Journal articles on the topic 'Contact with God'

The author discusses what she learned from her participation in evangelical fighting ministries, paying special attention to how these communities sought to connect with God through interacting with each other. In training with and interviewing the members of these ministries in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, the author found that as evangelical Christians, many struggled to establish and maintain the primacy of their personal relationships with God over their interpersonal interests. Yet they also believed their relationships with God were meant to be witnessed and experienced by others. During moments of worship they shared emotional intimacy, granting each other opportunities to make outwardly perceivable their internally felt relationships with God. During their Brazilian jiu-jitsu training, they were encouraged to feel God’s presence as they grappled with each other at very close contact. Using the concept of compartmentalisation, the author analyses how these evangelical fighting ministries demarcated their practices into emotional and physical forms of intimacy, thereby finding different ways to achieve what they perceived as personal contact with God in their intense interactions with each other.

Murdoch and Levinas both believe that our humanity requires us to suppress our natural egoism and to be morally responsive to others. Murdoch insists that while such a morality presupposes a ‘transcendent background’, God should be kept out of the picture altogether. By contrast, Levinas argues that, in responding morally to others, we make contact with God (though not the God of traditional Christianity) and that in doing so we become more God-like. I attempt to clarify their agreements and differences, and I offer some criticisms of their conception of humanity, God, and the relationship between them.

I will discuss some familiar problems in the philosophy of religion which arise for theistic belief. I will argue that it may be most worthwhile to focus on a particular sort of theistic belief, capital-T Theism, central to which is a particular conception both of God and of the believer’s relation to God. At the heart of Theism in this sense is the continuing experience of God, both individual and collective. Compared with the evidence for theistic belief that is provided by this experiential contact with God, most of the usually-considered arguments for and against God’s existence are secondary.

Pentecostalism is a Protestant denomination in whose worldview special attention is paid to the supernatural and miraculous action of God in the world. That category includes healings exorcism, and exalted spiritual practices. Miracle in the understanding of Pentecostals is a sign of heavenly life, an indicator of connection with God, a manifestation of the power of God, a confirmation of the truth of faith and the status of believers. The miracle for Pentecostals is what seems strange and unusual to worldly people but it is an everyday reality for believers who are in constant contact with God and who are awaiting His constant intervention.

Abstract A close textual analysis of Pope Benedict XVI’s inaugural encyclical Deus Caritas Est—God is Love is offered from the perspective of Platonic and contemporary rhetorical theory An acclaimed inspirational success, this letter proposes loving "encounter" and "response" as the fundamental dynamic of Christian communication; God is "felt" and made manifest in concrete love-of-neighbor. Benedicts "contact" orientation has significant implications for contemporary theory—humanity becomes ontologically contiguous, subjects are holistically embodied, Truth is grounded in co-felt exchange, and discourse is decentered by direct public engagement. Deus Caritas Est draws attention to ethical limits in Dramatism and Logology and advances embodied, invitational, and theological perspectives on rhetorical theory by showing how genuine love initiates and feeds a divine dynamic that can transcend divisions and unite humanity.

AbstractFour studies (two experiments, a journaling study, and a questionnaire) conducted with American Protestant college students explored intuitions concerning petitionary prayer. Since Protestant theology offers little teaching on through which modes of causation God is most likely to act, it was hypothesized that intuitive causal cognition would be used to generate inferences regarding this aspect of petitionary prayer. Participants in these studies favored asking God to act via psychological causation over the biological and mechanistic domains. Further, in fictitious scenarios participants reported being more likely to ask a supercomputer or Superman to solve a problem through mechanistic intervention than God. These results are consistent with two previous findings: that God is often intuitively represented as having a single physical location (and it is not nearby); and psychosocial agents (such as God) are expected to require physical contact to act on non-agents.

The field of contact linguistics has produced valuable insights into the ways languages behave in contact environments, and the present essay represents an attempt to adapt a number of these insights to the study of cultural contact more broadly. The historical phenomenon under discussion is a theological strand shared by rabbinic and late antique Platonist sources, namely, the attempt to formulate a theory of sacrifice that does not entail an anthropomorphic conception of (the highest) God. After adducing some of the key sources that represent this attempt in the respective traditions, the essay examines how best to conceptualize such similarity, absent shared terminology, explicit cross-tradition citations or references, or any other traditional markers of “influence.” Here I employ the contact-linguistic category of areal diffusion, that describes the tendency of languages in contact over time to gradually adopt common features, even though it is not possible to determine which language “borrowed” from the other. Taking the theological critique of sacrifice as the cultural analogue to a linguistic feature, it is possible to see how the feature is evident in certain streams within rabbinic Judaism, platonic Paganism, and early Christianity. The essay then turns to examine some of the ramifications of a contact-linguistic approach and, drawing on the work of Salikoko Mufwene, puts forth two arguments: that the distinction between internally- and externally-induced change is both theoretically and analytically inadequate; and the need to examine cultural continuity no less than cultural change as the result of contact dynamics.

This article looks at the problem of the so-called “point of contact” between God and mankind, or more particularly, the relation between trinity and anthropology. Does Christian anthropology develop from the doctrine on creation, the human nature of Christ or the work of the Holy Spirit? In opposition to the current trinitarian perspectives on humanity, which mainly focus on relational similitude, the theology of the Dutch theologian, Oepke Noordmans critically resists any attempt at finding analogies between the trinity and humanity. According to him, creation is judgment of God, which has critical implications for any independent anthropology: There is no perpetuation of the incarnation in our humanity, church or liturgy after the resurrection, and the re-creative work of the Spirit does not have a point of contact with any constitutive element in our humanity. The judgment of the cross reaches from creation across history to recreation.

