Introduction to the book "Deathless Hopes: Reinventions of Afterlife and Eschatological Beliefs",... more Introduction to the book "Deathless Hopes: Reinventions of Afterlife and Eschatological Beliefs", Zurich and Vienna: LIT, 2018. Interdisciplinary account of eschatological belief.
Collected papers from an academic conference of views on the afterlife in the Hebrew Bible, Judai... more Collected papers from an academic conference of views on the afterlife in the Hebrew Bible, Judaism, modern theology as well as interfaith/science and theology discourse and social studies. Helpful overview of standard topics as well as innovative takes in the field.
Deathless Hopes: Reinventions of Afterlife and Eschatological Beliefs, 2018
This paper brings philosophical and theological anthropologies into dialogue with eschatological ... more This paper brings philosophical and theological anthropologies into dialogue with eschatological traditions of the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament. The argument is that anthropologies of all stripes should pay closer attention to the autonomous expressivity of the lived body. This dimension of human life is featured in prominent Biblical tradition in ways that challenge traditional theological anthropology.
Technical advances in genome editing methods raise the question how autonomy should figure in the... more Technical advances in genome editing methods raise the question how autonomy should figure in theological ethical debates about genetic enhancements. Thinking primarily of the parents' reproductive autonomy, several secular and theological thinkers argue parents should be allowed to " enhance " an embryo genetically. Jürgen Habermas' critique of enhancements in the name of the child's autonomy, meanwhile, has been met with a critique of autonomy in theology. This essay argues that theological views about God's relationship to the creature provide strong theological grounds for a new appropriation of autonomy. A liberal maximisation of individual choice is to be viewed critically, but more recent discourses on relational autonomy see certain forms of vulnerability contribute to a communal understanding of autonomy. This view dovetails with Habermas' argument, according to which enhancements create too strong a temptation towards overly directive parenting – less in modifying an embryo than in the ensuing relationship to the child.
Technical advances in genome editing methods raise the question how autonomy should figure in the... more Technical advances in genome editing methods raise the question how autonomy should figure in theological ethical debates about genetic enhancements. Thinking primarily of the parents' reproductive autonomy, several secular and theological thinkers argue parents should be allowed to " enhance " an embryo genetically. Jürgen Habermas' critique of enhancements in the name of the child's autonomy, meanwhile, has been met with a critique of autonomy in theology. This essay argues that theological views about God's relationship to the creature provide strong theological grounds for a new appropriation of autonomy. A liberal maximisation of individual choice is to be viewed critically, but more recent discourses on relational autonomy see certain forms of vulnerability contribute to a communal understanding of autonomy. This view dovetails with Habermas' argument, according to which enhancements create too strong a temptation towards overly directive parenting – less in modifying an embryo than in the ensuing relationship to the child.
This conference will examine the subject of eschatology in Jewish and Christian traditions from a... more This conference will examine the subject of eschatology in Jewish and Christian traditions from an international and interdisciplinary perspective. Issues such as the hope of resurrection, apocalyptic scenarios, and cosmic redemption have been a hotbed of religious invention, renewal, and innovation with significant social consequences. The questions of eternal life and a revolution of the human condition will not go away. Eschatological beliefs even fund acts of terror. Their contemporary political significance is immense. Before asking how to relate constructively to such phenomena, we need to attend to the historical articulation of the eschatological imagination and ask what theology can learn from it. Thus, important junctures in the multifaceted development of eschatological beliefs require careful attention in the diachronic descriptive task. In biblical studies, the roots of beliefs about supernatural afterlife in pre-Christian times have been the subject of heated debate in numerous recent books. What are the historical contexts in which such beliefs have gained new shape? Contributions in biblical studies probe the fundamental social and political role of eschatological traditions. Such classic texts have given rise to the many different ways in which the eschatological imagination, like a powerful source of energy, erupts or works out in different forms, be it individually, collectively, in an authoritarian or an emancipatory way. Among the eschatological breeding grounds that draw afresh on ancient traditions, How have eschatological beliefs been translated into social and political practice there? In other contexts, eschatological traditions have also been abused for acts of terror. This stands in contrast to another function of prominent eschatological traditions, which have funded the quest for justice and care of the weak with fresh inspiration. To some observers, such phenomena make eschatological beliefs appear simply like unfathomable, random acts of pious souls immune to critical and constructive interaction. By contrast, there was a flurry of work in eschatology in 20th century protestant academic theology. What shape might the age-old message of eschatological hope take in this context? This is an important task also in the dialogue between theology and the natural sciences. In particular, the theory of biological evolution has gained dramatically in public attention. It contrasts the typically eschatological imagery of sudden, dramatic change and redemption with slow and incremental processes, often under the pressure of natural selection. But with what justification has tradition singled out humanity, among all creation, for eschatological redemption? Or does evolutionary biology by itself suggest greater modesty in our hopes for the future?
