The question of whether individuals retain interests or can be harmed after death is highly contentious, particularly within the context of deceased organ retrieval, retention and use. This paper argues that posthumous interests and/or harms can and do exist in the Konkomba traditional setting through the concept of ancestorship, a reputational concept of immense cultural and existential significance in this setting. I adopt Joel Feinberg’s account of harms as a setback to interests. The paper argues that a socio-culturally sensitive regulatory (...) framework does not necessarily exclude the donation of human biomaterials for transplant and science research. Indeed, when customary values are explored with open-mindedness and sensitivity it may be shown that such donation can form part of the important customs of some communities in this jurisdiction. Accordingly, a context-appropriate governance framework could utilise the cultural value of ancestorship as an incentive to encourage organ donation in the Ghanaian traditional setting. (shrink)

This is Warrior Yoga, New York Times bestselling author and retired Navy SEAL Commander Mark Divine's latest contribution to mental and physical achievement exercises started with 8 Weeks to SEALFIT and Unbeatable Mind. This is not your average yoga book. Using Coach Divine's signature integrated training curriculum, Warrior Yoga is an intense physical workout designed for both the nation's elite special ops soldiers, and the regular athlete with the heart and mind of a warrior. His tried and true warrior sequences (...) are designed to be simple and flexible. These short, powerful drills can be done from home or on the road to enhance existing workout regimens and cultivate new ones. The sequences are targeted and focused to adapt to any athlete's physical and mental capabilities including those rehabilitating from injuries and suffering from PTSD. Mark's decades of experience with amateur and professional athletes, active and aspiring Navy SEALS, and wounded warriors uniquely qualify him as an expert motivator and teacher. To be a SEALFITTM Yoga Warrior requires a harmonious balance between mental and physical toughness, strength, and agility. Mark's short digestible exercises will help any athlete hone their fitness routine to reach their fullest potential, combining the physical, emotional and spiritual aspects of an unbeatable mind and body program. (shrink)

Spectres of False Divinity presents a historical and critical interpretation of Hume's rejection of the existence of a deity with moral attributes. In Hume's view, no first cause or designer responsible for the ordered universe could possibly have moral attributes; nor could the existence of such a being have any real implications for human practice or conduct. Hume's case for this 'moral atheism' is a central plank of both his naturalistic agenda in metaphysics and his secularizing program in moral (...) theory. It complements his wider critique of traditional theism, and threatens to rule out any religion that would make claims on moral practice. Thomas Holden situates Hume's commitment to moral atheism in its historical and philosophical context, offers a systematic interpretation of his case for divine amorality, and shows how Hume can endorse moral atheism while maintaining his skeptical attitude toward traditional forms of cosmological and theological speculation. (shrink)

There are various permutations of theism: henotheism, pantheism, panentheism, a/theism, and nontheistic divinity. There is debate whether the idea of OmniGod was ever achieved in India. R. C. Zaehner argued that an evolutionary transition from pratenaturalism of the Vedas to Upaniṣad’s monism, culminated in monotheism with Purāṇas and the _Bhagavad Gītā._ I argue differently, beginning with ancient ritualistic polytheism, followed by unifying One Brahman, toward monistic panentheism and later non-dualism of _advaita_ Vedānta. Under the influence of Asaṅga, Buddhism elevated (...) the Buddha as the Great Divine Replacement. As a response or reaction, Brāhmaṇism forged Īśvara as God with the World as his Body. By 13th century, theistic dualism separated Īśvara from his _creatio._ Even Nyāya rational philosophy was persuaded by monotheism as demonstrated in their teleo-cosmological argument for the existence of Īśvara. I attribute all this to sectarian and doctrinal shifts rather than to any evolutionary teleology and/or predestined historicist movement. (shrink)

In the Xici Commentary on the Zhouyi, we witness the emergence of the two basic concepts characterizing the ultimate reality of human experience. These two basic concepts are, respectively, that of the great ultimate (taiji) and that of the way (dao). Both concepts are derived from human experience of the formation and transformation of things in nature, which are referred to as “bianyi” or ”bianhua” (change).

