The depth and extent of Ficino’s reception and use of Proclus has already attracted much scholarly attention. The present paper builds on and tries to enrich these results, focusing specifically on Ficino’s reception of Proclus’ Elements of Physics and Elements of Theology. In the first part I discuss a marginal annotation of Ficino, in which he makes use of arguments about the circular motion of the soul from the Elements of Physics. I provide some clarifications about the annotated text (of Plotinus) and propose one additional possible echo of the Elements of Physics in Ficino’s Platonic Theology and its arguments about the immortality of the soul. The second part of the paper turns to the link between the Elements of Theology and Ficino’s Platonic Theology. Together with some further doctrinal borrowings I suggest that also the structure of the two works bears important affinities. The soul is a central case in point. To ground this claim, I compare specific sections of the two texts. Also, I selectively examine Ficino’s commentary on the Philebus, which is prior to the Platonic Theology and is strongly influenced by the early theorems of the Elements of Theology. Overall, the paper wishes to shed further light on Ficino’s multiform (and not yet fully unveiled) appropriation of Proclus.
Evil both is and is not a central part of the Christian theological vision. There is no equal and opposite to God, and no necessary or appropriate place for evil in God’s good creation. Nevertheless, creation is afflicted by evil: the divine response to evil is a central part of Christian faith and hope, and the human response to evil is a central part of Christian life and love.
In modern thought, the ‘why’ of evil has come to particular prominence, with widespread attention to ‘the’ problem of evil and the question of theodicy. In the context of Christian theology, however, it is more helpful to think not of a single problem of evil but of a number of interlinking problems and questions. This article will first consider questions around the ‘what’ of evil: what kind of things count as evil, and what evil fundamentally is, i.e. the ontology of evil. It will then turn to a ‘how’ question: how God is understood to defeat evil, which from a theological point of view is the most significant question about evil, before finally taking up the more familiar ‘why’ question.
O artigo aborda a relação entre a Igreja Católica e os meios de comunicação no Brasil, destacando sua evolução desde meados do século XX, revisitando a pesquisa bibliográfica sobre o conceito de “catolicismo midiático”. Coteja-se o conceito de midiatização da religião, a fim de superar uma visão focada apenas nas mídias, levando em conta processos midiático-religiosos mais complexos, como o fenômeno dos influenciadores digitais católicos. Afirma-se que, desde suas origens até hoje, o “catolicismo midiático” revela características distintivas que persistem, desaparecem ou mudam diante das transformações sociotecnológicas e teológico-eclesiais. Conclui-se que, de um catolicismo das massas e das multidões do fim do século XX, passa-se agora a um catolicismo de multi-indivíduos conectados, em meio a um processo contínuo de descatolização do Brasil e de desinstitucionalização da própria Igreja, a partir da publicização e pulverização de catolicismos diversos em redes digitais.
: This article explores the pneumatological theme of the freedom of the Spirit from the perspective of experience. It deploys a recently developed methodology of attending to affective and experiential dynamics in pneumatology to identify two significant patterns or modalities of Christian life in the Spirit that are indexed to the Spirit’s freedom: a pattern of divine resistance to human attempts to control God, characterized on the human side by experiences of disruption as well as dynamic creativity; and a pattern of life free from the tyranny of the law, characterized by a modality of play or playfulness, as explored in the work of Nimi Wariboko. In identifying and illuminating these patterns, this article extends a project of seeking to make explicit the connections between Christian doctrinal concepts and Christian experience into a new domain, and responds to a long-standing concern that theologies of sanctification emphasizing freedom have little to say about the positive shape of Christian life in the Spirit. This article explores the pneumatological theme of the freedom of the Spirit from the perspective of experience. It puts to use a methodological approach I developed in a recent book on the Holy Spirit, applying it to an important aspect of the doctrine of the Holy Spirit that is not addressed in that book. This approach has two features that are relevant to the present analysis. First, it takes as a working assumption that activities that Scripture describes as operations of the Spirit in the world should be expected to have effects and consequences that are at least in part “practically recognizable” in Christian experience, and that it is therefore likely to be theologically fruitful to analyze a given pneumatological trope (such as the freedom of the Spirit) in terms of its experiential implications and effects. 1 Second, because the operations of the Trinity ad extra are indivisible,
Pentecostalism has always struggled to define itself theologically from the beginning. Starting out as a marginal stream within Christianity, early Pentecostals were reluctant to compose statements of faith and were susceptible to a range of new doctrines, a problem that continues to this day. In this article, the author surveys the theological development of Pentecostalism in Australia, giving special attention to a specific Australian-born movement, Christian Revival Crusade, because of its distinctive doctrines of British-Israelism and deliverance of believers from evil spirits. The author concludes with some observations of recent doctrinal developments in Australian Pentecostalism before positing some causes for such changes and drawing some lessons for Pentecostalism as a whole.
