James Baldwin,Christian Ethics,and the Recovery of Tradition

This essay uses James Baldwin’s thought about racism and homophobia as a critical lens for thinking about some influential strands of Christian ethics. The first part shows how Baldwin understood racism and homophobia and related them to one another by framing them as instances of spirit/flesh dualism and as effects of Christian supremacy. The second part relies on Baldwin’s categories to analyze and juxtapose the thought of select neo-Anabaptist and neo-Augustinian social ethicists. Like Baldwin, the ethicists I engage respond to the distorting power of Christian supremacy and of spirit/flesh dualism. Unlike Baldwin, these ethicists frame their response to Christian supremacy and dualism as a recovery of a more authentic or faithful Christian tradition. Baldwin, who often relied rhetorically and morally on Christian claims and frequently called on Christians to reflect the example of Jesus and the precepts of love, related to the tradition from the perspective of someone who had become an outsider to the church. He tended to focus instead on what the problems he described reflected about Christianity. The contrast with Baldwin helps identify two distinct retrieval strategies, which characterize the neo-Anabaptist and neo-Augustinian ethicists I discuss. One strategy seeks to preserve the integrity of Christian faith, and the other seeks to protect its essential decency. In what follows, I highlight some of the weaknesses of these approaches to tradition retrieval.     

The hiring of James Mark Baldwin and James Gibson Hume at the University of Toronto in 1889

In 1889, George Paxton Young, the University of Toronto's philosophy professor, passed away suddenly while in the midst of a public debate over the merits of hiring Canadians in preference to American and British applicants for faculty positions. As a result, the process of replacing Young turned into a continuation of that argument, becoming quite vociferous and involving the popular press and the Ontario government This article examines the intellectual, political, and personal dynamics at work in the battle over Young's replacement and its eventual resolution. The outcome would have an impact on both the Canadian intellectual scene and the development of experimental psychology in North America.     

Sharing as Hope and Celebration

And no one puts a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment, for the patch tears away from the garment and a worse tear is made. Neither is new wine put into old wineskins; if it is, the skins burst, and the wine is spilled, and the skins are destroyed; but new wine is put into fresh wineskins and so both are preserved. (Matt. 9:16–17)     

Simulation as a Method for Theological and Philosophical Inquiry

Abstract

In this paper we make the case that simulation provides an important and relatively novel tool for confronting and possibly even surmounting various epistemological hurdles. To support the claim that simulation has particular merit for approaching certain theological and philosophical problems, we suggest a number of advantages, evaluate possible objections, and make the case in a specific domain by illustrating how an actual simulation system can be used to this end.     

Teaching as Confessing Redeeming a Theological Trope for Pedagogy

By reclaiming the role of confession in the classroom, we can rethink the fundamental question of what it means to teach religion. That is, the project of thinking about the religious dimension of pedagogy should also force us to rethink religious studies in general. Pedagogy, after all, is not an incidental expression of religious commitments but is instead one significant place where the religious imagination takes shape and form. All religious reflection is confessional, because scholarship is only one form of pedagogy, and teaching is the act of saying who we are, where we are from, and where we are going.     

Love as a Starting Point for Pastoral Theological Reflection

This article draws on recent work in the theology of love to propose steps toward the development of a pastoral theology of love in order to inform the practice of pastoral care. A pastoral theology of love is a necessary foundation for an ecclesial practice of pastoral care that promotes growth in love. The article defines love and addresses key issues in the theology of love, namely, human agency and the analogies that exist or do not exist between human and divine love and the concept of growth in love, or sanctification. The article concludes by proposing and sketching some key features of a pastoral theology of love for pastoral practice.     

Theological Education: A Theological Framework for Renewed Mission and Models

Abstract : This essay explores renewed ways to reimagine theological education. Incarnation is used as a theological lens that engages anew “the transmission of Christian memory, the education for God's peace and justice, and the formation of church and community leadership.” Attention is given to apprenticeship, project‐based learning, distributed learning, and global learning, and concludes with implications for governance and faculty.     

寻求神学语言的意义--麦奎利的语言哲学简论

约翰·麦奎利 (ＪｏｈｎＭａｃｑｕａｒｒｉｅ)是当代西方著名的神学家和哲学家。他在哲学上既表征着欧陆哲学的主流 ,也表征着英美哲学的主流。作为中庸的神学家和清明的哲学家 ,其思想因广博而简明、中正而公允在西方学术界而著称。他在语言学研究方面造诣颇深 ,其语言理论 ,尤其在神学语言与逻辑研究方面 ,对西方神学和哲学产生了深远的影响。如果把麦奎利的神学语言理论称为“神学语言学”的话 ,那么他的一般语言观则属于基本的“语言哲学”。他的语言哲学与其神学语言学紧密相连 ,是其神学语言学的理论基础。本文旨在论述麦奎利对语言…     

The Theological Misappropriation of Christianity as a Civilizing Force

The theological misappropriation of Christianity as a civilizing force occurs when individuals convert to Christianity due to deception that ignores the faith-based aspect of Christianity. The history of Western education in India illustrates the hidden curriculum that Christian missionaries employed to disrupt the Indian educational system. This unnerving pedagogy points to the need for a postcolonial theoretical framework that relates the inescapable hybridity of religion and culture where Orientalism has the potential to occur. To press the ongoing urgency of this discussion, I convey how the history of British India connects to my lived-reality as an American Hindu. Overall, I point to hybridity as a lived paradox of ambiguous conflict that embraces interfaith relations. I offer implications for Christian missionaries today to foster authentic interfaith connections without engaging in colonizing ideologies.     

Contrast and assimilation in the Baldwin illusion

Four experiments were conducted to investigate the role of "large" squares on the occurrence of assimilation and contrast in the Baldwin illusion. In Exps. 1 and 2, in which subjects reproduced the length of the test line, large squares induced illusions of assimilation. In Exp. 3, reproduction of the entire length of the test line also resulted in illusions of assimilation but bisection of the test line and reproduction of one-half the length of the test line resulted in contrast. Exp. 4 replicated the findings involving judgments of one-half the length of the test line. Over-all, the results indicate that judgments of one-half the length of the test line result in contrast, whereas judgments of the entire extent result in assimilation.