(Originally Written April 1, 2009 in the Journal)
Books to Explore
Viking History
Heimskringla (History of the Kings of Norway) - Snorri Sturluson
Voltaire
The Fables of Reason: A study of Voltaire's contes philosophiques - Roger Pearson
La Religion de Voltaire - Rene Pomeau
D'Arouet a Voltaire- Rene Pomeau
Voltaire & English Literature, Studies on Voltaire and the 18th Century
Voltaire en toutes lettres
Voltaire: A biography - Haydn Mason
Voltaire - Haydn Mason
Voltaire dans ses Contes - Jacques Van den Heuvel
Disabled Powers: A Reading of Voltaire's Contes - Robin Howells
Complete Works (Oxford: Voltaire Foundation) - Voltaire
Existentialism
Soren Kierkegaard
Jean-Paul Sartre
Martin Heidegger
Karl Jaspers
Paul Tillich
Other Books
Personal Knowledge - Michael Polanyi
Lectures on the Religious Thought of S. Kierkegaard - E.O. Geisman
Kierkegaard - Walter Lowrie
A Short Life of Kierkegaard - Walter Lowrie
Something about Kierkegaard - David Swanson
What is Existentialism - William Barrett
An Introduction to contemporary German Philosophy - Werner Brock
Existentialism - Guido Ruggiero
The Future of Mankind - Karl Jaspers
Showing posts with label Tillich. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Tillich. Show all posts
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
Thursday, March 1, 2007
Reality and the Existential Need for God
(Originally written March 1, 2007 in Book 13)
Philosophy of Religion
Norman Geisler & Winfried Corduan
The Meaning of Reality
"Reality is more than a subjective condition of human experience" (64).
In dealing with religious experience it seems there is no surefire way of separating the hallucinatory from the real.
There is always the possibility that one's supposed religious experience is actually explainable by purely psychological phenomena.
All experience is subjective, hence religious experience is subjective.
"Religious transcendence must be more than a subjective condition in religious experience before it should be called 'real'" (64).
Reality is more than merely a projection of human imagination.
Religious transcendence is not real if it is merely a projection of human nature.
Ludwig Feuerbach argued that God was really a projection of humanity's ideal man.
Karl Marx believed that religion was a projection of man's hope for the superman in heaven.
Reality is more than an object of wish-fulfillment.
Freud believed religion is an illusion, not in the sense that God is not real, but that it came about from man's wish that there be a God.
Reality is more than a subconscious force in human experience.
Carl Gustav Jung called the collective subconscious the real, but this is insufficient.
"Reality means to have an independent existence"
Transcendence, in order to be real, must exist outside of the mind of those who conceive it and must exist outside of the experiences of the people who experience it.
"Reality means to have an objective existence" (67).
Objective existence means to exist in and of itself, independently of other things.
The Need For Verification
Deception and illusion are possible so there must be some means of determinism whether there is a basis in reality for religious experience.
Kierkegaard held that the need to give evidence for God is evidence of one's choice to reject God.
Kierkegaard believed verifying God's existence was ridiculous,: "For if God does not exist it would of course be impossible to prove it, and if he does exist it would be folly to attempt it". (68).
Kierkegaard held that in order to offer a proof for God's existence one must presuppose that God exists.
He believed that faith, not reason, brings one to God.
Alvin Plantinga echoes Kierkegaard in stating that a belief in God is "properly basic".
Properly basic beliefs are beliefs that one needn't require verification; i.e. "I exist" or "there is a past".
There is a difference between the basis for believing that there is a God and the basis for believing in God.
"One needs evidence to know that there is a God, but one needs faith to commit oneself to the God that the evidence indicates is really there" (68).
Verifying the Reality of Religious Experience
People sense a basic need for God and this is the beginning of religious experience.
Theists and atheists alike have a feeling of dependence and a sense of contingency. But, is there really a God to fulfill the need people sense?
The Need for the Transcendent
Freud analyzed the human need for religion as a purely psychological need.
Religion was an infantile neurosis of mankind for Freud.
The Sense of Absolute Dependence
Freud did not deny the validity of people having religious experience.
"Science can never overcome a human's finitude or sense of cosmic contingency" (70).