Man and woman are created in God’s image so they have desire to know their Creator and they also need God in their lives which causes the desire to know Him. The desire in question, then, is a desire to understand God. For the desire is prior to knowing and it is compatible with not knowing. It is true if we say that man’s unrestricted desire to know is mated to a limited capacity to attain knowledge about Him.For its finiteness human capabilitycould not get hold of a complete knowledge of God.In knowing God and aknowledging Him as Being of beings, human beings must be aware of his ignorance that is “the only true wisdom is in knowing I know nothing.” God, therefore, takes the first step to contact with human beings, then He reveals Himself, He gives Himself to be known and He makes Himself known by human beings. This is a self-manifestation of Someone to someone. Revelation is due to the intiative of God that is God reveals Himself, when He wills, to whom He wills and because He wills. God’s revelation illuminates the intellectual capabilityof humans so that human beings are able to know Him and aknowledge Him and talk about Him as Being of beings. Knowledge of God is called theology. Ultimately, theology is about God in Himself. Thus, theology is the peak of knowledge and the fullness of gnosis since it was brought about under the guidance of the Spirit.So, we could say, God makes knowledge possible for human beings and God is really the Possibler of knowledge and aknowledge of Himself.

BackgroundReligion plays an important role in symptoms phenomenology, attribution and management in the Arab culture. Mentally ill patients in the Arab countries tend to pass through different health care providing filters. Traditional healers form part of the informal and sometimes unofficial health care sector.AimsExplore the timing of local traditions contacts in regard to diagnosis and treatment, and identify types of local traditions contacts of Iraqi schizophrenic patients.MethodsHundred Iraqi acute schizophrenic patients, admitted to Ibn-Rushd psychiatric teaching hospital, Baghdad, Iraq, with informative informant were examined. Information list of 3 parts was prepared: 1st part asking about the contact timing with faith healers in regard to diagnosis and treatment; 2nd asking about the types of traditional faith healer contacts; 3rd was asking about the causes of illness.Results22% have no any contact, 47% contact faith healer before and after, 7% before, 24% after the diagnosis and treatment. Types of traditional faith healer contacts were: Sayed 37%; visiting Emams 54%; jinn dealers 32%; Daraweesh 17%; witchcraft 3%; and reading Holly Quran 9%. Causes of illness were: life stresses 42%; patient himself 25%; poor faith and belief 14%; weak personality 11%; genetic causes 4%; witchcraft 5%; Jinn possession 11%; and wish of God 13%.ConclusionsThis study explores the importance of religious background in the course of diagnosis and treatment of acute schizophrenia. Psycho-education was needed to increase the awareness of publics about faith, beliefs, traditional healers, and mental illness.

In Part I of this paper, I took up a challenge posed by Alston (1991), Wainwright (1981), Yandell (1993), and other theists who hold the rather natural view that mystical experiences provide perceptual contact with God, roughly on a par with the access sense experience affords to the natural world. These theists recognize, at the same time, that the plausibility of this view would be significantly compromised by the possibility of scientifically explaining mystical experiences – especially if a scientific explanation were incompatible with, ruled out, or made unlikely the supposition that God has anything special to do with the occurrences of these experiences.

In this article the author identifies a paradox at the heart of Descartes? foundationalist project. The components of the paradox are as follows: on the one hand, ontological certainty of cogito, on the other hand, its epistemic uncertainty: it is impossible for the solus ipse to establish the elementary truth: at present it is impossible to determine whether it is now night or daylight. For Descartes the solution consists of introducing God and in believing in His existence. But this is no solution whatsoever, for a subject would require direct contact with God in order to receive clear and distinct ideas, which are at the same time marks of their truth. The author concludes the following: firstly, Descartes managed to establish a foundation for nothing; secondly, the Cartesian project that includes the necessity of contact with God as a way to attain the Truth, becomes completed only in Hegel?s philosophy of Absolut Knowledge (in Wiss. der Logik), along with his justification provided in the Phenoimenologie des Gesites. The post-Hegelian philosophy, however, has engendered its own paradox by abandoning Hegel?s own solution despite it being fully Cartesian in its character. This was the consequence of abandoning God and declaring Hegel?s philosophy as a deplorable conservative revival of theology; something that was beyond understanding by modern philosophers. The abandonment of God had as its consequence the return to the Cartesian paradox, which reopened the question of truth - connected to the Cogito, and the question of sense (Sinn) - connected to the sum of human subject. The neglect of God leads to the departure from ratio-centrism in two ways: the epistemic perspectivism and relativism, on the one hand, and Nihilism, voluntarism with decisionism, along with existentialism, on the other. Consequently, with the death of God, and the fall of Hegel?s system, the modern metaphysics of subjectivity reveals itself as founded merely on the Will to power - as a will for God, until Hegel, and a will against God, subsequently. Thus, Heidegger was right when he said that Nietzsche?s Will to Power was the end of the Western metaphysics. The author complements this finding by adding that this kind of metaphysic had already been concealed within the Descartes Meditations from the start, in the forms of the will for the Reason and the will for God. Finally, the author concludes that the modern philosophy completes its own Odyssey of looking for a foundation by abandoning the Hegelian solution, blind to the fact that Hegel?s solution was the only consequent Cartesian one. The ultimate result was the fall of ratio-centrism into nihilism, voluntarism, and existentialism, as promoted under a thin vail of Picodellamirandolian humanism.

The text concerns the issue of children’s perception of God. I link it to the semiotic analysis and Charles Sanders Peirce’s triadic concept of sign. Making use of the theories as well as the interviews concerning the perception of the character of God I demonstrate that the child interprets the world through contact with symbolic reality and through giving reality some meaning. Giving meaning applies to listening to the message as well as to analysing the conditions under which it occurred in a specific situation and finally to interpreting received content. The analysis of the interviews was done on the basis of semiotic analysis.

