey of Byzantine scholar Manuel Chrysoloras and his stay in Florence at the turn of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries has been celebrated as an event that decisively shaped the course of European humanism. The later return of Enlightenment humanism to Ottoman lands in the eighteenth to early twentieth centuries can be described as the return of Chrysoloras. This return is generally known in a fragmentary form as a regional phenomenon: the story of Greek, Arab, Turkish and Jewish nationalisms and of the Ottoman reforms. It is also framed historically as the evolution from a traditional and theological society to new forms of epistemic, literary, civic and national communities, while often leaving aside failures and later contradictory transformations. The present essay offers an integrative study of modern humanism in late Ottoman and post-Ottoman contexts. The migration of Enlightenment humanism to the Middle East raised a wide range of expectations, projecting a new national or imperial organization within a harmonious diplomatic relationship with Christian Europe and the Americas. Yet, the more the revivalist and reformist projects evolved, the more they involved ethnic and religious conflicts and colonial intervention. This article illuminates the rise and fall of humanism in Middle Eastern contexts. Full article

Chan-bul-ga (찬불가, 讚佛歌), which in English means ‘songs in praise of the Buddha’, refers to a style of Korean Buddhist hymn that emerged during the modernization of Korean Buddhism. Buddhist hymns—which can be considered to be based on Christian hymns—are characterized by the fact that they can be easily learned by the general public so that they can easily participate in Buddhist rituals together, unlike the existing Korean Buddhist musical styles of ‘Beom-pae (범패, 梵唄)’ and ‘Hwa-cheong (화청, 和請)’. The monk Baek Yong-sung (1864–1940), who embraced the function and effectiveness of these new religious music styles as one of his methods of propagation, participated in the independence movement after the 1910 Korea–Japan Annexation Treaty, and he led both the public enlightenment movement and the spread of Buddhism by creating Buddhist hymns. The present study seeks to examine Baek Yong-sung’s social activities and the context in which modern Buddhist hymns emerged. This study also explores the religious, social, and musical meanings of Buddhist hymns while focusing on his works ‘Wang-seng-ga (왕생가)’ and ‘Se-gye-gi-si-ga (세계기시가)’. Full article

Among the most perplexing of John’s theological riddles is question of salvific universalism and particularity. John is both the greatest biblical source of Christian universalism and the greatest source of Christian exclusivity. After all, the Johannine Overture affirms universal access to the saving–revealing Light of Christ, declaring: “The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world!” (Jn 1:9). What else could this mean, other than to affirm that every person has saving access to the divine Light of Christ? And yet, Jesus also declares in John 14:6, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me!” What could this mean, other than to assert that there is only one means of access to God, and that it involves saving belief in Jesus as the Christ? Sorting out the apparent contradictions within these tensions is the goal of the present essay. Full article

Humans have developed a special relationship with some animal species throughout history, even though these animals were never domesticated. Based on raptors, bears, beavers, and elks, the question of whether there are similarities between the perception of these animals that triggered a special kind of fascination in humans and how the relationship between humans and these animals changed between Mesolithic age and medieval times is addressed. As we demonstrate, the categorical antagonism between ‘animal’ and ‘human’ is a concept that saw different kinds of influence, from the advent of sedentarism and husbandry to Christianity and from philosophical thinking in Classical Antiquity and the Period of Enlightenment. In prehistory and early history, we find different, opposing world views across time, cultures, and periods. Differences between animals and humans have been considered as fluid, and humans have had to engage with animals and their needs. The well-known and famous ‘bear ceremonies’ attested to different peoples and times were not unique, but were a part of belief systems that also included other animal species. Among the considered animals, certain raptor species attracted the attention of humans who tried to establish contact with them, as companions, whereas bears were almost ‘disguised humans’ due to all their similarities with humans, but they were also tabooed beings whose real names had to be avoided. Full article

In her recent book, Kierkegaard and Religion: Personality, Character, and Virtue, Sylvia Walsh argues that Kierkegaard is not a virtue ethicist in the most common senses associated with eudaimonism, which he understands as enlightened self-interest. However, recent disputes about whether the aspects of “character” that Kierkegaard praises are virtues rely partly on whether the “ethical stage” in Kierkegaard’s moral psychology remains important within Christian faith, even when most strictly conceived in his late works. This in turn depends on how we understand the difficult works–grace relation in Kierkegaard’s conception of Christian faith. In this essay, I argue that the ethical existence sphere remains important even though, in works like Practice in Christianity and Judge for Yourself!, Kierkegaard argues that Christian faith is not a mere outgrowth or natural “development” of ethical earnestness or care—hardening the break with immanence that he introduced in earlier works. While he emphasizes a total transformation, a break from natural moral consciousness, and describes Christian qualities as a reversal of ordinary human expectations, there remains an underlying continuity with the attitudes and stances constitutive of the ethical and religiousness A (as existence spheres). This becomes visible when we identify three aspects found across the aesthetic, ethical, and Christian religious versions of major concepts in Kierkegaard’s work, including positive character terms. I use “sobriety” as discussed in Judge for Yourself! as my main example. This analysis confirms several important points advanced by Lee Barrett on the works–grace relation. The paradoxical standoff between ethical effort and grace is bridged to some extent by the continuing significance of the ethical “sphere” as a part of the “religious”, even in Kierkegaard’s late works and journal entries. Full article

French Enlightenment philosophe Voltaire’s ambivalence vis-à-vis the biblical text is well documented. On the one hand he highlights irregularities and contradictions in Scripture to undermine the clergy’s authority and legitimacy. On the other, he clearly was fond of reading it and the sheer volume of his work devoted to it confirms that he was certainly not indifferent to its content. This article shows how Voltaire’s use of different biblical scholars, particularly the seventeenth-century French biblical critic Richard Simon, informed his understanding of Scripture and how it manifested in his works, both those of a satirical and of a serious tone. This analysis problematizes the role of religion and of biblical criticism in French seventeenth and eighteenth-century literature. If Richard Simon’s method was not always welcomed during his lifetime, his main goal was to pursue truth. Voltaire, however, used the tools of Simon to undermine traditional Christianity and to emphasize his own understanding of what religion entails. Full article

In physical terms, light is a wave radiating from an energy source, yet different cultures in different periods have also attributed metaphysical properties to light that are outside of nature. Even in today’s secular discourse, we often resort to using imagery of light to symbolise a variety of virtues, whereas ‘New Age’ discourse raises light to a renewed metaphysical status. In this article, we will use the genealogical method to examine the origins of the popular Western conception of light as representative of knowledge, goodness, wisdom and sanctity by looking at the great myths and the foundational texts of Western culture. This understanding of light is a deep structure, originating in religion, that persists in secular culture: from ancient Near Eastern mythologies, to Plato’s parable of the cave, to the Judeo-Christian narrative and the Enlightenment and culminating in the role of light in New Age culture. Full article