RALPH WENDELL BURHOE: HIS LIFE AND HIS THOUGHT

Abstract. This second installment from the author's book-length study of Ralph Wendell Burhoe's life and thought details the background of the establishing of the Institute on Religion in an Age of Science in 1955 and its intellectual rationale. A group of clergy from the Coming Great Church Conference and scientists who were members of the Committee on Science and Values of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences came together to form the new Institute on Star Island, off the coast of Portsmouth, New Hampshire. From the beginning, with the guidance of Burhoe, the chief concern of these scientists and clergy was the need to regenerate a contemporary civilization that was on the brink of danger due to its inability to discipline its own burgeoning scientific and technological prowess. Revitalizing religion was deemed essential to this regeneration of society. Since religion is largely destabilized by science, the major task is to emphasize how contemporary scientific understandings support religious wisdom and accentuate its importance. This task is to be accomplished through a science-based theology which reformulates religious wisdom for a culture that accepts science as the most reliable form of knowledge. This rationale for IRAS also articulates the program to which Burhoe committed himself.     

Neither Muslim nor Other: British Secular Muslims

Secular Muslims constitute a significant group within the Muslim population of the UK, though under the prevalent multicultural policies their voice is often ignored. This article introduces some of the more outspoken secular, ex-Muslim, and atheist British Muslims and analyses their positions toward major issues that preoccupy the Muslim community and society at large. The secularists are highly critical of multiculturalism for creating mutually hostile communities controlled by conservative religious leaders. In the heated public debate on Islamism, they oppose both its militant and its more pragmatic versions. They are strongly opposed to religious terrorism, and also to the imposition of Sharia law, the wearing of hijab, and separate Islamic schools, though they may differ as to the right ways to combat them. Caught between Islamism, which is often supported by the radical left, and the far right, Muslim secularists are among the staunchest supporters of universal human values and of integration.     

“大同小康”之论非关孔子辨

“大同小康”之论是否出于孔子之口 ,古往今来经历了一个始信终疑的曲折过程。最早提出质疑的是包括朱熹在内的宋代学者 ,元代的陈更是斩钉截铁地指出 :“大同小康之说 ,则非夫子之言也。”2 0世纪三四十年代 ,围绕孔子与“大同小康”之论的关系问题 ,学界爆发了一场非常激烈的学术论战 ,但是最终未能形成一致的意见。“大同小康”之论不是出于孔子之口 ,因为孔子仕鲁期间 ,他不可能向童稚之年的子游讲论“大同小康”之义 ;周游列国返鲁之后 ,他不可能“与于蜡宾” ,从而也不可能在蜡祭事毕讲论“大同小康”之义 ;特别需要指出的是 ,“大同小康”之论明显带有杂糅众家思想的特征 ,存在着历史知识的错误 ,表露的是一种历史倒退论的观点 ,它不可能出自孔子之口。     

The Meaning of Discipleship

This article is an attempt to use academic tools to bring out the meaning of discipleship from the practitioners' perspective. The mandate of the Great Commission, making people disciples, is the process of making someone become like Christ. This contribution shows that as individuals learn from him and follow the pattern of Jesus' life, there will be marks of discipleship, such as commitment and being like him in deeds. The primary purpose of Jesus' coming to the world was to establish the kingdom of God through his death. The study demonstrates that the kingdom becomes evident in form and practice as people surrender to God's progressive rule. The strength and influence of the church is shown to be wholly dependent upon its commitment to authentic discipleship; that is, producing transformed lives and seeing those lives reproduced in others. The paper concludes that the transformed disciples must together take a journey of transforming communities into the kingdom of God.     

How great is great ape foresight?

Osvath and Osvath (Anim Cogn 11: 661–674, 2008) report innovative studies with two chimpanzees and one orangutan that suggest some capacity to select and keep a tool for use about an hour later. This is a welcome contribution to a small, but rapidly growing, field. Here we point out some of the weaknesses in the current data and caution the interpretation the authors advance. It is not clear to what extent the apes really engaged in any foresight in these studies. This is an invited response to Osvath and Osvath (2008).     

Great apes’ capacities to recognize relational similarity

Recognizing relational similarity relies on the ability to understand that defining object properties might not lie in the objects individually, but in the relations of the properties of various object to each other. This aptitude is highly relevant for many important human skills such as language, reasoning, categorization and understanding analogy and metaphor. In the current study, we investigated the ability to recognize relational similarities by testing five species of great apes, including human children in a spatial task. We found that all species performed better if related elements are connected by logico-causal as opposed to non-causal relations. Further, we find that only children above 4 years of age, bonobos and chimpanzees, unlike younger children, gorillas and orangutans display some mastery of reasoning by non-causal relational similarity. We conclude that recognizing relational similarity is not in its entirety unique to the human species. The lack of a capability for language does not prohibit recognition of simple relational similarities. The data are discussed in the light of the phylogenetic tree of relatedness of the great apes.     

The Mission of the Church in the Contemporary World in Light of the Decisions of the Holy and Great Council

This article discusses the place of mission in the Orthodox Church. The document “The Mission of the Orthodox Church in Today's World,” which was approved by the Holy and Great Council of the Orthodox Church held in Crete in 2016, is still in the process of reception, as are the other documents, but it constitutes, without doubt, a new era in Orthodox missiology – as indeed the Great and Holy Council in Crete represents a new era in Orthodoxy. The interrelatedness of unity and mission is not a question of methodology or strategy. It is an ontological one: it is related to the very essence of koinonia as fellowship in the triune God, and to the specific aspect of κοινονια as participation in God's economy in and for the world. Mission is commitment to the work of the triune God incarnated in Jesus Christ. Both are God’s gift and command. It is only in unity with the Holy Trinity that the church is able to fulfil its vocation.     

The Council of Crete

This article offers a critical assessment of the Holy and Great Council of the Orthodox Church that took place in Crete in 2016. It argues that the situation facing the Orthodox churches after the Council of Crete is far more important than everything that directly preceded it, and that the Orthodox are only at the beginning as far as the important questions and challenges of the world today are concerned.     

The Orthodox Diaspora

This paper discusses the decisions of the Holy and Great Council of the Orthodox Church in June 2016 that offered the Orthodox diaspora throughout the world the opportunity on many levels to act and develop activities to promote Orthodox witness, faith, and life. The issue of diaspora is very important for the church on account of the dynamic presence of the Orthodox faith and witness within large heterodox, non-Christian, and diversified multicultural populations. The diaspora, after the Holy and Great Synod of the Orthodox Church, has in front of it an open door that no one can shut. Hence the diaspora is always in a movement of outreach for the sowing of the seed of truth to those who are far away and to those who are near: always with the mighty assistance of the merciful and philanthropic God.     

“Who Can Proclaim the Mighty Acts of the Lord?”

The Holy and Great Council of the Orthodox Church that met in Crete in 2016 reaffirmed that mission and evangelism is a duty for Orthodox faithful, especially in Europe, which is often seen as a terrain for evangelization by movements coming from the global South. This requires caution, planning, accountability, and especially deep faith, against the background of complacency observed among members of the Orthodox Church that creates a noticeable missionary vacuum. The article underlines the necessity to begin with honest self-criticism by pastors and teachers, clergy and laypeople and to follow this with serious pastoral planning in relation to the modern social and cultural environment and the needs of the people.