Friedrich Schleiermacher takes the sense of cosmic need as the essence of religion.
A feeling of absolute dependence is a religious experience.
There is a need for the Transcendent because of the feeling of absolute contingency.
People sense a need for some Transcendence, whether or not it is really there.
Humanity's Being Unto Death
Martin Heidegger characterized human life as "being-unto-death".
Fear of death or nothingness is the anxiety of all man.
"I am, but I need not be and will not be" (70).
Asking about why one is are evidence of human ontological dependency.
Paul Tillich held that finite beings are ungrounded and must search for grounding, an ultimate grounding.
Does the need for God as ontological grounding of one's being imply that there is really such a grounding?
The Existential Need for God
Jean-Paul Sartre said he needed religion, he needed God and "Had it been denied me, I would have invented it myself" (71).
Sartre maintained that humans have more than a psychological need for God. Sartre held that humans have an existential need for God.
Essay Idea: Needs for God
-Psychological
-Existential
-Ontological
-Religiou
-etc.
Sartre held that "To be man means to reach toward being God" (71).
Man is seeking to be self-determined and self-caused.
The existence of a person cries out to God to give it definition and essence.
Sartre held that while this is man's need and goal, the whole concept is absurd. How can man transcend himself to discover himself?
The need for God is a fundamental, existential need, even if there is no God to fulfill this need.
Philosophy of Religion
Norman Geisler & Winfried Corduan
The Meaning of Reality
"Reality is more than a subjective condition of human experience" (64).
In dealing with religious experience it seems there is no surefire way of separating the hallucinatory from the real.
There is always the possibility that one's supposed religious experience is actually explainable by purely psychological phenomena.
All experience is subjective, hence religious experience is subjective.
"Religious transcendence must be more than a subjective condition in religious experience before it should be called 'real'" (64).
Reality is more than merely a projection of human imagination.
Religious transcendence is not real if it is merely a projection of human nature.
Ludwig Feuerbach argued that God was really a projection of humanity's ideal man.
Karl Marx believed that religion was a projection of man's hope for the superman in heaven.
Reality is more than an object of wish-fulfillment.
Freud believed religion is an illusion, not in the sense that God is not real, but that it came about from man's wish that there be a God.
Reality is more than a subconscious force in human experience.
Carl Gustav Jung called the collective subconscious the real, but this is insufficient.
"Reality means to have an independent existence"
Transcendence, in order to be real, must exist outside of the mind of those who conceive it and must exist outside of the experiences of the people who experience it.
"Reality means to have an objective existence" (67).
Objective existence means to exist in and of itself, independently of other things.
The Need For Verification
Deception and illusion are possible so there must be some means of determinism whether there is a basis in reality for religious experience.
Kierkegaard held that the need to give evidence for God is evidence of one's choice to reject God.
Kierkegaard believed verifying God's existence was ridiculous,: "For if God does not exist it would of course be impossible to prove it, and if he does exist it would be folly to attempt it". (68).
Kierkegaard held that in order to offer a proof for God's existence one must presuppose that God exists.
He believed that faith, not reason, brings one to God.
Alvin Plantinga echoes Kierkegaard in stating that a belief in God is "properly basic".
Properly basic beliefs are beliefs that one needn't require verification; i.e. "I exist" or "there is a past".
There is a difference between the basis for believing that there is a God and the basis for believing in God.
"One needs evidence to know that there is a God, but one needs faith to commit oneself to the God that the evidence indicates is really there" (68).
Verifying the Reality of Religious Experience
People sense a basic need for God and this is the beginning of religious experience.
Theists and atheists alike have a feeling of dependence and a sense of contingency. But, is there really a God to fulfill the need people sense?
The Need for the Transcendent
Freud analyzed the human need for religion as a purely psychological need.
Religion was an infantile neurosis of mankind for Freud.
The Sense of Absolute Dependence
Freud did not deny the validity of people having religious experience.
"Science can never overcome a human's finitude or sense of cosmic contingency" (70).
Friedrich Schleiermacher takes the sense of cosmic need as the essence of religion.
A feeling of absolute dependence is a religious experience.
There is a need for the Transcendent because of the feeling of absolute contingency.