The article considers one of the views on God existing within the modern Western literary tradition and out-side of religious systems. The image of God was chosen as a cultural phenomenon relevant for interpretation, which exists both in religious and secular discourse. The research involved the creative heritage of Robert Sheck-ley – one of the most popular authors of fantastic literature in the mid-20th century. The analysis was based on fantastic tales, since they provide the opportunity to prove all strategies for social behaviour, as well as different views on life. The image of God created by Sheckley was reconstructed using intertextual analysis, which helps identify original mythological and religious narratives and individual allusions. This provides the opportunity to define the features of Sheckley's individual fantastic theology and find the reasons for using the image of God in secular literature. The analysis revealed that the used religious names, denominations and plots bear only formal similarity with the traditional ones. They are used and interpreted arbitrarily. God is interpreted as being anthro-pomorphic, pragmatic, partial and not interested in the fate of his creation. Communication with God is described as commercialised and is built on the model of the consumer society. The works of Sheckley indicate the possibil-ity and necessity of contact between the man and God with the obligatory personal participation of the individual. The American writer creates texts that are modernised in terms of the plot using traditional Christian ideas about the spiritual development of people and the need to preserve the Christian value system as a universal one. In this connection, Sheckley offers possible behavioural models for the created image of God.

The so-called “phenomenological turn” proposes a return to the world of lived experience, overcoming the rigidity of classical ontology. In this sense, theology also proposes to speak of God migrating from the world of the concept to life itself. Keeping in mind, then, that God gives himself in history as a Mystery of infinite love, it is necessary to find a new category that can express him, being faithful to the biblical testimony. The category chosen is “event,” as proposed by Claude Romano, who understands the event (happening) as the irruption of the unexpected that significantly affects everything that comes into contact with it. The parable of the Samaritan (Luke 10:25–37) reveals God as an event of loving proximity, who mercifully bursts in through the actions of a Samaritan who saves the life of a seriously wounded man. The confirmation of the possibility of using the category “event” to speak of God is given only by means of a narrative method, for which we make use of the hermeneutical contributions of A. Wénin, who makes narrative the most appropriate language to express God’s traits, in this case, his merciful closeness.

In this essay, I engage Robert Jenson ecumenically by offering a reading of his theology that gives appropriate weight to his radical identification of God’s eternal being (immanent life) with God’s historical acts (economy), while also arguing that his arguments have a striking point of contact with the classical denial of a real relation of God to creation. I argue that both positions share a desire to express a radical intimacy between God and creation as well as God’s boundlessness and simplicity. The benefit of this comparative study is that it illuminates potential commonalities between Jenson’s revisionary metaphysics and one aspect of “classical” metaphysics. The recognition of such metaphysical common ground provides opportunity for mutual enrichment.

Gold appears relatively late in the Mesoamerican archeological record, initially imported as pieces from Central America in the Classic period. Nevertheless, Mesoamerican languages share a set of lexical calques referring to gold as either ‘god excrement’ or ‘sun excrement’. This study traces the path of this calque as it moves between different languages, arguing that the most likely path of the calque originated as ‘sun excrement’ and passed from a language family in Eastern Mesoamerica, probably in Mayan, into Nahuatl which transformed it into ‘god excrement’ and passed this form into proto-Otomi-Mazahua. These insights about the sequentiality of borrowing and calqueing provide us important information about the contact between different linguistic groups in Classic through to Postclassic Mesoamerica.

The first part of the article presents some aspects of Augustinian interiority, highlighting those characteristics that are most forgotten or ignored today, pointing out that despite the Platonic and Neoplatonic influences, St. Augustine was not converted to the truths of Platonism, but to the truths of Christianity, without denying the influence that Platonic and Neoplatonic ideas had on the thought of St. Augustine, particularly from his contact with the “Milanese Neoplatonic circle”. The article points out that St. Augustine goes beyond the philosophical “spiritual exercises” to emphasize the fundamental role of grace in the whole spiritual journey. To be able to leave the world of exteriority and return to one’s inner self will always be a gift from God. Subsequently, the text of beata u. 35 is analysed, highlighting the importance of the admonitiones of God, through the Holy Spirit, to return to one’s inner self, as well as the characteristics of the encounter with God, since the God discovered in one’s own heart is Triune God. It is emphasized how many of the expressions and vocabulary in these Augustinian disquisitions are taken from the anti-Arian writings of Marius Victorinus. Subsequently, the text of sol. 1, 2-3 is analysed, in order to highlight not only the importance of the Holy Spirit, who invites us to return to the interior, but also the particularities of the encounter with the Father and the Son, pointing out the various characteristics that distinguish them.

AbstractGenerally speaking, nature is supposed to have disappeared from theology when the natural sciences emerged after the beginning of modernity. The gap between these sciences became wider and wider, with the effect of lacking almost all contact. Several factors played a role in the rejection of theology in general of philosophical-theological attempts in which themes such as nature and creation could flourish. In practical theology it is possible to broaden our theology of communicative action in such a way that our communication with nature and about nature can also be taken into account. Then we have to take both divine gift and divine challenge in nature seriously, with 'gift' and 'challenge' being communicative terms, and make a distinction between nature's divine gift and nature's divine challenge. Theology speaks of two books where we can find knowledge about God: the book of nature and the book of the Word of God. A hermeneutically mediated experience of God happens when the revelation in nature is inscribed into the texts of the Bible, and the texts of the Bible are inscribed into the book of nature. Our traditional speaking about God should therefore be complemented by both aniconic and nonanthropomorphic speaking about him, because it implies a way to experiencing God in nature - especially for those who are unchurched, and among the unchurched especially for those who define themselves as 'enlightened' and 'modern' people inclined to free, abstract thinking and cherishing their autonomy.

AbstractGenerally speaking, nature is supposed to have disappeared from theology when the natural sciences emerged after the beginning of modernity. The gap between these sciences became zuider and wider, with the effect of lacking almost all contact. Several factors played a role in the rejection of theology in general of philosophical-theological attempts in which themes such as nature and creation could flourish. In practical theology it is possible to broaden our theology of communicative action in such a way that our communication with nature and about nature can also be taken into account. Then we have to take both divine gift and divine challenge in nature seriously, with gifl' and 'challenge' being communicative terms, and make a distinction between nature's divine gift and nature's divine challenge. Theology speaks of two books where we can find knowledge about God: the book of nature and the book of the Word of God. A hermeneutically mediated experience of God happens when the revelation in nature is inscribed into the texts of the Bible, and the texts of the Bible are inscribed into the book of nature. Our traditional speaking about God should therefore be complemented by both aniconic and nonanthropomorphic speaking about him, because it implies a way to experiencing God in nature - especially for those who are unchurched, and among the unchurched especially for those who define themselves as 'enlightened' and 'modern' people inclined to free, abstract thinking and cherishing their autonomy.

