Search Results (71)

This article examines the epistemological and homiletical implications of postmodernity for Christian preaching. It addresses the communicative crisis introduced by postmodern skepticism toward metanarratives. It proposes a constructive theological response through the re-articulation of the gospel as a coherent, storied, and transformative metanarrative. Drawing on interdisciplinary scholarship in theology, homiletics, epistemology, and cultural theory, this study argues that a thoughtful engagement with postmodern critique can serve as a catalytic force for ecclesial renewal. The article advocates for a homiletic method that re-engages Scripture’s narrative form while emphasizing relational epistemology, incarnational witness, and contextual sensitivity. By utilizing narrative theology, post-critical epistemologies, and performative models of preaching, this study proposes a recalibrated approach to gospel proclamation, adapted for fragmented and skeptical audiences, while safeguarding theological orthodoxy. Full article

This paper examines the intellectual crises of (post-)modern philosophy, proposing a cosmopolitan philosophy as a remedy for the philosophical fragmentation that has contributed to global intellectual and cultural disintegration. Drawing on the ontological framework of Semyon Frank and enriched by Henry Corbin’s comparative philosophy and phenomenological hermeneutics, the paper establishes a new foundation for constructing a cosmopolitan philosophy within a post-foundationalist framework. Frank’s concept of “All-Unity” offers a metaphysical basis that reconciles the universal with the particular, resolving the antinomies of universality versus singularity and historicity versus non-historicity as foundational conditions of the possibility for this philosophy. Corbin’s focus on intuition and the imaginal realm further deepens this approach, enabling the integration of diverse intellectual traditions while honoring their unique and particular contributions. This paper argues that cosmopolitan philosophy can provide a coherent framework for engaging with the complexities of global thought and diverse intellectual traditions, offering a foundation for mutual understanding and addressing the existential crises of contemporary life. Full article

Viktor Frankl attributes significant importance to religion in relation to the human quest for meaning. According to Frankl, religion maintains its existence and continues offering guidance in the search for meaning irrespective of worldly conditions or developments. Since the 19th century, secularism—initially adopted particularly by Western nations but influential globally—has significantly limited the presence of religion in public life. Although the predictions of positivist scientists did not materialize and science has not “overthrown” religion, the number of religious individuals is rapidly declining in the contemporary era, while atheism is increasing. Nevertheless, research indicates that religions still serve as powerful guides in believers’ search for meaning. Moreover, globally, the most religious segments of the population tend to be the poorest and, as Frankl suggests, religion enables people to attribute meaning to their patience and endurance in the face of adversity. It is discussed by the academia that in the future world, humanity might transcend biological limitations, reaching an advanced form of existence (“trans-humanism”), and eventually even surpassing the biological form of Homo Sapiens into a digitally based life form described as the “post-human” stage. This study argues that unless humanity reaches this stage, people’s quest for meaning will continue independently of technological advancements, religions will persist in guiding these searches, and Frankl’s views will most likely remain valid. Full article

The post-modern era is characterized by a structural religious pluralism, whereby the public dimension of religion has re-emerged as a prominent feature after the relative obscurity of the modern period. In the context of Christianity, the contribution of religion to the common good has been reflected upon in the extensive and profound field of Public Theology. Since its inception in the 1980s, this vast area of studies has encompassed a wide range of topics, including politics, civil society, economics, social issues, and justice. However, the interreligious dimension of public theology appears to be less developed. This is linked, firstly, to the discovery of the public dimension of neighbouring religions and, secondly, to the clarification of the relationship between this and Christian Public Theology. It is evident that the focus of this discussion is the development of a Comparative Public Theology as Interreligious Public Theology. This is a theology that considers the comparative study of religions in a pluralistic context, with the public aspect as its background. On this basis, the contribution has two main aims. Firstly, to identify the field of interreligious public theology, and secondly to concretise it by exploring the field of education from an interreligious and public perspective, i.e., as a contribution to the common good. Full article

