THE ROAD IS MADE BY WALKING: AN INTRODUCTION

We are living in a time of unprecedented challenges: human activity is now the primary driver shaping the planet and we are perilously close to breaching a variety of critical planetary boundaries—a prelude to the possible extinction of our species. How should we be thinking and acting—as persons, communities, institutions and societies—so as to best understand and respond to these challenges? What contribution can the field of science and religion make to develop the knowledge needed to negotiate the civilizational transition we face? Such questions were addressed through a series of dialogues at the 62nd annual conference of the Institute on Religion in an Age of Science in June of 2016—“How Can We Know? Co‐Creating Knowledge in Perilous Times.” This essay sets the background to these challenges and introduces the set of articles in this themed section.     

Luther in Context: With Illustrations

The author explores his work on the first volume of The Annotated Luther detailing Luther's commitment to humanism's “good letters” and his developing theology of preaching law and gospel, especially indicated by the Ninety‐five Theses and Freedom of a Christian.     

Beyond the Biblical Impasse: Homosexuality Through the Lens of Theological Anthropology

Abstract: What does the Bible say about homosexuality? The argument developed in this article demonstrates that the five biblical texts often cited as “proof” that the Bible condemns homosexuality reflect a theological anthropology that is challenged within Scripture itself and that has been determined by the church to be contextual rather than binding in relation to other debated issues. By bringing the theological anthropology reflected in the five texts into conversation with contrasting biblical anthropologies, it becomes possible to re‐frame the contemporary conversation on homosexuality in terms of discerning which biblical theological anthropology will be considered authoritative for the church in the 21^st century.     

The Soul of Trans‐Humanism

Abstract: This article tackles the question: how should Christian theologians think about the human soul in light of the challenges posed by the new emphasis in brain‐mind identity in neuroscience and trasn‐humanism? Ways of improving human nature through medical therapy, genetic enhancement, and trans‐human cybernetic immortality are explored; and their assumptions are correlated with a spectrum of Christian theories of the soul such as substance dualism, emergent dualism, nonreductive physicalism, and materialism. Finally, the article concludes that the human person should be thought of relationally, and the dimension that is decisive for resurrection is the relation of the soul to God.     

The English public space: developing spirituality in English Muslim schools

Developing a language and a context for a spirituality that can speak to children and young people in a post‐modern, secular English society is a challenge for anyone, parent or teacher, who wishes to raise the vision beyond the purely material and the everyday. The challenge is both epistemological and pedagogical. How young people see, know and describe the world in which they find themselves is central to any school curriculum. For English Muslim schools the epistemological and pedagogical interfaces with the cultural and theological in a search for a language and spirituality that is a reflection of a contemporary English Islam.     

Sin and bioethics: why a liturgical anthropology is foundational.

The project of articulating a coherent, canonical, content-full, secular morality-cum-bioethics fails, because it does not acknowledge sin, which is to say, it does not acknowledge the centrality of holiness, which is essential to a non-distorted understanding of human existence and of morality. Secular morality cannot establish a particular moral content, the harmony of the good and the right, or the necessary precedence of morality over prudence, because such is possible only in terms of an ultimate point of reference: God. The necessity of a rightly ordered appreciation of God places centrally the focus on holiness and the avoidance of sin. Because the cardinal relationship of creatures to their Creator is worship, and because the cardinal corporate act of human worship is the Liturgy, morality in general and bioethics in particular can be understood in terms of the conditions necessary, so as worthily to enter into Eucharistic liturgical participation. Morality can be summed up in terms of the requirements of ritual purity. A liturgical anthropology is foundational to an account of the content-full morality and bioethics that should bind humans, since humans are first and foremost creatures obliged to join in rightly ordered worship of their Creator. When humans worship correctly, when they avoid sin and pursue holiness, they participate in restoring created reality.     

汉易卦气学的理论原理

汉易卦气学中阴阳二气消长运行的原理保留了先秦《易传》和《礼记.月令》中尊重自然规律的思想,同时也发展了《月令》中的阴阳灾异思想;天人感应的原理是源自《洪范》“五事”“五征”思想,而于战国后期以来被加以充分发挥并在技术上加以细化的天人感应论;五行生克原理是用来说明造成某种灾异的具体原因的,对卦气占筮体系的建立有重要作用;由五行生克理论派生的五行运数理论,主要被用于讲王朝兴衰更替问题,阴阳二气消长运行的理论对于气论哲学的发展还是有积极影响的。天人感应理论有为人道正义寻求支撑的意义,但卦气学繁复的技术细节冲淡了这种意义,而用五行运数理论解释世运兴衰朝代更替,在本质上与天人感应学说是有矛盾的。     

What is to be done in the history of philosophy

Because the History of Philosophy is a branch of both History and Philosophy, it faces tasks which are Historical, tasks which are Philosophical, and tasks which overlap both. As Philosophy typically flourishes by incorporating and assimilating ideas and bodies of text which have either not previously been part of its stock in trade or have been forgotten, the main task facing the History of Philosophy today is that of developing serious scholarship in areas that have been largely neglected, such as Philosophy in Arabic and Persian as well as in Sanskrit and Chinese.     

毛泽东对中国德治传统的继承与超越

道德与政治的结合是中国传统政治文化的一大特色,以至于中国传统的政治被称之为德化政治或伦理政治。主张从孔夫子到孙中山都应给予历史总结的毛泽东,在道德与政治关系的问题上,同样遵循了这样一种历史主义的原则:他在继承中国德治传统的同时,又在探索着对这一传统的超越,在中国政治文化从传统向现代转换的过程中,毛泽东的新德治思想独具特色。     

To Preserve or Enhance Life? Nietzsche’s Perspectivist Understanding of Life and Morality

Instead of denouncing sincere Christianity, as it is often assumed, Nietzsche inveighs vehemently against insincere Christianity that interpreters take as evidence for his nihilism. This essay argues that Nietzsche’s perspectivism affirms the positive value of Christian morality as an instrument for life preservation, which is a relative standard for judging various perspectives on life. It also analyzes the negative value of Christian morality as the impediment to life enhancement, which is the absolute standard for evaluating those perspectives. As this study finally argues, it remains to the Overman to once and for all overcome the impediments to life brought on by Christian morality in the creation of a new morality, if in fact what the Overman creates is indeed a new morality.