Open Access Published by De Gruyter Open Access

Volume 4 Issue 1

January 2018

Issue of Open Theology

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Contents
Journal Overview

Topical issue: Cognitive Linguistics and Theology, edited by John Sanders

Open Access October 18, 2018

Introduction to the Topical Issue “Cognitive Linguistics and Theology”

In “Conceiving God: Literal and Figurative Prompt for a More Tectonic Distinction” Robert Masson criticizes my claim that some concepts of God can be literal in the sense of a non-extended meaning as defined by cognitive linguists. He claims that all of our ideas for God can only be through extended meanings (what is typically called figurative language). He says that blending theory requires this conclusion. In response I make three points. First, I argue that this is not what cognitive linguistics requires. Second, that Masson fails to ever show that “God is an agent” is actually a single scope or double scope blend. Third, I suggest that behind our dispute are different metaphysical commitments regarding divine transcendence. Because I reject his understanding of divine transcendence and he fails to show that divine agency must be understood only in an extended sense, I conclude that religious believers can legitimately claim that some of their ideas of God are literal (non-extended meanings).

Contemporary theology has realized the importance of integrating what we know from the “new physics”-quantum mechanics and relativity theory-into the metaphysical and ontological categories used by theology to consider God, the world, and the God-world relationship. The categories of subjectivity and relationality have risen to prominence in these discussions. Both academic and popular presentations can obscure the vital distinction between what physicists agree on concerning quantum mechanics and the contested interpretation of quantum mechanics, or what quantum mechanics reveals about reality. After (1) summarizing the significant distinction between quantum mechanics per se and the interpretations of quantum mechanics and (2) the agreed upon quantum mechanical experimental procedure and its attendant mathematical formalism, as well as a few of the foremost interpretations, this paper (3) attempts a minimalist culling of some rudimentary but clear ontological principles and categories from what is agreed upon in quantum mechanics, without appeals-tacit or explicit-to one of the many controversial interpretations or to contestable philosophical assumptions and deductions, and these are: experience, subjectivity, relationship, and event. The paper closes by (4) commending one speculative scheme that is especially conducive to developing an interpretation of quantum mechanics consonant with the ontological principles and categories so derived, that of Alfred North Whitehead

Topical issue: Rethinking Reformation, edited by Niels Henrik Gregersen an Bo Kristian Holm

Open Access November 24, 2018

Rethinking the Reformation after 2017

Bo Kristian Holm

Page range: 675-676

The aim of this paper is to compare Martin Luther and K. E. Løgstrup on the theme of sin and grace, and to argue that while Løgstrup wanted to stay close to Luther in many respects, he nonetheless provides a secularized version of Luther’s picture, according to which we are liberated from our sinfulness not by God’s grace, but by our ethical encounter with other people. This then raises the question of whether Løgstrup’s approach can work, and thus whether this secularized alternative can be made stable and coherent. We begin by focusing on central themes concerning Løgstrup’s relation to Luther. We then outline the key features of Luther’s conception of sin and grace that were important to Løgstrup , and then consider how he develops that conception in a secularized manner. Finally, we discuss problems that might be raised for Løgstrup’s position.

Topical issue: Latin American Perspectives on Religion, edited by Charles Taliaferro, Marciano Adilio Spica and Agnaldo Cuoco Portugal

Open Access December 13, 2018

Introduction to Topical Issue “Latin American Perspectives on Religion”

Marciano Adilio Spica, Agnaldo Portugal, Charles Taliaferro

Page range: 685-686

The purpose of this paper is to show a surprising coincidence between Lutheran Protestantism and physicalist neurosciences regarding the negation of free will and how this issue can begin to be studied in Latin American academia. The current advance of Protestantism in Latin America, accompanied by a decline in Catholicism, is simultaneous with a growing presence of the physicalist neurosciences. It can be seen that the development of Protestantism and neurosciences coincide historically in Latin America, unlike what happened in other parts of the world, where Protestantism has a much more extensive history. This allows us to suppose that the discussion on free will will be installed as a matter of research and discussion in the Latin American academia, which had not happened until now. In this work we also seek to identify what could be the common element that unites the Lutheran conception and the arguments of the physicalist neurosciences about the negation of free will. We will show that this common element is the aversion to metaphysics as an explanatory dimension of free will. The strong opposition to metaphysics is probably the most important common element between Lutheran Protestantism and the physicalistic neurosciences. This will allow us to show that the proximity between the two is not such an extravagant idea.

