Search Results (62)

This study explores “incapacitated transcendence”—a divine presence that remains ontologically present but lacks sovereign power to intervene—within Paul Klee’s angel paintings. It reinterprets these figures as a critical counterpoint to Carl Schmitt’s theory of sovereignty. While Schmitt rationalized the “decision” of an omnipotent sovereign as a secularized miracle, Klee’s malformed or flightless angels present a starkly different theological device. Influenced by Nietzsche, Klee rejected traditional afterlife-oriented transcendence while preserving it as a domain inassimilable to human finitude. Following World War I, this evolved into “incapacity”—not an absence of the divine, but the structural impossibility of its manifestation through fragile human existence. By contrasting Klee’s Angelus Novus with Schmitt’s sovereign, this study argues that incapacitated transcendence deconstructs the myth of absolute political power. Drawing on Walter Benjamin’s “Angel of History,” this study concludes that this very incompetence constitutes a site of hope. This reinterpretation suggests that aesthetics can offer a profound critique of political theology, challenging absolutist models of power in contemporary crisis. Full article

This article offers a reassessment of the Intelligent Design doctrine by engaging probability theory, complexity theory and contemporary artificial intelligence. Andrey Kolmogorov’s work shows that chance belongs to an intelligible mathematical order and that complex structures can arise from patterns that admit concise description. This challenges the assumption that improbability signals an external designer and instead points to a creation whose inner rationality is stable and fruitful. Insights from self-organizing systems strengthen this view by showing how new forms of order emerge from the interaction of fluctuation and natural constraint. Recent advances in artificial intelligence including AlphaFold, de novo protein design and the Brain-Derived Hebbian architecture make aspects of this intelligibility visible by modeling and predicting biological form and basic patterns of reasoning without recourse to explicit foresight. Their capacity to generate coherent structures under learned constraints reflects the rational order of creation, which Christian theology identifies with the Divine Logos. This order provides a deeper account of divine action than interpretations of Intelligent Design grounded solely in structural improbability. Full article

From its esteemed place as the queen of the sciences in the medieval period, theology has suffered in the public eye in comparison to philosophy. While philosophy came to be more esteemed, especially in early modernity, theology was relegated to private, secondary status. In the modernist paradigm, theology was seen as too biased to be objective and fully rational. While theology and philosophy had worked hand in hand in the medieval period, in the modern period, they essentially went through a divorce. They became separated in terms of disciplines, methods, ethos, and even schools. The relationship often became hostile. The cracking of the modern framework in the last century, however, has reshaped both. New possibilities have emerged, yet not without continued strain, not unlike fractured families who continue to have ties that draw them together. Given that these two disciplines are foremost in the quest for truth and meaning, these new possibilities of an amicable relationship are what I would like to explore. Full article

This study analyses the theological debates surrounding the Servant Songs in the Book of Isaiah, with particular attention to the fourth song, as interpreted in medieval Jewish literature. These passages, fundamental to both Jewish and Christian tradition, became a central focus of controversial dialogue in medieval Spain. Through a systematic analysis of Hebrew commentaries, the article examines key theological issues that emerge in these debates: the universal mission of Israel, the meaning of suffering, the concept of kenosis in Pauline theology, and the doctrine of original sin. Jewish exegetes such as Rashi, Ibn Ezra, Moses Ha-Kohen of Tordesillas, and Abravanel offered critical responses to Christian claims, often proposing alternative readings based on Hebrew philology and rational anthropology. The study highlights how these exchanges contributed to a deeper understanding of divine justice, human action, and incarnation, while emphasising the importance of precise theological language in interreligious dialogue. Some anthropological and metaphysical questions briefly addressed here point to new lines of research. Ultimately, the Servant Songs reveal themselves as a privileged space for theological reflection and manifest the enduring resonance of prophetic revelation. Full article

