Dictionary of Philosophy of Religion

(Amelia) #1
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BRUNNER, EMIL


2 vols. (1933–1938), Ethics and the His-
tory of Philosophy (1952), Religion, Philos-
ophy, and Psychical Research (1953), and
Lectures on Psychical Research (1963).


BRUNNER, EMIL (1899–1966). A Swiss
theologian who was midway between the
neoorthodoxy of Barth and the liberal
theology of Bultmann. Brunner held that
we posses a natural openness to God
and Christian revelation. The latter takes
us beyond reason alone to an ethic and
religious life that values persons pre-
eminently. Brunner’s works include The
Symbolical in Religious Knowledge (1914),
The Mystic and the Word (1924), The Phi-
losophy of Religion of Evangelical Theology
(1927), The Mediator (1927), The Divine
Imperative (1932), Man in Revolt (1937),
and Christianity and Civilization, 2 vols.
(1948–1949).


BRUNO, GIORDANO (1548–1600). An
Italian Dominican, Bruno wrote in favor
of Copernicus’ astronomy and pantheism,
for which he was burnt as a heretic
in Rome.


BUBER, MARTIN (1878–1965). Buber
stressed the primacy of personal over
against impersonal relations, which he
formulated in terms of “I-You” or
“I-Thou” relations rather than “I-it.” The
relation to God is a high form of the
“I-Thou” relation. In 1925, he translated


the Hebrew Bible into German, in colla-
boration with Franz Rosenzweig in
Frankfurt. His works include I and Thou
(1922), Religion and Philosophy (1931),
The Kingdom of God (1932), Between
Man and Man (1936), The Prophetic Faith
(1942), The Tales of the Hasidim, 2 vols.
(1947–1948), The Prophetic Faith (1950),
Two Types of Faith (1950), Good and
Evil (1952), The Eclipse of God (1953),
Hasidism and Modern Man (1958), and
The Origin and Meaning of Hasidism
(1960).

BUDDHA, THE (c. 560–c. 480 BCE).
The Buddha was born Siddhartha
Gautama in Nepal to a royal family. The
legends about his life generally include
the following.
When Siddhartha Gautama was born,
astrologers predicted that he would
become a spiritual leader, much to his
father’s displeasure. In attempting to pre-
vent the prediction from coming true,
Siddhartha’s father kept him surrounded
by luxury and wealth, secluded from the
world. During this time, Siddhartha mar-
ried and had a son. In his late teens or
early twenties (after his marriage and the
birth of his son), Siddhartha desired to
see how people outside the palace lived
and arranged to leave the palace walls.
While going through the streets of Nepal,
he encountered suffering for the first time
in the form of the Four Sights. He saw an
elderly man, a diseased man, and a corpse.
Shocked by this suffering, Siddhartha
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