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Claremont Studies in the Philosophy of Religion
Biblical Concepts and our World
In this collection, distinguished theologians and philosophers of religion explore the relation of key Biblical concepts to our world. They examine a range of concepts, including authority, faith and history, the historical Jesus, the resurrection and miracles.
294 pages, Hardcover
First published July 29, 2004
4 people want to read
About the author
D.Z. Phillips
54 books8 followersDewi Zephaniah Phillips, usually cited as D.Z. Phillips, is recognized for his work in the philosophy of religion and other philosophical disciplines. He was also a proponent of preserving the Welsh language.
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July 12, 2016
I read selected essays here.
Coakley: Her aim is to illuminate the epistemic reason for the believer seeing the world in a different way from the non-believer. She goes back to Origen's and later Gregory of Nyssa's "spiritual senses" idea. She refers to the 'appearance' (resurrection) stories as signaling a shift in understanding: the Mary at the tomb story, the walk to Emmaus story --that can be interpreted as a progressive "coming to see" which results in a change of life. She bolsters this interpretation with writings from Kierkegaard, and Barth, and with some of the aphorisms of Wittgenstein. Her accent is on how people progress on this way through practice, purgation,prayer.
Dalferth: He objects to Coakley, by emphasizing that re. faith, the initiative is always God's. People contribute nothing to that initiative. "Seeing the risen Christ is not something that we do, but something done to us." All the activity is God's: Jesus is dependent on God's response; the disciples are dependent on the Spirit. Something happened not IN the world, but TO the world.
The Resurrection is the decisive point of reference for a new understanding of human existence, the world, and God. A believer understands himself in a different way bec he has become aware of living in the presence of God (Paul going to Damascus story). Seeing the risen Christ is a metaphor for the reorientation of a human life. God does for us what we cannot do for ourselves. Paul did not know the Resurrection narratives of the Gospels, bec they had not been written yet. Jesus is alive bec he 'appeared' to people, including Paul himself. "Resurrection is not an event in history but a metaphor of the divine judgment about Jesus' life and death disclosed to the disciples through the Spirit in the aftermath of the crucifixion. There were no witnesses of the resurrection. It didn't happen in the universe, but to the universe. "Death is overcome with life, despair with hope, sin with salvation, evil with good." God did not avoid pain and death, he overcame them. "To live one's life in terms of this grammar is to live in the sense of the presence of God who ends the world and each individual life by transforming evil into good, death into life, injustice into justice."
____________
The Gospels are a trove of religious experience. And so, as in a literary masterpiece, there are endless insights to be found there. The two commentators mentioned above have different approaches, different emphases, one more Catholic, one more Protestant perhaps. The same differences in understanding can be found within any body of people in either tradition. Understandable. Faith is a relationship. . .
Coakley: Her aim is to illuminate the epistemic reason for the believer seeing the world in a different way from the non-believer. She goes back to Origen's and later Gregory of Nyssa's "spiritual senses" idea. She refers to the 'appearance' (resurrection) stories as signaling a shift in understanding: the Mary at the tomb story, the walk to Emmaus story --that can be interpreted as a progressive "coming to see" which results in a change of life. She bolsters this interpretation with writings from Kierkegaard, and Barth, and with some of the aphorisms of Wittgenstein. Her accent is on how people progress on this way through practice, purgation,prayer.
Dalferth: He objects to Coakley, by emphasizing that re. faith, the initiative is always God's. People contribute nothing to that initiative. "Seeing the risen Christ is not something that we do, but something done to us." All the activity is God's: Jesus is dependent on God's response; the disciples are dependent on the Spirit. Something happened not IN the world, but TO the world.
The Resurrection is the decisive point of reference for a new understanding of human existence, the world, and God. A believer understands himself in a different way bec he has become aware of living in the presence of God (Paul going to Damascus story). Seeing the risen Christ is a metaphor for the reorientation of a human life. God does for us what we cannot do for ourselves. Paul did not know the Resurrection narratives of the Gospels, bec they had not been written yet. Jesus is alive bec he 'appeared' to people, including Paul himself. "Resurrection is not an event in history but a metaphor of the divine judgment about Jesus' life and death disclosed to the disciples through the Spirit in the aftermath of the crucifixion. There were no witnesses of the resurrection. It didn't happen in the universe, but to the universe. "Death is overcome with life, despair with hope, sin with salvation, evil with good." God did not avoid pain and death, he overcame them. "To live one's life in terms of this grammar is to live in the sense of the presence of God who ends the world and each individual life by transforming evil into good, death into life, injustice into justice."
____________
The Gospels are a trove of religious experience. And so, as in a literary masterpiece, there are endless insights to be found there. The two commentators mentioned above have different approaches, different emphases, one more Catholic, one more Protestant perhaps. The same differences in understanding can be found within any body of people in either tradition. Understandable. Faith is a relationship. . .
Displaying 1 of 1 review