Roman Bordun’s twenty-first century photograph The Apartment After the Artillery Bombardment. Heat resistant Ceramic Vase. Irpin [Ukraine]. June 2022 uses light to express the Christian paradox of suffering that leads to redemption and eternal life for the just. In order to imbue spiritual meaning into a photographic work, Bordun draws from Renaissance artists in his use of technique (chiaroscuro), topic (warfare), and geography (the city) that all reference Christ’s Resurrection. Comparing and contrasting Bordun’s Apartment with Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino’s [Raphael] paint on wood Saint Michael Overwhelming the Demon (c. 1505) demonstrates how Bordun’s photograph can transcend its discrete historical context, merging the factual and the mythic as described by C. S. Lewis. Through his references to Raphael and the masters, Bordun lays claim to a Christian iconography and challenges the political use of religion in waging human warfare. His works all demonstrate contemporary or even quotidian plays on Renaissance works in order to address current political issues. The art of photography and stylistic references to churches’ involvement in politics, as opposed to Christian teachings, critiques Moscow’s “post-truth” justifications of the Ukrainian invasion and war. Full article

With 1600 titles Joseph Ratzinger/Pope Benedict XVI. is the most academically published pope in Church history. His stature as a theologian is only comparable to that of Leo the Great or Gregory the Great. In an age that has lost an appreciation for the human being as a person, the peritus Ratzinger introduced at the Second Vatican Council the notion that divine revelation is ultimately identical with the Godman Jesus Christ. In his view, Jesus Christ, as a divine person with both divine and human natures, redeems the postmodern human being from solipsistic self-preoccupation and existentialist despair. Such is the result of a positivistic and rationalistic approach to the figure of Jesus Christ. At the beginning of the 21st century, Pope Benedict XVI inaugurated an epochal, personalist, and Christocentric shift by penning the Jesus of Nazareth trilogy, taking serious Kant’s critiques and writing thus the first “post-critical” Christology presented to postmodernity. Nowhere else does Ratzinger write so extensively on “the man from Nazareth”. Full article

This study examines the transformation of the urban fabric by analyzing changes in both structural and numerical parameters of spatial organization, with a particular emphasis on the hierarchical relationships between streets, blocks, and buildings. The research utilizes Bursa, the former Ottoman capital in Turkey, as a case study to explore these dynamics. The elements of streets, blocks, and buildings are posited as fundamental components in conceptualizing cities as layered palimpsests, where successive historical layers coexist within the urban fabric. The research establishes a conceptual parallel between the methodologies and analytical tools of urban morphology, particularly through the shared notion of the palimpsest. In the case of Bursa, the architectural remains and urban form of the Early, Classical, and Late Ottoman periods and of the Republican period are superimposed. In particular, the late Ottoman reform era, the Tanzimat period of the 19th century, brought great change. Historical maps from this era serve as primary sources for comprehending the evolving character and spatial configuration of the city. This research presents a novel methodological contribution by extending the analytical framework of urban morphology to integrate both qualitative and quantitative data. It employs Geographic Information Systems (GISs) and statistical methods to quantify changes in the urban fabric, assessing both pre-modernization and post-modernization phases. Historical maps from the 19th century are utilized as primary sources to trace and compare transformations within the urban fabric, with clustering techniques further aiding this analysis. The findings provide a deeper understanding of the dynamic processes that shape the historic structure of cities, offering a dual approach to urban transformation that harmonizes historical continuity with modern development. Full article

This study examines the role of laughter in media content, focusing on traditional non-humorous entertainment talk shows with hosts, guests and a studio audience. The analysis, which documents over 20,000 instances of laughter in just 60 episodes (one laugh every 20 s), highlights the central role of laughter in this reality. The study concludes that: (1) hosts laughed more than guests and studio audiences; (2) in the programmes analysed, female hosts generated almost twice as much laughter as male hosts; (3) laughter followed a recognisable ‘U-shaped’ pattern, peaking at the beginning and end of the programme; (4) jokes with sexual connotations elicited the highest levels of laughter; (5) public service episodes had fewer instances of laughter; and (6) the programme with the host who laughed the most had the largest audience. In conclusion, laughter provides not only emotional, but also ideological gratification, based on the (post)modern concept of happiness. Full article