In the quest for Buddhist reality, the inevitable comparison is made between it and the Brahmanic concept of supreme reality. In some quarters, it is alleged that both systems point at an identical nature of reality and maintain a similar method in arriving at it. After all, the historical Buddha was a Brahmin oriented in the Upaniṣadic tradition. He also engaged himself in the prevailing disciplinary practice of yoga to overcome the ill‐nature of the ordinary self (ātman) and like other (...) fellow Brahmins, he consummated his goal by immersing himself in the Supreme Self (Ātman/Brahman). Proponents go even further to identify this Supreme Self with the contents of Buddhist nirvāna and conclude rather facilely that Buddhism is nothing but an extension of Brahmanic thought. (shrink)

Renaissance philosopher, mathematician, and theologian Nicholas of Cusa (1401-1464) said that there is no proportion between the finite mind and the infinite. He is fond of saying reason cannot fully comprehend the infinite. That our best hope for attaining a vision and understanding of infinite things is by mathematics and by the use of contemplating symbols, which help us grasp "the absolute infinite". By the late 19th century, there is a decisive intervention in mathematics and its philosophy: the philosophical mathematician (...) Georg Cantor (1845-1918) says that between the realm of the finite and the absolute infinite, there is an intermediate realm partaking in properties in a certain sense of both the finite and the infinite: the transfinite realm. Like the finite, the transfinite realm is a realm of mathematical objects, numbers, and knowledge. Like the absolute infinite, the transfinite is a form of infinity insofar as transfinite sets and numbers transcend any finite number. Echoing Cusanus and neo-Platonism, Cantor says that the transfinite sequence of all ordinals is a symbol of the absolutely infinite, that is, God. This paper considers how the doctrine of symbolism and the philosophers' different commitments to the laws of logic, especially the Law of Non-Contradiction (LNC), enables these thinkers to articulate a transcendental apophatic approach to divinity. (shrink)

The Vedas, the Hindu scripture, make it clear that God is one, not only everywhere but also everything, has no name or form and prescribes a monistic and pantheistic perspective. Still devotees of different preferences and inclinations have the option to choose different names and forms for worshipping God. Thus, Hindus worship a very large number of gods and goddesses as aspects or powers of God promoting a distinctive monotheism. The most prominent goddesses are Durga and Kali both of whom (...) are demon-slayers with unlimited power, Parvati a great wife and mother who is highly learned, Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth and Sarasvati, the goddess of learning. The most prominent gods are Brahma, the creator who supervises the beginning of each creative cycle, Vishnu, the god of preservation and Siva, the god of destruction. Vishnu has the largest following followed by Siva, a close second and Brahma, a distant third in following. Vishnu has many incarnations who come to the world to restore righteousness and order when there is great trouble. The two most popular reincarnations are Rama and Krishna, the lead characters respectively of the great epics Ramayana and Mahabharata. (shrink)

Over the past 25 years, no religious institution in America has done more to explore the link between the environment and spirituality than the Cathedral of St. John the Divine. Now, for the first time, a selection of the finest of the Cathedral's ecological sermons appears in a single volume.

In two passages in particular of his Commentary on the Timaeus, Proclus attributes to his master Syrianus a series of arguments in favour of not confining gods or daemons to any particular level of the universe, either hypercosmic or encosmic, as had been the more or less universal practice of earlier Platonists, but asserting the ubiquity of all classes of ‘higher being’ at every level, and criticising earlier doctrine as in effect cutting the gods off from contact with man, thus (...) undermining the power of theurgy. This interesting development was in fact initiated by his Syrian forerunner Iamblichus of Chalkis, and it is this doctrine that this essay seeks to explore. (shrink)

Using the work of Bruno Latour, this book reimagines ayahuasca as liquid divinity, asking fundamental ontological questions that shift the focus from ayahuasca experiences to ayahuasca-based ritual practices that aim at cultivating relationships with more-than-human powers, described by Latour as "beings of transformation and religion.".

