Communication,Punishment, and Virtue

This essay suggests that while Antony Duff's model of criminal punishment as secular penance is pregnant with possibilities for theological reception and reflection, it proceeds by way of a number of separations that are brought into question by the penitential traditions of Christianity. The first three of these—between justice and mercy, censure and invitation, and state and victim, constrain the true communicative character of his account of punishment. The second set of oppositions, between sacrament and virtue, interior character and external action, and formal and moral reconciliation, subject the model of state punishment as secular penance to problematic liberal and libertarian constraints. A postsecular analogy, outlining a theology of the invitational nature of divine judgment, and drawing on Thomas Aquinas's account of penance as both sacrament and virtue, is proposed.     

“You knit me together in my mother’s womb”: a theology of creation and divine action in light of intersex

ABSTRACT

Some Christian theologians and intersex Christians maintain that intersex is part of God’s good and intended creation, in contrast to those who view intersex as a pathological result of fallen nature. The former claim that intersex bodies “are how God made them” and that “God does not make mistakes;” however, these statements risk implying a belief in special creation or divine intervention, two theological positions which have been challenged by evolutionary theory and contemporary natural sciences. This paper provides a more nuanced theology of creation and divine action as a foundation for a positive theology of intersex. Drawing from the work of Thomas Aquinas on primary and secondary causality, the author argues that God, as primary cause, creates the intersex person through the free interplay of secondary causes, in the same way and to the same extent that God acts in the creation of every other person.     

从科学革命的视角看《中医内科学》教材的结构性范式

为中医内科学的理论革新建立哲学基础,满足当今医学实践的需要,借用范式理论,着重于对现行《中医内科学》教材的“结构性范式”进行哲学考察。《中医内科学》教材的“结构性范式”本质上是以证素为核心的病机语言体系和以二分法为特征的分析逻辑体系。原有的《中医内科学》范式已不能适应当代中医实践复杂性的要求,故有必要对其进行“科学革命”。革命的重点在于：保留“多维度”的思维,引导“二分法”向“层次论”转变,并且抛开“中西”意识形态的成见,践行医学的“西体中用”以弥补自身的不足。

     

‘Fides mater virtutum est’

Abstract

Peter Martyr Vermigli’s elevation of faith over charity displays similarities and differences with Thomas Aquinas and other medieval authors. For Thomas, faith does not perceive its object and thus denotes an uncertain assent to imperfectly revealed truths. Aquinas posits a reordering of will and intellect in order to explain how faith is more certain than ‘scientia.’ Vermigli on the other hand attempts to maintain the natural order between intellect and will in virtuous action (that is, natural law) even for the theological virtues. He likens faith to vision and practical wisdom arguing that God illuminates the mind to make the object of faith apprehensible to the judgment of reason. This perspective presents a more optimistic account of temporal, intellectual perfection via grace.     

COULD GOD CREATE DARWINIAN ACCIDENTS?

Abstract Charles Darwin, in his discussions with Asa Gray and in his published works, doubted whether God could so arrange it that exactly the desired contingent events would occur to cause particular outcomes by natural selection. In this paper, I argue that even a limited or neo‐Leibnizian deity could have chosen a world that satisfied some arbitrary set of goals or functions in its outcomes and thus answer Darwin's conundrum. In more general terms, this supports the consistency of natural selection with providentialism, and makes “theistic evolutionism” a coherent position to hold.     

Strengthening Biblical Historicity vis-à-vis Minimalism, 1992–2008 and Beyond,Part 2.1: The Literature of Perspective,Critique, and Methodology,First Half

In this series of articles the author covers scholarly works in English which can, at least potentially, be associated with a positive view of biblical historicity regarding the periods preceding the Israelites’ return from exile. Part 2 covers works that treat the concepts and methodological issues at the center of the maximalist–minimalist debate. Parts 3–5 will cover works on evidences.

In this article, the first half of Part 2, the author focuses on works that provide a framework in which there exists the realistic possibility for large amounts of Hebrew Scripture to stand as valid historical source material—while still subject to comparison with other sources. These works are by J. Maxwell Miller and John H. Hayes, Megan Bishop Moore, Lester L. Grabbe, James Barr, Bob Becking, Amihai Mazar, Hans M. Barstad, Ronald S. Hendel, and Mark S. Smith. The article leads up to this focus by beginning with bibliographic selections in earlier works, works that offer long-term perspectives, and a summary of good effects and misguided aspects of minimalist publications. In Part 2.2 the author will discuss works on methodology by authors who espouse biblical historicity unless it is proven wrong.     

Human rights,transnational actors and the Chinese government: Another look at the spiral model

This article assesses the usefulness of Thomas Risse, Stephen Ropp and Kathryn Sikkink's spiral model as an explanation of the changes in the Chinese government's human rights practices from the time of the ‘anti-rightist’ campaign in 1957–1958 to the end of 2003. It is concluded that the spiral model has provided a valid explanation for many of the changes in the Chinese government's human rights practices, and its responses to its internal and external critics, over this time period. Many of the responses of the transnational human rights network and the Chinese government by the end of this period indicate that the latter had progressed to phase three of the model. It is also concluded that the spiral model only conceptualises part of the constitutive relationship between the target state and international human rights norms—the influence of these norms on the identities, interests and behaviours of a target state. It does not conceptualise the influence of a target state on international human rights norms or the transnational human rights network. Therefore, the spiral model cannot explain why the Chinese government has had such a significant influence over the enforcement mechanisms of these norms.     

An institutional political economy view on Thomas Nagel's ‘minimum humanitarian morality’ in global justice

Thomas Nagel's conservative position of the political conception for world politics and his insightful ‘Minimum Humanitarian Morality’ (MHM) view on global justice are laudable. He admits that the path from anarchy to justice must go through injustice. But Nagel does not clearly identify the conditions under which we put up with global injustice. This paper reviews the conception of MHM through the lens of the institutional political economy. In my view, to recognize the degree of structural failure (weakness in governance) as well as the degree of transition failure (elite bargain or personalization of power being interlocked) in each state can give us a hint on how to conceptualize and apply Nagel's MHM. We also argue that the scope and degree of humanitarian aid may vary in accordance with the options to global justice open to each state.     

Editorial

Abstract

At the end of August 1992, the IFPS VII Scientific Conference was held in Munich, Germany, hosted by the German Psychoanalytic Society (DPG). The theme of the conference was Psychoanalysis between Conformity and Opposition. The focus was on the socio-cultural dimension of the psychoanalytic identity and practice. The programme included presentations of scientific papers and group discussions as well as illustrations of the structural conflict between social adaptation and autonomy by means of art and music.

This issue of IFP contains some of the papers presented at the conference. The Editorial Board has decided to publish as an introduction the welcoming address presented at the Neue Pinakothek Artmuseum by the chairman of the DPG, Michael Ermann, in order to illustrate some of the background ideas and the local spirit of the meeting.     

Peter Martyr Vermigli on grace and free choice

Abstract

Within contemporary scholarship there has been considerable debate over the character and scope of Peter Martyr Vermigli’s scholasticism, which has sought to locate his thought between the two poles of the ‘via Thomae’ and the ‘via Gregorii.’ This paper traces the Augustinian-Thomist polarity throughout Vermigli’s doctrine of grace and free choice. In particular it seeks to discover Gregorian distinctives in his thought, namely, doctrinal points shared by Vermigli and Rimini, representing a development of Augustine and a departure from Aquinas. Without denying the important Thomist and Aristotelian elements of his thought, this paper concludes that renewed attention now needs to be paid to his profound debt to late-medieval Augustinian scholasticism and its global impact on his theology.