scholarly journals Teaching Dante in the History of Christian Theology

Religions ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (6) ◽  
pp. 372
Author(s):  
Bryan J. Whitfield
Keyword(s):  
General Education ◽  
Core Curriculum ◽  
Divine Comedy ◽  
Christian Theology ◽  
Medieval Theology ◽  
Medieval Period ◽  
Great Books ◽  
History Of ◽  
Time Reading ◽  
Historical Theology

Outside of core curriculum programs or Great Books classes, few undergraduates who are not literature majors read and discuss Dante’s Divine Comedy. This paper describes the redesign of a course in the history of Christian theology as a model for integrating the study of Dante into additional contexts within general education. Reading Dante not only as poet but also as theologian can enhance students’ learning and their engagement with medieval theology. A focused reading of Paradiso provides a novel and exciting way for a survey course in historical theology to balance general education’s needs for both breadth and depth. At the same time, reading Dante also helps students to experience the significant intersections of culture and theology in the medieval period.

The Eschatology of Tertullian

1952 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 108-122 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jaroslav Pelikan
Keyword(s):  
New Testament ◽  
Christian Theology ◽  
Systematic Theology ◽  
Past Generation ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Subject ◽  
History Of Theology ◽  
Historical Theology ◽  
The Trinity

One of the most important results of the New Testament study that has gone on during the past generation is its realization that the theology of the New Testament is unintelligible outside the context of its eschatological message. The precise meaning of that message is still the subject of much investigation and controversy, but its importance has become a matter of general agreement among New Testament students. Much less general is the realization of the implications of this insight for other areas of theological concern. Rudolf Bultmann's recent essay on mythology and the New Testament has served to raise again the question of the relevance of New Testament eschatology for systematic theology. That question has far-reaching implications for the study of the history of theology as well, implications with which historical theology has not yet come to terms. The relation between primitive Christian eschatology and the development of ancient Christian theology is a problem deserving of more study than the standard interpretations of the history of dogma have given it, for it can help iiluminate the origins of such dogmas as the Trinity and ancient Christology. Among the historians of dogma, only Martin Werner has taken up the problem in great detail, and his discussion of it has not yet issued in any new historico-theological synthesis.

The Extent of Christ’s Work from the Early Church to Gottschalk

2021 ◽  
pp. 23-47
Author(s):  
Michael J. Lynch
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Final Section ◽  
Early Modern Period ◽  
Early Church ◽  
Medieval Theology ◽  
Medieval Period ◽  
Modern Period ◽  
History Of

This chapter begins by observing the important precedent that patristic and medieval theology played in the development of Protestant theology, especially in Britain during the early modern period. It observes that early modern debates regarding the extent of Christ’s atoning work were, in many ways, grounded on the catholicity of one’s position. More important, this chapter surveys John Davenant’s own understanding of the history of the doctrine as it was exposited and debated in the patristic and medieval period. The final section of the chapter focuses on the so-called Lombardian formula and the scholastic consensus on the extent of Christ’s death.

The Self-Emptying Subject

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alex Dubilet
Keyword(s):  
Modern Philosophy ◽  
Continental Philosophy ◽  
The Self ◽  
Christian Theology ◽  
Medieval Theology ◽  
Religion And Theology ◽  
Divine Transcendence ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Relationship

Against the two dominant ethical paradigms of continental philosophy—Levinas’s ethics of the Other and Foucault’s ethics of self-cultivation—The Self-Emptying Subject: Kenosis and Immanence, Medieval to Modern theorizes an ethics of self-emptying, or kenosis, that reveals the immanence of an impersonal and dispossessed life “without a why.” Rather than aligning immanence with the enclosures of the subject, The Self-Emptying Subject engages the history of Christian mystical theology, modern philosophy, and contemporary theories of the subject to rethink immanence as what precedes and exceeds the very difference between the (human) self and the (divine) other, between the subject and transcendence. By arguing that transcendence operates and subjects life in secular no less than in religious domains, this book challenges the dominant distribution of concepts in contemporary theoretical discourse, which insists on associating transcendence exclusively with religion and theology and immanence exclusively with modern secularity and philosophy. This book argues that it is important to resist framing the relationship between medieval theology and modern philosophy as a transition from the affirmation of divine transcendence to the establishment of autonomous subjects. Through an engagement with Meister Eckhart, G.W.F. Hegel, and Georges Bataille, it uncovers a medieval theological discourse that rejects the primacy of pious subjects and the transcendence of God (Eckhart); retrieves a modern philosophical discourse that critiques the creation of self-standing subjects through a speculative re-writing of the concepts of Christian theology (Hegel); and explores a discursive site that demonstrates the subjecting effects of transcendence across theological and philosophical archives (Bataille).

Classical Conceptions of Visuality and Representation in John of Damascus' Defense of Holy Images1

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 284-308
Author(s):  
James A. Francis
Keyword(s):  
Violent Conflict ◽  
Christian Theology ◽  
Late Antique ◽  
Second Sophistic ◽  
Word And Image ◽  
John Of Damascus ◽  
History Of ◽  
Classical Culture ◽  
Common Era ◽  
Iconoclastic Controversy

The Defense of Holy Images by John of Damascus stands as the archetypal exposition of the Christian theology of images. Written at the outbreak of the Iconoclastic Controversy, it has been mostly valued for its theological content and given scholarly short shrift as a narrowly focused polemic. The work is more than that. It presents a complex and profound explication of the nature of images and the phenomenon of representation, and is an important part of the “history of looking”in western culture. A long chain of visual conceptions connects classical Greek and Roman writers, such as Homer and Quintilian, to John: the living image, the interrelation of word and image, and image and memory, themes elaborated particularly in the Second Sophistic period of the early Common Era. For John to deploy this heritage so skillfully to the thorny problem of the place of images in Christianity, at the outbreak of a violent conflict that lasted a further 100 years after his writing, manifests an intellect and creativity that has not been sufficiently appreciated. The Defense of Holy Images, understood in this context, is another innovative synthesis of Christianity and classical culture produced by late antique Christian writers.