An appreciative and critical review of Gerald McKenny's book, Biotechnology, Human Nature, and Ch... more An appreciative and critical review of Gerald McKenny's book, Biotechnology, Human Nature, and Christian Ethics
This handbook examines anthropology from the perspective of Christian theology and philosophy of ... more This handbook examines anthropology from the perspective of Christian theology and philosophy of religion. The authors of the 27+ chapters, who are competent in their fields, come from various Christian denominations and are often explicitly ecumenical in outlook. The book is committed to a particular view of the human person, which it develops in a nuanced way. However, it remains unclear why a reader should adopt this particular view of the human person in the first place. The Companion's opening section on methodology makes two points in the chapters by Marc Cortez and John Cooper: Christian anthropology should be Christocentric and dualistic. First off, anthropology cannot be a matter of giving prevailing views about the human person some belated Christian interpretation, according to Cortez. As Barth insisted, the human creature is constituted in Christ, and Cortez sees what being human means more specifically as open for debate within these limits. Cortez is unsure, however, where a Christocentric approach takes us: Are women ontologically inferior since Jesus was a man, or are men and women equal due to Jesus' inclusive practices? The Companion positions itself more clearly when Cooper describes the human body and soul as two separate entities that are integrated in the one human person in her relationship to God. In death and resurrection, the enduring soul 'switches' bodies. These views are justified with a few OT proof texts and a distinctly dualistic reading of the NT. Unfortunately, the exegetical part is less than persuasive. For example, the assumption of an enduring soul in Jn. 11:25f ignores almost a century of critical scholarship. Notably, Cooper calls the relationship to God 'spiritual'. In consequence, social dimensions in anthropology (e.g., Paul's notion of the body of Christ) are not discussed and thus appear as irrelevant. This is in keeping with the setup of this Companion, which does not include chapters on political, economic, legal, or wider cultural aspects of being human. In their contribution, Warren Brown and Brad Strawn add to the critique that anthropological dualism blocks out ecclesiology. One chapter on ecclesiology and a very short one on feminism do not succeed in remedying this basic problem. As a whole, the Companion seems reluctant to embrace a larger view of the human person as a zoon politikon. Brown and Strawn's excellent chapter, which opens the third book section on conceptual 'models', would have been the natural conversation partner with Cooper's chapter. Brown and Strawn see the mind emerge from the complex systemic organisation of the human brain, which co-develops as infants interact with their surroundings, imbuing their environment with meaning rather than merely observing it passively. In fact, the authors focus so strongly on the brain they might even call humans 'embrained' rather than embodied. To be sure, they highlight language and social relations, but it is organisms – rather than brains – that speak and relate. Neither are other organs simply 'peripheral' to the brain: if our voice box were not suited for articulate language, even our brains would be different, giving rise to different kinds of thought. But Brown and Strawn are right in seeing embodiment as constitutive rather than ontologically secondary. They ask how the soul might influence the body, and I wonder how the body influences the human spirit (e.g., with 'spirits' or in having a human rather than a chimp voicebox). Such influence is also overlooked in William Hasker's portrayal of emergentism as a peculiar variation of substance dualism. At the beginning of the second section on the body and the sciences, Joshua Moritz discusses evolutionary biology and palaeoanthropology, where bodies and minds are intertwined in strange ways. He questions traditional accounts of human privilege over other animals. Since the notion of natural kinds has not survived Darwin, according to Moritz, the human species can only be identified based on descent, no longer on traits. Homo sapiens does not differ essentially from Neandertals. Finally, science by itself does not suggest human privilege, which, according to Moritz, can only be a judgement of belief in contingent divine election. But whose privilege is it? Descent from humans does not help distinguish humans from animals of other species. Cannot
Introduction to the book "Deathless Hopes: Reinventions of Afterlife and Eschatological Beliefs",... more Introduction to the book "Deathless Hopes: Reinventions of Afterlife and Eschatological Beliefs", Zurich and Vienna: LIT, 2018. Interdisciplinary account of eschatological belief.
