bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Remarking the Silence: Prayer after the Death of God
Authors: Sanders Theresa 
Published: August 2016

AbstractThe critique of ontotheology undertaken by Heidegger and expended by Derrida calls into question not only the meaning but the possibility of God-language. In response, thinkers such as Kevin Hart have attempted to map out an area of non-metaphysical theology that draws on the resources of negative theology. Hart's work, The Trepass of the Sign, however, contains three significant ambiguities. First, he defines negative theology as a denial that God can be described using predicates, but in his text negative theology has a quasi-positive (rather than merely negative) role. Second, Hart contends that negative theology precedes positive theology, but in fact it seems to depend upon a prior affirmation of God. Third, Hart offers no rationale for negative theologians' use of the word “God.” Derrida writes that the only way out of negative theology's referential vacuity is prayer: which, he continues, mires that theology in metaphysics. However, if prayer is understood as agape rather than knowledge or supplication, a way through Hart's ambiguities might be found.
Swami Vivekananda and Bede Griffiths on Religious Pluralism: Hindu and Christian Approaches to Truth
Authors: Malkovsky Bradley 
Published: August 2016

AbstractThis article summarizes and compares the theology of religions propounded by two important modern participants in the Hindu-Christian encounter, Swami Vivekananda and Bede Griffiths. It will be seen that both thinkers construct theologies of religion in the form of hierarchies, and that, moreover, these hierarchies reveal a specifically Hindu and Christian understanding of spiritual truth and of divine presence. The article advocates the view that a comparison of these two understandings of truth can be beneficial to both Hindus and Christians by broadening each's understanding of divine presence and of what constitutes human liberation. At the heart of the comparison is the controversy over the meaning and final goal of creation and history.
Taking Consumer Culture Seriously
Authors: Miller Vincent J. 
Published: August 2016

AbstractTheological reflection on the problem of consumerism is often guided by the implicit assumption that beliefs and values are the principal causal factors within human action and culture. As a result, the most common tactic for countering consumerism is to contrast its premises and values with those of the gospel. Such an approach comes naturally to theology, a discipline in which the importance of belief is foundational. This approach is inadequate for addressing the problem of consumerism, however, because it overlooks its most fundamental challenge: the commodification of culture. The most pernicious effects of consumerism are manifest not by changes in the “content” of beliefs but in their underlying form. Religious and ethical beliefs are commodified—reduced to objects of exchange and consumption, to shallow, interchangeable commodities. Drawing from the extensive scholarship on the commodification of culture, this essay explores the effects of consumerism upon religious belief and practice. Guided by this analysis it will attempt to reconceive tactics for countering consumerism's negative effects.
Christology: In Dialogue with Feminism
Authors: Lilburne Geoffrey R. 
Published: August 2016

AbstractRightly understood, christology is feminism's strongest ally. The historical context for this investigation is the emergence of the “second stage” of feminism (Freidan) which challenges feminist theology to move beyond criticism to construction in dialogue and mutuality with men (Part I). A critical review of feminist christological work (Daly, Heyward, Ruether) points towards the liberal view of Jesus and a “therapeutic” view of soteriology. In view of the methodological elusiveness and the inescapable maleness of the historical Jesus and in view of the radical nature of sexism as systemic evil, these biases may indicate weaknesses (Part II). Drawing upon some recent reformulations of the trinity (Jenson, Moltmann, Congar), the paper proposes that a trinitarian christology will directly address the soteriological requirements of feminist theology and will provide a model of God which centers in mutuality, equality and freedom, and thus avoids oppressive, male qualities (Part III). Finally the implications of this christology are drawn to the practicalities of the feminist/masculinist debate.
How to Mainstream Feminist Studies by Raising Questions: The Case of the Introductory Course
Authors: O'Connor June 
Published: August 2016

