Search Results (94)

This work of historical theology profiles the unique role of Sergius Bulgakov (1877–1944) in the unfolding of Russian Orthodox theology over the last century. It narrates the role in his thought of the contested figure of Sophia (the personification of divine wisdom), with special focus on to how his creative appropriation of this ancient concept led him to propose modifications of the church’s doctrines of creation and deification. Our focus on deification acknowledges that patristic sources regarding this topic were only made ready for Russian theological research in the first decades of the twentieth century. Concurrently, another novelty came into vogue among the Russian intelligentsia during these same years: the evocation of both esoteric and biblical versions of Sophia, along with the promulgation of an original theological framework known as sophiology, a development pioneered by Vladimir Solovyov. These unique cultural and religious vectors, deification, creation theology, and sophiology, and their relation to Orthodox trinitarianism, converged around the year 1910 in the life and scholarship of Sergius Bulgakov, while also being firmly resisted by conservatives. A brilliant, wide-ranging, and independent thinker, Bulgakov began as a Marxist economist whose midlife conversion led him to the priesthood and a professorship at a prominent Russian seminary. Bulgakov went on to create one of the last century’s most ambitious and creative Orthodox systematic theologies, an endeavor made possible through his sheer mastery of numerous scholarly sources that, over three decades, he explicated in light of the emergence of sophiology, the worldview of which he became the leading proponent. Against opposition by colleagues at the St. Sergius Theological Institute, where he served as dean, Bulgakov expanded sophiology into a panentheistic theological system that highlighted and integrated concepts of religious living, deification, and cosmology within a vast panoply of other Christian theological dogmas that he examined. This introductory historical account summarizes a selection of Bulgakov’s pioneering innovations, with special emphasis on the reception of his ideas during his lifetime and the decades since. Full article

Common sense tells us that feeling love involves loving another as another and is not merely an accident of self-love, while the Sanskrit theory of rasa aesthetics tells us that genuine love must be returned. God’s love for humanity would not require these distinctions, however, if it exists at all, and Benedictus de Spinoza (1632–1677) claims that it does not. Rather, he finds that God’s love is not a philosophical problem because the very idea of God experiencing pleasure or pain as a result of desire for another (which constitutes common transactional conceptions of love) is irrational. This philosophical problem is compounded by the intrinsic value of loving without reciprocity, the follies of delusion, and the complicated—if not implicit—demands of reciprocity. Although Spinoza teaches a devotional path to liberation based on a logic of emotion in his Ethics, it is in the Bhagavadgītā’s twenty verses on “Bhaktiyoga” that a philosophy of devotion extends to a practice for the sake of love in moral action. This virtue-theoretic approach to emotion responses yields yoga-classed results such that the characteristic traits of love are dedicated to humanity and productive actions are offered to God. This study reconciles the complex challenge of achieving adequate moral knowledge with Spinoza’s claims that the path is rare, not difficult. If knowledge of what to do can be united with how to serve, divine love may be theoretically realised. The conclusion is that one may conduct ordinary secular transactions without contradiction yet generate a kind of affective currency as a channel for experiencing embodied liberation in a virtuous friendship with humanity via God. Full article

This study examines the human–nature relationship in the thoughts of Yunus Emre (d. ca. 1320) and addresses the Qur’anic positioning of humanity as laden with responsibility through the idea of amanah (entrustment), while focusing on Yunus Emre’s reflections on this concept as both a mystical stance and a moral state. His poems place humanity not as an absolute claim of ownership over the world and other beings, but rather within a relationship based on testimony, decency, and equality. He presents nature not as an object requiring protection or an area needing transformation but as a framework for contemplation and reflection in which the divine order is visible. In this context, humans’ established relationship with the world reflects a stance determined not by domination or interference but by a consciousness of limitation and a sense of moderation. By revealing the aspects of his understanding of humanity and nature that overlap with the concept of amanah in Islamic thought, this study argues that this overlap should be evaluated not as conceptual equivalence but rather in terms of mystical and moral affinity. This approach aims to demonstrate how Yunus Emre’s ideas, while not offering direct solutions to modern environmental debates, provide a historical mystical perspective that allows for a rethinking of the human–nature relationship. Full article

