Not Three People: The Fundamental Themes of Gregory of Nyssa's Trinitarian Theology as Seen in To Ablabius: On Not Three Gods

Gregory of Nyssa's small text On Not Three Gods has often been treated as a key statement of his supposedly pluralistic and/or social Trinitarianism. I argue, first, that Gregory's intention here is to shift discussion away from a focus on the possible analogies between the divine life and three seemingly distinct human beings, toward themes more fundamental in his theology. Second, I offer a reading of On Not Three Gods to show how Gregory's Trinitarian theology—as all pro–Nicene theologies—revolves around a strong commitment to the unity of the divine power and activity and an equally strong insistence that all statements about the divine life and persons are governed by an account of the divine incomprehensibility.     

牟宗三"实践的智慧学"探求诠论

对哲学作为“实践的智慧学”的探求是牟宗三后期哲学思考的核心。这一探索,开启了牟宗三中国哲学与康德哲学双向诠释的基本视域,也拓出了道德形而上学体系建构的理论地平。“实践的智慧学”诠释具有独特的理论内涵,也隐含了牟氏道德形上学自我批判与超越的思想线索。     

Wisdom in the Military Context

On the basis of the Berlin wisdom paradigm, we define wisdom in the military context as expert knowledge and judgment concerning in extremis military operations. We measured wisdom in the military context by asking participants to give advice to an inexperienced officer facing an in extremis operation; subsequently, we coded their responses. Data were provided by 74 senior noncommissioned officers (NCOs) in the U.S. defense forces. In support of convergent validity, wisdom in the military context was positively related to general objective wisdom and general self-assessed wisdom. Relationships of wisdom in the military context and general objective wisdom with Big Five personality characteristics were nonsignificant, whereas general self-assessed wisdom was positively related to extraversion, agreeableness, and openness to experience, and it was negatively related to neuroticism. The findings provide initial support for the validity of the new wisdom in the military context measure. We discuss several implications for future research and practice regarding wisdom in the military context.     

Practical Wisdom: Aristotle meets Positive Psychology

The strengths and virtues identified by positive psychology are treated as logically independent, and it is recommended that people identify their “signature” strengths and cultivate them, because more of a strength is better [Peterson and Seligman: 2004, Character Strengths and Virtues: A Handbook and Classification (Oxford University Press, New York); Seligman: 2002, Authentic Happiness (Free Press, New York)]. The present paper contrasts that view with the Aristotelian view that virtues are interdependent, that happiness (eudaimonia) requires all the virtues, and that more of a virtue is not always better than less. We argue that practical wisdom is the master virtue essential to solving problems of specificity, relevance, and conflict that inevitably arise whenever character strengths must be translated into action in concrete situations. We also argue that practical wisdom is becoming increasingly difficult to nurture and display in modern society, so that attention must be paid to reshaping social institutions to encourage the use of practical wisdom rather than inhibiting it.     

Christ in the Limelight: Contemporary Films and Christological Discourse

The aim of this article is to show how theology can, through the medium of film, engage contemporary interpretations of Jesus’ person and work. Starting out by tracing the development taking place in films about Jesus throughout the twentieth century, the focus then moves to a theological reading of Mel Gibson's interpretation of the passion story for the twenty‐first century in his movie The Passion of the Christ.     

Fifty Shades of Grace: The Crafting of Sexual Wisdom

Abstract

Each of us has lived sexual experience that gives us embodied knowledge. This embodied knowledge is a primary source for the creation of practical sexual wisdom. We learn by doing, bumping up against others and mining the consequences to create a personal ethic. Grace accompanies us along the way. In this article a model of sexual-spiritual integration is proposed in which embodied knowledge is in critical-liminal conversation with other sources of knowledge to create practical sexual wisdom in a poetic and phronetic process. Such integration is an example of the moral creativity of the human being and derives from the function of sexuality in the person, the story-telling tendency of the brain to create identity, and the narrative intelligibility of human life. Implications for theological education (providing safe space, information, and invitations to critical and liminal reflection) are briefly discussed before particular graces (desire, vulnerability, honesty and wrestling) are explored and illustrated by stories and poems.     

