Hapág: A Journal of Interdisciplinary Theological Research, 2014
For one to simply think, philosophy as a rational investigation of truths and principles of knowl... more For one to simply think, philosophy as a rational investigation of truths and principles of knowledge, being, and conduct, that is, philosophy as a "science," is not required. For thinking, what requisite is a reason, a human endowment constitutive of one's intelligence. One only needs a mind to be able to think. But something more is exigent for one to think twice, is to think again, to reconsider and see something from a different perspective. To think things twice, one needs a conscious apprehension of the notion of truth, a deliberate and critical engagement with principles, and a learned competency of habits of thinking that discloses the eternal freshness of reality. These are the elements that constitute philosophy not simply as a way of life, but as an academic discipline with methods and theories. Here lies philosophy's vocational relevance. Thinking things twice is not the mental disorder of indecisiveness or the unfortunate product of capriciousness. To think things twice is the stubborn instinct of human intelligence which remains restless in entrenched patterns of thought. The apprehension of the possibility of thinking things twice is the initial promise of liberation, the first step towards unshackling the mind and its powers from mental scripts that do not give birth to creativity. This explains why it is said that in the domain of philosophical discourses, questions always outlive their answers. Indeed, though philosophy, in its many faces and guises, has offered opinions, beliefs and sometimes divergent truths to the fundamental questions of life. The more important are the questions asked than the answers proffered. The convoluted transformations and shifting grounds in the history of ideas show to us how, philosophically considered, answers have no finality.
Hapág: A Journal of Interdisciplinary Theological Research, 2014
The article recovers the earlier meaning of event as found in Alfred North Whitehead’s works, Pri... more The article recovers the earlier meaning of event as found in Alfred North Whitehead’s works, Principles of Natural Knowledge and Concept of Nature. In the early Whitehead, the event is considered as the metaphysical ultimate; such that events are the metaphysical building blocks in order to account for the temporal and spatial extensiveness of reality. The recuperation of the pre-PR concept of event is expressive of a dynamic of extending over, or passing into, of one event to another. This dynamic is explicitly absent in the actual occasion of Process and Reality, after Whitehead’s “turn to atomism.”
What is the nature and the place of religion in an ever changing human condition, and in an ever ... more What is the nature and the place of religion in an ever changing human condition, and in an ever changing world? As Kenneth Masong shows, such a reflection requires a broader perspective: the perspective of metaphysics, and actually the perspective of a metaphysics of becoming. Becoming-religion in a becoming universe. Indeed, religion is not an exception, but a phenomenon among others, although a peculiar one. But what applies to the rest of the universe, also applies to religion. And vice versa. Now, one central law for all that exists, is that it is subject to change.
The book is written with the distance, requisite for philosophical reflection, but with a warm heart for the topic, coming from a deep religious life. Again and again the book testifies to the author’s conviction of the intrinsic value of “the event of the religious” now and in the future – for what is called “ethnopoiesis”: the constitution of a unity of wills, by the persuasive power of the divine vision, on humanity’s journey towards civilization.
–Professor André Cloots
Catholic University of Leuven
For one to simply think, philosophy as a rational investigation of truths and principles of knowl... more For one to simply think, philosophy as a rational investigation of truths and principles of knowledge, being, and conduct, that is, philosophy as a "science," is not required. For thinking, what requisite is a reason, a human endowment constitutive of one's intelligence. One only needs a mind to be able to think. But something more is exigent for one to think twice, is to think again, to reconsider and see something from a different perspective. To think things twice, one needs a conscious apprehension of the notion of truth, a deliberate and critical engagement with principles, and a learned competency of habits of thinking that discloses the eternal freshness of reality. These are the elements that constitute philosophy not simply as a way of life, but as an academic discipline with methods and theories. Here lies philosophy's vocational relevance. Thinking things twice is not the mental disorder of indecisiveness or the unfortunate product of capriciousness. To ...
Hapág A Journal of Interdisciplinary Theological Research, 2014
The article recovers the earlier meaning of event as found in Alfred North Whitehead’s works, Pri... more The article recovers the earlier meaning of event as found in Alfred North Whitehead’s works, Principles of Natural Knowledge and Concept of Nature. In the early Whitehead, the event is considered as the metaphysical ultimate; such that events are the metaphysical building blocks in order to account for the temporal and spatial extensiveness of reality. The recuperation of the pre-PR concept of event is expressive of a dynamic of extending over, or passing into, of one event to another. This dynamic is explicitly absent in the actual occasion of Process and Reality, after Whitehead’s “turn to atomism.”
