My assertion is that God’s biblical image may not reflect entirely His existence in itself as well as His revealed image. Even if God in Himself is both transcendent and immanent at the same time, and He is revealing accordingly in the history of humankind, still the image of God constructed in the writings of the Old Testament is merely the perspective made upon God by His followers to whom the He has revealed. That could be the reason why for (...) centuries God’s biblical image seems to emphasize more His immanence, starting with Pentateuch, where God cohabites with Adam on Earth, then He reveals Himself to Abraham and Moses and so on. Somewhere, after the Babylonian exile, the image suffers slightly differences tilting towards God’s transcendence. In a path already created and grounded by Israel’s ancestors, even this new color of transcendence bears the nuances of immanence. How can this be possible? Let’s take a look on the revelation received by Abraham from God and see how this can fit the profile. Instead of the transcendence of God regarded by others in the differentness of Yahweh appointed by Abraham in his walking out of Mesopotamia, I will prove otherwise, that Abraham is on the contrary proving God’s immanency in this very differentness of His in relation with other gods by providence and omnipresence, indwelling His creation. (shrink)

Phenomenological Pluralism (PP), grounded in the existential phenomenology of Maurice Merleau-Ponty, offers a novel approach to religious pluralism by emphasizing the unique and irreducible experiences individuals and communities have with the divine. Central to PP is the concept of "My (personal) God," which acknowledges that each person's encounter with the divine is uniquely personal and contextually grounded without a genuinely polytheistic implication. Unlike Universalist Pluralism (UP), which seeks common theological ground, and Particularist Pluralism (PaP), which focuses on cultural context, PP (...) asserts that each religion operates within its own distinct reality. This approach fosters deeper interfaith dialogue by appreciating the diversity of spiritual narratives and promoting empathy and inclusivity. PP's practical implications extend to conflict resolution, social integration, and educational advancement, making it a robust framework for understanding and managing religious diversity. By validating the unique spiritual experiences of all participants, PP creates an inclusive environment conducive to genuine interfaith dialogue and societal cohesion. (shrink)

The primary purpose of this study is to understand if/how patients of hospice healthcare require ‘Spiritual’ or/and ‘Religious’ assistance and if its involvement in palliative care helps greatly. We have built a correlative of two scales and administrated them on the same sample, along with complete demographics questions to a group of people under palliative care and several people directly connected with patients, relatives- families. This methodological study is designed to assess the reliability and validity of two scales simultaneously for (...) the same terminally ill patients (TIP): Paloutzian and Ellison’s (1982) Spiritual Well-being Scale. The scale was administered to 49 individuals, of which 45 are patients and 4 family members caring for a terminally ill relative. Background: Coping is a multifactorial and individual process related to responding to stressful situations, such as being a caregiver of a person with health conditions or terminal illness [such as in hospice]. Spiritual [S] / religious [R] coping is an essential internal resource used by individuals enduring stressful situations or, in this particular case, confronting imminent death. Instruments: The 14-item Brief RCOPE is widely used to assess religious coping. The other instrument we have used for S/R assessment is the Spiritual Well-Being (SWB) Scale, a general measure of the subjective quality of life. Neither one is available in the Romanian version Ciocan Tudor-Cosmin (2023) developed following Romanian culture. He worked with Professor Ray Paloutzian - author of the latter scale - to translate and validate the use of the translated scales. Objective: To investigate the S/RWB among palliative care patients in Romania and to identify the correlates of Spiritual and Religious Well-Being. Secondary: To translate, adapt and validate both the 14-item Brief RCOPE and SWBS in Romanian for caregivers of palliative patients facing death. Method: The methodological guideline provided by Ray Paloutzian and Craig W. Ellison was used to examine the psychometric properties of SWBS, while the manual provided by Kenneth Pargament on his website helped us accommodate the Brief RCOPE to Romanian culture and understanding. Results: The linguistic and conceptual equivalence of the scales was determined. The internal consistency was acceptable (Cronbach’s a = 0.891 for SWBS and a = 0.798 for RCOPE). The Principal Axis Factor (PAF) analysis with varimax rotation identified two factors comprising 13 items, and one item was excluded from the scale (14/RCOPE). The faith subscale (SWBS) showed similar distributions. Christians engaged in religious activities reported higher SWB in the meaning and peace subscale than patients without religious attendance. In the multivariate analysis, religious Frequency (P < 0.001), and individual spiritual activities (P < 0.003) were significantly related to a greater SWB. Conclusion: The Romanian versions of the SWBS and Brief RCOPE are reliable and valid measures for assessing both the spiritual and religious coping of patients in hospice, their families, and their caregivers. Although faith practices may be beneficial to improve spiritual well-being among Orthodox Christians (the majority in Romania), further research is needed to determine what individual spiritual activities can be supported by Orthodox Christians positively engaged – since they are very skeptical about practices other than religious ones, introduced by the traditional Church. (shrink)

