Philosophy Of Religion

Abstract
This essay reframes the question “Why is there something rather than nothing?” as “Why is there a structured, intelligible something rather than nothing?” It argues that explanations invoking physical laws, geometry, or randomness presuppose constraints whose ultimate grounding remains unexplained. To address this problem, it proposes a modified form of analytic idealism in which Mind-at-large is self-aware and capable of intention and purpose. The observable universe is understood as a dependent expression of this foundational Mind, with purpose providing a reason for the selection and persistence of its organizing constraints. The central conjecture is that all manifested order must ultimately originate in constraints imposed by purpose. This necessity claim is explicitly acknowledged as an unproven philosophical commitment rather than a deductive result. To address explanatory regress, the account distinguishes the Mind’s intrinsic intelligibility from the derivative organization of its expressions: the foundation does not first create its own capacity to intend, but grounds the conditions through which its purposes are realized. The argument proceeds by inference to the best available explanation, seeking to connect consciousness, mathematical intelligibility, and physical order within a unified metaphysical account. It does not invoke Mind merely where scientific explanations fail; it proposes Mind as the ground of the law-governed framework that successful science describes. Accordingly, the “God of the gaps” label is neither a competing explanation nor, without further argument, a refutation. The essay maintains that unspecified alternatives cannot receive explanatory credit merely for remaining possible, while recognizing that the absence of a developed rival does not establish truth. Purposive Mind is therefore advanced as the strongest explanation developed in the inquiry, without claiming to derive particular physical laws or demonstrate the impossibility of every nonmental foundation.

Ingiltere'de yaşayan tarih yazarı ve araştırmacı. G eçm işi algı lama şeklimize karşı çıkan bir düzineden fazla kitap yazmıştır. Bunların arasında H an ok' un Kitabı' ndaki G özcüler ile Sümer metinlerindeki Anunnakilerin son buzul çağının sonlarında Yakındoğu'da N eolitik devrimi harekete geçiren Şamanist bir seçkin sınıfın anısı olduğunu öne sürdüğü Meleklerin Küllerin den (1996, Avesta); Platon' un Atlantis' inin Karayipler'deki Küba adası ve Bahama takımadaları olduğunu belirlediği Gateıvay to Atlantis [2000, Atlantis'e Gırı';];Tutankhamun' un ünlü mezarının keşfinin ardındaki hakikati açıkladığı Tutankhamun: Çıkış Komp losu (eşyazar Chris O gilvie Herald ile birlikte, 2002, Avesta); ve Kuğu takımyıldızına Paleolitik çağdan beri ilk yaradılışın mekânı ve gökyüzü dünyasının girişi olarak ibadet edildiğini gösterdiği Kuğu Takımyıldızı 'mn Gizemi (2007, Avesta) vardır. 2008'de Andrew Collins ile meslektaşı N igel Skinner Simpson, Gize piramitlerinin altında henüz kayıt altına alınmamış mağa ralar keşfetti ve dünya çapında üne kavuştu. Bu hikâye, Betıeath the Pyramids [Piramitlerin Altında] (2009) adlı kitapta anlatılmıştır. Daha ayrıntılı bilgi için bkz. w w w .andrew collins.com . LEYLA TONGUÇ BASMACI İstanbul'da doğdu. Italyan Lisesinde okuduktan sonra, Boğaziçi Üniversitesi İngiliz D ili ve Edebiyatı B ölüm ünden m ezun oldu. Pennsylvania State University'de karşılaştırmalı Ingiliz ve Italyan edebiyatları alanında yüksek lisans derecesi aldı. İstanbul Italyan Kültür Heyetinde İtalyanca öğretm enliği, Dünya Yayınevinde metin yazarlığı ve çevirm enlik yaptıktan sonra uzun süre British C ou n cil İstanbul ofisinde Sanat Etkinlikleri Sorumlusu olarak görev yaptı. Halen İtalyanca ve İngilizceden çeviriler yapıyor.

Approached in a theoretical proximity that crosses geographical
and historical distance, both Florensky and Guardini were committed themselves
to develop and clarify a Christian worldview, from which arises the centrality of the question
about man, his nature and his destiny. Created in the image and likeness of his Creator, the fall
into original sin has warped his existential condition, which now appears characterized by the
structural necessity of struggle. The awareness of this origin and the will to face the present
condition are able to reveal the heart as the ontological centre of the human being, as a point
of connection and unification of all his faculties and all the stratifications of human nature.
The power and ontological depth of the heart, when reaching the summit of the ascetic journey
that everyone is called to undertake, come to shine on the face of man, illuminating the
truth of his features.

Un isomorphisme ontologique tripolaire Par Rabbi Pinhas Eliyahou SHADAY Grand Rabbin d'Afrique Subsaharienne-Chercheur INALCO « Le commencement est lui-même une question sans fond-et toute vraie question mérite une réponse de Maître. »-Or HaQuantum, Préface Prologue : La convergence comme méthode Le texte que nous soumettons à l'examen corrélaire n'est pas un texte ordinaire. Il constitue la superposition de trois strates herméneutiques : la tradition prophétique (Isaïe 42, telle que lue dans le Nousakh Afrikit lors de la parashat Bereshit), l'herméneutique mystique lourianique telle que codifiée dans l'Ets 'Hayim et le Sha'ar HaKavanot, et la cosmologie bantoue-israélite articulée autour du Kalûnga et du Dikenga. Or HaQuantum, dans sa thèse centrale-la Kabbale lourianique comme ontologie scientifique, non comme métaphore édifiante-fournit précisément l'instrument de mesure qui permet de vérifier si cette convergence est rhétorique ou structurelle. La réponse que nous allons démontrer est la suivante : la convergence est structurelle. Elle est à la fois isomorphique (mêmes formes, fonctions parallèles) et téléologique (même destination : le Tikoun comme programme actif du réel). Nous dégagerons cinq axes corrélaires principaux, que nous nommons, selon la méthode du PaRDeS, des corrélaires de profondeur croissante.

