Between Philosophy and Theology: Liminal and Contested Issues

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue aims to explore some of the liminal and contested issues at the margins of both philosophy and theology. By focusing on historical, epistemological, and ontological insights and analyses, it wishes to highlight some of the forgotten, abandoned or otherwise neglected or criticized concepts or topics related to the philosophy of religion and philosophical theology.

For centuries, philosophers and theologians set aside or completely repurposed and transformed past traditions, concepts, and phenomena in order to detach matter and ancient elements from spiritual reality and firmly delineate and separate the idea and reality of God. For example, the illusion of a masculinely represented God being completely ontologically separated from creation, under the creatio ex nihilo divine act conception, has produced numerous arguments for the existence of God, which stress the radical ontological separateness between divine and nondivine realities, men and women, and so forth. Within this god–human dichotomy, the latter was ontologically caught in passivity and the former was merely active in His creativity. But this conception completely left behind or marginalized other conceptions and a whole series of phenomena, which in this new view had no place.

Ancient cosmological and sacred correspondences between microcosmic beings or realities were thus abandoned and forgotten, and the elemental flow of natural energies was severed. The ancient magic of the world was lost, and both philosophy and theology became servants to this unfortunate gesture. In addition to this, key religious phenomena and experiences, such as prayers, visions of God or other divine beings, clairvoyances and prophecies, communication with the dead, and all kinds of miracles, were rarely put into dialogue with either philosophy or science. To the contrary, they were rather presented as “weird” and inexplicable phenomena, irrational (or transrational) exceptions inhabiting the very margin of Western rational thought and thus not being properly “real” or having any ontological value.

In his Parapsychology, Philosophy, and Spirituality, David Ray Griffin presents us with a series of arguments for the academic and scientific evaluation of paranormal phenomena. In this excellent and unique book, Griffin lays the foundation for any future elaboration of these less studied and examined phenomena based on psychological, philosophical, and religious interests. He argues that, in the era of evolutionary science, relativity theory, and quantum physics, it is vital and actually necessary to extend our interests in philosophy and religious science towards such less studied phenomena. In his endeavor, Griffin criticizes the scientific reductionism of late modernity and thus transcends the supernatural vs. atheism and dualism vs. materialism divides. God, for him, reveals within the continual creation of the panexperientialist and processual view of the universe, now also without the fundamental support of the creatio ex nihilo idea.

With these topics, the aim of this Special Issue is to tackle less studied and neglected and marginal phenomena to propose some new, innovative and experimentalist avenues of thought in contemporary philosophy of religion and theology.

In this Special Issue, original research articles are welcome. Research areas may include (but are not limited to) the following issues:

• the role of magic and/or indigenous thought between philosophy and religion;
• the ontological status of miracles, clairvoyances, etc.;
• the ontological status of liminal beings, such as angels, demons, djinns, geniuses, ghosts, etc.;
• Jungian psychoanalysis, synchronicity, and their role in contemporary theology;
• the role of omniscience in philosophy and theology;
• the questions of paranormal phenomena (clairvoyance, telepathy etc.) and quantum theology;
• forgotten or abandoned historical concepts, topics or traditions (such as human premortality, epinoia, pneuma, Hesychasm, Cosmism, etc.);
• cross-species enchantements and entanglements within contemporary theology;
• new elemental theologies (of fire, earth, air and water);
• cross-cultural analyses of liminal spaces and concepts between philosophy and theology;
• conceptions of liminality and inter- or trans-disciplinarity between philosophy and theology;
• other topics in contemporary philosophical theology.

We request that, prior to submitting a manuscript, interested authors have to submit a proposed title and an abstract of 200-300 words summarizing their intended contribution. Abstracts will be reviewed by the Guest Editor for the purposes of ensuring proper fit within the scope of the Special Issue. Please send the manuscript to the Guest Editor, or to the Assistant Editor of Religions. Full manuscripts will undergo double-blind peer review.

Prof. Dr. Lenart Škof
Dr. Alberto Parisi
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Religions is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1800 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• philosophical theology
• magic and indigenous thought
• ontology of miracles
• paranormal phenomena
• angelic beings
• quantum theology
• cross-species theology
• psychoanalysis and synchronicity
• paranormal phenomena
• liminality
• cross-cultural studies
• omniscience between philosophy and theology