God and Contemporary Science: Philip Clayton's Defense of Panentheism

Philip Clayton's God and Contemporary Science is summarized and discussed. Clayton presents a theological reading of biblical texts. In my opinion, science-and-religion studies should deal more substantially with insights of secular studies on the situated character of these texts. Clayton uses the relationship between mind and brain as analogy for the relationship between God and the world. This runs the risk of understanding God as analogous to the mind and hence secondary and emergent relative to the world. Besides, Clayton's arguments for “mental causation” are wanting. But then, why should a defender of panentheism decouple the mental and the material?     

Principles of Discipleship and Church Growth from Acts 2:46-47

The purpose of this article is to make a comprehensive exegesis of the text of Acts 2:46-47 and to extract basic biblical principles for the work of discipleship. Along with this topic, this article also analyzes the aspect of the growth of the church, since the study text indicates that the Lord added new converts to the church, although the church itself had an internal task to fulfil. Even though church growth has generally been distanced from doctrinal catechesis in the church in the same way that theology is divorced from ecclesiastical practice, this work attempts to show that a responsible and simple exegesis of the text can integrate the “theory” of doctrine with missionary practice and the responsibility to make disciples, so that the church increases in membership.     

释楚竹书《周易》之“■”

本文对上海博物馆藏楚简《周易》中的"歲"字进行了释读,兼释楚帛书中从"歲"旁的"越"字。     

“I WANTED ONE THING AND GOD WANTED ANOTHER . . . ”: The Dilemma of the Prophetic Example and the Qur'anic Injunction on Wife‐Beating

Chapter 4, verse 34 of the Qur'an permits husbands to physically discipline recalcitrant wives. Modern Muslims who find this husbandly privilege discomfiting often rely on Muhammad's prophetic practice to mitigate the meaning of this verse. In light of Muhammad's example of never hitting his own wives, as found in one prophetic report, they reinterpret the verse as restricting and/or voiding a husband's right to physically discipline his wife. This essay provides a critical and expository survey of prophetic reports related to the husbandly privilege to physically discipline wives. The essay argues that the modernists are correct in positing that Muhammad's prophetic practice was to morally censure husbands who hit their wives. However, taken as a whole, it is impossible to ignore that Muhammad's example also unilaterally upheld physical discipline as a husband's marital right.     

Tradition,Reason, and Qur’anic Exegesis in the Modern Period: The Hermeneutics of Said Nursi

Key figures in modernist Qur’an exegesis include Sayyid Ahmad Khan (d. 1898) and Muhammad ?Abduh (d. 1905). This article presents the exegetical principles of Bediuzzaman Said Nursi (1877–1960), a Muslim thinker and a major twentieth-century Turkish scholar who is not necessarily to be labelled a ‘modernist’, on tafsīr bi-al-ma?thūr (tradition-based exegesis) and tafsīr bi-al-ra?y (reason-based exegesis) with special reference to the views of early Muslim modernist thinkers. It particularly refers to Nursi’s work on u?ūl al-tafsīr, Mu?ākamāt (Reasonings), and his one-volume commentary, Ishārāt al-i?jāz (Signs of Inimitability), in order to understand his method of tafsīr. The purpose of the article is to place Nursi within the historical framework of Qur’an exegesis and it argues that, while there are some similarities between ?Abduh and Nursi since the latter is influenced by the former, the methodological differences are clear. While ?Abduh’s method is text-based, Nursi’s is based on kalām (Islamic theology). While ?Abduh is critical of the classical style tafsīr and linguistic discussions in tafsīr, Nursi can be considered to be a modern representative of the Ottoman exegetical school and a follower in the way of al-Zamakhsharī (d. 538?1144), Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī (d. 606?1210) and al-Bay?āwī (d. 685/1286).     

解释:读出与读入--马克思中学毕业宗教作文阅读札记

该文围绕马克思中学毕业考试中撰写的宗教论文,探讨了该文本的价值,分析了其中反映出的青年作者的思想结构,同时介绍并评议了国内学界对此文研究的一些新进展,最后对此文的中译提出了若干商榷意见。     

试论惠栋《周易述》的治易特色

<周易述>是惠栋一生治<易>的结晶,是乾嘉时代最具代表性的易学著作,其主旨在于发挥汉易传统.作为引导乾嘉易学发展方向的易学著作,其治易特色可归纳为:尊汉法,以象数解<易>;重小学,以文字、音韵、训诂知识解<易>;贯通群书,纳入多学科以解<易>;追求古义,改易经文等几个方面.     

Reviews

Books reviewed:
Religious Studies: The Making of a Discipline by Walter H. Capps
Intersections: Science, Theology, and Ethics by James M. Gustafson
Rationality in Science, Religion and Everyday Life: A Critical Evaluation of Four Models of Rationality by Mikael Stenmark     

The Renaissance Ethics of Music: Singing,Contemplation and Musica Humana

Abstract

This article considers Calvin's late work, the Harmony of the Pentateuch (1563). It takes account of previous attempts to illuminate Calvin's purpose in this production by De Boer, Blacketer, Thiel, Wright and Balserak. There follows a consideration of Calvin's view of the ceremonial law for Christians, and a distinction is drawn between the Old Testament cult and the Old Testament law concerning that cult. It finally takes soundings from the work itself to argue that for Calvin, the timeless spirit of worship could be understood behind its outward expression. What matters is that God is seen to call believers out of the flow of everyday occurrence into worship.