The peculiarity of any social teaching, Catholic, Protestant or otherwise, is that it is an unste... more The peculiarity of any social teaching, Catholic, Protestant or otherwise, is that it is an unsteady marriage between the dogmatically permanent beliefs and the perennially changing historical contexts. Any authentic and relevant social teaching needs to mirror a two-fold fidelity: Faithfulness to the universal truths to which the social teaching is a reflection, and loyalty to the historical contexts to which the social teaching is inextricably embedded. The merit of Cartagenas’s book Unlocking the church’s best kept secret is that it epitomizes the wobbly balancing act that takes cognizance of this two-fold fidelity
A historical narrative on the beginnings of Christian Catholic evangelization in the northern pro... more A historical narrative on the beginnings of Christian Catholic evangelization in the northern province of Zambales, and the beginnings of the Order of Augustinian Recollects in Spain. The Spanish missionaries arrived in the Philippine Islands in 1607 and were sent on their first mission among the Zambales or Zambals, first arriving in the southernmost section of the Zambales mountain range in what is now Mariveles, Bataan. The narrative includes how evangelization started, who were the first missionaries sent, and the first martyrs of the Order on Philippine soil.
A 2001 Catholic magazine article narrating an experience of traveling with Laureana "Ka Luring" F... more A 2001 Catholic magazine article narrating an experience of traveling with Laureana "Ka Luring" Franco, a catechist of Taguig which was then part of the Archdiocese of Manila. She died on October 17, 2011 in Taguig. Her cause for beatification and canonization was opened in 2021 by Bishop Mylo Hubert Vergara of the Diocese of Pasig.
AN Whitehead holds that religion is inherently developing, evolving. This he captures succinctly ... more AN Whitehead holds that religion is inherently developing, evolving. This he captures succinctly in the title of his 1926 book that deals primarily with the subject: Religion in the Making. This research seeks to analyze, critique and see the philosophical implications of seeing ...
Twentieth century philosophy is characterized by a “re-/turn” to religion. The use of the term “r... more Twentieth century philosophy is characterized by a “re-/turn” to religion. The use of the term “re-/turn” largely characterizes our shifting attitudes toward religion. For Whitehead, to rethink religion necessitates a rethinking of the metaphysics that underlie one’s concept of religion. The novelty of Whitehead’s theory of religion lies on the process metaphysics that it presupposes. For him religion, like the whole of reality, is inherently developing, evolving, and he captures this succinctly in his book Religion in the Making (1926). Far from providing an apologetic of religion, Whitehead himself is critical of religion. Nonetheless, the religious spirit, despite the deposition of critics and distortion by fundamentalists, remains present in humanity’s pilgrimage to a better world to come. The realization of religion’s role, however, necessitates reflexivity to its own inherent dynamism as fomenting the hope of adventure of the human spirit. This paper will also argue that “dogm...
PAN PACIFIC JOURNAL OF PHILOSOPHY, EDUCATION AND MANAGEMENT, Jan 2012
Reacting against the turn to transcendence that heavily characterized the medieval worldview, the... more Reacting against the turn to transcendence that heavily characterized the medieval worldview, the modern worldview is fundamentally exemplified by a threefold turn to immanence, consisting of a subjective turn, a linguistic turn and an experiential turn. Language plays a pivotal role here since it mediates between the subjective and the experiential. Ricoeur’s treatment of metaphor, significantly laid out in his The Rule of Metaphor, is crucial in bringing about this linguistic turn that mediates the subject and its experience of the world. Through an analysis of “seeing as” as a poietic reconfiguration of reality in the subject’s experience, language transforms and founds the world as a “being as.” What is disclosed in this interpretative transformation of reality is not simply
an hermeneutical ontology but possibly—also through language—an hermeneutical
axiology.