What is truth? We have entered another period fraught with Gospel confusion—beyond postmodernism to what can be called “post-Christianity”. This is not unusual—so we should not be overwhelmed. This happens periodically, as early as Gal 1:9: “If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let him be eternally condemned”. It is all a question of the Gospel, or put another way, evangelism (the communication or announcing “the good news of God”). Evangelism is proclaiming and living a distinct message of Jesus Christ. Jesus is Himself the embodiment of the “good news”. The Gospel has been challenged, eroded and corrupted over the centuries—yet rediscovered by those who practice exegesis of the Biblical record of the New Testament. This article moves on to look at how secular philosophy—rather than Christian philosophy—and other “forms of the truth” have influenced the current situation we find ourselves in. Full article

Although declarations of the death of God seem to be provocations announcing the end of the era of theology, this announcement is actually central to the Christian revelation in its most classic forms, as well as to its reworkings in contemporary religious thought. Indeed provocative new possibilities for thinking theologically open up precisely in the wake of the death of God. Already Hegel envisaged a revolutionary new realization of divinity emerging in and with the secular world through its establishment of a total order of immanence. However, in postmodern times this comprehensive order aspired to by modern secularism implodes or cracks open towards the wholly Other. A hitherto repressed demand for the absolute difference of the religious, or for “transcendence”, returns with a vengeance. This difference is what could not be stated in terms of the Hegelian System, for reasons that poststructuralist writers particularly have insisted on: all representations of God are indeed dead. Yet this does not mean that they cannot still be powerful, but only that they cannot assign God any stable identity. Nietzsche’s sense of foreboding concerning the death of God is coupled with his intimations of the demise of representation and “grammar” as epistemologically bankrupt, but also with his vision of a positive potential for creating value in the wake of this collapse of all linguistically articulated culture. He points the way towards the emergence of a post-secular religious thinking of what exceeds thought and representation. Full article

Magic, as an emanation of past presence in a picture, emerges as a theme in postmodern theories of photography. It is linked to various forms of actual and symbolic absence; an absence which creates a space that keeps us looking, ostensibly for something that is lost. Photography may not always have been digital, but it has always been magical. Photography Without Pictures explores the critical dialogue and disciplinary uncertainty around the terminology of an expanded photographic that derived from debates surrounding the proliferation of digital media and the previous, ontological question of the nature of photography as a technology and a pictorial medium. It is prompted by Andrew Dewdney’s conviction that in order to deal with the contemporary condition of the networked screen image, we need to “Forget Photography” (2021). Dewdney considers the paradox that while photography is now ubiquitous, it is also peculiarly and magically undead, a simulation at the behest of mutable electronic data. The article examines three instances of critical response to contemporary photography, including the interpretation and response to several photographic artworks and one simulated photograph, to distinguish characteristics of pictoriality, authorship and temporality in photographic pictures. In asking what it means to be a real photographer, we discover that the singular observer/artist has become a crowd in respect of the image sharing culture of post-internet art. Throughout his polemical argument to Forget Photography, Dewdney prefers to use the term image and imagery to refer to both the photographic and the networked image. The terms picture and image tend to be interchangeable in language and inhabit each other in practice, yet there are historical differences and continuities that make the distinction remarkable in considering questions of ontology and media continuity. Pictorial, temporal and illusory ‘magic’ are the themes through which these photographic uncertainties unfold. Full article