People sense a need for some Transcendence, whether or not it is really there.
Humanity's Being Unto Death
Martin Heidegger characterized human life as "being-unto-death".
Fear of death or nothingness is the anxiety of all man.
"I am, but I need not be and will not be" (70).
Asking about why one is are evidence of human ontological dependency.
Paul Tillich held that finite beings are ungrounded and must search for grounding, an ultimate grounding.
Does the need for God as ontological grounding of one's being imply that there is really such a grounding?
The Existential Need for God
Jean-Paul Sartre said he needed religion, he needed God and "Had it been denied me, I would have invented it myself" (71).
Sartre maintained that humans have more than a psychological need for God. Sartre held that humans have an existential need for God.
Essay Idea: Needs for God
-Psychological
-Existential
-Ontological
-Religiou
-etc.
Sartre held that "To be man means to reach toward being God" (71).
Man is seeking to be self-determined and self-caused.
The existence of a person cries out to God to give it definition and essence.
Sartre held that while this is man's need and goal, the whole concept is absurd. How can man transcend himself to discover himself?
The need for God is a fundamental, existential need, even if there is no God to fulfill this need.
Wednesday, February 14, 2007
Philosophy of Religion - Hick: Ch. 6 (B)
(Originally written February 14, 2007 in Book 7)
Philosophy of Religion
John Hick
Ch. 6 Problems of Religious Language (continued)
Religious statements as symbolic (Tillich)
Tillich claims that faith can only be expressed in symbolic language.
Incarnation and the problem of meaning
The Incarnation represents God's moral qualities being embodied in man, but not his metaphysical qualities.
The life of Jesus Christ is used to show what the meaning of statements about the character of God are, i.e., God is good is meaningful because Jesus (the moral embodiment of God) did good things and possessed the quality of goodness while on earth
Philosophy of Religion
John Hick
Ch. 6 Problems of Religious Language (continued)
Religious statements as symbolic (Tillich)
Tillich claims that faith can only be expressed in symbolic language.
Incarnation and the problem of meaning
The Incarnation represents God's moral qualities being embodied in man, but not his metaphysical qualities.
The life of Jesus Christ is used to show what the meaning of statements about the character of God are, i.e., God is good is meaningful because Jesus (the moral embodiment of God) did good things and possessed the quality of goodness while on earth
Thursday, February 1, 2007
Philosophy of Religion - Hick: Ch. 5 (A)
(Originally written February 1, 2007 in Book 7)
Philosophy of Religion
John Hick
Chapter 5 - Revelation and Faith
It is impossible to establish the existence or non-existence of God via rational arguments proceeding from universally accepted premises.
Chris Linehan - An atheist can never convince a believer that God does not exist if he/she has truly felt God's touch/. But, a believer can never convince an atheist that God exists if he/she has naturalized all of his or her experience. God shows Himself to men and men must then interpret what they have seen.
Philosophy recognizes two ways in which human beings can come to know what may be known:
1) Experience (empiricism)
2) Reasoning (rationalism)
God must be known by experience. "If God exists, God is not an idea but a reality outside us; in order to be known to men and women, God must become manifest in some way within their experience" (Hick, 58).
Chris Linehan: I believe that God can be known solely by experience, but I think He can be known via reasoning. God is a logical necessity; thus, all we need to know is logic and necessity to know God.
The Bible takes God's existence for granted. There are no attempts to prove His existence.
The Biblical writers saw God as an experience reality, not an inferred entity.
God's disclosure of Himself to man is "revelation". Man's response to revelation is "faith".
The Propositional view of Revelation and Faith
Roman Catholicism and conservative Protestantism (as well as the Medieval conception) represent the propositional view of revelation. Revelation in this view is a body of truths expressed in statements and propositions. "Revelation is the imparting to people of divinely authenticated truths" (Hick, 60). Faith under this scheme is a person's obedient acceptance to these truths.
Natural theology and revealed theology have accompanied the propositional view of revelation and faith for centuries.
Natural theology is the sum of all theological truths that can be ascertained by humans without divine assistance. Revealed theology is the sum of truths that can be comprehended only with the assistance of the Divine.