Abstract John Webster and Dietrich Bonhoeffer are two theologians invested in prioritising certain conceptions of divine transcendence within their respective theological projects. Specifically, both appeal to conceptions of divine transcendence and agency amidst what they understand to be the problematic naturalisation of theological discourse in modern Protestant theology, particularly within its liberal German traditions. The way they understand transcendence, however, and the doctrinal loci they choose to affect it, leads to different conceptualisations of the possibilities, scope and organisation of systematic theology. Where Webster (especially in his later work) seeks to prioritise God's immanent perfection and aseity through theology proper, Bonhoeffer instead emphasises God's freedom pro me within the person of Jesus Christ. These differences in first theological foundations have important consequences for the shape of theological method and doctrinal architecture within the practice of contemporary systematic theology.
O Vaticano II abriu uma era de renovação na Igreja católica e deixou o legado da eclesiologia da comunhão dos iguais. As consequências políticas e institucionais ficaram em débito com essa teologia e sofreram os desgastes advindos das eclesiologias conservadoras. O Papa Francisco retoma as intuições e posturas conciliares em seu pontificado e convoca a Igreja a repensar-se em seus mecanismos de participação com a pauta da sinodalidade. Essa temática tira as consequências do aggiornamento conciliar e contará com resistências da tradição e das normas que regem o organismo eclesiástico, assim como dos sujeitos ali hegemônicos. O fator Francisco constitui uma possibilidade inédita de renovação eclesial.
Книга Псалмів є збірником духовної поезії, твори якої використовувалися як для загального богослужіння, так і для особистої молитви. У християнській традиції ці поетичні твори відомі під грецькою назвою “псалми” (ψαλμοί), що походить від дієслова псалло (ψάλλω) – “грати на струнних музичних інструментах”. Звична грецька назва книги “Псалми” є перекладом з давньоєврейської назви Тегіллім, тобто “хваління”.
This paper reports on the effect of personal, psychological, social, and theological factors in shaping attitudes toward church buildings, the lockup of churches, and the trajectory into virtual church among 4,374 clergy and lay people from the Church of England during the first UK COVID-19 lockdown in 2020. Data from an online survey were used to create three scales, Pro Church Buildings, Anti Church Lockup, and Pro Virtual Church, which were shown to have adequate internal consistency reliability. Five sets of predictor variables were tested using hierarchical multiple regression: personal factors (sex and age), psychological factors (psychological type scores), social location (ordination status, education, geographic location), theological stance (modern versus traditional worship, liberal versus conservative doctrinal belief, liberal versus conservative views on morality), and Church tradition (Anglo-Catholic, Broad Church, Evangelical, and Charismaticism). The three scales were predicted by slightly different sets of variables, but in each case personal factors and psychological factors retained some predictive power after controlling for other sorts of factors. The results suggest that those most likely to embrace a future with a significant role for church life online are women (rather than men), the middle-aged (rather than younger or older people), intuitive (rather than sensing) and feeling (rather than thinking) psychological types, clergy (rather than laity), those living outside the inner cities, those who prefer modern (rather than traditional) forms of worship, those with more liberal (rather than conservative) views on doctrine and morality, and those who embrace Evangelical and Charismatic (rather than Anglo-Catholic) church traditions.