This article examines the subtle interconnection between the sanctity of life and individual autonomy within the context of assisted dying, as seen through the lens of Orthodox Christianity. It seeks to unravel the complex theological, ethical, and pastoral considerations that inform the Orthodox stance on end-of-life issues, particularly the nuanced understanding of suffering, death, and the redemptive potential encapsulated within them. Orthodox theology, with its profound veneration for life as a divine gift, offers a counter-narrative to contemporary discourses that often (...) prioritize personal autonomy and the alleviation of suffering above all. This tradition emphasizes the transformative power of suffering when united with Christ’s own redemptive suffering, proposing a vision of end-of-life care that is rooted in compassion, dignity, and hope for resurrection. The exploration begins with a historical and theological examination of the Orthodox perspective on life’s sanctity, engaging with the teachings of Church Fathers and contemporary theological and bioethical discussions. It highlights the foundational concepts of Orthodox anthropology, which perceives human beings as an indivisible unity of body and soul, reflecting the imago Dei. This anthropological understanding challenges reductionist views of human existence and informs the Orthodox approach to medical ethics, palliative care, and the spiritual accompaniment of the dying. By critically evaluating arguments for and against assisted dying, the article presents a balanced discourse that respects the depth of individual suffering while upholding the intrinsic value of life. It argues that Orthodox Christianity, through its rich theological heritage and pastoral practice, provides a compassionate and ethically nuanced framework for navigating the moral complexities of assisted dying. This framework advocates for an end-of-life care that honors the fullness of the human person, supports the spiritual journey toward eternal life, and fosters a communal embrace of life’s sacred threshold, offering a dignified passage that aligns with the faith’s deepest convictions about human destiny and divine grace. (shrink)

This article explores the concept of 'adaptive symbiosis' between religion and culture, challenging the notion of religions as static or immutable entities by showcasing their dynamic engagement with and adaptation to local cultural contexts. The notion of ‘adaptive symbiosis’ transcends mere coexistence or amalgamation, embodying a deep, complex process of mutual adaptation. Within this evolutionary dance, both religion and culture emerge not merely as participants but as co-creators of a new reality. Through the examination of various religious traditions—such as Christianity, (...) Islam, Buddhism, and others—it illustrates how religions evolve in symbiotic relationships with host cultures, leading to the creation of hybrid cultural-religious identities. Highlighting the mechanisms of biological adaptation—mutualism, amensalism, commensalism, and parasitism—as metaphors, the article delves into the complex interplay between religious teachings and cultural integration. It argues against viewing religions as immutable, instead presenting them as evolving entities that contribute to the richness and diversity of human civilization, especially in the context of globalization. This dynamic, evolving space of adaptive negotiations underlines the importance of understanding the fluid nature of cultural and religious boundaries in contributing to novel forms of expression and identity. Through this exploration, we aim to shed light on the enduring and evolving relationship between religion and culture, highlighting how this dynamic interplay contributes to the richness and diversity of human civilization. (shrink)

My intention is to improve the receiving of the idea of ‘interfaith dialogue and mutual acceptance’ for Romanian people in general and foremost on their teachers, by writing a handbook for teaching it to the students and future public opinion formatters. It is a requirement nowadays firstly to make people understand the benefits of interfaith, then to make them believe it is the only solution of the social common living in such a religiously diverse society, and finally provide methodological and (...) technical support for those who want to become the voices of interfaith in their own environment. I need to lift my training to that level that I can improve myself, maturing from a religious pluralism embracer to a trainer, professionally prepared and systematic instructed. For that matter, this paper is not an unassisted research presentation, but a proposal from which I would like to evolve to a fully developed result that I will share with our Dialogo readers when published. (shrink)

Just as there are people who are born with certain sensory limits or altered sensitivity (+/-) and perceive the outside world differently, so there are several ‘stimuli’ that alter our subjective perception (+/-) of reality (re)giving a different/distorted image of it, the religious faith being one of those. This role is played, for example, by a strong emotional motivation: when someone who strongly believes that he resists fire [or mentally ignores this factor] to save his/her child becomes unaffected by fire (...) in an extreme situation of ambition and elimination of logical reasons for self-preservation; or someone religiously strongly motivated on thinking that he is ‘divinely sent’ to identify and eliminate opponents of divine forces, will attempt all possible steps (violence, terrorism, genocide) to stop these factors, regardless of human ‘reality’ put into play. Therefore, we initiate a series of articles focusing on the dialogue between several domains for the same purpose: What are the factors involved in altering the image of reality, how is a mentally constructed the image of reality in the stages of psychic development, what are the ‘stimuli’ that can distort that image and who can ‘manipulate’ them, but also who can be the ‘correctors’ of these image distortions. (shrink)

The main purpose of this study is to understand how the ‘laws’ of the cross-cultural model apply to cross-religions/interreligious communications with populations from different cultures amid migration. The aim is to identify the steps in which the cross-culture model generally works and if they apply the same way to the religious realm or not. Being able to navigate through different cultural nuances is a key-skill for us all nowadays, amid globalization, migration, and across borders exchange, while religious/spiritual aids can be (...) a beneficial factor in such a ‘new’ environment. (shrink)

This seventeen issue of DIALOGO [2023] is dedicated to the multi-theme `Freedom, Human Rights, Global Crises, Solidarity & Values ` - addressing several actual issues with a central focus on human rights, seen in our society nowadays concerning globalization amid global crises that occurred in the latest years, and beyond towards a holistic approach of private vs universal values. Finally, DIALOGO collates several articles relating to the empirical measurement of religion and health—an increasingly important area of research. We start our (...) endeavor with the inquiry, “What can we do to preserve human rights and values amid social changes?”. (shrink)

