实事求是也是一种美德

本文论述了实事求是既是辩证唯物主义的思想路线 ,也是一种社会美德 ,是一种高尚的道德情操和道德境界 ,是全体社会成员特别是共产党员必须遵循的一个基本道德要求     

Christian Bioethics: Challenges in a Secularized Europe

This article summarizes in three specific sections the key challengesfaced by Christian and, particularly Orthodox, ethics in a secularizedsociety. The first section, focusing on the task and aim ofethics, defines Orthodox ethics, which is linked with asceticism(man's attempt to keep the commandments of Christ) and aimsat overcoming death and encountering the personal God. Put differently,the purpose of Orthodox ethics is the deification of human beings.The second section defines secularization and explores its consequencesfor the theology and pastoral work of the Church. Europe isdominated by scholasticism and moralism, whereas Orthodox theology,without rejecting it, transcends such a narrow preoccupationwith our own world. Orthodoxy does not regard human beings solelyfrom the perspective of their biological existence but assiststhem in going beyond mechanistic theories and the pursuit ofhappiness. The third section briefly describes how what canbe termed "bio-theology" surpasses anthropocentric ethics withregard to the relationship between creation and grace, birthand rebirth, cloning and incarnation, transplantation and deification,and death and resurrection. The article concludes that Orthodoxtheology (a) does not reject the achievements of biotechnologyor biomedicine; (b) assists humans in overcoming mortality byfinding meaning for their existence and fullness of life, and(c) does not simply postpone death, but overcomes the fear ofdeath and leads people to deification by grace.     

Chaos Theology: A New Approach to the Science-Theology Dialogue

Comparison of the concepts of creation from chaos and creation out of nothing ( creatio ex nihilo ) leads me to reject the latter for several reasons: it is not the biblical concept, and it presents serious conceptual, scientific, and theological problems. Chaos theology is outlined under the headings creation from chaos; chaos and contingency; chaos, evil, and creativity; chaos and incarnation; chaos and eschatology. It is shown to be well suited for the science-theology dialogue by some examples of its application to aspects of cosmic and biological evolution: initial mystery, separation and ordering; chaos and entropy; contingency and fine-tuning of the universe; purpose and progressiveness in evolution; and complexity theory and chaos events.     

Challenges for Christianity and Barriers to Dialogue in World Religions

Abstract

Mutual respect and understanding between the world's religions has become increasingly necessary in a global society where peace can be tenuous. This article will concentrate on challenges for Christianity in relationship with other world religions. Can interreligious dialogue benefit from what we learn from the dialogue 1 ?1?Ian G. Barbour in his work, Religion in an Age of Science, Gifford lectures, vol. 1 (San Francisco: HarperSanFranscisco, 1990), ch. 1 proposed a fourfold “typology” for relating science and theology, each containing subtypes. One of those types, Barbour called “dialogue”—which is of interest here as the model for shaping the dialogue between world religions. In his revised edition in 1997, he made minor modifications; however, in his When Science Meets Religion, Enemies, Stranger or Partners, (San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 2000), Barbour uses the typology as the organizing structure for all his book's chapters, which is instructive for those wanting to do more reading and understand dialogue beyond what is given here. between science and theology? Yes. 2 ?2?Email from Ted Peters, Professor at Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary and the Graduate Theological Union (GTU), Program Director of the Science and Religion Course Program of the Center for Theology and the Natural Sciences (CTNS); Prof, Peters proposed using a relational statement of this type. The science–theology dialogue is part of the ongoing effort to bridge 3 ?3?Ted Peters and Gaymon Bennett, eds., Bridging Science and Religion (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2003), Foreword (Robert John Russell), ix–xii; Introduction (Gaymon Bennett), 14. the intellectual divide between the discoveries of natural science that have made our lives in the material world better, and interpretations and understandings in the various faith traditions that have given meaning and value to our living in the material world.     

宗教与全球发展:一种对话路径

宗教与全球发展成为当代社会的一个重要议题,一个标志在于联合国千禧年发展目标的提出及世界宗教和精神领袖千禧年和平高峰会议。其中,由前世界银行行长及当时的坎特伯雷大主教联合发起的世界信仰发展对话,即为推动类似目标的一个重要机构。发展的目的在于人。贫困不仅包括物质的层面,也包括精神的层面。全球经济的发展需要一种伦理和价值的支撑。文化应该作为一种创新机制,参与并影响全球发展的过程。在中国,宗教是建设社会主义和谐社会的重要因素。中共十七大明确指出,要发挥宗教在社会经济发展中的重要作用。十七届六中全会则明确提出文化体制改革的目标。随着中国改革开放的进一步深入,中国对世界的影响日益加强,文化和精神的维度在社会发展和国家建设方面将扮演更重要的作用。中国模式也将对世界论坛的讨论产生一定影响。     

Self-Monitoring,Opinion Leadership and Opinion Seeking: a Sociomotivational Approach

In complex markets characterized by abundant choice, many people assume the roles of opinion leaders and opinion seekers. Understanding people who gravitate toward these roles is a priority for consumer psychologists, because the effectiveness of large-scale persuasion often depends on word-of-mouth or peer-to-peer communication. In this study we tested a model, inspired by prior research, that included self-monitoring, status motivation and belonging motivation as predictors of both opinion leadership and opinion seeking. Self-monitoring was a significant predictor of opinion leadership and status motivation mediated this relationship. Self-monitoring was not a significant predictor of opinion seeking, but belonging motivation was. The study highlights motivations associated with self-monitoring and also suggests that the sociomotivational bases of opinion leadership and opinion seeking differ.     

