Suchergebnisse

The article analyses different readings of Dostoevsky's novel The Idiot by four prominent Catholic theologians: Romano Guardini, Henri De Lubac, Hans Urs von Balthasar, Divo Barsotti. The works by De Lubac, Balthasar, and Barsotti are considered in a chronological order, while Guardini's text is analyzed at the end of the paper, as it raises the question on the nature of the artistic word in The Idiot more directly. The history of the Catholic reception of Dostoevsky's The Idiot attests that in this novel the Russian writer managed to create a literary work that is perceived by the reader as highly ambivalent. The connection between the main character, Prince Myshkin, and Christ is evident, however, it can be interpreted in very different ways. This ambivalence becomes for Guardini a key to a deeper understanding of the novel and its theological content.

Preliminary Material -- INTRODUCTION: AGRIPPA'S LEGACY -- CHAPTER ONE: BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH, WITH EMPHASIS ON AGRIPPA'S INTEREST IN DIVINE STUDIES AND HIS CONFLICTS WITH ANTI-HUMANISTIC THEOLOGIANS -- CHAPTER TWO: AGRIPPA AND SCHOLASTIC THEOLOGY -- CHAPTER THREE: METHOD OF REASONING AND STYLE OF AGRIPPA'S THEOLOGICAL WRITINGS -- CHAPTER FOUR: THE BATTLE OF DE INCERTITUDINE: AGRIPPA IN THE WORLD OF HUMANISM -- CHAPTER FIVE: AGRIPPA'S DEFINITION OF THE HUMANIST DECLAMATION AND ITS ERASMIAN ANTECEDENT -- CHAPTER SIX: DE NOBILITATE ET PRAECELLENTIA FOEMINEI SEXUS -- CHAPTER SEVEN: DE ORIGINALI PECCATO DISPUTABILIS OPINIONIS DECLAMATIO -- CHAPTER EIGHT: DE SACRAMENTO MATRIMONII DECLAMATIO -- CONCLUSION -- APPENDIX 1: LIST OF PASSAGES FROM DE INCERTITUDINE CONDEMNED BY THE SORBONNE ON MARCH 2, 1531 -- BIBLIOGRAPHY -- GENERAL INDEX.

Intro -- Contents -- Acknowledgements -- Introduction: Why Study Philosophy? -- 1 Before Plato -- 2 Plato -- 3 Aristotle -- 4 The Bible and Philosophy -- 5 Philosophy and the Earlier Fathers -- 6 Neoplatonism and the Later Fathers -- 7 The Early Mediaeval Period -- 8 Thomas Aquinas -- 9 Late Scholasticism -- 10 The Renaissance and Reformation -- 11 The Enlightenment -- 12 Kant, Hegel and Romanticism -- 13 The Nineteenth Century and the 'Masters of Suspicion' -- 14 The Early Twentieth Century -- 15 Literary Theory -- 16 Postmodernism -- 17 Theology and Philosophy in the Present Day -- Biblical Index -- Index of Names -- Index of Subjects.

The existence of God is once again the focus of vivid philosophical discussion. From the point of view of analytic theology, however, people often talk past each other when they debate about the putative existence or non- existence of God. In the worst case, for instance, atheists deny the existence of a God, which no theists ever claimed to exist. In order to avoid confusions like this we need to be clear about the function of the term 'God' in its different contexts of use. In what follows, I distinguish between the functions of 'God' in philosophical contexts on the one hand and in theological contexts on the other in order to provide a schema, which helps to avoid confusion in the debate on the existence or non-existence of God.