An Orthodox View of Philanthropy and Church Diaconia

According to Orthodox theology, philanthropy refers to the loveof God toward man, which man is called to imitate by lovinghis neighbor as himself. This love consists not just in emotionsbut requires specific acts of philanthropy toward our fellowman in need. The church, in keeping the commandments of Christ,has developed throughout her history a rich philanthropic work.The diaconia of the church has taken many forms, thus respondingto historical change and to the specific human needs at differenttimes. Concentrating on diaconia for those who are in need oflong-term care, this article presents the Orthodox view of thediaconia of the church, as realized through her own philanthropicorganizations as well as through her very specific contributionto the diaconia offered by state sponsored charitable institutions.     

Suturing the Body Corporate (Divine and Human) in the Brahmanic Traditions

In this discussion, we ponder the discourse about the ‘body of the Divine’ in the Indian tradition. Beginning with the Vedas, we survey the major eras and thinkers of that tradition, considering various notions of the Supreme Divine Being it produced. For each, we ask: is the Divine embodied? If so, then in what way? What is the nature of the body of the Divine, and what is its relationship to human bodies? What is the value of the body of the Divine to the spiritual aspirant? We consider, where relevant, which views are pantheistic and which might be considered panentheistic. Panentheism is connected with discourse on the world as the body of God. It has origins in medieval Christian theology with anticipatory traces in Plato’s Timeaus. Under pantheism, were the world to end—were it to collapse or disappear irreversibly, perhaps, into a huge black hole—then God would disintegrate without a remainder as well; for in this view the Divine Spirit is the universe. The same is not true under panentheism which posits a more complex relationship between the Divine and the world. According to panentheism, God pervades the world—God is in the world—and at the same time, God sustains the world—the world is in God. This allows that God be greater than, transcendent of and independent of the world. In our conclusion we remark on how the views we have surveyed link to, resonate with, or dis-compare with the current—should one say revivified—interest in intellectual quarters with panentheism.     

A contingent perspective on the advantages of stores' strategic philanthropy for influencing consumer behaviour

The importance and implications of organisational‐level charitable giving, or strategic philanthropy, are often overlooked in international consumer literature. Drawing on the utilitarian human capital perspective from economics, the social norm theory from sociology, motivation theory from psychology and the strategy–environment coalignment paradigm in organisational science, this research develops a contingent framework for strategic philanthropy. The empirical results indicate that if drug stores put more emphasis on strategic philanthropy as perceived by customers in the community, customers will have stronger social ties with the store and be more loyal to the store. In addition, it was found that the impact of strategic philanthropy on patronage loyalty is moderated by customer characteristics (gender and ethnicity) and context factors (service quality and cause severity). Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Contested,constructed home(lands): Diaspora,postcolonial studies and Zionism

During the past decade, historians and social scientists have begun extensively to research the issue of philanthropy and charities in general, and that of Jewish philanthropy in particular. This paper reviews some of the main characteristics of philanthropic activity of the Jewish elite in post-emancipation Europe (1791–1878) and especially in Britain. Elite philanthropy was not the only form of philanthropy in the Jewish community. Middle-class philanthropy was another form, and traditional charitable activities constituted a third form. This paper focuses solely on elite philanthropy in England between c.1850–c.1880. Moses Montefiore and Lionel de Rotshchild were two of the most influential leaders of the Anglo-Jewish philanthropic elite. The paper deals mostly with the activities of these leaders of the Jewish community in mid-nineteenth-century Britain.     

A physicalist rejoinder to some problems with omniscience; Or,how god could know what we know

A certain objection to belief in God is based on the intrinsic incoherence of the concept of Divine Being or God. In particular, it questions the major traditional characteristic, notably omniscience, and its relation to omnipotence, moral unassailability, and absence of embodiment on the part of the Divine Being. In this paper, an attempt is made to counter this objection by an appeal, not to natural theology, but rather to physicalism in its application to human beings, and by extension to the possible consistency of God’s omniscience with the other divine attributes, which philosophers such as Michael Martin have found to be mutually inconsistent and therefore wanting. I would like to thank several anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments, suggestions and criticisms. Though I did not address all of their concerns, I hope that I have done justice to the effort they put into reviewing this essay.     