In this article we compare the language of light used by Dante Alighieri with the one used by his “heretical” contemporary Marguerite dicta Porete (†1310) to express the final contact- vision of God. We will analyze both authors’ use of the images of light, of the gradual ascent and of the knot, placing their books in the context of the theological doctrines concerning the visio Dei in the 14th century. This will allow us to posit the authors’ shared eschatological background based on the conception of God as a visible being who radiates his love and knowledge through the created universe. In conclusion, we will discuss the visual and narrative strategies these authors employed in order to express a relationship with the divine, focusing on the historical heterodox implications of the Commedia and the Mirouer.

The article proposes that the short-lived science fiction series Caprica (2009–2010) espoused a rather atypical ideology that was based on the prominence of women and femininity in the narrative. Through women, the series merged science and religion, body and mind, human and machine and established a moral code based on respect for those usually “othered” in the genre. The narrative accomplished this by consciously employing and then re-arranging western gender stereotypes, which led to the emergence of a specifically feminine approach to science that was, amongst other things, also religious. This combination had subversive potential because of the series’ premise that God actually exists and is actively involved in human/cyborg affairs. Women emerged as points of contact on behalf of this God who pitted them against rationalized and universalized male science.

This article addresses the issue of the importance of contemporary architecture—especially Christian architecture—for the aesthetic and spiritual development of an individual. It also highlights the educational aspect that may arise in the framework of the contact of a human with the works of religious architecture. Among many things, the article points out the values of truth and beauty in the space of the sacrum. The major importance in the process of human development involves personal, individual and group experiences of meetings in various areas of religious architecture that operate with the language of signs and symbols, modern artistic forms, single-space harmony, and atmosphere—an invisible order of things. In recent years, a number of studies have been carried out that attempted to define what makes the place of sacrum sufficiently meaningful, mysterious, and still necessary in order to establish a spiritual relationship with the community of believers and with God, which is relevant in one’s transition to adulthood.

The book of Exodus is composed of elements originating from different traditions. In this article it is argued that it was not the aim of the composition concerned to harmonise those traditions, but rather to confront them. This position is demonstrated by an analysis of Exodus 24 and 33, where the central question is how man can contact God. Finally it is argued that different Old Testament traditions are recognisable in later Christian traditions.

AbstractThe perspective of this article is the grassroots contact between people of different world religions caused by the massive migration of people on today's world. This situation gives rise to my question: What kind of interaction between the world religions do we need? The monoreligious, the multireligious and the interreligious models are discussed. Religious values in the interreligious model are discussed with the problem of different beliefs in God as an example.

It may appear absurd to link a thinker of Christian antiquity with the peoples of early modern North America. The Bishop of Hippo (354–430) was not particularly interested in evangelization beyond the Mediterranean world. While he encouraged the proselytization of the tribes of North Africa, Augustine rejected the possibility of “New Worlds” as “on no grounds credible” for lack of scriptural warrant. His achievement, some thousand years before Columbus, was to provide the authoritative account of religious conversion as well as the intellectual foundations for Christian spirituality. This legacy was not well suited, however, to deal with problems raised by contact with “new” peoples of the Americas. It had little to say about the “nature” of these “savage” peoples as well as the prospects for their conversion. Augustinian theology emphasizes relations between God and self, in contrast to the approach identified with Thomas Aquinas, which asserts the possibility of finding God in the world and propels inquiry in that direction. Augustine's sense of the corruption of fallen humankind and the powerlessness of nature without God would appear to discourage any but the most morbid interest in New World peoples.

Beginning with Augustine’s remark that he discovered the Logos of God in the Platonists, I consider how a certain trinitarian sensibility is endemic to Platonism that might be particularly helpful for working out a trinitarian theology. In particular, the Platonic axiom that the Good is generative and self-diffusive, especially in its Plotinian form, where the Good is considered an infinite power of generation, represents a point of contact between the best of Neoplatonic metaphysics and orthodox trinitarian thinking. At the same time, however, the Platonic insight ultimately fails outside a trinitarian context, where alone the infinite goodness and power of God are secured. Special attention is given to Dionysius the Areopagite and Bonaventure both for showing the great link between Neoplatonism and trinitarian Christianity and for exposing the incoherence of the Platonic account without the requisite trinitarian translation and transformation.

Modern communication medium allows one to easily share stories, establish contact with family members, to thank and apologize. Aware of the benefits of this communication medium each family member should utilize communications media wisely and more humanely. In the midst of this communication medium advancement of Christ's faithful should regard the family as a school of faith and a special communication experience divine grace. Each family who live karinia Divine love is called to give concrete testimony of the love of it. Every Christian family is a concrete sign of the presence and implementation of the tasks of the Church that lives. When carrying out this missionary task, God is always present in the family to bless, sanctify and strengthen family members. The presence of God is happening in real time when families gather to pray, worship and hear God's word together.

In this essay, I place Buber’s thought in dialogue with Eckhart. Each understood that the theopoetic propensity to imagine the transcendent in images is no more than a projection of our will to impute form to the formless. The presence of God is made present through imaging the real, but imaging the real implies that the nonrepresentable presence can only be made present through the absence of representation. The goal of the journey is to venture beyond the Godhead in light of which all personalistic depictions of the divine person are rendered idolatrous. Perhaps this is the most important implication of Eckhart’s impact on Buber, an insight that may still have theopolitical implications in a world where too often personifications of the God beyond personification are worshipped at the expense of losing contact with an absolute person that cannot be personified absolutely.