Metal-wealth ledgers of Meluhha sprachbund 'language union'-Iron-Bronze Age from ca. 3350 BCE (Sivagalai) and Indus ScriptS. Kalyanaraman, October 13, 2026 Sign 342 of Indus Script is rendered in Meluhha deśī bhāṣā 'guildspeech' or sprachbund 'language union' 1 as karṇaka 'rim of jar' rebus: kāraṇīka 'supercargo'. The role of kāraṇīka 'supercargo' is explained on Indus Script inscriptions in the context of cast iron and metalwork. A supercargo (from Italian sopracargo or from Spanish sobrecargo) is a person employed on board a vessel by the owner of cargo carried on a ship. The duties of a supercargo are defined by admiralty law and include managing the cargo owner's trade-Wikipedia. In the context of Indus Script Corpora, the owner of wealth cargo is the Meluhha guild of artisans. This wealth cargo is documented as ledgers aka Indus Script Corpora. By shifting the decoding paradigm from ideographic mysticism toward empirical economic linguistics, the Indus Script reveals itself as a highly functional, ledger-based writing system tailored for Bronze-Iron or Metals Age production and trade. Antiquity of iron to 4th millennium BCE has now been well-attested by archaeological evidence of Sivagalai. Kāraṇīka ledger

PhD thesis (Doctor of Philosophy in Theology), South African Theological Seminary, Johannesburg, 2021. Supervisor: Dr Robert Falconer.

Official version (SATS Research Repository): https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14194/2887

How to cite: MAGALHÃES, Eliézer dos Santos. A Theological-Biblical Anthropology of Sin in light of a Kierkegaardian Philosophy of Human Subjectivity. 2021. PhD Thesis (Doctor of Philosophy in Theology) – South African Theological Seminary, Johannesburg, 2021. Available at: https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14194/2887.

Abstract: This thesis seeks to propose a new approach to the anthropology of sin from a rereading of the problem using the concept of subjectivity from the philosophy of Søren Kierkegaard. The mischaracterization of the theme of sin in society raises the need for the subject to be revisited by theology, seeking a self-evident approach, therefore, considering human subjectivity. This research begins by studying the anthropological insights in Kierkegaard's writings, emphasizing what he wrote about the doctrine of sin. Consequently, a detailed study about his concept of anxiety, despair, untruth, and the relationship with his idea of self is performed. The research also evaluates historically and theologically the arguments raised by Kierkegaard. The concepts presented are especially examined in the biblical narrative. It is argued that theology should consider the human being as a theomorphism and a kinetic self. Moreover, the doctrine of original sin is revisited. A new approach to sin is elaborated, considering its aesthetics and ethical realities concerning human subjectivity. Some implications are explored for this anthropology of sin, helping theology present sin more effectively and providing a lens for understanding various issues related to anthropology. These implications show that biblical-theological anthropology needs to see the human as a multi-dimensional being to avoid producing an abstract and unidimensional understanding of the human and sin. This research argues for a "kinetic anthropology", where the human being is conceived not only regarding his substances, as traditionally addressed, but also regarding the multiple ontological relations composing human selfhood, where the God-relation is the main one.

A prominent strand in contemporary debates on free will and moral responsibility bases these concepts on the idea that decisions and actions can be guided not only by causes, but also by reasons. Such a view needs to clarify the precise ontological standing of reasons, and particularly their suggested difference from causes, in order to demonstrate how exactly they are meant to solve the metaphysical problem of human freedom, against the background of a causal world. In the following, I argue for a Platonist understanding of reasons, identifying them with rational inferences from given facts, rather than with the facts themselves, and exemplify this conception for various fields of rationality, including ethics, mathematics, prudence and logic. This approach promises to give a more distinct account of the role of reasons in human decisions and actions, and to highlight their significance for formulating a robust compatibilist notion of freedom and responsibility under conditions of gapless causation.

A landmark study first published in French in 1924, Jean Baruzi’s Saint John of the Cross and the Problem of Mystical Experience is a major work in the philosophical and phenomenological study of Christian mysticism. Rather than treating Saint John of the Cross solely as a theologian or devotional writer, Baruzi approaches his life, writings, poetry, and mystical doctrine as a profound philosophical problem. What is mystical experience, and what kind of knowledge can it provide? This work traces the development of Saint John’s thought from his early life and formation through his participation in the Carmelite reform and his imprisonment, before turning to his poetry and, ultimately, to the stages of the mystical way. At its heart is Baruzi’s sustained investigation of the radical transformation described by Saint John — the passage through negation and darkness toward mystical union and the “theopathic state.” Combining intellectual history, philosophy, psychology, literary analysis, and the study of religion, Baruzi’s work remains an important and challenging interpretation of one of Christianity’s greatest mystics.
Translated by Wanyoung Kim-Murphy and edited by Mark Gerard Murphy, this edition presents the first complete English translation of Baruzi’s monumental study, making this influential work available to a new generation of readers and scholars of Saint John of the Cross, Christian mysticism, philosophy of religion, and phenomenology.

Morality is one of the most important foundations upon which Islam is built.
The message of the Qur’an was revealed as guidance for humanity in all
aspects of life, and among the most prominent features of this message is
its emphasis on moral values that purify the soul and reform society. Allah
the Almighty says: “Indeed, Allah commands justice, excellence, and
giving to relatives, and forbids immorality, wrongdoing, and oppression...”
(Qur’an 16: 90). This study aims to examine the moral foundations
contained in the Holy Qur’an and their role in building society. It explores
the concept of morality in Islam and its significance, with particular focus
on some of the moral values emphasized in the Qur’an, such as
trustworthiness, justice, truthfulness, benevolence, patience, and others.
The study adopts both inductive and analytical approaches by collecting
Qur’anic texts related to moral values and analyzing them in order to
understand their meanings and practical implications. It also highlights
how these values contribute to promoting stability, security, and social
cohesion, as well as their role in addressing the moral challenges facing
contemporary societies. The study reveals that adherence to the moral
foundations prescribed in the Holy Qur’an is an urgent necessity for
rebuilding societies on the principles of justice, tolerance, and respect for
others. Such adherence contributes to achieving sustainable development
and peaceful coexistence. The study therefore recommends studying and
understanding the Holy Qur’an and implementing its rulings and moral
values in daily life.

