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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.

"As an atheistic religious tradition, Buddhism conventionally stands in opposition to Christianity, and any bridge between them is considered to be riddled with contradictory beliefs on God the creator, salvific power and the afterlife. But what if a Buddhist could also be a Classical Theist? Showing how the various contradictions are not as fundamental as commonly thought, Tyler Dalton McNabb and Erik Baldwin challenge existing assumptions and argue that Classical Theism is, in fact, compatible with Buddhism. They draw parallels between the metaphysical doctrines of both traditions, synthesize their ethical and soteriological commitments and demonstrate that the Theist can interpret the Buddhist's religious experiences, specifically those of emptiness, as veridical, without denying any core doctrine of Classical Theism. By establishing that a synthesis of the two traditions is plausible, this book provides a bold, fresh perspective on the philosophy of religion and reinvigorates philosophical debates between Buddhism and Christianity"--

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.

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.

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.

Interculturality is considered a constant given in the development of most major religious movements during the process of propagation coming into contact with diverse tongues, mores, and sentiments. And one of the chief, if not decisive, instruments contributing to this ever dynamic spread and reception of beliefs and cultures is translation. Christianity purports to be an incarnational religion, where the Word made flesh expresses the di-vine in human terms. Its doctrines are enshrined in a faith tradition that is developed largely through interpretation and translation. This short paper will cut into this sacral literary tradition by paralleling two influential mod-ern Christian thinkers, John Henry Newman from the Anglophone school, and Joseph Ma Xiangbo from the Orient, to see how attempts at translating the ideas and works of people from distinct cultural milieux is both reflec-tive of the necessary developmental nature of Christian teachings in the historical continuum of time and space, and indicative of the intellectual challenges that never cease to accompany the literary effervescence stem-ming from comparative religious studies.

"Semantic studies of the Biblical Hebrew verb "whole" have been influenced by those of its most invoked nominal form "whole". In this volume Andrew Chin Hei Leong shows that the concepts of balance, alliance, and completeness form the basic semantic structure of "whole". Previous studies on "whole" employed either historical or textual methodology, which has been dominant in biblical lexical studies. In addition to these methods, in Leong develops a systematic semantic methodology from Cognitive Semantics and Frame Semantics, to demonstrate that it is balance, rather than completeness, that is the most central concept in holding the semantic network together"--

When the City of the Name of God of Macao marked 400 years of Portuguese administration in 1956, the Catholic community’s participation was marked by a wide range of activities that included liturgical celebrations, public processions and other devotions that involved large numbers of the lay faithful, members of confraternities, in addition to the clergy and religious of the enclave. Twenty-one years later the Diocese of Macao celebrated its own quatercentenary with celebrations of a decidedly more sober character and at the retrocession of Macao to Chinese control in December 1999, other than a few liturgical events and hierarchical presence at civic ceremonies, the Church was all but invisible. As the Diocese of Macao plans for its 450th anniversary, some of the former richness has begun to return. This paper outlines the long ebb tide and now-nascent flow of the tide of Catholic public piety in Macao over this period by reference to the Catholic religious processions of the City and seeks to offer tentative explanations grounded in the theological, ecclesial, political and cultural winds that have blown across the Pearl River Delta since the end of the Second World War.

"In focusing on the gestation of "An Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine" (1845), John Henry Newman's last work as an Anglican and presaging his transition to Catholicism, this book examines how Newman accounted for doctrinal continuity in the face of evidence of change in the history of the church"--