The Miracles of Christ (Christ - from a pragmatic viewpoint Book 2)

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Learn more about Amazon Giveaway. The Miracles of Christ Christ - from a pragmatic viewpoint Book 2. Set up a giveaway. There's a problem loading this menu right now. Learn more about Amazon Prime. Get fast, free shipping with Amazon Prime. The concepts "text", "co-text" and "context" have pragmatic-linguistic connotations. Reed 32 puts it as follows: Essentially, what this implies is that language comes to life only when functioning in some environment The "context of situation" does not refer to all the bits and pieces of the material environment.

It refers to those features which are relevant to the speech that is taking place Pragmatics concerns itself with the reason why a statement is made, that which is implied or could possibly be implied by a statement, the act that is associated with it, and the effect achieved by the statement. In other words, pragmatics concerns itself with the intention behind the use of expressions. It is not bound by the convention of the logic of phonologic, syntactical or semantic regularities in terms of which meaning is defined linguistically, but rather focuses on those codes that proffer an indication of how notions concepts manifest in language, and how a user of language could, by listening or reading, infer notions concepts from certain words.

Put differently, pragmatics aims to infer the truth conditions of the contents of what a language user believes. By asking about a language user's psychological state, the nature of the action which essentially forms the basis of a certain expression is explained. However, it does not simply make deductions in a logical-positivist manner. Inductive and abductive reasoning seek to explain rather than declare and profess.

What counts in pragmatics is "inference to the best explanation". Pragmatics thus transcends the so-called basic facts that are generally regarded as being the truth about something. Such "facts" are the professed objective information about the one who communicates, in other words, the convictions and beliefs that a person would allegedly hold, or the shared convictions of the one who communicates and the one who is on the receiving end. These "facts" include the alleged intention of what is being communicated, the when and where of the social conditions within which it is being communicated for example a "vow" and "an affect" during a marriage ceremony.

In other words, pragmatics focuses not only on the written communication, but also on that which is not literary, such as implicit factors, for example what is intended with the interaction, but is not directly said or written down. Whereas semantic information deals with fixed linguistic aspects, pragmatic information is context-sensitive and aimed at extralinguistic aspects. The relevance of these two aspects differs.

The relevance of pragmatics is not so much determined by the meaning of words and sentences, but by the experience they create. The same goes for when too little is said. Hence, there is something in communication that transcends "codes-up" because those on the other end of communication make inferences that transcend decoding. The effect that projection of thoughts has on others is a matter referred to as the "representational theory of the mind".

At the end of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth century, William James, as religious psychologist and philosopher, objected to modern people's growing attachment to materialism and naturalism, while being indifferent to the implications of underrating metaphysical values for religious faith.

Pragmatism and the Truth | Christ-Centered Christianity

This has coincided with obsolete systems of rationality according to scientific law, implying that humankind is at the mercy of determinism. The conviction that a human being has a free will to exercise religious choices with practical consequences does not really have a place in such secularised, humanistic and scientifically oriented ideological systems. According to James, science should therefore not lose sight of concrete experience, no matter how diverse and complex real life may be. On the contrary, science should welcome epistemologies that are open to revise alleged "facts" in the light of experience.

The scientist should take note that society is spontaneously influenced by transcendental values that can bring about change in the immanent world. James strongly advocated the value of religion and morality. This "middle ground" was advocated in nineteenth-century European Vermittlungs-theologie, 48 which gave preference to fides quae over fides qua. The consequence of such a preference is that believers trust in materialistic contents of ecclesiastical doctrines fides quae , rather than in the Transcendent.

Fides qua and fides quae very much like "pragmatics" and "semantics" are inseparable, but also cannot be integrated. James's point of view can be described as radical empirism. On the one hand, it permits the strong winds of scientific knowledge to blow away the ills present in certain forms of religiosity, such as intolerance and exaggerated anti-metaphysical abstraction in theological thinking.

A radical-empirical approach to religion makes space for social sensitivity, real human need and experience. It requires a spirit of insight into the variation in religious experiences. Such a diversity of spiritualities should not be regarded as harmful, 53 for the "basis of religion" is found in feelings, emotions and experiences of individual humans, rather than in social institutions, stereotyped practices and doctrines.

There is a rational aspect to it because it requires argument and evidence. There is an affective aspect because emotion and feeling are important. There is a volitional aspect because we are moved to action as a result of having a religious experience. Alternating state of consciousness. William James's pragmatic perspective on religious experience thus has nothing to do with utility.

What he wants to emphasise is that the same world can be observed with a "scientific natural state of consciousness" and can also be characterised by an "alternated state of consciousness": The world interpreted religiously is not the materialistic world over again, with an altered expression; it must have, over and above the altered expression, a natural constitution different at some point from that which a materialistic world would have.

It must be such that different events can be expected in it, different conduct must be required. According to him, our "normal" state of consciousness in which we rationally and consciously make observations and interact with other objects must be distinguished from a different type of consciousness, which is entirely different from the "normal waking consciousness".