Semiotic theory has made it possible to probe more fully into the basic features of religious experience and to shed light on the elusive structure of the divine life. What is not often noticed is that a new configuration is emerging in which philosophical theology can put creative pressure back onto semiotic theory in such a way as to transform fundamental semiotic categories to serve a much larger conception of nature and the divine life. A dialectic between semiotic and theology has emerged that promises to transform the depth structures of both fields of discourse. Of greatest import is the recognition that our encounter with the divine shakes the foundations of semiotic theory and makes it possible to move beyond the current seeming impasse between Peircean and post-structuralist theories of signification.

The idea of this taboo book was raised by the complete denial of the real creation of  German Grundgesetz in 1949, which was indoctrinated by the American occupiers, for almost 80 years. I first read about this ten years ago in a 1984 study by the German historian Barbara Fait, and when I recently typed it into the quote checker of the Google schoolar, I saw that this study had only ten citations in total in 42 years, but even these were only American quotes, or even quotes by my study. It is as if the historian had not even written this study, even though it was published in a renowned German journal of professional history, and at least a thousand German constitutional lawyers and constitutional historians teach at German universities. Their previous knowledge of the origin of the German Grundgesetz should have been re-evaluated too deeply, and therefore they chose to remain silent without debate about Barbara Fait's embarrassing claims about it. Sometime at the beginning of the 20th century, the term "Lebenslüge", "the lie that lies in its essence", was used to falsely establish the official ideology of power in German intellectual life, and then the term "Lebenslüge" could be used to deny the doctrinaire character of the Grundgesetz. Hence this volume about the problem of how the mechanisms of classification as taboo work in science.

Human inquiry has developed through philosophy, mathematics, physics, biology, logic, psychology, cognitive science, religious studies, and numerous other disciplines. Each investigates particular aspects of existence through its own concepts, methods, and standards of explanation. Yet the relationships among these domains raise a fundamental question: Can a common structural framework help us understand how different forms of organisation emerge, persist, transform, and become intelligible to observers within reality?
Recursive Structural Reality (RSR) proposes such a framework through the interconnected concepts of existence, difference, relation, structure, information, transformation, recursion, stability, persistence, and identity. Its central proposition, Identity = Stable Recursion, directs attention towards the processes through which recognisable organisation may persist despite changes in components, states, or circumstances. RSR also investigates the conditions under which structures lose stability, undergo transformation, reorganise, and give rise to new forms of organisation.
A second foundational dimension concerns the observer. Human beings do not investigate reality from outside the universe but participate in the reality they seek to understand. Through perception, memory, language, logic, mathematics, and reflection, observers construct models that organise experience and make particular aspects of existence intelligible. These models are indispensable to knowledge, yet they remain selective representations whose assumptions, limitations, and domains of validity require examination.
The scope of RSR extends from foundational ontology and mathematical structures to physical systems, biological organisation, intelligence, artificial intelligence, consciousness, knowledge, religious traditions, and social institutions. These domains provide different contexts in which questions about structure, transformation, stability, persistence, and identity can be investigated. Their inclusion within a common framework does not imply that they share identical mechanisms or can be explained through one undifferentiated model. Each application requires concepts, methods, and standards of evidence appropriate to its subject.
RSR therefore distinguishes philosophical RSR, mathematical RSR, and physical RSR while situating them within a broader interdisciplinary research programme. Philosophical coherence, mathematical derivation, and physical validity are related but distinct requirements. Similarly, applications to biological, cognitive, religious, and social phenomena require their own explanatory development and appropriate forms of investigation.
This paper establishes the conceptual foundations, expanded scope, methodological orientation, and research architecture of RSR. It presents the framework as an evolving programme whose contributions must be assessed through conceptual precision, formal development, explanatory value, and empirical or comparative investigation. Its long-term objective is an integrated understanding of reality that investigates structural connections across domains without erasing their differences, while examining both the phenomena under investigation and the limitations of the models through which they are understood.

Bu yazıda "tanrı emri" ve özgürlük tartışması yapılmaktadır. Tanrı emrine uymanın hangi açılardan özgürlüğün konusu yapıldığı tartışılmakta ve bu yaklaşımların eksiklikleri ortaya konulmaktadır. Konu somut olarak başörtüsü açısından ele alınmaktadır. Başörtüsü takmanın bir özgürlük ve inanç hakkı problemi olmadığı, konunun tamamen siyasi kültür ve iktidarla ilgili olduğu savunulmaktadır.

Being human should not feel like a competition. Many people today are exhausted from being told to invent themselves. They are diagnosed, categorized, affirmed, managed, and optimized. Yet beneath the language of symptoms, identity, trauma, and wellness, a deeper ache remains. The person feels fragmented because the age has forgotten what a person is.

The Soul of Psychology speaks to that wound. It follows a simple but unavoidable logic. Psychology cannot become a true science of the person until it recovers the soul. Before "soul" was narrowed into a merely religious word, the older terms it translates named the living principle of an embodied being. In the human person, this does not mean a ghost inside the body. It means the deep structure by which a living human being is one person who can know truth, choose the good, love, suffer, speak, hope, and be restored.