“Religious Myths and Rituals,” a course I teach once a year, is a lower division undergraduate course designed to introduce students to the academic study of religion. Its purpose is to acquaint students with the wide range of scholarly views regarding the meanings, origins, and functions of religion, the mythic and ritual components of religion, the widespread presence of religious symbols, the metaphoric character of religious language, diverse crosscultural images of transcendence, sacrality, and the like. In order to introduce the theoretical materials or to test or illuminate them, we focus on the specific religious expressions of American Indian and African tribal societies. Although examples from other religions are cited in the course of class lectures, these two tribal cultural settings serve as our primary reference points for understanding the phenomenon of religion.On the course syllabus and early in the quarter, I articulate the following questions as a way of describing the task of the course: What is religion? What are the origins and functions of religion? What can we learn about myths and mythologies and the functions they have in human experience? Why do rituals arise in human behavior? (How do they take shape and what are they for?) Do any of the myths and rituals of traditional, tribal religions have any bearing on contemporary American life? How might we discern the meaning of religious symbols? What are some of the predominant myths and rituals that both reflect and affect our own lives as individuals or as a people (as Christians, Jews, Buddhists, atheists—as students, Americans, Westerners, as women or men)?
Implications of Rahner's Anthropology for Fundamental Moral Theology
Authors: Modras Ronald 
Published: August 2016

AbstractKarl Rahner's primary contribution to moral theology lies in his development of an anthropology able to serve as a foundation for a rehabilitated concept of natural law. Human persons in Rahner's theology are characterized by certain existentials with logical consequences for ethics. From human transcendence and freedom follows the concept of a fundamental option for or against God. From human materiality, historicity, guilt, and individuality follow the methodological necessity of distinguishing between principles and prescriptions and the unavoidable need to take risks. In contrast to unchanging metaphysical human nature, the historicity of concrete human nature and therefore of natural law requires that all material norms be recognized as conditioned by history and culture and hence limited, not universal or absolute.
The Pathos and Promise of Christian Ethics: A Study of the Abortion Debate
Authors: Werpehowski William 
Published: August 2016

AbstractThe promise of Christian ethics is its contribution to the forging of covenants of mutual assistance among human creatures in the variety of human activities. Such covenants bear witness to the work of the covenanting God. The pathos of Christian ethics, however, concerns the difficulty of making the language and reality of covenant intelligible in a culture bound to an ideal of autonomy. Christian ethical reflection concerning abortion and the value of unborn human life must attend to both features if it is to remain fully concrete in its faithfulness.
Whitehead's Use of Imagination in His Conception of God
Authors: Kopas Jane 
Published: August 2016

AbstractFor most readers the conceptual elements of Whitehead's doctrine of God stand out more than the imaginative elements. If we take a more careful look at his understanding of the role of imagination in various realms and at his choice of particular images to illustrate his view of God, however, we can appreciate better the primary concerns that underlie his reformulation. We also find a consistency of purpose in relating images to his philosophical system and a richness that otherwise goes unnoticed. The shortcomings in his use of imagination result from a neglect of certain aspects of experience.
Theology for the Head, Heart, Hands and Feet: An Approach to the First Course
Authors: Masson Robert 
Published: August 2016

AbstractThis essay examines an approach to the first course which aims to be flexible enough to allow for a diversity of emphases reflecting the strengths and interests of specific teachers, but specific enough to justify its status as a core requirement and as the first course in theology. The correlation between theology and anthropology provides the key for maintaining this balance. The syllabus which illustrates this coalesces around several sets of interrelated images, questions, and themes which seek to formulate a theology for the head, heart, hands and feet.
In Quest of the King: Image, Narrative, and Unitive Spirituality in a Twelfth-Century Sufi Classic
Authors: Lane Belden C. 
Published: August 2016