<p><em>The purpose of this study is to describe the mechanism interculturalism in “Serat Sastra Gendhing”, which is focused on the mechanisms acculturation. This research is motivated by the concept that the Suluk is a product of cultural contacts. In order to achieve the objectives of the study, we used the method of literature with a qualitative approach and supported the theory interculturalism. The results of this research is the discovery of variations mention of God that is the product of contact Javanese culture, Hinduism, and Islam. Variations of the name of God found them are Hyang, Widdhi, Hyang Manon, Pangeran, Allah Kudusul Almi, and Gusti Allah.</em></p><p><em> </em></p><em>Tujuan penelitian ini adalah mendeskripsikan mekanisme interkulturalisasi dalam Serat Sastra Gendhing, yang difokuskan pada mekanisme akuturasi. Penelitian ini dilatarbelakangi oleh konsep bahwa sastra suluk merupakan produk dari kontak budaya. Guna mencapai tujuan penelitian tersebut, maka digunakan metode kepustakaan dengan pendekatan kualitatif dan didukung dengan teori interkulturalisasi. Hasil dari penelitian ini adalah ditemukannya berbagai variasi penyebutan nama Tuhan yang merupakan produk dari kontak budaya Jawa, Hindu, dan Islam. Variasi nama Tuhan yang ditemukan diantaranya adalah Hyang, Widdhi, Hyang Manon, Pangeran, Allah Kudusul Almi, dan Gusti Allah</em>

Language change is a process by which change occurs in the distribution of linguistic variants across sounds, words or constructions of a language. The change can be as a result of the following factors: contact, region, level of education, gender, age and so on. In the light of this, the research investigates the lexical change in the personal names that occur in the following novels of Chinua Achebe: Things fall apart, No longer at ease and Arrow of God. From the findings, this study portrays that contact is the major factor that brings about the lexical change in the personal names used in these novels. Furthermore, this contact is classified under religious contact, culture contact and education contact. Finally, Holmes (2013) opines that for there to be a language change, there must be language variation. In the case of language change in the personal names that occur in the aforementioned novels, there are no variations before the lexical change in the personal names. Eckert & McConnel- Ginet‟s (1992) proposition that no single variable can be held responsible for language change is visible also because inasmuch as the reason for the language change is stemmed to contact with the white men but it further spilled to other factors like education, religion and culture. Key words: Novel, language, Lexical Change

Abstract The phenomenon of polyonymy—the use of multiple names, epithets, and descriptions for a deity—is defined and distinguished from closely related ideas. The Greco-Roman practice is illustrated via five deities: Zeus, Dionysus, Apollo, Selene, and Isis. Related practices of the earliest Christians are explored via selected NT texts in Acts and John. Although monotheism placed some restrictions on early Christian use of polyonymy in the strict sense of proper names, a profusion of titles was readily employed to describe Jesus. This distinction corresponds roughly to the difference between contact syncretism and internal syncretism.

It has become mainstream in the 21st c. for literature to shift its focus from ideology to the way of life and the person, towards a symbiotic coexistence of fiction and memoirs. The article considers several variations of the contemporary ‘literature.doc’: from autopsychological prose, with E. Limonov as its likely founder, to in-between genres originating in Facebook posts and sketches of real life. In her comparison of different invariants of modern documentary and semi-documentary literature, the author finds that, from the artistic viewpoint, autopsychological prose has a structure unlike that of a classical autobiography or classical prose. The new genre aims to establish a direct contact, through perceptions and suggestion; having said that, ‘literature.doc’ is very much devoid of any social or moral agenda. It describes objects within the author’s field of vision, but lacks in generalization and typology and misses out on alternative viewpoints differing from that of the author which enrich the work’s dimensions and dialogue quality. Development prospects of ‘literature.doc’ are concerned with the aesthetic and philosophical realization of the category of ‘the other’.

Abstract This essay offers a comparative analysis of aspects of classical Chinese philosophy with those of Reformational (Neo-Calvinist) philosophy. Such aspects form a shared root in prioritizing temporal experience (over abstract reasoning) and conceptualizing the entirety of reality as contingent and relationally dependent. At the same time, however, what marks the divergence between the two philosophies is the underlying assumptions as to what this integral reality points toward – a directionality that is critical to meaning and being. For classical Chinese philosophy, the source and meaning of reality is found within reality itself, not beyond it, construing such reality not as independent and self-contained but necessary and sufficient. This conflicts with the notion of reality as contingent and dependent. From a Reformational perspective, on the other hand, reality (i.e., all of creation) is constituted as it stands in relation to an independent and necessary Creator. The crux of Reformational philosophy is that the origin and meaning of all reality must point outside of itself to its origin in God.

In Paedagogus 1.6.28, Clement describes baptism through the metaphor of a cataract surgery that enables the percipient to see God. In antiquity, cataract surgery was neither a common nor a safe procedure, which raises the question: why does Clement use such an unlikely metaphor for baptism? In this article, I demonstrate that this medical metaphor of cataract surgery enabled Clement to blur the line between the physical and the spiritual. The visual component of the metaphor allowed Clement to draw from Epicurean sensory perception and epistemology, which understood objects to emit tiny films that entered the eye of the body, with repeated contact leading to concept formation, in order to describe how the eye of the soul could see God once it has been transformed through baptism. For Clement, it is only through baptism that the cataract can be removed, thereby providing the baptized Christian with deified eyes to see God. In addition to having her cataract removed, according to Clement, the nature of the baptized Christian's vision changes from intromission to extramission, from receiving films to emitting a visual ray back to the divine. I further argue that the medical component of the metaphor allows Clement to describe the baptized Christian as fundamentally different from the rest of humanity and as part of an elite group that has undergone this uncommon and dangerous cataract surgery. Through these two aspects of his metaphor, Clement describes and defines Christians in terms of their medically modified eyes that enable them to see and to know God.