Collected papers from an academic conference of views on the afterlife in the Hebrew Bible, Judai... more Collected papers from an academic conference of views on the afterlife in the Hebrew Bible, Judaism, modern theology as well as interfaith/science and theology discourse and social studies. Helpful overview of standard topics as well as innovative takes in the field.
Deathless Hopes: Reinventions of Afterlife and Eschatological Beliefs, 2018
This paper brings philosophical and theological anthropologies into dialogue with eschatological ... more This paper brings philosophical and theological anthropologies into dialogue with eschatological traditions of the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament. The argument is that anthropologies of all stripes should pay closer attention to the autonomous expressivity of the lived body. This dimension of human life is featured in prominent Biblical tradition in ways that challenge traditional theological anthropology.
Technical advances in genome editing methods raise the question how autonomy should figure in the... more Technical advances in genome editing methods raise the question how autonomy should figure in theological ethical debates about genetic enhancements. Thinking primarily of the parents' reproductive autonomy, several secular and theological thinkers argue parents should be allowed to " enhance " an embryo genetically. Jürgen Habermas' critique of enhancements in the name of the child's autonomy, meanwhile, has been met with a critique of autonomy in theology. This essay argues that theological views about God's relationship to the creature provide strong theological grounds for a new appropriation of autonomy. A liberal maximisation of individual choice is to be viewed critically, but more recent discourses on relational autonomy see certain forms of vulnerability contribute to a communal understanding of autonomy. This view dovetails with Habermas' argument, according to which enhancements create too strong a temptation towards overly directive parenting – less in modifying an embryo than in the ensuing relationship to the child.
Technical advances in genome editing methods raise the question how autonomy should figure in the... more Technical advances in genome editing methods raise the question how autonomy should figure in theological ethical debates about genetic enhancements. Thinking primarily of the parents' reproductive autonomy, several secular and theological thinkers argue parents should be allowed to " enhance " an embryo genetically. Jürgen Habermas' critique of enhancements in the name of the child's autonomy, meanwhile, has been met with a critique of autonomy in theology. This essay argues that theological views about God's relationship to the creature provide strong theological grounds for a new appropriation of autonomy. A liberal maximisation of individual choice is to be viewed critically, but more recent discourses on relational autonomy see certain forms of vulnerability contribute to a communal understanding of autonomy. This view dovetails with Habermas' argument, according to which enhancements create too strong a temptation towards overly directive parenting – less in modifying an embryo than in the ensuing relationship to the child.
This conference will examine the subject of eschatology in Jewish and Christian traditions from a... more This conference will examine the subject of eschatology in Jewish and Christian traditions from an international and interdisciplinary perspective. Issues such as the hope of resurrection, apocalyptic scenarios, and cosmic redemption have been a hotbed of religious invention, renewal, and innovation with significant social consequences. The questions of eternal life and a revolution of the human condition will not go away. Eschatological beliefs even fund acts of terror. Their contemporary political significance is immense. Before asking how to relate constructively to such phenomena, we need to attend to the historical articulation of the eschatological imagination and ask what theology can learn from it. Thus, important junctures in the multifaceted development of eschatological beliefs require careful attention in the diachronic descriptive task. In biblical studies, the roots of beliefs about supernatural afterlife in pre-Christian times have been the subject of heated debate in numerous recent books. What are the historical contexts in which such beliefs have gained new shape? Contributions in biblical studies probe the fundamental social and political role of eschatological traditions. Such classic texts have given rise to the many different ways in which the eschatological imagination, like a powerful source of energy, erupts or works out in different forms, be it individually, collectively, in an authoritarian or an emancipatory way. Among the eschatological breeding grounds that draw afresh on ancient traditions, How have eschatological beliefs been translated into social and political practice there? In other contexts, eschatological traditions have also been abused for acts of terror. This stands in contrast to another function of prominent eschatological traditions, which have funded the quest for justice and care of the weak with fresh inspiration. To some observers, such phenomena make eschatological beliefs appear simply like unfathomable, random acts of pious souls immune to critical and constructive interaction. By contrast, there was a flurry of work in eschatology in 20th century protestant academic theology. What shape might the age-old message of eschatological hope take in this context? This is an important task also in the dialogue between theology and the natural sciences. In particular, the theory of biological evolution has gained dramatically in public attention. It contrasts the typically eschatological imagery of sudden, dramatic change and redemption with slow and incremental processes, often under the pressure of natural selection. But with what justification has tradition singled out humanity, among all creation, for eschatological redemption? Or does evolutionary biology by itself suggest greater modesty in our hopes for the future?
