Philosophy

Pragmatism is the philosophy that basically states that anything that works is true; if not essentially, then at least functionally. It is the dominant philosophy of the modern age. This has had an adverse effect on theological thinking as well. For instance, one would argue that a particular man's teachings cannot be false since the results prove that the teachings work. However, unless an essential connection between the fruit and the tree can be established, such embracement of theologies based on empirical results can be dangerous. Let's look at a few considerations now: 1. God's use of a practice in an exceptional case doesn't entail His acceptance of its theoretical backings. There are a number of instances in the Bible where God is seen to be using the very systems that He explicitly denounced. For instance, just because God used a medium to speak to Saul doesn't prove that God has finally accepted the practice of consulting the dead and the demonic doctrines...

Required Reading: John 1, 14,15,16; 2Corinthians 5:11-21; Romans 8; James 4; Galatians 5:11; 6:12-15 The doctrine of reconcilation teaches us that the world is at enmity with God and so Christ came to reconcile the world to God. He did that through His atoning sacrifice by the Eternal Spirit. Now, He appoints His servants as ambassadors in the hostile world and has given them the ministry of reconciliation. It is a ministry of reconciliation on God's terms; not a ministry at the mercy of the world in the world's terms. We are not called to make peace with the world at the expense of the Cross; we are here to declare the Goodnews that peace has been made by Christ on the Cross. The Cross will be a stumbling block to many, because they would like that the offence of the Cross didn't exist, so that peace would be natural. But, that is the same as being worldly and thus in enmity with God. The Cross is where the world is crucified to the Christian and the Christian to the world...

Paper presented during the CMS Consultation, Union Biblical Seminary, Pune, 2013 Abstract At the root of the corruption problem is its moral and economic nature. The economic problem is a moral problem. Modern theories of corruption are usually empirical in nature. However, they are not without their ideological dimensions though in the modern scheme of things, a normative framework is usually not rationally entertained. Empiricism combined with materialism takes on the reins of economies; however, disregard of the spiritual will not bring any lasting solution. A vision of the absolute is needed. There are various ideologies and religions that provide some kind of a vision or the other. The biblical vision is both historical and prophetic as well. And, the Church is called to be the model of that vision in this pervert and corrupt world. The very term “corruption” indicates an aberration on, a departure from, and a violation of something essentially good. The idea of what is good, howe...

The third criterion of Revelation in Indian philosophy is Rational Anticipation (Hiriyanna: Indian Philosophy); the first two being the principle of not-this-worldly (alaukika) and the principle of non-contradiction (abadhita; i.e. revelation must not contradict known facts). The question is whether the doctrine of Trinity meets the principle of Rational Anticipation? We'll quickly look at two arguments to check out the same. 1. The Argument from the Possibility of Knowledge a. If God exists, He must be an intelligent being (or else, intelligence is an accident and truth is impossible- but, to say truth is impossible is to contradict self; therefore, truth exists and has its eternal ground in God). b. Intelligence involves Knowledge and Knowledge involves a Subject-Object distinction. c. Eternal intelligence must involve eternally a Subject-Object distinction. d. This distinction must be internal and eternal (since, nothing can be infinite and eternal outside the Godhead - God is ...

1. Informative (Revelational) 2. Inductive (Empirical) 3. Indefinitive (Skeptical) 4. Interpretive (Hermeneutical) 5. Integrative (Synthetical) 6. Inferential (Rational) 7. Intuitive (Mystical) © Domenic Marbaniang, 2000, 2012.

About four decades ago, the American theologian Harvey Cox , had already defined secularization as an inevitable process. [1] Almost a decade prior to that, Bryan Wilson, in his book Religion in Secular Society (1966) had considered it to be irreversible. [2] However, history has a different tale to say. The scepter of philosophy is hard to cast away. Somewhere or the other it holds its reins and pulls history on. In the 1920s a small group of scientists, mathematicians, sociologists, and economists, (not philosophers) had gathered together in Vienna to develop a unified philosophy that embraced science and attempted to destroy philosophy. [3] Their new philosophy came to be known as Logical Positivism . It, of course, suffered a natural death soon. But, what the empiricists then did not realize was that philosophy may be philosophically denied but not scientifically annihilated. In less than a decade, the world saw the angry reins of philosophies on the chariots of the nations as ...

by Domenic Marbaniang (2003) The word “psychology” is a combination of two Greek words psyche meaning “soul”, “spirit”, or “mind” and logos meaning “science” or “study of”. The science of psychology tries to investigate every area of human experience and behavior. Psychology of religion tries to understand the cause-effect relationships of religious experiences and religious consciousness so as to be able to predict behaviors. It aims to study the religious consciousness with investigations in religious behavior patterns. The major systems of psychology are: structuralism, functionalism, behaviorism, psychoanalysis, and Gestalt School of Psychology. Obviously, each system has its own way of understanding religious consciousness. Psychological Definitions of Religion About a century ago, James Henry Leuba was able to select forty-eight definitions of religion to which he added two of his own to include in his famous Psychological Study of Religion (1912) . Various psychologists have ...