THEOLOGICAL AND PHILOSOPHICAL
BIOGRAPHY AND GLOSSARY

EBIONISM
  • Denied the deity of Christ
  • Jesus was only a man
  • Christ, in the form of a dove, descended on Jesus
  • At the crucifixion, Christ left Jesus
ECCLESIOLOGY
  • Study of the Church
Eck, Johann
(1486-1543)
Johann Eck

Johann Eck

  • German theologian
  • against Luther

Eckhart, Meister
(c 1260-1328)
  • German Dominican mystic
  • God is not known through any of the normal means of human knowledge, but through a direct uniting with Him.
ECLANUM
Eddington, Arthur Stanley
(1882-1944)
A. S. Eddington

A. S. Eddington

  • Science professor at Cambridge
  • wrote The Nature of the Physical World.

Edwards, Jonathan
(1703-1758)
Jonathan Edwards

Jonathan Edwards

  • US Congregational pastor and theologian
  • third President of Princeton
  • entered Yale at age 13 knowing Hebrew, Greek, and Latin
  • influenced First Great Awakening
  • friend of George Whitefield
  • preached from manuscript
  • preached "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God"
  • wrote
    1. Religious Affections
    2. The Freedom of the Will
    3. Narrative of the Surprising Work of God

EFFICIENT CAUSE
An expression used by Thomas Hobbes
EGOCENTRIC PREDICAMENT
  • The situation you get into when you are confined to your own ideas and are incapable of knowing anything else.
EGOISM
Einstein, Albert
(1879-1955)
Albert Einstein

Albert Einstein

  • professor at Zurich, Prague, Berlin and Princeton
  • theory of relativity

Elea
Elias, John
(1774-1841)
Eliot, John
(1604-1690)
John Eliot

John Eliot

  • US Anglican became Non-conformist
  • missionary to Indians
  • helped publish The Bay Psalm Book.

EMANATIONISM
  • (Plotinus)
EMERGENTISM
  • Holds that new levels of reality are constantly evolving from matter, to life, to mind, to God.
  • New realities such as mind are formed through evolution and cannot be reduced to lower levels.
Emerson, Ralph Waldo
(1803-1882)
Ralph Waldo Emerson

Ralph Waldo Emerson


Emmons, Nathaniel
(1745-1841)
Nathaniel Emmons

Nathaniel Emmons

  • US Congregational pastored one church for 54 years
  • topical sermons.

EMOTIVISM
Empedocles
(c 495-c 435 BC)
Empedocles

Empedocles

  • Greek philosopher who lived in Sicily.
  • Wrote
    1. On Nature
    2. On Purification
  • Foreshadowed view of evolution
  • Studied circulation of the blood and atmospheric pressure
  • Founder of Italian medicine.

EMPIRICAL
EMPIRICAL KNOWLEDGE
EMPIRICAL POSITIVISM
EMPIRICAL THEISM
  • Also called Religious Pragmatism.
  • God is limited.
  • He is one of many "reals" and is known through your will to believe with superhuman consciousness.
  • You are conscious of this superhuman consciousness (the "more") in the universe because it is on the other side (or subconscious side) of the subconscious side of your conscious life.
  • Natural theology is inadequate; experience and faith are primary.
  • It says "Religion is man's response to an undifferentiated sense of reality, to the more" (William James).
EMPIRICISM
Empiricus
ENERGY
Engels, Friedrich
(1820-1895)
England, John
(1786-1842)
  • Irish Roman Catholic preacher.
ENTELECHY
Ephraim (the Syrian)
(c300-373)
Ephraim

Ephraim

  • poetic preacher but weak theologian.