Cuestiones Teológicas Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana
La actividad teológica constituye un ministerio eclesial, que se realiza no sólo de manera ordinaria, en la labor cotidiana de formación de la conciencia de la fe del pueblo cristiano y en la de la formación de quienes han de desempeñar responsabilidades especiales en la comunidad, como es el caso de los presidentes de la comunidad, de 100 catequistas, etc., sino también en forma, por así decido extraordinaria. La investigación teológica es invocada en circunstancias particulares por el magisterio de la Iglesia, o por la comunidad misma, para iluminar ciertos aspectos más urgentes de la conciencia vivida de la fe. (…)
Lo sagrado ha sido considerado una categoría esencial para estudiar y comprender las religiones. Este punto de partida ha hecho pensar que incluso las religiones que carecen de una noción de divinidad conservan su dimensión sagrada. El presente artículo intenta volver sobre lo sagrado, pero con el fin de demostrar algunas dificultades de esta categoría cuando se intenta penetrar en el sentido ético-espiritual de las religiones. De este modo, con el fin de ofrecer una mejor comprensión de las religiones se opera un desmontaje de lo sagrado por el que se reactiva la categoría de la santidad. Esta categoría asegura no solo otro acercamiento a las religiones, sino que permite entender por qué aparece con insistencia la espiritualidad en el escenario actual. Así, pues, nos proponemos profundizar en las ramificaciones y manifestaciones culturales de lo sagrado así como emitir una crítica de la realidad sagrada para elaborar filosóficamente el concepto de santidad. Dicho concepto explica mejor lo que son las religiones.
Este artigo analisa quatro princípios fundamentais encontrados em Atos dos Apóstolos 2,42. Observase que a prática destes princípios contribui para que a igreja cumpra com equilíbrio sua missão e propósito. Os princípios apresentados são: doutrina bíblica, comunhão, partir do pão e oração. Igrejas estagnadas ou em declínio geralmente deixaram de ter estes princípios como centrais em suas práticas. Este artigo demonstra que a prática destes princípios permeia toda historia bíblica e tem sido a marca das reuniões cristãs. Entretanto resgatar a prática destes princípios apenas por imitação tentando transpor para este momento da história seria um anacronismo estéril. Contudo estudá-los como meio de haurir conteúdo e métodos adaptados a este tempo constitui um facilitador para o crescimento da igreja local e para o avanço no trabalho missionário. E por fim é apresentada uma síntese bíblica da importância da prática desses princípios fundamentais para que uma igreja local seja saudável
La producción intelectual del Dr. Gonzalo Soto Posada, docente e investigador distinguido en el contexto colombiano e internacional, ha sido un referente importante en el abordaje filosófico y teológico de temáticas relacionadas con la medievalidad. En la revista Cuestiones Teológicas de la Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana se evidencia de forma particular un corpus considerable que representa su contribución reflexiva sobre esta cuestión; por eso, a través de una selección de algunos de sus artículos publicados en este medio, se pudo constatar una semblanza intelectual en la que este autor parte de un discurso filosófico para establecer su postura en distintos aspectos de la teología. A través de este artículo se evidencia cómo el profesor Soto, sin dejar de reconocer su formación en filosofía y estableciendo un diálogo permanente entre saberes, se aventura al quehacer teológico haciendo un análisis pertinente de algunas concepciones que en la Edad Media fueron objeto de discusión.
O artigo denuncia a perda do verdadeiro sentido do corpo no dualismo e na falsa valoração do corpo, opondo-lhe a articulação de natureza, espírito e liberdade. O pensamento ocidental que faz vinte séculos se obstina em distinguir e em opor corpo e alma conduz ao intelectualismo de Descartes, reforçado pela relação tecnicista com o mundo, e a cisão sujeito-objeto que domina a modernidade. Mostra quatro exemplos, respectivamente no transumanismo, na gender theory, nas atuais representações da família e em certas formas de religiosidade. Em seguida apresenta uma abordagem filosófica, falando da contribuição da fenomenologia, da pertença a um corpo maior e, depois de resumir a argumentação filosófica, da tarefa de articular natureza e cultura. Apresenta também os argumentos de tipo teológico (criação, encarnação, antropologia ternária de corpo, alma e espírito...), culminando no mistério pascal e no critério ético significativamente corporal da parábola do juízo.
ABSTRACT: The article denounces the loss of the true meaning of the body in the dualism and false valuation of the body, opposing his articulation of nature, spirit and freedom. The Western thought that is twenty centuries old is obstinate in distinguishing and in opposing body and soul leading to the intellectualism of Descartes, reinforced by the technical relationship with the world, and the subject-object Division that dominates modernity. The article shows four examples, respectively in the “transhumanism”, on gender theory, in the current representations of the family and in certain forms of religiosity. The article then presentes a philosophical approach, talking about the contribution of Phenomenology, of belonging to a larger body and, after summarizing the philosophical argumentation.