If reason was bestowed on us by Heaven and the same can be said of faith, then Heaven has present... more If reason was bestowed on us by Heaven and the same can be said of faith, then Heaven has presented us with two incompatible and contradictory suríé4 -Denis Diderot Jppuíu{z"mñ §"Yqzééqé"}tux{é{}tuÉñqé * The author wishes to extend gratitude to Dr. Ignace Vérhack and Mr. Matthew James Fielding for the critical comments and suggestions.
For Whitehead and Nishitani, a rethinking of religion necessitates a rethinking of the metaphysic... more For Whitehead and Nishitani, a rethinking of religion necessitates a rethinking of the metaphysics that underlie one’s concept of religion. The dynamism of religion is unveiled only within the metaphysical grounding of an ontology that accommodates the philosophical preference of “becoming” as an ultimate category of reality.
The novelty of Whitehead’s theory of religion lies in the process metaphysics that it presupposes. For him, religion, like the whole of reality, is inherently developing, evolving, and he captures this succinctly in his book Religion in the Making (1926). What Nishitani offers is a rethinking of Western understanding of religion by way of an Asian speculative approach grounded in Zen Buddhism. He argues that Western religion, particularly Christianity and Judaism, has succumbed to the modern predicament of nihilism, or relative nothingness. The quest for the contemporary rethinking of religion is to radicalize this same nihility towards absolute nothingness (śūnyatā). Nishitani expounds on this idea in his book Religion and Nothingness (1982).
Both Whitehead and Nishitani, two philosophers of the 20th century, recuperate the integral role of religion in the development of civilization understood as the realization of the cultural ideal. Despite the distortion by religious fundamentalists, genuine religion consolidates and points a society towards its real destiny. However, the realization of religion’s role necessitates reflexivity on its own inherent dynamism. As Nishitani emphasizes, whatsoever this adventure of the religious spirit may be, its desired conclusion is what religion essentially is, “the real self-awareness of reality.”
Asian Perspectives in the Arts and Humanities, 2011
An individual is not a subject. What constitutes the subject as subject is thehappening of event ... more An individual is not a subject. What constitutes the subject as subject is thehappening of event and the way this happening transforms the insularityof the individual into the “eventality” of the subject. For Alain Badiou (b.1937), a true subject is one that is subjectivized by the happening of theevent and the subject’s continuous fidelity to this same event. This essayexplores the concept of the human person in Alain Badiou’s philosophy.In order to achieve this, a broad overview of Badiou’s Ontology of theEvent is necessary in order to locate his philosophical anthropology. Whatfollows is a discussion of Badiou’s dynamic conception of an individualas a becoming-subject in relation to an event, a relation characterized byfidelity to the event. This unique philosophy of the human person finds itssingular exemplar in the New Testament figure of St. Paul of Tarsus. Theconclusion of the essay brings Badiou’s philosophy of the event, subjectand truth into the domain of religious discourse where, interestingly, hisphilosophy finds a genial fertile ground for further exploration.
AN Whitehead holds that religion is inherently developing, evolving. This he captures succinctly ... more AN Whitehead holds that religion is inherently developing, evolving. This he captures succinctly in the title of his 1926 book that deals primarily with the subject: Religion in the Making. This research seeks to analyze, critique and see the philosophical implications of seeing ...
Hapág: A Journal of Interdisciplinary Theological Research, 2014
For one to simply think, philosophy as a rational investigation of truths and principles of knowl... more For one to simply think, philosophy as a rational investigation of truths and principles of knowledge, being, and conduct, that is, philosophy as a "science," is not required. For thinking, what requisite is a reason, a human endowment constitutive of one's intelligence. One only needs a mind to be able to think. But something more is exigent for one to think twice, is to think again, to reconsider and see something from a different perspective. To think things twice, one needs a conscious apprehension of the notion of truth, a deliberate and critical engagement with principles, and a learned competency of habits of thinking that discloses the eternal freshness of reality. These are the elements that constitute philosophy not simply as a way of life, but as an academic discipline with methods and theories. Here lies philosophy's vocational relevance. Thinking things twice is not the mental disorder of indecisiveness or the unfortunate product of capriciousness. To think things twice is the stubborn instinct of human intelligence which remains restless in entrenched patterns of thought. The apprehension of the possibility of thinking things twice is the initial promise of liberation, the first step towards unshackling the mind and its powers from mental scripts that do not give birth to creativity. This explains why it is said that in the domain of philosophical discourses, questions always outlive their answers. Indeed, though philosophy, in its many faces and guises, has offered opinions, beliefs and sometimes divergent truths to the fundamental questions of life. The more important are the questions asked than the answers proffered. The convoluted transformations and shifting grounds in the history of ideas show to us how, philosophically considered, answers have no finality.