This article examines what it meant to be and to become a man of God in the nineteenth century. It concentrates on the gendered aspects of priesthood, developed and enforced in the seminaries employed by the Scottish Mission to mould its future labourers. The article sets the ideas in the context of nineteenth-century discourse on both clerical and secular manliness and masculinity. It addresses the peculiarities of the Roman Catholic seminary experience and the paradoxes of developing manliness in this environment, combining ideals of moral and religious superiority, fatherhood, camaraderie, chastity and maturity, developing in close contact with other boys and male superiors in the virtual absence of women. The research relies on archival sources on the students of the French colleges associated with the Scottish Mission after the French Revolution, supplemented by material relating to other Scots Colleges on the continent.

Although a convergence between theology and mystical literature can be observed in recent years, it is not always very clear what the relationship between the two is. That there has been a gap between the two, for several centuries, is obvious. A passage in Teresa of Avila’s work is a sign of this, as are the difficulties the Jesuit Balthasar Alvarez encountered during his lifetime. However, there are older models—such as those by the twelfth-century Carthusian Guigo—in which there is an organic connection between the two. The cause of the problem may lie in a misunderstanding of the status of both, namely that the rational, investigative activity of theology on the one hand and the receptive surrender to God of mystical contemplation on the other are regarded as mutually exclusive. However, if one assumes, as John of Ruusbroec does, that the contemplative can be situated on the level of being, namely of the direct contact between God as Creator and the human person as creature, and not on the same “level” as the faculty of reason or intellect, then this misunderstanding disappears, and activity (including intellectual activity of theology) and contemplation can go together well. In particular, the model of the personal encounter between God and the human person can be helpful in this regard.

This article looks at an aspect of the cosmology of the Jukun of north-central Nigeria, specifically their theism, and how it has changed through their encounter with Christian monotheism. Many contemporary Jukun people assume that their indigenous cosmology has always been anchored on a Supreme Being akin to the Christian God. In this study I show that this currently held belief is largely due to the theological framework which Christian missionaries sought to make the Jukun worldview fit into. And even prior to the first Christian contact, Jukun indigenous cosmology had been in contact with Islam. I give a very brief history of the Jukun and of the Christian missionary efforts among them starting in 1906 and, starting from my own questions growing up as a Jukun, look at how indigenous concepts and categories for deities were adapted over the course of time as the majority of Jukun became Christian.

Abstract This paper traces the formation, dissemination, and impact of a corpus of narratives about an alchemical icon of the god Murukaṉ. It was purportedly crafted by Bhogar, a Siddhar-alchemist, at the Tamil temple site of Palani in ancient times. These narratives, beginning in the early twentieth century, asserted that any object coming into direct contact with the icon was imbued with miraculous healing properties. Such lore placed Palani as a unique pilgrimage site, attracting pilgrims from the world over, and stimulating its economy to an unprecedented degree, making it the second wealthiest temple in India. Eventually, the demand for icon-touched substances and the assertion of the icon’s healing properties reached its terminal limit, whereby the body of the god itself became available for sale, first as scrapings and then, in a complicated conspiracy of bait and switch, in its entirety. This article explores how recent myths respond to the challenges of late colonial modernity in the 1930s and Tamil identity politics in the twenty-first century.

The meaning and function of the hymns in Revelation 12-22 The hymns in Revelation 12-22 function as type of commentary, as they interpret the narrative events of the kernel plot. Being separated spatially and in some instances temporally, the hymns offer interpretations on the events and emphasise the basic themes of God’s accomplishment of salvation and judgement through Jesus Christ in the narrative. The final set of hymns in 19:1-8 recall the prior themes recounted through the hymns to form a musical climax. The hymns function as both prolepsis and analepsis in the narrative time, to the creation of the cosmos by God on the one hand, and the final victory of God on the other. As satellelites, the hymns maintain contact with the readers. The hymns function in an assuring sense throughout, constantly reminding of the final victory, one in which the implied reader plays an active role. A better understanding of the use of hymns in Revelation could enrich the use of songs in our liturgy today.

This paper asks about the future of religion: (i) Will confirmation of extra-terrestrial intelligence (ETI) cause terrestrial religion to collapse? ‘No’ is the answer based upon a summary of the ‘Peters ETI Religious Crisis Survey’. Then the paper examines four specific challenges to traditional doctrinal belief likely to be raised at the detection of ETI: (ii) What is the scope of God’s creation? (iii) What can we expect regarding the moral character of ETI? (iv) Is one earthly incarnation in Jesus Christ enough for the entire cosmos, or should we expect multiple incarnations on multiple planets? (v) Will contact with more advanced ETI diminish human dignity? More than probable contact with extra-terrestrial intelligence will expand the Bible’s vision so that all of creation—including the 13.7 billion year history of the universe replete with all of God’s creatures—will be seen as the gift of a loving and gracious God.

Resumen: El Sol está presente en todas las religiones antiguas en mayor o menor medida. Numerosas versiones sobre el mismo dios de la cuenca mediterránea entraron en contacto gracias al helenismo y, más tarde, al Imperio Romano, compartiendo teónimos epítetos y simbología. A consecuencia de esto, diferentes epíclesis grecorromanas y orientales del dios desarrollaron un lenguaje común de representación. Pese a todo, la vinculación a los ludi y la cuádriga son un hecho que se mostrará exclusivo del ámbito romano.Abstract: The Sun is present to a greater or lesser extent in all Ancient Religions. Various Mediterranean versions of the same god came into contact due to Hellenism and to Roman Empire later, sharing theonyms, epithets and symbology. As a result of that, diverse Greco-Roman and Oriental epikleseis of Sun developed a common language. However, beyond formal similarities Sol’s vinculation with Ludi and quadrigae is revealed as exclusively Roman.Palabras clave: Sol, religión romana, Ludi, cuadriga, Circo Máximo, orientalizante.Key words: Sol, Sun, Roman religion, Ludi, quadriga, Circus Maximus, orientalizing.

