scholarly journals The Prosperity Gospel: A Distortion of the Fundamental Evangelical Tenets

2020 ◽  
Vol 20 ◽  
Author(s):  
Piotr Kopiec

Prosperity Gospel is a problematic issue for the Evangelical and Pentecostal Christianity, and it is so in at least two perspectives. First, it influences the teaching of many preachers who employ this approach to capture new believers on the one hand, and it is sharply criticised by many prominent Evangelical theologians who regard it as a serious heresy, a deception of many Christians, on the other. Second, it is a matter of profound theological question raised from the very core of Christian faith and asking how to find a delicate balance between Jesus' calling to bear the cross and his blessing from the Sermon on the Mount. The most frequent framework is the one that considers the prosperity gospel as the distortion of the substantial Evangelical tenets, and that stems from the various ideological and sociological processes in the 19th United States. The article offers a brief outline of the prosperity message and answers the following research questions: What is the prosperity gospel? What are the roots of it? What are the most critical theological points of the prosperity teaching? What charges are raised by the critics from the Evangelical background? The literary analysis of Evangelical literature is the primary method used to solve the problem.

Daímon ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 171-184
Author(s):  
Julián Barenstein

En este trabajo nos proponemos poner de manifiesto un aspecto poco estudiado del Contra los griegos de Taciano (circa 170); nos referimos a la introducción del discurso historiográfico en la apologética cristiana. En cumplimiento de nuestro objetivo daremos cuenta, por una parte, del carácter idiosincrático de la producción de este apologista en el contexto de la defensa de la fe cristiana en el s. II y analizaremos, por otra, lo que de acuerdo con nuestra línea de investigación es lo más relevante de su controvertido modus cogitandi: el rechazo de la Filosofía como via regia de acceso al Cristianismo para las gentes de alta cultura y la introducción del discurso historiográfico como garantía de veracidad. In this paper we propose to highlight a little studied aspect of the Discourse Against the Greeks of Taciano (circa 170); we refer to the introduction of historiographical discourse in Christian apologetics. In fulfillment of our objective we will give account, on the one hand, of the idiosyncratic character of the production of this apologist in the context of the defense of the Christian faith in the s. II and we will analyze, on the other hand, what according to our line of research is the most relevant of his controversial modus cogitandi: the rejection of Philosophy as a way of access to Christianity for people of high culture and the introduction of the historiographical discourse as a guarantee of truthfulness.


1998 ◽  
Vol 32 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
W. H. Velema

In this article the author investigates the relation between faith/revelation on the one hand and ethics on the other; the relation between the "particular” and the “general”. It is argued that Rendtorff and Pannen­berg are basically in agreement that ethics does not depend on Christian faith and divine revelation, although there is a connection between the two. On the other hand, the author of this article (in agreement with Douma) relates faith/revelation and ethics very closely: ethics is directed by a life and world view - a stance illustrated by a discussion on abortion and euthanasia. The issue of consensus on moral issues between Christians and non-Christians should be resolved from the perspective of the general goodness of God and his law, given to all men.


1978 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 275-290
Author(s):  
N. H. G. Robinson

In his book on Karl Barth Professor T. F. Torrance spoke at one point of ‘the great watershed of modern theology’. ‘There are,’ he wrote,1‘two basic issues here. On the one hand, it is the very substance of the Christian faith that is at stake, and on the other hand, it is the fundamental nature of scientific method, in its critical and methodological renunciation of prior understanding, that is at stake. This is the great watershed of modern theology: either we take the one way or the other – there is no third alter native… one must go either in the direction taken by Barth or in the direction taken by Bultmann.’


2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 15-24
Author(s):  
Kamel Khaldi

Abstract Research students usually encounter great difficulties in setting up a viable research project mainly because, on the one hand they lack familiarity with the philosophical underpinnings of major paradigms used in educational research: quantitative, qualitative or mixed, and on the other hand , they do not associate the corresponding research types with these paradigms : experimental, non experimental for the former, and interactive or non interactive for the second and the for the latter whether it is explanatory or exploratory, in addition to the importance of triangulation in any research study . These paradigms determine not only the formulation of the problem chosen for research and the associated research questions or hypothesis but also and more importantly, the sampling procedure as well as the selection of the appropriate research tools and the way the collected data is analysed and discussed. This survey of the major paradigms in educational research and their implications for the design of any research study will hopefully provide them with the necessary guidance to approach their research project with more confidence et more efficiency.


2017 ◽  
Vol 23 (4) ◽  
pp. 387-408 ◽  
Author(s):  
André Freire ◽  
Luís Cabrita ◽  
Mariana Carmo Duarte ◽  
Hugo Ferrinho Lopes

Using data from the European Election Study 2014, this article focuses on workers’ EU political alignments during the Great Recession. It deals with two research questions. First, how does the attitude of (manual) workers towards the EU compare to that of the middle and upper classes in the aftermath of the Great Recession? Second, when it comes to workers’ support for the EU, are there systematic differences between countries affected by the crisis? The article finds that, on the one hand, in terms of patterns of workers’ EU political alignments, there are no systematic differences between countries affected to varying degrees by the Great Recession. On the other hand, workers still feel fundamentally detached from the EU, especially when it comes to the manual workers. However, high levels of generalised detachment from the EU are not clearly translated into preferences for Eurosceptic parties, since there are high levels of vote fragmentation.