Practical Skills and Practical Wisdom in Virtue

This paper challenges a frequent objection to conceptualizing virtues as skills, which is that skills are merely capacities to act well, while virtues additionally require being properly motivated to act well. I discuss several cases that purport to show the supposed motivational difference by drawing our attention to the differing intuitions we have about virtues and skills. However, this putative difference between virtue and skill disappears when we switch our focus in the skill examples from the performance to the performer. The ends of a practice can be used to judge not only the skilfulness of a performance, but also the motivational commitment of the performer. Being virtuous requires both acting well and being properly motivated to do so, which can be captured by viewing virtues as the moral subset of skills. In claiming this, though, I resist the idea that there is no element in virtue that is not found in other skills. Virtue requires being practically wise about how practices fit into a conception of the good life, but other skills do not. I further argue that this difference doesn't undermine the ‘virtue as skill’ thesis, as it's the connection between virtues and morality that requires practical wisdom.     

Pursuing Wisdom: An Investigation of the Relationship Between Some Ancient Religious Concepts of Wisdom and Current Notions of Critical Thinking Within Information Literacy

In a recent research project, I asked first year college students if they felt they used wisdom when doing research on the Internet. Coming from faith-based contexts, they did not consider the question an unusual one. However, in my discussions of information literacy at the library school, the concept of wisdom was not as common. Following the work of Maxwell and Targowski, this article will investigate connections between current discussion on critical thinking and some ancient ideals of wisdom from the Book of Proverbs and the Analects of Confucius with the hope that such insight will inform and improve our perspective and practice of information literacy.     

Continuity, Naturalism, and Contingency: A Theology of Evolution Drawing on the Semiotics of C. S. Peirce and Trinitarian Thought

The starting point for this article is the question of the relationship between Darwinism and Christian theology. I suggest that evolutionary theory presents three broad issues of relevance to theology: the phenomena of continuity, naturalism, and contingency. In order to formulate a theological response to these issues I draw on the semiotics (theory of signs) and cosmology of the American philosopher Charles Sanders Peirce. Peirce developed a triadic theory of signs, underpinned by a threefold system of metaphysical categories. I propose a semiotic model of the Trinity based on Peirce's semiotics and categories. According to this model the sign‐processes (such as the genetic “code”) that are fundamental to life may be understood as vestiges of the Trinity in creation. I use the semiotic model to develop a theology of nature that addresses the issues raised by evolutionary theory. The semiotic model amounts to a proposal for a new metaphysical framework within which to understand the relationship between God and creation and between theology and science.     

Sizing Things Up: Colloquial Reflection as Practical Wisdom

This essay reintroduces Rhetoric as the principle art for giving emphasis and importance to contested matters; in other words, for making things matter. In a speculative reading of the Aristotelian rhetorical tradition, Aristotle's interpretations of magnitude, contengency and practical wisdom are critically examined from both an aesthetic and an ethical-political point of view. The concluding discussion attempts to apply these same concepts to a growing dilemma in the present age. The dilemma is that monumental changes in scale have all but eroded the prospects for engaged encounters with contemporary contingency. It remains the challenge of rhetorical practice to reframe actions and events so that they and we may hold some hope for an engaged civic life.     

Knowledge to Wisdom: We Need a Revolution

Introduction The following document is a very brief summary of a thesis and argument that I have devoted the last 30 years of my life to trying to get across to my fellow human beings. It was first spelled out in What’s Wrong With Science? (Bran’s Head Books, 1976) and subsequently in From Knowledge to Wisdom (Blackwell, 1984), Is Science Neurotic? (Imperial College Press, 2004) and numerous articles, references to which can be found on . Three years ago an international group was formed, called Friends of Wisdom, which seeks to get across to academics and the public the compelling arguments and urgent need to transform academic inquiry so that its basic aim becomes to seek and promote wisdom. The document below is taken from the website of Friends of Wisdom, the URL of which is . It is the mission statement of Friends of Wisdom. You are invited to join.     

On Atheism,Pluralism and Science: A Response to Ted Peters

Abstract : In dialogue with Ted Peters this article argues that atheists can and do respect other religions; that the term “respect” itself is a slippery word that requires careful delineation; that what we call religious pluralism (“parity model”) is a form of religious relativism; and that much of the doctrine of the Trinity is not symbolic language but conceptual. These points are meant to forward the truth‐claims of Christian confession in a pluralistic world.     

