690 research outputs found
Sort by
On the Varieties of Religious Rationality: Plato (and the Buddha) Versus the New Atheists
No full textHolocaust survivor Victor Frankl claims that human beings are spiritually and mentally free, and that it is possible to maintain one's dignity even in a concentration camp. If this tremendous claim is true, it is true regardless of who says it. However, it is only when the claim is made by someone like Frankl that it functions rhetorically, actually prompting the listener to reflect on what it might mean. In the Georgias, Socrates argues for an even more extreme version of this same idea: that it would be better to be tortured to death than to torture someone else, because it is impossible for a torturer to be happy. This paper shows why, if what Frankl and Socrates say is true, both tradition and myth are perfectly rational modes of discourse, and why a culture that rejects the capacity of tradition and myth to disclose truth will almost inevitably reject these claims as irrational. This discussion is framed in terms of an interesting disjunct in the meaning of the term "atheist," as it is used by the New Atheists and as it is used by Plato, and is set in dialogue with the claims of as Vipassana meditation teacher S. N. Goenka, whose teachings bear remarkable similarity to Plato's
Perspective (Institute for Christian Studies)
No full textHealing as teaching: teaching for healing / Doug Blomberg -- Lessons from a not so vacant lot / Rachel McGuire -- What are you doing here?! -- The rose (and God) is without 'why' / Joshua Harris -- Finding ways to give back / Matt Bonz
ICH 3761HS L0101 / ICH6761 HS L0101. Reconsidering Kant's Aesthetics
No full textUntil recently, it was customary to regard Kant as the thinker who gave definitive form to the notion of aesthetic judgment and who succeeded in explaining why aesthetic experience is something essentially distinct from other kinds of experience. The postmodern rejection of the practice of aesthetic theory, however, has done much to undermine Kant’s position vis-à-vis the arts. This course aims to re-examine Kant’s aesthetic theory from the vantage point of the art theoretical literature that preceded it. In an effort to better understand Kant’s contribution to the history of thought about art, it will seek to contextualize such "Kantian" themes as judgment, taste, genius, beauty, sublimity and purposiveness. It will also consider to what degree our understanding of Kant has been shaped by later modernist assumptions about the character of his contribution
ICSD 13210 S15. Religion and Philosophy at the Extremes of Human Experience
No full textJohn Newton, who wrote the lyrics for "Amazing Grace" in 1772, was the captain of a slave ship prior to entering the clergy. In other words, the man to whom the words "a wretch like me" originally referred – was actually a thoroughgoing wretch, a man who bought and sold human beings for profit. The grace that saved him, meanwhile, first appeared over the course of an extended brush with death: the ship he was on almost sank in a violent North Atlantic gale, then floated at the mercy of the winds and currents for nearly a month before drifting fortuitously onto the coast of Northern Ireland.
We live most of our lives in a state of relative equilibrium, calmly passing through more-or-less predictable sequences of habit and custom, work and play, activity and rest. This course will explore what happens when these predictable sequences vanish, when we no longer know where we are or where we are going, what we should do, who we should strive to become. We will focus in particular on how religion and philosophy operate, both experientially and discursively, when the normal equilibrium of our lives has been shattered. This will involve a comparison between two opposing approaches to theses edges: in short, the very suffering that often seems necessary to open the soul out unto God is often cited as evidence that God cannot possibly exist, that religion is nothing more than a retreat into illusion spurred by the fear of death. Thus, beginning with a comparison between Victor Frankl’s account of his experiences in the Nazi death camps, Man’s Search for Meaning, and Freud’s classic denunciation of religion in The Future of an Illusion, this course explores how the tension between devastation, hope, and despair has played out in various other extremes of human experience
Revisiting Bathsheba and David: A Recuperative Reading with Julia Kristeva
