Ijtihad and innovation in neo‐modernist Islamic thought in Indonesia

This article briefly explores three models of ijtihad followed in contemporary Islam: text‐based, eclectic and context‐based ijtihad, and attempts to sketch the features of the environment within which each model functions. The key aim of the article, however, is to examine the context‐based model of ijtihad which is utilized by the neo‐Modernist Muslims in Indonesia, to identify a number of their major concerns and to highlight the nature of the reform agenda the neo‐Modernists are pursuing. Though this agenda may be seen by many Muslims to be problematic and even dangerous, it is gaining ground in Indonesia, particularly within the younger generation who have had the opportunity of combining traditional Islamic scholarship with modern Western education. The article examines these issues of interest on the basis of interviews conducted during 1995 in Jakarta with two leading Muslim intellectuals: Nurcholish Majid, the leading neo‐Modernist thinker, and Abdurrahman Wahid, the leader of the largest Islamic organization in Indonesia, Nahdlatul Ulama.     

Honesty in Theology?

There is risk of intellectual dishonesty in the act of modernizing traditional doctrines. One reason theologians reform traditional doctrines is that the original formulations have become incredible to them. This is seldom honestly admitted. It is further dishonestly claimed that new formulations have a direct conceptual link to the old as if the new were the old retold. However, many times the connection between the new theology and the old is in name only, with radically new understanding for an old term. Can we honestly say so? Theology should resuscitate questions of intellectual honesty that were present at the Liberal theology's origins in the interest of maximizing honest theological inquiry. Can theology construct an ethics of belief for itself?     

Is creativity a Darwinian process?

In 1960, the psychologist Donald Campbell advanced a Darwinian model of how new knowledge comes into being. This would later come to be known as “evolutionary epistemology”;. For some psychologists and historians of science interested in creativity in science and technology, the Darwinian perspective was irresistible. Thus, in 1988, the psychologist Dean Keith Simonton proposed a Darwinian model of the psychology of scientific discovery by refining Campbell's model. Recently, in 1999, Simonton has devoted an entire book to “Darwinian Perspectives on Creativity.”; In this article, I challenge the Darwinian perspective by examining three episodes taken from the histories of natural science, technology and art, respectively.     

Mythic perspectives for a world in distress∗

In a series of books and articles published over the past two decades, the authors have developed a five‐stage system for identifying and modifying the mythic structures that guide individual development. In this essay, they draw upon the integral relationship between personal and collective myths in applying this five‐stage model to contemporary social issues. They focus, in particular, on the mythic conflicts that underlie the tensions between progress and sustainability and between individualism and community. Based on the contradictory designs inherent in a prevailing myth and in an emerging myth, the authors present a dialectical model that is formulated to lead to a new myth that incorporates the most functional elements of old and emergent forces, while transcending their limitations. The essay closes with a discussion of social actions that may embed a new myth within a culture, along with the conditions that are required to effectively reinforce and maintain it.     

The breadth and boundaries of a self‐psychological immersion in shame a one‐and‐a‐half‐person perspective

Shame colors other feelings and perceptions about the self. From reflections about his own personal experiences and observations regarding a particular manic‐depressive patient, the author discusses the evolution of his current clinical and theoretical understanding of shame. The framework of analytic self psychology is offered as a particularly useful perspective from which to consider shame, with its emphasis on the concept of selfobject to account both for shame's development (through selfobject misattunement and unresponsive‐ness) and for its amelioration (through empathic mirroring, idealization, and twinning). A developmental sequence for shame is advanced reflecting limitations in selfobject responsiveness, and problems are noted in the ability of current self psychology theory to fully account for the alleviation of shame. The self plays its part in the construction of those selfobjects needed to ease shame, representing the “one‐and‐a‐half‐person psychology”; of the paper's subtitle. Finally, the important role of countertransference shame is considered through a clinical example of therapist disclosure of his own shame to his patient, utilized in order to repair an interrupted kinship selfobject transference.     

Does Animal Ethics Need a Darwinian Revolution?