Epictetus
(c AD 60)
Epictetus

Epictetus

  • Greek philosopher
  • intensely practical, and exhibits a high idealistic type of morality.
  • See entry in 1911 Encyclopedia

EPICUREANISM
  • says religion and concepts of God arise through ignorance and fear.
  • If there be god(s), they are far off and indifferent (Lucretius).
Epicurus
(341-270 BC)
Epicurus

Epicurus

  • Good is pleasure, pain is evil.
  • Uncontrolled pursuit of pleasure results not in more pleasure but in pain.
  • Therefore we must live austere to avoid pain.
  • Pain, fear of death, and fear of the gods were the greatest threats to man's happiness.
  • If the world (including man) were just chance combinations of atoms, then we would feel pain only as long as we are alive; but when we die, the atoms dispense and we cannot suffer any feelings of evil or fear.
  • The gods are merely combinations of atoms, with no power to rule or punish men.
  • If lightning strikes a man, it is a natural accident and not Zeus hurling a thunderbolt to punish him.
  • These fears should not disturb a person's tranquility (i.e., religion and concepts of God arise through ignorance and fear).

Episcopius, Simon
(1583-1643)
  • Dutch theologian and leader of Remonstrants (Arminian)
  • banished by Synod of Dort
  • wrote Institutiones Theologicae

EPISTEMOLOGICAL REALISM
  • The mind knows independent things not ideas alone
  • knower and things known are distinct
  • knower is in the world.
  • view of Carnap

EPISTEMOLOGY
  • Greek episteme (knowledge) + logeo (to speak).
  • The theory of knowledge: the study of the nature, sources, and validity of knowledge.
  • It differs from logic and psychology.
    • Logic is concerned with the specific and formal problem of correct reasoning, while epistemology deals with the nature of reasoning, with truth, and with the process of knowing themselves.
    • Psychology is concerned with a descriptive study of behavior, phenomena, etc., while epistemology deals with our claims to knowledge, i.e., what we mean by "knowing."
  • See
Erasmus, Desiderius
(1466-1536)
Erasmus

Erasmus

  • Dutch
  • Christian humanist of Reformation
  • disagreed with Luther over freedom of the will (Erasmus was "Arminian"; Luther was "Calvinistic")
  • wrote In Praise of Folly
  • influential in establishing the study of Greek NT by publishing a Greek NT used by Luther.
  • Attacked inconsistency and hypocrisy in the church.

Erastus, Thomas
(1524-1583)
  • founder of Erastianism
  • the state has authority over the church in all matters
Erigena, John Scotus
(c810-877)
Erigena

Erigena

  • Irish philosopher
  • shifted trend from Plato to Aristotle
  • Scripture is as authoritative as reason
  • interpret Scripture by reason

Erskine, Ebenezer
(1680-1754)
Ebenezer Erskine

Ebenezer Erskine

  • saved after he was ordained
  • kicked out of the Established church
  • founded Scotland Secession church
  • exegesis was poor
  • sermon outlines were very complex

Erskine, Henry
(1624-1696)
  • Scottish preacher
  • father of Ralph and Ebenezer
  • kicked out of his church for his faith
  • used open-air services
Erskine, John
(1721-1803)
John Erskine

John Erskine

  • leader of evangelical party of Church of Scotland
  • friends with George Whitefield and Wesleys

Erskine, Ralph
(1685-1752)
  • Church of Scotland
  • younger brother to Ebenezer Erskine
  • preacher with little scholarship.
ESCHATOLOGY
  • Study of Last Things
ESSENCE
  • What a thing is.
  • For Greek philosophy, it means substance (ousia), that which is not apparent but is the true reality about things. What can be conceived, what is universal.
  • In Plato, it is the Form or Idea (from the Noumena).
  • A similar idea is used by Santayana, Husserl, Thomas Aquinas, Kierkegaard, Sartre, and Heidegger.
ETHICAL
ETHICAL EGOISM
  • Always further your own interest and ignore the interest of others unless it affects your own interest.
ETHICAL RELATIVISM
  • All moral beliefs are true.
  • There is no universal or absolute standard of right and wrong.
ETHICAL RATIONALISM
ETHICAL THEORY
ETHICS
Eucken, Rudolf Christoph
(1846-1926)
R. C. Eucken

R. C. Eucken

  • German professor at Basel
  • wrote
    1. The Truth of Religion
    2. Philosophy of Spirit
  • spirit is ultimate reality but not same as Hegelian thought
  • man is not only a purely physical being but also a spiritual one
  • all things (even inanimate things) have a kind of spiritual life of their own
  • emphasized spirit as the agent of action, rather than merely thought
  • strong empirical emphasized