A new postmodern depression type, named “Modern-Type Depression” (MTD), is emerging in Western countries. MTD is often underdiagnosed, mainly due to potentially higher comorbidity with technology-based addictions, including Internet Gaming Disorder (IGD). However, the definition of the relationship between MTD and IGD is still controversial, as few data have been published thus far. In particular, there are no data specifically investigating the prevalence of MTD within Italian young subjects with IGD, as well as their mutual association. Hence, within the SWATCH (Social Withdrawal and TeCno-mediated mental Health issues) project, our study aimed to identify the prevalence of MTD in a sample of Italian young adults who play video games by providing a clinical characterization of MTD within a group of IGD individuals (IGD+) versus a group without IGD (IGD−) who play video games. Our cross-sectional case–control study recruited a sample of 543 Italian young video-gaming players (aged 18–35) from the larger SWATCH database, stratified as IGD+ versus IGD−. Subjects were administered the 22-item Tarumi’s Modern-Type Depression Trait Scale (TACS-22), the Motives for Online Gaming Questionnaire (MOGQ), and the Internet Gaming Disorder Scale-Short Form (IGDS9-SF). Around 21.7% of the total sample was represented by MTD individuals, while within the IGD sample, around 34% of subjects had MTD. Within the MTD group, significantly higher scores at IGDS-9SF (p < 0.001), MOGQ “Escape from reality” (p < 0.001), “Fantasy” (p < 0.001), and MOGQ total score (p = 0.003) were found compared to MTD−. According to the multivariate regression model, controlled for sex and age, higher scores in the TACS-22 were positively predicted by the total score of IGDS9-SF (p = 0.003), the MOGQ “Escape from Reality” subscale (p = 0.014), and MOGQ “Fantasy” (p = 0.011), and negatively predicted by the MOGQ “Competition” subscale (p = 0.035) [F (4538) = 17.265; p < 0.001]. Our findings suggested that MTD displays a strong association with IGD. Video-gaming players who do not have IGD appear to be less prone to MTD; this suggests that further studies could be carried out to specifically investigate whether pathological use of video games could also be determined by the presence of MTD. Full article

This article proposes a Thomistic account of graced human nature that emphasizes the importance of underlying developments in Aquinas’ doctrine of creation that inform his approach to the doctrine of grace. While post-Cartesian accounts of the human person often reduce the complex causal structure that marks the relationship between God and the human person in Aquinas’ pre-modern theological anthropology, this article recovers a more comprehensive account of Aquinas’ account of human sanctification and divine causality. Where modern and postmodern anthropologies are often marked by scientific determinism or subjectivism, Aquinas’s anthropology of grace refuses the modern dichotomization of immanence and transcendence, proposing instead an understanding of grace as the divinization of the human person as image of God that is marked not only by the supernatural finality of beatitude, but the intrinsic and personal immanence of divine indwelling. Full article

Melvin Edwards made his first abstract sculptures at the beginning of the contemporary period in the early 1960s, but the ways he held on formally to a modern notion of “interiority” in his Lynch Fragments series provide us with an underexamined aesthetic position in contemporary art. Edwards offered nuanced relationships between interior and exterior at a moment when concepts of “interiority” and “self” were under the most strain in contemporary art practice. If we consider this turn away from interiority—and toward surface, emptiness, system, and dematerialization—to be, in part, a symptom of the pressure exerted by the commodity form on art viewers’ sensibilities after 1955, then the stakes of Edwards’ choice not only to use found metal objects, but to compose them around an active rather than empty center, feel higher. By comparing the sculpture Mojo for 1404 (1964) with the Bichos (1960–1965) of Lygia Clark, the distinctiveness of Edwards’ project emerges even more strongly. Clark responded to the crisis of interiority with shiny metal sculptures whose interiors were constantly being flipped inside-out. By contrast, Edwards’ art was motivated by the struggle for racial justice, and it persistently spoke its desire for grounded, scarred personhood in an aesthetic language that required viewers to recall their own interiority. Full article

This article explores the possibility of a spiritual Islam in the West as a viable alternative to traditionalist and political Islam. It looks at the capabilities and limitations of two French Muslim voices, Abdennour Bidar and Éric Geoffroy, who are the most vocal Muslim intellectuals in favor of spiritual Islam in France. A careful examination of their writings reveals that post-modernism, French secularism, and religious freedom all support the spread of spiritual Islam. However, because of its elitism, overemphasis on individualism, and lack of formal religious institutions for knowledge and practice, spiritual Islam struggles. Overall, spiritual Islam flourishes in a secular society, but it is too intellectual to truly oppose political and conservative Islam. Full article