Alone with God

A patient deals with her cancer and its treatment through a life of the imagination, dreams and God. The author observes a toughness in her and strong feeling. She struggles to bear the aliveness of God as she wrestles with childhood memories of her own mother's death from the same disease. Prayers for her are experienced as sunbeam fibers and a kind of transfusion.     

God Diagnosed with Narcissistic Personality Disorder

This article endorses the contention that God suffers from a mental disorder, but challenges J. Henry Jurgens’ diagnosis of bipolar disorder as reported in The Onion (“God diagnosed with bipolar disorder”, 2001) and proposes narcissistic personality disorder instead. It uses the diagnostic criteria for narcissistic personality disorder from The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders—DSM-IV (American Psychiatric Association, Washington, DC, 1994) and various biblical citations in support of this diagnosis. It rejects the idea that a major personality change is reflected in the New Testament and claims that God did not experience a major transformation of his narcissistic personality structure as described by Heinz Kohut (Forms and transformations of narcissism, in A. P. Morrison, Ed., Essential papers on narcissism, pp. 61–87, New York University Press, New York, 1966/1986). However, it concludes that God’s creativity accounts for the stability of his narcissistic personality structure and helps to explain his lack of empathy toward human beings.

When God Smites: Talking with Students about the Violence of God in Scripture

This article emphasizes the need for religious educators to address the issue of divine violence in Scripture with students, and it offers various pedagogical strategies for doing so. The focus is on violent Old Testament texts, with special attention given to the issue of Canaanite genocide. A general framework for structuring class time around divine violence in Scripture is proposed which includes (1) encouraging students to encounter violent biblical texts firsthand, (2) helping them understand why people find these passages problematic, and (3) offering various options for dealing with the potential problems these passages raise. In the second half of the article, significant attention is devoted to a number of practical considerations that should be taken into account when talking about this sensitive issue in class. A brief word about assessment is offered at the end.     

The Morality System with and without God

What I set out to do is to cast some doubt on the thesis that, in Bernard Williams's words, any appeal to God in morality either adds nothing at all, or it adds the wrong sort of thing. A first conclusion is that a morality of real, inescapable and (sometimes) for the agent costly obligations, while being at home in a theistic metaphysic, does not sit easily with metaphysical, atheistic naturalism. The second conclusion is that Christine Korsgaard's impressive ethical project which is neutral towards theism and atheism fails in giving a satisfying account of such obligations. My final claim is that a theistic account in terms of a strong divine command theory might succeed where non- and atheistic accounts seem to founder.     

God and objects: Beginning with existence

International Journal for Philosophy of Religion -     

God Language

Abstract

Words are inadequate to describe God. The words of the recent past have limited the concept of God by using only the masculine images and gender to describe God. Purposefully using feminine images and gender and using non-gendered symbols helps to expand our conception of God. The paper deals almost exclusively with God language in a Christian context. Rationales for describing each member of the Trinity in feminine as well as masculine terms are developed and various resources for using gender-inclusive and gender-neutral terms for God are shared.     

Speaking of God after the Death of God

Abstract :  This article affirms the ability to talk about God in the twenty‐first century 40 years after God died (according to Death‐of‐God theologians) in the 1960s. It does so by an appeal to the proper combination of mystery and revelation ideally expressed in the paradox that God reveals Godself as hidden. The language of God's revealed hiddenness comprises a "middle way" which avoids the extremes of theological hubris on the one hand and atheism or unbelief on the other, making it possible to speak today of God in a faithful yet humble manner.     

既无“天谴”，亦无“天佑”

人们在面对不可抗拒的巨大的自然灾害时,总有一种无奈和无助之感,这时社会上最易出现各种迷信说法。“天谴”说和“天佑”说可以算是很有代表性的言论。到底如何看待自然灾害,它们与“天谴”和“天佑”有何关系？本方将从历史和文化及无神论的角度对上述问题进行分析。