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By what standard?
Get PDFThis paper is a theological response to Harry Reid\u27s book Outside Verdict: An Old Kirk in a New Scotland from the standpoint of evangelical theology. In asking \u27By what standard?\u27, Professor Macleod sets out an understanding of Reformed theology by which Reid\u27s implicit theology might be measured and with the responses to it must engage
The gift of an aging church
Get PDFDr McKimmon argues that while secularisation is a permanent and irreversible process, the decline and death of the Church as we know it may yet be providential. The various forms that the Church has taken over the ages have often proved transitory: the past teaches us that history is an open-ended process, and the eclipse of institutions is shown to be inevitable. However, life may be lived with God yet without a Church, with a cloud of unknowing between the present and the future. Dr McKimmon criticises undue concentration on the current paradigm of ‘change in order to survive’ and concludes with a plea for deeper pastoral care for the Church in its current situation. The Church is indeed, he insists, a transitory organisation – however a sunset may be beautiful
Evolution and the sacred: The evolutionary theology of John Haught in relation to Daoist philosophy
Get PDFThis paper was submitted as an entry for the 2015 Fraser Prize and was highly commended by the judging panel for demonstrating the benefits of enriching and sharpening the views of one tradition by setting it alongside a different one. It explores the evolutionary theology of the American theologian John Haught in the light of a comparative study of Daoism. Drawing on key aspects of Haught’s thought and relating them to parallel Daoist concepts, the paper shows first that God, in creating, takes the risk of allowing the cosmos to exist in relative liberty; second, that God can still be involved in continuing evolution; and, lastly, that ‘higher’ categories of life and mind can emerge through evolution
An inside verdict
Get PDFAs Acting Principal Clerk of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, Dr Marjory MacLean provides a response from within the Kirk to Harry Reid\u27s book Outside Verdict: An Old Kirk in a New Scotland. Her contribution focusses on the aspects of Reid\u27s book concerned with the administration of the church. This takes in leadership, distinctiveness, manses and overseas charges, decision-making, the General Assembly and the central administration in Edinburgh
“A Catholic Reading Guide to Universalism” by Robert Wild
No full textReview of Robert Wild, A Catholic Reading Guide to Universalism (Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 2015
Revisiting Ideological Borrowings in Syrian Nationalist Narratives: Sati ‘al-Husri, Michel ‘Aflaq and Zaki al-Arsuzi
Get PDFIn Revisiting Ideological Borrowings, Aldoughli takes us on an in-depth journey of the intellectual foundations of nationalism in Syria. Her focus is Sati’ al-Husri, a secular nationalist thinker whose work formed the basis of several nationalist political movements, including the Baath party. Aldoughli connects al-Husri’s thought with two subsequent political activists/thinkers, Michel Aflaq and Zaki al-Arsuzi, highlighting the extent to which they heavily relied on the intellectual contributions of al-Husri. Aldoughli illustrates the internal contradiction within their idea of nationalism, as first articulated by al-Husri, a contradiction which stems from the fact that two different traditions, i.e. the Germanic and the French, were being borrowed from, despite their opposing conceptions of nationalism. As one reads Aldoughli’s exploration of the secular legacy of Syria, one wonders whether secularism, irrespective of how broadly understood, will survive in any form in future Syria, or whether this phase was far too elitist and politicised to be capable of resisting the destruction of the last five years
More Religious Yet Still Secular? - The Shifting Relationship Between the Secular and the Religious in Syria
Get PDFIn More Religious, Yet Still Secular? The Shifting Relationship Between the Secular and the Religious in Syria, Line Khatib takes us on a more recent journey than that of Aldoughli’s narrative, and explores how secularism was in fact enriched by the very religious discourse assumed to be its antagonist. By focusing on the words and actions of various religious scholars active in recent Syrian history, Khatib documents the inclusiveness, moderation, and indeed ‘secularism’ of key religious scholars. She leaves us with a question, perhaps too early to be answered, on whether or not this type of religious sensibility is more representative of Syrians than that of the radical forces now fighting on the ground. In the current politicised and highly inflamed context, it is clearly too difficult to determine how deeply rooted this secular approach to Islam is amongst the majority of Muslims in Syria
THE KURDISH IDENTITY; FROM BANISHMENT TO EMPOWERMENT
Get PDF In The Kurdish identity; from Banishment to Empowerment, Ola Rifai explores one of the important manifestations of the Syrian Uprising, namely, how it has directly and indirectly influenced the manufacturing and perception of identity in Syria. Rifai focuses on the proliferation of Kurdish identities after 2011, and shows how, to a large extent, these identities were imposed from above by actors with very specific political agendas. Rifai further sheds light on how the Syrian regime interacted with these identities on the basis of security concerns, rather than on Baathist ideological principles. Various dynamics, as Rifai narrates, explain why the PYD’s vision of an exclusive Kurdish identity was far more empowered than visions of Kurdish identity that were more conciliatory or more willing to remain under some type of Syrian national framework. Though all of this can be traced back to the event of the Syrian Uprising, as with other similar outcomes, the foundations for all of this are far older than the Syrian Uprising and are seemingly the result of the failure of Syrian politicians from independence onwards to address minorities, both ethnic and religious, in a manner that is genuinely inclusive