The paper investigates the religious language interpretation in the contemporary continental philosophic theology. The author presents the central role of the imagination and metaphor in theological language. The diacritical hermeneutics of Richard Kearney is analyzed as an example of the theological language transition from the theologics to theopoetics. Modifications in the theological language are associated with transformations in the understanding of theology itself, which becomes a topological and tropological study. It considers the interpretation of imagination in Kearney’s early works, his attempts to describe “paradigmatic shifts” in the human understanding of imagination in different epochs of Western history. The author highlights mimetic paradigm of the pre-modern imagination, productive paradigm of the modern imagination and parodic paradigm of the postmodern imagination. Analysis of Kearney’s “biblical” interpretation of imagination allows one to understand the imagination as the point of contact of God with humanity. She also considers how Ricoeur’s theory of metaphor influences the development of the poetic language in postmodern Christian theology and demonstrates that poetic and religious languages are brought together by an “imaginative variations”. The author argues that turning to imagination in religious language allows theological hermeneutics to move from the static to kinetic images of God.

The founders of the Student Volunteer Movement for Foreign Missions (SVM) repeatedly affirmed that prayer as a means of accessing the power of the Almighty God was at the foundation of its success. An examination of original sources for the SVM shows that many forms of prayer were practised and encouraged by the movement. Members of the movement sought to make formal prayer meaningful. Participants described how their prayers for provision were answered along the lines of the faith ministries of George Muller and Hudson Taylor. They described how prayer enabled them to be connected to other Christians from around the world. Prayer enabled them to experience community support and was the focus of personal communion with God. However, the prayer of surrender was at the heart of the SVM experience and finds a parallel in the experience of a ‘second blessing’ advocated by the Keswick Movement. Numerous points of contact occurred between the SVM and Keswick, suggesting that second-blessing experience of holiness prepared a person for the commitment represented by signing the SVM pledge to give oneself in the service of foreign missions.