Hapág: A Journal of Interdisciplinary Theological Research, 2014
The article recovers the earlier meaning of event as found in Alfred North Whitehead’s works, Pri... more The article recovers the earlier meaning of event as found in Alfred North Whitehead’s works, Principles of Natural Knowledge and Concept of Nature. In the early Whitehead, the event is considered as the metaphysical ultimate; such that events are the metaphysical building blocks in order to account for the temporal and spatial extensiveness of reality. The recuperation of the pre-PR concept of event is expressive of a dynamic of extending over, or passing into, of one event to another. This dynamic is explicitly absent in the actual occasion of Process and Reality, after Whitehead’s “turn to atomism.”
What is the nature and the place of religion in an ever changing human condition, and in an ever ... more What is the nature and the place of religion in an ever changing human condition, and in an ever changing world? As Kenneth Masong shows, such a reflection requires a broader perspective: the perspective of metaphysics, and actually the perspective of a metaphysics of becoming. Becoming-religion in a becoming universe. Indeed, religion is not an exception, but a phenomenon among others, although a peculiar one. But what applies to the rest of the universe, also applies to religion. And vice versa. Now, one central law for all that exists, is that it is subject to change.
The book is written with the distance, requisite for philosophical reflection, but with a warm heart for the topic, coming from a deep religious life. Again and again the book testifies to the author’s conviction of the intrinsic value of “the event of the religious” now and in the future – for what is called “ethnopoiesis”: the constitution of a unity of wills, by the persuasive power of the divine vision, on humanity’s journey towards civilization.
–Professor André Cloots
Catholic University of Leuven
For one to simply think, philosophy as a rational investigation of truths and principles of knowl... more For one to simply think, philosophy as a rational investigation of truths and principles of knowledge, being, and conduct, that is, philosophy as a "science," is not required. For thinking, what requisite is a reason, a human endowment constitutive of one's intelligence. One only needs a mind to be able to think. But something more is exigent for one to think twice, is to think again, to reconsider and see something from a different perspective. To think things twice, one needs a conscious apprehension of the notion of truth, a deliberate and critical engagement with principles, and a learned competency of habits of thinking that discloses the eternal freshness of reality. These are the elements that constitute philosophy not simply as a way of life, but as an academic discipline with methods and theories. Here lies philosophy's vocational relevance. Thinking things twice is not the mental disorder of indecisiveness or the unfortunate product of capriciousness. To ...
Hapág A Journal of Interdisciplinary Theological Research, 2014
The article recovers the earlier meaning of event as found in Alfred North Whitehead’s works, Pri... more The article recovers the earlier meaning of event as found in Alfred North Whitehead’s works, Principles of Natural Knowledge and Concept of Nature. In the early Whitehead, the event is considered as the metaphysical ultimate; such that events are the metaphysical building blocks in order to account for the temporal and spatial extensiveness of reality. The recuperation of the pre-PR concept of event is expressive of a dynamic of extending over, or passing into, of one event to another. This dynamic is explicitly absent in the actual occasion of Process and Reality, after Whitehead’s “turn to atomism.”
The peculiarity of any social teaching, Catholic, Protestant or otherwise, is that it is an unste... more The peculiarity of any social teaching, Catholic, Protestant or otherwise, is that it is an unsteady marriage between the dogmatically permanent beliefs and the perennially changing historical contexts. Any authentic and relevant social teaching needs to mirror a two-fold fidelity: Faithfulness to the universal truths to which the social teaching is a reflection, and loyalty to the historical contexts to which the social teaching is inextricably embedded. The merit of Cartagenas’s book Unlocking the church’s best kept secret is that it epitomizes the wobbly balancing act that takes cognizance of this two-fold fidelity
A historical narrative on the beginnings of Christian Catholic evangelization in the northern pro... more A historical narrative on the beginnings of Christian Catholic evangelization in the northern province of Zambales, and the beginnings of the Order of Augustinian Recollects in Spain. The Spanish missionaries arrived in the Philippine Islands in 1607 and were sent on their first mission among the Zambales or Zambals, first arriving in the southernmost section of the Zambales mountain range in what is now Mariveles, Bataan. The narrative includes how evangelization started, who were the first missionaries sent, and the first martyrs of the Order on Philippine soil.
