Hans Nauen Collection 1941-1969

Letters (28) to Hans Nauen from family members and friends from Shanghai, Israel, USA. Most of the letters deal with private affairs. One deals with reparation.

Confronting Confucian Understandings of the Christian Doctrine of Salvation : A systematic theological analysis of the basic problems in the Confucian-Christian dialogue

The aim of the present study is to analyze Confucian understandings of the Christian doctrine of salvation in order to find the basic problems in the Confucian-Christian dialogue. I will approach the task via a systematic theological analysis of four issues in order to limit the thesis to an appropriate size. They are analyzed in three chapters as follows: 1. The Confucian concept concerning the existence of God. Here I discuss mainly the issue of assimilation of the Christian concept of God to the concepts of Sovereign on High (Shangdi) and Heaven (Tian) in Confucianism. 2. The Confucian understanding of the object of salvation and its status in Christianity. 3. The Confucian understanding of the means of salvation in Christianity. Before beginning this analysis it is necessary to clarify the vast variety of controversies, arguments, ideas, opinions and comments expressed in the name of Confucianism; thus, clear distinctions among different schools of Confucianism are given in chapter 2. In the last chapter I will discuss the results of my research in this study by pointing out the basic problems that will appear in the analysis. The results of the present study provide conclusions in three related areas: the tacit differences in the ways of thinking between Confucians and Christians, the basic problems of the Confucian-Christian dialogue, and the affirmative elements in the dialogue. In addition to a summary, a bibliography and an index, there are also eight appendices, where I have introduced important background information for readers to understand the present study.

Constructing Ethical Patterns in Times of Globalization : Hans Küng's Global Ethic Project and Beyond

The purpose of this study is to evaluate contemporary philosophical models for global ethics in light of the Catholic theologian Hans Küng s Global Ethic Project (Projekt Weltethos). Küng s project starts with the motto, No survival without world ethos. No global peace without peace between religions. I will use the philosophically multidimensional potential of Projekt Weltethos in terms of its possible philosophical interpretations to evaluate the general discussion of global ethics within political philosophy today. This is important in its own right, but also because through it, opportunities will emerge to articulate Küng s relatively general argument in a way that leaves less room for mutually contradictory concretizations of what global ethics ultimately should be like. The most important question in this study is the problem of religious and ideological exclusivism and its relation to the ethically consistent articulation of global ethics. I will first explore the question of the role of religion as the basis for ethics in general and what Küng may mean by his claim that only the unconditional can oblige unconditionally. I will reconstruct two different overall philosophical interpretations of the relationship between religious faith and human rationality, each having two different sub-divisions: a liberal interpretation amounts to either a Kantian-Scheiermacherian or a Jaspersian view, whereas what I call postliberal interpretation amounts to either an Aristotelian-Thomistic or an Augustinian view. Thereafter, I will further clarify how Küng views the nature of ethics beyond the question of its principal foundation in religious faith: Küng searches for a middle way between consequentialist and non-consequentialist ethics, a way in which the latter dimension has the final stake. I will then set out to concretize further this more or less general notion of the theoretical potential of Projekt Weltethos in terms of certain precise philosophico-political models. I categorize these models according to their liberal or postliberal orientation. The liberal concretization leads me to consider a wide spectrum of post-Kantian and post-Hegelian models from Rawls to Derrida, while the alternative concretization opens up my ultimate argument in favor of a postliberal type of modus vivendi. I will suggest that the only theoretically and practically plausible way to promote global ethics, in itself a major imperative today, is the recognition of a fundamental and necessary contest between mutually exclusive ideologies in the public sphere. On this basis I will proceed to my postliberal proposal, namely, that a constructive and peaceful encountering of exclusive difference as an ethical vantage point for an intercultural and inter-religious peace dialogue is the most acute challenge for global ethics today.