ALL THINGS WISE AND WONDERFUL: A Christian Understanding of How and Why Things Happen, in Light of COVID-19 by E. Janet Warren. Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 2021. 208 pages + index. Paperback; $27.00. ISBN: 9781725292031. *In All Things Wise and Wonderful, E. Janet Warren develops a multidisciplinary, Christian understanding of causation with the hope that it will help us "to respond with integrity and compassion for those who suffer" (p. 182). Warren is not short on familiar examples of uncompassionate responses to suffering that are worth critiquing: "God caused the pandemic to teach us to be kind" (p. 127), "Everything happens for a reason" (p. 180), and "This tragedy happened to grow your faith" (p. 22). Warren argues that these symptoms point toward a common diagnosis: a false, "omni-causal" view of God, according to which God "causes everything that happens, including pandemics" (p. 31). *Chapter 1: Introduction lays the groundwork for the rest of the book in two ways: first, by giving a complex taxonomy of philosophical distinctions bearing on causation; second, by introducing (as Warren argues) the problematic practice of too easily explaining an event as the result of God's direct causal intervention (e.g., God provided a parking spot!) when mundane explanations suffice. The tension between the complexity of causation and the human tendency to gravitate toward simplistic (divine) explanations becomes the book's recurring theme. In chapter 2, Warren surveys biblical claims about causation, concluding that the Bible "does not give a simple account of causation," (p. 45) and encouraging the reader to "accept ambiguity and complexity" (p. 36) in the text rather than demanding a coherent biblical theory. *The third chapter, "What Does Christian Theology Say about Causation?" is the clear standout and would make a provocative discussion-piece for an undergraduate class on divine providence in a science and religion course. Warren contrasts two pictures of God, one in which God is an omni-causal, omni-controlling dictator of a deterministic world (pp. 57, 77) and another in which God is a servant king who relinquishes the option to utilize God's power in order to preserve space for indeterministic, creaturely freedom (pp. 53, 58). The strokes are intentionally broad, nudging the reader to see the potential ethical pitfalls of positing an omni-causal God. In particular, Warren worries that an omni-causal God would not be capable of being lovingly responsive to creaturely agents (p. 57). *In Warren's preferred picture, God builds a world that can host longstanding causal patterns without repeated divine intervention; once created, the world is, in some sense "self-causing" (p. 35) and does not require any special act of divine conservation. Although God does act in the world, God refrains from fully exercising his power to control in order to respect "the freedom he has granted to humans and the created order" (p. 60). *The contrasting portraits, however vivid, also preempt discussion of various middle views--one might distinguish between an omni-causing and omni-controlling God, for instance. Warren is also stronger on critique than on the details of her own positive proposal--perhaps by design. "The language of metaphor and analogies is more accessible," Warren writes, "than the language of philosophy or science" (p. 68). This is faithful to her refrain that real-world causal networks are messy and not easily wrapped in neat theological packaging, but it may prove frustrating to those readers eager to engage the details of a constructive project. *In chapter 4, Warren gives the reader a crash course in statistical concepts that are useful for understanding causation, quickly covering (for instance) base rates, regression to the mean, and the law of large numbers. Genuine chance is not incompatible with a kind of sovereignty, Warren argues; rather, God "created randomness" (p. 90) and is capable of guiding overarching events through it while fostering the vulnerability, excitement, and intellectual humility that comes with real chanciness. Chapter 5 asks what science says about causation. Notable--both for the audience it will attract and exclude--is Warren's commitment to take divine healings, demonic activity, and parapsychology seriously while also summarizing key concepts from quantum theory and medicinal practice. *In chapter 6, Warren turns to psychological explanations of why we jump to simple causal explanations. Drawing liberally from Kahneman,1 Warren introduces dual processing theory, distinguishing between our quick, automatic system 1 judgments and our reflective, deliberate system 2 judgments. Citing Barrett's hypersensitive agency detection device2 and Taleb's narrative fallacy,3 among other mechanisms, Warren suggests that causal explanations that invoke a narrative about God's intentions are often psychologically easy for us to jump to (via system 1). A reflective Christian should, Warren argues, be aware of this tendency and moderate our confidence in unreflective judgments about divine intervention in ordinary events. *Chapter 7 and the conclusion that follows take a pastoral turn and will be of special interest to church study groups. Alongside giving practical recommendations for exercising discernment, Warren concludes that "by better understanding the nature of causation and the nature of God's interaction with our wise and wonderful world, we can better evaluate how and why things happen, without glibly assuming God causes everything" (p. 177). *Warren's book could profitably be read by undergraduates in a science and religion course at a confessional college, with special attention given to the third chapter, which has points of contact with Polkinghorne,4 Bartholomew,5 Boyd,6 and Oord.7 But the book may be even more at home in study groups at (broadly) evangelical churches, where the writing's therapeutic lens can shine. Warren's easy prose is accessible as she hops without hesitation from the Bible to Polkinghorne to Aristotle to Bruce Almighty. *While the breadth of Warren's book is impressive, any interdisciplinary book is liable to engage more fully with some disciplines than others. It is no surprise that Warren's book is strongest when drawing on her expertise in medicine and theology and less so when discussing philosophy. *One philosophical concern for Warren's argument against an omni-causal God is the possibility of causation from nonaction. Some philosophers think that absences cause: My not watering the plant causes it to die; my not calling on his birthday causes Dad to be sad. In each of these cases, there is something I could have easily done that would have prevented the effect. But if absences cause, then there is a serious challenge for Warren's view. A powerful and wise (even if not classically omniscient) God can easily prevent most events from happening. God could easily have prevented me from getting that last parking spot or my friend from being infected with a virus. Perhaps, then, God's not preventing these events should number among their causes (or at least their explanations). *This need not be a criticism of the overall theological picture Warren develops--one in which God does not intend or directly intervene to prevent the normal operation of the world except (usually) for explicitly theological reasons. Rather, I suggest that how much leverage can be gained by critiquing the concept of an omni-causal God depends on substantive philosophical commitments about the nature of causation and how causation relates to other philosophical concepts such as explanation and responsibility. Perhaps a God as powerful and involved as traditional Christian theology posits can't help but be in close causal contact with the world--a God whose interventions, however sparingly placed, ripple far throughout the created world, either by preventing or by failing to prevent events that are well within God's power to stop. If so, then "God didn't cause that" may not often be strictly true. Even if God didn't specially intervene with the purpose of bringing the event about, saying "God didn't intend that," "God didn't plan that," or "God didn't want that" may be more honest. Retaining God's action or inaction as causes of mundane events--while complicating the story about divine intent and providence--may also allow us to vindicate the biblical practice of prayerful complaint against God's (in)action (with Job and the psalmist) as a therapeutically important and theologically understandable response to suffering while simultaneously allowing us to join Warren's critique of "comforting" clichés about God's specific purposes for particular harms. *But these are concerns about tactics within the context of a shared goal to enrich and complexify Christian understandings of causation. At its best, Warren's work therapeutically nudges the reader toward a healthy skepticism of over-easy ascriptions of God's direct causal intervention in the world. And this amidst an ambitious, interdisciplinary conceptual toolkit that weaves accessibly through theology, philosophy, statistics, psychology, and the sciences more broadly. *Notes *1Daniel Kahneman, Thinking, Fast and Slow (Toronto, ON: Doubleday Canada, 2011). *2Justin L. Barrett, Born Believers: The Science of Children's Religious Belief (New York: Free Press, 2012). *3Nassim Nicholas Taleb, The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable, 2nd ed. (New York: Random House, 2010). *4John C. Polkinghorne, Science and Providence: God's Interaction with the World, 2nd ed. (West Conshohocken, PA: Templeton Foundation, 2005). *5David J. Bartholomew, God, Chance and Purpose: Can God Have It Both Ways? (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2008). *6Gregory A. Boyd, "The Open-Theism View," in Divine Foreknowledge: Four Views, ed. James K. Beilby and Paul R. Eddy (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 2001), 13-47. *7Thomas Jay Oord, The Uncontrolling Love of God: An Open and Relational Account of Providence (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Academic, 2015). *Reviewed by Christopher Willard-Kyle, Department of Philosophy, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, UK G12 8LP.

With increasing contact and knowledge of non-Christian religions and in the light of colonialist missionary endeavours, a number of Christians have recently advocated what I shall call a pluralist approach to non-Christian religions. This pluralist paradigm may be characterised as one which maintains that non-Christian religions can be equally salvific paths to the one God, and that Christianity's claim to be the only way (exclusivism), or the fulfilment of all other religions (inclusivism), should be rejected for good theological, phenomenological, and philosophical reasons. This view is shared by Christians from different denominations, and is best expressed in the works of Professors John Hick, Paul Knitter, Wilfred Cantwell Smith, and Mr Alan Race.

AbstractVery little is known about the impact of the Amarna revolution on individual religious feeling and belief. This article gathers various traces of individual religiosity at Amarna. Traditional divine forces (Toeris, Bes, Hathor), and the king, but also the god Aten could be addressed as guarantors of health and prosperity. Several sources show that individuals of varying social status could have knowledge of and direct contact with Aten, despite the assertion in the Great Hymn that these were exclusively royal privileges. The expression of individual religiosity was possible within the context of Amarna religion in forms that continue earlier ways of approaching the divine and prefigure Ramesside modes of expression of personal piety.

shown in the world of François Mauriac's works. In particular, MarcelMauss's essay of donation, Jacques Derrida's concept of pure donation,and Paul Ricoeur's Christian giving theory are applied to Mauriac's majorworks to derive a rich and new interpretation. In Mauriac's works, there isa world of “grace” that transcends a giving as an exchange. Grace,which means “gift” in Greek, is not given in return for any deed or merit,but is unilaterally given from God. The first gift is handed down as a“command” for love, and those who come into contact with thiscommand practice the sacrifice of self-renunciation. Their sacrifice is afree gift that is passed on to the universal other.