The aim of this paper is to deepen in the perception of divinity and its consequent complexities. Theoretically, we consider the Cassirer’s Philosophy of Religion in Language and Myth and in Mythical Thought to apply them to the Ajax by Sophocles. In the methodological framework, we identify a phenomenological order of perceiving deity, composed by four phases: spiritual force, perception of the part, of the parte, and of the personality. In the hermeneutic of the tragedy, we achieved four results: (...) (1) the revelation of destiny and self-revelation of deity express, at the same time, an intentionality of the god; (2) the natural order of the events is structured following divine intention; (3) the tragedy, as community text, revels a religious experience and a cosmological order that needs to be considered. (shrink)

본 논문은 명대 왕양명의 심에 보이는 심의 신성神性과 성성聖性을 규명하는 데 그 목적을 두고 있다. 필자는 왕양명이 말하는 심에는 신성과 성성이 내재하고 있다는 것을 규명함으로써, 먼저 그가 말하는 심에는 궁극적 실재가 내재하고 있다는 것을 이해하고자 하는 것이며. 다음으로 그 궁극적 실재가 왕양명의 심이 종교적인 의미를 지니게 한다는 점을 살펴보고자 한다. 필자는 본 논문에서 왕양명의 이러한 심을 신성과 성성으로 나눠서 검토함으로써, 심에 궁극적 실재가 내재하고 있고, 그러한 심이 종교적인 의미를 지닌다는 점을 살펴본다. 왕양명은 심의 신성에 대한 정당성을 보장받기 위하여 심의 권위를 (...) 하늘ㆍ상제ㆍ천명과 같은 위치에 둔다. 왕양명이 심과 하늘ㆍ상제ㆍ천명을 동일시함으로써, 심은 자연적으로 생리적ㆍ심리적ㆍ피동적ㆍ유한적인 차원을 뛰어넘는다. 그래서 심은 초월적인 궁극적 실재가 존재하는 형이상학적 본체로서 궁극적 진리와 지혜의 원천이 된다. 이러한 심의 신성은 주로 두 가지 측면에서 검토한다. 하나는 우주 자연의 모든 이치를 담고 있는 심이라는 점이다. 다른 하나는 천지만물을 순리적으로 인식하고, 그들에 대해 천리天理의 지혜를 창출해내는 심이라는 것이다. 이렇게 두 가지 측면에서의 심의 신성을 살펴봄으로써, 심에 궁극적 실재 혹은 궁극적 진리가 내재하고 있다는 점을 밝힌다. 심의 성성에 대해서는 두 가지 측면에서 살펴본다. 첫째 ‘마음이 순수한 천리의 상태에 있다[心純乎天理]’는 것이 곧 성스러움[聖]이라는 것이며, 둘째 ‘생각이 성스러움을 만든다[思曰睿, 睿作聖]’는 것이다. 첫째는 주체가 마음을 순수한 천리의 상태가 되도록 함으로써 하늘이 부여한 궁극적 실재인 성性을 회복하고 실현하게 된다는 것이다. 이런 경지가 바로 성스러움[聖]을 얻은 경지라는 점을 밝힌다. 둘째는 양지에서 발하여 작용하는 생각[思]은 천리 아닌 것이 없으며, 이것은 곧 성스러움[聖]을 만들어 내는 동인이라는 것을 밝힌다. 따라서 하늘의 천명인 양지를 실현하게 되면, 성스러움[聖]은 자연히 나타나게 된다는 것을 살펴본다. 결론적으로 왕양명에게 있어서 오로지 심이 절대자이고 삶의 최고의 심판관이다. 왕양명의 이런 심에 대한 인식과 믿음은, 초월적인 신이나 인격신을 믿는 자가 어느 날 별안간 종교적인 체험을 하고 나서 그의 삶과 인생관이 완전히 바뀌는, 그런 종교적인 고백과 같은 확신에 차 있는 것이었다. 왕양명은 심에 궁극적 실재[天理]가 내재하고 있음을 분명하게 통찰한 것이다. 왕양명이 볼 때, 그 궁극적 실재는 몸과 마음이 하나가 되게 하고, 인간과 인간이 서로 사랑할 수 있게 하고, 인간과 우주가 하나가 되게 하는 궁극적 진리와 같은 것이었다. 이러한 심 안의 궁극적 실재ㆍ궁극적 진리를 깨닫게 됨으로써, 그는 심의 완전한 진리와 지혜를 신앙하게 되었고, 그러한 심을 통해서 개인 구원과 사회 구원도 이룰 수 있다고 확신한 것이다. 따라서 왕양명의 심에 대한 확신은 유신론자가 신과 신의 계시를 확신하는 그런 신앙적인 믿음과 서로 유사성이 있다고 볼 수 있다. 왕양명은 유신론적인 신의 타자성이나 영적 타계성을 목표하고 설정하지 않았을 뿐이지, 심 안의 절대자ㆍ심 안의 궁극적 실재를 확신하고 있었던 것이다. (shrink)