AbstractThe marriage of storytelling and spiritual formation is as old as the religious spirit of humankind. Farid Ud-Din Attar, a twelfth-century Persian poet and mystic, offers an imaginative example of this union in his Conference of the Birds, a tale describing the pilgrimage of all feathered creatures to their king. It is a spiritual journey that moves in five stages from a sense of longing for the inaccessible splendor of the royal court, through hope, boldness, and despair, to a final, shocking encounter with a majesty elusive as it is grand. The use of metaphor in describing passages of the spiritual life is demonstrated here at its best, as Attar explores the metaphors of impassioned love, the mirrored majesty of the king, and God as a treasure hidden in the world. His work suggests many parallels to the language of Christian and Jewish spirituality and his stories richly deserve retelling.
The Challenge of Feminist Theology
Authors: Keightley Georgia Masters 
Published: August 2016

AbstractThe feminist critique of theology is a radical and extensive one. This article examines contemporary feminist scholarship as it relates to three strategic issues in theological anthropology: (1) traditional interpretations of woman's nature; (2) the long-standing tendency to justify woman's social inferiority on the grounds of her “natural” inferiority; and (3) the complete oversight of the area of woman's experience. It will then be shown that this particular critique comes to a point of convergence in theological method, thus creating fundamental questions about accepted principles now directing the theologian's work.
Women's Issues: An Agenda for the Church?
Authors: Donovan Mary Ann 
Published: August 2016

AbstractWhat does church membership mean for women? Texts like Galatians 3:27-28 imply equality; experience contradicts this. Underlying the controversy are assumptions about women's nature as women. Baptismal practice suggests women's equality but experience denies it. Part I examines experience: in lay ministry, in marriage, and as economically marginalized. Turning from experience to theoretical analysis, there are two answers to the question of women's nature: women are inferior, or women are equal. Part II studies the two models at work in the dialogue held between representatives of the Women's Ordination Conference and the U.S. National Conference of Catholic Bishops as participants addressed the question: “What is woman?” Finally the two models are operative in the testimony given in the national hearings for the bishops' pastoral on women. Part III analyzes the reports of the national hearings, uncovering the correlation between model, methodology, and whether a group's feminism leads it to social or issue critique.
“Overcoming the Divisiveness of Babel”: The Languages of Catholicity
Authors: Weaver Mary Jo 
Published: August 2016

AbstractContemporary issues in the American Catholic Church can sound like a modern-day confusion of tongues making communication impossible. Furthermore, the traditional marks of the Church have supported the notion that dissent and controversy are to be discouraged. This article examines catholicity and shows that its definitions and uses in history have tied it to uniformity when its essential characteristic may well be the celebration of pluralism. Catholicity is placed in the context of modern mission theory in such a way that current challenges can be interpreted as so many new languages which require patient understanding.
The Principle of Innocents' Immunity
Authors: Tilley Terrence W. 
Published: August 2016

AbstractThis essay claims that some recent discussions of moral positions based on a principle of innocents' immunity, “The direct killing of an innocent person is never morally justifiable,” ignore two different meanings of “innocence”: “innocence” as applied to agents and “innocence” as applied to those upon whom the agents act (“patients”). It shows how neglecting this distinction distorts some discussions about abortion and justifiable war. Some recent philosophical analyses are used and developed (1) to argue that “patient innocence” is not dependent on “agent innocence,” but on how the role of “;patients” relates those “patients” to prospective or actual agents, and (2) to show the theoretical importance of distinguishing “excuses” from “justifications” of actions. This approach provides an alternative to traditionalist and revisionist accounts by suggesting how Catholicism's “inconsistent ethic” might be developed into a more coherent, multifaceted vision.
Status Inconsistency and the Politics of Worship
Authors: Downey Michael 
Published: August 2016