Christian-Muslim Dialogue : Perspectives of Four Lebanese Thinkers

This study describes and analyses two Lebanese Muslims and two Lebanese Christians ideas about Christian-Muslim dialogue, its nature, aims, and methods and its different dimensions, which include doctrinal, ethical, and social dimensions. On the basis of the analysis, the four thinkers contributions for promoting constructive dialogue are evaluated. The persons studied are two religious authorities, the Shiite Great Ayatollah Muhammad Husayn Fadlallah (b. 1935) and the Eastern Orthodox Metropolitan of Mount Lebanon, Georges Khodr (b. 1923), and two academic scholars, Doctor Mahmoud Ayoub (b. 1935) and Doctor, Father Mouchir Aoun (b. 1964), from the Shiite and Greek Catholic communities, respectively. The method of the study is systematic analysis. The sources consist of the four thinkers writings on Christian-Muslim relations, the most of which have been published in Lebanon in the 1990s and 2000s in the Arabic language. In their general guidelines for Christian-Muslim dialogue, the four authors do not offer any novel or unusual insights. However, their dialogue visions are multi-faceted, motivating interreligious encounter both on religious and practical grounds and clarifying the theological grounds and socio-political conditions of this endeavour. The major challenge appears to be the tension between loyalty to one s own convictions and taking into account the particular self-understanding of the other. While this tension may be ultimately unsolvable, it is obvious that linking dialogue tightly to missionary motivations or certain theological agenda imposed on the others is not conducive for better mutual understanding. As for how diverse theologies of religions affect interreligious dialogue, narrow exclusivism hardly promotes mutual knowledge and appreciation, but also inclusive and pluralistic positions have their particular dilemmas. In the end, dialogue is possible from diverse positions on theology of religions. All the authors discuss the theological themes of divine revelation, concept of God, and human condition and ultimate destiny. The two religions particular views on these issues cannot be reconciled, but the authors offer diverse means to facilitate mutual understanding on them, such as increasing mutual knowledge, questioning certain traditional condemnations, showing theological parallels between the two religions, and transcending doctrinal disagreements by stressing common religious experience or ethical concerns. Among the theological themes, especially the concept of God seems to offer possibilities for better understanding than has traditionally been the case. Significantly, all the four authors maintain that Christians and Muslims share the faith in the one God, irrespective of their disagreements about the nature of his oneness. Basic ethical principles are not discussed as widely by the four authors as might be expected, which may reflect the shared cultural background and common ethical values of the Lebanese Muslims and Christians. On this level, Christians alienation from the Islamic law appears as the most significant challenge to mutual understanding, while neighbourly love and the golden rule of ethics offer a fruitful basis for further dialogue. As for the issue of political power-sharing in Lebanon, it is clear that the proposal of an Islamic state is problematic in a country with a sizable Christian minority and a heterogeneous Muslim population. Some form of democracy seems more viable for a multireligious country, but the question remains how to retain religion as a vital force in society, which is felt to be important by all the four Lebanese authors.

Christianity and Christian Identity in the Gospel of Philip (NHC II,3)

Previous scholarship has often maintained that the Gospel of Philip is a collection of Valentinian teachings. In the present study, however, the text is read as a whole and placed into a broader context by searching for parallels from other early Christian texts. Although the Valentinian Christian identity of the Gospel of Philip is not questioned, it is read alongside those texts traditionally labelled as "mainstream Christian". It is obvious from the account of Irenaeus that the boundaries between the Valentinians and other Christians were not as clear or fixed as he probably would have hoped. This study analyzes the Valentinian Christian Gospel of Philip from two points of view: how the text constructs the Christian identity and what kind of Christianity it exemplifies. Firstly, it is observed how the author of the Gospel of Philip places himself and his Christian readers among the early Christianities of the period by emphasizing the common history and Christian features but building especially on particular texts and traditions. Secondly, it is noted how the Christian nature of an individual develops according to the Gospel of Philip. The identity of an individual is built and strengthened through rituals, experiences and teaching. Thirdly, the categorizations, attributes, beliefs and behaviour associated on the one hand with the "insiders", the true Christians, and, on the other, with outsiders in the Gospel of Philip, are analyzed using social identity theory the insiders and outsiders are described through stereotyping in the text. Overall, the study implies that the Gospel of Philip strongly emphasizes spiritual progress and transformation. Rather than depicting the Valentinians as the perfect Christians, it underlines their need for constant change and improvement. Although the author seeks to clearly distinguish the insiders from the outsiders, the boundaries of the categories are in fact fluid in the Gospel of Philip. Outsiders can become insiders and the insiders are also in danger of falling out again.

