Poverty and Wealth in the Orthodox Spirituality (with special reference to St. John Chrysostom)

Abstract : This essay deals with the right relation we should have to material wealth in modern society, a society often marked by rank consumerism. Material goods are given to humans only to be managed for the benefit of all people, regardless of faith or race. This ethical stance does not attack or seek to abolish the right to private property, but restores it to its proper place. Specifically, patristic spirituality, such as that articulated by St. John Chrysostom, does not invalidate the principle of individual ownership, but corrects it, meaning that, while owners are owners in relation to the poor, they are only managers of wealth in relation to God.     

Knowing God Beyond Imagining: A Critical Appraisal of the Relation between Systematic Theology and Concrete Reality in John Milbank's Thought

John Milbank's work repeatedly invites two fundamental criticisms: he supposedly prioritises abstract thought over concrete reality, and he claims for himself a God's eye perspective on reality that is forgetful of any epistemological limits concerning a truthful human vision of the whole. Contrary to the first criticism, this article appreciates the way in which Milbank follows twentieth‐century Ressourcement theologies in relating concrete reality and abstract systematic thought. The second criticism does not disqualify Milbank's ontology, but encourages a more consequent application of this ontology in his assessment of concrete reality. As a corrective, Edward Schillebeeckx's contribution to Ressourcement theologies is revisited, as his work bears the promise of attaining an ever more limitless vision of God, via the path of contemplating concrete reality.     

Back to the Future: Marriage as Friendship in the Thought of Mary Wollstonecraft

If liberal theory is to move forward, it must take the political nature of family relations seriously. The beginnings of such a liberalism appear in Mary Wollstonecraft's work. Wollstonecraft's depiction of the family as a fundamentally political institution extends liberal values into the private sphere by promoting the ideal of marriage as friendship. However, while her model of marriage diminishes arbitrary power in family relations, she seems unable to incorporate enduring sexual relations between married partners.     

The Eschatological Body: Gender, Transformation, and God

This paper examines the obsession with the "body" that has been such a marked feature of late-twentieth-century Western culture, and argues that it hides a profound eschatological longing. By throwing into contrast the work of the contemporary secular feminist Judith Butler and that of the fourth-century church father Gregory of Nyssa, an ironic set of thematic continuities between them is highlighted. Despite their great differences in metaphysical commitment, both authors seek to upend gender binaries and to envisage a labile "body" capable of creative gender transformations. It is argued finally that Gregory's more explicit eschatological horizon satisfies a latent longing for the divine in Butler's complex (and much disputed) work.     

The Limits of Toleration in John Locke's Liberal Thought

In the following paper I attempt to show how in Locke's liberalthought the individual is subject to a complex operation involvingliberation and subjugation. In A Letter on Toleration (1685),Locke argues that the individual's inward beliefs should be freed fromthe coercion of Church and State. To ensure liberty of conscience, theindividual's soul should be constituted in practice – notstructured by violence but negotiated by rational persuasion. However,as I suggest, the authority of reason is not established without anelement of violence. In his writings on education, Locke maintains thatthe right to care for one's soul should be enjoyed only after rigorousmoral training. Thus, the individual's conscience is to be freed fromoutward violence of ecclesiastic and civil powers only after first, inyouth, being subject to the moral discipline of esteem, disgrace, andshame, the inward violence of which discloses limits in Locke'sdiscourse on toleration.     

God as immanent transcendence in Mark C. Taylor and John D. Caputo

This article aims at describing and evaluating Mark C. Taylor's and John D. Caputo's ideas about God as immanent transcendence. In the first part, the article provides a basic typology of immanent transcendence; the second and third parts present Taylor's and Caputo's philosophies of religion. It is shown that the two authors emphasize two different aspects of immanent transcendence which strongly affect their understandings of God. In Taylor, God is described in terms of imagination, while Caputo refers to God as an event. In the final section, the article then, for heuristic purposes, introduces a distinction between “pagan,” “Judaic,” and “Christian” interpretations of God as immanent transcendence, and argues that Taylor's God of imagination is more “pagan” than “Christian” and that Caputo's God of the event exemplifies a “messianic Judaism.” Here the article offers a few critical remarks as it attempts to develop an outline of a more “Christian” understanding of immanent transcendence.