My assertion is that God’s biblical image may not reflect entirely His existence in itself as well as His revealed image. Even if God in Himself is both transcendent and immanent at the same time, and He is revealing accordingly in the history of humankind, still the image of God constructed in the writings of the Old Testament is merely the perspective made upon God by His followers to whom the He has revealed. That could be the reason why for (...) centuries God’s biblical image seems to emphasize more His immanence, starting with Pentateuch, where God cohabites with Adam on Earth, then He reveals Himself to Abraham and Moses and so on. Somewhere, after the Babylonian exile, the image suffers slightly differences tilting towards God’s transcendence. In a path already created and grounded by Israel’s ancestors, even this new color of transcendence bears the nuances of immanence. How can this be possible? Let’s take a look on the revelation received by Abraham from God and see how this can fit the profile. Instead of the transcendence of God regarded by others in the differentness of Yahweh appointed by Abraham in his walking out of Mesopotamia, I will prove otherwise, that Abraham is on the contrary proving God’s immanency in this very differentness of His in relation with other gods by providence and omnipresence, indwelling His creation. (shrink)

We are witnesses to a major reshaping of our world: the World and our lives as we used to know are ending and they are reshaping constantly and drastically under pressure. Everything we knew about this world, our old habits, values, human rights, ethical patterns et all. These days, since the pandemic outburst, I saw the perceptions we have/had on religious impositions and requirements changing for an unprecedented behavior and inconsiderably reshaping religious phenomenon could have ever think of. With the (...) title taken from the topic of this volume, Inspired by the conference titled, we have tried to envision the actual human environment through the ongoing pandemic that revolutions the entire human society in a way we had never considered as possible and so that we will not recognize in a year or so. Following the Philosophy of Dialectics and seeing a larger number of possibilities beyond those that were revealed to us in most obvious ways, we wonder thus, what makes us, in fact, do these changes – is the pandemic itself and its requirements or is it just US, humans, that were long longing for a change, a motif to do it all new again? It is though a human-divine desire to anew all from time to time and seek a reboot to all wrongness that grows in the world. (shrink)

This paper is trying to put together two different researches, from theology and from genetics, about a general and undetermined topic, death. It is undetermined because no one can say something demonstrable and unequivocal about it, since no person alive can cross over the edge of life and come back from the domain of death with information about it. But we can discuss nevertheless things that are obvious and possible to be reasonably inferred about death even by livings. In this (...) regard Theology will provide the mainline of what is to be known as death for religion in general, while Genetics will try to come with its research to sustain or contradict the general premise: death is not an ontological behavior of living matter, but an imposed attribute after the sin occurred into the world. (shrink)

The way in which the “traditional” system of education ends up deflecting people's attention from the things that make us, human beings, a whole, a species, and a unity, is constantly and ascendingly challenged and thought against. Currently, we need to find out what features of the former educational system, especially those institutionalized, maintained by the school and society, are highlighted here to be eliminated and what is their authentic value in the system. In the present approach, we will refer, (...) as an example, to religious education. These characteristics that we intend to discuss here do not target a “radical” pedagogy but question the educational system in relation to the inclusion-exclusion binomial. The stereotype, bias, and pretentious choices strained by exclusivism through education actually dehumanize us and stress on features that do not honor us. Is it possible to ever lose them along with all their harmful social consequences? (shrink)

Ancient beliefs such as astral projection, human possession, abduction and other similar are not only universal, taught by all religions, but also used as premises for core believes/expectations, such as after-life, eternal damnation, reincarnation, and many others. Transferring Consciousness to a Synthetic Body is also a feature of interest in our actual knowledge, both religious as for science. If immortality were an option, would you take it into consideration more seriously? Most people would probably dismiss the question since immortality isn’t (...) a real deal to contract. But what if having eternal life was a possibility in today’s world? The possibility of the transfer of human consciousness to a synthetic body can soon become a reality, and it could help the world for the better. Thus, until recently, the subject was mostly proposed by religion(s) and saw as a spiritual [thus, not ‘materially real’ or ‘forthwith accomplishable’] proposal therefore not really fully engaged or trust if not a religious believer. Now, technology is evolving, and so are we. The world has come to a point where artificial intelligence is breaking the boundaries of our perception of human consciousness and intelligence. And with this so is our understanding about the ancient question ‘who are we?’ concerning consciousness and how this human feature sticks to our body or it can become an entity beyond the material flesh. Without being exhaustive with the theme's development [leaving enough room for further investigations], we would like to take it for a spin and see how and where the religious and neuroscience realms intersect with it for a global, perhaps holistic understanding. Developments in neurotechnology favor the brain to broaden its physical control further the restraints of the human body. Accordingly, it is achievable to both acquire and provide information from and to the brain and also to organize feedback processes in which a person's thoughts can influence the activity of a computer or reversely. (shrink)