An appreciative and critical review of Gerald McKenny's book, Biotechnology, Human Nature, and Ch... more An appreciative and critical review of Gerald McKenny's book, Biotechnology, Human Nature, and Christian Ethics
This handbook examines anthropology from the perspective of Christian theology and philosophy of ... more This handbook examines anthropology from the perspective of Christian theology and philosophy of religion. The authors of the 27+ chapters, who are competent in their fields, come from various Christian denominations and are often explicitly ecumenical in outlook. The book is committed to a particular view of the human person, which it develops in a nuanced way. However, it remains unclear why a reader should adopt this particular view of the human person in the first place. The Companion's opening section on methodology makes two points in the chapters by Marc Cortez and John Cooper: Christian anthropology should be Christocentric and dualistic. First off, anthropology cannot be a matter of giving prevailing views about the human person some belated Christian interpretation, according to Cortez. As Barth insisted, the human creature is constituted in Christ, and Cortez sees what being human means more specifically as open for debate within these limits. Cortez is unsure, however, where a Christocentric approach takes us: Are women ontologically inferior since Jesus was a man, or are men and women equal due to Jesus' inclusive practices? The Companion positions itself more clearly when Cooper describes the human body and soul as two separate entities that are integrated in the one human person in her relationship to God. In death and resurrection, the enduring soul 'switches' bodies. These views are justified with a few OT proof texts and a distinctly dualistic reading of the NT. Unfortunately, the exegetical part is less than persuasive. For example, the assumption of an enduring soul in Jn. 11:25f ignores almost a century of critical scholarship. Notably, Cooper calls the relationship to God 'spiritual'. In consequence, social dimensions in anthropology (e.g., Paul's notion of the body of Christ) are not discussed and thus appear as irrelevant. This is in keeping with the setup of this Companion, which does not include chapters on political, economic, legal, or wider cultural aspects of being human. In their contribution, Warren Brown and Brad Strawn add to the critique that anthropological dualism blocks out ecclesiology. One chapter on ecclesiology and a very short one on feminism do not succeed in remedying this basic problem. As a whole, the Companion seems reluctant to embrace a larger view of the human person as a zoon politikon. Brown and Strawn's excellent chapter, which opens the third book section on conceptual 'models', would have been the natural conversation partner with Cooper's chapter. Brown and Strawn see the mind emerge from the complex systemic organisation of the human brain, which co-develops as infants interact with their surroundings, imbuing their environment with meaning rather than merely observing it passively. In fact, the authors focus so strongly on the brain they might even call humans 'embrained' rather than embodied. To be sure, they highlight language and social relations, but it is organisms – rather than brains – that speak and relate. Neither are other organs simply 'peripheral' to the brain: if our voice box were not suited for articulate language, even our brains would be different, giving rise to different kinds of thought. But Brown and Strawn are right in seeing embodiment as constitutive rather than ontologically secondary. They ask how the soul might influence the body, and I wonder how the body influences the human spirit (e.g., with 'spirits' or in having a human rather than a chimp voicebox). Such influence is also overlooked in William Hasker's portrayal of emergentism as a peculiar variation of substance dualism. At the beginning of the second section on the body and the sciences, Joshua Moritz discusses evolutionary biology and palaeoanthropology, where bodies and minds are intertwined in strange ways. He questions traditional accounts of human privilege over other animals. Since the notion of natural kinds has not survived Darwin, according to Moritz, the human species can only be identified based on descent, no longer on traits. Homo sapiens does not differ essentially from Neandertals. Finally, science by itself does not suggest human privilege, which, according to Moritz, can only be a judgement of belief in contingent divine election. But whose privilege is it? Descent from humans does not help distinguish humans from animals of other species. Cannot
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international and interdisciplinary perspective. Issues such as the hope of resurrection, apocalyptic scenarios,
and cosmic redemption have been a hotbed of religious invention, renewal, and innovation with significant
social consequences.