AbstractAfter an explanation of salient points of Wayne Meeks's construction of a social history of Pauline Christianity, this essay explores his concept of ritual efficacy with attention to what it might lend to a fuller understanding of ritual/sacramental efficacy in the contemporary churches. Because the communities of l'Arche of Jean Vanier are constituted by a great diversity of persons who are vastly unequal, at least in terms of intelligence, they provide a contemporary reference for investigating Meeks's claim that the function of Christian ritual is to socialize persons of various strata into a communitas in Christ. No definitive resting point is reached, the conclusion being that in light of various social factors facing the churches, Christian ritual needs to socialize persons into communitas more effectively than it usually manages to do. Suggestions for doing so are offered.
20. The Character of

Xuci

as Seen in the Oracle Inscriptions
Authors: Michiharu Itō 
Published: August 2016

ABSTRACTBased on a careful analysis of the words hui and wei in the oracle inscriptions, the author comes to the conclusion that they are most naturally explained as grammatic particles (xuci). Hui should be interpreted as highlighting that which is the main interest of the inquiry. Wei is very similar in meaning and grammatic function, but not in nuance of connotation; while hui is “closely connected with the manner of affirmation” and occurs mostly in divinations of a positive nature, wei tends to occur in a context of negation and inauspiciousness.The distribution of the two particles through the inscription record, however, is uneven: hui scarcely occurs in the oracle bones of Tung Tso-pin's Period II, while wei is virtually absent in Periods III and IV. Yet continuous developments of meanings can be traced throughout the epigraphic record -- including the oracle bones from Anyang and Zhou yuan as well as the bronze inscriptions. Wei by Period V has developed into a marker of words of time reference. Shang xuci are more restricted than later ones both in their range of occurrence and in their implied meanings.
24. Translation of Some Oracle Inscriptions Unearthed at the Plain of Zhou with a Consideration of Their Dating and Origin
Authors: Tsung-Tung Chang 
Published: August 2016

ABSTRACTOn the basis of his annotated translation of two of the oracle bones (H11:1 and H11:84) excavated at Zhou yuan in 1977, the author contends that they are not records of Zhou but of Shang, which were brought into the heartland of the Zhou from Anyang, and not by the Zhou after their conquest of Shang, but somewhat earlier by the Shang themselves. The find is linked to Di Xin's campaign against Zhou and Wen Wang's subsequent captivity, both of which are recorded in early historical sources. A radiocarbon date of 1095 ± 90 B.C. is used to “date” the burning of the Zhou palace to the Shang attack, which is traditionally said to have taken place in the 23rd year of Di Xin's reign.
25. A New Approach to the Study of the Clan-Sign Inscriptions of Shang
Authors: Barnard Noel 
Published: August 2016

ABSTRACTRepresenting work still in progress, this paper attempts to demonstrate the value of making a comparative study of inscribed artifacts recovered from individual burials in the same cemetery area; published reports of such sites have, it is suggested, not realized the full potential promised by the evidence. Detailed study of the clan insignia and their graphic elements found in burials at Yin-hsü West, Hsi-pei-kang, Lo-shan-hsien, and Hsiao-t'un (M5), permits speculation about the writing of the archaic graphs, the meaning of abbreviated phrases, and inter-clan associations, as well as about the existence of “calligraphic groups” and possible links between artisan/scribes, vessel types, and foundries. The paper, which is amply illustrated with insignia rubbings, ends with a plea for reasonable scholarly access to the original bronzes.
26. A New View of King Wu Ding
Authors: Tsung-Tung Chang 
Published: August 2016

ABSTRACTThis paper tries to attribute some peculiarities of the oracle inscriptions of Period I to the personality of King Wu Ding himself and comes to the conclusion that Wu Ding must have suffered from a persecution complex. It was precisely his occasional dumbness and permanent fears of the dead and of evil spirits that motivated him to consult bone and shell oracles frequently and, moreover, to have divination questions and postscripts about the real events written. From this point of view early Chinese writing owed much of its development to the personal suffering of King Wu Ding.
28. Some Problems Concerning the So-Called Survivors of the Yin Dynasty
Authors: Cheng-Sheng Tu 
Published: August 2016