Topical issue: Recognizing Encounters with Ultimacy across Religious Boundaries, edited by Jerry L. Martin

Open Access October 18, 2018

Introduction to Topical Issue “Recognizing Encounters with Ultimacy across Religious Boundaries”

Jerry L. Martin

Page range: 506-510

Contemporary studies of wilderness spirituality are based primarily in quantitative social science, and disagree over the relative influence of shared stories and religious traditions. In a study of visitors to California’s national parks and trails, Kerry Mitchell found that backpackers reported heightened perceptions, fueled by such dichotomies as the encounter with the spectacular rather than the mundane, and with divine organization rather than human organization in wilderness. I argue wilderness experience informed only by natural scenery falls short in encountering ultimacy. Pierre Teilhard de Chardin’s “The Mass on the World” offers a unified rather than a fragmented vision of divine relationship to the natural and the human. Multiple readings can inform the wilderness sojourner, including a basic, open reading as a prayer shared with all nature; an environmental reading considering suffering and the act of Eucharistic offering; and a constructive reading to address dichotomies and fuse humanity and nature into an integrated cosmic future

Topical issue: Phenomenology of Religious Experience II: Perspectives in Theology, edited by Olga Louchakova-Schwartz and Martin Nitsche

Open Access November 20, 2018

Phenomenology and Theological Research

Introduction to the Topical Issue of ‟Open Theology” Phenomenology of Religious Experience II: Perspectives in Theology

An enduring feature of Christian religious life has been the experience of the demonic. This experience can be found in the New Testament, most obviously in reported encounters with demons, but more centrally in the language of spiritual warfare that pervades much of the Pauline literature. In the Patristic period, these ideas were cemented in the Christian tradition in the writings of the Desert Fathers. A phenomenological understanding of experience holds that percepts have qualities that are inherently given as part of the experience, and that these qualities can be observed through the use of phenomenological concepts. An examination of the writings of the Desert Fathers suggests that one inherent quality of some religious experiences is their externality. Thoughts or feelings within the person are perceived as having an external source, and external threats can take on an embodied quality in perception, as in visions of demonic beings. These experiences have their initial constitution in an Otherness centered in the body. On reflection, it is not surprising that we would find a quality of externality in religious experience. Religion and spirituality deal with our relationship to the broader world around us. Recent phenomenological writings by Levinas and Marion have begun to recover the importance of externality, however, they neglect aspects of demonic experiences such as their negative valence. Critics of the demonic have tried hard to expel the idea from Western consciousness, pointing to tragic experiences in early modern history and the apparent need to posit the existence of immaterial entities. However, a careful phenomenological and historical analysis casts serious doubt on this modernist picture. The abandonment of the demonic in much of Christian religious thought and practice carries negative consequences, as it invalidates the external quality of many difficult religious experiences. A recovery of the concept of the demonic would help us better understand the phenomenology of religious life.

Regular Articles

Open Access May 17, 2018

God Is Dying in Turkey as Well: Application of Secularization Theory to a Non-Christian Society

Volkan Ertit

Page range: 192-211

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Abstract

It has been stated in academic studies and popular media that Islam began its rise in dominance in Turkey with the accession of the Justice and Development Party (AKP) to power in 2002 under the leadership of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. However, contrary to claims of societal Islamization, in light of quantitative and qualitative studies this study argues that despite the AKP and its leader Erdoğan being in power, the following evidence has been observed in Turkey: praying rates have decreased, extramarital sexual relationship has become prevalent, the number of mosques per person has decreased, the belief in virginity is a point of honour for fewer people, people‘s clothes have become more flatteringly formfitting and more attractive, including women’s head-scarves; secular experts rather than religious officials are being sought for help concerning problems in daily life, homosexuality has become more socially acceptable visible, traditional family structures has been shattered. Therefore, it is claimed that AKP (or Erdoğan) has failed in efforts to Islamize Turkey over the past 15 years (2002-2017) despite having all the governmental means and opportunities to do so. This study argues that the classical theory of secularization, which claims that modernization leads to secularization, can still explain not only the social transformation seen in historically Christian and Western European countries and their offshoots, but also the social transformation of Turkey, a Muslim-majority country that has been governed for the past 15 years by a political party with clear Islamic sensitivities.

About this journal

Open Theology is an international Open Access, peer-reviewed academic journal that welcomes contributions written in English addressing religion in its various forms and aspects: historical, theological, sociological, psychological, and other.
The journal encompasses all major disciplines of Theology and Religious Studies, presenting doctrine, history, organization and everyday life of various types of religious groups and the relations between them. We publish articles from the field of Theology as well as Philosophy, Sociology and Psychology of Religion and also dialogue between Religion and Science.
Open Theology does not present views of any particular theological school nor of a particular religious organization. The contributions are written by researchers who represent different religious views. The authors present their research concerning the old religious traditions as well as new religious movements.
The aim of the journal is to promote an international and interdisciplinary dialogue in the field of Theology and Religious Studies. The journal seeks also to provide researchers, pastors and other interested persons with the fruits of academic studies.

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Call for Proposals for Topical Issues

CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS

Political Theology and the State of Exception: Critical readings on the centenary of 'Political Theology' & 'Roman Catholicism and Political Form' by Carl Schmitt - Edited by Guillermo Andrés Duque Silva (University of King Juan Carlos, Spain) - NEW DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSIONS: May 31, 2023.
Religion and Spirituality in Everyday Life edited by Joana Bahia (State University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil), Cecilia Bastos (National Museum of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil), and María Pilar García Bossio (UCA-CONICET, Argentina) - deadline for submissions: May 15, 2023.