This alternating state of being is life's reality just as much as the rational one is, but "[h]ow to regard them is the question, for they are so discontinuous with ordinary consciousness. To put it differently: From a social-psychological and anthropological perspective, Erika Bourguignon focuses on this phenomenon in, among others, her works Religion, altered states of consciousness and social change , and Psychological anthropology: Religiosity has to do with those empirical things people believe are beyond their control.

It concerns matters that are indeed empirically observable, such as illness; windy and rainy conditions that have an influence on experience; the availability of basic necessities which impact on the fertility of human beings, animals and the earth; things that cause conflict; and the mysterious forces and powers descending externally from outside people which they did not desire or perhaps had desired. For example, ancient people could be within the safety of walled cities or temples, yet still be at the mercy of elements over which people had no control. According to Peter Berger, these experiences occur particularly in situations where people are involuntarily forced out of the centre of society as outsiders, or have involuntarily allowed themselves to be marginalised for whatever reason.

These experiences therefore occur less often than the "normal, rational state of being" - happening on the margins of life, rather than in everyday "normal" lived experiences. Seen from his critical-empirical perspective, William James would say that the frequency varies according to the extent to which consciousness of religiosity is allowed to play a role in the rational state. Berger, however, points out that religion is the cohesive aspect that gives people some "control" over their lives and alternates between the rational and alternate states of consciousness.

In circumstances where religion plays a lesser role in a secularised context, the alternation between states of being will be less meaningful than otherwise. Nevertheless, people do experience more than one "reality" in life. Such "tranquility and a lack of fear Fundamentally, ASC theories would need to be reformulated such that the phenomenon being explained is alterations in phenomenal properties rather than consciousness.

By distinguishing between "alterations in phenomenal properties" and "alterations in consciousness", pragmatic linguistics creates the possibility for exegesis to recognise the occurrence of verba sentiendi in texts 70 and to try and understand its pragmatic implication. William James's radical empirism helps us recognise expressions such as "I felt great joy", "I doubt" and "I fear" as expressions of "alternating states of consciousness".

However, these verba sentiendi do not refer to a static state of consciousness. These are expressions of experience that occur during the course of a discourse or narrative and should be described as "alteration in phenomenal property" and not as "alternating states of consiousness". Moreover, thanks to the radical-empirical insights of William James, these phenomena of experiences will be observed in Immanuel Kant's terms as religious noumena.

This insight will now be discussed by focusing on one of the narrative discourses with which Matthew alternated the five didactical discourses in his Gospel, 72 namely Mt The composition of Mt Little faith in the Gospel of Matthew. With regard to Mt In my opinion, Peter Ellis 79 has identified the most functional co-text of Mt He indicates that this narrative discourse comprises three main units, namely What makes those three closing sections all the more remarkable is that they contain content that does not feature at all in any of Matthew's main sources, namely the Gospel of Luke and the Sayings Source Q.

It is therefore unique to Matthew and, in technical language, it is described by the German term, Sondergut. The first of these sections tells of Peter walking on water, his doubt and his sinking Mt In the second, Jesus bestows a beatitude on Peter Mt The third passage narrates that Peter, of his own accord, paid the temple tax on behalf of Jesus and himself Mt Jerome Murphy-O'Connor, 81 too, is convinced by Ellis's insight into the structural build-up of Mt In my judgement, my article on "Matthew's Portrayal of the Disciples" indeed illustrated such a climactic build-up.

1. Was Jesus Divine? - Mark D. Roberts.
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It is one of those sections in these two synoptic gospels where Matthew's structure and content are very similar to that of Mark. Thus, those instances in those sections where Matthew deviates from Mark have pragmatic implications which should not be overlooked. Chapters constitute the central part of the Gospel of Mark. The first tells the success story that Jesus establishes in word and deed the immanence and reality of the kingdom of God amidst the empirical everyday struggle of people to survive.

The disciples are positive and courageous agents. However, right in the centre Mk 8: Opposition to Jesus mounts, the blunder of the crowd who followed blindly is revealed, and the disciples are portrayed as people who simply cannot grasp what Jesus meant with his message about the establishment of God's kingdom amidst the empirical reality of forthright rejection and the concealed arrogance of seeking one's own interest. They are increasingly portrayed as people who either stall or project fear away from them by falling asleep in a time and context the Gethsemane episode in which Jesus is fighting for life and death.

When Jesus is on the "way of the cross", fear gets the better of them, and they run away. The narration about the empty tomb forms a denouement in this tensive narrative. Whereas the men flee from death out of fear, women become witnesses of rebirth and new life that follow after death. However, when the women are called by the risen Jesus to be messengers of his gospel, they run away from life, for they, too, become afraid. And here ends Mark's narration Mk Morna Hooker 84 puts it as follows: The story ends, then, with a total human failure.

The religious authorities have failed to accept Jesus.

Pontius Pilatus has caved in to pressure, the crowds have melted away, the disciples have run away. Judas has betrayed him, Peter has denied him, and at the end even the women - hitherto faithful - have failed him. In spite of the centurion's confession, the story appears to be a tragedy. Yet Mark introduced it as "the beginning of good news," and now we realise that it is, only the beginning.

