Aquinas on the Immortality of the Soul: Some Reflections

Aquinas's thoughts about the human soul present us with a puzzle. On the one hand, Thomas has been applauded within the analytic tradition as an anti-dualistic thinker, who emphasises the animal nature of human beings and denies that there could be disembodied human persons. Yet on the other hand he holds, as a faithful Catholic theologian, that the human soul survives death, and maintains that the post-mortem soul, prior to its reunification with the body is the subject of characteristically personal intellectual activities. This paper reviews the state of the debate regarding whether these commitments of Aquinas's can be reconciled, and concludes that they cannot in his own terms. However, a recognisably thomist approach to the post-mortem survival of the soul is available, proceeding on the basis that to be rationally ensouled is to have a life-story.     

从参照到敬重:道家与自然界

作为哲学的道教读者们都知道,“道教”这个术语即代表“哲学”,也指“宗教”教义和实践。由于我本人关注作为哲学的道教,所以我先介绍“道家”与广义的道教的关系。与儒家有一个主要的创立者不同,道家是事后的追溯。在公元前2世纪被历史学家司马谈第一次命名为一个学派。司马谈对学派的分类主要依据于它们对治国的贡献,没有提到后来追认的两个主要的道家思想家庄子与老子的关系。对“道家”的进一步说明则源于“道家”与“道教”的区分,后者一般认为始于公元142年。道教指有组织的宗教,延续至今。直到最近,道教学者,尤其是西方的道教学者,在…     

汉代乐府诗里的神仙信仰

道教以神仙信仰为贯穿道教文化发展过程的主线.而汉代仙风极盛,其神仙信仰在文学艺术活动方面的表现,主要是汉乐府游仙诗的创作.汉乐府分为贵族乐府、民间乐府和文人乐府三类.这三类作品中都有描写求仙问药、长生至乐的诗歌,充分体现出汉代社会神仙信仰的盛行以及前道教、道教一脉在秦至汉末时期的发展线索.     

全其形生——浅论道家关于形体的哲学

《周易·系辞》中说:在天成象,在地成形,变化见矣。①在这天下之世界中,形是芸芸变化所凭依的东西。《系辞》中又说:形而上者谓之道,形而下者谓之器。②形既是道与器所凭依而统一之所在,     

The Symbolism of the Body in Daoism

The body is the center of Daoist practice.In addition to being the carrier of feelings,experiences,and actions,it also plays a major role in the construction and interpretation of religious meanings.What is important here is how it serves as the starting point and springboard for practitioners seeking either to obtain the ideal state of being or acquire transcendent powers.This article explores the formation of the body as a symbol in Daoism,and analyzes its corresponding implications.I attempt to do this through a close textual reading of Daoist texts and a critical review of previous academic work on the Daoist conception of body.Within Daoism,the body is neither some physical object,nor a spirit-flesh hybrid that is the subject of theological reflection.It is the vehicle to immortality,and is in itself a small pantheon to be discovered and promoted.As such,it is an open and rich symbol that both generates and integrates meanings on different levels.The symbol of the body not only brings together diverse meanings,but it also provides a conduit through which these meanings are expressed.After taking on religious meaning,the body comes to actualize its potentiality through Daoist practice and cultivation.     

Cybermourning: Grief in Flux From Object Loss to Collective Immortality

This essay examines features of cyberreality that are reconfiguring loss and mourning. In turn, it queries a transformation in the nature of object loss that is taking place on the Internet. As we move from a reality based on the acceptance of loss and limit to one of infinite access, concrete losses may be less necessary to mourning than forms of access that propel the object's capacity for collective re-use toward immortality. If we focus too intently on loss at the level of the individual and the group, we will surely overlook how cyberspace is transforming loss into a collective event. Clinical examples illustrate how the burden of loss is increasingly mitigated by mourning's sudden twin: cybermourning.     

魏华存夫人信道原因考

勾稽有限的史料,我们能看到,高平陵政变以后血腥的杀戮,以及这一时节巫祝、道术禁令的松弛,是魏华存夫人走进道教的一个宏阔背景和潜在动因;而这一地域本身巫风的兴盛,则有力地强化了这种倾向;最终,魏舒"三娶妻"、子息不旺的家庭现实,充当了直接的诱因,促成了魏华存对道教的接受和走进。     

形神俱妙--道教身体观的现代阐释

性命、形神、身心、肉体和精神、元神和识神、精气神、身心意等都是道教表达身心的术语,它们在不同历史时期常常交换着使用,但道教看重身体却始终一贯.身体在道教里是一切存在的基础,即是体验的领域又是体验的媒介,是其他价值得以实现的起点和场所.人与外界通过身体而交通.身体还具有文化的意义,人的自然属性和社会属性皆被身体所呈现.存在是在身体里的存在,离开了身体,无从谈心灵和精神.道教对于身体的深刻认识和高度重视在世界宗教中可谓独树一帜.