When we talk about dialogue, we always start looking for ways to best present the content of our speech. Approaching another through dialogue does not seem to care too much about the will or desire to accept the otherness for dialogue even if this is the basis of the binary formula of dialogue. Yet, in the case of religious dialogue, things are not at all so clear or proactive; instead, this (accepting otherness) is usually the central issue of interreligious dialogue. (...) However, when we finally manage to bring together two or more religious representatives for dialogue, the most intriguing aspect of the dialogue is less emphasized on the content and issues to be brought to the attention of the participants and more on the issue of accepting, tolerating all others’ traditions through this dialogue. Nervousness, anxiety, discomfort, and squirming are the habitual and, even more shocking, "expected" features in interfaith dialogue. Well, if this is the main problem in interfaith - being able to bring acceptance in this "toxic" environment - then this would be a step forward. But probably all these are since, at present, the construction of interreligious dialogue is still in progress, about to be polished and become a formal custom, an emerging tradition of the current era. However, is the content that all participants in the interfaith dialogue bring, our particular traditions, to blame for this challenge? Can they help us build the bridge or, on the contrary, put interfaith in a limbo state, waiting for a redeemer? To pinpoint the direction in which interreligious dialogue is heading, we must better evaluate and understand a "tradition", what it is, how it works, and why it is developed and preserved. What is the significance of a tradition for people in general and a religious group in particular? How deeply rooted is it in human thinking and how valuable to fight for it? And then, can we consider changing, altering, or even removing a whole tradition from our perspective? If so, [regardless of the response] what is then the impact of [any] tradition on us and our reactions to the current issues, therefore to human endeavor? This article illustrates the role that tradition plays in peoples' views of the world and how tradition influences their behavior and attitudes toward certain practices and against a current acquisition of interreligious relationships, namely interreligious dialogue. (shrink)

This is a follow-up to the practical research on hospice healthcare patients that proved they need either ‘Spiritual’ or/and ‘Religious’ assistance and that these needs are basic, natural, and almost standard. Since that research with direct involvement in palliative care greatly helps the multidisciplinary team develop an improved intervention plan, I thought additional explanations are necessary. In this regard, I have written this article to further interpret my observations on palliative care over the last couple of years. To conclude most (...) straightforwardly, the research draws a demarcated line between how people in ‘total suffering’ relate to Spiritual vs. Religious assistance as these two ways are very similar on the surface, but when engaged, they start building distinct, self-sustaining paths. Why is that, and how can each assist hospice - this is the target of the current text. (shrink)

All the religious traditions raise endless prayers for living aids, those spread all over human lives. Without the hope that in all our needs and trials we have ‘someone’ to second us, so powerful that can help us overcome anything that stands in our path (more accurate 'against our wish'), most religious traditions would not be given any consideration, for humans become religious mostly when falling into a trial of life. By this hope religiousness flourishes and religious offer develops. Still, (...) there is another way of considering prayer, one of spiritual becoming, diverse, and at the same time equally tender. It doesn’t offer goods, or aids, or anything specific, instead, it is professed by many spiritual persons that stood in the divine’s company. Theologians call it apophasis, spiritualists call it contemplation. Non-believers assert that the ‘responses’ of prayers followed by the ‘altering’ of reality is merely a mental projection, a Placebo effect of believing in prayer’s effect, or even just a mere coincidence. Either way, we need to learn prayer’s genuine significance and what it really provides. As for the subtitle, it is an allusion to the ancient game of Go whose main skill is to 'know' in advance tens, hundreds, or even infinite moving variables with their follow-ups, so you can be prepared and have a prepared answer every time to any move the teammate would make. (shrink)

Starting from the traditional approaches to teaching science and religion we discuss modern pedagogical methods based on inquiry. We explore whether and how the teaching methods specific to each discipline may benefit in the teaching of the other.

The Soul is considered, both for religions and philosophy, to be the immaterial aspect or essence of a human being, conferring individuality and humanity, often considered to be synonymous with the mind or the self. For most theologies, the Soul is further defined as that part of the individual, which partakes of divinity and transcends the body in different explanations. But, regardless of the philosophical background in which a specific theology gives the transcendence of the soul as the source of (...) its everlasting essence – often considered to survive the death of the body –, it is always appraised as a higher existence for which all should fight for. In this regard, all religious beliefs assert that there are many unseen battles aiming to take hold of the human soul, either between divinity and evil, or between worlds, or even between the body and the soul itself. These unseen battles over the human soul raging in the whole world made it the central item of the entire universe, both for the visible and the unseen worlds, an item of which whoever takes possession will also become the ruler of the universe. Through this philosophy, the value of the soul became abysmal, incommensurable, and without resemblance. The point for making such a broad overview of the soul in religious beliefs is the question of whether we can build an interfaith discourse based on the religions’ most debated and valuable issue, soul? Regardless of the variety of religious beliefs on what seems to be the soul, there is always a residual consideration in them that makes the soul more important than the body. This universal impression is due to another belief or instead need of believing that above and beyond this seen, palpable, finite life and the world should exist another one, infinite, transcendent, and available all the same after here. This variety stretches from the minimum impact that soul has on the body, as being the superior essence that inhabitants and enlivens the matter, to the highest impact in which soul has nothing to do with matter[1] and is only ephemeral linked to it, but its existence is not at all limited, defined or depended on the matter [2], or even placed to the extreme, as the very life of the matter thus this seen universe is merely a thought in the soul/mind [3]. In this extensive variety of soul overviews, the emphasis of the soul’s importance gives an inverse significance to the body/matter, from being everything that matters to a thin, dwindle item that has no existence at all outside consciousness. (shrink)