The very fact that the story is now being told means that the women must have overcome their fear and that the disciples did indeed obey the command to go to Galilee. There they had to learn all over again what discipleship meant: The message entrusted to the women is a message of forgiveness. The disciples - even Peter - are being given a second chance. Therefore, having knowledge of episodes in Luke's and Matthew's Gospels, early Christian authors added to Mark's abrupt ending by giving the followers of Jesus a second chance.

Some of the added episodes pertain to the disbelief of the messenger, others to the disbelief of the audience of those messengers - be they male or female. What these early authors observed empirically from the synoptic gospels is that trust as a "phenomenal and noumenal religious property" 86 changed into disbelief. It is clear that the "property" that is at stake here has nothing to do with a cognitive state of consciousness, but with a psychology of fear. According to Craig Keener's interpretation of Matthew's vision, "a life of faithful obedience to God invites martyrdom as well as God's power.

In the Gospel of Matthew, this alternation of phenomenal and noumenal property" is portrayed as "little faith" in the empirically observable life of the disciples. Little faith is Matthew's version of Mark's version of the two alternating states of consciousness in the lives of the followers of Jesus. The Gospel of Mark revolves around "knowing" and "not knowing" - not in a cognitive sense, but as "lived experience". It is to experience success and confidence faith and to overcome fear. This interpretation becomes clear when the climactic build-up of the three subsections of Mt In Mark's structure, an alteration occurred in Mk 8: The positive narrative line alters into a negative one.

In Matthew's case, this alteration occurs in a different manner. In Matthew's co-text, one narrative line does not alter by metamorphosing into another, as is the case with Mark. In Matthew's Gospel, the alteration takes place in the experience of the character of Peter as mouthpiece of the disciples.

Unlike Mark's "alteration" of the characterisation of the disciples from believing to disbelieving "little faith" , Matthew does not create a radical break between Mt Peter's confession "Jesus is the Son of the living God" - Mt This empirical observation is described as "little faith". Seen from a pragmatic perspective, it is an "alteration of phenomenal and noumenal religious property".

Was Jesus Divine?

While on the one hand the disciples in Matthew's gospel comprehend who Jesus really is, they are yet, on the other hand, inclined to make common cause with the Jewish leaders, the opponents of Jesus. The disciples as leaders are susceptible to the same cataracts that blinded the scribes and Pharisees. As endings to the three sections of Mt Each of these pericopes states that the disciples were fully aware of who Jesus was Son of God and of who they were faithful apostles.

Little faith as fear - an alternating religious state of consciousness. What exactly this consciousness entails becomes increasingly apparent in the co-text, as Mt The preceding "parable discourse" ended with an assertive confirmation that the disciples understood the nature of the kingdom of God, as expressed in the parables Mt They acknowledge Jesus as the Son of God Mt Peter walks on the water with Jesus.

The disciples are described as being of "little faith". This observation repeats itself in the next subdivision.

Peter confesses that Jesus is the Son of the living God. The experience then changes. He becomes afraid of the way of the cross. The "rock" is called a "stumbling block" skandalon. Once again, the same observation of the pattern, "belief - disbelief", is replicated. This experience changes in the episode dealing with the payment of temple tax.

This experience even transcends the two preceding ones. So often we embrace it as a friend and counselor. When we take a deeper look, however, we discover its subtle deception. Pragmatism starts at the end of the process of truth, and then works its way backwards.

Pragmatism and the Truth

It starts with the results of an idea or practice. If these are desirable, then it validates the truthfulness of the concept that led to that end. Truth, therefore, is subjective and changeable depending on the judgment of the one assessing the outcome. Biblical truth, on the other hand, starts at the beginning of the process of Truth, and then works forwards to its outcome.

The beginning or source of all Truth is God Himself. Out of His mouth come all wisdom, knowledge and understanding. Because it begins with Him, it is eternal, unchanging and absolute. It does not shift or bend to the approval or disapproval of its recipients. It is not evolving or progressive with time depending on social, cultural, scientific or intellectual advancements. It is true when its outcomes are favorable to man, and it is true when they are not. Its validity is based on its Source, not its ends! Pragmatic thinking found its introduction into the human race in the Garden of Eden.

If he could cast this in an unfavorable light then he could get them to question the integrity of God and His word. Satan focuses her on the end-result of the word in order to get her to question the validity of what God has said. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate. It was a pragmatic approach to truth that caused Adam and Eve to fall. Its seductive seeds were forever sown in the heart of fallen mankind.

It was at work in the people of God as they failed to completely drive out the inhabitants of the land, but put them to forced labor for their own gain. Pragmatism was at work in Israel as they clamored for a king to lead them into battle like all the nations around them.

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Pragmatism controlled the heart of Saul when he failed to wait for Samuel, but offered up burnt offerings himself, against the command of God. It is what motivated David to number his fighting men, leaning upon the arm of the flesh as it considered past victories. It drew the returned remnant away from completing the rebuilding of the temple in order to build their own houses. Even these examples should cause us to realize just how much of an enemy this subtle seduction of pragmatism can be. Once it is in, however, it begins to work like leaven through the whole batch of dough.

It is especially important in these more practical matters that the wisdom that comes down from above is sought and genuine faith is exercised.