Authors & Affiliations: Wessell L.P., Jr.

Pages: 7 - 32

Abstract: In the year 2012, Anno Domini, Sam Harris, an evangelizing atheist, published a short, but quite challenging book with the title FREE WILL, a power that is, he argues, but an illusion. The conscious mind, its acts of minding and its contents are revealed to be fully determined by the brain. It follows from such complete determinism that the human mind lacks all autonomy and cannot, therefore, be responsible for its thoughts and deeds. Harris' argument against free will shall be submitted to a critical examination and then to a refutation in terms of my counter theory of free reason and free will The Task: I shall in ensuing sections consider the fundamental contradiction in the argumentation of Harris, a self-contradiction Harris must bear, if intellectual honesty is to be observed. Certainly, a contradiction in theory constitutes a fragile basis for systematic consistency. Beyond that, I shall briefly take up a few derivative difficulties attendant to his thinking and the offer a counter proposal concerning the relationship between free reason and free will. © 2020 Chung Yuan Christian University. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Freedom; Necessity; Reason; Reductionism; WILL

Authors & Affiliations: Yilin X., Institute of Philosophy Studies, Ji'nan University, China

Pages: 33 - 64

Abstract: It has been a hot topic in the academic circle that how we understand the issue on Christ versus Caesar determines how we deal with the conflict between theocracy and kingship. This article holds the view that the prototype of the issue on Christ versus Caesar derives from the specific narrative in the Gospel of Matthew, which not only forms the basis but also determines the direction for the development of politico-religious relationship in Christian history. Moreover, this article argues that the transcendental connotation of in the literary structure of Matthew 16:13-20 biblically demonstrates an idea that the heavenly theocracy exceeds over the earthly kingship by the suffering of Christ In addition, using the method of detailed reading of the biblical text, the article indicates how the religious chosen people not only comply with the governance from the earthly kingship but also fulfill the duties as citizens, which is revealed by an elaborate interpretation of the connotations of both. It is the perpetual tension between the theocracy and kingship that shapes an opposite even cooperative relationship for the era of the need for the Christian history. © 2020 Chung Yuan Christian University. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Caesar; Christ; Kingship; Theocracy

Authors & Affiliations: Shao T., School of Humanities, Shenzhen University, China

Pages: 65 - 86

Abstract: Augustine proposes two types of war in The City of God, the external war between people and the internal war within the soul, according to which he reconstructed the war history of Rome by comparing the performance between barbarians and Romans. He views external wars among people as an expression and inevitable consequence of the internal war, initially creating the topic of the internal just war. Following Aristotle, Augustine deals with his theory of war within the framework of teleology and thus regards the starting point of the two wars as well as their goal as peace. However, he insists that earthly people can never escape from the state of both external war and internal war, and the right thing for them is to wage war in the hope of eternal peace. © 2020 Chung Yuan Christian University. All rights reserved.

Keywords: External war; Internal just war; Internal war; Peace

Authors & Affiliations: Wang T., Anthony Center for Judaic and Inter-Religious Studies, Shandong University, China

Pages: 87 - 114

Abstract: The article mainly introduces mediaeval great thinker St Thomas Aquinas' philosophical embryogenesis in terms of the ancient psychology (soul theory). It attempts to integrate his theories of Successive Ensoulment and Delayed Hominization with correlative contributions of contemporary natural sciences and refers also to the teachings of Catholic Church in order to facilitate the bioethical reflection on embryo by the definition of personhood and indicate the approach from the so-called "personal" ethics to "bio"-ethics, namely, the ethics of life. © 2020 Chung Yuan Christian University. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Bioethics; Embryogenesis; Personhood; Psychology (soul theory); St Thomas Aquinas

Authors & Affiliations: Yi-Xu X., The Institute of State Governance, Zhejiang Normal University, China

Pages: 115 - 144

Abstract: Interpretation of the "Promised Land" has always been an important issue in Judeo-Christian tradition. As a French Jewish Philosopher, Emmanuel Levinas studied the Bible and Talmud from the part that the Jewish people left Egypt and sent twelve men to spy out and explore the Promised Land of its details and interpretations. Thus he came up with the idea of two approaches to understand the Promised Land: to possess or to found. Deeply under those two approaches, there are actually two paths of movements of culture and society. The logic of "to possess" is viewed as the Ontological path by Levinas, while he promoted the approach of "to found" in which the Promised Land stretches from a "position" to the Other. At this "position," we had to respond to the Other and take responsibility for the Other. As a conclusion, Emmanuel Levinas' interpretation of the Promised Land had always been a holy land that is open to "human.". © 2020 Chung Yuan Christian University. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Found; Ontology; Position; Possess; Promised land; Responsibility

Authors & Affiliations: Luh J.-J., Graduate Institute of Philosophy, National Central University, Taiwan

Pages: 145 - 167

Abstract: After briefly describing the issue of definition of religion and examining the theoretical positions of philosophy of religion in different dimensions of ontology/metaphysics, epistemology/subjectivity-theory, and religious sciences/phenomenology, and eventually the historical process of philosophy of religion, this article starts especially from the fundamental relationship between it and other related disciplines, that is, the relationship between philosophy of religion, theology and religious sciences, and explores its feasible operational definitions/meanings. Then it discusses systematically, historically and hermeneutically the current various positions, types and approaches of philosophy of religion, in order to point out their problems and the theoretical demand for hermeneutic turn. It will be classified typologically into the traditional metaphysics, Criticism of religion, romanticism, historicism, comparative study of religions, social science study of religion, analytical and linguistic philosophy of religion, phenomenology of religion and hermeneutics of religion, etc, and finally the necessity of the systemic hermeneutic of religion will be presented. In the end, the open conclusion reveals a kind of transformation from the metaphysical dualism of Western traditional philosophy to the systemic-hermeneutic philosophy of language as the medium and intermediary between the dimension of spirit and material, which can integrate as the various types of philosophy of religion into a systemic typology of religious studies. © 2020 Chung Yuan Christian University. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Hermeneutic turn; Hermeneutics of religion; Philosophy of religion; Systemics; Typology of religious studies