ABSTRACTThe basic error in Hu Shi's “An Exposition on Confucians” lay in discussing the basic nature of the Confucian school on the basis of the “tragic fate and miserable status of the survivors of the Shang”; for half a century this mistaken premise has been accepted by most historians as proven. On the basis of an analysis of pre-Qin literary sources, this paper first proves that there was no “tragedy of the defeated state”; on the contrary, the Yin survivors continued to possess considerable political power and quite high social status. Second, on the basis of newly un earthed Shang and Zhou inscriptions, the fate and status of the Shang survivors is set forth from three sides: (1) The history of the Wei Shi clan and Lu Sheng clan of the Guanzhong region, for which genealogies of seven-eight or six-seven generations exist, is reconstructed on the basis of, for the former, the Ding bronze horde newly unearthed from Fufeng Zhuangbai, and, for the latter, the inscriptions on already known as well as recently unearthed bronze vessels from the same area. Both clans were survivors from the Shang and close relatives of the Shang king; they possessed cities, subjects, and official positions, as well as holding offices in charge of troops. (2) The same conclusion may be reached in individual cases in various other kingdoms, such as for Mo Situ Sung of the state of Wei , and Dong Hefu of the state of Yan . As for the Ling Shi , Chen Chen and Deng of Cheng Zhou , Cheng Zhou is the ancient home of the Shang survivors, yet they seem not to have been the object of any special restriction or suppression. This section is based solely on inscriptions; the conclusions reached, however, are completely in agreement with those derived from literary evidence in the previous section. Finally an attempt is made to explain why the survivors of the Shang had land, subjects, offices, and power. We believe that it was due to a political and social structure with the clan as the primary unit. A complete explication of this question awaits a detailed study of oracle-bone and archaeological source material.
30. Agricultural Geography in Oracle Inscriptions of the Yin Dynasty
Authors: Bor-Sheng Jung 
Published: August 2016

ABSTRACTThis paper provides an outline of the agricultural geography of the Yin (Shang) Dynasty by means of the study of agricultural geographical names in the oracle inscriptions. The agricultural districts of Yin (Shang) were either within the suburbs of the capital, or within the territories that could be directly controlled by Yin, or within the friendly states. Such a study may increase our understanding of the politics and lives of the Yin people.With this aim in view, I distinguish the agricultural from other oracle inscriptions, dividing them into four classes: (1) used for divining agriculture; (2) used for divining the condition of the harvest; (3) used for divining agricultural damage; and (4) used for divining rituals about agriculture. I have discovered that the agricultural names in (1) and (2) are more frequent than those in (3) and (4).
The Channels: A Preliminary Examination of a Lacquered Figurine from the Western Han Period
Authors: Zhiguo He , Lo Vivienne 
Published: August 2016

Excavations of a Western Han tomb at Shuangbaoshan in the vicinity of Mianyang, Sichuan, in 1993 have uncovered a black lacquered wooden carving of the human body. Naked, hairless, and roughly anatomical in character, the figurine is understood to be the earliest extant three-dimensional medical model in Chinese culture.Ten red lines are drawn on the figurine. This article undertakes a preliminary examination of the figurine and offers an interpretation of the lines from two different perspectives. Firstly, the authors compare and contrast the lines with the eleven anatomical pathways of themai“channels” as described in the medical manuscripts excavated at Mawangdui and Zhangjiashan. From this point of view the figurine adds to the sources that bear upon the early development of theories of pathological physiology which were first formulated in Han times and eventually became central to classical acumoxa theory. Secondly, the lines on the figurine are considered in their relationship toyangsheng“nurturing life” practices popular in elite society of this period. Certain features of the figurine that set it apart from ideas of pathological physiology seem better clarified by reference to contemporary texts, also excavated from the Mawangdui and Zhangjiashan tombs, that treat ofyangshengpractices such as massage, therapeutic gymnastics, and breath cultivation.