A frequent argument is that Darwin’s theory of evolution has or should revolutionize our conception of the relation between humans and animals, though society has yet to take account of that revolution in our treatment of animals. On this view, after Darwin demonstrated the essential continuity of humans and animals, traditional morality must be rejected as speciesist in seeing humans as fundamentally distinct from other animals. In fact, the argument is of dubious merit. While there is plenty of room for improving our treatment of animals, it is unlikely that these shortcomings can be blamed on scientific ignorance, or that knowledge of the theory of evolution has any clear moral implications for our treatment of animals.     

Empirical Theology: inter‐ or intra‐disciplinary?

This article seeks to reflect on the methodology of what has come to be called ‘empirical theology’. In particular it considers the question of how theology might relate to the social sciences. The more established expression is what is called the ‘inter‐disciplinary’ approach. This has been advocated by both sociologists and religious educationalists. In contrast, Johannes van der Ven, Professor of Practical Theology at the Catholic University of Nijmegen, advocates an ‘intra‐disciplinary’ approach. This approach is innovative in seeking to incorporate social science methods within a theological framework. The contention of the article is that while some forms of inter‐disciplinary approaches are potentially more rigorous they are not without difficulty. Theologians, however, have been given a valuable model of how theology might relate to the social sciences by means of van der Ven's approach. It now remains for the practical theological community of scholars to assess it.     

Reviewing Reduction in a Preferential Model‐Theoretic Context

In this article, we redefine classical notions of theory reduction in such a way that model‐theoretic preferential semantics becomes part of a realist depiction of this aspect of science. We offer a model‐theoretic reconstruction of science in which theory succession or reduction is often better—or at a finer level of analysis—interpreted as the result of model succession or reduction. This analysis leads to ‘defeasible reduction’, defined as follows: The conjunction of the assumptions of a reducing theory T with the definitions translating the vocabulary of a reduced theory T′ to the vocabulary of T, defeasibly entails the assumptions of reduced T′. This relation of defeasible reduction offers, in the context of additional knowledge becoming available, articulation of a more flexible kind of reduction in theory development than in the classical case. Also, defeasible reduction is shown to solve the problems of entailment that classical homogeneous reduction encounters. Reduction in the defeasible sense is a practical device for studying the processes of science, since it is about highlighting different aspects of the same theory at different times of application, rather than about naive dreams concerning a metaphysical unity of science.     

A Teacher Requiring a Discriminating Approach: The Jews in Martin Luther’s Theology

This article considers how Martin Luther’s attitude to the Jews is related to his theology. Focusing on justification, Christology, Old Testament hermeneutics, ecclesiology, and the two-kingdom notion, the article aims at understanding more precisely the theological motives behind Luther’s attitude to Jews, at finding out whether questionable features of his theology surfaced in this, and at assessing what the price would be of possible changes in the theological view of Judaism for the whole of Lutheran theology.     

Is there a world Lutheranism? Accountability and representation in ecumenical dialogue

The following thoughts were occasioned by my experiences representing the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) in a variety of international ecumenical dialogues over the past thirteen years. I reflect on some of the fundamental challenges faced by many Lutherans as we seek to represent, as conscientiously as possible, the global communion of which we are members. The question we face is a very simple one: Whom do we represent?     

Metaphor and Maṇḍala in Shingon Buddhist Theology

Buddhist maṇḍala that are made of colored sand or are painted on cloth have been well represented in Asian art circles in the West. Discussions of the role that they can play in stimulating religious contemplation or even as sacred icons charged with power have also appeared in English scholarship. The metaphorical meaning of the term maṇḍala, however, is less commonly referenced. This paper discusses how the founder of the Japanese school of Shingon Buddhism, the Buddhist monk Kūkai of the ninth century, uses this term in a metaphorical sense to convey the transformed nature of awareness that is the ultimate goal of Buddhist practice. Emphasis is also placed on the importance of metaphorical thinking to the religious path of transformation itself.

Reduction and abduction in chemistry‐a response to Scerri

Eric Scerri has proposed an account of how reduction might be understood in chemistry. He claims to build on a general aspect of Popper's views which survives his otherwise heavy criticism, namely adherence to actual scientific practice. This is contrasted with Nagel's conception, which Scerri takes to be the philosopher's standard notion. I argue that his proposal, interesting though it is, is not so foreign to ideas in the tradition within which Nagel wrote as Scerri would have us believe. Moreover, actual scientific practice can be commandeered in support of a holistic conception which Popper contrasted with what he saw as the admirable strivings towards reduction in science.