The concept of sacred harmony implies a set of relations between human beings and the natural order that include a divine or transcendental aspect. These types of correspondences as they relate to music are found among many of the ancient civilizations. In the West, the principles of sacred harmony emerged in ancient Greece with Pythagoras and Plato, such that the implicit connections between philosophical thought and musical experience laid the groundwork for ideas of sacred harmony and the practices of tonal music that have shaped the development of Western music for centuries. In ancient India, the unity between human beings and the universe was understood through the concept of Brahman, the highest metaphysical truth that encompassed all reality. The spirituality of Indian classical music was based upon the tonal centricity of the sacred syllable of OM, the concept of Nāda-Brahman, Yoga philosophy, and divine aesthetic principles (rasa) embedded in the musical notes and scales handed down by generations of musicians and Gurus. This essay first outlines the basic foundational elements of sacred harmony with examples from ancient Greece and India, followed by particular challenges in the twentieth century imposed by Neo-Marxist thought, Gnosticism, and theosophy, and finally by a return to sacred harmony in the 1960s as reflected in popular music as well as in the proliferation of chant and music from India, each of which has attracted admirers seeking spiritual transformation via a musically ordered universe. Full article

Many debates in Christian theology and philosophy, especially debates having to do with the Trinity (like the debate over the filioque) and with divine action (like the debate over whether there is a distinction between God’s essence and God’s energies), have made use of the idea of divine processions. But with rare exceptions, theologians have said little about how the terms used for divine processions are the same terms used for liturgical, military, and state processions and marches. Rather, in general, theologians have treated these terms in a purely technical metaphysical sense. I contend that progress will be made on solving these debates if we attend to the image of actual processions that is conveyed by words originally used for divine processions (including Latin words like ‘processio’ and ‘procedere’ and Greek words like ‘proodos’ and ‘ekporeusis’). After describing the relevant debates, I outline a method for recovering the experiences and images conveyed by those procession words; this perceptual and aesthetic method draws upon the work of a range of phenomenologists and phenomenologically-inspired thinkers. I then use this method to draw out the content of procession words, and to show that procession as such is a pure perfection, a property of being, a privileged manifestation of persons, and a divine attribute. Finally, I show how this more holistic approach to divine processions allows for a defense of the Western Christian doctrine of the filioque, without losing essential Eastern Christian insights about the procession of the Holy Spirit, and a defense of the Eastern doctrine of the essence–energies distinction, without losing crucial Western insights about divine simplicity. While it is of course beyond the scope of a single paper to solve such complex debates, this paper lays a foundation for future synthesis between Eastern and Western views. Full article

This article examines the exchange of ideas between Merton and Ruether on creation. Merton’s sacramental views and Ruether’s eco-feminist perspectives rooted in an incarnational spirituality can serve as a corrective to those who regard the Earth as an object of consumerism, which leads to the degradation and the desacralization of matter. I will examine how the way out offered by Merton and Ruether reflects an integral eco-spirituality responsive to and in resonance with the supreme reality that permeates everything. As Rosemary Ruether, Sallie McFague, Elizabeth Johnson, and other Christian eco-feminists have described in metaphorical language, the world may be conceived of as a kind of self-giving activity of God’s body in feminine terms. According to this view, a constant birth of life is taking place in a universe ultimately rooted in the cosmic womb of divine love to which Ruether referred as the Great Mother. I will show examples of their writings where both Merton and Ruether highly emphasized the importance of seeing the good creation reflecting God’s love for all creatures. I will conclude by pondering on the ecological implications of their writings, where they address the environmental threats that global warming and climate change caused by humans pose to Mother Earth. Full article

