This thesis examines a primary question raised by both Aristotle and Thomas Aquinas: What constitutes the beginning of a human being? Aristotle and Aquinas raise this question for very different reasons. Modern critical commentators revisit it for their own reasons, namely for the purposes of ethical debates surrounding conception and abortion. They frequently attribute the notions of delayed ensoulment and quickening to Aristotle. Through examination of the primary texts, I demonstrate that this attribution is erroneous. Aristotle contends that ensoulment is substantially complete at conception, though subject to gradual actualization throughout the lifespan of a human being; while Thomas suggests that conception is a process, requiring several substantial changes before a human soul is infused. I argue that Aquinas adapts Aristotle in accordance with his Christian theological commitments, and modern commentators follow him to develop their own notions of delayed ensoulment and quickening.

No description available.

This thesis explores the philosophical and theological motivations for early Christian celibacy prior to the appearance of monasticism. This thesis will challenge recent scholarly positions that portray early Christian celibacy only in light of the emergence of monasticism in the fourth century, and which argue that celibacy as an ascetic practice was motivated primarily by resistance to the dominant social structures of antiquity. The practice of celibacy was a significant movement in the early church well before the appearance of monasticism or the development of Christianity as the dominant social force in the empire, and although early Christian sexual austerity was similar to the sexual ethics of Greco-Roman philosophical constructs, early Christian sexual ethics had developed in relation to uniquely Christian theological and cosmological views. Moreover, a segment of the early Christian community idealized celibacy as an expression of the transformation of human nature amidst a community that continued to remain sexually austere in general. / vi, 267 leaves ; 29 cm.

Lam Tsz Shun, Jason. / Thesis (M.Div.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2000. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 72-75). / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / Chapter Chapter 1 --- Introduction --- p.1 / Chapter Chapter 2 --- Agenda Illustrated as in Revelation as History --- p.4 / The Problem Perceived by Pannenberg --- p.5 / Solution Offered as Dogmatic Theses --- p.9 / A Preliminary Analysis --- p.14 / Chapter Chapter 3 --- History and Hermeneutics --- p.16 / Pannenberg's Historical Method --- p.16 / Pannenberg's Hermeneutical Method --- p.20 / Synthesis of the Results of the Historical and Hermeneutical Methods --- p.23 / Different Aspects Reconsidered --- p.25 / Chapter Chapter 4 --- Toward a Theology of the History of Religions --- p.30 / The Problem Perceived by Pannenberg --- p.30 / The Solution Proposed by Pannenberg --- p.31 / An Assessment --- p.36 / Chapter Chapter 5 --- Theology as a Science of Religion --- p.40 / The Scientific Status of Theology as a Question --- p.41 / Theology as a Science of God --- p.43 / Old Problem in New Formulation --- p.47 / Chapter Chapter 6 --- A Systematic Gestalt --- p.51 / The Quest of Truth as the Task of Systematic Theology --- p.52 / The Reality of God and the Experience of Religions --- p.55 / The Revelation of God as Witnessed by Christianity --- p.58 / An Appraisal --- p.60 / Chapter Chapter 7 --- Conclusion --- p.66 / References

When reading the Bible in an independent way, i.e., not through the lenses of any official Church dogma, one is amazed by the many voices that come through to us. Add to this variety the literary finds from Nag Hammadi, as well as the Dead Sea Scrolls, then the question now confronting many spiritual pilgrims is how it came about that these obviously diverse theologies, represented in the so-called Old and New Testaments, were moulded into only one "orthodox" result. In what way and to what degree were the many Christian groups different and distinctive from one another, as well as from other Jewish groups? Furthermore, what was the influence of other religions, Judaism, the Mysteries, Gnostics and Philosophers on the. development, variety of groups and ultimately on the consolidation of "orthodox" soteriology? / Philosophy Practical and Systematic Theology / Th.M. (Systematic Theology)

No description available.

In the course of this study, we find that for Calvin, God has one righteous will that is expressed as two, decidedly asymmetrical dispositions toward humanity. For Calvin, the only God that can be known, proclaimed, and trusted is God the Father, the God of creation, election and redemption who relates to his people according to his fatherly love; for reasons known only to him, God inexplicably creates some whom he does not rescue from their sinful state of rebellion against him. We first examine Calvin's teaching on the knowledge of God and discover that God has revealed his unchanging nature to those with faith. God's loving, righteous, wise, good, powerful, judging (of evil), and holy nature is exhibited in creation and providence, in Scripture, and most of all in Christ. We next explore Calvin's teaching on predestination and discover that God's one, secret, righteous will is expressed in two, decidedly asymmetrical wills toward humanity: (1) God's disclosed electing will that directly corresponds with God's nature and is extended to all but only effected in the elect; (2) God's veiled reprobating will toward the reprobate that, from the human perspective, only corresponds to God's nature in part. We continue by examining Calvin's teaching on the reconciling work of Christ, finding that, for Calvin, creation and redemption clearly exhibit God's disclosed disposition toward humanity while demonstrating God's veiled disposition only in very small part. We then provide constructive analysis in three related areas: (1) Calvin's teaching on the intra-trinitarian relations, (2) the locus of mystery in Calvin's, Arminius', and Barth's accounts of predestination, and (3) the reclaimed logic of Mosaic sacrifice in relation to Calvin's atonement teaching. In the context of a concluding summary, we consider three biblical accounts that depict God as possessing one rather than two dispositions toward humanity.