A 2001 Catholic magazine article narrating an experience of traveling with Laureana "Ka Luring" F... more A 2001 Catholic magazine article narrating an experience of traveling with Laureana "Ka Luring" Franco, a catechist of Taguig which was then part of the Archdiocese of Manila. She died on October 17, 2011 in Taguig. Her cause for beatification and canonization was opened in 2021 by Bishop Mylo Hubert Vergara of the Diocese of Pasig.
AN Whitehead holds that religion is inherently developing, evolving. This he captures succinctly ... more AN Whitehead holds that religion is inherently developing, evolving. This he captures succinctly in the title of his 1926 book that deals primarily with the subject: Religion in the Making. This research seeks to analyze, critique and see the philosophical implications of seeing ...
Twentieth century philosophy is characterized by a “re-/turn” to religion. The use of the term “r... more Twentieth century philosophy is characterized by a “re-/turn” to religion. The use of the term “re-/turn” largely characterizes our shifting attitudes toward religion. For Whitehead, to rethink religion necessitates a rethinking of the metaphysics that underlie one’s concept of religion. The novelty of Whitehead’s theory of religion lies on the process metaphysics that it presupposes. For him religion, like the whole of reality, is inherently developing, evolving, and he captures this succinctly in his book Religion in the Making (1926). Far from providing an apologetic of religion, Whitehead himself is critical of religion. Nonetheless, the religious spirit, despite the deposition of critics and distortion by fundamentalists, remains present in humanity’s pilgrimage to a better world to come. The realization of religion’s role, however, necessitates reflexivity to its own inherent dynamism as fomenting the hope of adventure of the human spirit. This paper will also argue that “dogm...
PAN PACIFIC JOURNAL OF PHILOSOPHY, EDUCATION AND MANAGEMENT, Jan 2012
Reacting against the turn to transcendence that heavily characterized the medieval worldview, the... more Reacting against the turn to transcendence that heavily characterized the medieval worldview, the modern worldview is fundamentally exemplified by a threefold turn to immanence, consisting of a subjective turn, a linguistic turn and an experiential turn. Language plays a pivotal role here since it mediates between the subjective and the experiential. Ricoeur’s treatment of metaphor, significantly laid out in his The Rule of Metaphor, is crucial in bringing about this linguistic turn that mediates the subject and its experience of the world. Through an analysis of “seeing as” as a poietic reconfiguration of reality in the subject’s experience, language transforms and founds the world as a “being as.” What is disclosed in this interpretative transformation of reality is not simply
an hermeneutical ontology but possibly—also through language—an hermeneutical
axiology.
If reason was bestowed on us by Heaven and the same can be said of faith, then Heaven has present... more If reason was bestowed on us by Heaven and the same can be said of faith, then Heaven has presented us with two incompatible and contradictory suríé4 -Denis Diderot Jppuíu{z"mñ §"Yqzééqé"}tux{é{}tuÉñqé * The author wishes to extend gratitude to Dr. Ignace Vérhack and Mr. Matthew James Fielding for the critical comments and suggestions.
For Whitehead and Nishitani, a rethinking of religion necessitates a rethinking of the metaphysic... more For Whitehead and Nishitani, a rethinking of religion necessitates a rethinking of the metaphysics that underlie one’s concept of religion. The dynamism of religion is unveiled only within the metaphysical grounding of an ontology that accommodates the philosophical preference of “becoming” as an ultimate category of reality.
The novelty of Whitehead’s theory of religion lies in the process metaphysics that it presupposes. For him, religion, like the whole of reality, is inherently developing, evolving, and he captures this succinctly in his book Religion in the Making (1926). What Nishitani offers is a rethinking of Western understanding of religion by way of an Asian speculative approach grounded in Zen Buddhism. He argues that Western religion, particularly Christianity and Judaism, has succumbed to the modern predicament of nihilism, or relative nothingness. The quest for the contemporary rethinking of religion is to radicalize this same nihility towards absolute nothingness (śūnyatā). Nishitani expounds on this idea in his book Religion and Nothingness (1982).