In an age in which the post-secular condition and digital capitalism are increasingly interwoven, the question of what role religion ought to play in the public sphere—and how it might regain critical and constructive force amid deepening crises of meaning—has become urgent. Contemporary digital capitalism, characterized by the pseudo-sacralization of algorithmic logic, generates a persistent absorptive power marked by ecstatic effects. This elevates technological rationality and market logic to a level of pseudo-sacral authority, exercising a form of symbolic and spiritual domination. Returning to Paul Tillich’s thought, this article reconstructs his vision of religious socialism not as a historical artifact, but as a critical public theology capable of resisting this form of demonic domination. Tillich’s central insight is that the crisis of capitalism is not merely economic but ontological: its culture of “autonomy” severs itself from its religious ground, allowing finite forms—now amplified by digital technology—to elevate themselves into ultimate meaning and thereby consolidate into self-absolutizing, demonic structures. Against this background, the article argues that Tillich’s religious socialism is not a proposal for institutional replacement, but a public theological practice rooted in “ultimate concern.” Its task is to expose the structures of usurpation operative within digital capitalism and to reconfigure the order of meaning through the symbolic vision of theonomy. Through this symbolic practice, religion is recovered as a deep dimension of culture capable of critically piercing the regimes of meaning-occlusion. Moreover, it is precisely the unfinished and open-ended characteristic of religious socialism that enables it to regain theoretical and symbolic vitality in the post-secular present. Full article

This article reconceptualizes entropy not as a metaphysical substance but as a structural constraint that shapes the formation, energetic cost, and durability of records. It links the coarse-grained—and typically irreversible—flow of time to questions of moral responsibility and divine justice. Drawing on the second law of thermodynamics, information theory, and contemporary cosmology, it advances an analogical and operational framework in which actions are accountable in an analogical sense insofar as they leave energetically costly traces that resist erasure. Within a Qur’ānic metaphysical horizon, concepts such as kitāb (Book), ṣaḥīfa (Record), and tawba (Repentance) function as structural counterparts to informational inscription and revision, without reducing theological meaning to physical process. In contrast to Kantian ethics, which grounds moral law in rational autonomy, the Qurʾān situates responsibility within the irreversible structure of time. Understood in this way, entropy is not a threat to coherence but a condition for accountability. By placing the Qurʾānic vision in dialog with modern science and theology, the article contributes to broader discussions on justice, agency, and the metaphysics of time within the science–religion discourse. Full article

This article examines the theory of miracles formulated by the distinguished Shī’ī-Mu’tazilī theologian, al-Sharīf al-Murtaḍā (965–1044 CE), specifically to contextualize his controversial doctrine of Qurʾānic iʿjāz, known as ṣarfah. The study reconstructs al-Murtaḍā’s general theory of miracles by analyzing his primary works and comparing his positions with standard Muʿtazilī theology. The investigation focused on how his metaphysical and moral frameworks interact to define the nature of miracles. I argue that al-Murtaḍā articulated a “minimal theory of miracles,” wherein miracles function as restricted, localized, and audience-relative “breaches of norms” (khawāriq al-ʿādāt) rather than violations of universal laws. In his view, miracles are morally necessary but temporally restricted acts of God, designed solely to authenticate a prophet to their immediate community. Al-Murtaḍā’s theory shifts the evidential burden of prophetic proof—including the Qur’ān—from continuing intrinsic supernatural qualities to discrete historical testimony. Finally, this study suggests that al-Murtaḍā appears to offer a rationally coherent alternative notion of miracles, that may well succeed from some of the most pressing contemporary intellectual challenges. Full article