Voluntarist Theories of Faith
Blaise Pascal and William James treat faith as the acceptance of certain beliefs by a deliberate act of will. Both Pascal and James saw it better to believe than not believe because it is so much worse to not believe in something that is true than believe in something that turns out to be false.
F.R. Tennant states that faith always involves risk, but it is via risk that human knowledge is increased.
Tillich's conception of Faith as ultimate concern
Paul Tillich taught, "Faith is the state of being ultimately concerned".
God is the object of man's ultimate concern and our attitude in participating with God is our ultimate concern.
Philosophy of Religion
John Hick
Chapter 5 - Revelation and Faith
It is impossible to establish the existence or non-existence of God via rational arguments proceeding from universally accepted premises.
Chris Linehan - An atheist can never convince a believer that God does not exist if he/she has truly felt God's touch/. But, a believer can never convince an atheist that God exists if he/she has naturalized all of his or her experience. God shows Himself to men and men must then interpret what they have seen.
Philosophy recognizes two ways in which human beings can come to know what may be known:
1) Experience (empiricism)
2) Reasoning (rationalism)
God must be known by experience. "If God exists, God is not an idea but a reality outside us; in order to be known to men and women, God must become manifest in some way within their experience" (Hick, 58).
Chris Linehan: I believe that God can be known solely by experience, but I think He can be known via reasoning. God is a logical necessity; thus, all we need to know is logic and necessity to know God.
The Bible takes God's existence for granted. There are no attempts to prove His existence.
The Biblical writers saw God as an experience reality, not an inferred entity.
God's disclosure of Himself to man is "revelation". Man's response to revelation is "faith".
The Propositional view of Revelation and Faith
Roman Catholicism and conservative Protestantism (as well as the Medieval conception) represent the propositional view of revelation. Revelation in this view is a body of truths expressed in statements and propositions. "Revelation is the imparting to people of divinely authenticated truths" (Hick, 60). Faith under this scheme is a person's obedient acceptance to these truths.
Natural theology and revealed theology have accompanied the propositional view of revelation and faith for centuries.
Natural theology is the sum of all theological truths that can be ascertained by humans without divine assistance. Revealed theology is the sum of truths that can be comprehended only with the assistance of the Divine.
Voluntarist Theories of Faith
Blaise Pascal and William James treat faith as the acceptance of certain beliefs by a deliberate act of will. Both Pascal and James saw it better to believe than not believe because it is so much worse to not believe in something that is true than believe in something that turns out to be false.
F.R. Tennant states that faith always involves risk, but it is via risk that human knowledge is increased.
Tillich's conception of Faith as ultimate concern
Paul Tillich taught, "Faith is the state of being ultimately concerned".
God is the object of man's ultimate concern and our attitude in participating with God is our ultimate concern.
Friday, December 29, 2006
Philosophy of Religion - Hick: Ch. 1 (B)
(Originally written December 29, 2006 in Book 7)
Philosophy of Religion 3rd Edition
John H. Hick
Prentice-Hall Inc.
Englewood Cliffs, NJ
1983
Little Bobby's Birth Date
It's about 6:30 AM and Kathi ought to be being prepped. It won't be long until there will be a new member added to the Thornton family. Luckily, this one will add some testosterone. Maybe it'll balance this house out.
(Philosophy of Religion continued)
Infinite, Self-Existent
Monotheistic faith finds its primary expressions in the commands, prayers, Psalms, prophecies, parables and teachings of the Bible.
The basis of Christianity has been philosophically elaborated throughout the history of Christian thought.
Christianity is more theological articulated than Judaism.
God is infinite or unlimited.
Paul Tillich stated that we ought not to state that God exists because existence is a limitation. The question of God's existence can neither be asked or answered. He held that God is being-itself, not a being.
Tillich maintains that God has a reality that is not the first or the highest, but a completely separate one that gives birth to all other reality.
The Medieval theologians (echoed by Tillich) stated that the creator and the created cannot be stated to exist in the same sense.
The Christian God is and has unlimited being and the divine attributes are ways in which the divine reality has being.
The 1st attribute is self-existence (aseity).