Both Whitehead and Nishitani, two philosophers of the 20th century, recuperate the integral role of religion in the development of civilization understood as the realization of the cultural ideal. Despite the distortion by religious fundamentalists, genuine religion consolidates and points a society towards its real destiny. However, the realization of religion’s role necessitates reflexivity on its own inherent dynamism. As Nishitani emphasizes, whatsoever this adventure of the religious spirit may be, its desired conclusion is what religion essentially is, “the real self-awareness of reality.”
Asian Perspectives in the Arts and Humanities, 2011
An individual is not a subject. What constitutes the subject as subject is thehappening of event ... more An individual is not a subject. What constitutes the subject as subject is thehappening of event and the way this happening transforms the insularityof the individual into the “eventality” of the subject. For Alain Badiou (b.1937), a true subject is one that is subjectivized by the happening of theevent and the subject’s continuous fidelity to this same event. This essayexplores the concept of the human person in Alain Badiou’s philosophy.In order to achieve this, a broad overview of Badiou’s Ontology of theEvent is necessary in order to locate his philosophical anthropology. Whatfollows is a discussion of Badiou’s dynamic conception of an individualas a becoming-subject in relation to an event, a relation characterized byfidelity to the event. This unique philosophy of the human person finds itssingular exemplar in the New Testament figure of St. Paul of Tarsus. Theconclusion of the essay brings Badiou’s philosophy of the event, subjectand truth into the domain of religious discourse where, interestingly, hisphilosophy finds a genial fertile ground for further exploration.
AN Whitehead holds that religion is inherently developing, evolving. This he captures succinctly ... more AN Whitehead holds that religion is inherently developing, evolving. This he captures succinctly in the title of his 1926 book that deals primarily with the subject: Religion in the Making. This research seeks to analyze, critique and see the philosophical implications of seeing ...
The topic of this essay is popular religiosity in general, and how this form of religiosity provi... more The topic of this essay is popular religiosity in general, and how this form of religiosity provides the contours of an emergent Filipino Catholicism today.
Presented at the 10th International Whitehead Conference 4-7 June 2015 Claremont, CA
Etude des conceptions religieuses du philosophe Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889-1951). Bien qu'emin... more Etude des conceptions religieuses du philosophe Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889-1951). Bien qu'eminemment logique et rationnelle, la philosophie de Wittgenstein laisse la place aux interrogations religieuses. Le domaine irrationnel de la foi et de Dieu ne semble pouvoir s'approcher que par une analyse du langage et de la grammaire du discours religieux.
L'A. presente quelques technologies genetiques ainsi que quelques nuances ethiques a la lumie... more L'A. presente quelques technologies genetiques ainsi que quelques nuances ethiques a la lumiere de paradigmes anthropologiques comme celui de la co-creation. L'etre humain reste un etre historique, situe dans le temps, determine par la culture de son temps mais toujours a la recherche d'une forme de perfection. Les jugements sur ce qui est bon, beau ou parfait sont parfois dangereux car ils reposent sur l'externalite des choses. Il est impossible de reduire l'humanite a une question de genes. Les technologies genetiques doivent etre apprehendees a la lumiere d'autres avancees scientifiques et industrielles
The Catholic Church has been one of the patrons of the arts for centuries, scouting for unique ar... more The Catholic Church has been one of the patrons of the arts for centuries, scouting for unique artistic talents, commissioning art works that are now priceless, and is a steward to a host of masterpieces from paintings, to sculptures to architectures under the umbrella term "Sacred Art." The Church's interest in art is neither by coincidence nor a passing fad. It lies rooted in the Church's own faith and the rational articulation of this faith in the domain of sacramental theology. The principle of the sacramental nature of reality is clearly evoked in one of the letters of St. Paul. He said, "Christ is the image of the invisible God" (Colossians 1:15). Acknowledging that reality is constituted by things visible and invisible, sacramentality alludes to the connection established between the visible and the invisible. In the economy of salvation, Jesus Christ is the image (eikon) of the invisible God, that is, he is the ultimate visible sign to the ultimate invisible reality who is God. The whole rationale of a theology of sacraments revolves around the affirmation that things visible can be a sign, a symbol of deeper, sometimes elusive, invisible realities of God. Every religion in general, and Christianity in particular, is an apology to
The peculiarity of any social teaching, Catholic, Protestant or otherwise, is that it is an unste... more The peculiarity of any social teaching, Catholic, Protestant or otherwise, is that it is an unsteady marriage between the dogmatically permanent beliefs and the perennially changing historical contexts. Any authentic and relevant social teaching needs to mirror a two-fold fidelity: Faithfulness to the universal truths to which the social teaching is a reflection, and loyalty to the historical contexts to which the social teaching is inextricably embedded. The merit of Cartagenas’s book Unlocking the church’s best kept secret is that it epitomizes the wobbly balancing act that takes cognizance of this two-fold fidelity. There remains the affirmation that a Catholic social teaching maintains a “vital link with the gospel” (63), and yet recognizes that “every social document of the Church has its immediate situational reference” (25).