Hans Ernst Brisch Collection 1912-1995

M.A. Pach, 1995

Humanum : Hans Küngin maailmaneetos-projektin eettiset perusteet

Tutkimuksen tehtävänä on analysoida pitkän linjan katolisen ekumeenikon Hans Küngin uusinta uskontoteologista projektia. Sen perusajatuksen voi tiivistää seuraavasti: Uskonnoille on saatava yhteinen perusetiikka globaalin rauhan tavoittamiseksi. Lähdemateriaali koostuu Küngin 1980-luvulla alkaneen uskontoteologisen kauden tuotannosta. Tutkimusmetodina käytetään argumentatiivisesti painottunutta systemaattista analyysiä. Tarkoituksena on analysoida ja punnita premissejä, joilla Küng perustelee maailmaneetos-projektin tarpeellisuuden. Kolme käsitettä nousevat esiin: uskonto, maailmanrauha ja moraali. Nämä argumentit muodostavat samalla kontekstin, jossa Küngin teologiset perusprinsiipit tulevat esille. Küng käyttää sekä pragmatistista että filosofis-teologista metodia maailmaneetos-projektin perustelemisessa. Argumentatiivisen luonteensa vuoksi tutkielman ominaispiirre on keskustelevuus. Keskustelevuuteen liittyen tutkielmassa painottuu kriittinen näkökulma. Kokonaisanalyysissä hyödynnetään laajalti maailmaneetos-projektiin liittyvää kirjallisuutta ja varteenotettavia puheenvuoroja. Alussa esitellään Uskontojen maailmanparlamentin maailmaneetoksen julistus. Tämän asiakirjaan kohdistuvat kommenttipuheenvuorot muodostavat kontekstin, jonka piirissä Küngin projektiin liittyvää keskustelua usein käydään. Luvussa 2 käsitellään maailmaneetos-projektin ensimmäistä argumenttia, joka voidaan tiivistää seuraavasti: uskonto on välttämätön moraalin lähtökohta. Küngin pragmatistinen argumentti uskonnon puolesta on se, että uskonnot ovat käytännössä osoittautuneet parhaiksi moraalin vaalijoiksi. Küngin filosofis-teologinen argumentti puolestaan muodostuu väitteestä, että uskonto on myös teoreettisessa tarkastelussa ainoa kestävä vaihtoehto moraalin perustelemiselle. Küng perustaa jälkimmäisen argumentaationsa Kant-kritiikkiin. Kantin moraaliteorian tarkempi analyysi kuitenkin paljastaa, että maailmaneetos-projektin teologinen ansatsi on pikemminkin Kantin autonomiakäsitykselle analoginen. Luvussa 3 käsitellään toista argumenttia, joka kuvastuu olettamuksessa: maailmaneetos-projektin varsinainen päämäärä on maailmanrauha. Tällainen piirre viittaa reaalipolitiikkaan globaalissa mittakaavassa. Niistä muodostuu maailmaneetos-projektin pragmatistinen metodi tämän argumentin kohdalla. Maailmanrauha-argumenttia voidaan kuitenkin kritisoida sekä pragmatistiselta että filosofis-teologiselta kannalta. Tästä johtuen Küng itsekin viime kädessä hylkää pragmatismin ja nojaa filosofis-teologiseen argumentaatioon. Sen mukaan maailmanrauha ei voi olla ylin päämäärä, vaan moraali. Luvussa 4 moraalin keskeisyys maailmaneetos-projektissa tulee eksplisiittisesti ilmi. Vaikka Küng kritisoi pragmatistisen argumentaation turvin perinteisiä uskontoteologisia positioita epärealistismista,hän kuitenkin itse esittää filosofis-teologisen mallin totuuskriteeriksi kaikille uskonnoille. Tämän kriteerin eettinen osa on olennaisin ja Küng kutsuu sitä nimellä humanum. Tarkemmassa analyysissa humanum osoittautuu peruskantilaiseksi moraaliksi. Humanum on maailmaneetos-projektia strukturoiva filosofis-teologinen keskipiste. Tästä johtuen maailmaneetos-projekti altistuu kuitenkin uskontorealistiselle kritiikille: sen voidaan nähdä ajavan valistukseen perustuvaa klassista moraali-imperialismia vastoin uskontojen omaa itseymmärrystä. Tämä onkin projektin suurin ongelmakohta ainakin eettiseltä kannalta. Johtopäätöksenä voidaan todeta, että uskonnon rooli on maailmaneetos-projektissä korkeintaan moraalin käytännöllisenä motivaattorina. Maailmanrauha on sinänsä hyvä päämäärä, mutta vain siksi ja sikäli kuin se on sopusoinnussa Küngin humanistisen moraali-ihanteen kanssa. Küngin argumentaatio on pragmatistista ja hän vetoaa maailmaneetos-projektin argumentoinnissaan realismiin sekä poliittisella että uskontoteologisella tasolla. Tosiasiassa maailmaneetos-projektin voidaan nähdä perustuvan pragmatismin kanssa ristiriidassa oleviin ja siten myös epärealistisiin piilotavoitteisiin uskontojen moraalin länsimaistamisesta. Avainsanat: Globaali etiikka, uskontoteologia, teologinen etiikka, globalisaatio, rauha, Kant, pragmatismi