The new Coronavirus, namely Sars-CoV-2, took the world by surprise and grew into a pandemic worldwide in a couple of months since the beginning of 2020. It managed to lockdown at home almost half of the world population under the threat of illness and sudden death. Due to the extreme medical advises of containing the spread and damages of this threat, mostly directed towards social distancing, public gatherings cancelation, and contact tracing, each State imposed such regulations to their people and (...) for all areas of social activity, including the religious ones. This articles analyses four topics: 1. Restrictions imposed by the State and reactions by religious organizations. The theological-ethical response focused on the fact that all religions what to save lives and defeat death. 2. The pandemic shows the sensitive relation between the State and religions and shows the differences in power relations in the different countries. The theological-ethical response calls for a partnership between the State and the religions in their territory. 3. The relation between science and religion is tested during the pandemic. Whereas the majority of believers adhere to scientific results, a good part refuses scientific knowledge. The theological-ethical response of the authors is that science and religion are complementary and not contradictory. 4. Pandemics as situations of high uncertainty are often accompanied by conspiracy theories that claim to know who is guilty for the disaster, who is the scapegoat, which has to be punished. The theological-ethical response gives theological reasons to say no to conspiracies and scapegoats and yes to take responsibility wherever we are in order to save lives. (shrink)

The link between seen and unseen, matter and spirit, flesh and soul was always presumed, but never clarified enough, leaving room for debates and mostly controversies between the scientific domains and theologies of a different type; how could God, who is immaterial, have created the material world? Therefore, the logic of obtaining a result on this concern is first to see how religions have always seen the ratio between divinity and matter/universe. In this part, the idea of a world personality (...) is implied by many, so that nature itself was transformed into a person ; others have seen within the universe/the world a Spirit ruling all, connecting all and bending all to God’s commands. In a way or another, every culture has gifted the universe/nature with the capability of ruling all, seeing everything and controlling, even determining facts by connecting all together with a Great Spirit. What is this Great Spirit of all and where it resides? With the analogy of human body in relation to his Spirit we will try to figure out a place or vehicle for the Spirit to dwell the body, and the Great Spirit the matter. The Christianity names this linkage between God and matter as ‘the created grace of God’, which indwells matter and helps the Creator move and transform things. Is there any scientific argument to sustain such assertion? Can we argue somehow that God’s voice makes matter vibrate from within the way it can recombine primer elements into giant stars to the human body? If so, what should be the ratio between theology and science on this issue and with these assertions? How could God command to matter to bring things and beings out of it and what were the material leverages that was supposed to be operated to accomplish His will? However, if we can assume that God resides in the universe – as a whole, His body, or as in its very fabric – can we also figure out how is this even possible, without transforming our explanation into a pantheistic and immanent exclusive one? Through these ‘divine leverages within matter’ theory, there is no need for questioning evolutionism, creationism, pantheism, deism and many other cosmological hypotheses any longer. (shrink)

While spreading wide-world, the new coronavirus Sars-CoV-2 made changes in many social departments of our society on levels we never thought about and messes with all our cultural habits. Thus, we witnessed that the religious denominations took into consideration changes without precedent in their cultic history and thus dogmatic as well concerning the actual threat of Coronavirus. We saw for example the Roman-Catholic Church who suspended all masses here and there[1] at first or banned the crucial gestures in rituals [to (...) suspend the distribution of Holy Communion from the Chalice[2], to distribute the Eucharist preferably into the hands of the faithful, and to avoid the physical contact from a peaceful handshake, to forego ash crosses on forehead, to suspend placing water in holy water fonts at the entrance of churches, that the churchgoers "refrain" from kissing or touching the cross for veneration, or even cancellation of masses]. We witnessed Buddhist temples and Protestant churches around Korea [at first] and beyond that have also suspended religious gatherings, and so on. In my case, the Romanian Orthodox Church did the same thing[3], but in a controversial way, firstly making some recommendations for its believers [e.g. not to kiss public icons in Churches, but their indoor ones, and receive Holy Communion with teaspoons for single-use]; afterward same Church reconsidered these recommendations and withdrew its decision [perhaps at the pressure of civil fundamentalists]. How can we qualify all these measures and, moreover, the withdrawal on behalf of religious believers, as weakness, populism, diligence, assuming the human limits, or...something else? What would be the correct and coherent answer religion should assume in this particular regard, and especially what are the reasons to qualify it in a way or another? (shrink)

In philosophy of religion the term of Immanence is mostly applied to GOD in contrast to the divine Transcendence. This relation, as we will see here, it is not far from the truth since one cannot be without the other, however they are not to be put in contrast, but in conjunction. The one-sided insistence on the immanence of God, to the exclusion of His transcendence, leads to Pantheism, just as the one-sided insistence upon His transcendence, to the exclusion of (...) His immanence, leads to Deism. These two can be separated, but the consequences are great for human knowledge and society; it is the two taken together that result in, and are necessary to Theism. But from the least complicated idea that even the name of God is a manifestation of His immanence contrasting with Deus absconditus, whose existence and name cannot be known or thought, theology and religion in general need to regard immanence of God as crucial for the acts of worship. What are the philosophical background for Christian theology to imply the immanence characteristic for God’s existence related to His creation? – This is the main question the present work tries to answer as an overview. (shrink)