This book does not reject empirical care, clinical skill, trauma, or distress. It asks psychology to see more deeply and reason more fully. Written for clinicians, students, educators, clergy, and readers weary of being treated as fragments, The Soul of Psychology offers a path back to wholeness, truth, communion, and restoration.
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"A fascinatingly crafted treatise exploring the fundamental structure of psychology, intimate human interactions, and especially successful therapy, by a truly visionary leader of the profession. The importance of personal courage, an underlying commitment to speaking the truth, as well as an intimate appreciation for the critical nature of our metaphysical reality will definitely resonate with those deeply concerned about the present as well as our collective future:•
-PATRICK DELEON, Former Presidenl, American Psychological Associalion
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"What makes psychology soulful? And what personal responsibility and moral obligation do we have to be practicing as soulful psychologists? Dr. Mc Guinness exposes the metaphysical fow1dation of psychology that contemporary psychological thinking has lost, and he challenges the current assumptions of soul-less psychology. He speaks from his training and experience as a scientist, philosopher, clinician, believer, father, and friend I
hear his voice throughout this amazing work! This book will inspire, challenge, inform, and disrupt-all things worthy of deep reflective learning!"
-MICHAEL R. TILUS, Clinical Psychologist

In the early Therav›da Buddhist view, the bhavaºga, literally, the "ground of becoming," may be characterized as a relative vacuum state of consciousness, voided of all manner of mental activity known as javana. This appears to be identical to the substrate consciousness (›layavijñ›na) asserted in the later Great Perfection (Dzogchen) school of Tibetan Buddhism. This state of consciousness is presented not simply as a philosophical speculation but as an experienced mental phenomenon that can be accessed through the achievement of meditative quiescence (Ÿamatha). According to the Great Perfection school, primordial consciousness (jñ›na) may be regarded as an ultimate ground state of

Utagawa Kuniaki II (Plate 11) "Spring Colors: Lion Dance at a Mansion" Woodblock polychrome print (nishiki-e) on triptych paper End leaf: Anonymous (Plate 7) "Tale of a Bamboo Cutter" A page from a Nara-ehon book painted with ink, color, and gold on paper P Pr re ef fa ac ce e The Department of Asian Studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem-the oldest department of its kind in the Middle East-is home to more than 250 students specializing in Japanese, Korean, Chinese, Indian, and Indonesian studies. Widely recognized for excellence in both research and teaching, the department fosters a dynamic, collaborative intellectual environment, further enriched by a wide range of extracurricular activities. Through the generous support of Mr. Ofer Shagan, a Tokyo-based art collector, the department is privileged to house the Shagan Collection of Japanese Art, which comprises more than 250 works. The collection includes woodblock prints, hanging scrolls, illustrated books, silk paintings, shunga prints, masks, and related objects. Alongside works by celebrated artists such as Hiroshige, Chikanobu, Kunichika, and Kunisada, the collection also contains lesser-known materials that open new avenues for scholarly research and discovery. Serving as a vital resource for both teaching and scholarship, the Shagan Collection supports annual courses in Japanese art history, enabling students to engage directly with original works of art. In the spirit of international academic exchange, the collection has been fully digitized and is accessible to students and researchers worldwide. The Shagan Collection is complemented by two additional primary resources at the Hebrew University: The Asian Languages Library and the Historical Manga Collection. Established in 2007, the Asian Languages Library-the first of its kind in Israel and the broader Middle East-provides state-of-the-art research facilities for a growing community of scholars and graduate students in East Asian studies. Its holdings include more than 10,000 volumes, along with access to a wide range of Japanese and Chinese electronic databases, many of which were previously unavailable in Israel. In 2013, the Department of Asian Studies established the Historical Manga Collection to promote the study of Japan through the influential medium of manga. The collection now comprises over 8,000 Japanese-language volumes focusing on Japanese history, including works by prominent artists such as Tezuka Osamu, Mizuki Shigeru, and Nakazawa Keiji. A dedicated course on the representation of history in manga is offered biennially. In the spirit of international collaboration, I warmly invite scholars, students, and readers to explore these resources and to visit us in Jerusalem.

For millennia before Galileo (1564-1642), people throughout the world gazed at the starry skies with unaided vision and sought to understand the correlations between celestial and terrestrial phenomena. Multiple systems of astrology were the fruits of their labors, but the modern science of astronomy remained beyond reach. For centuries, mathematicians sought to understand the movements of celestial bodies in accordance with the dominant worldviews of their times. But even the heliocentric system devised by Copernicus (1473-1543) was widely regarded as simply one more plausible mathematical model, for it was not experimentally better than Ptolemy's (c. 90-168 c.e. ) geocentric model. It was Galileo who introduced advanced technology for observing celestial phenomena, and his empiricism soon triumphed over the rationalism of his predecessors. The modern science of astronomy had begun. Galileo's astronomical use of the telescope was a pivotal point in the fi rst revolution in the physical sciences, which began with the publication of Copernicus's work On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres in 1543 and culminated with the publication of Newton's (1643-1727) masterpiece, Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy, in 1687. After decades of rigorous observations of biological phenomena, Charles Darwin (1809-82)

Internet: www.mentis.de mentis Verlag reserves the right to protect the publication against unauthorized use and to authorize © Godehard Brüntrup et al., 2020 | doi:10.30965/9783957437303_002 This is an open access chapter distributed under the terms of the CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 license.

The history of the early Adventist sanctuary doctrine has often been told as a simple progression, beginning with the story of Hiram Edson receiving a flash of insight about the sanctuary (sometimes called a vision) the morning after the great disappointment of October 22, 1844, in answer to his prayer with two other Adventists. That first insight led the three Adventists into a deeper study of the the heavenly sanctuary. One of the men was O. R. L. Crosier.

This reflection by the Rt. Rev. Dr. Michael W. Holland on the Revised Common Lectionary readings for Proper 23, Trinity XIX, Year A offers a retributive-critical reading of Matthew 22:1-14 (the Parable of the Wedding Banquet). The dominant interpretive tradition — in which the guest without a wedding robe is expelled for non-compliance with normative requirements — is examined and rejected on internal theological grounds: a retributive reading reduces the parable's appeal to self-interest, making one's "ultimate concern oneself," a stance structurally incompatible with the New Covenant's logic of unconditional forgiveness enacted through Christ's sufficient sacrifice. An alternative reading is proposed in which the wedding robe functions not as a demand for moral compliance but as a metaphor for the freely accepted garment of grace — a participatory entry into the life of God in Christ through act. The robe is donned, on this account, by making one's life a "living manifestation" of the message of unconditional forgiveness and love, thereby accepting rather than rejecting the invitation to reconciliation. The reflection extends this hermeneutic to Psalm 23, arguing against a purely eschatological (funerary) reading and for a present-tense, Eucharistic participation in which the banquet is entered and celebrated "here and now" through the Church's witness. The argument is situated against the contemporary geopolitical backdrop of armed conflict, treating the tension between the theological claim of unconditional peace and visible political reality as an irresolvable but theologically honest problem. The closing movement draws on Philippians 4:4-7 and the Prayer of St. Francis to integrate the expository argument into doxological practice.
Abstract by Liner Research Agent in consultation with the author.

