- RADICAL EMPIRICISM
-
- A form of Pragmatism which links William James to the tradition of British empiricism and in particular to the pure phenomenalism.
- Rahner, Karl
- (1904-1984)
Karl Rahner
- Liberal Roman Catholic theologian
- wrote Theological Investigations
- influenced Vatican II
- people of God are also those who do not have any formal connection with the church.
- Raikes, Robert
- (1735-1811)
Robert Raikes
- was a newspaper publisher
- popularized the Sunday school
- encouraged by John Wesley
- RASA
-
- See Tabula rasa
- Rashdall, Hastings
- (1858-1924)
Hastings Rashdall
- British liberal theologian
- wrote
- The Idea of Atonement in Christian Theology
- Philosophy and Religion
- The Theory of Good and Evil
- theological Personal Idealist
- emphasized individual minds, not one great mind
- like C. Webb
- RATIONAL SKEPTICISM
-
- The conclusions of reason are contradictory or paradoxical
- RATIONALISM
-
- in contrast to Empiricism, believes that some ideas or concepts are independent of experience and that some truth is known by reason alone.
- Rauschenbusch, Walter
- (1861-1918)
Walter Rauschenbusch
- US Baptist pastor
- father of social gospel
- taught at Rochester theologian Seminary
- tried to reach those in Hell's Kitchen
- wrote
- Christianity and the Social Crisis
- A Theology for the Social Gospel
- Ravenna
-
- See Peter of Ravenna
- Rees, Henry
- (1798-1869)
- Calvinistic Methodist
- superintendent for 33 years
- Rees, Morgan
- (1760-1804)
- Welsh preacher
- encouraged founding of Sunday Schools
- promoted religious liberty
- moved to US
- Reichenbach, Hans
- (1891-1953)
Hans Reichenbach
- wrote Experience and Prediction
- no certainty in knowing anything about the world because knowledge of the world involves predictions of the future
- in life, we are all gamblers
- Reimarus, Hermann Samuel
- (1694-1768)
- German rationalistic theologian who advocated a religion of pure reason
- initiated quest for the historical Jesus
- Reinach, Salomon
- (1858-1932)
- archaeologist
- Positivist
- Naturalist
- wrote
- Orpheus
- A Short History of Christianity
- Reinhard, Franz Volkmar
- (1752-1812)
Franz Reinhard
- German Lutheran preacher
- produced 39 volumes of sermons
- RELATIVISM
-
- The view that truth varies with circumstances and has no objective criteria or standards.
- See
- RELATIVITY PHYSICS
-
- The study of matter and energy and their relationship which was developed after Einstein's relativity theories.
- Contrasted with Classical physics
- RELATIVITY, THEORY OF
-
- A mathematical theory advanced by Einstein wherein space and time are no longer considered as absolute but as parts of a four-dimensional space-time continuum and relative to the particular coordinate system of the observer.
- RELIGIOUS EXISTENTIALISM
-
- 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).
- RELIGIOUS HUMANISM
-
- Includes
- Dewey's Pragmatic Humanism
- Santayana's Aesthetic Humanism
- Russell and Julian Huxley's Scientific Humanism.
- There is no supernatural, personal deity, nor ground of being.
- Religion is the quest for a more worthwhile life.
- The ultimate value is "all the natural forces and conditions including man and human association that promote the growth of the ideal and that further its realization" (Dewey).
- Santayana pictures religion as the "symbolic expression of highest ideals."
- Russell urges man to develop his highest ideals and aspirations in the face of cosmic indifference.
- Julian Huxley advocates the full implementation of evolution both biological and cultural for human good.
- Teilhard de Chardin finds the God hypothesis necessary in order to explain the consistent movement of evolution toward the production of ever higher levels of consciousness in what he calls an "irreversibly personalizing universe."