This paper examines what Hannah Arendt means when she urges us to “love the world as it is” considering that we live in a world that is marred by injustice and violence. The paper is divided into two parts. The first part, demonstrates how Arendt’s concept of amor mundi is deeply influenced by her reading of St. Augustine. The second part, in turn addresses the challenge of loving the world as it is, given Arendt’s agreement with Augustine that we live in a desert. It argues that Arendt departs from Augustine on two fronts, first she rejects notions of original sin and forgiveness in favour of reconciliation, and second, she rejects the idea of divine grace claiming that our only hope for a new humanity lies in loving the world as it is. Full article

In this paper, I analyze the account of miracles given by ʿAbd al-Karīm al-Jīlī (d. 811/1408), one of the major interpreters of the Sufi metaphysics of Ibn ʿArabī (d. 638/1240). Al-Jīlī outlines his theory of miracles in chapter fifty of his major work, al-Insān al-kāmil fī maʿrifat al-awākhir wa-l-awāʾil, which is devoted to the Holy Spirit. Based on a close reading of this chapter and other relevant sections of al-Insān al-kāmil, I suggest that al-Jīlī’s interest in miracles reflects the miracle-saturated Yemeni environment in which he wrote, and find that he most often uses taṣarrufāt (“acts of free disposal”) to denote saintly miracles, rather than the more common karāmāt. Most significantly, I show how, based on his threefold categorization of humanity (into those dominated by their physical form, spiritual things, and divine things), he articulates a hierarchy of the miraculous, distinguishing between bodily miracles, which indicate the dominance of the Holy Spirit, and the higher level of creative speech acts, which reflect the dominance of God’s creative attributes. Finally, notwithstanding the fact that his account of miracles and the Holy Spirit chimes with certain Christian ideas, I show that miracles, in his view, point to the spiritual pre-eminence of the Prophet Muhammad. Full article

God plays a central role in Spinoza’s philosophy, directly shaping his views of ethics and politics. His theology is examined in light of contemporary perspectives in process philosophy. Analysis of the claim that “The more we understand singular things the more we understand God” (E5p24), shows that Spinoza advances a participatory theology that prioritizes a developmental process that fosters loving-kindness and intellectual generosity. Religion is the virtue enabling our participation in divine power. The key characteristics of participation in divine power are that these powers are (1) non-scarce/open-source/sharable, (2) regenerative, (3) propagate from one context to another, and (4) potentiate novel, unforeseeable discovery and invention. It is through community with other singular beings and via social affects that we understand divinity: by participating in powers that are sharable and continue to intensify and evolve when made openly accessible. His ideas can inspire our current problematic in beneficial ways. Full article

This study examines a specific section of the Symposium by Methodius of Olympus, a Church Father of the late 3rd and early 4th centuries, focusing on the critique of astrological fatalism. In Methodius’s Symposium, the virgin Thecla offers a series of rational arguments against the notion of an inescapable fate governing human events, emphasizing the primacy of human free will and responsibility. Notably, Thecla’s refutation of fatalism relies almost entirely on classical philosophical reasoning—citing Homer and echoing Platonic thought—rather than on Scripture, thereby engaging pagan cultural ideas on common ground. The paper highlights how Thecla’s excursus on fate, unique within the dialogue, underscores the centrality of human freedom in Methodius’s theology. Furthermore, a comparison with Methodius’s dialogue On Free Will suggests that the Symposium’s anti-fatalistic arguments are consistent with his broader defence of free will as God’s greatest gift to humanity, which requires the synergistic participation of human freedom alongside divine grace. Full article

When was the modern ‘self’ born? This question lies at the heart of major debates by contemporary historians and philosophers. What does rabbinic thought have to do with such questions? This essay examines a pivotal debate in modern rabbinic thought concerning the nature of intentionality in prayer. The analysis centers on R. Chaim Soloveichik of Brisk’s (1853–1918) revolutionary distinction between two forms of intention in prayer. R. Chaim argued that the conscious experience of divine presence is conditional to define prayer. By tracing the precedents and critics of this idea, this essay is an exercise in the unwritten history of rabbinic subjectivity. Full article

