The Courage of Liminality: Tillich and Theological Anthropology in Post-modernity

2016 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Verna Ehret

AbstractThe challenges of postmodernity have opened up new ways of engaging faith. Postmodern thought recognizes the contextual quality of religious claims. The risk of the skepticism born out of postmodernity, however, is the loss of transcendence in a perceived secular age. The theological anthropology of Paul Tillich can reawaken the significance of transcendence in human flourishing. Human life is uncertain and liminal where we live on the boundary between the secular and religious. Tillich’s work provides a framework for re-imagining the symbol of imago dei as a cipher of transcendence, and through that symbol a transcontextual narrative of liminality is born.

Author(s):  
Maxwell A. Cameron

Aristotle argued that the supreme good of human life was eudaimonia, which means happiness or flourishing. Scholars working on both human development and the quality of democracy have converged on the idea that democratic citizenship is part of human flourishing. Citizenship implies agency, the set of capabilities necessary to play a part in self-government. Agency has a basis in natural and cultural evolution: it emerged with the development of the self as a human person, as a legal person, and finally as a self-legislating sovereign. The functional differentiation of roles in a balanced constitution is necessary for human flourishing and the cultivation of the virtues associated with self-government.


Author(s):  
Isaac Boaheng

The issue of acceptance of euthanasia (assisted death) in the face of affirming human dignity as the preservation of the image of God in human beings is fiercely debated over the world. Different (Christian and non-Christian) ethicists hold different positions in the debate. Some of the key questions in the debate include how moral is it to legalize euthanasia in the face of the doctrine of Imago Dei? Should the quality of a person’s life overrule the sanctity of human life? This paper examines the arguments for and against the legalization of euthanasia and then considers how the doctrine of the Imago Dei should inform one’s decision to accept or reject euthanasia. With the African religio-cultural worldview as a contextual framework, the study contends that even though the preservation of physical life is not the ultimate goal of Christianity (since physical death is inevitable), human life should not be shortened deliberately for any reason. Therefore, it is morally wrong to take anybody’s life under any circumstance.


2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (6) ◽  
pp. 76-91
Author(s):  
E. D. Solozhentsev

The scientific problem of economics “Managing the quality of human life” is formulated on the basis of artificial intelligence, algebra of logic and logical-probabilistic calculus. Managing the quality of human life is represented by managing the processes of his treatment, training and decision making. Events in these processes and the corresponding logical variables relate to the behavior of a person, other persons and infrastructure. The processes of the quality of human life are modeled, analyzed and managed with the participation of the person himself. Scenarios and structural, logical and probabilistic models of managing the quality of human life are given. Special software for quality management is described. The relationship of human quality of life and the digital economy is examined. We consider the role of public opinion in the management of the “bottom” based on the synthesis of many studies on the management of the economics and the state. The bottom management is also feedback from the top management.


1970 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 408-421
Author(s):  
Fauzi Fauzi

As typical Indonesian education institute, pesantren with all its component, tradition, culture, and uniqueness have drawn attention many expert and researchers. Pesantren existence has given great contribution to enhancement of the quality of human life. Many role have been played by pesantren; in social, political, economics, cultural aspect; and of course religious aspect which its basic study. These realities in turn have invited the attention of many circles to continuously examine, checking, or studying dynamics, growth, and also existence of pesantren. Among the study result is Mastuhu’s research: Dynamics of System of Education Pesantren, a Study about Element and Value of Pesantren Educational System. With this masterpiece, Mastuhu trying to promote the form of study pesantren which do not merely touching manifest (visible) aspect, but trying to find the values which is consisted inside that manifest; so can found positive, negative, and plus-minus items from pesantren’s education which need and needn’t to be developed in national’s education system. Through this article, the writer will express the work content from a perspective of its study approach.


2020 ◽  
Vol 19 (11) ◽  
pp. 2116-2135
Author(s):  
G.V. Savin

Subject. The article considers functioning and development of process flows of transportation and logistics system of a smart city. Objectives. The study identifies factors and dependencies of the quality of human life on the organization and management of stream processes. Methods. I perform a comparative analysis of previous studies, taking into account the uniquely designed results, and the econometric analysis. Results. The study builds multiple regression models that are associated with stream processes, highlights interdependent indicators of temporary traffic and pollution that affect the indicator of life quality. However, the identified congestion indicator enables to predict the time spent in traffic jams per year for all participants of stream processes. Conclusions. The introduction of modern intelligent transportation systems as a component of the transportation and logistics system of a smart city does not fully solve the problems of congestion in cities at the current rate of urbanization and motorization. A viable solution is to develop cooperative and autonomous intelligent transportation systems based on the logistics approach. This will ensure control over congestion, the reduction of which will contribute to improving the life quality of people in urban areas.


