Dictionary of Philosophy of Religion

METAPHOR 150 justice) should not be done? See also JUSTICE. METAPHOR. From the Greek meta- phora, meaning “to transfer or transf ...

MIRACLE 151 of middle knowledge would consist in God knowing what you would do if you were offered a bribe of a certain amount u ...

MODAL LOGIC 152 of nature, implying it is a law of nature that God not act in nature with special intentions. A better definitio ...

153 MONTAIGNE, MICHEL DE God’s own creative actions. The CCFs are contingent, yet are true prior to any creative decision on God ...

MORAL ARGUMENTS FOR THEISM 154 MORAL ARGUMENTS FOR THEISM. A family of arguments that variously urge that certain features of hu ...

155 MURTI function of subjective preference or dependent upon social customs of lan- guage. A moral realist may claim that slave ...

MUSLIM 156 MUSLIM. See ISLAM. MYSTICISM. From the Greek mystes, meaning, “one initiated into the myster- ies.” Broadly speaking, ...

157 N NAGARJUNA (c. 150–200 CE). Founder of the Madhyamika school of Buddhism. His works include Twenty Verses on the Great Vehi ...

NATURAL LAW 158 came along with Christianity: schooling, separation of clan and family, taxes, and so on. Some were willing, how ...

NEOORTHODOXY 159 Opponents counter that values (the good- ness of human life) should be regarded as a fact and no less factual t ...

NEOPLATONISM 160 word of God in faith and morals, and a resistance to natural theology. NEOPLATONISM. Modern term for the stage ...

161 NIEBUHR, HELMUT RICHARD almost unanimously against Arius, who was then exiled and had his books burned. The Council formulat ...

162 NIEBUHR, REINHOLD end of his life—that of responsibility— from both teleological and deontological approaches. Niebuhr’s app ...

163 NIETZSCHE, FRIEDRICH the sin of pride manifested in the use of political power. He perpetually aimed a critical eye at too l ...

NIHILISM 164 Power (his 1880s notebooks, published posthumously). NIHILISM. From the Latin nihil, meaning “nothing.” The denial ...

165 O OCCASIONALISM. A position advo- cated by Malebranche (among others) that natural causes (as in your willing to move your h ...

OMNIPOTENCE 166 OMNIPOTENCE. A being is omnipotent if it is all-powerful. Philosophical atten- tion to the divine attribute of o ...

167 ORIGEN ONTOLOGY. From the Greek ontos (being) + logia (study of ). The study of being or an account of what exists. One enga ...

ORIGINAL SIN 168 would occur in the apokatastasis when all of creation is restored to God. A student of Clement of Alexandria, O ...

169 OTTO, RUDOLF OTTO, RUDOLF (1869–1937). A German student of mysticism who pro- posed in his influential book, The Idea of the ...