LETTING REALITY BECOME REAL: On Mystery and Reality in Dietrich Bonhoeffer's Ethics

In Dietrich Bonhoeffer's Ethics the notion of reality plays a central role. The present article focuses on the ethical implications of the Chalcedonian Christology underlying this concept. This approach is tied to the debate on the relationship between the universal and specific identity of Christian social ethics in public discourse. In the opening section the article outlines the pertinence of this debate with regard to Bonhoeffer's Christological ethic. In the following section the article analyzes Bonhoeffer's concept of reality and the implied Chalcedonian traits. With this foundation established the article raises the question about its social ethical implications. The final part of the article argues that Bonhoeffer's ethics and ecclesiology cannot be separated from each other, explaining why Bonhoeffer's notion of reality leads to an assertion of the church's role in letting reality become real. In the light of Bonhoeffer's notion of reality the last section argues for the reconciliation of Christian witness and participation in public discourse.     

Salvation: Its Forms and Dynamics in the New Testament

Abstract : Salvation takes several forms in the New Testament, including earthly‐historical saving acts by the earthly Jesus and eschatological salvation by God's saving work in Christ. The dynamics of salvation can be considered from both anthropocentric and theocentric approaches. In the former salvation is by works, faith, or grace, but issues can be raised about each. In the latter salvation is spoken of as the act of God in Christ (a theopractic approach) or by the act of Christ on God's behalf (a Christopractic approach). Issues arise concerning canonical contexts, whether something happened at the cross effective for humanity and the cosmos, and the scope of redemption.     

Dialogue in Dialog: Christology

David R. Mason, A Christology of Universal Redemptive Love , p.149
Carol Jacobson, Universality and Uniqueness: A Response to David Mason , p.160
Lois Malcolm, Generative Christology: A Response to David Mason , p.162
Paul Sponheim, Probing and Protesting: A Response to David Mason , p.164
David R. Mason, Response to Jacobson, Malcolm, and Sponheim , p.166     

On the Performativity of Gender: Gender Studies in Post-Soviet Higher Education

In this article I attempt to conceptualize myexistential and institutional experience as thedirector of the Kharkov Center for GenderStudies acquired in the course of introducinggender studies into the system of post-Soviethigher education. The main subject of thearticle concerns the logical ground of genderdiscourse and the complicated relations betweenthe notions of `gender studies', `women'sstudies', and, within the latter, `feminism' inthe former USSR, all in the framework ofconcepts from Western feminists theory.     

War in Christ's World: Bonhoeffer and Just Peacemaking on War and Christology

Abstract : In this paper, I apply Dietrich Bonhoeffer's exposition of the nature of war as found in his unfinished magnum opus, Ethics, to the contemporary peacemaking movement known as “just peacemaking.” Using Bonhoeffer, I argue that the just‐peacemaking approach accomplishes tactical peace, but only by undermining its stated purposes of bringing theology to bear on war. By assuming theological reasoning as secondary to historical conditions, just peacemaking has, by Bonhoeffer's logic, already abandoned the world to itself and severed it from theological resources.     

Not Boxed In: Acculturation and Ethno-Social Identities of Central American Male Youth in Toronto

This paper examines the acculturation process of male Central American-origin youths in Toronto, a group who are known to have a higher than average risk of dropping out of high school. Using data from semi-structured interviews with a small sample of male youths born in the region or born in Canada to parents from the region, we examine interrelated and shifting friendship patterns, ethno-social identities, and aspirations for schooling. The findings reveal that some youths become marginalized with weak friendship networks, diffuse ethno-social identities and low school completion aspirations, while others develop relatively strong affiliations exclusively with co-ethnic friends who have modest school completion goals. The strongest trend was toward being integrated with a mix of co-ethnic friends and those from other backgrounds, hybrid ethno-social identities, and higher schooling goals. The analysis examines whether the youths are aware of the relationships between social belonging and academic belonging, and whether they feel it possible to escape from being “boxed in” to acculturation patterns associated with poor school completion. These findings add to research on efforts to understand and improve schooling outcomes for “at risk” minority youth in a multicultural city.