The experiments of quantum physics indicate that an electron will change its behavior/ reality depending on whether or not the electron is being observed as if the particle is aware that it is being observed. The reality thus is presumed to be, or only to be thought of as a scenario that can be altered, changed, or imagined differently depending on the observer or the screenwriter. Our historical development made us think that the reality has as many facets as we (...) want it to have, and none is more real than the other, as long there is a self-conscious being aware of it even if it has more accuracy or it stands on more evidence or arguments each proponent can bring into it. Therefore, a world full of unseen creatures that moves and determines a child’s life is not less authentic than one full of invisible particles making the world running and moving for a scientist. Each has its proofs, trials, ways of probation, so it is entirely entitled to be considered ‘real.’ However, what happens when concurrent theories over the same circumstance pronounce several valid testimonies? Do we have to pronounce either their validity based on the evidence brought by their proponents or should we consider only one of them? On what grounds can we make either these selections? It would be wrong to say that the reality is, in fact, the construct of a multitude of layers, each with different consistency and evidence, each real and provable, therefore each entitled to be called ‘reality’? Hence, consciousness can change reality just by being aware of it. In this context, we will also take into account the story of creation and see how it fits in this context. (shrink)

For me, as a teacher in a theological faculty, the discussion about ecumenical movement and interfaith usually crosses roads with colleagues or students. There is no occasion in which these two are not placed under the same roof, overlaid or confused. That is why the sudden preoccupation to settle this topic as clear as I can so that it can stand for a groundwork when researching about this relationship. Their overlapping is probably the most common hindrance and at the same (...) time indictment for the DIR movement of its “least-connoisseurs”, namely that DIR is a new figment of promoting ecumenical globalization. After I myself faced in classroom students with these assumptions, I thought it is appropriate to add this chapter and explain why DIR is nothing of what the ecumenical movement wanted to be. (shrink)

This paper was made as part of a wider research I made about rituals and their meaning and roles they are playing in the religious system of thinking. The way they are thought, displayed, precisely followed as instructed and believed, makes them a powerful social act that has been always provided by any religion, and also a tool for religion to make the human society what it is today. After I speak about what is a ritual and its religious content (...) in general, I am enumerating roles and functions of play and theatre in particular have, both for profane and religious purpose. Do we still use play/games as adults because they are rewarding, they give us pleasure? They are used as means of relaxation, or for continuing the age of childhood; or it is in our nature to play games in everything we do? In this paper I have emphasized play as adaptive potentiation or adaptive variability useful both in therapy, as in religious ceremony. The relation and comparison of rituals with play is due to the fact that playing is the most engaging behavior performed by man and animals, and it can be found as foundation of almost any ritualist activity. (shrink)

There is consistent evidence that everything coming out from the religious/spiritual phenomenon bends us most harshly. And that occurs regardless of the form religiousness or spirituality takes in practice or theory, despite the broad range of embracing religious concepts and creeds from atheism to fanatism, or moreover disregarding the impossibility of labeling as good or wrong these creeds from another perspective than the one that produced it. Many people adhere to religion for the sake of their souls, but it turns (...) out that regular participation in faith-based activities is good for the body and mind, too. Whether we are talking from a social perspective, or a psychological, mental, or bodily one, religious creeds and/or faith-based activities change us in a way or another, nearly for good and incessantly. Is that a good or a wrong thing? – the problem is that we cannot even assess this except from the same perspective that originates it, which makes even more difficult to analyze the religious phenomenon, especially for its better eventual management. Could this be a motif for lesser religious engagement in the civil societies characterized by a decreasing religious attachment? (shrink)

We have used the term 'fetish' in a broader sense and especially related to the functions that a 'fetish' has in society. We are talking either about the tags that any 'fetish' receives [as undesirable, unwanted, forbidden, and peculiar], or about the uncertainty of its social approval, about the coagulating role it plays on individuals with the same repulsive vision/orientation that were previously unidentifiable, or many other aspects under which a so-called fetish works socially. The object or action in question (...) passes from individual preference to the group emblem and then determines its actions and ideas, internally as well as in social exchanges with other groups. This is done in a fetishistic way with everything that is 'new' emerging in society, either previously non-existent, or competitive with something already standardized, or - as in the case of many fetishes - forbidden and socially stigmatized. If the first category does not meet a social resistance and does not end up turning into a fetish, for the group and the society, the other two have all the advantages to do so. The odd - competitive and forbidden alternatives - becomes the fetish for the group that adopts it as its emblem because it later regulates all its actions, as well as for the Society, because it keeps around the group and its actions the atmosphere in the sphere of fetishism - equivocal, promiscuous, and detestable. But precisely these very fetishistic attributes are the same ones that determine society to fight against the group and its 'fetish', new and peculiar, that also help disparate individuals to identify with that fetus, to coagulate as a group borrowing precisely this infamous, shameless identity. Therefore, the question we try to find answers here is but legitimate: since and until when oddity is ‘odd’? (shrink)

Obesity is one of the most significant public health challenges and becomes a public health problem. Consumption of fast-food, which have high energy densities and glycemic loads, and expose customers to excessive portion size, is frequently associated with weight gain, therefore, it is hypothesized that relative availability of fast-food is a risk for obesity.