This paper explores the function of miracles in classical and modern Islamic theology, focusing particularly on Fethullah Gülen’s interpretation and its relevance to contemporary discussions on revelation, rationality, and science. Traditionally, miracles are viewed as divine signs confirming prophethood by surpassing natural laws and serving as challenges to disbelievers. While classical scholars upheld their evidentiary role, modern thinkers—under the influence of positivism and rationalism—have sought to reinterpret or dismiss their validity, particularly sensory or physical miracles. In this context, Gülen presents a distinctive perspective that reframes miracles not merely as supernatural phenomena, but as signs pointing to both spiritual truths and technological inspiration. Drawing from the insights of Said Nursi, Gülen highlights how prophetic miracles have anticipated and guided scientific advancements, thereby integrating material progress with spiritual wisdom. Gülen’s holistic understanding of human nature and prophetic guidance, rooted in the concept of human beings as the most refined creation (ahsani taqwīm), positions prophets as leaders of both spiritual and intellectual advancement. This dual role challenges the perceived conflict between revelation and reason, asserting that rationality reaches its full potential only when informed by prophetic insight. The paper also situates Gülen’s thought within broader modern theological discourses, particularly in response to critiques that Islam is incompatible with science. Gülen affirms the necessity of revelation not as a hindrance to rational inquiry but as its essential guide, likening prophets to expert physicians who administer the elixir of revelation to protect and elevate the human mind. By analysing Gülen’s approach to miracles and prophetic intellect (fatānah), this paper argues that his theology offers a balanced framework for reconciling religion and science, and contributes a meaningful response to contemporary debates surrounding the rationality of faith and the enduring relevance of prophethood. Full article

Scholars universally regard Udayana’s Nyāyakusumāñjali (NK), or Flower Offering of Logic, as one of the great works of classical Indian philosophy, and more specifically, of rational or natural theology. But an important aspect of this masterpiece has not been appreciated by contemporary scholars: Udayana’s many references in the NK to Hinduism’s traditional sacrifices and sacred scriptures are integral to the philosophical case he develops for the existence of a Supreme Being. Or so we contend. We explain our interpretation of the NK through detailed examination of what we take to be the main argument of its first two chapters, an argument that only an extraordinary, omniscient being could have authored the Vedas, the Hindu scriptures. Then we show the importance of this argument for understanding the NK as a whole, including its final chapter, the chapter that has been the focus of most scholars. Though appeal to the Vedas is integral to Udayana’s full argument for the existence of a Supreme Being, his argument is not circular, we maintain; nor was he defending fideism. We believe that Udayana’s approach has relevance for persons of any faith who wish to affirm the centrality of the holy scriptures of their faith to their religious beliefs while recognizing the power of philosophical argument for the existence of a Supreme Being. Full article

In this article, we explain how Kant upends the terms of the debate concerning the relationship between God’s existence and an objective morality by looking at his moral-teleological argument for God’s existence in the third Critique. We explain Kant’s rejection of external sources of moral normativity and his method of grounding moral authority in the normativity of practical reason. We then turn to Kant’s argument justifying a practical belief in God as the moral author of nature. Kant’s claims about how we must conceptualize organisms teleologically and, as a result, how reason seeks an unconditioned end of nature, brings together our moral purpose with a conception of nature as an organized whole. Since our teleological concepts of organisms seem to require that human beings serve as the final, unconditioned end of nature, but morality and nature might be incompatible and divergent, we must also believe in a moral author of nature. This belief guards against demoralization and creates a unified view of the human moral agent and the world she inhabits, which Kant thinks of as indispensable for our practical lives. Kant notoriously blurs the lines between theology and ethics in nonstandard ways. Although he rejects many traditional approaches to grounding ethics in a conception of divine commands or eternal law, he still devotes a considerable amount of time to discussing the role of religion as a bulwark of the moral life. The goal of this paper is to defend Kant’s relevance to a discussion of the relationship between an objective ethics and the existence of God; his contribution deserves our notice precisely for the ways in which it promises to shift the terms of the contemporary debate and complicate possible answers to the question of whether there can be an objective morality without God. In contemporary philosophical literature, Kant’s argument contending that we must hope in God from a practical point of view on pain of irrationality of acting from duty has enjoyed substantial discussion. Here, however, we focus on a lesser-known suite of arguments that in order to so much as cognize ourselves and other species as the sorts of natural beings they are, we must believe in a supersensible moral author of these natures. This set of arguments ultimately dovetail with the more well-known argument for theistic hope and operate in much the same way. But they touch on facets of Kant’s whole philosophical system, such as his account of teleological judgment and the unity and final end of all of nature. Our goal is to explicate these arguments and illuminate their relevance of these Kantian arguments to the debate about the relevance of God to objective morality. We will argue that while an objective ethics is possible without God due to the active role of practical reason in rational agents, belief in God’s existence strengthens the claims of morality, both for psychological reasons but also by providing a more unified conception of moral and natural reality. Full article

