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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 09 September 2014
Three theses are offered concerning the nature of theology: (a) In general theology has been the translation of a story into a philosophy in order to preserve the story, which is thought to be necessarily meaningful. (2) This procedure is not defensible, for it subverts both story and philosophy, and the meaningfulness of a story depends on other assumptions, e.g., about the nature of the world. (3) A theology will best serve its tradition not by determinedly ascribing meaning to it, but by evaluating it critically in the light of experience.
1 Ἐπιδ ρομὴ τῶν κατα τὴν ·Ελληνικὴν θεολογίαν παραδ εδ ομένων. Editions: Osann: Cornutus, L. AnnaeusDe natura deorum (Göttingen, 1884Google Scholar; Lang: Cornuti, Theologiae Graecae Compendium [Leipzig, 1881])Google Scholar. The passage quoted is par. 19, a translation of which may be found in Grant, F. C., Hellenistic Religions (New York, 1953)Google Scholar.
2 Par. 17, in the Greek text.
3 Osann, p. LVIII.
4 Spanneut, M., Le Stoïcisme des Pères de l'Eglise (Paris, 1957)Google Scholar. Justin's philosophy could be described equally well as a form of middle Platonism, which was eclectic and harmonizing, a group of tendencies rather than a unified movement. He was not so interested in physics.
5 On Isis and Osiris, par. 65, in Moralia, vol. II, ed. Sieveking, W., Teubner series (Leipzig, 1971). Trans, in Grant, Google Scholar.
6 Rochefort, G., ed., On the Gods and the Universe (Paris, 1960). Trans, in Grant, Google Scholar.
7 Nader, Albert N., Le système philosophique des Mu'tazila (Beirut, 1956)Google Scholar.
8 Klein, W. C., trans, and ed., The Elucidation of Islam's Foundation (New Haven, 1940)Google Scholar; McCarthy, Richard J., trans, and ed., The Theology of Al-Ash'ari (Beirut, 1953)Google Scholar; Corbin, Henri, Histoire de la philosophie islamique (Paris, 1964), esp. pp. 176–178Google Scholar; Peters, F. E., Aristotle and the Arabs (New York, 1968)Google Scholar.
9 Ghazālī is a special case, of course, though not as special as often supposed. Although he is widely thought to have rejected all philosophy, it has been amply demonstrated (a) that what he rejected was rather the demonstrative range claimed for philosophy by his opponents, and (b) that his own work not only makes much use of rational dialectic, but also has a clear neo-platonic-aristotelian imprint. See Obermann, J., Der philosophische u. religiöse Subjektivismus Ghazālīs (Vienna, 1921)Google Scholar; Corbin, Histoire de la philosophie islamique; Jabre, Farid, La notion de la ma'rifa chez Ghazali (Beirut, 1958)Google Scholar.
10 See especially his Kitāb, Fasl al-Makāl and Kashf al-Manāhidj, published with German translation (Cairo, 1928)Google Scholar.
11 Guillaume, Alfred, Islam (London, 1969), p. 141Google Scholar; article “Sanusi,” in Encyclopédie d'Islam.
12 See especially the letter to his translator Samuel ibn Tibbon (Marx, A., in Jewish Quarterly Review 25 [1934–1935], pp. 374–381)Google Scholar, in which he recommends the study of Aristotle.
13 McNeill, and Gamer, , trans, and eds. Medieval Handbooks of Penance (New York, 1938)Google Scholar.
14 The First Apology, passim.
15 On the Incarnation of the Word.
16 Cur Deus Homo, passim.
17 The Phenomenon of Man, especially the epilogue on “The Christian Phenomenon.”
18 Systematic Theology, II.
19 “Christology within an Evolutionary World-View,” Theological Investigations V (Baltimore, 1966)Google Scholar.
20 Aeschylus, Prometheus Bound.
21 In his treatment of Hephaistos. Elsewhere he declares that the soul of the world is Zeus.
22 Metaphysics, Bk. Lambda, 1072b.