Veritas
Скачать книги из серии VeritasTruth is the Way
In The Truth Is the Way, Christopher Ben Simpson presents Kierkegaard's work as a theologia viatorum, a theology to guide one on life's way. This truth that is the way is at once existential, metaphysical, and theological – the highest truth is a living in accord with reality that is revealed to us and enabled in us by Jesus Christ. This picture of Kierkegaard's thought, drawing on the whole of his published corpus, presents his perspectives (by way of prolegomena) on the nature of truth, of communication and of faith and (more substantially) his guiding vision of the world, God, humanity, and Christ, culminating in Kierkegaard's understanding of the manner of life lived in light of this vision – of a journey walked in the virtues of patience, faith, hope, and love toward a life of joy in the midst of suffering, of communion with oneself, with God, with others.
The Perfection of Freedom
The Perfection of Freedom seeks to respond to the impoverished conventional notion of freedom through a recovery of an understanding rich with possibilities yet all but forgotten in contemporary thought. This understanding, developed in different but complementary ways in the German thinkers Schiller, Schelling, and Hegel, connects freedom, not exclusively with power and possibility, but rather most fundamentally with completion, wholeness, and actuality. What is unique here is specifically the interpretation of freedom in terms of form, whether it be aesthetic form (Schiller), organic form (Schelling), or social form (Hegel). Although this book presents serious criticisms of the three philosophers, it shows that they open up new avenues for reflection on the notion of freedom; avenues that promise to overcome many of the dichotomies that continue to haunt contemporary thought–for example, between freedom and order, freedom and nature, and self and other. The Perfection of Freedom offers not only a significantly new interpretation of Schiller, Schelling, and Hegel, it also proposes a modernity more organically rooted in the ancient and classical Christian worlds.
Covering Up Luther
Karl Barth's Christology provides a key to out-narrating the Deus absconditus, which, as Rustin Brian contends, is in fact the god of modernity. Included in this is the rejection of the logical and philosophical systems that allow for the modern understanding of God as the Deus absconditus, namely, dialectics and nominalism. This rejection is illustrated, interestingly enough, in Barth's decision to literally cover up, with a rug, Martin Luther's works in his personal library. Surely this was more than a decorative touch.
The reading of Barth's works that results from this starting point challenges much of contemporary Barth scholarship and urges readers to reconsider Barth. Through careful examination of a large body of Barth's writings, particularly in regard to the issues of the knowledge or knowability of God, as well as Christology, Brian argues that contemporary Barth scholarship should be done in careful conversation with the finest examples of both Protestant and, especially, Roman Catholic theology. Barth's paradoxical Christology thus becomes the foundation for a dogmatic ecumenicism. Barth's Christology, then, just might be able to open up possibilities for discussion and even convergence, within a church that is anything but one.
Wagner’s Parsifal
Parsifal, Wagner's final opera, is considered by many to be one of the greatest religious musical works ever composed; but it is also one of the most difficult to understand and many have questioned whether it can be considered a «Christian» work at all. Added to this is the furious debate that has surrounded the composer as an anti-Semite, racist, and inspiration for Hitler. Richard Bell addresses such issues and argues that despite any personal failings Wagner makes a fundamental theological contribution through his many writings and ultimately in Parsifal which, he argues, preaches Christ crucified in a way that can never be captured by words alone. He argues that Wagner offers a vision of the divine and a «theology of Good Friday» that can both function as profound therapy and address current theological controversies.
Gift and the Unity of Being
Starting from both our originary experience of being given to ourselves and Jesus Christ's archetypal self-donation, Gift and the Unity of Being elucidates the sense in which gift is the form of being's unity, while unity itself constitutes the permanence of the gift of being. In dialogue with ancient and modern philosophers and theologians, Lopez offers a synthetic, rather than systematic, account of the unity proper to being, the human person, God, and the relations among them. The book shows how contemplation of the triune God of Love through Jesus Christ in the Holy Spirit allows us to discover the eternal communion that being is and to which finite being is called. It also illustrates the sense in which God's gratuitousness unexpectedly offers the human person the possibility to recognize and embrace his origin and destiny, and thus he is given to see and taste in God's light the ever-fruitful, dramatic, and mysterious positivity of being.