No full textThis prologue seeks to provide the author's context, premises and aims for this philosophical theological thesis which aims to provide an application of the semiotic theory of Julia Kristeva to a revisiting, that is rereading, reexamining, analyzing and reflecting on the biblical story of King David and Bathsheba, and how we may understand our own life-stories, our subjectivity, and our relation to the sacred and to the world. Although the work of Julia Kristeva is well known and the story of David is familiar to readers of the Bible, it is my assertion that a re-reading of this biblical narrative and some of its commentary in view of selected Kristevan philosophical concepts can lead to a multi-layer understanding of this narrative and give us deeper insights into our own stories. [Page 1]Prologue -- Revisiting with Kristeva : a recuperative reading, across the grain -- Kristeva's signifying process : the revolutionary symbolic/semiotic double movement -- The sacred crossroads of love : between tyranny and delirium -- Sovereignty of/for the subject-in-process/on-trial -- The story of Bathsheba and David : beauty objectified and the abjection of the objectifier -- An ethical witness to the unethical : toward an herethics of love -- Epilogue: Into the future : a her(ethics) of love between delirium and tyranny -- Samenvattin
Liberating Emergence: Human Dependence and Autonomy in Emergentism, Hermeneutics, and Pragmatism
No full textThis thesis traces a thread that runs through emergentism in analytical philosophy and the thought of five philosophers: Martin Heidegger, Hans-Georg Gadamer, Charles Taylor, John Dewey, and Richard Rorty. I suggest that the insight that connects all of these thinkers is precisely the insight that undergirds a theory of “strong emergence,” which acknowledges that in certain systems, properties emerge that exert causal influence on the system out of which they emerged. Strong emergence offers a helpful “third way” to describe human personhood that is neither reductionistic nor dualistic and maintains that the human person is both dependent upon and (within certain limits) autonomous from the system out of which it emerges. I will suggest that the hermeneutic philosophy of Heidegger, Gadamer, and Taylor clarifies the historical cultural conditions out of which the human person emerges as a critical and creative agent in a way that similarly maintains a balance between the dependence and autonomy of the human person. Dewey and Rorty, on the other hand, provide accounts of human situatedness but emphasize the creative freedom that emerges out of this situatedness, characterizing humans as artists or poets who can engage with their situatedness in novel ways. For both Dewey and Rorty, our ability to shape the future and to shape ourselves is built into our experience in the world. I will conclude that each of these five thinkers develop accounts of human personhood that resonate with strong emergence, describing how human persons are able to emerge out of their embeddedness in the world, upon which they remain ever dependent, as creative innovators.Introduction -- Emergence and personhood -- An ontology of indebtedness: reflecting on finitude -- Innovative individuality: re-imagining liberty -- Conclusio
Are We There Yet? Economic Justice and the Common Good
No full textRecent social movements and protests reveal an increasing level of popular concern about building a more economically just society. Yet there is little agreement about how to accomplish this goal.
This conference seeks to bring together business leaders, bankers, academics, justice advocates, policy makers, legal professionals, politicians, and those working in the not-for-profit sector to discuss the issues we face as well as hopeful solutions.Co-hosted by King's University College and Institute for Christian Studies. Supported by a generous grant from the Priscilla and Stanford Reid Trust. We also gratefully acknowledge the contributions of Citizens for Public Justice, the Micah Centre, the Social Justice Institute and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.http://youtu.be/nMqdeqwGIdk
[Dr. Bob Goudzwaard keynote address]http://youtu.be/Xk24O-nNc14
[The Honourable Diane Ablonczy keynote address]Dr. Goudzwaard's keynote address to the conference titled "Are We There Yet? Economic Justice and the Common Good" on May 12, 2014 at the King's University College in Edmonton Alberta [YouTube Link: http://youtu.be/nMqdeqwGIdk]The Honourable Diane Ablonczy, Member of Parliament for Calgary-Nose Hill, giving a keynote address to the conference titled "Are We There Yet? Economic Justice and the Common Good" on May 12, 2014 at the King's University College in Edmonton Alberta. [Youtube video link: http://youtu.be/Xk24O-nNc14]SSHR
Perspective (Institute for Christian Studies)
No full textAre We There Yet? Economic Justice and the Common Good, Are We There Yet? Economic Justice and the Common Good: Keynote Speakers, Faculty Spotlight: Robert Sweetman, Faculty Spotlight: Shannon Hoff, Whose Reformed Tradition? Which Kuyper?, Student News: Bryan Richard and Eric Hann