The concept of self-existence has two elements:
1) God has complete and absolute ontological independence
2) God is without beginning or end
Anselm pointed out that God's divine eternity is more than existence without beginning or end. "Indeed you exist neither yesterday nor tomorrow but are absolutely outside all time" (Hick, 8).
Creator
God is the creator of all things. He created everything ex nihilo.
The notion of creation ex nihilo contains two important corollary ideas:
1) The creation can never become the creator.
2) The created realm is absolutely dependent upon God
Aquinas held that the idea of creation does not necessarily rule out the possibility that the created universe may be eternal. But that the Biblical revelation rules out an eternal universe.
Augustine asserts that creation did not take place in time, but time was likewise a creation of God. If Augustine is correct then the relativity theory, which holds that space-time is internally infinite, is correct.
The Creation story is not regarded as a scientific description by "responsible religious thinkers". "It is seen rather as the classical mythological expression of faith that the whole natural order is a divine creation" (Hick, 10).
Origen saw the creation account as figurative.
Personal
God as a personal deity is deeply rooted in Jewish and Christian tradition. God is not an it. He is a divine thou.
Loving, Good
God's goodness, love and grace are virtually synonymous in the New Testament.
Love of God must be understood, but first the notion of the Greek eros and agape (types of love) must be understood.
Eros - desiring love, love evoked by the desirable qualities of the beloved. This love depends on the lovableness of its objects.
God's love for man in the New Testament is agape love.
Agape love is unconditional. It is not dependent upon the lovableness of the objects.
The ultimate of grace is the ultimate of power.
Philosophy of Religion 3rd Edition
John H. Hick
Prentice-Hall Inc.
Englewood Cliffs, NJ
1983
Little Bobby's Birth Date
It's about 6:30 AM and Kathi ought to be being prepped. It won't be long until there will be a new member added to the Thornton family. Luckily, this one will add some testosterone. Maybe it'll balance this house out.
(Philosophy of Religion continued)
Infinite, Self-Existent
Monotheistic faith finds its primary expressions in the commands, prayers, Psalms, prophecies, parables and teachings of the Bible.
The basis of Christianity has been philosophically elaborated throughout the history of Christian thought.
Christianity is more theological articulated than Judaism.
God is infinite or unlimited.
Paul Tillich stated that we ought not to state that God exists because existence is a limitation. The question of God's existence can neither be asked or answered. He held that God is being-itself, not a being.
Tillich maintains that God has a reality that is not the first or the highest, but a completely separate one that gives birth to all other reality.
The Medieval theologians (echoed by Tillich) stated that the creator and the created cannot be stated to exist in the same sense.
The Christian God is and has unlimited being and the divine attributes are ways in which the divine reality has being.
The 1st attribute is self-existence (aseity).
The concept of self-existence has two elements:
1) God has complete and absolute ontological independence
2) God is without beginning or end
Anselm pointed out that God's divine eternity is more than existence without beginning or end. "Indeed you exist neither yesterday nor tomorrow but are absolutely outside all time" (Hick, 8).
Creator
God is the creator of all things. He created everything ex nihilo.
The notion of creation ex nihilo contains two important corollary ideas:
1) The creation can never become the creator.
2) The created realm is absolutely dependent upon God
Aquinas held that the idea of creation does not necessarily rule out the possibility that the created universe may be eternal. But that the Biblical revelation rules out an eternal universe.
Augustine asserts that creation did not take place in time, but time was likewise a creation of God. If Augustine is correct then the relativity theory, which holds that space-time is internally infinite, is correct.
The Creation story is not regarded as a scientific description by "responsible religious thinkers". "It is seen rather as the classical mythological expression of faith that the whole natural order is a divine creation" (Hick, 10).
Origen saw the creation account as figurative.
Personal
God as a personal deity is deeply rooted in Jewish and Christian tradition. God is not an it. He is a divine thou.
Loving, Good
God's goodness, love and grace are virtually synonymous in the New Testament.
Love of God must be understood, but first the notion of the Greek eros and agape (types of love) must be understood.
Eros - desiring love, love evoked by the desirable qualities of the beloved. This love depends on the lovableness of its objects.
God's love for man in the New Testament is agape love.
Agape love is unconditional. It is not dependent upon the lovableness of the objects.
The ultimate of grace is the ultimate of power.
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