Generally speaking, the conception of God serves as the theoretical focal point and central concern of Kant’s philosophy of religion. Its content is multidimensional, covering many aspects, such as proof of God’s existence, the image of God, and God’s status and functions. The purpose of this paper is to examine the evolution of the concept of God in Kant’s philosophy of religion in three different philosophical periods—the pre-critical period, the period of the critical philosophy and the post-critical period—to analyze the evolution of the internal contradictions in Kant’s philosophy of religion and the course of its systematic construction, and, on this basis, to reveal the three pivotal systemic transformations achieved by Kant’s philosophy of religion—the deconstruction of traditional theology, the reconstruction of rational theology and the construction of moral religion. Finally, this paper elucidates four internal roots which drive these pivotal transformations: (1) methodological foundation: the development of critical philosophy; (2) systematic goal: the establishment of scientific metaphysics; (3) axiological orientation: the secularization of theology into anthropological theology; and (4) practical culmination: the extension of pure moral philosophy. 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

This paper challenges the Western philosophical and theological tradition’s subordination of finitude to the infinite, arguing instead for finitude as the positive ontological foundation of human existence and credible theological discourse. Drawing primarily on Emmanuel Falque’s critique of “the pre-emption of the infinite” and Jan Patočka’s concept of “being shaken,” the study demonstrates how finitude constitutes not a limitation to be overcome but the necessary horizon within which any authentic encounter with transcendence must occur. The argument proceeds through four stages: deconstructing the Cartesian legacy that privileges the infinite over the finite; establishing phenomenological reorientation toward “impassable immanence;” introducing “being shaken” as the existential manifestation of finitude; and addressing critiques of this approach. The paper argues that Christianity’s incarnational logic—particularly Christ’s assumption of human finitude—provides theological validation for this phenomenological insight. The central contribution lies in proposing “credible theology”—theological discourse that derives legitimacy not from abstract rationality but from fidelity to the common human condition of finitude. This approach offers a methodological alternative to traditional fundamental theology by grounding theological reflection in the shared structures of existence. Full article

This article addresses the epistemic and political problem of self-referentiality in theology within the context of post-secular societies as a demand for public relevance of faculties of theology within the 21st-century university. It focuses on the epistemological emergence of public theology as a distinct knowledge, such as human rights, and ecological thinking, contributing to the public mission of knowledge production and interdisciplinary engagement. This study applies Michel Foucault’s archaeological and genealogical methods in dialogue with Michel de Certeau’s insights into the archaeology of religious practices through a multi-layered analytical approach, including archaeology of knowledge, apparatuses of power, pastoral government, and spirituality as a genealogy of ethics. As a result of the analysis, it examines the historical conditions of possibility for the emergence of a public theology and how it needs to be thought synchronously with other formations of knowledge, allowing theology to move beyond its self-referential model of approaching dogma and the social practices derived from it. This article concludes programmatically that the development of public theology requires an epistemological reconfiguration to displace its self-referentiality through critical engagement with a public rationality framework as an essential task for the public relevance and contribution of theology within contemporary universities and plural societies. Full article

This paper examines the political discourse of South Korean conservative Christianity, focusing on its alignment with far-right ideologies that undermine both democratic norms and the theological integrity of faith. Triggered by recent constitutional crises involving former President Suk-yeol Yoon, far-right Protestant groups have engaged in mobilisations marked by hate speech, disinformation, and theological politicisation. Drawing upon Heinrich Bedford-Strohm’s model of public theology, the study critiques this trend and argues for a reconfiguration of Christian public engagement toward justice, inclusion, and rational dialogue. It further explores the blurred boundaries between conservative and far-right Christian movements, the distortion of the public sphere, and the impact of digital misinformation. Ultimately, the paper proposes a theological and ethical roadmap for restoring the credibility of Christianity in South Korea’s pluralistic democracy. Full article