Jesús sabe que está a punto de entregar su vida y que sus discípulos tendrán que afrontar su ausencia. Durante años lo han tenido con ellos como maestro, guía y apoyo inmediato; ahora les anuncia que se va al Padre. La perspectiva de esa separación provoca inquietud, y buena parte del discurso de Juan 14-16 responde precisamente a esa situación. Jesús prepara a los suyos para lo que viene y les asegura que no quedarán abandonados cuando él ya no esté físicamente con ellos. Es en ese contexto donde aparece la promesa de Juan 14:16: Jesús pedirá al Padre, y este les dará ἄλλον παράκλητον (allon paraklēton, "otro Paráclito" o "otro ayudante") para que permanezca con ellos. El sustantivo

این متن سلسله یادداشت‌هایی پراکنده درباره‌ی وضعیت «پس از فاجعه» است. متن گسسته و تا حدودی شهودی‌ست‌. موضوع گاه اجازه‌ی انتظام نمی‌دهد. جدای از آن، در وضعیت «پس از فاجعه» کمترین تأثیر واقعیت بر روان مشاهده‌گر پراشیدگی و پریشیدگی‌ست، اگر نه فروپاشی. نظام همیشه اندکی به وعده و از آن راه نجات شبیه است. اینجا وعده‌ای در کار نیست. فقط قطعاتی می‌مانند سرد و ناتمام.

Per una meccanica razionale della molteplicità        Forze, intensità, durate ed estensioni dell'ontologia parafisica e paraquantistica Premessa. Lo statuto della parafisica La parafisica teorica nasce da una decisione di metodo: trattare i concetti dell'ontologia non come astrazioni che abitano la mente, ma come forze che abitano la realtà. Ciò che la tradizione filosofica ha chiamato unità, differenza, relazione e divenire non è, in questa prospettiva, un repertorio di categorie con cui ordiniamo il mondo dall'esterno; è la trama stessa delle tensioni che il mondo esercita su di sé. Ogni concetto ontologico possiede dunque una natura fisica, fatta di pressioni, attriti, repulsioni e trazioni, e una intensità energetica, che dice quanto quella forza pesi nella configurazione complessiva del reale. Il prefisso «para» non indica una fisica minore o alternativa, né una fisica del soprannaturale. Indica un lato, un accostamento: la parafisica si dispone accanto alla fisica come suo contrappunto ontologico. Dove la fisica ordinaria descrive il

Un buon libro, come una buona opera musicale, deve essere in grado di  porre  domande  più  che  offrire  soluzioni:  l’argomentazione  di  Arri-go  riesce  a  cogliere  nel  segno,  rimettendo  al  lettore  la  responsabilità  di  un’ulteriore chiarificazione esistenziale su ciò che, in ultima istanza, non è mai pienamente dicibile, ma evoca una “mancanza”, la cui origine di-mora in ciò che Max Horkheimer ha definito la “nostalgia del Totalmente Altro”. Di cosa è testimone tale desiderio? Forse di una residualità che ci costituisce, un’ulteriorità che chiede di esser custodita.

The book is an autobiography of Thupten Tenzin, a retired photographer and filmmaker who fled Tibet 1959 as monk in Potala palace. His ability of storytelling never fails to grip the reader’s attention, whether it is his everyday life in the village, his becoming a monk in the prestigious Namgyal monastery in Potala, to his description of life in Potala, his perilous flight from Tibet to India, or his perseverance in learning, taking him to different places in India and eventually to Norway where he settled, worked as a professional photographer, and, together with his wife Lobsang Palmo, raised their children. The book has so much offer such as detailed information of lifestyle of the monk and the celebrations of special occasions before the Chinese occupation of Tibet.The minutes details described inside Tibet as well as in the beginning of exile sets it apart from other autobiographies written by Tibetans in exile. And not to mention the dramatic unfold of the last days in the Potala palace under the Chinese military occupation. It is important for any scholars and people who are interested in the field of any Tibet, and Tibetans from both historical and social anthropological point of views. Researchers will benefit from his detailed observation of people and places throughout his life especially in exile.

In condizioni di ingiustizia sistemica, la concezione aristotelica della virtù come tratto stabile del carattere incontra un limite strutturale. Se la vita buona richiede non soltanto l'eccellenza dell'agente, ma anche una sufficiente disponibilità di beni esterni, allora laddove tali beni vengono sistematicamente sottratti, resi precari o distribuiti in modo da escludere intere categorie di persone dalla loro fruizione, viene meno una delle condizioni per la piena realizzazione o "felicità" dell'essere umano. Ricchezza, riconoscimento sociale, sicurezza, amicizia, partecipazione politica e stabilità istituzionale non costituiscono, per Aristotele, meri vantaggi strumentali o accessori della vita pienamente realizzata. Essi sono parte delle condizioni che rendono possibile sviluppare, esercitare e mantenere le disposizioni che strutturano il carattere e sostengono l'azione razionale (EN I.7-8, I.13, X.6-8). Se il contesto politico è instabile, il riconoscimento negato, le opportunità drasticamente ridotte e la sicurezza compromessa, la possibilità di formare e conservare un carattere virtuoso si riduce sensibilmente. In queste circostanze, la speranza costituisce una condizione imprescindibile dell'esercizio della ragione pratica. È un potere normativo che ci consente di e ci impegna ad assumere il futuro come aperto, nonostante l'opacità delle strutture d'azione in cui siamo implicati, la fragilità delle istituzioni e la memoria dei nostri fallimenti. Attraverso una lettura di Aristotele in dialogo con Kant, sosterrò che la speranza è un potere normativo che consente ad agenti in cerca di stabilità di impegnarsi nell'azione, in condizioni di incertezza e disorientamento.