What is a “Christian” jurisprudence?

The term ‘jurisprudence’ is derived etymologically from the Latin juris, meaning law, and prudentia, meaning wisdom. So jurisprudence simply means the wisdom of the law, or, as it has come to mean in scholarly legal circles these days, the theory of law. It asks fundamental questions regarding the nature and definition of law. And so, the question I wish to pose to us today is what does a truly “Christian” theory of law look like? One that is faithful to, as taken from the conference brochure, the “historic Christian faith” in its “principles and practice”. To contextualise this question, I must give you a deceptively brief and superficial overview of prevailing theories of law – and for those of you who know more about the topic, I apologise for the crass nature of my summary – time prevents me from doing any more...

Directional dominance on stature and cognition in diverse human populations

Homozygosity has long been associated with rare, often devastating, Mendelian disorders1, and Darwin was one of the first to recognize that inbreeding reduces evolutionary fitness2. However, the effect of the more distant parental relatedness that is common in modern human populations is less well understood. Genomic data now allow us to investigate the effects of homozygosity on traits of public health importance by observing contiguous homozygous segments (runs of homozygosity), which are inferred to be homozygous along their complete length. Given the low levels of genome-wide homozygosity prevalent in most human populations, information is required on very large numbers of people to provide sufficient power3, 4. Here we use runs of homozygosity to study 16 health-related quantitative traits in 354,224 individuals from 102 cohorts, and find statistically significant associations between summed runs of homozygosity and four complex traits: height, forced expiratory lung volume in one second, general cognitive ability and educational attainment (P < 1 × 10−300, 2.1 × 10−6, 2.5 × 10−10 and 1.8 × 10−10, respectively). In each case, increased homozygosity was associated with decreased trait value, equivalent to the offspring of first cousins being 1.2 cm shorter and having 10 months’ less education. Similar effect sizes were found across four continental groups and populations with different degrees of genome-wide homozygosity, providing evidence that homozygosity, rather than confounding, directly contributes to phenotypic variance. Contrary to earlier reports in substantially smaller samples5, 6, no evidence was seen of an influence of genome-wide homozygosity on blood pressure and low density lipoprotein cholesterol, or ten other cardio-metabolic traits. Since directional dominance is predicted for traits under directional evolutionary selection7, this study provides evidence that increased stature and cognitive function have been positively selected in human evolution, whereas many important risk factors for late-onset complex diseases may not have been.