The aim of this article is to examine the problematic frontier that separates the phenomenology of the body and the phenomenology of animality. The main difficulty is to differentiate phenomenologically not only between embodiment and animality, but also between specifically human embodied experience and what is accessible to us through empathy in relation to the corporeality of the animal. I will tackle these questions by considering relevant textual material from the writings of Edmund Husserl and Martin Heidegger. On the one (...) hand, I will show that although embodiment and animality are convergent on the level of the naturalistic attitude in Husserl’s Ideas II, they are divergent as soon as we place ourselves in the personalistic attitude, where the body enters into a different conjunction—namely, with the idea of person and of the spiritual world. On the other hand, Heidegger claims that, in spite of the abysmal bodily kinship with the animal, there is an essential difference between the human body and the animal organism, thus opposing the tendencies to humanize the animal and to animalize the human. (shrink)

The purpose of this article is to analyze the significance of the absence of the problem of living body in Heidegger's analytic of Dasein. In order to evaluate the occurrences of the problem of the body in Being and Time, I also refer to the context of some of Heidegger's later work where there is to be found a sketch of an ontological investigation of the living body. I analyze then in detail the scarce occurrences of body in the fundamental (...) ontology, showing finally that the lack of a proper phenomenological examination of living body generates a series of conceptual difficulties for the problem of Dasein's death, precisely when the issue of dead body is at stake. (shrink)

RésuméDans cet article, j'analyse deux approches du phénomène du geste, tel qu'il est constitué par l'incarnation, l'intersubjectivité, l'affectivité et le langage : tandis que Martin Heidegger affirme que le mouvement corporel humain dans son ensemble doit être compris comme geste par opposition au mouvement spatial des choses, Vilém Flusser intègre sous cette notion une multitude de pratiques et d'activités humaines que le sens commun hésite à appeler gestes. Le dilemme de la phénoménologie du geste consiste dans cette tension entre la (...) concrétude plurielle des apparences gestuelles et la tentation irrépressible d'identifier une couche unitaire qui leur permettrait de tenir ensemble. (shrink)

Vilém Flusser’s chiro-phenomenology fills an essential gap in scholarship by expanding and reinterpreting the ontological significance of gestures, focusing on the hand as a crucial site for understanding the embodied nature of human existence. This article explores Flusser’s unique contribution to the phenomenology of the hand, highlighting why his approach is necessary for a fuller understanding of gesture and embodiment. I begin by emphasizing the relevance of the hand in understanding gestures, arguing that phenomenology provides rich resources for this inquiry. (...) Within the phenomenological tradition, two distinct perspectives emerge: Husserl and Merleau-Ponty, who concentrate on the perceptive and kinesthetic dimensions of the hand, and Heidegger and Levinas, who explore its ontological significance, viewing the hand as essential to human existence. I position Flusser within this ontological framework but show how he departs from his predecessors by developing an original manual approach that centers on the ‘gesture of making.’ By analyzing the eleven constitutive moments of this gesture, I demonstrate how Flusser’s chiro-phenomenology views gestures not only as expressive or communicative acts but as fundamental possibilities for human being-in-the-world. His work thus offers a crucial extension of phenomenology’s understanding of the body and action. (shrink)

In this article, I will discuss the Husserlian phenomenology of animality, by focusing on several texts of the 1920s in which the animal is determined as an abnormal variation of the human being. My aim is to address the question of the abnormality of the animal by reintegrating it in its original context, which is Husserl’s theory of normality. I will sketch the general framework of this theory, its articulations and strata, in order to eventually raise some paradoxical issues, specifically (...) in relation to how the question of animality is interpreted through the couple normality/abnormality. (shrink)

Vilém Flusser’s chiro-phenomenology fills an essential gap in scholarship by expanding and reinterpreting the ontological significance of gestures, focusing on the hand as a crucial site for understanding the embodied nature of human existence. This article explores Flusser’s unique contribution to the phenomenology of the hand, highlighting why his approach is necessary for a fuller understanding of gesture and embodiment. I begin by emphasizing the relevance of the hand in understanding gestures, arguing that phenomenology provides rich resources for this inquiry. (...) Within the phenomenological tradition, two distinct perspectives emerge: Husserl and Merleau-Ponty, who concentrate on the perceptive and kinesthetic dimensions of the hand, and Heidegger and Levinas, who explore its ontological significance, viewing the hand as essential to human existence. I position Flusser within this ontological framework but show how he departs from his predecessors by developing an original manual approach that centers on the ‘gesture of making.’ By analyzing the eleven constitutive moments of this gesture, I demonstrate how Flusser’s chiro-phenomenology views gestures not only as expressive or communicative acts but as fundamental possibilities for human being-in-the-world. His work thus offers a crucial extension of phenomenology’s understanding of the body and action. (shrink)