Scientific disagreement is indispensable to the growth of knowledge, yet disagreement becomes methodologically unreliable when criticism is premature, asymmetric, personally motivated, insulated from countercriticism, or applied through standards that the framework under examination explicitly disputes. This paper proposes the Open Inquiry Integrity Protocol (OIIP), a general framework for evaluating scientific theories and scientific criticism while keeping epistemic appraisal distinct from interpersonal conduct. OIIP rests on four commitments: respect for persons, freedom of criticism, evidential symmetry, and correctability. It requires that a framework first be understood and examined for internal coherence before being judged externally; that criticism be classified according to whether it is developmental, foundational, or hybrid; that paradigm-changing proposals receive neither exemption from evidence nor automatic rejection by inherited criteria; and that criticisms themselves remain subject to the same standards of evidence, disclosure, and revision imposed on the theories they evaluate. The protocol incorporates explanatory economy, including a restrained form of Ockham's razor, but rejects the simplistic equation of simplicity with truth. It also introduces safeguards against premature judgment, conflicts of interest, group protection, selective disclosure, defensive counterattack, and the concealment of weaknesses. Historical cases are proposed as retrospective stress tests rather than as foundations from which the protocol is reverse-engineered. OIIP does not attempt to define a single universal scientific method. Its purpose is narrower and practical: to provide a transparent sequence through which claims, theories, criticisms, and scientific conduct can be evaluated without granting epistemic immunity to authors, critics, prevailing frameworks, alternative frameworks, or the communities surrounding them. The protocol is extended by Appendix A for comparisons between paradigmatic frameworks whose methodology, ontology, or epistemology differ enough to make direct conceptual translation incomplete.

Join us for our inaugural summer school in Italy, the Convivium Simone Weil.

Our themes are mysticism, migration, and peace.

Open to all via application, with a special welcome to graduate students.

Link: https://simoneweilsociety.org/convivium

K. E. Løgstrup’s work remains largely absent from phenomenological research about sociality. The aim of this paper is to rectify this neglect by articulating and situating Løgstrup’s work on this topic in a phenomenological context. After clarifying Løgstrup’s credentials as a phenomenologist, I argue that one of his central contributions is the development of a second-personal phenomenology of social life, in which communicative trust—trust as involved in paradigmatic communicative exchanges between a speaker and an interlocutor—constitutes the bedrock of the social world. I go on to argue that as distinguished from two major phenomenological approaches to the foundations of sociality—the Husserlian and Heideggerian approaches—Løgstrup’s approach doesn’t prioritise the experiential asymmetry between self and other, nor an impersonal and anonymous way of being with each other, but rather the spontaneous trust towards one other that we take for granted in paradigmatic communicative or—as I also call them—second-personal interactions.

The question "What is philosophy?" calls for an account of what philosophical inquiry does and why its questions persist. This article examines philosophy through the relation between mind and world, the grounds of knowledge, the principal philosophical disciplines, and the methods used to test arguments and concepts. It places Greek accounts of wisdom alongside Indian, Chinese, and Islamic traditions, and considers how philosophy differs from science and religion. Examples drawn from Locke's theory of personal identity, Hume's analysis of causation, and debates about freedom show how abstract problems enter ordinary judgment. The article argues that philosophy changes the way people judge: it teaches them to ask what their convictions rest on before those convictions decide for them.

Published version available here: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/9781394160631.ch13.

This chapter examines Pascal's views on knowledge, tracing the evolution of the principles underlying his epistemological reflections from De l'Esprit géométrique —specifically its first part, the “ Réflexions sur la géométrie en général” (RG)—to the second part, “ De l'art de persuader” (AP), and finally to the Pensées , where he engages with the problem of skepticism. In RG , Pascal relies on the concept of natural light to account for our ability to construct demonstrative reasoning. However, in AP , this foundationalist perspective gives way to a more pragmatist understanding of demonstration and knowledge. A careful analysis of this shift between RG and AP sheds light on the emergence of skepticism and the anthropological turn in Pascal's analysis of knowledge in the Pensées , where the notion of the heart ( coeur ) plays a central role in revealing the finite nature of the human apprehension of truth.

Natural Luminous Geometry, Stationary Apparent Motion, and Generative Optical Analogues (LGAM-H6): A Comparative Investigation of Photographic Authenticity, Optical Anomalies, Generative AI, and the Four Luminaries of Gnostic Cosmology

This interdisciplinary study examines the optical, geometric, photometric, and symbolic characteristics of three visual subjects: an original backlit human portrait (Image A), an AI-generated golden-retriever optical analogue (Image B), and a natural water-caustics reference photograph (Image C). Through comparative image analysis, differential-geometric modeling, and archived brightness, color-dominance, and gradient measurements, the research investigates whether the original portrait exhibits a distinctive combination of luminous structures that is difficult to reproduce through generative image synthesis or conventional optical analogues.

The study further examines photographic provenance, computational image formation, stationary apparent-motion perception, and the methodological requirements for identifying genuinely anomalous visual characteristics. Drawing upon reproducibility and research-validation principles, it distinguishes measured resemblance from shared physical mechanisms, symbolic interpretation from empirical evidence, and technological limitations from demonstrated anomalies.

A central interdisciplinary component explores the Four Luminaries—Harmozel (Armozel), Oroiael, Daveithe (Daveithai), and Eleleth—described in the Sethian Gnostic Apocryphon of John. Their cosmological functions, theological associations, and textual representations are examined alongside the luminous composition of Image A to assess possible symbolic and visual correspondences. This comparative inquiry does not presume that the photograph depicts supernatural entities; rather, it evaluates how ancient descriptions of divine illumination might inform contemporary visual interpretation.

Five research questions establish a framework for investigating photographic authenticity, distinctive optical features, generative AI reproduction limits, Gnostic luminary correspondences, and the anomalous-image hypothesis. The study concludes by proposing controlled photographic comparisons, reproducible computational measurements, independent observer testing, and competing explanatory models.

