GEORGE TYRRELL AND KARL RAHNER: A DIALOGUE ON REVELATION

The reality of revelation was one of the fundamental questions that occupied 1 Tyrrell as a writer until he died on 15 July 1909. The centenary of his death is an opportune time to engage this English Modernist in a dialogue with Karl Rahner on the subject of revelation. Tyrrell insists on the primacy of the interior experience of revelation. An exaggerated emphasis on inner religious experience, however, led him inevitably to a separation of the interior dimension of revelation from its verbal expressions and doctrinal formulations.
Rahner also affirms the primacy of the originating inner experience of God but stresses at the same time the intrinsic unity between this transcendental revelation and its categorical, historical dimension. Revelation corresponds to the symbolic nature of the addressee. The Mystery of the Incarnation is the point of reference for understanding God's self-communication. The fullness of revelation has been realized in the indissoluble and irreversible unity of the Divine Logos with the Man Jesus.     

INTERRELIGIOUS DIALOGUE AS AN EVOLUTIONARY PROCESS

Abstract. I explore the contributions of Ibrahim Moosa, a Muslim legal scholar, to a Muslim‐Christian dialogue on religion and science. Moosa begins from the context of Shari'a, Islamic law, and not from the usual issues of the religion‐science dialogue. Beginning as it does from a legal tradition, the approach suggests a perspective on science and religion that is particular to Islam and provides insight into how an authentic dialogue between Muslims and Christians would proceed—and thereby an alternative model for a religion‐science dialogue.     

POVERTY OF DIALOGUE OR DIALOGUE WITH THE POOR

The major test case for Christian collaboration centres around the rich and poor nations dichotomy. (THOMAS F. STRANSKY, Church and Society, Geneva 1966, The Ecumenist, Vol. 4, No. 6, Sept.–Oct. 1966.) When the young man heard this he went away sorrowful; for he had great possessions. (Matthew 19. 22.)     

PHILOSOPHY AS TRAGEDY OR WHAT WORDS WON'T GIVE

This article examines Cavell's problematic understanding of scepticism and the knowledge of other minds with respect to his long preoccupation with tragedy. I point to the meta‐philosophical questions Cavell continually raises but fails to address such that a philosophy as tragedy is frequently announced. Taking the same meta‐philosophical questions raised by the inability of words to give us access to certain knowledge, I then rethink this problematic theologically. I show the way Cavell hints at a Christology and a doctrine of analogy neither of which he develops. In developing these two theologoumenon I make some observations on the relationship between theology, philosophy and the endemic potential of the tragic.     

SCIENCE AS SALVATION: GEORGE LAKOFF AND STEVEN PINKER AS SECULAR POLITICAL THEOLOGIANS

This article critically analyzes two leading cognitive scientists, George Lakoff and Steven Pinker, as competing secular political “theologians”. The idea of Science as savior is at the heart of the set of stories modernity tells about itself. The modern world, it is assumed, has left the age of religion and reached the age of Science. Lakoff and Pinker, who advocate opposing moral and political worldviews, make their claims on the basis of their scientific work, but it is implicit narratives and ontologies that give force to their broader views about morality and politics.     

GEORGE MURPHY'S CHIASMIC COSMOLOGY: AS IF GOD WERE NOT GIVEN

Abstract. In his work The Cosmos in Light of the Cross physicist and Lutheran pastor George L. Murphy extends the religious rationales of Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Eberhard Jüngel to argue specifically for a nonreligious, scientific study of and appreciation for the world. In doing so, Murphy offers a clear and coherent theology of the cosmos within the bounds of piety alone. Like Calvin and Schleiermacher before him who strove to stay within these bounds, Murphy shares their endpoint of a practical theology—that is, faithful reflections that will encourage wise and faithful existence. In doing so, Murphy has written a brilliant and extraordinarily readable account of a chiasmic cosmos. He also quite practically and indeed pastorally offers suggestions for how the God of that cosmos may be not only understood but also worshiped and adored.     

SCHIZOPHRENIA AS DIALOGUE AT THE ENDS OF ITS TETHER: THE RELATIONSHIP OF DISRUPTIONS IN IDENTITY WITH POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE SYMPTOMS

Changes to definitions and theories of psychopathology result less from scientific advances and more from changes in social and cultural values. Herein, the historical and contemporary diversity in definitions and theories of anorexia nervosa is used to illustrate this point. First, we offer a discussion of diachronic diversity (diversity over time) and synchronic diversity (diversity at a given point in time) in conceptions and theories of psychopathology in general. Second, we elaborate a social constructionist perspective on psychopathology in general. Third, to illustrate this perspective, we provide a diachronic and synchronic analysis of definitions and theories of anorexia nervosa. Fourth, we discuss the implications of this analysis for clinical practice. We conclude that whatever view eventually prevails will depend not on which one is better at rooting out some hidden truth about anorexia nervosa but, rather, on which one is viewed as more compatible with evolving social and cultural standards, views, and norms regarding health and illness in general and self-starvation in particular.     

WHY RELIGION MATTERS AND THE PURPOSES OF HIGHER EDUCATION: A DIALOGUE WITH HUSTON SMITH

This article examines Huston Smith's critique of and remedy for modernity from the perspective of a college professor who adopted “Why Religion Matters” (2001) as required reading for undergraduates. Smith's heartfelt plea to consider, if not embrace, the common wisdom of traditional religious worldviews deserves a hearing. But Smith's approach is also in need of qualification, supplementation, and critique. This article, ironically, finds the needed qualification, supplementation, and critique in Huston Smith's much earlier publication, The Purposes of Higher Education (1955). This article provides the dialogue.