The questions of eternal life and a revolution of the human condition will not go away. Eschatological beliefs even fund
acts of terror. Their contemporary political significance is immense.
Before asking how to relate constructively to such phenomena, we need to attend to the historical articulation of the eschatological imagination and ask what theology can learn from it. Thus, important junctures in the multifaceted development of eschatological beliefs require careful attention in the diachronic descriptive task. In biblical studies, the roots of beliefs about supernatural afterlife in pre-Christian times have been the subject of heated debate in numerous recent books. What are the historical contexts in which such beliefs have gained new shape?
Contributions in biblical studies probe the fundamental social and political role of eschatological traditions. Such classic texts have given rise to the many different ways in which the eschatological imagination, like a powerful source of energy, erupts or works out in different forms, be it individually,
collectively, in an authoritarian or an emancipatory way. Among the eschatological breeding grounds that draw afresh on ancient traditions, How have eschatological beliefs been translated into social and political practice there?
In other contexts, eschatological traditions have also been abused for acts of terror. This stands in contrast to another function of prominent eschatological traditions, which have funded the quest for justice and care of the weak with fresh inspiration.
To some observers, such phenomena make eschatological beliefs appear simply like unfathomable,
random acts of pious souls immune to critical and constructive interaction. By contrast, there was a flurry of work in eschatology in 20th century protestant academic theology. What shape might the age-old message of eschatological hope take in this context?
This is an important task also in the dialogue between theology and the natural sciences. In particular, the theory of biological evolution has gained dramatically in public attention. It contrasts the typically eschatological imagery of sudden, dramatic change and redemption with slow and incremental processes, often under the pressure of natural selection. But with what justification has tradition singled out humanity,
among all creation, for eschatological redemption? Or does evolutionary biology by itself suggest greater modesty in our hopes for the future?
international and interdisciplinary perspective. Issues such as the hope of resurrection, apocalyptic scenarios,
and cosmic redemption have been a hotbed of religious invention, renewal, and innovation with significant
social consequences.
The questions of eternal life and a revolution of the human condition will not go away. Eschatological beliefs even fund
acts of terror. Their contemporary political significance is immense.
Before asking how to relate constructively to such phenomena, we need to attend to the historical articulation of the eschatological imagination and ask what theology can learn from it. Thus, important junctures in the multifaceted development of eschatological beliefs require careful attention in the diachronic descriptive task. In biblical studies, the roots of beliefs about supernatural afterlife in pre-Christian times have been the subject of heated debate in numerous recent books. What are the historical contexts in which such beliefs have gained new shape?
Contributions in biblical studies probe the fundamental social and political role of eschatological traditions. Such classic texts have given rise to the many different ways in which the eschatological imagination, like a powerful source of energy, erupts or works out in different forms, be it individually,
collectively, in an authoritarian or an emancipatory way. Among the eschatological breeding grounds that draw afresh on ancient traditions, How have eschatological beliefs been translated into social and political practice there?
In other contexts, eschatological traditions have also been abused for acts of terror. This stands in contrast to another function of prominent eschatological traditions, which have funded the quest for justice and care of the weak with fresh inspiration.
To some observers, such phenomena make eschatological beliefs appear simply like unfathomable,
random acts of pious souls immune to critical and constructive interaction. By contrast, there was a flurry of work in eschatology in 20th century protestant academic theology. What shape might the age-old message of eschatological hope take in this context?
This is an important task also in the dialogue between theology and the natural sciences. In particular, the theory of biological evolution has gained dramatically in public attention. It contrasts the typically eschatological imagery of sudden, dramatic change and redemption with slow and incremental processes, often under the pressure of natural selection. But with what justification has tradition singled out humanity,
among all creation, for eschatological redemption? Or does evolutionary biology by itself suggest greater modesty in our hopes for the future?