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Abstract The Jesuit missionary Matteo Ricci's teaching on the goodness of human nature in The True Meaning of the Lord of Heaven represents the fruit of the first encounter between Catholicism and Confucianism. This article will consider the Thomistic and neo‐Confucian sources in Ricci's enunciation of the Catholic doctrine on the goodness of human nature in this Chinese catechism. It will illustrate that Ricci developed his teaching, which is fundamentally Thomistic, with the help of terminology borrowed from the Chinese philosophical tradition. His distinction between the good of nature and the good of virtue leads to prioritising the cultivation of human nature. Ricci's teaching reflects the early modern Jesuits’ appreciation of human freedom. It also displays a Catholic reaction to the sixteenth‐century neo‐Confucian intellectual trend that ignored the importance of moral cultivation.
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In this essay, we put forth a novel solution to Plantinga’s Evolutionary Argument Against Naturalism, utilizing recent work done by Duncan Pritchard on radical skepticism. Key to the success of Plantinga’s argument is the doubting of the reliability of one’s cognitive faculties. We argue (viz. Pritchard and Wittgenstein) that the reliability of one’s cognitive faculties constitutes a hinge commitment, thus is exempt from rational evaluation. In turn, the naturalist who endorses hinge epistemology can deny the key premise in Plantinga’s argument and avoid the dilemma posed on belief in the conjunction of naturalism and evolution.
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The doctrine of original sin gives people the impression that the goodness of human nature is under-evaluated in the Christian theological tradition. The Chinese philosopher Mencius is famous for his teaching on the goodness of human nature. Reading Mencius and Thomas Aquinas side by side, this article argues that the Mencian teaching on human nature brings us to affirm the goodness of human nature by recovering the significance of the image of God for the Christian doctrine of human nature. If we seek the goodness of human nature in the possibilities to become good, it is natural to see that even in the fallen state the possibilities of becoming like God remain in human nature imprinted with the image of God. It is open to the culmination of a gradual progression to its perfection.
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A growing focus on God’s mercy and forgiveness emerged in the wake of the recent Pontificates of John Paul II, Benedict XVI, and Francis. Our time with its multiple crises cries for healing, forgiveness, and the experience of God’s mercy. In social, political, and global terms, humanity craves for “lasting peace, born of the marriage of justice and mercy” (John Paul II, 2001, no. 15). The experience of God’s forgiveness, merciful healing and new life has been expressed many times in the Bible. But, theologically, it has never been formulated as directly as in Hosea 11:8, when God’s own heart becomes “turned over”, “converted” following the blaze of his own overwhelming compassion, paving the way for a fundamental spiritual transformation, rooted in forgiveness and mercy, that opens wellsprings of dignity, healing, and new life for all.
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In this essay we argue that, based on current scientific data, the most prudential course of future actions that an American conservative can take, is one that assumes what we call climate change alarmism. In order to establish this thesis, we first provide a basic overview of the relevant climate change science, as well as give an analysis of the alarmist and lukewarming dialectic (the two primary interpretations of the data). We then move to develop our environmental wager. Finally, following Roger Scruton, we end this work by proposing what sort of policies conservatives should endorse going further.
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Launonen and Mullins argue that if Classical Theism is true, human cognition is likely not theism-tracking, at least, given what we know from cognitive science of religion. In this essay, we develop a model for how classical theists can make sense of the findings from cognitive science, without abandoning their Classical Theist commitments. We also provide an argument for how our model aligns well with the Christian doctrine of general revelation.
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The place of theology is under threat in the modern university. It is denied a place, except insofar as it is useful in the training of religious professionals or as a phenomenon in its own right, on the grounds that relate to an unscientific scientism that both makes metaphysical assumptions it itself does not recognise as scientific or denies its own epistemological commitments. This article argues that the notion of education in ‘liberal knowledge’ or ‘universal knowledge’, the idea at the heart of John Henry Newman’s The Idea of a University provides a sufficiently robust counter to these assaults on the place of theology proper in the modern university and that refusing such a place to it undermines the claim of universities to use the name at all. It is precisely the uselessness of theology that guarantees its place in the university committed to universal knowledge and universal enquiry.
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In this essay, we respond to Dustin Crummett’s argument that one cannot consistently appeal to body count reasoning to justify being a single-issue pro-life voter if one is also committed to the usual response to the embryo rescue case. Specifically, we argue that a modified version of BCR we call BCR* is consistent with the usual response. We then move to address concerns about the relevance of BCR* to Crummett’s original thesis.
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Would the existence of extraterrestrial intelligent life (ETI) conflict in any way with Christian belief? We identify six areas of potential conflict. If there be no conflict in any of these areas—and we argue ultimately there is not—we are confident in declaring that there is no conflict, period. This conclusion underwrites the integrity of theological explorations into the existence of ETI, which has become a topic of increasing interest among theologians in recent years.
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Academic Units
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Faculty of Religious Studies and Philosophy
- Andrew Leong (1)
- Cyril Law (3)
- Edmond Eh (6)
- Franz Gassner (7)
- Judette Gallares (1)
- Stephen Morgan (9)
- Thomas Cai (4)
Resource type
United Nations SDGs
Publication year
- Between 2000 and 2025 (50)
- Unknown (1)