Cet ouvrage est la première monographie systématique d'expression française dédiée exclusivement au problème heideggérien de la mort. Il se donne pour tâche de clarifier tout l'enjeu de cette question capitale de la pensée de Martin Heidegger. La nouveauté de cette étude réside dans une approche systématique et précise de Sein und Zeit, à partir d'une clarification rigoureuse de la notion d'Existenzial, en interprétant le problème de la mort dans l'articulation des structures fondamentales de l'être du Dasein. Cette approche permet non (...) seulement d'expliciter les différentes couches ontologiques où intervient le phénomène de la mort dans l'analytique existentiale, mais aussi de mettre en lumière la rigueur de l'analyse heideggérienne et la systématicité de sa démarche. En outre, cette investigation explore l'intégralité de la pensée de Heidegger : des écrits de jeunesse jusqu'aux textes les plus tardifs, l'ouvrage retrace non seulement la genèse complexe de cette question, mais aussi son évolution arborescente. (shrink)

In this paper, I will discuss the Heideggerian interpretation of death in relation with two fundamental structures of the existential analysis: understanding and state-of-mind . In the first part, I will highlight how the understanding opens the phenomenon of death as a possibility: this possibility will prove to be a specific imminence, in that it must be assumed by the Dasein in itself, as Dasein’s ownmost and non-relational possibility that cannot be outstripped. In the second part, I will analyse the (...) relation between death and the affectivity, emphasizing the contrast between the traditional position on this subject – which involves the philosophical neutralization of a natural fear of death – and Heidegger’s position, suggesting a dynamic tension between the fear and anxiety, where anxiety is not an annihilation of fear, but its existential radicalization. (shrink)

Cartea pe care o prezentăm poate fi privită ca ilustrare a unei concepţii idealiste despre ştiinţă. Este meritul filozofului Edmund Husserl de a fi tulburat secolul trecut prin perseverenţa cu care a urmărit realizarea unei filozofii în formă riguroasă, ştiinţifică. Dacă sintagma în cauză a putut să apară pentru mulţi ca fiind nepotrivită pentru sensul şi posibilităţile filozofiei, lucrurile stau astfel şi pentru că filozofia gânditorului german a rămas pentru ei, într-o oarecare măsură, insondabilă. Voi susţine aici contrariul: ea este (...) o filozofie deschisă interpretării. (shrink)

Review of Michael Palmer & Stanley M. Burgess (eds.), The Willey-Blackwell Companion to Religion and Social Justice , (Oxford: Willey-Blackwell, 2012).

The resurgence of everyday cycling in the last decades across Western cities has engendered lively debates concerning its increasingly relevant role in innovating urban movement toward more sustainable futures. Most cities are building provisions and drafting plans to become more "cycle friendly," and "cycling indexes" are regularly used to rank the best-performing of them, while the World Health Organization has developed a health economic assessment tool to assist evidence-based decision making for cycling investments.1 Meanwhile, the number of cyclists in certain (...) areas of New York has tripled in the past ten years, the number of people cycling to work in London has doubled since 2001, and Paris, the first big... (shrink)

Jacques Derrida’s Death Penalty seminar is haunted, from its margins, by euthanasia. Yet even as he alludes to this question throughout the seminar, he puts it on hold, no doubt because it calls for a standalone analysis. In “Living On,” however, Derrida’s 1979 reading of Maurice Blanchot’s Death Sentence (L’Arrêt de mort), he refers to “a ‘double bind’ that makes every death a crime,” thus subverting this very distinction, which is meant to ensure the hard ethical border between euthanasia and (...) capital punishment. Through a rereading of Blanchot’s Death Sentence that takes its cues from Derrida’s Death Penalty seminar, this article analyses the porous nature of death’s various instantiations when it is conceived as a crime, beginning with the “arrêt” (simultaneously a stop and a judgment), the penalty and the sentence. (shrink)

The separation-of-powers literature has entertained the possibility of differentiating governmental functions at a conceptual, pre-institutional level, as a way of defining the separation of powers. However, it can be objected that attempts at differentiating functions at this level cannot escape a problem of arbitrariness. In this article, I develop an account of the separation of powers which addresses this problem. On my account, the legislative function is defined by the creation of validity claims, understood as claims making it a matter (...) of normative common-knowledge that such and such normative attitudes hold for the interaction between agents. The executive-judicial function is defined by the specification of rights and other jural positions out of the validity claims. This account of the separation of powers has the double advantage that it works at a conceptual, pre-institutional level, and that it is able to distinguish between the functions in a non-arbitrary manner. In developing this account, I also consider its practical implications. I argue that the conceptual distinction between the legislative and the executive-judicial functions is expressive of rule-of-law values, and that this might render it a sufficient but not necessary condition for the institutional separation of powers. (shrink)

On one account, courts ought to enforce legislative intent only when the public meaning of the text of the statute is unclear, and on another account, they should enforce the intent even when the public meaning is clear. In this paper, I argue against both approaches. My argument rests on considerations related to the moral authority of the democratically made law. More specifically, I argue that those considerations which make democratic law morally authoritative entail that judges ought to enforce the (...) public meaning, when this is clear, and that interpretation of the public meaning which is closest to the balance of moral reasons, when the public meaning is unclear. (shrink)