論文(哲學碩士)--香港中文大學硏究院政治及公共行政學部,1994. / 參考文獻: leaves 137-152 / 何榮漢. / 圖表目錄 --- p.i / 主要官方文件縮寫表 --- p.ii / Chapter 第一章 --- 導言 --- p.1-5 / Chapter 第二章 --- 從國家與宗教的關係看中國共產黨的宗教政策 --- p.6-25 / Chapter 第一節 --- 研究中共宗教政策的起點 --- p.6-11 / Chapter 第二節 --- 中國共產黨與基督教的初步接觸 --- p.12-14 / Chapter 第三節 --- 中共建國至文革前的宗教政策 --- p.15-17 / Chapter 第四節 --- 文革期間的宗教政策 --- p.18-19 / Chapter 第五節 --- 文革後的宗教政策 --- p.20-25 / Chapter 第三章 --- 合法性危機下的宗教政策 --- p.26-58 / Chapter 第一節 --- 八十年代的宗教政策：合法性的危機與回應 --- p.26-30 / Chapter 第二節 --- 八十年代宗教政策的基礎：「十九號文件」 --- p.31-46 / Chapter 第三節 --- 九十年代的宗教政策：從「宗教法」到「六號文件」 --- p.47-58 / Chapter 第四章 --- 非官方意見中的基督教 --- p.59-86 / Chapter 第一節 --- 引言 --- p.59-61 / Chapter 第二節 --- 基督教作為一種道德取向的選擇 --- p.62-70 / Chapter 第三節 --- 有關基督教與科學的關係 --- p.71-79 / Chapter 第四節 --- 有關基督教對政治的影響 --- p.80-86 / Chapter 第五章 --- 基督教--股社會力量的興起 --- p.87-102 / Chapter 第一節 --- 關於國家與社會關係的討論 --- p.87-91 / Chapter 第二節 --- 一股社會力量的興起 --- p.92-96 / Chapter 第三節 --- 基督教在官方政策下的政治取向 --- p.97-102 / Chapter 第六章 --- 结論 --- p.103-107 / 註釋 / 第一章 --- p.108 / 第二章 --- p.109-112 / 第三章 --- p.113-122 / 第四章 --- p.123-128 / 第五章 --- p.129-134 / 第六章 --- p.135-136 / 書目 / 中、英文單行本及文集 --- p.137-142 / 英文期刊論文 --- p.143-144 / 中文期刊論文及報章 --- p.145-152

This study explores how successful Alvin Plantinga is in his contention that belief in God can be obtained and maintained in a basic way that attains and retains rationality for reflective persons. Plantinga indeed calls into question any confident presumption that theistic belief is epistemically irresponsible. He not only seriously challenges the necessity for propositional evidence to be available for such belief to be justified, he also supplies significant support for the conclusion that it remains legitimate even if it faces a preponderance of contrary considerations. However, Plantinga does not convincingly demonstrate that basic theistic belief merits privileged status by virtue of a character sufficiently analogous to paradigmatic perceptual, memory and ascriptive beliefs. Nor does he adequately argue its independence from the bearing of evidentialist concerns, especially regarding its background moorings. He needs to do more work to show the full warrant for theistic belief.

This thesis comprises a re-evaluation of the feminist theological critique, as given by Valerie Saiving, Judith Plaskow, Daphne Hampson and Susan Nelson Dunfee, of Reinhold Niebuhr's doctrine of sin. The re-evaluation proceeds from a contextual interpretation of Niebuhr's theology in general and a contextual reading of his doctrine of sin in particular. My argument is that Niebuhr is deliberately and consistently a contextual theologian. I locate his contextual methodology in the open-ended approach of Christian realism. / The feminist critique is based on the assumption that Niebuhr universally defines the primary sin as pride. It is argued that pride is in fact a distinctly male characteristic, and, while quite plausibly the primary sin for men, is clearly not the primary sin for women. Niebuhr is guilty, that is, of confusing male reality with human reality in the doctrine. Saiving and Plaskow then develop a definition of women's sin which they correspond with Niebuhr's sin of sensuality. This type of sin, rather than being self-aggrandizing, is characterized by inordinate and destructive self-effacement. Their subsidiary argument is that Niebuhr erroneously treats sensuality, which should be equal but opposite to pride, as a secondary form of sin. / My argument in this thesis is that the critique rests on a mistaken assumption about the universality of Niebuhr's claim. His concerns were with the powerful. The contextual claim that pride is the primary form of sin in those who are empowered is being mistaken for a claim that pride is the primary sin for all people, regardless of gender or context. My subsidiary argument is that the correlation of women's sin with Niebuhr's understanding of sensuality is mistaken. What the feminists refer to as women's sin is in fact not sin at all for Niebuhr but evidence of injustice. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)