Month: August 2024

Old Testament Anthropology as “Dualistic Holism” or “Holistic Dualism”. (BADR Part 2)

Old Testament Anthropology as “Dualistic Holism” or “Holistic Dualism”

𝐊𝐚𝐢𝐫𝐨𝐬 𝐏𝐨𝐝𝐜𝐚𝐬𝐭 𝐒𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐬 𝟖: 𝐁𝐢𝐛𝐥𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐥 𝐀𝐧𝐭𝐡𝐫𝐨𝐩𝐨𝐥𝐨𝐠𝐲, 𝐃𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐡 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐑𝐞𝐬𝐮𝐫𝐫𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 (𝐁𝐀𝐃𝐑 𝐏𝐚𝐫𝐭 𝟐)

𝐐𝐮𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧: 𝐘𝐨𝐮 𝐝𝐞𝐟𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐝 𝐛𝐢𝐛𝐥𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐥 𝐝𝐮𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐦, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐧 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐞𝐱𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐯𝐢𝐞𝐰 𝐢𝐬 𝐡𝐨𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐜. 𝐇𝐨𝐰 𝐜𝐚𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐬𝐞 𝐭𝐰𝐨 𝐯𝐢𝐞𝐰𝐬 𝐛𝐞 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐭? \

While the Bible affirms anthropological dualism, it also views human beings holistically where all their psychosomatic faculties work together as an integrated unity. However, biblical holism differs from philosophical holism or physicalism which considers the organism or anthropological entity as comprising a single substance or stuff. In contrast, biblical “functional holism” recognizes the integration and interrelation of all the parts in the existence and proper operation of the whole, without assuming that each part would necessarily cease to function or disintegrate into nothingness if the whole were broken up. To conclude, OT anthropology is both dualistic and holistic. It may be described as either biblical “holistic-dualism” or “dualistic holism”.

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Old Testament Anthropology as “Dualistic Holism” or “Holistic Dualism”

The Triumph of the Therapeutic and the LGBTQ Sexual Revolution

Philosophical and Social Origins of Identity Politics and the LGBTQ Sexual Revolution. Part 3.

A. The Autonomous Self and Expressive Individualism
Recent Gallup surveys show that the number of people in the West who identify as LGBTQ and reject the heterosexual family in preference for “non-binary” sexual relationships is increasing. This extraordinary development is the culmination of a sequence of historical developments in the West beginning from the 17th century. This includes the decline of Judeo-Christian religion, the influence of the Enlightenment-Romantic philosophy of the autonomous self, the erosion of community relationships in secular society, and “expressive individualism”, the modern notion that one must be true to oneself to be authentic.¹

Historically, the individual in the West based his identity on his relationship with God and the community he belonged to. The role of religion and pastoral care was to help individuals to be integrated with their community. The good life required the individual to order his life in conformity to God’s created order, in accordance the mimetic view of life. But skeptical Enlightenment philosophy dispensed with the idea of God. Consequently, nature and social order became desacralized and may be manipulated and exploited to serve the welfare of individuals and society, in accordance with the poietic view of life. If there is no created order, then society and culture are merely social constructs, and if nature possesses no intrinsic meaning or purpose, then human beings must create meaning and moral values for themselves. This led in the emergence of the autonomous individual who defines for himself his moral values, and sets the goal of self-fulfillment on his own terms. Continue reading “The Triumph of the Therapeutic and the LGBTQ Sexual Revolution”

1
“Expressive individualism holds that each person has a unique core of feeling and intuition that should unfold or be expressed if individuality is to be realized…In the twentieth century, it shows affinities with the culture of psychotherapy.”Robert Bellah, Richard Madsen et. al, Habits of the Heart (Uni. California, 1985, 1996), pp. 333-334.

OT Anthropology: The Constituent Elements of Man. (BADR Part 1)

OT Anthropology: The Constituent Elements of Man. (BADR Part 1)
Kairos Podcast Series 8: Biblical Anthropology, Death and Resurrection (BADR Part 1).

A. Contemporary Criticism Against Biblical Dualistic Anthropology
Under the influence of prominent liberal scholars like Adolf Harnack in the early 20th century, the movement to decouple biblical theology from the alleged influence of Greek or Platonic philosophical influences gained momentum…

The distinctive usage of biblical anthropological terms should alert us to the need to examine Scripture on its own terms in order to resolve the controversy between holism and dualism. This post shall examine closely how the terms which describe the constituent elements of man are used in the OT…

B. Man’s Constituent Elements
Bāsār, Flesh
Note that flesh does not connote the principle of sin or the man’s unregenerate nature. It connotes a nature which is frail and transient: “all flesh is grass” (Isa. 40:6; Psa. 78:39). However, “flesh” is open to God’s positive influence so that a heart of stone could be changed into a heart of flesh, something which is soft and yielded to God (Ezek. 36:26).” Continue reading “OT Anthropology: The Constituent Elements of Man. (BADR Part 1)”

All that is Solid Melts into Air: The Recentred but Empty Self

Philosophical and Social Origins of Identity Politics and the LGBTQ Sexual Revolution. Part 2.

Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
W.B. Yeats, The Second Coming

A) Loss of meaningful sacred order and providence
Since antiquity, people acknowledged that there is a natural order of law and morals. Life is best lived when it is lived in accordance with the requirements of natural order. Among the Greeks, the Stoics taught that man must live in harmony with the rational and purposive order in nature. Ancient Israel also acknowledged a natural order, one that is implanted into creation by the Creator. According to the sages of ancient Israel, knowledge of God comes from experiencing God’s activity in the world. Faith in God’s providence means trusting in the reliability of the creation which the benevolent God has ordered to support human life and guide man in his moral knowledge and action. Gerhard von Rad explains, “This order [of creation] was, indeed, simply there and could, in the last resort, speak for itself. The fact that it quietly but reliably worked towards a balance in the ceaselessly changing state of human relationships ensured that it was experienced over and over again as a beneficent force. In it, however, Yahweh himself was at work in so far as he defended goodness and resisted evil. It was he who was present as an ordering and upholding will in so far as he gave a beneficent stability to life and kept it open to receive his blessings.”¹ Continue reading “All that is Solid Melts into Air: The Recentred but Empty Self”

1
Gerhard von Rad, Wisdom in Israel (SCM, 1972), pp. 191-192.