The Ecclesiology of Saint Maximos the Confessor

Abstract

Maximos wrote no work expressly on the Church, the nearest being his work, the Mystagogia, on the Divine Liturgy. This article explores the notion of the Church presented in the Mystagogia, which focuses on the action of the Divine Liturgy, and the way in which what happens in the Church is reflected at every level of reality, from the transcendent reality of God, through the manifold unity of the cosmos, to the depths of the human soul. This vision of the Church — at once cosmic, eschatological, eucharistic and ascetic — is then related to Maximos' views on the institutional Church, as revealed in a few works preserved and related to his struggle for Orthodoxy during the monothelite controversy. These views concerned the place of the priestly hierarchy, especially the papacy, and also the claims of the Byzantine emperor to involve himself in doctrinal matters.     

Revisiting Forgiveness as a Pastoral Theological “Problem”

Jesus calls on his followers to forgive, lest they risk the denial of Divine forgiveness. Such forgiveness should not be confused with human forgiving. Human forgiveness is identified as a pastoral-theological ??problem,?? especially in the context of intimate violence. A working definition of forgiveness is provided and the nature of this ??problem?? is explored. Reader-response criticism is identified as a way to read Jesus on forgiveness. A compassionate understanding of forgiveness is encouraged.     

Near Death Experiences and Gnostic Christianity: Parallels in Antiquity

Long considered to be heretical, ancient Gnostic Christian texts unearthed this century display compelling similarities between Gnostic conceptions of life and death and modern NDEs. The Gnostic texts devoted extensive tracts to what readers could expect to encounter when they died. Other passages make numerous allusions to NDE-like experiences that can be realized in this life, most notably the human encounter with a Divine Light. The Gnostic Christian literature gives us one more example of NDEs and similar experiences in the ancient world.     

John Locke, ‘Hobbist’: of sleeping souls and thinking matter

In this paper, I consider Isaac Newton’s fevered accusation that John Locke is a ‘Hobbist.’ I suggest a number of ways in which Locke’s account of the mind–body relation could plausibly be construed as Hobbesian. Whereas Newton conceives of the human mind as an immaterial substance and venerates it as a finite image of the Divine Mind, I argue that Locke utterly deflates the religious, ethical, and metaphysical significance of an immaterial soul. Even stronger, I contend that there is good reason to suspect that Locke is a crypto-materialist, at least with respect to human beings, and in this respect, could reasonably be labeled a ‘Hobbist.’     

Philosophical foundations of humanistic psychology

Abstract

From the perspective of the history of Western thought, humanism is a philosophy based on the belief that the human is irreducible to other forms of life, whether material or Divine. To the extent that humanistic psychology has its roots in the humanist tradition, it shares this conviction that the human cannot be understood except in its own terms. This report will review the philosophical precedents for this perspective on the nature of human functioning, and will then consider whether or not the fruits of humanistic‐psychological labor over the last 35 years have borne out the promises of its approach.     

Protestantism and Mysticism from the Perspective of Neuroscience

Abstract

Protestantism has always been suspicious about a mystical encounter with the Divine. Although the early Luther was influenced by mystical writers like Johannes Tauler the subsequent dogmatic evaluation of mystical forms of religiosity remained ambiguous. Nevertheless the real nature of mystical experience is still unclear and therefore the dogmatic judgments about mystical encounters with the Divine are based on unsound arguments like self-salvation. In this article we want to show that modern neuroscience can help to understand the nature of mystical experiences better and based on this we come to a new dogmatic appreciation of mysticism.     

Quantum perichoresis: Quantum field theory and the Trinity

The main thesis of this article is that the Trinitarian theological doctrine of perichoresis can be metaphorically interpreted as a form of Divine phase entanglement with the world. Such entanglement would entail non-local, relational holism and superposition through which the immanent unity of the Trinity is economically present in creation. Christ kenoticly empties himself of the immanent perichoresis of the Trinity in order to enter the economic perichoresis of the creation. The Spirit is then the continuing perichoretic love of God sanctifying the creation toward life and fulfillment from within. It is the Trinity in ongoing perichoretic entanglement with the creation, affirming Divine ubiquity and panentheism.     