A Contextual-Hierarchical Approach to Truth and the Liar Paradox

This paper presents an approach to truth and the Liar paradox which combines elements of context dependence and hierarchy. This approach is developed formally, using the techniques of model theory in admissible sets. Special attention is paid to showing how starting with some ideas about context drawn from linguistics and philosophy of language, we can see the Liar sentence to be context dependent. Once this context dependence is properly understood, it is argued, a hierarchical structure emerges which is neither ad hoc nor unnatural.     

Habermas on Understanding: Virtual Participation,Dialogue and the Universality of Truth

Although the success of Habermas’s theory of communicative action depends on his dialogical model of understanding in which a theorist is supposed to participate in the debate with the actors as a ‘virtual participant’ and seek context-transcendent truth through the exchange of speech acts, current literature on the theory of communicative action rarely touches on the difficulties it entails. In the first part of this paper, I will examine Habermas’s argument that understanding other cultural practices requires the interpreter to virtually participate in the “dialogue” with the actors as to the rationality of their cultural practice and discuss why, according to Habermas,such dialogue leads to the “context-transcendent truth”. In the second part, by using a concrete historical example, I will reconstruct a “virtual dialogue” between Habermas and Michael Polanyi as to the rationality of scientific practice and indicate why Habermas’s dialogical model of understanding based on the methodology of virtual participation cannot achieve what it professes to do.     

耶儒对话与传教策略——《训真辨妄》探析

本文以基督教经典文献《训真辨妄》做个案研究,考查近代西方基督宗教与中国儒家的碰撞与交融。通过《训真辨妄》中基督教附儒和批儒策略,笔者进行深入研究和深刻揭露,揭示基督教徒在华传教过程中对中国传统儒家文化所持态度及其表现特征。     

The World Council of Churches in Dialogue with Muslims: Retrospect and Prospect

The World Council of Churches (WCC) has been involved in a variety of inter-religious dialogue projects and initiatives over many years. Dialogue with other religions—or with the peoples of those religions—is of significance and import, not least because of the value placed upon peaceful co-existence and harmonious inter-communal relations. However, of all bi-lateral endeavours, it is arguably the arena of Christian–Muslim relations which has been, and remains, the most challenging, problematic, and pressing for the Christian community at large—and, complementarily, for the Muslim umma also. This article attempts an overview of development in Christian–Muslim dialogue undertaken under the auspices of the WCC since around the mid-twentieth century. Early explorations, when the prospect of dialogue with Muslims was being canvassed, will be discussed. A significant 1972 consultation will be noted, followed by a review of salient features pertaining to the extension of the field of engagement in Christian–Muslim dialogue, and a note on some difficulties and challenges encountered. A comment on a sequence of regional events undertaken during the 80s will precede a discussion of developments in the clarification of issues that took place during the 90s. Finally, issues and challenges that are evident in the opening years of the third millennium of the Common Era will be briefly touched on.     

Bi-facial Truth: a Case for Generalized Truth Values

We explore a possibility of generalization of classical truth values by distinguishing between their ontological and epistemic aspects and combining these aspects within a joint semantical framework. The outcome is four generalized classical truth values implemented by Cartesian product of two sets of classical truth values, where each generalized value comprises both ontological and epistemic components. This allows one to define two unary twin connectives that can be called “semi-classical negations”. Each of these negations deals only with one of the above mentioned components, and they may be of use for a logical reconstruction of argumentative reasoning.     

Another Inconvenient Truth and the Developmental Role for Psychology in a Threatened World*

There is a reciprocal relationship between the external lifeworlds that human individuals and communities inhabit (psychospheres) and the inner psychological landscape of conceptual coherence, cognitive strategies, identity, and meaning. In times of cultural turbulence, when basic assumptions about reality are challenged, there is often a corresponding challenge to psychological coherence on a cultural scale. The 21st century global context is increasingly incoherent, disrupting previously coherent psychospheres and provoking a global conceptual emergency with widespread mental distress. At the same time, climate change, the most dangerous of a cluster of global threats, requires urgent and coordinated action. It is likely that a more mature psychology will be required for this than is currently the global norm. The key to making the changes to necessary avoid global catastrophe humanely and effectively will be more psychological than technical. In the mid-20th century, humanistic psychology founders hoped humanistic psychology would provide theory and praxis for an emancipatory social movement that would avoid the catastrophe of nuclear holocaust. In the face of today's threats, the need for such a project is now more urgent than ever. In light of this, the author proposes the best and highest goals of psychological practice and training should be to address the challenge of creating a new culture or psychosphere that both cultivates and sustains a psychologically healthy humanity long enough to address the potential planetary catastrophe that looms at the same time that it addresses the pain of the inevitable psychological disruptions and the opportunity for transformative growth.