Oles Ulianenko, one of the most talented and controversial Ukrainian writers of these days, has been dead for ten years. His literary works did not receive any appropriate professional evaluation though because literary scholars and critics applied either the wrong or unproductive research methodology due to some objective and subjective reasons. The aim of the article is to suggest an alternative, in comparison to traditional variants, theoretical literary analysis which is grounded on the principles of the corporal-mimetic method to interpret fiction done on the extremely controversial novel “The Cross on Saturn” by O. Ulianenko. Having analyzed the idea and artistic content of the novel “The Cross on Saturn”, the conclusion is made that, first, the book characters seem to function as simulacra of their shallowness because they lack the depth of inner world. But despite this fact, despite parody, superficial dialogues and surrogate actions, the main characters of the novel and the peripeteia, they find themselves in, do not lose aesthetic appeal because these characters do not need deep inner world since their function is not determined by what these trivial characters reflect in the text mirror but by what the text mirror reflects in them. Second, the shallowness is filled with the content conditioned by the incest precedent which provides the basis of Oles Ulianenko’s novel to the degree to what the writer creates the tragedy in its exact, namely ancient Geek, meaning of the notion according to which tragedy is, on the one hand, a story determined by an utterly artificial form and content and, on the other hand, it is a story which does not simply end by death, it is a story which cannot end by anything else but death. It seems as if nothing but tragedy could make it impossible for a man to have their animal essence to supersede their human part.


Author(s):  
Armine Garibyan

The relationship between sentence processing and cognitive demand has received a lot of attention in the past decades. In valency theory, some elements of the sentence are determined by the verbs either in terms of their form or by their presence (Herbst & Schüller 2008). It has to be said that little attention has been paid to the processing of such fundamental categories in the theory of syntax. On the one hand, this is remarkable since given the amount of research, we still do not know whether this distinction is psychologically real, or whether it only serves a lexicographic and pedagogical purpose. On the other hand, there is a consensus among linguists about the problematic character of the distinction itself even on a more theoretical level (Dowty 2000; Herbst & Schüller 2008). Therefore, this study attempts to explore whether complements and adjuncts are associated with different kinds of processing. To answer the research questions, an experiment consisting in a mouse-controlled reading task has been designed. To the best of our knowledge, this is a new method in psycholinguistic research. The paper presents the results of a pilot study.


2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 22-31
Author(s):  
Leo Egghe ◽  
Yves Fassin ◽  
Ronald Rousseau

Abstract Purpose To show for which publication-citation arrays h-type indices are equal and to reconsider rational h-type indices. Results for these research questions fill some gaps in existing basic knowledge about h-type indices. Design/methodology/approach The results and introduction of new indicators are based on well-known definitions. Findings The research purpose has been reached: answers to the first questions are obtained and new indicators are defined. Research limitations h-type indices do not meet the Bouyssou-Marchant independence requirement. Practical implications On the one hand, more insight has been obtained for well-known indices such as the h- and the g-index and on the other hand, simple extensions of existing indicators have been added to the bibliometric toolbox. Relative rational h-type indices are more useful for individuals than the existing absolute ones. Originality/value Answers to basic questions such as “when are the values of two h-type indices equal” are provided. A new rational h-index is introduced.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ziyi Wu

There exists a seemingly contradictory treatment towards foreign news and social media in China. On the one hand, foreign news articles and social media are severely censored. On the other, the Communist Party frequently quotes these censored sources when addressing the public. These behaviors are puzzling. It is natural for authoritarian regimes to hide repressive behaviors, rather than to expose them. The use of foreign news contents is also not necessary for advancing party ideologies because the party’s own words work just as well. To address the puzzle, I ask the following research questions: Why does the party media in China actively quote censored sources when reporting contested foreign affairs? I argue that the party media quote from foreign sources to demonstrate professionalism and to appear credible, while government censorship has effectively framed foreign news sources as generally biased and thus prevents people from trusting them in the first place.


Vox Patrum ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 68 ◽  
pp. 73-84
Author(s):  
Maria Laura Di Paolo ◽  
Vito Limone

The aim of this study is to outline the use of the terms airesis and airetikos according the two main representatives of the Alexandrine School, Clement and Origen. In the Stromateis the word airesis has many meanings and, first of all, it is related to “the act of choice”, then, it is also a synonym for a “school” or a “sect”, hence it signifies Christian “heresy”. The connection between human freedom and schools, mainly philosophical ones, but also the schools of medicine, points out that Clement conceives “heresy” as an error, an incorrect way of thinking due to a wrong, even malicious choice, often of an intellectual nature; it sug­gests conscious deformation of a message. Hence, Clement contrasts the Gnostic airetikos and the “true Gnostic”, the man of faith who by studying the biblical texts and the Greek disciplines is enlightened by Christ (Stromata VII 92, 7). About the Origen’s usage of the term a†resij in his Contra Celsum it is worth to note that, firstly, the word a†resij always indicates the philosophical schools of Late Antiquity (cf. Contra Celsum 4, 45; 8, 53); secondly, that Origen aims at persuading his enemy, Celsus, that Christian religion is neither a refusal of philo­sophical schools nor something very different from them, but it may be regarded as an a†resij too and, in order to argue this, he shows that not only Christian reli­gion and philosophical schools share some moral and cosmological topics (Contra Celsum 3, 66; 3, 80), but also that both Christians and philosophers are moved by the some ¥logoj for£ (Contra Celsum 1, 10). Therefore, in Origen’s Contra Celsum the a†resij means not only the philosophical schools of the II and III centuries, but also the Christian religion as long as it is accepted by the Heathens. In conclusion, this study shows, once again, that, as the two representatives of Alexandria were in dialogue with the brilliant exponents of the contemporary philosophy, they were called to explain the importance of faith on the intellectual side, using some terms and conceptions of the main schools, on the one side, and by distinguishing Christian faith from them, on the other.


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