- Includes
- Renan, Joseph Ernest
- (1823-1892)
Joseph Ernest Renan
- French historian of religion
- origins of Christianity were legends
- Ridley, Nicholas
- (c 1500-1555)
Nicholas Ridley
- British Reformer
- chaplain to Cranmer and Henry VIII
- bishop of Rochester and London
- helped produce 1st and 2nd Book of Common Prayer
- burned at the stake with Hugh Latimer
- Ritschl, Albrecht Benjamin
- (1822-1889)
Albrecht Ritschl
- German theologian
- liberal
- emphasized value judgments instead of theoretical doctrines
- emphasized ethical and social responsibilities of Christians
- rejected metaphysics
- wrote
- The Christian Doctrine of Justification and Reconciliation
- Theology and Metaphysics
- Roberts, Evan
- (1875-1951)
Evan Roberts
- Welsh Calvinistic Methodist
- revivalist
- Roberts, Robert
- (1762-1802)
- Welsh Calvinistic Methodist pastor
- Roberts, William
- (1809-1853)
- Welsh Calvinistic Methodist preacher in Wales and US
- Robertson, Frederick William
- (1816-1853)
- Anglican pastor with 2-point sermons
- memorized most of NT in both Greek and English
- Robinson, Ezekiel Gilman
- (1815-1894)
Ezekiel Robinson
- Baptist preacher
- President of Brown University and Rochester Seminary
- liberal
- edited Christian Review
- Rogers, John
- (c 1500-1555)
- British Reformer
- translated Bible with Tyndale
- published Matthew's Bible in 1537
- burned at the stake by Queen (Bloody) Mary
- Rollock, Robert
- (1555-1598)
- first principal and professor of theology at Edinburgh University
- wrote several commentaries
- Romaine, William
- (1714-1795)
- Anglican preacher
- friend of George Whitefield
- Roscellinus
- (c 1050-1122)
- Founder of Nominalism
- Rowland, Daniel
- (c 1713-1790)
Daniel Rowland
- pastor
- helped found Welsh Calvinistic Methodist church
- Royce, Josiah
- (1855-1916)
Josiah Royce
- US professor at Harvard
- wrote
- The Problem of Christianity
- The Religious Aspect of Philosophy
- The World and the Individual
- Absolute Idealism
- Ruchrath, John (or Rucherat)
- (c1400-1481)
- AKA: Johannes Ruchrath von Wesel
- German Roman Catholic whose views influenced Luther
- against indulgences, festivals of fasting, pilgrimages, priestly celibacy, transubstantiation
- held Scripture above pope
- elect are saved wholly through the grace of God
- arrested and deposed for his views
- RULE TELEOLOGY
-
- Moral action based upon the intended outcome as a result of obeying some standard like the Bible
- Russell, Bertrand Arthur William
- (1872-1970)
Bertrand Russell
- New Realist
- popularist
- wrote
- History of Western Philosophy
- Mysticism and Logic
- An Outline of Philosophy
- Our Knowledge of the External World
- Analysis of Matter
- Reality consists in a plurality of events.
- Mental events are not distinguished from material events.
- Sense data relate both to objects they constitute as physical facts and to the minds that perceive them as mental facts.
- Sense data are subjective (i.e., they do not exist unperceived).
- Yet "there really are objects other than ourselves and our sense data which have an existence not dependent on our perceiving them."
- These objects are "perceptual objects" or "logical constructions" rather than physical being as such.
- Rutherford, Samuel
- (c1600-1661)
Samuel Rutherford
- Scottish Presbyterian pastor
- exiled from his church
- wrote the devotional classic Letters of Samuel Rutherford
- Ruysbroeck, Jan Van
- (1293-1381)
Jan Van Ruysbroeck
- Flemish medieval mystic
- Wrote The Spiritual Espousals
- accused of pantheism
- He stressed humility, charity, flight from the world, meditation on the life and passion of Christ, and abandonment to the divine will.
- Ryle, Gilbert
- (1900-1976)
Gilbert Ryle
- Wrote The Concept of Mind and Dilemmas.
- Oxford School of analysis, ordinary language philosophy, behaviorism.
- "Philosophical arguments are intended not to increase what we know about minds, but to rectify the logical geography of the knowledge which we already possess."
- The "logical geography" of one concept needing rectification is the "official doctrine" of the "dogma of the Ghost in the Machine," i.e., historically, Descartes's beliefs concerning mind and body.
- This "dogma" arises from a mistaken analysis of ordinary expression about, e.g., what the "mind" or "body" does, etc.
- The specific error is the category mistake, which consists in "the presentation of facts belonging to one category in the idioms appropriate to another" or in the allocation of "concepts to logical types to which they do not belong."
- Concerning the mind-body problem, Ryle holds that all statements that refer to minds are really statements about current bodily behavior or hypothetical statements about predicted bodily behavior.