EUDAEMONISM
  • Ethical theory of Greece which said that the aim of right action is personal well-being or happiness.
Eutyches
(c 375-454)
Eutyches

Eutyches

  • Archimandrite of a monastery in Constantinople
  • condemned by Synod of Constantinople in 448
  • supported by Robber Synod of Ephesus in 449
  • condemned by Council of Chalcedon in 451

EUTYCHIANISM
  • The two natures of Christ were fused into a third nature which was neither human nor divine
  • Some said that the human nature was absorbed into the divine
EVANGELICALISM
  • Stresses supernaturalism, theism, and personal regeneration.
  • The Bible is the supreme authority as the verbally inspired Word of God.
  • Certain doctrines, e.g., the virgin birth and the divinity of Jesus, are the necessary conditions of orthodox belief.
Evans, Christmas
(1766-1838)
Christmas Evans

Christmas Evans

  • Welsh Baptist preacher
  • born on Christmas day
  • saved at age 17
  • learned to read same year
  • beat up by former companions for becoming a Christian and thus lost an eye
  • known for great revival preaching and soul-winning in South Wales.

Evans, Evan Herber
(1835-1896)
  • Welsh Congregational pastored one church for 30 years
  • primary topic was the inspiration and inerrancy of the Bible
Evans, William
  • US Presbyterian taught Bible at Moody Bible Institute
  • dean of Bible Institute of Los Angeles.
EVENT
EVIL

EXCLUDED MIDDLE LAW
(1870-1950)
  • Any entity is either some particular kind of thing or it is not.
  • A rose is a flower or it is not a flower.
EXISTENCE
  • The assertion that a thing is, not what it is as a concept of essence.
  • For existentialists, existence is mere consciousness and precedes essence. It is like a man who finds himself existing and then by a deliberate choice and act becomes essence.
  • See
EXISTENTIAL ETHICS
  • Consciousness transcends and gives meaning to the world of which it is conscious.
  • Consciousness is nothingness, thus it is undetermined (free to choose).
  • It arises in the act of intending (giving meaning to the world).
  • Moral decisions are similar to the creative decisions of artists in concrete situations.
  • In moral decisions, freedom is exercised.
  • One becomes being-for-itself.
  • Responsibility is absolute.
  • Man has no excuse.
  • You can't say: "God willed that I do this thing" or "Because of my genes, parents, background, environment, etc. I did this thing."
EXISTENTIAL PHILOSOPHY
  • favored by European philosophers.
  • Contrasts with Analytic Philosophy favored by English-speaking philosophers.
  • Rejects rational, purely logical or linguistic analysis in favor of the analysis of experience.
  • Concerned with the components of the human situation.
  • Does not like to express his ideas in intellectual, traditional and/or historic approaches.
  • Generally uses literary or theological expressions.
  • Logic is dialectical rather than traditional or mathematical.
EXISTENTIALISM
EXISTENTIALISM, RELIGIOUS
  • God is a dimension of quality of existence (or being, reality, etc.).
  • "The ultimate of the act of faith and the ultimate that is meant in the act of faith are one and the same" (Tillich).
  • God is your participation in the ground or depth of your own being.
  • Faith is not a kind of knowledge.
  • Knowing is confined to science.
  • "Faith is the total and centered act (commitment) of the personal self" (Tillich).
  • Except for assertions like "God is Being Itself," all assertions about God are symbolic, including the assertion "God is dead."
  • Statements about God are about your experience and relation to existence (or being).
  • For example, "God exists" means "I experience a depth in my being when I respond to reality with ultimate concern" (Tillich).
  • It says "Religion is man's response to ultimate concerns in terms of the ultimate" (Tillich).
EXPERIMENTALISM
  • Also called Instrumentalism.
  • Knowledge is a collection of experiences.
  • Stresses the experimental method as the method of inquiry.
  • Held by John Dewey.
  • See Pragmatism
EXPLANATION
EXTERNAL RELATIONS
EXTRINSIC
EXTRINSIC VALUE