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Books by Kenneth Masong
The book is written with the distance, requisite for philosophical reflection, but with a warm heart for the topic, coming from a deep religious life. Again and again the book testifies to the author’s conviction of the intrinsic value of “the event of the religious” now and in the future – for what is called “ethnopoiesis”: the constitution of a unity of wills, by the persuasive power of the divine vision, on humanity’s journey towards civilization.
–Professor André Cloots
Catholic University of Leuven
Papers by Kenneth Masong
an hermeneutical ontology but possibly—also through language—an hermeneutical
axiology.
The novelty of Whitehead’s theory of religion lies in the process metaphysics that it presupposes. For him, religion, like the whole of reality, is inherently developing, evolving, and he captures this succinctly in his book Religion in the Making (1926). What Nishitani offers is a rethinking of Western understanding of religion by way of an Asian speculative approach grounded in Zen Buddhism. He argues that Western religion, particularly Christianity and Judaism, has succumbed to the modern predicament of nihilism, or relative nothingness. The quest for the contemporary rethinking of religion is to radicalize this same nihility towards absolute nothingness (śūnyatā). Nishitani expounds on this idea in his book Religion and Nothingness (1982).
Both Whitehead and Nishitani, two philosophers of the 20th century, recuperate the integral role of religion in the development of civilization understood as the realization of the cultural ideal. Despite the distortion by religious fundamentalists, genuine religion consolidates and points a society towards its real destiny. However, the realization of religion’s role necessitates reflexivity on its own inherent dynamism. As Nishitani emphasizes, whatsoever this adventure of the religious spirit may be, its desired conclusion is what religion essentially is, “the real self-awareness of reality.”
The book is written with the distance, requisite for philosophical reflection, but with a warm heart for the topic, coming from a deep religious life. Again and again the book testifies to the author’s conviction of the intrinsic value of “the event of the religious” now and in the future – for what is called “ethnopoiesis”: the constitution of a unity of wills, by the persuasive power of the divine vision, on humanity’s journey towards civilization.
–Professor André Cloots
Catholic University of Leuven
an hermeneutical ontology but possibly—also through language—an hermeneutical
axiology.
The novelty of Whitehead’s theory of religion lies in the process metaphysics that it presupposes. For him, religion, like the whole of reality, is inherently developing, evolving, and he captures this succinctly in his book Religion in the Making (1926). What Nishitani offers is a rethinking of Western understanding of religion by way of an Asian speculative approach grounded in Zen Buddhism. He argues that Western religion, particularly Christianity and Judaism, has succumbed to the modern predicament of nihilism, or relative nothingness. The quest for the contemporary rethinking of religion is to radicalize this same nihility towards absolute nothingness (śūnyatā). Nishitani expounds on this idea in his book Religion and Nothingness (1982).
Both Whitehead and Nishitani, two philosophers of the 20th century, recuperate the integral role of religion in the development of civilization understood as the realization of the cultural ideal. Despite the distortion by religious fundamentalists, genuine religion consolidates and points a society towards its real destiny. However, the realization of religion’s role necessitates reflexivity on its own inherent dynamism. As Nishitani emphasizes, whatsoever this adventure of the religious spirit may be, its desired conclusion is what religion essentially is, “the real self-awareness of reality.”
Presented at the 10th International Whitehead Conference 4-7 June 2015 Claremont, CA