The Reception of the Maccabean Martyrs : Their Historiographical and Paradigmatic Functions in Antique and Late-antique Jewish and Christian Sources

The study attempts a reception-historical analysis of the Maccabean martyrs. The concept of reception has fundamentally to do with the re-use and interpretation of a text within new texts. In a religious tradition, certain elements become re-circulated and thus their reception may reflect the development of that particular tradition. The Maccabean martyrs first appear in 2 Maccabees. In my study, it is the Maccabean martyr figures who count as the received text; the focus is shifted from the interrelations between texts onto how the figures have been exploited in early Christian and Rabbinic sources. I have divided my sources into two categories and my analysis is in two parts. First, I analyze the reception of the Maccabean martyrs within Jewish and Christian historiographical sources, focusing on the role given to them in the depictions of the Maccabean Revolt (Chapter 3). I conclude that, within Jewish historiography, the martyrs are given roles, which vary between ultimate efficacy and marginal position with regard to making a historical difference. In Christian historiographical sources, the martyrs role grows in importance by time: however, it is not before a Christian cult of the Maccabean martyrs has been established, that the Christian historiographies consider them historically effective. After the first part, I move on to analyze the reception in sources, which make use of the Maccabean martyrs as paradigmatic figures (Chapter 4). I have suggested that the martyrs are paradigmatic in the context of martyrdom, persecution and destruction, on one hand, and in a homiletic context, inspiring religious celebration, on the other. I conclude that, as the figures are considered pre-Christian and biblical martyrs, they function well in terms of Christian martyrdom and have contributed to the development of its ideals. Furthermore, the presentation of the martyr figures in Rabbinic sources demonstrates how the notion of Jewish martyrdom arises from experiences of destruction and despair, not so much from heroic confession of faith in the face of persecution. Before the emergence of a Christian cult of the Maccabean martyrs, their identity is derived namely from their biblical position. Later on, in the homiletic context, their Jewish identity is debated and sometimes reconstructed as fundamentally Christian , despite of their Jewish origins. Similar debate about their identity is not found in the Rabbinic versions of their martyrdom and nothing there indicates a mutual debate between early Christians and Jews. A thematic comparison shows that the Rabbinic and Christian cases of reception are non-reliant on each other but also that they link to one another. Especially the scriptural connections, often made to the Maccabean mother, reveal the similarities. The results of the analyses confirm that the early history of Christianity and Rabbinic Judaism share, at least partly, the same religious environment and intertwining traditions, not only during the first century or two but until Late Antiquity and beyond. More likely, the reception of the Maccabean martyrs demonstrates that these religious traditions never ceased to influence one another.

¿Visionaria o mística? Hildegarda de Bingen en la encrucijada de lenguaje y experiencia del misterio cristiano

Resumen: Ante la próxima proclamación de Hildegarda de Bingen como doctora de la Iglesia, anunciada por el Papa Benedicto XVI para el 7 de octubre de 2012, el artículo realiza una reflexión sobre la relación entre experiencia y lenguaje en la mística cristiana. Tras el necesario deslinde de los marcos epistemológicos en los que ha sido tratada la cuestión –histórico, fenomenológico y teológico–, plantea una respuesta integradora de ambas tradiciones sobre la base del principio estético teológico que Hans Urs von Balthasar denominó como “visión de la figura”. La tesis se apoya sobre el análisis del texto descriptivo, interpretativo y plástico del Prólogo y Primera Visión; I Parte de Scivias y sobre el Corpus epistolar que tuvieron por destinatarios a Bernardo de Claraval y a Guibert de Gembloux.

Ramesside, Late Nubian and christian pottery from Serra West in the Museum of Natural History, La Plata

Resumen: El Museo de Ciencias Naturales de La Plata, Argentina, posee una colección de piezas cerámicas provenientes del asentamiento egipcio y de la iglesia de Aksha, y de las tumbas nubias de Serra Oeste, sobre la margen izquierda del Nilo en la Baja Nubia, que pertenecen a las culturas meroítica y del Grupo X. Esta colección es producto del reparto después de las excavaciones realizadas por la Expedición Franco-Argentina en Sudán entre 1961 y 1963, como parte de las campañas de la UNESCO para salvar los monumentos de Nubia.

Early Christian Lives Progress Report

Progress report for the Early Christian Lives, Digging into Data Challenge round 3, project.