Both feeling and thought operate largely through a process of associations. Some of these are learned; some seem to be transcultural. In Western art it has long been assumed that certain arrangement of sounds, shapes, and colors evoke particular emotions and ideas. Rudolph Otto applies this idea also to the experience of the “Holy,” the “mysterium tremendum et fascinans.” This is a unique experience, irreducible to any other. However, there is a “law of associations” by which aesthetic and moral experiences evoke the “numinous” by a kind of analogy. Otto’s analysis raises the question whether there is in fact a specific experience of “the holy.” Is religious consciousness a sui generis experience, or is it rather an interpretation of experience? Is Otto’s notion of the numinous tied to a particular stage of religion? Post-Kantian transcendental theology proposes that “depth” or “limit” experiences are implicit in consciousness, and provide the basis for a variety of associations with the ultimate mystery of existence. The divine is anticipated as infinite transcendence that is at the same time radical immanence. The implicit intentionality of the divine can be implicit or can be formulated at different levels as feeling, image, concept, and transcendental intentionality. The “sacred” is an aesthetic construct signifying heightened awareness of the mystery. Sacred spaces are places consecrated to such awareness; they can be constructed in response to various aspects of communal awareness. All such aesthetic mediations of the sacred have an ambiguous relation to religious conversion. Full article

The article examines how discourses of race and ancestry interact with both everyday life and the Vodun religion in southern Benin. The researcher uses ethnographic methods to illuminate how discourses of race are unfolding within the racially homogenous country of Benin in West Africa. The researcher examines the Fon terms mewi (Black or African) and yovó (White or non-African) to analyze how Beninese work to situate themselves within larger racial and continental categories. The researcher is also reflexive of her experiences as an African-American in Benin to understand the nuances of Black racial identity. The author argues that Beninese are consistently engaged in their own racialization processes of those who fall outside of the mewi category. Moreover, the Vodun divinities themselves are also able to categorize those who are or are not mewi. This work highlights how ideas of ancestry are relevant to both Black racial identity and Vodun. Full article

This essay explores the question: can we have an objective ethics without God? This question is raised by James Sterba, who argues in the affirmative. As an atheistic ethicist, Sterba is motivated to maintain an objective morality that is not based in theism and that can withstand the problems with Darwinism. Sterba examines what he sees as one of the most popular theistic attempts to ground human morality, viz., divine command theory. In rejecting both divine command theory and theism, Sterba offers what he believes can offer objective morality: a basic moral norm that all people should adhere to. This article examines Sterba’s criticism of divine command theory along with his own efforts at establishing an objective morality in what he considers a universal abstract principle. In the end, this article argues that Sterba’s axiomatic principle is unclear as to its ontological foundation as well as its causal efficacy in attempting to obligate objective human ethics. It will be argued that Sterba is correct about human nature being the locus of morality, but that atheism fails at providing human teleology to account for such morality. Full article

This paper critiques Hava Tirosh-Samuelson’s view of transhumanism as techno-idolatry by applying Derrida’s notion of the unconditional “to-come” and the generalized fetish. While acknowledging Tirosh-Samuelson’s stance that fetishes should not be reduced to idols, I argue that she fails to extend this understanding to transhumanism, instead depicting its fetishes as fixed idols. Drawing on Derrida’s notion of the generalized fetish, I argue that religious objects in Judaism (like the shofar or tefillin) function not as objects of worship but as material mediators of divine relation—tangible signs that carry symbolic, spiritual, and covenantal meaning while gesturing toward the divine without claiming to contain or represent it. Similarly, in transhumanism, brain-computer interfaces and AI act as fetishes that extend human capability and potential while remaining open to future reinterpretation. These fetishes, reflecting Derrida’s idea of the unconditional “to-come,” resist closure and allow for ongoing change and reinterpretation. By reducing transhumanism to mere idolatry, Tirosh-Samuelson overlooks how technological fetishes function as dynamic supplements, open to future possibilities and ongoing reinterpretation, which can be both beneficial and harmful to humanity now and in the future. Full article