2018 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
pp. 198
Author(s):  
Lusy Tunik Muharlisiani ◽  
Henny Sukrisno ◽  
Emmy Wahyuningtyas ◽  
Shofiya Syidada ◽  
Dina Chamidah

Service at the “Kelurahan” is a very important part in determining the success of development, especially in public service. The problem faced is the lack of skill level of the “Kelurahan” apparatus with the more dynamic demands of the community and the archive management system is still conventional and manual that is writing the identity of the archive into the book agenda, expedition, control card, and borrowed archive card, so it takes a more practical electronic system, effective and efficient so required to develop themselves in order to improve public services. Conventional administration and archive management must be transformed into cloud-based computing (digital), for which archiving managers should always be responsive and follow these developments and wherever possible in order to utilize for archival activities, with greater access expected archives are evidence at once able to talk about historical facts and events and be able to give meaning and benefit to human life, so archives that were only visible and readable at archival centers can now be accessed online, and even their services have led to automated service systems. Using Microsoft Access which its main function is to handle the process of data manipulation and manufacture of a system, this system is built so that the bias runs on Cloud which means Cloud itself is a paradigm in which information is permanently stored on servers on the internet and stored. The purpose of this program is the implementation of administrative management that has been based cloud computing (digital) and is expected to be a solution in managing the archive so that if it has been designed and programmed, it can be stored in the computer and benefi- cial to the “Kelurahan” apparatus and add in the field of management archives in the form of improving the quality of service to the community, can facilitate and scientific publications.


2016 ◽  
pp. 120-127
Author(s):  
Dinh Toan Nguyen

Background: Dementia after stroke, particularly subacute period is often overlooked. Today the quality of human life is increasingly high, finding scales that have high value for detection of dementia in patients with stroke is increasingly interested. MoCA test is high sensitivity with mild dementia and identify more abnormalities of awareness caused by vascular, but MoCA have not been studied much in Vietnam. Objective: Assessing MoCA test in subacute stroke patients and compare MoCA versus MMSE in these patients. Subjects: 90 patients with subacute stroke period, these people are being treated at Department of cardiovascular internal medicine at Hue Central Hospital, from 7/2014 - 7/2015. Methods: cross-sectional description and analysis. Results: The mean age is 65.57 ± 13.38, accounting for 54.4% male and 45.6% female. Age, duration of illness has weak correlation with MoCA. The risk factors: hypertension, stroke ischemic transient, alcoholism, smoking, heart disease, diabetes, dyslipidemia related no statistical significance with MoCA. The proportion of dementia in subacute stroke according MoCA is 82.2%. The concordance between MoCA and MMSE was good (kappa = 0.684). Using DSM-IV criteria as the gold standard we found MoCA more valuable in the dementia diagnosis than MMSE (AUC 0.864 versus 0.774, p <0.05). Conclusion: The rate of dementia in stroke subacute period according MoCA is quite high. MoCA is valuable than MMSE in detecting dementia in patients with stroke subacute period, this scale is short, easy to implement so should put into using widely in clinical practice. Key words: MoCA test, subacute stroke, dementia


1996 ◽  
Vol 34 (12) ◽  
pp. 9-16 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. de Jong ◽  
J. T. van Buuren ◽  
J. P. A. Luiten

Sustained developments is the target of almost every modern water management policy. Sustainability is focused on human life and on the ecological quality of our environment. Both aspects are essential for life on earth. Within a river catchment area this means that well balanced relations have to be laid between human activities and ecological aspects in the involved areas. Policy analysis is especially looking for the most efficient way to analyse and to overcome bottlenecks. In The Netherlands project “The Aquatic Outlook” all these elements are worked out in a nationwide scale, providing the scientific base and policy analysis from which future water management plans can be derived.


Author(s):  
Mary L. Hirschfeld

There are two ways to answer the question, What can Catholic social thought learn from the social sciences about the common good? A more modern form of Catholic social thought, which primarily thinks of the common good in terms of the equitable distribution of goods like health, education, and opportunity, could benefit from the extensive literature in public policy, economics, and political science, which study the role of institutions and policies in generating desirable social outcomes. A second approach, rooted in pre-Machiavellian Catholic thought, would expand on this modern notion to include concerns about the way the culture shapes our understanding of what genuine human flourishing entails. On that account, the social sciences offer a valuable description of human life; but because they underestimate how human behavior is shaped by institutions, policies, and the discourse of social science itself, their insights need to be treated with caution.


Author(s):  
Mark Migotti

In this chapter, the author attempts to establish what is philosophically living and what is philosophically dead in Schopenhauer’s pessimism. Against the background of the intriguing the history of the terms “optimism” and “pessimism”—in debates about Leibniz’s theodicy in the early eighteenth century and the popularity of Schopenhauer in the late nineteenth century, respectively—the author points up the distinction between affirming life, which all living beings do naturally, and subscribing to philosophical optimism (or pessimism), which is possible only for reflective beings like us. Next, the author notes the significance of Schopenhauer’s claim that optimism is a necessary condition of theism and explains its bearing on his pessimistic argument for the moral unacceptability of suicide. The chapter concludes that Schopenhauer’s case for pessimism is not conclusive, but instructive; his dim view of the prospects for leading a truly rewarding, worthwhile human life draws vivid attention to important questions about how and to what degree an atheistic world can nevertheless be conducive to human flourishing.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document