History of the Study of Apocrypha in Early Medieval England

2020 ◽  
Vol 48 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 13-26
Author(s):  
Brandon W. Hawk
Keyword(s):  
Old Testament ◽  
Medieval England ◽  
Medieval Period ◽  
Early Medieval ◽  
Future Directions ◽  
Early Judaism ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Early English

Literature written in England between about 500 and 1100 CE attests to a wide range of traditions, although it is clear that Christian sources were the most influential. Biblical apocrypha feature prominently across this corpus of literature, as early English authors clearly relied on a range of extra-biblical texts and traditions related to works under the umbrella of what have been called “Old Testament Pseudepigrapha” and “New Testament/Christian Apocrypha." While scholars of pseudepigrapha and apocrypha have long trained their eyes upon literature from the first few centuries of early Judaism and early Christianity, the medieval period has much to offer. This article presents a survey of significant developments and key threads in the history of scholarship on apocrypha in early medieval England. My purpose is not to offer a comprehensive bibliography, but to highlight major studies that have focused on the transmission of specific apocrypha, contributed to knowledge about medieval uses of apocrypha, and shaped the field from the nineteenth century up to the present. Bringing together major publications on the subject presents a striking picture of the state of the field as well as future directions.

Mathematics—Application and Applicability

2009 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Steiner
Keyword(s):  
Western Philosophy ◽  
Major Premise ◽  
Great Books ◽  
Applicability Of Mathematics ◽  
History Of ◽  
Theory Of Forms

To an unappreciated degree, the history of Western philosophy is the history of attempts to understand why mathematics is applicable to Nature, despite apparently good reasons to believe that it should not be. A cursory look at the great books of philosophy bears this out. Plato's Republic invokes the theory of “participation” to explain why, for instance, geometry is applicable to ballistics and the practice of war, despite the Theory of Forms, which places mathematical entities in a different (higher) realm of being than that of empirical Nature. This argument is part of Plato's general claim that theoretical learning, in the end, is more useful than “practical” pursuits. John Stuart Mill's account of the applicability of mathematics to nature is unique: it is the only one of the major Western philosophies which denies the major premise upon which all other accounts are based. Mill simply asserts that mathematics itself is empirical, so there is no problem to begin with.

A Study in the History of Clare, Suffolk; with Special Reference to its Development as a Borough (Alexander Prize Essay, 1928)

1928 ◽  
Vol 11 ◽  
pp. 83-115
Author(s):  
Gladys A. Thornton
Keyword(s):  
Special Reference ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
Subsequent Development ◽  
Considerable Importance ◽  
Medieval Period ◽  
South West ◽  
Full Development ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Town ◽  
Prize Essay

Clare is situated in the south-west corner of Suffolk, in the valley of the Stour River. At the present day it is only a village, for its market is no longer held; yet its history shows that in earlier times it was of considerable importance, especially during the medieval period, when it was a favourite residence of the Clare lords. The town then had a busy market and a flourishing cloth-making industry; and at one time it seemed possible that Clare might attain full development as a borough, possessing as it did some burghal characteristics. In the following pages it is proposed to study in detail the history of Clare as a seignorial borough during the Middle Ages, and its subsequent development.

scholarly journals On processes of coloniality and decoloniality of knowledge: notions for analysing the international history of mathematics teaching

ZDM ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gert Schubring
Keyword(s):  
General Education ◽  
Mathematics Teaching ◽  
History Of Mathematics ◽  
Educational Systems ◽  
Political Processes ◽  
Local Structures ◽  
Novel Approach ◽  
History Of ◽  
Global And Local ◽  
First Time

AbstractThe aspiration of this paper is to develop a novel approach towards investigating the socio-political history of mathematics teaching in educational systems. Traditionally, historical studies are confined to just one country, the author’s country. Broader approaches address international developments by confronting and comparing global and local aspects—revealing general patterns and more specific ‘local’ structures and characteristics. Yet, already in antiquity and medieval times, the specific characteristic of mathematics teaching, namely to operate at the crossroads of general education and vocational training, proved to be intimately tied to the functioning of the particular political system. In pre-modern times, however, a truly international pattern emerged for the first time: European powers conquered, occupied and colonised overseas regions. Given that educational systems were emerging at the same time within these states, they often transmitted elements of these structures to their colonies. This phenomenon included mathematics, and the history of its teaching is analysed here as a part of coloniality. It is shown that this was not a uniform process, and the differences between the various colonial powers are discussed. The involvement of mathematics in the process of decolonisation is addressed, as well as its role in the tension between continued coloniality and movements of decoloniality. Finally, the general framework provided for studying socio-political processes connected with establishing mathematics teaching within public educational systems is applied, in order to analyse recent coloniality practices effected by international achievement studies.

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