An Empirical Examination of Religious/Spiritual Struggle Among Israeli Jews

The current investigation examined the prevalence, predictors, and psychological implications of religious and spiritual (r/s) struggles among a sample of Israeli-Jewish university students. R/s struggle was assessed by the Religious and Spiritual Struggles (RSS) Scale. This is a newly constructed scale that assesses a wide array of r/s struggles. The RSS is composed of six factors of struggles: Divine, Doubt, Demonic, Interpersonal, Moral, and Ultimate Meaning. Confirmatory factor analysis of the RSS in this study confirmed this six-factor structure. Of the 164 Jewish participants, between 1.2% and 30.5% experienced various r/s struggles. Beliefs in a cruel God and distant God, religious participation, and fundamentalism predicted higher levels of different types of struggle. All six forms of struggle were correlated with greater psychological distress. In regression equations including r/s struggles and demographic and religious variables, Moral struggles predicted lower life satisfaction, Divine struggles predicted depressive symptoms, and both Divine and Doubt struggles predicted generalized anxiety. Possible explanations and implications of the findings are offered. We conclude by pointing to the limitations of the study and suggesting a few directions for future research.     

Necessity, control, and the divine command theory

The simplest Divine Command Theory is one which identifies rightness with being commanded or willed by God. Two clear and appealing arguments for this theory turn on the idea that laws require a lawgiver, and the idea that God is sovereign or omnipotent. Critical examination of these arguments reveals some fundamental principles at odds with the Divine Command Theory, and yields some more penetrating versions of traditional objections to that theory. This paper is dedicated to the memory ofPhilip L. Quinn, in honor of his long and generous service to the profession of philosophy, the discipline of philosophy of religion, and for his kind and uncommonly helpful comments on this paper.     

An artful contribution to our planetary concerns

Adam Pryor's fresh understanding of the imago Dei as a refraction of the Divine is much needed in an age of science and climate change. Well informed by astrobiological insights, his approach presents what I would call a deep reconceptualization of the imago Dei as a planetary phenomenon. The human planetary phenomenon, however, currently faces its own limitations. This is an ethical reality, which is touched upon by Pryor, but could have been expressed more clearly and deliberately. The review attempts to develop some of Pryor's thoughts in dialoue with Hans Jonas, and with my own thoughts on “planetary sustainability.”     

Financing Faith: Religion and Strategic Philanthropy

Over the last century, a new form of strategic philanthropy arose—that of the private foundation. Foundations do not account for a large portion of donations received by religious organizations, but they can deploy important resources at critical moments. Examining data between 1999 and 2003 from the Foundation Center on grants and grant making, we find that a very small number of foundations are dominant actors in religious strategic philanthropy. These organizations introduce isomorphic tendencies within American religion. Federal tax policies and financial scandals precipitated the emergence of more organizational forms—regranting organizations, supporting organizations, and oversight organizations. Factors such as secularization, religious pluralism, and globalization have generated new challenges for private foundations, and in the aggregate, these developments have contributed to a restructuring within the world of religious philanthropy.     

First-time mothers’ experiences of meaningfulness during their third trimester of pregnancy: A focus on spirituality

This study sought to gain in-depth understanding of the lived experiences of first-time mothers during their third trimester of pregnancy. The non-probability, purposive sample were Afrikaans speaking first-time mothers aged between 22 and 40 years. Data on their experiences of meaningfulness during their pregnancy were collected using the Mmogo-Method® and reflective journals. The data were thematically analyzed combining textual data and visual depictions. This group of first-time mothers expressed a very personal relationship with a Divine reality that they rely on and derive meaningfulness from their pregnancy and birthing experiences. They perceived a Divine reality as the giver of life and that they were given a responsibility to carry new life. Sense of meaningfulness during pregnancy was strongly associated with spirituality.     

Theistic Ethics and the Euthyphro Dilemma

It is widely believed that the Divine Command Theory is untenable due to the Euthyphro Dilemma. This article first examines the Platonic dialogue of that name, and shows that Socrates's reasoning is faulty. Second, the dilemma in the form in which many contemporary philosophers accept it is examined in detail, and this reasoning is also shown to be deficient. This is not to say, however, that the Divine Command Theory is true—merely that one popular argument for rejecting it is unsound. Finally some brief thoughts are presented concerning where the real problems lie for the theory.     

The Creative Imagination of the Sufi Mystic, Ibn ‘Arabi

The 12^th–13^thcentury mystic, Ibn 'Arabi, was known as the Greatest Master among the Sufis. His insights into dreams, visions and prophetic processes may prove enlightening to our own more secular age. The findings of Carl Jung parallel some of the revelations of the mystic, but Ibn 'Arabi goes farther than Jung into the Active Imagination as both conscious—willed—and spontaneous, autonomous process. Through surrender and annihilation in the Divine, the mystic opens himself to receive theophanies, resulting in a life lived perpetually in awareness of Divine Presence. Union with the Divine is the aim of the mystic and Ibn 'Arabi shows us a detailed account of how that life is experienced.