Ultimately, the research asks whether Image A represents an unusual but explainable photographic composition, a perceptually distinctive optical configuration, or a visual form that invites deeper interdisciplinary interpretation. It also leaves open a historical and philosophical question: Could this portrait offer a visual analogy to what John described in the Apocryphon of John?

The article deals with the Leszek Kołakowski’s assessment of demythologization of religion with its fundamental presumption of separation between the “empirical” and “mythological” sphere of reality.
The paper presented starts with the citation of Kołakowski’s essay Jezus ośmieszony. Esej apologetyczny i sceptyczny, in which he asserts that only by the acts of faith one can participate in the sphere of sacrum in the world, where the loss of the religious heritage is perceived more and more clearly. That loss is caused also by the processes of demythologization of Christian religion and the Revelation. Such demythologization was built on the aforementioned presumption of separation between the “empirical” and “mythological”. Kołakowski claims, that such radical separation is impossible and actually unnecessary, because both of them belong to its unity. He rather demands the global view of religion and history, which is possible through the act of faith which simplifies interpreting the reality as the organized harmony. The act of faith with its coherent view of reality seems to be the best response to the challenges of demythologization.

(EST/EN – English below)

Luterlik identiteet ja õigeksmõistuõpetus. Sissejuhatav mõtisklus arutelusse

Artikkel käsitleb luterliku identiteedi, õigeksmõistuõpetuse ja kiriku ühtsuse seoseid Eesti Evangeelses Luterlikus Kirikus toimuva üldkirikliku teoloogilise aruteluprotsessi kontekstis. Keskne tees on, et luterlik identiteet rajaneb evangeeliumil – Jumala ennast kinkival ja õigeksmõistval toimimisel Kristuses –, millest lähtudes tuleb mõista nii kiriku osadust kui ka tema õpetusvastutust. Õigeksmõistuõpetust avatakse evangeeliumi grammatikana, mis suunab kiriku elu armule, usaldusele ja vabadusele. Kiriku ühtsuse olemuslik tingimus on üksmeel evangeeliumi kuulutamises ja sakramentide jagamises; see üksmeel tunnistab Kristuses kingitud ühtsusest ega ole selle põhjus. Sellest perspektiivist arutletakse kriitiliselt püüdluste üle seada kirikuosadusele täiendavaid õpetuslikke või institutsionaalseid eeltingimusi. Teoloogilist arutelu mõistetakse kiriku elu vältimatu mõõtmena, milles väljendub kõigi ristitute kaasvastutus õpetuse eest. Ühtlasi käsitletakse aruteluprotsessi retseptsiooni ja katoolsuse praktikana, mis seob kohaliku kiriku üleilmse luterliku ja laiema oikumeenilise osadusega. Luterlik identiteet avaneb nõnda Kristusest lähtuvalt avatud ja osadusliku identiteedina, mille juurde kuuluvad ühine õppimine, vastastikune kuulamine ning valmisolek käsitleda erimeelsusi evangeeliumi usaldades.

Tekst põhineb 20. jaanuaril 2026 Tartu Ülikooli aulas EELK vaimulike konverentsil „Siin ma seisan, ja …“ peetud ettekandel ning on ilmunud ajalehes Eesti Kirik.
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Lutheran Identity and the Doctrine of Justification: An Introductory Reflection for Discussion

This article explores the relationship between Lutheran identity, the doctrine of justification, and the unity of the church within the church-wide theological discussion process of the Estonian Evangelical Lutheran Church. Its central claim is that Lutheran identity is grounded in the gospel—God’s self-giving and justifying action in Christ—which shapes both ecclesial communion and the church’s responsibility for its teaching. The doctrine of justification is understood as the grammar of the gospel, orienting the church’s life towards grace, trust, and freedom. Agreement in the proclamation of the gospel and the administration of the sacraments constitutes the essential condition of church unity; such agreement bears witness to the unity given in Christ rather than bringing it into being. From this perspective, the article critically examines attempts to impose additional doctrinal or institutional prerequisites for ecclesial communion. Theological discussion is presented as integral to the church’s life, expressing the shared responsibility of all the baptised for its teaching. It is also understood as a practice of reception and catholicity, connecting the local church with worldwide Lutheran and wider ecumenical communion. Lutheran identity thus emerges as open and relational, grounded in Christ and expressed through shared learning, mutual listening, and engagement with disagreement in trust in the gospel.

The text is based on an address delivered at the clergy conference of the Estonian Evangelical Lutheran Church, “Here I Stand, and …”, at the University of Tartu on 20 January 2026, and was published in the newspaper Eesti Kirik. The article is in Estonian.

Ḥāmid al-Ghazālī (c. 1056-1111) occupies a central and controversial position in histories of Islamic philosophy and science. From nineteenth-century European scholarship to modern popular accounts, he has often been portrayed as an opponent of philosophy, rational inquiry, and the natural sciences whose influence helped precipitate a civilizational decline in scientific activity. This paper reassesses that narrative through a combined historiographical and textual analysis. For analytical clarity, it distinguishes a banishment thesis-the claim that al-Ghazālī rejected philosophy and the natural sciences-from a decline thesis-the claim that his influence caused or decisively accelerated the decline of philosophical and scientific inquiry in Muslim societies. Close attention to The Incoherence of the Philosophers, Deliverance from Error, and The Book of Knowledge indicates that al-Ghazālī's criticism was principally directed at specific metaphysical doctrines and at the philosophers' claims to demonstrative certainty, rather than at mathematics, logic, medicine, astronomy, or the study of nature as such. His critique of causal necessity also cannot be reduced without qualification to a rejection of natural order. Furthermore, the continuation of philosophical, logical, mathematical, and astronomical activity after the eleventh century complicates monocausal accounts of decline. The paper concludes that al-Ghazālī profoundly reshaped the relationship between falsafa and kalām, but the available textual and historical evidence does not support portraying him as the individual who terminated rational or scientific

In the theatre of their independence, Some sit in darkness, and behold the light; Some stand in light, and see only darkness, Blinded by the brilliance of the light in their sight off the lights. Outside, a fair heart glows in the darkest night; Inside, a firm Spirit questions the letter of the mighty. What shines upon the walls of freedom you profess; If faint hearts within are in fetters?

