Authors & Affiliations: Man K.K., Department of Religion and Philosophy, Hong Kong Baptist University, Hong Kong

Pages: 7 - 46

Abstract: In his book Morality and Beyond, Paul Tlllich investigates the relationship between morality and religion. He argues for three theses: The unconditional character of the moral imperative is its religious quality, love as the ultimate source of the moral commands, and grace as the power of the moral motivation. In this paper, I will systematically explore Tillich's view on the relationship between morality and religioa I will also provide a critical evaluation of this view, and the above three theses in particular. Tlllich argues that in many aspects religion (especially Christianity) fulfills morality. For example, we are driven beyond the unbearable tensions of the sphere of law to search for a transmoral conscience. Despite some disagreements with Tlllich, I argue that his general conclusions are plausible. However, some of his discussions arc sketchy, and many more points need to be adduced to support them. This is only the beginning of a very important dialogue. © 2019 Chung Yuan Christian University. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Agape; Heteronomy; Morality & religion; Paul tillich; Unconditional imperative

Authors & Affiliations: Xuhong S., School of Literature, Journalism and Communication Minzu, University of China, China

Pages: 47 - 68

Abstract: The Middle Ages has been described as "Dark" for a loiig time by many thinkers in 20th century who tend to definite ocularcentrism as a symbol of modernity and then identify medieval times the opposition of it. However, this common assumption is confronted with more and more suspicion. Medieval thought of sight had been developed under a dualist context of Platonism and Judaism, the former of which held strongly on a kind of ocularcentrism and the latter ocularphobia. Despite of their apparent opposition, both traditions conspired to deny the possibility of seeing the truth by human's corporal eyes. Medieval Christian theology, which tended essentially to confirm the conncction between sight and truth according to its crucial doctrinc of Incarnation, raised new concepts such as "spiritual senses" and "insight," and developed different understanding of the relationship between corporal and spiritual eyes. It was Augustine who invented a psychological perspective in theological epistemology and introduced Aristotelian tradition of sight into Christianity and established a subsistcnt relationship between outer and inner sight, which paved the way of rationalizing the sight and laid really the foundation of modem ocularcentrism. © 2019 Chung Yuan Christian University. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Insight; Medieval christian theology; Ocularcentrism; Spiritual senses

Authors & Affiliations: Ying C., School of Foreign Languages, Renmin University of China, China

Pages: 69 - 88

Abstract: Scholem's linguistic philosophy is based on the context of mystical linguistic theory of Jewish Kabbalah, revealing its explicit dimension of linguistic theology. Jewish Kabbalah exerts its impact on and thus forms the depth and width of inner development of Judaism. It demonstrates the implicit and marginalized mystical linguistic theory in the long-standing Jewish tradition. Scholem asserts that in language, creation reveals its power which is rooted in the divine names mediated by symbolism. The name of God embedded in such symbolism highlights the dialectical trait in linguistic theory of Jewish Kabbalah. In this Kabbalistic perspective, the dialectical trait of Jewish mystical linguistics oscillates between appropriacy and negation, continuity and discontinuity, forming the name of God in its totality, which needs to be outlined by human language and yet beyond its capacity. As a dialectical response to the exterior real world, in the framework of Kabbalistic language theory, the dialectically spiritual wodd constructed by Scholem's linguistic theory of Kabbalah is brimmed with conspicuously critical dimension within. © 2019 Chung Yuan Christian University. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Dialectical trait; Kabbalah; Linguistic theory; Name of god; Scholem

Authors & Affiliations: Yuan-Wei T., Department of Religious Studies, Fu Jen Catholic University, Taiwan

Pages: 89 - 124

Abstract: The ethical tradition of Judaism has always had a political dimension, which introduced the subject of Jewish modernity during the Haskalah period in the eighteenth century: How does Judaism participate in the secular society with some kind of publicity? According to the theory of Moses Mendelssohn, a leader of Haskalah, expressed in his masterpiece Jerusalem, Judaism is both a "religion of reason" and "revealed legislation" but not a "revealed religion," so that a modern Judaism could response to Enlightenment spirit and keeps the Torah and does not fall into the opposition of reason and revelation. However, this Jewish political theology path envisioned by Mendelssohn faced setbacks from the Holocaust From the point of view of Levinas, who committed to restore Jewish ethical tradition in the post-Holocaust era, we can obtain a new direction of Jewish political theology. This article attempts to portray this thought course, to explore the political theological implications of Jerusalem and to describe Levinas's interpretation of this book, in the hope of understanding the basic characteristics of Jewish political theology. © 2019 Chung Yuan Christian University. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Emancipation; Haskalah; Holocaust; Levinas; Mendelssohn

Authors & Affiliations: Liang H., China Graduate School of Theology, Hong Kong

Pages: 125 - 150

Abstract: In 1946, Kazoh Kitamori published his Theology of the Pain of God> emphasizing that the pain of God caused by the death of his Son should form the core of the doctrinc of God. With this, Kazoh opened a new chapter in twentieth-century works on the doctrine of God. In 1972 Jiirgen Moltmann published The Crucified God\ in which he similarly accentuated the pain God experienced through the cross of Jesus. In the later historiography of theology, however, the important differences between these two classics, each of which attempts to work through the Japanese and German war experiences by wrestling with the question of the pain of God, have not been adequately highlighted. The following essay will discuss the substantial difference between these two works from the perspective of the doctrinc of the Trinity, eschatology and the sovereignty of God. © 2019 Chung Yuan Christian University. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Eschatology; Reconciliation; The pain of god; The sovereignty of god; Trinity

Authors & Affiliations: Weichi Z., Institute of World Religions, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Beijing, China

Pages: 151 - 174

Abstract: In mainland China, Augustine's Confessions translated by Mr. Zhou Shiliang (Commercial Press, 1963) is very popular. However, before Mr. Zhou's translation, during the late Qing and the Republic of China, there were five Chinese translations of Confessions. In this paper the author first examines the translation and publication of the five Chinese translations, their respective characteristics, and secondly examines the history of the translation of the word "Confession," the discussion of the precise meaning and translation of "confession" among some writers during the Republic of China. This article is the first systematically academic retrospection of the eastward transmission of Augustine's Confessions. © 2019 Chung Yuan Christian University. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Augustine; Confessions; Hu yigu; William muirhead; Wu yingfeng; Zhang ruogu