Renaissance philosopher, mathematician, and theologian Nicholas of Cusa (1401-1464) said that there is no proportion between the finite mind and the infinite. He is fond of saying reason cannot fully comprehend the infinite. That our best hope for attaining a vision and understanding of infinite things is by mathematics and by the use of contemplating symbols, which help us grasp "the absolute infinite". By the late 19th century, there is a decisive intervention in mathematics and its philosophy: the philosophical mathematician (...) Georg Cantor (1845-1918) says that between the realm of the finite and the absolute infinite, there is an intermediate realm partaking in properties in a certain sense of both the finite and the infinite: the transfinite realm. Like the finite, the transfinite realm is a realm of mathematical objects, numbers, and knowledge. Like the absolute infinite, the transfinite is a form of infinity insofar as transfinite sets and numbers transcend any finite number. Echoing Cusanus and neo-Platonism, Cantor says that the transfinite sequence of all ordinals is a symbol of the absolutely infinite, that is, God. Moreover, Cantor envisioned his transfinite set theory (Mengenlehre) as providing the analytical methods and techniques necessary for a comprehensive, organic, non-reductive description of nature, a Naturphilosophie. Thus Cantor’s novel mathematics is presented as part of a long tradition, to which Cusanus, Bruno, Spinoza, Leibniz and others belong, in which the infinity and infinite character of organic life forms is appreciated, and is in some sense a mirror or symbol of the divine. The doctrine of symbolism and their different approach to the laws of logic present in both the work of Cusanus and Cantor enables these thinkers to articulate a transcendental apophatic approach to divinity. (shrink)

In this paper I explore and defend an interpretation of Calvin’s doctrine of the sense of divinity which implies the following claim: (CSD) All sane cognizers know that God exists. I argue that externalism about knowledge comports well with claim CSD, and I explore various questions about the character of the theistic belief implied by CSD. For example, I argue that CSD implies that all sane cognizers possess functionally rational theistic belief. In the final sections of the paper, I (...) respond to two main objections and argue that CSD is consistent with the existence of various kinds of atheists and agnostics. (shrink)

This article examines the cultural ways in which traditional Judaism understands the relationship between an individual and Divinity. The article shows that this understanding has deep gendered dimensions. Grounded in feminist critiques of theology, as well as in Jewish studies and cultural studies, the article shows that the conceptualization of God-person relationship, in both Orthodox and Kaballic Jewish streams, is based on a hierarchical division to three different spaces. These spaces are: Mitzvah, Grace, and Desire or Will. The Mitzvah (...) is perceived to be the highest space and is represented as 'manly'. The intermediate space-Grace-is represented as a 'good woman' or as 'mother'. This space is characterized by a sacred yearning, as well as by lack of stability and continuity, paralysis, and even death. The lowest space is the space of Desire and personal will, which is culturally represented by a child or a whore-woman. This space is characterized by an attitude of disregard, resistance and fear. The article demonstrates how this cultural division of Divinity in to three, contradicts the declared Jewish position that God/divinity is 'One, Sole and Unique', and points at the inherent need of genderless conceptualization of Divinity in Judaism. (shrink)

No detailed description available for "Berkeley's American Sojourn".

Three leading scholars examine one of the oldest professorships, the Lady Margaret's Chair of Divinity at Cambridge, plotting its development in the context of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century history. The current Lady Margaret's Professor Graham Stanton sets the scene with an introduction briefly considering theology at Cambridge before 1502 and after 1649. In the two main chapters Richard Rex - an authority on John Fisher, first holder of the Chair - deploys new evidence to propose changes in the list of (...) early professors and shows how their appointment and dismissal reflected the vagaries of the Reformation; and Patrick Collinson investigates how the Elizabethan and early Stuart professors continued to be caught up in the religious and political turmoil of the times. There is a complete list of holders from 1502 to the present. (shrink)