N as últimas décadas, os estudos sociais da religião passa- ram por mudanças significativas em suas abordagens. Embora durante grande parte do desenvolvimento da sociologia da religião, instituições, doutrinas, afiliações religiosas e crenças tenham ocupado um lugar privilegiado na observação e mensuração de fenômenos religiosos, diversas perspectivas têm alertado para as limitações de identificar a religião exclusivamente com o que ocorre dentro de organizações formalmente reconhecidas como religiosas (Sarrazín, 2018). Indicadores como frequência a cultos religiosos, afiliação denominacional ou adesão a sistemas de crenças específicos permanecem relevantes, mas são insuficientes para compreender a pluralidade de maneiras pelas quais o religioso e o espiritual são incorporados à vida das pessoas Pereira Arena;.

Why did a perfect omnipotent, omniscient, and omnibenevolent Brahman-God create an imperfect world of evil, ignorance, and unhappiness? Attempts to answer this question include: 1) Problems and obstacles are necessary for personal growth, since we would not change if we are satisfied with our present state. 2) If we lived happy lives without sorrow there would be less motivation to seek heavenly existence. 3) If suffering was nonexistent much good like compassion, altruism, or philanthropy would be absent from the world. 4) Due to His "Permissive Will" God voluntarily surrenders some of His Omnipotence to allow for human free will. 5) God employs "Divine persuasion" rather than forcing someone to do something (Whitehead, Hartshorne). 6) Deism is the theological belief that God created the universe according to scientific laws, but does not interfere in its daily operation and let it run itself. 7) Following the Personal Idealism of George Howison, God is the Final Cause (goal) and not the First Cause (creator) of the universe. 8) A limited finite God is not omnipotent (Zarathustra, William James, Edgar Brightman). 9) God is like the light of the sun that reflects off dirty water and loses its luster. 10) People suffer due to their bad karma. 11) What appears to be evil from a limited perspective is good when viewed from the standpoint of the whole (Aquinas, Vivekananda, Abhedananda). 12) All defects are illusionary appearance (Shankara, Mary Baker Eddy). 13) In order to create saints. 14) The unhappiness we presently go through is outweighed by the fact that eventually all people will attain to the blissful state of Universal Liberation-Salvation. 15) Human reason is too limited to understand the workings of God (Skeptical Theism). 16) Things are not evil in their inherent nature or essence, but as a Privation or an absence of the good (Origen, Plotinus, Augustine, Ibn al-'Arabi, Aquinas, Vivekananda). 17) Evil, ignorance, and pain occur where Brahman-God is less manifested. 18) What is good for one person is bad for another. 19) Humans have only a limited partial view of good

This article examines the divergent uses of Nietzschean themes in the Russian socialist intellectual milieu of the early twentieth century, focusing on Anatoly Lunacharsky and Ber Borochov, with Maxim Gorky as an important literary point of reference. Rather than positing a linear genealogy of influence, it reconstructs a shared vocabulary of activity, value creation, power, distance, and religious consciousness. Lunacharsky sought to translate the problem of meaning into a collective socialist horizon, while Borochov’s Virtualism and the Religious-Ethical Problem in Marxism challenged the very demand for an ultimate evaluation of the world. Their disagreement illuminates a neglected philosophical divide within Second International Marxism: whether socialism required a new religion of humanity or could sustain an ethics of historical action without metaphysical consolation.
Keywords: Ber Borochov; Anatoly Lunacharsky; Friedrich Nietzsche; Maxim Gorky; Russian Marxism; God-building; virtualism; socialist ethics.

artificial. Este ensayo ha contado con asistencia de inteligencia artificial para tareas auxiliares de organización, redacción preliminar, revisión lingüística y elaboración de borradores. La selección de fuentes, la interpretación, las tesis, las categorías hermenéuticas y la responsabilidad intelectual final corresponden al autor.

[IT] Il saggio esamina il rapporto tra filologia e religione nell’Europa dei secoli XVI e XVII, concentrandosi sui modi in cui le pratiche filologiche interagirono con le identità confessionali, le istituzioni ecclesiastiche e le trasformazioni dell’autorità intellettuale. A partire dai contributi raccolti in Philologia et Religio, mette a confronto contesti cattolici e protestanti e considera esperienze che vanno dall’umanesimo erasmiano e dalla philologia sacra alle reti erudite della Respublica litteraria. Anziché considerare la filologia come una tecnica neutra o ricostruirne lo sviluppo attraverso narrazioni lineari di trasferimento geografico e confessionale, il saggio la interpreta come una pratica storicamente situata, mobile e polisemica. La filologia poté rafforzare l’ortodossia religiosa e l’autorità istituzionale, ma anche favorire la critica, la mediazione e il dissenso. Particolare attenzione è dedicata alla circolazione dei testi e delle pratiche erudite attraverso i confini confessionali e all’intreccio tra critica testuale, identità religiosa e cultura politica. In questa prospettiva, la filologia della prima età moderna emerge come un laboratorio fondamentale per la formazione della modernità critica europea e per la ridefinizione dei rapporti tra testo, autorità, tradizione e conoscenza storica. [EN] This article examines the relationship between philology and religion in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Europe, focusing on the ways in which philological practices interacted with confessional identities, ecclesiastical institutions, and changing forms of intellectual authority. Drawing on the contributions collected in Philologia et Religio, it compares Catholic and Protestant contexts and considers experiences ranging from Erasmian humanism and philologia sacra to the learned networks of the Respublica litteraria. Rather than treating philology as a neutral technique or tracing its development through linear narratives of geographical and confessional transfer, the article approaches it as a historically situated, mobile, and polysemic practice. Philology could reinforce religious orthodoxy and institutional authority, but it could also foster criticism, mediation, and dissent. Particular attention is paid to the circulation of texts and scholarly practices across confessional boundaries and to the interplay between textual criticism, religious identity, and political culture. From this perspective, early modern philology emerges as a crucial laboratory for the formation of European critical modernity and for the redefinition of the relations between text, authority, tradition, and historical knowledge.